People Made New | Paul Washer

once again it is a great privilege for me to be here with you and um just to spend time and fellowship today with so many of you and hearing your stories about how God has saved you and changed you it is it is remarkable What A Savior What A Savior we're going to start in Matthew chapter 7 while you're turning there I just want to share with you something that was in my my devotional time this morning it says talking about Hagar and Ishmael and of the son of the maid God says I will make a nation also because he is your descendant throughout scripture we see this God delivers lot because of his relationship with Abraham David because of him so many kings were spared and Israel was allowed to go on but here he says of Ishmael a nation that would become an enemy Nation he says because he is your descendant I will make of him a nation what will God make of you you're aligned attached to someone greater than David someone greater than Abraham is here for the sake of Christ what will God do for you what will the eschaton what will eternity look like ear has not heard I has not seen this is the great pain of the prophet and the preacher because he knows that he can't even comprehend a tenth part or hundredth part or far beyond that of the glory that awaits God's people and he knows that even what he can comprehend is meager as it is he can't communicate to God's people if you only knew the greatness of his salvation of what it means to be in Christ oh what a joy unspeakable and full of Glory you would possess an Ever greater reality you are dearly loved so let's go to Matthew chapter 7. verse 15. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will know them by their fruits grapes are not gathered from Thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they so every good tree Bears good fruit but the bad tree Bears Bad fruit a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so then you will know them by their fruits not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness let's go the Lord in prayer father I pray that he will use this time for the benefit of your people that you would help me to speak clearly as I ought our dependence upon you is great oh God please for the sake of your Christ and for the sake of your people help us in Jesus name amen now in verse 15 he says Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves now here he's dealing of course with false prophets but you need to understand that there's a wider application and that wider application is proven if you will just go back through history and to see the way that Godly men throughout the ages have dealt with this text what is said about false prophets can be said about all who make some sort of profession of faith and he says in verse 16 you will know them by their fruits then he goes on and says grapes are not gathered from Thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they it seems as though the Lord is almost laying a trap it would be something like this he would look at them and say maybe grapes are not gathered from Thorn bushes are they maybe they would have responded well of course not I mean you're a carpenter and not involved in agriculture but of course not you're on the right track with what you're saying Jesus okay well let's go on figs aren't gathered from thistles are they well no of course not and he looks at them and says and a profession of faith in me that bears no fruit is just as ludicrous is saying that a tree could bear fruit that is the opposite of its nature I used to use an illustration particularly when I would be preaching to young people and I would say something like this I would say so imagine that I was given the opportunity to preach here at seven in the evening and I didn't show up until 7 30. and the pastor met me at the door or the conference leader met me at the door saying what are you doing why are you late what's wrong with you don't you appreciate the opportunity to speak to all these young people and I say sir please don't be angry just hear me out while I was coming here I had a flat tire and as I was changing the tire it rolled out into the middle of the highway four-lane highway and I wasn't paying attention and when I looked up well there was a logging truck that weighed somewhere around 32 tons going about 70 miles an hour and it ran me over and that's why I'm late and he would look at me and he would go that's absolutely absurd I mean it's absolutely impossible to be run over by a logging truck weighing 32 tons going 70 miles an hour and not be changed then how is it that so many people can profess faith in Christ and not be changed what's greater the power of God or the velocity of a logging truck and this is something that we need to see and it needs to be preached twice here he will say you will know them by their fruits but now there's a theological problem and it's this you seem to have an evangelicalism these two camps one is called something like free Grace that you believe in Jesus and no matter how you live if you've made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ no matter how you live you're saved I've even heard one man say you could come to a point where you actually deny the faith and you're still going to heaven because there was a point in time in your life when you asked Jesus Christ to come into your heart so that's one side but on the other side there's this idea of lordship Salvation that in order to be saved you must not only receive Jesus as Savior but you must receive Jesus as Lord and you must follow him well I want to be honest with you I have problems with both sides now I've already said you will know them by their fruits but here's what you need to understand why is there this confusion one group saying and they're saying it for a good reason they want to protect salvation by faith salvation is a work of Grace they want to protect it so they say no Works needed this other side it wants to prove a point that true faith is demonstrated by what we do but here's the problem I think sometimes neither one of them are looking at the real issue and what is the real issue the doctrine of regeneration that's the issue you see it's not that I hear the gospel and I go I receive Jesus as Savior and I receive him as Lord and I follow him as Lord I follow him as a true disciple I follow him and by my obedience and my faith I'm saved that's not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches that those who truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ are regenerated by the Holy Spirit who changes their nature and having a new nature they live in a different course or way of life and that's what you need to see I call I don't know if I coined the term but one day I thought of it years and years ago I started calling it Born Again ism are you born again which meant that it's sometime in your life you had prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come into your heart or you raised your hand in an Evangelistic Crusade foreign how could they so misrepresent the beautiful and powerful and glorious doctrine of regeneration but then I read a track my grandfather wrote back in the 50s it was entitled well at least to use the term born-againism and then I started reading guys like JC Ryle he talked about the same thing and so what I want to talk about today is what it means to be born again and the importance of it now let's just go on for a moment Jesus gives us some amazing statements here now never forget Jesus is the word he is wisdom in some ways we could say that Jesus what he teaches is true philosophy and if you're wanting to talk about the doctrine of ontology the doctrine of being like what is a man and how does it function he clears it all up in a matter of a few words so look what he says here verse 17 so every good tree Bears good fruit but the bad tree Bears Bad fruit a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit there was a German who wrote a book about this it's called The Bondage of the will you see what a thing does how it acts how it reacts is utterly totally dependent upon its nature if nature is evil deeds will be evil and that's always going to be the case now evangelicalism gets this half right so it says here in verse 17. Verse 18 a good tree or a bad tree cannot produce good fruit I hear it in Evangelical preaching all the time there's nothing good you can do until you've trusted in Christ and then when you trust in Christ you can do good things that's true but they seem to avoid the other side of this a bad tree cannot produce good fruit a lost man cannot please God cannot obey God but a good tree cannot produce bad fruit and what does that mean in the same way that a bad tree cannot live a cannot live a life of continually doing good before God a good tree a good tree a man truly converted cannot live a life of continual Rebellion before God why because his Nature has been changed and so when we say you will know them by their fruits we are not saying that a person must believe in Jesus and then work out his salvation with all kinds of Deeds that eventually add up his contribution to Salvation that is not what we're teaching what we're teaching is the person who has believed who has truly repented and believed unto salvation has done so because of a previous work the work of regeneration and that same glorious miraculous transformation in regeneration that produced repentance and faith will continue working itself out in greater and greater Conformity to Christ but make no mistake about it the only thing you and I have ever contributed to our Salvation is our sin and if you're in the ministry the only thing you've ever contributed is your weakness now having said that let's go on so in verse 16 Jesus says you will know them by their fruits and in verse 20 he says so then you will know them by their fruits do you think Jesus is seeking to tell us something repetition is extraordinarily important especially in the Hebrew Bible he's saying you'll know them by their fruits and then he goes on and he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven now again repetition in the Hebrew language is very very important he's not saying everyone who says to me Lord but everyone who emphatically declares me to be Lord with the most apparent sincerity everyone who does that so not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven well who will enter the kingdom of heaven he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter now here we cannot simply say that the will of the father is to believe because he goes on and he shows that he's he's meaning more than that he's also not saying that we are saved by doing the will of the father what he is simply teaching goes back to what he's already said if you have truly believed unto salvation you have been regenerated Your Heart of Stone that was unresponsive to God has been removed and in its place is a heart of Flesh that responds to him and not only that but if God has begun a good work in you he will finish it then he goes on to say many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform any Miracles and I will declare to them I never knew you'd depart from me you who practice lawlessness isn't it amazing that when these persons stand before the Lord and they are told they will not enter look at their argument but Lord I did this and Lord I did that and Lord I did it all in your name now let me ask you a question this is hypothetical it will never happen but let's say that a genuine believer were to stand before the Lord a genuine believer someone truly regenerate truly understanding the gospel if they were to stand before the Lord and the Lord said this will never happen depart from me I never knew you would a genuine believer say but Lord I did this and Lord I did that no they would say but Lord I I I saw my sin and I I recognize that I have broken every one of your commands I put no hope in the flesh I saw myself condemned but I looked to you I believed that your work was complete you see how even in their argument they expose themselves they've not been regenerate they've not been recipients of Grace they do not understand they may be religious they may even be more devout than some who are truly believers but they do not know him and what we're going to see is he does not know them he says then I will declare to them I never knew you I hear all over evangelicalism I know the Lord I know the Lord you know if I were to try to go through the gates of the White House do you think I would be stopped I would be stopped do you think I would Prevail over my captors if I said no no no no I I know the president I'm okay I know the president do you think they're going to say oh our bad go right ahead but if the president looks out the window and then comes through the door and says to the guards no no no let him go I know Paul Washer so everything changes so the both should not be I know Jesus the question is does Jesus know you but look what he says here I never knew you now we have to get the Hebrew idea of no here it's he he knew them he's omniscient he knows everything what does he mean something like this he would look at them and say you and I we didn't walk together we didn't Fellowship you didn't seek my counsel you didn't call upon my name for strength in the doing of righteousness no relationship oh my dear friends he's not a ticket many of the older Riders I don't know who originally said It but they're right the believer would rather be in hell with Jesus than in heaven without him the True Believer has a relationship with Christ walks with him talks with him is encouraged by him is rebuked by him is disciplined by him do you have an intimate relationship with Christ you know him does he know you does he know you but rather he says I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness depart from me those of you who claim to be my disciples but you lived as though I never gave you a law or a command to obey whether your Vice was ignorance or open Rebellion it does not matter you walked on this Earth as though I had never revealed my will to man I just wanted to clear that problem up about salvation it all comes back to an understanding of regeneration and I'm afraid that in many circles this is not understood by the preacher and it is not declared from the pulpit and therefore many are confused now I want to go on to our main text and I want to talk about God's work of Salvation and regeneration let's go to Ezekiel and this time chapter 36. verse 22. therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God it is not for your sake o House of Israel that I am about to act but for my Holy Name which you have profaned among the Nations where you went I will vindicate the Holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the Nations which you have profaned in their midst then the Nations this is the key part the Nations will know that I am the Lord declares the Lord God when I prove myself holy among you in their sight why does God save a people before I get into talking about the revelation of his glory I want to make it very clear because I don't think this has given enough prominence he saves the people because he loves them in all this talk about the glory of God which is extremely important I don't want to be trite and using that phrase but I want you to understand if you correctly understand the glory of God the person the love of God for his people will not be lost in that why'd he save you he set his love upon you but now here's the problem God is righteous God is Holy what would motivate a holy and righteous God to save us we've already been through this all day yesterday about the sinfulness of man did God look at man and find a motivation in man to save man absolutely not the only motivation that comes from man is condemnation it's what man deserves so why does God save why does God love for the sake of his own name to reveal his glory to demonstrate who he is to take Center Stage not only before men but before angels and say this is what I'm like this is who I am now you can say well that sounds a little megalomaniac doesn't it now actually it's the kindest thing God could ever do there is some ways in which someone's love can be demonstrated by the size of their gift by the worth of their gift what's the greatest gift that God could give men or angels a revelation of himself I mean Heaven I suppose is a spectacular place but after a while I mean swinging on Gates of pearl get old walking down streets of gold well that was fine for a few days we're going to be there for an eternity what is glorious enough what is infinite enough to capture our attention and enthrall us throughout all eternity that when moves run as far as we think we can run into that kind of beauty we find that we're just at the foothills of that Everest it's God the kindest thing that God can do for man and Angel is to take Center Stage and show them who he is and that's what he's doing in Salvation through Christ God is giving man the greatest Revelation possible of himself which means it's the greatest gift he could give the gift that goes on and on and on and on so why does God save well let's just put it this way why did God save you to demonstrate who he is to demonstrate his love his kindness his Mercy his power and you want to know what for the saint that is a that is a encouraging word why if God has saved me in order to demonstrate all that he is to the universe then he is not going to fail in my salvation he is not going to fail now go with me for a second just quickly look in Numbers Chapter 14. God places Moses in a position to function as an intercessor many people say well I don't understand this passage because it appears that all of Israel is in the hands of Moses at this moment yes that's true but what you have to understand is Moses is in the hand of God so everything's good and what happens the people have rebelled against God and the and the Lord tests Moses in verse 11. the Lord said to Moses how long will this people spurn me and how long will they not believe in me despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst I will Smite them with pestilence and dispossess them and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they now listen to Moses's argument but Moses said to the Lord then the Egyptians will hear of it for by your strength you brought up this people from their midst and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land they have heard that You O Lord are in the midst of this people for You O Lord are seen eye to eye while your Cloud stands over them and you will go and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of Fire by night now if you slay this people as one man then the Nations who have heard of your Fame will say because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which he promised them by oath therefore he slaughtered them in the wilderness do you see where this is going your salvation will not fail because God's name his reputation is riding upon it he's demonstrating something through you that he has the power to save that your salvation was his from the beginning it is his in the middle and it will be his and to the end people say I praise God for he never gave up on me he never gave up on you because he never trusted you in the first place this has never been about you were you there before the foundations of the earth were laid were you the one who chose him no he chose you before you were born he worked through generations with your name knowing when he would bring you here he let you run as far as he would allow you to run for his own Glory so that when he saved you people would speak of him and he who began a good work in you will finish it I have lived 40 years with him and though I have failed him many times I have done nothing that could weaken his arm I have done nothing no sin of mine has been greater than his love for me what a privilege we have with that kicking baby lying on the side of the road and he comes and Scoops us up and says to us by my saving of you I will just demonstrate great things about my name I will not let you go so why does he save us for his own Glory and if you've got a problem with that there's no other reason for doing it now let's go on now look at his power to save look at his power to save look particularly at the singular pronoun I he says for I will take you from the Nations I will gather you from the lands I will bring you into your own land I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness I will cleanse you from all your Idols I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will remove the Heart of Stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of Flesh and I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances do you see this if he gave .001 responsibility to me I would have no hope but he says I'm going to do it and you've read the law you've read the wisdom literature you've read job no plan of his fails if he lifts his hand no man can force it down if he holds his hand to the table no man can pry it up he does whatever he wants to do in the heavens the Earth and under the Earth and he has set his love on you he has set his love on you now I want you to look at something verse 24 for I will take you from the Nations I will gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land I to the to the anger of my doctor and the concern of my wife I spend too much time running around with people at conferences it's because I'm selfish I love hearing stories his story you know there's people here from all sorts of States all sorts of backgrounds there are people here from different countries and look what he did he gathered you he found you I know of one little boy that used to be so afraid that he would hide out with the pigs and crying God saw him and found him I know of prostitutes who felt so dirty in some tiny room in a gigantic City wanting to rip out their own heart to peel their own flesh from their body and attempt to be somehow clean found them oh he got how many of you could stand up one after another and tell us where he found you in some obscure place where no one could find you he found you oh praise him praise him Praise Him praise him in the morning praise him in the night watch Praise Him in life Praise Him in death Praise Him thank you it is a pitiful thing to preach it's painful he's so much more than what you can say Praise Him and then he says I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean listen to that you will be clean we can put into this the doctrine of imputation but it goes farther than that he's talking about I'm going to work in you because he he goes on and he says I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols I was raised on a we raised Charlotte cattle and quarter horses and I spent almost all my life out in the field and if any of you know about Country Boys in the field when they come in at night there's not a crevice in their body that you couldn't grow potatoes in they are dirty everywhere and I remember one time I was about nine years old yeah I was working cattle I was a man and I came in my mom said take a bath I thought I don't think so I'm good my mom was old school she could look at you in a way where you knew immediately your party's over my mom didn't raise her voice she goes you will take a bath okay so I go in and I do what a lot of boys do there's a beautiful white towel we can swim in swamps and pond water all day long but there's something about bathtubs that just scare us to death so I got in there and I turned the water on and I'm like and then I made the terrible mistake of grabbing that beautiful white towel which turned rather soiled when I finished now everything was going on just wonderfully I was happy then all of a sudden the door opened my mom walked in my mom could Jorge as well as any man she could work the field she could work cattle she could work horses my mom's hand was like a horse rasp for the Millennials you can just look that up in a dictionary [Applause] my mom's hand was a horse rasp my mom grabbed me I don't know how many layers of skin I lost that day but I came out of there what was shining you know why because my mom said you will be clean isn't it amazing that I had a mother that was much stronger than the god of most evangelicals now Don't Clap because you know what I do about clapping [Applause] just look at that you see he's doing this work not just justifying but sanctifying he's cleansing he's making a people for himself and he's demonstrating his power through justification yes but also through sanctification he's demonstrating his power now there's something about sanctification that I want to say it's an aspect of sanctification that hardly anyone talks about and because of that believers do not have the joy that they ought to have so let's say that this is a bar graph when I became a Christian I thought my sanctification would go something like this but I have found my sanctification to go two steps forward one step back up down and honestly I can tell you I have not made the progress that I had hoped but there is one aspect of my sanctification that has grown through the roof that has shot up like a rocket and it gives me great encouragement and it has shot up like a rocket because I've grown so little here what is it my recognition of my utter dependence upon the grace of God and I believe that's an aspect of sanctification you see he is concerned about you becoming more and more like Christ but I believe he's more concerned with you seeing the work that he's done in Christ and that again the only thing you've contributed to your salvation is your sin and there's only one hero in this story our elder brother Jesus Christ who accomplished absolutely everything and it is his work on the cross that enables the work of regeneration okay because if he hadn't dealt with sin there would be no such working among God's people he says I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols Keith Green had a song and uh used to sing it to his son Lord said son I am weak and I'm trembling for the Lord I am always remembering oh what a strong Shepherd holds you in his arms he will break you and make you his own he will cleanse you from all your idols it's painful it's painful but it's good he says moreover I will put a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will remove the Heart of Stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of Flesh what does that mean imagine that I had a a statue here of a man made out of solid Stone I could pinch it punch it kick it slap it and what's going to happen I could speak to it kindly I could read poetry and what's it going to do absolutely nothing it will be totally unresponsive to whatever stimuli I use stimulus I use do you see that why because it's Stone it's Stone but if I could Snap My Fingers and turn that man of stone into a man of Flesh what happens he could Now respond to stimuli and that's what God has done to you now let me put it in another illustration so let's say that I had two Hogs back there in the back door 400 pounders big pigs and I had a plate of the finest food and all of Fort Myers here and I had a bucket of slop here and I looked up and I said loose him and let him go and one of those pigs ran down the aisle where do you think the pig's going to go it's going to go to the bucket of slop why is he going to go to the bucket of slop because he's a pig that's what pigs do they eat slop not only is he going to eat slop he's going to Delight in the slop not only that he's not going to be ashamed that any of you are watching him eat slot but if I had the power to change that nature of that pig into the nature of a man because there are some things pigs can eat that men simply can not eat by Nature then what would happen that man would throw his head out of that bucket and vomit up everything he was eating down with delight the man would turn around and see you and be ashamed I just described your conversion I just described your conversion oh and every once in a while that man he can get stupid he can walk by that slop and the smell is familiar but as he's going to it he knows he's wrong and he sticks his head in it he knows he's going to be sick and in fact he becomes sick and eventually throws it out again vomits it up again and in shame starts all over again in the way of a man let me give you a domestic illustration so there's this man he's unconverted he's late for work he's got a big meeting it's snowing outside he runs down the steps he's dropping papers out of his attache case he's miserable he's angry he's impatient he reaches for the door handle and his wife comes down the stairs and screams out in that that voice that they have at that time of the morning it says take out the trash and he turns around without thinking he turns around and he says what do you mean take out the trash you take out the trash I've got work to do what's wrong with you you're lazy you never get up out of bed he storms out you know what he storms out feeling completely Justified perfectly Justified gets in the car turns on the car gets to the meeting has the meeting perfectly Justified six months go by and the man is converted six more months go by and what happens he's late for work he's running down the steps his briefs are coming out of his attache case all his papers he reaches for the door handle he knows he's going to be late he knows he's in trouble and his wife goes take out the trash and he turns around and he goes you take out the trash what's wrong with you can't you see I'm late you're so lazy you say What's the difference the moment he does it it's like a knife goes through his heart he knows he's wrong he knows it but let's say he bucks up storms out of the house gets in his car he knows he's wrong he knows it forces his way through he goes into the meeting he gets 10 minutes into that meeting and he says man I I I need to go out for a moment and make a phone call he goes out and he goes honey I am so sorry please forgive me I'm wrong I'm so sorry I sinned against God and I sinned against you why does he do that a new nature a new nature and I wish I had time because this opens us up to a marvelous passage and I just want to read a verse of it therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creature the old things passed away behold new things come now do you know why this text is so important because it talks about what I've been talking about but then goes beyond it exponentially you see we read this passage and we take it so it's like individual you know it means that if anyone is in Christ they've been regenerated they're a new creature this passage does mean that but the language indicates that it means far more than that it's saying something like this therefore if anyone in Christ New Creation it doesn't just mean that you've been regenerated it doesn't just mean that you've been given a heart of Flesh it means that you have now entered into a whole new realm of existence the new creation the new Heaven and the Earth it's begun now in you you're no longer in Adam you're in Christ and this thing that God has foreordained that God has decreed before the foundation of the world that is moving moving with the greatest amount of certainty now you've been brought into that and although we're caught between the already and the not yet eschatologically we are new creatures and little by little we begin to live like new creatures as we grow in our knowledge of the scripture as the holy spirit continues to work in US and as brother voti said last night every aspect of our life we begin to tend it like a garden our personal life our marriage our children our work everything so that we are the light of the world the salt of the earth demonstrating why do we want to grow in Christ why do we want to become more like him it's not to win some merit badge at the end it's that his power his character might be demonstrated through us and our prayer is oh Lord let it never be said of me that your name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of my life but let it be said that even those who hate you and hate me cannot deny the power you have worked in my life let's pray father thank you for your word thank you for who you are and thank you what you've done for your people oh God bless them bless them bless them oh God if I being evil can bless my children you infinitely more and bless yours in Jesus name amen

Channel: Founders Ministries

Views: 310,687

Keywords: Founders Ministries, Tom Ascol, Founders, Reformed Theology, Theology, 1689 Confession, Reformed, Founders Ministry, Founders Conference, Voddie Baucham, Voddie Baucham Sermon, 2023 Founders Conference, founders conference 2023, founders conference 2023 paul washer, founders conference sermons, biblical anthropology, biblical anthropology (the study of man), nfc24, founders, paul washer sermons, paul washer gospel, paul washer, founders ministries conference 2023, paul washer sin

Id: ew2LLeU23mg

Length: 55min 19sec (3319 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 20 2023