The doctrine of regeneration, or the new birth, is the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life, an act of God's almighty power. This new birth is not a result of lineage, human effort, or the will of man, but solely of God's grace, as highlighted by the inability of a vulture's eye to see precious minerals, symbolizing the natural man's blindness to spiritual realities. The sermon emphasizes that birth determines nature, nature determines appetite, appetite determines character, and character determines vision, illustrating that a new nature from God is essential to perceive and appreciate spiritual truths. Therefore, genuine faith in Christ is not the means to the new birth, but its result, enabling one to see and enter the kingdom of God.
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My Bible this morning to the book of Job chapter twenty eight and then we want to read also from John's Gospel chapter one and John's Gospel chapter three the book of Job chapter twenty eight first for just one verse Job twenty eight verse seven where we read these words, There is a path that no foul knoweth, and which the vultures eye hath not seen. Let us read that one verse again.
There is a path that no foul knoweth, and which the vultures eye hath not seen. Now from the Gospel of John chapter one, And we want to read those familiar verses, verses twelve and thirteen, where we have the first mention in the New Testament of the new birth. It says in verse twelve, But as many as received him, To them gave ye power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Chapter three, verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, or the wind bloweth where it willeth. And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, And wither it goeth, so is everyone that he's born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Are thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and he received not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let the Lord bless his word. Let us pray. Loving Father, as we bow before thee, we thank you for the greatness of your word. We thank you for the greatness of your person, O God. who has revealed thyself to us in the person of thy Son. Thy word declares out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and out of the abundance of thine heart, O God, thou hast spoken. Thou hast spoken in thy Son. Thy word declares God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And therefore today, as we study this tremendous subject of the new birth, We ask you for wisdom, for understanding, and the ability to speak is of the oracles of God.
Like Samuel of old, we would say to thee, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Then in speaking to my heart, speak to all who are gathered, and we'll praise you through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. We want to study together today and the next two Lord's Day mornings, the subject of the new birth. What does it mean to be born again? There are words that fall into ill repute when they're used too often by too many people, and the words born again are two of those words. They have been used so much by so many that they have lost their meaning.
But instead of talking about being born again, I want to talk about the doctrine of regeneration. When you study the Word of God, you find that this great salvation that we who are saved are participators in, this great doctrine of salvation is made up of many facets and doctrines. And the same as that automobile you drive. There are many parts to an automobile. And when our Lord spoke to us through his servant Paul, he said, Study, to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
When you take your car to a mechanic to have it repaired, you hope that he knows the difference between a spark plug and a carburetor. You know that he, and you hope that he knows the difference between a valve and a wrist pin. You expect him to be a good mechanic when he works in your automobile. And beloved, we who know the Lord are commanded to know his word in order that we might rightly divide the word of truth. And the doctrine of salvation, which is a big word, which means deliverance, the deliverance that we have to our Lord Jesus Christ, is made up of many, quote, doctrines, unquote.
There's a doctrine of the depravity of man. There's a doctrine of imputation. There is a doctrine of grace. There's a doctrine of propitiation. Redemption. reconciliation, justification, sanctification, forgiveness, adoption, election, and the one that is before us, regeneration. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. May I ask you a serious question? If someone were to say to you, stand to your feet right now, Tell me the difference between justification and regeneration.
Could you do it? There is a difference. Now, thanks be to God, the moment I was regenerated, I was justified too. But you know there is a difference, and they give to us our full view of this great salvation. and this great salvation we have is the greatest thing in the universe only God could do it and what God is doing is far more important than anything that man he's doing and I want to learn everything I can about what God is doing and by the way beloved what God is doing in the world today is preparing his people to enjoy him forever If you don't enjoy God now, you're not going to enjoy him in eternity.
Going to heaven is not just a matter of escaping hell. Going to heaven, beloved, is enjoying God. The God who created everything that you see and the God who is and the God who wants to be in all our activities and in the fullness of our life. For in Him we live and move and have our being. Now, I'm convinced, friends, that everyone in eternity is going to have a full cup. Oh, yes. We're going to have a full cup in eternity, but the size of our cups are going to be different, I'm afraid. And God is creating in us a capacity for the enjoyment of Him.
Him. him well let us begin with a subject of regeneration and I'm going to give you a definition for it we're going to work out of the definition and we're going to try to link the scriptures together that we read this morning and we want to work especially out of that little passage in Job and out of the one in John's Gospel chapter one but regeneration friends this matter of being born of God being born again It is the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life.
In other words, regeneration is a spiritual resurrection. It is the beginning of a new life. Now friends, it is God who regenerates. No one can regenerate themselves. Regeneration, the new birth, is of God, it has to be. And friends, regeneration is not only an act of God, regeneration is an act of His almighty power. Therefore, we can say that regeneration is that spiritual change which is wrought in man by the Holy Spirit, by which He becomes a possessor of a new life.
And the first time, as Bishop Ryle puts it, the first time that the new birth is mentioned in the New Testament, it is mentioned in such a way that it is fenced against error. For you'll notice that there are certain things that are stated about the new birth in John chapter one and verse thirteen. Notice what it says about the new birth. It says that they who are born of God, they were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Now you'll notice there are three negatives, one positive. Three negatives here. It's not a blood. Second, it is not of the will of the flesh. And third, it is not of the will of man. With that before you, I'm going to ask you to turn to first Thessalonians chapter two and verse thirteen to just look at a verse for just a moment. First Thessalonians chapter two and verse thirteen. where Paul is writing to the Thessalonians, a people that he spent a brief period of time with, and he had to leave because of persecution, and he writes this epistle, and he writes to them, and he says in verse thirteen, For this cause also, thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, Ye received it not as the word of man, but as
it is in truth, the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. When the person is born of God, there is an effectual working in the life. It is evident The new birth, friends, is of God. In John chapter one and verse thirteen, the first negative that we read there, we read, which were born not of blood. Believers do not become what they are by blood, that is by descendant or by being a descendant from believers.
just because a child has been brought up in a home where the parents are believers that does not mean that the children are automatically believers the jewish people of our lord's day thought that because they were related to abraham that everything was all right they said we have abraham to our father and god chose abraham and we use the expression today that israel are is God's chosen people and they thought that they were the chosen people of God and because of their relationship to Abraham everything was all right our Lord said to the people of his day you're of your father the devil and the lusts of him you do if Abraham were your father you would obey me so friends it's not a blood And I had a godly father.
The greatest Christian man that I ever knew was my father. He was my father. He was the most consistent Christian man I ever knew. If I were to tell you the strictness of our home, oh, we don't like that word today. But my dad was a balanced man. If the word of God said something, cost what it may. He was going to obey it. It's the most godly man I ever knew. I often wondered why my dad was on his knees so much. Well, if you would have had a son like he did, you'd understand.
It's not a blood. It's not a blood, friends. But second, it's nor the will of the flesh. nor the will of the flesh. That is, the new birth is not the result of the efforts and the exertion of our natural hearts. And by the way, that's why we read from the book of Job chapter twenty-eight. The scripture there says, There is a path that no foul knoweth in which the vulture's eye hath not seen. Do you ever think of the eye of a vulture? Here he's speaking of the greatest telescope in the universe.
A vulture's eye is so small in comparison to the telescopes that men build. And in comparison to size, a vulture has the greatest telescope in the universe. He could be flying out of sight. You can't see the vulture, but he can see a rabbit that's dying on the hillside. He can see a bird that's dying on the bow of a limb of a tree. He sees it, the eye of the vulture. And yet there's a path that no foul knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen.
If you read carefully the twenty-eighth chapter of Job, you will find that there's a comparison there. There's a comparison there between the eye of the vulture and the eye of a miner. The miner is the man who sinks his shaft into the bowels of the earth, and he digs, he erects his methods of shoring the holes up in the heart of the earth, and in there he digs, and out of them he brings forth the gold, the silver, the rubies, the diamonds, and the sapphires. The vulture never sees them.
The miner does. Now that teaches us something. That teaches us something. It teaches us what our Lord is saying here. The new birth is not of the will of the flesh. How so? Well, let us think about it for a moment. The efforts and the exertions of the natural heart of man cannot produce the new birth. Why? Birth determines nature. Birth determines nature. Why does the vulture see the dead things?
It was born a vulture, it has a vulture's nature. We used to have a cat. And this cat did what it did because it had the nature of a cat. Our cat could be lying on my son's bed, and my wife, all the way at the other end of the house, started up the can opener. That cat was in the kitchen. You know why? Had the nature of a cat. Why did it have the nature of a cat? It was born a cat. Birth determines nature.
Now, how can you get the divine nature? You see, that's our problem. The vulture sees the dead things. because it has a vulture's nature. But there are good things. There is a path that no foul knoweth in which the vulture's eye hath not seen. There are the diamonds. There are the rubies, the gold, the silver, the precious things. How can you get that? We can't see them. It has to have a different nature. Now the vulture can't change its nature into the nature of a miner and friend.
I was born into a family, naturally, that is a family of the flesh. And our Lord says that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And if I'm going to be ever able to appreciate the things of God, I need something, and I need it desperately. I need a new nature. I need a new nature. How can I get it? Well, nothing that I can do will ever bring it. The Bible says that.
They are born not of the will of the flesh. Nothing I can do can ever accomplish this. I need a new nature. Second Peter, chapter one, verse four says, And oh, I love this passage. We are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the pollution that is in the world to lust. No. How can I get to divine nature? I have to be born. Birth determines nature.
But think about the vulture for a moment. Not only does birth determine nature, nature determines appetite. Appetite. May I ask you a serious question? What do you feed on? What are you feeding on? What kind of an appetite do you really have? It's nature that determines appetite. Why does a vulture feed on the gastly things it does has a vulture's appetite do you claim to have the new nature this morning oh may I ask you in all sincerity what are you feeding on what are you feeding on the things of the world or you're feeding on the things of Christ but let's take it a step further Not only does birth determine nature, and not only does nature determine appetite, but appetite determines character.
You tell me what you're feeding on, and I'll tell you what kind of a person you are. Appetite determines character. And you see, if we follow it a little further, we'll learn that character determines vision. vision and where there is no vision the people perish the vulture doesn't see the diamonds and the gold and the sapphires it never sees them why not has the wrong nature has the wrong appetite has the wrong character and therefore it has no vision but the miner sees them why he has the nature he has the appetite He has a character and he has a vision.
And he gets it. Oh, my friend, when our Lord said to Nicodemus, he said, if I've told you about heavenly things, if I've told you about earthly things and you believe not, and what I'm simply trying to do is talk to you about earthly things this morning, things that we can understand. We can understand him from nature. There is a path that no foul knoweth and which the vulture's eye has not seen. And we could develop the eye of the vulture and we could talk about the greatness of it.
But you see, the vulture misses the best. And do you know why it misses the best? It has a wrong nature. He has a vulture's nature. And you know the person who's out of Christ They're out of Christ because they have never been born of God. But now notice, we're born. Those who are in Christ possess a divine nature. And they possess a divine nature because it's not of blood. Second, it is not of the will of the flesh. In other words, our Lord said to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh it will never be anything else but flesh never and it doesn't matter if it's the flesh of a two-year-old that's screaming and kicking or if it's a flesh of a ninety-year-old that is determined to have its own way the flesh is the flesh and it will never be anything else this is why we need a new birth
we need a new nature and the only way to have the new nature we must have the new birth for birth determines nature but now he goes a step further he not only says that he's not of the will of the flesh and that it is not a blood he said it is not of the will of man in other words A man is not born again by the deeds and the acts of others, ordained preachers, nor anyone else can confer grace upon someone. In spite of how often the preacher holds up his hands when he pronounces the benediction, he doesn't confer grace on anybody.
He can't do it. of the will of man. Man cannot regenerate hearts. Believers become what they are solely and entirely by the grace of God. Friends, God has shut us up to His grace. Now man may say, I don't like that. It doesn't matter whether you like it or not. God isn't going to come down to your level, friends. God is doing it right. He knows the condition of the human heart. He knows that man needs a new nature, and God is willing to give us of his nature by means of the new birth, and it's the only way you can have it.
You can't have it any other way. So, since man cannot regenerate hearts, man becomes what he is solely and entirely by the grace of God. And that's the one positive in this verse. Notice the three negatives, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. They are born of God. It is the God's free, preventing, calling, converting, and regenerating grace. that we owe our new birth.
We owe it to him, to his grace, his preventing grace, his grace which sought me out when I was going my own way, his grace which preserved me as I read in the first verse of the little epistle of Jude, preserved me when my feet were heading fast to the lake of fire, he preserved me. There's a many a time, friends, that I have literally squirmed as I thought of my past and turned to God in grace and thanked Him for preserving me when my feet were rushing to a lost eternity.
His preventing grace. Oh, thank God for His effectual call. That day when these words came home with power in the language of the hundred eleventh Psalm in the third verse. My people shall be willing in the day of my power. And he made me willing to trust his son. I wouldn't have done it otherwise. He had to do it. Oh, thank God for his free grace. His preventing grace. His effectual calling us to salvation, His regenerating, bringing us to life.
Now, this is the first time that the new birth is spoken of in the Word of God. Did you notice how it's fenced against errors? We are told emphatically where the new birth comes from. It's of God. And three times over he tells us where it doesn't come from. It's not a blood. So don't expect too much out of preachers' children. Don't expect too much out of them. Because it's not a blood. It's not of the will of the flesh. It's not of the will of man.
It's of God. I remember when I was the director of the Youth Congress at Greenwood Hills, A fellow, a Scottish boy, came from New Jersey. He was the best athlete there that we had in the camp, and we had about a hundred and forty young people, all high school and college age young people. And Scotty, he could do almost anything when it came to athletic sports. He was tops. And one day I cornered him in the pool, in the swimming pool, said, Scotty, I want to talk to you. And I turned to him and I said, what are you doing for the Lord?
He said, listen, I'm tired. I'm just another PK. I said, what do you mean? He said, a preacher's kid. He said, and I'm tired of people expecting me to do this, do that, and do something else. He said, I'll tell you what I do. He said, I play professional soccer. in my spare time. I go to the Lord's Supper, and then I play professional soccer on a Sunday. And then he said, that's in the fall of the year. In the spring of the year, I play baseball, softball, professionally. And then he turned to me. He said, that's what I did. It's all over.
It's all over. This week at the Youth Congress has changed my whole life. And that boy, when he went back to New Jersey to his parents' home, a few weeks later his parents came and paid me a visit. And his daddy said to me, he said, I never saw a change in any boy like in our son Alistair. He's done the business with the things of God. Let me ask you, are you born of God? Do you have God's nature?
You see, birth determines nature, and nature determines character, or appetite, and appetite determines character, and you can go down the list. Are you born of God? You see, the new birth is fenced against errors. It's not of the will of the flesh. It is not of the will of man. It is of God. Now we must be careful, friends, that we do not interpret the words which were born as if the new birth was a change that takes place in a man after he has received Christ and is the next step after faith.
It isn't. Saving faith and regeneration are inseparable. They're inseparable. You can. And I'd like to ask you a question. And you think it through. When Lazarus, who was dead and in the grave for four days, when he heard the voice of the Son of God saying, Lazarus, come forth. Now here's the question. Did he come forth to get life? Or did He come forth because He had life? Well, the answer is obvious, friends.
The quickening word, the regenerating word, was in the voice. Come forth. For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and the marrow, and is a dishonor of the thoughts and in the intents of the heart. Now the natural man is not only blind, he's dead. A dead man can't hear the voice. And that's the difference, friends, between justification and regeneration.
Regeneration, friends, is of God. That's what it says. Justification, friends, is by faith. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And man mixes everything up. He talks about the new birth as being by faith. The new birth isn't by faith. The new birth is of God. You can't believe your way into the new birth. You don't. It says so. I didn't write the Bible.
The new birth, friends, is of God. And a new birth produces something. It produces faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So we believe on Him. Now, I know my birthday. my natural birthday people just don't let me forget it they don't let me forget my natural birthday I don't even remember it you know I don't remember when I was born but you see in my childhood there are certain things that I recollect that tell me that I was a member of the bomb burger family now put them together regeneration I'm not, I don't know when I was born again, but I remember the day that I trusted Christ.
And you see that trusting Christ is what told me and what gives me evidence that I was a member of the family of God. I trusted Christ when I heard the gospel. How did I trust him? I was dead. I had to be made alive. in order to exercise faith in Christ Jesus. Oh, Isaac Watts put it so well. In hymn number one hundred fifty-eight, in your worship hymn book, the middle stanza says, Why was I made to hear thy voice? And enter Wilder's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come.
T'was the same love that spread the feast, that sweetly forced us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Friends, the new birth is of God. Justification is by faith. The new birth is of God. Now we can talk about people doing this and doing that going forward. We can get the flesh to do anything. But friends, that which is born of the flesh is what? Flesh. But that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
And genuine faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. is not the means of the new birth, it is the result of the new birth. The new birth is of God. That's why Paul could say, as he looked back at his little time that he spent in Thessalonica, he says, For this cause I thank God without stopping, without ceasing, because when ye received the word which you heard of us, you didn't receive it as the word of man, but as it is in truth, The word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
There is an effectual work. Now let us see how this is illustrated in John three. In John chapter three, we have the story of the man Nicodemus. Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, the religious man, the respected man. He came to the Lord Jesus by night. And he says certain things to the Lord as revealed in the first two verses. Our Lord looked at Nicodemus. He looked him in the eye and he said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Did you notice that? He says, unless a man is born again, he remains blind.
He cannot see the kingdom of God. This message of regeneration occupies the first discourse of our Lord in John's Gospel. John's Gospel is a Gospel account which contains a number of our Lord's discourses. Chapter eight is discourse on the light of the world. John ten is discourse on the good shepherd. In John fifteen, the vine and the branches. In John six, the bread of life. In John three, on the doctrine of regeneration. What does it mean to be born again? Now a man can't live before he's born.
And neither can a dead man regulate his life. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. And no man can live Godwards until he's born of God. Now apart from the new birth, A man cannot see the kingdom of God. In this passage, the kingdom of God has reference to spiritual things. It is the spiritual things that the apostle wrote to the Corinthians about in chapter one, and in chapter two, when he speaks of the deep things of God. spiritual things that he wrote about to the Romans in chapter fourteen and verse seventeen when he said the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit the natural man until he's born of God he cannot see the kingdom of God now to prove this to you take a look at Nicodemus Nicodemus had known about the miracles of our Lord he had seen them He even believed that he was a teacher come from God.
And he was a well-educated man. He was a religious man. Our Lord says to him in verse three, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In verse four, to show you how blind the man is, he says, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? In other words, in spite of the fact that he had seen miracles, in spite of the fact that he was religious, the man is blind toward spiritual things. He's blind. He cannot see.
How do you know? All he's doing is thinking on the natural plane. The natural man can only think on the natural plane. Our Lord says you need to be born again, and all we can think about is natural birth. Our Lord wasn't talking about natural birth. Our Lord is talking about spiritual birth. He's talking about a change in nature. And how can the nature be changed? Birth determines nature. And to have the divine nature, there must be a divine birth. And to see spiritual things, there must be a divine nature. Now this is what Paul said in First Corinthians chapter two, verse fourteen.
I'm going to quote it to you. It says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. For they are spiritually discerned. It doesn't say he will not know them. It says he cannot. He cannot know them. They are spiritually discerned. So my question to you is, have you been born of God? The new birth is so important. Well, the question that you might raise in your mind is, well, if the new birth is of God, how can I be born of God?
Oh, let me ask you a question. Have you responded by faith? to the person of Jesus Christ. Since you can't produce the new birth. You see, I know when I respond in faith to who Jesus Christ is. That's how our Lord answered Nicodemus in John three. Nicodemus cried out, How can these things be? The Lord said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And to every Jew, friends, that expression, Son of Man, means he's a heavenly personage who is going to receive from God the Father a kingdom and power and glory.
Daniel chapter seven, verse eighteen, seven, thirteen, and verse fifteen. And the Son of Man is going to be lifted up on the cross, just as a brazen serpent was lifted up, that whosoever believes in him, he won't perish. but he'll have everlasting life. What enables us to believe in him? The new birth. How can I have it? God gives it to you. The result of it is, I believe on Jesus Christ. I ask you today, have you believed? If you have, then you can say, I have been born of God.
For the Scripture says, to as many as receive him. For them he gives a right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born. They were born. Those who believe in his name were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God. Have you believed in Christ? You can say, I have been born of God. The evidence is birth determines nature. I have a divine nature. Nature determines appetite.
Oh, I now enjoy the things of God. Appetite determines character. I'm a new creation in Christ. I'm not the same fellow you used to know. Character determines vision. I now have a vision of the glory of God before me. And vision determines achievement. And achievement determines destiny. Are you born? It all begins with birth. Have you been born of God? Accept a man be born again.
He cannot see. Nicodemus was very much alive physically. He was religious. He had everything but a new birth. Do you have it? Now Nicodemus got it. He got it that day with a Savior. Oh, I trust that it's yours too. And the Scripture says to as many as receive him, and that's the evidence that you have it. Oh, let's pray. Loving Father, as we consider your matchless grace to us, We thank you that we're shut up to grace. We thank you that the new birth is all of God because when it's of thee, it's forever.
For thy word says, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it or taken from it. And God doeth it that men might fear before him. Oh, take the word, and with it