I think we all felt a little bit
of the reality.
I know for myself, I did.
When Brother Michael was preaching that the storm
clouds of judgment are real.
And myself, I just got it, I felt
like I got a glimpse of those clouds
and a few of the drops starting to
fall already.
Like Brother Michael said this thing of 911
that was successful beyond their wildest dreams.
God allowed that to happen and brought that
to pass.
And so these things are real.
But there's a couple thoughts that I have
that I want to share.
First of all, sometimes God reveals to us
seemingly hopeless and irreversible situation in order that
we might pray.
The example of Nineveh, Jonah came with a
message that had no hope in it whatsoever
yet 40 days and it's going to happen.
And they, they got on the sackcloth and
ashes and started wailing and, and God heard
them and it didn't happen.
It's unbelievable, isn't it?
That's recorded for our hope.
And it's a, it's a great encouragement to
me that the Holy Spirit has not stopped
burdening the saints to cry out to God
to yet have mercy.
35 years ago, when I was a student,
there's a brother in Iowa that has been
greatly used in my life.
And he used to meet for prayer at
the church that he attended.
The pastor didn't come and he met by
himself for years on a Saturday night.
And finally some of us college guys started
going there to pray with him.
And I remember week after week him pouring
out his heart with his arms raised in
the air crying out to God to pour
out floods upon the dry ground.
With tears streaming down his face.
I remember one night in the summertime, he
was praying, Oh, Lord, will you not make
these bright clouds, clouds of lightning and thunder
and pour out your spirit upon this land.
And as he was praying, the storm came
in, and the lightning was flashing all around
and the thunder was rolling and his hands
were lifted in the air with tears streaming
down his face.
And I just I just had a little
taste God is listening.
He hears the prayers of his saints.
And I know that man still praying 35
years later, he's still praying those prayers.
And that's not that's not man doing that.
That's God.
And it's a little token that there's yet
hope.
Sometimes God has poured out his spirit in
a land just before the judgment falls.
That's what happened with Dr. Stewart, James Stewart,
when he was there in the Eastern European
countries, prior to World War Two, a mighty
outpouring of the Spirit in one place after
another.
And that was to that was God's way
of preparing his people and strengthening them for
when that iron curtain came down.
That may be what it is we want
whatever he wants.
But we don't have any reason to be
discouraged and defeated when we look at all
this.
And that's another thing I wanted to say.
And that is, we see whenever we begin
to see the reality of these things, we
see how far short we're falling, how sinful
we are.
And just how much we have failed God
and failed our fellow man.
And it's hard to believe when we get
a glimpse of that how much God loves
us and how much he's with us.
But the fact is, that's just as much
in the Bible as the rest of this.
And he delights in his children, delights in
his people.
And that's what we're going to be looking
at as we continue on here in Revelation.
I mean, in Regeneration, as we talk about
Regeneration.
But let me just read something to you
that blessed me.
It says, Then those who feared the Lord
spoke to one another.
And the Lord gave attention and heard it
and a book of remembrance was written before
him for those who fear the Lord and
who esteem his name.
And they will be mine, says the Lord
of hosts on the day that I prepare
my special treasure.
And I'll spare them as a man spares
his own son who serves him.
So you will again distinguish between the righteous
and the wicked, between the one who serves
God and the one who does not serve
him.
For behold, the day is coming burning like
a furnace.
And all the arrogant and every evildoer will
be chaff and the day that is coming
will set them ablaze as the Lord of
hosts so that it will leave them neither
root nor branch.
But for you who fear my name, the
son of righteousness will rise with healing in
his wings.
And you'll go forth and skip about like
calves from the stall.
Isn't that something?
Encouraging words to us from the Lord.
Well, we started yesterday to look at this
glorious subject of regeneration.
Regeneration is an act of creative power on
the part of an almighty creator.
Justification is a declaration by a righteous judge.
But regeneration is an act of power.
And we begin to see yesterday that regeneration
is described in the Bible using several different
pictures.
We saw first of all that regeneration is
spoken of as a new creation.
God does a creative work when he regenerates
a man.
We also saw that regeneration is described as
a new man.
We become a new man when we become
a Christian.
And then we saw thirdly that it is
described as the giving of a new heart.
Now today we want to look at three
more of these.
And so let's turn to John chapter 3
and we'll look at the fourth one.
And that is regeneration is described as a
new birth.
John chapter 3.
And let's just read verses 1 through 8.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to him by night and
said to him, Rabbi, we know that you
have come from God as a teacher, for
no one can do these signs that you
do unless God is with him.
Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said to him, how can a man
be born when he is old?
He cannot enter a second time into his
mother's womb and be born, can he?
Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and 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.
Do not marvel that I said to you,
you must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes and you
hear the sound of it, but do not
know where it comes from and where it
is going.
So is every one who is born of
the spirit.
Regeneration is described as a new birth.
And what a glorious thing this is to
become a Christian is to be born.
It is to be born.
And in the physical realm, whenever you are
born, you begin to live, you begin to
exist in this physical realm.
In the spiritual realm, when you become a
Christian, you are born, you begin to live,
you begin to exist in a spiritual realm.
And nothing is ever the same again.
Nothing is ever the same again.
You begin to live.
When you are born again, you begin to
exist and to live in the spiritual world.
Or to put it another way, the new
birth is not something added on to your
life.
It is life.
You begin to live.
Or let me say it like this, being
born again is not getting something that you
did not have before.
It is becoming someone who you never were
before.
You begin to exist and live in the
spiritual realm.
Now I want us to notice four things
here concerning the new birth.
First of all, the new birth is a
real birth.
It is not like a birth.
It is a birth.
Notice what he says here in verse 6.
That which is born of the flesh is
flesh.
There is a physical birth.
Something real is born in the physical realm.
All right, now look at the rest of
it.
That which is born of the Spirit, capital
S, Holy Spirit, that which is born of
the Spirit is Spirit.
There is something born.
See that?
Something spiritual born here.
He is talking about something real.
This is an incredible thing.
In this birth, God fathers us.
Now that is the language of the Bible.
You remember what it says in 1 John?
We would never say this if we were
writing the Bible.
God's seed remains in him.
Isn't that incredible?
God's seed remains in the person who has
been born of God.
In other words, he has God's nature.
That is what it says in 2 Peter.
We become partakers of the divine nature and
God's seed.
Now think of this talk.
You have been born, Jesus says, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh.
But he says there is something spiritual born
of the Spirit.
And God's seed stays in you.
And you have been born of God.
You have been begotten of God.
This is something absolutely radical.
And by the word radical, I mean it
in the way that the word really, what
it really means.
It is the same thing we get the
word radish from.
What is a radish?
It is a root.
And radical means it goes right down to
the root of everything.
There can't be anything any deeper than this.
That God actually births us, that we have
been born of God.
And now this has great implications.
When you say a man has been born
of God and begotten of God and his
seed remains in him, that means something.
Number one, it means that that person cannot
stand to live in sin anymore.
1 John 3, 9, he that is born
of God does not commit sin.
Why not?
God's seed remains in him.
And he cannot sin because he is born
of God.
This has radical implications for what happens as
a result of the fact that you have
been born of God.
It also has radical implications for how we
should view ourselves as Christians.
If you are a Christian, you are a
child of God.
That's not just words, you see, to describe
something.
You're a child of God.
You've been begotten by God.
That's really what it is.
You've been born again.
You've been born of God.
How should a true Christian think about himself?
Well, are you a saint or are you
a sinner according to the Bible?
You know, Jesus said, don't even sinners do
that.
Sinners love one another.
Who are you?
You're a saint.
Don't let the devil convince you that you're
a vile, worthless piece of trash.
That's not who you are.
You're a child of God.
You've been begotten by God.
His seed remains in you.
You're a son of God.
How could anything be more wonderful than that?
I'm a child of God.
He's begotten me.
His seed remains in me.
That's the way to view yourself because that's
who you are.
His very nature remains in you and you
love him because you've been born of God.
You're his child and he's your father.
He really is your father.
Not just words to describe this thing.
He's really your father.
Think about it.
He's really your father.
You belong to him.
His life is in you.
You're one with him.
Your nature, the nature that he has put
in you is his very nature.
You're a partaker of the divine nature.
What a blessed thing this is.
We're not only sons by adoption legally, but
we're also sons by birth.
What else?
The new birth, not only is it a
real birth, the new birth is a sovereign
birth.
Look at what Jesus says here in verse
8.
The wind blows where it wishes.
This does not lie in man's will.
It lies in God's will.
Notice it.
Look at this.
Everything I'm going to tell you here out
of verse 8, you've got to remember this.
Jesus says, so is everyone who is born
of the Spirit.
There is not one single person ever anywhere
born of the Spirit that these things are
not true of.
And the first one is that it's a
sovereign work.
The wind blows where it wishes.
You do not control the wind.
You do not direct the wind.
You don't stop the wind.
It does not matter how obstinate a man
is.
It doesn't matter how strong willed he is
or resistant he is.
The wind blows where it wishes.
That's what Jesus said.
That means that the most unlikely person in
the world can be saved.
It doesn't matter how hard hearted he is
or unwilling he is.
The wind blows where it wishes.
Now, if the early church, if you had
asked them, there was one person they knew
was never going to become a Christian, I'll
tell you that much, and that was Saul.
Next thing you know, who art thou, Lord?
You see?
And he turns from being a vicious persecutor
and blasphemer into the chiefest lover of Christ.
Because the wind blows where it wishes.
You see, why am I a Christian and
my neighbor isn't?
There's only two possible explanations.
It's something about me or something about God.
That's the only two possible explanations.
And if it's something about me, it has
to do with something about that I was
more willing, that I wasn't as resisted, I
wasn't as hard hearted, something.
You see, it gets back to me.
The Bible says there's none that understands, there's
none that seeketh after God, there's none that
doeth good, no, not one.
You find a man seeking God, it means
God has done something to seek him first.
That's all it means.
The difference between me and somebody else is
either in me or it's in God and
it's in God.
The wind chose to blow.
He chose to blow by His Spirit in
my life.
That's the reason I'm a Christian.
Even when we were dead in trespasses and
sins, He made us alive.
The wind blew.
You know the illustration that's so good concerning
Lazarus, it really fits the reality of the
spiritual realm.
Jesus is standing out there, He's dead and
rotten, and He says, Lazarus, come forth.
The only problem is dead men can't hear
anybody talking to them.
They can't hear anything.
When that effectual call goes out, life comes
up in order for you to hear the
call.
That's regeneration.
And in your experience what happens is, you're
laying there in the dark and all of
a sudden you hear a voice, Lazarus, come
out.
What's happened?
Life has come in to the point you
can hear, you see?
Now then you've got to get up and
come out.
That's what happens in conversion.
That's what happens in repentance and faith.
You know, man's involved somewhere along the line,
but God is the initiator.
The reason that you're a Christian is the
wind blew.
God chose to blow.
I got up one morning when I was
almost 16 years old.
I had not a thought in my mind
about God.
I wasn't seeking God.
Little did I know that by the time
I went to bed that night, I would
be a new creation changed forever.
And all of a sudden I've got a
brand new Bible.
You know, I was the head of the
Sunday school group, but I couldn't have told
you Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And all of a sudden I can open
this thing up and I understand it.
The wind blew.
The wind blows where it wishes.
He talks about that back in chapter 1,
doesn't he?
He says, who were born, as many as
received him, to them he gave the authority,
the right to become the children of God,
who were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
Born of God.
It has to do with the will of
God.
Ezekiel 37, he says, son of man, can
these bones live?
And he took him out there and walked
him around and said, take a good look
at them.
There were very many and they were very
dry.
One time when I was living in Lawrence,
Kansas, after I graduated from college, I went
into the museum there that was full of
very old and very dry bones.
And I was in there alone somehow.
I don't know how it happened, but I
was walking down through there.
My footsteps would echo through there, clop, clop.
And those bones, you know, all these bones,
dinosaurs and different things.
And it just came just like that on
my heart.
Son of man, can these bones live?
They're not going to, those things are not
going to come alive.
There is no way unless some kind of
miracle happens.
And he says, all right, start talking to
those bones.
Oh, Lord, that's not going to do any
good to talk to those bones.
Well, you go ahead and prophesy to them.
And those bones start rattling around and coming
together.
There's still no life.
He says, prophesy to the wind.
Now, you know, wind and spirit and breath
are all the same word in the Hebrew
and in the Greek.
Just chance that was that way, isn't it?
The wind blows where it wishes.
It says, prophesy to the wind, the breath,
come, breathe on these slain that they might
come alive.
And the breath came into them, they came
alive.
That's what happens when God saves a man.
The breath of God enters into him and
he comes alive.
The new birth is sovereign.
What else about the new birth?
The new birth is known.
Verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes
and you hear the sound of it.
You do hear the sound of it.
It's known in its effect.
Now, you can't see it directly.
You can't see wind directly, but you can
see the effects of it.
It's known by its effects.
Wind always implies movement and energy and vitality
in life.
If there's no movement at all, there's no
wind.
I mean, you go out and look at
the leaves on the trees and they're just
grouping there and you say there's no wind.
Where there's wind, there's movement and it's known.
God's spirit is like the wind.
That's what Jesus is saying here.
Sometimes it's like a powerful gale.
That's what happened on the day of Pentecost.
Three thousand people, just like that.
It's sure good that God foreknew that all
those people would just happen to be there
by chance at the same place at the
same time.
No, God's Holy Spirit is what made the
difference on the day of Pentecost.
The wind blew.
The wind blew in three thousand.
So, sometimes like a mighty, powerful gale, sometimes
like a gentle breeze.
You just see one little leaf moving, but
it's God and we can be thankful for
that too.
Very thankful.
There's a poem that I have on the
wall of my study.
I may not quote it quite right.
I'll get one verse before the other maybe,
but who has seen the wind?
Neither you, neither I nor you, but when
the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing
through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I, but when the trees
bow down their heads, the wind is passing
by.
You see, the reality of God's Spirit, it's
known.
You can see something and it's always known.
That's what Jesus said.
The wind blows where it wishes and you
hear the sound of it.
So, as everyone that's born of the Spirit,
it is impossible to be born of the
Spirit of God and you don't see something
supernatural in a person's life.
That's impossible.
He says every single one.
Everyone that's born of the Spirit.
You hear the sound of it.
What else?
It's mysterious.
The new birth is mysterious.
You don't know where it comes from.
You don't know where it's going.
So is everyone who's born of the Spirit.
Every single time the new birth is always
mysterious.
We don't know who might be next.
We can't predict what God might do.
Might be the most unlikely place that you
could imagine.
We have repeatedly, we've seen this happen among
the college students there that we're trying to
minister to.
Mona and I had some of them in
the van that we had a couple of
years ago and we were trying to, we
were taking them to some meetings and talking
to them.
We got back and we said, well, so
and so, Lord's going to do something there.
I mean, He's going to do something in
their life, but so and so, there's nothing
going on there.
Well, you can guess which one of them's
still walking with God now and has been
converted.
The very one you didn't think.
You can't predict.
You don't know.
You don't know where it comes from or
where it's going.
That's the way it is.
It might be one person saved at a
meeting.
Might be 3,000.
Contrast the stuff that's going on today.
I read an interview with a guy.
It was back when they were doing this
deal where they call everybody on the phone
and try to lead you in a prayer.
He said, we found out that such and
such percentage, I forgot what it was, 83
.6% will decide for Christ.
You know what that means?
You're dealing with psychology, not the Holy Spirit.
Not anything mysterious about that at all.
The Holy Spirit is a person.
You might talk to 10 people and nobody
gets saved, or you might talk to 10
people and all of them get saved.
You don't know what he's going to do.
Well, regeneration is a new birth.
We could spend the whole time on this
side, but let's go on to the next
one.
Regeneration is the receiving of a new nature.
Now, the word nature is not used in
the Bible, but the concept is clearly here.
I want you to see it.
Matthew chapter 7, Matthew
7 and beginning at 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?
Even 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.
Now, I say the concept of nature is
here.
We're going to look at this.
He talks about thistles and thorn bushes, and
he talks about fig trees, you see.
Two different things here.
Now, notice, first of all, there are only
two basic types of trees.
You're either a fig tree or you're a
thorn bush.
There's no half and half tree.
There's no composite tree.
You're either this or you're this.
You know, it's been on my mind for
a long time.
Maybe sometime the Lord will open it up
to me to preach on this, but think
of this.
So many times, it's either you're either this
or this.
You're either for me or you're against me.
You're either saved or you're lost.
It's always two things.
There is no third group in these things
of God.
He says there's this tree or there's this
tree.
There's only two basic types of trees.
There's either good or bad, grape vines or
thorn bushes, fig trees or thistles.
No halfway group, no composite group.
There's no concept of a tree having two
natures.
You're either one kind of tree or you're
the other.
Secondly, notice this.
Trees bear fruit according to what they are.
That's what he's saying in verse 17.
Every good tree bears good fruit, but the
bad tree bears bad fruit.
In other words, the kind of fruit flows
from the nature of the tree.
Now you can take apples and here's this
thorn bush and you can take apples out
there and tie them on there, but they
did not flow out of the tree.
That's what every hypocrite does.
He tries to put this fruit on and
it did not come from within.
He can't produce good fruit.
It's impossible for him to produce good fruit.
It's just that unnatural for a Christian when
he sins, just that unnatural.
The kind of fruit flows from the nature
of the tree.
Grape vines produce grapes, thistles produce thistles.
Now notice what he says.
Every, every, verse 17, even so, every good
tree bears good fruit.
Have you got in your head the idea
that some good trees don't bear good fruit?
Have you, I mean, look at how, how
many times are we hitting this thing?
And it keeps on.
God hits it from every angle from A
to Z.
And here we have it again.
He's saying every good tree bears good fruit.
Every bad tree bears bad fruit.
That's just the way it is.
Beloved, these are Jesus words.
We cannot let anybody, including our own theories,
cancel out what he's saying here.
Every single one.
And he puts it the other way around
in the next verse.
Verse 18, a good tree cannot produce bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good
fruit, a corrupt tree.
It's a cannot.
It's impossible.
And he says every tree that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire.
Thirdly, notice here, the fruit of the tree
does not make the tree what it is.
It reveals what the tree is.
He says you'll know them, you know them
by their fruits.
You know who they are by what comes
out of them.
You don't get to be a grapevine by
trying to produce grapes.
You have to have a miracle to make
you a grapevine.
God has to do something.
And this concept of a new nature is
very far reaching.
The Lord Jesus talks about it.
Let's just look at a few more verses.
Matthew chapter 12.
We see it again.
1233.
He says either make the tree good and
its fruit good or make the tree corrupt
and its fruit corrupt.
The tree is known by its fruit.
You brood of vipers.
How can you, being evil, speak what's good?
For the mouth speaks out of that which
fills the heart.
The good man, there are some.
What Jesus says here, now you know there's
nobody good in himself whatsoever, but there's some
people that God's done something in their heart
and put his life in them.
The good man out of his good treasure
brings forth what is good.
The evil man out of his evil treasure
brings forth what is evil.
A couple more.
John chapter 8.
These are amazing passages.
John 8 and verse 47.
He who is of God hears the words
of God.
For this reason, you do not hear them
because you're not of God.
Now people have got that thing turned around
totally.
They say, well, if you hear his words,
then you become one who is of God.
No, he says you don't hear his words
because you're not of God.
That's the reason you can't.
Go over to chapter 10, verse 26.
You do not believe because you're not of
my sheep.
Now there's people that say you're not a
sheep because you don't believe.
No, he says you don't believe because you're
not of my sheep.
And back up in verse 16, he looks
down, clear down through history, says I've got
other sheep that are not of this fold.
They're going to come.
They're going to hear my voice.
They're going to come and there's going to
be one flock and one shepherd.
He calls us sheep before we ever come
to him.
I've got these sheep out here and they're
going to hear my voice.
That's encouraging, isn't it, in evangelism?
He's got some sheep out here and they're
going to hear my voice.
Well, I say a new nature.
Number six, the new birth is described as
a crucifixion and a resurrection.
Let's read in Romans chapter six.
Romans six and we'll read verses one to
seven.
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace
might increase?
May it never be.
How shall we who died to sin still
live in it?
Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have
been baptized into his death?
Therefore, we have been buried with him through
baptism into death in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory
of the father, so we too might walk
in newness of life.
Or if we have become united with him
in the likeness of his death, certainly we
shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was
crucified with him, that our body of sin
might be, and here the idea of destroyed
or done away with, it misses the idea.
It's the idea of being rendered powerless.
Just like you remember there in Hebrews two,
that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death.
Well, the devil has not been annihilated, but
his power has been broken.
And that's the idea here.
Our body has not been annihilated, it's not
been destroyed, but its power has been broken.
That we should no longer be slaves to
sin, for he who has died is freed
from sin.
Now, if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with him,
knowing that Christ having been raised from the
dead is never to die again.
Death no longer is master over him.
For the death that he died, he died
to sin once for all, but the life
that he lives, he lives to God.
Even so, consider yourself to be dead to
sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It was a very liberating thing for me
when I saw that he's talking here about
what happens in regeneration.
You know, we can try to imagine back
there somehow I died with Christ on the
cross.
Well, that's true in the sense that everything
was purchased there, and it was all done
there.
But he's talking here about what happens when
you are regenerated, united to Christ, converted.
Because he talks about us being raised up
to walk in newness of life.
That happens when you become a Christian.
That's what he's talking about.
Now, what happens in regeneration?
Your old man, that is the person that
you used to be in Adam, is crucified,
dead, and buried.
And you're raised up to walk in newness
of life as a new person who's been
raised from the dead.
Notice what he says here in verse 4.
He says, so that we too might walk
in newness of life.
And in verse 13, present or yield yourselves
unto God as those who are alive from
the dead.
You're a Christian, you're alive from the dead,
you see.
Talking about something real here.
Now, I don't like the term positional truth,
because what that means in most people's minds
is pretend, imaginary.
Justification is positional in that it's legal.
God justifies me in the sight of His
law.
But when we start talking about regeneration and
holiness, we're talking about a creative act of
power that God does something to you and
with you.
Something real.
And this isn't some mystical thing that you
can't figure out what in the world is
he talking about.
He's saying your old man, the old you.
Remember what Paul says in Galatians 2.20?
I have been crucified with Christ.
You see?
And I'm living now, but it's no longer
I that's living now.
Christ is living in me.
And so he's talking about something that happens
when you become a Christian, you see.
Your old man, the person that you used
to be, is crucified, dead and buried.
He's not still hanging on the cross, half
alive, shouting orders at you.
He's gone.
Dead and buried and completely and never will
be back again.
I never did know the old Michael Durham.
And I'm glad I didn't.
And I never will know the old Michael
Durham because the old Michael Durham is crucified
and gone.
See that?
He's made you a new man in Christ.
He's raised you up to walk in newness
of life.
He's changed you from the inside out.
Well, why do I still have a problem
with sin again?
The question comes up.
Why do I still have a problem with
sin?
Because I am not yet totally redeemed.
My body has not yet been redeemed.
My physical body, we're waiting for the redemption
of our bodies.
And even though there's nothing sinful about my
body as such, sin tries to reign in
my mortal body.
And that's what the Bible talks about when
it talks about the flesh.
And he says some amazing things.
He calls sin a deed of the body.
Romans 8, 13, If you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body.
Well, it's not like my hands and arms
are just moving on their own and something
sinful about my body as such.
But sin's trying to reign in my mortal
body.
That's your flesh.
Now, he says two things to get from
this.
Number one, that's not who you really are.
That's not the deepest truth about you.
That's not the ultimate truth about you.
You are one who is alive from the
dead.
As a Christian, you're a new man raised
up to walk in newness of life.
That's who you really are.
The second thing that we learn from this
is that I don't have to be defeated
by the flesh.
So there's two things we get out of
Romans 6 and those passages when it talks
about our old man has been crucified and
we're a new man.
What do we get?
One, I am alive from the dead.
I'm a new person.
Two, I don't have to be defeated anymore
by the flesh.
I can walk in the Spirit now and
I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
That's what these passages are about.
If you by the Spirit do mortify and
put to death the deeds of the body.
Beloved, sin's days are numbered in every Christian.
Just a little bit longer and it's all
over for sin.
I gave the illustration yesterday of this factory
which all these things are weak analogies but
they give a little bit of feel for
these things maybe.
I like to think of it like this
too.
It's like a war.
You know, a lot of times this happens
too.
In a war, finally the enemy surrenders and
they give up and they sign the peace
treaty or whatever and they surrender and the
war's over.
They're defeated.
But there's little pockets of resistance out here
that don't know the war's over yet and
they're still fighting tooth and toenail.
Now the fact is they don't stand a
chance.
I mean their nation has already surrendered.
They're defeated.
It's over for them.
You see that?
They don't have any hope whatsoever of surviving.
Now that's the way it is with sin
in the life of a Christian.
The root has been cut.
Here's another illustration.
You take this tree.
It's got these big leafy branches and you
saw that thing.
Just cut it right off with a chainsaw.
Cut it right off the ground.
That's all over now.
You take that tree over and set it
on the ground and put some wires there
to hold it up, keep it from falling
over and somebody drives by in the car
and you say, look at that dead tree
over there.
That's not, that tree's not dead.
Yeah, it is.
You just don't know the facts about it.
In a little while every leaf on there
is going to fall off because the ax
has been laid to the root.
Any sin that we're still fighting right now,
beloved, it's not an expression of who we
are.
It's an expression of who we used to
be, vestige of what we used to be.
And as days are numbered, every now and
then we, I'm sure you have it here
too.
You'll have a snowstorm late in the spring.
One time I think we had one April
10th.
We had a blizzard.
And you know when it's December and winter's
just coming on and you have something like
that, you kind of groan.
You think, man, we may be in for
a hard winter.
When you have something like that on April
10th, you just laugh at it.
You know that as days are numbered, it's
not even going to be there one day
usually before it's melted and gone.
That's the way it is with sin and
the life of a believer.
It's doomed.
It's perishing.
It's gone.
Now Paul says, realize who you are and
embrace who you are.
Realize that that thing is gone, doomed, destined
to pass away.
That's not what's going to last forever.
That's not what's real.
So be consistent with who you are and
lay hold of and embrace who you are.
That's again, this is a New Testament way
of teaching growth and grace.
Who are you according to the Bible?
Well, you're one who is alive from the
dead, Romans 6, 13.
Don't yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness
to sin.
Don't present yourself in that way.
But what?
Present yourself unto God as one who is
alive from the dead.
That is, realize that you are one who
is alive from the dead.
Now when you become a Christian, when you
first become a Christian, you feel this a
little bit.
You realize I'm alive from the dead.
But after you go for a while and
you start realizing, you know, you got those
pockets of resistance, they're firing at you pretty
hard.
And you start thinking maybe this war is
not over after all.
And I might even lose this war.
And you start seeing how much of sin
remains and you start thinking how bad and
rotten and vile you are.
And pretty soon you don't have words bad
enough to describe yourself as a Christian.
Now you just try coming before God and
you say, Lord, here I present myself to
a vile, rotten piece of meat.
You can't have any victory like that.
You present yourself, if you're a Christian, you're
just as alive from the dead and new
and fresh today as the day you became
a Christian.
That's who you are.
You're one who's alive from the dead.
Present yourself to God right now as not
as somebody that has to be defeated, but
as somebody who's alive from the dead.
Nothing can stop you.
The flesh cannot stop you.
The world, the devil cannot stop you.
You're a child of God, born of God,
born of the Spirit.
His seed is in you.
You've become a new tree.
You're not that old tree anymore.
You don't have to bear those thorns anymore.
Now this is renewing of your mind, you
see.
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Be not conformed to this world.
You don't have to be.
Be transformed.
Be renewed in the Spirit of your mind.
Put on the new man.
Put on these deeds that the new man
does as those who are beloved of God,
holy and beloved, elect of God.
Put on all this stuff because that's who
you really are.
Before you become a Christian, you're just putting
on.
But now you can put these things on
because that's who you really are.
Well, Lord willing, we'll go on tomorrow and
try to look at three more of these
designations of regeneration.