Well, I want to begin our time this morning by
telling a story from church history. In my opinion,
one of the most important disputes that have
come up in church history in the history of our
faith, primarily because it shaped the way every
branch of Christendom understands the concept
of original sin. And it has a direct connection
to the way the Protestant Reformers sought to
correct church dogmas in the West back in the
16th and 17th centuries. But this particular
dispute happens way before that, about 1 ,100
years before that, at the turn of the 5th century.
This story centers around a monk by the name
of Pelagius. Pelagius had made a name for himself
in his homeland in the British Isles, which in
the 5th century was actually a part of the Roman
Empire. Now, as I say that, that gives me an
excuse to do what? Put a map on the screen. Boom.
Good. So we're going to talk about the travels
of Pelagius the monk. That is a map of the Mediterranean
region. The blue dot is always Jerusalem. Very
good. The red dot is always Rome. I have a new
dot on there because when we get to the 5th century,
the yellow dot is important. It represents Constantinople.
Very good. Or the Eastern Roman Empire. And the
green dot, of course, is... and that is where
Pelagius is from, and we're going to trace where
he goes next. Now, Pelagius and his followers
were known for promoting what we call a hyper
-ascetic lifestyle, denying themselves all comforts
in life in order to please God, in order to conform
themselves to a very rigorous law. And Pelagius
was known in his homeland for constantly railing
against what he saw as moral laxity in the church,
blaming all the bishops in the West, for emphasizing
the doctrine of grace over the moral commands
of Scripture. So around the year 410, Pelagius
and his entourage left Britain, and they traveled
to Rome to see if they could influence the folks
in the imperial city. And when he arrived in
Rome, he quickly gained a following, primarily
because people were impressed with his rhetoric,
impressed by his disciplined lifestyle. But unfortunately
for him, soon after he arrived in Rome, the Visigoths
laid siege to the outskirts of the city of Rome.
And like many others, Pelagius was forced to
flee for his life, choosing to evacuate and travel
by sea to North Africa. And he ended up... in
this area near the ancient city of Carthage.
And there Pelagius came up against a theological
force named Augustine. Now, you've heard me talk
about him many times. Augustine was a philosopher
turned bishop in a region known as Hippo, which
is in North Africa. Today, it's Algeria. And
what followed was a back and forth debate between
Pelagius and Augustine over three areas of systematic
theology that are essential to what we believe,
the doctrine of man, the doctrine of sin, and
the doctrine of salvation. And as soon as Pelagius
arrived in North Africa, Augustine bit into him.
immediately started writing a series of letters
denouncing his teaching, primarily focused on
four things that Pelagius believed. Number one,
he believed that there was no such thing as original
sin. Number two, he believed that human nature
was inherently predisposed towards goodness because
man had been made in the image of God. Number
three, that rather than our will being enslaved
to sin, he believed that man is utterly free
and able to choose either good or evil, able
to follow after God or reject him. And at the
root of all of that, number four, that Adam's
sin affected only Adam. That Adam's fall in the
garden affected only Adam. The rest of humanity
simply followed Adam into sin merely by imitation,
not by virtue of having a corrupted nature. And
so what that meant for Pelagius was that human
beings are capable of not sinning by striving
to follow the second Adam, who is Christ. And
through that striving, combined with God's grace,
Pelagius taught that man is capable of actually
achieving a state of sinlessness. Now, in response
to that, Augustine wrote that Pelagius had completely
misunderstood the nature of humanity's core problem.
And as a result of that, he had failed to understand
the solution to the problem that came in the
person of Christ. By rejecting original sin and
the corruption of human nature that came from
the fall, what Pelagius had actually done was
create a doctrine of grace that actually nullified
grace because it was contingent upon man's striving.
Augustine ripped him all over the place. Echoing
the words of Paul in Romans 5, Augustine insisted
that Adam's corrupted nature is passed on to
every single one of us. Paul writes, through
one man, sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, through one transgression, the fall
in the garden, Paul says, there resulted condemnation
to all men. So by nature, Augustine said, we're
all corrupted. We all stand guilty before the
holy standards of the Lord. And that is precisely
why we need grace. Because we're guilty before
God is precisely why we need a savior. We don't
become sinners when we sin, Augustine said. We
are sinners. And because we are sinners, that's
why we sin. It's our nature. So this was the
battle that shaped up. So Pelagius was sort of
humiliated in North Africa, publicly rebuked,
and so in the year 412, he bailed. He took off
and he headed towards the Holy Land to find hopefully
a more receptive audience there, but Augustine
did not stop. Augustine continued throughout
the 420s, writing and preaching on biblical doctrine
that refuted not just Pelagius, but all of his
followers that had been left behind in North
Africa. And it didn't get any easier for Pelagius
in the Holy Land. He was officially accused of
heresy at a synod in Jerusalem in 415 and then
condemned by two North African synods in the
year 416 and 418. And after that, nothing is
known about the man's life. He drifted into obscurity.
Other than today, we still bring him up as the
arch heretic of the doctrine of salvation. Poor
guy. That is his reputation. Just to add insult
to injury, 13 years later at the Ecumenical Council
of Ephesus in 431, what we call today Pelagianism
was thoroughly condemned by all of the bishops
from both the West and the East. Now, I'd love
to say that that was the end of the issue, but
if you study church history, you find that heresy
has a tendency to stick around. It has this way
of clawing back in a whole different form and
reappearing, and that is exactly what happened
with Pelagianism. Years later, another monk,
this man named John Cassian, who was a prominent
voice in monastic life in Egypt and Constantinople
and later in Marseilles, he promoted a mediating
position between Augustine on one hand and Pelagius
on the other. And he taught something that today
we call semi -Pelagianism. By the way, not semi
-Augustinianism, but semi -Pelagianism. Seeking
to find a middle ground on this issue to try
to make everybody happy about this issue of free
will and salvation. And while you might look
at it and say, well, it's a less offensive heresy
than Pelagianism, it's still rooted in a series
of unbiblical premises that lead us to unbiblical
conclusions. But sadly, it's being taught today
all over the place. In every corner of the modern
-day church, whether people realize it or not,
we are still teaching semi -Pelagianism. This
is how it goes. First, Cassian and others, they
would acknowledge the concept of original sin,
and they would say that, yes, all of mankind
has been impacted by the fall. But they claim
in the fall, man was only damaged. He was only
weakened or injured. It didn't incapacitate him.
So semi -Pelagianism denies the concept of depravity.
In semi -Pelagianism, man is weakened but still
capable, capable of inclining his heart towards
God and seeking after him, assisted by his free
will and his own self -generated faith. And this
in spite of what Paul writes about natural man
in Ephesians 2, that man is not just damaged
but dead, dead in his transgressions. And what
Paul writes in Romans 3, that there is none righteous,
not even one. There is none who understands there
is, how many you seek after God on their own?
None. None. Now, Cassian didn't deny the need
for God's grace in order to be saved. What he
taught was, as man in his own free will is able
to turn to God in faith, generated by himself,
God responds to that. and then gives that man
sufficient grace to save him, completing the
process. So in semi -Pelagianism, salvation is
a cooperative effort. God does his part, but
man starts that process, and together, salvation
is achieved. And again, this is still very common
in churches all over the world today. It's a
free will soteriology, and it's often taught
subtly, and it's often not challenged. But we'll
find out in just a second why it's problematic.
So grab your Bibles. We're going to Titus chapter
3. I got a map in there. Nice. So yeah, so this
is going to be a little bit theologically heavy
this morning because we're talking about very,
very important theological terms that show up
in our passage for this morning. Let's back up
to verse 1. We'll make sure that we read in context
down through verse 7. So here is what Paul writes
to Titus, what he instructs this young protege
to proclaim to the believers that are in the
churches there on the island of Crete. Verse
1, he says, remind them, Titus, to do what? To
be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient,
to be ready for every good deed, to malign no
one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration.
By the way, that's the way we should be in Santa
Clarita today, right? In other words, make sure
that the people in Crete, these believers, that
they maintain their testimony in front of the
unbelieving world. Exhort them, Dave just prayed
this, to adorn the gospel with their lives, being
a blessing to their culture and being good citizens.
And as you do that, Titus, remind them of what
they used to be. This is what comes up in verse
3. As you're doing this, as you're dealing with
people of the culture, remind them what they
used to be, verse 3. For we also, Paul includes
himself, you and me, Titus, and everybody else,
we also were once, that's past tense, once, what?
Foolish ourselves. We were fools. Everyone in
this room was at this place too. We were fools,
right? Disobedient, deceived. enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. And
so what happened? Did we fix ourselves? How many
of you guys feel like you fixed yourself? Did
we recognize how awful we were and turn to God
on our own? Paul says no. Look at verses four
and five. He says, but when the kindness of God
our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,
by sending the Son, right, he saved us. God saved
us. We didn't save ourselves. God saved us. And
he saved us based on what? Well, 1 Paul says
this, not on the basis of deeds which we've done
in righteousness, in case you were confused.
You weren't saved on the basis of your good deeds.
So that rules out the possibility that we can
somehow earn our salvation or merit our salvation
based on good works, based on the visible church
that we're a part of. But then Paul tells us
what the true basis of our salvation is. Underline
it, highlight it, mark it down. He says the basis
of salvation is according to God's mercy. You
see it there in the text? According to his mercy.
So if any human being in the history of man is
ever saved, it's due to this one essential fact
that God has been merciful. Now the question
we want to go on, because we talked about this
several weeks ago, the question we want to answer
next is the next logical one. If we're saved
by God's mercy, according to his grace, how does
he save us? What is the mechanism by which he
saves us? And that's what we see continuing in
verse 5. He saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing by the Holy Spirit. That's the mechanism.
whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, so that being justified by
his grace, We would be made heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. Guys, this is some
of the most beautiful language in the New Testament,
right? Just overflowing with the goodness of
God. But what you see here is a series of important
statements that help us piece together how salvation
comes to us. And mark these things in your minds,
guys, and in your hearts, so that never again
you go to some church and you get misled into
semi -Pelagian thinking. That somehow you are
the one that... that played a role that you started
the process of your own salvation. Once again,
you see the basis for salvation, not our good
deeds, right? Nothing in us. It's rooted in God's
kindness, in God's love, and God's mercy. Then
we see the means of our salvation, that is the
power of the Holy Spirit through the work of
Christ, producing in us and for us regeneration,
renewal, and justification. And finally, the
result of salvation, we are made heirs. We are
adopted as sons and daughters to the hope of
eternal life. Guys, we could literally close
our Bibles right there and just sing some more
praise songs because just those basic three statements
are so beautiful. We could just shut it down
right there, but I want to go on. I want to go
on. Where do we go from here? Well, I want to
hone in in the time we have today on this concept
of regeneration. And also the term washing, because
historically that term washing has created all
kinds of confusion among believers. But before
we do that, let me give you a couple of quick
notes of Christology for you to see here, especially
for anybody who's ever heard this question asked
by an unbeliever, or maybe you've thought it
yourself. Does the New Testament actually say
that Jesus is God? That question's floating around
all the time. Well, here in this passage, the
answer's yes. And in fact, it's all over the
place if you read the text carefully. So look,
first of all, who's called Savior in verse four?
God is. Now, the context seems to favor the idea
that that's a reference to God the Father because
he's the one who sends the Son in his appearing
and bringing of salvation. So I think in verse
four, God the Father's our Savior, but who's
called Savior in verse six? Jesus is. Okay, so
the Father is Savior and Jesus is the Savior.
And historically we've said, yeah, that's because
they are consubstantial. The Father and the Son
are one in substance, in essence, in attributes,
and in purpose. So in a subtle but very clear
way, what Paul's doing here is making Jesus equal
to the Father. And you'll read right past it
if you don't pay attention, but that's exactly
what he's doing. Oh, and by the way, there's
also a Trinitarian polemic built into the passage
because all three persons of the Trinity are
found right here in these verses in relation
to salvation. The Father sending the Son, the
Son accomplishing the work of redemption, and
the Spirit producing regeneration and renewal
by way of the Son. So we have incredible Christology
and Trinitarianism just in these few verses.
So when I mentioned, I don't know how many weeks
ago, I said this is one of the most important
passages for New Testament theology. This is
why. This is beautiful stuff. Okay, let's dive
deeper. Look at verse 5 again. I want to focus
in on this word regeneration. And you can see
up on the screen, the word that Paul uses here
is a very unique word. Pallaginesia. Okay? It's
a word that you'll find only twice in the entire
New Testament. Twice. First here in Titus 3,
and then in Matthew 19, where Jesus uses it,
which means it's worth looking at much, much
closer. Some of you guys remember the context
of Matthew 19. The Lord is speaking to large
crowds. He's out in Judea beyond the Jordan,
but he's also teaching his disciples privately.
And remember the rich young ruler? Right after
Jesus addresses this rich young man's question,
which is, how do I obtain eternal life? Jesus
says to the 12, you know what? It's hard for
a rich man to get into the kingdom of God. And
then using obvious hyperbole, he says, in fact,
it's so hard, it's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. And how do the disciples
respond to that teaching? They're shocked. Why?
Because in their paradigm, it was the wealthy
priests in Jerusalem who were supposed to be
leading other people into the kingdom of God.
They obviously get in, and they're supposed to
help us get in, too. And Jesus blows their minds
with this teaching. And if that's true, they
ask Jesus, well, then who can be saved? Because
if those guys in the holy garments in Jerusalem
aren't going to be saved, who can be saved? Right?
And what does Jesus say? Remember? He says, with
people, this is impossible. Now, don't read past
that. Listen again. With people, this is impossible.
It's impossible for a human being to buy his
way into the kingdom or to work his way into
the kingdom or to somehow find a loophole and
work his way in. But, Jesus adds, with God, what?
All things are possible. That's an incredibly
important teaching here. And that's what we see
also in Titus 3. If the basis for God saving
us is his mercy, then yes, even a rich man can
be saved if God chooses to pour out his mercy
richly upon that man. That's the teaching. But
in that moment, you know, the disciples are confused
and Jesus' answer doesn't satisfy Peter, of course,
of all guys. In fact, it makes him anxious, and
he says to Jesus, well, look, Lord, we left everything
to follow you, so what's in it for us? What's
left for us, he says. And here comes the connection
to regeneration. Jesus says to them, truly I
say to you, you who have followed me in the renewal
of all things, and that is where you see this
word, paligenesia. Literally, it says in the
regeneration. When the Son of Man sits on his
glorious throne, you also shall sit upon 12 thrones,
judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Now that is
unique to the apostles, but look at everybody
else. Everyone who has left houses or brothers
or sisters or father or mother or children or
farms for my namesake will receive many times
as much and will inherit eternal life. So you've
got to understand the context here. Peter asks
about his own individual salvation. Like, what's
in it for me and for the other guys? And Jesus
responds by pointing him to this huge picture
of the rebirth of all of creation. And he says,
trust me, Peter, when everything gets regenerated,
you and everybody else who's followed me, you
will have a great reward. So that's what gets
to the meaning of this word regeneration in Titus
3. Listen, will we see the physical world around
us? We can still see the handiwork of God, his
design, but we also see that the creation has
fallen and it is disordered, right? Paul tells
us that in Romans 8, that the creation was subjected
to depravity because of the fall. And now it
groans and it suffers just as we do under the
weight of sin. But then he says in Romans 8,
there is the certain hope that's coming. Someday
the creation will be set free from the slavery
to corruption. So the ultimate eschatological
purpose that God has for all of creation is that
someday it will be regenerated and us with it.
Those of us whom God has chosen to be saved,
we will be regenerated. We will be made new along
with creation. So regeneration is both individual,
but it's also this giant subject matter. Now,
let's go back to verse 5 again and see how he
says this. What is that mechanism? He saved us
by the washing of regeneration. So very simply,
what Paul is talking about here is the new birth.
The new birth or the making of something new.
I know that for I don't know how many decades
now in Christianity, at least evangelicalism,
everything's about being born again, and it's
sort of become an overused, tired phrase, but
that's exactly what regeneration means. It means
being born again or being made new. So what comes
with being born again, there's a whole bunch
of things that come with it that I'll get to
in a moment, but first we have to go back and...
We always have to remember the bad news before
we get to the good news, right? Why do we need
to be made new? Why do we need to be regenerated?
Because of that list in verse 3, right? Because
we were once all foolish and disobedient and
deceived and slaves to sin and filled with malice
and envy and hatred. All of us are in there somewhere,
right? We have to be honest with ourselves. We're
all in that. And at the end of the age, in the
regeneration to come, in the new heavens and
the new earth, those things will not be welcome.
They need to be done away with. We need to be
born again so as to move out of that and into
something new. And that happens in our lives
on the earth when God draws his elect unto himself,
when the Holy Spirit makes us alive in Christ,
when the Holy Spirit moves us from spiritual
death to spiritual life, and he gives us a whole
new inner man, a completely new nature with new
affections. It's a radical, miraculous transformation
that brings in us a shift in worldview and a
whole new way of living. It's a life where now
by the power of God's Spirit, we are producing
spiritual fruit that brings glory to God. What
are they? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self
-control in increasing measure. This is what
it means to be born again. And importantly, we
now stand in a redeemed state before the judge.
Once we're born again, we now stand in a different
state. and state before the judge. Having been
bought at a price, our record of sins is no longer
counted against us. Our sins have been washed
away by the blood of Christ, right? Right? That
is exactly what Paul means here when he talks
about the washing of regeneration. Now pause
for a moment. I'm going to do a quick rabbit
trail on an important subject here. Because when
you first read that word washing, you might have
had something in mind. You might have thought
of baptism. And that's a very common interpretation.
Far too often what we do as Christians is we
see certain words in Scripture, like washing,
like cleansing, or even just the word water,
and almost with a knee -jerk reaction, we assume
that baptism is what's being described here.
And what we're doing when we do that is we're
sort of reading our experience back into the
text, even though the context doesn't call for
it. And this is one of those passages so many
professing Christians read Titus 3 .5, listen
now, as regeneration through baptism. And sadly,
they come to the false conclusion that God saves
people through the physical act of baptizing.
That's incredibly common today. And it amazes
me that folks can read the Bible and somehow
come to the conclusion that a physical or material
act like being baptized can bring about a spiritual
transformation. Think about that for a second.
A physical action can bring about a spiritual
transformation. Jesus addressed this in John
6. He said, it's the spirit that gives life.
The flesh profits what? Nothing. The spirit gives
life, the flesh profits nothing, meaning human
effort can only produce physical life. Human
effort cannot produce spiritual life. Not even
something as well -intended as baptism is going
to bring regeneration to a man or woman. And
yet in the Eastern Orthodox Church today, they
teach that baptism done by a properly ordained
priest or bishop in the Orthodox Church does
just that, that the act of baptism saves us.
And in fact, they would say, if you're not baptized
in that tradition, you are outside the kingdom
of God. That's how extreme they get. And then
our friends in the Roman Catholic Church take
it an even step further. Not only do they claim
that the sacrament of baptism is a means of saving
grace, they do baptisms on the principle of something
called ex opere operato, this great Latin phrase
which says, listen now, that the faith of the
person being baptized is not in play. It doesn't
matter at all. The only thing that matters is
that the priest doing the baptizing is properly
ordained by the Catholic Church, and so the baptism
itself, just the physical act, regardless of
the person being baptized, that that is effectual
in saving. And this is common all over the world.
None of this is biblical. In fact, if you read
1 Corinthians 1, you will hear Paul say this
now. Listen, Christ did not send me to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. If baptism saves, that
is a terrible statement to make. Then he goes
on to say he thanks God that he didn't baptize
more people. How could he say that? If baptismal
regeneration were true, how could he say that?
And if baptism could save, why wouldn't we? stop
what we're doing right here and just go out into
the community and line people up and just dunk
them. Right? Wouldn't we just do that? Now, I'm
not downplaying the importance of baptism. It
is an essential part of the Christian life. It
is an incredibly important sign or symbol that
connects to a spiritual reality, and we should
be obedient to be baptized. But we've got to
be careful here that we don't inject our own
desired meaning, our own traditional interpretations
into the text of Scripture because this verse
says nothing about baptism. It talks about washing,
but it doesn't say anything about the sacrament
of baptism, right? So we should be careful about
this. In fact, the Greek word there for washing
is the word lutron. And all it is, it's the simplest
word in the Greek for bathing. For cleansing
something thoroughly. And that's what Paul has
in mind. Listen, when God saved us, he thoroughly
cleansed us through the act of regeneration.
That's it. We were thoroughly cleansed. And just
to reinforce that that interpretation is correct,
again, Paul uses that same word, Lutron, only
one other place in the entire New Testament,
and it's not about baptism there either. So we
have to get this right. That verse, by the way,
is Ephesians 5, where Paul talks about Christ
gave himself up for the church, having cleansed
her by the washing, there's the word, of the
word. And the purpose there is that Jesus would
free his bride from all the spots and stains
and wrinkles that mar her beauty. But this idea
of washing of the word is simply the spoken word
of the gospel, which has a cleansing effect upon
its hearers, not the sacrament of baptism. So
be careful of that knee -jerk reaction to see
washing and to jump to a conclusion that is not
in the context of the passage. Now, there's no
way I can avoid looking at one more passage that's
so critical to this whole issue, and it's the
very famous conversation that Jesus has with
Nicodemus in John 3. And I want to touch on this
because, A, regeneration is a part of it, and
number two, it's another passage where people...
wrongly see baptism at play. So let me put some
of the phrases up on the screen. This is John
chapter 3. Jesus tells Nicodemus, truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born again or born
from above, what? They cannot see the kingdom
of God. And then Jesus says this as well. Unless
one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter. The kingdom of God. So water and spirit.
So many books have been written trying to understand
what that actually means. But I don't think we
complicate things, don't we? When really, I think
it's very simple. Now, some people have looked
at this and said, well, the water must refer
to physical birth. Like we all pass through amniotic
fluid when we're born, right? But that doesn't
make sense either because everybody experiences
that. And Jesus seems to be referencing something
here that's very particular. Again, some people
see water and they think this is a reference
to baptism, but that doesn't add up either based
on the context. Why? Well, remember, who is Jesus
talking to here? This is Nicodemus. He is a Jewish
man. He is a Pharisee on the highest council
in the land, right? So why would Jesus be talking
to such a man about a new ordinance that's going
to be... in the church. It doesn't make sense.
In fact, from a Jewish perspective, what would
Nicodemus be thinking about when he hears water?
A Jewish purification ritual, the type of thing
that you would go through in a mikvah before
you went up to the temple. So he would have absolutely
no idea what Jesus is referring to if Jesus is
talking about baptism. So the best interpretation
of water in this verse is exactly what we see
in Titus 3. It's a washing. It is a spiritual
cleansing, the washing away of sins. So bottom
line, this is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus.
Very simply, in order to enter the kingdom of
God, you must be cleansed from sin. and born
again by the Spirit. That's it. You must be cleansed
from sin and born again by the Spirit. And again,
just to strengthen the case for that interpretation,
remember how, as Jesus says this to Nicodemus,
remember he doesn't track with Jesus at all,
does he? He's confused. And Jesus says at one
point, he says, are you the teacher of Israel
and you don't get this? That is an obvious interpretive
clue. that Jesus is talking about something from
the Hebrew Scriptures that a rabbi should know,
and Nicodemus doesn't get it. So it's a soft
rebuke. Like, you're the teacher of Israel. This
is clear in your own Scriptures in the Old Testament,
and you don't know. Well, guess what? This is
clearly found in a very prominent chapter of
prophecy in Ezekiel 36. Listen to the similar
language, and you'll see why Nicodemus should
have understood this. I will sprinkle clean water
on you, right? God says to Israel, and you will
be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness
and from all your idols. So right there we have
your washing, right? Moreover, I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit within you,
and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. That, friends,
is regeneration. That is the new birth, from
death to life, from stone to flesh. And then
he finishes, I will put my spirit within you
and cause you, I the Lord will cause you to walk
in my statutes and you will be careful to observe
my ordinances. That's what Jesus was talking
about with Nicodemus. He was announcing to Israel
through this man that the promises of the new
covenant had now arrived, the kingdom had come
to earth. And through Jesus' life, death, and
resurrection would come this spiritual cleansing,
the removal of sins and new life for anyone who
would follow after him. That's what Jesus is
talking about. So, to summarize, I'm going to
give you a strong theological description of
what regeneration is, and I'm going to break
it down by phrases. We're back in Professor No's
class here for just a second, so hang with me.
This is a good definition. regeneration refers
to, first of all, the work of the Holy Spirit,
that's important, wherein he unites the elect
sinner to Christ by breathing new life into a
spiritually dead man so as to raise him from
spiritual death to spiritual life, removing his
heart of stone and giving him a heart of flesh
so that he is washed, born from above, and is
now, now able, to repent and trust in Christ
as a new creation. That's worth a picture, by
the way, if you want to snap that. Or if you
want me to send this to you, send me a note and
I'll send it to you. That is a really good description
of what regeneration is. So now that is going
to take us back to the, remember the Ordo Salutis
that I showed you several weeks ago in Prof No's
class? You remember? With this in mind, you're
all reading it still, which is great. It's good.
Let's go back to the order of salvation and see
where that fits in. Okay? Let me walk you through
this once again. Guys, I know it's technical.
I know it's heavy. But we've got to understand
how it is that we've been saved because it affects
all of our walk with Christ. So it starts with
election, right? Before the foundation of the
world, according to Ephesians 1. God elects.
Sinners to be saved. Then comes the universal
gospel call. The good news about Jesus goes to
the ends of the earth. We share it with everybody
we can possibly talk to because we don't know
who they elect are. So we share it with everybody
and we pray for everybody. We send out missionaries.
We do all of that. But then comes what we call
the effectual gospel call. The effectual gospel
call. By the way, I put a box around these because
I think it was Adam who pointed it out last time.
It looks like this is a long process, but those
five things right there happen together. This
is just the logical order that Scripture gives
us as to how we're saved, but those five things
all happen at once. The effectual gospel call.
This is what we read in John 6 about God drawing
us. It's an effectual drawing to God the Father
by way of the Son. Then we have regeneration.
Okay, this is what we've just been talking about.
The washing away of our sins, the bringing us
to life. We were dead and now we're alive. Giving
us a new nature. Changing our affection so that
now we can turn to God and love him and worship
him and ask him to save us. We need to be changed
before we can do that. And that's the regeneration
of the heart. Then comes our part in this. which
is all a gift from God, and that is conversion.
In time and space, because the Spirit breathed
new life into us, because the Spirit took away
the veil from our eyes so that we could see,
yes, now we repent and we believe and we trust
in Christ. And that is a real decision that we
make in time and space. It is a real decision,
but that decision came about because of what
God did in the heart. Does that make sense? We're
like Lydia. You know the story of Lydia in Acts
16? It's such a cool picture because Paul comes
to Philippi and preaches the word, and it says
at first Lydia was listening but not believing.
Until what? It says until the Lord opened her
heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
That's what she needed. That's what we needed
before we could be saved. So in that moment,
we put our trust in Christ and we commit to following
him as Savior and Lord and to walk in all the
good works that he's prepared for us to walk
in. What a beautiful thing. And then instantly
we're justified. That's the next step. We are
declared to be pure in God's sight. Think about
this. It's a forensic or legal declaration that
right now, if you've trusted in Christ, you are
seen as pure. God sees you through his son. Pure,
because the righteousness of Christ has been
reckoned to your account. Right? Justification.
By the way, that shows up in verse 7 of our text,
right? And then the next step, we're adopted
as children of God. This happens instantly, right?
We are made heirs. We have this great inheritance
that we will have someday in the heavenly places.
And then we had those last three things which
happened between that moment that we're converted
and until we pass away from this physical life.
Three things. Sanctification. That's our growing
and maturing in the faith as the Holy Spirit
produces good works in us, as he produces in
us all of these things that we read about in
Galatians 5. And then we have perseverance. And
this is this beautiful, beautiful doctrine of
assurance that tells us that we cannot slip out
of God's hands. If he has marked us out for salvation
before the world was made, if he has saved us
in time and space, if he has promised us that
we are adopted as his son or daughter, we're
not going to slip out of his hand. In John 6,
we count on this promise. Jesus says, all that
the Father gives to me will come to me. Hear
the sovereignty in that. All that the Father
gives to me will come to me, and the one who
comes to me I will certainly not cast out. This
is the will of him who sent me, that all that
has been given to me, I will raise them up on
the last day. There's no ambiguity. There's no
room for, well, maybe this person will slip out,
or maybe that one will. In the process of sanctification,
we persevere to our final breath, and then based
on God's promise, we are glorified. where we
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Now, look at that list again. Can you see why
the scriptures say that we're saved by grace
alone and not by our works? Because that's all
God's work. All of it. This is why he deserves
the praise. This is why we have no reason to
boast. Which of those things did we produce?
Which of those things did we generate by our
own strength? None of it. We were as active in
being born again as we were the first time we
were born. How many of you guys have taken credit
for your first birth? It's silly, right? We laugh,
we chuckle. It's the same thing with our rebirth.
Not active at all. We don't exercise our free
will to be born again any more than Lazarus executed
his free will to come out of the grave. He was
dead. But Jesus called him out. That's given
to us as a beautiful metaphor for what happens
to us in being born again. We're in the grave.
We're wrapped in all the grave clothes. It's
the voice of Jesus that calls us to life. Make
sense? Because life is the work of God alone.
New life is the work of God alone. Resurrection
life is a work of God alone. And listen, I could
spend... We could spend another hour walking
through all the passages that teach this, but
I'll give you a couple quick ones. James 1, and
the exercise of his will, not ours, his will,
he brought us forth by the word of truth so that
we would be a kinder first fruits among his creatures.
1 Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great
mercy, there's that word again, according to
his mercy, caused us to be born again. Not us,
he caused it. He caused us to be born again to
a living hope. Ephesians 2, this is the most
obvious one. Even when we were dead in our transgressions,
God made us alive. He made us alive. We didn't
turn to him and say, God, can you help me over
here? I want to be alive. We were dead. He made
us alive together with Christ by grace, not by
works, by grace you've been saved. And then lastly,
John 1, as many as received him, to them he gave
the right to become children of God who were
born not of blood, it's not a blood thing, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man. Had nothing to do with our will, but born
of God. Over and over again, we read this stuff,
you guys. So any willing on our part, including
faith itself, is not the cause of our new birth.
It's the result of our new birth. Does that make
sense? As Ezekiel prophesied, our hearts are
made of stone when we're dead. We need to have
a beating heart of flesh, one that comes alive,
and only God can perform that kind of surgery.
When a person is on a hospital gurney dead from
a heart attack, he doesn't sit up on his own
and say, hey, could you hand me those paddles
so I can shock myself back to life? That would
be ridiculous. But that's basically what we say
when we think that we can make ourselves alive
and turn to God. Give me those paddles. I'll
do this. How could it be possible for someone
who is dead to do any kind of cooperating with
God? Going back to the story of Pelagius and
Augustine and John Cassian. So was Adam's sin
just his own? Was mankind just damaged by the
fall? Or was the sin of Adam passed along to
every one of us, thoroughly corrupting our nature
and causing us to be guilty before God? We have
to answer that question, you guys, if we really
want to understand what God has done for us.
And we have to answer it not based on what we
want it to say or based on what makes us feel
good about ourselves, but what divine truth says
in the word. Now, today you're not going to meet
anybody that says, well, I'm a Pelagian. But
you will meet some people who are semi -Pelagian,
whether they know it or not. And I'm going to
give you a test for this, okay? If you really
want to test if somebody, a friend of yours,
is Augustinian or is semi -Pelagian, give them
this scenario. Think about this now. There's
a man who is drowning in the ocean. He is without
hope. There's nothing in sight. He is drowning
in the ocean. And then suddenly he hears the
rotor blades of a helicopter. Right? And suddenly
he has hope. And he begins to wave his arms frantically
at this helicopter. And the pilot looks down
and miracle of miracles sees him in the water.
And he brings the helicopter over and he hovers
overhead and he lets down a life -saving basket.
And this man who was dead just a moment ago,
he swims to the basket and he climbs in and he's
pulled to safety. Is that biblical salvation?
You could say that, well, he had no hope, that
he was saved because of the pilot, but that is
still semi -Pelagianism. Because the salvation
was a cooperative effort. Right? He waved his
arms. He waved the guy down. He swam to the boat.
It's still semi -Pelagianism. And that man would
be able to boast, at least partially, in his
salvation. I did those things. I made it happen.
Now, let me adjust the scenario to what Paul
says and what Augustine said and what the Reformers
taught. That man in the water is already drowned.
He's dead at the bottom of the ocean. He's dead.
So that helicopter could fly around. He's never
going to be seen. There's no reason to drop a
basket to him because he wouldn't be able to
swim to it. That's the true picture that we have
in Scripture. What that man needs is more than
just help. He needs to be brought to the surface.
He needs to be raised from the dead in order
to be saved, just like Lazarus. No power or ability
to save himself. He would need somebody to come
in and take those paddles and apply it to his
heart and shock his heart back to beating again.
That's the biblical picture. Friends, like it
or not, that is the picture we have. But we have
to know this, because that's the picture of salvation,
that's precisely why we say God is so good. That
is precisely why we worship him as we do, because
we don't have the ability to save ourselves.
Because of God's great mercy, we worship as we
do. Does that make sense? Otherwise, we'd boast.
We'd at least partially boast in the fact that
we saved ourselves. Okay. Was that heavy enough?
Tanya made fun of me last night. She's like,
oh, you're doing this on Father's Day, are you?
I'm like, I don't line up the passages. They
just come, and we have to deal with them. So
I'm just going to wrap up by just barely touching
on this other great statement in verse 5, the
renewing by the Holy Spirit, because that does
go hand in hand with regeneration. This will
be very fast. The Greek noun there for renewing
is another very unusual word that's used only
twice in the New Testament. It's used here in
Titus 3 and in this famous verse, Romans 12,
2, where we're told, don't be conformed to the
world, but be transformed by the renewing of
our minds. Renewing. This is a word that speaks
to a complete and total renovation or overhaul
of one's disposition and heart. And that's what
takes place within the believer when we are cleansed
from sin and born again. a total overhaul or
renovation of our disposition and heart. It's
a radical change that's initiated by God the
Father as He infuses us within with the Holy
Spirit. So these things go together. Spiritually
cleansed, born again, infusion of the Holy Spirit,
and a renewing of who we are in every way, and
a whole new worldview, a whole new way of living.
And because God has done that work, guys, nothing
can ever be the same. We cannot be the same because
we've been radically transformed by what Paul
says to Titus here. The washing of regeneration,
the renewing of the Holy Spirit. And this is,
look, we talk in our covenant here at Oak Hill
about holding each other accountable. Is our
life changed? Have we been radically transformed?
Is the Spirit within us producing spiritual fruit?
These are questions to ask of ourselves but also
of one another because we care for each other.
But this is what it should look like to be washed
by regeneration and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
It's a total change. And going back to where
we started by using this word, Paul wants us
to see once again, see the big picture here.
Being born again as an individual in this moment
that we live is... participation in the inauguration
of the final eschatological renewal. You and
I, we saw it in the James 1 passage. We are the
first fruits of this age to come. So from this
point forward, when you guys think about your
new birth, I want you to think all you've received
right now is the first installment of something
much greater to come. It's just the first installment.
Your ultimate reward is someday to have a perfected
body. Amen. and a completely renewed soul that
lives forever in a fully perfected environment
where we praise Jesus and glorify the Father
forever and ever. We've only experienced the
first installment of that. The fullness is still
to come. So when you stop to consider what God
has done for you, you ready? Chosen you, drawn
you, cleansed you from sin, brought you to life,
justified you, adopted you, and is now in the
process of sanctifying, when you think about
these things, friends, I want you to start thinking
big, thinking very big, thinking eschatological,
thinking about the beauty of what's to come because
you are loved by a great God and a great Savior.
Amen? Regeneration. If you have questions, let
me know. Let's pray together. Father, thank you
for the challenge of this passage and how beautiful
it is, Lord. The way you have worked through
Paul and writing to Titus and laying out these
massive themes, Lord, that speak to this great
work that you've done in our lives. Lord, we're
overwhelmed by it, and it's still a mystery to
us because we are stuck down here in these bodies,
in this world that has fallen and disordered.
So, Lord, I pray that you will help us to cut
through the fog and begin to understand more
how it is that you have saved us and that that
would drive us to worship. That would drive us
to change lives, to drive us to serve you and
serve your children more and more, Lord. That
we wouldn't just sit in the pews here this morning
and think, oh, that's nice. That's nice that
God did that. No, that we would be challenged
and excited and moved to new life. and that you
would bring that about by the power of your spirit.
Lord, thank you for this time that we've had
together. Thank you for your word. I pray now
that we'll respond well as we sing praises to
you because you're worthy of it. We praise you
now in the name of Jesus, and everybody said,
amen.