The last four BLOGS we have been looking at a sermon on Regeneration from John 1:12-13 by a man named Asahel Nettleton. He was an evangelist during the 2nd Great Awakening. What should be of great interest to modern people (and was to many in his day) is that he also greatly opposed Charles Finney and his new ways of evangelism that he brought into the church. In this sermon on regeneration he is giving us reasons why he was so against the new ways of doing evangelism.
“Ever effort has been made by the ingenuity of man, by palpably erroneous schemes, and by plausible ones, to wrest the glory of this work from the hands of the divine Spirit, and to claim the operation for ourselves; at least to share in the honor of it. After all, its origin can be traced only to the free and sovereign grace and Almighty power of God. The work is all his; and the glory must and will forever belong exclusively to him.”
Nettleton is absolutely correct and in line with Romans 1:18-32. Man tries to suppress the truth of God and wants to do away with the biblical God in terms of his understanding. One way that men try to suppress the truth of God is in theology and various forms or versions of Christianity. By theology and various practical applications of that theology they deny what is true about God and erect idols of their own imaginations to serve and worship. In doing that they are like the Pharisees who erected a god that could be pleased with their own efforts and works. Others try to set up a god who is nothing but their own idea of love and grace. What we must do, however, is receive the testimony of Scripture as the Word of God Himself. Calvinists have been accused many times of trusting in philosophy rather than Scripture. In reality, however, it is the Arminian system that has done this. The doctrine of free-will is not a teaching of Scripture but is rather a logical deduction based upon certain philosophical presuppositions of man in order to escape the teaching of Scripture that God is truly sovereign in all man’s affairs.
While it may not be obvious to men or even a conscious thought or action, the teaching of free-will is in a direct confrontation with the sovereignty of God. In later BLOGS I hope to show this through the writings of John Owen. Regeneration is clearly said to be the work of the Holy Spirit and yet men continue to try to claim that operation for themselves in relying upon a free-will for the final choice in the matter of salvation.
“It is a doctrine supported by the great light of the Reformation and by the pillars of the evangelical churches ever since: that regeneration is a physical work. And by this they mean there is an actual new creation, as absolutely so as when the world was created; that a new spiritual taste or discernment, and principle is implanted by a sovereign creative operation, and not simply a new direction given to old faculties.”
This is utterly vital. At this point the differences between Arminian theology and evangelism are seen to be at clear odds with the Reformed. Nettleton is making the claim that the doctrine of the Reformation (and of the pillars of evangelical churches ever since) was that regeneration is a physical work. By this he is not saying that it is something that happens to the physical body, or that it is not spiritual. But it is a real and substantive change rather than one in name only. The new birth is something that is so grand and glorious that the recipient of it is a new creation in reality and not just in name only.The new birth is not something where a man simply makes a choice and it is done, but it is the difference between a world that was not there and then was created. Sinners are spiritually dead and then they are spiritually alive when God makes them alive. The free-will of man cannot make anyone spiritually alive nor can it give anyone a new spiritual taste and the faculties a completely different direction that is opposite to the old direction. No man can do this. It is God’s work to do this and no one else’s.
Once we begin to see what the new birth actually is, we see how impossible the Arminian practice is. An actual new birth that makes man a new creation with new spiritual tastes and gives a completely different direction is simply and certainly beyond the power of man’s will. The choice of the human being (the will) must always be in line with the desires, capacities of the man and with the direction of the faculties. Man must be born again in order to love and choose Christ rather than to love and choose Christ in order to be born again.The differences in these two positions are startling in their wide variance. Let us be honest about this and deal with them according to Scripture rather than trying to whitewash them as the Pharisees did the tombs of the prophets.
God Loves... Himself 
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