John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
The doctrine of regeneration cannot possibly be overstated in terms of its importance. Unless a person is born again (from above, regenerated) that person will spend eternity in everlasting torment. Preachers can go on and on about how a person should pray a prayer or walk an aisle, but that is really more deception than truth. According to Jesus, as He was speaking to a person who was part of the religious elite of the day, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This great truth must be declared to people because this is an absolute must for each and every soul. As long as people think they can just say a prayer and that means that they will be saved, they will think that salvation is in their own hands. But when the truth of the doctrine of regeneration is set out, people can see that this is far beyond the power that they have.
One thing that people hate about the doctrine of regeneration is that it linked with the total depravity of man and the sovereignty of grace. Men hate the idea that they have no power to give themselves a new heart and no power to contribute to their own salvation in any way. Men hate the idea that they can obtain no merit in the slightest and that they are in the hands of God who can show mercy and grace to them as He pleases. But despite what men say and the hatred men have of it, that does not change the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. This truth is certain and it cannot be overturned.
In the late 1730’s a pastor in Scotland named William M’Culloch started a series on regeneration in his church. IT is reported that he preached on this for a year, but before he stopped a true spiritual awakening occurred in the church. In 1740 a friend of M’Culloch, James Robe, also began a series of discourses on regeneration. In 1742 an awakening occurred in the church he was pastoring. He traced the preparations for this revival back to his discourses or a series of sermons on regeneration. In other words, while it is not clear just how long he preached on regeneration, but it was most likely well over a year.
George Whitefield preached across Europe and America and he preached on the new birth over and over. Jonathan Edwards greatly stressed the sovereignty of God in giving a new heart and stated that he saw more conversions when he preached on the sovereignty of God than any other subject. This great and grand doctrine of the new birth was preached in the Reformation and then afterward during the times the Church spoke with spiritual power and had spiritual awakenings. The professing Church must get back to this core doctrine of it will continue its downward path into formalist at best.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
When Jesus spoke this ringing indictment to the Pharisees, He was not telling them something to tickle their ears and it was not an effort to water anything down so that they would come hear Him again. The Pharisees claimed to be the children of Abraham, but Jesus told them who their real father was. The meaning of this statement to the Pharisees was enormous. They could not depend on being born of Jewish descent as a way of salvation. If they were indeed children of the devil who lied because he spoke from his own nature, then they also had no truth in them as well. A simple change of outward forms or morality would not do. They must be born again.
The same is true in the modern day as well. Our churches are being filled with religious people and perhaps moral people, but they are children of the devil as well. They must be born again (from above, regenerated) or they will continue in their religion, whether liberal or conservative, and be just like their father the devil. This great teaching of Scripture is not mentioned a lot today much less stressed and taught extensively. But until it is set out as vital to true Christianity, the professing Church will continue professing but do so with no power and no vital truth in it.
God Loves... Himself 
October 20, 2013 at 8:55 am |
Our pastor said six people walked the aisle to be saved last month. He reularly teaches that if a person admits they are a sinner and prays the prayer of salvation that they are saved. Is he right?
October 20, 2013 at 9:10 am |
The pastor is right only on one thing. It is true that people need to be saved. While walking an aisle may be good exercise, Scripture says that a person must truly repent and truly believe in order to be saved. Walking an aisle may give comfort to those who want to do something other than bow to the grace of God to be saved, but walking an aisle never saved one soul. It is also true that the Bible knows nothing of a person simply admitting that s/he is a sinner and syaing some words to a prayer and being saved. The soul must be humbled in order to receive grace. The soul must be convicted of sin by the Spirit rather than just admit that one has sinned. The soul must be broken from all hope in itself in order to hope in Christ alone. The soul must be broken from its belief and trust in itself (which is really unbelief in Christ) in order to have true faith in Christ.
If I may be blunt, the teaching that people simply need to walk an aisle and pray a prayer is simply nothing less than the old Pelagian heresy at its roots. People are still left to what they can do without a changed heart. People are left to dispense grace to themselves rather than leaving that to God alone who can show grace. Instead of people walking an aisle to be saved, it sounds more like a book from the 1970’s which was titled, “Damned Through the Church.” God alone can save sinners and He only does so according to His sovereign grace. Those that He shows grace to, He works in their hearts to deliver them from from self, pride, and the devil. The soul must be delivered from those things or it will be religious out of love for self, pride, and still be a slave to the devil. Jesus Christ will not share His throne (the heart of the redeemed) with self, pride, or the devil. The teaching of a gospel that is there for the taking of an unchanged heart to take at his own pleasure is a different gospel than the Gospel of grace alone which is always and must be at the pleasure of God.