The Spirit and Regeneration (2)

Well, we're talking about that. Actually, when we're talking about the ministry of the spirit, we've been talking about the ministry of the spirit, basically in relationship to salvation. Last week, we finished up a section on the Holy Spirit and conviction, and that is actually a pre-salvation ministry of the Spirit of God working in people's hearts through the Word of God to convince them of their sin. And then we began last week talking about the Holy Spirit's ministry of regeneration. And regeneration is at the moment of salvation. It actually brings you out of darkness and into the light. It's the moment at which you get saved. And so regeneration kind of bridges that gap between the old life and the new life. And we saw last week the meaning of regeneration. We talked about the fact that the Word has only used a couple times in the New Testament, but it's talking about the act of God whereby eternal life is imparted to us, given to us. That is what regeneration is all about. The actual giving of new life, the moment that we are born again, and the concept of being born again, or born from above, the new birth, all of that is the same thing as regeneration. The same idea comes from the same Word. We talked about the means of regeneration, at least initially we got started last week talking about generally it is an act of God. And the Bible talks about in several passages which we looked at last week that in general terms regeneration is an act of God. But tonight what we want to do is get more specific. It is not just an act of God more specifically. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. So this is where we pick up tonight a work of the Holy Spirit and maybe the best passage to see that is John chapter three. So let's look at John chapter three tonight to begin with Jesus. Interview with Nicodemus. You remember that Nicodemus was verse one says a Pharisee, man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the 70 who ruled in Israel. Verse two says he came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. And he's basically opening up the conversation but Jesus just dived right in to Nicodemus's greatest need. And in verse three he says, Jesus replied, very truly I tell you no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. So Jesus just cuts right to the chase. No more preliminaries. Let's just get right to the topic and that is the topic of the new birth. No one can see the kingdom of God. You you a teacher in Israel. Nicodemus a religious leader a ruler in Israel. Nobody can get into the kingdom of God. See the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Now born again. That's our word. That's our term. The idea of regeneration. And Nicodemus is confused by that term. Born again. So verse four, how can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked, surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. So Nicodemus misses the meaning completely. Jesus is talking about something spiritual. Nicodemus is thinking born again. You can't go back into your mother's womb and be born physically a second time. How's that possible? So Jesus answered in verse five, very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit. Now notice probably most of your translations the word spirit is capitalized. It is the Holy Spirit that is being referred to here. Nobody Jesus said you can't enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again. Now he becomes more specific. Born again means born of the water, born of water and of the spirit. So this is not only a spiritual birth. It is a birth that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. In verse six he says flesh gives birth to flesh. Yet the spirit gives birth to spirit. So natural birth, Nicodemus, if you are born of the flesh all you get is flesh that way. All you get is human body and natural man, natural person. I am talking Jesus says about a spiritual birth and the way you get spiritual birth is through the Holy Spirit. So he has made that clear in verses five and six. Notice this, it is a key to I believe understanding the passage of verse seven. You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again. Nicodemus you shouldn't be surprised at that. You are a religious teacher. You are one of the leading teachers and Old Testament scholars in Israel. You shouldn't be surprised at what you should understand this. You should know what I am talking about. So basically Jesus is saying Nicodemus I am not talking about physical birth. I am talking about spiritual birth. Being born again is a spiritual birth. It brings you not into a human family but into God's family. And it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual birth that is done by the Holy Spirit. Now let me pause for a moment. I want to get back into verse five a little bit more. But let me pause for a moment and see if you have any questions or comments before we do that. Okay? Pretty straightforward, isn't it? Probably the greatest controversy about this whole passage is in verse five where Jesus says, very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. And a lot of controversy over what does he mean by born of water? There are at least four views of what Jesus meant by born of water and then the Spirit. So let me just take a moment to explain those and identify which I think is the better of the four views. Some people say that born of water is referring to physical birth. Nicodemus had asked about physical birth. And so Jesus includes that in his statement because when you are born physically you are born in a sack of fluid. And so he is talking about that. That is possible but not likely. It would be redundant for Jesus to introduce his comments about spiritual birth by saying, well you got to be born physically first. I mean that is a given. That would be redundant. Why would Jesus say in order to enter the kingdom of God, first of all you have to be born physically and then you have to be born spiritually. It just doesn't seem to fit what Jesus is saying. Although it is possible that it just seems redundant, unnecessary for Jesus to say you have to be born physically and spiritually. His focus is on spiritual birth. In fact he is trying to take Nicodemus' mind off of physical birth and on spiritual birth. So I think while it is possible it is not likely. The second view of what the water is, some people teach that this is a reference to baptism. And so they say, well spiritual birth is by baptism and the Holy Spirit. I will just go right ahead and say it, that is heresy. Because if I can do anything of myself that contributes in any way to my salvation, that is another gospel. That is not the gospel of grace. And of course it flies in the face of everything the Bible teaches and even Jesus goes on to teach in this passage about how we are saved by faith and faith alone. Not through any works that we do. So I think we would discount that view. A third view is that the water is a reference to the word of God. We are born of the word and the spirit. And certainly those two elements as we will see later are coupled in regeneration. And those who take this view will point to verses like John 153. I think there it is. You are already clean. Jesus would say later because of the word I have spoken to you. But is that talking about the same thing as here? I don't think so. Jesus is speaking to believers in John 15. And if you recall, as I'm sure you all remember everything in the message from two or three weeks ago. When we were on that passage in John 15, we saw that the word clean is the same as the word purged in verse two. He's not talking about a water kind of washing. He's talking about the pruning and the purging. So it's not really the same idea. In that passage he's talking about not a cleansing, but he's talking more about a purging, a pruning that is done through the word. And then others point to the verse in Ephesians 5. Most couple this verse with it and say Paul is talking about after we are bought with the blood of Christ. It is God's purpose to make her the church holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. There it is, washing with water through the word. But it's got to be the same thing as this washing, right? This water. No, not really. That's what a well-known New Testament scholar, Dei Carson, would call in his book an exegetical fallacy. It's an inappropriate interpretation of Scripture. For this reason, it's taking something that had not been revealed in Nicodemus' day. That's Paul writing that some 20 to 30 years after the interview with Nicodemus. Paul introduces this concept of the washing with water through the word. For Jesus to say, Nicodemus, this is a truth you should be familiar with from Paul. No, that doesn't work. Paul didn't say this until many years after Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. It's inappropriate to take Ephesians 5.26 and read it back 30 years earlier into John chapter 3. There's got to be a better view than any of those three that I've talked about. I think there is. That is that Jesus was talking about something that was familiar from the Old Testament by way of spiritual cleansing. The Old Testament describes the spiritual cleansing of Israel, the washing away of their sins, with two figures of speech, washing of water and the Holy Spirit. Let's go back and look at a couple of the passages. One is in Ezekiel 36. I think you'll be amazed to see how close the language is to what we're talking about here in John 3. Ezekiel 36. This is not on the screen, so we need to look at it. In Ezekiel 36, the prophet is speaking about the national restoration of Israel in the millennial kingdom when God brings them from all over the earth, restores them in their land and establishes the kingdom of Israel again with Christ ruling over it. And he says this in verse 24. He says, for I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. Now notice what he says next. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Now look at verse 27. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. And it goes on through a few more verses in this passage through the end of the chapter and talk about spiritual cleansing. So notice here's an Old Testament passage that speaks of the salvation of Israel. Not only the restoration to their land but what he's going to do internally in their hearts. So their spiritual salvation is spoken of in terms of a cleansing. He's going to cleanse them, wash them from the impurities of their idols and sins. And he's also going to put his spirit in them, his Holy Spirit. So you've got that combination of washing and spirit. Same thing is mentioned in the prophet Zachariah. So flip over toward the end of your Old Testament in Zachariah chapter 12. And these same two things are coupled in the same context of the rebirth of Israel. And it's talking about the second coming and it's talking about Israel is going to see Christ coming at his second coming and turn to him in faith and be saved. Now notice how it's described in in Zachariah 12 verse 10. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit. And my Bible has a footnote there says or the spirit capital S. And it probably is referring to the Holy Spirit the spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me the one they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. If you go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 12 it's clear they talk about the day when Christ returns. And so on that day when Christ returns Israel will look up and see him coming they will recognize he was the one they pierced. He is their savior he is their Messiah and the spirit the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them to cause them to cry out to him for salvation. Now skip down a few verses to chapter 13 verse 1 on that day same day he is also said on that day in verse 11 of chapter 12. So he's continuing to train the thought about this day when Christ returns. 13 one says on that day a fountain will be open to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and impurity. And so you've got the Holy Spirit being poured out on them to cause them to be convicted of their sin of unbelief in Christ and turn to him the one they pierced and trust him as their savior. And that is also spoken of as a cleansing from their sin and impurity. A fountain opened up for cleansing from sin. So at least in these two places in the Old Testament you've got this coupling of these two ideas of washing cleansing with water a symbol of being purified from sin and the giving of the Holy Spirit the spirit's work in causing us to cry out to the Lord in salvation. Now remember Jesus is speaking to an Old Testament scholar a leader in Israel and he says to him Nicodemus verse 7. You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again you shouldn't be surprised at what we're talking about here. Why? Obviously because you you should know it from the Old Testament. You're an Old Testament scholar you ought to know this Nicodemus. And so I believe what the washing of water born of water and of the spirit is talking about is it's talking about the same thing the Old Testament was talking about. Spiritual cleansing from the impurity of sin which is done by the Holy Spirit. So it is spiritual birth regeneration by the Holy Spirit being spoken of in John chapter 3 and verse 5. Okay. There's not baptism. I don't think it's talking about physical birth. I don't think it's talking about the word of God. It's talking about just in the terms the Old Testament used spiritual cleansing through the spirit of God. And that's regeneration. That's new birth and it is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Okay. Questions about that comments disagreements. Fifth views. Anything you got. But why is he making this? Is he using Nicodemus as a specific example to express the point? That's a great question. And I think it's both. I think I think he is using Nicodemus in a sense as an example. Obviously Jesus knowing this would be recorded in scripture. He's using him as an example because he is a religious person. And Nicodemus you are a religious person but you're not going to get in the kingdom because you're a Jew. You're not going to get in the kingdom because you're ethnic is polite. You need to be born again. And every Jew needed to be born again in order to get in the kingdom. So I think he was using him as an example of the fact that all the religious Jews who thought they were right with God. Remember later they would say we're the children of Abraham. We're okay. We know God. And Jesus is saying no no you don't get in the kingdom of God unless you're born again. And then I think as he goes on to explain that he is scolding Nicodemus a little bit by saying Nicodemus you ought to know this from your Old Testament. You ought to know about the new birth. You ought to know about cleansing and spirit birth. You all know that. Yeah, I think he was. He is one of those closet believers I think who gradually came to understand who Jesus was and trust him. And by the by the end you know he goes with with Joseph of Arimathea to claim Jesus body. And and give him a decent burial so he publicly identifies with Christ. Okay. I don't know if I really answered the question John hope hope that's what you're looking for. Okay. All right. That's another hand back in that. Yes. Right. Oh yeah, I agree. I think Nicodemus was in dead earnest about spiritual things. And I think unlike most of the Pharisees he was willing to come to Jesus and find out. And I think you know there's been a lot said about he came at night so as a coward. He probably came at night because the only time he could get a sit down talk with him. You know in Jerusalem you didn't just walk up to Jesus in the temple and carry on a personal conversation. So I think he came at night because he was really intent on sitting down with Jesus and finding out what this teacher is teaching what's all about. And I think that is seen later when he takes up for Jesus in in the Sanhedrin and then finally publicly identifies with him after his death. So I think this is the kind of the beginning insights into the fact that he was very serious about spiritual things and wanted to know what Jesus was talking about. I couldn't agree more Kelly. Anything else? Tommy? Yeah. Exactly. And I think that's one of the ways in which Nicodemus is used as an example and part of the reason why this is recorded in Scripture because God wanted us to see. I don't care how religious you are. I don't care if you're a church member since you were in diapers. Kind of hard to be a member since then. But anyway, you know you don't talk about it. I don't care how religious you are. If you're not born again, you're not going to get in King of the God. So yeah, that's a powerful statement and leaves us without excuse, like you said. Okay. All right. It is a work of the spirit. One other passage we ought to mention and this one will be on the screen for you. Titus 35. We looked at it last week. It's one of the two occasions where the word regeneration is actually mentioned. The NIV translates it as renewal. He saved us not by not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us and noticed the coupling again of these two things through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. So you've got these two things again, really which describe the same event. The washing of rebirth or the new birth is a spiritual washing, a cleansing, we're cleansed from our sins. And then it's the same thing as the renewal or regeneration by the Holy Spirit. So again, this is a work of the Holy Spirit. But secondly, the second means of regeneration specifically is that it is a work of the spirit, but it is through the word of God. It's through the word of God. Couple of passages make that very clear. John or James 1.18. These are on the screen for you. So we don't have to take time turning. He chose to give us birth, okay? New birth, regeneration, through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created. So the new birth, spiritual birth, regeneration, what we're talking about here is through the word of God. And then the clearest passage is 1 Peter 1. For you have been born again, that's our concept, that's regeneration. You've been born again, not a perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. 4. And he quotes from Isaiah, all people are like grass and all their glory is like flowers in the field, the grass withers, the flowers fail. The word of the Lord endures forever. That's how it ends. We don't have another slide there. But the word of the Lord endures forever. I think that's the way it ends. Check me out. I'm not sure. But anyway, we got the point. The point we really wanted to see there was that we are born again through a seed which is planted in our hearts. The seed is living, it's enduring, it doesn't perish and it is the word of God. So you've got the Holy Spirit planting the seed of the word in our hearts. And that's how we get born again. That's how we get saved. That's how we come into new birth, spiritual birth is through that seed, the word of God. So it's a work of the spirit through the word of God. He uses the word of God. And again, that is why I am so committed to the preaching and teaching of the word of God as the focal point of worship and ministry is the preaching and teaching the word because it is different than anything else we do. Because it is handling a living book, a spiritual seed that the Holy Spirit plants in the heart, it's dynamic, it's powerful, it is different than anything else I do or any of us do is handling this book. And it has power in and of itself. It is not a perishable seed, it's an imperishable seed, it's a living, enduring word of God. And so this is the two of the Holy Spirit uses. So we're saved, regenerated by the Holy Spirit through the word of God. And then obviously it is received by faith. That's the third element. That's important. If you still have your Bible open to John 3, look at verse 14. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. You remember the story of the snake in the wilderness? Number is 21. Everybody is getting bitten by poison of snakes and they're dying and they're bad shape. And so God tells Moses to take a bronze serpent, put it on a pole and everybody who looks at that will be healed of their snake bite of the poison of the snake bite. So they had to trust that the way God said to get healed was the only way. You know, it's not, well, I'll make me a little snake in my tent over here. Or I'll bring an offering to that snake or I'll put this sad on. No, you've got to believe what God said. You look at that pole and you'll be healed. That's the only way you're going to be healed. So required faith, a look of faith in the word of God. And so Jesus uses as an example. That example is the same way we get saved. And so Jesus says verse 16 for God so loved the world. That he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So just like Moses lifted up the serpent, Jesus is going to be lifted up on a pole across. And God sent him because he loved us so that we believe in him and will not perish. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him whoever believes in him is not condemned. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they've not believed in the name of God's one and only son. So the illustration of the serpent is an illustration to us of what it means to be saved. Yes, it's the work of the spirit through the word of God but it is received by us through faith. We believe what God has said about Christ and his death. The object of our faith is Christ and his death on the cross. So that's what it means to be regenerated. It's the work of the spirit that the tool he uses is the word of God and we must receive it by faith. That's the means of regeneration. Okay, comments or questions? Yes, time. Yes. Right. So it had to be mandated by God. The plan thing was to come to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit was going to be completely manifested. So he didn't know at that time what was then and then he knew at some point that they compelled him to come. Yes, exactly. I agree. It was under conviction and he didn't understand yet who Jesus was but he knew there was something different about him. That's why I said no man can do these works except to be sent by God. You're different. There's something to different about you. So he was beginning to ask the right questions like you said and beginning to explore what is this? Who is this and Jesus brings in the need of the new birth? Yes, there's a lot he didn't understand yet but I think he eventually did come to understand it and I think he was under conviction. He's asking the right questions and that would be his beginning of understanding what it meant to be said. Be born again. It's a great story. Isn't it just a tremendous illustration of the new birth? Okay. Anything else before we move on to the features of the regeneration? The features of regeneration. What does it like? How does it take place? Two things. Number one, it is instantaneous. Regeneration is instantaneous. It happens in a moment of time. I want to make this clear because sometimes this gets confused with growth and grace and so forth. Regeneration is the moment that you are given new life in Christ. The moment you trust Him is your savior, your given eternal life. That happens instantly just like that. Instantaneous. Now, obviously there may be a lot of factors and circumstances that lead up to that instant of the new birth. A lot of things that you look back on and you see how God was working to put you in the right place at the right time, bring the right people into your life, expose you to the Word of God. A lot of things may have led up to it and there may have been a period of conviction too. That other ministry of the Spirit that we talked about, that may have gone on for a period of time. But that's not regeneration. That is conviction and it is God's providence, arranging the circumstances to have you in the right place, the right time, and so forth. The actual regeneration is instantaneous. It happens at the moment you trust Christ as your savior. The actual impartation of new life takes place in that moment when you place your faith in Christ. Now, in the passages we've looked at in John's Gospel, John 1.13 for instance, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or husband's will, but born of God. John 3 verses 3, 5 and 7, where he talks about being born again or born of God. All four of those verses have a particular tense in the original language called the erus tense, which points to something that happens in a moment of time. It is not a continual process. It's not the present tense. It is an event that happens. It's not a process. So in the original writing you could make that specific by the very tense of the verb you used and John did that. He used the tense that showed it is an event. The regeneration itself is not a process. There may be a process of things that lead up to it. There may be a process of conviction that brings us to that point, but regeneration itself is instantaneous. It happens at a moment of time. Now, that's not to say that you will remember exactly when that moment was. There are a lot of folks who can't say, well, it was September 30th, 1921. Not a lot of folks who could say that anyway, but not a lot of folks who can actually point to the specific date. That's fine. That's not the important thing. The important thing is that you know there was a place, a time, a point where you trusted Christ as your Savior. Obviously, if you're exposed to the gospel from the time you were a child, you grow in your understanding of what you're learning and what you're being told. Sometimes it's hard to actually point to, I know this was the date when I crossed the line, when I made that decision. I understand all that, but it still is an event. It still is instantaneous. It happens in a moment where you place your faith in Christ. Even if you can't put your finger on that moment, God knows exactly when it was. It was a moment in time when you trusted Christ. If you can't remember what it was, hang on to that question when you get to heaven. Say, Lord, when was it? Tell me exactly when. Remind me of the time. That would be an interesting discovery. It's instantaneous. Secondly, it is non-experiential. Regeneration is non-experiential. Let me tell you what I mean by that. By experiential, I'm talking about something that is either derived from or based on experience. Our salvation is not based on experience. Now, it includes an experience. It includes an actual experience of trusting Christ. But let me say it this way. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and we base our salvation on that. We base it on what the promises of the Word of God say. Not on the fact that man, I had this incredible experience. You won't believe how I felt. You may have felt amazing when you got saved. You may well have. That's wonderful. Not everybody does. You may have come out of a life of dark sin and hopelessness and despair. In the moment you trusted Christ, it was like you could feel the weight lifted off of you. You were just crying or joyful and shouting. That's wonderful. That's great. A lot of people do experience that. But there are also a lot of folks. Again, I was saved when I was eight years old. It was in a Bible school, vacation Bible school across the road in the old church. I don't remember any goosebumps. I don't remember any fireworks or anything going off and feeling like, wow. But someone sat down with me, a VBS teacher, and explained the gospel. I knew I needed to trust Christ, and I did. Don't base your assurance of salvation on your experience because that will cause you to doubt all the time. It will cause you to doubt. Did I do it? Does it say it right? Did I do it well enough? Did I really get the real thing? Because I don't remember feeling a voltage charge or anything like that. You don't base your salvation on your experience. You base it on the Bible, on the Word of God. And the Word of God says, if you believe on Christ as your Savior, He gives you eternal life. The question is not, what did I feel? What did I experience? The question is, did I trust Jesus as my Savior? And if I did, then God's Word promises me, I have eternal life. So regeneration is not experiential. We base our assurance on the Word of God and the evidence of fruit in our lives, yes, but not on a certain experience that I had. Not on our feelings. Any comment or question about those two features of regeneration in instantaneous happens in a moment of time, and it's non-experiential. It's something that happens that God does inside us. We may feel or not feel, but it's still a work of the Spirit of God through His Word. Question or comment? Okay. All right. We have no children waiting for us nights so we can go to 830, right? No, I'm not going to do that to you. The result of regeneration, one thing, the result of regeneration is the new nature. The new birth brings a new nature on the screen. Second Corinthians 517, you're familiar with the verse. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. Your new creature, a new creation, the old is gone, the new is here. Something drastically changed and that is you received a new nature. Now, please understand that a new nature is not a chunk of substance that gets deposited down inside your body somewhere. When the Bible talks about a nature, by the way, that chunk of substance idea comes from Greek philosophy that doesn't come from the Bible. It is not something down inside you. Oh, I got a new nature. I can feel it. It's in my left arm today. I think it was in this side yesterday. No, that's not what it is. A new nature is simply you have now a new inclination, a new motivation for righteousness, a new desire for spiritual things. That's your new nature. It is really a complex of attributes that set you on a new direction. I think it's maybe best stated in Romans chapter 6. Let me just read a few verses in Romans 6 verses 18 to 20. Romans 6 verse 18. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. He says, I'm using an example from everyday life because of human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to every increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you read at that time from the things you are now shamed of? Those things result in death, but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slum and have become slaves of God, the benefit you read leads to holiness. The result is eternal life. The new nature is this new inclination, this new direction, this new motivation, desire for righteousness rather than sin. That doesn't mean that we'll never sin again, but we have a new direction. We're not pointed in that old direction anymore. That's gone. We're pointed in a new direction. That's what the new nature is all about. It's the result of the new birth, new desires, new inclination, and it leads to a new kind of fruit in your life, Paul says, the fruit of righteousness, which is so much better than the old way you used to live. You said, you just ended up messing your life up, you ended up being ashamed of the way you were living and what it did to you and did to everybody around you. Now your life is pointed in a new direction and the fruit of that kind of life is righteousness. It has tremendous benefits. It's the family likeness of God. That's the result of regeneration is this new nature, this new inclination, direction, motivation, desire in life. Let me summarize this way. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit who, through the Word of God, cleanses us from sin, washes us from sin, and grants new life. It's at the moment we trust Christ as Savior that that happens. That's what regeneration is. It's a ministry of the Spirit, blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit. Next week we're going to look at another great ministry of the Holy Spirit that happens also at the moment you're saved and that is the ceiling of the Spirit. There are several passages to talk about that. We'll look at that one next week. Comments, questions before we close? Yes, I would in the sense that it's possible that the Word of God can become clear and make sense to you before you actually get regenerated, but it's all kind of together. When a person understands that the Word of God is true, typically that's the work of the Holy Spirit leading that person to salvation. And so regeneration typically follows pretty quickly. Now it is possible that someone gets it, understands it, and still walks away. Did I hear another comment over here? Tom? I have a choice. I have a choice. I like that too, Tommy. I like that analogy too. Really what Paul's talking about, Roman 6, we do have a choice now. We don't have to be slaves to sin anymore. We're freed from that. And we can offer our bodies as our members as slaves to righteousness now. Yeah, got a choice. Kelly? Well, we didn't ask for personal testimony now. I'm sorry, would you repeat that? I didn't catch it. Okay, we're talking about two different kinds of understanding. We were talking about illumination before, which is the Holy Spirit's work of enabling us to understand the scriptures and the natural man cannot understand the things of God, except through the spirit of God. Remember, it was the Holy Spirit that does that now. That's why I said typically that's a part of the regeneration process. When a person finally comes to the point he understands, yes, I understand the gospel, but it is possible to have that understanding of the Holy Spirit to the point that you could get saved, but still walk away from it. Okay, I can see where that would be confusing. Yeah, cause the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, but the Holy Spirit has to bring you to a point where you understand the gospel before you can be saved. So there is that point of understanding leading up to salvation, but just because a person understands the gospel does not automatically mean he saved, unless he or she has put his faith in Christ, has surrendered the will to Christ, a person can understand the gospel. I've had, I've had unsaved people tell me the gospel, and, but they've never submitted themselves to it. That's a great question, a really fine distinction there, I think. Okay, any others? All right, we do need to go, so let's pray.