In this sermon titled 'The Doctrine of Regeneration,' Pastor Steve Hopkins explores the concept of being born again from John chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 2. He emphasizes the necessity of regeneration to see and enter the kingdom of God, and highlights the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about this spiritual transformation. Hopkins explains that regeneration is a supernatural act of God, in which the Spirit quickens and raises the spiritually dead, giving them new life and a new heart. He contrasts the natural state of man, who is unable to understand or accept the things of God, with the regenerative work of God, which enables individuals to believe in and follow Christ. Hopkins concludes by urging listeners to give God the glory for their salvation and to continually seek His work in their lives.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. This week, Pastor Hopkins will be taking a look at the doctrine of regeneration from John chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 2. Good afternoon. Once again, turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to the Gospel of John chapter 3. Also, I would like you to put your finger in Ephesians chapter 2.

We'll be looking at the doctrine of regeneration, the doctrine of the new birth, the fact of God's word that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And if you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord, let's read verses 1 through 3 of John chapter 3 and then we'll flip over to Ephesians chapter 2. So read with me if you would the Word of the Lord John chapter 3 verses 1 through 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, accept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And if you would then turn with me to Ephesians, chapter two, this is a memory passage that our family's been working on, verses one through 10, but we'll just read, we'll read verses one through five. Let's read together the word of the Lord. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But God, who was rich in mercy, for his great love were with he loved us, even when we were dead, and sins hath quickened us together with Christ.

By grace you are saved. Let's pray. Father, once again we ask God that you would give the Spirit in accord with your Word. Even as Jesus said, will not our Father in heaven also give the Spirit to them that ask? We ask God for the guidance of your spirit.

We ask the Lord for the instruction of your spirit to guide us into the truths of your word. We ask the Lord for the encouragement of your spirit, O God. And we ask God that you would do a work in the heart and the mind and the life of every person here for the glory of the name of your son Jesus. For we ask it in his holy name. Amen.

Let's be seated. So I haven't used this board in quite a while, but I want to give us some words that we have just seen in these two passages. One of the things I've been trying to communicate to my family in family worship time after memorizing these passages is the meaning of this word quickened and how it is the same word that we find in many other places in Scripture. And the word quickened, I'll just ask right now, can someone tell me one of the definitions of what it means when the word of God says, and you have the quickened. Anyone give me another definition of that word?

Made alive, okay. To be quickened is to be made alive, okay, which infers that those who are made alive are dead at the time they were made alive. What's another word that means the same thing that we see in Scripture? Anyone? Okay, raised up.

Any others? Okay, how about regenerated, which we're going to see in our text here today. Regenerated. Anyone have another one? Resurrected, okay.

To be resurrected from death to life, spiritual death to spiritual life, okay? Resurrected. Any others? Born again. Same thought, same meaning, same teaching, born again, born from above, these are all referring to the same thing.

And if we come to some others here, we'll also jot those down as well. If you would flip back for a moment to John chapter 3. And if I go a little long here today, feel free to get up, use the restroom, get something to drink. And let's look at this teaching of the Lord. So we read here there was a man, this is the Gospel of John chapter three verse one.

There was a man of the Pharisees and his name was Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews. Give you a little background on Nicodemus. He's a master of Israel. He is what you would call today a master theologian.

He was the go-to guy. In Israel, if you had a question concerning the law, if you had a question concerning God's Word, What does this mean? You went to the go-to man. You went to Nicodemus He was a master teacher in Israel you take him your most troubling theological questions He's the man with the doctorate so to speak the master's degree maybe in theology amongst the the Jews So he is a theologian. He's also a ruler.

His name is Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee. A Pharisee. The sect of the Pharisees began around 200 years BC, about 200 years before Christ. He was a member of that strict religious sect.

These men were known for their their zeal for the Mosaic Law, but also for adding myriads of traditions and man-made laws to the law of God. And Jesus had a lot of run-ins with these guys, with this sect over the next three years. And his condemnation of them would center on their almost rabid focus on external religion. External religion, the things that you can see with your eyes, the things that people see about you, he condemned them for things like doing their alms in public. He condemned them for things like praying on the street corners, you know, to get everyone's attention, blowing a trumpet, you know, in the city, on a street corner, whenever a gift would be given.

And he called them, he would later refer to them as whitewashed tombs and snakes and vipers, and they didn't like him. But this master of Israel in verse two says came to Jesus by night. He didn't come to Jesus in the daylight hours. He didn't want to be seen by maybe the fellow members of his sect. He comes by night, he comes under cover of darkness, apparently not wanting to be seen and associated with Jesus publicly.

He comes to him privately and he comes saying, we know. So it's like he's kind of representing the sect. He says, we know. And he calls him rabbi, which is only used when referring to those who respected teachers, He says, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God. This isn't an acknowledgement that they believe that Jesus is deity, that he was recognizing him as God or the son of God, But it was an acknowledgement that Jesus was a prophet that had come from God, which, you know, at this point in Nicodemus' life, he's professing nothing more of Jesus than that he's a man, he's a teacher, a teacher on the level of the prophets of old.

You know, he's a prophet, a thing any Muslim today would say about Jesus. He's a prophet. He's not God. So this master teacher goes on, says we know that you're a teacher, it's come from God, that you're a prophet at least, or sent by God, and we know this because no one is able to do or has the ability to do the miracles that you've been doing, no one could do these things that you're performing publicly except God be with him. And if you'll notice here, there's no questions been asked here.

So we assume here an interruption of Nicodemus' words here, or his flattering observations. When Jesus comes in here and he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he's talking to Nicodemus here, we'll just call him Nick from here on out, I say unto you, asserting authority to correct as well as instruct this master theologian of Israel, he says to Nick, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And I want you to notice right here the universal inclusivity and exclusivity of Jesus' statement. It's an authoritative statement that includes all of one group and excludes all of another group. It's an authoritative statement that says unless you are in group A, you cannot possibly be in group B, except A is the case with you or any other person who's ever lived or will live, B cannot follow.

To not be included in A in this group is to be excluded from B, except a man be born again, that's A. That is, except a man experience this, which we'll define more in a few moments from the original language, B, he cannot. Look at the words. He does not have the ability, he cannot, he does not have the ability to see the kingdom of God. It is absolutely necessary for one to be born again if he is to possess ability to see or spiritually perceive the kingdom of God.

In verse five, he equates seeing the kingdom of God with entering it. Look on to verse five. You can't see, you can't enter. Those who don't see the kingdom of God have not entered the kingdom of God. He says in verse 3, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

In verse 5, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. One of the same thing. The statement is universal and it is emphatic. No exemptions are specified. No exceptions are stated.

It applies to all men of all ages and all times without exception all Human beings who have ever lived or ever will live to all those members of the family of mankind universally in every age of man, except a man that is a person who is human being. In the manner in which Jesus says he must be born, unless he is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now we need to understand something here. The Greek words translated born again are literally brought forth from above. Brought forth, anothen, from above.

You must be born from above. To be born again is to be born from above. In other words, it is an act of God. The doctrine stated is fairly simple. Unless one is born again or birthed from above from the heavenly source, he does not possess ability within himself to see or enter the kingdom of God.

It's absolutely necessary for one to be born again if he is to possess ability to see or spiritually perceive the kingdom of God and thus enter in. But this master teacher of Israel, you see here can't grasp it. He's not able to perceive this, to understand what he's talking about, which is exactly what Jesus is driving at. Jesus is talking about spiritual things, and Nick, who is not as yet born again from above, can't see it. He just doesn't have spiritual eyes to see it.

One day I was street preaching, street preach every Wednesday on the streets of Burnet. Sons hand out Bibles, some of the young men of the church hand out Bibles, giving out 2300 Bibles in the city of Burnet on the street corners in the last 10 years or so. But I was street preaching and a woman was listening for a while. Notice that here she was listening and she was maybe for 30 minutes and she was getting more and more angry as she was listening. And I was talking about the God of the Bible, the character of the God of the Bible, the coming judgment of the God of the Bible, the coming judgment when Christ is going to come back, bolt out of heaven on a white steed for judgment, and not as he came to Jerusalem in the temple, riding humbly on the back of a donkey, saying, anyone who believes on me shall be saved.

And I'm presenting the God of the Bible I'm talking about spiritual things I'm talking about the things of God talking about the judgment to come and that there is a hell just as sure as there's a heaven and this woman listens for a while and she comes up and she says I can't believe in a God like that. I cannot believe in a God like that. To which I responded, that's what I've been saying. When I preach, when I'm preaching that you must be born again, that's exactly what I'm saying. You can't believe in a God like that, except you be born from above.

It is an act of God. It is an operation of the Spirit of God upon the center of your being, changing you from the inside out, resurrecting you from spiritual death to spiritual life, giving you a new heart with a new understanding, giving you eyes to see and ears to hear. And apart from that work of the Holy Spirit, of regeneration, of the new birth, you absolutely cannot believe in a God like that, the God of the Bible. The natural man in the unregenerate state doesn't understand what we're talking about when he hears the gospel. It's foolishness to him.

Eric read it earlier and I didn't know he was gonna this scripture was coming up today but 1st Corinthians 2 14. If you want to turn there real quickly to 1st Corinthians 2 14 we'll see the Apostle Paul talking about this and I want you to as you're reading this passage with me, look at this word again, the same word, can, ability. It's talking about ability. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned." This is what theologians term the doctrine of total inability.

He cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't get there. He can't raise himself up by his own spiritual bootstraps. It has to be a work of God Almighty. This is the misery of the natural man in the unregenerate state.

He just can't receive spiritual things or know them. You have friends, you have relatives, you have people on the job at work, you give them the gospel, you tell them, Jesus died for our sins and he was buried and he rose again the third day and everyone who repents and believes on his name shall be saved and they look at you like you know the German Shepherd that doesn't understand the command they just kind of cock their head sideways they don't know what you're talking about and this is Nicodemus in verse 4 he's astonished at Jesus doctrine he says how can a man be born again when he's old? And how can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? He doesn't grasp it. Can a man enter back into his mother's womb and then be brought forth a second time?

Jesus says, look, verily, verily, I say unto you, accept a man, be born again, born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And he's using terminology that this master theologian in Israel should have picked up on right away. Nicodemus' mind should have gone straight to the words of Ezekiel, which Eric also read this afternoon. Ezekiel 36, just look at Ezekiel 36 beginning with verse 25. And then think about these words, quicken, made alive, born again, born from above, regenerated, raised from death to life, given a new heart.

All of these are the same words, are the same event that's taking place in the life of the Christian. And it's the first event that takes place in the life of the Christian. This precedes everything else. It precedes faith. It precedes everything.

The work of God in the heart of a person in response to the gospel, taking the gospel and applying it to their heart, this is the first word. Look what he says here. Then will I, look at the word I here over and over again, this is God. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be cleaned from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you And a new heart, look at verse 26, also will I give you?

And a new spirit will I put within you? And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of flesh. That means a heart that's pliable. It's no longer rock hard.

It's no longer frozen and it's now melted. It's now pliable. God's saying, I will make your heart soft towards me. This is what God does in regeneration when a man is born again. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them.

Sanctification follows. Doesn't precede it. Works follow, they don't precede. But Nick can't see it. And that's just Jesus' point.

He hasn't been born again. Nicodemus has not been born from above. He hasn't been born from above. He has not experienced a new birth. There's no operation of the Spirit of God upon Nicodemus' blind heart, and he doesn't have spiritual eyes to see, and he's not entered the kingdom of God, and none of what Jesus is saying is making sense to him.

But Jesus is being gentle with him. And he goes on, he keeps explaining, that which is Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. What does he mean there? The flesh only begets flesh. Corruption only begets corruption.

The corrupt nature can only beget corrupt nature. David writes in the 51st Psalm, in sin did my mother conceive me. He's not talking about the act of sin. He's not saying my mother was an adulteress or a fornicator. He's saying, but in the nature of sin, I was conceived after Adam's kind with a fallen nature, with a corrupted nature.

In Psalm 51.5 he says, I was shaping, behold I was shaping in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. And that's the state of every man that the proof follows with all men As soon as they're born guess what they go straying from God They go astray as soon as they're bored Psalm 58 3 says the wicked are estranged from the womb They go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies My wife and I've raised a lot of kids and we never had to teach one child how to lie. They didn't have to hear a lie. It's not environmental. It's not association.

It's nature. It's the nature of man. We sin, as Dr. Sproul once said, we sin because we're sinners. We're not sinners because we sin.

You get the difference? We sin because we have a sin nature. I didn't have to teach any of the babies to pull the toy out of the other ones. I've got videos of some of the kids, it's hilarious to watch, and they just pull, you know, one's happy and They pull the toy out of the other one's, I've got videos of some of the kids, it's hilarious to watch, and they just pull, you know, one's happy, and they pull the toy out of the other one's hand, and then they're happy, and the other one's crying, and then that one hits them and pulls them, and then they're happy, and they're sinned. That's the nature of man.

We are products not of our environment, we are products of our nature and everything necessarily acts according to its nature. Science eventually picked up on that right? Everything acts according to its nature okay but they don't know the biblical or spiritual concept. Children are not innocent creatures. If a baby had the stature and the strength, they would commit patricide to get the things that they want.

You realize that? It's like God makes them little and we train them, right? We train them. We train them for a child the way he should go. If he was six foot four, and he wanted that, whatever it was you had in your hand, you'd have a little bit more difficult time than if you're six months old.

I've got one that's six foot four. They go astray. If it weren't for the restraining grace of God, every one of us would be the worst that we could be. Do you understand that? Even on the unregenerate, God restrains man.

Every one of us would be a Hitler, a Paul Pot, a Chairman Mao, who killed a hundred million people in his cultural revolution in China. In the unregenerate state, if you don't realize that, hey, before God changed my heart and made me a new creature in Christ Jesus and old things are passed away and all things were become new I was that evil. I was that vicious. I was that depraved in the unregenerate state If you don't see yourself that way, you don't see yourself a right Jesus knew what was in man Jeremiah 17 9 says the hardest is seatful above all things and desperately wicked who could know it Romans 8 7 says the carnal mind is That enmity with God. It's an enemy status with God.

It's an enemy state with God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 7, 18, Apostle Paul said, I know in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That which is born of flesh is flesh. On the other hand, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, okay, Now we're going.

That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. It is the Spirit of God alone which begets spiritual life in the souls of men dead and trespassed in sins. Look back at Ephesians chapter 2. Just look back there for a second. It's so important to see this.

And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And then look at verse five. Look at verse five. Even when we were dead in sins. You know this teaching is almost completely gone from the pulpits of America today.

And yet, at the time of the Great Awakening, and I'm not talking about the false Great Awakening that people are talking about today. At the time of the Great Awakening in the 1700s, when one out of 10 people was born again and came to Christ during the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry God, and George Whitefield, you know, it had more people than the population of the city of Philadelphia came out at Philadelphia to hear his preaching. During that time they preached what? Over and over again, you must be born again, you must be born again, you must be born again. The exact same message I'm preaching here now, but you can't preach this today, the pulp was today, or you'll be run out on a rail in most churches.

Because man is the center of all things, not God. Man initiates everything, not God. So man becomes God and God becomes like a man. We make a God in our own image and it's evil. But here's the truth of the matter.

Look at verse one. You hath he quickened, made alive, raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And look at verse five. Even when we were dead. Wait a minute.

Even when we were dead, hath quickened us together with Christ. So we were dead when we were quickened, that's what he's teaching. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We didn't have spiritual understanding. We didn't have spiritual life.

So we're dead and then we're raised and then we began to serve God. We're dead and then we're raised to spiritual life. We see the kingdom of God, we enter the kingdom of God. We realize we're sinners. We call on the name of Christ.

We say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. We see ourselves as in need of a Savior. We're convicted. We're humbled Our hearts are melted. This is regeneration.

This is the new birth This is the raising from spiritual death to spiritual life. You say what do you mean spiritual death? In the garden you go back to the garden What does God what happens there? God says you can eat of all the fruit of all these trees, but don't eat of that tree in the center of the garden because on the day you do, you're surely gonna die. You will surely die.

And then the atheists, you know, philosophers out there doubt through history, they go, oh well, God's a liar. Adam didn't die, lived to be 930 years old. Oh, he died. He died on the day that he ate thereof. He died spiritual, a spiritual death.

And then he would die physically as a result of that at the age of 930. He died. Even when we were dead, Ephesians 1 verse 5 says, even when we were dead, you were dead. And it's a thing of giving glory to God. So I won't labor that any longer.

But he says, don't marvel to you, I said to you, you must be born again, back in chapter three, verse seven of John. Don't be astonished at this, you must be born again, Nick. And the same is true of everyone here in this room today. You personally must be born again if you had entered the kingdom of God. Then he goes on and he explains further to Nicodemus in verses five and six, at the end of verse eight, he translates or he uses this word that is translated spirit, referring to the Holy Spirit, and it's the same word that he uses at the beginning of verse eight for wind, exactly the same word, you know that?

In the Greek manuscript, look at the Greek, the word is Pneuma, same word from which we get pneumatic tools. In verse eight, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Pneuma, the same Greek word used for both wind and spirit blows where it lists it. It blows wherever it wants to. The spirit blows where it will. He's using an analogy from the wind.

Your translation may render it blows wherever it pleases, but it blows wherever it wishes or wants. And if you pull out your Greek interlinear, you'll see that it can be rendered to will to intend or to determine so Jesus is saying that the wind blows wherever it wants to it blows wherever intends to blow it blows wherever it determines to blow and so it is with the spirit that's the way it is with the spirit of God Sometimes it helps to look at other passages, but just, you could flip over to Romans chapter nine in verse 22, because this same word listeth where the wind blows wherever it listeth or wherever it wills. Look at Romans chapter nine in verse 22. Here the exact same Greek word is translated willing. Same word, Romans chapter 9 verse 22, same word that's used in John chapter 3 for describing or telling how the wind blows where it wills.

OK, it says willing. It's the same word. What if God willing, philo, willing, intending, resolved, or determined to show His wrath, known as power, endured with much long suffering, the vessels fitted to destruction. So our text back in John 3 is saying, it's communicating that the wind blows here, it blows there, and the similar way the Spirit of God moves here upon one person, there upon another, wherever the Spirit wills, wherever God intends, wherever the Lord has resolved to determine His Spirit to move, and He gives life from death. He raises from death to life.

It is God the Spirit operating according to God's will and purposing and determining to raise a person from death to life even as the wind blows where it will so the Spirit operates upon the hearts of men. John chapter 1 verse 13 agrees when it says that we who are born of God were born not of blood nor the will of flesh nor the will of man, but of God. Born of God. So many have been born again by the grace of God. They don't realize that God's grace preceded the bending of their knee and the calling on the name of the Lord for salvation.

Years ago I was street preaching in front of an abortion house in Austin. I was arrested, I was taken to jail. Many of you know the story. I was put in a cell with a man who was, when the cell door was open, was trying to hang himself with his trousers. They had put me in the cell in the furthest, darkest corner of the worst part of the Travis County jail system.

That's where they wanted the street preacher. They put me in, the jailer smiled as they opened the door and put me in with this guy, big guy sitting on the bottom bunk sweating, muscles flexed, you know, he's gonna kill this street preacher. And the door opens, I'm not gonna go through the whole story, it's too long, but the door opens, you know, I go in, I don't fight him for the bottom bunk, I share the gospel with him, he falls on his face and he cries out on the name of Jesus and he's saved. Now, Do you think God moved him or brought a conviction upon him before he fell on his knees? In other words, did God move him or did he move God?

See, this is where our understanding is so wrong today in Christianity. We don't move God, God moves us. He is God, we are just men. Did this man change God's mind about him by something he did? Or did God change this man's mind?

You see how regeneration works? That's what it comes down to. It's the truth. And we need to proclaim the truth because God gets the glory rather than man. A change of heart precedes us coming to the Lord.

A change of heart, and we don't change our own heart. It's called birth, you know, the new birth for a reason. Nobody decides to be born. This little baby girl here, they don't choose to be born. In other words, they didn't determine to be born.

Of course, they want to live. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that no one chooses. We don't determine to be born. That's something that happens to us, not something that we facilitate.

And so it is. And when it happens, when that change takes place, before we were regenerated, before we're born again, before we're raised from death to life, we have no interest in the Gospel. Now we're very interested in the Gospel. Before we were born of the Spirit, we couldn't understand the Gospel. Now we can.

Charles Spurgeon, the great prince of preachers from the 1800s said, regeneration consists in this, God the Holy Spirit in a supernatural manner works upon the hearts of men and they by the operation of the divine spirit become regenerate men but without the spirit they never can be regenerated and unless God the Holy Spirit who works in us to will and to do should operate upon the will and the conscience, regeneration is an absolute impossibility and therefore so is salvation." What? Spurgeon goes on. This is the way they preached in London in the 1800s. What says one, do you mean to say that God absolutely interposes in the salvation of every man to make him regenerate? I do indeed, says Spurgeon.

In the salvation of every person, there's an actual putting forth of the divine power whereby the dead sinner is quickened, made alive, born again, raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, given a new heart. The unwilling sinner is made willing. The desperately hard sinner has his conscience made tender. He who rejected God and despised Christ is brought to cast himself down at the feet of Jesus." That's what happens. Give God the glory for it.

If that is what happened with you, give God the glory for it and stop saying, well I did this and I did that, we don't wanna go before God on the day of judgment, saying God, I, I, I, anything, you, you, you, you, you. Must be born again. The issue is this, man in his natural state is in a situation or a state of enmity against God. He's repulsed by the gospel. It's foolishness to him.

He can't understand the things of God in that state, but God is the one who changes our hearts. Christ crucified for sinners died. Seems ridiculous to them until God begins to change their heart. When I'm preaching on the street, I see this. I'm not saying that I actually, visually know or know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a person has been regenerated when I see this, but I'm saying I see the difference.

So I'm on the street corner, I'm preaching the gospel of Christ, I'm preaching the cross of Christ, Christ crucified for sinners, died, and the windows are rolled down, the people are pumping their gas at the gas station and they're starting to listen. They're listening. The people who run to get in their cars right away, repulsed by it. Others, they're interested. You've heard me say it before.

They're washing their, they pump the gas and they start washing their windshield. And then they start washing the back windshield. And then they start washing the back windshield, and then they start washing the sides, and then they start washing their, I've seen people wash their bumpers. I've saw a person washing their car with this thing for like 20 minutes before. Why, they don't want anybody to know that they're listening, but they're listening.

They're listening to what's going on. But they'll pull up and you'll see them drive by and they'll roll the window down and they hear, this guy's preaching that I'm a sinner and that I need to be saved, that I need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And he's saying that except I repent and believe on Christ, and I'm gonna perish eternally in the fires of an eternal hell. And here's what you see. Some cars right next to each other.

And in the one car, There's a tough construction work error, you know? And either his expressions look of terror, or they're just, they're, he's subdued. And the guy right behind him has his middle finger up at me shaking it and laying on his horn It's a work of God that only God can do It is a spirit that quickens, John chapter 6 verse 23, the flesh profits nada in espanol, nothing. It profits nothing. The spirit that quickens makes alive, raises up, regenerates, resurrects from death to life, causes you to be born from above, births you from above.

It is the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing. Martin Luther rightly comments, when the scripture says the flesh profits nothing, It doesn't mean that nothing is a little something. We look to Ephesians chapter two. You have the quickened who were dead and trespassers in sins.

I'm exposing this with the family and family worship time every morning. By the way, we encourage this church, open the scriptures of your family every day. You can't get what you need at church. You cannot get what you need at church. You need to be in God's Word every day, by yourself, with your wife, with your children, every single day.

If you're not, and your kids go off course and go astray, what are you gonna say? If you do everything that you know you need to be doing and your kids go off and they go astray, that's one thing. You don't do what you need to be doing. That's another thing. That's another thing.

Here, Ephesians chapter two, we're going through this. You are the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Even when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ, verse five. All mankind are by nature, what does it say? The children of wrath.

Walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in times past, and the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as others. But God, who was rich in mercy even when we were dead, praise God, even when we were dead, hath quickened us and raised us up together in Christ Jesus. As we draw to a close, it is God that regenerates. It is God that raises the dead. It is God that quickens those dead and trespasses and sins.

God is good, we're not, mankind is not. It must be God who begins the good work. We don't procure goodness out of the dead state of our enmity status against God. Our corrupted nature doesn't somehow find a way to produce something good. Not only something good, but something that is the most good.

The most good thing that will ever happen to you is when you turn to God in faith and repentance and receive the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. That's a very good thing. In me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. In the flesh dwells no good thing. Our salvation is initiated by God, not us, And we need to give him the glory for it.

Philippians 2.13 says, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God who works in you, both to will. In other words, he has to change our will. He changes our will and makes us willing to come to him. That's what happens.

It's humbling when we realize what it is that has happened to us when God saved us, that it was not we who moved God, but God who moved us, and we should give him the glory for it. We should give him the glory for it. You know, just in application here today, there could be two people sitting in the same row. One, they've got their mind somewhere else right now. They just go, when is he gonna stop?

So I can go do the things I really wanna do, like eat. Not that we all don't wanna eat, but and then the person sitting next to them is under conviction. I say this on the street all the time, nobody's, you may be sitting there right now in neutral or in park, but nobody's in neutral with regards to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're either in drive, your arms wide open, you're running towards God, you're embracing the things of God, you want to serve God, you love God, you just want more of Christ, more of Him, more of Him, you just, or you're going in the opposite direction. You're either humbled by the gospel or you're hardened by the gospel, further hardened.

You're either melted or you're in the freezer. You must be born again. There could be two people sitting here. One their hearts broken, souls melted. And the other one is just like, totally disinterested.

When's it all going to be over? It's just uncomfortable. You remember Mr. Stubblefield, my former fellow elder, who died at the age of 83, talked about when he was at the age of five, a neighbor lady took him to church and the preacher preached, all liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire. And a five-year-old sitting there in that Baptist church was struck with terror.

And he said, I was on the edge of my seat and I was just like looking back, back and forth and I'm a liar. All liars have their part in the lake that burns with fire. I need a savior. He's sitting on the edge of his seat and the kid sits next to him is like doodling and thinking about the playground. What's the difference?

The Spirit of God is the difference. The work of God is the difference. When we are regenerated, God melts our hearts. He changes us. He changes us.

When those who are the elect of God hear the gospel, it is at some point like a hammer shattering a stone into a thousand pieces. While when the unregenerate hears he sits stone faced, cold as ice, hard as a rock, unmoved and defiant, and his guilt is increased. Which are you this morning? Scripture goes on to say, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Not of human works where you could boast about it or brag about it.

No, it's of God. It's a work of God. Which of you today, you know, the gospel continues to have an effect upon the regenerate after they're regenerated. In other words, we Still, the message is always exciting. The message is always moving.

With the unregenerate, it's always boring. Just boring. You just get onto something else, just bored. Those whom God has drawn to his son. Remember Jesus said in John chapter 6, all that the father gives to me will come to me.

They hear that word. They hear the inner call. They're moved from within. They're humbled. And it stays that way the rest of their life until the day they die.

Every time they hear the gospel, they praise God and they thank God. And they draw near unto God. And they praise Him and thank Him for saving a wretch like them, like me. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost now I'm found, blind now I see.

Let's pray. Father we thank you for your word oh God and the truth of your word and the power of your word and the power of your spirit, oh God. And we pray, God, that, Lord, that you've done a work today and are doing a work. We beg of you to do a work, O God, upon us, upon our hearts and upon our minds, upon our lives, upon our souls, O God, for your glory. O Lord, the time is so short.

There is no time for trifling, no time for playing silly games, no time for playing church. Oh God, do a work, continue to do a work. Do a work in our hearts, Lord, in our lives. Lord, do a work in our marriages, oh God. Do a work in our families.

Do a work, oh God, in our church. Do a work in our community, oh God. Do a work in our families. Do a work, O God, in our church. Do a work in our community, O God.

Do a work in our nation. For the glory of the name of your Son Jesus. For we ask it in His holy name. Amen.