Regeneration.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] All right, my name’s Steve. I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church, [0:03] and I am always thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:07] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Romans chapter two. [0:10] We’re going to be starting in verse twenty five today. [0:14] But before we get into the word, I do want to just make one quick announcement, [0:18] and that is on Christmas Eve.

[0:22] Eve, Eve, Eve, we’re going to be having a special Sunday service that day, [0:27] which is going to go 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. [0:31] Now, we’re adding a service because of the crowd that we’re expecting, [0:34] but we should have plenty of room in all three of those services. [0:38] And if you’ve been with us for any length of time, [0:41] you know what we do on this service, and that is we celebrate Christmas full tilt.

[0:46] We bring every aspect of Christmas into our worship service that day, [0:52] and this is going to be no different this year. [0:54] But we truly believe that as followers of Jesus, [0:58] that one of the greatest things for us to celebrate is the birth of Jesus, [1:01] as God himself comes to earth to save us. [1:05] He sets out on a mission of redemption.

[1:07] And on Christmas, Christians have reserved that specific day [1:11] to just kind of reflect on the fact that Jesus was born into humanity to save us. [1:18] And so we’re going to have a lot of fun that day. [1:20] We’re going to have lights. [1:20] We’re going to have Christmas carols. [1:22] We’re going to preach about the gospel of Jesus Christ,

[1:25] and we’re just going to have a great time with a lot of different elements on that day. [1:30] And so what we want you to do and the reason that we’re adding a service [1:33] is so that we’ll have plenty of room in all three of our services [1:36] so that you can invite friends, you can invite family, you can invite co-workers. [1:42] But here’s what I want you to do. [1:43] I want you to do me a favor is because during the Christmas season,

[1:47] people who don’t normally attend church, [1:49] they often will on that day or on one of those services, [1:53] just take some time to attend a service. [1:56] And so one great way that you could start a real conversation about your faith, [2:01] if you haven’t really known how to get into that, [2:03] is to simply give an invite for them to come with you to attend here on that day.

[2:09] I can tell you one thing. [2:11] We’re going to have a lot of fun. [2:12] And we’re also going to have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached. [2:16] And so it’s going to be a great time. [2:17] And instead of just kind of taking a look and saying, [2:20] well, you know, I normally go to the nine, so I’ll go to the nine or normally go to the 11.

[2:23] I’ll go to the 11 or oh, man, I get to sleep in, so I’ll go to the six. [2:26] I want you to on that day kind of make a sacrifice [2:30] and actually do the spiritual discipline of ordering your schedule around the mission of Jesus. [2:37] Give an invite to someone that you know needs to be at a service that day [2:41] and ask them what would be the best time for you. [2:44] We’ve got three different options.

[2:46] And whatever their response is, that’s the service that you go to. [2:50] That’s how you order your day. [2:52] And what you’re going to learn in that is that’s what we’re supposed to do with our lives all the time. [2:56] We’re not supposed to just simply live the mission of Jesus when it’s convenient for us, [3:00] but rather we’re to order our schedule around the mission of Jesus. [3:05] And join me on that day.

[3:06] And by the way, if you happen to have a beautiful, beautiful Christmas sweater, [3:13] and by that, I mean the tackiest one ever, [3:16] because I think what’s happened to some people is they used to have all these [3:19] sweaters that they thought were beautiful. [3:21] And then somebody started calling them tacky. [3:23] And rather than admit the offense, you just kind of silently packed them away in the back of the closet,

[3:29] put some mothballs in the box. [3:31] But what I want you to do on that day for this grand service [3:36] that we’re going to be having on Christmas Eve, [3:38] Eve, Eve, is I want you to reach back through the closet. [3:44] Go back where those mothballs are. [3:47] Some of you don’t even know what mothballs are.

[3:49] Go look it up. [3:51] Not right now, though. [3:53] Put your phones away. [3:55] And you reach into that box and you get that beautiful sweater, [3:57] the one with the poofy balls on it. [3:59] Maybe it’s got some jingling bells on it.

[4:01] Maybe it’s got a battery pack and it lights up. [4:05] And you’ve said, I’ve always wanted to wear that again, [4:08] but I never thought I’d have the opportunity. [4:10] Oh, guess what? [4:11] We’re giving you the opportunity. [4:14] Wear your sweater right here.

[4:17] And you’ll be singing jingle bells. [4:19] Well, maybe you can jingle those bells that are on your sweater. [4:24] But in all seriousness, join us on that day as we celebrate the greatest gift [4:28] that’s ever been given. [4:30] That is the gift that God gave of himself, [4:33] born on Christmas morning, Jesus Christ.

[4:35] If you have your Bibles in Romans chapter two, [4:38] we’re going to take a trip to the end of Romans chapter two. [4:41] We’re going to finish out chapter two today. [4:43] And then next week, we’re going to press pause on Romans [4:46] and we’re going to have some some Christmas season sermons [4:49] to just really dwell on the reality of why we celebrate this

[4:54] as followers of Jesus Christ. [4:56] But today I want us to get to the end of chapter two. [4:58] And if you’ve been taking this trek with us through chapter two, [5:01] it’s been pretty bad news through the whole chapter. [5:05] The theme of this chapter is just we are sinners. [5:11] We are people who cannot save ourselves.

[5:13] We are people who are always going to go in the wrong direction. [5:17] When God says, go right, we’re going to go left. [5:20] When God makes a plan of salvation, [5:22] we’re going to try to invent our own plan of salvation. [5:25] And that’s kind of been the trend all through Romans chapter two. [5:30] And what he does is, is in Romans two, starting in verse 25,

[5:33] he kind of brings all of that to a culmination [5:36] and explains to us the purpose behind which he wanted us to understand [5:41] that no matter what we do, we are always disobedient to God [5:46] and we cannot save ourselves. [5:49] We need God to save us. [5:51] And the message that he’s going to give today is the how of God’s salvation

[5:57] is that he wants to change our lives from the inside out. [6:01] So look in Romans chapter two, starting in verse twenty five. [6:05] For circumcision, indeed is of value. [6:09] Now, when I first read through this text, [6:12] I had considered only doing a sermon on Romans to twenty five a. [6:18] But for your sake, as well as mine, he doesn’t stop there.

[6:21] He continues and he tells us if you obey the law, [6:26] but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. [6:30] So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, [6:36] will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? [6:40] Then he who is physically uncircumcised, but keeps the law, [6:44] will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law.

[6:50] For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, [6:55] nor is circumcision outward and physical. [6:57] But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision a matter of the heart, [7:05] by the spirit, not by the letter. [7:09] His praise is not from man, but from God.

[7:16] I had to say circumcision four more times in that text than I felt comfortable with. [7:21] And you may be thinking right now, are we entering into a lecture on circumcision? [7:26] How much detail is he going to go into here? [7:29] Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that. [7:32] That’s not the goal that I have this morning. [7:34] And all the men said, Amen.

[7:37] We don’t want to hear about that. [7:38] Thankfully, most of us don’t have any memories of when that took place. [7:42] But the reality of what Paul is dealing with in this text [7:46] is not so much different than what he’s been talking about in other texts. [7:50] He’s talking about the first century Jew [7:54] and all that they thought that their salvation was going to be in their identity.

[8:00] You know, there’s a section in the oral law, [8:03] which was the way that the rabbis would teach the law. [8:06] And they would record it as being just as much God’s word as the Old Testament was. [8:11] And in one passage of the oral law, [8:13] they actually said that if you are circumcised, then you will never be condemned. [8:21] So to a Jew, circumcision was the most important thing of life.

[8:27] It was what gave them their identity as a Jew. [8:30] It was what made them feel religious. [8:33] It was what made them identify themselves as God’s people [8:36] and what made them feel ultimately superior to everyone else. [8:42] And so to a Jew, if you were circumcised, [8:45] no matter what you did in the rest of your life,

[8:50] you are OK with God, your religious heart, your religious activity,

[9:00] everything on the outside that people saw.

[9:06] That’s what salvation was all about. [9:08] It was something that you could do. [9:10] It was a mark that you could give yourself. [9:13] The reality is, is that that’s honestly sometimes [9:16] something that translates into the life of the church. [9:21] Some of us believe that if we come to church every week, if we go to group,

[9:28] if we have a Bible study on the side, if I do this thing or I do that thing, [9:32] if I dress this way, if I identify this way, or if I do this thing that way, [9:37] then I am living the Christian life. [9:41] I’m a Christian by the things that I do, by the activities that I have. [9:46] That is what’s going to bring me salvation. [9:50] And Paul’s message for you is the same message that he has

[9:54] for the Jews about circumcision.

[9:58] Number one, this morning, what Paul’s trying to bring into our hearts this morning [10:02] is the fact that God cares about what your life is really about. [10:09] God cares about what your life is really about. [10:15] You know, he begins this section by saying that circumcision is of value [10:19] if you obey the whole law. [10:22] But if you don’t obey the whole law, if you’re wrong even in one point,

[10:26] then your circumcision is completely worthless. [10:31] But then you’ll have someone out there in the world that if they understand the law [10:35] of God as it’s written on their hearts and they seek after God, [10:39] then their uncircumcision is a circumcision. [10:42] And when we look at that, we’re like, what in the world does that even mean? [10:46] And what Paul’s giving to them is this reality that your outward obedience

[10:51] doesn’t cover inward sin.

[10:56] You can do all of the right things, but if you never deal with what’s [11:01] actually going on inside of you, the heart level doesn’t cover it.

[11:10] You can do all these things, but if you don’t desire God, [11:13] if you don’t truly desire to follow him, then it’s worthless. [11:19] His message to these Israelites is you did this thing that God told you to do, [11:25] and that’s fine.

[11:28] But understand that that was never meant to be the pathway for salvation for you. [11:35] You were never supposed to point backwards and say, see, look at what I did there. [11:39] That means everything is OK. [11:40] No, he says you’re supposed to look at what’s going on in your heart. [11:44] You’re supposed to look at what you really want. [11:46] You’re supposed to look at what you really value.

[11:48] That is supposed to be an outward sign of an inward reality.

[11:55] You know, if your house is in rough shape, I mean, your roof is about to cave in. [12:04] There’s leaks everywhere. [12:06] The floor joists are completely rotten. [12:09] I mean, termites have gotten into them and they’ve just chewed through them. [12:13] I mean, mildew has set in and you can just go down under your house and you can just [12:18] grab and it’ll just break off in your hands and everything’s about to cave in.

[12:22] Where your roof is concerned, you’ve even got this dent up there where water has just [12:26] kind of filled and you can just hear it creaking. [12:29] You step over here and it’s like my foot is about to go through the floor right there. [12:33] And you think the solution is, honey, what I think we should do with our house right now, [12:39] let’s move the couch from over there to over there. [12:44] Even better.

[12:45] There’s a hole right there. [12:47] Why don’t you put the couch right there? [12:50] You say, look, house problem solved. [12:53] Everything’s OK. [12:54] No, that would not work at all. [12:58] You do not address foundational issues by moving your furniture around.

[13:05] Maybe you’re in a situation kind of like I am this time of year where it seems that [13:09] the trees have just all out declared warfare on your yard. [13:14] I mean, there were not that many leaves in the tree. [13:20] I have three feet of leaves in my backyard. [13:23] I haven’t seen my dog in four days. [13:27] I hope she’s OK, but I haven’t seen her.

[13:30] She’s just covered. [13:31] I think she drowned in there. [13:32] So, you know, you get together with your neighbors and you talk about it. [13:35] You’re like, well, what’s the best technique you’ve got? [13:37] What’s the best technique you’ve got? [13:38] How in the world do we get rid of these leaves?

[13:40] We go through that motion every single year and there comes a point mid June where you [13:45] get up the last leaf and you’re like, oh, thank God, sweet redemption. [13:51] But guess what’s going to happen the next fall? [13:54] The same thing.

[13:57] Because the only solution.

[14:02] To a problem with your floor joist and a problem with your roof is to gut the whole thing [14:06] and rebuild. [14:08] The only real solution that I could ever have for my leaf problem in my backyard is if I took [14:13] some chainsaws back there and I did the hard work of cutting the trees down.

[14:22] You see, what Israel was trying to do is they were just trying to do this one little thing. [14:27] They were trying to solve this one little problem of being obedient to God in this one [14:31] little area, and they were thinking, well, that’s going to solve everything.

[14:37] But when the problem is what’s going on deep down in your heart, what’s going on inside of you, [14:44] you can address every outward problem that you have one at a time. [14:50] Well, I got a problem here, so I’m going to use the Bible’s advice on that. [14:53] Well, I got a problem over here, so I’m going to use the Bible’s advice on that. [14:56] I’m going to read the Bible every day. [14:57] I’m going to go to church every week.

[14:59] I’m going to do this. [14:59] I’m going to do that. [15:00] I’m going to do the other thing. [15:01] And you do that. [15:02] But it never seems to solve anything. [15:05] And the reason is because the problem is not outside of you.

[15:08] The problem is inside of you. [15:10] Note what the prophet Isaiah said to the nation of Israel hundreds of years [15:16] before this text even, excuse me, before Paul said this. [15:19] Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says, [15:21] because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, [15:26] while their hearts are far from me.

[15:28] Their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. [15:32] You’re the prophet is you know what God’s saying through the prophet right there. [15:35] He’s saying that you are trying to pay me lip service. [15:41] You don’t really care anything about me.

[15:44] You’re obeying all of these laws, not because they’re from God, [15:49] but because you’re worried about what the other person would think if you didn’t obey those laws. [15:53] You don’t care what God thinks about you. [15:56] You care what the person sitting next to you thinks about you. [15:59] And that’s the only reason you go through these religious motions. [16:03] Your affections for God aren’t even there.

[16:06] All that you have is a culture built on these preconceived notions about God. [16:11] But you don’t care about God at all. [16:14] Know what he says to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29, verse 13. [16:19] He says, you will seek me, God speaking, and find me [16:23] when you seek me with all your heart.

[16:29] You know, he’s saying there is, is you can just reorder the outside of your life to look religious. [16:34] You can do all of these things and never experience God.

[16:45] Never know his presence. [16:49] Jeremiah says the only way that you will ever find God is when you seek him with the core of who you are. [16:58] You know, the core of who you are is in the scriptures. [17:00] And even today, we call it the heart. [17:03] But he’s really talking about his affections. [17:07] He’s talking about things that give you joy.

[17:10] He’s talking about the way in which you seek to find satisfaction in life. [17:16] But the problem is, is that they were trying to cover what was going on in their hearts with these outward activities. [17:24] Friends, do not try to cover the inner turmoil that you are going through by covering it with outward conformity to cultural Christianity. [17:34] It will not heal you. [17:37] You’re not seeking God. [17:39] You’re actually seeking to hide the truth.

[17:43] You want to belong. [17:45] But you don’t really want God. [17:48] You can say all the right things, but your desires are not for God. [17:55] There’s a deep desire for something other than God. [17:59] I don’t know if it’s pride, if it’s sin, if you’re just seeking after the esteem or praise of others. [18:06] But you know at the deepest levels of your heart that you are not worshiping God.

[18:15] Ultimately, you don’t really want Jesus. [18:19] For some of you, it’s simply that you’re chasing after the security in the afterlife.

[18:26] By identifying as a follower of Jesus, by identifying yourself as a Christian.

[18:34] Christianity is nothing more than life insurance for you. [18:36] It’s something that you’re trying to add to the life that you’ve already built. [18:40] And if you go through these motions, if you do these simple things, [18:43] if you follow these helpful little tips in your life, [18:48] then you think, well, in the end, it’ll be all right.

[18:53] The message from the apostle Paul is,

[18:57] is that your lifestyle circumcision, and that’s all that it is,

[19:02] it’s not gaining you a single thing. [19:07] Because you would rather cover your sin than deal with it. [19:11] Even in light of the fact that Jesus will deal with it indefinitely, it will be gone. [19:19] You simply try to cover who you really are with outward conformity.

[19:28] But you know, the second thing that Paul wants us to understand is the hopelessness of that. [19:34] You see, number two this morning, the gospel of grace transforms us from the inside out. [19:40] Look at verse 27. [19:43] He says, then he who is physically uncircumcised, but keeps the law, [19:48] will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law. [19:54] For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

[20:03] You know, Paul’s talking about here is the fact that there is a need in you for a deeper change [20:12] than any activity that you can do will bring.

[20:19] Circumcision was meant to be an indicator of what was true at a deeper level. [20:27] Humans, though, we have this great temptation to use things that are meant to show what is going [20:31] at the heart level as camouflage. [20:35] We try to fake it so that others will think the counterfeit is real. [20:40] But fortunately, God sees past what we are showing at the skin level and sees the truth [20:47] of our desires.

[20:48] He knows the truth about us all and we cannot fake it with him.

[20:55] The fact of the matter this morning is that you can go your entire life [21:00] and you can fake it with those people around you.

[21:05] You can fake it with me and I’ll never know the truth about you.

[21:09] Do you know, but ultimately in light of eternity, you know, it doesn’t matter.

[21:16] God sees through your charade.

[21:21] God sees through to the very heart of who you are, the very core of why you do everything [21:28] that you do. [21:29] God knows everything that you are trying to hide from everyone else. [21:33] And while you will be very successful at keeping the truth from me, keeping the truth from your [21:40] friends, maybe even keeping the truth from your family, you are not even for a moment successful [21:47] from keeping the truth from God.

[21:49] He knows my every thought. [21:53] He knows my every longing. [21:56] He knows my every desire. [21:58] He knows the truth about every single thing that I do in every single moment.

[22:08] Do you know, I want you to understand the following Jesus isn’t merely about your actions. [22:13] It isn’t merely a culture that you conform to. [22:17] It is about everything that is going on inside of you. [22:21] It is about a love for God that leads to a life for God. [22:25] It is about deep passion to show God’s beauty through the life that you live. [22:30] And when you boil it down and pretend that it is just this simple list of,

[22:35] well, I did this this way this week, so I guess I’m doing OK. [22:38] Or I did that or I showed up to this meeting. [22:40] Then you are really breaking Christianity down into something that is utterly meaningless.

[22:47] It is pointless. [22:50] What you’re actually doing in your deep seated hypocrisy in that moment is there’s another [22:54] group of people who are right beside you and they’re seeing you fake it.

[23:00] They’re seeing you go through the motions and seeing it have absolutely no effect on you. [23:05] And their response is that is not a faith that I want.

[23:10] And the fact of the matter is, is that you don’t have a faith at all that they’re even seeing.

[23:16] You’re living a counterfeit Christianity, [23:17] therefore you’re giving everyone around you a counterfeit Christianity.

[23:23] You’re not truly trying to give your life over to God. [23:27] You’re trying to boil it down to nothing more than a simple checklist [23:30] so that you don’t have to carry around guilt when you know it’s not even solving that problem.

[23:37] Instead of giving life your all, you come up with excuses of why you don’t want to give him more. [23:42] Well, I gave him this. Well, I gave him that. What does he want from me? [23:46] And ultimately, every one of you will reach a point in your lives where something bad happens to you [23:51] and your response to God will be, didn’t I obey you there? Didn’t I do the right thing there? [23:56] How could you let this happen to me, God? I deserve better than this from you.

[24:03] When in that moment, the truth of what your faith has always been about will be seen.

[24:09] Me.

[24:11] Me. [24:13] Me. [24:14] Me. [24:14] Me. [24:15] Me. [24:16]

[24:18] And if you do not repent, you will find yourself saying me into eternity, [24:27] completely separated from God forever. Because you never had genuine faith.

[24:38] Don’t believe that if you just move the furniture in your life around to appear Christian, [24:45] that you will be able to change your desires. The outside isn’t your chief problem. [24:54] Mark chapter 715, Jesus gave us this truth when his disciples were dealing with Pharisees saying [25:01] that they were basically eating from dirty silverware. And Jesus says there’s nothing [25:05] outside of a person that is that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out [25:11] of a person are what defile him. See what Jesus is saying there? He’s saying that the things that

[25:17] are going on outside in your life, that’s not why you’re unclean. That’s not why you’re sinful. [25:24] That’s not why you’re dirty. You see, what comes out of you shows you’re filth. Because you are [25:30] dirty on the inside. That’s what sin is. It’s from the inside. But note what the prophet Ezekiel said [25:39] in chapter 36 years before Jesus ever said this. God says through the prophet, he says, [25:46] I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. [25:51] From all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart, a new spirit I will put

[25:56] within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, give you a heart of flesh and I will [26:02] put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. [26:09] You see what the prophet’s talking about right there, what God is inspiring him to say right [26:14] there is what’s called regeneration. God wants to regenerate your affections. And I realize that’s [26:21] not a term that most people use, but it’s a term that we need to learn. Regeneration is simply [26:28] a heart transplant from God. He says in that text that he’s going to remove your heart of stone,

[26:34] put in a heart of flesh. And I want you to understand that that is not a small deal. That [26:40] is not a minor thing. I have a friend who’s two times had to have open heart surgery and both [26:48] times affected him greatly, not just physically. You see if you talk to anyone that’s had open [26:53] heart surgery, it affects you physically, it affects you emotionally, it affects you spiritually [26:57] because they’re going down to the very root of who you are. It is the thing that keeps you living. [27:03] When they crack your chest open and they deal with your heart, that is a big deal. And so God

[27:09] is using that example so that we understand what a big deal regeneration is. That God does not [27:17] simply want us to add religion to our lives. He doesn’t want us to add a Bible study to our lives. [27:22] He doesn’t want us to add church attendance to our lives. God wants to go deeper into our lives. He [27:27] wants to crack our chest open, go down to the core of who we are and not just give us open heart [27:34] surgery, but a heart transplant. God wants to remove, he wants to eradicate the core of who [27:43] you are from yourself and start over. But the reason that he wants to do that is because of

[27:50] the spiritual deadness that’s inside. I mean nobody ever looks at somebody else and says, [27:56] you have a heart of stone where the person says, thank you.

[28:03] No, that means that you’re dead inside. There’s no life.

[28:11] So God says, I want to do the hard work here. I want to eradicate your very identity.

[28:19] I want to take the deepest longings of your heart and replace them. I want to take that which you [28:28] thought was going to give you ultimate satisfaction. I want to remove it from you.

[28:35] See, he doesn’t just want me to move the furniture of my life around. He wants to [28:40] bulldoze the entire house. He wants to rip the roof off. He wants to take the walls off. [28:47] He wants to rip up the very foundation and then he’s going to come in and he’s going to level [28:54] all of the ground. He’s even going to remove all of that, replace it. He’s going to replace [28:59] the foundation. He’s going to put new floor joists in. He’s going to put new walls up. He’s going to [29:04] put a new roof on. Then and only then will he begin to deal with how it is furnished.

[29:16] You see, we look at that and we say, I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

[29:24] I mean, I’ve known a few people that have been through the process of building a home. It takes [29:29] a long time. It seems like it’s never going to be over. It seems like you’re never going to see [29:36] the finished product. That’s the life of following Jesus.

[29:48] You see, so many of you are trying to fake it because you don’t want to admit that we’ve [29:54] just started leveling the ground. You’re doing it to your own detriment. Some of you are spiritual [30:03] infants, yet you’re pretending that you’re some kind of seasoned theologian because you don’t want [30:09] to admit that God just started doing this work and you got just started to change you. God just [30:15] started to build you and you’re ashamed of your immaturity when God says, why are you ashamed of [30:19] something that you’re not even allowed to take credit for? You’re not earning your salvation.

[30:27] It’s a gift. That’s why it’s the gospel of grace.

[30:32] I have a child who’s she’ll be two in January and she’s this year really learned to walk. [30:41] And when she first started walking and she fell, I did not reprimand her.

[30:50] I never looked to her and said, what a loser.

[30:58] Even now, I mean, you know, there is some disproportion going on here and it’s not stable. [31:04] It’s not sturdy and she’ll fall over and she’ll trip. And you know what I do? I pick her up [31:11] because she’s getting used to the legs that she hasn’t known how to use before.

[31:20] And while you’re faking it, you’re missing the opportunity to trust God with learning to walk. [31:27] And when you fall, he picks you back up and he says, no, you keep walking. When you identify sin, [31:32] you confess that sin. And God says, keep walking. When you learn to go through the process of God [31:40] rebuilding your life from scratch, when he removes the heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh, [31:46] and you begin to learn what it is to actually follow Jesus. And some of you are keeping [31:53] yourselves from enduring the greatest season of life that you will ever experience because you

[32:01] have never been regenerated. You’ve never really experienced it. All you’ve ever done is moved the [32:11] furniture around and you’ve convinced yourself you’re a Christian when you’ve never had that [32:17] experience. God wants to regenerate your affections.

[32:29] Did you know that you can’t do that to yourself?

[32:35] When Paul says in this text, in verse 28, that no one’s a Jew who’s merely one outwardly, [32:40] what he’s saying is that you’ve attempted to fashion your life to make yourself a follower of [32:46] God. You’ve attempted to fashion your life to make yourself a believer in God. And Paul’s saying, [32:53] that’s impossible. You can’t do it yourself. Only God can do it.

[33:01] He’s got this group of men standing around, these men who are saying, well, I want to be a Jew, so [33:06] I’ve got the knife. I’m getting ready to have at the circumcision thing and I’m going to make [33:12] myself a Jew. And God says, hold on there, Hoss. That’s an outward sign of an inward reality. So [33:23] you don’t start there. First, you take that knife and you stab it in your chest and you split it [33:32] open. And you crack it open. You remove your heart. And you say, well, hold on a second, God. I [33:38] can’t do that. I’ll die. And God says, exactly. You were never meant to change yourself. It’s

[33:45] impossible. But with God, it is possible. Because He can do that. And your attempts at living the [33:57] Christian life are burning you out. Because the truth of what you really want in your heart is [34:03] going to manifest itself. It’s going to come up to the surface one of these days. And in that moment, [34:10] you are either going to burn out on Christianity and you’re going to quit the faith because it [34:14] didn’t measure up to what you thought it was supposed to measure up to. Or you’re going to [34:18] continue to live the lie and ultimately one day you’re going to stand before God and He’s going

[34:27] to say, God, I know my patience. And the only response that you will have is, well, God, [34:33] I wasn’t one of your patients. I was able to do it myself. And God says, impossible.

[34:44] Jesus didn’t merely bring us an example.

[34:52] Jesus brought us a new life. You see, in this text, what we’re really seeing, what we’re really [34:59] dealing with is the fact of what God promised to do and then how Jesus did it. You see, when God [35:08] promises to sprinkle pure water on us, when He promises to give us a new life, He’s testifying [35:14] to the work that Jesus was going to do with the fact that He brought us a new life by taking [35:18] the dead one onto Himself, onto the cross, when He took the penalty for our sins and then rising [35:25] from the dead so that He could give us that new heart of flesh so that He could put His Spirit

[35:33] into the lives of every single one of us and do the impossible, change our very desires.

[35:47] You can’t save yourself. No amount of work,

[35:56] no amount of effort, but then also no amount of blame because it was so hard.

[36:06] Because we’ve missed the path that God laid out when it was never supposed to be something that [36:12] we did anyway. It was supposed to be something that He did for us and then to us.

[36:20] Thirdly, this morning, we have to understand that following Jesus requires regeneration.

[36:26] Following Jesus requires regeneration. Look at what it says in Romans 2.29. [36:35] He’s established that no one’s a Jew that’s one outwardly, but rather it’s something of being

[36:43] inwardly. Verse 29, but a Jew is one inwardly in circumcision, a matter of the heart, by the Spirit,

[36:54] not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. There’s one phrase in there that you [37:03] may skip over because you don’t understand it, but I want you to focus in on it. When He says [37:08] not by the letter. Not by the letter. You see, what they understood was because the law said [37:18] that you need to do this. Okay, so I do that and I’ll be all right, but then oh I didn’t do it [37:21] over here, but I did it over here. And what the apostle Paul is saying is you know how insane it [37:25] is to just pick this one thing out of all of the things and say that’s the only one that you need

[37:30] to do. He’s saying you can’t save yourself, but note what he does say. He says how is it supposed [37:44] to happen? By the Spirit. You see friends, the truth is that you need to be made new.

[37:58] Have you ever wondered why, no matter what you do, you don’t really care that much about Jesus. [38:09] You don’t really care that much about His mission. I mean if you’re really honest, you don’t really [38:13] care about His mission to redeem people. You don’t really want to be that involved. Have you ever [38:20] wondered why the Bible doesn’t excite you at all? Why prayer is never really that meaningful in [38:27] your life and you can go days, weeks, months and you’re not in the word, you’re not in prayer, [38:32] and it doesn’t really affect your life that much. The reason is because you are attempting to do it

[38:42] without regeneration. You are attempting to do it by the letter rather than what verse 29 says [38:54] is by the Spirit. So you’re attempting to do it, but you understand you can’t make it happen. [39:04] Only God can do that work. Only He can give you new affections.

[39:12] You know Matthew, chapter 9, Jesus explains regeneration this way. [39:18] No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment [39:27] and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put in old wine skins. If it is, the skins burst and [39:33] wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine skins. Both are [39:41] preserved. You see, I’m not much of a seamstress. I’ve never made wine, but what He’s talking about [39:46] there is that if you take an old garment and you patch a hole with a new cloth, one that’s never

[39:53] been washed or wet or anything, and you just sew that on, well as soon as the new cloth gets wet or [39:59] washed, it’s going to shrink up a little bit and when that happens, then the seams that you made, [40:04] they’re going to tear. He says when you make wine, you don’t put it into the skins that you had your [40:13] old wine in because you see when the old wine was put into those wine skins, well those wine skins [40:19] were new and new wine skins, they have room to stretch out and expand because during the fermentation [40:25] process, the gases that come out of the wine, well they stretch and they expand. Well if you put

[40:33] old, excuse me, new wine into old wine skins, then that leather, it’s already stretched to capacity [40:40] and when that new wine begins the process of stretching, well leather has no more room.

[40:48] So it bursts and the wine’s worthless because it’s all over the ground now.

[40:54] Jesus’ point is that when we attempt to simply add God to the life that we’ve already made, [41:01] the life that we’re already building, the journey that we’re already taking, and we just kind of [41:06] add God as this insurance policy for when the afterlife happens, you don’t get God because if [41:14] you added God to your life without Him changing you, it would destroy you and kill you. [41:22] Because God’s not going to go into a life that hasn’t been cured of sin.

[41:32] It’s not sufficient to just put something new into what already exists. God [41:41] doesn’t want to destroy you, He wants to rebuild you and that requires a complete life transplant.

[41:50] You know ultimately friends, the Spirit regenerates us through faith in Jesus. [42:01] You see Jesus says to a man who was completely religious, who’d done his best to follow the law, [42:07] who’d gotten the circumcision part right, Jesus looks to him in John chapter 3 and he answers, [42:15] He says, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, [42:20] where have you seen that before? Ezekiel 36.

[42:26] Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

[42:32] That which is born of the flesh, that’s flesh. That which is born of the Spirit, Spirit. [42:39] Don’t marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.

[42:47] You see Jesus looks into the life of a man who thought he had all the answers and said, [42:51] well you may have all the answers but you don’t have me. What you need is me.

[43:01] So then the question naturally must be, how do you know if you need to be regenerated? [43:09] You see, I’ll be honest with you, when I write sermons like this it’s rough.

[43:16] I’m sitting in my office saying, am I saved? And you’re like, are you? Yeah, yes. The answer was yes. [43:24] But here’s the reality.

[43:27] Some of you are trying to go through your life with ever having to ask yourself that question, [43:31] that’s not healthy.

[43:34] Some of you can’t remember the last time when the Holy Spirit really took a scalpel to your [43:38] life and rooted out some sin. I’m going through this and I’m confessing sin. I’m repenting of bad [43:45] attitudes. The Holy Spirit’s working in my life. That’s what it looks like to be regenerated. [43:53] The question is, how do you know? For in one way to know if you need to be regenerated [44:00] is if you are always looking for the minimum that you need to do [44:07] to live the Christian life.

[44:13] So how little can I do and fit in?

[44:20] So when you ask yourself that question, you ask someone that question, you’ve got to understand. [44:24] The reason you’re asking is because there’s no real life in it for you. [44:29] There’s no real passion in it. It’s not defining you. It’s just something you do, something you [44:35] feel like you have to. It’s an obligation so that you can feel a little bit better, have a little [44:41] less guilt. It’s a checklist that you have to complete to feel like a good person. But what you [44:49] really want in life is found outside of faith in Jesus. The things that really get your affections

[44:56] going, the things that you really think will give you satisfaction, the things that you really [45:01] believe will fill your life up with meaning. Well those things, they have nothing to do with Jesus.

[45:12] So when it comes to Christianity, you’re looking for the bare minimum standard.

[45:19] Do you ever find yourself knowing the direction that God reveals for you to go [45:25] through scripture, yet you just never do it? [45:32] Because you don’t want to. Do you convince yourself that there’s always a reason why [45:37] it’s okay for you to disobey God’s purpose and direction for your life?

[45:43] You know, we often think of regeneration in terms of simple moral rules, [45:50] but that is often just moving the furniture around in a house that is falling apart. [45:56] Go deep inside of your heart and ask the question, do I desire God? Do I really?

[46:13] Because the fact of the matter is, if you can ask yourself that question,

[46:20] the answer should be quite simple, because if God has given you his life,

[46:29] he should be fairly simple to find in your life.

[46:36] Where is God working in your life right now?

[46:45] What Paul is getting us to is a deep joy in God through faith in Jesus.

[46:56] A lifestyle in which the Holy Spirit is actively involved in our lives.

[47:03] Jesus came to build a new life, not patched together the old one.

[47:13] The fact of the matter is, I want you to understand that some of you need to be regenerated.

[47:27] I know that.

[47:31] Some of you right now, you can’t point to where God is working in your life, [47:37] yet you’re deceiving yourself and saying, that’s OK.

[47:42] You’re constantly looking for the bare minimum, but that’s OK. [47:45] There’s no affection for God in your life, but that’s OK. It’s not OK.

[47:55] You do not have the life of God inside of you. Do you understand the consequences of you continuing [48:05] to go through life without God? Just holding on to your excuses, holding on to your reasons, [48:14] not wanting to deal with it, because what will the person next to you think? [48:18] Consider how Paul ends the passage.

[48:26] His praise is not from man, but from God.

[48:37] You see, if God wants to put faith in your life right now, you got to understand one thing. [48:41] It’s not about the person next to you. It’s about God.

[48:46] So what do you need to do?

[48:50] Friend, I plead with you.

[48:55] You need to finally admit that you need the life that only God can give you. [49:03] You need to trust in Jesus. [49:08] You need to ask God to give you his life in place of your own. [49:17] Then understand this only then.

[49:24] Can you begin to live a life of worshiping God?

[49:32] As the band comes up,

[49:39] we go through passages like this.

[49:42] It’s tough because it shines a light into the darkest sections of our life and it [49:47] confronts us with questions that sometimes we’re not very comfortable asking ourselves.

[49:54] So here’s what I want you to understand. If you’re sitting in here today,

[50:03] you’re fighting, you’re wrestling with the question, have I ever been regenerated? [50:08] Have I ever really come to faith in Jesus Christ? I don’t know that that’s ever happened to me.

[50:16] Don’t ignore that. Ever.

[50:22] Go headlong and lean into that question and deal with it until you have an answer.

[50:29] Some of you are in here right now and you need to come to faith in Jesus. You need to trust in [50:33] him. You need to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[50:39] Here’s what I want you to understand.

[50:43] If all that’s keeping you back from dealing with that question [50:48] is fear of the people around you or fear of what someone will think [50:51] or fear that you’ve been living this masquerade so well that you’ve kind of reached a certain [50:57] point in your Christian life and it’s like what will people in my family think? Here’s the deal. [51:02] If they’re followers in Jesus, they’ll rejoice.

[51:09] And if they’re not, you will give them the best Christian witness that anyone’s ever seen.

[51:19] Because you’ll show them what it looks like to really come to faith in Jesus.

[51:24] Your life matters to God. That’s why he’s dealing with you personally right now.

[51:34] You don’t need me. You need to trust in Jesus Christ that he died for your sins, [51:44] that he rose to give you a brand new life. You need to turn from the life that you’ve been [51:50] living, the life of sin, and you need to turn to trust in him and beg him, God give me a new life. [51:57] Don’t do it. If you’re in here and you’re like that this morning, I’d love to talk to you, [52:02] I’d love to pray with you. I’ll be right over here. There’ll be some in the foyer.

[52:07] Today’s the day of salvation, friend.

[52:11] If you’re in here and you already have faith in Jesus, in just a moment I’m going to call [52:17] you to one of the six stations around this room to reflect on the Lord’s Supper. [52:23] The cup represents his shed blood. The bread represents his broken body, shed and broken for you. [52:30] When you come today, come praising the God who saves and gives us a new life. When you’re ready, come.