Sermon Central
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Being Led By The Spirit Starts With Regeneration Series
Contributed by Brett Crosson on May 22, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: Being led by the Spirit is crucial for the believer and central to salvation. Those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God, thy are not under the law but under grace, as the Scriptures teach. So what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? In this series we look at answering this.
Part 1
Being led by the Spirit starts with Regeneration
The word “regeneration" means a new birth, a new beginning, a new order (of things).
The word “regeneration” appears only twice in the English Bible. Both appearances are in the New Testament. It was used once by our Lord in Matthew 19:28 and once by the Apostle Paul in Titus 3:5.
When the Lord used the word, He said to His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”.
Here the Lord used the word in a wider sense when referring to His coming kingdom on earth. It is the time of the earth’s regeneration, the new order about which the prophets wrote, when Jehovah will set His King upon His holy hill of Zion (Psalm 2:6),
Isaiah 2:4 “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”.
The kingdom of Christ on earth will be a time of world-wide subjection to the authority of Christ, when sin, sorrow, sickness, suffering and strife will not touch earth’s inhabitants. In that day God will renew His creation.
Isaiah 11:6,9 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” , and “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea”.
“the regeneration of the earth, is that time when Christ shall rule on the throne of David (II Samuel 7; Luke 1:32, 33; 2:11), Satan will be incarcerated (Revelation 20:2), Israel will be spiritually re-born (Isaiah 66:8; Ezekiel 37; Matthew 24:8; Romans 11:1, 2, 26), peace, prosperity, social justice and equality will prevail (Isaiah 42:1-4; Micah 4:1-7). This is the golden age, the utopia for which man has sought in vain. It is God’s coming great society, the Theocracy in the earth. Where all things in the earth will be made new!
When the Apostle Paul used the word “regeneration,” he wrote, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
Paul uses the word referring to the regeneration of the individual man, his being born again into God’s new order.
This new order, by the way, is the Church, the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22, 23).
And No effort on man’s part can bring a person into God’s order, for it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done” (Paul says in Titus 3:5), and again in Ephesians 2:9 he says: “Not of works, lest any man should boast".
Regeneration then, may be defined as an act of God whereby He bestows upon the believing sinner new life.
note: this new life that is imparted is God’s own life, it is the imparting of His own divine nature.
Beloved, God Himself is the Source and Bestower of This life, so that the bible says that believers are “partakers of the Divine nature” (II Peter 1:4), that we have been “created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10), that we are “born of God” (John 1:13), we are “born again” (John 3:3, 7), we have become “a new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17).
1 John 3:14 refers to it as a passing from death to life;
Ephesians 2:1, 5 talks about a being quickened.
Eph. 2:6 says its a resurrection from the dead;
How does this happen? Well, It's not through ritual, it's not through reformation, it's not through anything in this natural realm. What do I mean?
Not through ritual.... Specifically, I’m referring to water baptism....when water baptised.
There are some that teach that this new life is received when a person is water baptised. And so they baptise babies. If water baptism gave people the very life of God then we should all rush out to the sea and to pools and dump people...
No, water baptism cannot impart this life. Water baptism is merely a symbol of this new life.
In Acts 8 we read of a man: Simon Magus. He was baptized, but he was not regenerated. The Scripture actually says that “Simon himself believed” (Acts 8:13);
however, there is a belief which is leads to regeneration, and there is a belief which might not lead to regeneration. James says: “The (demons) also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19), but such mere belief cannot save one.
