5/27,2001AM Sheridan, AR
George E.Crumbly REGENERATION (Titus 3:1-8)
Introduction:
• While out on the road the other day I saw a youth pastor that was a youth pastor in a town I had pastored in a few years back. The last couple of times that I have seen him I always ask him about the Pastor he served with (A good friend of mine) (My heart was broken to learn that he was not pastoring, he let his credentials lapse & that he isn’t hardly in church.)
• He Pastored another church in Arkansas, where supposedly he got hurt, then he went to Alabama where I guess his ministry was “finished off”. I’ve thought & thought & thought…..What could have happened? My main thought though was: Why?
• He was a good Preacher and a good Pastor…..Why do people give up so easily?
READ TITUS 3 : Verses 1-8
• The one word the Lord laid on my heart this morning is: REGENERATION (read in the Manual this morning about Regeneration)
REGENERATION: The Spiritual Change brought about in a persons life by an act of God. In Regeneration a persons sinful nature is changed, and he is enabled to respond to God in faith.
• The word Regeneration only occurs 2 times in the Bible, once here in Titus and also in Matthew 19:28, yet the idea is common thru out the entire bible. The literal meaning of the word Regeneration is “Born Again”.
• I hate to say it or even think it but I’m afraid there there are many out there in this world that profess that they are Christians, yet there has been NO CHANGE….
• What happens when a person is “born-again” involves an enlightening of the mind, a change of the will, and a renewed nature. It extends to the total nature of man, changing a persons desires and restoring him to a right relationship with God in Christ.
• This Morning, if you PROFESS that you are a Christian, yet you have not Changed then you my friend have a very serious problem…..You see, Regeneration brings lost man back into a Right Relationship with God….. There are many Religions out there today, more than I can bother to name…..Yet we are not pushing or trying to sell any Religion, we want folks out there that are lost to
REGENERATION Cont.’
Be brought into a RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God….. One writer writes “Every
Biblical command to man to undergo a radical change of character from self-centeredness to GOD-CENTEREDNESS is in effect, an appeal to be “born-again”.
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts;
and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:33)
• You see we are born first of the flesh..9/23/56 I was born to George and JoAnn Crumbly in Haines City Florida. Then on 9/5/83 I was born Spiritually at an Altar just like this one here.
• You see any man not Born Spiritually will not see the Kingdom of Heaven….
“Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.” (John 3:3,5)
• The need for Regeneration grows out of mans sinfulness. (“The wages of sin is
Death.”) If you live in Sin & then die…..You will spend eternity in a Devils Hell-
There is a lot of people out there that does not believe this….
• I’ve said it before that the answer is not in destroying beer joints or abortion clinics, or those things that are sinful, the answer is to Change man!!! When man is REALLY & TRULY CHANGED, then he won’t do the things he used to do!!
• The Church today needs Christian men & women of God that truly have been changed and actually live it…. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
New creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
(II Cor. 5:17)
• Regeneration is brought about thru Gods initiative, God works in the human heart, and then that person responds to God thru Faith….(this the reason we pray for the Lord to deal with peoples hearts)
• Thus Regeneration is an act of God thru the Holy Spirit, resulting in resurrection from sin to a NEW LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST……
My friend that got out of the Ministry in Jonesboro was hurt in a church, he was hurt…he was devastated by Church People. All I can figure is those church people had not been regenerated!! They must have undoubtedly not been changed.
Folks that don’t change have not met with Jesus. When we come to the Altar of prayer we don’t:
• Learn to be saved
• We don’t work into being saved
• Our past history doesn’t matter
• Our past culture does not matter…….
You see Jesus is BIGGER than all of that…… The question is: Have you really been born-again?? Have you really changed??
ALTAR:
This morning is the perfect opportunity to be born-again, Billy Graham preached a message one time entitled “Are You Sure You Have Been Born-Again?”
I ask you the same question this morning………..
