Birth and our being 'born again'

First off, sorry for the confusion I must have caused some people with the huge boo-boo I had in my Thursday post. My pastor said Luke 2 when he meant Matthew 2 and I then mistakenly inserted a passage from Luke 2 into my copy when I should have had Matthew 2.

The passage should read: In Matthew 2, you have a bunch of Gentiles coming, looking for the Messiah and the last thing that happens, talking about the wise men:

[12] And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Here you have God communicating with a bunch of Gentiles directly. That’s unheard of! What you have is an illustration of the end game of the prophetic program; that is the redemption of the Gentiles through the King of the Jews whom they seek. So, you’re seeing a dispensational kind of thing in Matthew.

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I Corinthians 6: [11] And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

So who washed you, purified you? The Holy Spirit. Who sanctified you? The Holy Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit cleanse you? He regenerates you. How does He sanctify you? He renews you.

The issue of regeneration, in Israel that’s called the new birth. Regenerate means to give new life to, explains Richard Jordan.

You and I as Gentiles can’t be born again, because to be born again means to be born a second time and you were not born of God to start with. You were born of your mom and dad. You were born of the image of Adam.

But when you get saved, you get begotten by God the Holy Spirit into the family of God, so you are born of God, but you’re only born of God once.

Now, when people talk about being a “born again Christian,” I don’t jump down their throats and go, “Oh, no you’re not,” because I understand what people mean by it.

I don’t use the terminology because I don’t want to just play into the confusion that’s there and maybe when I don’t use the terminology they may ask me why and I can explain to them why, but explaining it to them doesn’t always work.

You remember Ricky Ricardo used to say, “You’ve got a lot of splaining to do”?

John 3: [4] Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
[5] 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.
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
[7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
[8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

When Jesus describes what He’s talking to Nicodemus about, look how He defines it in verse 6.  Being born into the family of God, being regenerated, being quickened, is to have God the Holy Spirit give life to your dead spirit.

It is a spiritual transaction performed by the Holy Spirit, whereby He implants God’s life in us, into our inner man, and He loosens us from the flesh. He sets us free. He crucifies us, circumcises the body, the sins of the flesh, sets us free and we are now in Christ as the Lord’s free man.

That’s what Colossians 2 is talking about and that’s what Galatians 2:20 is saying.

Colossians 2: [11] In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
[12] Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

Galatians 2:20: [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

I am geographically located in the flesh but I’m not controlled by it. And that’s why He uses the term washing. I am cleansed of all of the contamination and control of the flesh.

When you get saved, God does these wonderful things for you. When you have the righteousness of God in Christ, then the Holy Spirit can give you His life. That’s not by what you do; it’s by His plan, His purpose, His work, when you trust Him.

The washing of regeneration is that invisible operation of God the Holy Spirit in your inner man whereby He implants His life in us in our inner man and cuts us loose from the body the sins of the flesh and we’re free. That’s a great salvation.

Then that indwelling Holy Spirit renews our inner man day by day as we walk by faith in His Word, and as we do that, that Holy Spirit is shed abroad in us abundantly.

That is, as you walk day by day, knowing that tribulation works patience, so on and so forth, as you grow in that walk, because you’re justified, you’re made heirs, and your heirship out there is going to be something that puts on display the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is a great salvation. That’s what salvation is.

He didn’t just justify you and make you free; He put in you a life that then lives through you as you walk day by day. It’s not just forgiveness.

Ephesians 5: [1] Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
[2] And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

What does that mean? Live in that complete, self-sacrificing, self-giving . . .  Titus 2: [11] For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
[12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
[13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
[14] Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.