Sermon 6. - Necessity of Regeneration.

feelings be! And how will you lament your sin and folly, in disregarding the day of your merciful visitation! O! consider this, ere it be for ever too late. SERMON 6. - NECESSITY OF REGENERATION.

“Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” — John 3:3.f9

THE corruption that has overspread the Christian world as a flood, and the lukewarmness of those who distinguish themselves by some degree of seriousness, make it next to impossible to preach many of the most important doctrines of Christianity without giving offence to some. We love to lie down as if our spiritual race was run, even before we set out in earnest. And if any one attempts to show us plainly our danger in so doing, we look upon him in general as a troublesome person who endeavours to make us uneasy without necessity. This is one of the reasons why those who are appointed to show unto others the way of salvation dare hardly mention what Christ said of the narrowness of the way that leads to life, and the few that walk therein.

We fear to be thought uncharitable, or suspected of preaching new doctrines: and this fear makes us soften, if not conceal, those parts of the Gospel which Christ and his apostles insisted upon in the plainest manner. Nevertheless, as we are commanded to declare the whole counsel of God, without respect of persons or fear of men, I shall now discourse on one of those points of doctrine which worldly Christians seldom make the subject of their meditations; I mean the doctrine of our regeneration or new birth in Christ Jesus. And to do it in order, I shall consider, First, On what occasion and to whom our blessed Lord spoke the words of the text, “Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” In the

Second place I shall show the absolute necessity of a new birth to enter into life eternal; and

Thirdly, I shall conclude by pointing out the way to that regeneration, without which no man can see the kingdom of heaven. And may the Lord, who has promised to be with his servants to the end of the world, manifest his presence among us, and apply by his Spirit to all our hearts the important doctrine of the text which he taught himself in the days of his flesh.

And first, I am to consider on what occasion and to whom our blessed Lord spoke of regeneration.

1. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and no doubt one of the best of them, having heard of the miracles of Jesus, concluded that he was no mere man, but a teacher sent from God; therefore he came by night to ask him some questions concerning the kingdom of God, which every sincere Jew expected at that time. Our Lord, knowing that he (as well as the rest of the nation) entertained wrong notions of his kingdom, which is wholly spiritual, began by assuring him that no one unconverted could see that kingdom, much less enter into it: “Verily, verily I say unto thee, that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

2. As if he had said, “Be not mistaken, Nicodemus, my kingdom is not such as thou thinkest, nor can all men enter therein, since thou art yet unprepared for it thyself. Neither thy honesty, nor sobriety, nor all thy zeal for the religion of thy fathers, with thy great profession of all the external duties of it, can fit thee for the presence of God. If thou restest there, know that thy soul will remain in as thick darkness as that which surrounds a child yet unborn. For though thou enjoyest an animal life, as other creatures on earth, yet hast thou lost in Adam a spiritual life; the life of angels in thy soul; and thou must receive it again by a new and spiritual birth; or else thou shalt be as little capable of seeing and enjoying God as a child unborn is to see and enjoy the light of the sun.”

3. Though this doctrine of the new birth surprises every natural man, and seems foolishness to him, our blessed Lord did not first deliver it: Moses had said two thousand years before him, “The Lord your God shall circumcise,” or so change cc your heart, that you shall be enabled to love him with all your soul. The Lord will take away your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” David had prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit - within me.” Ezekiel had cried aloud to all the people of God, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, and make yourselves new hearts and new spirits, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” As if he had said, “In vain do you boast of being the house of Israel, and God’s chosen people; unless you get new hearts and new spirits, you shall surely die.”

4. These and many more passages of the Old Testament should make us think that no sincere Jew could be a stranger to the doctrine of the new birth. But as there are now many serious people who have a great form of religion, and notwithstanding know nothing of regeneration experimentally, supposing themselves to be of those just men who need no repentance, and consequently no spiritual change; so it was in the days of our Lord; and Nicodemus, with all his profession of religion, zeal, morality, and desire of being instructed, was one of the number.

5. Accordingly, struck with amazement at the saying of our Lord, and mistaking quite the meaning of his words, “How can a man be born (cried he) when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Our Lord told him, if a man could enter into his mother’s womb and be born again, that would not help him, for he would still be sinful flesh, and of the same corrupted nature as that from which he was born. But to enter into his kingdom, which is spiritual, he must be born of water and of the Holy Ghost, he must have a spiritual birth, be begotten of incorruptible seed, and become an adopted son of God.

6. Then, to prevent all doubts of the absolute necessity of submitting to this doctrine, as if it were not enough to have affirmed it necessary twice, and to have enforced it by the solemn word “indeed, indeed;” lest any one, like Nicodemus, should question the truth of it, because he never experienced it, our Saviour added, for the third time, (turning himself, no doubt, to all that were present,) “Ye must be born again.” As if he had said, “What I say to Nicodemus I say unto all, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’”

7. Here the Jewish ruler, not daring to object any more to the truth of our Lord’s doctrine, only expressed his wonder at hearing it. Our Lord, who (if we are sincere before him) always removes rather than punishes our stupidity in the things of God, would not discourage him; but with an admirable patience endeavoured to make him understand the impossibility of explaining by what operation of God’s grace a man is born again.

8. How short, and yet how powerful was his argument! “When the wind bloweth,” saith he, “thou canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” As if he had said, “How can one describe the wind to him who has not felt or heard it? or how account whence it cometh” Yet we know and feel there is such a thing as wind. So one that is born again, into whose soul the Lord has breathed the breath of spiritual life, knows that the Holy Ghost has dispelled the darkness of his soul, and made him pass from death unto life: he feels in his heart the happy change; he experiences that he is a child of God, because God has given him of his Spirit, and refreshes him with the spiritual breezes of his consolation. Though he is conscious of all this, yet he cannot reveal or describe it to another; nor can he make one whose eyes the Lord has not yet opened see the kingdom, and taste the happiness to which he is restored, because it is what no man knows but he that receiveth it: here every one must experience for himself.”

9. This plain answer should have satisfied Nicodemus; but unbelief made him cry out again, “How can these things be?” Then did our Lord silence him. “What, (said he,) art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? If I have told you of earthly things,” of the wind which is earthly, and you are not able to comprehend or account for its blowing, how can you pretend to understand spiritual and heavenly things, which are past finding out? Thus did our Lord reprove the ignorance and incredulity of that master in Israel, who had not learned himself what he should have taught others long before: and at the same time gave him and us to understand that this mystery of the new birth is not to be defined or described, but felt, experienced, and enjoyed in the heart; and that every one who believes the word of God to be true, instead of inquiring, “How can this be?” must immediately beg of God to make him feel in his heart the want of a new birth; and then he will receive power to seek it with tears, prayer, and repentance till he find it for himself. This was the case of Nicodemus: for not withstanding the unwillingness he showed at first to believe the doctrine of regeneration true, he was convinced by the words of our Lord: and we hear that he proved at last a bold confessor of Christ and his doctrine. Would to God we were as ready to imitate him in his faith as worldly Christians are ready to imitate his crying out, “How can it be?”

10. Having thus explained how and to whom our Saviour preached regeneration, I proceed now to show the absolute necessity of a new birth. And in order to this it seems that, in addressing Christians, it should be sufficient to say, that Christ has solemnly declared it necessary for beside what he said to Nicodemus, he told his disciples that “unless they were converted, and became as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven,” which was enforced after his death by the apostles, when they said, “Put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness - and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” And to add the last degree of evidence to these Scripture proofs, I could bring in the testimony of our Church, which declares in her catechism, “A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness necessary to salvation,” and is so far from supposing (as some would have it) that we are all born again in baptism, that she directs us in her collects to pray that God by “his Holy Spirit would create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we may obtain perfect remission of our sins.” Whence it appears clearly, that she exhorts every baptized person to seek this renewal of the heart, and that no one can be a faithful member of Christ and the Church of England, who does not receive the doctrine of regeneration.

11. But I know that all these proofs will not convince a man as long as he does not see why we must be born again: therefore I beg leave to lay before such a one the reason why God insists so much upon our regeneration in all parts of the Bible.

Whether we think of it or not, brethren, it is certain that man once enjoyed in Adam a life of happiness and holiness, loving God with all his soul, in every thing giving thanks, and rejoicing evermore. But, alas! his disobedience soon destroyed that life; for according to the sentence which God had pronounced, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” he died spiritually; he died to happiness, to holiness, and God; and from that spiritual death he hastened to bodily death, and, if not prevented by regeneration, to death eternal, “the destruction of body and soul in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” Now Adam, having thus destroyed himself, (being made the devil’s slave, and covered all over with his leprosy,) swelled with pride, inflamed with lust, and filled with enmity to God, and unbelief of his sacred word: Adam, I say, being in that wretched state, could not beget children in a better nature than he had himself. “Can a clean thing come out of an unclean? And can the streams be wholesome when the fountain is poisoned?”

12. What, then, is the plain consequence? The whole lump of mankind is leavened with the leaven of spiritual as well as bodily death. Hear the word of the Lord: “All flesh has corrupted its way upon earth.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “I was born in sin,” says David, “and in iniquity did my mother conceive me.” St. Paul, with all the believers at Ephesus, owned that before they were born again, they “were children of wrath even as others.” Do we want more striking proofs? Let us only look into our lives, and we shall see too many reasons to believe, according to the word of God, that we are spiritually dead in sin and unbelief; for not to mention the injustice, drunkenness, uncleanness, avarice, malice, revenge, envy, lying, evil speaking, Sabbath breaking, swearing, cursing, profaneness; and all those overflowings of ungodliness which appear more or less in the conversation of too many of us; let us only examine our hearts, even now that we are in the presence of God. Are not they, in general, like so many stones, void of all spiritual feeling? Is there not in our necks an iron sinew that hinders us from stooping to God and worshipping him in spirit and in truth? And has not our stubbornness, and unbelief of the word of God, caused some of us to murmur already at the severity of our Lord’s doctrine; while others, perhaps, flatter themselves still with hopes of salvation without experiencing the new birth. This alone is a plain proof that we have not recovered from Adam’s fall, since, after his example, we believe Satan when he saith, “Ye shall not surely die,” rather than Christ, who declares in the text that if we are not born again, we cannot enter into his kingdom. O! if our hearts should rise in that manner against our Lord’s doctrine, let us consider what one of the prophets told Saul in such a case: “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft before God, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry; because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee.”

13. Now, brethren, if from the testimony of Scripture, the sins of our life, and the present stupid disposition of our hearts, it appears so clearly that we are estranged from God, and that our nature is just the reverse of his, does it not follow that before we can enter into his kingdom, we must put off this brutish and devilish nature of ours, and become “partakers of the Divine nature?”

This appears so plain, that our darkened reason, even without the light of revelation, is forced to agree to it. Who can deny, for example, that all gluttons, drunkards, unclean persons, in a word, all the sons and daughters of Belial, must naturally go with Belial their father - like with like? Who can doubt that the unjust, the covetous, and extortioners, who fight here for the kingdom of darkness, under the banner of mammon, shall be banished from the kingdom of heaven hereafter, unless they are born again, and get a new nature? Who can deny that every worldly - minded person, every one that loves pleasure more than God, that cares for earth more than heaven, shall have his portion with the god of this world, whose slave or child he still is? And suppose any one thinks this expression too hard, let him hear Jesus Christ himself, who said plainly to the Pharisees of his age, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father you do:” though they thought themselves good enough without being born again, because outwardly they were less wicked than others. It follows, that every unregenerate man has in himself the nature of his father, and can never go to God unless he be renewed by the Spirit of God.

14. Again: does not good sense teach us that a soul who is overcharged with earthly pleasures, surfeiting, drunkenness, or the cares of this world, will sink into the bottomless pit, for the same reason that a stone falls down by its own weight? And is it not plain that a man, whose heart never felt the fear and love of God, who never had his conversation in heaven, and never troubled himself much about getting, by ardent prayer, the wings of a living faith, a confirmed hope, and an unfeigned burning love toward God: is it not plain, I say, that such a man shall be as unfit to take his flight to heaven with God’s children, as the heaviest creature on earth is unable to soar toward the sun with the eagle? It is, then, most certain, that ye must be born again, or never see the kingdom of God.

15. But suppose it were possible for thee, O sinner, to enter into heaven without having experienced the new birth; suppose that Jesus Christ, to favour thee, would break his solemn word, (though he has declared the heaven and earth shall pass away rather than that one jot or tittle of it shall remain unfulfilled,) what wouldst thou do there? Drunkard! there is no strong drink in heaven. Sensualist! thou must leave flesh and blood behind, and how great would be the disappointment to be deprived of all the means of thy present happiness! Nay, being obliged to carry along with thee all the appetites, tempers, and passions, which now predominate in thy soul, and at the same time not being able to satisfy them, heaven itself would be no heaven for thee, and thy discontent would even prove a kind of hell. And you, worldlings! how great would your disappointment be also! You could have neither card playing nor dancing assemblies; nor could you find among all the glorified saints one soul willing to spend a moment in talking about nothing, or about dress, or in hearing all the tales you pick up to slander or ridicule your neighbour. Confess, then, that you must be born again, or have your portion far from God and his holy angels.

16. But some one, perhaps, will be ready to say, “I acknowledge that swearers, extortioners, whoremongers, and the like, cannot be saved without a new birth; (for the oaths and curses of the profane shall not be mixed with the hallelujahs of angels, any more than the injustice of extortioners shall disturb the peace of saints: and it shocks good sense to think that the impure and sensual will be permitted to offend the pure eyes of God with their debaucheries;) but I bless God, I am not one of them. I have lived soberly and justly from my youth up; and I hope I have been as constant at church and sacrament as most people: now, must I be born again, as well as daring sinners? Was not I born of water and the Spirit at my baptism?”

17. Before I answer this serious question, suffer me to ask thee one that is not less important. Hast thou made thy peace with God? Is Christ revealed in thee? Does he dwell in thee and thou in him? Hast thou received the Spirit of adoption, bearing witness with thy spirit that thou art a child of God? See Romans 8. Is the love of God shed abroad in thy heart? Dost thou know what it is to enjoy the light of God’s countenance? Or to be troubled, like David, for the want of it? Is thy soul athirst for the living God? And dost thou pant after his likeness as the hart panteth after the water brook? Dost thou no longer conform thyself to this present evil world, living here as a stranger and pilgrim, and hastening with joy to the New Jerusalem, where thy heart is gone before thee? In short, does thy soul as naturally mount up to God in ardent prayers and delightful praises, as the flame mounts upward? And dost thou show forth the praises of him that has called thee from darkness to light in all thy conversation, by all meekness, gentleness, long suffering, patience, humility, holy mourning, holy joy, and heavenly mindedness?

18. If with Peter thou canst look by faith unto Jesus, and say with humble confidence, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee:” if thou canst take him to witness that thou findest in thy heart every day more and more the virtues and dispositions above mentioned; thou art a child of God, thou art born again - thou art passed from death unto life. Whether the mighty change was wrought at thy baptism or at any other time, it matters not; thou art a living member of Christ, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. Only persevere, grow in grace, be faithful unto death, and thou shalt have the crown of life.

19. But if, so far from finding in thyself these marks of the new birth, in some considerable measure at least, thy conscience rises against thee, and thou art forced to own that thy heart cleaveth to the creature more than to God, to earth more than to heaven, be not offended if I tell thee, in the name of Christ, and pursuant to his doctrine, that thou must be born again, or be shut out of heaven. I do not mean that thou must reform thy life as presumptuous sinners, for I suppose thee to be free from all intemperance and dishonesty, and averse to all profaneness. But this Jesus affirms, that notwithstanding thy morality and form of religion, thou must experience also an inward change before thou canst enjoy happiness in heaven; for the joys of saints there are all spiritual and religious, but thou hast no taste or relish for religious pleasures: it is weariness to thee to spend some part of the Lord’s day in hearing God’s word, or conversing with him by prayer and praise. And dost thou think thou art likely to be happy in heaven, where loving, admiring, and praising God will make all the happiness of saints through the ages of eternity? Beside, thou are carnally minded; and to be carnally minded is death. Thy sins are not forgiven thee, for if they were, thou wouldst love much. Thou art, then, still unreconciled to God, and an enemy to Christ; if not by thy conversation, at least by the tempers of thy heart. Thou must, then, be born again, even as any other person, for the word of God bears this testimony to thee, that thy inward parts are very wickedness, thy heart is full of the love of the world, and of a thousand foolish and hurtful desires; in short, thou art alive unto the things of earth; and drowsy, stupid, and dead to the things of God.

20. Do not say, “I was born again in baptism;” for, beside that the most abandoned sinners can plead as much, does not St. Peter say, that the “baptism which saves us is not the outward washing of the body, but the answer of a good conscience, besprinkled with the blood of Jesus in the new birth?” And does not St. Paul affirm, that in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation, a thorough change of soul? Or, to use the words of the Church, a new and contrite heart, with which God always bestows entire pardon and forgiveness of all our sins.

Now, brethren, if these things be so, if none can deny them, but those who trample under foot the truth as it is in Jesus, how miserably deluded are those who trust in a form of godliness, in an outward reformation, or in the strictness of their morals! All these things, though very good in their proper place, without a change of heart, are but broken reeds which will pierce the hands of those that lean upon them, and let them fall into the bottomless pit. For, let no one deceive himself. If the unregenerate soul cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, it must be shut up in that of darkness; there is no middle place. And it will be sufficient not to have known Christ experimentally in the new birth, to be ranked with the reprobates at last.

“Depart from me,” shall the meek, the loving, the merciful Jesus be forced to say to all those that shall not be qualified for his kingdom by regeneration - “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Depart with those fallen angels whose dark, proud, and sensual nature you never put of by regeneration.

But let me put an end here to these sad, yet necessary reflections, and hasten to conclude, by laying before you, in few words, the glad tidings of salvation: for the ministers of Christ are messengers of peace; and God knows that if ever they are obliged to awake drowsy sinners, and to probe their spiritual wounds by speaking plain words. it is only to apply with more success the remedy which God’s mercy has prepared for them. Know, then, that the Lord is merciful, and that he delighteth not in the death of a sinner, but chooseth rather that he should be converted and live. Know that he has prepared an infallible remedy to recover every fallen soul; and if you will apply in earnest to him for if you shall attain to a life of happiness and holiness here, which shall be crowned with eternal glory hereafter.

Know, that that remedy cost him no less than the blood of his Son, his only Son, and that faith, a living faith, is the only means to apply it to your souls. Hear the word of God: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth is born of God. To them gave Jesus power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. We are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” But beware that you mistake not faith. It is not the dry, speculative, barren faith, which every drunkard and every worldly - minded sinner profess to have. No, it is a close union with Christ, and a receiving him in the heart upon God’s own terms, whence arises an humble confidence that our sins are forgiven us, and that we, who were once afar off, are now reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. From this faith follows a loving heart to God and all mankind; a desire stronger than death to live henceforth only to the glory of Him that loved us unto death; and a happiness, which is the earnest and the foretaste of heavenly joys.