A Sovereign Birth

Our wills were dead in trespasses and sin.

They were inoperative. They were in bondage to sin. The freedom of the will that we had was only in one direction. It was towards sin. But notice how he says we are born again, not of blood, not by human descent or lineage.

It's not by your family tree. It's not of the will of the flesh. It's not by all of our efforts to work our way into the kingdom.

And then the final death was not even of the will of man, but of God, meaning it is by the will of God, the sovereign, electing, predestinating, gracious, loving, merciful will of God. Humans can do incredible things. We build things. We invent things.

We send rockets into space. But something that we cannot do is make ourselves born again. You're listening to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. For the final time this week, you'll hear a message from Stephen Lawson's series on the new birth. And today, he'll demonstrate from Scripture that this glorious and gracious work of regeneration is a sovereign birth.

But let me remind you that if you'd like to work through the entire 12-message series and use the study guide with its message outlines, quotations, and study questions, you can request this resource when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. Well, here's Dr. Lawson on the sovereign nature of the new birth. Well, I hope by this time in our study on the new birth that you're impressed, perhaps yet again, with the absolute necessity of the new birth, that except you be born again, you will not see nor enter the kingdom of heaven. And I hope that by this point in our study, you're being impressed yet again with how radical is the new birth, how comprehensive it is.

There is no change that can ever take place in anyone's life at any level that would ever begin to compare to what God does in our hearts and souls when we are born again. It is so supernatural. It is so of God. It is the life of God in the soul of man.

Well, in this session, I want to continue to build on what we've been talking about and extend the fence, if you will, a little bit further. And in this session, I want to talk about that the new birth is a sovereign birth. The very imagery of being born eludes itself to this element that we were acted upon and there was nothing that we did that in and of itself contributed to our birth.

That's certainly true in the physical realm, is it not? And as Jesus said, we must be born again. There is this element of the complete, entire sovereignty of God in our salvation. I want to ask you again, what did you do to be born physically?

I would say nothing. What did you do to be born again spiritually? And the fact of the matter is the new birth is a sovereign, independent, autonomous work of God the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those whom He has marked out to be birthed from above. James Montgomery Boice is one of my very favorite preachers and Christian authors. And in reading Dr. Boice's commentary on the Gospel of John, Dr. Boice says this regarding the sovereignty of God in the new birth.

Clearly, Boice says, God uses this imagery referring to being born because it alone shows that the initiative lies with the Father entirely and not with the son or the daughter who is engendered. What did you have to do with your birth? Did you say, I would like to be a boy? I would like to be born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

They seem like such a nice couple. Of course you did not, Boice says. You had absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead, your father met your mother and between them they produced you. And you only realized what had happened afterward. It is obvious, therefore, Boice writes, that when God uses this image of being born again, He does so so that He alone is responsible for your salvation and that you believe only because He first created life within you to do it.

Let me repeat that last sentence again. That you believe only because He first created the life within you. That's what happens in the new birth. The new birth precedes saving faith and the new birth produces saving faith. God is always previous.

God is always out ahead of the parade. God is sovereign and He is sovereign in our new birth. Now I want to direct you to John chapter 3 yet one more time. I know you have your Bibles and I invite you to turn to John chapter 3. And I want to look at verse 8. One verse, verse 8. It is a verse that speaks directly and clearly to the sovereign activity of God the Holy Spirit who works powerfully in the souls of those who are born again. I wanted to say this also by way of introduction before I read this verse, that standing behind this verse is the great doctrine of election and the great doctrine of predestination. That is standing in the shadows of this verse, standing behind this verse. And it is what is leading the way in regeneration. Those who have been chosen by God from before the foundation of the world to whom He sends the Spirit of God within time in this world who causes us to be born again.

What a glorious truth this is. How intentional God has been in our salvation. For how long God has planned and prepared for our new birth. It was not a spur of the moment decision by God.

It was not an impulse within time. But from eternity past, God set His heart upon us and purposed in His own sovereign will that He would birth us into His kingdom. All glory to God because of this. So look at verse 8. Verse 8, again, a clear statement of the sovereignty of God in salvation. These are the words of our Lord Jesus. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it.

But do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Jesus is teaching us here by way of analogy. He is using this metaphor of the wind to liken what it is to be born again. In fact, in the Greek language, the word for spirit and the word for wind are the very same word. So there's a word play that is going on here. That's how obvious the parallel comparison is.

It's even the same word in the original language. So what Jesus is saying is what the wind is in nature, so the Holy Spirit is in our new birth. So what are the parallels?

Well, there's four in particular that I want to draw to your attention as we really dig into this. First of all, the wind is independent. It says, Jesus said, the wind blows where it wishes. We could say the wind is a mind of its own. The wind is going to blow where the wind is going to blow. It never blows where man wishes it to blow. We have no control over the wind.

I wish that I did. I live in Mobile, Alabama, which is Hurricane Alley. And during hurricane season, I just sit there and turn on the Weather Channel and turn on the other cable news, and we can see the hurricane coming. And if the mayor or anyone had powers over the wind, we would certainly employ those to redirect the wind to some other lovely place other than where I am. Its initiating force is, we know it's of God because God controls the wind, and God controls the weather. And the path that the wind takes, inevitably when the forecasters say, well, it's going to make landfall here, inevitably it makes landfall someplace else. The wind just has a mind of its own. It goes its own way. It blows in its own place.

It bypasses one place and strikes with force in another place. So it is with the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit moves upon one heart and then passes over another heart. Have you ever noticed, even in some families where some are believers and others are not believers? I was eating dinner last night with the Sproles, and Vesta said to me, before I went to college, I never even knew a Christian. I'd never even met a Christian.

And she said the same was with R.C. When he went off to college, at that point in his life, he had never even met someone who was born again. And then in college, with both of them, the Spirit of God blew like the wind. Why did the wind blow upon them and not upon others in their household, in their extended family, in their neighborhood, in their school? The wind blows where it wishes, and it blows upon one.

It passes over another. It blows upon a church and a group of people, and there are many who are birthed into the kingdom, but there are other places where that activity is not taking place. I believe that we can draw from verse 8 that the Spirit is independent. The Spirit blows according to the sovereign will of God. He doesn't blow according to my plan and my agenda, but he blows upon God's all-wise plan.

A.W. Pink is another great Bible teacher from years past, and A.W. Pink writes at this point, the wind is an element altogether beyond man's control. The wind never consults man's pleasures, nor can it be regulated by man's devices. So it is with the Spirit. The wind blows, Pink writes, where it wishes, when it wishes, as it wishes, close quote. So first of all, it's a sovereign birth based upon the independent, autonomous will of the Holy Spirit of God. Second is the word irresistible.

Not only independent, but irresistible. When the wind blows in the fullness of its power, it sweeps away everything that is in its path. I've been in the midst of hurricanes. Perhaps you have as well living here, but I have been in the midst, and when that hurricane blows, trees are just blown over and snapped like little sprouts of asparagus. Entire homes are just leveled and decimated.

Cars are just rolled over like they were play toys. How powerful a force is the wind. We see it on the news when a tornado will strike in the Midwest, and an entire community, there's just a swath that is cut through that particular town and just bowls over everything in its path. The wind is unstoppable.

It is uncontainable. It is overpowering, as it overpowers everything in its path. So it is with the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit blows with sovereign power and blows upon a human heart in regeneration, He breaks down man's prejudices. He overcomes man's resistance to the gospel. We would say praise God that He does overcome our resistance.

He subdues the arrogant, proud will in a moment. He removes all of our excuses that we were clinging to for years. Why I will not commit my life to Jesus Christ.

Why I will go my own way. And when the Spirit blows, those excuses are just swept out of our hearts. And when He blows, He knocks down our unbelief, and He activates our will. John Owen, the great Puritan theologian, writes, quote, When the Holy Spirit intends to regenerate a person, He removes all obstacles. He overcomes all resistance. He overcomes all opposition and infallibly produces the results He intends. The psalmist says, He makes us willing in the day of His power. That's how powerful the Holy Spirit of God is.

Independent. He is so irresistible. Third is the word invisible. We cannot see the wind, but we feel the effects of the wind. We can feel its power. We see the effects of its movement.

We don't see the wind itself, but we know the wind is there, and we know the wind is working, and we know that the wind is operating, and it is unmistakable because we feel it. We see its effects. So it is with the Holy Spirit of God. When the Holy Spirit of God is powerfully working upon the hearts of people who are in unbelief, we can see the mighty effects of the Spirit of God birthing people into His kingdom. And our only conclusion is that had to be God at work. That loved one, that friend, that neighbor for 10 years, for 20 years, for 30 years, was just hardened in indifference and in unbelief. We've been witnessing. We've been praying.

We've been extending Christian kindness, and it just seems that they're harder and harder until suddenly that day the wind blows, and it just sweeps away every excuse and flattens every prejudice, and they are blown and swept into the kingdom of God by this invisible, irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. And our only conclusion is that had to be God at work. A fourth word is the word inscrutable. The movement of the wind is not only invisible, but it's inscrutable. It's mysterious.

It defies human explanation. It defies our efforts to predict where He will move next. So many times in a family, let's say, or among a circle of friends, the one whom we think is surely to be the one to be converted. Many times it doesn't happen, and the one that we think is furthest away from God, that one will just never be brought to Christ.

A Saul of Tarsus. When that wind blows, suddenly, instantly, that is the one whom God births into the kingdom. How inscrutable are the ways of God.

Man just cannot predict where and when the wind will blow. And so it is with the operation of the Holy Spirit of God. His movement is inexplicable. It's unexplainable.

It is incomprehensible. It is unfathomable where and how and upon whom the Spirit of God will work. Listen to Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 5. Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things. It belongs to God alone to know these things.

Romans 11 verse 33, oh the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or, who has become His counselor? The answer to that rhetorical question is no one.

None of us. God is so independent. He is so sovereign. He is so irresistible. And His ways are past finding out.

A.W. Pink writes, the wind blows, there is the fact. And you hear the sound of it, there is the evidence of the fact.

But know not where. There is the mystery behind the fact. The one born again knows that he has a new life and enjoys the evidences of it. But how the Holy Spirit operates upon the soul, subdues the will, creates new life within us, Pink says, belongs to the deep things of God.

Close quote. In John's gospel, John has already taught this. I'll refer you back to chapter 1. John chapter 1, and just two verses that I want us to look at in conclusion before we wrap up this session. John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13. Verse 12 is the human side. Verse 13 is the divine side. Verse 12 is the effect. Verse 13 is the cause.

Here is the effect. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Do you see that? But of God. Verse 12 is the fruit. Verse 13 is the root. As I've already said, verse 12 is the effect.

Verse 13 is the cause. Now, the effect is that people receive Christ into their lives. People believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and commit their life to Christ. But, how is it that someone does receive Christ?

How is it that someone is brought to the place of believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ? And verse 13 gives us the crystal clear answer that it is of God. Notice he says in verse 13, who were born.

Stop right there. When he says born, he's not referring to physical birth. He's referring to spiritual birth. The whole context begs for the spiritual dimension to be understood here. Who were born gives three negatives and one positive.

The three negatives, how someone is not born into the kingdom of heaven spiritually. He says, not of blood, meaning just because your parents were a Christian doesn't mean that you're a Christian. Just because you sit in church and have grown up with it doesn't mean that you're born again. Now, someone has well said just because you sit in a garage doesn't make you a car. And just because kittens are born in a bread basket doesn't make them biscuits.

And just because you sit in church or live in a Christian house or grow up in a Christian family, that doesn't make you a Christian. God has a lot of children. He has no grandchildren.

It must be a direct relationship with the Lord. So, he says, not of blood. It's not by lineage.

It's not by birthright. Then he says, not of the will of the flesh, meaning by our own efforts, by our own intentions, by our own efforts of the flesh, of religiosity, to try to commend ourselves to God. We can never hit that mark of perfection.

We can't ever be good enough. Plus, we can't take away the sin we've already committed. And then he says, nor of the will of man. You know what that means? Nor of the will of man. It means exactly what it says. That our wills were dead in trespasses and sin.

They were inoperative. They were in bondage to sin. The freedom of the will that we had was only in one direction.

It was towards sin. But notice how he says we are born again. Not of blood. It's not by human descent or lineage.

It's not by your family tree. It's not of the will of the flesh. It's not by all of our efforts to work our way into the kingdom. And then the final death blow, it's not even of the will of man, but of God. Meaning, it is by the will of God, the sovereign, electing, predestinating, gracious, loving, merciful will of God by which he says, I will have mercy upon those whom I will have mercy. Do you see what a sovereign birth the new birth is? All glory to God for his amazing grace.

All glory be to God indeed. That was Stephen Lawson on this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. And for the final time, you can study the new birth further, seeing that it's supernatural, instantaneous, saving, permanent and more when you request Dr. Lawson's 12-part series simply titled The New Birth. We'll send you the DVD and give you lifetime digital access to the series and study guide when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. The study guide features study questions and discussion questions to help you work through this popular series in your small group or Bible study or with your family. So give your donation today at renewingyourmind.org or by clicking the link in the podcast show notes. But be quick, only hours remain as this resource offer ends at midnight. Having spent this week so far considering the new birth, tomorrow, Sinclair Ferguson will join us to consider the one who performs this work of regeneration, the Holy Spirit. So be sure to join us tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind. .