Regeneration

Regeneration

Titus 3:5 - not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 19:28 - And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

This word "regeneration", though found only twice in the New Testament, is the most important word in the New Testament.

Ø     Generate means to create. A generator is used to create electricity.

Ø     The word degenerate, as in a degenerate person, is speaking of something that has fallen from its created state.

Ø     Finally, there is the word regenerate which means to re-create back to its created state.

The whole plan of God can be found within these three words.

In the beginning when God created the first man, Adam. We can say that God generated man. This is why you read in the Book of Genesis, "These are the generations of Adam."  

Ø     When God first generated man, or created him, He generated him a completely spiritual being with a completely spiritual nature.

Ø     This is why man was able to walk and talk with God who is spirit.

Ø     Man did not walk part time in the flesh and part time in the spirit as we do now; but the state in which God first generated man before his fall was a completely spiritual being; one who walked and lived in the spirit all the time, twenty-four hours a day.

Because of the fall and disobedience, mankind degenerated downward into the nature of a beast.

ØThat is why the Bible says we must be saved by the washing of regeneration. We must be regenerated in order to be saved.

ØWe need to be recreated.

ØThere is no other way. Man must be born again, regenerated, recreated, because he degenerated from the state God made him in or generated him in at the beginning.

ØIn order to be saved he must be regenerated back into the spiritual nature that he had before the fall.

We sometimes get concerned about the way we are living. We take our old sinful, fallen, fleshly self and decide that we are going to change our own lives and make ourselves better.

Ø     We make all sorts of resolutions to try and keep.

Ø     We go and join their local church.

Ø     We get baptised and go through all the rituals of the church thinking all this can make our old self better.

But the problem is that our first Adam nature, our old selfish, sinful, fleshly nature, has fallen so far that it is impossible for God to restore him. God does not even try.

Ø     God’s plan is that He sets our first Adam fallen nature aside and regenerates a new nature within us.

Ø     Therefore, with all of our willpower and with all of our self effort we cannot make the old nature better.

Ø     We cannot overcome the lusts and the weaknesses that are in this degenerated flesh.

Ø     We have no strength whatsoever. It's just flesh struggling against flesh.

What we can do though, is feed our spirit. Let God grow our new regenerated spirit nature that He placed within us until our regenerate spirit man has power over the degenerated beast nature.

There are people who go out and join the church, get baptised, make resolutions and then kid themselves that they are saved.

Ø     They are like the guy who has an old 1929 automobile.

Ø     The pistons are burned up, the bearings are shot and the rods are all gone

Ø     He goes out and gives it a new paint job and then kids himself that he has a new car.

Ø     He does not have a new car, the engine is shot.

Ø     He has to get a new engine and start rebuilding from the inside out.

This is why the word regeneration is the most important word in the New Testament.

Ø     We must be regenerated, recreated. Paul says, "He saved us, through the washing of regeneration.”

Ø     Man was generated with a spiritual nature.

Ø     He degenerated downward into the nature of a beast.

Ø     Therefore, he must be regenerated back, created back, into the spiritual nature he had before the fall in order to be saved.

This brings us to another very important point. When we do become born again, regenerated, the purpose of God for us is not finished or fulfilled like some churches teach.

Ø     All that has happened is that we have been recreated or regenerated back into the spiritual nature that was created or generated in man before he fell.

Ø     We must then go on to fulfil the purpose for which God had put man, here on the earth, in the first place.

When God placed man here on the earth it was for a very definite purpose.

In the first few verses of Genesis the Bible tells us that when God generated Adam and placed him here on the earth He told him to be fruitful, multiply and subdue or take dominion over the earth.

At the time that God spoke these words to Adam the fall had not yet come.

Ø     The curse was not yet on the earth.

Ø     There were no thorns or thistles yet in the earth.

Ø     The earth was a garden.

What was God telling man to conquer when He said, "Subdue and conquer and take dominion over the earth?"

Have you ever asked yourself where that serpent came from that deceived Eve?

Ø     The Bible doesn't say he dropped down out of the sky because he was already here.

Ø     Satan had already fallen out of heaven.

Ø     He had already set up his dominion here on the earth.

What God was telling Adam to subdue and conquer was sin, sickness, suffering, death and Satan.

Ø     To be His defender and to take back the earth for His name, His nature.

Ø   To conquer and subdue sin,

Ø   To put an end to sickness and suffering

Ø   To destroy the works of death and the devil.

These things had not yet been manifested in man, but they were here in the earth because Lucifer was already here. They were in him.

The problem was that the first Adam creation failed to fulfil that purpose for which God had put him here.

Ø     Instead of conquering Satan, he was conquered by Satan.

Ø     Instead of subduing, he was himself subdued.

Ø     Instead of taking dominion over Satan, he allowed Satan to take dominion over him.

The first creation man, the first Adam, failed to fulfil the purpose for which God put him here and degenerated to a fallen nature.

This is why 2,000 years ago God had to bring forth a second Adam to fulfil the purpose for which He put man here on the earth in the first place. A second man who would conquer, subdue and take dominion over the earth.

Therefore, when we become regenerated, re-created and born again it is not all finished. It is just the beginning.

Ø     We still then have to grow up to incorruptible nature that God intended for the first Adam man.

Ø     We need to grow up into and manifest son ship.

Ø     We need to conquer, subdue and take dominion over first this body and then the earth out there.

The next truth I want to reveal to you is a shocking truth that few people understand and even if they did most would not believe it.

The definition of a man is what Adam was generated to be before the fall.

Ø     He is one who has a completely spiritual nature

Ø     One who lived and walked in the spirit all the time.

Ø     That is the Bible's definition of a man

The shocking truth this reveals is that all those people out there in the world who wear pants who think they are men are not men at all.

Ø     Sure, they dress up like men

Ø     they put on fancy suits

Ø     they sit in their conferences throughout the world

But let any one of them back the other into a corner and watch how the degenerated beast nature manifests itself as they start snarling, biting and devouring one another as the beasts.

There is a clear mark of distinction between the nature of a regenerated man and the nature of a degenerated beast.

If you find yourself with all these desires to sin, rising up from within your degenerated beast nature, and there is a still inner voice down within that begins to whisper to you, "If you sin there will be a consequence," that voice speaking to you is the regenerated spirit man within you manifesting the reasoning powers of God.

This regenerated man’s every action is motivated by those reasoning power of God.

Your degenerate beast nature only desires to move in his beast instincts and fulfil his beast desires.

Ø     He does not reason things out.

Ø     Your degenerate beast nature's every action is only motivated by self-protection.

Ø     This is why beasts do not mind devouring one another.

Two thousand years ago a second Adam came into the world with a completely different nature.

Ø     He would not kill His own kind even to preserve His own life.

Ø     He hung on the cross and cried out, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Ø     From the time of the fall of the first Adam until Jesus walked out as a manifested son of God, the second Adam, there was not a regenerated man in this world.

Jesus was the first true man to come into this world after the fall. That is why the Bible calls Him the "second man or second Adam”

Even as far as the church has come in our growth and understanding in the spirit; we have not yet been fully regenerated.

Ø     The times that we walk in the spirit and in our new man, our inner man, we are walking as a regenerated man; but the times that we drop into our fleshly, beast degenerated nature we are beasts again.

Ø     And so even you and I are not a regenerated spirit man yet. We are still part beast.

What I want to say to your spirits is that your outer flesh man with all of his wants and desires are of the old creation, the first Adam creation, which fell.

Ø     It has all the beast nature, all the beast instincts for self-protection.

Ø     This is what we are seeking to overcome, through yielding to this regenerated new creation man that is within you.

This regenerated second Adam nature is there within us, but we allow Him to show up only once in a while.

Ø     Stop trying to battle the world out there.

Ø     Stop trying to conquer the degenerated beast nature out there.

Ø     It is not time for us to conquer the beast out there, yet.

Ø     Our calling now is to conquer the beast in here.

Ø     Only then will we be a man enough to defeat Satan.

This is the great truth I want to establish in your hearts:

Ø     THERE ARE TWO NATURES WITHIN US.

Ø     The first is the first Adam degenerated nature that became this fleshly, sinful, beastly nature that is part of creation.

Ø     The second nature within us is the second Adam regenerated nature of Christ that Jesus walked. This nature is not of this creation, but is of the creator and a part of the creator.

We must overcome our beast. The spiritual man must live. We must allow washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit and then we can truly be saved.

When we have finally caught hold of this truth and are walking and living in the spirit twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week than  we will "Subdue and conquer and take dominion over the earth.”