The New Birth

Salvation is like white light passing through a prism — broken into the full spectrum of colors from violet to red. So salvation is broken into the spectrum of cardinal blessings: calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification.

If we may liken salvation to light, when white light passes through a prism, it is broken up into the full spectrum of color with the violet on the one end and the red on the other. Now, if you've ever seen light broken up that way or as you see it in a rainbow, you know that the distinction between the violet and the indigo and the indigo and the blue is is never the distinction that can be marked with a sharp line. One, as it were, blends and flows into the other. But anyone who would say that the violet on one end of the spectrum and the red on the other are one and the same is colorblind. ...

2:45 - 3:36 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin asks the children: did you ever try to push the wind around? You can hear it whistling through the eaves but you cannot manage it. The wind has sovereignty (under God's control, not yours), mystery (you know not whence it comes or whither it goes), and efficacy (where it is, its voice is heard). So is everyone born of the Spirit.

But then there is an element of mystery. Notice the language of our Lord. Thou hearest the voice, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth. You children, did you ever try to chase the wind to its home? Did you? See where the wind goes to bed at night? Well, you don't know where it comes from. You don't know its address. You can't track it down to its home.

24:01 - 24:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Test your claim to the new birth by whether the Spirit has purged your idols and given you holiness — not by religious feelings.

Pastor Martin lists the cheapened 'born-again' phenomena: born-again profaners of the Sabbath, born-again athletes still chasing women, born-again entertainers telling dirty jokes, born-again businessmen with crooked dealings. The new birth always brings cleansing — without it, all such claims are sham.

and born-again profaners of the Sabbath, born-again athletes who still chase their women as we saw last week, born-again entertainers who tell dirty jokes, born-again businessmen who still operate on the basis of dog-eat-dog unethical practices, and yet they're born-again. They've had this wonderful experience, my friend.

28:47 - 29:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If anyone is regenerated, the all-encompassing emphasis is upon the activity of God.

Pastor Martin highlights that 1 John uses 'begotten of God' nine times, every one in the passive — never the active 'one who begets himself.' The Greek voice itself preaches the doctrine: regeneration is something done to us, not by us.

Passive form of the verb. Either a participle or an indicative, and then you have one aorist passive. Now, what does all that mean? Well, simply this. As you've been told many times from this pulpit, a passive verb is a verb in which the agent that acts is outside of the thing or the one that is acted upon.

32:29 - 32:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If anyone is regenerated, the all-encompassing emphasis is upon the activity of God.

Pastor Martin tells of a boy named Henry whose teacher always called him 'John Smith's son' — never Henry. Why? Because his father was so respected that the teacher wanted Henry never to forget whose son he was. So John in his epistle constantly calls believers the 'begotten of God' — never let them forget their Father.

Suppose his name was Henry. The teacher didn't call him Henry, but she always called him John Smith's son. John Smith's son, will you do this? John Smith's son, will you do that? Never called him Henry. Well, what would happen after a while? Well, after a while, you could never think of Henry, just as plain Henry, but you'd always think of Henry in terms of who his dad was. His dad is John Smith.

36:21 - 36:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Trust the plain preached gospel as God's appointed seed of new birth — not technique or manipulation.

Pastor Martin notes that the word Peter says was the seed of regeneration was no flashy revival method — just 'plain old meat-and-taters gospel preaching.' Not psychological manipulation, not entertainment, not technique. The preached word.

That word was just plain old meat and taters gospel preaching. And he said it was in conjunction with that word preached that the divine begetting occurred. Not psychological manipulation to get people to make professions. Not some kind of mystical, undefinable, ethereal,

49:36 - 49:57 Read in full sermon