NT Framework - Instantaneous, Full, One-Time, Complete Regeneration

It's not just indwelling, and as some would have it, manifesting your salvation through the spiritual gifts such as healing, tongues, or prophecy. The work of the Holy Spirit is far more majestic and comprehensive than this.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Promise

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.

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Originating with God. So this is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit was to reveal the law and the prophets to uh those in Israel, chiefly prophets, uh from Israel, so that Israel could have the Word of God and be a light to the world. Be a light to the world. I I put this map here because to remind us that during this dispensation, let's just say the dispensation of Israel, God had a particular mission for the nation Israel. That mission was to be a light to all nations.

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I know you want it. You want it all. You want all the wisdom, discernment, the ability to prophesy, the ability to heal, the ability to be to minister to anybody, the ability to teach, to be administrative and organize and serve, to be charitable and giving. You want it all. And yet that's not how God works through the Holy Spirit. He doesn't give each person everything. He gives you what he wants to give you. And the gifts that we often desire the most are not the ones that he promises to us. So what does he promise? Is there something that he promises to every believer that the Holy Spirit imparts that cannot be taken away from you ever by yourself or anybody else?

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We're talking about beyond salvation itself here.

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The work of the Holy Spirit is magnificent and manifests in multiple ways, instantaneously, fully and completely upon belief in Jesus Christ. Let's look at how the work of the Spirit is different in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and yet the same. Let's look into this mystery and learn about the work of the Holy Spirit.

The 22-Event Biblical Framework

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Okay, what one last thing I wanted to remind you of if you are following this series, then it's called a biblical framework. And that means it just gives the framework, it doesn't give all the details, but it gives the framework of the totality of Scripture, Old and New Testament. We have been studying it for a long period of time, but this is because we're able to cover essentially the whole Bible. Paul says in Acts chapter 20 that he sought to teach the whole council of God, and this is my method of being able to do that. Uh verse by verse would take us more than my lifetime, perhaps. So we we are doing it more quickly by following these 22 major events. So if you you should you should be uh writing these events down, I do have charts and things I can make handouts of. And on these charts you should have each of the major events of the Old and New Testament, and then you should have the doctrines that are associated with those events, and you should review these frequently so that you're able to see the whole plan of God in the scripture. So we're just gonna briefly review these things, of course, should be ultimately memorized. If you can memorize five verses, you can memorize all this stuff. So it's not that complicated. Um when we started this a few years ago, of course, we start with creation. That's our first event, right? We won't go through all the event the doctrines now, but we'll just focus on the events. Um creation, then we have the second event of the Old Testament, which is the fall. You can speak up, these are it could be rhetorical. Do you want me to be rhetorical so you don't have to make a noise? Uh creation, then the fall, then we have the flood, and then we have the Noahic covenant. Those are the four first four events of the Bible, all in Genesis 1 through 11. And then we begin the last ten of the Old Testament with the call of Abraham, right?

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The Exodus, Mount Sinai, the conquest and settlement under Joshua.

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Then we have the rise and reign of King David, the golden era of Solomon, the kingdom is divided after Solomon's reign under Rehab, kingdom divided, the kingdom decline or kingdoms in decline. Then we have the exile and then the partial restoration, which brings us to the New Testament, and then we start with the birth of the king, the life of the king, the death of the king, the resurrection of the king, the ascension and session of the king, and then the heavenly origin of the church when he poured forth the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the earthly origin of the church on the day of Pentecost here on earth, and what transpired in the book of Acts. So that brings us, you know, to where we are relative to uh the great plan that God has for history. So be reviewing that uh so you're able to recite these and easily, you know, teach these to to anyone, basically off the top of your head.

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Right? And and everybody is very excited about that last note, right?

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So easy, right? Okay. Um I know it's a lot, but it it can be it can be done. We have a whole lifetime uh to learn these things. It's not that complicated when we realize that we have time and and um it does take study and so forth. If you ever need anything, you just you just ask me. I have charts, I have whatever you want. Okay.

Pentecost And A New Body

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So to get started today, I want to remind us that the church began in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, there, but its realization was gradual, right? Um Peter is the early uh star, let's say, of the pages of Acts, and then uh Paul becomes the latter star in the pages of the book of Acts. Both of them are given some uh understanding of the church, and um, then more revelation came and they they gained more understanding. Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles, and disciples of John the Baptist, those are the four groups, were not to be separate sects, but they were to be united in one body of Christ, which is the church. This body was formed by one particular ministry of the Spirit, which is the baptizing work of the Spirit. This was a new work of the Spirit in history that was associated with tongues at the introduction of each new group. Remember, we studied this. In Acts 2, you have tongues. In Acts 8, with the Samaritans, there was something that happened. It doesn't say tongues, but we suppose it was because of the other three events. Something happened and people understood. And then in Acts 10, of course, tongues, and then in Acts 19, tongues. So uh those four groups all baptized by the Holy Spirit and introduced into the church on uh those respective days or chapters in the book of Acts in that story, and um the tongues was an indication that they were being brought into the same group. Uh the new work of the Spirit being baptism indicates this was a transition period. We're transitioning from a period in when he did not baptize those who believed into the body of Christ to a period where he is baptizing people into the body of Christ. And so it's a transition from God's dealings with Israel to God's dealings with the church. And so our lesson today looks at the works of the Spirit in prior history in order to compare them to his works in the present period of history. And through that we gain an appreciation for his work in our life, what we what we have, and why God does it this way. Why, in previous periods of history, did they not have certain ministries of the Spirit and that we have today? So let's get started.

Dispensations And Spirit-Given Equipment

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Past and present ministries of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, of course, is the third member of the Trinity, and we'll look at that in more detail as we review the doctrine of the Trinity next week. But as such, of course, he is omnipresent. We have to state that because, of course, God is one in essence and three in person, and that each member of the Trinity, therefore, has all the attributes of God. Sometimes we we say things, or I say things like in Acts chapter 1, Christ is present, in Acts chapter 2, he's absent. Well, that makes it sound like he's not omnipresent. Of course, you understand what I mean. I think I mean that in Acts chapter 1, he was on earth, and in Acts chapter 2, he had ascended, so he is in his humanity, not on earth anymore. But as far as his deity, of course, he's there. Um he's holy everywhere, meaning completely everywhere. Um, meaning in he's not stretched out over the universe or something like that. That's like more like a pantheistic type view of God. Um, but he is completely present at every point in space and outside of space. This is the concept of omnipresence and another concept of called eminence, um, another attribute of God. But um, he is always like that. Now, the spirit is always like that too. Sometimes I would say, well, in Acts chapter 1, the Holy Spirit is absent, but in Acts chapter 2, he's present. I mean, in fact, even Jesus used this terminology in the Gospels. Uh He would say, if I don't leave, then I can't send the Spirit. You'd say, Well, wait a minute, I thought he was omnipresent. Yeah, of course he is. But this means to send him for particular ministries, particular operations, particular works that he will now be doing that he has not been previously doing. So it's important to describe some of these things so we understand exactly what we're we're talking about. Um, so he is omnipresent, but he was not always ministering in the same way in each period of history. They differ during different ages, though they are consistent, or they are all consistent with his person and work. So during these periods of history, there are what we call dispensations, um, from the Latin dispensare, but which means to dispense something. A dispensation is a master-initiated stewardship, um, where the master, of course, gives a steward a certain responsibility, and after the responsibility period has ended, then the master will come and judge the steward. Uh, there are a couple of parables in the Gospels that use this master-steward relationship, Luke 12 and Luke 16. Um, if a master goes on a journey, he takes a steward and he gives him a certain responsibility that he's supposed to carry out while the master is gone. And then after a long period of time, the master will come back and judge the steward. So a dispensation is uh an administration of a stewardship where a master, in this case God, gives to a group of people a certain mission or stewardship that they are supposed to carry out for a certain period of history, after which he will judge and evaluate that group for how well they carried out their stewardship. So that's a dispensation. Um so, in order for the stewards to carry out their responsibility during their particular period of history, the spirit will equip them with all that is necessary. That's the kind of the key point. The spirit will equip them with whatever is necessary to carry out their tasks. And so this explains why we have certain ministries of the spirit at work in our life to carry out our responsibility in the church age, which is going to relate to carrying out the Great Commission. Okay, things like that. So, for example, we've been given spiritual gifts. In the Old Testament, nobody was given spiritual gifts. Uh, no Israeli was given a spiritual gift. You know, you never read about that, do you? Um, but we are. So evidently, this is a necessary component of what we need to be equipped to fulfill our purpose, our commission. And so this will explain in part at least why the Spirit's ministries differ in different periods of history, uh, because we have a certain uh responsibility as a steward that we've been given. We need these, we need these things. So there's a lot of things that we have. So let's look at some of these things.

Genesis: Creation And Restraint

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Let's start looking, first of all, at the first 11 chapters of the Bible where we've got creation, fall, flood, and the way a covenant, right? What a period of history that I just called Gentiles, because there was no such thing as Jews and Gentiles, no distinction in that way. In fact, everybody spoke the same words, right? And used the same language. Uh so during this period of history, we see two instances of the spirit. First of all, we see him involved in creating. That's Genesis chapter 1, verse 2. Genesis chapter 1, verse 2. We should know the verses. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? And the earth was formless or unformed and unfilled, and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. So the original created order was a sphere, let's just say a watery mass or sphere, and the spirit of God hovered over that. It's a word used in Deuteronomy to of like a bird, like a mother bird like hovering over her chicks in a nest in order to keep them warm. It carries with it the idea of imparting heat or energy. And perhaps it's at this point in the creation narrative that uh energy was created by means of the Spirit of God. It's important, of course, to realize as we go through this and get into Trinity more next week that uh every everything, every event that transpires, all three members of the Trinity are involved. Um we'll talk later, of course, about the indwelling spirit. We have him dwelling within us. But John 14, 23 says, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all indwell. It's a Trinitarian indwelling, so it's more than just the Spirit of God indwelling us. Um there's no event in Scripture where it's just one member of the Trinity. Um we can look at the cross and say, well, that's Christ. Christ was crucified. Yes. But um, who designed or who's the architect of this plan that would be our salvation plan related to the crucifixion? Well, that's the Father. And the Son is the one that applies it to us when we believe. So they're all involved, just in different aspects. Uh and so it is here at creation, right? Um God spoke, but John says in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And that's talking about the second person of the Trinity. So the second person of the Trinity is the agent of creation, and the Father's the architect of it. And so you have the Spirit here, perhaps imparting energy to the newly created. Well, at this time it would be the earth, as it's described in Genesis 1, 2, this watery mass. That's very interesting. He's he's in the set, he's in the very second verse of the Bible. People say, Well, we didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit to the New Testament. Well, maybe you didn't read the second verse in the entire Bible, right? Because he's right there. So he's introduced super early in the Bible. Um, also in Genesis chapter 6, verse 3, in the days before the flood, we read that the Holy Spirit was striving with man. Genesis 6, 3. Then the Lord said, Yahweh said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he is also flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be 120 years. So he was striving against man. We call this a restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit. We don't know exactly how he was restraining man, but he was striving against man's fleshly desires. And his action, we know from the Gospel of John, is like the wind. So we don't know how he worked, but like the wind, it we don't see the wind, but we see the effects of the wind. And so it is with the Spirit of God prior to the flood. He was restraining man, but of course, this world became extremely wicked. Every thought of every man's mind continually was only wickedness, and God brought the flood. So he restrains sin, but that does not keep men from rebelling against his restraint and following through with their fleshly lusts, does it? But those are the two ministries we see in the period of Genesis 1 through 11, where we may just say God is dealing with uh Gentiles. But notice that as we move to the second period, which is uh Israel, Genesis 12 through Acts 1, that we're going to find four works of the Holy Spirit,

Israel: Revelation And Come-And-See Mission

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at least. We could probably add one or two others, but these are the main ones. First of all, revealing, of course, at Mount Sinai, the Spirit is claimed to be the one who revealed the law in Zechariah chapter 7, verse 12.

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That's at the very end of the Old Testament, but uh in the highly apocalyptic book, Zechariah. Zechariah chapter, what did I say? 11 no seven. Zechariah seven verse twelve.

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The Holy Spirit was involved in giving the law. Some of these books we have to wait a little longer for us all turn, right? Because it's like Zechariah. I haven't read that in a while. It's okay. Um Zechariah 7, verse 12. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law in the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. And because they made their hearts like flint, he says, Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts, speaking of on on Israel. So he revealed the law, but he also revealed the prophets. The law might be considered the first five books of the Old Testament. The prophets is a summary of the rest of the Old Testament. Um and the Spirit of God is the one who is particularly involved in revealing the Word of God. So we turn to 2 Peter 1 20, one of the greatest verses on the inspiration of Scripture, the verbal plenary, inspiration of Scripture. Verbal plenary. By verbal, we mean the very words are inspired, by plenary, we mean all the words, the fullness of the words. And that's the Orthodox doctrine of uh inspiration.

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What did I say, Second Peter 1? I've been talking and not turning, but focus on turning little.

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Um this is a famous verse on on inspiration, also like 2 Timothy 3 15 and 16 is famous too.

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I'll get there in just a second.

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121, 2 Peter 1 21, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God using a metaphor moved there from ships and sailing, how the wind would catch the sails and move the ship to its destination. So the men who wrote scripture were taught by the Spirit, and he moved them to write what they wrote. They didn't, it didn't originate with them, right? It was initiated. This process of writing scripture is initiated by God, and the human authors were carried along by them, born along, moved by him to write what they they wrote. So that we have the very word of God, right? So he revealed the law and the prophets. And that verse, by the way, is talking about Old Testament prophets, right? He's talking about Old Testament men of God. Um Peter's talking about there. So this refers to the all the Old Testament. You know, you can go through all these verses, I've got lots of verses here. Uh the one in 2 Samuel 23, 2 relates to David. It's an interesting one because he's a he's a foreshadowing of the Messiah, but 2 Samuel 23, verse 2.

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2 Samuel 23, verse 2.

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I don't put verses up here because you have a Bible, right? I could I could put them up there, but then you wouldn't learn anything. Um David, this is his last words. David, the son of Jesse, his last words, the one who's the anointed of the God of Jacob, the Davidic house, given the covenant. And verse two tells us, the Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue. So David was cognizant that he was a prophet and that God was speaking through him. Just as those prophets, as Peter talked about, were moved by the Holy Spirit to write what they wrote. It didn't originate with them, originated with God. So this is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit was to reveal. The law and the prophets to those in Israel, chiefly prophets, from Israel, so that Israel could have the Word of God and be a light to the world. Be a light to the world. I put this map here because to remind us that during this dispensation, let's just say the dispensation of Israel, God had a particular mission for the nation of Israel. That mission was to be a light to all nations. But how are they going to do that? It was a come and see mission. Come to Israel. Israel is never told, you know, go and tell. They're told the nations will come and see. And the reason is because this is just a depiction, someone put this together a long, long time ago, several centuries ago, to depict that Israel was stationed at the center of the earth. It says that in the Bible. It's the center of the world, it's the navel of the earth. The Old Testament prophets spoke about this. You see three continents there with Israel right in the middle, so up to the top left, that's Europe, the top right, that's Asia, the green, and then the yellow toward the bottom, that's Africa. And what's sitting right in the middle of all these three continents? Well, Jerusalem, okay, and Israel. So this is showing how God strategically chose the land that he promised to give them. Leviticus 26, God says, The land is mine. It belongs to him, and he gave it to Israel as tenant possessors. And their responsibility is to live in the land according to their master, who is God, and they are stewards, stewards of the land that he gave them, and they are therefore to function in that land according to his law, which he gave at Mount Sinai, right, in order to be a light to the nations. And so he placed them at the center of the world so they could fulfill this mission, this purpose. Okay? And the Spirit of God gave them the scriptures, so they had the scriptures, and anyone who moved from Asia to Europe or Europe to Africa or Africa to Asia or vice versa, would be passing through the land of Israel on the trade routes, like the VMRS, the King's Highway, and so forth, in order, and through that have contact with the Jewish people in the Word of God. So God strategically set up even where Israel was and their land was to be, right? Very interesting.

Israel: Filling And Select Indwelling

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Okay, so the second ministry of the Spirit that we see in Israel that's at work is the filling of the Spirit. Now, usually we think of that in the New Testament, you know, Ephesians 5. Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, right? But in the Old Testament, certain individuals were filled by the Spirit. If we turn over to Exodus 35, 31. 35, 31. Exodus 35, 31. Now, in this section, after God took them to Mount Sinai, he uh part of his instruction there was to construct a tabernacle. And this tabernacle was to be an exact replica of his tabernacle, the heavenly tabernacle. So the real one is in heaven, and the one that was made through Moses in the time of Moses was a replica, and it was to be an exact replica of the one that's in heaven. And uh, you know, when I was a little boy, I used to get model, you know, I'd buy models, you know, those little they snap together or you glue them together, and you've got to get your paint, and you've got to paint every little part of the engine, and you've got to paint the seat belts and the seats and the steering wheels and the little speedometers and you know, it's all fun, right? And you try to make it beautiful. I did like a 67 stingray because it was my dad's favorite car. But um they're they're supposed to be like they're not perfect replicas though, because the little engines don't work usually, you know, things like that. They could get more advanced ones, but um the point of the tabernacle is to be an exact replica. Now, how are these people on earth gonna be able to create the designs of the furniture in the heavenly tabernacle? Well, this verse 3531 tells us um, and he has filled him, that's uh Bezalel, the son of Uri in the previous verse, he was the craftsman. He has filled him with the Spirit of God and wisdom and understanding and in knowledge, and in all craftsmanship to make designs for working in gold and in silver and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, so as to perform in every inventive work. Meaning, these were designs that nobody on earth understood the skills to create. And so the Spirit of God filled him in order to be able to perform this type of inventive design work, including all the techniques necessary and whatever tools would need to be fashioned to carry out and make these uh forms. He also has put in his heart to teach both he and Oholiab, the son of Ismach of the tribe of Dan. So he has filled them, it says, with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer, of an embroiderer in blue, in purple, in scarlet material, and so forth. Um it was necessary to fill them so that they had the skill to perform. You'll notice that in verse 35, he has filled them with skill. That's the Hebrew word for wisdom, which is kakma, which is uh again, it is skill. It's wisdom in the Old Testament, Hebrew is is the concept of having skill in some area of life, and he needed skill in order to create exact replicas of the furniture in heaven, right? So very interesting. Um some individuals in the Old Testament were filled, and this could shed a little light on what it means for us to be filled by the Spirit in the New Testament. Um because if we're filled by the Spirit, it means we're living skillfully, aren't we? We're skillfully navigating life. So um that's the second ministry of the Spirit to Israel. But only on that that occasion, not it's not very often you see that. Third one is indwelling, and here the spirit only indwells certain key personages like Joseph, Genesis 41, 38, the Pharaoh said uh of Joseph that he is a man in whom the Spirit of God is. Joseph was able to interpret dreams and so forth, right? So as long as the Pharaoh is right and we think he is, then he was understanding that Joseph had a unique quality about him, and it it wasn't just Joseph, it was he had the Spirit of God dwelling within him. The seventy elders in Numbers 11, 17. We're in Exodus, so we'll just flip over to Numbers, right? It's a few books over.

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Numbers eleven, seventeen. We'll start in 11:16. Numbers eleven sixteen.

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The Lord therefore said to Moses, Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. Then I will come down and speak with you there, Moses, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put him upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so you will not bear it all alone. So Moses, of course, had the Spirit of God indwelling him, as well as the seventy elders on this occasion to help them judge and rule the people. Additionally, of course, prophets. Joshua is said to be a prophet. We're in numbers, so look at chapter 27, verse 18. 27, 18. Joshua was the one who was most interested in the word of God in the time of Moses, right? Uh he would always be close by. And Numbers 27, 18 says, So the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Um there it is stated that the Spirit was in Joshua, he was indwelling him. Also, some of the judges, you can read through the judges, interesting, and of course, kings. So let's let's turn to the most important sec uh passage related to the kings. That's gonna be 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. We're just pointing out that certain individuals in the Old Testament, Israel, had the Spirit indwelling them. Not not everybody. That's definitely a distinction with the church, right? Because in the church, every believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling him, as we'll see. And if you do not have the spirit, you do not belong to him. So that's quite a difference. Notice in 1 Samuel 16, verse 13, it says, Then Samuel took the horn of oil. He's the prophet. The prophets were the kingmakers, they would anoint the kings, right? Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, that's David, in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Now, verse 14, now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. So you have Saul was the king before David, right? And evidently when Saul became king, the Holy Spirit came upon him, but when Saul was rejected by the Lord, then the Spirit departed from him and came upon David instead. So you can see that not only did these individuals have the indwelling of the Spirit, but it was temporary. It wasn't necessarily permanent. And um David depicts this in his psalm of confession related to the sin with Bathsheba, right? Because he says in that psalm, take not your spirit from me. He wanted, in other words, to maintain his office as king, and coming with that office was the indwelling of the spirit to empower him to be a good king for the nation Israel. So several key personages, uh, prophets, kings, were indwelled by the Spirit so they could minister to the nation Israel, call them to repentance, mediate between man and God, uh judge and lead the nation so they could be a light to the world. Though, as we've seen, it was temporary. And by indwelling these people, he was dwelling among Israel. He wasn't dwelling in all of Israel, right? He was just dwelling among them. Of course, at the tabernacle and temple as well, but among them also in priests and kings who had the indwelling of the Spirit. Take a look at John, New Testament, John 14. John 14, 17. All we're doing here is just pointing out the ministries of the Spirit as they have been seen in various periods of history, so we can appreciate what we have in the church. Um, John 14, verse 17. You know, the Lord is asking the Father, and he's saying, I will ask the Father, he will give you another helper, that's going to be the Spirit, that he may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. So that's a difference, right? Uh he abides with you, he was abiding with them at that time in the person of the Messiah. Okay, but he was going to be in you in the future. And that's what began to take place on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. So the indwelling of the Spirit in the Old Testament was only certain individuals, uh, not all believers or something like that, and he could be lost. And so, but through this, he was with the nation Israel, and Jesus predicted that he would be in them later, showing a transition, showing something different is happening now than previously.

Regeneration And The Romans 7 Struggle

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All right, let's look at this last one for Israel, which is regenerating, which is the more comp most complicated of all of these. Because it becomes a big question. Does the Holy Spirit regenerate Old Testament believers? Was he regenerating them when they believed? Um I wrestled with this question for a number of years, but you know, you have to take time and like try to sort through things, and I'm not even right now a hundred percent sure on these things, but I lean toward the direction that the Spirit did regenerate those who believed. Um but it's highly debatable. Okay, what is regeneration? Well, it's the impartation of eternal life. I'm I'm getting that out of John chapter 3. Uh John chapter 3, which we'll turn to, so we might as well turn there now. But John chapter 3 is where Jesus is approached by Nicodemus, right? At night.

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Good rabbi, good rabbi, he says.

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Um We know that you come from God as a teacher. No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. John 3, 3. And Jesus answered and said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's um one of the words that's used in connection with the doctrine of regeneration is this word born again or born. It's used here, it's used in verse 5. Um Truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, so be born. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Um, do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. So this word to be born, it has to do with you know being born. It's not that complicated. Verse 8, um, the end of the verse, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit, right? And then if you just follow this whole line of discussion with uh Nicodemus, you see there in verse 16, our favorite verse. Uh God so loved the world that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So being begotten or born again is the impartation of eternal life. That's why I say that's the definition. I'm getting it out of the John 3 passage, and I'm just showing you. Okay. Um did Old Testament believers receive eternal life when they believe? The thing is, when you read the Old Testament, you're not seeing a lot of discussion about you get eternal life when you believe, are you? But here's the thing. When Jesus said this, this was still before the day of Pentecost, wasn't it? And he expected Nicodemus to understand this truth that you have to be born, born again, didn't he? And um, this, of course, was just like an Old Testament period. So, yes, um, if a person believed in the Old Testament, they would be regenerated by the Spirit of God. And um, Jesus says this all the way through John, right? Believe in me, you have eternal life. Born again, you become children of God. John 1, 12 and 13. Well, uh, look at these verses. John 1, 12 and 13. Another concept related to regeneration is not just being born again, but what do you get when someone is born? Well, you get a child. We had one here this morning. Such a cute little baby, right? Um child. And when we believe, we become children of God. It says verse 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born, there's the word, um, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. So this is not just a natural birth, right? It's a it's a birth of God. And we call this regeneration. And that means we become children of God. And so this is the concept of regeneration. Um elsewhere, 2 Corinthians 5.17, we are a new creation. Okay, this begetting, this birth, is a creation of God. Uh, you are a new creation. The moment you believe, you you are a new creation. And of course, we are, you know, Romans 6 says we are now made alive, and we're to live in newness of life. So all this is coming from the concept of regeneration. Uh Ephesians says, you know, you are a new man, and therefore put on the deeds of the new man, right? So you're a new man. Well, what's this? It's again, it's related to regeneration, right? And some people describe it, they say, well, we have it we have a new nature now that is disposing us to the things of God. Uh so we want to do the things of God. And the Old Testament of the saints, I think, had this because if you read Psalm 119, which is that really long psalm, it just goes on and on and on. Like, how many ever verse? Hundreds of verse, almost a couple hundred verses. And throughout that, it's it's the psalmist expressing the love for the word of God, love for the righteousness of God, love for the things of God. Where does that come from? Where does that desire and love come from? If not, you know, they've been regenerated and they have these new desires that are part of their new man, their new nature. Um, but the problem in the Old Testament was that they didn't have the Spirit of God to empower them to live that new life. And I think that's the problem with Paul in Romans 7. When he became a believer, he's, of course, regenerated, but um in Romans chapter 7, he's he's struggling because he won, you know, he has these desires to do the things of God. He says, In my inner man, I want to do. And that inner man is the new regenerate creature that he is. Okay. And he wants to do the things of God, but he says, But the things I don't, the things I hate, that's what I do. You know, and he's so frustrated.

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Um, you can look at that frustration a little bit, Romans chapter 7. Right there after Acts.

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Romans chapter 7. Um, for example, verse 15, he says, What I'm doing, I don't understand. I'm not practicing what I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, well, I agree the law with the law, confessing, hey, the law is good. You know, in other words, the law is righteous, and it's true. Uh so now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. And I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. But the willing is present in me, just the doing of the good is not. See, that's the problem. So, I mean, you can be regenerate, of course, and have the desire to please God, but the doing of it is not present in you. So, what has to happen? Well, you know, Paul comes to the end of his rope in verse 24. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? And then he finally comes to the realization, he says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. In other words, there's an answer. There is an answer for how the desire to do the good can actually be done. It's just not in us, it's not latent to us, it's not natural to us. Um, and chapter 8 describes it. What's the answer?

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How do we do the good that we desire to do? How? This isn't rhetorical.

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We have to walk by the Spirit, which is the concept of dependence. I use a walker because you know, my grandfather used to carry his cane to Walmart and then he'd leave it in the buggy and they'd call him every week. You left your cane in the buggy again, uh, he wasn't depending on his cane. He was he didn't want to just in his way all the time. So when you're not depending on the spirit, it's like not depending on your cane. You're not resting on it, using it. And we need to learn how to walk by the spirit. That's what Romans 8 is all about. The walk by the Spirit. That's the only way to please God. But in the Old Testament, even though they were regenerate, they didn't have the Spirit of God dwelling in them like this. At least it wasn't universal, only certain individuals had it, right? David, Saul, uh, you know, some of the prop the prophets, of course, special personages and things like that. Um, so it wasn't universal. And so they didn't all have this Spirit of God living in them to help them accomplish the will of God. We have it. That's what's different. But I do think they were regenerated, they were born again, they were made alive, they were new creatures, new desires, just didn't have the Spirit of God to produce the new life. Let's look at these two key verses, John 7, 38 and 39. These are key verses to show what I've just explained.

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John 7, 38 and 39.

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Verse 38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. And then it explains. So these people in the Old Testament who were believers, they did not have the Holy Spirit to empower them to live the new life. But he says, if you believe in me, in verse 38, from his your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Now, this is giving us a taste of what it will mean that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us permanently, so that from within us can flow these rivers of living water. You know, life, truly living, really living life as God designed us to live. So, but definitely a difference, right? Old Testament saints didn't have that. Um, and there were people who lived on both sides of this. You just think of Peter and James and John and Andrew and the 12 before the day of Pentecost. They're believers, they're regenerate, they have eternal life, okay, but they don't have the Spirit of God living within them. And then what happens on the day of Pentecost? They receive the Holy Spirit. And take, for example, somebody like Peter, do you see any difference in his life before and after? And you can clearly do a whole study on Peter and his denials before. The person says, Well, weren't you with him? You know, this lady says, No, you were with him, I saw you with him. Oh no, he denied it. You know, I don't even know this man. Um repeatedly deny him. Then come to the book of Acts, and what do you see? The guy's going head to head with the Sanhedrin. You know, he's standing up and he's not backing down at all. Like, what happened? Uh there's definitely a difference, and it's not Peter, it's the Spirit in Peter. That's what we're seeing. So this gives us a taste for the difference between a believer under in Israel in that dispensation and a believer in the church in this current dispensation.

Church Age: Indwelling And Spirit Baptism

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But I do think they were regenerated. Now let's turn to the church for a few minutes. Regeneration, first of all, let's deal with that one because we've just dealt with it with Israel. We said they had it, but uh now, of course, whenever a person believes, we are regenerated so that we become born-again children of God. A bunch of references from John 3 there and John 1, which we already mentioned. We're also called children of God in 1 John 3 and Romans 8, so we know we're children of God. We're given eternal life, John 3.16, and we are alive to the things of God, and we're new creatures, just like people in the Old Testament. Everything up to that point is the same, right? Um, but then toward the end of this paragraph it says, the Spirit reproduces the life of Christ through our new nature, this new person that we are. That's 1 John 3, 6 and 9 and Galatians 2.20. You know, the Spirit is the one who reproduces the life of Christ through us. Now that's different, right? The Old Testament saints didn't have that. But we do. And what when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit and things like that, it's not abstract. I mean, it's love, right? And all sorts of manifestations of love, like joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. These are all manifestations of the fruit of the spirit. But that's that's really the life of Christ. That's what the fruit of the Spirit is. He's producing the life of Christ in us. Uh Paul says in Galatians 2.20, it's no longer I who live, but who? Christ lives in me. Well, who's producing the life of Christ in the Apostle Paul when he lives by faith? Well, it's the Holy Spirit. Uh, he's doing it. That's what he's doing. So we have that. Old Testament saints didn't have that. Regeneration then is an instantaneous thing that happens the moment you believe, just like a birth. It's a natural birth. I mean, there is a moment when you're born. And you don't keep getting born for years and years and years. I mean, you're you're born at that moment, and regeneration is a moment uh truth. It happens at one moment, and we shouldn't confuse it with other ideas like conversion or justification or sanctification. It's not the same thing as those. These are all different things. And you say, well, that's too complicated. And I'm sorry, God did this. Uh He wrote it the way He wanted. Um there's a lot of things going on. You say, Oh, there's too many things going on. Well, I don't know. Take it up with Him. That's not my fault. I'm just here to be a messenger. Okay. Um, He wants us to think about these things, but conversion is looking at things from the side of man. Justification is a legal verdict, sanctification is spiritual growth being set apart gradually. Uh, but regeneration is an instant of time, it's when a person is born again, they become a new creation, they're alive to the things of God, and have these new desires. And um now we also have this, this indwelling. Indwelling. Again, in the Old Testament, certain people had this, right? But not everybody. But things are different now because the Spirit comes to indwell the believer, all believers, at the moment they are regenerated. Romans 8, 9 and 11. We were just there. I should have said stay here, but I didn't.

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Romans 8, 9.

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This is really gonna, this, and this is just a we're just getting uh a glimpse now. We're gonna come back to these things. This won't be the only time we look at this in this series. We're gonna do a little more work later. Romans 8, verse 9. However, you believers are not in the flesh, but you are in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So, see, every believer has the spirit of God indwelling him. If you don't, obviously you're not even a believer, right? Verse 11 also. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So, see, if you have the indwelling spirit, then it assures us of the uh resurrection. Give life to your mortal bodies. So he's been placed in us. That's one of the per purposes for being in us. It's not only purpose, he's also there as a basis for living the Christian life. Right in us as a basis for living the Christian life. I mean, he lives within us, he's taken up residence in us uh for that ministry. And of course, it's permanent, unlike temporary indwelling in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, David said, Take not your spirit from me. And uh when Saul was rejected, David says the spirit of the Lord departed from him and came to indwell David. But now, I mean, he's permanent. This is why we find passages passages like Ephesians 4, do not grieve the spirit. You know what I mean? When we sin, what are we doing? We're grieving him.

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But he doesn't leave.

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Because we sinned. Some people say, Well, if you commit a really bad sin, then he'll leave you, you'll lose your salvation. Well, no. I mean, all sin grieves him, but it it's great, he's grieving because he's there inside of you. He hasn't left you. That's the whole point. Um, but it doesn't obviously please him. So we have this permanent uh indwelling, and it's universal for all believers in the church age, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, right? We all have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. As a basis for living the Christian life, as a basis for the future physical resurrection from the dead. Great truth. Third one, baptizing. And this is the one you didn't see anything like this in Old Testament Israel. I mean, there are types of baptism in the Old Testament, right? Like Moses' baptism, Noah's baptism. Um, but that there was not spirit baptism, and that's what we are referring to here: spirit baptism. So the moment a person believes, just as we've seen in Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19, the moment they believed, right, the Spirit baptized them and put them in the body of Christ. He identified them with Christ in his body, which is the church. And so now we are, quote, in Christ. Now, you but you never read that of an Old Testament person. In fact, Jesus prophesied it in Acts 1.5. Okay, not many days from now you will be baptized by the Spirit. So was anybody ever baptized by the Spirit before Acts chapter 2? I mean, the obvious answer should be, well, no, nobody was. Jesus prophesied it. Even said in John 7, hey, he's gonna come and indwell you. You know, there'll be flowing from you, rivers, waters of life. But this hadn't happened yet. None of this had happened. Distinct truths, but none of this really began to happen until Acts chapter 2. But many theologians say they gloss over all this. And they don't want to see the church as a new thing, they want to see it a continuation of Israel.

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And that's why this is so important.

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Okay, because I'm pointing out a discontinuity, I'm pointing out a break, that there's something different with Old Testament Israel and the church and the New Testament. And a lot of theologians try to blend all these together and just call Israel and the church the one people of God and just sweep over these differences. By sweeping over these differences, what they end up sweeping completely out the door is any future for national ethnic Israel. They all that gets wiped completely away. Because they just say, Well, we're Israel, we're the new Israel, or spiritual Israel, or something like that. No, no, no, no, no. These are distinctive ministries because the Holy Spirit had, or God, through the Holy Spirit, had particular mission for Israel in the Old Testament. It was a come and see mission, placed at the center of the earth. The church is different. This is not our mission.

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It is not come and see, it is go and tell. Go and make disciples of all nations.

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Right? So he didn't place the church at the center of the world, he placed the church all over the world. And he says, Go out and tell everybody and make disciples of people from all nations, right? So it's a different mission. And therefore, you know, obviously the church is quite clearly distinct from Israel in as far as God's missions and purpose for us. Uh, and this is what forms it. It's this baptism ministry, okay? So when you believe, just like you're regenerated, you're also baptized by the Spirit at this point, so you are identified with Christ, you've been crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ to live a new life. Romans 6, right? Now you are a part of his body, and he is the head. So it uses this analogy or metaphor with a body. He's the directing head, the body are his members, right? And then we'll find out later we've been given certain spiritual gifts, right? To function in the body. Okay, that's that's later. And we all are in Christ, this is our position, and we all share equal spiritual privileges. Galatians 3 28. There's neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free. Now there was in the Old Testament, meaning there were differences in spiritual privilege in the Old Testament. Jewish males used to pray, thank you that I'm not a Gentile, a woman, or a slave. And a lot of women in the feminist movement say, Oh, why would Paul say that? He's a he's a he's a woman hater. No, the point was they were praying that prayer because if you happened to be a woman, you didn't have as many spiritual privileges. They weren't saying we don't like women. They were saying, thank you that I'm a man because I have more spiritual privileges. Remember the court of the men in the temple? And then the court of the women was outside that. They could not get closer to God. They could not get as close as men could to God. Don't forget, though, men had to get circumcised before you get all upset, ladies. Okay? So, whatever. Okay. But now in the church, see, there's equal spiritual privileges. Male, female, slave, free, Jew, Greek, doesn't matter. We all have equal spiritual privileges because of this work of being baptized and brought into this thing called the body of Christ. Um, while there are several truths that distinguish the church from Israel, as we've noted, this is the most critical and misunderstood. Okay, but Jesus did predict in Acts 1.5, so it could never have occurred before then. And it was fulfilled as we've seen for the four groups in the pages of the book of Acts. And each group spoke in tongues, and that indicated they were all part of the same group. Continuing. Uh, baptism by the Spirit forever identifies the church as a distinct people from Israel, living in a distinct stewardship or dispensation or economy. And so we have a distinct mission. Israel's mission was what? Come and see, place at the center of the earth. Church's missions, go and tell. See also something like Ephesians 4.5. It says there's one baptism. People say, oh, there's one baptism, see water baptism. No, no, no. Of course, there's water baptism, but water baptism is just a ritual. It is just signifying what happens in the one real baptism. And the one real baptism that he's talking about in Ephesians 4.5 is spirit baptism. Um we go out to the lake or wherever and we have a baptism, and I take a person out there, we're standing in the lake, and I've got this person that has requested that they get baptized, they're not getting baptized because they want to be saved, they're getting baptized because they are saved. And they're wanting to tell everybody, hey, I've been identified with Christ in his death, in his res in his burial, put under the water, and when he's raised back up in his resurrection. And that's a picture of what happens in spirit baptism. The moment we believe in Christ, our old person in Adam is in Adam is crucified with Christ, he's killed. That old man is killed, he's buried, he's put under in the grave, and then you're raised a new person to live a new life. Okay, so the water is just a ritual to signify or illustrate the real one, which is spirit baptism. Sealing.

Sealing And Assurance Of Salvation

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Ephesians 1. We should probably stop here, but Ephesians 1, right? Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. And 4 30, but Ephesians 1, 13, and 14. At the end, one of the longest sentences in the New Testament, verses 3 to 14, one sentence. Uh Paul says in verse 13, in him that is in Christ, you also, after listening to the message of truth, which is the gospel of your salvation. So you heard that, you were listening to that. Having also believed it, that's when you believed it, you were what? Sealed in him, sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise. So he carries out the sealing work. Sealing signified a mark of ownership or possession. You you'd uh seal an envelope, you put a seal on there, maybe the wax seal, and you put your impression on it to signify ownership. And this is what the spirit does. He seals you where? In Christ. Christ is the envelope, you are the letter. Christ is the envelope, you are the letter. The spirit seals you in him, and in fact, he is the seal. Okay, and he keeps us. We call this eternal security. Who is keeping us eternally secure? Who is keeping us in Christ? Well, the Holy Spirit. He's doing that. So we can definitely have uh assurance of our salvation when we learn these passages that are objective truths about us being uh kept secure by the Spirit. We're the letter, Christ is the envelope, and the Spirit is the seal keeping us inside the envelope. Um this is a great truth, right? Sealing. Okay. We shouldn't sin now and grieve the spirit who's sealing us in Christ, but we we still do. But he is a down payment inside of us that guarantees that one day there'll be a future installment and we'll get our resurrection body, and that's verse 14. So he's given us a pledge or down payment of our inheritance. So this is uh the word pledge is like um yeah, like you make a down payment on a house or something like that. Um that's that's you're saying, I'm there's more to come. Put the down payment down, uh, and you're saying what? We're gonna come through on this, we're gonna give you more. And the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a down payment. That guess what? There's more. I mean, can you believe it? I mean, we have the Holy Spirit of God right now, but hey, there's more. There's far more. Um, and it will call come in the resurrection. Okay, so those are at least four. There are some more, I won't do them today, but filling, of course, that's number five. Um, restraint. There's also restraining of sin currently going on, which he's done in previous dispensations. Uh, and the spiritual gifts, which again, that's totally new, right? Nobody had that before. And then intercessory praying. This year's all about prayer. Guess what? When you don't even know how to pray, you have someone inside of you who knows exactly how to pray. This is a great comfort. We'll talk about that next week. And then the illuminating work of the Spirit. He's our ultimate teacher. But the way that he teaches is through those he's gifted with the gift of teaching. So that's interesting. Interesting. God doesn't do everything directly, uh, he often uses means to accomplish what he wants to. But we have the Spirit of God illuminate us as we're in the Word of God, as we have someone teaching the Word of God, clarifying, and then He opens our eyes to really understand it. So we'll look at those gifts or those ministries next week, but you can see just from a casual glance at these things, there are now, I've listed nine for the church, four for Israel, and only two for the Gentiles. So you see an escalation in the presence of the Spirit through the Scripture. He's there in the early pages, but you only see a couple things. He's there in the Old Testament, but you know, not nearly as much as we see him now speaking on the day of Pentecost for the church. So that's interesting. And um, we should attend to these things because God has given us these things for our particular mission to help us fulfill the mission. He's equipped us, and that's what this is all about.

Visuals And Final Encouragement

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Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spoke and Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.