On this episode, we share part 3 of our interview with Josh Miller to hear what it was like to be the son of the Country Preacher at Large. We also share one of Bro. David Miller’s classic sermons entitled “The Doctrine of Regeneration” from 1 Peter 1:1-5. Enjoy!

Bro. David Miller’s sermon: 🎥 👉 “Doctrine of Regeneration”, 1 Peter 1:1-5

Recommended Resources: 
1) Chosen By God by RC Sproul – https://lineuponlineministries.com/product/chosen-by-god/ 
2) Find a Systematic Theology – https://lineuponlineministries.com/store 

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Email: lineuponlineministries@gmail.com
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Mark W. Williams: X @markwwill FB @markwilliamslive

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Episode Transcript:

Speaker A: If you ever got a tape and it wasn’t good, that was your fault. It probably wasn’t. I was gonna say that was whoever else had done it that was on the months I wasn’t there.

[00:00:18] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to another episode of Line Upon Line Ministries podcast. I’m your host, Mark Williams. On today’s episode, we’re gonna share the third and final part of the interview with Brother David Miller’s son, Josh Miller. We’ll also share another classic sermon from Brother David Miller, this time from First Peter, Chapter 1, verses 1 through 5 on the doctrine of regeneration.

Before we jump into the interview, let me encourage you to do a couple things. One, if you haven’t been there in a while, go to our website lineuponlineministries.com where we have uploaded some new sermons from Brother David under the archive there.

Also, as always, if you have any content from Brother David from where maybe he came and preached at your church or something like that, or if you just have a story about Brother David, something you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you. You can email me at lineuponlineministriesmail.com I’d love to get that content, put it up on the website or through our podcasts or other means and, and, and love to hear stories of Brother David as well.

So let’s go to the third part of the interview with Brother Josh Miller.

[00:01:38] Speaker A: A lot of online ministries.

Yeah, dad was the face of it, whatever.

Mom was just as big a part and you know, I can, I can’t tell you how many times when I was growing up, when dad, dad started, I was little, probably 8 or 9 years old, maybe 10 at the most when dad started doing the monthly manna tape of the month club.

And he would preach and he would do a Bible study and pretty preached through different books and I think started off with like Ruth and Nehemiah and Malachi and several, several different ones.

And you know, he would send these tapes out once a month to whoever a thing that has gone on up until just here recently after we made the shift to having everything available online.

But I can remember thinking like tape of the month.

I was like, you mean every month we gotta do this every month? Because you know, even old Josh got drug out there in the office and said, okay, here’s the cassette duplicator machines get after it, get to work. Yeah, you got about 900 to go.

And so that would be, that was always a fun after school activity.

And check all those tapes. If any of you are Listening your tape.

If you ever got a tape and it wasn’t good, that was your fault. It probably wasn’t. I was gonna say that was whoever else that was on the months I wasn’t there.

[00:03:36] Speaker C: But.

[00:03:37] Speaker A: But anyway, you know, man, my mom.

My mom would be out in the office till midnight, one o’ clock in the morning, a lot of nights doing.

[00:03:51] Speaker B: Labels and advertising.

[00:03:54] Speaker A: And a lot of the book work and everything, keeping up with records and, you know, and then getting Dad’s. When dad would leave, you know, a lot of times when he was traveling to the motorhome, he would leave and be gone for two and a half to three weeks at a time.

And he would have, you know, he would kind of do the logistical planning with where he had invitations to preach.

Would, you know, would be, you know, if he’s going off over to somewhere in Alabama, then he’d, you know, work his way around. But, you know, do like Sunday, Sunday through Wednesday, and then start up somewhere else Thursday and do Thursday through Sunday morning and then go somewhere else, start Sunday night, do Sunday night through Wednesday.

And. But.

But, you know, he would always have all of his stuff. And. And that was.

That was my mom doing that, even if she wasn’t traveling with him, had all that ready to go before he would leave. And so just, you know, just an incredible.

And she loved doing it, and she didn’t want anybody else doing it because she took a lot of pride in what she did. She took pride in being Dad’s wife and her role in his.

In how the Lord was using his ministry.

[00:05:21] Speaker B: Right, right.

[00:05:22] Speaker A: And it’s just really incredible, you know, like, I see all that. And then mom and Aunt Oneita Williams and all the others, Ms. Marsha Hickus and all the ladies, you know, like, at our church for years when the expository preaching conferences. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I used to dread that.

[00:05:47] Speaker B: Tell us how you really feel, Josh.

[00:05:48] Speaker A: I’m just being honest. Yeah. I don’t think y’ all want me to lie.

Oh, man, we got all these people coming in, but it was one of the greatest things.

[00:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:05:58] Speaker A: And, you know, of course, Herschel and Tanya York, just super close friends of mom and Dad’s and mine. And, you know, they would be in and that’s how they would.

It’s been so neat to see and hear from people all over the country who have written a note or something, sent a message that, hey, you know, I attended an expository preaching conference that was put on by dad and Tumblin Shoals Baptist Church.

And Dr. Her, Herschel York. And I can’t tell you what that’s meant to me and my ministry from that point on.

[00:06:45] Speaker B: Well, even since I became the pastor at Tumbling Shoals just now, three and a half years ago, when I’ve gone to SBC or state events or different things that I’ve gone to, when they see my name tag and it says Tumbling Shoals Baptist Church, David Miller, I went to expository Preaching conference, you know, 10 years ago, or whatever it was, and it was like, man, the impact that that had, that he had, it was just incredible.

[00:07:11] Speaker A: It’s incredible. And just to get to. I mean, and I was there and I got to be a.

You know, help do different things, you know, early on, before, a lot of it, you know, they had. They hadn’t been going on too terribly long when we had our.

When me and my buddy had our accident. Yeah. So a lot of it I’ve seen, you know, afterwards when I hadn’t been as much help. But that’s been so incredible when you get to look back on that. And that’s, you know, that’s one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to being able, you know, as we’re talking about in the next few weeks or months, you know, being able to have some of that content.

[00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:08:00] Speaker A: Available for. For folks. But, man, you know, I mean, when.

[00:08:08] Speaker B: You think about those things, it’s gotta make you proud.

[00:08:12] Speaker A: It does.

I mean, there’s.

And I think I’ve. I probably told you this before, but, like, there’s a big part of me. Sure. I’m, you know, I’m. I got plenty.

I’m plenty fleshly, I guess.

[00:08:33] Speaker C: Sure.

[00:08:33] Speaker A: A good word.

And I got a lot of pride.

Probably too much.

And.

But, you know, we all do. I’m proud just from a worldly standpoint.

[00:08:47] Speaker B: Sure.

[00:08:47] Speaker A: I’m proud of who my parents were. I’m proud of who my dad was and what he did and how respected and revered. And I’m proud of my mom, you know, for the same reason so many folks have respected her throughout the years, just for the type of woman she was and the wife that she was.

[00:09:13] Speaker B: But there’s, you know, there’s definitely a godly kind of pride. There’s a scripture would tell us that we honor such people and they deserve that kind of honor. Not because they’re great people, but because God used them in a great way.

[00:09:31] Speaker A: Right. Well. And that’s kind of. So I’m trying to get, like, I know that. Let’s just move me my Earthly self saying how proud I am. But then two, just like the other thing is just kind of in awe of how God could use a deformed fetus.

Born in rural south Mississippi in a home with a dirt floor and no indoor plumbing and no nearby seminaries or Bible colleges or, you know, institutes of higher learning.

And, you know, just with the Lord saved my dad and then, you know, moved him to Scotland, Arkansas, for once, his last semester of high school, where he met my mom, who was.

Had been saved. And then they started dating. And then.

Well, dad had been called to preach, I think, before that. And he, you know, he started out.

If you’ve listened to many of his sermons, you’ve heard him refer to his first pastorate.

[00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:11:05] Speaker A: He was preaching at First Baptist, Snowball, Arkansas.

[00:11:09] Speaker B: Snowball.

[00:11:10] Speaker A: And it was attended by six ladies.

The treasurer’s name was Ms. Icy. Ms. Icy Ferguson. I’ve never met the lady, but I’ve heard a lot about her.

And that’s where he started preaching.

And, you know, and dad. Dad has been asked to preach in a whole lot of different venues.

You know, I know he’s preached at the. At the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s preached at seminaries. He’s preached at, you know, I know he preached at Mid America for years during their annual Founders Days. Yep. And Southern Seminary. Just a lot of different places. Southwestern down in Dallas.

But he always said he never got up in front of a crowd where he had more.

Where he felt more of a responsibility and more dignity about what he was doing than when he was preaching at Snowball.

[00:12:12] Speaker B: To those six ladies.

[00:12:13] Speaker A: To those six ladies.

And.

And they called him to be their pastor. And they.

He said they.

They had church every other Sunday.

I was like, is that. And I asked him one time, I was like, well, did they not want to hear you the other Sundays?

He said that wasn’t how they do things back in.

[00:12:36] Speaker C: Boy.

[00:12:37] Speaker A: But anyway.

But, you know, just. And getting to see, you know, I can see that. I see how he started there. And then he and mom got married and they moved to Belleville down in west central Arkansas, and he pastored there for a little bit. And then he’s the youngest associational director of missions in the state, I think, for the longest time, because I don’t think he was but maybe 25 or so when he got hired to come to Cleveland County, Heber Springs, as the director of missions for the Little Red River Baptist Association.

And that’s what he was, you know, when I was growing up, up until.

Well, up until I was probably about 13 or 14, maybe 15.

And, you know, then he was traveling and going, right. Going here and there. And there was a guy.

There was a guy that said to him one time, and he didn’t mean it as ignorant or mean as it came across, but he just. He brought it up. He said, you know, you ever thought about how you wouldn’t.

You wouldn’t get all them opportunities to go preach if you wasn’t in that wheelchair?

And I can remember dad saying, well, no, I hadn’t.

[00:14:09] Speaker B: That crossed my mind.

[00:14:10] Speaker A: He said, no, I hadn’t done it. He goes, because he said something. I wish I could remember exactly how he coined it, but it was something to the effect of. Of the Lord doesn’t need me to be in this wheelchair to glorify him.

And I was just how he looked at it. You know, dad would always say he’d be out preaching revival.

Somebody would come up to him, oh, Brother David, Brother David, you’ve just been such an inspiration.

And he had just.

I could see his eyes roll as. Even though they weren’t.

I’m not an inspiration.

I’m just a. You know, this is. Just listen to what the word is.

And he’d say in his sermons, if you’re waiting on me to inspire you, just die uninspired.

I’m not here to inspire you. I’m here to share with you from the word of God. Yeah. And, you know, he could have.

He could have jazzed it up and been a lot more inspirational.

[00:15:21] Speaker B: Sure.

[00:15:24] Speaker A: You know, we would always kid around about, hey, you could. You could get you a prayer cloth or something, start sending out that tape of the month for an extra $5.

And, you know, those were obviously jokes in our family, and he. He would have never done that. Just wouldn’t have had it.

And, you know, I can. I can always. I can remember when dad told me he was gonna retire or resign from being the director of missions of the Little Red River Baptist Association.

And I was young. I didn’t know anything.

Well, how are we gonna make a living?

I didn’t know.

[00:16:09] Speaker B: You’re young.

[00:16:09] Speaker A: I didn’t know.

And he said, well, son, the Lord’s going to take care of us. And I wouldn’t be. You know, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think, you know, everything was going to be okay. But he.

As I got to travel around with him, and I know I’m jumping around a lot, big stories, but, you know, doesn’t matter. It’s our podcast.

[00:16:36] Speaker B: That’s right. We can Talk about whatever we want.

[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. I mean, we’ve already established we don’t have an alliterated outline, no agenda, nothing.

But I hear dad talk about, hey, things work out a lot better if you let the Lord keep the books.

And after I got up a little older, you know, I kind of started figuring, hey, I was the one that pumped the diesel.

[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:17:05] Speaker A: In the motorhome.

[00:17:06] Speaker B: You can see how much that cost even.

[00:17:08] Speaker A: Even back then, you know, I mean, you weren’t filling up for less than 150, 175 bucks in that thing.

And it got about six miles to the gallon. Right. And so, you know, we were.

One time, I think we had been to every Flying J in the entire Southeast, if you’re in the sec.

Yeah, I think I’ve been to every Flying J.

I think I’ve been to that Flying J, but. And then. And then even some in Texas, which I’m still not including in the SEC right now.

And then I won’t. Just out of principle.

[00:17:48] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:17:49] Speaker A: But.

But anyway, we’d go to a church. And I’ll never forget, like, I’d asked Dad one time, it’s like, hey, how do you handle.

Like, I mean, how do you handle getting paid?

I mean, like, do you just tell people how much it’s going to be? But that was a teenager. I probably wasn’t 16 or at the oldest. Sixteen?

[00:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:18:19] Speaker A: And he said, nope, I don’t tell people anything.

He said, if people ask, you know, I can give him a suggested expense reimbursement, but that’s.

But that’s it. And he told me, he said, I don’t believe in.

I don’t believe in going somewhere based on somebody putting up money up front or.

[00:18:50] Speaker B: Agreed upon price.

[00:18:51] Speaker A: Agreed upon price or whatever. He said, I just.

I believe that if the Lord wants me to go somewhere and speak, then it’s going to work out. And I’ll never forget we were somewhere.

[00:19:07] Speaker B: Out of state.

[00:19:10] Speaker A: And we went to a church.

Little old Minnie country church.

Probably didn’t have 30, 40 people in it. And it was kind of one of those Sunday.

Or it was like a Thursday night through Sunday morning kind of deal.

Nice people.

And we.

I remember I got the motor home stuck in the yard at that church.

But anyway, that wasn’t all my fault.

But when.

When we left there, the. And the preacher gave me the envelope of the love offering, whatever.

And you know, sometimes I’d get curious.

[00:20:10] Speaker B: You wanted to see what that number was.

[00:20:12] Speaker A: I did, I did.

And so I’d opened it up and Anyhow, it was a check for $200, and I knew we’d put $175 worth of diesel just to get there.

And it wasn’t, you know, like, you couldn’t. That was it. That was. I mean, there was. Right. That was no. It wasn’t no expense check coming. There wasn’t. No, that was. That was the whole thing. Love offering expenses. Here’s what you get. Thank you.

Whatever.

And, you know, I was just kind of like, what the heck?

[00:20:59] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:21:00] Speaker A: Like, you know, this.

[00:21:01] Speaker B: How do we survive on this?

[00:21:02] Speaker A: You can’t. Yeah. This doesn’t work out very good.

We went down the road 20, 30 miles to a little town, and dad started there on Sunday night.

And this is probably back in the late 90s.

He started there on a Sunday night, but the revival went through Wednesday night.

And when we left there, the preacher handed me the envelope, and I heard him tell dad, he said that there’ll be an expense check if it gets. It’s mailed to you or whatever.

They process that out of two different accounts or whatever.

Some churches, I guess, have two different accounts. Sure.

But anyhow, that.

That check was for over $10,000.

[00:22:13] Speaker C: Well.

[00:22:15] Speaker A: And I mean, you know, 20, 30 miles down the road, same deal. And then, you know, when we left there, dad said, my son, that’s why you’re better off. To do what?

Do what is honoring to the Lord and let him keep the books and work out the details.

And, you know, I can always remember him saying, a lot of times, a preacher, you probably know the saying that he’s used, but it’s like a preacher that won’t go everywhere.

[00:22:55] Speaker B: That won’t go anywhere.

[00:22:58] Speaker A: A preacher that won’t go everywhere isn’t qualified to go anywhere.

[00:23:04] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:23:05] Speaker A: Or something like that.

I probably butchered that, too.

But that was his approach. And that was, you know, it wasn’t nobody called. Nobody called the office phone and trying to schedule dad and got told, well, we’re going to need 1500 up front and, you know, X amount guaranteed, blah, blah, blah, after that.

And that was. And I’m not. I’m not saying that to put anybody down, just that how they. How they run their businesses between them and the Lord.

[00:23:44] Speaker B: But.

[00:23:45] Speaker A: But.

But that was dad’s M.O.

all the way through.

He never wavered from that.

[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:23:53] Speaker A: Ever.

And, you know, and I think.

I think God honored that by.

By using dad more.

Not just not. I don’t mean it just from a financial side standpoint. I’m just saying dad looked at it as a privilege that he was blessed, that God, through his providence, chose to use him in the way that he did.

Because I’ve heard Dad say, hey, what would happen to me if God wasn’t using me the way he is?

Where would I be? Sure.

[00:24:37] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:24:39] Speaker A: And, you know, and I think about that and that just, you know, hey, all that can be true in everybody, every Christian’s life is, hey, you know, thank you, Lord, for using me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work and be able to tithe. Thank you for. Or all that stuff, you know, dad.

All that stuff’s lessons that mom, dad drove home with me.

I’d like to say I could come up with some of that on my own, but I didn’t.

So anyway. But man. But most importantly, too, in this, very important to me in this podcast, for those of you who watched and her lesson and have been faithful supporters of Line Upon Line Ministries for years, and I’m not just talking about those who have made financial contributions. We’re very grateful for that, but just those who have supported my dad and mom praying and praying for our family and praying for his ministry, you know, that just. Thank you. I don’t.

I’m horribly inadequate at.

I do a very inadequate job of. I feel like, of thanking those who have, who have supported.

I know dad always felt like he did. And it was his.

It was his duty to keep.

As long as he had folks out there that were praying for him and supporting him, he wanted to keep.

He wanted to keep turning out, you know, the word of God, you know, keep those sermons and stuff available. And that’s our.

[00:26:43] Speaker B: That’s what we’re doing now.

[00:26:44] Speaker A: That’s our goal now. And I think while dad might.

Dad would probably roll his eyes and laugh at both of us, call both of us goobers and all that stuff. And he goobers with your little podcast. Ain’t that cute?

And I can just hear him now. He’s been giving us all kinds of mess over it, but I think at the same time, you know, I might could roll up behind him and him not know I was there and he would be on the phone with somebody and he might be kind of proud of it, too.

But we’re not doing it to make dad proud. I know, I know.

I don’t need that.

We first and foremost want to honor the Lord with it. And that’s.

It’s not a.

That’s the 100% pure mission. So this has been good for me to do. I’ve enjoyed this. I’ve enjoyed getting to talk about all this and we’ll.

[00:27:49] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you taking out the time. Like I said, we wanted to do this since we started now, I guess about six months since we started the.

[00:27:59] Speaker A: Podcast, but.

[00:28:02] Speaker B: We’Ll probably get to together and talk again soon on podcast. We’ll, you know, bring up a particular. We’ll actually have an agenda the next time maybe.

[00:28:10] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:28:10] Speaker B: And we’ll talk about a specific thing about your dad.

But man, this has been fun. I, you know, I’ve enjoyed the time so far working with line upon line and getting to see, you know, put out his sermons and all that kind of stuff and hearing the stories and it’s just, it’s good every time I get to hear a new story or a new thing about David and it’s been good. I’ve talked to you personally about some of these things, but even some of the things you shared today were new to me. And it’s always a pleasure to get to know and learn more about brother David because again, I think it honors his legacy and ultimately gives glory to God because God used a man like him in such a mighty way.

[00:28:53] Speaker A: I agree.

And you know, I think, well, you know, just, you’ve done a great job. Like I said at the beginning, you’ve done a great job of, with everything. This is some, there’s been a lot of stuff, you know, dad, when you’ve been at it for 60 years preaching and probably most of what you have preached in the last 40 years has been recorded. Most of it. I’m not gonna say all of it, but, but you know, a good bit. So there was a lot, there’s a lot of archives and it’s still a work in progress. But you know that that’s, that’s due, due to your efforts and that. And you know, I also want to mention Brother John O. Sims and his, his son in law. Yep. They’ve done a lot of work with the website. Their help has been, has been just a gift of God to help see this thing through. So it’s been a, it’s a neat thing. And you know, you kind of see you have an idea and you think, man, I don’t know. And the one thing I did know was that I am too technologically ignorant to even attempt this.

So.

But you know, the Lord’s worked all that out and, and I’m, I’m tickled. And we’re grateful for those who are watching and listening and, and supporting. And if you, you know, I would say this too, like, hey, anybody that’s got a good Story about Dad. Yeah, Email it to us. Email it to.

[00:30:31] Speaker B: We love to hear those.

[00:30:33] Speaker A: I know the lion pole lines. Email is all on the website or. Yeah.

[00:30:38] Speaker B: Lineuponlineministries.com or the email is lineuponlineministriesmail.com There you go.

[00:30:46] Speaker A: But, yeah, yeah, email that stuff or call the office.

That’s a.

Those are great things to hear. And we’re.

We miss. We miss. I miss mom and dad both, but I love being able to celebrate who they were. And I can only do that because of the hope in. In the Lord that Dad preached about for 60 years.

[00:31:15] Speaker B: That’s right.

[00:31:16] Speaker C: Yep.

[00:31:16] Speaker A: You know.

[00:31:19] Speaker B: So, anyhow, well, thanks, Josh. Appreciate your time today.

[00:31:22] Speaker A: You bet. Well, maybe when it gets closer into deer season, we’ll do a. From the woods, we’ll do a hunting store. Do a hunting story. I like it. Dad’s hunting story podcast.

[00:31:33] Speaker B: I like it.

As you heard there from Brother Josh, we want to say thank you to all of you who have encouraged and supported and helped to encourage us to continue on this ministry of Brother David’s, to continue to promote his legacy and to preserve it here on website through keeping his sermons and things like that.

It has been a great encouragement to hear from so many of you over the last year or so. Now let’s go on to another classic sermon by Brother David Miller, this time the Doctrine of Regeneration from First Peter, chapter one.

[00:32:21] Speaker C: Are you ready?

I’d like for us to start out together.

I learned years ago that if we don’t start out together, we probably won’t end up together.

And if we can’t end up together, then I want to end up before you do.

I have gone on on occasions after the congregation had quit.

All right, let’s begin at verse 1.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galicia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.

What do you think about that now, Peter, having introduced himself and those to whom he is addressing this epistle.

Those Christian Jews who have been scattered throughout Asia Minor.

He comes in verse two to set before them what I call trinitarian salvation.

He just blurts it out.

He reminds them of all three persons of the Godhead being involved in their redemption.

Look at what he says. First, you have been selected by God the Father. You are the elect of God according to his foreknowledge.

That is, in eternity past, before you were ever born, before you had ever done either good or bad, God singled you out and set you up to be the object of his divine affection.

Herein is love. Not that you loved me, but that I first loved you.

I may not look like all that much to you, but I am somebody.

The God of the universe has set his affections on me.

I’m among the elect.

But not only have you been selected by the Father, you have been saved by the Son by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. An obvious reference here to the high priestly function of Christ, who upon his death, through the eternal Spirit, entered into the holy place in the heavens and sprinkled his blood upon the mercy seat until holy justice cried out, I’m satisfied.

Selected by the Father, saved by the Son, and sanctified by the Spirit.

Trinitarian salvation.

Or we could say it like in eternity past, God the Father sovereignly arranged our redemption.

In the fullness of the times, God the Son singularly accomplished our redemption.

And in our own experience in time, God the Holy Spirit has selectively applied all that the Father arranged, all that the Son accomplished.

And upon such lofty meditation, the apostle can no longer contain his jubilation. And in verse three, he enters into a doxology of praise, saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I reckon so, don’t you?

Now, in my sermon tonight, we’re going to discuss the doctrine of regeneration.

Now, you folks didn’t think that was the sermon, did you?

Just because I had three points. That’s the introduction to the sermon.

We’re going to focus our attention on the new birth, on regeneration.

And I want to show you three things. First, I want us to talk about the doctrinal concept of regeneration.

And secondly, I want to talk about the defining cause of regeneration.

And thirdly, I want us to consider some delightful consequences of regeneration as we find them in this text.

Are you all aware that you can’t say everything that can be said about regeneration in one sermon?

And so we’re going to limit our remarks to what this text has to say.

Are you ready?

Now, under our first heading, the doctrinal concept of regeneration.

I want to tell you what it means.

I want to give you the means for regeneration.

And I want to give you some of the mistakes regarding regeneration.

I shall quote for you now the article from the Baptist Faith and Message regarding regeneration.

Are there any Southern Baptists in the room?

Here it is.

Regeneration is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I like that.

It’s accurate.

Let me give that to you again. I’m a little concerned about a couple of you.

This is the Baptist Faith and Message.

Regeneration is a change of heart, heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds with repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Charles Spurgeon said it like this.

A man is not saved against his will, but is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost.

A mighty grace which he does not wish to resist enters into him, disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and he is saved.

Born of God, born from above, born of the Spirit.

Now, this implies a necessity.

Let me just tell you what the necessity is.

One man is dead spiritually and cannot activate himself.

I was born with my right arm only partially developed.

You can command me to straighten my arm out, but I have no ability to straighten my right arm out.

That is beyond the purview of my ability.

And you can command a person dead in trespasses and sins to repent of those sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But he cannot function in the spiritual realm because he is dead spiritually.

He’s not sick, he’s not impaired.

He doesn’t need therapy.

He’s dead spiritually, dead spiritually and cannot activate himself.

And number two, he is defiled morally and cannot rehabilitate himself.

And number three, he is dominated satanically and cannot liberate himself.

And number four, he is debilitated volitionally and cannot elevate himself.

And number five, he is damned eternally and cannot exonerate himself.

I was going to preach about that, but Brother Jono beat me to the point this morning.

Man, being dead in sins is in need of a radical conversion.

He is in need of the impartation of spiritual life.

He is in need of a new birth.

That’s what regeneration is about.

Now, I want to talk to you about the means.

How does God go about regenerating men who are dead in sins?

Your Bible is open to chapter one. I want you to look down to verse 23.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Now look at verse 25.

And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith within.

But I know this.

God uses the word of the Gospel by the operation of His Spirit to birth life into those whom he has elected.

This much I know.

Now you’ve heard some emphasis during this conference about the Gospel.

The word of the Gospel is man is a sinner, he’s justly condemned.

And God Almighty has taken the initiative to rescue fallen man in the fullness of the times. He sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.

Christ Jesus fulfilled the righteous demands of God’s holy law. He took our sins upon himself by imputation, became our sin bearer, our suffering servant. And when he bled and died upon the cross of Calvary and through the eternal Spirit sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat, God accepted that as payment as ransom for our souls.

That’s the gospel truth.

And God raised him up from the dead as a public attestation that he had accepted and approved of all that Jesus did and all that Jesus said. This is the Gospel. And I don’t know all about how God does it. But when the Gospel is preached and there are those in the congregation upon whom God has set his affections, that preaching of the Word wielded by the Holy Ghost of God breathes life, spiritual life, eternal life into the hearts of God’s elect people.

That’s regeneration.

That’s the word.

That’s the means that he used.

Now that behooves the preacher, give less book reviews and to do more gospel preaching.

Preach the gospel.

Preach it Sunday morning, preach it Sunday evening, preach it on Wednesday night. There is no substance substitute for the preaching of the Gospel. And I’ll tell you, in fact, I’ll just move on to the third statement here and tell you I want to point out some of the mistakes regarding regeneration.

Now you are aware that the Hyper Calvinists believe that if God has elected men to salvation, they can be saved apart from the gospel.

They can be regenerated apart from the gospel. I’ll tell you that’s an error.

In the economy of God’s grace.

He has ordained the preaching of the Gospel and the Spirit of God uses that word to birth spirit spiritual life into lost sin.

And then I’d say a word to the Camelites while I’m here.

The only means that God uses to bring about regeneration is the gospel wrought by the Holy Ghost. Baptism hasn’t got anything to do with it.

Baptismal regeneration is a heresy.

That’s why I’m trying to make local church and local church ordinance men out of these friends of mine.

Now, that’s the first point in my sermon. Did you get that? The doctrinal concept for regeneration. Now, I want to talk to you regarding the defining cause of regeneration. Listen to it. Verse 3, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope.

Two things here. One, absolute monergism and two, abundant mercy.

These are the defining cause of regeneration.

The ESV says it like this. He hath caused you to be born again.

Mon is single, erg is work, monergism, a single work of God.

It is a supernatural, miraculous work that God himself does.

Man is passive.

Hey, you had nothing to do with your first birth, did you?

You were passive in that matter, and you were just as passive in the matter of your spiritual birth.

Now, is there anyone else in here but us?

Can we talk?

Well, let me just tell you that monergism is consistent with and congruent with the doctrine of election.

How else could election have practical expression were it not for a sovereign God’s ability to do a single work in birthing spiritual life into the hearts of dead sinners?

You want an illustration of this?

Have you read in the Book of Revelation about a time yet in the future? Future when God is going to save 144,000 Jews to be witnesses and preachers? Have y’ all read about that?

Not 144,001, 144,000.

No more, no less.

How’s he going to do that?

How are you going to achieve a specific number like that? Apart from monergism?

Apart from a sovereign God setting his affections upon that number and doing a work in their hearts?

Is that not enough?

Okay, raise that to the twelfth power.

For there are 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes.

Not 11,999 in one and 12,000 in one. In another, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes that’s raised to the twelfth power.

How’d that happen?

Did God just look down through the corridors of time and figure out that if he waited till this position, particular time, in this particular set of circumstances and eventualities, if he’d present a gospel opportunity. 144,000. 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes would repent and believe.

Or did God sovereignly decide that he would save by his divine power based on his electing grace, that number.

Is that making any sense at all to you?

And do you know why this is the case?

Because there is in the heart of our God abundant mercy.

Are you aware that God would have been cleared of any unrighteousness if he had sent every last one of us to hell?

Did God owe you anything?

Do you want what you deserve?

I can tell by looking at you you don’t want what you deserve.

Hey, I’m like the preacher who told the finance committee, don’t pay me what I’m worth. I. I can’t live on it.

I need mercy.

Abundant mercy.

Now, here’s the third item. I want you to see some delightful consequences of regeneration.

Number one, a blessed hope our hearts.

Number two, a beautiful home in heaven.

And number three, bountiful help in the here and now. Are you interested?

All right, let’s look at it.

According to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope.

It commences at regeneration.

It is confirmed by the resurrection, and it will be consummated at the revelation.

I can remember what it was like to be without hope.

Can you?

I can remember going to bed late at night, not being able to sleep for hours because I was worried and anxious about my soul.

I remember getting up in the morning and dreading to face the day.

I don’t know how it was with you, but before the Lord saved me, he brought me through a lengthy period of condemnation and guilt of sin.

But through the preaching of a country preacher, the Holy Ghost, using the gospel of Christ. Christ wrought a work in my heart that rendered me alive unto God with hope in my heart.

And I hadn’t gotten over it.

Blessed hope.

Glory to God.

And number two, a beautiful home in heaven. Look at the way he characterizes the home in verse 4.

Incorruptible will not spoil nor decay.

Everything you have down here is corruptible. But God has prepared a place for you that’s incorruptible. It’s undefiled here. He wants to talk about the presence of sin.

Some Baptists are under the delusion that in heaven we’re going to be so spiritual that we’ll never give in to temptation all the days of eternity. That is not true.

The truth is, there’s not going to be any temptation in heaven. I can tell by looking at this crowd if there was Temptation. There you would fall, and so would I.

But here’s the result of the work that God has done in our hearts. We have a home in heaven and incorruptible and undefiled. And it fadeth not away when We’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.

And then he says, it’s reserved in heaven for you. I like that, don’t you? Guarded there.

And then he says, we have bountiful help in the here and now who are kept by the power of God.

A military term, garrisoned up, fortressed about.

That’s help.

It’s going to be revealed when Christ comes again. Let me ask you something. Is there any evidence, biblical evidence, as we find it in this text, that you have been born again?

Do you have this living hope in your heart that has affected the way you live your life? He that hath this hope in him purifies himself.

Does the notion of a heavenly home stir your soul when we sing these songs about the eternal state of the elect? Does that move you to doxology?

That’s good, strong evidence that you’ve been regenerated.

Are you still bound in your sin?

Or do you have help liberating, delivering help inside of you?

Or as Peter said it in his Second Epistle, Chapter one, verse three, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, these things are consequences of regeneration.

Hail sovereign grace that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man Hell matchless free, eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place against the God that ruled the sky I fought with hand uplifted high Despised the riches of his grace Too proud to seek a hiding place Madly I ran the sinful race secure without a hiding place but thus the eternal counsel ran Almighty love, arrest that man.

I felt the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place.

Indignant justice stood in view To Sinai’s fiery mount I flew but justice said with frowning face this mountain is no hiding place.

Ere long a heavenly voice I heard and Mercy’s angel form appeared she led me on with gentle pace to Jesus as my hiding place Though sevenfold vengeance roll and shake this earth from pole to pole no flaming bolt will daunt my face For Jesus is my hiding place place A few more rolling suns at most Will land me safe on Canaan’s coast Where I shall see my Savior’s face and view my glorious hiding place.

Let’s Bow and pray. Father, thank you for your word. Write these lessons indelibly upon our hearts and before our eyes for Jesus sake.

[01:05:36] Speaker B: What a wonderful sermon from Brother David on such an important topic on the doctrine of regeneration. Along those lines, I’d like to encourage you with a couple of recommended resources.

First, if you haven’t spent time studying sound doctrine, I would first and foremost encourage you to pick up a good systematic theology book. Now this will be a thick book or a volume of books, depending on which kind you get. We have many different options that we’ve put on the store at the website that we would recommend Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology John Frame Systematic Theology.

You go with some more classic ones from from historical pastors, preachers, theologians.

But I would strongly encourage you to pick up something some sort of the theology, systematic Theology to help you think through important biblical doctrines.

The other recommendation I have is a classic work by R.C. sproul. It’s called Chosen by God. Wonderful little book. Helpful and in understanding how the Lord is the one who is sovereign in salvation.

Once again, as always, if you have any questions or comments or stories about Brother David, we’d love to hear from you. Email me at lineuponlineministriesmail.com I hope you’ve been blessed by this episode of the Line Upon Line Ministries podcast. As always, God bless you as you continue to minister and study God’s Word.