Change: A Call for Personal Holiness<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The following is the text of a sermon I gave at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Crosswalk Church in Daytona Beach on Sunday, March 15, 2009
 
Throughout the campaign of the recent presidential election the buzz word of our nation and indeed the world was "change". The word "change" means to do something radically different and we were compelled to believe that a radical transformation needed to come to our country and the change was absolutely necessary. The implications were that something was terribly wrong with the current situations and it was our public duty to issue a declaration with our votes that we the people demand a change.
 
Most people that know me know of my love for politics. In fact I once promised Edie a position in my administration if I ever became president. While I am in no way actively pursing a career in politics and probably never will it is my hope this morning to join the chorus of demands for "change" and challenge everyone one of us to see the need for change in our own lives.
 
A synonym of the word change is to revolutionize and that is was I am calling for this morning. I want to use that word because it calls for a complete overhaul of something. It is to change something at the fundamental level. We all know of course that the fundamentals are the basics. In athletics it is imperative to understand the fundamentals of a particular sport if you are going to be competitive in that sport. No matter what the level of a particular athlete whether beginner or pro the fundamentals are essential. In fact the greatest athletes will attribute their greatness to the mastering of the fundamentals. Take Michael Jordan for a moment it doesn't matter if he can jump from the free throw line to the basket if he can't dribble the ball his natural leaping ability is moot. Now as with any comparison between the physical and the spiritual every earthly example will always break down but none the less they do serve as great illustrations. In fact we find the Scriptures replete with comparisons between the two.
 
This morning I want to ask you a question and hopefully as we consider the answer to this question I hope that we all can leave this place today being radically challenged to change how we deal with the subject of sinfulness. The question is this, "To what degree to do you hate your sinfulness?"
 
Immediately I expect the majority of us to find this question somewhat offensive and that's ok because I hope that as the Holy Spirit prods around with scriptural precision He might root out of us our humanistic love affair with our wretchedness and replace it with a passionate fire for personal holiness.
 
Turn in your Bible's to John chapter 3 as we look at the subject of Regeneration and our Responsibility to Despise Our Sin.
 
Last year I took the youth on a 4 week tour of the act of Salvation. In that study we covered Regeneration, Conversion, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification and Glorification. The reason for this study was to familiarize them with what actually takes place when God saves us.
 
This morning I want to look at Salvation from the standpoint of regeneration answering the question, "What is it?" and then transition into what it is we should be doing as a result of regeneration.
 
Let's read John 3:1-8.
 
These eight verses are so rich we could spend weeks just looking at the different truths that John writes but today I want to simply see the work of the Holy Spirit here in Regeneration and then quickly move to the heart of the message, that being our responsibility to hate our sin.
 
First let's see the characters. We see Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity was in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Passover when Nicodemus secretly came to Jesus under the cover of night. It's important to note the Nicodemus was a Pharisee; he was a religious ruler over the Jewish people and as such it was his daily practice to strictly observe the OT law and to call others to do the same.
As we look a Nicodemus' greeting we see right away that he indeed had respect for Jesus and therefore set forth to flatter him with praise from the outset. But Jesus showing Himself to be God, read the heart of Nicodemus and answered a question that although Nicodemus never asked he indeed wanted to know. Think about it, as a Pharisee all Nicodemus was concerned about was making sure He was a member of the Kingdom of God. It was his daily passion and hearts desire.
 
Jesus knowing this wastes no time in clearly stating the uselessness of religious self righteousness and set the record straight that only a work of God himself could grant a man the entrance into His Kingdom.
 
Look at verse 5-8 again.
He spoke of Regeneration, the act of God himself in a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit imparting new spiritual life to us. There are two points that Jesus makes here that are essential to our understanding of Salvation and more importantly will grant us another opportunity to bask in God's glory and celebrate His goodness.

1. He again like verse 3 clearly states that all man's attempts to come to God are of no avail. Only by being born again can man enter into the Kingdom of God. (5-6)
2. This new birth comes only as God grants entrance. (vs 7-8)

Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind and in doing so notice he declares the Sovereignty of God in Salvation. Just as the wind blows where it wants and we are unable to change its direction. So too in Salvation the Holy Spirit moves to effectively save those whom the Father has chosen. It is where here that the Holy Spirit imparts to us the new life. It is here we are granted the gift of Faith.  And can move on to the second phase of salvation that of Conversion where we respond to God in Faith with Repentance. John Piper in speaking on the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation says that "The cry of faith is the first sound that a newborn babe in Christ makes."3 It is secondary to the act of God in regeneration. We respond to what God did with a declaration of Faith that is not our own but is itself a gift from God (Eph 2). In conversion we are compelled to turn from a life dedicated to sin and seek to follow Christ on the path of righteousness. In our natural birth we were born with a bent towards sinfulness and were by nature slaves to that sin which eventually leads to both death of the physical body and spiritual soul. Conversely when God in his sovereignty acted to save us we were born again by the Holy Spirit. We were adopted into the family of God and loosed from the slavery of sinfulness not to simply live our lives as we see fit with no accountability of compass. No we became slaves to righteousness (Rom 6)
 
Look at Rom 6:22-23.
 
Now I have a question and this will serve as a segue into the real focus of this message. "If we who were slaves to sin, were bought by Christ's blood and are now slaves to righteousness are we not to strive with all our mind soul and strength to be obedient to our new task master?" The answer is yes! This brings us to the doctrine of sanctification. This too is a most important subject because it is here we see God's expectations of us.
 
For the remainder of this message read Change: A Call for Personal Holiness Pt II