 One of the questions that I get, and I get it from people who are Calvinists, who are non-Calvinists, who are just trying to figure out really how salvation works. Obviously we know that we place our faith in Christ, but going back and just kind of looking at the mechanics of it, particularly our heart, how does it work now, but also how does it work back then, you know, before there was a cross. The problem that mankind has always had, I mean from the very beginning, is his heart. The Bible says the heart is desperately wicked, and even from the moment that we are born, we go astray from the womb. So God wants to have something done with the heart. He commands us to fix our heart. The question is, do we fix our heart? And then if that's the case, if we don't, what does he do? Well, a couple of things. One, we call this term about us being, having our heart turned or changed. We call that regeneration. We call that being born of above, or some passages like John 3 will say being born again. And it's key to understand this term being born of or born. That's vitally important. Now the reason why I'm bringing this up, because there's also those who are taking classes, taking assignments from us on Patreon, and I would offer this for anyone that's free. If you want to go ahead and join Patreon, it's free. And through this, you're going to have different homework assignments that are going to kind of push you, make you write out, make you research, make you look up, make you earn, not just for the sake of sharing with someone else, but so that you can know for yourself, but also not just that you would know for yourself, because what good it's enough to have information about the scriptures to understand the scriptures and never convey it. So you want to have it so that you can convey it, and then also we'll look at how do you actually convey it. But the question is about our hearts. Well, what's understood, at least as I can tell by the scriptures that our hearts have to be changed. And that is a work of God. Jesus makes this statement, very important statement. As he speaks to Nicodemus, he says that, truly, truly, I said to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And so this word born again, we have from the Greek word genethe, which is from the Greek word genato. And so this word means to be born or to bear. So to be born, in this case, genethe anothen, which is to be born from above. It's two ways it can be taken be born a second time or from born from above. Well, obviously in this case, Nicodemus initially thought that he meant born a second time. And what does Jesus do? Jesus then corrects him. As a matter of fact, he describes it as he's correcting them two other ways. And so he says to him in verse five, truly, truly, I said to you unless one is born of water and spirit. This is not talking about water baptism, but he's using these two elements, water and spirit. So if a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whereas earlier, he said in verse three, you have to be born again. So in verse five, you must be born of water and spirit. Notice how he rephrases it again, though. The same thing he says, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. And then drop down in verse eight, he says the wind blows where it wishes and you hear where the sound of it goes. I'm sorry, you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. So three ways he describes this process, born again, born of water and spirit, and then born of the spirit. This is also reiterated where we get this from is from Ezekiel 36. We'll go there in a second. But also we're told in Titus, Paul tells us in Titus three, three, five, he says that he saved us not because of the works done by us in righteousness. So not by some righteous thing or work that we did. That's not why we're saved. But according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Now this word regeneration here, there's two words in here, the word Palin, which means again. And then we have the word again, a mile, which means to be be born. So we are born again. In this case, this regeneration is speaking up is us being born again. And the process of us being born again is simply being born of the spirit, born from above, born of God. Why is that important? Well, if we go back, we'll see from the very beginning from the outset in Deuteronomy, God tells them to circumcise their heart, fix your heart, you have a bad heart. And we hear this issue about our heart being brought up all throughout the Old Testament. And so here in Deuteronomy 36 he says moreover the Lord, your God will circumcise your heart. So we're being told that the Lord, your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. Now, wouldn't we do so? Well, if we just go back a little bit further, he's speaking up after he brings them back into the land. So they're going into the land, they're going to be put out of the land because of disobedience, because of their bad heart. And then he's going to bring them back in the land. And then he is going to circumcise their heart. So he's going to be the one that's going to actually fix the heart because over all this time, they never will fix their heart. We see this brought up also in Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32, start in verse 39, he says, and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always. And in doing so, making this everlasting covenant with them, he says they will never turn away from him, nor will he ever turn away from them. This is also right now. Remember, by the way, before I go any further in Jeremiah 31, he's bringing to Israel this new covenant about how they're going to be saving what he's going to do with them. God is the one that's going to institute it and going to keep it. He's the one that's going to govern it. He is going to do something whereby this new covenant, it is an unconditional covenant. And so if it's unconditional, well, then it's not conditioned upon what you do, but it's really conditioned upon what he is going to do more about that later. And then we'll talk about our homework assignment. But then in Ezekiel 36, I'm sorry, Ezekiel 11, let's go to Ezekiel 11, he says, and I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them in their heart. He's going to change them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statute. So the reason why he's going to do so is that they may walk in my statues. He brings us up again in Ezekiel 36. Notice, this is what he's going to do in the future. He says in verse 25, then I will take sprinkle clean water. I'm sorry, I was putting clean water on you and you will be cleansed. And I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. So if you go back to John three, you recall that Jesus is bringing up those two elements really kind of symbolize the one spirit and water, but he's really speaking about being born from above and being cleansed by water, this spiritual water in their heart. He says, verse seven, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statue. So he's going to change their heart by putting his spirit in them. Now the question is going to be, or the statement might be that he's only speaking about Israel? Well, that could be true. But again, he's speaking to Nicodemus about salvation. Paul brings up a Titus about salvation. Then Jesus also in John one, kind of go backwards before John three, Jesus speaks about someone being born of God as well. The same term, same thing in verse 12, chapter one, he says, but as many as receding the, but as many household is anyone can be included. So whoever a person happens to be that receives him to that person, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe. So if you believe, look what he says, those who believe they were born. There's that word again, which I say it's very important. They were born, not a blood. They weren't born of blood. They weren't born of the will of flesh, nor were they born of the will of man. But here it is, but of God, they were born. So from God, they were born. So they were born of the will of God. So God is the one that causes them to be born as first Peter one three says. And so this, this being born experience, being born from the spirit, that is the heart being regenerated. You cannot be saved or continue to be saved. You can have a believing heart, a heart that is focused on him unless, unless your heart is regenerated. Well, wait a second, what about prior? If we're going to say that the heart was not regenerated to then, well, then how were people saved then? What sort of regenerator process was there? A regeneration of the heart in the old covenant before the old covenant? Well, that's our issue. Now I contend, I won't tell you why I contend that their hearts were not regenerated in the Old Testament, but they were still saved prior to the law, prior to the flood, they were saved. How so if the heart, if the, if the condition that needs to be met is the heart needs to be right? How then were they saved? Well, there's the issue. So for you guys who want to take part in the classes and kind of push yourself, force yourself, discipline yourself, study, dig deep, go to Patreon, go ahead and sign up again. It's free. We have these different homework assignments. I'm not going to take what the homework assignments are, but I promise you there are three different ones in different stages. We'll go over them one at a time, but I want you to go to Patreon and go ahead and check out the homework assignment and then try to answer the questions for the homework assignment. One, how were they, you can do so also without going there. That is how were they saved before then, but there's some other questions that I'm going to want you to do. It's going to push you, make you, make you stretch your spiritual minds, look at the scriptures and earn it. Amen.