If you were to ask the average Christian and the average church, which comes first,

do you believe and then you're born again? Or are you born again and then you believe?

Well, the answer of the Scripture is we must be born again if we are to believe

upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome to the Monday edition of renewing your mind. I'm Lee Webb.

Well, years ago you could count me among those who would say that first you have to believe,

then you're born again. I'm Braypel for R.C. Sproul and this ministry, along with pastors and elders

from my local church, who helped me discover what the Bible says about salvation, about the new

birth. And that's the focus of a series we're pleased to bring you this week by Dr. Stephen Lawson.

Last time we noted that the new birth is a sovereign birth. And in this session, I want to use a

theological word to describe the new birth, what it is. It is a monogistic birth. That may be a

word that you're not familiar with. You may be familiar with it. But the word monogistic is a word

used by theologians to describe the new birth. And it is even more specific as it relates to the

sovereignty of God. Let's talk about what this word monogistic means. The word mono means one or

single. For example, monogamy means one husband, one wife. Monopoly, one person has an exclusive

possession or control of something. So mono meaning one. And then the Greek word erg, which means a

unit of work. Monogism means there is only one agent doing a work. Now the opposite of monogism

where there is one active agent accomplishing a work is synergism. And the prefix sin, s, y,

n, not s, i, n, but s, y, n carries the idea of two or more agents working together to accomplish

a purpose. When we read the Bible, it becomes very clear that in the new birth, there is only one

active agent, capital A, who is doing the work and it is God working by his spirit. And so the new

birth is not a joint effort between us and God. It is an exclusive solo act by God in which he works

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