When is this man choosing not to believe? After hearing the gospel?
Yes. But I hope you agree that most believers did not believe the Gospel the very first time they heard it.
Step 4:
If the man above chose before he knew what he was choosing?? God is still giving salvation to certain 'men' without offering it to 'all' men. Is this what you are saying?
It is man's(in the flesh) choice all the way until the previous Step 3 - where it was man who chose to sin, it was man who chose to rebel in enmity against God and His law, and man who rejected the offer of salvation and chose not to believe in Christ when the Gospel was preached to him. At this point, such a man deserves to be judged guilty and be condemned. Would you agree?
Step 4 is about the Sovereign King's mercy - and we know mercy is not up to the "choice" of the condemned - it is up to the "choice" of the Sovereign King. If the Sovereign King does not show mercy, the guilty man's condemnation is still Just - for the sins and choices that found him guilty in the first place. On the other hand, if the Sovereign King does show mercy, it is not owing to anything that the guilty man deserved or merited - it is simply the King having pity/compassion out of His grace. We have enough material on the concept of kingship and mercy pardoning in parables and other contemporary material too, don't we? Is there any concept in this that you're not familiar with?
As to whether the Sovereign King shows mercy to each and every one condemned before Him, I'll let Rom 9:14-15 answer that.
What is your definition of 'regenerates'?
I wrote it immediately following the term - "
wherein He[God] takes away the hardened heart and gives him[man] a new heart - renews his spirit and sets his soul in it, newly creating an inner man within the outer flesh". Eze 36:26, Rom 8:9, Eph 3:16.
He is saved at this point of what you call regeneration, before he actually believes?
God's work of salvation begins at this point, yes - but by no means is it close to over here. Of course, one step necessarily leads to another, just as we say godly repentance does lead to faith in Christ [ministry of John the Baptist preceding the ministry of Christ]. Put John 3:5-7 and John 6:63-65 together and you have the association between regeneration(being born again), flesh/spirit, and believing.
Anyway, this regenerated new inner man is now enabled to have ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of the Gospel Call, which earlier he only chose to reject by his hardened heart in the flesh. Being convicted by the truth of sin[nature] in him, he confesses his sins[transgressions] and repents - this necessarily leading to faith in Christ - which leads to him being forgiven, justified and adopted by God - onto His preserving sanctification.
Depends on how you're referring to the term "saved" here?
Technically, God wouldn't declare a man saved here - A man is "saved" only after God justifies such a man - for until such time, such a man is still held condemned for his sins. And God justifies only
after a person believes in Christ - so again technically, you cannot call a man "saved" the instant he believes. But we all know that man's faith necessarily leads to justification - and hence we simply use both steps synonymously as "being saved". In that same vein, regeneration[work of God] does necessarily lead to repentance and faith[choices of man in the spirit] - and could be non-technically called "saved". But man is technically saved in Step 5 only - after being justified by God. I hope I haven't been unclear on this.
Did God do anything to help him see, hear, learn?
This question follows a comment of mine, which seems too passive an observation. Allow me to restate it more actively as - "
The only ones who find God resistible are the ones who continually choose to remain in enmity with God, operating out of their sinful flesh." Is God required to do anything more than Steps 2 and 3 - or put another way, is such a man entitled or deserving of anything more? But let us not forget, we were no better than them(Eph 2:3) [failing Steps 2 and 3] - but it is God's mercy (Eph 2:4) that made us alive(Eph 2:5) [Step 4].