Again"? Acts 2:36-38 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
It has come to our attention in these last days how more and more people are saying that they have been born again. Many of these same people insist that they're born again even though they admit they have "back-slidden" for long periods of time and fall into practicing sin during these periods, showing they are no different than the world. This belief of theirs has greatly bothered us. It has bothered us mainly because of many Scriptures as these...
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
I hear many religious people saying today how they believed the Lord and were born again when they were younger (usually as adolescents or teenagers), only to have back-slidden or fallen away from the truth until they were older when they decided to follow the Lord again.
We agree that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves except to repent (i.e. turn away from our sins once and for all) and Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ with all our heart (Matt.7:24-29; Acts 26:20). (Without the Spirit showing us the love of God in Christ and our utter need of Him (2 Thes.3:5; John 16:8), we would be unable to respond.)
God does not pass out His Spirit to just anyone! He gaurds His Kingdom! He knows who's who! No one will ever know the Changing Power of the Love of God for themselves until they receive the Spirit: Ask, and ye shall receive! (Matt.7:11). The condition of our asking is simple: BECAUSE WE BELIEVE, and because we do we receive the Spirit in an attitude of repentance from and submission to.
That means that WE (whosoever we are) are the ones who must do the repenting before any of us can do the receiving. And the kind of repenting that we are talking about is Not the kind where we are willing just to turn away from our more grosser sins (and keep the lesser ones), but the kind that lasts a lifetime and turns away from ALL sin....
The new birth has nothing to do with me becoming more religious or church-going for God. Nor is it about me trying to clean up my act for God. Nor is it about me and my love for people. The new birth is all about HIM crucified and risen, and our connection to Him (Col. 1:27).
The key to being born again is The Lord Jesus Christ! It is all about our having and knowing Christ! It is Not about Religion, but in having Christ through a Personal Relationship! It all depends if one really loves Him or not (1 John 4:19) , and loves Him enough to keep and obey only His word spoken directly to our hearts (and confirmed by the scriptures).
We cannot obey Him in our own strength, but only by the Power of the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and who has now come to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts. We become instantly changed (Rom.12:2). Our eyes have been opened. Now we see. Now we understand....
Anything LESS than having Christ in you by the POWER of God (i.e. The Spirit of God) is of the flesh (i.e. "of our own making"). Only by recognizing thus wanting Him with your whole heart (as you follow the call of the Spirit) will you receive the Melting Love of God - The Holy Spirit shed abroad in your heart - (John 3:3) and KNOW this emphatically....
The very words that He speaks to our hearts are powerful, real and alive and full of faith and goodness and righteousness and truth! Therefore we are not our own. We can't just go and sin whenever we feel like it. We have been bought with a price, the price of His own Precious Life (1 Cor.6:20).
This means that the moment your Old Man has been put to death With Christ, and your New Man comes alive IN Christ, then it is "CHRIST IN YOU" who is alive and living "HIS LIFE" in you (Gal.220). This is a life free of fear, free of darkness, free of having to minister to the letter of the law, free of doubt, free of worry, free of the death penalty of sin, and full of the hope of receiving the glory of Christ at His coming....
Most people (especially church-going, religious people) carry a total misconception of what true Christianity is all about or what sin is and does. I am not speaking of anyone else here but these. The rest of the pagan world have their own problems, their own beliefs and their own god.
I repeat: The flesh cannot LIVE for Him! We need to be crucified with Christ. The very best that WE (in and of our own strength) can do for Him is to constantly SIN! SIN because we don't believe that He is who He says He is! (If we did then we'd obey Him like He says!)
"The Cross" is a place of death - death to the entire old creation - death to all that we are in and of ourselves - death to our flesh (our Old Man - what we were without Christ). It is through our death with Christ whereby He (by and through the Holy Spirit) comes and Lives For Us, by living Within Us, as we receive Him through a new and spiritual birth!!! Thus WE die - HE Lives!
It becomes this "NEW CREATION IN CHRIST" (i.e. this "New Man") that MAKES a Christian what He is! We must become a New Creature In Christ! It is our being placed IN Christ, born OF Christ, OF God... It is Christ coming to live "HIS LIFE" in us, and our staying connected TO HIM who is LIFE.
The moment one becomes born again, it's all over and this world loses its flavor. The real treaure has been found. Those of us who know this, know this. That's what God does to people (Matthew 13:44-46). HE CHANGES PEOPLE (Ezekiel 36:25-27) - GIVES THEM A NEW HEART (Ezekiel 36:26) - AND THEY WILL SERVE HIM (Zephaniah 3:9).
If there is a return to the old life in any way then that person has NOT been Born Again!
The moment someone is Born Again is the moment that they become a Brand New Creature IN and OF Christ. There is no reverting again to the Old Life! There is no return to lap up the ways of the world again! There is no escaping this fact....
It would be hypocritical to say that we have come to Christ, followed Him for a little while, turned away and did our own thing for years, then came back to Him, lived for Him a little while, only to turn from Him again whenever it suits us, etc., etc. Obviously those who do this have absolutely no idea of what the word of God does or says...
We contend that those who do not abide in Him were never made anew (born-again) in the first place (Matt.13:20-22).
A true born again Christian would rather die first rather than bring shame to Christ, for He is Pure and Holy! That is just one of the inward indications of the POWER contained in the Christian Life that works its way out through a real and living faith....
Such people think they can just come back into the fold whenever it suits them, but according to the word of God this is: "IMPOSSIBLE". It can't be done! Why?
#1. Because upon our conversion Jesus says... "GO and sin no more!" (John 5:4). We have been given Power to become the sons of God - the Power of His Life to DO as He says!
#2. Because not doing what He says shows the ABSOLUTE PROOF that "No Permanent or Lasting Change" has ever taken place in them. They do not understand what the Born Again Life means. It means: "Becoming a NEW CREATURE" (2 Cor.5:17). They are displaying the same old fruit as before their so-called "conversion", only now it may have a more "religious lean" to it.
God says that it is "IMPOSSIBLE" for us to live the Christian Life the way we were! Because it is IMPOSSIBLE to live the Christian Life without receiving Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and becoming BORN AGAIN!!! And when this blessed occurence takes place I assure you that you will KNOW it (because then you will Know Him)... and then ALL THINGS BECOME NEW - the Old you having passed away - DIED! Such a person now sees with NEW eyes and a NEW heart and is given a NEW Hunger for the word of God that is insatiable! On the one hand he is totally satisfied. On the other he just can't get enough of... "Jesus", and will go wherever there is this LIFE, therefore...
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Romans 6:20-23 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
They claim to be Saved when they were younger; regardless of their back-slidden condition, even though they admit that they were no longer serving Him or living for Him, but only for themselves at the time (Matthew 6:24). (This is no different than the rest of the world!)
To Believe on Him involves - "Our repenting of our sins, turning to Christ and being in Submission to Him as our Supreme Authority (Matt.28:18; Hebrews 2:8), through the reception of the Holy Spirit (John 15:26; Ezekiel 36:26-27)".
We are not zombies. God will not short-circuit our free will and make us do it, nor will He do it for us (as some falsely teach).
Luke 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (as well as vs. 47-49)
There MUST be first be a Death to the Old Creature, before there can be a Life given to the New Creature (Matt.9:16-17).
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
So unless and until we die to self and become born-again we will never share in the work of the CROSS or realize how Christ's death has effectually put an end to the old self (the Old man), and how the Power of His resurrection; in turn, gives life to the New man (Galatians 2:20).
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 John 2:
20. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
At best they had a twinge of conscience years ago... tried "God's way" for a while... but didn't like it as it interfered with what they wanted. These are perfect examples of the type that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:20-22.
1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
To these kinds of people God says....
Matthew 15:8-9 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For IT IS IMPOSSIBLE for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
If anyone who claims to be a bonafide born again Christian, turns back to the pollutions of the world and gets entangled in them all over again, then later on decides to try and return to continue to follow the Lord again, they are just being deceived and deceiving themselves (Rom. 3:18).
Hebrews 10:26-29 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Anyone who has been born-again OF Christ, OF God, DOES NOT return to their old mud hole and wallow in it again or go back and lap up their old vomit all over again. They DO NOT return to their old Lifestyle again, not once they have found the Lord Jesus Christ to be real and alive and sitting on the throne of glory.
2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
We preach Lordship Salvation"! If you came to Jesus to get what "you" want then you can hang it up! Some of us "may" have come to Him that way at first, but once the knowledge of the Holy is made known then....
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Philippians 3:7
Either He is going to be BOTH Lord and Christ over us, or He is not! In any case don't play the hypocrite! God will not be played for a fool! ....and how well I know! -- My Story!
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Ephesians 5:6-9 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth)
May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Biff & Suzanne
