SIN IS CORRECTED BY THE NEW BIRTH

1 John 3:1-10

• See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

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You might ask: why would the Gov. of NY (a former attorney general) who knew the laws, and even set up a program that would stop money-laundering; and who also built a career out of prosecuting the very same crimes he is now brought into question about doing himself..

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He enforced a law that banks have a system to check any deposit that came into the bank. A ghost software that checks any deposit of any amount in any account. This software will red flag any account that warrants checking into. It was this very software that most likely caught Gov. Spitzer.

• Is it the statement: "Be sure your sins will fine you out." How many times over the years have we seen pastors/preachers/ministers preach what they are against and at the very time they are preaching they are engaged in the very activity.
  
  "Eliot Spitzer knew how to catch bad guys by following the money. As attorney general, he once broke up a call-girl ring and locked up 18 people on corruption, money-laundering and prostitution charges. But in the end, it appears that Spitzer may have been done in by the same behavior he built a career out of prosecuting. "In fact, it seems he was tripped up by some of the very financial accounting methods he used so successfully against multibillion-dollar Wall Street firms." AP reports.

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THIS LEADS ME TO OUR SERIES:

Our series we have been working on is: BEING BORN AGAIN: WHAT HAPPENS?

(February 26, 2008 last post)

As believers, those of us who have experienced the reality of the new birth, have to deal daily with our own sinfulness, as all of us try to live in the full assurance of our salvation. Daily we have to deal with the conflict between the reality of the new birth, on the one hand, and our ongoing sin, on the other hand. So how is it possible for a person who is not a born again believer even have a chance of not yielding to the very activity that he himself hates.

If anyone knows the laws of New York it is the former attorney general. He was married for twenty one years and had children. You ask, how can this happen to a successful man in politics?

It's called SIN.
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I don't like SIN. It's damage is worse on you than the damage from all the sun you are exposed to. It's worse on you than all the red meat you think you could eat. It's worse on you than artificial sweeteners. It's worse on you than all the beer you could drink. SIN is like a really bad germ that is air born and in born and in all the world, and in all people groups. No people group has more SIN in them then any other people group. There is no more SIN in Hollywood than in Portsmouth, Ohio.

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The issue before us is "NO ONE BORN OF GOD CONTINUES A PRACTICE OF SINNING." As to how long "continues" is, I can't say.


I WANT TO CONTINUE WITH THE LAST POST:
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If we do anything that is good, that pleases God, it is the result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. People think if we do more good than bad then we are good.
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Here is the hard part for people to understand. Salvation is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. We are totally and absolutely dependent on Someone outside ourselves.
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So to even those who are saved, and have really been born again, it’s very unsettling and disturbing to hear that their salvation was not a result of anything they did, or desired, but it was all of God. If any one subject is so confronting to those whom I have taught, it’s this subject before us. The New Birth and or Lordship Salvation..
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You mean God has the absolute freedom to bring about the New Birth to whom He desires?
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And apart from Him all of us will remain spiritually dead in our self-centeredness and defiance
Our deadness to the spiritual reality is so deep that we cannot even detect or even desire the glory of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:4.
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So the point becomes if we are going to be born again, it will pivot absolutely and finally on God.

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God’s decision to make us alive will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do, but what we do will be a response to His making us alive. That has certainly annoyed people quite badly and it’s very agitating to them. People have left our church when that is my position.
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So I might lose a few of the few readers of this blog. But it’s not my desire to bring about stress.
But pray as Ephesians 2:4-5 says

• "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved."
  

It’s my duty as a teacher of the Word of God, to lift up Christ in truth in this matter of His life-giving grace.

THAT IS THE INTRODUCTION TO THIS CHAIN OF POSTS
SO WHAT TAKES PLACE IN THE NEW BIRTH

FOOTNOTE

After hearing about the Gov. of NY, and the sinful mess, I wanted to address this issue. The news broke March 7, 2008 I believe.

After hearing about the tragic death of Eve Carson, the Sr. student from NC who was killed. Then the young lady at Auburn U who was killed. She was shot once in the head and died. She was eighteen years old My heart broke again. Eighteen-year-old Lauren A. Burk, of Marietta, Ga., was found with a single gunshot wound on Alabama Highway 147, and was transported to East Alabama Medical Center where she died. in March 2008.

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Why? Do People KILL Other People?

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The ANSWER is : SIN The Cure is the NEW BIRTH