JULY 10, 2008 GOOD MORNING and JOHN 3:16

EARLY THIS MORNING AROUND 2 a.m. my mind was awaken with some thoughts and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up around 3 a.m. Then I was thinking about that verse John 3:16. I spend a lot of time thinking about God's wonderful grace, and his gift of salvation and eternal life. They are both the same, salvation and eternal life.

Had to made come coffee.

A FULL POT OF COFFEE IS THE ANSWER FOR THIS STUDY
BUT BEFORE THIS STUDY, I WENT OUTSIDE FOR AN EARLY MORNING VIEW OF THE SKY IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE THIS MORNING

• "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'

Most people read the scriptures and read what they see, and they naturally believe what they are reading.

When I enter into a discussion about this matter of salvation, and I mention that God is the sole reason why a person is able to come to salvation, the person will say, "What about John 3:16?"

I will say "What about John 3:16, what does it say?" And they will say, "Whosoever believes in Him shall be saved." Right.

It's a very common tradition to turn to this verse to argue the point, that everyone can be saved, if they by faith believe in Christ. They say "God can't elect certain ones to salvation because John 3:16 tells us each person has the ability to believe - God gave His Son so that WHOEVER believes would have eternal life." Then they will say, "Therefore, God has done His part in the matter of offering the gift of salvation in His Son and just leaves it up to everyone to receive the gift through faith. Amen. The matter is closed!" Or is it?

So does John 3:16 tell us that this is the real case! God has done His part, and it's up to everyone else to make the decision if they are going to receive the gift that God has offered?

I will let you get a cup of coffee and sit down, and we will address this verse John 3:16 and see what the verse is really saying.......... (I believe that everyone that believes by faith in Christ can and will be saved).

As you know, I love the scriptures, and I love to know what each verse is saying in its context. As you also know, I believe the Word of God in its orginial writtings are totally correct without error.

Sometimes in the translation from Greek to English there are a few words that are hard to translate. So sometimes the translaters had to do the best they could to get the right meaning for the word.

Here is how John 3:16 would read from the Greek it its transliteration. That is John 3:16 was written in Greek, and here is how it would read in that form.

• "Thus for loved God the world that the Son his the only begotten he gave, that everyone they believing on him not many perish, but may have life eternal."

Isn't that interesting. Here I thought that John 3:16 written orgininal in English. And I believe every thought that is in John 3:16.

John 3:16 was the verse that the preacher read to me at age seven when I was saved. So John 3:16 means a lot to me.

Well from this morning to now its 10:15 p.m I am going to stop here and pick up tomorrow on this subject.

WHY I BELIEVE GOD SAVES

THE JOHN 3 16 CONFERENCES In 1954 in my father's church in Roanoke Virginia, I heard the message on John 3:16 "Whosoever believe in Him shall be saved." And I do believe that day the Lord saved my sinful seven year old soul.

I have heard, read, preached, taught on John 3 :16 a number of times. "WHOSOEVER" has been the point of many sermons I have heard many times. And the point that is pointed out is that any person who desires to be saved can be saved. Just call on Jesus to save him and Jesus will respond and save that person who by his faith desires to turn to Jesus. As a matter of fact I have even said that in those early years of ministry.

I remember the first time I heard "Whosoever" was not for everyone. That would be Dr. George L. Norris in Seminary in 1966. That was a shocker. Not every one will be saved. I almost quit Seminary over that idea. Theology was the topic of Seminary. Dr. Norris taught from the theological perspective. He taught from the God perspective. How does God see salvation, how did God plan for the salvation of mankind. Now that was an idea that I had not heard.

Most preaching is always from man perspective. Most fundamental, Norris fundamentalist, taught from man side of salvation. "Whosoever". Preachers taught that all man should be saved, and that any man can come to Christ, if by their faith they trust in Christ. Salvation, being born again, being saved was started by man, by his faith, and God responded to that faith.

I have heard most of my life, "Jesus died on the cross for all men, and all men can if they will be saved." "The blood of Jesus Christ, can save all man of all times."

I heard that man is not really so dead spiritually as Ephesians 2:1 says, "dead in trespasses and sins" that he by his own faith can say he wants to be saved. "Even when we were dead in sins," as verse 5 tells us, we were alive enough to have enough faith to be saved.

Now I could not really figure out, why so many people would come to the altar in our churches and say they wanted to be saved, and then they would never come back to church.

I can remember Ephesians 2:8, preachers would say, "For by grace are ye saved, through faith." but I didn't hear a lot about the next phrase, "And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." What did that mean. Did it mean that been saved, is a gift of God. I did hear that. Its a gift! Salvation is a Gift. Not of works, but a gift from God. Our salvation is a gift from God. Usually you do not ask for a gift. So do you ask for a gift from God? Do you have to ask God for His gift?

In Dr. Norris Seminary Class, he said, "Salvation is a gift of God, given to those whom He will." WHAT! I remember every time Dr Norris would walk or speak in chapel, they would sing, "Whosoever will". Because they believe he didn't believe whosoever will could believe.

After Seminary, I went to another Norris fundamentalist church, and heard the same whosoever will, Jesus died on the cross for everyone, and whoso ever wants to be saved, and call upon Christ, by their faith can be saved. And a number of people did just that, and they were short lived in their will to follow Christ.

Then another few churches and then to Hyles Anderson College, and FBC of Hammond and I got a real good taste of the whoso ever will preaching. The whosoever folks were coming in by thousands. By 1980 FBC had over 80,000 members, those who had been baptized. But for some reason FBC was only having around 17,000 of those people coming to the church. (The numbers are correct) The whosoever was never in church.

I don't know if I had really taking a biblical study of that word "whosoever." The John 3:16 conferences will have seven different seminary professors who will look, respectively, into the Hebrew meaning of whosoever, the Greek meaning of whosoever, the Latin meaning of whosoever, the King James meaning of whosoever, the historical meaning of whosoever, the contemporary meaning of whosoever, and, most importantly, what John Wesley taught about the meaning of whosoever. (I would like to get their notes in November 2008)

These John 3 :16 conferences will be sponsored by the following:

• Jerry Vines Ministries, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Luther Rice Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

All those Theological Seminaries are very good. WHOSOEVER WILL CAN BE SAVED.

So what does it mean "WHOSOEVER WILL?" That is the question isn't it.


Let's look at this word "whosoever." Next time.

BEING BORN AGAIN GIVES US A NEW NATURE AND OFF WITH THE OLD LIFE

part ten

My youngest son Kyle Whisnant

• Having been saved, means you have been given new life, and that life is Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life." John 6:63. So the work of the Holy Spirit in us is known as "regeneration". The Spirit is to impart new life to us by joining us to Christ.


• How does this happen? We made the connection by faith. John 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In other words faith connects us with Christ.

A NEW HUMAN NATURE

Now what happens in the NEW BIRTH?

• We are connected with Christ, we are united with Jesus by faith. Now this new birth is not an improvement of our old human nature. There is an extreme makeover, that is the old nature is torn down We are given a new human nature. The old nature is not made over. The now indwelling Holy Spirit is forming in you a new spiritual nature.
  
• For those born again by the spirit there has been a new spirit put within them. They have been given a new clean heart and a new spirit.

When we say that a new spirit, or a new heart, is given to us, we don’t mean that we cease to be the human being, the morally accountable self that we have always been. In other words we are still the same individual human being.

This is why there is to be this continuity of cleansing. The old human being was not obliterated, in the new birth, sorry to say. If that had been true, the whole idea of forgiveness and cleansing would be irrelevant. There would be nothing left over as it were from the past to forgive or cleanse.

From Romans 6:6 we are told that our old self was crucified, and that we have died with Christ in Colossians 3:3 and we are to reckon ourselves dead in Romans 6:11 and "put off the old self" in Ephesians 4:22. But all these things mean the same human being is not in view throughout life. It means that there was an old nature, an old character, or principle, or bent as it were, that needs to be done away with. Paul said I daily beat my body into subjection.

From the human standpoint we are still human, we are still fleshly, we still need to be forgiven and cleansed. Jeremiah 3:8 put it this way, "I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me."

In a sense we are still the person we have always been, and still daily need forgiven. I John 1:9 tells us that.

Yet forgiveness and cleansing is not enough. We need to be new. We need to be transformed. We need life. We need a new way of seeing and thinking and appraising. That is why Ezekiel says "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit, I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And here is the point, "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." I call this, or John MacArthur does, "Lordship Salvation."

Ezekiel profoundly proclaims the doctrines of conversion and spiritual life. The heart of stone means the dead heart that was cold-hearted and unresponsive to spiritual reality. It’s true that before you got a new heart, you did have feeling. It could respond with passion and desire for a lot of things. But the heart was cold toward the spiritual truth and the wonderful ideas of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the path of holiness. And that is what has to change if we are going to see the kingdom of Heaven.

So there is a conversion of the old heart, a new birth. God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. That is, "flesh" means pliable and living and responsive and feeling, instead of being a lifeless rock.

In the New Birth, our dead, lifeless, dull, boredom with Christ is exchanged by a heart that feels in the spiritual sense the worth of Jesus Christ as Lord, and as God.

"I will put with you...." God puts a living, supernatural, spiritual life in our heart, and that new life, that new spirit, is the working of the Holy Spirit Himself giving form and character to our new heart. Praise the Lord.

Picture a person you know who was so hard toward Jesus Christ. His spirit was so dull, and really very untouchable in his heart toward anything you would say about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then one day it seemed it was as if he had a heart transplant. He now has a warm, touchable and agreeable mind toward what you have been trying to tell him about Jesus. The Holy Spirit pushes Himself up into it and gives spiritual, moral shape to it according to His own shape. The Holy Spirit within us, in our heart and mind takes on His character His spirit. Ephesians 4:23. Amen.

- - - - - - - - - garrulous \GAIR-uh-lus; GAIR-yuh-\, adjective:
1. Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative.2. Wordy.

This has been twelve pages typed from Corel WordPerfect, posted in ten parts. I know its been a little wordy but I hope not trivial in its content.

Proof Checked by Charity Sunday Evening March 2 2008

THE NEW BIRTH IS A SUPERNATURAL HAPPENING THAT HAPPENS TO US

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part nine

(click "labels" on Born Again for the total posts on this series)

Nicodemus knew Jesus was an authentic divine person, but that doesn’t save anyone. You can be amazed by all the Binny Hinn, you can have an old heart and be amazed by what you see happen in some of these signs and wonders. It’s possible to be lost and believe miracles are from God. The devil knew that. Jesus said to him, "Ye must still be born again."

The key is not saying you agree with what Jesus does, but by experiencing the supernatural reality in your own life. Can I say, the new birth, salvation, is not natural, but the supernatural. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Spirit is not a part of this earthly world. What happens in the new birth doesn’t happen in the natural realm, but in the supernatural realm. God is God and He is the instantaneous cause of the new birth

• The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit must come upon you and transport new life into existence.

Here is the first point of the New Birth. There is a supernatural work by the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual life into being where it did not exist. As Jesus said in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all."

You know Jesus is that life that the Holy Spirit gives. If God gives you spiritual life, that life is Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 6:35, "I am the bread of life." And Acts 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

Therefore until there is a blending or union, connection with Jesus and a belief, a faith in Him there is no eternal life, no spiritual life. And it’s the Holy Spirt that brings us into indispensable relationship with Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.

• From our viewpoint, the way you and I experience this new life is that faith in Jesus Christ is inflamed in our hearts. Thus spiritual life and faith in Jesus Christ comes into being at the same time. This new life makes the faith possible, and since spiritual life always inflames faith and expresses itself in faith, there is no life without faith in Jesus. And from God’s side, we are united to Christ in the new birth. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. From our side, we experience this union by faith in Jesus.

A young lady said to me this week. "You say one needs to be elected unto salvation. What if I ask Jesus into my heart, and I am not elected?" Which I thought was a good question.

In John 3:6 Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The flesh, i.e. the person does have a kind of life. Every human person is living flesh. But at the same time every living person does have a spirit, but to be a living spirit, or to have spiritual life, Jesus said, we must be "born of the Spirit." When one is born of the flesh, he has fleshly life, when one is born again by the Spirit he has a second kind of life, one that becomes a spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the new life that is put in us at salvation.

• Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6. "I am the bread of life." John 6:35. Then Acts 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

Here is what happens at the time of the entrance of the New Birth, or eternal life, there is a relationship with Jesus and a belief in Jesus. But for now I want to say: The New Birth incorporates us to Christ in a living union (Romans 6) Christ is life. We were dead in the spiritual sense. Christ gave us life. John 15 Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches. Thus, at the New Birth there is a transcendental or supernatural creation, birth of a new spiritual life, and it is created through a joint connection with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into an essential attachment with Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.

Having been saved, means you have been given new life, and that life is Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life." John 6:63. So the work of the Holy Spirit in us is known as "regeneration". The Spirit is to impart new life to us by joining us to Christ.

How does this happen? We made the connection by faith. John 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In other words faith connects us with Christ.

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Charles E. Whisnant, and proof read by Charity Whisnant. To be continued.

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

SOVEREIGN, SUPREME CONTROL OVER ALL EVENTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES

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"There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He same to see Jesus by night, and said to Jesus:

Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that He does, except God be with Him."

Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee. He knew that Jesus was not a ordinary man, but a man from God. Nicodemus was a very religious man and leader.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you: "Except a man by born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3

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"And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything," Ephesians 1:22

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How vast, how numerous, how complicated are the various events and circumstances which attend the Christian here below, as he travels onward to his heavenly home! But if all things are put under Jesus' feet, there cannot be a single circumstance over which He has not supreme control. Everything in providence and everything in grace are alike subject to His disposal. There is not . . .a trial, a temptation, an affliction of body or soul, a loss,a cross, a painful bereavement,a vexation, a grief, a disappointment, a case, state or condition, which is not put under Jesus' feet. He has sovereign, supreme disposal over all events and circumstances. As possessed of infinite knowledge He sees them; as possessed of infinite wisdom He can manage them; and as possessed of infinite power He can dispose and direct them for our good and His own glory.How much trouble and anxiety would we save ourselves, could we firmly believe, realize, and act on this! If we could see by the eye of faith that . . .every foe and every fear,every difficulty and perplexity,every trying or painful circumstance,every looked for or unlooked for event,every source of care, whether at present or in prospect are all at His sovereign disposal, what a load of anxiety and care would be often taken off our shoulders! J.C. Philpot.

• The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been "dry" in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: "No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not."

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We either believe like the tavern owner or like many Christians in this church. God is sovereign over all things or He is not in control of anything. Either we believe that God by His grace is the sole provider of salvation or you believe that He is not in control of who is going to be in the kingdom of God.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN BY THE TERM 'BORN AGAIN' OR THE NEW BIRTH?

part five

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We are not going to talk about the perfect Christian life or the legalistic living of some fundamentalist groups or even deal realistically with the failures of genuine Christians. But let’s deal with the claim by Barna that they who live indistinguishably from the culture are indeed born again.

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The report has done a good job in finding out the church is saturated by people who are not truly regenerated, saved, born again believers.

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THE TERM "BORN AGAIN."

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FIRST let’s look into this term "born again." Another word for "born again" I used in the last sentence. You could add to your terminology about one who has been saved is regeneration.
The idea here is to say this: Can we ascribe the Barna Group term "born again" as the kind of "born again" as the Scriptures use the term?

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Of course all of us have heard a number of people being "born again" in the wrong sense. Billie Jean King has been "born again,’ describing her new knee surgery. The west end of Portsmouth, Ohio has been born again.

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But what did the Scriptures intend when they used the term "born again?"

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What I would like to do is show just how glorious being born again really is. I want to show what really happens to those who have been saved, born again. and to show that it’s not man’s work that brings about the new birth. We do not make it happen. God makes it happen. It happens to us, not by us.

• But it always happens through the preaching of the Word of God. 1 Peter 1:23.


• BEING BORN AGAIN TAKES PLACE THROUGH THE GOSPEL 1 Peter 1:23.

If I ever tried to bring anything to the folks I preached to for twenty years it was to teach them what happens when one becomes born again.

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1. When you are truly saved, regenerated, born again, in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be pleasing and your assurance that He is your Heavenly Father will be rich.
2. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be better when we see the real deal of radical love and sacrifice and courage from the church and not all these counterfeit Christian that live just like the world.
3. If you know what really happens to you in your salvation, you will appreciate God and His Spirit and His Son and His Word more exceedingly than you ever have. And He will be glorified.
   

If I ever had a theme while preaching it was showing people what happens when there occurs salvation, a new birth. If you want to know what a counterfeit dollar looks like, know what a real dollar looks like.
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So how does God’s act of regeneration work itself out? What are the effects of being born again?

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What changes? What is it like to live as a born-again person?
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WHAT TAKE PLACE IN THE NEW BIRTH

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John 3:1-10
"Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" Here is what this mean: We will not be saved; we will not be apart of God’s family, and not go to heaven, but instead will go to hell, when we are not born again.



• Jesus didn’t have kind words about the religious Jewish leaders the Pharisees. Matthew 23:15 and 33. Eternity hangs in the balance when we are talking about this idea of being born again. "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God".
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YOU MIGHT BE ASKING, WHY ARE YOU DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT: AREN’T WE SAVED BY SIMPLY ASKING GOD TO COME INTO OUR HEARTS?

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• Lordship salvation is confronting. When Jesus taught about this new birth He was confronting us with our despairing spiritual and moral and legal condition apart from God’s regeneration grace. Before we are born again. We are born again because first, we were spiritually dead. Secondly we were morally self-centered and defiant. Thirdly we were legally guilty before God’s law and under His wrath.
  You tell a person: "Jesus said you must be born again if you are going to see the kingdom of heaven, and you are unresponsive, corrupt, and guilty." That is rather comforting, wouldn’t you say. Quite unsettling.
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• And in reality we can’t do anything about this condition that all men have. It’s not something we can do ourselves but something that is done to us. John 1:13 "who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". And Peter says the same, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to HIS great mercy, He has caused us to be born again." I Peter 1:3. We do not produce in us this new birth. Here it is: God causes the new birth.

Bob Tempe, Sr. and Frankie Dawkins (Bob's niece) (Charity's dad)
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WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE MEAN BY "BEING BORN AGAIN?"
Born Again" Christians Just As Likely to BE LIKE and DO As Non-Christians

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Part 4

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WHY ALL HUMANITY NEEDS TO BE BORN AGAIN.
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WHY IS THERE A REQUIREMENT FOR A NEW BIRTH ENCOUNTER

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Almost all groups of people in the world believe in a "god" that they in some fashion worship. For every group of people there is a different idea of how they worship. Most groups believe there is an after-life and some place they will go when they die. And there are as many reasons and requirements to obtain a place in the after life as there are people groups.

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In American society today we see a number of different people groups, those from different countries, China, India, Russia, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Iraq. These groups have their own belief about "god" and how that "god" is to be worshiped and prayed to. They have their belief what that "god" requires them to be and do in order to obtain life in the hereafter.

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Today we are faced with the need more than ever in America to address this issue of who is this God that Christians worship, and His requirements for all mankind.

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With all these beliefs today we are seeing more people become confused, and having misgivings about what Christianity’s position is on what the Bible says about what is God’s requirement for a person to obtain Heaven.

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"Born Again Christians Just As Likely to ____________ As Are Non-Christians" Barna Group.
Ron Sider’s book said the same thing. This seems to be saying the evangelical church as a whole in America is seemingly not very unlike the world. What seems to be happening is that people go to church on Sunday and now Saturday and have an overlay of religion or Christianity but its religion is basically an add-on to the same way of life the world exists, not a radically revolutionizing power.

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The question is,.can the term ‘born-again Christian’ refer to or describe an American church-goer whose lives are interchangeable with the lifestyle of the world? Whose sin is as much as the world, and whose behavior instinctively is as the general behavior of the world, they covet things as greedily as the world, and they are entertained by the same movies and TV and games as the world is. They engage in the activities of the world as anyone else does. Put them side by side and they look like the same personality and behavior. They both might go to the same church. They both say they "made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, and it’s still important in their lives today."And they believe when they die they will go to heaven. They say they are a Christan, they say Jesus Christ is important to them.
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The Barna Group takes them at their words, and say they are born again, and then this group will then say the reality is that these regenerated hearts have no more victory over sin than unregenerated hearts. In other words "Lordship Salvation" (a term John MacArthur uses) is not necessary for one to be described as born again)
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Here is what I am saying about the Barna Group’s report. They are right in what they discovered, they are wrong in the idea that they are born again Christians. I would say the church today is as worldly as the culture. What I am saying is Paul and James, and Peter and John think is precisely the antithesis about someone who is born again. They say those who have been born again will have a radical change in their lives.
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Yes we all sin, and yes it seems we all do things that our neighbors do, but it is not the lifestyle of the believer. There is going to be a radical change in the life of one who has been changed by the power of Jesus Christ.
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Note these verses I John 2:29
I John 3:9
I John 4:7
I John 5:4
I John 5:18

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WHAT WE LEARN ABOUT THIS MATTER OF THE NEW BIRTH, BORN AGAIN

Part Three

There are several important questions we will be asking.

One is: What is the new birth? That is, what actually happens? What is it like? What changes? What comes into being that wasn’t there before?

Another question is: How does it relate to other things that the Bible says God does to bring us to himself and save us? For example, how does being born again relate to

• God’s effectual calling ("Those whom he called he justified" Romans 8:30),
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• The new creation ("If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation," 2 Corinthians 5:17),
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• God’s drawing us to Christ ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," John 6:44),
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• God’s giving people to his Son ("All that the Father gives me will come to me," John 6:37),
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• God’s opening our hearts ("The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul," Acts 16:14)

• God’s illumining our hearts ("God. . . has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Corinthians 4:6),
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• God’s taking the heart of stone out and giving us a heart of flesh ("I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh," Ezekiel 36:26),
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• God’s making us alive ("even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ," Ephesians 2:5),
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• God’s adopting us into his family ("You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,‘‘Abba! Father!’" Romans 8:15).
  

How does God’s act of regeneration relate to all these wonderful ways of describing what happened to us when God saved us?

Another question we will ask is: Why is the new birth necessary? Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, "You must be born again."

Another question we will tackle is how the new birth happens. If it is the work of God, which it is, how do I experience it? Is there anything I can do to make it happen?
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And a final question we must deal with is: What are the effects of being born again? What changes? What is it like to live as a born-again person?

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Millions in Church have not been Born Again. If the same as the Barna Group's.

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I am going to adopt this study from my research that I have gain from reading from John MacArthur, Sr. & John Piper, & John Calvin & Arthur Pink & Jonathan Edwards, and some Purtains preachers. And a few years of preaching on this subject. I seem to keep learning.

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One of the most intense study I have had is this subject of salvation. The purpose hasn't been because I have doubt about my salvation, far from it, but to give a clear understanding of what the Bible means when it says "Ye Must Be Born Again."

The more you learn about what God has done in this matter of our salvation the more you will know of how great this salvation is.

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JOHN NEWTON AMAZING GRACE

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TIM AND SHERRI WHEELER, OWNERS OF MEX-ITALI RESTAURANT



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"AMAZING GRACE (HOW SWEET THE SOUND) THAT SAV'DA WRETCH LIKE ME! I ONCE WAS LOST, BUT NOW .AM FOUND, WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE." Newton

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Tim Wheeler I were talking about salvation and he brought up John Newton. John Newton wrote "Amazing Grace." For it is by grace that God saves anyone of us. Its an amazing story how God by His grace reaching down and opens our minds and spirit to bring us to salvation.
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Our topic has been this week: WHAT IS THE BIBLE'S MEANING OF BEING BORN AGAIN" As Jesus said to Nicodemlus in John chapter 3 Ye Must Be Born Again."

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A BRIEF STORY ABOUT JOHN NEWTON.

• Amazing grace, how sweet the sound..." So begins one of the most beloved hymns of all times, a staple in the hymnals of many denominations, New Britain or "45 on the top" in Sacred Harp. The author of the words was John Newton, the self-proclaimed wretch who once was lost but then was found, saved by amazing grace.

Newton was born in London July 24, 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean. When John was eleven, he went to sea with his father and made six voyages with him before the elder Newton retired. In 1744 John was impressed into service on a man-of-war, the H. M. S. Harwich. Finding conditions on board intolerable, he deserted but was soon recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to common seaman.
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Finally at his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship, which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone. He then became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had known John's father. John Newton ultimately became captain of his own ship, one which plied the slave trade.

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Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his "great deliverance." He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy upon us." Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.
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For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power. "Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." He continued in the slave trade for a time after his conversion; however, he saw to it that the slaves under his care were treated humanely.
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In 1750 he married Mary Catlett, with whom he had been in love for many years. By 1755, after a serious illness, he had given up seafaring forever. During his days as a sailor he had begun to educate himself, teaching himself Latin, among other subjects. From 1755 to 1760 Newton was surveyor of tides at Liverpool, where he came to know George Whitefield, deacon in the Church of England, evangelistic preacher, and leader of the Calvinistic Methodist Church. Newton became Whitefield’s enthusiastic disciple. During this period Newton also met and came to admire John Wesley, founder of Methodism. Newton’s self-education continued, and he learned Greek and Hebrew.

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He decided to become a minister and applied to the Archbishop of York for ordination. The Archbishop refused his request, but Newton persisted in his goal, and he was subsequently ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln and accepted the curacy of Olney, Buckinghamshire. Newton’’s church became so crowded during services that it had to be enlarged. He preached not only in Olney but in other parts of the country. In 1767 the poet William Cowper settled at Olney, and he and Newton became friends.

Ephesians 2:4-9

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

• Charles E. Whisnant

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Note my page Articles

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ALL OF A SUDDEN "GOOD" PEOPLE COMMIT THE WORST OF CRIMES ! !

What does it mean when your are "BORN AGAIN"? Pt 2

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Do you ever wonder why 'good people' in the community are the very ones who commit the worst of crimes? How often have you said "it seems impossible that they would have done that awful crime?" You didn’t see it coming. They gave no outward evidences that they were capable of doing those things. Sometimes we will say, it must have been the medical drugs they were on. It must be the alcohol they started drinking.

Have you noticed that people will often defend their behavior as odd, and they were not themselves, or there was something that caused them to act in such a deleterious and harmful way? People can tell you stories how much they were nice and helpful to others, how they went to church, how they were caring to their dog. They will say they were under a lot of pressure at work, or at home or had been going through a number of failures.

Don’t we wonder how those young people who have all the money in the world, and fame, and fans of the world’s crowd, how they can be so self destructive? How often have we seen those young people self destruct and often leads to death. And the medical report will usually report, they died of an accidental overdose of medical drugs.

Recently we learned of a sixteen year old boy who shot his parents and brother and sister. The authority could find no clue as to why he did it. Apparently he just went off and without warning killed his family as if there was no apparent cause.

Why "all of a sudden" we think, will people do the worst of crimes?

Five times in the last week, someone has gone into a school or college and shot someone, and then shot themselves? 10 students have been killed. Why?

There are NO good people on the face of the earth. We are all sinners, we are all bad, and we are all deserve HELL. We need to be "born again."

There are moments that I would say to my self, "Could I do that?" Could I get so mad that I would shoot my wife, and stab her multiple times? Could I get so desperate that I would rob a bank?

Could I start using alcohol or overdose on medical drugs? Would I divorce my wife?

The answer: 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new (born again) creature old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new." That is regeneration. That is what God does in the life of one whom he has saved.

The series of articles I am doing "What Does It Mean To Be Born Again" i.e. what does it mean when we say some one is a Biblical Christian, or what does been saved mean. What happens to a person who has been saved?

WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE MEAN BY "BEING BORN AGAIN?"

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"Born Again" Christians Just As Likely to BE LIKE and DO As Non-Christians

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The Barna group made this survey:

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"(Ventura, CA) - Recent legislation, lawsuits and public demonstrations over the legality of gay marriage are just one battlefront regarding the institution of marriage. A new study released by The Barna Group, of Ventura, California, shows that the likelihood of married adults getting divorced is identical among born again Christians and those who are not born again. The study also cited attitudinal data showing that most Americans reject the notion that divorce is a sin. "

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The study identified those who had been divorced; the age at which they were divorced; how many divorces they have experienced; and the age at which the born again Christians had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Comparing the ages when divorced adults had accepted Christ and when they underwent their divorce, the researchers were able to determine both the impact of one’s faith commitment on the resilience of the marriage and whether the divorce occurred before or after their born again commitment. The survey also examined whether people believe that divorce is a sin in situations where adultery is not involved.

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Although Bible scholars and teachers point out that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was involved, few Americans buy that notion.

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Now my point is not divorce, but the term used "born again." What did the Barna Group mean by the term "born again?"

• "Born again Christians" were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today" and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "born again." Being classified as "born again" is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

The same kind of statistics are given by Ron Sider in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? and by Mark Regnerus in his book Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers.

What I am picking up on here is precisely the term "born again." The Barna Group in particular uses it in reporting their research. So that report is titled "Born Again Christians

• Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians." Sider uses the word "evangelicals" but points out the same kind of thing: "Only 9 percent of evangelicals tithe. Of 12,000 teenagers who took the pledge to wait for marriage, 80% had sex outside marriage in the next 7 years. Twenty-six percent of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong. White evangelicals are more likely than Catholics and mainline Protestants to object to having black neighbors."

In other words, the evangelical, the Christians, (of all branches) church as a whole in America is seemingly not very dissimilar to the world. It goes to church on Sunday and has a enamel of religion, but its religion is basically an add-on to the same way of life the world lives, not a radically transforming power.

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A Profound Mistake

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Now I want to say blaring and clear that when the Barna Group uses term "born again" to characterize American church-goers whose lives are interchangeable from the world, and who sin as much as the world, and sacrifice for others as little as the world, and incorporate injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, and enjoy God-ignoring entertainment as enthusiastically as the world—when the term "born again" is used to describe these professing Christians, the Barna Group is making a profound mistake.

• It is using the biblical term "born again" in a way that would make it unrecognizable by Jesus and the biblical writers.

Note the definition that the researcher use for those who are said to be "born again."

• In other words, in this research the term "born again" refers to people who say things. They say, "I have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s important to me." They say, "I believe that I will go to heaven when I die. I have confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior."
• Then the Barna Group takes them at their word, ascribes to them the infinitely important reality of the new birth, and then blasphemes that precious biblical reality by saying that regenerate hearts have no more victory over sin than unregenerate hearts.

For years in my preaching/teaching, I have said, those who are born again, have a different point of view then those who are not born again. Yes Christians, born again people do get a divorce. By point in this series of articles is: ARE BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS JUST LIKE THOSE WHO ARE NOT CHRISTIANS IN THEIR BEHAVIOR AND ATTTITUDE?

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How does the Scripture describe a "born again" person?

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I’m not saying their research is wrong. It appears to be right. I am not saying that the church is not as worldly as they say it is. .

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I am saying that the writers of the New Testament think in exactly the opposite direction about being born again. Instead of moving from a profession of faith, to the label "born again," to the worldliness of these so-called born again people, to the conclusion that the new birth does not radically change people, the New Testament moves the other direction. It moves from the absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed (as the Barna Group says) not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again. The New Testament, unlike the Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing American Christians.

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We will review what the New Testament means by "born again."