A PESON WHO WAS A MEMBER OF OUR CHURCH IN 1972 at Madison Baptist Church, was at a funeral I attended this week. He said, "Pastor Charles, we had 16 on the church bus last night. We have two revivals a year, and a number of people are "saved". Can you tell me why many of them never come to church? It seems those who say they want to be saved never come to church or live like they are saved."



This man, who has been serving the Lord now since 1972 and is still in the bus ministry. Amazing. He is still in the same church I pastored over thirty years ago. He still wants to see people saved.

WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO MAKE A PROFESSION OF FAITH IN A REVIVAL OR IN AN INVITATION IN A CHURCH SERVICE REALLY NOT A CHRITIAN?

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Is this more common than we would like to believe? Not all those who we believe have been saved. We all want to believe all those who say they want to be saved and they quote a prayer or read a verse in the Bible, or attend a revival, or hear us preach are really saved. But we are sad to say, few are saved!

This makes me concern myself as a preacher! How many times have I been a part of this process. I believed as long as I could present the Roman Road to someone, and they responded to the verses and prayed a prayer they would be saved.

From 1963-1980 when I was teaching and preaching this was my belief. I sometimes wonder about those who I believed were saved and were not really saved.

Can a person be saved by the Roman Road? Very much so, that is how a person is saved. Can a person be saved if they truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and that they are a sinner, and need to be forgiven? YES.

Having seen my friend from Madison Baptist this week, and after 35 years, you know by his life and testimony that he has been saved. How do you know that?

The question is: WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEW BIRTH? That is, what happens to a person when they are truly born again, have been truly saved, and they become a Christian?

I will address this issue next:

Albert Mohler Calls for More Christian Bloggers to Engage The Culture
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Albert Mohler, CBMW Council Member and President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, addressed the attendees at GodblogCon last Thursday, November 8, 2007. This gathering for "God bloggers" issued a call for more Christians to engage culture through the new media options available on the Internet.

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Mohler said that the Christian faith is tied to communication. Believers should be known as people who have something to say because language is a unique gift from God to humans and is essential to the spread of the gospel message. We can use more than words, but never less.
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Unfortunately, sin has distorted this gift into mistruths, propaganda, slander and other snarky communications that you find in the comment sections of many blogs. Anonymous posting and commenting is a temptation to be avoided. "Don't write what you wouldn't want your mom to read," said Mohler.

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Mohler suggested that blogging was a natural extension of other technologies, such as the codex, printing press, radio, and cassette tapes, harnessed by Christians over time to communicate gospel truths around the world. He argued that this medium will endure because of its lower cost, greater segmentation and accessibility, rapid timing, and appeal to a younger generation.

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Therefore I will try to use this blogger GROW BY LEARNING as a means of bringing some thoughts about our culture and our churches.

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Charles

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WHY THOSE WHO MAKE PROFESSION OF FAITH IN MANY CHURCHES ARE NOT RESPONDING TO GOD'S GOSPEL OF SALVATION.

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ITS THE LACK OF TEACHING THE GOSPEL

BIBLICALLY

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The Puritans were noted not only for viewing the text in its context, and so avoiding a pretext, but also for comparing and contrasting biblical passages in such a way that Scripture was used to interpret Scripture. They knew how to distinguish between history and allegory and looked for Christ in texts that were typological. Above all, they believed that God’s eternal Word was timely and trustworthy. It spoke to the ethical, social, and doctrinal issues faced by God’s people in every generation. When the inspired Scripture is illumined by the Holy Spirit, it has an undoubted perspicuity.

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A preacher would be wise to study the Puritans preaching.

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They preached the incarnate Word from the written Word with prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit and a clear sense of purpose: that God would be glorified as people repented and believed the gospel, and then obeyed Christ in the fellowship of his church and in their daily work in the world. In all this, they were continuing the ministry of the Reformers and the Lord’s apostles before them.

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A friend said to me yestersday "Why are some many of those whom claim they were saved in our revival and church in the last year do not come to church at all now?" Then I heard the funeral sermon by the pastor of the church, and than I realized why!

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Purtian preaching/teaching lead people to know how God brings his elect to salvation and what happens when He brings them to salvation.

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TO BE CONTINUED

Christian Parents Are Not Comfortable With Media But Buy Them for Their Kids Anyway

What will parents buy their children or grandchildren for Christians in 2007?

(Ventura, CA) - Billions of dollars will be spent this Christmas season on gifts for children. A new national study by The Barna Group among Christian parents shows that even though most Christian parents are not always comfortable with the content of the media-related products, they purchase some of those items as presents for their children. The born again Christian population of the U.S. is likely to spend more than $1 billion on media products such as CDs, DVDs, video games and magazines for children under the age of 18 despite parental misgivings about the moral content or developmental affects of those resources.

Past Purchases and Feelings

The Barna survey discovered that the most widely purchased media by Christian parents in the past year were DVDs of movies and TV programs. More than three out of four Christian parents (78%) had purchased such disks for their teenagers and almost nine out of ten Christian parents (87%) had purchased DVDs for their children under 13. However, one-quarter of those adults (26%) did not feel comfortable with the DVD products they purchased.

The next most popular type of media content purchased for children by Christian parents were music CDs. About six out of ten parents bought these discs for their kids, yet one out of every three of those parents (33%) had concerns about the content. This was more evident among the parents of teenagers than among those who were buying music for pre-teens.

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THE TERM "CHRISTIAN" AND "BELIEVES IN GOD"

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Christian parents! Now there is a term that is generally used to describe anyone who believes in God. The term "Christian" today in our society could mean a Catholic, a Morman, a JW, or even a Baptist. The term "believes in God" also is used in a general way. Everyone seems to have a different meaning of the phrase "I believe in God." My past articles on "Can You Know Who Is A Christian" biblically deal with this subject, and I will continue with the articles later.

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WHAT ARE THEY BUYING IN 2007?

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Christian parents live in the same culture as the unbeliever, they buy the same foods, read the same newspaper, generally have a TV in their home, they have a laptop, or Gateway Window 98, or Dell Inspiron 530s Desktop Dual-Core Processor E4300 Genuine Windows, 1GB Memory and 250GB Hard Drive and plays and creates CD's and DVD's on a 17" Widescreen flat panel. (Oh, that is what I want for Christmas, Children, Charity, or someone!)

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Kids want a Garmin "Street Pilot" c330 GPS or ilo 1GB MP3 Player that will store up to 500 songs in MP3 and WMA formates. and if they are real good children this year, maybe the Apple80GB iPod Classic, where you can have 20,000 songs, 30 hours of music and 5 hours of video, now the iTunes cards are sold separetely. Or you could get the LGVX8500 Chocolate Phone for Verzion INpuluse.

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The Abox 360 Arcade Console System has the family settings so parents can control the games and movies the kids enjoy. But parents usually do not control what their kids watch a lot.

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Then there is the Nintendo DS Lite. Metallic Rose Gaming System with Ninetendogs game or Gold with The Legend of Zelda. How about a Black & Decker Toaster?

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And, of course, they are still selling the Cabbage Patch Kids Newborns. And dolls (Prince Charming) that someone told us on Saturday they stood in line for an hour to pay for it. They asked their four year old what they wanted this Christmas. Where do you think a four year old learns what she or he wants for Christmas?

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Charity was glad that Eric and Leslie came to our house this last weekend and put up the tree that was in storage for six years!

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Christian parents...... What will they buy their children in 2007?

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-Slightly more than half of all Christian parents had purchased video games for their children in the past year, in both the pre-teen and teen categories. About four out of ten pre-teen parents (39%) were concerned about the content of those games, compared to nearly half of the parents of teen recipients (46%) who admitted to such concerns.

Similarly, about half of all Christian parents (51%) had purchased magazines for their children. Roughly three out of ten Christian parents (31%) were not very comfortable with the content of the magazines acquired for their children.

• "Millions of Christian parents want to appear to be relevant in their children’s eyes, and to provide gifts that fit within the mainstream of postmodern society," Barna noted. "The problem is that many of the entertainment products that meet those criteria conflict with the moral precepts of the Christian faith."
• Parents have to make a choice as to what is more important: pleasing their kids’ taste and sensibilities, or satisfying God’ standards as defined in the Bible. When the decision made is to keep their children happy, the Christian parent is often left with a pit in their stomach.

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POST NUMBER 300

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I have enjoyed posting articles over these fifteen months

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When Chad suggested I write down our journey in ministry in some detail, I didn't have any idea that I would be writting #300. After all I am no Jerry Falwell. I loved his book "Falwell An Autobiography: The Inside Story." He and his wife Macel gave Charity and I one month before his died.

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A quote from Jerry: "I am convinced that if we will attend to the depth of our ministry, God will attend to its breadth."

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Jerry said: "You do not determine a man's greatness by his talent or weath, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him."

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Today I can say, I don't feel so great. I rather feel a little discourage. This is my 60th year of living, and 45th year in ministry. And I am a little discourage about ministry in the local church.

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You would think 45 years of in ministry would give you some knoweldge about ministry and working with people and doing service in the local church. But in the last your years, they have been used so little in the local church.

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I find myself again on the outside of the local church ministry. My services was no longer needed. I am a little discouraged, a little down, down to nine, but not knocked out. I was amazed just how neat I was dismissed from service, you would have thought this was the best thing that happen for the church.

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My experience has been, God knows what has happen, and He will take care of everything in His time. I need to remain faithful to Him.

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I really do not serve the church, I serve the Lord.

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This is my journey and write how this journey is taking me.

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WHY DOES IT SEEM WE HAVE A HARD TIME KNOWING WHO A TRULY BORN AGAIN, REGENERATED BELIEVER REALLY IS?
Part four

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Over the last 100 years or so the church has been manifested with the manipulation of the invitation method and the man made terminologies of "let Jesus come into your hear" or "if you prayed this prayer and meant it then you can be certain that you are going to Heaven." And the mass revivals and evangelist meetings that have produced professions without fruit. One evangelist reported they had 40,000 people coming to Christ in their week revival. Only to go back the next year and couldn’t find but a hand full of people who openly admitted they were Christians.

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So our study is "Can we know if a person is truly converted from darkness of sin and unbelief to seeing the light of Christ and being born again?"

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And I say you should.

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"Now it seems every religious group has a strong desire for a fool-proof method of giving assurance of salvation" John Reisinger says. "Each group has a system that enables them to produce, package, label, and seal their converts with the assurance that they are heaven bound." Each group has different methods but they have a clearly defined system that enables them to say to anyone who goes through the prescribed course, "you are saved and safe."

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The Roman Catholic has a system, the Episcopalian have a system, the Church of Christ have a system, the Lutheran and Reformed folks have a system, the Plymouth Brethren have a system, and the Charismatics have a system. Of course the Baptist have a system. Then all the rest of the religious churches have a system that they all think is the right method of being able to know if you are saved.
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I am not going to deal with the religious group systems of knowing if you are saved by what they believe are safe ways but looking first to what does it mean to be born again, or regenerated, from what I believe is the biblical way. (Don’t we all say this)

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FIRST: We will use the term "regeneration" as the term to describe a Christian. I will list come choice quotes on regeneration:

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"Regeneration is the foundation; sanctification is the rive." Sidlow baxter

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"Faith does not proceed from ourselves, but is the fruit of spiritual regeneration" Calvin
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"When God designs to forgive us He changes our hearts and turns us to obedience by His Spirit. Calvin

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"Regeneration is a spiritual change." Stephen Charmock
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"Regeneration is the communication of the divine nature to men by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the Word." A.J. Gordon

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"Whatever man may do after regeneration, the first quickening of the dead must originate with God." A. A. Hodge
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"Spiritual life is the consequence of spiritual quickening. The baby cries because it is born; it is not born because it cries." Erroll Hulse

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"When God works in us, the will, being changed and sweetly breathed upon by the Spirit of God, desires and acts, not from compulsion, but responsively. Martin Luther
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"Just as in the beginning God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light’ so, at the moment He appointed for our new birth, He said, "Let there be light, and there was life." J. A. Motyer

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"Regeneration is inseparable from its effects and one of its effect is faith." John Murray.
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"The embrace of Christ in faith evidence of regeneration and only thus may we know that we have been regenerated." John Murray

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"Sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart." J. I. Packer
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"The new creation is as much and entirely the work of God as the old creation.": C.H. Spurgeon.

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"God regenerated the Soul by uniting it to Jesus Christ." Augustus H. Strong.
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"Regeneration is the commencement of spiritual life in a essence before dead in sin, by the omnipotent medium of God; and the exercises of this life are specifically different from all the practices of an unregenerate heart. C.E.W.
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You know if you are saved if regenertion has taken place in your mind, soul, amd spirit. You are not saved because someone said you are saved. "My dad said I was saved when I was seven" is not assurance of your salvation.

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HOPE YOU WILL HAVE A NICE FAMILY THANKSGIVING
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Eric and Leslie

Becky

Chad

Heather

Kyle

Joe

Dewayne Prossor

Laura

Kay

Beverly

Don and Carole

Ellen and Hershel

Stephen

Mom

Alana

Christy

Kurt and Michele

John MacArthur, Jr.

Phil Johnson

Paul Lamey

TO ALL MY BLOGGERS

AND

READERS OF THIS

GROW BY LEARNING
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CAN I KNOW IF I AM REALLY SAVED AND IS MY FRIEND

PART THREE

John G. Reisinger states

"The doctrine of assurance of salvation has been the subject of both confusion and controversy down through the years. " CAN I REALLY BE SURE I AM GOING TO HEAVEN."


I am going to give eleven points summary of how you can know if you are saved? Then I will address each one.

A Can you know if a person is truly converted from darkness to light

1. Regeneration is the commencement of spiritual life in a soul before dead in sin, by the omnipotent agency of God; and the exercises of this life are specifically different from all the exercises of an unregenerate heart.
   
2. The strength of the principle of life in the new birth, as in the natural birth, is exceedingly various. Some are brought into the world of grace in the clear light of day, and are from the first active and vigorous, and enjoy much comfort in their dedicate exercises. Others give very obscure evidence of being in possession of life, and remain long in a state of unsteadiness.
   
3. Some experience this change so remarkably that they never can doubt of its reality, when they emerged from darkness to life. Others who are truly regenerated, remain long in doubt about their spiritual state. And can not fix the precise time that the new birth took place.
   
4. Spiritual life is progressive in its nature. Habitual growth in grace is the best evidence of its reality.
   
5. Genuine godliness, holiness, spirituality, etc. is a permanent and undying principle, and therefore it may be distinguished from transient impressions, however powerful, yet we should not suppose that the exercises of the real Christian are uniform, or that all experience equal fluctuations of feelings.
   
6. We cannot ascertain, much less describe, all the causes which may singly, or in combination, give complexion to the frames and exercises of a child of God, nor can we determine, in many cases, why one believer enjoys so much more tranquillity and cheerful hope than another
   
7. There is going to be an increasing knowledge of the sinfulness of our own heart.
   
8. The truly regenerated man hates, opposes, and endeavors to eradicate all sin. "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to b e right, and I hate every false way." David
   
9. As the word of God furnishes both the motive and the object of all spiritual affections, it cannot but be very dear to the renewed heart, especially as it reveals Christ in all His offices as the Redeemer of His people. "O how love I thy law." is the language of his heart. His estimation of the word is above all the most precious treasure of earth. "More to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold."
   
10. A regenerated man love the people of God. "We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren." John
    
11. A soul that is born of God ardently and habitually desires to glorify God by all practicable means.
    
12. A regenerated man has his will engulfed up in the will of God "Thy will be one." Is his daily prayer from his inmost soul.

13. There is a grateful sense of the love and goodness of God. Gratitude is the soul of heart-salvation.

There is a grateful sense of the love and goodness of God. Gratitude is the soul of heart-salvation.