The New Birth

Many people claim to be born again Christians. We get the term new-birth from the Bible and I can only assume that claiming to be born again means that you claim that what the Bible refers to as being born again is what a person means.

I know people carve the Scriptures up to mean whatever they want them to mean but this article pushes me over the top.

People magazine features Aiken holding his son, born in August through in vitro fertilization with his gay lover. This is the part of the article that makes me close my eyes and shake my head.

"Aiken, who considers himself a born-again Christian, said he knows he may turn off some fans -- known as Claymates -- with his admission and his decision to have a child outside traditional marriage." This is on the heels of Contemporary Christian artist Ray Boltz coming out of the closet yet still maintaining that he is a Christian.

Now we can all stomp and scream and say that he is not a Christian because the bible says sodomites and homosexuals cannot go to heaven. But do you know who else the bible says will not go to heaven?

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

Clay Aiken needs prayer and may God have mercy on this poor baby. Clay is demonstrating clearly that he is not a born - again Christian. But JUST AS BAD, are people who are in love with this world more than God. That is why you cheat on your taxes, covet what other people have, and worship other things than God. You cannot live as a fornicator in an adulterous relationship and then get married or break up and never repent of those sins and just pretend like they never happened and 'resume your Christianity." (Usually because you accepted Jesus when you were really young)

If we are going to take these Scriptures literally, I ask the question the disciples asked Jesus after he said, rich people won't go to heaven.

"Are there few that be saved?" The obvious answer if the Bible means what it says, is YES, few.

No holiness, no heaven.

Can't you smell that smell? PT 1

Joh 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

We had a dead mouse in our garage today. Nothing smells quite like a dead mouse. I don’t know what it is about mice, perhaps their diet, but when a tiny little mouse dies, in a very short time, their stink becomes unbearable.

Different creatures give off a different stench when they die. When a skunk has been hit by a car and lies dead in a ditch, we do not even need to see the skunk to know there is one nearby, even when all of our windows are rolled up in the car.

The worst smell that has ever assaulted my nostrils has been the smell of rotting human flesh. It was close to a dead cat combined with rancid urine under extreme heat, but even that does not quite compare. The human body takes first place in the worst smelling dead contest, hands down.

In Bible times, dead bodies were bathed and wrapped in expensive spices, because they stunk so bad. Jesus was anointed in 100 pounds of ointment. Martha says to Jesus, “Please don’t roll the stone away from my brother, it will stink so bad, we will all get the dry heaves.” The human body stinks.

The New Testament makes it clear that all humans are spiritually dead. Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

Rom 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

So all people are in need of the new birth, of being raised in the power of Christ’s resurrection. So if most people are spiritually dead, (Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”) What is the characteristic stink that they emit? I would submit that there are some who give off the bloated deer, others that rancid raccoon, still others, skunks, moose, birds, mice, etc. There is a plethora of different “stink” given off by the spiritually dead. 2Co 2:16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.

In the next series of posts I will use this illustration of stink to show how people emit a stink that indicates they are still dead or at the very least, that they are being led by the flesh and not by the Spirit.

The New Birth Pt 2

Ezekiel 36:26-28 " 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Point # 2 When God causes someone to be born again, it will produce change!
When God gives us a new heart, takes away our heart that was cold and hard towards the things of God, and fills us with His Spirit, we will walk in His statutes, keep his judgments and do them.

Supporting Scriptures: Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
God does not need to place a laundry list of do's and dont's before His people under the New Covenant because He has changed their heart to want to love and glorify Him in everything they do.

Matthew 7:16-20 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Discerning who the real Christians are is not rocket science! Sure there will be Judas' and tares that slip in at night while we sleep, but a good tree- a new heart- will produce holy living.
No holiness, no heaven. Do you have spiritual fruit in your life that God is producing that gives sufficient evidence that you have a new spiritual nature?

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Which of the two lists from Galatians characterizes your life?

Appeal to Logic: Ask someone who knows you well. Or here is a novel idea for the 21st century, take responsibility and be honest with yourself.

Conclusion: The Bible was written to act as a mirror to show us what we are in truth. Have you received the Holy Spirit of God? Does your life demonstrate that God has taken away your heart of stone and given you a heart that loves Him and walks in His ways?

The New Birth Pt. 1

The New Birth is the most important thing in all the world. Jesus said if you are not born again, you will not see heaven.

So what is the new birth? How do we get it? and How do we know if we have it?

This isn't like a lot of debates various churches hold. If you are wrong on this one, the Bible says you are lost and without hope.

The Old Testament points to the fulfillment of the New birth in the New Testament. It sheds light on the many aspects of the new birth.

Ezekiel 36:26-28 " 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Point #1 God gives the New Birth, man does not do it on his own. We see by reading this verse that the new heart is given to us by God. The new Spirit is given to us by God. The verse has God saying, "I will, I will, I will, I will..." The promise hinges on what God will do. The verse indicates that man will respond to what God causes in him.

Supporting Scriptures: John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The new birth is something that God does whenever He decides to do it. We cannot tell when it will come, but will only be able to see the effect that it will produce.

John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Those who become children of God (new birth) do not do so of their own choosing or based on what they will, but because of what God causes.

Appeal to Logic: What role did you play in your physical birth? The same is true in your spiritual birth. How well would you do in giving yourself a heart transplant? As you sit dead on a table, how good would you be at restoring yourself to life?

Conclusion: The New birth is something that God does, not what man does.

You MUST be born again

The Pope is in America. Flaming liberal and ridiculer of religion Bill Maher has been inflaming catholics with his comments about the Pope and the Catholic religion. Maher said:

"If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you 'Pope.' "

A catholic spokesman responds to Maher by saying,

"Yes, there are church leaders that acted in immoral and sometimes evil ways," Owen said. "The solution is not to follow Mr. Maher and say all religion is bunk. The solution is to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and remain in the church and work for the restoration of the church."

Being faithful to Jesus Christ and restoring the church can only come through one means. The new birth.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Billion dollar church buildings, lavish musical programs, brilliant choirs, fashionable manners, graceful actions and speech can easily be a form of godliness that denies the very power thereof.

A system thats aim is formalism, religiosity and making people feel good about themselves is a destructive force that blasphemes God. The new birth, makes people feel good about God and produces true righteousness.