This is a Blog for those interested in following hard after His heart. Those willing to strive to live a moment-by-moment life as we go through the transformation process with Him. It is not an easy life, but the Father expects each of us to become an offering for His pleasure. So, if this is you, then let’s journey together hand in hand. I am humbled that you have chosen to walk with me. Thanks!
Showing posts with label regeneration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regeneration. Show all posts
04 August, 2014
18 January, 2013
Regeneration Last Part 5
This is the last post of the regeneration. As I mentioned in the first post, even though I come from a
conservative Baptist Church who did not believe in regeneration as a second
experience, I believed what I was told, and I never heard a sermon about it. As
far as I was concerned, I put the matter to rest believing the proponent of
regeneration or second blessings were a bunch of idiots. I believed in my
pastor so much, that I assumed he was right and regeneration or what some
people call a second blessing was not needed. I will not talk about my
experience here because I have already explained enough of it in my book
“Apprehended & Apprehending” But, suffice to say regeneration which is when
you are born from above is needed.
by J. C. Ryle
There is a
natural part in every congregation, and there is a spiritual part; and few
indeed are the churches where we should not be constrained to cry, Lord, here
are many called—but very few chosen. The kingdom of God is no mere matter of lips and knees and
outward service—it must be within a man, seated in the best place of heart; and
I will not hesitate to tell you I fear there are many living members of
churches who are exceedingly dead professors.
Examine
yourselves, then, I pray you, whether you are born again. Have you good solid
reasons for thinking that you have put off the old man which is corrupt, and
put on the new man which is created after God in holiness? Are you renewed in
the spirit of your minds? Are you bringing forth the fruits of the flesh or the
fruits of the Spirit? Are you carnally minded or heavenly minded? Are your
affections with the world or with God? Are you natural men or are you spiritual
men? Oh! but it were no charity in me to keep back this weighty truth; and it
will be no wisdom in you to put off and delay considering it.
Are you born
again? Without it no salvation! It is not written that you may not—or yet that
you will have some difficulty—but it is written that you cannot without it see
the kingdom of God . Consider with yourselves how fearful
it will be to be shut out; to see God's kingdom afar off, like the rich man in
the parable, and a great gulf between; how terrible to go down to the pit from
under the very pulpit, well satisfied with your own condition—but still not
born again. There are truly many roads to perdition—but none so melancholy as
that which is traveled on by professing Christians—by men and women who have
light and knowledge and warning and means and opportunity and yet go smiling on
as if sermons and holiness were not meant for them—or as if hell was a bed of
roses—or as if God was a liar and could not keep His word.
Are you born
again? I do not want to fill your heads—but to move your hearts; it is not a
matter of course that all who go to church shall be saved; churches and
ministers are meant to rouse you to self-inquiry, to awaken you to a sense of
your condition; and next to that grand question, "Have you taken Christ
for your Savior?" there comes the second point, "Are you born
again?"
Beloved, if you
love life, search and see what is your condition. What though you find no
tokens for good: better a thousand times to know it now and live, than to know
it too late and die eternally!
Praised be God,
it is a doctrine bound round with gracious promises: no heart so hard but the
Holy Spirit can move it; many a one could set his seal to that, and tell you
that he was darkness, darkness that could be felt—but is now light in the Lord.
Many of the Corinthians were bad as the worst among you—but they were washed,
they were sanctified, they were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by
the Spirit of our God. Many of the Ephesians were as completely dead in sins as
any of you—but God quickened them, and raised them up, and created them anew
unto good works. Examine yourselves and draw near to God with prayer, and He
shall draw near to you—but if you ask not, you shall not have.
As for me, I
make my supplication unto God, who can make all things new, that His Spirit may
touch your hearts with a deep sense of this truth, for without it my preaching
is vain; that there may be a mighty shaking and revival among the dry bones;
that you may never rest until you are indeed new men and can say, Verily we were dead but we are now alive, we were lost but we are now found.
17 January, 2013
Regeneration Part 4
by J. C. Ryle
This is no external change, like that of Herod, who did many things and then stopped—or of Ahab, who humbled himself and went in sackcloth and walked softly; nor is it a change which can neither be seen nor felt. It is not merely a new name and a new notion—but the implanting of a new principle which will surely bear good fruit. It is opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf; it is loosing the tongue of the dumb, and giving hands and feet to the maimed and lame—for he who is born again no longer allows his members to be instruments and servants of unrighteousness—but he gives them unto God, and then only are they properly employed.
To be born
again is to become a member of a new family by adoption, even the family of
God; it is to feel that God is indeed our Father, and that we are made the very
sons and daughters of the Almighty; it is to become the citizen of a new state,
to cast aside the bondage of Satan and live as free men in the glorious liberty
of Christ's kingdom, giving our King the tribute of our best affection, and
believing that He will keep us from all evil. To be born again is a spiritual
resurrection, a faint likeness indeed of the great change at last—but still a
likeness; for the new birth of a man is a passage from death to life; it is a
passage from ignorance of God to a full knowledge of Him, from slavish fear to
childlike love, from sleepy carelessness about Him to fervent desire to please
Him, from lazy indifference about salvation to burning, earnest zeal; it is a
passage from strangeness towards God to heartfelt confidence, from a state of
enmity to a state of peace, from worldliness to holiness, from an earthly,
sensual, man-pleasing state of mind to the single-eyed mind that is in Christ
Jesus. And this it is to be born of the Spirit.
Beloved, time
will not allow me to go further with this subject today. I have endeavored to
show you generally why we must all be born again, and what the new birth means;
and next Sunday, if the Lord wills, I purpose to show you the manner and means
by which this new birth usually comes.
It only remains
for me now to commend this matter most solemnly to your consciences. Were it a
doctrine of only second-rate importance—were it a point a man might leave
uncertain and yet be saved, like Church government or election—I would not
press it on you so strongly—but it is one of the two great pillars of the
gospel. On the one hand stands salvation by free grace for Christ's sake—but on
the other stands renewal of the carnal heart by the Spirit. We must be changed
as well as forgiven; we must be renewed as well as redeemed.
And I commend
this to you all the more because of the times you live in. Men swallow down
sermons about Christ's willingness and Christ's power to save, and yet continue
in their sins. They seem to forget there must be the Spirit's work within us,
as well as Christ's work for us—there must be something written on the table of
our hearts. The strong man, Satan, must be cast out of our house, and Jesus
must take possession; and we must begin to know the saints' character
experimentally on earth—or we shall never be numbered with them in heaven.
Christ is indeed a full and sufficient title to heaven—but we must have about
us some fitness for that blessed abode.
I will not
shrink from telling you that this doctrine cuts every congregation in two; it
is the line of separation between the good fish and the bad, the wheat and the
tares.
15 January, 2013
Regeneration—Part 3
They do not count it a privilege to draw near to God through Jesus Christ, to walk with Him, to seek close acquaintance with Him; and where would be the comfort to them of dwelling forever in the presence of the Lord God and the Lamb? They do not strive to walk in the steps of holy men of old, they do not take example from the faith and patience of the saints; and with what face then would they join the society of just men made perfect? With what salutation, after a life spent in pleasing the devil and the world, would they greet Abraham and David and the Apostles and all that blessed company who have fought the good fight?
Alas! beloved, an unregenerate man in heaven would be a miserable creature, there would be something in the air he could not breathe, the joys, the affections, the employments would be all wearisome to him, he would find himself as unfitted for the company of the saints, as a beast is unfitted on earth for the company of man. He would be carnally minded, they would be spiritually minded, there would be nothing in common. I know there are vain dreamers who imagine death will work an alteration, that they may die sinners and rise again saints—but it is all a delusion, there is no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave; if we die spiritual we shall rise spiritual, if we die carnal we shall rise carnal, and if we are to be made fit for heaven our natural hearts must be changed now on earth.
In short, beloved, the plain truth is, that by nature men are all dead in trespasses and sins, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, prisoners in the hand of Satan, in a state of miserable condemnation, spiritually dark, blind, and dead; and, worst of all, they neither know nor feel it. The cold corpse in the grave does not feel the worms that crawl over it; the sleeping wretch who has drunk poison, does not know that he shall wake no more; and so also the unhappy man who is still unconverted cannot understand that he is in need of anything. But still, every natural man in the sight of God is dead while he lives; his body, soul, and mind are all turned aside from their proper use, which is to glorify God, and so he is looked upon as dead. And this either is the state of every single soul among us at this minute—or else it used to be. There is no middle state; we cannot be half-way, neither dead nor alive; we were dead and have been brought to life—or we are now dead, and the work is yet to be done.
Nor yet is this doctrine for publicans and harlots only: it is for all without exception; it touches high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, old and young, gentle and simple; all are by nature sinful and corrupt, and because they are so, Jesus tells us solemnly not one shall enter into the heavenly rest without being born again.
Beloved, this sounds strong; it seems a hard saying, perhaps. That is not my concern. I am set to preach Christ's Gospel and not my own. Search the Scriptures, and you will see it is true.
II. The second thing for your consideration is the exact meaning and force of that peculiar expression "to be born again." It is a change by which we once more recover something of the divine nature, and are renewed after the image of God. It is a complete transforming and altering of all the inner man; and nothing can more fully show its completeness and importance than the strong figure under which Jesus describes it: He calls it a NEW BIRTH. We have all been born once as men—but we must see to it we are born again as true Christians. We have been born once of the seed of Adam—woe to us if we are not born the second time of the seed of God! We have been born of the flesh—we must also be born of the Spirit. We are born earthly—we must also be born heavenly. We are born corruptible—we must also be born incorruptible. Our natural birth is as necessary to the life of the body—as our spiritual birth is necessary to the life of the soul.
14 January, 2013
Regeneration Part 2
by J. C. Ryle
So long as they
are in this natural state it is in vain they are told of God's holiness and
God's unchangeable justice, His spiritual law and His judgment to come, their
own enormous deficiencies, their own peril of destruction—it matters not; it
all falls flat and dull upon their ears; they neither feel it nor care for it
nor consider it, and in a few hours they are as though they had never heard it.
It is to no purpose, while in this condition, that Christ crucified and His
precious atonement are set before us; we can see no form nor beauty nor
loveliness about Him; we cannot value what He has done, and, as far as we are
concerned, the wisdom and the excellence of the Cross, which Apostles gloried
in, seems all thrown away.
And why is
this? Our hearts need changing! "The natural man receives not the things
of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know
them, for they are spiritually discerned." This is the true account of all
that weariness and lifelessness and carelessness which we so often see in the
worshipers of God's house; this is the secret of that awful indifference about
spiritual things which prevails so widely both among rich and poor, and makes
the Gospel appear a sealed book. It comes from the heart. Some always imagine
they need learning, some they have no time, some they have very peculiar
difficulties which no one else in the world has—but the truth lies far deeper.
They all need new hearts! Once give them new natures, and you would hear no
more about learning—or time—or difficulty. Every mountain would be leveled and
every valley filled up, that the way of God might be prepared.
But again. By
nature we do not love the laws of Christ's spiritual kingdom. We do not openly
refuse to obey them, we would be angry with anyone who said we had thrown them
aside—but we have no love to them and delight in them; it is not our food and
drink to do our Father's will. Oh no! by nature we love our own way and our own
inclinations—and that is our only law. We bring forth fruit unto ourselves—but
not unto God. Our own pleasure and our own profit take up all our attention,
and as for Him who made us and redeemed us, too many do not give Him the very
scraps of their time. By nature we do not measure ourselves by God's standard:
who ever takes the Sermon on the Mount as his rule of character? who ever
admires the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungerers and thirsters
after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the men
who are persecuted for righteousness' sake? These are all people whom the world
despises, they are as nothing by the side of the jovial and light-hearted, the
men who love strong drink and are held to sing good songs; and yet these are
the people whom Jesus calls blessed.
What natural
man judges of sin as Jesus teaches us to judge? How few look on drunkenness and
fornication as damnable sins—yet the Bible says they are! How few consider
anger without cause, as bad as murder, and lustful looks as bad as adultery—yet
Jesus says they are! Where are the men who strive to love their enemies, who
bless those who hate them, and pray for those who despitefully use them?—yet
this is the rule that Jesus has laid down. And why is all this? You see there
must be something radically wrong. By nature we do not lay ourselves out to
glorify God with our bodies and spirits—we take no pleasure in speaking to each
other about Him. The concerns of this world have a hundred times more of our
thoughts; and few indeed are the gatherings where the mention of Christ and
heaven would not stop many mouths, and make nearly all look as if the subject
was very uncomfortable.
And why is all
this? Some talk of bad example having done them harm, and some say they have
had a bad education—but the evil is far more deeply seated; that which is born
of the flesh is flesh, it comes from the carnal unrenewed mind, and the remedy
needed is change of nature. A corrupt tree can only bring forth corrupt fruit;
the root of the mischief is the sinfulness of the natural heart.
13 January, 2013
Regeneration Part 1
I will be posting about
regeneration in the next few days, because even though I come from a
conservative Baptist Church who did not believe in regeneration as a second
experience. Until I walked in the wilderness with God, I believed what I was
told. Needless to say there was never a sermon on the matter, as such, I put it
to rest, believing the proponent of regeneration or second blessings were
wrong. I believed in my pastor so much, that I assumed he was right and
regeneration or what some people call a second blessing was not needed. I will
not talk about my experience here because I have already explained enough of it
in my book “Apprehended & Apprehending.” But, suffice to say regeneration
which is when you are born from above is needed, whether you believe in it or
not, the Holy Spirit needs the freedom to move freely in our lives, to get us
there.
by J. C. Ryle
"Truly, truly, I say to you—Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the
If the Bible is
false, as some proud men have dared to say—then we are no better than the
beasts which perish, and the best thing a man can do is to eat and drink and
live as he pleases. If the Bible is only half true, as some unhappy people
strive to make out, there is no certainty about our everlasting souls;
Christianity is all doubt and dimness and guesswork, we can never know what we
are to believe as necessary to salvation, we can never be sure that we have got
hold of the words of eternal life. Give up your Bible, and you have not a
square inch of certainty and confidence to stand on: you may think, and you may
imagine, and you may have your own opinion—but you cannot show me any
satisfactory proof or authority that you are right; you are building merely on
your own judgment; you have put out your own eyes, as it were, and, like one in
the dark, you do not really know where you are going.
But if,
beloved, the Bible be indeed the Word of God Himself and altogether true, and
that it is so, can be proved by witnesses without number; if the Bible be
indeed true and our only guide to heaven, and this I trust you are all ready to
allow; it surely must be the duty of every wise and thinking man to lay to
heart each doctrine which it contains, and while he adds nothing to it, to be
careful that he takes nothing from it.
Now, I say that
on the face of the Bible, when fairly read, there stands out this grand
doctrine, that each one of us must, between the cradle and grave—go through a
spiritual change, a change of heart—or in other words be born again. And in the
text you have heard, the Lord Jesus declares positively, without regeneration
no man shall see the kingdom of God .
Sinner, man or
woman, mark that! no salvation without this new birth! Christ has done
everything for you; He paid the price of our redemption, lived for us, died for
us, rose again for us—but all shall avail us nothing, if there be not this work
in us: we must be born again!
Now, beloved, I
desire to speak to you freely and plainly about this new birth—as a thing
absolutely necessary to salvation. I shall try to show you from my text two
things: first, the reason why we must all be born again, and secondly, what the expression to be born again
means; and the Lord grant that the subject to which I am going to call your
attention, may not be listened to and soon forgotten, as a light and indifferent
matter—but carried home and thought over, and blessed to the conversion of many
souls!
I. Why,
then, is this new birth so necessary? The
answer is short and simple. Because of the natural sinfulness of every man's
disposition. We are not born into the world with spotless, innocent minds—but
corrupt and wicked, and with a will to do that which is evil as soon as we have
the power. The Scriptural account is true to the letter—we are all conceived in
sin and shaped in iniquity. I need not stop now to tell you how all this came
to pass; I need only remind you that in the beginning it was not so.
Our first
parents, Adam and Eve, were created holy, harmless, undefiled, without spot or
stain or blemish about them; and when God rested from His labor on the seventh
day, He pronounced them, like all His other works, to be very good. But, alas
for us! Adam, by transgression, fell into sin, and lost his first estate. He
forfeited the likeness of God in which he had been made. And hence all we, who
are his children, come into being with a defiled and sinful nature. We are
fallen, and we must needs be raised; we have about us the marks of the old
Adam—Adam the first, earthly and carnal—and we must needs be marked with the
marks of the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus, which are heavenly and spiritual. Do
any of you feel a doubt of this? Consider only what we are by nature.
By nature we do
not see Christ's spiritual kingdom upon earth; it is all hidden from our eyes.
Men may be sharp and knowing in worldly matters, they may be wise in the things
of time—but when they come to spiritual religion, their understandings seem
blind, there is a thick veil over their hearts, and they see nothing as they
ought to see.
10 January, 2013
The Opened Sight by Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
devotion for today has a boat load of information, we need for the Christian
life. In fact, it is not stretching it if I say we have a lifetime of true
Christianity in these few words and could be subject to several posts. One of
the reasons I am so excited about this devotion is because it is so close to
home. As I have shared with you before, my ministry is directly associated with
these people who are in the Church, professed that they are Christians but have
never made it to received true Salvation. Hence, my gifts of discernment and
wisdom as well as the ability to judge according to the knowledge and
leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life. If God felt that I needed these
things in order that He can use me, can you imagine what He is able to bestow
on those He truly called to occupy leadership and teaching positions in His
Church?
Whether you are
a pastor, an elder or evangelist, any kind of teaching position that He calls
you to, there is no doubt that you will be equipped to see what needs to be
seen through wisdom, discernment and more. The job is to open up other people’s
eyes to the truth they do not know, to help them walk the walk. Why would He
not do it for you first before He sent you? Why would Oswald Chambers able to
see all these things and through his writings you can tell they are like
natural abilities to him. He was not exceptional, he was just walking the walk.
His devotion
today contains some truths that cannot be mere word that comes out of our
mouths i.e receiving forgiveness of sin… This brings you face to face with a
Holy repentance that you have never known in your life. This repentance could
happen the same day you receive Christ in your life, but it could also happened
few months down the road. Either way, you have to have the capability to
receive this holy gift from Him. Too many people say they have received
Christ but go on never knowing what it means to repent. Yet, this repentance is
needed to make a 360 degree turn. Failing that, we live as people who
are saved in their sins and not from sins. As long as you do not know the
difference of what I just said, in your heart and in the quality of your life
with God, well, you are not saved yet. Christ did not come to save us in
our sins. This is not the real Salvation that He died on the cross for. The
irony is that we keep saying salvation is through grace but we do not
understand that getting there to the point where we know and compute that we
have been saved from sins and we can see the ugliness of it and how and
why God is disgusted by it is a MAJOR work of His grace in our lives.
Another truth
in this devotion that must be considered very carefully is the fact that Oswald
said “when a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has
received something as a gift from Almighty God…” Do not take the word knows
lightly. This knowing happened with an encounter with the Holy One that
brings you to a place where you own that truth. You do not just repeat like a
parrot that salvation is by grace, but it is your truth that is in the depth of
your identity in Him, so deep within, that no one can take it away from you.
Another major
truth in this devotion is that Oswald also said: “their eyes are open, but
they have received nothing” this simply put you in the category of the seed
that falls where there are rocks, and not much soil.
Another major truth
is that even though our job is to open people’s eyes, we cannot do it by
ourselves unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to move freely in our lives, with
no hindrances to impede His work in others through us. That is a big
responsibility that we learn the sacredness of it through being prepared by Him
for service. This is where service to God becomes an extension of who you are
in Him.
I have to stop
in order to keep the length of this post to a reasonable document, but another
truth that is devastating the Church is the fact that today’s preachers are not
able to recognize which is which and how to deal with the lack of conversion in
the pews and the pulpits. Please understand that I know there are some awesome
pastor and teachers out there who have been called by God, took His personal
training and walk in the Spirit with Him. They are the elite that God referred
to in Jeremiah 3:15 “Then I will give you
shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and
understanding”. These shepherds
after God’s own heart did not and will not become such just by taking a few
courses in college or university. They are aware that after they are trained by
man, they have to go through God’s university and curriculum before they are
ready to lead His flock. This makes the difference between leading and leading.
The problem is
that we are living in a time where anyone can be a pastor or teacher, because
they feel like it or they want to work for God, notice the emphasis is for
God not with God. We also have greed; the need for status, insecurities,
resources at their disposal, being well connected which was the practice of the
Pharisees (blind leading blind) etc. You can understand why they are not
equipped to deal with dires strait situations in their congregations that require
an abundance of God’s grace.
I can
understand that you might be offended by my writings, but do not stop there. Do not
make it about you or me. Know that if you stop there and make it about you and me,
there is a major problem in your walk that Satan does not want you to know. Examine
yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to get your pride and bondage out
of the way so that you can see what needs to be seen and know for sure where
you stand with Him. Ask Him to save you, not because you deserve it, but for
His glory. Keep praying day in, day out until He answers you. If you truly ask
Him with a sincere and open heart, you will be amazed at His response.
Here is Oswald
Chambers devotional
The Opened Sight
01
10
2013
I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 26:17-18
This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.
God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.
This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others
This Oswald chamber devotion is the courtesy of http://utmost.org/
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