BORN AGAIN: READY FOR THE RAPTURE
A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN, SEALED BY THE HOLY GHOST, CAN NOT GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING. This seal of the Spirit is like a watchman on the wall. Even the presence of sin makes the heart tremble. A “Born Again Christian” that protects the seal of the Holy Ghost will have a conscience so pure that living in sin is impossible. This is the lifestyle that was preached by John Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the great leaders of the past.
This generation of compromisers has developed a theology of “sinning religion”. A person that proclaims, “I am a saved sinner” is in direct rebellion against the perfect Word of God. Listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the Church at Ephesus. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4: 22-29)
A born again Christian is a “new creation”. They have passed from darkness to light and from sin to righteousness. To the Romans, Paul said, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6: 6-7) The real truth is that our churches are full of members that have never been “Born Again”. Religion alone will leave the soul bound to the old life and hopelessly lost, but a radical “New Birth” will change the total person.
Does that mean a born again person never sins again? No, it does not. But, it means that they will grow and become stronger on a regular basis. They will show the new life by their godliness and holiness. Apostle John said it beautifully. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2: 1-4) Sealed by the Holy Spirit is the power that keeps the soul. Notice this promise. “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4: 30)
When we are saved/born again, the Holy Spirit comes at that moment to dwell in our life. When you are saved you have Him, but when you are baptized by the Holy Ghost He has you. Stephen Olford, a great Baptist minister, said it like this. “When I was saved, He was in residence, but when I was filled He was the President.”
The “Born Again” life is the greatest life on the face of this earth. The sacrifice of Christ’s blood has broken the powers of sin. We are now called unto holiness. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” (Hebrews 10:26)
The most powerful subject in Holy Scripture is, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN”. Yet it is so reduced in today’s Church that the majority of Church members do not know the transformation that occurs. If a person is “BORN AGAIN” they are “New Creatures In Christ”. Please take time to listen to the Sermons I am preaching on this subject. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (I Corinthians 1:21) God’s plan for saving souls is the preaching of the Gospel and there is no backup plan. We will send a FREE CD Sermon to every person that requests it. Go to the Home page and at the top there is a section called, “SANCTUARY SERMONS”. Call us at 1 704 391 0588 or toll free 1 800 338 7883. Our e-mail is secretary@pawcreek.org .
Violet Leigh
I understand what you are saying but I do not want to have legalism determine my relationship with The Lord. We are sinners until we are perfected. People in this world become so bound by legalism because of this kind of teaching so we need to be aware
Violet,
What do you mean by legalism? Do you call keeping God’s commandment legalism?
You will keep them or you will be lost. Please get into your Bible and make sure you are Born Again and you will love keeping His Words and Commandments. Read again I John 2:1-3. Its an absolute joy to live in His Word.
Bill Scudder
First you said that a born again person can not sin and then later you said he can. Hmm.
Anyway, I believe that a person that is truly saved is sealed by the Holy Spirit as the scriptures say and can not be lost or unsealed or unsaved. If he strays away he will always return to his Fathers house. When we are truly saved we are saved for eternity just as the scriptures say.
Bill,
Where did I say A Christian cannot sin? Not me! Read the intro to our Sermon again!!!!!!
Lisa
Where in the article it reads the following…..The “Born Again” life is the greatest life on the face of this earth. The sacrifice of Christ’s blood has broken the powers of sin. We are now called unto holiness. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.”(Hebrews 10:26).
Is this saying that once we have received Him…..and we sin willfully there is nothing that will atone for our sin????
Dear Lisa,
Please go back and read I John 2;1. Any time a person falls into a sin and they repent (turn from that sin) and ask forgiveness they will be forgiven. It is only the person that willfully continue in sin that has no forgiveness.
Arthur Rodricks
By discernment, I see, lisa, bill and violet are not born again, hence they dont understand your article. Many call themselves christians,but few actually know what christian means. You have explained very well, BORN AGAIN is the right & true definition for a Christian.
Bil Scudder
Sorry Pastor,I guess you meant that a Christian will not continue to live in sin.
As for Arthur Rodricks saying im not a Christian, is not discernment but a false judgment. Arthur are you saying Im not saved because I believe in the security of the believer and do not believe that I can save myself. That Christ and His sacrifice was not enough??
Bill
Brother Bill,
And I mean that word “Brother”!
The argument about, “Once saved always saved” is old and tired.
I have known many that lived like the devil but say they were once saved and therefore ready to go to heaven. There are many homosexuals and lesbians that are part of this group. What if the idea that they were saved at all is wrong? They are doomed.
For the many good people that are truly saved and love living for our Lord, if they believe, “Once saved always saved”, there is nothing to worry about. They are not going to be lost and I love every one of them. I fear for the great crowd of the backslide one that are defeated, miserable and living far below HIS promises. Why not drop this doctrine and lets have a return to living the Godly life and praying regularly for an outpouring of the Spirit. I remember being in many churches when the Holy Spirit came down in power. That’s what I want. I could care less for worn out doctrines that excuse cheap living. His GRACE is sufficient for a victorious life.
Lots of LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joseph Chambers
jaimie
Dear Pastor,
Thank you for such a well written explanation of the process which we go through in our lives when we have the Holy Ghost in our lives/temple. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,
Therefore the correct type of fear should be created by the presence of the Holy Spirit to convict us of the error of our way, for godly sorrow leads to repentance and worldly sorrow leads to death.
For myself i am very conscience of the error of lying and as i age it has become very difficult to lye or to advocate lying from anybody. I know my Lord will be disappointed in me if i do, so i try my best not to because i want to please him. But when i slip up he will forgive me, Jesus is so above us. The Rock much higher than i.
Please Bill. Lisa and Violet, you have found the right site to look into these things, pray for the annointing of the Holy Spirit. So think upon the things that the Pastor has provided us. We are to be still and know God. The Holy Spirit is the comforter and teacher.
God Bless
jaimie
Sandra
And dear Brother Chambers, sometimes I think you just seem to have a hard time explaining what you and the bible mean.
You seem to forget that “SEALED” by the Holy Spirit is a permenant thing.
If you are saved / born again, it can not be lost!!!
That is in the bible.
I do not understand how you think or seem to imply that someone can be lost if they are truly saved. You seem to teach one thing and then flip flop. I think you mean well, but sometimes it comes across as if you are teaching someone can LOSE what was a gift given to them, once they have gone to JESUS and confessed and received that gift.
People do get lost and stray, but their salvation remains secure (If they got saved).
I TOO Have read and studied and learned the bible all my life.
I was saved at 11 years old. Do you think an 11 year old, although they fully understand salvation plan will never ever sin again? We continually wrestle all our lives with sin. Sometimes we probably sin and don’t even realize we did it. (So much is the things that hurt GOD.)
I just think some of your posts can be very very confusing to those that are lost and struggling for answers, as I can see by the posts in reply made by them.
God Bless you your efforts, but I sleep at night knowing I am still human, a forgiven sinner, believer in JESUS, follower of his word, but still sometimes stumble and fall.
I will teach the truth!!! The truth is if you accept Christ as your savior – it is yours. If someone is a Christian they won’t want to go sin, at least I wouldn’t think so, but it happens. This is a huge mistake the Catholic and Church of Christ teach. If you commit a sin, then you are lost and must get resaved over and over. Remeber – all sins are sins in Gods eyes. It was taught in the new testament, that if you are trying to keep even one commandment to secure and hold on to your salvation, then you must keep them all, but that the Gift of Salvation – Christ’s blood is the now saving grace. The first Commandment is to love God with all your heart and soul. The second to love your neighbor as yourself. If you do that, sin is not as apt to enter your life. Temptations will always be there, and occaionally they win out.
I have never said on any post that you can continue sinning and not get saved and go to Heaven. FAR FROM IT.
Remember, he who never sins can cast the first stone. He who thinks they can never sin once saved are the ones who sin the most – I call this PRIDE!
I love you to and wish you many many happy teachings.
Sandra
Dear Sandra
A doctrine that is full of excuses has to be contrary to the Bible. A “Born Again”
Saint, full of the Word, Saved By the Blood and Baptized in the Holy Ghost does
not need excuses. The devil cannot touch such a Saint and they have no need
of a false security when they have Heaven’s security. WOW!!!!!!!!!!
Joseph Chambers
Bill Scudder
Dear Brother Joseph:
Thank you for your kind letter on this subject. e-mail I get from some are not so kind. Unfortunately there is much misunderstanding about the subject of the security of the believer.
In my opinion those that call themselves Christian and live like the devil because they say they were saved once and can’t be lost, wee not saved in the first place. No true Christian is able to think this way. If you re true Christin you want to live a Holy life. Anyone that uses the security of the believer as an excuse to sin has never been saved to begin with because a true Christian does not think this way. I have yet to meet a real Christian that believes in this security of the believer that uses it as an excuse for sinful living.
I did not alway’s believe this way and after I came to this belief it made me stronger in the Lord and increased my Love for Him because of His grace andI realized the great sacrifice He paid for me and because of this I wanted to live more of a Holy life.
There are many who struggle greatly trying to live a Holy Life thinking that they could be lost at any moment if they sin. I do not emphsize this doctrine, only where it is needed or if someone ask’s about it.
I am Pentecostal, trinitarion of course and also pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and have been in meetings where the Gospel is preached and the power of the Holy Spirit has come in power and conviction and Baptiamal power to Batise in the Holy Spirit.
Thank you again for your reply and may the Lord bless you greatly.
Bill
Violet Leigh
Did you realize that God is the One who determines our heart condition and whether we are saved? You are taking upon yourself God’s position of determining salvation issues. You have an obligation to preach but you cannot determine whether or not a person is saved. You are dwelling in legalism. I am certain that I have been studying the Bible longer than you.
Shelly
None of you believers get what the paster is saying….He saying you need to be doers of the word
and not Hearers. (James 1-(22-25) God said If anyone Loves me, HE WILL KEEP MY WORD.( John 14:23) Do you Love God ?? then why arent you keeping his word??? To be truly be born again you do his will,
not choose what you want to do. You must give god your whole heart,to be born again….some of you never gave your heart to god, you are still living for this world, and not for the Lord.. you better hurry and make your choice cause hes at the door. and you dont want to be turned away.