Welcome to Truth Time, where you'll get a shot of the truth with no chaser.
And now, your Truth Time host, Trey Searcy.
Today is Wretched Radio vs. Truth Time Radio.
To be or not to be born again.
Big question.
What does it mean to be born again?
Let's start by looking into the Bible to see if that phrase is even there.
John chapter 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, Truly I say to you, unless one is, oh there it is, born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
If you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you're born again, must be pretty important.
And there must be more verses that talk about it.
Oh yeah, there are.
First Peter, blessed be the God and Father of Jesus, who according to his great mercy
has caused, he caused us, to be born again to a living hope.
And finally, 1 Peter 1:23, you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable the living word.
In other words, for one to go to heaven, one must be born again.
For one to be born again, one must hear the imperishable word because faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.
Notice, Todd said, In other words, for one to go to heaven, one must be born again.
Be very careful when someone reading God's word says, in other words, as if God's words aren't enough.
Todd has to insert tradition to make the verses say what they do not.
In not one passage, I mean born again is only used about three times, three or four, but not in one passage is born again talking about going to heaven, not one.
Heavenly places is nowhere in the context.
Being born again is about getting into Israel's prophetic earthly kingdom, earthly, not heavenly, not about going to heaven.
So Todd brings up the four times that born again, the phrase is used in scripture.
However, he leaves out the John 1:13, born of God.
You see, this is what happens when we limit our study to just word searches or phrase
searches when we take the easy road, which requires less study.
But when we're willing to dig in and put in a little extra time and effort, we stand a much better chance of coming out on the other end and an unashamed workman.
You see, to be born again is to be born of God.
They're interchangeable.
So let's put in some work today and see if born again, born of God, is a good, accurate description of us.
Get 1 John chapter 1 verse 28.
Don't just listen.
Grab the book and check this out for yourself.
1 John chapter 2 verse 28.
And now, little children, okay, let's establish context.
The little children here are the children of Israel who have believed on the name of
the Son of God.
Not believers of Paul's finished crosswork gospel, but believers on the name of the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Israel.
And these little children have been placed into Israel's little flock, that remnant of believers.
Okay, John continues, abide in him.
See, they're not sealed.
So abide, stay in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
There it is.
Born of him, born of God, born again.
Now, does this description fit you?
Be careful how you answer that.
What did John say of these folks?
Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
So, John's claim here is not everyone who have believed in the finished crosswork of Christ is born of him, but everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
See the difference?
The born of God, born of him, born again, are those who work righteousness to be accepted of God.
Sounds like Peter to Cornelius, clear back there in Acts chapter 10, does it not?
Remember, Peter told him, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted
with him.
That sounds like 1 John here.
It's clearly works-based performance.
Not we who have rested our faith in Christ alone plus nothing.
And when reading about these little children of Israel, the born again, born of God, here in 1 John chapter 2, we just flip over to the next chapter, chapter 3, and we see this.
Pay attention.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. And he cannot sin, because he is born of God, 1 John chapter 3, verse 9.
Again, I ask, does this describe you?
Did you join the Joyce Meyer club of those who no longer sin?
Yeah, Joyce made the claim that she stopped sinning, which demonstrates just how confused the religious world is today.
Todd would disagree with what Joyce says, what she claims about not sinning, but agrees with her that today we are the born again we're reading about here in Scripture.
Todd's problem is he didn't go far enough with his born again teaching.
Joyce does.
She actually does a wrong thing right.
It's wrong, but at least she tried to teach it right.
This born again business is for Israel.
It has to do with them receiving their new covenant.
It is then that he will write his name upon their heart and they will, 1 John 3:9, not commit sin.
Todd and Joyce, and the many others, what they've been taught to do is to go to the
Bible, see born again and born of God, see that nomenclature, take it out of its context, and steal it from Israel's mailbox, applying it to themselves.
You see, these things that we read outside of Paul's epistles, even though they may not all be for our daily walk and application, we're to learn from them.
That's what we're doing here today.
We've learned that born again is the same as born of God.
We've learned that the born again, born of God, are earthly kingdom saints, not interested in going to heavenly places.
We've learned that they will keep the law, work righteousness to be accepted, and will not sin.
They'll supernaturally have God's 613 laws written upon their hearts, causing them to
not sin, walk perfectly in all his judgments and statutes.
And as a matter of fact, according to 1 John chapter 2, the same chapter, by the way, here we see that Todd Frill, Joyce Meyer, myself, and so many others will be out of a job if this is written to us.
Verse 27, but the anointing which ye have received, who is the ye little children of
Israel, which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not, now watch, ye need not that any man teach you.
What?
The born again, born of God, with the laws written upon their hearts, walking perfectly in those judgments and statutes of the Lord, they don't need teachers, because, keep reading, the same anointing teacheth you of all things.
No need for teachers if you know all things.
No need for teachers if you have this special supernatural anointing.
Meanwhile, most of Christendom will load up the car this Sunday morning and go be fed
some rancid false doctrine that says they are the born again.
The preacher will also say, you've got to be born again to go to heaven.
It has nothing to do with going to heaven, nowhere in the context.
Born again is what must happen before the little flock, the remnant of Israel believers, are going to be able to go into and inhabit their earthly kingdom.
When Jesus was talking with Nicodemus there in John 3 verse 7, he said, Marvel not that I said unto thee, nominative singular, ye, nominative plural, must be born again.
See the change between the thee to the ye?
So who is this?
Well, we know Nick is the thee, but who is the ye?
Jesus is obviously telling this one guy about an entire group.
Verse 10 tells us that Nicodemus was a master of Israel.
So there's the identification of the ye, the nation Israel.
That's who needs to be born again.
Jesus asked Nick, he said, art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
You see, he should have already known the answer to the born again question.
But like many today, with their degrees, their large following, these grand pubas, with their schools and such, yet they're dumber than dirt.
Israel's first birth was birth of their nation, Exodus chapter 4 verse 22, when God delivered them out of Egypt.
Their second birth, their born again, that's time future, and will be when they come into their kingdom.
Get Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
See that?
Born again is to live throughout their earthly kingdom.
The land they were promised.
And we can see that in verse 28, watch, And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to
your fathers.
You see, this born again business, it comes from a John chapter 3 conversation between the Lord and Nicodemus.
Nick was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews.
The Lord came to his own, Nicodemus included, but his own received him not.
It should be noted that when old Nick addressed the Lord, he called him Rabbi.
That's important.
It identifies him as an unbeliever.
Everyone in the books of Matthew through John who believed that Christ was the Son of God referred to him as Lord, or Christ, not Rabbi.
Nick says Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God.
Now that's interesting, is it not?
Here we have this fellow standing in the presence of God Almighty, yet he belittles him by reducing him down to a teacher, a Rabbi.
Not Christ, not Lord, but teacher.
You're not God, but God did send you.
That's what Nick's saying.
Nick goes on to say, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
God was certainly more than with him.
He was God, 1 Timothy 3:16.
Verse 3, Jesus answered Nick and said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, thee, singular, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now let's unpack this.
The first birth would be from the womb, Nick's mother.
Christ said, until you are born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.
And in verse 4, with a little sarcasm, Nick says, how can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Born of water, that's the first birth.
When you depart from your mother's womb, what did your mother say before your father panicked and ran every traffic light in town?
My water has broke.
So that's born of water.
But when we read, that which is born of Spirit is Spirit, hey, that's altogether different.
That speaks of the nation Israel.
So we have born of the flesh, natural birth, and we have born of the Spirit, which is what happened in Acts chapter 2.
Remember there in the upper room?
And that was prophesied in John chapter 20 when Jesus said that He would send them the Spirit not many days hence.
And notice here, verse 8, John 3:8, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Did you catch what Jesus is saying here?
Did you hear the buzz words?
The wind bloweth?
Thou hearest the sound?
Can someone say Acts chapter 2?
The sound as a mighty rushing wind?
Can you see the connection here?
Can you connect the dots?
Of course you can.
After his upper room experience, Peter addressed the Acts 2 unbelievers, Hey guys, no more of this nonsense about rabbi, or great teacher, repent, change your mind.
That man you killed was the son of the living God.
Don't miss the Acts 2 connection here folks.
Don't miss its connection with the born again Israel.
Hey, if born again, if that is you, okay, then so is Acts chapter 2.
You can't have one without the other.
See why the two go together?
See why we have those today that thinks the church began in Acts chapter 2?
Those who refer to themselves as born again are also the ones who claim that the church, the body of Christ began in Acts chapter 2.
They spiritualize and tell spiritual lies.
They can't see the truth because they don't have spiritual eyes.
The Acts 2 folks are also limited forgivers.
They know little to nothing about the ministry of reconciliation, and it's why they cannot get some of these other things right.
When your premise is off, make no mistake, other things will surely follow.
And we have some who, you've got to watch them, they falsely equate born again with regeneration.
Watch Matthew 19:28.
Watch this.
Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
This is not Jesus speaking of the spirit of man being born again as He did with Nicodemus.
No.
Here Jesus is saying that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, followed me.
Was Jesus ever born again?
See how the error of this thinking, see what it can lead to.
This error about the John 3 born again being the same as Paul's regeneration is simply that, error.
In Matthew 19, Jesus is speaking of the regeneration of Israel's kingdom, time future.
And it'll be their new earth regenerated, earth regenerated.
The sheep know Him and will follow Him into their new regenerated earthly kingdom.
This is prophecy, not mystery news.
Isaiah chapter 65, verse 17.
You need to look that up.
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind.
See that?
Peter spoke of the same thing in 2 Peter 3:13.
Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
No need to word search.
You can lay down the man-made dictionaries.
And you don't have to Greek it.
The Bible in English is just fine.
This Bible, God's word, is its own dictionary.
We simply compare scripture with scripture and sit back and watch the dots connect.
We got some today, oh, they'll give it lip service to this sort of thing.
They'll say, be like the Bereans, search the scriptures, but then go everywhere else they can trying to find answers.
Dictionary this, Greek that.
And don't forget what the church fathers say.
Regeneration: When you look at the word, notice the letters G-E-N, re-gen, regeneration, gen, as in the book of Genesis, the beginning of something.
And it's why water baptism was so vital, so crucial, so important for Israel.
It was not optional, but a must for them to be spiritually cleansed with water before
entering their regenerated kingdom.
There will be no Genesis, no beginning for them, until they do so.
They can forget entering a perfectly pure and clean regenerated kingdom while in their current state of filthiness.
Even Peter said all their sins haven't even been blotted out yet.
Unlike us who have Colossians 2:13 received forgiveness of all sins.
But the little flock, they've only received remission of sins.
That's their past sins.
As a part of being born again, they must be spiritually cleansed of all sin.
It hasn't happened yet.
Paul mentioned regeneration only once, and it's for the purpose of us being positionally identified with Christ.
It does not equate to Israel's born again.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we're told that we are a new creature, re-gen, regenerated.
We are the Genesis of this thing, folks.
Never before done.
Which means we are not, again, anything.
We're the first, the new, the church, the body of Christ.
Not the church, the body of Christ, again.
It's not as if there were a church which is His body previously and God just wanted to update it.
No, we are the first church which is His body.
Something new is first, but born again is when the old is redone.
That's Israel.
Exodus 4:22, Israel, my first born.
That's the birth of their nation, and it will be born again.
We didn't have the first birth.
We won't get the second one.
We are the first version of a brand new thing.
We, Ephesians 2:13, heard the gospel, trusted Christ and believed the gospel, and we were placed into a new creature and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
There's no enduring unto the end to get anything, no future appointed time when we'll get our sins blotted out, no water baptism needed.
At the very moment we heard and believed, we were instantaneously baptized by the Spirit, not a preacher, into the body, not water, and placed into Christ.
If Christ need not be born again, then neither do we.
We're in Him.
He's in us.
End of story.
We're complete.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16, Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.
When Christ was speaking of regeneration, was He in the flesh there?
Yes.
But we, we don't know Christ after the flesh.
When Jesus appeared to our Apostle, the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, question, was He in the same flesh as He was when He walked the earth?
While on earth, He was in His King of Israel flesh.
When He appeared to Paul, He was in His head of the church flesh.
Different, not the same.
We've got these today that, they'll say, oh, it doesn't matter if He's king or head.
That sort of thing doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter if we say born again or new creature.
This doesn't matter.
That doesn't matter.
And before long, we've digressed so far backwards that it's hard to tell the difference anymore.
And I think that's the plan.
Digressing back to where we kind of just sort of mix in with the denominations.
Some of these folks are trying to apologize for those of us who are just too clear on
these subjects.
So they come in behind us and blur the lines.
My wife calls them light dividers, not right dividers, light dividers.
Back to the verse.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
The church, the body.
Now think.
Would the things we read of in Jesus' earthly ministry, found in Matthew through the book of John, would those be new creature doctrines?
It could not be new creature information if it's the same thing that's already written in the Old Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John now can it?
Okay, keep reading.
Old things, that's Christ in the flesh, that's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Moses' church, the church in the wilderness, passed away.
Peter's church, that Pentecostal church of Acts 2, passed away.
Paul's church, the one called the church which is his body, that began shortly after the stoning of Stephen and the diminishing of Israel.
Paul's church is the, quote, behold, all things become new.
We're the behold all things become new church.
But there's more.
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 15, Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain, what?
One new man.
Seeing this yet?
Totally different than how Jesus used the word, "regeneration," in Matthew 19.
In that new earthly kingdom for Israel, there will still be a division made.
New Jerusalem and other nations.
Yeah, a division.
They will still be recognized individually, but not so for the body of Christ.
Our regeneration, our new thing is the two that are made twain, one new man.
No more distinction being made in the body.
Okay, one more real quickly.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 14, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ, there we are, that's us now, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
That's our new, not a regenerated earthly kingdom, but a regenerated new creature.
Folks, this is what we are now.
Doesn't mean we always live up to what we are, but it's our new position nonetheless.
Our regenerated position.
We are the one new man, a new creature.
As Paul says of us, we have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, Colossians 3:10.
We have that new man renewed knowledge.
We got to keep these things divided, make a straight cut and keep it nice and clean
for our audience.
Here at Truth Time, we major in preaching and teaching the one new man knowledge and
not so much on behavior, because we believe that once the new man has accepted and understood who he is in Christ, away with the old thinking, in with the new, well, we believe that after that, the behavior cannot help but be affected.
At our salvation conception, each of us were put into the new creature, but we all grow at a different pace.
We were put in, we did not earn our way in.
The new creature concerns position, not behavior.
But once we understand this about ourselves, our new position, our behavior should begin to line up with our position.
But don't allow yourself to be discouraged concerning your behavior.
On Monday, you might have fared pretty well, but by Tuesday afternoon, you had already fallen short.
On Wednesday, you allowed God's word to lead and guide you, but Thursday was a train wreck.
Can I get a witness?
Well, you still have your position, nothing changed.
Because at the moment you heard and believed the gospel, Ephesians 1:13, God put a seal on you that will last until the day of redemption.
So stop worrying about your position, you've got fantastic job security.
One thing to remember, I think this will help us, keep in mind that you don't work
for the position, you work from the position.
We have to first learn that there is nothing that can separate us from God, nothing.
Once we get that, once we change our thinking about that, we can then start to live it, start to walk it out.
The trouble comes when we put cart before pony and try to move.
You can't go nowhere.
The trouble comes when we attempt to live it first.
That's what Lordship teaches.
When we try to live it to get it.
It's not live it to get it, it's you've got it, now live it.
How we live our lives should be a result, a reflection of our position, not a means
to our position.
This new position gave us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
So stop living like you're trying to get your blessings and start living like you already have your blessings.
Because you do.
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