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To
all who are anxious for the salvation of their souls, come to Christ
for help. He says to you as He said to Nicodemus, "unless one is
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
He is knocking at the door of your
heart, asking for entrance. He longs to renew your heart, filling it
with a love for all that is pure and true. He longs to crucify self
for you, raising you to newness of life in Him. Nicodemus was
converted as a result of his interview with Christ. How is it with
you? Will Christ knock at your heart in vain? Will you refuse him
entrance? Or will you welcome him as an honored guest?
His presence of love in your life is
of more value than the whole world. Its length, its width, its
depth, its height, cannot be estimated. It will purify your heart
and renew your mind, giving you a new capacity for knowing and
loving God. Do not let self hinder you from hearing the call, "You
must be born again." Fear not to make a full surrender of yourself
to Christ. Place yourself, without reserve, under His control.
Learn what it means to cease from sin; what it means to have a new
heart, to bear the divine character.
As you behold Christ, self will sink
into insignificance, and you will be changed into his image, "from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." This study will
open to us what the Bible teaches about the born again experience.
1. What must take place before we
can see the kingdom of God?
John 3:3
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2. What two questions did Nicodemus
ask which showed that he did not understand what Jesus was saying?
John
3:4______________________________________________________
3. What two births must a person
experience to enter God’s kingdom?
John
3:5______________________________________________________
Note:
Being born of water is the experience of baptism. Being born of
the Spirit refers to our spiritual birth. In baptism we participate
in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this
experience the life of sin we were born with is crucified with
Christ on the cross, in exchange we receive the life of Christ.
This is the new birth experience. It is not an improvement of the
old life. It is His Life in exchange for my old life of sin.
4. Is being born of the flesh the same thing as being born of the
Spirit?
John 3:6
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Note:
When Adam and Eve were created in the beginning, Christ breathed
into them the breath of life and man became a living being. It was
the Spirit of God that gave life to His creation. Now it was told
that the moment that they sinned they would surely die. They did
not physically die at that moment but it was the Spirit of God that
left them and their lives were then gripped with fear of the One who
made them. This spiritual death has been our inheritance since
Adam.
5. What good does the flesh profit us? What does the Spirit give?
John
6:63_____________________________________________________
Note:
The flesh will
profit nothing. We need not rely upon ourselves for any good thing
for no good thing will ever come from it. Christ in you will
produce life and produce it more abundantly than we could ever ask
or think.
6. How do I have this born again experience and become a child of
God?
John 1:11,
12__________________________________________________
Note:
The words received
and believed go hand in hand, they mean the same thing. To believe
in Jesus Christ is not only a mental assent to the truth, it is to
receive Him into your life and let Him take control. Receiving
Christ into your life is the born again experience.
7. Whose work is it that you believe?
John 6:28,
29__________________________________________________
Note:
By faith we have the finished, perfect work of the Lord as our own.
"This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has
sent." John 6:29. When we receive Jesus into our lives He
brings all that He is with Him and this includes His faith.
8. Of whom are we born when we
receive Jesus?
John
1:13_____________________________________________________
9. Who becomes our life when we are
born again?
Galatians
2:20__________________________________________________
Note:
To be a
new creature after a life of sin means the life is now contrary to
sin, and as it says “he cannot sin, because he is born of God." His
mind has been renewed, his desires and affections have been changed,
and his appetites and passions have been recreated. He cannot
practice sin or habitually pursue it as a course of action, not
because he is shut up so that there are no temptations, but because
his desires are changed and he is kept by the word of God.
10. If Christ is in you what must
you consider the body to be?
Romans
8:10__________________________________________________
Note:
This is the experience of every true child of God. "If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature." 2Cor.5:17. He lives on in his
body but it is no longer a life of sin, for that life has no power
over him because he is dead. "The body is dead because of sin; but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Romans 8:10.
11. Who is it that works the victory
in the one who has been born of God?
Philippians 2:13
________________________________________________
Note:
When you receive
Jesus in your heart He is now the One who lives there. Satan may
come to knock at your door but it is Jesus who answers and says “you
don’t live here anymore.” Then Jesus says “may I help you,” and
Satan flees like the defeated foe that he is!!!
12.
How does one become born of God?
1 John
5:1_____________________________________________________
Note:
Remember that it is
the work of God that you believe. So with that in mind whose work
is it that you are born of God? His work! The part that we have in
all this is receiving Jesus into our lives and giving Him total
control.
13. For those who have overcome the
world what is the victory?
1 John
5:4_____________________________________________________
Note:
“Faith is the
Victory.” In receiving Jesus it is now He who lives in you and He
brings with Him His faith, which is your victory. What an awesome
thought, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” He is the Champion, the
Victor, the Power, and your all in all.
The
Faith of Jesus
There is no opportunity now for
anyone to say that his faith is weak. There is no such thing as
“weak faith.” A man may say he has “weak faith” but faith is as
strong as the Word of God. There is no saving faith but the faith
of Christ, everything else is a counterfeit. Christ alone is
righteous. He has overcome the world and in him dwells all the
fullness of God. So it is only by His faith that we can be made
righteous. The “faith of Jesus” will not fail us in any contest.
Receive Him into your heart and life and experience what it means to
be born of God. |
