Preface: We all know about Ananias and Sapphira. My grandfather's middle name was Ananias and I always thought that a strange name. According to Acts 5....they sold a plot of land....only gave a portion of the proceeds to the apostles for the care of the church....but told Peter that they gave to the church the full amount from the sale. And we know what happens next. Was Peter all that concerned about the money. Does that sound like Peter? No....it sounds more like Judas. If Ananias and Sapphira were truly regenerated and converted....aka born again....they could not....so easily....and so boldly....without guilt....lied to Peter. There was a similar incident in the Old Testament where after Jericho fell....Achan hid some of the spoils under his tent. Israel then went into battle with Ai and was defeated. What is it about fake believers in the church that is so important? So....there is someone that we so dearly love....a child or a parent....but we do not understand our own saving faith....and in not understanding true saving faith....we take it upon ourselves to in effect grant salvation and heaven to that one that we so dearly love....but like Ananias and Sapphira....they are not truly converted. What we have done is to condemn....to be part of the condemnation....of the one....that we so dearly love! We would give our life for them....but as it turns out we would not even take the time to see what salvation is! It should make us question whether we ourselves are truly saved. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira struck fear into the church. We need a little of that same fear today.
You are a member of a large church....maybe it would qualify as a megachurch.....of 2,000 or more. You have been active in the church for many years....and have met dozens....maybe hundreds of people over the years in various events.....cell groups or men's breakfasts or Bible studies....and certainly in the pews during Sunday services. You have a core group of good friends....and a much larger group of very friendly acquaintances....but you have never....apart from two or three sermons a year that might have touched on John chapter three and Nicodemus......you have never heard anyone use the words....born again....not in their own testimony of sorts....or in any stories they might relate.
In the 1980s....and certainly the 70s but I wasn't there....the term was spoken all over the place....as....."So when were you born again?"....might be a standard question.....and of course Billy Graham was all over the television calling people in the arenas to be born again....and R. C. Sproul and MacArthur and Piper and all the rest of the men with national and international ministries would teach or preach regularly on being born again.
They are all gone now.....gone to be with their Lord.....most of them anyway....and our conversations no longer incorporate that biblical term....born again.....nor 'saved.' We don't even talk about when we became Christian.
Have you ever thought of yourself as being born again? Do you ever wonder if your son or your daughter or your mother or your father or your spouse or your best friend has been....born again. Probably not. Now you might say that they are or are not a Christian....but that term....born again....has become a nebulous term....that is best to avoid.
The problem isn't that we just don't use that term anymore. The problem is that we no longer know what happens when a soul is....saved. And if we do not know that....then we do not know if we are born again....or any of our loved ones.
Every person is born lost and headed to perdition....every person....bar none. The heart spiritually is dead....dead to salvation....and dead to God's Word as the power of salvation. Something must happen....and it is not our all of a sudden choosing faith in Christ....because we do not have that ability. It certainly is not just going to church....even for a lifetime....or even becoming a minister.....or even an evangelist in our own sphere.
God must regenerate that heart. He does the choosing....but we are still not born again. The Holy Spirit convicts us....and somehow we hear the gospel from the Word of God....and we then choose....because with the Holy Spirit moving upon our hearts we are going to believe....period. We then are born again....and everything is changed. God's Word now can have its effect on us. The circumstances vary but we now know not only that we are saved but we know what we were saved from and why we needed being saved....and we have now a built-in desire for our loved ones to know Christ as we do! And generally....we cannot stop telling people of Christ and His mercies and what He has done for us and what He requires of us!
The first thing we want to do after hearing something like this is to say....now wait a minute....not everyone who is saved is running around telling everyone about Jesus. People have different experiences and different personalities....and that is absolutely true....but that does not negate the fact that at one moment a person is lost....and the Bible has no power in him....and the next moment....which may seem like a year....he or she is no longer lost....praise God....how can you not at least praise God....and God's Word now is like an explosion of wonderful truths! (and that stays the same for a whole lifetime)
So what can we do.....if we have been born again? Well....we can tell people at least the time period that we were born again....and we can watch their reaction.....and we can ask them when they were born again....and we go from there. We might ask them if we could talk about it.....or we might boot up a computer like I do.....and ramble the best that we can....hoping that as many as God might lead....would read what is posted....and then they would go on a mission to find out what this is all about....and if that happens then most likely the Holy Spirit has regenerated the heart....and is beginning to drag you.....go ahead and kick your heels into the ground all you want....it won't do any good!
So when you leave here.....you can go to so many places to follow up what I so inadequately posted....you can go to ligonier.org or gty.org or desiringgod.org....or whitehorseinn.org or refnet.fm. You won't have to wait long until these men are preaching or teaching on being born again!
