How to know from the Bible that you are indeed born again

Messages for April 2018: Our Month of The faith of God

Message for Sunday 15^th April, 2018

Theme: Understanding the Faith of God

Topic: How to know from the Bible that you are indeed born again

Introduction: Today we were supposed to continue in our series with the topic: Redeemed from sickness; but while working on that, God let me know that since we started praying, it is important to let you know that He finds the prayer of a sinner offensive and would therefore not answer them. Prayer is a privilege of the redeemed and as such we ought to be clear from the word of God that we are really redeemed. The Lord gave us a key here when He said that except your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes, you shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of God.

Bible Evidence that you are truly saved or born again: Apostle Paul challenges the Church at Corinth with these words in 2Cor.13:5: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” The reason for this challenge is that many in the Church at Corinth were still living like sinners and so he wanted them to get serious and clarify with God that they truly got saved when they claimed they did.

Truth be told; if your faith is just dependent on rituals and religious observances rather than on Christ and looking up to Him alone, it is vain and cannot truly be said to be authentic. This is why the Lord said in Mt.7:21-23 that on the last day many will claim piety on the ground of good works and He would tell them to depart from Him that He never knew them.

The question we are seeking clarification for today is: Do you know God and does God know you? I have two good news for you; first, you can get to know from the Bible where you stand with God and second, if you don’t know Him and He doesn’t know you, He invites you to come to Him today and be saved and it will become your reality. We are therefore going to be looking at these seven keys from the book of 1John that show us what our stand with God is:

1.     Obedience: 1Jn.2:3-4 says: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandment is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” If you are truly saved, you will always have the desire to want to obey Him. This is not a state of sinless perfection but a state where you have the conscience to always want to live and do right by Him. This truth is further highlighted by James 3:13-18.

2.     A confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God: In 1Jn.2:22-23, we read: “Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son. Whoso ever denieth the Son the same hath not the father but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the father also”. All over the world, Jesus Christ is known as many different things by different people. Some call Him a great prophet, some call him master, some call him a great teacher, some call him a great wise man and still others call him grand master but only the believer in Christ know him as the Son of God and God. See Jn.1:1-5, 14 and 1Jn.5:1. This truth is brought our clearly for us to learn by Apostle Paul in Rm.10:8-11 where He teaches that if we believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Thus the salvation of our spirits is hinged upon this truth.

3.     Ongoing repentance of sin: 1Jn.3:9-10 makes us understand that whoever is born of God does not commit sin because the seed of God abides in him and he cannot sin. The reason is that the purpose of the manifestation of Jesus Christ is to destroy the works of the devil. Therefore, anyone born of God endeavors to live right. Thus the way people live their lives will tell you on whose side they are. Please note that the seed of God that does not sin is the born again human spirit. The conscience of a person is activated by the new birth and they are able to live the way God wants them to even in this crooked and perverse generation. No one born of God relishes sin; they always repent of it when they fall no matter how they struggle with it; they always eventually opt for the life God wants them to live. See 1Jn1:6-10. Really when it comes to sin, true believers will turn away from it. In Lk.13:3, the Lord teaches that except his disciples repent, they would likewise perish with sinners who were perishing. This is why true believers do not carry unconfessed sins around.

4.     The discipline of God your father: Everyone born of God is a Child of God and the proof that God is your father is that He would discipline you should there be need for it. See 1Jn.3:1 and in Heb.12:6-12 – if you experience discipline from God for wrongs done by you, then you are born of God. Fathers only have a right to discipline their own children and not other people’s. This explains why some other people around you may do the same thing that you do and not feel any remorse about it but you become restless and unable to cope with life without first resolving the situation through repentance.

5.     Genuine love for other believers: Everyone born of God is proven by their love for other believers and as they become more mature in their love walk, they even learn to love their perceived enemies or people who do not belong to the family of God as well. This type of love is called the agape love; it is imparted to us at new birth and as we grow in the knowledge of God, we nurture it to perfection. This is the kind of love Apostle Paul described in 1Cor.13:4-8. He also describes it as the fruit of the spirit in Gal.5:22-23. See 1Jn.3:14; Rm.5:5 and Jn.5:24.

6.     The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life: 1Jn.3:24 - Everyone born again is born of God and if you are born of God, He sends His Spirit into your heart as a deposit for you - His purchased possession pending when He would come and take you out of time into eternity. See Eph.1:13-14; Rm.8:15-16. When the spirit of God is in you, you will bear the fruit of the spirit as enumerated in Gal.5:22-23. When the Spirit is in you, He will convict you of sin, righteousness and judgement and would take of the father and Son and reveal it to you. He shall also tell you things to come. When this happens, whatever you hear from the Holy Spirit cannot conflict in principle with the written word of God because the word of God is the means by which you test the authenticity of what you claim to hear from God. See Jn.16:7-13.

7.     Trust in Jesus Christ alone for Salvation: Just yesterday in Church I was privileged to lead one of the contractors we employed to carry out some plumbing work to Christ. When I first asked him if he was saved, his answer was that he goes to Church and he told me which Church he went to. However, on further enquiries, it was revealed that he was not saved. Then I told him what it meant to be saved and told him God was offering him another chance to get saved and asked if he would take advantage of it. He did and got saved. The only way by which we can be saved is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; any claim to salvation by any other means is false. The only foundation for the faith of God is faith in Jesus Christ. 1Jn.5:12.

I will stop here for want of time and space but please let us consider all these seven things to look out for in the word of God to ascertain whether we are actually saved or not. If in your honest opinion, you do not think you are, I have good news for you; you can get saved right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.