Reviving True Christian Identity and Community

just this past week I was reading through World magazine and I quickly read an article written by Ed V Jean Edward V and he was commenting in his article on the latest data supplied by some pollster I don't know whether it was the Harris Pole or the gallop pole that was giving an inventory of many many people who identified themselves as quote Born Again Christians now you realize that that appellation born again before the word Christian is not a designation that many churchgoers in the United States like to use for themselves [00:00:01]

there's no other kind of Christian possible except a born again Christian and and no one can be born again of God the Holy Spirit without being a Christian so it's manifest that if one is born again you don't have to say they're a Christian and if they're truly a Christian you don't have to say that they're born again because the two are synonymous but because there are so many schools of thought within the visible church and because of the widespread uh growth of 19th century liberalism that denies categorically the essential truths of the Christian faith while claiming to be Christian at the same time [00:01:06]

the majority of those who identified themselves as Born Again Christians said that they believed that you got into heaven through your good works a vast number of them affirmed the reality of reincarnation more than half argued that there were several ways to God apart from Christ and by just giving a brief examination of the answers that people gave to these question understanding that many people can be truly regenerate and not have very much information of the content of the Christian faith [00:02:15]

it was scary and it reminded me of our Lord's warning that his church would always be containing tears along with the wheat and I remember a little diddy I learned the first year I was a Christian that went something like this wherever God erects a House of Prayer the devil always builds a chapel there and will be found upon examination that the latter has the largest congregation now I trust that that's not the case here but why am I talking about this here's why I'm talking about it [00:03:21]

and so often this is produced by our dependence upon human techniques and methods to prime the pump and get people if we'll just sing one more hymn to become converted through the power of our program and I'm afraid that so often though many real conversions take place the statistics cannot not be trusted in fact sometimes you'll hear the cynical statement of Evangelistic statistics where they're so inflated in terms of the response if as many people in this country were in fact converted who claim to be born again [00:06:00]

it was the Lord who added to the church 3,000 people and so reading between the lines I assume that every last one of those persons that was added to the church on that day every one of them was converted and regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and that God built his church initially with people that he converted that were the fruit of his action in their lives not as a result of the things that we do to try to Prime the pump and that's significant because what we get now is a bird's eye view of how this group of people in the early church who were brought into the church by God himself [00:07:18]

and they continued steadfastly in the apostles Doctrine and fellowship they didn't stop studying the word of God but they were continuously on a regular basis and in a diligent matter applying themselves to Doctrine which is one of the most Politically Incorrect words in the church today there can be don't talk to me about Doctrine I don't need any Doctrine all I need to know is Jesus this is how far we've come from the first century Church which focused its attention steadfastly continuously coming together to study Doctrine [00:08:22]

there's no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who neglects the study of the word of God there's no such thing as a Spirit-filled church that does not give itself continually and steadfastly to the study of sacred scripture that's the first sign of a Spirit-filled church that people who are Spirit-filled don't flee from the scripture and seek a substitute for the scripture but are driven to the scripture to have their spiritual lives rooted and grounded in the word of God [00:13:15]

they experienced coinonia where the people became close-knit friends with each other enjoying the love of God the Peace of Christ sharing in the joy and Delight of what they were learning in the apostolic teaching there's no reason for any group of people who are Christians ever to be known as the Frozen chosen ever to be known as the Dow sour puses of this world I remember Jim Baker on television before he got in trouble talked one day he said there are some Christians who are the worst thieves in the world because what they steal is the joy of the Lord which should be the possession of every Christian [00:14:36]

the breaking of bread referred simply to meal time and not always exclusively to the breaking of bread that we speak of with respect to the Lord's Supper but we know this church dinners were a big part of the early church is the family that eats together stays together there really is no more warm experience of friendship than sharing meals together there's just something about it we sit around a table we go out to dinner we invite people into our homes however it is there's a certain warmth a certain intimacy a certain uh empathy that is experienced when people gather together around a meal [00:17:16]

generosity Christians are not required to give up all of their private property but they are required to be generous why because we live under the hand of the most generous God that can ever be imagined and the Old Testament principle was the to tie and just think of how beautiful the tithe was how great it was that in the old we'll talk more about this when we get to ananas and Safara but right now just for in passing just how wonderful it was that everybody in Israel had the same proportionate responsibility [00:23:59]

the giving of the early Christians was voluntary let me say it again that the giving was voluntary they gave because they wanted to give it's become a cliche that the lord loves a cheerful giver but you know what folks you know what the lord loves he doesn't just love givers anybody can be a giver he loves cheerful givers he loves people who love to express their gratitude to him by building the kingdom of God you know that I think one of the greatest legacies that my father left with me in my life was as a boy growing up before I was ever a Christian [00:26:57]