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3-12-2023 Weekly Message

Meditations of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Titus 3:1-8

Speech title: Testimony of those born again of the Holy Spirit

       God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah who had abandoned Him:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. (Jeremiah 13:23-24 KJV)

        The words spoken to the people of Judah at that time are also the words to all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ and do evil today. The Word of God says: all who do not believe in God cannot do good.

       Again, God spoke again of the reasons why people cannot do good:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10 KJV)

       Most people today believe they can be considered good if they do not do anything bad. However, the Word of God tells us that sinners are mistaken. The Bible tells us why the people who lived during the days of Noah were judged by God and were all killed by the flood:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6 KJV)

        God said that the thoughts and imaginations of the heart of man are evil. When Jesus was on earth, he turned to the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes and said they were hypocrites. Even though their hearts were full of all kinds of evil, they were hypocrites who wanted to hide their deeds and show people that their hearts were good, so Jesus even rebuked them as children of the devil:

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:7-9 KJV)

        Jesus spoke of all the filthy sins in their hearts:

And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:20-23 KJV)

Apostle Peter testified that God purified the hearts of the Gentiles through faith:

And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; (Acts 15:8 KJV)

        Apostle Paul testified of the gospel of Christ, in which the heart is purified by faith:

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: (1 Corinthians 15:2-5 KJV)

      To believe that Christ died for our sins means that sinners, realizing that they are sinners, believe that they died in and with Christ when he died on the cross, and that they were buried with him. We must believe that the old self has already died on the cross, and believe that the dead have been set free from sin. Just as Christ was raised on the third day, we must believe that two thousand years will pass, as the age of grace will end and on the third day we will rise together with him.

        At this time, the apostle Paul testified that the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy, is accomplished in the Holy Spirit because all the sins in the heart are removed and cleansed by the blood of Christ:

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:12-14 KJV) And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (Hebrews 10:11-13 KJV)

       In the words to Nicodemus the Pharisee, the Lord spoke of what will be revealed to whose hearts are purified by his own blood through faith in his death, burial, and resurrection:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3 KJV) 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. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 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. (John 3:5-8 KJV)

        When writing to Titus, the Apostle Paul testified of what being born again is. Which is equivalent to a complete regeneration of a person:

But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7 KJV)

The Apostle Paul testified about the testimony that takes place in a person who has been born again of the Holy Spirit through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, has been circumcised by Christ, and has put off the body of sin (Col 2:11):

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:22-24 KJV)

       The Apostle Paul also testified about the works of the flesh in unregenerate people:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 KJV)

        Upon His resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples that people must repent of their unbelief and be born again:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:44-48 KJV)

Amen! Hallelujah!