The Birthmarks Of The Born-Again

We open the word to 1 Peter chapter 1, and I'll read verses 13 through 25. The Apostle Peter has been dealing with God's grace in saving us and making us his very special people. He's been talking about all these marvelous, glorious things, and now he brings us right down to earth with a wherefore.

Many of the saints of God enjoy the heavenlies, but they don't want the earthlies. Many of the saints of God are happy about the revelations, they don't want the responsibilities. And so he says, Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of life, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing that ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.

For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man like the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and its flower falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

About the only thing I remember from an economics course that I once took is a thing called Gresham's Law. Now why I should remember that I have no clue, but I recall that Gresham's Law states that the bad money drives the good money out of circulation. Now don't ask me to explain that, because that's all I remember.

But it seems to me that there is a Gresham's Law that applies to words. It's possible to devaluate money, and it's possible to cheapen words. You know the word square used to be a good word.

You'd walk down the street to go shopping, and here'd be a sign that'd say square deal. Or if you knew somebody of character and integrity, you'd say, you know, he's really a square shooter. He's a square person.

But the contemporary generation got a hold of the word square and made it mean somebody who's not with it, somebody who's archaic, somebody who doesn't understand what's going on, and they ruined a good word. The word gay used to be a good word. It's even used in the Bible.

But it's been devaluated. The cheap money has driven out the good money. I want to be understood as I say this, and I want to say it very carefully.

I think that the term born again is in danger of being devaluated. It's like a coin. You take a coin, and when it's rubbed too much, when it's passed around too much, it wears off the surface, and you can't tell what you've got.

That's what's happened to this phrase born again. It's become very popular, and now we have all kinds of people who are born again. We have born-again pornographic publishers.

We have born-again nightclub stars. We have born-again this and born-again that. The Apostle Peter raises some questions about this.

He says when a person is truly born again, some changes take place. When a person is born into the family of God through faith in Christ by the incorruptible word of God, something happens in that person's life. And that's the theme of 1 Peter 1, verses 13 to 25.

The emphasis in this whole chapter is on being born again. He calls us children in verse 14. We call upon the Father in verse 17.

We are brethren in verse 22. And then in verse 23, he talks about this miracle of being born again. Back in chapter 1, verse 3, we've been begotten again unto a living hope.

So his whole theme is the born again. The first half of the chapter, how we were born again. The last half of the chapter, what happens to us when we do experience the new birth.

I think he's saying to us here, among other things, that when a person is truly born again, his life changes. Now, let's believe that tonight. It's not just a matter of profession with the lips.

We don't care what the press agents have to say. I'm not interested what the latest religious periodicals may say. When a person is truly born again, his life changes, her life changes, because he's received a brand new nature.

And Peter describes in this section three experiences of the believer that are brand new. Three very wonderful experiences that affect the inner man. And when they affect the inner man, you're going to see it on the outside.

The Bible teaches without any question whatsoever that when there's a change on the inside, it has to cause a change on the outside. Now, what are these three experiences that are evidence of true salvation? True regeneration, born again? Well, verse 13, there is a new attitude of mind. Verses 14 through 21, there's a new obedience of will.

And verse 22 through 25, there is a new love in the heart. In other words, the entire inner man, your mind, your will, and your heart are transformed by the Spirit of God. There is a new attitude of mind, there is a new obedience of will, and there is a new love of the heart.

Let's take verse 13 now and look at this new attitude of mind. What was the old attitude? What did your mind think about? What was going on in your mind before you were saved? Well, three words describe it. Ignorance, look at verse 14, according to the former lusts in your ignorance.

Indulgence, your lusts. Indifference, verse 18, your vain manner of life. Now, these three words describe the mind of the unsaved person.

Ignorance, which leads to indulgence, which leads to indifference, an empty, purposeless kind of a life. Ignorance. Jesus said to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that the God of this age has blinded the minds of them that believe not. For you to sit down and discuss these spiritual things with an unsaved person is a waste of time. Salvation, that's not a waste of time.

Discussing the gospel, that's profitable. But to discuss with an unsaved person the nature of God, God's wonderful election, God's church, all of these blessings that are described here in this chapter, he just doesn't understand it. The mind of the unsaved person is possessed by ignorance, spiritual ignorance.

Now, I'm not talking about man's knowledge. There are many unsaved people who are brilliant when it comes to the things of this world. They can solve the most complicated problem.

They can invent the most complicated machine, but they don't understand how to be born again. Ignorance, which leads to indulgence. According to the former lusts in your ignorance.

Now, we often equate the word lust with sexual sin, and sometimes this is the case. But it simply means living for your own appetites. The unsaved person lives to indulge himself, whether it's the collecting of toys, whether it's the amassing of money, whether it's the achieving of fame.

The unsaved person lives to satisfy himself, and that's indulgence. But all of this, according to verse 18, is vain. You were redeemed from your vain manner of life.

Now, that word vain means no purpose in life. It means no goal in life. It means just drifting from experience to experience, from event to event.

And the unsaved person does not know where he's going. Now, in the next chapter, and the Lord willing, we'll talk about this next Sunday evening, Peter's going to describe for us the characteristics of those who are born again, and one of them is they've got a purpose for living. If we were to stop the average person walking down Michigan Avenue or Wells Street or LaSalle Street and say, now, look, my friend, I want to ask you a question.

What is your purpose for living? Well, I want to get out of debt. Well, that's a good purpose, to get out of debt. But now, beyond that, suppose I were to hand you a check and get you out of debt.

Then what? Well, I guess I'll get back in debt again. Now, there are many, many people who, because of ignorance and indulgence, live with indifference. They're just drifting.

They have no purpose in life. One of the great problems in the city of Chicago today is lack of commitment. People will not commit themselves.

They even hate to commit themselves for a lease to their apartment. There are many a people living together who won't commit themselves into marriage. Lack of commitment, just an indifferent shrug of the shoulders kind of a life.

Now, that's the old attitude of mind. But now, what's the new attitude of mind? Well, he tells us here, and I'm going to go through these quickly, but you mark them down now. Verse 13, when a person is born again, he gets a disciplined mind.

Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Now, you know what that means? Back in Peter's day, the men used to wear long, flowing robes. And when they wanted to run, when Peter was going to run down to the tomb to see where the body of Jesus was, he had to pick up his skirts, tie them, and run.

You know what Peter's saying here? He's saying, pull your thoughts together. Don't be a windbrain. Don't be a scatterbrain.

When a person is born from above, born again, one of the great blessings is that the Holy Spirit of God begins to discipline your mind. I recall when I was working with Youth for Christ, and back in those days, we had a very extensive Bible study and Bible quiz program. And we have in our files just hundreds of testimonies from young people who said, before I got into that program, I was flunking my courses in school, I couldn't think straight.

When I got into the Word of God, began to memorize it and study it and seek to live it, it just pulled my mind together. You know, if more Christians would do this, they wouldn't make as many mistakes as they're making. So he says, pull your thoughts together.

A disciplined mind. We don't believe everything that comes along. We don't race after every person who comes across the scene.

We have our mind pulled together. It's a decisive act. He says, once and for all, gather together your thoughts, organize them around Jesus Christ, and don't be such a scatterbrain.

Now, the second description is in verse 13, be sober. That word sober means steady, calm, collected. The unsafe person, his mind falls apart.

When it comes to facing a crisis, so many times they just go to pieces. The Christian, calm, steady, mature. This word sober carries with it the idea of weighing things.

There are just some things that aren't worth getting excited about. The world gets so excited about so many things and we Christians look and say, what's all the excitement? It's not worth wasting our time on. A disciplined mind, a sober mind, an optimistic mind, hope to the end.

Now, hope in the Bible never means hope so. Peter's not saying, oh, just hope the best you can. Hope in the Bible means the assurance of a future.

And so he says, our outlook on life is disciplined, it's sober, and it's optimistic. The best is yet to come. Now, for the unsaved person, things are very pessimistic.

If he pins his hope on the stock market, he lives on a roller coaster up one day, down the next day. Pins his hope on baseball, he's in trouble. If he pins his hope on the weather, he's in worse trouble.

We pin our hope on Jesus Christ. He is our hope. In fact, you ought to read 1 Peter and see how much he has to say about hope.

Peter is the great apostle of hope. And so he says, our outlook on life is optimistic. Why? We're trusting in God.

We have a living hope, chapter 1, verse 3. Jesus Christ is our hope. He's been raised from the dead. If God can raise him from the dead, God can do anything.

Back in the Old Testament, whenever a prophet or a preacher wanted to encourage the people, he would remind them of the Exodus. He would say, oh, you think things are difficult, but do you remember when God delivered our people from Egypt? Oh, yeah, we remember. If God can do that, he can do anything.

But in the New Testament, it's not the Exodus, it's the resurrection. Whenever a writer or a preacher wants to encourage the people of God, he says, do you remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Yes. Then if God can do that, he can do anything.

Somebody here tonight is saying, as he walks into the new week, who's going to roll the stone away? Remember that? Those women were heading down for the tomb, and they said, who's going to roll that stone away? They were worried, getting their exercise, jumping to conclusions. And they got down to the tomb, and an angel had rolled the stone away. And Jesus wasn't even there.

And all of their problems were solved. And so our outlook on life is an optimistic one. No matter what our situation may be, we have a living hope.

Now in verse 14, he tells us that we should not fashion ourselves. That's the Greek word for lifestyle. I hear about lifestyles these days.

People say, well, don't tell me I'm living in sin. This is my lifestyle. Now when I was a young Christian, we didn't have the word lifestyle.

We didn't have the word worldliness. And I think some people's lifestyle is just plain worldly. Peter is saying, don't fashion yourself.

Don't have a lifestyle like your former life. That was an ignorance. So what he's saying is, we have an intelligent outlook on life.

We're no longer living in ignorance. Now we have intelligence, spiritual intelligence, wisdom from God. It always blesses my heart to see the way God gives wisdom to Christians.

Here's a young Christian, been married, been saved, go two or three weeks maybe. He's married and has a family and got a problem. Comes and says, oh, pastor, I've been praying about this problem.

What did you do? We did this. That's the thing to do. Who told you that? God did.

God gives to the mind intelligence, spiritual wisdom. And so we have an intelligent outlook on life. Verse 17 tells us we should pass the time of our sojourning.

Here's another characteristic of the mind. It is detached from this world. We are not meditating on and involved in the thinking of this world.

Be not conformed to this world. We're just sojourners. And because of this, we are able to have a detached attitude.

Now, we have a burdened attitude. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we become isolated from the world.

We'd better be concerned about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and witnessing to the lost. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that the things that go on in this world do not shake our minds.

We don't find ourselves falling apart because we're sojourners. We're resident aliens. He called us that back in chapter 1, verse 1. We're just resident aliens on our way to heaven.

We have a detached attitude. We're hanging loose from this world because one of these days we won't be here. He also tells us that we have an attitude of fear.

Verse 17, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Now, that word fear doesn't mean cringing. It doesn't mean we should wake up in the morning and say, oh, the Lord may strike me dead today.

That'd be just the opposite of hope. Fear means serious, not solemn. Some people have the idea that Christians have to be solemn.

And so they walk around like pallbearers. Now there's a time to be serious. There may even be a time to be solemn.

But solemnity is really not the same as serious, being serious in our lives. The word fear carries with it the idea of taking life seriously. You say, but I'm young.

I've got a long life. How do you know? Pass the time of your sojourning. How long is the time of your sojourning? You don't know.

I don't know. Nobody here tonight knows how long you will be a resident alien. God could call any one of us tonight.

So we better get serious about life now. Say a word to you students. Get serious about life.

As many of you are, and I thank God for this. Be serious about your studies. Be serious about your preparation for ministry.

That's one of the marks of a born-again mind. So outlook determines outcome. And he says the very first experience, this new experience that we have, is a new attitude of mind.

Now why does he start with the mind? Because the mind determines everything else. What you think about is what you become. As he thinketh, so he is.

That's why he moves next into the will. Verses 14 through 21. There's a new attitude of mind, and there's a new obedience of will.

Now the emphasis here is on obedience. Look at verse 2 of chapter 1. Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In verse 22.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. That's why he says, as obedient children. Now how was I saved? By being obedient.

You mean saved by works? No, no, no. Obedient to his call and his command to trust Jesus Christ. God has commanded men everywhere to repent.

If there's somebody here tonight who has never repented, you have disobeyed God. You're a rebel. How does salvation come? We come, we obey the truth through the spirit.

And so God presents the truth. What truth? You're a lost sinner. But Jesus died for you.

If you'll believe in Jesus Christ, you'll be born again. Now, my invitation, come. My commandment, repent.

We say, I believe that truth. I will receive it. I repent.

I turn from my sin. I believe in Jesus. That brings salvation.

That's how the whole thing starts. Now, formerly we were disobedient children. Verse 14 calls us obedient children.

Ephesians chapter 2 says that when we were lost, we were children of disobedience. And this made us children of wrath. So there are only two kind of children in the world.

There are children of disobedience who disobey God and are under his wrath. There are children of obedience who have trusted Jesus Christ and are delivered from the wrath to come. He presents here a number of arguments for obedience.

Some Christian says, why should I obey the Lord? I'm going to live my own life. Oh, no. No, no.

He presents here, oh, five or six strong arguments to compel me to bow down in obedience to him. Now, what are they? Well, verse 14, I'm his child. That means I possess his nature.

My children have my nature, for good or for ill. God's children have God's nature. Turn over to 2 Peter.

He picks this theme up in 2 Peter. Chapter 1, verse 4. By which are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that's the word of God, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. How are you saved? Through the word of God.

He said that back in chapter 1, verse 24. You have purified your souls. 22.

You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit. So 2 Peter 1, 4. These great and precious promises. We trust Jesus Christ.

We become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now over in chapter 2 of 2 Peter, he talks about some other kind of escapees. Look at chapter 2. Here he's talking about false Christians, people who profess to be saved, but they aren't.

Verse 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, not the corruptions, the pollutions, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it, in the pollutions of the world, and overcome. The latter end is worse with them in the beginning.

Why? It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But as happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Now he's talking here about dogs and pigs and sheep.

He's talking about God's children and those who profess to be God's children, but they aren't truly saved. They've been washed on the outside and cleansed from the pollution. Now pollution is dirt on the outside.

Corruption is dirt on the inside. And when somebody really trusts Jesus Christ and is born into God's family, he receives a new nature. He ceases to be a dog.

He becomes a sheep. He ceases to be a pig. He becomes a sheep.

And you won't find sheep wallowing in the mire, and you won't find sheep wallowing in their vomit. Why? New nature. Sheep are clean animals.

There are lots of people who say, Oh, yeah, I'm safe. The pig has been washed. The dog has been washed, taken down to the poodle parlor.

All over Chicago we have these poodle parlors where people pay a lot of money to have their dogs washed and sprayed and fixed up. Fine. Fine.

But it's still a dog. No amount of poodle parloring is going to change that dog into a sheep. And we have people in our churches who say, Oh, I've been born again, born again.

But they've never been delivered from the corruption that's in the world. They still wallow in it, and they love it, and they enjoy it, which says to me they've never been born again. I don't care how much they profess.

I don't care how many meetings they attend, how many cards they sign, or how much money they give. If their nature drags them back to that, they've never had a new nature. And so the first reason for obedience is we have God's nature.

We are children. The second reason is God's grace. Look at chapter 1, verse 15 of 1 Peter.

But as he which has called you, that's grace. You aren't saved because you called on God. You called on God because God first called on you.

You and I have trusted Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit of God did a work in our lives and revealed Christ to us. The grace of God is a good reason to obey the Lord. We're called to be holy.

Peter likes this word called. You ought to read 1 and 2 Peter and underline every time he talks about called. Called to inherit a blessing.

Called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Called to glory. It's a marvelous thing, called.

So, God's nature, God's grace. But there's a third reason for our obedience. God's word, because it is written.

That settles it right there. Not what do the philosophers say, not what do the latest religious books say, what does the Bible say? To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there's no light in them. So says Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20.

Because it is written, that settles it. What saith the scriptures? It is written, be ye holy for I am holy. It's a quotation from several places in Leviticus.

Chapter 11 verse 44 is one of them. Chapter 19 verse 2 is one of them. Chapter 20 verse 26.

The word holy in the Bible means to make a difference. To make a difference. That's the basic root meaning of the word holy.

To be different. Be different because I'm different. God is light, therefore walk in the light.

God is holy, therefore we should seek to obey him in holiness. Why should we be holy? Because God's word commands it. You know folks, if the word of God says something, that should settle it.

We have all sorts of arguments over what's right, what's wrong. Can a person live a certain lifestyle and be an evangelical Christian? One of the great denominations in this country, this next week is going to be meeting to discuss this very subject. Can someone who is professed gay be ordained? And of course they have the discussions from the philosophers and the psychologists and the sociologists and everybody else.

But what saith the scriptures? The scriptures say, be ye holy for I am holy. The word of God. Now verse 17 gives us another reason for obeying God.

Not only God's grace and God's nature and God's word, but God's judgment. If you call on the Father who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work. God judges his people.

Now Hebrews says that. The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

God's children cannot play with sin and get away with it. God spanks. God judges.

No wonder he says we better pass the time of our sojourning in fear. God's judgment. But 18 through 21 gives us the greatest motive for obeying the Lord.

God's love. He said, look, you've been redeemed. You weren't redeemed with money.

You weren't redeemed by somebody paying a price in silver and gold. You were redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, if Jesus Christ loved me enough to shed his blood for me, the least I can do is obey him.

Not just blood, but precious blood. By the way, Peter likes this word precious. Talks about precious blood unto you who believe he is precious.

Precious promises. Beautiful word. God's love.

We've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Verse 20 says that way back before the foundation of the world, Jesus was foreordained to die for me.

Look at that. Was manifest in these last times for you. So God had us in mind when he planned Calvary.

Now he says, I have redeemed you. I've set you free from the bondage of sin. Why use your freedom for disobedience? Verse 21 gives us another reason for obedience.

Future glory. Who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. Now we're a part of that glory.

Verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Verse 7, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Glory.

And gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. We're going to heaven. Why live like people on earth? We're going to heaven.

Why live like people in hell? We're going to heaven. We're going to share in the glory of God. Let's start sharing in that glory now.

A new obedience to the will. If a person says, oh, yes, I've been born again. Yes, born again.

Just like so-and-so, that very famous man born again. Are you obeying God? No. Are you searching your Bible to see what God wants you to do? Oh, no, no.

I've got my own lifestyle. A new attitude in the mind. A new obedience in the will.

And finally, a new love in the heart. 22 through 25. Seeing that you have purified your souls.

They used to be filthy. They used to be indulgent. Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth.

That's the word of God. Through the spirit. And what's the result? Unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

Seeing that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again. Now, it's logical that if I have God's nature, I'm going to love my father.

It is a very normal, natural thing for that baby to love mother and father. And if you have God's nature and I have God's nature, we ought to love one another. Now, Peter doesn't say find out what denomination they belong to.

If they're in the right group, you love them. He tells us here how we ought to love. How are we supposed to love? Well, number one, it's to be unfeigned love.

That means not hypocritical. Sincere. Honest love.

Not fake love. Not just word love. Everybody has met somebody whose chief word is dear or darling.

They don't mean it. They don't mean it at all. I've noticed that over in England, when we've traveled there, numbers of the people have the habit of calling you love.

You know, a waitress in a restaurant will say, we don't have that love. Now, it's just a word. She doesn't love me.

She doesn't even know me. If she knew me, she probably wouldn't love me. Just a word.

He says not hypocritical. Sincere love. Now, where there's love, there has to be truth.

Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy. Speaking the truth in love. Sincere love.

What other kind of love is it supposed to be? Well, it's supposed to be pure love with a pure heart. Love that comes out of a pure heart. The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, said Paul, writing to Timothy.

A clean heart. Whenever sin gets into my heart, I have a hard time loving as I should, because sin is selfish. So it should be a sincere love and a pure love and a fervent love.

Love one another with a pure heart fervently. I used to think that word fervently meant like a fire being stoked up and burning, but it isn't. It's an athletic term.

It means strenuously. You know what Peter is saying here? Peter is saying in verse 22 that I should put as much energy into loving you as Mark Spitz puts into swimming. I was out in a conference some weeks ago preaching and came back to the motel and wanted to know what time it was and what the news was.

I was in a small town far away from civilization and wanted to know if the world was still going on. So I punched on the television and they were showing the gymnastic competition. Unbelievable.

I have a hard time walking down the sidewalk when I see these people up on these horizontal bars and on these other... It just amazes me. And they have worked hard. Some of these dear girls who can swing around on those horse things.

I tell you. Peter says that kind of strenuous effort must be put into our love for one another. You say, well, isn't love for the brethren automatic? Well, yes.

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us. John says we know we've passed from death to the life because we love the brethren, but you know sometimes the brethren can be hard to love. Sometimes it's hard for you to love me.

Sometimes the brethren get abrasive and they get angular and they get critical. Then we have to start really working at it and saying, oh, Spirit of God, help me to use my muscles now and really love this brother. So it's to be pure love and sincere love and a love that is fervent, that strives.

And it comes through the Holy Spirit. You've obeyed the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. By nature we're selfish, but the Holy Spirit of God gives to us.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. Peter uses two different words for love here. Did you notice that? Love of the brethren, that's Philadelphia, brotherly love.

Then he goes on in the second part of verse 22, love one another, that's agape love. Brotherly love even unsaved people can have. Even unsaved people can live in Philadelphia, but unsaved people can't live in agape.

Agape love is sacrificial love, self-giving love, love that gives no matter what the response may be. It's God's love. Now, I can't manufacture that.

I can listen to tapes until the machine breaks. I can run to seminars until my pen breaks. That will not give me love.

Only the Spirit of God working within through the Word can do that for us. Now, he ends this chapter talking about the flesh. Flesh, all flesh is like grass.

All the glory of man like the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower falleth away. That's the unsaved person.

He's just grass, here today, gone tomorrow. But you and I are a part of eternity. We're a part of something bigger, vaster, greater.

Something so grand it's going to take all of eternity for God to unroll the scroll and show us what he has. It's going to be wonderful. He says, now you go back into living that old life.

You're just wasting your life. But if you've been born again, if I've been born again, I'll know it and you'll know it. There's a new attitude in my mind.

I'm not flippant about life. I'm serious about life. Realizing that I have only one life to live.

There is a new obedience to the will. Not a disobedient Christian, not living my own lifestyle, but obedient to his word. I may not agree with it, but I have to obey it.

I may not like it, but I have to obey it. A new obedience to the will and a new love to the heart. A love for the brethren.

Now, folks, apart from these changes, any profession of being born again is a lie. In the past 30 years or so, I've seen lots of quote-unquote born-again people go right down. I can recall when they were parading celebrities across the platforms, been born again, born again, where are they today? There was no change.

Just a cheap thing, just a shallow thing. And it's things like that that make our wonderful experience seem a mockery. I suppose Jesus is the one who summarizes all of this when he says, Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, for in that day many will say to me, not some, but many will say to me, Lord, in your name we've cast out demons.

In your name we've done many wonderful works. And I shall say unto them, says Jesus, depart from me ye that work iniquity. I never knew you.

Miracles are no evidence of salvation. In your name we did many wonderful works. Exorcisms are no evidence of salvation.

In your name we cast out demons. What is the evidence of salvation? A changed life from the inside. A new attitude of mind.

A new obedience of will. A new love of the heart. These are the evidences that a person is truly born again.

Wouldn't it be an awful thing to come to the end of life and discover you'd never lived? Wouldn't it be a tragic thing for a person to be self-deceived? The people Jesus talked about weren't being deceived by others, they deceived themselves. And when they heard Jesus say, I never knew you, not I knew you once and threw you out. No, I never knew you.

But we ministered. I never knew you. There'd be some awful shocks at that judgment when people were going to wake up and find out they were deceiving themselves.

Being born again. That's the answer. Heavenly Father, deliver us from the kind of self-deception that plays right into the hands of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Gives to us enough of a profession to escape judgment of men, but just enough sin to enjoy the world. Deliver us from that. Oh God, if we have been born again, we have to believe that our minds think differently and our wills act differently and our hearts love differently.

If this is not the case, then Lord, convict and bring us to our knees in repentance and salvation. May no one go away from this service tonight with a delusion, with a false attitude, a masquerade, a pretense, a kind of false security that in the end will fail. Help us to do the will of our Father in heaven. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.