The Born Again Doctrine

Good afternoon, brethren. Good to see you all here today.

We’re going to jump right into a verse. We’ll turn over to Second Timothy chapter four to start. We’re here in the fall holy day season, of course, with... The brethren are going to be hearing this message in the field after the Feast of Trumpets, but brethren here at headquarters would potentially hear it before Trumpets. But basically, the point of this message, we’re going to get into Second Timothy four, because this is a sermon that’s going to be given on the Sabbath after Trumpets and before Atonement. So, we’re right in the middle of the fall holy day season here.

We’re going to read a verse here in Second Timothy four that sets us up. Pick it up in verse one, Second Timothy four, one. “I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word.” Paul is charging Timothy. “Preach the word.” That’s what we’re doing here today. I’m doing here today. “Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” Doctrine. So, in season, one of the things that we’re supposed to touch on is doctrine.

Well, the holy days, all the holy days in the fall, teach us something central to God’s plan, God’s overall plan, that the world misses. You know, the world obviously doesn’t keep the Fall Holy Days. They don’t keep any of the holy days. They theoretically keep Pentecost, but it’s not the way that we would keep it, nor is it on the day that we keep it necessarily. But there are many themes throughout the three holy days that we have in the fall. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, which also lump and the Last Great Day with that as well.

Think about some of these themes. For the Feast of Trumpets, you think about, obviously, trumpets being blown, loud noise. We just came through that holy day. That day represents a memorial, or memento. Trumpets represent the act of war coming, or it can usher in peace. War is introduced by trumpets, and peace can be introduced by trumpets. It can introduce the resurrection of the dead, bringing the kingdom’s arrival. The kingdom’s arrival is heralded by trumpets. God and Christ coming, heralded by trumpets. The judgment is a theme through this day, and being changed, being changed. All of those are themes for the Feast of Trumpets.

The Day of Atonement, we can think about Satan being bound, sin being forgiven. You know, the high priest went in once a year, anciently. Well, we don’t have a high priest, physically speaking, that can go into a physical temple now, but we have Christ, who is our mediator. That’s another theme for the Day of Atonement. Being at one with God is a powerful theme that we all must think about on the Day of Atonement. Fasting, of course, helps us to draw close to God. The subject of judgment is discussed on this day and think about the fact that this is the only holy day in the year where there is absolutely no work.

Because we’re fasting, we’re not even working in the sense that we’re preparing food. So, it’s a type of absolute rest. That’s what this day, the Day of Atonement, can picture. One of the themes. Moving on to the Feast of Tabernacles, think about the kingdom’s arrival, Millennial conditions, learning to fear God, and learning to rejoice. These are all themes of the Feast of Tabernacles. We’ll all be hearing about them shortly. There’s the theme of temporary dwellings versus eternal dwellings.

All mankind will be given a chance. It’s one of the things that we think about. Not only all of us who are going to potentially go first will be given this shot at eternal life, but it’s a great plan for all mankind to be able to have eternal life eventually as well. They’re given their chance as well. Eternal rewards are discussed at the Feast of Tabernacles. Israel coming out of Egypt. The forty years in the wilderness. They’re all themes tied to the Feast of Tabernacles.

And finally, reading the law. These are all things that the Fall Holy Days include. So, again, Second Timothy four, I’ll just read it, verse two. “Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” I’m going to exhort today with doctrine. That’s going to be the purpose of this message. There’s one doctrine that intersects with certain themes of all the Fall Holy Days. There’s probably a number of doctrines that intersect with all of the Fall Holy Days, but we’re going to focus on one doctrine that overlays with the themes of all of the Fall Holy Days.

And understanding this doctrine will help us most effectively keep them. So, we came through the Feast of Trumpets. We’re about to go into the Day of Atonement. Understanding this doctrine will open your eyes to see the Day of Atonement in a different light. The same is true with the Feast of Tabernacles, and the same is true with the Last Great Day. Let’s flip the statement. Without understanding this doctrine, without having clear understanding of this doctrine, we can fall woefully short of understanding and being able to properly keep the Fall Holy Days.

So, I flip the statement. It’s so important that we understand this doctrine that we really can’t properly keep the Fall Holy Days without understanding it first. And this isn’t a new doctrine. This isn’t something that none of... We should all have understood this doctrine, but it’s good in this season to go back through and prove and understand why it is that we believe this doctrine. Because it will help us to keep these Fall Holy Days effectively.

Let’s go back to some world news. Recently, something happened in America that the world heard about, and it’s impacting not only those of us in America but the world at large, particularly those who are of a certain political leaning, you could say. We are apolitical, but at the same time, the death of this man is very impactful to us all. Charlie Kirk, we all know... have heard of him. If not before his death, certainly after his death, we’ve heard of him, and maybe we’ve seen some of his videos and the things that he would do.

And I can’t recall a time when the death of some political figure or somebody in the world has impacted me in such a way. I got very emotional when I heard one of my friends from elementary school had died of just some random heart issue all of a sudden. I got very emotional about that. I think it was the fact that he was young and had his whole life ahead of him. I don’t know that he was married. I don’t know that he had kids, but how much more so when a person is married and has two young children who will not be able to see, as Arnold Schwarzenegger put it... saw an interview of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, you know, it’s so sad that this father won’t be able to read to his daughter and his son anymore.

That his children will be reading about him as opposed to him being able to read to his children when they go to bed. Very sad, very sad to see that. And, you know, it’s impacted the world in a profound way. Yesterday was his memorial service, and some of us probably saw a little bits and pieces of it, if not all of it. But something interesting has also occurred since Charlie Kirk’s death. Over recent weeks, an interesting phenomenon, I could put it, has kind of occurred, and I would imagine many of you have noticed it too. The death of a, you know, as they would call him, a martyr, as many would see it, has inspired or emboldened many others to try out their newly founded Christian talk.

How many people have heard the Christian talk has come out of the woodwork? Unlike any time, I remember being publicly said, everywhere you look now, whether people are being interviewed, or they’re just on talk shows, or maybe they’re out in public, and people go up to them and talk to them, people are now publicly recording their prayers in more open ways. They’re professing Jesus in a bigger way. And, you know, it’s the kind of stuff that they’re, you know, they’re laying bare their conversion stories with tears weeping in their eyes.

And in some sense, it’s, you can appreciate where they’re coming from. They’re being true and honest because this man died, because he had such an impact on them from a Christian perspective, a worldly Christian perspective, though he did keep the Sabbath. People are really coming out of the woodwork with their Christian talk. They’re kind of professing Jesus’ Christian talk. It’s the kind of stuff that kind of gives you that, “I don’t really like the way...” Kind of gives you a little bit of the creeps here and there. Not really sure how you should feel about it.

It kind of sends a shiver up your spine, makes your hair stand up a little bit. That kind of talk, like the kind of makes you make the face like you just squished a bug and it came back at you. That kind of face. That’s the kind of reaction that I personally have when I hear some of this syrupy Christian talk that you see in the world. And part of why this doctrine is important that we’re going to get into, and this sets it up, is the world uses this doctrine that we’re going to be discussing today incorrectly. And it spurs a lot of this kind of syrupy speak in the world.

So, it brings us back to why I’m covering the subject. It’s one that the worldly Christians get wrong, not because they’re insincere. They are sincere. They just don’t believe the truth of the Bible, and we’re going to lay that out today, but because they’re blinded to the truth. But, brethren, we don’t need to be blind to this doctrine. And, in fact, I’ll say we shouldn’t be blind to it because we need to know it properly in order to keep the holy days coming up.

So, let’s turn over to First Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter one. We’ll just start in verse eighteen. First Peter one, eighteen. “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Being born again. For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of grass. And the grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away.”

We’re human beings, we’re like these plants that just grow and die eventually, very quickly. “But the word of the Lord endures forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” So, part of the word that’s preached to us is this idea of being born again. Now, when are we born again? When is it? A lot of people in the world will say that once they accept Christ, they’ve professed Christ, or they’ve believed in Christ, or they accepted Him in their heart, that they’ve officially become born again. Many of which, some of which, don’t even believe that baptism is necessary.

They just look at it as once you’ve accepted Christ, baptism isn’t really even necessary in many regards. Some churches believe that, some churches don’t. Some congregations, some worldly organizations don’t do that. But when are we born again? The world has one view, what is the Bible’s view? What is the Bible’s view? First, go to Titus three, before the book of Hebrews and Philemon. Titus chapter three, we’ll pick it up in verse one. When are we born again is the question at hand. And this doctrine, understanding it, while it might seem fairly simple on its face, it can be complicated at times if you’re not reading the Bible correctly.

If you’re not understanding how translations appear, how certain Hebrew and Greek words should be read. It can be misleading. We just read a word that says born again. So, when is that? Titus chapter three and verse one. Paul speaking to Titus, “Put them in mind to be subject to the principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” We’ve all been there.

“But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior 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 Spirit.” The washing of regeneration. That word ‘regeneration’ is paliggenesia, it means rebirth. What does that mean? What does that mean? By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Well, there you have it. Washing of rebirth. That means that we must be born again in this life at baptism, right? Case closed. Close the Bible. No reason to look any further.

Well, just like with every other doctrine, the tools of Bible study have to be implemented. First of all, there’s various verses in the Bible that are easier to understand and more challenging to understand. That’s the way that it is. God wrote it in such a way that it’s going to snare, kind of trap people, keep them away from understanding the truth until it’s His time to open their eyes to it. So, God couldn’t write it in such a plain way that even if He’s not calling them, everybody on earth can understand it. He wrote it in such a way where those whom He’s given His spirit to are given the key to unlock it in their minds with His spirit so that they can understand it.

So, we have to consider the simpler verses before we can consider some of the more challenging verses. The other thing is, we have to understand all of the verses on a subject. We can’t just look at the doctrine of being born again, when are we born again, and cherry-pick, “Oh, I’m going to look at three verses. I know that there’s about twenty-five or forty verses on the subject of being born again. We’re just going to look at these three because they support my narrative. They support what I wanted to say.” No, no, no.

We have to go in with an open mind, looking openly at the doctrine and saying, “What does God say about this, considering all the verses, starting with the simplest verses, the most plain verses on the subject?” Then going to discuss some of the more challenging ones. So, I could argue that this is a more difficult verse. This is one that we have to be able to explain. We have to understand. But turn over to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. We’ll pick it up in verse fifteen. Colossians one, fifteen, a very simple point. When are we born again? Let’s begin to answer the question. Let’s begin to answer this question.

Are we born again at conversion, as the world believes, or are we born again at a different time? Let’s see. What does the Bible say? What are the plainest verses on the matter? Colossians chapter one and verse fifteen. Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, is called the firstborn of every creature. Christ is considered the firstborn. Come on down to verse eighteen. When is He firstborn? “And He is the head of the body, the church.” We know that Christ is the head. We are the body. There is one body. We’ll come back to that later, which is a fascinating thing. “Who is the beginning, the firstborn...” Ah, here’s the key. When are you firstborn? He’s firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.

So, let’s understand. If Christ is considered the firstborn, we have to understand when He’s born again. Christ would certainly be considered born again. The question is, when did He become born again? Did He become born again at his baptism? Did He become born again the moment that He was physically born? Because He was born with the Holy Spirit. The answer is, the Bible defines it for us. We don’t need to have any interpretation. He was firstborn from the dead. Death had to occur in order to become born again, in Christ’s case.

And so, Christ sets the example for all of us. And if He sets the example, we follow His example through baptism. We follow His example through keeping the Sabbath day and the Holy Days because that’s what He did. If we’re to be like Christ, we can’t be born again in this life. And that’ll become abundantly clear as we continue through verses. We must first be dead in order to be born again. So, John chapter three. Let’s go to one of the fundamental verses on the subject of born again. John chapter three. Christ speaking to Nicodemus. We all know the account.

Nicodemus was an interesting case study. Somebody who kind of pops up a few different times in the Bible. If you’ve ever studied Nicodemus, He’s kind of an interesting man. Shows up even all the way at the end when Christ died. So, you could study that at another time. But here Nicodemus, he was a Pharisee. It says, verse one, “There was a man, of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” So, he was high up. He was a leader of the Jews.

“The same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you’re a teacher come from God. For no man can do these miracles that you do except God be with you.’” He had a far more open mind than a lot of people of his time had, particularly of the Jews and Pharisees and Sadducees and so forth. He had a much more open mind, and he recognized that this power that Christ was showing came from God. “For no man can do these miracles that you do except God be with you. Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Truly, truly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he’s old?’”

Jesus answered him... Oh, can he... excuse me, let me finish that verse, “Can he enter at the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus was thinking very physically, but we know that being born again is a spiritual subject. We can be born physically into this life, and we can be born again spiritually speaking. “Christ answered and said, Truly, truly, I say unto you, 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 say unto you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof and cannot tell where it comes or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.”

Now, brethren, this is giving us a much greater, more detailed view of what it means to be born again. Let me ask the question, simply put, can any of us in this room be born again if we are not like the wind? Christ said that being born again is like being the wind. Are any of us like the wind? No, we are not invisible. We are not an invisible power force that you can only hear come by. We’re physical human beings. It says in verse six that that which is born of the flesh is flesh. I’ve been born in the flesh, and you have been born in the flesh.

But it says then, furthermore, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It doesn’t just say they have the Spirit. It doesn’t say they have the earnest of the Spirit, which is what we get at baptism. It says that which is born of the Spirit becomes spirit full on, like the wind, as Christ goes on to explain. So, verse nine, “Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Are you a master of Israel and know not these things? Truly, truly, I say unto you, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you have received our witness.’”

So that is the sort of, you could say, the classic born-again verse that the Bible talks about. And if we’re just going to be honest with the scriptures and with ourselves, looking at that, there’s no way that we can read that and say that we’re born again now in this life. We’re born again when we become spirit, which is like the wind. First Corinthians chapter fifteen says this. First Corinthians fifteen and verse fifty. Remember it said, in order to be... You must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Remember that what it just said in John three? In order to see the kingdom of God, you must be born again.

So, let’s understand what it says in First Corinthians fifteen, fifty. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood, human beings, physical flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” So, until we are composed of spirit, until we go on and it talks about in verse fifty-one, all the way through the rest of the chapter, it talks about being changed in the twinkling of an eye, which comes back to the Feast of Trumpets. At the last trump, we’ll be changed. The trumpet will sound and we’ll be changed. This mortal will put on immortality and this corruptible will put on incorruption.

That’s why this doctrine is so important at this Fall Holy Day season. Because themes, the theme of born again, is found in all the Fall Holy Days. Think about it. With the Feast of Trumpets, at the resurrection of the dead, complete saints are going to receive eternal life. They’ll be changed. They’ll be born again into the kingdom of God, the family of God. At the judgment, the day of Atonement, think about this. When are we going to be most at one with God? We are at one with God now, but one could argue the ultimate fulfillment of being at one with God is when we become God-beings ourselves. When we enter His family, that’s when we are the most at one with God, at the judgment.

And when will we have absolute, absolute rest? When we enter God’s family. So, the Day of Atonement is fulfilled by the subject of... is explained and better understood, better kept because we understand the subject of born again. And finally, the Feast of Tabernacles. Think about that that pictures temporary dwellings. We mentioned that earlier. Temporary dwellings versus having eternal dwellings. Our eternal dwellings are going to be with God. Being born again and having our eternal rewards is pictured in the Feast of Tabernacles.

So, brethren, we must understand this doctrine. It’s very important that we do. It helps us keep the Fall Holy Days, and it helps us see the Fall Holy Days from a different perspective. Romans chapter eight. So, we just read flesh, and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Romans chapter eight and verse sixteen. Consider this. How could we be born again in this life with this verse in our minds? Verse sixteen. Romans eight, sixteen. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”

So, we’re talking about this verse. Just look at it from this perspective. It’s putting us in the present time. “The Spirit of God bears witness with our spirits,” so we’re still human beings in this verse. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God works with the spirit of man, showing that we are the children of God. “And if children now, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” So, we’re considered to be heirs right now. We are not yet inheritors. We have not yet inherited the kingdom of God. We are heirs of the promise of entering God’s family and being in the kingdom of God.

“If so be that we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.” So, we’re heirs now before and we’re suffering now. Suffers with Christ now before being glorified together. Glorified being we now actually inherit the kingdom of God. We inherit the promises God has given us. That’s what born again is. Is we are begotten right now. We’re heirs right now. We are not born again or inheritors. So that verse just supports the idea that we’re born again at the kingdom of God when we receive eternal life.

So, consider the world’s churches who believe they’re born again now are limiting themselves. What do I mean by that? They’re limiting themselves and they’re limiting God. How so? Well, it’s similar to believing the Trinity Doctrine. How many remember when Mr. Pack explained the Trinity Doctrine in his book that if you believe we serve a triune God, that the God of the Bible is called the Trinity, meaning that there’s only three beings composed in the Godhead, composing the Godhead, then that number by definition can’t expand. And it limits God. It limits God and what He’s doing with his plan for all mankind.

If the Trinity is a set God being, there’s only three in one, that by definition means you can’t add a fourth or a fifth or a sixth or seventh or a hundred or a hundred and forty-four thousand or many, many, many more beyond that. What it means is that the Godhead stays three, and that limits God. It limits our awesome potential. So, the same is true with the born-again doctrine. By understanding and believing that we’re born in this life, we’re in effect saying, “Well, I’ve kind of reached, I’ve reached the pinnacle. I’ve reached being born again.”

Yes, you could maybe go on to go to heaven or whatever that means, but they’re saying that they’re born again in this life at conversion. And it puts a great governor and a limiter on what God is actually going to do. No, no, no. You’re begotten in this life. What you thought was being born again is much less than that. It’s much greater to be born again. Don’t limit God in what He can do. God’s plan for you is much bigger. Being born again is so much more than just receiving the earnest of the spirit at conversion. So, let’s go back to First Peter chapter one where we... one of the first verses we started with. First Peter chapter one.

Let’s reinvestigate this verse that may be a little bit confusing on its face, and let’s understand it. First Peter chapter one. Let’s read verse twenty-three though this time. Just verse twenty-three. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” But I thought, Mr. Holcomb, I thought we’re saying that born again is receiving eternal life. This verse makes it look like you’re born again when you receive conversion, right? Well, let’s understand what that word born means.

The word born is the Greek word anagennáō, anagennáō. And let’s actually, before we get into the definition of that word, let’s go back to verse three of First Peter one. Let’s read the beginning of this chapter before we get into the definition of anagennáō. First Peter one in verse... let’s just pick it up in one. “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God of our Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Now, that word begotten is the same word you see in verse twenty-three translated ‘born’. We are begotten with the Holy Spirit in this life. We are not born of the Holy Spirit in this life. It is a mistranslation. Begotten, anagennáō, means to beget. The word anagennáō means to beget or to, by extension, to bear. So, when there’s a begettal in a human being or in an animal, that means a new life has occurred and that animal or that human being will grow in the womb until... and they’re begotten, until eventually they’ll be born into this life.

It’s the same word used in verse twenty-three that’s mistranslated born again. This is why we must never just take a single verse on its face based on a translation or whatever to build a doctrine. We have to look at the whole picture. We can’t just look and cherry-pick verses. Somebody in the world might say, “Well, there you have it. That’s all it takes.” It says born again right there means you were born again in this life. Well, no, it doesn’t. It’s mistranslated.

First John chapter five, very similar. First John five and verse one, we’re going to see the word anagennáō three times in this verse, three times in this verse alone. And let’s read it. “Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” No, that word is anagennáō. It should be translated begotten of God. And here’s the funny thing. The two other times it’s rendered in this verse alone, three times you see anagennáō, one of which is translated born. The other two are translated begot, which is properly translated begot. So, let’s read the verse as it’s supposed to be read.

“Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God. And everyone that loves Him, that begot... loves Him that is begotten of Him.” So, we’re saying that God begot us with the Holy Spirit. He didn’t cause us to be born again. There is no such thing, physically speaking, of a begettal that is immediately brought to birth. That just doesn’t occur. It’s impossible. So practically speaking, from the world’s perspective, how can you believe that you’re born again if there was never a begettal in the first place? Where was the begettal?

If somebody just decides today to turn from prostitution or to turn from doing hard drugs and immediately decides, “I’m going to accept Christ today” in their heart, where was the begettal process and the conversion process if they just immediately were born again at that moment? It doesn’t make any sense on its face. It’s illogical. So, back to chapter three and verse one. First John three and verse one. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is.”

That’s what’s going to happen at birth, spiritual birth, being born again. We’ll see God as He is. And right now, though, we are the sons of God before birth. One of the simplest ways to never forget the truth about being born again, about the doctrine of born again, is to understand the physical begettal and birth process. Understanding the physical parallels between a baby in the womb before birth and a Christian’s conversion before entering God’s family turns learning about a simple doctrine into action.

So, what we’re going to do for the remainder of the message is we’re going to look at the physical parallels between a begettal and a Christian growing in a physical birth, and a Christian who is begotten of the Holy Spirit and spends the remainder of their life growing, developing that spirit, developing their character in preparation for becoming born again. And if we just understand the simple parallel, we’ll never be confused as to when we’re born again. Hopefully, already we’re not confused. It’s a pretty simple subject. It’s a pretty simple concept.

But the world just gets it all wrong. And in a world where now today, more than ever, you see a lot of this Christian talk, it’s good that we ground ourselves and understand, you know, what does the Bible say? What’s the truth of the Bible? Because you might hear people say, “Well, I’m born again in the world. I’m born. I’ve accepted Jesus. I’m born again.” No. I’m born again when I enter into the God family. I’m begotten right now. So, there are many parallels, physical parallels, between the begettal of a human being in a womb, the development of that baby before its physical birth, and the spiritual development of a Christian before they are born again.

Now, yesterday, services, today we just recently witnessed a baptism. Someone became begotten of the Holy Spirit, and a small baby, you could say, Christian baby was developed in the womb. Now that person will spend the rest of her natural life, as we all do, since we’ve all been baptized. If we’ve all been baptized, then what we’re doing is the same as what this individual is now doing, to try and develop and grow. Now, how do we develop? How does a physical baby in the womb develop? Let’s take a look at three major parallels in the remaining time that we have.

Three major parallels between being begotten in the physical sense, the development of the baby, what it takes for the baby to develop, and then ultimately being born again. Let’s look at three major parallels between what it takes in order for a baby to be developed properly in the womb. First and foremost, a functioning placenta and umbilical cord is necessary. If you don’t know what a placenta is, or an umbilical cord, I can attempt to mansplain it to you if you’ve heard the term. I feel unqualified talking about placentas and umbilical cords up here, but since women don’t stand at the lectern and preach, somebody’s got to do it, okay? So, it’s me. It’s me, I guess.

Placentas and umbilical cords. First, what are they? What do they do, physically speaking, for the development of a child before birth? The placenta plays a crucial role in the growth and the development of the baby, providing nutrients, hormone production, regulating blood flow, and waste management. Now, it’s like... I don’t exactly know what these do on computer chargers. If you’ve seen these computer chargers that have... It’s like a cord that connects to a block, and then it connects to another cord again to your computer. So, it connects the wall to your computer, but then there’s this block in the middle.

I don’t exactly know what that block does, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to... I’m just going to call that the placenta, okay? That’s the placenta. That’s the thing where all of the nutrients go to, and it transfers all of the nutrients and good things from the mother into the baby via the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord is the connection between the placenta and the baby where it connects into their belly button. So, the umbilical cord is, in effect, you could think of it like this. It’s the lifeline between the all-important placenta and the developing baby.

So, think about this from a spiritual perspective. The placenta as the nourishment... Think of the placenta as the nourishment the baby needs to keep it alive, and the umbilical cord is the lifeline to that nourishment. Spiritually speaking, we can think of the placenta... Just using it as an example. Think of the placenta as all of the truth. The truth. The placenta is the hub of everything that nourishes the baby for its full development. Without the placenta, the baby cannot get its proper nutrition. It can’t develop. It can’t grow.

So, what as Christians do, we need in order to develop? We need the truth. Without the truth, we can’t grow. Let’s just take the doctrine of born again, for example. Without this doctrine, we’re not being nourished with the truth. We’re not being nourished and fed and can develop and understand the Holy Days, for example, even properly, without understanding the truth of being born again. So, every area of the truth is typed by this placenta, you could say.

Now, think about the umbilical cord as your connection to the truth. The stronger the umbilical cord, the more healthy the umbilical cord, the greater connection you’ll have to the truth. And we’ll just liken the umbilical cord; you can write this down. The umbilical cord is your lifeline to the truth. Now, what is your lifeline to the truth? What do we do every day to make sure that we stay connected to the truth, grounded in the truth, that the truth never slips from our minds? We apply the five tools of Christian growth. The five tools of Christian growth are very simple, and we’ve heard them many times. Prayer, studying, fasting on occasion, meditating, and exercising God’s Spirit.

Now, exercising God’s Spirit kind of breaks out into a host of many other things, because if you think about it, exercising God’s Spirit is applying the things that you’ve learned through Bible study, the things that you discern through prayer and meditation, or fasting. Exercising God’s Spirit is living the things that you’ve done. So, putting your Bible study into action, you could say. Applying humility, applying wisdom, applying discernment. All of the things that you’ve learned through Bible study are done through the actions of exercising God’s Holy Spirit.

So, that’s what the umbilical cord is. Without having those five tools of Christian growth, the umbilical cord itself begins to wither. It weakens. My wife, it was kind of funny, but a strange moment, the birth of our first child. I remember hearing there was a midwife, of course, who was there to help deliver the baby. But then there was a bunch of like younger kids who came in... not kids, but younger people who were learning how to... they were in school, I guess, and they were learning how to help deliver the child. And when the placenta came out, and the umbilical cord came out, after the baby, they looked at the placenta, and they were all just marveling at it.

This is wonderful... You know, they were looking at the umbilical cord and saying, “Wow, this is a textbook umbilical cord. This is the most beautiful umbilical.” I’m thinking, “That’s gross. What are you...” But it’s a healthy umbilical cord, and a healthy umbilical cord makes a healthy baby. It’s pretty simple. Now, if the umbilical cord withered and shriveled and didn’t... it wouldn’t do its job properly of delivering the nutrients from the placenta to the baby. So, I say all of that to say, we have access to the full truth. We have access to the greatest placenta that there’s ever been.

More now, even with our knowledge and understanding of prophecy, than ever before. So, we can’t limit our access to those wonderful truths by not praying, by not studying, by not fasting when we need to, or meditating, or exercising God’s Spirit. The less we do of those things, the more we’re cutting ourself, cutting our lifeline off to the truth, and ultimately to God himself. Second Peter chapter three. Let’s turn over there.

Second Peter three and verse eighteen says, “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory and honor... both glory now and forever. Amen.” Grow in grace and in knowledge. Now, what is the job of a baby to do? Have you ever heard of a baby in the womb who has grown a certain amount and then starts to shrink? Can a baby really shrink in the womb? No. Our job as Christians is to constantly continue to grow through the remainder of our lives until we are born again into the family of God. Babies don’t shrink. They don’t get smaller. But what we can do is begin to cut off that lifeline to the truth, and that will halt and prevent our growth.

And ultimately, if we’re not careful, if we don’t pray at all or do any kind of study, if we don’t exercise God’s Spirit, if we don’t do any of these Christian... the tools of Christian growth, what happens? You can die. There can be a spiritual miscarriage, and we can’t have that. We don’t want that. We can strangle the umbilical cord and ultimately prevent a spiritual miscarriage, which will lead us to just decide to leave the church or decide to just fall back into sin and not worry about it. And that’s dangerous. It’s extremely dangerous. We don’t want that.

One final verse on this point. John fifteen. John fifteen and verse three. John fifteen, three says this, “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.” The words that God has given us make us clean, and we have to continue to have access to them through those tools of Christian growth. “Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.” We can’t bear fruit of itself. The baby in the womb needs an umbilical cord. It needs the placenta, or else it cannot grow. Very simple. It can’t... “Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”

You can grow faster, more powerfully in the womb. As a Christian, the greater your connection is to God, Christ, and the truth. “If a man abide not in me, he’s cast forth as a branch, and it’s withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they’re burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.” There are amazing promises in God’s word that we can claim if we simply just exercise those tools of Christian growth.

So that brings us to the second point. The second physical parallel is to have a healthy uterine environment. I’ll explain what a uterus is. The uterus is basically the little house for the baby. It’s where the baby develops in the uterus. And inside the uterus is amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid is when you hear about a woman’s water breaking before birth. That’s the uterus breaking open and the amniotic fluid coming out. So, the baby is about to be delivered. But up until the birth, the amniotic fluid is critical. It’s critical. I’ve heard cases where there’s people who don’t have enough amniotic fluid. The environment for the baby isn’t conducive to its growth.

Some people have too much amniotic fluid, or maybe the amniotic fluid quality isn’t as good, or something. The point here is, is that the environment that we dwell in, the environment that a baby dwells in, is critical. The same is true for us spiritually. Jeremiah, seventeen, eight. Jeremiah, seventeen, eight. What kind of an environment are you and I dwelling in as Christians developing toward birth? How is your amniotic fluid? I’ll put it that way. Jeremiah seventeen and verse eight. Just read one verse. “For he...” talking about the man, verse seven, that trust in God. Verse eight, “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes. But her leaves shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

Imagine yourself, depending on the environment that you put yourself in, take a tree as an example that’s being used here in Jeremiah seventeen, eight. A tree, if it’s in the right environment, if it’s planted next to a river, if it’s planted next to a lake, will never be lacking in time of drought. Its roots will constantly be able to draw from a water source because it’s in the right environment. Now, if a tree is sitting at the top of a hill, and all the water comes off of that hill, that tree might die very easily because water rolls downhill, pretty simple, and so if the roots aren’t able to have access to that water properly enough, in times of drought, that tree could instantly just die. It’s not in the right environment.

What kind of environment are we surrounding ourselves with? Does that environment allow us to thrive as Christians, or does it pull us down? First Kings chapter ten, you can go over there. First Kings ten. Solomon was given all this wisdom. God had blessed him immensely. The Queen of Sheba came in chapter ten and visited Solomon, saw all the wonderful things that he had done, the wisdom that God had granted him, but you come on down to verse twenty-three, and we read this, “So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom, and all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart,” so God had given him this.

But what kind of an environment did Solomon put himself in? “And they brought every man, as present, vessels of silver, vessels of gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, mules, a rate year by year. And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen.” This is the environment that he’s building for himself. “And he had one thousand and four hundred chariots, twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem. And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made him to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance. And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt.”

He kept bringing in all of these things, surrounding himself with the things of this life, the physical things of this life that God said you shouldn’t do, and it corrupted him. “He brought in linen yarn, and the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price. And a chariot came up...” verse twenty-nine, “...and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty. And so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, they did bring him out by their means. But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ‘You shall not go into them, neither shall they come into you.’”

Solomon did evil in God’s sight, because he surrounded himself with the wrong people, with the wrong things. Contrast that. Go back toward the end of the Old Testament to the book of Daniel. Contrast that to Daniel, chapter one. Solomon did the wrong thing. He surrounded himself with people and things that he shouldn’t have, but Daniel did the opposite. Daniel, you can read through chapter one here.

Let’s just pick it up in verse three. “And the king spoke to Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, and he said, ‘Bring certain of the children of Israel, and the king’s seed, and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, understanding science, such as had the ability in them to stand in the king’s palace.’”

And verse five, “And the king appointed them daily provision of the king’s meat, and with the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,” these four men, “...unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. He gave unto Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah, he called him Shadrach, Mishael, he called him Meshach, and Azariah, he called him Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince, the eunuchs, that he might not defile himself.”

So, you come on down, and so Daniel pled with these people. But, you know, one thing you don’t think about often is, it says that Daniel, if you just continue reading, we don’t need to read it, we all know the account, but you think about Daniel as being the one who ate the pulse, who ate the vegetables, so that he would have healthy skin and so forth. But it wasn’t just Daniel. It was all four of them. They all four decided that collectively they’re not going to eat of the king’s meat, and at the end of these ten days, they’re going to look better because of it, and they did.

So, it wasn’t just Daniel that did that. Daniel surrounded himself with three other quality people, people who were of the same mind, people who are of the same judgment, people who decided that they wanted to do the same thing. They wanted to obey God and not eat who knows whatever kind of swine or whatever kind of meat that the king would have given them. So, Daniel surrounded himself with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The same people who were so full of faith that when they went into the fiery furnace, they went in willingly, knowing that God would deliver them, and then Christ was in there with them. It’s an amazing thing.

So that’s the kind of people we need to surround ourselves with. That’s the kind of environment that we need to have. We don’t want to surround ourselves with the physical things of this life, like Solomon, or bad people, bad music, bad entertainment. We don’t want to surround ourselves and put in our minds the wrong things in this life, because what we feed ourselves, that’s what we ultimately become. The more we surround ourselves with good people, good entertainment, if you will, the more we will be able to grow, and the healthier environment we’ll have, just like a healthy uterine environment for the baby is necessary to develop.

Finally, the third parallel, I could argue, is one of the most interesting and important ones of them all. Maternal support. What do I mean by maternal support? We know that the church is called our mother. Now, when you’re begotten with the Holy Spirit, you’re begotten not into any sect or denomination built by men, but into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it says in the baptismal. We just read it the other day. We are not begotten into an organization; we are begotten into the body of Christ. But the body of Christ is called something in the Bible. It’s called a mother. The church is our mother.

Let’s turn over to Matthew chapter twelve. Verse forty-six, Matthew twelve. Pick it up there. Verse forty-six. And Christ speaking, “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.” Christ’s mother and brother. “Then one said unto him, Behold, your mother and your brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you.” They were telling Christ, Oh, your mom’s out here, Mary’s out here, she wants to talk with you and your brothers. They want to talk with you.

“But Christ answered and said unto them, him that told him, Who is my mother?” It’s like that book growing up, I used to read, “Where’s my mother? Are you my mother?” You remember that book growing up? Are you my mother? And he went up to the different kinds of animals, and he’s not the mother. The little baby bird goes up to the cat and says, “Are you my mother?” “No.” Finally goes up to this giant excavator, calls the snort, and he says, “Are you my mother?” And the excavator just goes snort. And then it lifts it up, drops it right back into the nest, and the mother bird comes in.

So anyway, that is an aside, I can say. That’s an aside. “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren.” Brethren, you and I are mothers and brethren to everyone else in the church. The body of Christ is the mother. The church is the mother. We use the term church in our lives. The Bible uses the term church. What is the church? The word church is ekklēsia, and it means the called out ones. So, we’re not sitting in a church, we are the church. We go to services to see the church. We don’t go to services in the church, if that makes sense. So, Christ was saying, the church, the brethren are the mother.

And how do we know who, if we’re in the right church? How do we know if we’re standing among the right brethren, the right called-out ones? Well, verse fifty says, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother.” This is how we know that there is also one true church. There’s one organization that is the body of Christ, not fifty or a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand organizations that can compose the body of Christ.

Christ is not divided. The mother is not divided. Whosoever, but those that do the will of God, are defined as being the brethren or also the mother, the church. So, if we know the truth, if we know that we are doing what God says we should be doing, and we’re not deviating, we’re not compromising, we’re not growing Laodicean in those pieces of understanding, then we can know that we are in God’s true church, that we are among the brethren who are our mother.

Now, mothers, physically speaking, nourish, feed, care for the baby all the way up through the pregnancy until birth. Consider the sacrifices that a mother makes in pregnancy. They have to change their eating habits. They have to change their drinking habits. They can’t drink alcohol. They have to change the way that they sleep. I didn’t realize that until my wife got pregnant the first time, is you can’t sleep. Obviously, you can’t sleep on your stomach, but you really can’t even sleep on your back.

There’s certain things that happen even if you’re sleeping on your back as a pregnant lady. The weight of the baby can sit on certain organs and can cut off the lifeline to the baby, in effect. So, it’s important that a woman, a pregnant mother sleeps on her side. Particularly, the left side is most conducive for the good development of the baby. So, they have to change the way that they sleep. What if I like to sleep on my stomach? I would not have it good if I got pregnant. I like to sleep on my stomach, and I like to sleep on my back. So, it would be a very big challenge for me if I got pregnant and had to only sleep on my left side or whatever.

Never mind the nausea that comes with pregnancy, the weight gain, the Braxton Hicks contractions, and all of the different things that come with pregnancy. The mother sacrifices big for the baby, and that’s before it’s ever born. So, imagine a mother going through all of that just for the baby to say, “Sorry, Mom, I want to leave you as the mother that I was given, and I’m going to jump out of your womb and go to a different mother.” That’s what it’s like when somebody comes to the truth: they believe the full truths of the Bible, but then they decide, “I’m going to leave the church.” What you’re saying is I’m going to leave my mother. That’s what you’re saying, to leave the church. Many do it, though. It’s an amazing thing. It’s very sad.

We’re going to go through a few Proverbs, look at these Proverbs, and understand a lot of Proverbs about the mother, a lot of Proverbs about parents in general. But let’s read a few Proverbs about the physical mother, that as we read through them, think about them from the spiritual perspective, the spiritual mother perspective. Don’t think of them as physical mothers. Think of them as the spiritual mother, the church. “My son, keep your Father’s commandment...” Father is God. So, this is an easy-to-understand the spiritual parallels, here. “My son, keep your father’s commandment and forsake not the law of your mother.”

Proverbs ten, one. “The Proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father...” If you’re wise, you’re going to make God the Father glad. “...but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” Think about that. If we in the church do something wrong and it becomes public, known publicly, it’s not just bad for you personally. Let’s imagine that you drank too much one night and you decided to drive, and you got caught, and you had a DUI, driving under the influence. And you were pulled over, and you maybe had to do jail time. Who knows? That’s not just bad for you personally, it puts a black eye on the mother. Our actions don’t happen in a vacuum. It’s the heaviness of his mother when a child does foolish things.

Proverbs fifteen and verse twenty. “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.” We should never ever come to despise our mother, the church. Proverbs nineteen, twenty-six. “He that wastes his father and chases away his mother is a son that causes shame and brings reproach.” A lot of us have probably thought of these from a physical perspective with our own parents, but have we ever considered them from the spiritual perspective? That we are begotten sons and daughters now who have a mother.

Proverbs twenty and verse twenty. “Whoso curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.” We don’t ever want to be in a position where we’re cursing God or the church because our lamp could be put out in obscure darkness. Finally, Proverbs twenty-three, twenty-two. “Hearken unto your father that begat you...” That begat you. You’re not born again yet. He begat you. “...and despise not your mother when she is old.” Despise her not.

Brethren, we can’t just jump from one womb to the next. You know, in the book of Luke, it says that the baby leaped in the womb, John the Baptist leaped in the womb, when Mary came walking in the door, and Mary was pregnant as well. John the Baptist leaped in the womb. Didn’t say that he leaped out of the womb. He didn’t go try and find another mother. No, he just leaped in the womb. So, this is what happens when someone leaves the church. They decide to leap from the womb. It’s an insane thing to think about. They not only hurt themselves, but they hurt their mother.

How many of us have been hurt when we see somebody who we’ve been good friends with, maybe for a long time in the church, decide to leave? It hurts the mother. You know why it hurts you personally? It’s because you’re the mother. You’re part of the mother. When somebody leaves the church, they’re boarding themselves from the truth, and they’re hurting themselves and the mother, all of us. So, brethren, we can’t forget that there is one organization that provides the full truth of the Bible. We can’t forget that. We’re in the one organization that does the will of God, that provides the full truth. That’s how you know that this is the mother that we ought to be in.

So, as we conclude, let’s think deeply about these important lessons about being born again, what this doctrine really means, as we continue through this fall holy day season. Let’s never forget that we are begotten. Our purpose in this life right now is to develop and to grow. And the way and means by which we do that toward birth into the kingdom of God is to ensure that we have a healthy placenta and umbilical cord that connects to it, that we exercise the five tools of Christian growth every day except for fasting. If you fast every day, then there’s a real big problem there. You don’t want to do that. Fasting is the exception to that rule. But we have to exercise those five tools of Christian growth in order to develop and grow toward being born into the family of God.

Secondarily, consider the environment that you’re putting yourself in every day. The more we surround ourselves with the truth, the more we surround ourselves with good examples, people who are like-minded. We don’t want to have fellowship with the world. Obviously, we have to interact with the world. That’s not the point, but we don’t want to just bring people in the world over to our house all the time unnecessarily and surround ourselves with them if we don’t have to. Obviously, when we go to work, we have to surround ourselves with the ways of the world. That’s a given. But what kind of an environment are we putting ourselves in?

And finally, brethren, consider the mother. Consider the church that God has placed you in. God called you out of the world and put you in the body where it pleases Him. He put you in the body of a mother. That mother is all of us. So, we must never forget all of these most powerful points that prove the doctrine of born again, and that also help us to most effectively keep the fall holy days.