Are You Born Again?
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Proofs That a Person is Truly Born Again
https://opentheo.org/i/7521011377708845539/tests-of-christian-profession
“Born Again” on John 3:8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP9a0hvQrnA
"The New Birth" Great Doctrines of the Bible
The doctrine of regeneration teaches that it is something God does within us. It is a new life put in us, a new principle of life and obedience, and therefore it is something which grows and develops and becomes progressively greater.
“The Message of Salvation” on John 3:14-15
https://opentheo.org/i/2035627031571726491/the-message-of-salvation
“A True Belief” on Hebrews 6:7-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x1EsaQ0-YI
“The Essentials of Salvation” on Romans 10:9-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP7k2a48am0
The Bible gives seven (7) main tests, or proofs, that a person is truly born again by the Holy Spirit and is saved. They are as follows:
1. The first test is: ‘believing that Jesus is the Christ’.
The Bible says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:1-2). Now this is a most important statement. It means the full doctrine about the Lord Jesus Christ. It means that you believe that Jesus Christ is indeed Eternal God, one of three Persons of the blessed Holy Trinity, and has been born as a sinless human being in this world in which we live.
Apply that test to some of the cults around today and you will see what a vital test it is. It is not enough that you praise Jesus Christ; it is not even enough that you say He is the Son of God. You must say that He is Jehovah, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh – the eternal Son of God, co-equal, co-eternal with the Father – that the second Person in the blessed Trinity has come in the flesh.
2. The second test is the test of ‘keeping the commandments’.
The Bible says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
That is the way to distinguish between the child of God and the child of the devil, says John. And to the born again person keeping God’s commandments are a delight. Our obedience to and love of the commandments of God and of Christ proclaim at once whether we are truly born again by the Holy Spirit or not.
3. The third test is that ‘He has given us His Holy Spirit’.
The Bible says, “And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1 John 3:24). One aspect of this doctrine is certainly this: there is such a thing, says the apostle Paul, as “you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rom. 8:15). One of the proofs, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is in us is that, though we may not understand it fully, we have a feeling, a consciousness, that God is our Father. He is no longer a God afar off, but He is our Father. We say, ‘My God, my Father.’
4. The fourth test is that ‘we love the brethren’.
The Bible says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). If we are truly born again, then we will recognize Christians when we meet them and we will have a love for each other because of our common faith in Christ. If we are all joined to Him and joined to one another, we are related to one another and we inevitably love one another.
5. The fifth test is the test of ‘the consciousness of a struggle within us’.
I regard this test as of great value and which has been a great comfort to me many times in my Christian life: ‘the consciousness of a struggle within’. Paul describes it perfectly in Galatians 5:17: “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another.” What it means is that by definition, Christians are people in whom a great competition is taking place. The Holy Spirit wants them for God, but the flesh – this other spirit that is worked by the devil – wants them for the kingdom of darkness.
If you are a Christian, you are aware of this conflict between the Spirit and the flesh within you. You are aware of the fact that the Holy Spirit is in you, working in you, drawing you to Christ, weaning you from the world and indicating truth to you. You are aware of the operation of the Holy Spirit and you are aware of the power of Satan in a sense that you never were before. That is a proof that you have been truly born again.
6. The sixth test is this: anybody who is aware of a desire to know God, and not merely a desire to be blessed by God, can be quite happy and certain of being a child of God.
True children of God want their Father. They want to know their Father better. They are more interested in God and in His Word, the Bible, than any blessing or gift He may or may not give them. They don’t follow Christ for what they can get from Him. They begin to know something of a hunger and thirst for God Himself.
7. The last test is: that true children of God do not merely desire forgiveness of their sins, but they also hate sin.
I regard this as very important – that children of God do not merely desire forgiveness of their sins and an avoidance of the consequences of sins, but they also know what it is to hate sin. In other words, they say like Paul said, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall save me?” (Romans 7:24).
Now people who have never been born again by the Holy Spirit, don’t have a sense of what great sinners they are before a holy God, and they do not know a true conviction of sin. But the children of God do.
That is why our Lord Jesus Christ says concerning them: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6). Why are they blessed? It is because they are already children of God. True Christians have a positive hunger and thirst for a positive righteousness. They want to be like Christ. They want to be holy. They want to be like God.
The man or woman who is born of God, who is regenerate, simply does not and cannot continue - abide - in a life of sin. (1 John 3:6) They may backslide temporarily, but if they are born of God they will come back.
"Studies in the Sermon on the Mount"
The way to test yourself, the way to test any man, is to look below the surface. Discover whether he conforms to the Beatitudes. Is he poor in spirit; is he meek; is he humble; does he groan in his spirit as he sees the world; is he a holy man of God; is he (serious); is he sober; does he say with Paul, ‘We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened’? (2 Corinthians 5:4)
Those are the tests, the tests of the Beatitudes, the tests of the Sermon on the Mount – the man’s Character, the man’s Nature. Not the appearances only, but the Reality itself alone counts with God.
John Piper
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-are-we-born-again
Also see
https://sites.google.com/site/anotherdaysjourneybackhome/examine-yourself
Are you a child of God? Are you aware of a new man in you? Have you lost the fear of death? Have you had victory over your former sin and self? Are you aware of a new power in your life?
Can you look to a glorious future and say, "I am going to be there"?
Do you know these things in reality?