The Scriptures teach us that God performs His tremendous works with one person or a few people. We desire numerous people because we love money, status, and power. We love money, status, and power because we are tares and not wheat.

God is righteous by Nature. Those who are born of God are righteous by nature and practice righteousness. They love mercy and walk humbly with God. This is how we can tell the difference between those who have been born of God and those who have not been born of God.

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (I John 3:9)

The above verse means the person who has been born of God begins to show God's Nature in himself. Although he may stumble and fall while he is growing to maturity, he always is striving to walk in righteousness and holiness. Eventually he is able, through God's Life that is in him, to walk before the Lord (even in the world) in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

The tares are not so. They never have been born of God. They are sons of the wicked one. They have entered the assemblies of the saints but not by the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. They will leave just as quickly as they came as soon as there is persecution.

The tares are ready to believe they are saved by "grace" and do not have to change what they are. The tares always will resist the doctrines of overcoming sin and crucifixion of self. They are not willing to allow the Lord to perform the painful operations necessary for deliverance from the world, from Satan, and from their lusts and self-seeking. They have perverted the teaching of the Apostle Paul to mean that the grace of Christ is God's way of excusing our lack of personal change into holiness and righteousness.

The tares always are seeking the cheapest possible way of regaining Paradise.

The wheat love God. They are more interested in God's attitude toward them than they are in going to Heaven when they die. The Life of God in them calls out to God desiring to be like God, of God, an eternal part of God. God is their Father. The Spirit in them cries, Abba.

One point of confusion is the concept of what it means to be "born again." We have made being born again synonymous with "accepting Christ" or with faith in the blood atonement. Accepting Christ as Savior and Lord is one matter. Remission of sins through the blood atonement accompanies all true receiving of Christ. Being born again of God, while it follows all true receiving of Christ, is a distinct experience. It is not a legal transaction, as is forgiveness through the blood atonement, but an experience in one's personality.

To be born of God is to receive the Divine Seed in us and to have it grow from a seed to a new creation in Christ. As the Seed develops in us we reveal in ourselves the family likeness of God.

To be continued.