We're beginning a new study this morning that
I've entitled The Dispensation of the Gospel.
And the first lesson that we're going to
deal with is the genuine born-again experience.
It is the most foundational thing that we
understand what it really means to be born
again of the Spirit.
I have shared this topic with our young
people and I've seen God move mightily.
So it's my prayer this morning that God
would use the things that are contained in
this message, this lesson this morning, to really
touch your life.
Our text is, Jesus answered and said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.
That's John chapter 3, verse 3.
Salvation is the process by which a person
is gloriously transformed from being a child of
disobedience to a child of God.
The children of disobedience are lost and have
a different spirit than the saved.
The lost live according to the ways of
this world and according to the prince of
the power of the air.
Those who have been born of water only
are fleshly or carnal.
But those who have been born of the
Holy Spirit are spiritual.
Unless a person is born again of the
Spirit, they cannot see the kingdom of God,
neither in this world nor in the world
to come.
In this particular lesson, I want to look
at three things.
First, to examine the three states of unrepentant
sinners, okay?
Secondly, to explore the methods of dealing with
each state of unrepentant sinner.
And thirdly, to explore the initial evidence of
the born-again experience.
Now, I'd like for you to memorize these
three things so that you will always know
them.
You will always remember them and be able
to identify the three states of unrepentance.
First, there is the careless sinner.
The careless sinner.
Secondly, there is the awakened sinner.
And thirdly, there is the convicted sinner.
The careless sinner can simply care less about
their soul's salvation and their need for God.
They feel they are opposed to their own
salvation.
Some of them will get hostile or even
violent at the proposal of them being saved.
Sinners are very creative in finding ways to
ignore their need for God, and they press
Him as far back into their minds as
they possibly can.
They do not like to retain God in
their knowledge, and they prefer to sin unabated
or unhindered.
These people are enemies of both God and
themselves.
Some are quite subtle and simply ignore God
and believe that they are good people.
Yet others may be in some form of
false religion, but no matter which category they
fall into, they are quite careless about their
souls.
They are deceived by Satan and are fearlessly
confident in their sinful condition.
They feel no need to consider the vast
number of ways in which God is trying
to gain their attention.
They ignore the sight of a church.
They skip past Christian TV and radio when
they are skimming channels.
They ignore Christian-related billboards and bumper stickers.
But more than that, they do always resist
the Holy Ghost that is using these and
many other means to arrest their attention.
They surround themselves with worldly things that bolster
their deception and hasten their damnation.
You see, they create an environment around themselves
that protects them from God, that keeps them
from being able to hear what God is
trying to say to them in their life.
The awakened sinner is someone that has been
shocked into at least considering their need for
God.
This happens at times when tragedy strikes, such
as a loved one passing away or being
suddenly killed.
It happens at times when the individual may
suffer some kind of a calamity, like being
diagnosed with cancer or they fall into financial
crisis.
It can happen at times of great distress
and fear, such as the events of 9
-11 or the great tsunami disaster.
It can also happen in times of sudden
danger, such as a tornado warning or threatening
weather or anything that would cause them to
be fearful and consider their life and their
estate.
The job of the minister, one of them
at least, is to awaken sinners by the
truth of the Gospel.
Occasionally, God sovereignly shakes a sinner from slumber
with prophetic dreams.
We've seen this with the butler, the baker,
and Pharaoh in Genesis 40 and 41, and
of course, Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4.
So God will sometimes sovereignly step into your
life to gain your attention.
You know the story of these men that
said that the dreams that they had in
their night of rest greatly troubled them, and
they sought after someone that would give them
an answer to these things.
Just one of the many different means that
God is trying to gain the attention of
people who are lost.
Jonathan Edwards once said, Sinner, you should consider
how many different ways God is trying to
gain your attention at any given moment.
He's coming from all different sorts of kinds
of directions, especially in our day.
He's coming from this angle.
He's coming from that angle, from this angle,
every way he can to try to get
your attention.
Then thirdly, the convicted sinner is a person
who after hearing a gospel message and having
been dealt with greatly by the Holy Spirit
is convinced of their need for God and
the gospel.
They are convinced they are a sinner and
need to repent.
They are convinced that they need to trust
in Jesus Christ and turn everything completely over
to him.
To a lesser or a greater degree, they
understand the gospel.
They're familiar more or less with God and
his word at least enough to be born
again.
Keep in mind we're talking about a convicted
sinner.
The Holy Spirit has brought them to that
place where they are trembling in awe of
God and are halting between two opinions.
See, God will bring you to that place.
He will bring you to this place to
where you will be at the altar or
somewhere in your life where you will have
to decide which direction you're going to go.
They're at the crossroads.
They must choose whom they will serve.
At this time, the Holy Spirit is in
the role of Jesus Christ.
Understand that that is what the Holy Spirit
is doing in our day.
Jesus said, It is expedient that I must
go, but I will not leave you alone.
I will send the Holy Spirit to you.
You've got to realize that while the Holy
Spirit is here, he is playing the role
of Jesus Christ.
If we would come to the altar here
and we begin to pray and seek the
Lord for salvation, he is going to play
the role of Jesus.
When the rich young ruler came to Jesus,
he said, What must I do to be
saved or to inherit eternal life?
Jesus told him, and then he said, One
thing you lack.
Then he said, Go sell all that you
have.
See, Jesus knew what was at the essence
of his rebellion.
He knew that thing that he was holding
on to, and he pointed it out to
him.
When you come to the altar and pray,
the Holy Spirit is going to take that
role.
He's going to say, Here is what is
standing between me and you.
It is this certain thing, and I want
you to lay it down.
And it's at that point that we, like
the rich young ruler, will either submit or
we will go away sorrowful.
This is the place or this is the
state of a convicted sinner.
He is showing them the Holy Spirit is
in their mind's eye.
What they must submit in order to be
saved and have treasure in heaven.
This is a one-on-one with the
Holy Ghost.
This is where the great striving and wrestling
happens.
See, the Holy Spirit knows what is standing
between him and them, and he is showing
it to them.
He's showing it.
See, people don't get up from the altar
when they decide, really, not to turn everything
over to God, not knowing what it was
that was between them.
They get up knowing full well what it
is between them and God.
The convicted sinner is made to know exactly
what he or she is trading for their
immortal soul.
See, no one goes away ignorant of these
things.
The Holy Spirit shows us, and we all
who have been saved can testify to that.
I know when I came to the altar,
the Holy Ghost was showing me certain things.
This is what's between us.
You've got to be willing to lay that
down.
And until I said, Lord, I will lay
it all down, I was not born again.
I was only ever a convicted sinner.
See, I could pray off conviction.
I could pray it off and get up,
and everything's all right.
I could even act like I wiped my
face a little bit and fool everyone in
the room.
But I did not fool the Holy Ghost.
And therefore, I am not born again.
Therefore, I go off, and chances are, say
something like this.
Well, it didn't work for me.
Hmm?
Well, it's not really for me.
It didn't work for me.
No, the reality is you did not submit
when the Spirit of God showed you what
thing was between you and Him.
Secondly, the method of dealing with each state
of unrepentance.
First, careless sinners require great wisdom to deal
with.
Let me give you an example.
Never try to witness to somebody when they're
angry because people hate God already.
And if you start talking about God when
they're angry, they're liable to go into a
rage.
Careless sinners require great wisdom.
Proverbs 11, 30 teaches, He that winneth souls
is wise.
Since the careless sinners are opposed to themselves,
they're like dealing with someone who is suicidal.
Think about this.
Careless sinners are ready at a moment's notice
to turn on themselves and harden themselves even
further from God.
At a moment's notice, they will turn on
themselves.
You've got to be careful when you're dealing
with them not to back them continually in
a corner where they harden themselves.
It takes great wisdom to deal with a
careless sinner.
Dealing with them requires not our wisdom but
the wisdom of God.
And this is why prayer is so important,
and the leading of the Spirit is important.
See, sometimes preaching will arrest their attention.
Sometimes personal witnessing will do it.
Dealing with sinners is always on an individual
basis.
There's no cookie-cutter way to deal with
them.
That's why it takes great wisdom.
He that winneth souls is wise, and it
takes the wisdom of God to deal with
them.
Awakening them with the Gospel or waiting for
an opportunity to minister to them will require
great wisdom and timing.
Did you know that there are times in
people's life when God is visiting them, and
He has put you in their path to
deal with them at that time?
We must not miss the Lord's day of
visitation for people.
I've had it happen in my life.
I was working with a young man about
12 years ago, and I looked over, and
I could articulate now what was happening.
He was an awakened sinner.
He was awakened by the fact that this
distress that had happened between him and his
mother, and he was awakened, and he was
sitting at the table in the lunchroom at
work, very solemn, and I felt the gentle
nudging of the Holy Spirit to go over
and witness to him.
But foolishly, as so often times we do,
we just procrastinate and say, Well, I'll talk
to him tomorrow, or I'll do it later,
because the boldness just wasn't there to share
the Gospel.
In other words, I wasn't really where I
needed to be with God in order to
have that oomph to go do what God
asked me to do.
And what ended up happening?
The young man, the next day when I
seen him, was less and less solemn.
He was more joyful.
Before it was over with, before the week
was out, he was filled with all kind
of frivolity, and trying to reach him with
the Gospel would have been an impossibility.
And I realized at that moment, and I
even taught that following Sunday in Sunday school
class, or maybe sometime later, that I had
missed that young man's day of visitation from
God, at least at this stage in his
life.
I pray that God has reached him somehow
with someone else.
But we need to be careful.
When we see somebody in our family that
is in an awakened state, something's happened, tragedy
has struck, or a friend of ours, something
has awakened them, and they're considering very seriously
their soul.
We need to step in at that moment
and begin to use the wisdom of God
and prayerfully allow the Holy Spirit to lead
us, to lead that person to salvation, because
it is their opportunity.
Sometimes there will seem to be no real
opportunity, and you must witness, knowing there will
be great resistance or worse.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will say, I want
you to witness to this person, and you're
looking at them going there, and no one
is ready to hear what I've got to
say.
But the Holy Spirit is saying, witness to
them.
God will use your words to awaken them.
Sure, it may create a situation.
I know of people who are very hostile
to the gospel.
I've never seen a hostility like I see
today.
The world is growing cold, church.
The church is growing cold also.
But the world is growing cold.
And when you do try to speak to
people about their soul, I've seen people get
hostile, cuss you out, act crazy, and all
kind of stuff that I've never seen before.
But it's because people are getting harder and
harder and harder.
And it takes more and more wisdom, more
and more of the power of the Spirit
to reach these people.
Secondly, awakened sinners, awakened sinners also require great
wisdom in dealing with as not to miss
the opportunity to share the gospel with them
while they are in an awakened state.
The enemy is working double time to stop
their conversion when he sees them in this
condition.
C.S. Lewis talks about it in Screwtape
Letters, the first letter.
How many different ways that when God starts
dealing with someone that the enemy will start
trying to distract them and point their attention
in other kinds of ways.
If you ever get a chance, that book's
only probably five or six dollars.
You can get it and read it.
It's a pretty good read.
The enemy works double time to stop them
from being converted.
He will distract them and fill their minds
with all sorts of rhetoric and lies.
He will give them a multitude of excuses
why they should not listen to God and
yield to the Holy Ghost.
Listen, this is the time to take them
through the scriptures leaving nothing out nor selling
the gospel short of its requirements.
Don't do that.
Don't leave things out of the gospel.
That's happened for years now.
Years and years.
And that needs to stop.
A person needs to understand their condition and
what salvation is as much as possible.
They need to understand what they're doing when
they get saved.
They need to understand that you are turning
your life over to Jesus Christ.
You're coming into a covenant relation with Him.
You are turning your life completely over to
Him.
We need to explain these things to Him
and take the time to do it.
Nothing is more important than this time.
Spend the time required to bring them to
genuine conversion.
Listen, this is not a drive-thru process.
Hear me.
This is not a drive-thru process.
People do not pass from death to life
in a matter of minutes.
They don't take off the old man and
put on the new man in a matter
of minutes.
They don't get metaphorically married to Christ.
They don't answer to the Holy Ghost when
He's dealing with them in just a matter
of minutes.
The enemy is always saying, Hurry up!
Hurry up!
You hear me?
He's saying, Hurry up!
Hurry up!
But things don't happen that quick.
I've seen six children born and none of
them were born in four minutes.
There was a lot of travail.
There was a lot of tears.
There was a lot of wrestling.
There was a lot of wrangling.
There was a lot of crying.
There was a lot of travail.
And that's the word we need to realize.
The tragedy of our day is that we
do not take the time for reflection in
the service or at the altar.
Hear Brother Birch talking about this is the
time for the Holy Spirit to move.
This is time.
Give God a chance to move.
That means you don't distract your neighbor.
It means you don't become a means or
a tool in the hand of the devil
to distract somebody when God has them engrossed
in this deep thought.
He's showing them in their mind's eye what
they must do to be saved.
He's showing them what is the controversy between
Him and them.
It's that these times they need to be
focused.
There needs to be caution.
There needs to be reverence in the service.
It's a very serious and solemn time.
Birth is a process.
This is the time where they will decide
their eternal fate.
Think of that.
They will decide where they will spend eternity
at these times.
Either heaven or hell will rejoice when it's
all said and done.
Don't yield to the temptation to take shortcuts
for any reason.
The enemy will fill your mind with thoughts
such as hurry up or this is taking
too long.
He will keep you looking at your watch.
Listen, stay until you know that their blood
is completely washed from your hands.
Stay until you know that you have done
everything God has required of you to bring
that person to that place of salvation.
Don't think that you can just touch base
with them and that's enough because that's not
what God required.
It's a process and we need to realize
that.
The enemy is going to fight you every
step of the way.
We're in a hurry, rush, rush society.
Hurry up.
Get out of my way.
Light turns green.
Everybody wants to go.
If the drive-through takes more than a
few minutes, people are in a rush.
But that's the devil's working and that's one
of the great reasons why people aren't born
again at the altar.
It's one of many reasons why there's no
infillings of the Holy Ghost because we don't
give God time.
Say, God, if you don't show up in
the next few minutes, then I'm out of
here.
What about carrying at the altar?
What about spending time?
What about people like back in the days
of Evan Roberts and the Welsh Revival, a
26-year-old young man.
They heard that he was preaching and God
was moving and people would go into town
where they heard they were and pack every
church out just hoping to get the right
one.
But they said that he walked into a
church of 800 one time, walked from the
back to the front, knelt at the altar
right in the front, prayed for three hours
while 800 people looked on and they sat
there.
He stood to his feet, preached for 15
minutes.
It was like God just jumped into the
crowd.
It was like God just leaped into the
audience when that happened and revival broke out.
He got up from the altar when the
service was over, went to his room and
prayed all night for the following service.
Think about that.
How much different is that today?
God, if you don't hurry up and show
up, we're out of here.
We're not going to see a move of
God like that church.
We may have changed but God has not
changed.
The methods have not changed.
We need to realize this in our times.
Thirdly, bottom section, convicted sinners are convinced of
their need for God.
They know they are in sin and they
need to repent.
They understand what is required of them.
The Holy Spirit is showing them what thing
they lackest and they are striving with Him.
Listen, do not give them a place of
refuge if they start rationalizing or minimizing their
sins.
Oftentimes, you're praying with someone at the altar
and they'd say, well, you really think that
doing this and such a thing is really
all that bad?
Can I be a Christian and still do
this?
Listen, what are they saying?
The Holy Ghost is showing them stuff and
they're wanting to get you to side with
them and then get them to have a
place of comfort and refuge.
Don't go there.
Don't do that.
Listen, flush them out until you know what
it is why they will not submit to
God.
Give them time.
Listen, and they will tell you what it
is.
I have found in witnessing to people if
you let them talk long enough they'll tell
you all that's in their heart.
Just let them keep talking.
Just keep listening.
Give them enough time but before it's over
with they'll be like, well, you know, what
the real thing is is this.
You'll get to it.
Just give them time.
They'll talk themselves into conviction.
Maybe it's a pet sin.
Maybe it's bitterness.
Maybe they don't want to reconcile with some
old enemies or make restitution for someone they've
harmed.
Listen, if the Holy Ghost is telling them
to do something or lay something down, don't
dare tell them differently.
Don't give them a place to hide.
He knows what it is that is holding
them back and so do they.
What if they go away sorrowful as the
rich young ruler did?
Well, what did Christ do?
He let them go.
You say, why did He let them go?
Listen, don't fight against the Holy Ghost by
comforting them.
Don't do that.
Whatever you do, let them feel the full
weight of what they are doing because it's
their only hope.
It's their only hope.
Let them feel the full weight of all
that they're doing.
It's their only hope.
James Dobson would call it tough love.
Tough love.
Let them feel the weight of it.
Don't encourage them.
Don't take away the sting of what they
are doing.
Let them feel the full weight of what
they're doing.
Let them dwell on it.
Do not give them a false assurance.
Listen, the devil will use your comforting words
to fortify them in their sin and eventually
damn their soul.
Well, Brother Roberts said it wasn't that bad.
Listen, Jesus didn't tell all the rich people
to sell all.
He told Him to sell all.
They may be telling you something that in
general is not something wrong for everyone, but
it's what the Holy Ghost is saying to
them.
Tell them this.
If the Holy Ghost is telling you to
lay it down, lay it down.
He has a controversy with you.
Lay that thing down if it's standing between
you and God or go away sorrowful as
the rich young ruler.
That's the only option.
The devil will use your comforting words.
Salvation is not a process at this stage.
They have been through the process and they
know what they must do.
They are in rebellion.
Be not partakers of that rebellion no matter
how much the devil tempts you to do
it.
Lay it all on the line.
Listen, no matter what I say to them,
I cannot make the straight and narrow gate
any wider.
You hear me?
It will always be true.
Straight is the gate and narrow is the
way.
Few there be that find it.
There's nothing I can say that's going to
broaden that gate.
Nothing.
God says it's right here and that's where
it's going to be and the Holy Ghost
is dealing.
I cannot come in and try to open
up that gate any wider.
I have to let God deal.
I have to let him be God.
Initial evidence, last page of the born again
experience.
Once a person has fully submitted to God
to his satisfaction, a transformation will take place
in which there will be a new creature.
I told the young people this last Tuesday,
the title of the message.
The title of the message was there's room
on the cross for you.
Do you realize you should be crucified with
Christ if you're a genuine Christian?
You should be living on the cross, crucified,
dead to yourself, dead to your old ways,
completely dead to you, dead to everything that
you used to be.
There's room on the cross for you this
morning.
Everyone will know there has been a change.
The sin has moved out.
The Holy Spirit has moved in.
The heart of stone has been replaced with
the heart of flesh.
Our new spirit will begin to cry out,
Abba, Father.
You know what I told the young people?
Here's what I told them.
You come back and tell me when you
know that you know that you know that
you're a child of God.
You come back and tell me when you
know that you know that you know that
your sins are forgiven.
Come back and tell me.
And that's when I'll know you're saying.
If you were to walk up to me
right now and say, Brother Robert, I don't
believe you're a child of God.
I'd say I think that you're mistaken, friend,
because I know that I know that I
know that I'm a child of the king.
I don't need you to tell me.
I don't need to be comforted in that.
If I'm really right with God, I know
that I know, and there's no one that's
going to change that thought in me.
I know my sins are forgiven.
I know I'm washed in the blood, and
you would not convince me otherwise.
Why is that?
Because I have what is known as the
witness of the spirit within me.
It's the witness of the Holy Spirit.
As newborn babes, they will desire the sin
-sealed milk of the word that they may
grow thereby.
They will want to know what the will
of their heavenly father is so that they
might please him.
They are satisfied and fulfilled by doing his
will, for once they may have been fulfilled
by sin.
And now, listen, they are contented to do
the will and the work of the heavenly
father.
That's what contents you now.
You're no longer at home in sin.
Sin doesn't satisfy you anymore.
This is what they live for.
This is what brings them joy.
This is the deep craving for God that
cannot be quenched any differently than quenching a
newborn baby's need for a bottle.
The baby wants milk, and the milk of
a newborn believer is to know what is
my heavenly father's will inasmuch as is possible
for me to fulfill it.
What is the first thing generally we tell
them?
You need to be baptized in water.
Okay, great.
That's his will.
I want to do it.
I want to do what my heavenly father
wants me to do.
So they're going and they're being baptized the
straight way.
I remember, wasn't it Phillip that was leading
the man by and he says, What next?
Well, you need to be baptized.
He says, Well, there's water.
What prohibits me now?
See, this is the heart of somebody who's
really been transformed.
This is somebody who's passed from death to
life.
This is not a convicted sinner who prayed
off conviction and don't want God and don't
know why.
Because they passed from death to life.
They're truly born again in the spirit.
Their desire is to do the will of
God.
Newborn babes in Christ, section B, are filled
with zeal for the Lord.
They desire to share their new selves with
others.
New Christians are often a thorn in a
careless sinner's side.
How many of you know that?
Remember Brother Birch talking about getting saved and
going back and bringing all these people to
church.
That is not the characteristics of somebody who
prayed off conviction.
That's somebody miraculously transformed.
That's someone who's experienced the new birth.
They seem to eat and sleep and breathe
God.
They want to know where the next church
service is.
Where will the next prayer meeting be?
They are new life to the church.
Brother Birch talked one time.
He said that he believed that the house
of God should be like a place where
the newborn babes are all at, where all
the fresh life is.
And I thought about how true that is.
They bring new life to the church.
They bring fresh zeal.
They bring something to the table that forces
us to step up to their level of
zeal.
We need to prepare for them.
We're going to see souls one in 2005.
We're going to have to get to a
level where we're not going to squelch some
newborn believer's zeal.
We need to realize that.
They're often unlearned about God, but they are
sincere.
They may make mistakes, but God knows their
heart.
John writes, My sheep hear my voice, and
I know them, and they follow me, and
I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them unto me is
greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Watch this.
Notice this simple progression.
Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice
and follow him, and he gives them eternal
life.
That's the question this morning.
Do you have that inner witness of the
Holy Ghost?
Do you hear the voice of the Lord
calling and drawing you near to him?
Do you hear his voice?
Do you follow him?
Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice.
Keep in mind there are three types of
people in the church at any given time.
Sheep, goats, and wolves.
They're the sheep, those that hear his voice,
those that love the Lord, truly born again
of the Spirit.
They're the goats.
They're the people who continually do nothing but
pray off conviction and go away, and they're
never changed.
They get saved every week.
Those are the goats.
Then there are the wolves.
Those are the people who come in to
destroy everything.
They've been planted there by the devil.
They wreak havoc in the church.
Those are the three types.
The world simply, for the newborn babe in
Christ, is not their habitat any longer.
Listen, they will never again feel at home
in sin.
The sinners always return to the pig pen.
That's their habitat.
The mud, that's what they like.
But the Son was never at home in
that mud.
He was never at home there.
He thought and came to himself, You know,
I could go back and be a servant
in my Father's house and be better than
this.
He was not at home there.
He was not at home in sin.
Finally, the process of actually being born again
is a process that does not usually happen
in a few moments.
Many people simply pray off conviction and are
never really born again in the Spirit.
We didn't give them the right hand of
fellowship often as though they were children of
the kingdom.
And when they quit serving the Lord, we
say they backslid.
Wait a minute.
We don't know whether or not they submitted
to the Holy Ghost or not.
How am I going to know whether or
not they were really saved?
How am I going to know?
I'll tell you how I know.
When I see that desire in their heart
for God.
When I see the fruits of the Spirit
being evident.
When I see a place where I don't
have to constantly hound them to serve the
Lord.
Listen, you don't have to hound a newborn
baby to take his bottle.
You don't have to.
Listen, when he starts crying, you better have
the bottle ready, right?
That's the way it is with the newborn
baby in Christ.
We have to get this.
Because there are so many people that are
not born again.
And if we didn't pay close attention, Jesus
said in John 3, 3, except you are
born again, you will not see the kingdom
of God.
Praying off conviction is not the way.
Listen, if I go down as a mechanic,
I used to have a tendency, if I'm
going to work on an engine, to take
it to the car wash, get it on
as hot as I could go, and wash
the motor off.
That's like getting your sins forgiven.
But if I'm going to rebuild the motor,
I don't slam the hood and say, it's
over.
See, that's the thinking when you think that
I'm coming to the altar just to get
my sins forgiven.
You're coming to get a new engine.
You're coming to get a new heart.
You're coming to be transformed, to be propelled
from death to life, from the power of
Satan to the power of God.
You're coming to be transformed by the Spirit,
so that there is a new creature.
If your thinking is always, oh, I'm coming
to have my sins forgiven, that is nothing
but Romanism, church.
It's no difference than sliding the thing over
and saying, Father, I have sinned.
I confess my sins unto thee.
I've done this, that, and the other.
Okay, go say four Hail Marys, and you'll
be fine.
What's the difference?
Listen, when you're born again of the Spirit,
you'll have an en route hunger for God.
And until you reach that point, you need
to keep seeking the Lord.
You need to find that place and submit
to God, and turn everything over to Him.
When they quit serving the Lord, we often
say they backslid.
But did they backslide, or were they merely
convicted sinners that fooled us, but they never
fooled God?
We must know the difference.
Listen, sadly, some of these folks end up
with the false assurance, and the church ends
up with someone that does not rightly represent
Jesus Christ.
Dr. Tozer once said that the gospel in
the hands of bad men is worse than
error.
What's that mean?
Somebody who calls himself a Christian, trying to
go around and push the gospel on people,
but their life does not at all line
up.
Dr. Tozer said that's worse than error.
And I have to agree.
Next to the last paragraph.
If the world is ever going to change,
it will only begin when we get back
to this most basic thing, the born-again
experience at the altar.
Ask people if they are saved, and everyone's
saved.
The question should be, are you born again
of the Spirit?
What was it like when you were born
again?
Were you born again in a few minutes?
Was there weeping and tears?
Did you wrestle with God?
Did you surrender all?
Did you take the time to really pour
out before God?
What was the one thing that you lacked
that the Holy Ghost said, turn this over
to me?
Maybe it was many things, but I'm sure
there was something.
Finally, many times people will come to God
unwilling to surrender all, but they want to
know what are the least requirements that they
might miss hell and go to heaven.
Listen, this is not salvation.
They're content to simply feel saved.
Real salvation is the surrender of your person
to another person, just as a man would
commit himself to a wife.
It is a covenant relationship that holds nothing
back.
Figuratively, listen, you might say that when you
were born again, you were married to Christ.
You are betrothed among many to be His
true bride, the Church.
Listen, He wants our love and our commitment.
Our commitment.
The born again individual has had a shift
in their affection.
They used to have an affection for sin,
but now they have a deep affection for
God.
If you're really born again, that shift is
taking place.
And when that shift takes place, it will
guide you the rest of your life.
That hunger and desire.
Listen, you pursue the things you love.
Your affections guide the direction of your life.
And your affections have to be wrought in
God.
They have the beginnings of a great love
that will transform their whole desire.
Think of that.
Born again of the Spirit.
A very basic and fundamental thing, John 3.
Three chapters into His Gospel.
What?
Thirteen verses before John 3.16. He said
you must be born again.
Not you prayed off conviction.
Not you came to the altar and cried
and just, you know, repeated the sinner's prayer.
A lot of people have been saved that
way.
But that will not save you if the
Holy Ghost is telling you, you must do
this.
You must submit this.
You must be willing to turn over all
to me.