Are You Born Again? Have You Repented? — Mose Stoltzfus

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Well, praise God. Greetings again tonight in the name of Jesus. He truly is worthy to be blessed and to be glorified and we rejoice in the opportunity to be gathered together here again this evening. In the course of meetings like this, one of the things that we like to do in some of the opening meditations, and maybe it's been mentioned before, is to give a little bit of a teach, some teaching sometimes concerning revival or some of the fundamentals of the faith.

The Necessity of the New Birth

And bring these issues up and look at them because they are so pertinent to our very situation. Tonight, turn with me to John chapter 3 and I will read verse 1 through 8 for one of the most profound foundations of the Christian faith.

John chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born of the 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 said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the spirit.

One of the things that I'd like to do in the new birth or the matter of the new birth experience is I know, Brother Denny and I were just talking about today, how that it seems like no two experiences are identical.

And we recognize that. One man comes up to me and he says, Well, I travailed for months, you know, before I finally found the answer for my life. And another one says, Well, I didn't even know there was anything wrong, and I stumbled into a meeting, and it was a hot meeting, and a man preached the word.

And I got so under conviction in an hour's time that I hit the altar and got converted and changed by the power of God that night. And we know that there are many differences of experience, and so I do not allow myself or anyone else in my own theology to allow you or myself to take the new birth experience and put it in a box.

That you don't do it this way, you don't have it. So I don't want to do that, because I don't believe in it. But one of the things I'd like to do is to take it, and because I know it happens sometimes in ten minutes, and sometimes in a half an hour, and sometimes in weeks, that it takes for a person to work through and prevail and pray and cry out for mercy.

But I would like, if I could, just to take the experience apart for the sake of looking at it a bit tonight, to see whether we have truly had a new birth experience. Now you might say, well why do you question?

Here's the reason I question. Everywhere we go across the United States and other parts of the world the same, we would have to say is that there are multitudes of people who seem to have had something in their Christian life and experience, but they don't seem to have the miracle working power of Jesus Christ that has turned them and changed them from the power of sin and made them a brand new person and creature in Christ Jesus and with the power of the Spirit of God within to walk in newness of life.

Back home, we have many traditional churches. They raise their hand in a revival meeting, or stand to their feet and sit right back down again. Somebody takes them to the basement afterwards, and I've known of cases where they first sing a song and lead in prayer and make announcements and all of that and then dismiss.

And the one who stood in prayer or stood at the invitation is playing and chumming around with his friends. And finally the father and the minister come and tap him on the shoulder, take him into a room and begin to talk to him as to his decision, apparently for church membership and baptism.

There's no repentance, virtually. There's hardly any praying and there's no tears and no travailing and no crying for mercy. And that individual goes out of there and I'll tell you what, he's not sure whether he's born again or not.

He seems to have wanted something. He's empty. You know, he wanted something in his life, but he's not sure what happened. So many times we find ourselves occupied in a situation like that where we have to take him back around again, as we said, and make sure that the thing sticks this time.

So that's why we have done this many times. Others, I actually believe, they had some tears. They said, I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, but they never took issue with the sins of our flesh.

They never repented. They never even confessed them. In fact, they were probably too embarrassed to. If you don't have the humility to confess your sins, I doubt what you're going to get. So that's the reason that we would like to.

We would like to make this thing clear to you here in Colorado, that when we say, when Jesus said to Nicodemus, and we read this scripture, that ye must be born again, you know what we mean. There's a little bit of a discussion there between Jesus and Nicodemus too, until they figured out what each other meant.

Or until Nicodemus found out what Jesus meant. And so I think it is many times with us. And I just feel sorry for what we call many times, they're getting a five and ten cent conversion. It's about what they get these days.

It looks something that they get down to five and ten cents in the nickel and dime store. But we don't want that. We want something that changes men's lives. That is life changing. That is transforming.

That is rejuvenating and regenerating. And all the other eatings you can put in there. Because we want it to do its job. Well, I found out one thing. Sometimes when we go witnessing the people, they say, well, no, I'm not interested in getting converted right now.

I don't want to get saved tonight. Well, why not? Well, I'm not ready yet. Once I get ready, then I'll get saved. Well, I have to tell you tonight, that you will not get saved when you want to get saved.

You will get saved when the God of heaven begins to draw you. Because no man cometh unto the Father, except the Father draw him. And unless the mercies of God are in your life, you can howl all night, it seems, and you're not going to get anywhere.

Because there needs to be a drawing of the Spirit of God. And it seems like we see that sometimes, where there are people who have put it off too long and said, God, I'm not interested now. I want to have my fun.

I want to go out with a crowd. And then they end up sometime in an accident, and oh, they cry for the mercies of God, and He's silent from heaven. Because He's spurned the opportunities that they had at one time.

All right, I'd like to say that you cannot just come when you're ready, but when God tells it's your heart, that is the time to respond and to come toward Him. The next thing I'd like to look at is conviction or travail.

Conviction, Travail, and the Sorrow of Sin

When we look at a birth, and most of you are childbearing age around here, and you know what the travail is, and most of you men know what it is too, as you accompany your wives in birth. Well, a good old-fashioned new birth experience should have some soul travail in it.

It ought to have going down through the birth canal, as we call it, where the squeeze is on you, so to speak, and you are going through great difficulty and pain. I think in that pain, there needs to be a pain of despair, the pain of lostness, and the pain of despair should grip on your heart.

I am lost. I'm on my way to hell, and if I don't get something from God, that's where I'm going to be. There ought to be a travail of failure. My ship is sinking. I am high and dry. I don't have it. I thought I had the world by the tail, and I had a good job, and I had this, and I had that, but I have nothing.

And a travailing in despair like that, concerning the failures of our life, there ought to be a travail of guilt. Oh, the miserable guilt of sins, they come before our hearts and eyes, and we remember the time we stole that thing, and we remember the time we committed fornication, and we remember the time we rebelled against father and mother, and spoke hard words directly into their faces, and scoffed at them, and went out and did our own thing, and the guilt of that should just, I mean, make the chills go over us.

We should suffer the pain of guilt and travail. And then we should also suffer the travail of misery. I always appreciated when young people get up to give their testimony, and they said, I'm miserable.

And that's a good word, in that soul travail, going through that birth canal, that there is a point of misery. I can't stand it when the eyes are totally dry, and somebody just nonchalantly comes along and wants to become a Christian.

There needs to be a forsaking of sin in our own way. I believe one of the mistakes that many people make in their attempts to be born again, is that they want Christ added to their plans, and their life.

But I believe it's time that we understand that to be born again, we forsake our way, and take His way. Brother John D. Martin, our local Bible school teacher every year, he says, it's like a blank sheet of paper, you sign your name and upon it, you give it to Jesus and say, fill it in.

I'll obey and do it. I like it. I like the picture. It's a despair, which lets him be the Lord and say, I've tried to go my way. I've tried to run my life, and I can't do it. I'm going to let you run it.

Here, I sign my name. I'll do what you tell me. Go ahead and fill it in. But oh, there's not many conversions that way today. There's not many that look at it like that. They want to fit this Jesus into their program, into their future, into their education, into their spare time, and you find out they end up with a five and ten cent store religion, which does not do the job it needs to do.

I personally believe there should be a confession of major sins and a true repentance in the heart of them. I know there are people who get saved who just simply weep and break before God and say, I am a sinner.

I am a mess. And they never mention one of them and God takes them as He sees their heart. And that's the reason people get saved because God sees a broken heart. But I find myself occupied in over 50 of the time working with people is that I find out that they have major blatant sins against the God of Heaven that they have never bowed their heart and confessed before a man anywhere or before God.

They have just hoped that it would run off like water and they have never confessed and specifically repented of major sins. And oh, they go flip-flopping in their Christian life and it's up and it's down and it's up and it's down and no victory, no power, and no joy.

And a lot of times when we go back around again we say, okay, now let's clean the slate and let's confess your sins and forsake them and repent of them and name them and humble yourself before a brother or a sister or a couple of them and simply jump the bucket.

And we find out that that gets results in men's lives. The new birth, one of the words that is given to us in Titus and also in another place but Titus 2 where it says not by the washing of regeneration or it's by the washing of regeneration or renewing of the Holy Ghost and I'd like to emphasize that word regeneration.

Now the only way I know to describe that word is to refer to your water softener if you have one when you regenerate your water softener but what it is that there is a there is a something in there that attracts the ions of the water or the minerals and the deposits and all this stuff and holds it in there and then when you regenerate your water softener you take a saline solution through all that stuff and just flush it all out of you.

All out of the water softener and we call that regenerating the water softener and I like that picture that there needs to be a miracle working power of the Spirit of the Living God that literally a supernatural power that regenerates your life like that and all the filth and the accumulation for years is flushed out of you by the power of the Spirit of God and you become regenerated.

It is the work that is not done by yourself. Let me tell you that the new birth tonight is not reforming. The new birth is not to be able to quit drinking and to be able to quit smoking and to be able to quit running.

It's not just that some of those things are accomplished in men's lives without being born again but a miracle working supernatural power to transform your life by the power of Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit.

Regeneration and Freedom from Sin

It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Your new birth experience tonight, if you have it, needs to save you from the love and the practice of sin. I actually believe that there are times that men weep, men repent, men do a lot of things and never stay and wait long enough for the regenerating power of Jesus Christ to come in and to make the transforming experience on the inside of them and therefore they have never been able to really shake off the sin in their life because you and I my friend will not shake off sin on our own accord.

We will not deliver ourselves. We will not set ourselves free. The Bible says if the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. And we need the Son of God to make us free from the power and dictate and slavery and bondage and chains of sin.

That's the new birth. I believe the new birth should be the power to obey God's commandments. Many people say I'm in Romans 7 the things that I want to do I can't do and the things that I don't want to do I find myself doing.

Chasing after my former sins chasing after the world and I've got that inner drive in me and I can't help myself. But I believe that one who has been regenerated has the power in his or her life to obey God's commandments.

And his commandments will not be grievous. Thank the Lord Jesus. Regeneration or the new birth is not only a repentance or a tearing down work but it needs to be a constructive work a building up work in your and my life.

Yes, we through repentance and confession of sin we tear the old house down but then through the power of the Holy Spirit we build a new house up and we have power and we have life and we have living water flowing from within yes, a river of it flowing out of the throne of God through our lives and out and touching the lives of other people.

A constructive work not just a destructive work of repentance. It's a recreating and a renewing work. Supernatural a change of heart just like it says back in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you a new heart will I give you also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Isn't it true that many people that have been a hot tempered angry person need a new spirit within in order to change their character in order to change their way. Yes I believe if you're going to let God change you and give you a new supernatural new birth experience you can let that anger behind.

You can let those things of the dictates of the flesh that drive you and embarrass you in front of people all the time you can let it behind and God will bring up a welling up of love. The love of God shall be brought in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

Yes we need a change of heart and we need a change of spirit and that's what the new birth is. A man cannot do it with hands. In Colossians 2 .11 it says a circumcision not made with hands. Not that nobody is going to come down there and cut something out of you.

It's the spiritual experience where the finger of God through the spirit will cut out the old heart and throw it away and put a new heart down on the inside and change your way. The new birth experience.

The Bible says that we have a new spiritual nature to do spiritual things. We are able to be a spiritual person and we have a spiritual nature to do spiritual things. They are not hard. They are not impossible.

They are not a burden. We are able to do them. Ephesians 2 .10 says for we are His workmanship. He has reshaped the clay. We are His workmanship created. In Christ Jesus. And there needs to be a liberation from sin.

Oh, so many times I'm so puzzled with this one. Here they come with the chains still hanging on them. Having joined the church and accepted Christ as their Savior so-called 30 years ago. And the old chains are still hanging on them.

And they're still bound and they're held back and there's a hook in their jaw like the brother said. And they can't go forward. They can't open their mouth and testify. What's wrong? Simply because there has not been a liberation from sin.

But if a person is born again by the power of Jesus Christ there is a liberation from sin. The Bible says in 1 John 3 .9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin for he is born of God.

And I believe that means practicing sin over and over and over and over again. Being a slave to sin. Being ruled by it. Liberation from sin. Another thing is the victory over the world. And I failed to have this in my message last night but it fits well here where in 1 John 5 .4 it says Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world.

Overcome the world. Are the chains going? Are they cut? Is the umbilical cord of this world cut? And you don't need it anymore because you have life within yourself from God. That's a question we need to ask ourselves tonight when we look at the new birth.

Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is he that overcometh the world even our faith. It's our faith in Jesus Christ that is able to give us victory over this present evil sinful world.

This corrupting evil that is in this world. Well we must ask you tonight again now have you been born again? Have you been born again? Have you not only tore down the old house but has a new house been built up inside of you?

Have it changed your heart? You used to go this way and now you go this way. You have truly repented and you hate and are sorry for the sins that you have committed in your past life. And there's a fire inside of you burning and a river of water like the Bible says he that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

And this comes from the throne of God. He puts this inside of us when we've been born again. Changed by his power. Oh I would like to appeal to you tonight to not settle for that five and ten cent stuff that is being sold in the marketplaces but go for the gold and the silver that is able to transform and to change and to regenerate you and quicken your inside, quicken the mortal part of you and able to direct you and bring the body and the spirit and your character under its control and under its obedience and then you'll walk by God.

That is the new birth experience and that's what you need and I pray don't stop until you have enough of that that that works in your life and you have the fruit of that in your life. Not in every area of perfection but truly the generalities of this thing must be there.

The fruit of the spirit must be there. If it's not start over. That would be our request here tonight. Nicodemus he so clearly says or Jesus tells him that this is an absolute must and I have to give it to you tonight.

It's your only way to heaven. It's your only way except you become born again you'll never see the kingdom of heaven. You'll never see the glories up there. You'll never experience them. You'll never hear come come ye blessed of the Lord well done all those beautiful words that Jesus said come and inherit the kingdom that was provided from the foundation of the world.

We will not hear that unless we've been born again and I would just ask you tonight to consider your theology and what it has done for you and answer the questions according to what was given here tonight.

Shall we stand together for a word of prayer before we go on. Dear God we pray truly we say to tonight why not tonight? Why would anyone shirk an experience an absolute like that in his life? Yes we know.

Why did we wait so long? We wonder too. And many times it was because of ignorance and many times because of the wickedness which is them and makes them something that will go on and on past a week from now.

Living a vibrant personal intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Standing against sin and living a holy life in this our generation. This is in the midst of a evil and a crooked world. Lord we pray bless brother Denny tonight anoint him with the Holy Ghost to preach forth the clear sounding trumpet message from God again that we might hear and do the things that you would have us do.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Alright tonight we greet you in Jesus name and it's our desire to once again to take an issue of revival that surrounds revival and give a little teaching on it at the beginning of a service like this.

Repentance as the Way of Return

Tonight it's on repentance. Now we have used this word throughout the week and we would like to specifically look at this matter of repentance. If your ears are open tonight and you get this secret of your life and how to find find a deliverance from many of your sins and problems and even how to get converted in the first place for your friends or how to lead people through this is a clear key that we all need is the issue of repentance.

There are those who teach there are twelve steps to salvation and others that teach there are eight steps to overcome bitterness. But I would like to say that we have found that all of those steps are brought together pretty close together into one package when we understand repentance.

In other words if a man has bitterness in his heart we find there's basically two things that the man has to do and that is to repent of his bitterness and forgive the individual and he's free. No eight steps to overcoming bitterness but just simple Bible repentance.

Simple Bible repentance. So we'd like to teach this to you because here's why. This is not only a one time thing when we originally get converted but as we go through the Christian life and find ourselves slipping or making a mistake the way to get out of it is once again repentance.

You know the interesting thing that stood out to me last week in looking to the remedy that Christ gave through the Apostle John in Revelation to the church of Ephesus the first of the seven churches of Asia He said repent and what?

Do the first works. Well what are our first works? Well you humble yourself you bow your hearts you confess your sin you repent you know for the fact that you lose your first love and that was their problem.

And the way back to God is repentance. Well now I want to show you some differences here how the word is used. In Matthew 27 verse 3 we have this verse that then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood and they said what is that to us see thou to that and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself.

Now the Bible says here that Judas repented himself. But it's evident that he repented himself about the same way that the thief repents when he's caught stealing. He's sorry for the situation he got into he's sorry he got caught but there has not been a 180 degree turn in his life in the fact that he was willing to totally admit what he had done and declare himself in a remorseful way a repentance before God.

And that says a lot of people they are sorry to get caught they are sorry that they get found out they are sorry for the fine they are sorry for the sentence they got into and the trouble that they brought upon themselves and their family but that's not the sentence.

Let's go on. Matthew 4 .17. Back in the book of Matthew chapter 4 .17. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two men Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers.

I only wanted the one verse there verse 17. This word repentance means a compunction upon our lives and is to think different about the matter. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus was saying it is time to think different about your matters.

And that means that something has to happen in one's life. There are such once again if we can use the expression such cheap repentances today such 5 and 10 cent store repentances that are not doing the work in the heart of man.

And we'd like to show you the difference between those. Now in the Old Testament so we notice that Jesus preached repentance. John the Baptist preached repentance and Peter preached it at Pentecost as soon as the Holy Ghost was come.

So it's a message that finds its way through the scriptures. But in the Old Testament the word repent means to part to sigh or groan to turn or return. Interesting isn't it? To part to sigh or groan to turn or return.

Old Testament meaning a repentance from the Hebrew. New Testament to care to be concerned to change the mind radically towards sin and to God. To change the mind radically concerning sin and turn it to or toward God.

To turn over or unto repentance. So radical and deep a change so as to affect the entire personality. Now look at some things there. The intellect must function because by because we must have the knowledge that we have sinned.

Somehow we have to find out that we have not done right. We have gone the wrong way. So the intellect must function and get knowledge from somewhere that we are not doing right. We're going the wrong way.

We're not we have sinned. We have rebelled. We have we have grieved God. The emotions should be aroused because that is a powerful impulse to turn. The emotions should be aroused in repentance because that will give you an impetus to turn around.

For instance, if I would stand up here and say I repent that I've said a lie. You know, in a dry way you'd wonder, did he? But if I stand up here and it's hard for me to talk and the tears are streaming down my faces over my face and I'm all broken up and I've said I'm sorry I repent that I've said a lie.

See, when the emotion is aroused there, it gives an impetus to turn. A better impetus to turn than just a dry nonchalant I'm sorry. That's like Brother Denny was talking about John 1 9th. John 1 9th. John 1 9th.

No! We must repent of our sins. Alright, so the emotions should be aroused to turn there. It's good to have tears and groanings in repentance. The will must act. There must be a determined abandonment.

Just for instance, again, if I could take a smoker with his pack of cigarettes, I'll tell you what I like to see when he gets the repentant body's smoking habits. I like for him to take the leftover pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and swirl them around.

He's sick of it. I mean, he wants to get out of it. Instead, there are people that take the pack of cigarettes and lay it on the counter there and say, Lord, deliver me from my cigarettes. They keep on struggling with the thing.

But if somehow a holy indignation and anger can rise up in an individual emotionally and spiritually and powerfully upon his being and says, I'm sick of this thing. I'm going to get real and throw it on the ground.

That's repentance. Now we all must act. And that is a determined abandonment of sin and a return to God. I am going to leave it. I'm going to walk away from that place. I can't stand it. I will not go near the bar anymore.

I will stay away from those evil houses. I will stay away from that my buddies that always drag me into those things. And you turn around and say, I'm going to do something else with my life. Repentance.

Godly Sorrow Versus Worldly Sorrow

All right, let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 9 through 11. Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now this is a good verse. Let me show you tonight that there are two sorrows. You can have a sorrow under repentance or you can have a sorrow of the world that works death.

And here's the difference. The sorrow of sin that works repentance or the sorrow godly sorrow that works repentance makes you terribly embarrassed and sorry for the sin you have committed, but something wells up within you with a tremendous fire and determination that I will change and do right and I'll find my way out of this hole.

The sorrow of the world works depression and suicide. The Bible says. The sorrow of the world works death and that's why people get down into the same pit who don't look at repentance right, but look at godly sorrow, look at the mess I'm in.

My family's all ruined, you know. I'm a convict in prison perhaps. I have messed up my life. There's no reason for me to be here anymore and they think up of ways of how to destroy their life. The sorrow of the world works death.

I think if we would be able to talk to many people before they commit suicide that's what happens. They get into a pit, into a funnel and they actually are convinced and persuaded by the devil. There is no way out.

No way of return. Nothing can be done. And it's happening to sixteen and twelve year old young people that are committing suicide because of the trouble they get into in school with their friends and on drugs and trouble with girlfriends and boyfriends and all this gives them such a hopeless situation they decided there's no way out of this I will destroy myself.

But the repentance that godly sorrow that works repentance gives a glorious hope. Hey, there's a way out. I will quit this. I will leave this place. I will not come back here. I will turn and return unto the God of heaven and it wells up within and oh the difference is as great as day and night between the two.

Bible repentance. Next verse. For behold this self saying thing after you sorrow that you sorrowed after a godly sorrow look what it does when you sorrow after a godly sorrow. What carefulness it wrought in you what clearing of yourselves.

What indignation. Yea, what fear. What vehement desire. Yea, what zeal. Yea, what revenge. In all these things you have approved yourself to be clear in this matter. And this simply says if I find myself and I have met people who have been guilty when they have come up under conviction who have been guilty of two hundred robberies.

Only caught for three of them. But when a man repents of the whole thing he gets a fire in him. He gets a zeal. He gets a vehement desire. He has a desire to clear himself. Oh it makes him careful. I will be different.

I will change. I will find my way out of it. And it says what indignation what vehement desire. Yea, what revenge. He is angry. The devil tricked me. I'm through with him. I'm not going to give him any time anymore.