Evidences of the New Birth

My subject today is entitled
Evidences of the New Birth, or Evidences of Regeneration. Just
a few days ago I received a letter from a preacher friend who has
been serving as a missionary for over 14 years, about 1500
miles north of Toronto, Canada, way up in the coal country. We
write occasionally, but he wrote me a letter a few days ago, and
he said, I wish you would send me your thoughts on this subject,
evidences of the new birth. And I sat down and answered his
letter, and in answering the letter, I prepared this message,
and I sent him the outline of the message, evidences of the
new birth. Now, I'm going to read from 2
Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
Now note it doesn't say if a man be in the church or in religion,
but in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new. Now every professing Christian
ought to be, should be, and I believe will be, interested in this subject
today, the evidences of the new birth. And I especially feel,
I especially feel that this subject is timely for this day. Why for
this day? Because this is a day of much
religion. This is a day of much religion
and little understanding of the living God. Now you know that. It doesn't take a wise man to
figure that out. This is a day of much religion. Religion's
everywhere, but so little understanding of the living God. I'm going
to give you five definite evidences of the new birth. But before
I give them to you, I want to sound two warnings. I want to
warn you of two dangers. First of all, it is not an experience,
it is not a feeling that we're seeking, but a person. Now remember
that. It is not an experience, it is
not a feeling that we're seeking, but a person. And when the preacher
talks about the evidences and experiences of those whom God
has saved, some are prone to seek the experience. Some are
prone to try to produce the results. Some are prone to seek the feeling,
rather than looking to Christ, who is the source of all experiences,
who's the source of all evidences, who's the source of all grace.
Don't look to the feeling. Don't try to produce the results.
Don't try to find in yourself those evidences. Look for them
as they're revealed in you by the presence of Christ. Now that's
important. This is what our Lord condemned
the Pharisees for. He said, you cleaned up the outside
of the cup and the platter, but you neglected the inside. And
the inside is full of dead men's bones. He said, on the outside
you appear beautiful to men, you're producing some results,
you're producing some evidences, you're producing experiences,
but on the inside you're like a tomb. On the outside you appear
beautiful, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones.
So I must warn you of that. As I give you these five definite
evidences of the new birth, of regeneration, be careful you
don't seek these evidences evidences rather than seeking Christ. As
I give you the results of the new birth, be careful that you
don't try to produce the results without knowing the person. Be
careful that you don't seek a feeling instead of a person. It's Christ
that saves. The scripture says, let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. Let Israel
hope in the Lord. Let Israel seek the Lord, for
the Lord is plenteous in mercy. If you get to Him, you'll have
the mercy. If you get to Him, you'll have
the blessing. If you get to Christ, you'll
have the benefits, but you have to know Christ. Now here's the
second danger. Also, you must remember, and
please remember this because this is so important, all of
God's people do not have the same degree of revelation. That's
right. All do not have the same degree
of knowledge. All do not have the same degree
of faith. All do not have the same degree
of growth. Haven't you read in the scripture
that there are babes in Christ, and there are young men in Christ,
and there are elders in Christ Jesus, just like in your family,
down at your house. Now there's grandpa. He's 70,
75 years of age. And then there's mother and dad
and they're in their fifties. And then there's the sons and
daughters and they're in their twenties and thirties. And then
there's some babies around your house. And those babies don't
have the same experience and the same knowledge and the same
understanding that mother and dad or grandpa has. You can't
expect to find the same amount of fruit on a tree that's just
been planted as you'd find on a tree that's been there for
thirty years. If the tree's been planted for 30 years, of course
it's going to bear more fruit than the tree you've just set
out. So all of God's children do not have the same degree of
revelation, nor the same degree of faith, nor the same degree
of grace, nor the same degree of growth. There are babes in
Christ, and there are young men in Christ, and there are elders
in Christ Jesus. But there are spiritual and scriptural
evidences of a work of grace, and I believe I can give them
to you. Now listen to the Word of God. This is clear from God's
Word. If any man, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There are some things that are
new. There are some clear evidences that he's a new creature. Old
things have passed away. Behold, behold, look, observe,
the Scripture says, there's something new about him. And that's what
we're going to talk about. That's something that's new.
Listen to the Word of God. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. Now, the Bible talks about the
fruit of the Spirit. If the Spirit is present, the
Spirit is going to give forth fruit, just like if there's life
in a tree, it's going to have some leaves, it's going to have
some fruit. If it doesn't have any leaves
and doesn't have any fruit, it's because there's no life in it.
And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong
to Christ. Listen to the scripture, he that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. If a man knows God, you can tell
it by his love. By this shall all men know ye
my disciples, if ye love one another." If a person's filled
with hate, and malice, and envy, and jealousy, and all of these
things, he doesn't know God. It's evident he doesn't know
God. It's clear that he doesn't know God. His works reveal he
doesn't know God. Well, he may profess to be a
Bible believer, and he may be a Bible thumper. He may be what's
called a Bible preacher. But if he's full of hate, and
bigotry, and prejudice, and malice, he doesn't know God. That's what
the Bible says. There's no evidence that he knows
God at all. He that loveth not knoweth not God. How can you
say you love God, whom you've never seen, if you don't love
your brother whom you have seen? Huh? Well, you just can't do
it. If any man draw back, Paul said,
my soul shall have no pleasure in him. So here's an evidence
that a man says he keeps on going. If he draws back, it's clear
evidence that he doesn't know the Lord. Now let me give you
these five evidences of the new birth, and if you want to write
them down, you do so, and you go back and study the scripture.
Here are five evidences of the new birth, of regeneration. First
of all, a regenerated man, a born-again person, will have a deep sense
of sin. That's right. He'll have a deep
sense of his sin. Was not that the experience of
the apostle Paul? Listen to Paul. I am less than the least of all
the saints. That's what he said. I'm not
even worthy to be called an apostle. Paul, while others bragged on
him and praised him and thanked God for him, he had a very humble
and low opinion of himself. He said, why, oh wretched man
that I am. That I am. No, I was. I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? He said, Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. That's right. A regenerated man will have a
very humble opinion of himself. I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice
unto God, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And in that same
scripture, Paul says this, and let not a man think highly of
himself." That's right. This was the experience of Isaiah.
He said, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. When King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord, and I cried, oh woe is me. I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. That's right, a sense of sin. Wasn't that the experience of
David in Psalm 51? Have mercy upon me, O God. Blot
out my transgressions. Wash me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. My sins are ever before me. Against thee and thee only
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Behold, I
was shaped in iniquity, conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity. That's a sense of sin. Wasn't
this the experience of the Apostle Peter who cried, O God, depart
from me, I'm a sinful man? Wasn't this the experience of
Job who saw the Lord in the whirlwind? God appeared to him. God spoke
to him. You know what he said? Oh, he said, Lord, I've heard
of you by the hearing of the ear. Now, man, I seeth thee. I hate myself. I hate myself. I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth
and ashes. Oh, Lord, once have I spoken,
yea, twice. Things too wonderful for me.
I'll never open my mouth again. I've seen the Lord. That's right. And I'll tell you this, we come
to Christ as sinners, we continue the same way. That's who he came
to save. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. And if any man
say he hath no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth's not
in him. If any man say he hath not sin, he makes God a liar,
and God's word's not in him. And I'll tell you this, if they
shock you, but I want you to listen, will you listen to me?
The burden of our guilt and the burden of our sin does not get
any lighter as the years go by. Oh, Christ becomes more precious,
of course. His blood becomes more precious.
Our confidence and assurance in Him becomes stronger, but
not in ourselves. Our confidence in the flesh grows
weaker and weaker. And our burden of our guilt and
of our sinfulness gets no lighter. You know why? Now, you listen
to this. There are three reasons for that.
The man who's been saved 40 years is more aware of his sinfulness
than the man who's been saved 40 minutes. The man who's been
saved 30 years is more conscious of a burden of sin and a burden
of guilt and a sense of unworthiness than the man who's been saved
three days. And you know why? There are three reasons for that.
First of all is because the more we understand of God's holiness,
The more we see and understand of God's holiness and God's righteousness,
the more we see our failure and our unrighteousness. That's right.
As I grow in grace, I also grow in the knowledge of Christ. And
as I grow in the knowledge of Christ, I grow in the knowledge
of His holiness and His glory. Not just His benefits and blessings,
but His glory and His holiness. And the more I see of His holiness,
The more I see of myself, the closer you get to that light,
the more blemishes and spots you're going to... The dimmer
the light, the fewer blemishes you're going to see. Turn the
lights down real dim, and you can't see any dust on the floor,
any cobwebs along the corners, or any dust on the wall, but
turn that light up bright. The brighter it is, the brighter
it gets, the more dust you see, the more blemishes, And the brighter
the glory and holiness and righteousness of God is revealed to a man's
heart, the more he cries, O wretched man that I am, how far short
I fall of the glory of God. That's one reason why the burden
never gets any lighter. And this man that keeps telling
you he's getting better and better and closer to God and more like
God all the time, he's getting further and further away from
any knowledge of God. That's the truth. Now you listen
to this, the spirituality of God's law becomes more evident,
more apparent to us every day. That's right. His holy law has
to do, when we first learn his law and look at his law and study
his law, you know what we have to do with? Our deeds, our actions.
But the more you study God's law, the spirituality of it,
you see that God's law not only has to do with your deeds, but
your thoughts. Not only does God's law, God's
holy law, have to do with your actions, but with your attitude.
Not only with your outward acts, but your imaginations, and your
thoughts, and your motives. The spirituality of God's law
becomes more apparent, and we begin to see sin as not just
getting drunk, and not just gambling, and not just profane swearing,
but we see sin in thought. To him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not to him, it is sin. We see sin not only of commission,
but omission. Failing to love God with all
our hearts, failing to love our neighbors as ourselves, failing
to love even our enemies, and pray for them which curse us,
and feed our enemy when he hungers. Oh, my, my. Yes, sir. When you
get to talking in that area, you see why the burden grows
greater? And I'll tell you another reason. Why this burden never
gets any lighter? Because the glory and holiness
of God becomes more apparent, and as we understand more of
His holiness and glory, the more we see our sins. And as we more
we understand of the spirituality of His law, and the depths of
that law, and the heart dealings of that law, I'll tell you something
else. Our goals, our goals are continually
being readjusted. That's right, according to our
spiritual growth. You know, when we first come
to Christ, we start out wanting to be saved from the penalty
of sin, and then we want to be saved from the power of sin,
and then we want to be saved from the practice of sin, and
then we begin to pant and to hunger and thirst to be saved
from the presence of sin. When a man first starts out in
this thing of faith, he starts out with heaven on his mind,
and his goal is to make that city. I've got heaven on my mind. You've heard that song. I want
to make that city. But you know, as he grows in
grace, he begins to think less about a city and more about being
like Christ. I want to be like the Lord. It's
not so much hell I'm thinking about missing. It's not so much
heaven I'm thinking about gaining. I want to be like Christ. I want
to be like Him in my attitude, in my language, in my conduct.
and my treatment of other people. I want to walk the streets and
be like Christ. Not just walk an hour for Jesus,
but walk the streets for Christ. See what I'm talking about? And
I'll tell you something else. We start out this journey of
faith by comparing ourselves with other people. That is characteristic
of a new convert. That's right. He just feels so
good and everybody else is so wrong. He just criticizes this
one and that one and the other one, you know, and he compares
himself. Well, I don't do that, and I don't do that, and I don't
do that, you know, and he starts out comparing himself with other
people, and then he begins to compare himself with the Lord,
with the Lord Jesus Christ in the light of His glory. And he
begins to see that he's the chief offender. His pride is worse
than theirs. outward acts of rebellion. That's
right. His self-righteousness is worse
than their murder. That's right. The burden doesn't
get any lighter. Doesn't get any lighter. The
man who's been regenerated has an urgent, extreme sense of sin. Can't you offer me any relief,
Christian? No, sir. Not if you grow in grace.
You'll still be a sinner, saved by grace. You'll still be a sinner
with readjusted goals and readjusted attitude. You'll still be a sinner
with a greater glimpse of God's glory and a deeper appreciation
for Christ. You know what our Lord said?
To whom much is forgiven, he loves much. To whom little is
forgiven, he loves little. Secondly, a regenerated man not
only has a deep sense of sin, but he has a deep sense of inability
to please God. You know what Paul said? In the
flesh, no man can please God. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. A regenerated man has a sense
of his unworthiness of God's mercy. These sayings could come
from any believer. Listen, first of all, David.
You know what David said in his great prayer? He said, Lord,
who is David? And what is my house that you've
brought me hitherto? Listen to Mephibosheth, as he
fell at the feet of King David, he said, Who am I that you should
show such mercy to such a dead dog? Listen to Jacob, O God,
O God, I love this, O God, I am not worthy of the least of thy
mercies. And all the truth that thou hast
shown to thy servant, I am not worthy. Can you say that? I'll
tell you this. If you can find in yourself anything
to commend you to God, if you can find in yourself any reason
for God's grace, if you can find in yourself any motive for God's
mercy, you've missed Christ. Now, I wouldn't offend you if
I could get out of it, but sometimes in telling the truth, we can't
get out of it. We have to be offensive. The
message of the cross is offensive, but I'm telling you this, the
man whom God has cannot find from the sole of his feet to
the top of his head one reason for God's mercy. Not one reason. Job wrestled with this question.
He said, how can man be just with God? How can man be justified
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? Look at the heavens. The heavens
are not clean in God's sight. How much more vomitable and filthy
is man that drinks iniquity like water? Our inability, thank God,
is answered by Christ's ability. Our unworthiness is answered
by His worthiness, and our guilt is answered by His obedience.
I have an answer. It's not in here, it's in Him. Why God saved me is found not
in me, it's found in Christ and in God for His namesake, to the
praise of His glory. Thirdly, a regenerated man will
have a clear view not only of his sin and his unworthiness,
but he'll have a clear view of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Now this is important. For centuries,
men have carried on endless debates, endless debates, they always
have and they always will, about church government and church
ordinances and church discipline. They've carried on endless debates
about law and works and standards and ethics. They've carried on
endless debates about prophecies and latter-day reigns and second
comings. They've carried on endless debates
about who wrote this book and who wrote that book and why they
wrote it and where they wrote it. But there's one area in which
every redeemed child of God of all ages is in total agreement,
and that is, who is Jesus Christ? He's their God of their God.
He's our eternal surety. He's our representative in the
flesh. He came down here to this earth, and took our place, and
took our guilt, and took our shame, and bore it to Calvary's
cross, and paid the debt that we owe. And he was buried, and
he rose again on the third day, and he ascended back to the right
hand of God, where he is seated, having finished the work the
Father gave him to do. He died for every believer. He
put away the sins of every believer, and at the right hand of God
he intercedes. He makes intercession. He's the
mediator for every believer. They know who He is, and they
know why He came, and they know what He did, and they know right
where He is now. And He's their great high priest.
Moses knew it. Moses wrote of me, Christ said.
Abraham knew it. Abraham saw my day, our Lord
said, and he rejoiced, and he was glad. And I'll tell you,
the apostle Paul knew it. Luke wrote in the book of Acts,
to him give all the prophets witness, and yonder at the throne
of God in the book of Revelations it is said that they shall cry
unto him. Out of every tribe, nation, kindred,
tongue unto heaven they shall cry unto him. All people of all
ages, of all ranks, of all nations, of all ages shall cry unto him,
unto him who loved us and washed us from our sin in his own blood. Unto him. Be all the glory, both
now and forever. Amen. That's it. That's it. Now you go on arguing about all
your prophecies and your latter-day reigns and all of your events
and advents and all these other things and arguing about church
discipline and church government and church ordinances. Waste
your time. And let your people perish and go to hell for lack
of a true knowledge of the only one who can save. That's Christ
Jesus. You come to Christ and all these
other things will fall in line. But they can't fall in line if
you don't know him. He's the chief cornerstone. How
can you build a building? Huh? He's that keystone. How can you build an arch? Well,
you silly thing, you left out the cornerstone. You left out
the keystone. That's Christ. Find that cornerstone
and all the buildings will be built around him. He's the foundation. How can you build a building
without a foundation? You talk about putting the chimney up
before you ever lay the foundation. Lay the foundation, and the building
will follow the foundation. You see what I'm saying? You
want to know what's going to happen in the future? It'll follow
the foundation. It'll follow Christ. That's right.
It'll all be fulfilled in Him. All right? Fourthly, a regenerated
man will continue in the faith. That's right. He's going to continue
in the faith until he dies. I'm preaching this. I'm preaching
that if a man really believes on Christ, in saving faith, and
is vitally united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, he'll still
be believing on Christ, he'll still be united to Christ, he'll
still be seeking the Lord, he'll still be panting after holiness,
he'll still be clinging to the cross of Christ when he comes
to die. Now John said there's a bunch of folks left us, and
the reason they left us is because they never were of us. If they
had been of us, they no doubt would have stayed with us. That's
right. The Word of God holds out no
hope for the man who walks an aisle and leaves Christ. It holds
out no hope for the man who joins the church and departs from the
faith. It holds out no hope for the man who was a preacher or
a Sunday school teacher or a deacon or a church member or anything
else who is no longer keeping the faith. The Bible holds out
no hope for him. He's returned like the dog to
his vomit and the wallowing sow to his hog wallet. That's right. speaking to myself and speaking
to you too, we are of the house of Christ if we hold fast the
profession of our faith firm unto the end. He that endureth
to the end shall be saved. The only man who is going to
be crowned is the one who crosses the finish line, not the one
who starts and not the one who runs a while, but the one who
crosses the finish line. The Apostle Paul said, the time
of my departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight, I've
finished my course, I've kept the faith. I've kept the faith. Christ said, my people will not
depart from me, and I won't depart from them. They've been joined
together. And what God has joined together,
let no man put asunder. And no man's going to. And no
man wants to, who's ever been brought to Christ. The only reason
that the world looks more attractive to some church members is because
they never left it. They never left it. Lot's wife
left Sodom in body, but not in spirit. That's what turned her
to a pillar of salt. Now the fifth mark of a regenerated
man, in closing, a regenerated man will grow. He'll grow in
grace. He'll grow in the knowledge of
Christ. Anything that doesn't grow is not alive. He that groweth
not knoweth not God. This pulpit will not grow. It's
dead. But I grow. I grow. I change every seven years. And
the believer grows. Now these messages are available
on cassette tape. Last week's and this week's.
Three dollars is the cost of the tape. We'll send it to you
if you write to us and request this particular message. Until
next week at this same time, I bid you a very pleasant good
day.

Evidences of the New Birth

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Evidences of the New Birth

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