To Be Born Again Changed From Within With Power Youve Never Known Before

Introduction

When his church was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871, Moody departed on an international tour leading revival meetings that drew thousands of listeners in at a time to hear what he referred to as the "good one-time Gospel." Yet although he preached the utter helplessness of man to save his own soul, Moody's ministry was never primarily ane of the spirit, as is evidenced even in this cursory message. Being "born again," Moody argued, had applied consequences for the individual believer, his or her family unit, and past extension, the broader gild. Non surprisingly, therefore, he ended his career by returning to the trouble of educating poor children, establishing the Chicago Evangelization Society (today known equally the Moody Bible Establish). The original purpose of the school was to educate a corps of lay people—men and women—for "applied Christian work," that is, the improvement of personal behavior through such reforms as temperance, improve dwelling hygiene, and acrimony mangement. Such efforts were intended to prove the life-transforming power of the gospel for individuals and families, and thus its importance for the betterment of lodge equally a whole. In this sense, Moody is the inheritor of a long tradition of evangelical pietism in America that linked social transformation to individual regeneration.

Will information technology pay? D.L. Moody and J.5. Farwell'due south first Lord's day school class, North Market place Hall, Chicago, Sick. / Published past G.H. Flood & Co., c. 1876. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Sectionalisation, LC-DIG-pga-03372.

Moody's Sermon

"Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born once again, he tin not see the kingdom of God'." — John 3:3

Suppose I put the question to this audience, and inquire how many believe in the Word of God. I have no doubt every human being and every woman would rise and say, "I believe." At that place might be an infidel or skeptic hither and there, simply undoubtedly the great mass would say they believed. And then what are yous going to do with this solemn truth, "Except a human be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God," much less inherit it?  There are a dandy many mysteries in the Word of God. There are a great many night sayings of which we have non all the same discovered the depth. But God has put that issue so plainly and simply that he who runs may read if he volition. This third chapter of St. John makes the fashion to Heaven plainer than any other affiliate in the Bible; yet in that location is no truth so much misunderstood, and the church and the world are so troubled about, as this.

Let me but say, before I go whatever further, what regeneration is non. It is not going to church. How many men think they are converted because they get to church! I come up in contact with many men who say they are Christians because they go to church building regularly. It is a incorrect idea that the devil never frequents whatsoever place but billiard-halls, saloons, and theatres; wherever the Word of God is preached, He is there. He is in the audience today. Y'all may go to church building all the days of your life, and yet not exist converted. Going to church is not being born again. Only there is another class who say, "I don't place my hopes in going to church. I have been baptized, and I think I was regenerated when that took place." Where practice those persons go their bear witness? Certainly non in the Bible. You tin not cognominate men into regeneration. If you could, I would go upwards and downwards the world and baptize every human being, woman, and child; and if I could not practice information technology when they were awake, I would do information technology while they slept. But the Word says, "Except a man be born once again"—born in the Spirit, born in righteousness from above—"he can not see the kingdom of God."

There is some other grade who say, "I was born again when I was confirmed. I was confirmed when I was five years old." But confirmation is not regeneration. A new birth must be the work of God, and not the work of man. Baptism, confirmation, and other ordinances are right in their place, but the moment you build hope on them instead of on new birth, you are being deceived by Satan. Another man says, "That is non what my promise is based upon; I say my prayers regularly." I suppose there was no human prayed more regularly than Paul did before Christ met him; he was a praying human being. But saying prayers is i thing, and praying is another. Saying prayers is non conversion. You may pray from educational activity; your female parent may take taught you when you were a little boy. I remember that I could not go to sleep when I was a little boy unless I said my prayers, and yet perhaps the very adjacent discussion I uttered might be an oath. There is just equally much virtue in counting beads as in saying prayers, unless the heart has been regenerated and built-in again.

At that place is another class who say, "I read the Bible regularly." Well, reading the Bible is very good, and prayer is very practiced in its place; but y'all don't encounter anything in the Scriptures which says, "Except a man read the Bible, he can non come across the kingdom of God." There is nevertheless another class who say, "I am trying to do the best I can, and I will come out all right." That is non new birth at all; that is not being born of God. Trying to exercise the best you tin can is non regeneration. This question of new birth is the almost of import that e'er came before the globe, and information technology ought to be settled in every human's mind. Every one should inquire, Have I been built-in of the Spirit?—have I passed from death unto life?—or am I building my hopes of Heaven on some form¹? In the first chapter of Genesis we find God working alone; He went on creating the world all alone. And so we find Christ coming to Calvary alone. His disciples forsook Him, and in redemption He was solitary. And when we get to the third affiliate of John, we find the work of regeneration is the work of God alone. The Ethiopian can not change his spots; we are born in sin, and the change of center must come from God.ⁱⁱ Nosotros believe in the good sometime Gospel.

What human wants is to come to God for this new center. The moment he gets it he will work for the Lord. He can non help it; information technology becomes his second nature. Some say, "I would like to have you lot explicate this new birth." Well, I might as well be honest, and ain right up that I can non explain it. I have read a great many books and sermons trying to explain the philosophy of information technology, merely they all fail to do it. I don't empathise how it is done. I can not sympathize how God created earth. It staggers me and bewilders me when I think how God created nature out of nothing. But, say the infidels, He did not practice information technology. Then how did He do it? A human being came to me in Scotland, and said he could explain it, and I asked him how those rocks are made. He said, "They are fabricated from sand." "What makes the sand?" "Oh!" he replied, "rocks." "Then," I asked him, "what fabricated the first sand?" He couldn't tell. Notwithstanding the philosophy of some people, we exercise believe that God did create the globe. We believe in redemption. We believe that Christ came from the Male parent, and that He grew upward and taught men. We believe He went into the sepulcher and burst the bands of death. You may inquire me to explicate regeneration. I tin not do it. But 1 thing I know—that I have been regenerated. All the infidels and skeptics could not brand me believe differently. I feel a different man than I did twenty-ane years ago last March, when God gave me a new heart. I have not sworn since that nighttime, and I take no desire to swear. I delight to labor for God, and all the influences of the world can not convince me that I am not a dissimilar man.

I heard some fourth dimension ago most 4 or five commercial travelers going to hear a minister preach. When they got back to their hotel, they began to discuss the sermon. A expert many people simply go to church for the purpose of discussing those things, just they should remember that they must be spiritually inclined to understand spiritual things. Those travelers came to the wise determination that the minister did not know what he was talking most. An old human being heard them say they would not believe anything unless they could reason information technology out, and he went up to them and said: "While I was coming down in the train this morn I noticed in a field some sheep, some geese, some swine, and cattle eating grass. Can you tell me by what process that grass is turned into hair, feathers, wool, and horns?" "No," they answered, "not exactly." "Well, do yous believe it is done?" "Oh yes, we believe that." "But," said the old human being, "you lot said you lot could not believe anything unless you understood information technology." "Oh," they answered, "we can not help believing that; we see information technology." Well I tin not aid assertive that I am regenerated, considering I experience it. Christ could not explain information technology to Nicodemus, but said to him, "The wind bloweth where information technology listeth, and g hearest the sound thereof, but canst non tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth."³ Can y'all tell all nigh the currents of the air? He says it is every ane that is born of the Spirit. Suppose considering I never saw the wind, I say it was all false. I have lived nearly forty years, and I never saw the wind. I never saw a human that ever did encounter information technology. I tin imagine that fiddling girl downwards in that location saying, "That homo don't know as much equally I do. Didn't the air current blow my hat off the other twenty-four hours? Oasis't I felt the effects of current of air? Haven't I felt information technology beating against my face?" And I say you never saw the effects of the wind whatsoever more than a child of God felt the Spirit working in his eye. He knows that his eyes take been opened; that he has been built-in of the Spirit; that he has got some other nature, a heart that goes upward to God, afterwards he has been born of the Spirit. It seems to me this is perfectly reasonable.

We take a law that no man shall be elected President unless he was born on American soil. I accept never heard any one complain of that constabulary. We take Germans, Scandinavians, foreigners coming hither from all parts of the globe, and I never heard a man complain of that constabulary. Haven't we got a right to say who shall reign? Had I any right when I was in England, where a Queen reigns, to interfere there? Has not the God of Sky a right to say how a human being shall come into His kingdom, and who shall come? And He says: "Except a man be born over again, he can non meet the kingdom." How are you going to arrive? Going to attempt to educate men? That is what men are trying to do, but it is non God'southward way. A man is not much better after he is educated if he hasn't got God in his heart. Other men say, "I will work my way up." That is not God's fashion, and the only way is God's style–to be born once more. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. You have an unregenerated man in Chicago and put him on the crystal pavements of Sky, and it would be hell! A man that tin can't deport to spend 1 Sunday among God'due south people on globe, with all their imperfections, what is he going to do among those who have made their robes white in the claret of the Lamb? He would say that was hell for him. Take an unregenerated man and put him in the very shadow of the Tree of Life, and he wouldn't want to sit there. A man who is born of the Spirit becomes a denizen of some other world. He has been translated into new life, taken out of the power of darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of Light. Haven't you seen all around you men who had become of a sudden and entirely changed?

Just depict a picture: Suppose we get down into one of these alleys—and I have been into some pretty nighttime holes down here in this alley that used to lie back of Madison street, and I have seen some pretty wretched homes. Go to i of those rooms, and you find a married woman, with her four or 5 children. The woman is heartbroken. She is discouraged. When she married that homo he swore to protect, beloved, and treat her, and provide for all her wants. He made good promises and kept them, for a few years, and did love her. Only he got led away into ane of these drinking saloons. He was a noble-hearted man past nature, and those are just the ones that are led astray. He has now become a confirmed boozer. His children can tell by his footfall that he comes home drunk. They wait upon him every bit a monster. The wife has many a scar on her body that she has received from that human being's arm who swore to love and protect her. Instead of being a kind-hearted husband, he has go a demon. He don't provide for that poor adult female. What a struggle there is! And may God have mercy upon the poor drunkard and his family unit is my prayer constantly! Suppose he is here in that gallery up there, or in the dark back there, and you tin't encounter him. May be he is so ashamed of himself that he has got behind a mail service. He hears that he may be regenerated; that God will take away the dear of strong drink, and snap the fetters that have been binding him, and make him a gratis human, and he says, "Past the grace of God I will ask Him to give me a new heart." And he says, "O God, save me!" Then he goes home. His wife says, "I never saw my husband expect so happy for years. What has come over him?" He says, "I have been up at that place to hear these strangers. I heard Mr. Sankey singing 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by,' and it touched my heart. The sermon about existence born once again touched my heart, and, wife, I just prayed right in that location, and asked God to requite me a new heart, and I believe He has done it. Come, married woman, pray with me!" And there they kneel down and erect the family chantry.

Three months hence you become to that home, and what do you find? All is changed. He is singing "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," or that other hymn his female parent one time taught him, "In that location is a fountain filled with claret." His children have their arms upon his neck. That is Heaven upon globe. The Lord God dwells there. That man is passed from death unto life. That is the conversion we are aiming at. The human being is fabricated better, and that is what God does when a man has the spirit of Heaven upon him. He regenerates them, re-creates them in His own paradigm. Let usa pray that every human being hither who has the love of strong drink may exist converted. Unite in prayer with me at present and inquire God to salve these men that are rushing on to death and ruin.

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Source: https://religioninamerica.org/rahp_objects/on-being-born-again/

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