What Did You Receive When You Were Converted to Christ

Tuesday morning, we met here, talked about the knowledge of life, and found out what life was. If you could give me one word, what would that word be? God. Then, on Wednesday, we met again and talked about the first experience. We decided that from that time on, we would start talking about the experience of life. Okay.

The experience of life. What is the very first experience of life? Regeneration. And do you have another term for it? Conversion. Rebirth. This is the word, rebirth. So we talked about regeneration. Can anybody remember anything about what was said? That’s right. Whether they were big conversions, great memories, small, every one of us got the Lord’s life.

Now then, that life must grow in us. We got all of the Lord’s life in us. There is the continual expanding, spiraling, revealing, revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes when you think you know it all, it puts you right back in the primer and starts you all over again. There is no secret to the Christian life. I didn’t mean that in an ugly way. That’s really true.

Now, today, something different. And it’s this. What happened to you? What happened to you on the day you were converted? Now you say, “I got the life of God.” That is correct. I want to go a little further and a little more thoroughly. What happened to you on the day that you were converted and became a Christian? What happened to you in the rebirth? What did you receive in the rebirth that day? Many, many things, but I would like to touch on the most important.

Now then, the rebirth. What do you get in the rebirth? Can anyone tell me? Do we have any scholars here to tell us a few things? What is gotten in the rebirth? The spirit of truth. What do you get in the rebirth? You get God’s life. Okay, that’s number one. No, you get cleansing then. I, you get a what? You get an enlightened human spirit. I’m going to say, I’m gonna put the cleansing aside; I am talking about things. You are clean, but this is subjective. I’m talking about things you actually get, packaged things. You know, the sins are taken away, but what do you get? Gifts, okay, fine. You get His inheritance. A heart of flesh, praise the Lord. You get what? You get made alive. I don’t think I can package that. Yeah, okay. He gave us everything. But in the Old Testament, He wrote on our hearts, “Now where does He write?” He writes in our spirit.

Number one, the first thing you get when you’re born again, of course John 3 makes so clear, you get God. You get God. Now the second thing that you get is that you get a heart of flesh. You get a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart.” What kind of heart did you have before you got a new heart?  You had a heart of stone. I have often been asked by brothers, “What do you mean you get a fleshly heart? Don’t we dislike the flesh?” No, we must understand the scripture uses the word flesh in three ways. The Bible speaks of all flesh, meaning all humanity. Then it speaks of the flesh in a good way, you know, your skin and bones. Then the flesh is spoken of in a negative way in that it is the corruption of sin in our being, in our bodies. But to say we will get a heart of flesh, you must see it’s contrasted to a heart of stone.

Now you see, we have here, what’s that? What is that? That’s a skull. It’s bone. Now that’s hard, I assure you; that is really hard. Okay. What do you have here? Flesh, soft. Bone is hard; flesh is soft. Your heart was stone. You were hard to the Lord, and then when you got born again, when you were born the second time, the stony heart was taken out, and you were given a soft heart. We became the sons of God. It gets to be a long list.

Now I want to take just a few of the most packageable things and look at them. I want you to know that when you got saved, the Lord gave you a soft heart before it was hard. What does this mean? A hard heart, a stony heart. Okay, it won’t let anything into it. What else about a hard heart? It won’t let anything grow in it. Not pliable. Alright, and life can’t flow into it, can it? Heavy, isn’t it? It won’t bring itself under submission.

Now then, let me ask you a question. What is the primary purpose of the heart? The spiritual heart. Yeah. Oh, it’s the exit and entrance of life. Now this is getting much closer. Brothers, the primary purpose of the heart is to love, and you had a heart that would not love God. These were the things most of the brothers were talking about: how to keep it loving, how to keep it soft. But I would say the first thing He did was to give us a heart capable of loving. Loving who? Loving the Lord. Then loving who? The brothers and the sisters. I’m not even sure we have to be so careful about anything else. To love the Lord and to love the brothers and the sisters. He gave you a heart of love, a heart that could love. I think if any of you had a clearly memorable conversion, you recall a deep and profound sense of love. That is probably the greatest single thing most of us recall about our conversion. So much got done, and there was a sense of love.

Now then, the heart is made so soft to love God and then love the brothers and sisters. Now, all the things you just heard are to keep your heart strong. We must let the Word come in and grow. We must keep the heart cultivated. We must be so quick to admit our low estate, our sinfulness. I don’t want anybody here to go around thinking, “Oh, how sinful I am.” Nonetheless, we can’t afford to be the other. We can’t be arrogant. We must be so soft to realize that every one of us is a sinful person. When you join the society called the church, you join a group of really messed-up people. Very sinful. And I must keep a heart that says, “Thank you, Lord, for my forgiveness and the forgiveness You gave all my brothers and sisters.”

The heart must be so open to receive Christ and to release Christ. The hard heart cannot receive Him and cannot release Him. When was the last time you received the Lord Jesus Christ? You know what I do every morning of my life, unless something happens that pressures me. Every morning of my life, without exception, I get up and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. I do it simply. I do it quietly. I usually do it all alone, and I will not leave until I have a real sense that He has come into me. And just as soon as I sense the Lord has just come in tonight, I then ask Him to go out of me. Now, that might not work for you, but that’s my secret. You go find your own secret. My secret is every morning I get up and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. You receive Him as your Savior; I receive Him. I don’t ask Him in what office or position. I ask the Lord, “Lord, come into me.” So quiet, nothing else in my mind or thought. Then, as I begin to sense the Lord, I say, Lord, flow out of me, flow out of me. This keeps my heart soft.