The sermon transcript discusses the phenomenon of people professing faith in Jesus Christ but then drifting away from their faith. The speaker emphasizes the importance of true repentance, daily seeking the Lord's help, and reading the Bible faithfully to maintain a strong faith. The sermon also highlights the spiritual decline in America and the need for a revival. The speaker urges listeners to be born again through faith in Christ and to live for Him daily.

Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio. This is Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio, news-related subjects in light of the Bible. And now, here's your commentator, Ray Brubaker. Thank you, and again we send greetings to our friends everywhere. There are those who are asking, is America dying? Dr. John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare observes, there are many ways in which a nation can die. It can die of internal strife, tearing itself apart. It can die of indifference, of an unwillingness to face its problems, an incapacity to respond to the sufferings of its people. Or a nation can die of old age, not chronological so much as a psychological old age, a waning of energy, an incapacity to learn new ways. How does a nation die? Well, it dies morally and spiritually. It can die politically and socially. It can even die militarily and religiously. Is America dying? Archbishop Iakovos, on visiting this country, declared, Americanism as an ideological, political and economic system nears total bankruptcy. When in address to the nation, on the higher plane of public morality, there is no need for me to preach. We have thousands of far better preachers and millions of sacred scriptures to guide us on the path of a personal right living and exemplary official conduct. If we can make effective and earlier use of the moral and ethical wisdom of the centuries in today's complex society, we will prevent more crime and corruption that all the policemen, prosecutors and governments can ever deter. In Sweden, they have a record suicide rate. They also have a top rate of mental illness. They're close to the top when it comes to the rate for illegitimacy. Well, Billy Graham has commented, I had thought Sweden was bad, but Sweden hasn't gone near to the depth of various sex deviations and obsessions that we have gone. Graham calls our moral decadence the greatest threat to our democracy. He quotes Jesus who said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be when the Son of Man comes back. Surely we must be living in days preceding the coming of Christ. Well, too long America has been the crime capital of the world. We're unable to solve our crimes. Criminals often go unpunished. The National Observer quotes police records as stating 79% of all U.S. murders, aggravated assaults, forcible rapes, robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and auto thefts go unsolved. Think of it. Well, here again, my friends, is proof of the scriptures, which reminds us that in the last days iniquity shall abound. Or this word iniquity is better rendered in the Greek lawlessness. Then as a result of this lawlessness, we read, the love of many shall wax cold. Oh, hear me, my friend, let's shake off this indifference that's sweeping the land today. Too many so-called Christians are getting swept along with the tide of iniquity, succumbing to the temptations that allure the flesh, becoming lukewarm in their Christian profession, and for some they're becoming morally bankrupt. May God help us. When it was said of the church at Ephesus that they lost their first love, our Lord cries out, Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I'll come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. In the midst of our moral calamity, is it possible that some are falling away, drifting into a state of shallow belief and careless living? Ah, let's wake up. Jesus is coming. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, awaiting the coming bridegroom. Repent and be ready. Well, in the second place, we would point out America is dying spiritually. Yes, there's a resurgence of spiritual interest in the land. David Warren of Yale's Religious Ministry observes there is a religious revival going on. Then he points out it is almost dialectic tension with the whole spirit and law of the dominant church in America. Then there are leaders in our government like Charles Coulson, one-time tough guy in the Nixon cabinet, who is boldly professing faith in Jesus Christ. It was interesting to read an article in the New York Times, which not only commented on Coulson's conversion, but went on to explain from the scriptures just what happened, what took place in his life. Says this newspaper, to the 40 million evangelical or Bible-oriented Christians in the country, Mr. Coulson's experience is a playback of one of their most familiar scriptures. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Then the New York Times article goes on to explain, the evangelical Christian believes that man is separated from God by sin. He is spiritually dead. According to this belief, man can be reconciled with God only through acceptance of and trust in the death of Jesus Christ, recognized as the Son of God, sent for this purpose. Forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to the evangelical is a free gift of God that cannot be earned. Then the Times comments further on Jesus' words to Nicodemus, when our Lord says he must be born again. Notes this article, this rebirth the evangelical believes results in the life of Christ being lived in every believer through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Even as a friend of Coulson testified of him, he has Christ in him. I wanted a description to be found in the New York Times. It's a clear-cut explanation of salvation. It explains what is happening in the lives of many seen turning to Jesus Christ today. However, in spite of those seen professing faith in the Savior, there is an accompanying drift which is noticeable particularly among some in the Jesus movement. Educator Peter Maron writes, concerning the Jesus people, they offer the young what others fail to do, an instantaneous and push-button forgiveness, an apparent and abrupt end to guilt and self-disgust. Well, while it's true that there is instant forgiveness upon real repentance, forsaking of sin and turning to Jesus Christ, it is also true that for some there is this drifting away. I recall meeting a young man who spoke of a conversion experience and a large crusade he attended, but it only lasted a week he lamented. I asked him whether he read his Bible faithfully, whether he sought the Lord's help daily in his life. For after all, is this not the secret to a successful Christian life? Our Lord spoke of the sower who sows his grain. When some seed falls upon rocky soil, our Lord is heard saying, they on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. Now some do not like to believe that it's possible to fall away, but R. A. Torrey, an associate of Moody, said this verse indicates that it's possible to have a spiritual quickening short of regeneration. In other words, they're what we might call in the Christian experience, who are spiritual miscarriages. They know of a time of conception when they partook of the life-giving word, but they never matured into actual birth. For when a person is truly born again according to the scriptures, he cannot be unborn. The Apostle John makes this clear, saying, whosoever is born of God doth not commit or practice sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. What a relationship! My friend, if someone tells you he's born again and he's living in sin, it's possible he may have experienced this quickening short of regeneration. He may have experienced life through the life-giving word, but if he's gone back into sinning, then the seed has fallen upon a rock, and there's this falling away described by Jesus. On the other hand, a truly born-again believer will not fall back into a life of sin according to John. John goes on to declare, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. This is not to say that a born-again person will never sin, rather he'll be brought back into faithful service and fellowship as a result of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit within him. Moody estimated that in his day 19 out of 20 Christians lacked spiritual power. They believed on the Son and were saved, and there they rested satisfied. They did not seek anything higher, says Moody. How many there are today who similarly come forward in a meeting, sign a card, shake the preacher's hand. They may have been honest and sincere, even professing to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. But my friends, if their lives have not been changed, they cannot be assured of having this new birth experience. My friends, the new birth is a change wrought by the Spirit of God in which old things pass away and all things become new. And if you have not experienced this change, you had better ask Christ now to save you. Then ask the Holy Spirit to empower your life, to fill you with his presence. Again, Moody testifies the secret of the Holy Spirit coming in power to the believer is the individual's complete surrender to the Savior. We do not have to wait upon God to do something for us. He's simply waiting for us to yield ourselves to Him. Did you hear it? How to receive Christ is to have life. That life comes as a result of receiving the Word. As we read in John 6, 63, Jesus is speaking, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. Ah, yes, we repeat it. Receiving Christ through the Word, we have life. Again, we read, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Then Jesus taught that in the new birth, one is born of water and of the Spirit, John 3, 5. So in order for one to be born again, there must be the due operation of the Word received by faith. Along with this operation of the Spirit, bringing about a changed relationship, we call the new birth. Well, have you experienced this new birth? Are you born again? Have you repented of sin through a life-giving experience we call regeneration? Have you been changed by the conversion wrought through faith in Christ by the empowerment of God's Spirit? If your faith is shallow, my friends, you're spiritually dying, the chances are you've never been truly born again. And sadly enough, this is the testimony today of many whom Dr. Torrey might analyze as having experienced a quickening short of regeneration. Well, my friends, you can be born again. Right now, mean business with God, turn from sin to trust the Savior, then live for Him daily. Be ready also, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. Thank you for listening to Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio. For a free audio of this message, visit RayBrubaker.com on the Internet. May God richly bless you is our prayer.