<TITLE>07. Par 18-18</TITLE>L-18 We all know that the Bible teaches the new birth. And they substituted handshakes and everything else for the new birth, but it'll never take the place of the new birth. It's got to be an experience, a borned again.
We all know that any kind of a birth is a mess. When a baby's borned, if it's on the floor, if it's in a shuck pile, or in a pink decorated hospital room, it's a mess. But it brings life. That's what the new birth is; it's a mess, but it brings life. It ain't a style, or a put on, or declaration of creeds; it's the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and that's the secret of the real believing church: borned again.
Oh, I know you get up from the altar, crying , and boo-hoo, and squealing, and slobbering, but it brings life. It takes the starch out of you. It makes you something that you ought to be. It takes all the world and the stiff-neck out of you. And today, we just walk up and say, "I take Jesus for my personal Saviour." That'll never take the place of the new birth, when men and women come to the altar and forget where they are and who's around them, until they really die out and are borned again. All night prayer meetings and the power of the Holy Ghost get back into the church again, that's what we need today is a good old time Saint Paul's revival, and the Bible Holy Ghost preached back in the power, yet in the simplicity of preaching that's in the power of the resurrection.
The great apostle Paul said, "I come to you, not with words of wisdom that your--your faith would be built up in the wisdom of men, but I come preaching the power of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would be built upon the Holy Spirit. The church needs that today. And when we substitute other things and get classy, and starchy, and stiff, we're losing the very secret, and our locks are being shaved off. It's exactly right.


<A HREF="P8">Next Page</A>