<TITLE>10. Par 33-35</TITLE>L-33 Mary was just an ordinary girl, a good girl, a virgin. I'm going to say she was sixteen or eighteen years old, engaged to a man, Joseph. Now, she was just an ordinary girl. She loved God. She believed in God. But one day on her way to the well to get some water, she met God; and from that time, the world has hailed her, "Blessed art thou among women." Why? Not because she was a virgin. Thousands of virgins, millions... We still have virgins, but we could only have one Mary. She can point her finger from that time. "From that time, from that trip to the well..."
Oh God, take us tonight, to the wells of water. You here who are not a believer, that we can say, "From that time at Madison Square Garden, Phoenix, Arizona, from that time something took a hold of me. I had an experience. Doubts fell away from that time. That time. Sure, it was from that time."

L-34 Paul, a persecutor of the church... Oh, that little, hook nosed Jew... Show the power of decision of the church, they had the keys. That's true. And watch how they made their decision. Talking about what the church can do. The church has only got one key; that's prayer. The church doesn't save you. You're a member of the Church by birth, but the church doesn't save you; it's Christ that saves you. It's not coming in contact with the church. It's coming in contact with Christ, and then automatically you're in the church.
The church had the keys. Jesus told them He gave them the keys. Look how they used it. They said, "Now, it is written in the Scriptures; the Scripture must be fulfilled. that let another his bishoprick, talking of Judas, and he said, "Let's choose one that has been in--out among us." And they had two; they fine--fine, cultured men, good men, just as religious as they could be to the key, men that were good reputation, and they cast their lots and chose Matthias, but what good did it do? There isn't one thing recorded in the Bible, that--that he ever did, not one thing, just a good, old deacon or something another like, but he was supposed to be an apostle.
God went over and chose a little old, high tempered, hook nose, church hater. It shows that God can take nothing and make something out of it. That's what makes Him God.

L-35 That's the reason I joined myself tonight, in the people that they, in this world is called, "holy-rollers." People of life, not way up in some great bracket, but men and women who's been in the gutters, been in sin, been kicked out, and taken away from the things of the world, but has met God face to face, and God has made saints out of them. It's amazing grace, how sweet the sound. God does it that way. They can point back and say, "Yes, I was no good. I took the Name of the Lord in vain. I did this; I smoked; I drank; I was this way or that way, but from that time." What time? "When I met God, things changed. No more drinking, no more things of the world, I'd passed from death unto Life, and from that time, I become a new creature in Christ."
Paul, church hater, saint hater, very religious, high tempered, persecuting the church, sassy, but a very intellectual man, God said, "I'll just choose him."
Now today, half the church would deny him. And God took him down on his road to Damascus. There come the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel before him, and blinded him, and made him fall to the earth. He took that man, and Paul could say this, "One time I was a religious Pharisee, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I had good re--intellectual back training, but all of my education and all my intellectuals, I had to forget to know Christ."
"How did you do it, Paul?"
"I was on my road to Damascus to arrest those people, and a Light shined from the heavens and struck me blind, and from that time." Amen. From that time, he was a changed man.


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