<TITLE>16. Par 118-123</TITLE>L-118 There was Nicodemus, an honorable man, a great man, a bishop in his church, renown man, loved by everybody, and come to Jesus and knowed no more about life than a--than nothing did. He was very ignorant of It when Jesus rebuked him for it; but he was sincere enough to come. The rest of them wouldn't even come. They stood off with the high priests, and with the Bishop So-and-so, and So-and-so. See? They stood off with them, rather taking their traditions of their elders than to hear the Word of God.

L-119 Now, you can tell them; they won't listen to it. You can just exactly... Could you imagine... I want to ask you something. I don't mean this sacrilegious. Now, brethren listening to the tape, I don't mean this sacrilegious. Could you imagine me going out here, and--and a knot on the tree could ask me, "How in the world do you walk around like you do? I got life; I'm a knot on this tree"? He can prove he's got life, but it's the wrong kind. If he wants to walk around, the only way he'd ever be walk around, see, taste, feel, smell, and hear, if he could talk and say to me and ask that, the only way, he'd have to be born the same way that I'm born. Amen. He'll never understand it any other way. But if he's born the same way that I'm born, then he'll know the things that I know. Amen. Oh, my. Yes, sir. You can't tell a knot on the tree how we move about and be active, it would have to receive our kind of life to understand it. Same with the Spirit. The same thing is with the Spirit, or you can't understand It. There's no need of trying to figure It all out; just come to Him first. For, "Except a man be borned again, he can't even see the Kingdom," He said, that's understand it. You've got to be born again in order to know It.

L-120 Well, you say, "I'm borned again." And deny the Word? How can you be? Your own life gives you vindication of it; your own group that you're joined with, birds of a feather... See? Wait till we get down to those things in a few minutes. See?
Comes by the Spirit. How can you tell people things of the Spirit that's not born of the Spirit? You have to be born of the Spirit to understand the things of the Spirit. The... Jesus said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth; thou cannot tell which way it comes or where it goes?" See? So is everyone born of the Spirit; they can't tell you. A man that's born of the Spirit don't take no thought; he lets God do the thinking.

L-122 Do you think I could stand on the platform here, take a thought and tell a man back there, "His name is John Doe and he come from so-and-so a place; he done this. And he married another woman back there, and twenty years ago, and he had children by this woman. He has to take this thing back, and do that," you think, taking thought I could do that? [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] No such wisdom in this birth here on earth for that. It's beyond that. It has to come from above. Then when you're borned of the Spirit above, the Life that was in Him Who did do those things, said, "The works that I do, shall you do also."

L-123 Your birth has to be changed. You been deceived. You might've spoke in tongues; you might've jumped up and down. You might've shouted; you might've done all this, that, the other, you might've been a--a loyal member. So was Nicodemus (See?), but he lacked the birth. And when you deny the Word, try to place It somewhere else, and do something to It, and scatter It away like that... Then Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Long as the Gospel's being preached, these signs shall follow. Tell me the place where He ever took it away from the church. Show me the Scripture where He said, ever said, "just for so long." He said, "Unto all the world and to every creature."


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