<TITLE>28. Par 226-236</TITLE>L-226   While we have our heads bowed, and I trust our hearts bowed, would you--would you, my dear brother, though you be member of church... And I hope that I haven't hurt you by saying what I have said. I... It's all right to belong to church, we should do that, but, O brother, just don't accept that, you must be borned again. That's what the Great Prophet-shepherd said, "You must be borned again." He said that to a theologian, "You've got to be borned again."

L-227 And when you're borned again, it just isn't because you believe. They say, "You're borned when you believe."

L-228 But the Bible said, "The Devil believes, also." Now, notice, it's not that, it's an experience.

L-229 You say, "Well, I've lived a good life."

L-230 So did the apostles, but they wasn't borned again until they received the Holy Spirit. They wasn't even converted until they had received the Holy Spirit. You remember the night before the betrayal... or on the betrayal, just before the betrayal took place? Jesus said to Simon Peter, "When thou art converted, then strengthen thy brethren." And Peter had followed Him for three years and a half, and had cast out devils, and healed the sick, had preached the Gospel, and still (according to the Word) was not even converted.

L-231   Now, would you want that kind of a--of a Messenger in your heart tonight? If--if you really want That... It don't make any difference what somebody else says, It's true, brother, sister. I know that to be true. Would you, while every head is bowed and every eye closed, not to me, I'm just a man, your brother, but to Christ you'd raise your hand, say, "I believe That. And I really want that Christ into my heart, the real Christ of Christmas"? Would you raise up your hand now? God bless you. That's good. God bless you, too. God bless you. My, hands everywhere.

L-232 May it happen, brother; may it happen, sister; may it happen, my friend; be filled with God's Spirit. What difference does it make what anybody else says? Remember, it's your life. We may not even be on the earth in the morning, we have no--no assurance of no more life than what we have breath in our nostrils now. We may never make another breath, only the grace of God. And what good does it do, no matter how good you've lived and what...? Jesus said, "Except a man be borned again, he will in nowise enter in."

L-233   Now, I know terminologies of what born-again is, but let's just watch what happened in the Bible when they were borned again. Peter was a believer, the apostles were believer, but they wasn't borned again till after the Holy Ghost fell on them at Pentecost. Now, they were wondering what happened, and Peter said, with the rest of them, "Ye man of Israel, be this known unto you; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by signs and miracles and wonders, which God did by Him; He who was foreknown, by determinate council you took with wicked hands and crucified, Who God has raised up and we're His witnesses. He shed forth this that you do see and hear now, and it's according to the Scriptures."

L-234 And then, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said, "Man and brethren, what can we do to be saved?"

L-235 Peter said unto them, "Repent!"

L-236   Now, my Catholic friend setting here, which I know of four or five of you setting here. I was discussing this with your priest, maybe not your priest, but one of the Catholic priests, he said, "Jesus gave the church power to remit sins, 'Whosoever sins you remit, to them they're remitted; whosoever sins you retain, to them they're retained.'" That's true. But let's watch how he did it, how the apostles followed out His order, not according to the way that--that the priest does today.


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