The Greatest Miracle
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There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Introduction
Introduction
Thanks for helping on the work day.
The New Birth is the Greatest Miracle that could ever be done.
Why do we say that?
The Condition of the Unconverted.
First, we reckon ourselves sinners and worthy of condemnation. And we are all born in sin and shaped in iniquity, there’s not a sound parcel of us.
Our minds are bad, our soul is corruptible, our constant thinking is evil, every imaginary thought of a man’s mind is evil, a sinner, and also that our body is weak, our spirit is no good, and we’re just full of corruption. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Only. Evil. Continually.
Man that is born of a woman Is of few days, and full of trouble.
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, And bringest me into judgment with thee?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
You stick your bucket down into the well and pull out a bucket of water, and it’s stagnant, it stinks; you look in it, and it’s muddy, and little worms is in that water, there’s no way at all to put your bucket back and get a clean bucket. The whole well is contaminated. And the whole soul, mind and body of man is contaminated with sin.
He’s born in sin, physically, shaped in iniquity, and come to the world speaking lies, so that his own soul is contaminated. Nothing good! One cannot redeem the other, because it’s all wrong.
And you can’t take a bucketful of water here, that’s contaminated, and another bucketful that’s contaminated, and mix them together, you’ve got more contamination. There’s no purification to it. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
(No preacher or pope can redeem you, no one can pronounce you free except Christ Jesus.)
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.
Some might say “He has a good heart”.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The miracle is not that we chose to be saved and were saved, but that we were saved in spite of ourselves.
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We have turned to our own “derek”. We have gone the direction our bow was bent. The direction we leaned is how we fell, until the Shepherd came.
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
How did we return to the Shepherd?
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
You always were a sheep.
WE DID NOT BECOME SEED BY THE REBIRTH, WE WERE SEED AND THEREFORE WERE REBORN FOR ONLY THE ELECT CAN BE REBORN. Because we WERE SEED is the reason we could be quickened. In NON-SEED there is nothing to quicken.
Hold this carefully in mind. Now take the next step. Redeem means to buy back. It restores to the original owner. God, by His death, the shed blood BOUGHT BACK HIS OWN. He bought back the Spoken Word Seed Bride. “My sheep hear My voice (Word), and they follow Me.”
You always were a sheep. You never were a pig or a dog turned into a sheep. That is impossible for every kind of life produces the same kind and there is no change in specie.
As we were in the thoughts of God and then expressed in flesh, there had to come a day when we would hear His voice (the Word), and hearing that voice become aware of our Father calling us, and recognize that we are the sons of God.
We heard His voice and we cried out as did the prodigal son, “Save me, oh, my Father. I am returning to Thee.” CAB 04 - Smyrnaen
(Eagle story)
There can be no miracle of the new birth without death.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God required death.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Now, the approach to this birth, there is approach to it. And to be to approach this birth, you have to go through a process. Just like anything that lives, anything that lives again, has got to die first. And you cannot keep your same spirit. You cannot keep your same habits. You cannot keep your same thoughts. You got to die.
You’ve got to die like He died! You’ve got to die on His altar, like Abel did with his lamb. You got to die with your Lamb. You got to die. Die to your own thinking, to be born to His thinking, let the mind that was in Christ be in you. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
You’ve got to feel so guilty when you stand in His Presence, whether you go the Methodist way or the Baptist way, or whatever way you go, you’ve got to be so guilty and feel so guilty till you…It’ll kill you. That’s right. It’ll kill you.
Your worldly life will die right there. You’ve got to reckon yourself so guilty in the Presence of God until your worldly life dies right there. The sin question’s over for you when you’re standing in His Presence. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
If you’re born of God, you’re washed in the waters of the Word, separated from the things of the world, and believe God. You’re dead. You’re dead to your own thinking, dead to your own ideas, dead to everything else but God’s Word; and It lives in you, working back through you, proving that it is God’s Word.
You say, “I’m dead to the world, Brother Branham.” And deny God’s Word? Jesus said, “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Now we’re getting down to what “born again” means. See?
Still with tempers, still mean, arrogant. Somebody say something about you, you right up ready to fight. And then, born of the Spirit of God? No. God’s Spirit don’t do like that. No. God’s Spirit is humble, meek, sweet, longsuffering. That’s God, loving, kind, forgiving, that’s God’s Spirit. Oh, yes.
But they’ll hold to that denomination and speak in tongues, prophesy, do all kinds of works. Jesus said they’d do it. “Having a form of godliness.” Hold to the denomination because that’s their father.
They was born in that denominational father. But if you’re borned of God, This is your Father, He is the Word, the Word. No matter how many sensations you have, still a child of Satan until you become dead to the world and alive in Christ. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And before birth can come, we realize there has to be death before birth. And a birth is a mess, I don’t care what kind of a birth it is. If it’s in a pig pen, or wherever it is, it’s a mess. And so is the new Birth, it makes you do things that ordinarily you wouldn’t think you would do.
But when you’re ready to die to yourself, then you are borned again, a new creature in Christ Jesus, then things, open up and life becomes a new sight to you, because you’ve accepted the Person of Jesus Christ, and not some theory or some creed.
Or, even to the written Word, It’s got to be quickened by the Holy Spirit. No matter how much theology you’ve got, it’s laying there dead. I could have a handful of wheat; until it gets into the process to where it can be quickened, the wheat will never live.
And you can have a doctor’s degree, Ph., LL., whatever you wish to; but until the Holy Spirit comes upon that and quickens it to you, as a personal experience with God, then the wheat does no good. Your learning is in vain.
As this Englishman said the other night here, I was so astonished at that. All the learning he had, as Paul, he had to forget all he knowed, in order to find Christ, do things that he thought he wouldn’t do.
But that’s the way God does, He humiliates us in our educational system. Not as I’m trying to support ignorance, but I’m trying to tell you the difference. Education can never bring Life. It takes the Spirit of God to bring Life, and that Life must not come out of just the intellectual revival.
It’s got to come out of the Bible, Word revival, and that Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And when It falls today, and quickens, you get the same results you did in Acts 2. Exactly. It always has, and it always will be, because it’s the Spirit of God that conditions the atmosphere. 65-0123 - Broken Cisterns
Before our children get the Holy Ghost, we drag them to church. They don’t even want to be in the atmosphere of the Holy Ghost. It’s not a great experience. But when your nature changes, things are different.
It takes atmosphere to do things. That’s the reason you men are always taught, “Bring your children here.” Well, certainly that’s right. I was glad to see my daughter, Rebekah, come in and sit down, just a few minutes ago.
Some of you seen me wink at a woman, it was my daughter, so she come in and sat down. I want her to receive the baptism of the Spirit, and that’s why she is here in the meeting. That’s what the purpose of it. It takes atmosphere. 65-0123 - Broken Cisterns
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Something changed.
If God is in your heart, you can’t hardly wait for them doors to open out yonder, to get in here to fellowship with your brothers. 63-0728 - Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed
You have a new nature. You are not perfect, but your desires have changed.
Now, “What kind of a nature have you got then, Brother Branham?” His nature. If I had my father’s nature, then I’d do the things my father did. But now that I’m borned again, it depends on who my father was. If you’re just born in the church, you got a church father, and you can call him “father” if you want to.
You call him anything you want to, because he’s your father. But if your Father is God, and you’re borned in the family of God, you seek those things that pertain to God. That’s right. Then you are God’s child. Your nature is God’s nature.
Then when some, oh, you hear them, some say, “Oh, our church believes that the days of miracles is passed.” How could you believe the days of miracles is passed when the very nature of God is in you? When He is altogether miracle? His nature’s miracle, His habit’s miracle, His whole being is miracle.
How can you be anything else but miracle? Your new birth is miracle. Your new Life is miracle. Even your nature’s a miracle. How you can look back and say, “Them things are dead. This is right.” You’re a new creature, new creation. 61-1231M - You Must Be Born Again
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Now you are a believer. The God of Miracles is your father.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
You believe God for supernatural things, because you are a supernatural being, with a supernatural birth. All things are possible.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Nicodemus could not understand the miracle of the new birth. He could not understand heavenly things. Neither could Saul, but when He was born again by the Will of God, he became the greatest miracle.
When He Reached Down His Hand for Me.