The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-09-28
REVIVAL MEETING
GROWING IN INTEREST

ana every one OF lnem 10 the point.
He preached great sermon last
night on the New Birth" from John
3:3, and in part he said:
81 want to thank God for the doc
trinc of the new birth. am glad
that scientists who made their boast
for years that they dealt with facts
Cnly have changed their minds in ref
ctcnce to their ideas of the new birth.
They used to say that it was imagi.
nation, or a creation of the fancy
Profs. James. Starbuck and Cole rec.
CgnZe the fact that conversation is
fact and that Jesus Christ, when lie
said to Nicodemus, "Ye must he born
, again" knew what He was talking
about. The first thing | want you TO
notice is, when a man or a woman is
born again they must be willing to be
born again before they can be born
aeain and last of all. but most impor.
I tant Of all, they must know that they
must be born again. The question
comes, how can We know that We
must be born again. am glad to
/ say. We know it from Gods word. We
( can also know It from Gods spirit In
/ John 1878, He said, And when He is
/ come, He will reprove the world Of
sin, and of righteousness and of iudg-
.
coming to Jesus Christ Nicodcmus
stood high in his country, an intellec
tlal giant. a teacher, a man of the
Pharisees. one to whom many looked
up TO, a ruler among the Jews. He
met Jesus with this declaration, "Rab-
bi, we know that thou art teacher
come from God, for no man can DO
these miracles that thou doest eX
cept God be with him"
The trouble with Nicodemus was he
approached Jesus from the standpoint
OF the intellect. Nicodemus being a
milar with philosophy and philoso.
phers, Nicodemus depending on the
intellect realized and recognized that
Christ was doing things impossible
for any other man to do, and Nico-
demus recognizing the reality Of II, !
the fact of it he said, We know that
thou art a teacher come from God"
Now. Nicodemus question brings to
our mind this fact, that he wanted
to know the intellectual process of
Jesus Christ's success. But Jesus
read his mind and the first thing he
said was, "Ye must be born again, !
or renewed afresh, before you can sea
the kingdom of God, much less enter |
ii Nicodemus was a teacher and |
wanted to teach the people to do right |
and Jesus revealed to the world |
through him the great truth of His .
message, that man must be born .
again or renewed afresh. Nicodemus |
needed vision of the masses, his |
vision was too narrow, his vision was
one for the classes. The new birth |
is not a process of reasoning, or in
tellectuality. Paul was a reasoner
great reasoner, but still he was never
a Christian until he was struck with
conviction and born again. Chas. G.
Finney was a great reasOner, but he !
had to be convicted of his sins and ]
born again before he could appreciate
the wonderful riches of Jesus Christ.
John Wesley and Martin Luther were |
men of great intellect, but they had to .
be born again before they got vision |
of God and His mission for them to !
preach They preached to the class
cs, and their vision was vision for |
the classes, but when they We're born |
again they got a revelation for the |
masses, that revelation shaped their |
career and reyolutioniZed the world. |
We who are of the earth earthly. The !
carnal mind, the natural mind, the
soulless mind, if you please, cannot
grasp things of God; they are not to
he grasped intellectually. We must
be born again, and then grow into
the great things OF the mind and
heart of God. Nicodemus had come
at it in the wrong way; he looked at
it from an intellectual standpoint
II does not come that way You can't
find it that way, you must be born
again
No wonder Nicodemus maryeled,
for the new birth is an inward expert.
ence. it comes like the wind. The
wind bloweth where it listeth. and
thou nearest the sound thereof, but