Ye Must Be Born Again
58-0619B, Ye Must Be Born Again, Textile Hall, Greenville, SC, 57 min




[A brother speaks about Brother Branham--Ed.]
I was thinking this morning, coming down the road, I was late for the breakfast, and... So we're staying about, around ten mile out in the country. I just happened to think of how many times I been late. You know, I was even late for my wedding. They waited and waited for me. Now, if I can just be late for my funeral, that's...
[Someone says, "You got married though."--Ed.]
Yeah, I got married. Yeah, that's...


Now, I... The reason I haven't been praying for the people is like in the meeting... I just left Dallas; you all were speaking of Dallas. And conventions like this, why, mostly I try just to preach (You see?) because it gives me a chance to rest from those visions. And visions is what tears me down.
And... But I've got two more meetings after this, and then I'm going to take a good long rest. I've just got to have it; I'm just, feel myself... And I was at Dallas the other day to see five of our brethren off the field with nervous breakdowns, Raymond Richey and Brother Grant. And I talked to him and standing there and holding himself and crying, and--and another fellow setting with his hands out like this, and he was screaming from nervous breakdowns, and going too long. And, you know, we're not made out of sawdust; we're still human beings you know. And so, and I haven't let up since December. So I--I've just got to take some rest.

Well, here's one thing. I believe the Lord said that He made a woman, man was to rule over the woman. As long as a man lets you do it, let him do it, well then, it's the man's fault, isn't it? That's right. [Brother Branham laughs--Ed.] They're supposed to obey their ruler. [Genesis 3:16], [I Timothy 2:12]

Satan, is such a--a--a cunning enemy, he just moves in so... Sin is so, what would I say, it's so shrewd, rude, you know, it's just... It's cunning, just kindy just subt... That's the word: subtle. Just so subtle that it just move right in so easy, you know; it looks just so innocent. The first thing you know it's just like a spider with a web, got you; there you go.
I'm--I'm thinking of one thing: that's the end of the road. Which is, perhaps, not too far off for me. I'm not a boy no more. And I've got to think of then meeting all the people again. My friend was telling me one time; they was giving a--a prize. And I want this to go real down deep to every one of us.

They had a little old sissy boy there, that just, you know, mama's boy like. And--and none of them cared very much for him. So they--they all got on their--their time... As their numbers were called, they got on this board to ride. And each one fell off. But little sissy boy rode it right out to the end, never made a wobble.
And so all the boys got around him and said, "How did you do it?"

There you are (See, see?); that's the idea. Not what's right here, but the end and keep steady, looking to the Lord Jesus. Now let us pray just a moment.
Lord, keep our minds on Thee; let us look to the end to whence when then we shall see Jesus. And here in this convention, Lord, now this group of fine brothers and sisters is assembled together, here to have breakfast and fellowship. How do we know that our next meeting time will not be at a breakfast, but be at a Wedding Supper, where we shall share the joys of the Lord forever.
Bless these men, Lord, who's been preaching for years, setting here this morning gray headed and stooped shouldered. O God, You alone knows what they sacrificed and went through with. And, Father, I pray with all my heart, if I found grace in Your sight, bless these brethren, and give them a great ministries yet, Lord, for we need each one of them in all their peculiarities, and their ministry, yet it all goes to make up Your great Body of saints and believers. And as I stand, Lord, as their brother and fellow citizen of the same Kingdom, help us this morning to speak a few words that would encourage us to move forward. In Jesus' Name we ask it. Amen.

When is your afternoon meeting, sir? Two o'clock. Well, I'll tell you; I'll send Leo... Where is he at? I guess he, Leo and Gene down there, Billy, or some of them this afternoon with prayer cards, give to each one that wants a prayer card. I'll change my subjects tonight and--and pray for the sick.

And I got the little fellows with me, and, oh, I have such a big time with those kiddies and everything. And I don't get to be with them very much. And when I go home at nighttime we wallow around on the floor till midnight. Joseph wants to piggy-back, and Becky wants me to tell her a story about something; you know how it goes. And so, we have a great time though.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and... Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. [John 3:5]


And so when Jesus said to this great ruler, "Ye must be borned- again." Then why, must I be borned again? That's what I want to know. If I am a minister of the Gospel, if I'm a good person, and I pay my debts, and I'm just, and honest, and walk upright before men, what more could God require of me? Why must I have some kind of an experience, as people tell me, that I must be borned again? Why did Jesus say to this ruler, who lived high and holy, and was requested that, or not requested, but commanded that he must be borned again... [John 3:7]

And the legalist says, "I've got to do this, and I must do this, and I must do that." Then if you're not borned again you're still not saved; so there you are. See? It's in between, in the middle of the road, is where we've got to stay. [John 3:5]

So the borned again experience tells what we are. It doesn't mean that we... I believe in shouting and all the manifestations and demonstrations of the Spirit, but yet that's not it yet. See? It's something different from that. It's a--it's a new creature, something in the heart. And I wonder if we ministers, both man and women, if many times we don't just say the word, "You must be born again," and take it over the head of the people like that. When we've got to come back to the spot and let them know what a birth means. See? It's got to come back to something more than words; it's got to come back to a--a fundamental fact, and that is this great experience of being borned again and what it produces for us. See? [John 3:7]

And when Martin Luther said, "The just shall live by faith," he said, "we got it." And John Wesley come along with something new, and--and Luther was... He was right so far as he said the just shall live by faith, they... It's right; they shall live by faith. And Luther said that--that the just shall live by faith, then we must do that. And he thought he had it, but he found out that he didn't. [Romans 1:17], [Galatians 3:11], [Hebrews 10:38], [Habakkuk 2:4]

Jesus never said if they shout, if they speak with tongues, if they do this, said, "By their fruits you shall know them." And the fruit of the Spirit is not shouting, speaking in tongues. That's attributes of the Holy Spirit, of course. But it can be impersonated; we know it.
I've dealt with lots of evil spirits in my life, and--and witch doctors, and so forth, and across the world. I've seen evil spirits shout, speak with tongues, do all the manifestations, seen them do all kinds of signs and wonders and everything else: demons, and deny there was even a God. See? But you can't go by that. [Matthew 7:16]

He said, "That was good, but there's some more of it." So, that's the way it is this way, this is good, but there's some more of it. You see? So we just can't live by this one slice.
So there's something different. So if you brethren and ministers, which are far more able to explain this... Now I could've took a little text here, which I had in my mind here to preach on: Life. But when I come down something struck me, "you're before ministers this morning; you're before men who's holding the keys in their hands. Speak the best you can about things that'll help these men." As long as these people can be helped, the whole world will get a help; your congregations and everywhere, they'll get a help from it. After all, brethren, we're working for one place. All of our differences and everything, we're yet bringing souls to one Master; that's God. That's what we're here for.

Now, we're taught that our bodies come from the dust of the earth. And medical science says that, and the Bible says that. So there's one thing that they agree upon, that we come from the dust of the earth.
And here sometime ago I was speaking at a--a Kiwanis meeting. And I was talking on a subject of--of many... that many people and what they--they believed and so forth, and this thought come this, that of--of where our bodies came from. And I asked the doctor. I said, "Doctor, I want to ask you a question," which was present at the meeting, "Is it true that my body came from the dust?"
He said, "Why, Reverend, you ought to know that."
I said, "Yes, but I want to know how it came from the dust."
"Why," he said, "by the food you eat." Said, "You eat the food and it turns into blood cells." [Genesis 2:7]

Said, "That's correct."
I said, "Then I want to ask you a question. How is it when I was sixteen years old, seventeen, on up till about twenty-five, I eat bread, meat, potatoes, so forth, like I eat now; and they turned into blood cells?"
"That's right."
I said, "Why is it I eat the same thing now as I eat then, but when I eat them then I got bigger, stronger all the time. And when I got to be about twenty-five, I eat more of it, better; I'm getting older, weaker, going down." Why is it, if I'm pouring water out of a jug into a--to a glass, and it's filling up till it gets about half full, then more I pour faster and faster it goes down; scientifically, tell me how it's done. It cannot be done.

And a few years ago you were young beautiful woman, and the man was a young handsome man. And maybe you just entered your ministry. Mother was pretty, and how that the day that you led her down to the altar, and told that servant of God that you'd taken her to be your wife, lawful wedded wife, how happy you were. Well, you were eating the same food that you eat here this morning.
And you were... Just a few years after you were married, one morning you got up, and you said, "Mother, there's a wrinkle under those pretty eyes, a coming."
She said, "Yes, dad, and I've been noticing the gray hairs coming in your temple." That's when first baby was borned, about.

Now many people think that they go down like this, they'll come back up some kind of a spirit with wings a flying. You'll come back up men and women like you are now. That's the way this... If this Bible falls from the platform down to the table, and to take another Bible and put in its place, that's not resurrection, that's replacement. Resurrection is bringing the same Bible up that went down. And resurrection's bringing the same person up that went down. And then in the resurrection all... If some...?...

God, when He got the picture painted, He said, "There they are. Now, come on death, but you can't take them until I let you do it." And then when you go into the dust and raise up again, you'll come back the same lovely couple that you was at the altar that morning, to remain forever that way. So what have we got to be scared about?

I was preaching on Abraham, those Angels that come to him and spoke to him, and I said, "It was God and two Angels."
Said, "Do you mean to tell me that that was God in a body of flesh?"
I said, "It sure was." And I said, "It wasn't a theophany; it was God. It was a Man in flesh, and He was God."
He said, "Then I want to ask you, how did He get that body?" [Genesis 18:1-18]

I was standing before a glass not long ago, combing these few hair I got left. My wife said to me, she said, "Billy, you're almost completely bald-headed."
I said, "But I haven't lost a one of them."
She said, "Pray, tell me where they're at."
I said, "I'll answer you when you answer me. Tell me where they was before I got them. I'll tell you where they are waiting for me." [Genesis 18:1-2]

Now, God is not a Sears and Roebuck, Harmony House either. He makes us look different. He makes things different. He makes big mountains and little mountains. He makes poplar trees, and He makes oak trees, and He makes palm trees. He makes shrubs, and He makes great trees. He makes rivers; He makes deserts; He makes oceans, and He makes plains. He makes red-headed, white-headed, brown-headed, black-headed; little, short, fat, and indifferent. See? He makes them that way. Because that's what He likes. His own nature proves what He what He is.

I like the way God makes things. And I like the way He makes people. He has a... He likes... He's a God of variety. He makes red flowers, white flowers, blue flowers; that's the way He makes man kind. And that's the way we'll be in the resurrection.

Now notice, how did all this come about? Now, if we come from the dust of the earth, which the Bible says we did, and also science says we come from the dust of the earth, then surely, our bodies was laying on this earth when this was yet a volcanic eruption without a speck of life. If it didn't, where did it come from? [Genesis 2:7]

When a carpenter goes to build a house, how does he do? Lay out all of his lumber first. He's got in his mind just what he's going to build. God had, before the world was ever had a speck of life on it, He had your body laying right there. If it didn't, where did it come from? That's the reason He was twisting it, and rolling it, and turning it. He would have it to the sun this way and it'd make potash, and He'd turn it back this way, and it'd make calcium. He'd turn it back this way, it would make petroleum. Oh, blessed, be His holy Name.

Now let's take it. Our bodies, before there was even the earth was finished being formed, our bodies that we're living in right now, was laying on the earth: potash, calcium, petroleum, so forth. Now, let's take a little picture so we won't miss it.
And after the earth had been shaped and all of it laying there just a--a bleach desert, never had life on it, never was nothing called life, but all the material was laying there to make our bodies. And I can hear God say to the great Holy Spirit, "Go forth now and brood over the earth." Now, we know the word "brood" is "to--to mother, like the hen her brood, or--or to coo like a dove calling to its mate." "Go brood over the earth." [Genesis 1:1-2], [I Corinthians 15:50-58]

Why, certainly a Healer, cer... Well, why did--why did we ever become sinners then? It had to be that way. If God is a Saviour, He had to have something to save. So there's nothing wrong; it's just all working His way. Now, I don't--couldn't say this to sinners; I'm saying it to ministers (See?) and children of God. It's all working all right, no matter what we do, or do not do; it's going to come out all right. 'Cause what God foreknew He ordained.
Now notice, then as It's a moving around, as--as--as it is. It's coming out all right, there's no need of us worrying, because it's going to be okay. [Genesis 1:1-2]

Why, brother, someday when the--Jesus shall come, and the resurrection when God brings this world to justice, and every body that's sleeping in the dust of this earth shall rise in His Presence, and we stand around this earth millions strong, singing redemption stories, the Angels will be gathered on the outside with bowed heads, not knowing what we're talking about. They wasn't lost; they don't know what it means to be saved. We know what it means to be lost and to be saved. We got a Father.

What's the strongest part of the man? His back and his legs. See, the devil's nothing to Him. But the sheep, He puts it across His shoulders and holds its feet. And He packs it with the strongness of His body till He gets it back to the fold. God loves His children. [Luke 11:20]

God the Father looks it over and said, "That's very pretty; just keep on cooing." [Genesis 1:1-2]

So to see that... I want this to be real sticky now. God never put the woman in the original creation. She's a byproduct of the man. Man and woman was one. A woman, in the beginning He took the woman from Adam. And man and wife are really one, but that was done to reproduce themselves again, to put them in flesh. But He took the feminish part of the man and made a woman out of it. [Genesis 1:1-20], [Genesis 2:18-25]

And notice, when a man takes a wife, and he takes this wife into his bosom (We're a mixed audience.), and presses this woman to his bosom as his sweetheart, she puts her print on him. Another woman there would mar it forever. They are one. No other woman should ever fit that mold. You got no right with your arms around a woman, dance floor, or nowhere. That's right. You got a wife, and you pulled her to your bosom, and God put her on your heart, and printed you against her, and she's yours. And you belong to her.

But the Bible said... God said in the creation, "You shall rule over you." Not to be a boss, but to be a helpmate, part of you. She's sweet, and kind, and tender; you should lead her around sweetly, because she's part of you. You go to mistreating her, then you're mistreating yourself. And a man mentally right won't do that. All right. [Genesis 3:16]

What was it? It's a strain; that's the reason... Why don't men come to Christ to begin with, when he realizes he's a sinner? He's still hiding in the bushes, and God's still calling. Shows what he did in the beginning; that's what he's made out of, a coward to begin with.

And what about marriage and divorce today amongst Pentecostal people? Then we teach... "Oh, we believe you must be borned again." You see what I'm getting at? If you believe it, then let's live like it. Let's produce what we're talking about. Because that we keep our mind on the church and on this organization, on this group, and this woman, and that man. Take your mind off of them; they'll fail. Put your mind on Christ, on His Word, then it can't fail. Let Him be your Example, not no man. [Genesis 2:23]

Now, but, then we'll notice them, how sweet and loving they was. And now, I say her eyes looked like the stars shining, as blue as they could be, and them like, just sparkle. She must have been beautiful. And Adam looked at her; why, it was love at the first sight. An operation had been performed, and she was taken from his side. [Genesis 2:18-25]

Sheetah the tiger come out, and they... All the animals followed them around. And after while Adam said, "Oh, sweetheart, do you know what? It's almost evening; we'd better go to church." That was the first Adam and Eve, as you are their offsprings today. [I John 4:18]

"Yes, Father, it's been wonderful."

Then there she was, a woman. And they said, "Yes, Lord, we have enjoyed ourselves so much today on the earth, that the Lord Thy God has given to us. And we love You, Father." They're worshipping. 'Course, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." And Adam laid his big arm out, and Eve laid her beautiful little head on his arm, like you did, mother to dad, years ago. [Matthew 18:18]

How many times have wife and I went up to the bed of little Joseph, last night even, and she said, "Billy, you know his forehead's high; it's like yours."
And I said, "But his eyes are large like yours."
Why? He should look like us; he's the offspring of our union. And man should look like God, because he was made in His image, certainly. "Father, he looks just like You. Look at his lips and his eyes." 'Course the Father looking at His children, how sweet it was, never to be sick, never to die, never have a heartache, never to have a weary, wasn't that wonderful? Mother never get old, neither would dad: never be no gray hairs, no wrinkles in the face, always be beautiful and loving forever.

Then what happened? Where we make our bodies from the dust of the earth, that calcium, that lumber, that potash, that God had laying out, is still being used. One day the last bit of it will be used up. That's right. The lumber pile will go down. But God still makes man from the dust of the earth. And you come on this earth without having any reason, any way you, no way at all you had of bringing yourself here. God brought you here. [Genesis 3:1-21]

Now, what happens? If the Holy Spirit brought me and you on this earth this morning, or you and I, rather, on this earth and made us what we are without having any choice... We come what we are without having a choice. If He made me what I am without having a choice, and yet I was made in God's image and brought forth, yet through a sinful act that God permitted to be done, a perverted act by holy wedlock from my father and my mother... And I come on this earth, and I am what I am at my best by God's grace, and without having any choice, how much more can He raise me up in the last days if I make a choice.

And if the Holy Spirit woos, and we come back and say, "Yes, great God, You made me, and I love You. And You are my Creator, and I'm sinful, and I'm shamed of it," then He places in me Eternal Life.
Then if He give me Eternal Life by answering back to His call, and made me what I am without having a choice, how will--much more can He raise me up after I've made a choice and been filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's own Life. And you can no more lose that life than God can lose Himself. The Word comes from the Greek word "Zoe." "I give unto them Eternal Life." [Matthew 11:28]

Then comes lust for another man's wife. Then comes filth. See? It just becomes perverted. But all of this kind of a love had a beginning. But when that real genuine love of God, that I've been talking about, comes into the human being by the new birth, being born again, it had no beginning and it'll have no end. You are then a son of God and a daughter of God, and your affections are on things above. [John 3:3]

So you must be borned again. If that... if any... if just friendship love, "Oh, I belong to the Assemblies," I say. "And you belong to the Church of God, sir" say that. And I say, "Oh, sure, we have wonderful friendship, fellowship." That's not it yet. I know we're interdenominational here this morning. But brethren, this is not the full answer. This is the answer for friendship and fellowship, but what about God? See what I mean? [John 3:5]


And when he puts that Spirit in us, in this flesh that He has brood from the earth, and our phileo love has become to a place that it's overrode by Agapao love, then we got Eternal life in this calcium and potash that's been fed and brood from the earth, and how much more can the God Who made it, raise it up again. Therefore, you must be borned again.

They make the same corn bread; it'll make the same grits; it'll make the same corn flakes; it's got the same amount of potash, calcium, and everything else that goes in it. Everything's right in there, even the heart of the grain, the skin on the outside, just perfect. Even in the laboratory, you couldn't cut them apart and tell the difference. The only way you said you'd ever know them was plant them. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Minister friends, I'm taking too much of your time, but I want to say this before leaving, leave this with you. As your brother, one who loves you, now just remember this remark before leaving.
Not long ago there was a great man, a master, young fellow. And oh, how he could play. He just swamping the world with his music. And he was a great artist of it. So one night he was entertaining many thousands of people in a certain nation, England. And they were so amazed, to the great masters around everywhere. And the people were... After he had played his concert, or his music, they were screaming, and clapping their hands, and going wild. But they noticed the young man paid no attention to their applauding, kept looking up.

Ministers of the Gospel, let's not notice these big campaigns and applauding of the people; keep your eyes on the Master. For He's the only One Who can raise us up in that day.

Remember to be born again is to have that extreme love and know that we passed from death unto Life. We have the abundance of Life, and the abundant Life is that overflowing something that God puts into the human being.

I'm so sorry I took so much of your time. And it's already half past nine, about. And I thank you very much. I'll go home immediately, and be making ready for prayer and for the sick tonight. God bless you.