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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/peter-simms/the-gospel-the-fallen-man/
I'm going to read tonight. First, well, let's look a few minutes at this chart here first. Tonight we're going to talk about this man. Now you probably all know he's the first man, Adam. But maybe there's some in the meeting who are not familiar with these things.
And so we can't assume that everybody knows when everybody does not know. This is the first man. He's called the first man, Adam. God created him, formed him out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Now remember, when God breathed into this man's nostrils the breath of life, it was the human life that we all enjoy and possess tonight. He only did that once. Adam's life that God gave him, he simply passed it on.
His life is but an extension, or the life that we're enjoying, is but an extension of that life. And now he's responsible before God for that life. He stands as the federal head of the human family. What he does is going to affect all his posterity.
If he sins, we're all finished. If he obeys true to his God, all will be well. Now we talked about Sunday that God gave this man a free will. Now that's where the critics attack us and say that everything that happened, that's gone wrong, it's all God's fault because He gave him a free will and He knew what He would do with that free will.
Well, that's not our business. Can the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made me thus? Can't be. Can the clay say to the potter, why have you made me this way? No. God designed the human being, this man Adam, as He designed all the rest of the things in creation, according to the good pleasure of His will.
And nobody can say unto God, what are you doing? Can't say it. Nobody has that right. Now, God created Adam. He has a free will. God breathed into his nostril the breath of life. And now in that man is life.
And then God put him to the test. Now why did God put him to the test? What did He make him in the first place for? He made him because He wanted somebody to reveal Himself to and that person to respond with love, worship, praise and obedience.
That's what God wanted from him. But He didn't want him in the capacity of a robot. He wanted him to be able to voluntarily, by an act of that free will He gave him, to love His God, to obey His God, to praise His God.
God gave him everything in that garden. Gave him the four rivers, all the water he wanted. Gave him the vegetation world to please his sight. Gave him all the fruit to please his taste. And He gave him everything he needed.
Didn't want a thing. Except that God said, now listen, there's one thing you can't do. You can't make your own moral choices. You have to obey Me. And I'm putting this tree in the garden and it's called the knowledge of good and evil.
The idea here is God did not want him to get the knowledge of what good and evil is. Because if he learns what good and evil is, he won't have the strength to resist the evil and he won't have the strength to do the good.
Because he hasn't got the Spirit of God yet. The only reason we make it a little bit, at least, is because we have an energizing power within us to help us. But he don't have that. If he disobeys, he'll get the knowledge of good and evil and he won't be able to handle it.
But he chose to make a choice. We talked about it last night. A free act of his will. He chose the woman and told God he didn't want to be the head of his kingdom and his dominion. He threw the scepter on the ground before the devil and the devil picked it up.
And that's why the devil said in Matthew 4, he said, I did not fight for this crown. This scepter was given to me. Who gave it to him? Adam gave it to him. And Adam bowed to the serpent and acknowledged him as Lord and rebelled against God.
Now I know that you and I know this story from childhood and we go through it with the Sunday school kids and that. But we've got to stop and ponder the tremendous ramifications, the tremendous issues that spring from that event.
Every human being that's died and is in hell is because of what happened in that garden. Every human being crying tonight and weeping and in distress and in despair. Loneliness, misery, the whole business.
It all comes from what that man did by that one act. By one man, sin entered into the world. And so death has passed upon all men. For in that all have sinned. Okay. So that man now is the one that brought about what we're going to talk about, the fall of man.
He fell from a place of innocency to guilt. He fell from being a man who could walk with God to a man who's afraid of God and runs in the bush and hides. Instead of being a friend of God, he becomes a hater of God.
And he passes that on to his descendants. That fallen, wrecked life is passed on to his two boys. And the first boy is a murderer. Murdered his brother. So that gives us a picture of what's going on down through the human family.
Now tonight, I know some of you are sensitive to what God says about the human family which incorporates all of us. And the only reason there's any difference tonight is because God saved us. After tonight, it's going to be more pleasant going.
Because we're going to see what God has done. The magnificent work of God. How He sent His Son to die, was buried and rose again, and now in Him, God can rescue us all out of that mess. And make us a new creature in Christ.
And He does it through these events. Propitiation, reconciliation, all these. And the background of these is this. I'm a rebel in Adam, so I need to be reconciled. Well, that's what we have in Christ.
God was in Christ reconciling the world on to Himself. Not imputing on to us our sins. I'm a slave. In Adam, I'm a slave to sin. But the Lord Jesus redeemed us. I'm a criminal. But I found justification in Christ.
I was dead in sin, but now I've been born again, or regeneration. See, all this now, the wonder of all this is based upon the depravity of this. So if we try and lighten the events that took place here, and what issued from this, then it spoils the wonder and the grace of this.
So, we cannot lessen in our minds the dreadful results of what that man did. Now, I look today for words that won't be offensive. Our English words are very graphic, but they're no more graphic than what the Bible words say.
But I'm going to use the Bible words so that nobody can say, you shouldn't say that about people. That's not true about people. Because I know people that are nice people. And they're good people. And you couldn't say that about those people because they're good and nice people.
Well, I want to tell you something. Let's just let God tell us. And then if you have any problem, you have to go to God about it. Because He's the one that describes the human family. He gives a commentary as to what He thinks of a man.
That's in Adam. Whether he be white, black, red, blue, whatever color he might be. Rich or poor. Literate or illiterate. Nice or ugly. Beautiful or whatever. God doesn't care. If you're an Adam, this is what you are.
And it's not a pretty picture. Now listen, I want to say this before I go further. You want to be a Gospel preacher? You cannot be a good Gospel preacher if you don't understand where the man you're preaching is stands before God.
You haven't got a whole lot to offer. It's when you understand where He is, that's when these subjects are going to become alive. And you're going to preach these subjects. I don't know why there's not more preaching these doctrines in the Gospel because that's what they are.
If a person does not preach man's ruin and depravity, then he cannot really enjoy and appreciate that too much. You don't want to be a fluffy, weak Gospel preacher. Some of the Gospel I hear today, I feel, you know, it couldn't even produce a false profession.
It's just so weak and fluffy and there's no bite, there's nothing to it. It's just a lot of philosophy and lots of noise and lots of this, but they are not honest, perfectly honest with the sinner. And they're not bringing the sinner into his rightful place before God so that the sinner can see the awfulness of his position and want out.
So if we let the sinner feel he has just that much of a step towards God. He's just where God has his foot in just a little bit. No. We've got to make him see he's totally, absolutely, altogether, positively ruined.
And he must be born again. God will accept nothing from him as he is. He must be born again. Now why is that? Well, let's look at Sam. Sam chapter 14. Or Sam 14. Sam 14 verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that understood and seek God.
They are all gone aside. They are together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Am I margin? Or if you want to go home and look at your words, filthy means stinking. Rotten, corruptible, stinking.
I didn't say that. I give you the verse in the Scripture. It's what God's commentary is on the human family. Romans chapter 3, verse 12. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now the word unprofitable just means worthless, useless. In the Greek world, they would have said that of rotten fruit. You ever have a half a bag of potatoes that's rotten in your basement?
You won't be able to stay in the house very long. You'll have to get rid of them. Now that's what sin is in the eyes of God. Now that only comes real to us as we appreciate the extreme holiness of God.
How extremely holy He is. So that sin becomes extremely awful in His sight. See to us, if we don't let the Word of God control our thinking on the matter, we look at people and, you know, stinking and corruptible and bad.
We kind of like them, a lot of nice folk there. We see we're looking at it from our perspective. God says, I want you to see Him. Everybody outside of that, everybody in that man and outside of Christ.
Everybody in Adam. God says, this is what I want you to know about Him. In my eyes, He's repulsive. Now listen, if there was any possible way that the man in Adam was any good, knowing our God, would He ever have created a lake of fire and put Him there?
There's got to be something awfully terrible about the man for God to do that. Because our God's a loving God. He's a merciful God. He's a God of grace. Yes. But He's a God of absolute holiness. And He hates sin.
That's what God thinks of man. And you and I, as we look at our neighbor, we look at our friends, look even at some of our family, they're not safe. Awful, isn't it? Awful, isn't it? God says, listen, that person's in Adam.
And that person I gave a free will. And right up till now, they're abusing that free will by resisting Me. And will not give to Me in their life what I created them for. They have a free will. They can change their mind anytime they like.
But they don't. So now let's look at a few things God says about them here in chapter 3 of Romans. So that when we approach the Gospel, we come to the Gospel to preach it with an understanding of these things in our mind.
Not a loose, careless kind of a Gospel that the sinner's my friend and I want to be his buddy and I want him to be my buddy. And when the meeting is all over, I want to be... No, no, no. No, no, you're not being faithful.
The preacher of the Gospel has got to be faithful to the Word of God and to God and to the sinner. And to allow the sinner to have one little teeny weeny bit of hope. Apart from being absolutely born again, accepting the fact that God says you must die and you must be remade.
That as you are, you are totally worthless and useless. When somebody preaches the Gospel and lost, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Yeah. A young missionary come into my home there a little while ago and stayed with us for a little bit.
A few days and he didn't do too bad in the ministry but in the Gospel. He didn't have a clue. He told the audience, listen, you are so important to God and God sees so much value in you that He's prepared to give His Son for you.
Now he took away all the wonders of this by telling the audience that they were so important to God. And He saw such value in them that He was prepared to send His Son to die for them because of their tremendous value to Him.
Listen. They're lost! You lose your watch. You go for a hike in the bush and you lose your watch. And you get home and you got no watch. Now what good is the watch to you? Any good to you? No, it's lost.
The only way that watch will ever become of any value to you is if you find it. And if it's lost too long in the bush it'll rot and cease to work altogether. It'll perish. Listen, sinners are lost. They're lost to God.
There's no value to them. They took their will and they freely resist Him. And they're haters of God, lovers of pleasure. You see? They're lost! You can't tell them He's so much value to God and God loves them so much.
He's worthless to God! As He is. And the wonder of it all is just like in the garden Adam ran. Who went to God? Did Adam go to God or did God come looking for Adam? You know it well. God came looking for Adam.
And these are the wonders. God came. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Not imputing unto them their trespasses. It's God who comes. It's God who comes seeking the lost. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost!
No value to them. They're lost! It's the grace of God through the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit of God that will convince people I'm lost. And I'm going to perish. And here's my hope.
My hope is in this man who died on that cross. Who was buried and rose again. Yeah. So let's read in these verses here in chapter 3 of Romans. Verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Are we Jews any better than the Gentiles?
No, no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God, apart from law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets and so on.
That word depravity, it's only used once in the Bible and the Proverbs. I think that's in the Darby's translation. But in your English Bible, the King James, I don't think you read the word depravity.
But the theologians and the Christians who teach these things have used that word to incorporate into it all the terms that God uses about the ungodly. He calls them wicked. He calls them ungodly. Iniquity.
They swallow iniquity like water, said Job. Unclean. Filthy. Abominable. There's a whole lot of terms. And they all come under this one term, depravity. The word depravity just simply means to be grossly, abnormal, and bad.
The English words would be something like a perversion. The perversion of the truth. Here's the truth. Well, they perverted the truth. Turned the truth into a lie. Yeah. The word freakish. Freak. It means something that's abnormally abominable.
Terrible. Homosexuality. Beastality. Those are terms that are English. But the Bible here is taking the word depravity and incorporating all that in this term. When I was young, we were told when we preached the gospel, you preach man's ruin, his depravity, and God's marvelous remedy.
Those are two things we were told. The gospel preaching today is getting away from that. Because we so desperately want to see people saved, that the idea is coming in now, don't say anything to offend them.
He won't come back. Well, how are you going to tell a man that's an Adam what he is? It's not going to offend him. You think he's going to jump up with joy? That's what the Lord Jesus said in the mysteries of the kingdom.
He said, some will immediately and with joy accept the terms of the kingdom. But He said, in a few weeks they're gone. They won't last when the trials come. If you preach the gospel and you see 10, 15, 20, 5 saved and you come back a year later and there's none of them there, what's wrong?
There's something wrong. I don't know if it's true or not, but some people say that us preachers are going to meet people at the great white throne. And there's going to be sinners there. And the Lord Jesus is going to bring the preacher and say, no, listen.
Did you tell that boy exactly where he stood before me? Were you faithful to him and to the gospel I entrusted you with? And if I wasn't, it's not going to be a pretty sight. No, we've got to be honest.
And we've got to be true to what the Word of God says. Now here's some of the things it says in Romans chapter 3. Total depravity and it's universal. Now listen to what it says. In verse 11. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Now that's universal. No exceptions. There is not one good human being on the face of the earth.
That's an atom. Not one. You can't alter that. You can't change that. It's universal. There's none righteous. They are all gone out of the way. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. One, none, all.
Telling us that it's universal. Now, another thing before we go farther, that this should do for us, should give us a sense of compassion to a sinner. Look where he is. Look what's happening to him. Look at him.
He's blind. Blinded by the God of this world. He thinks that Christianity is dead, is dull. If I get involved with that thing, my life is ruined. And he's a subject of the devil's kingdom and the devil is pouring the lies into his soul and mind and with his free will he's making a choice.
The narrow road is too narrow. It's too hard. The broad road is easy and wide. Why take the narrow when I can have the wide and enjoy myself? So he thinks. But he's deceived. Who are the happy people according to the Bible?
Who's a happy person? Where would you go in the Bible to have the God teach us what's happy? Who happy people are? Where would you go? You go to Sam 1. Happy is... that word blessed means happy. Happy is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
Stay as far away from them guys as you can. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. You don't stand in the way that they're going. Or sit in the seat of the scornful. Three negatives. Don't do that! And one positive.
But whose delight is in the law of his God in which he meditates day and night. Are you Christians? You're all Christians probably. Listen. Where's your happiest moments? If it's not true, then you're missing out.
You're a backslider. Where is your happiest moments? When you're alone reading the Word of God and having God tell you about Himself and His Son and what He's planning to do. And what He's already done for you and what He's yet planning to do.
And nothing can alter it. Nothing can change it. What God does for us and God gives us, nobody can take from us. But the poor are ungodly. They have nothing to begin with. And the little bit they do have, they're going to lose.
What a miserable way. Well, here it is. The poverty of man is universal. And then it's total. Every individual is totally depraved. And he uses seven members of the human body to show that. Seven is the perfect number.
So, human depravity is universal. It involves everybody. No one's left out. And then it involves every individual is totally depraved. That's awful, huh? Now, I mean, as a Gospel preacher, now you've got to be careful.
You just can't walk up to a guy and tell him, you know, you're terribly rotten and immoral. And you're just, you know, just flatten him out. You don't do it that way. But you, the Gospel preacher, and me, and us Christians, we are to know his position.
And we are to cleverly, by these doctrines, convey to him his position and what God is willing and ready to do. To rectify that. To rescue him from this fallen being. That old creation. Alright. Let's look at them now.
Their throat. That's the number one member of the body. Their throat. It's like an open sepulcher. The man died two weeks ago and we buried him. We go and open up the grave and pull him out. What do you think you meet?
Rot, stench, corruption, and filth. You wouldn't be able to stand it. You would put the dirt back on that thing just as quick as you could. Well, God said, that's a man's throat. The stuff that comes out of his voice box.
It's like an open sepulcher. You ever hear the foulness that comes out of some men's mouth? That's a man in Adam. That's not born again. He's totally depraved. And you hear that truth. And you hear it coming out of his throat.
In the foulness. And the way he blasphemes God's name. And the Lord Jesus' name. First thing is, their throat is as an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. They are liars. Yeah. Liars.
The young man says to the young woman, I love you. He's a liar. Probably. He don't love her at all. What is true love? Huh? Young people, you be careful about this business of love. What people call love today.
I love apples. Oh, I really love apples. Yeah. I eat that apple, I crunch it up, and I enjoy it. And then I take the core that made the apple and throw it away. I got my pleasure out of it. Now I want another apple.
Because I like apples. So I get another apple. And I enjoy that apple. And then when I come to the core that produced the apple, I throw it away. Satisfied now. Go on then. After a while you get another apple.
Yeah. I love apples. Yeah. The guys tell the girls, I love you. But they only got one thing in their mind. Their mouths are full of deceit. They're liars. Don't trust anybody. Christian young people don't trust any one of those devil's children.
They're liars. And they can't be trusted. Oh, you might get a good one. There won't be a liar. But not very likely. Their throat is an open supplicator. And their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips.
They're like a serpent. A snake. And that snake opens his mouth. And when he opens his mouth those big teeth at the back, they come down. And those teeth are hollow. And up in the top of his head he's got a sack with venom in it.
And when he opens his mouth and those teeth come down, and he bites! Those teeth pierce. And the pressure of piercing your skin, the venom, shoots into your body. The poison of asps is in their mouths.
Look at all the troubles. Look at all the misery in our world. Because people use their lips to inject poison into the minds of other people. About other people. Or whatever. Some wounds, you know, wounds.
You think of a wound, you think of somebody getting shot. You know, with a bullet or a knife or something. Those kind of wounds, very often, aren't near as bad as the wounds of a friend that you thought was your friend.
Cutting words can leave wounds that may never heal. And our world is full of them. The courts are full of them. Fightings, quarrels. Marriages are broken and smashed. Why? Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
You don't have to go far to hear that. So we have their throat, we have their tongues, we have their lips, and we have their mouth. Their feet are swift to shed blood. I don't know about on Alaska, but our city, it's a nice city, but our city is the most violent city in Canada.
Per capita. Why do they fight and kill each other? Why? Why take a knife and kill another guy? Why? Why is this violence? Their feet are swift to shed blood. You see, the value of life is being lost. Once you put God out, and you don't have no confidence or no trust or no sense of responsibility to God, the spirit, that part of you that links you with God lies dormant and dead.
Now you're living on the animal level. And the animals kill each other. Nothing said about that. And we kill animals to survive. Nothing said about that. So, you step in my road. We have a party and we have a quarrel.
And very often it's over a woman. I'll kill you. Well, don't forget what happened. This guy here sinned. And when he sinned, he died spiritually. Him and God were parted. God drove him out of the garden.
He's now evil. He abused the self, the free will that God gave him, and by that abuse he became evil. And that evil is spread through the human family like wildfire. God has declared, it's messed us all up.
Every human being. It's universal and it's total. Verse 16, destruction and misery are in their ways. Destruction is the fact of destroying something. And the misery follows the destruction. Two good buddies.
Good buddies. And then I destroy the friendship. And the misery follows. There's a good happy marriage. Everything's going fine. And then I do something to destroy that marriage. And it's gone. Destruction and misery.
I have my life. My life. It's my life. And then I take a syringe and a needle and I jab it up in my arm. I'm destroying my body. And then a little while later, the misery follows. Destruction and misery are in their ways.
Why? Well, look what he is. Look what God says about him. He's depraved. He's evil. And that evil don't come out in the same way and the same degree in every person. But that nature is there that's rotten and corrupt.
And it has the potential of doing any sin. I don't know about here, over in Canada. They have their problems. I don't know what it is. But a guy will have a problem. Domestic problem. And he'll get a gun.
And he'll kill his kids. And he'll kill his wife. And he'll kill himself. Now what's the point in that? Now I know you don't like the words. But I say he's a pervert. He's a freak. He's an abnormal human being.
He's not real. He's acting outside of all decency, proper behavior. He is rotten through and through. That's what God says about them. Now can you give a better answer for a guy like that? What would you say about him?
You know what they told me? They told me it's not wrong with the guy, it's the environment. That's an environment. And then they went and gave me an illustration about a tree. And you have this tree. And you take that little plant.
And you put that plant in the soil. The plant's healthy. The soil's healthy. The rain comes in the proper amount. And that's good. And then it gets the right amount of sun. And things start to grow. And as long as you don't leave no bugs in it, and it'll grow up, it'll be a wonderful tree.
With the proper environment. But let the bugs at it. And take away rain for a long time. Or put too much sun on it. It'll swell it. The environment, you see. That's like human beings. Nothing wrong with the human being.
It's just the environment. That's your smart man today. But he's ignorant. He doesn't know what God is telling us in this book. That he is basically depraved in his heart. And he has the potential for any crime.
No matter what it is. Verse 17. And the way of peace have they not known. Peace. Oh, some people long for peace. Peace. Peace in my soul. Peace in my family. Peace in my home. Peace at school. Peace in our nation.
If only I had peace. They look for peace. And God says when they cry, peace, peace. Sudden destruction will come. There is no peace. Said my God. For the wicked. And this guy. No matter who you are. You're not saved.
You're not in Christ. You're an animal. And you'll never find peace. Even a Christian. You mess your life up. You will have no peace. Believe me, I tried it. There's no peace. If you walk with them guys.
Happy is the man that walketh not. Don't try it. Because it will end in disaster. There is no peace. And the way of peace have they not known. You see, they don't know peace. Where does peace come from?
Therefore being justified by faith. We were talking about that one night. Therefore being justified by grace. We have. That wonderful thing. That the world is longing for and can't find. We have peace with God.
How do we get it? You preach the gospel. You tell them. They'll never find peace. Or their goal. And where they're looking for it. And the things they're using to try and find it. They'll never find it.
And then we come to verse 18. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They don't fear. They don't have no holy reverential fear for God. They're lovers of pleasure. Rather than lovers of God. They're lovers of self.
They don't love God. The last verse, I think in chapter 1 of Romans is, they're haters of God. They hate Him. They'll never find peace. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Gospel preacher, me included. That's where we have to bring that sinner. That's where we've got to bring him. Guilty and his mouth shut. Standing before the bar of God. Guilty. That's where he must come to.
And stop there. And with his mouth shut and condemned. Then. Not till then can we start telling him about this. This won't mean anything to him. He's got his mouth clapping away there and I'm this and I'm that and I go to church and I'm baptized and I got all this.
There's no point in telling him about that. He's got to come to this point. Standing before the judgment bar of God. His mouth shut and pronounced guilty. We're going to start talking about the wonderful things God's going to do to rescue us and to set us free.
Hope you come back. Let us pray. Our Father, we bow to thank Thee. We all were there one day and Thou hast in Thine marvelous grace rescued us. Some of us even went back the second time as betrayers. But Thou didst rescue us again.
And so we commit all to Thee. Pray Thy blessing upon them. Help them. Help them to look at the world and what it's doing and where it's seeking its pleasures and the way they are the way and why they are the way they are.
Help us all to understand Thou didst give them true, a free will but they were expected to use that free will to choose to serve Thee, to love Thee, to follow Thee, not to disobey. And so the deadly deed was done but we thank Thee in the wisdom of God there is a way out.
Help us in the nights to come to appreciate the wonders of the grace of God in providing salvation for the likes of sinners as we. So we ask this. Part us with Thy blessing, we pray. In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. Oh, I think we've got time for a couple of verses of number one. A ruler once came to Jesus by night to ask Him the way of salvation and life. The Master made answer in words true and plain. You must be born again.
Now that is something that we sing about, we preach about but do we understand really what the Lord Jesus is saying to that man Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you're worthless. You're useless. You're lost. There's nothing in you we can accept.
You, Nicodemus, must be born again. A total new man must be made out of you. Let us sing two verses and our meeting is over.