Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
My father had a way of making statements that seemed so wrong at first but would be proved correct upon close examination. After hearing my father preach one night, one man in Louisville, Kentucky, made the comment to this effect: "That preacher can get the Bible in the biggest mess and then get it straightened out again better than anybody I ever heard." In a recent TFT, I mentioned one of my father's unusual expressions: "Everything you believe could be a lie, as far as you know." That is a true statement, as I explained, but it takes a moment for most minds to comprehend it.
Another such statement is this one, made by the seventy-four year-old Preacher Clark in a sermon at Grandma's house in 1975: "There is no Scripture that tells anyone to pray to get the holy Ghost. There is no Scripture that tells anyone to pray to be born again. The only thing any sinner is ever told to do to receive the holy Ghost and be born again is to repent."
I have tried over the years to think of a verse that tells those who seek God to pray in order to receive the baptism of the holy Ghost, but I haven't found one. Of course, if a sinner repents, he is going to pray. Prayer is part of a godly life. But praying is just a part of repentance. Prayer by itself with no repentance is worthless. Proverbs tells us that "the prayer of the wicked is sin." No one has ever been forgiven by God and washed from his sins because he prayed. But everyone who has ever repented has also been forgiven. Every one.
So, my father was right, again. No sinner is ever commanded in the Bible to pray in order to receive the holy Ghost; they are simply commanded to repent. And every soul from the days of the apostles who has obeyed that holy commandment to repent has been baptized by the holy Ghost into God's kingdom.