E-1 Let us remain standing just a moment, as we bow our heads now and look to the Lord. If there's any requests to be known to God, would you just now at this time raise your hand to Him, like that, and hold on your heart what you want.
E-2 Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful for another day. And now it's begin to mark up; it'll be history. The services of this morning is already past. The Words that's been said is in the air, on the tape, and we'll have to meet It someday. It'll either have to be right or wrong. And we—we believe that It's right, because that It's Your Word.
E-3 Now, we pray that You'll grant to us, tonight, the requests that we're asking. With our hands, we raise, asking for requests. Thou did know what we had need of, and what we're asking for. So we pray that You'll answer us, Lord, and give us the desires of our heart, that is, if we can use it to honor You. Grant it, Lord.
E-4 Heal the sickness in the midst of us. Take away all sin and unbelief. Give us of Thy… a portion of Thy blessings again, tonight, Lord, as we meditate upon the Word, and the time that we're living. We have assembled together, Father, for no other purpose but to try to learn how to live better, and to live closer to You. For we see the day approaching, and we must assemble ourselves together oft, and take instructions from You. Grant it, Father, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Thank you. You may be seated.
E-5 I know it's awfully warm, and place all packed out the way it is. And so we're sorry we don't have the… any air conditioning. And I… Maybe that'll be… There's two things that I want to do for the church, as soon as I can get back in the way I want to, if I get back in the meetings properly. I want, too, a—a piano, where it sets this way, so the pianist will be looking towards the congregation. I want an organ over on this side; and an air conditioner. Then I feel like that'd be it. And so we are… We'll trust the Lord, and know that He will grant it to us.
E-6 I believe, they told me, Brother Hickerson just took this out of the magazine. He put it on my desk back there. That is that constellation of Angels that's in the magazine that was spoke of. See the pyramid shape? Look at this One on this side, the pointed wing, coming with His chest out like that, on my right-hand side. As I spoke from this same pulpit, months and months and months ago, see, there It is. And Look maga-… Or, Life magazine has It, the—the May issue, May the 17th, I believe it is. That right? May the 17th, issue. Mrs. Woods was telling me today that many called her and asked. That's in the May issue, May the 17th.
E-7 It's a mysterious cloud. The cloud is twenty-six miles high and thirty miles across. And that's what we were speaking of here. That's where the Angel of the Lord came down and shook the place. And the whole… It sound louder…
E-8 I know there's one man, if… I think, Brother Sothmann, I seen him a while ago, somewhere. He's here. He was standing… Yeah. Right back here. He was standing near when it happened. I guess I wasn't too far from him. I just see him, tried to wave to him. Only, I had his binoculars. That, the—the animals, in which we were hunting, had… Wasn't on this hill. Now it went on the other hill. I found them, the day before, and told them where to go to. I went over here, where, if they come this way, I'd just shoot up in the air and run them back that way, so that they could get their—their—their animal. So, javelina is what it was.
E-9 And so I went over, this side, and they wasn't. They wasn't on either side. I seen Brother Fred walk out, and they wasn't there. He went back, and Brother Norman went over the hill. And I turned, went down in a little chasm and come up, just by myself, about a mile and a half through some real rugged country. And I was set down and was just looking around. It was getting up in the day.
And I was picking those, what we call there, goat-headers. It's something like a burr. Picking them off of my trouser leg, just exactly the same kind that I saw myself doing when I was here telling you about the vision, six months, about, 'fore it happened. I said, "That's strange. Look how perfect north I am of Tucson, kind of northeast. Makes…
"Tucson," remember, I said, "little southwest."
And I said, "That's strange." I was looking at the burr, like this, picking them off of my… many of them, off of my trouser legs. If you never been there, that's a desert country. It isn't like this, at all. About twenty times brighter; and there's no trees and things like there is here. It's just cactus and sand.
E-10 So I—I just looking at it, like that. I just raised my eyes up. And about, I'd say, half a mile from me, I saw a whole head of… herd of javelina. They coming out on the end, where they was eating some phyllary. And I thought, "Now, if I can just get Brother Fred and Brother Norman to there, that's just the place.
E-11 And the evening before, the Holy Spirit was so tremendous in the camp, that He was telling me things that had happened and taking place. I had to get up and walk away from my camp.
And then, that next morning, I had went up there. And I started… I said, "Now, if I can get to Brother Fred, I'll get him around this mountain," which is about a—a mile this way. I had to go about—about two mile, or better, pick him up, maybe three. Back this way, down this what we call hogback, come up like this, up top these rugged, jagged mountains, and run down this way, cut across and come over, and go down in this direction and pick him up. Then he have to go plumb, the bottom of the hill, to get Brother Norman, which would probably been about four or five miles, then get back. And I was going to put a—a little piece of Kleenex that I was going to hang on a piece of—of the mesquite there, so I could point myself to which ridge to go out when I come back.
E-12 And I just come up over a little ridge where there's lot of jagged rock, and there's a—a deer trail come down the other side, about, oh, forty, fifty yards beneath the cliff. It was about, oh, it was up in the day, I say eight o'clock, or nine. Would you think something like that, Brother Fred, maybe nine o'clock, something? I run over on this side, quickly, to keep the javelinas from seeing me. They're a wild boar, you know, and they're pretty scary.
E-13 So I—I went over the hill this way, and cut, started, run up the hill. And I just run along, in a little, what we call, a dog trot. And all of a sudden, the whole country just rung out. I never heard such a terrific blast! Just shook, and the rocks rolled. And I felt like I—I must have jumped five feet off the ground, looked like. It just—just scared me. I thought, "Oh, my!" I thought I had gotten shot. That somebody… I had on a black hat. I thought they might have thought was a javelina running up the mountain, somebody had shot me. It went so loud, right on me, like that. Then, all at once, Something said, "Look up." There It was. Then He told me, "It's the opening of those Seven Seals. Turn home." So, here I come.
E-14 I met Brother Fred and Brother Norman, about a hour later, when I found them. They were excited and talking about it. There it is. And science says that it's impossible for—for any kind of a—a mist or anything get that high, fog, vapor. See? It'll only go just… I wouldn't know. I—I…
E-15 We, when we go overseas, we travel nine thousand feet. That's above the storms. That's approximately about four miles. And say, let's say, maybe it's fifteen miles till you can't get no more vapor. But this is twenty-six miles, and she hung there all day. See? They don't know what It is. But, thank the Lord, we do.
Thank you, Brother Hickerson. I'll keep it on my desk in there. And when we write the book, why, then we can have it.
E-16 I got a little note here was give me. I believe there's been an increase in our number since I was here last. I think his name is—is… least, his father's name, David West. And got a little fellow here that they want to dedicate to the Lord. Is that right? Was it tonight, or was it Wednesday night? I don't know. It's got… Tonight? That's fine. Well, what about… You are David, aren't you? That's what I thought you was. All right. How about bringing the little fellow up?
If our sister will come over here to this piano, and give us the song of Bring Them In. The pastor, if he will, come up here, and we'll dedicate this little boy to the Lord. Now, we try to keep it Scripturally.
E-17 This is your grandson, Brother West. Don't seem possible, does it? Sister West, what do you think about that? Doesn't it… You know what I think, though? You know, I'm grandpa, too.
It reminds me of Brother Demas Shakarian. He was standing before a great crowd of people. He gets everything mixed up like I do, you know. He was standing there. He said, "You know," said, "I—I told Rose, I felt," that's his wife, said, "felt lots older since I was grandma." He said, "No. I meant grand-…" You know, I…
E-18 You're not alone, Brother West. There's lot of them in here. And it's all right. I think we can really appreciate our grandchildren. This don't… Hope this don't sound bad. But we can have more time with them, I believe, than we did with our—our children. I asked the wife that, other day. Said, "Sure. You love them a little while, turn them back over to their mother, and go on."
E-19 Well, I've got a little grandson back there. He said, "Papa, preach. Papa, preach." And they took up the offering last Sunday night, and had it laying on the table. They brought him in, back there, and—and he heard me through the microphone. He said, "Papa, preach. Papa, preach."
And Billy said, "Yes, up there."
He said, "No." And the offering went all over the floor. He—he wanted to come out here, you know. And he's always hollering at me, know, see me at any convention. He holler, "Papa, preach." Hollered real loud. So I know they're cute.
I think it's mighty sweet, have a young couple, that God has placed in their care a little fellow like this, and come to give him to the Lord. And when you do that, it shows that you are not… that you are giving back to God that what God give to you. God bless him.
Meda said, back there… I think this is one job at the platform she kind of envies me, you know. She likes to hold the…
Well, looky here, he's going to look at me. He's a fine fellow. Yes, sir. Maybe I could hold him. I wonder. Oh, sister, don't… I hope he don't fall. Here, isn't that cute? That cute? How you do? Well, now, sweet.
Lord Jesus, many years ago, when Christianity was born in the form of a Man called Christ, the anointed Messiah, Jesus was His Name. The people brought their little infants to Him, that He might lay His hands upon them and bless them. And He said, "Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven." This lovely little couple, their grandparents and them have been true followers of the Word.
Lord Jesus, I bring, and hold to You, tonight, the pastor and I, this lovely little David Jonathan West. I give him to You, from the mother and daddy. I present him to You, Lord, for health, strength, a long life of service, to honor God Almighty, Who brought him into this world. May the blessings of God rest upon him. May the Holy Spirit rest upon this child. If there is a tomorrow, may he carry the Gospel that his parents and grandparents so cherish today. Grant it, Lord. Now, in the Name of Jesus Christ, I give You this child, in a dedication of its life. Amen.
God bless you, sister. May you ever love and cherish the Lord Jesus, and the little fellow be raised in the admonition of God, and have a wonderful little boy. I'm sure. God be with you.
I believe he dropped his little pacifier? Did they get it? Oh, my!
Now let's sing that little song, Bring Them In. Everybody, together now, for the little fellow. All right, sister.
Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring the little ones to Jesus.
E-20 I don't know better hands to put them in. Do you? The hands of the Lord Jesus!
E-21 Now, I know it's hot out there. I want to say to the janitor, my brother, Doc, or other, them takes care of it. Some of the sisters are ruining their skirts on the—on the grease that's on the chair. How many got some of it on them? I know, there's my wife, my two daughters, little Betty Collins, Mrs. Beeler, some of them. It's something, grease on there. If you take a look at it, Doc, when you can. It's, I believe, it's where they… It's grease or paint, or something, right where they work up and down, the seats. And it isn't? [Brother Edgar "Doc" Branham says, "There's no grease on them, to get it off from."—Ed.] Well, I—I don't know what it is, then. Something I just… Is mentioned to me, and I said I'll mention it to—to Doc. All right.
Now, Wednesday night prayer meeting. Is any other? You've announced? You got your announcements in, Brother Neville? Announcements all in.
E-22 Now, if the Lord willing, next Sunday morning, I want to speak on the subject of indicting this generation for crucifying Christ. You say, "This generation couldn't have done it." We'll find out whether they did, or not, according to the Word. Now, next Sunday morning, if the Lord is willing. If, now, if—if—if something occurs…
E-23 I'm supposed to be in Houston this week, also, in a convention, that take me through Sunday, so I don't know whether I'll be able or not. But we got a couple more Sundays to play on, before it, anyhow. Then we go to Chicago for the convention, or meeting in Chicago, the last week in this month. And then I have to take the family back to Arizona, for—for their vacation is over and the kiddies has to go back to school.
E-24 Now, how many enjoyed the reading of the Word, and the blessings of the Lord? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] We all do, so greatly.
E-25 Now, it's hot, and I know some of you goes back home tonight. I know Brother Rodney and Charlie, and them, has to drive a long ways. And wait a minute, you're on vacation, aren't you? Well, I hear you're going fishing.
"The Lord don't lot time to the man when he's fishing. You don't get any older while you're fishing." So, now, you girls go with them. See? And I'll come down and join you, if I can. And you know, "The good Lord," they said, "don't lot time to a man when he's out fishing." Do lot of it when you—when you feel all twisted up. It's the best thing to relax on, I ever found in my life, is to go fishing.
E-26 I had a little card, one time, from Mr. Troutman. Anybody ever remember Mr. Troutman, the ice company in New Albany? He had a little card on there, said, "Out fishing." And went ahead, say, "A man that has… Every man, his brothers, out fishing. With a helping hand, they'll always land, out fishing." Had about eight or ten different things. Then when he got down at the bottom, said, "Man is closer to God when he's out fishing." So I think that's about right. "The rich and poor are all the same, out fishing." See? "A helping hand, he'll always land, out fishing." And everything was about, "Out fishing."
E-27 Well, I'll tell you another fishing I've been doing for about the last thirty-three years, has been fishing for the souls of men. May the Lord help us to win every one that we can find.
E-28 Now, tonight, this is taping. Now, this morning, (if Jim is here, or taping), I—I think, on the tape, somebody called my attention to it, I said, "The second exodus." I didn't mean second. It's, "Third exodus."
The Holy Spirit in the form of a Pillar of Fire, God coming down in manifestation, brought out the first exodus, and—and back in… brought Israel out of Egypt.
The second exodus was Christ bringing the Church out of Judaism.
And, The Third Exodus, is when the same Pillar of Fire takes the Bride from the church. See? Out of the natural; out of the spiritual; and the Spiritual out of the spiritual. The three, see, the Spiritual out of the church, rather. Then we get the three, the three ages of it.
E-29 Now, tonight, I wanted to make another tape, and that was called: Is Your Life Worthy Of The Gospel? Probably wouldn't take very long. Well, just some Scriptures and notes I got here, but first we want to read God's Word. Before we do that, we just bow our hearts to Him just a moment.
E-30 Lord Jesus, any man, physically, or woman, or child, can move back the pages of this Bible, but there's no one that can reveal It but You. I pray, Lord, of taking this text as it's placed upon my heart to send out across the nations, for the people, that they might know what type of life is required of them to live. For, so many has asked me, "Is the Christian Life a life of church service? Is it helping the poor, the needy? Or is it a constant member? Is it a loyal loyalty to the church?" and such questions. Father, may the correct answer come tonight, through these words, as we make an endeavorance to—to bring them to the people. In the Name of Jesus Christ, we ask it. Amen.
E-31 Now turn in your Bibles, to the Book of Saint Luke, and we'll start at the 14th chapter and the 16th verse, to read some Scripture for a basis, for a background, for this that we're going to try to lot about thirty to forty minutes on. Now, the 16th verse of the 14th chapter of Saint Luke.
Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
And sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for—for all things are now ready.
And they all with one accord begin to make excuses. The first said unto him, I… bought a piece of ground, and I must need go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of ox, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
… another said, I have married a wife,… therefore I cannot come.
So the servant came, and showed his lord all these thing. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant,…
Notice, it's not servants. "Servant."
… Go out quickly into the streets and the lane, and the cities, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded, and yet there is room.
… the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
E-32 Now, did you notice, there was three pulls, or three turns, of it? When they went out, first, and call to them that were… or bidden to come, and they didn't do it. So there went out a healing campaign, went out to get the blind and halt. And still there were room, so he went out and compelled the good, bad, and indifferent; they should come in.
E-33 Now, you read another parable of this, something on order of it, in Matthew 22:1 to 10, if you'd like to read it, later on. But I—I drew this subject from there: Is Your Life Worthy Of The Gospel?
E-34 Now, Jesus here is saying… Man has always tried to make excuses, not to receive God's Word of His invitation. Though it be firmly proven to them, that it's—that's it's His Supper and His invitation, but man is constantly making excuses. And if you read Saint Matthew 22, you'll find that the excuses were made there, also. And—and they try…
E-35 It went back into all ages. Went back into the age, and said a man bid them, and—and had a vineyard. And we find that parable. And how he sent his servants to collect from this vineyard. First servant come, what did they do? They run him off. The next servant come, they also stoned him. And they run servant after servant off; the cruel men. The king sent, finally, his son. And when his son came, we find out, that, "They said, 'This is an heir. We'll kill him, then we'll have all things.'" Then Jesus said to them, "The king sent forth and slew those murders, and burnt their cities."
E-36 Now, we see, when God gives a man an invitation, and to do something, or to receive the invitation that He's given him, and he returns it down, then there's nothing left, after mercy is spurned, but judgment. If you step over the boundaries of mercy, then there's only one thing left, and that is judgment. And we find that man has done that in all ages. It's happened, most every age, in the Bible.
E-37 When God sent Noah, His servant, and made a way of escape for all the people who wanted to—to be saved. But the people only laughed and scorned at Noah. But God made the way, but they had an excuse. It wasn't according to their—to their modern thinking. It didn't… It wasn't the way they wanted it, so they made excuses in the days of Noah.
E-38 They made excuses in the days of Moses. They made excuses in the days of Elijah. They made excuses in the days of Christ. And they make excuses today.
E-39 Now, Him speaking directly to Israel, the ones that was called to the feast, that I would also apply today to men, the church, who has been bidden to come to the feast, and won't do it, the spiritual feast of the Lord. And they won't do it. They don't want to do it. They've got other things to do. They find excuses.
E-40 Now, if Israel, two thousand years ago, would accepted the invitation that they were given, they wouldn't be as they are today. Two thousand years ago, Israel turned down the invitation to come to the wedding supper, and they turned it down and went into judgment. But, as Jesus said, they stoned and kill the prophets that was sent to them, by making excuses, now, the excuses they made in each day.
E-41 We find, in the days of Jesus, that He didn't—He didn't affiliate with any of them. They said, "When did this Man get this learning? What school is He from? Is not This the carpenter's Son? Isn't His mother called Mary? Is His brothers, Joses and James, so forth? And isn't His sisters with us? Then where did this Man get this authority to do this?" See? Other words, He didn't affiliate with them. So they said, "He's Beelzebub. He's a Samaritan. He's got a devil, and He's mad. He's a—He's a… He's a Man that's got an evil spirit, on the line of religion, and has drove Him crazy. And that's what. He's out there like a wild man. Don't pay any attention to Him." And we know what happened to Israel. And they screamed out. They was so sure that that Man was wrong, until, oh, they condemned Him. He said, he said, "Let His Blood be upon us and upon our children." And It's been there ever since.
E-42 Jesus was trying to tell them that their excuses was what killed the prophets, and what killed the righteous that come. They accepted their creeds that men had given them, instead of taking the Word of God. And, by doing so, had made the Word of God of no effect.
E-43 Now, you've either got to say, in this, that This is God's will and God's desire, or either something else that you can crop up, that's better than what This is. Now, you have to take one or the other. You can't serve God and mammon. And you've got to say, "This is the Truth," or "That's part of the Truth," or "It isn't all the Truth," or "It isn't put together right," or "It isn't interpreted right."
And the Bible said, that, "The Word of God is no private interpretation." No one else is supposed to put an interpretation to It, It's written just the way God wants It interpreted. Just what It says, That, that's what is supposed to be. Just take It the way It's said, way It's wrote down Here.
E-44 Now, they accept their creeds. They make God's promises of no effect to them. They bypass That. They'll skip away from It.
E-45 Now, if Russia had accepted the pentecostal Blessing, seventy-five years ago, when the Holy Ghost fell in Russia, they wouldn't have been communists today. Now, seventy-five years ago, they had a great revival in Russia. God come among them, and they had great revivals, way into Siberia. And what did they do? They rejected It. And today, the country is gone, and the churches can't have church, only under permission. And they are doomed into judgment. Has gone off on this wild tantrum of communism; sold out to the devil.
E-46 Fifty years ago, the Holy Ghost fell in England. Just after that come George Jeffreys, and F.F. Bosworth, and Charles Price, Smith Wigglesworth, those great warriors of the faith, fifty years ago, and offered England the Holy Ghost revival. But what did they do? They laughed at them, put them in jail, called them crazy, thought they had lost their minds. The churches refused the people to come hear them. And they healed the sick, and cast out devils, and done great works. And because that England, as a nation, rejected the Gospel, her—her sins is knowed throughout all the world. There's hardly a—a more of an apostate nation in all the world, even including Rome and France, than England. She's a mother of apostasy. Right where Finney and many of the great men preached, in the—the Haymarket, and Charles G. Finney, and Wesley, and on down, and she turned It down.
E-47 And now, even last week, or two, in the papers, you find out where their great men has so weakened to the—to the sex of women, until spies come in. And their head man found some more of them. The magazines has packed it. Their sin of scandal, right in their government, has sowed their disgraceful name across the world. Why? She rejected the Truth. She had her excuse, and she's finished. England is all washed up, with God, long time ago. If…
E-48 America, fifteen years ago, when the great healing revival continued on from Pentecost, broke out in the nation, and there was a revivals on the capital, Washington, DC. The presidents, vice-presidents, great people, governors; great things taken place, governors and—and men were healed. Like, Congressman Upshaw had been a cripple for—for sixty-six years, and they could not turn their face and say it wasn't so. It was right before them, but they turned It down.
E-49 And, tonight, that's the reason this nation stays. She is doomed. There is no hope for it, at all. She's crossed the line between judgment and mercy. And she's elected in what she has here, to control the nation. And she is rotten, to the core. Her politics is rotten. The morals of this nation is lower than anything I can think of. And her religious system is rottener than the morals. She becomes, in doing this, she has now joined herself, all these churches, and of the nation, into the federation of churches, and has taken the mark of the beast. What a thing! Why? Christ give them the opportunity, "Come to My feast," the Feast of Pentecost, which means "fifty."
E-50 When the Holy Spirit poured out on Russia, they was called to a Feast of Pentecost, spiritual feast, and they turned It down. England, the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them, and they turned It down. America, the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them, and they've turned It down.
E-51 He bid three times. Three times, He sent out, and they did not listen to the feast. Then He sent again, and He said, "Go and compel those people to come. The table has got to be set. The table is ready. There is still room." And I believe, that, maybe, maybe within the next few months, or something, or year, or whatever it is, God is going to send another shaking across the country, for there is somebody still out there, somewhere, that's a predestinated Seed, that the Light has to fall on, somewhere, somewhere in the world. The nation, itself, is gone.
E-52 I was looking in this week's Life magazine; down at, well, down at Little Rock, the other day, or, rather, Hot Springs. And there I seen, I believe it was a governor of the state of New York, with some kind of a striptease over in Honolulu, dancing with her, now. And here, below that, was another renown man. Oh, what a disgrace! Look at our nation today. Look at the condition of our—of our nation. Look where she's went to, how low she sunk.
E-53 Look at our religious system today. How can it be that the churches can ever get into the condition that they are now? Is because they have rejected and refused the Message of God, the invitation to come to the feast. Could you call a life like that worthy of the Gospel? Could you call a life, that could set and permit their—their people to do the things, to smoke cigarettes?
E-54 The other day, down here, a certain church, a little league team was playing down here at the park, and my brother-in-law's little boy is a pitcher for one of the teams. And so he was out there pitching, and there was a church league playing. And there was the pastor with these little fellows, out there on the ground, playing. And the pastor smoked cigarette after cigarette, of a real neighborly church right here by us. And could you imagine a man… And even people setting in the audience noticed it. But it's getting so that they don't even pay any attention to it.
E-55 A certain great church, a Baptist church, that I know of, let's the church out from Sunday school, fifteen extra minutes, so that the pastor and all of them can stand outside and smoke, before they come back in to serve the duty of the Lord. John Smith, the founder of that church, prayed so hard, that God send a revival, till his eyes swolled shut at night, and his wife had to lead him to the table and feed him with a spoon. If… That man would turn over in his grave if he knowed that church had got in that condition. What is it? They were bidden to come, and turned it down. That's the only thing. And you remember, Jesus said, in here, that, "Those that were bidden, and turned it down, would not taste His supper."
E-56 When God sends the Holy Ghost and knocks at a man's door, and he deliberately turns It down, sometime he's going to turn It for his last time, and then you won't be a privileged character. You can set in a church and listen to the Gospel, and agree with the Gospel. You might do so much as say, "I know It's right," but never put a finger on It, to help It, yourself. See? You just listen to It, 'cause you say, "I believe It's right." That's just sympathizing with It.
I could say, "I believe that's a ten thousand dollars." That don't mean I got it. See? I could say, "That's good cold water," but refuse to drink it. You know what I mean?
And this is Eternal Life. And to refuse to do it, one day you'll cross the line between judgment and mercy, and then you won't be have the privilege to come and receive It.
E-57 To you people who come here. I'm not responsible for those who… or—or other ministers are speaking to. But, if It's right, you owe your life to It. What more could you ever find, that would be more of a benefit to you, than to know that you can have Eternal Life?
E-58 What if I was giving away capsules here, that, scientifically proven, scientifically proven that this capsule would make you live a thousand years? Well, I—I'd have to get a militia out here, and swarm them away from the place. You wouldn't have to make an altar call for it. You just have to beat them away from it, to live a thousand years.
And, yet, scientifically proven that the Eternal God, all His power of His resurrections, which promise you Eternal Life, and Satan will put his legions out there and keep you away from It. See? Yet, you can look, and sensible enough to look in the face of It and see It's right, but then turn It down. See?
E-59 Something, some kind of an excuse. "It's too hot. I'm too tired. I will, tomorrow." Just some kind of an excuse, that's all they do. By rejecting the day of visitation, it separates you from God.
E-60 Now, we notice. And, in the Old Testament, they had what they called the jubilee year. That was when all the people, that was slaves, could go free when the jubilee sounded. And then if a man did not go out, if there was some excuse that he could give, that he didn't want to return to his land, then he had to be marked in the ear, with an awl, by the post in the temple. And then no matter how many jubilees come along, that man was sold out. He could never no more come back as a citizen in Israel, no more. What did he do? He rejected his invitation. He didn't have to pay nothing. The debt of his slavery was over. His family was free. He could go right back to his homeland and get his own possession. But if he refused to do it, then he wasn't lotted no more with Israel, and his possession was give to another.
E-61 Now, the same thing in the natural applies to the spiritual. That, if we, as inheritants of Eternal Life, and we hear the Gospel and know that It's true, and we reject It, and refuse to do it or to listen to It, we take on the mark of the beast.
E-62 Now, somebody said, "Now, there's going to be a—a mark of the beast, it's going to come someday." Let me tell you. It's already come. See? As soon as the Holy Ghost begin to fall, the mark of the beast begin to take place. See?
E-63 You only have two things. One of them, is, accept It, takes the Seal of God. To reject It, takes the mark of the beast. To reject the Seal of God is to take the mark of the beast. Everybody understand? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] To reject the Seal of God is to take the mark of the beast. For, the Bible said, "All that was not sealed by the Seal of God took the mark of the beast."
E-64 When the trumpet sounded, and all wanted to go free could go. Them that didn't, was marked.
Now, you see, the mark of the beast, if we talk about it in the future, is when it's going to be made manifest, when you realize it's what you've already done. See? And so is the Holy Spirit, It's to be manifested. When we see the Lord Jesus coming in glory, and feel that transforming power, and see the dead rising out of the grave, and know, in a second longer, we'll be changed and have a body like His. It'll be made manifest. Then, to see those who rejected It, will be left down, out.
E-65 Didn't Jesus said the virgins went out to meet Christ? Some of them fell asleep, the first watch, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, to the seventh watch. But, in the seventh watch, then came forth the sound, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet Him." And the ones that were sleeping, awakened. All the age back, to Pentecost, woke up. See? From the seventh age, the seventh church age, all the way back through, woke up. And these that were in this church age, a living, they were changed. And they went in.
At the very time they went in, the sleeping virgin come and said, "We want to buy some of your Oil."
E-66 But they said, "We just got enough for ourself. Go to them that sell It."
"And while they were trying to receive this Oil, the Bridegroom came." There has never been a time in the history of the world, that the Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians… The papers are full. The religious papers are praising God, that those sleeping virgins are now trying to receive Pentecost, trying to receive the Holy Ghost. And don't the people realize that it will not happen, according to the Word of God? "While they were trying to come back, the Bridegroom come and took away the Bride. And they were cast into outer darkness, for judgment," because they rejected their invitation.
E-67 All peoples are bidden to come. God, in every age, has sent out His Light, and It's been rejected.
E-68 And, now, today is no different from any other day, to reject the day of the visitation. When God is making a visit to the Church and to the people, receive It then. Don't put it off till next year, the next revival. That's the hour, "Today is the day of salvation."
E-69 And remember, God has never sent a Message, in any day, but what He vindicated It with the supernatural. Jesus said, Hisself, "If I do not the works of My Father, then believe Me not. But if I do the works, you believe the works if you can't believe Me," and when you see it clearly cut and—and made manifest.
E-70 Now the time has come that she rejects It, then she's bored in the ear with an awl, then she'll never hear It. Now she takes herself to the confederation of churches, to go right in to take the mark of the beast.
E-71 "One of the great ambitions," somebody give me the paper just now, this new pope has said, "is to unite the churches together." They'll do it just as certain as I'm standing here. And the Protestants fall for it. See? Because, the church… The Bible said, Paul, the prophet of the Lord, said, "That day will not come except there come a falling away, first, and then the… before the man of sin will be revealed. He that setteth in the temple of God, opposing himself, all that's above God; he, as God," forgiving sins on the earth, and so forth. How that this thing happened! But it couldn't happen until the falling away, until the church begin to get away from the spiritual feast, draw itself back and organize itself. And then the revelation didn't stay with the church.
E-72 Remember, Israel walked, day and night, by the Pillar of Fire. When that Pillar of Fire moved, they moved with It. And remember, It was a Fire at night, and a Cloud at day. So It might come, day or night, any time. But, wherever It was, there was a propitiation made, that they would not fail to see It. It was a Light at night, and a Cloud in the day time, and they followed It. Yes, sir. The same thing!
E-73 Martin Luther saw It. What did he do? He come out of Catholicism. But what did they do? They built a little fence around, said, "We're Lutherans. This is it."
E-74 Then Wesley saw It moving away from there. He went. What'd they do? Built a little fence around it, said, "This is it." What'd the Light do? Moved right on, again.
E-75 Pentecost saw It. What'd they do? Moved out of the Wesleyan and Nazarenes, and so forth. What do they do? They build little fence around it, called, "We are oneness," and "We're trinity," and "We're the United," and all this. What did He do? God moved right on out of it. See?
E-76 We cannot do that. We've got to follow, every day, every hour of the day, every step of the way. We've got to be led by the Lord Jesus Christ. If we don't, we take an organizational life. And a life that doesn't follow Christ, daily, is not worthy.
E-77 A man that's a Christian on Sunday, and goes to church, sets back there and thinks he owns the church because he does this, that, or the other, and on Monday will steal and lie. And women that'll go out on the public beaches, and—and out upon the streets, with immoral clothes on!
E-78 I thought of—of the first lady, wouldn't even put on makeup, to go before the pope; and come back, and set a water-head haircut spree for the women in the nation. And all these dresses, that, when she's become mother, every woman in the country wants to wear one of them mother-type dresses now. That's right. It's examples. And they know that those people would do that. They take on a spirit of the world. And that don't belong in the Church of the living God.
E-79 Women ought to look to Jesus Christ. You ought to look to Sarah and them of the Old Testament.
E-80 Now, they got so that… I was preaching the other night, somewhere, about women to obey their husband. Obey? Yeah. That went out of the marriage ritual, a long time ago. But they ain't going to do that. No, sir. They live in America, and they let you know so. They're not going to obey. But, as long as you don't do it, don't never try to call yourself a Christian, 'cause you're not. I don't care how much you dance and speak with tongues, if you don't obey your husband, you're out of the will of God.
E-81 A woman that wears shorts and does these things that she does on the street, don't call yourself a Christian. You want to have the world and still hold your testimony. You cannot do that in the Presence of God, when you know better than to do it.
E-82 Notice, "bored in the ear," marked away, then you'll never hear. Remember, that's a sign of closing the ears. You won't hear It no more. You won't listen. You'll never be able again, do it again.
E-83 Oh! "She don't believe That." Oh, my! "Don't tell her. She believes it." No. "She tell you right…" She don't know It. How could a—a lady… Just ask you, how could a lady…
As I spoke Sunday, last Sunday night, a week ago tonight, on "a red flashing light," how that the—the—the run of women has become prettier than it ever was. Now, that's nothing—nothing against the woman, now, that's just but how she controls that. See? The… She's got that way, to put her in a temptation, like Eve was put before the tree.
E-84 Every man, every son that comes to God, has got to go through that hour of testing. This is the age of women, this nation is, where she has to go through that testing. If she can be a pretty woman, and act like a sister, the Lord's blessings upon her. But when she can get herself to—to know this, and display herself, absolutely shows that she's got a—a bad spirit on her. She don't mean to be that way, I don't think, many of them don't. But they don't realize that.
E-85 Could you tell me that a decent, thinking woman could put herself on, these little clothes that they wear out here on the street?
E-86 I've got two young girls setting here. I don't know what the outcome of them kids will be. I just pray for them. Kids, today, I don't… You can't tell. I don't know. They're not immune from that. They've got to stand on their own two feet, before Jesus Christ, and give an answer. They can't go in on what… on—on what I believe, and what their mother believes. I don't know what they do. But I actually believe, in this hour, if them girls went out on a street, with them kind of clothes on, and a man insulted them, in them kind of clothes, I don't believe, if I had the opportunity, I could even condemn the man. That's right. I condemn the girls. They had no business doing that.
E-87 Listen. If man thinks, and they teach that, "Man is no more than an animal. He come from the animal race." And look, then, you put him out there like…
E-88 You take the dog to the little female at certain times, through the fences and everything else, because the little female is in that condition; hogs, cows, every other animal. And if we are animal life; which, we are, the physical part. And then when a woman displays herself like that, she proves that she's the same thing the little dog is, or the same thing, exactly, for she wouldn't be doing that. She knows. Nature teaches her that man is going to look at her. And the Bible said, "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
E-89 That puts a testing time. And the devil pretties them women, and strips them down, and set them out there, to give you a test. Men, turn your heads. Be sons of God. Women, you dress like daughters of God. Don't answer for adultery yonder at the Day.
E-90 If that woman, no matter how innocent… She might have never done nothing wrong, never even had it in her mind to do wrong. But when that sinner who looked upon that graceful form of that woman, knowing he's a male; and female sex is in one glands, and one, the male, in the other; and that sinner is going to have to answer for it at the Day of the Judgment, who did it, who is guilty? Not him. You. There you are, immoral.
E-91 Look at this nation. It used to be, when they—they had the knee-high dresses that the women wore, we had to send to Paris to get them. Today, Paris sends here to get them. It's got so filthy till Paris can't keep up with it. That's right. The whole… Why? Rejecting the Gospel. Why?
Paris didn't have It. It's one hundred percent Catholicism. The Protestants can't even get in there. Look at Billy Graham. I think there's only six hundred Christians in all Paris, out of the millions, six hundred Christians, Protestants. That's not Holy-Ghost-filled. That's just absolutely Protestants, six hundred of them, out of the millions times millions. They didn't get the opportunity to reject It.
E-92 But these people has the Gospel. And when they get away from the Message and the Gospel that they seen demonstrated, make fun of It because some old prostitute doctrine has weaved them around; and some pastor stand in the pulpit, thinking more of a dollar and a meal ticket than he does of the soul, the people that he's preaching to, that's right, that's what's done it. Now she leads the world.
E-93 Remember, not long ago, in this tabernacle. I preached on a subject, about twenty years ago, "I'll show you the goddess of America," and had the little flapper here, setting there with it. That's what it is. Now they're even, get it. They're getting what they've asked for. And they're going to get it. That's all.
E-94 No. They won't believe it. No, sir. They let you know they're American citizens, and they got a right to—to function any way they want to. I just wish…
E-95 Let me tell you. I'll tell you now. No, sir, politics will never work. No, sir, democracy will never work. Democracy is rotten, to the bone. If it could be run amongst a bunch of Christians, it would be fine. But when you put it out there in the world, it becomes all sails and no anchor. Exactly right.
E-96 Looky here, today. Anything can take place, and they'll be just… Anything, pull a few politics, and they'll get by with murder.
E-97 When I preached down there, that night to try to save them two kids' life. They're as guilty as guilty could be. Even that attorney got up behind me there, and he said, "It's right." He said, "I don't believe in taking the people's life." He said, "If you'll notice on your criminal records, who is it that gets killed in electric chairs and things? It's not the rich. He can afford to get him a lawyer and some pull, some dirty tricks, and some wheels here, and some over here, and bribe the thing." He said, "It's poor kids like that, that ain't got enough money to buy them a decent meal, that's the kind that gets it. There is the kind they electrocute, somebody that's like they call a bunch of ignorant people, and they just hold up their name of capital punishment."
E-98 I said, "The first murder was ever committed in the world, one brother killed another, and God did not take his life for it. He put a mark on him, that nobody should take his life. Right. That's the Supreme Judge."
I see they took the sentence off of them. Now they're going to get another trial. Course, they'll get life now, which will be eleven years, and maybe stand for parole. They're guilty. Certainly. They're guilty. They ought to be sent to penitentiary, for lifetime, but not their life taken. No man has a right to take another man's life. No, sir. I don't believe in it. No, indeed.
E-99 Oh! They say… Why, they don't believe that they're out of the will of the Lord, because that's all they know about, all they want to hear about. They turned their ear against the Truth, in there.
E-100 Neither did Egypt want to know that that bunch of holy-rollers down there was the will of the Lord. How'd they want to know that some crazy man come in there, from the wilderness, with whiskers hanging down like this, and said, "Pharaoh, I come in the Name of the Lord. Turn them children loose."
Pharaoh would say, "Who, me? Throw him out." See? "Me?"
"If you don't do it, the Lord's God is going to smite this nation."
E-101 "The old—the old crank, turn him out somewhere. Let him go. The sun has kind of baked his mind." See? But it brought judgment, because the man was a prophet and had THUS SAITH THE LORD. Exactly right. They didn't want to believe it.
Rome didn't want to believe it, either, but it happened just the same.
E-102 Israel didn't want to believe that that was the Messiah. "How could they, bunch of—bunch of Galileans?" Saying, "Are not all these Galileans? Where did they come from? What kind of a crowd does He go with? The very poorest that can be got together, that's the crowd He associates with. That's who comes to hear Him, is the poor people, them people that don't know nothing. They're not elected. They're not—they're not the intellectual type that we are. They're a poor bunch." You hear it say about the revival in this day. "What kind of crowd hears them? What kind goes to these meetings? What kind of a people are they?"
E-103 I heard a fellow say, not long ago… Well, he was kind of… He was Hope's stepfather. And I was telling him about the baptism the Holy Spirit. He said, "Now, who would believe a thing like that, 'less some kind of a bunch like you got up there?" He said, "You let So-and-so, a businessman here in the town, wicked as all get, let him say that he received the Holy Ghost, then I'd believe it."
E-104 I said, "Don't worry. He'll never say it." The man died instantly, without God. See?
You be careful what you're doing. Be careful what you're saying. You want a life worthy of the Gospel. Right.
E-105 Israel didn't believe that, that bunch of people. "That madman, by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, born," they thought, "an illegitimate birth." And the people believed it. Because, they said, "That wasn't his. Why, His father is Joseph, and Mary was to have this Baby before they was even… Born, why, it's illegitimate. And what is He? Just a madman. Is one of them funny-sort of a guy. Don't go to hear Him." What did they do? They were sending their souls to hell. They took…
E-106 Jesus said, "Let them alone. If the blind leads the blind, don't they both fall in the ditch?" That's right. They didn't know it. They wouldn't believe It. They could not.
E-107 They could not see how that a simple people with a simple Message, to be rejected, could cause a great nation to fall to ruins. Now listen. They could not understand that: a simple, ordinary, common bunch of people. You know, the Bible said that, "The common people heard Jesus gladly."
E-108 I had a little something to happen in Mexico, not long ago. General Valdena, elected of God, the Light shined across his path once, in one of the meetings. That great Catholic warrior, one of the highest generals in Mexico, come humbly to the altar and received the baptism the Holy Ghost. He went back down into Mexico. He kept crying for me, come down there. Finally, I decided to go down. The Lord led me; had a vision. Told my wife. Went down there.
And when he did, him being one their chief generals, four-star general, he went to the headquarters, to the government. And, they, they're hard against Protestants down there, you know. So they know this going to be a terrific meeting, so he went down there and got a militia guard. And when they did, they got the big arena. And they was going to bring me in like that. The government was bringing me in.
So, when they did, the—the bishop, one of the great bishops of the Catholic church, went up to him, to the governor, and said, "Sir, I understand that you're bringing in a non-Catholic."
Said, "Yes. What about it?"
"Why," he said, "you can't have a man like that in here. This government has never knowed of doing a thing like that."
E-109 "But," said, "we've done it now." He said, "Why," said, "the man is a reputable man. I understand that thousands of people comes out to hear him. General Valdena, he's my bosom friend." He said… And had the… The president himself is Protestant, you know, Methodist. So he said—he said, "The man is a reputable man, as far as I know." Said, "General Valdena here, he is converted under this man." Said, "Why, he is, as far as I know, a reputable person." Said, "Thousands of people, they claim, will come hear him."
And this bishop said, "What kind of a people is it, sir? Just the ignorant. That's the ones that goes, hear a person like that."
E-110 The president said, "Sir, you've had them for five hundred years, why are they ignorant?" That was enough. That settled it. Oh, my! That dehorned them. Yes, sir. Yeah.
E-111 Then when that little baby was raised from the dead, I sent a runner behind the man. The lady was saying, in Spanish, "The baby died, this morning at nine o'clock." And it was pouring down, rain. Having about ten thousand converts to Christ, each night.
The night before, an old blind man had received his sight on the platform. Oh, three or four times size this tabernacle, and about that high, of old shawls and hats laying. And I just…
E-112 They let me down on ropes, in the ring, to get me in. I just walked out there and started preaching, by faith.
Billy come, said, "Daddy, you going to have to do something, that woman." Said, "I got three hundred ushers standing there. They can't stop a little bitty woman, weigh a hundred pounds, nearly." And pretty, little lady about so high, about, oh, maybe her first baby. I'd say she's twenty-three or twenty-five years old.
E-113 And she was standing there, and her hair hanging down, and holding a little baby. And she would make a lunge for that line. The men would push her back. She'd climb up over the top of them, that baby on her hip, any way, go between their legs, or anything. They'd get her up there, and have to kick her off the platform.
E-114 And they didn't have no prayer card to give her. He said, "If I let her come in there, daddy, with that dead baby, with no prayer card, and…" Said, "Them others standing there, has been standing here two or three days, in that rain and sun. And let her get ahead of them," said, "it'll cause a—a fuss down there."
E-115 I said, "That's all right." Brother Moore was there, and he's kind of bald-headed like me. I said, "She don't know who is who, so many people." I said, "Send…" And—and a couple the brethren, one of the brethren, from here at tabernacle, that he's gone to Glory now. I can't think of his name just at this time. But he was standing back there. So I said, "Brother Moore, go down, pray for the baby. She'll never know who, whether it's me or you. Just go on down. And not able to speak English."
And so Brother Moore said, "All right, Brother Branham."
E-116 He started walking down. I said, "As I was saying, fa-…" And I seen a little baby, little Mexican baby setting in front of me, just laughing. I said, "Wait a minute." And I said, "Let the little lady through."
Billy said, "I can't do that, daddy. She…"
I said, "I saw a vision, Billy."
Said, "Oh, that's different."
E-117 So we opened up the crowd like that and brought her through. Here she come, falling on her knees, with the prayer beads in her hand. I said, "Get up."
So I said, "Heavenly Father, now I don't know what You're going to do. I don't know whether You just want me to satisfy the woman by praying for the baby, or what." I said, "I lay my hands upon the little baby, in the Name of the Lord Jesus." Just the same thing I did to Brother Way, laying there on the floor, dead, the other day. And the blanket kicked, and that little baby started screaming. And it was to its life. When…
E-118 I sent a runner, Brother Espinoza, to go with her to the doctor, and get a sworn affidavit from the doctor, "That baby died." That was about ten o'clock that night. "Died that morning at nine o'clock, in his office, with pneumonia." He got a sworn statement from the doctor.
The papers couldn't keep that still, you know, so they had to come over. They interviewed me. And they said to me, he said, "Do you think that our saints could do that, too?"
I said, "If they're living."
"Oh," he said, "you can't be a saint until you're dead." There you are. See? And the people…
E-119 You see, other day, where they had this nun they played up, in the paper? So, a new saint died, oh, a hundred years ago, or something like that, and they made a… canonized her now, made a saint out of her. And they said that—that she come back from the dead and prayed for some sick person that had leukemia. Wasn't it? It was in one of the magazines. Just think how they try to play that up, and when there's hundreds and hundreds of cases right under the nose of the people here. What's that thing? For a thing to play the Protestant church right into it, see, make it think something.
And then the real works of the Lord, where it's perfectly vindicated, proved, they are daresn't to touch the paper with it. There you are. They received an invitation and turned it down. Yes, sir.
E-120 They can't understand how a simple Message, a simple people, to reject a thing like that would cause them to go into chaos.
E-121 A woman said to me, Grant's Pass, Oregon, some time ago, Catholic girl come out there to condemn and write up. She was a newspaper reporter, pack of cigarettes in her hand. And she said, "I want to talk to you."
I said, "What is it you want to say?"
She said, "I wanted to ask you some questions about this religion of yours."
And I said, "What is it you want to ask?"
And she said, "By what authority you do this?"
E-122 I said, "In the Name of Jesus Christ, by a Divine call." And she went ahead, smarting off. I said, "Just a minute."
She said, "If I had to associate with that bunch of ignoramuses up there," she said, "I wouldn't even want to be a Christian." She said, "And if them… They say that them people will rule the earth someday." She said, "I hope I'm not here."
I said, "Don't worry. You won't be." I said, "You… have to worry about that."
"Why," she said, "all that there carrying on and screaming!"
I said, "And you claim to be a Catholic?"
She said, "I am."
E-123 I said, "Did you know the blessed virgin Mary had to receive the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues, and dance in the Spirit, the same way they did, before God would receive her? You call her the mother of God."
She said, "That's nonsense."
I said, "Just a minute. I…"
"I'm not supposed to look in the Bible."
E-124 I said, "Then how you going to know what is Truth or not?"
She said, "I take my church's word."
E-125 I said, "This is God's Word. Here It is right here. I challenge you to look at It. And Mary was with them up there in the upper room, and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost like the rest of them did. And you call her the mother of God." I said, "Then call that, 'Bunch of trash; backwash'?" I said, "Don't worry. You won't be There. You don't have much to worry about, if that's all you got to worry about. You better worry about your own sinful soul, girl." And I let her go.
E-126 Now think of all this, a simple. God makes it so simple.
How could Ahab, how could Jezebel, how could those people who thought that Elijah was a witch, thought he was a spiritualist? Even Ahab said, "Here is the one that's caused all this trouble to Israel."
He said, "You're the one has troubled Israel."
E-127 How could that nation think, that, to reject the message of a fuzzy-faced man like that, no priestly garments on, and so forth, would be the condemnation of it?
How could Egypt, the rule the world, pharaohs, and its class and dignity? The world has never come to that place again, in science and so forth. How could they think, to reject an old prophet of eighty years old, with whiskers hanging down, gray hair, stomping out of there, a fugitive? And come out there with a message, "You'll either let them go, or God will destroy the nation." How could Pharaoh? "You'll obey me, Pharaoh."
E-128 Pharaoh said, "Obey?" Oh, him, Pharaoh! And an old man, "Some old crank," they thought, "turn a guy down like that, destroy a nation?" But it did it. Oh, my!
Let's stop, pause a few minutes and have a prayer, and think. What day are we living in? Where we at? Another modern, scientific age. We better think. Maybe, you stop, people stop and pray a little while, and think a little bit, you'd feel better after you get through doing it. That's right.
E-129 A Christian is not a tool, or some kind of a mechanical wrench to a great big religious regime. That's right. A Christian is not some kind of tool that keeps a religious organization moving. A Christian, that is not a Christian. A Christian is to be Christ-like. And a Christian cannot be a Christian until Christ comes into the man, the Life of Christ in him. Then it produces the Life that Christ lived, and you do the things that Christ did.
E-130 What am I talking about? Personal relationship to Christ. What is it? Is your life worthy of the Gospel?
Now I'm trying to lay that background there, to show you that, men and women who were renown women, men.
E-131 The Bible said. Did you notice? Last Sunday night, something I forgot to put in, Genesis the 6th chapter and the 4th verse. "Those men who taken to them women, for wives, were men of old, renown." Renown men, predicted to come again. "Like it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the Coming of the Son of man." "Renown men taking women," not wives, "women; going after strange flesh."
E-132 Look in England, a couple weeks ago. Look in the United States. Look everywhere, it's full of prostitution. Great men, great, high offices, bringing disgrace upon the nation, running after women. That great man there in England, some kind of a warlord, like, why, did you notice, he had a pretty wife. Her picture was there, along. Look at that Russian prostitute, but she was all sexy dressed, and throwed herself out there, to display her female flesh. And the man fell for it.
E-133 What we need today is sons of God. We need men in government, that's sons of God. That's right. Therefore, a good, godly king would stop all this nonsense. There wouldn't be no strings to pull. Like David did, he put a stop to it. Certainly did, 'cause he was the king. And there was only…
E-134 The real way, is, God being the King, and God sends a prophet. Didn't Samuel tell them before they ever got a king? He said, "God is your King. Have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass?"
They said, "No. That's right."
"Have I ever bummed you for your living?"
"No. You never did bum us for a living."
"I've never told you nothing but what was right, before the Lord." Said, "God is your King."
E-135 "Oh, we realize that. And we know you're a good man, Samuel. We believe the Word of the Lord comes to you, but we want a king, anyhow." See? That's what they get.
E-136 Pentecost wanted an organization, anyhow. It got it. That's right. Wanted to be like the rest the churches. You are. Go ahead, that, that's just what it takes. But God is our King. God is our King. Yes, sir.
E-137 What is it? Is because that the people, like they did in the days of Christ, like they have in every age, they find an excuse. They have their own creeds. You might not want to say, "I—I bought a cow, and I got to go see whether she—she will work or not, or give milk, or—or what stock she is." You might not have that excuse.
But here is the kind excuse the people may say. "I'm a Presbyterian. We don't believe in That. I'm Baptist. We don't believe in no such stuff as That. Well, I'm a Lutheran." Well, that don't have anything to do with It. That don't mean you're a Christian. That means that you belong to a bunch of people that's organized. And you belong to the Lutheran lodge, the Baptist lodge, the Pentecostal lodge. There is no such a thing as Pentecostal Church. There is no such a thing as Baptist Church. It's Baptist lodge, Pentecostal lodge, Presbyterian lodge.
But there's only one Church. And there's only one way you can get into It, and that's by Birth. You're born into the Church of Jesus Christ, and a member of His Body, of the spiritual delegation of Heaven. Then the signs, that Christ is with you, lives through you.
E-138 Christians, oh, you must have a personal relationship to God. In order to be a son of God, you must become relation to God. He must be your Father, in order for you to be a son. And only His sons and daughters are saved, not the members of a church, but sons and daughters. There's only one thing that will produce that, that's the new Birth. The new Birth is the only thing that will produce relationship to God. That right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Sons and daughters. Then when this takes place, then the men…
E-139 Here's the question I want to get to you. The man says, "What do we do then after we been born again?" So many ask me that question. "What should I do then, Brother Branham?" If you are born again, your entire nature is changed. You are dead to the things you once thought.
E-140 "Well," you say, "Brother Branham, when I joined church, I got that."
Well, then, when, God said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still heals the sick. He still shows vision."
"But, Brother Branham, my church!" Now, you're not born again. See? You can't be; for, if the very God, if His Life is in you, like you're in the life of your father. And if the very Life of God is in you, the very Spirit that was in Christ, in you, how can the Spirit live in Jesus Christ and write This, and then come back down in you and deny That? See? Can't do it. It'll punctuate every Word to be so.
E-141 Then, if you say, "Well, I'm a good member of the church." That don't have one thing to do with It.
I know the heathen. Down in Africa, amongst my dark brethren down there, I find the morals of them people higher than—than ninety percent of the American people. Why, in some of the tribes there, if a young girl is not married till she's a certain age, or when she's a certain size and no one has taken her yet, they know there's something wrong. They excommunicate her. She take off tribal paint, and she goes to the city, then she just becomes a renegade. And when she's married, she's tested for her virginity. If the little virgin veil is broke, then she has to tell who done it. And they kill them both, together. Wouldn't there be a lot of killing in America if that taken place? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] See? Then you call them heathens? Oh, my! They can come teach people, that call themselves church members, how to live clean. That's right.
E-142 Never found one case of venereal in the whole trip through South Africa. They don't have such a thing. There you are. See? It's just our own dirty filthy ways, as white people. That's right. Got away from God.
E-143 When this takes place, the thing you'll do then, you'll find out that the Spirit that comes in you, from the new Birth, you will believe and do everything that God says in His Word is for you to do. And everything that the Bible quotes for you to do, you'll punctuate it with an "amen." And you'll not stop, day and night, until you receive it. That's right. That's right. And in all this time, you'll certainly, above everything, bear the fruit of the Spirit.
E-144 You say, "Will I speak with tongues?" You might do that, and you might not. "Will I shout?" You might do that. You might not.
But there's one sure thing you will do. You will bear the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, faith, long-suffering, meekness, gentleness, patient. Your temper will not be, "Oooh!" Just remember, when you got that, that poisons the Holy Spirit away from you. See? When you get to a place that you want to fuss with everybody you come along to, there's something wrong. When you get a place where the… a minister will read from the Bible, that it's wrong to do a certain thing, and, you'll… Just remember, there's no Christianity there at all. That's now, that, "By their fruits you shall know them." That's what Jesus said. See?
E-145 If it's the Word, and God said so, that Spirit in you will cope with that Word, every time. Cause, genuine Holy Spirit will cope with the Word, 'cause the Word is Life and Spirit. Jesus said, "My Words are Life." And if you've got Eternal Life, and He is the Word, how can the Word deny the Word? See? What kind of a person would you make God? That's one thing to know, that you're a Christian, when you can fully agree upon every Word of God.
E-146 And you find yourself in love with your enemy. Somebody said, "Well, he's nothing but a holy-roller." And you start to get… Be careful. Be careful. But when you really find, yourself, that you love him! Regardless of what they do, you still love them. See?
E-147 Then you beginning to find, and your patience gets from about that long, till it just don't have no end. Anybody just keeps saying things about you, "Well, I don't care what you say!" Don't get stirred up. If you get stirred up, you better go pray first, 'fore you talk to them again. Yeah. Yeah.
Don't get in fusses. Don't like to get in fuss; if you like to see somebody raise up in church, say, "You know what? I'll tell you, So-and-so did so-and-so."
You say, "Now, brother, shame on you."
E-148 If you say, "Oh, is that so?" Listen to that scandal? Watch out.
The Holy Spirit is not a cesspool. See? No, no. No, no. The heart is occupied by the Holy Spirit, is full of holiness, purity. "Thinketh no evil, doeth no evil; believeth all things; endureth, long-suffering." See?
E-149 Don't fuss. When the family gets in a fuss, don't fuss with them. Your mother said, "I ain't having you go up there, that old church, anymore. Well, you, all you think about now, you're letting your hair grow out. You look like some old grandma." Don't fuss with her.
Say, "Okay, mother. It's all right. I love you, just the same. And I'll be praying for you as long as I live." See?
E-150 Now, don't fuss. See? Temper breeds temper. First thing you know, you grieve the Holy Spirit away from you, you'll be fussing back. Then the Holy Spirit takes Its flight. Temper breeds temper.
And love breeds love. Be full of love. Jesus said, "This will all men know you're My disciples, when you have love, one for another." That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love.
E-151 And did you know, you are a little creator, yourself? You know that? Certainly. You've seen people that you just love to be around. You don't know why. Just that loving type of person. Have you seen that? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Just as kind, there, you like to be around them. That's… They create that atmosphere, by the life they live, the way they talk, their conversation.
Then, you've seen those that, every time, you—you shun them. All time, they want to talk about something evil, and talk about somebody. Say, "Oh, my! There they come. They're going to criticize somebody there. He's in here now, he's going to talk about this man. All they're going to do is tell dirty jokes, or something about women, or something like that." You just hate to get around them. See? They create. Seemingly, pretty nice people, but they create that atmosphere.
And the things that you think on, the things that you do, the actions, the things you talk about, creates an atmosphere.
E-152 I went into a man's office, here in this city. And the man is a trustee, or a deacon, it is, in a fine church. I went in there to see that man about some business. And there's a radio over there, with that rock-and-roll or twist, ever what it was, just as hard as it could go. And I guess there was forty pinups in his office, of nude women. Now, you can't tell me how much deacon, or how much more. You let me see what you look at, and what you read, and the kind of music you listen to, the crowd you associate with, and I'll tell you what kind of a spirit is in you. See? Yeah.
E-153 You hear a guy say, "Me do so-and-so? That bunch…" Just remember, I don't care what he says. His words speaks louder. His actions speaks louder than what anything could say. He could testify, say he's a Christian, sure, and maybe do anything. But you just watch the kind of a life he lives. That tells what he is.
E-154 Now, could you imagine that, a man with a life that would say, "To believe in Divine healing, that's something for the birds. That was back in years ago. There's no such a thing today"? Is that a life worthy of the Gospel, that, "Christ was wounded for our transgressions, and with His stripes we were healed"? You say, "But I'm a deacon." I don't care. You might be a bishop.
E-155 When I heard Bishop Sheen say, about two years ago, coming down; never did turn him on again. When he said, "A man that would believe and try to live by that Bible, was like somebody trying to walk though muddy waters." Bishop Sheen, then turn around, said, "When I get to Heaven, you know what? When I meet Jesus, I'm going to tell Him, 'I'm Bishop Sheen,' and He'll say, 'Oh, yes, I heard My mother speak of you.'" Paganism, men that would blaspheme that Word. God be merciful. I ain't the judge. See?
That Word is the Truth. Right. And the Spirit of God will recognize His Own Writing. He's identified by His Writing. It—It—It speaks of Him. And you're identified by believing It, and It gives you your credentials of identification.
E-156 Don't fuss with others. And don't—and don't have these family fusses, as I said. Love breeds love. And temper breeds temper.
E-157 Now, now let's watch. Look at Jesus, just for a minute. He was your example. I hope you're not getting too tired. Look. Let's look at Jesus, just a minute. He was our example. He said so. "For I have given you an example, that you should do to others as I have done to you."
E-158 Now watch. When He came into the world, when there was more, as much unbelief in the world right then as there ever was, it didn't even slow Him up. He went right on preaching just the same, and healing just the same. Never bothered Him. There was critics. The Man was criticized from the time He was a baby until He died on the cross. Did it stop Him? No, sir. What was His goal? "Always do that which the Father has written. Always do which pleased Him."
E-159 Look at Jesus. Talk about us humbling ourselves? When God Himself became a baby, instead of coming in a—a little crib somewhere in a decent home, was born out there over a manure pile in a stable, amongst bawling calves. They wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, was off the neck of a yoke of an ox. The poorest of the poorest, and, yet, the Creator of heavens and earth.
E-160 One cold, rainy night, they said, "Master, we'll go home with You."
E-161 He said, "The foxes has holes, and the birds has nests, but I don't even have a place to lay My head."
God, Jehovah, humbled Himself and become a Man; represented in sinful flesh, to redeem you and me. Who are we then? He was our example. Who am I? Nothing.
E-162 I was telling someone, this afternoon, in a little meeting. I said, "Every son that's born of God has to be tried first, chastened." I remember when I had mine, or my greatest hour. When a—when a man is born again, there's a little spot, like size of his fingernail, that God injects into him, system, and it falls into his heart and there anchors. Then Satan makes him prove it. And if that ain't there, you're gone.
E-163 I remember there in the hospital, I was about twenty-two years old, twenty-three, maybe, along, was a young man. And my father, dying in my arms, and me talking to God as a healer. And my own father in a heart attack, laid his head in my arm, and me praying for him; and see him turn those eyes and look at me, and falled off, to go to meet God. I took him over and buried him by the side of my brother, and the flowers was still fresh on his grave, and me preaching a God that heals the sick. Working for the Public Service Company, for twenty cents an hour, and my wife working out here at the shirt factory; to help us make a living for our little eighteen-months-old boy, Billy Paul, and an eight-month-old child that she was packing.
I seen Sister Wilson nod her head. She remembers that; Roy Slaughter and some of the old-timers.
E-164 What did I do? Walked the streets, with a sandwich in my hand, come down off the pole, and testifying to everybody come by, about the love of Jesus Christ. Go to their garage and ask them if I could use it, talk to mechanic. Go in there, say, "Men, have you ever been saved yet? I found something in my heart." Go into grocery stores at nighttime. Come home at two or three o'clock in the morning, from making sick calls all night long. Couldn't… Just set down, change and put on my work clothes. And set there in the chair and rest till daylight, get up and go. And so thin, from fasting and praying, till I have to pray to put my spurs on, and get up a pole. Preaching, and preaching, "God was great, God was mercy, God was love," to the people.
And, here, my daddy dying on my arms. And my brothers died, was killed while I was stand in the pulpit down here at this little, colored Pentecostal church, preaching. Come told me, "Your brother was killed up on the highway. A car hit him and killed him." His own brother's blood dripping off his shirt, where he picked him up on the highway. Right after I buried him, my daddy died. Then, there laid my wife out there.
E-165 And I went, come over here at this tabernacle. From off this, where this platform stands, told the people, six months before it happened, "There'll come a flood. And I seen an Angel take a rod, and measure, 'Twenty-two feet over Spring Street.'"
Sandy Davis and them setting here, laughed, said, "It was only about eight or ten inches in 1884, boy. What's talking to you?"
E-166 I said, "It'll be. Because, I seen one of them trances, and It told me so. And It'll be there." And there's a mark on Spring Street, today, at twenty-two feet of water. I said, "I rode over the top of this tabernacle in a boat." I did.
E-167 During that time, my wife got sick. I prayed for her. And I come to the tabernacle, the people was waiting on her. I said, "She's dying."
"Oh, it's just your wife, that."
E-168 I said, "She's dying."
I went over there and prayed and prayed and prayed. And I'd hold my hands out. She took a hold my hand. She said, "Billy, I'll meet you in the morning, stand over There." Said, "Get the kiddies together and meet me at the Gate."
E-169 I said, "Just start hollering, 'Bill.' I'll be There." See? And she went out. I laid her down there in the morgue.
Went up home, to lay down. And when I did… Little Billy Paul was staying with Mrs. Broy and them, so sick. The doctor expect him to die at any time. Me praying for Billy. And here come Brother Frank and got me. Said, "Your baby is dying, the little girl."
E-170 I went out the hospital. Doctor Adair wouldn't let me go in, said, "She got meningitis. You'll take it back to Billy Paul." Had the nurse give me some kind of a red stuff to take, for some kind of an anesthetic, of something to quieten me. And I had them to leave the room, throwed it out the window. Slipped out the back door, went down the basement.
There laid the baby there, before the hospital, the isolated ward, flies all in her little eyes like that. I took the old mosquito bar, shooed them away, and put it over her. I got down, I said, "God, there lays my daddy and brother, yonder, and the flowers on their grave. There lays Hope, laying yonder. And here is my baby, dying. Don't take her, Lord."
E-171 He just pulled down the curtain, as if say, "Shut up. I don't want to hear you, at all." He wouldn't even talk to me.
E-172 Then, if He wouldn't talk to me, it was Satan's time. He said, "And I thought you said He was a good God. What's all this you're hollering about? You're just a boy. Look around, over the city. Every girl and every boy you ever associated with think you've lost your mind. You have." Now, he couldn't tell me there's no God, 'cause I had already seen It. But he told me He didn't care for me.
E-173 Set all night long, all day long. I said that to God, "What have I done? Show me, Lord. Don't let the innocent have to suffer for me, if I done wrong." I didn't know He was trying me. But every son that comes to God has got to be tried. I said, "Tell me what I've done. I'll make it right. What have I done but preach all day long, all night long, and just give Him my life, constantly? What have I done?"
Satan said, "That's right. You see, now, when it comes to you, and you've told all of them that you believe that He's a great healer, and there lays your baby laying there, dying. He refuses to even hear. Your wife died with tubercular pneumonia. You said He could heal cancers, and there He is. Now, you talk about Him being good, and how good He is to people. What about you?"
E-174 Then I begin to listen to him. That's reasoning. I thought, "That's right."
Said, "He can tell. He don't have to speak the Word. Just look to your baby, and it would live."
I said, "That's right."
"And as much as you've done for Him, and yet that's what He does for you."
E-175 I said, "That's right." I begin to think. "Well, what?" See? Everything begin to break away, when it come to reasonings. But, when it come to That, That hung. It stayed there. I was just about ready to say, "Then I'll quit."
But when it got down till all the reasoning powers had broke away, then it come to that Eternal Life, that new Birth. What if It hadn't have been there? What if It hadn't have? We wouldn't have knowed one another the way we do now. This church would not been here like this, the thousands and millions around the world. But, thank God, It was there.
E-176 Then I thought, "What? Who am I, anyhow? Who am I, to question His Majesty? Who am I, to question the Creator that give me my very life here on earth? Where did I get that baby? Who give it to me? Not mine, anyhow. He just loaned her to me, for a while."
I said, "Satan, get away from me. I went over, laid my hand on the baby. I said, "God bless you, sweetheart. In a minute, daddy will take you down, put you on mommy's arms. The Angels will pack your little soul away. And I'll meet you in that morning."
I said, "Lord, You give her to me. You're taking her away. Though You slay me, like Job said, yet, I love You and I believe You. If You send me to hell, I'll love You, anyhow. I can't get away from that." There you are.
Just an intellectual, it all broke away. But you got to have personal relationship. You've got to be born again.
E-177 That's the reason ministers get away, great charges and things. They say, "There's no such a thing as Divine healing. No such a thing as these things." They've never been on that sacred ground, as I was speaking this morning. They know nothing of It. How can they say that they're children of God, and deny the Word of God? How can you do it, denying the very Holy Spirit that bought you?
E-178 Oh, just remember, Jesus humbled Himself, to death, for you. He was not fussy. When they spit in His face, He didn't spit back. When they pulled His beard out, He didn't pull at theirs. When they slapped Him on one side the face, the other, He never slapped them. He prayed for them, walked on, humbly. He was an example of humility.
E-179 He was full of faith. Why? He knowed His Words couldn't fail. He so lived by the Word till He became the Word.
O God! Let me hold my both hands to God, before this audience. Let me live like that. Let this Word so become, that me and this Word is the same thing. Let my words be this Word; let the meditation of my heart. Let Him be in my heart, on my mind. Tie His commandments upon the post of my intelligence. Tie them upon the post of my heart. Let me just see Him. When temptation rises, let me see Christ. When things goes wrong, let me just see Him. When I get ready, and the enemy try to make me get angry, let me see Jesus. What would He do?
E-180 He was so much in the Word, till Him and the Word became the selfsame thing. Watch.
E-181 He didn't have to fuss. He knew He and the Word was the same. He knowed that He was God's Word made manifest, and God's command would finally conquer the world. He knowed that, His Word. He had faith. He knowed where He was at. He didn't have to discuss, and say, "Here, you can come over here."
E-182 Devil said, "Now, look, You can perform miracles. You know You got great faith. You can perform miracles. I'll build You a building, twice size of Oral Roberts'. Cause, the people all… The—the only thing You have to do, show them. Jump off this building here, just go right down, because it's written, see, 'The Angels bear Thee up, lest any time dash a foot against a stone.'" See?
He knowed He had power. He knowed that He could do it. He knew it was in Him, but He didn't want to use it till God told Him to. See? He want it to be God in Him, be the Word in all. And He knowed that, when He spoke anything, that it was God's Word; and though heavens and earth pass away, that Word would someday conquer.
E-183 He wasn't fussy and stewy. He spoke just the Words of God. Every Word that come from His lips was God's anointed Word.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could say that, "My word and God's Word is the same. What I say, He honors it, because I do nothing till He tells Me first"? Oh, there is your example. There is a life worthy of the Gospel.
E-184 Not those priests that was so educated and polished, and having all those great dignities, and stand and make long prayers, and devour widow houses, and devour the high seats in the—in the congregation, all these things there. They was… That wasn't a life worthy of the Gospel.
But He was worthy of the Gospel, so much, that God said, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. My Word is He. He is My Word. He and I are the same."
E-185 Know, watch this now. He knowed that His Word would finally conquer the world. He knew where His Word came from. He knew It could never fail, that's the reason He said, "Both heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word will never fail." See? He could say that. That was a Man Who Him and God's Word become the same. He said to them…
"You ought to do this and that."
E-186 He said, "Who can condemn Me of sin? Who can accuse Me?" Sin is "unbelief." "If I, by the finger of God, cast out devils, who does your sons cast them out by?" See? It wasn't that, so it had to be something else. See? " If I…"
They said, "Well, we've cast out devils."
E-187 He said, "If I do it by the finger of God, a vindicated Word of God, then who does your sons cast them out by? Then you be the judge."
E-188 The people of His days, and the people made fun of Him, talked about Him. But, He, they humiliated Him, every way they could. Told Him of all kinds of evil, against Him, but He went on.
Now I want to close in a minute, by saying this.
E-189 The people of this days are a bunch of neurotics. The people of this day are a bunch of neurotics. They are afraid to take the promises of God. Church men, church organization, church organizations are afraid to take the challenge of God's Scripture for this day. They realize. They realize that their modern conditions and their social gospel that they preach will not meet the challenge of this hour, no more than Samson could meet it in his condition. It took God.
And here is the program that promised it. I'll get to that just in a minute.
E-190 I want to hold that word, a minute. Though they call themselves Christian, they adopt creeds, man-made creeds, to take the place of God's Word. So, they can take the creed, because the man made it. But they're afraid to lay their faith out there in the God that they claim that they love. That's right. And then you say that life is worthy of the Gospel? Can't be, though they be church members. But that's not worthy of the Gospel. No, indeedy.
E-191 The Gospel! Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. These signs shall follow the believers."
And when you deny that to follow the believers, how can you have a life? No matter, you might not never say a bad word, you might keep all the ten commandments, that won't have one thing to do with it. It's still not worthy of the Gospel. See? It couldn't be.
Those priests kept that, and still was not worthy. He said, "You are of your father, the devil." Who could lay a finger on one of them men? One guilty mark, and they were stoned without mercy. Holy men! And Jesus said, "You're of your father, the devil," when the Gospel came in to.
E-192 Though they call themselves Christians, they love to hold to the creeds, their creeds. Oh! The creeds institutes and fulfills the thinking of the modern people of this day. And a man that's going to be a success in this day, has to go with the modern trend of thinking. Let me say that good and clear. See? A man, if you're going to be a success, you have to go with the modern thinking of this day. It… They go around, say, "Oh, isn't he a darling? Isn't he wonderful? He can just stay there so straight, and he never keeps us over fifteen minutes. And our pastor don't always bawl us out about these things."
Shame on that pastor. Any man that can stand in the pulpit and look upon the sin of this day, and not cry out, there is something wrong with that man. He's not worthy of the Gospel that he claims to be preaching. That's right. So, by doing so, they make themselves excuses, by saying, "Now, look, my congregation!"
E-193 A—a man come here, not long ago, to a certain great church, and he was writing a thesis. And he said, "I'm writing on Divine healing." Said, "Brother Branham, we love you, in our denomination." One of the greatest denominations, one of the greats of the nation, or the world. And he said, "We love you, in this denomination." He was right here at the Jefferson Villa. But, say, "I come to find out about this Divine healing." He said, "There's only one fault that my church really finds." See? He said, "You associate around too many Pentecostals."
I said, "Well, now, you know, that is right." I said, "That's true. You know, I've always wanted an opportunity to get away from them." I said, "I'll tell you what. I'll come to your town, you get your church to sponsor me."
"Oh," he said, "they wouldn't."
I said, "That's what I thought. That's what I thought."
E-194 Said, "You see my denomination won't stand for that." That's as much excuse, as, "I've married a wife," or "bought a yoke of ox." I don't care how many doctor degrees you've got, and how much you're looked up to, by your denomination. That sort of a ministry is not worthy of the Gospel that's wrote in this Book. Right.
E-195 Any church member that'll side in with such stuff as that, and call themselves a Christian! And go out here and live… And the women bobbing their hair, and wearing clothes that the Bible says for them not to. Men carrying on the way they're doing now, "a form of godliness," taking drinks and smoking cigars, and marrying several times and becoming deacons of the church and even pastors, and so forth. And the people that put up with such as that, that sort of life is not worthy of the Gospel.
E-196 A woman that'll walk, and get on the telephone and tattle, and start fusses in the church, and things like that, that isn't a life worthy of the Gospel that we're going to represent. Any person that'll break up a church, and start a feud between the people, and things like that, is not worthy of the Gospel that we preach. Exactly. "It's a form of godliness, denying the power thereof," the power of God that keeps you from such.
E-197 Notice, now, they don't do it. They just won't do it. They have the excuse, that, their church don't believe in It. They…
Well, but, Jesus would say—say to a man, tonight, speak to his heart and say, "I want you to go, preach the full Gospel."
"My church doesn't stand for It, Lord. You excuse me, if You will. I've got a fine charge. I—I—I, You know, I'm a pastor, one of the greatest churches in this city, Lord. Oh, we praise Your Name down there! Yes, sir. We sure do. I can't do it." The same excuse, same thing. So they don't come to the spiritual feast of His promised, vindicated Word.
E-198 Did not Jesus say, "Where the carcass is, the eagles will gather"? "Eagles," not buzzards, now. Eagles! Where the slop is, and the—and the—the carrion, then the buzzards gather. But where the fresh, clean Meat is, the eagles will gather. See? Certainly. Where the Word, eagle Food, they'll gather.
E-199 So they don't come to the spiritual feast that they're invited to. Do you believe that God has give America an invitation, the last fifteen years, to a great revival, to a spiritual feast? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Did they come? No, sir. No, sir. Then, to reject to come, is that life worthy of the Gospel, though they call themselves that?
E-200 When a man come to me, not long ago, and set at a table, and said, "Brother Branham, I want to reach across the table," a great man, "I want to take a hold of your hand. I love you." I was in a church and heard him preaching. Said, "I love you. I believe you're God's servant."
I said, "Thank you, doctor. I love you, too."
He said, "I want to tell you how much I love you, as a brother." And said, "You see my little queen setting here, my wife? You remember her?"
I said, "I do."
Said, "The doctor give her two weeks to live, with sarcomas cancer. And you come to the city and you prayed for her. And looked up, and saw a vision. Looked back and told me, 'THUS SAITH THE LORD, "She'll be healed."' Great spot in her back, sunk in like that, looked like a great big… like the part of a woman's breast pulled inwardly, in her back, right on her spine. There's not even a spot of it, today." Said, "There sets my queen, a living today." Said, "How could I do anything but love you, for praying that prayer of faith? How can I keep from believing you to be a—a servant of the Lord, when you saw me, and told just exactly what would happen?" He said, "Now I've got something for you, Brother Branham." He said, "I belong to the greatest Pentecostal league there is."
I said, "Yes, sir. I know that."
He said, "I talked with the brethren, not long ago, and they told me to get in contact with you, and tell you that it was a shame that you took that God-given ministry to a bunch of people off the river and around like that."
I said, "That right?"
Said, "Yes." Said, "God sent that ministry to hit the nerve spots, the big spot, the highlights."
E-201 I seen the devil talking right then. I thought, "Yeah. 'Jump down off this mountain, and show, you know, off this building.'" See? See?
I thought, "Just lead him on a little far." My old mother used to say, "Give the cow enough rope, she'll hang her own self."
I said, "Is that right?"
"Yes." Said, "It's a shame, by what you do." Said, "What are you? Today you can hardly buy yourself a meal." And said, "Look at Oral Roberts and them, stepped in, and got out there with the one hundredth of the ministry you got. Look what they go."
I said, "Yeah. That's right." See?
And he said, "My group will take you. We'll take you right in, as—as one of our brethren. We'll all give you the right hand of fellowship, and we'll charter a plane, and give you your wages of five hundred a week, or more if you want it. And we'll send you to every major city in the country." This happened right in Phoenix, Arizona, right across the table. And he said, "And we'll pay your…" Said, "Then let the world, the outside world, let the dignitaries, the big guys, the up-and-up…" Said, "You're always talking about the down-and-out. We got the up-and-out's." Said, "Let them see the hand of the Lord. Then I'll let them take my wife along, and others, can prove that those things that you say comes to pass."
E-202 Said, "Yes, sir. That'd be great."
Now, see, the man, in the position of a D.L., LL.D., a writer of books, see, doctor of literature, fine writer, fine man. See? He didn't know the Scripture.
Did you know that Angel that performed them kind of works never did go to Sodom? He stayed with the called-out group, Abraham.
He just didn't know it. I just let him alone, just set there a little bit. I just want to see what the catch was. I said, "Well, what would I have to do?"
Said, "Well, Brother Branham, just only thing they said… We discussed it, a few things, little petty things that you teach, that you just lay them aside."
I said, "For instance, what, brother?"
"Oh," he said, "your baptism, you know. You know, you kind of baptize like the oneness, something like that." Said, "Little things like that."
I said, "Oh?" I went ahead.
And he said, "The initial evidence; and women preachers; and just a few little things like that."
E-203 I said, "Uh-huh?" I said, "You know, I am surprised that one servant of God would ask another servant of God, after paying the tribute to me you did, and calling me a prophet, and knowing that the Word of the Lord, or the revelation of the Word, comes to the prophet. And you turn around, Doctor Pope, (it don't speak of your good intelligence), and would say and ask, one servant of God, you ask another servant of God to compromise on the thing that…?… means more to him than life itself." I said, "No, sir, Brother Pope. By no means would I do it. No, sir."
What is it? There's a grain of Eternal Life; live or die, whether you're a great guy or not a great guy.
E-204 I passed by, the other day… No disregards to these two men. I looked over there, and there was a great picture there at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Oral Roberts' new place coming, a seminary to educate ministers. It's going to cost. And I know Demas Shakarian, Brother Carl Williams, and them that are on the board of trustees of it. Fifty million dollars, with a three-million-dollar building; a Pentecostal boy, that's a great lot that God has done for him.
E-205 I think, "Me, with a seminary? I'm against it, to begin with."
E-206 And it said, "The future home of Oral Roberts' great seminary." Went on down the road, there was a great modern thing. And Oral Roberts, in a little ragged tent, come to my meeting over in Kansas City, Kansas.
It said, "The future home of Tommy Osborn," oh, man, about a three- or four-million-dollar place going up like that.
And there, Tommy Osborn, one of the finest Christian men. He's a real man, a real God-sent man. Stood right across the street there; little, nervous boy, little boy and girl in a car; run around, said…?… "Brother Branham, I was there when I seen that maniac run out. And I seen you point your finger in his face, and say, 'In the Name of Jesus Christ, come out of him.' I seen him fall across your feet; after he had put his prophecy, said, 'Tonight, I'll knock you plumb out in the middle of that audience of sixty-five hundred people.'" And said, "I seen you stand there, never raise a voice, and said, 'In the Name of the Lord, because that you have challenged the Spirit of God, tonight, you'll fall over my feet.' He said, 'I'll show you whose feet I'll fall over.'"
E-207 And I said, "Come out of him, Satan." He just fell backwards and pinned my feet right to the floor.
He said, "God is God, Brother Branham. That's all." Said, "I've had myself nailed in a house for two or three days." He don't pull no punches. He'll tell about it. He's not ashamed of it. Said, "You think I got a gift of healing?"
E-208 I said, "Forget it, Tommy. You was sent to preach the Gospel. Go, preach It. Go with Brother Bosworth there."
E-209 I looked there, and I seen. I started before both of those.
I thought, "There is Oral Roberts with five hundred machines, that not even a human hand touches the letters; four million dollars in the mail, last year." Four million; one-fourth of all the money that was taken up, in the whole Christendom, world-over; one-fourth of the money in all Christendom, come in to one man. What a place! I went out there to see it.
E-210 And, now, Oral is my brother. My! I love him. He's a real fellow, real guy, and I love him. And he just thinks the world of me, and I do of him, too. We just don't agree on—on Scripture.
And, Tommy Osborn, not a better. I just think the world of him. He's one of the finest men that I've met, Tommy Osborn.
"And those men," I thought, "when I went into their office and seen what they had, I think I'd be ashamed for them to come, see mine: one little typewriter, and us trying to get the letters out. And what a thing! Set in the end of a trailer, at that time. I thought, "What would that be?"
Then I walked out. I thought, "Well, 'Future home of Oral Roberts.' 'The future home of Tommy Osborn.' One don't speak to the other one."
So, I went down the road. I thought, "But what about me?"
E-211 And Something said, "Look up."
E-212 Thought, "Yes, Lord, let me lay my treasures in Heaven, for there is where my heart is." Now, I'm not saying that for pity. I'm just saying that because it happened, and God knows that that's right. See?
E-213 Where is your treasures? Do you want to be some great somebody? If you are, you're nobody. You get to a place till you don't want to be a great somebody. You want to be a humble little servant to Christ. That's the way out. That's all.
E-214 Brother Boze and them is forming a church in Chicago. They just had to give up the Philadelphian church to that denomination. Now they was talking about getting some guy with his coat back like this, some DD. I said, "You're on your road out. If you want to find a real pastor for that church, get a little old humble guy can hardly read his name, and his heart is on fire for God. Just take that guy. That's the one you want to get, somebody that don't know all these things, somebody that won't dictate and drive, and throw you into all kinds of debts, everything else, and just feed you the Word of God. That's the kind of a person to get."
So, they won't come to the spiritual feast. I got to close. I've went overtime now. In about six minutes, we'll be dismissing, the Lord willing.
E-215 I hear some say, "But, Brother Branham, you better back up on that statement." Saying, "The people are not neurotics. This people is not neurotics. They are only educated." They're educated neurotics, then. That's right. Yeah. "They're not neurotics. They're educated."
Then I want to ask you a question. See? You understand. I want to ask you a question then. Please explain their actions of today, if they're not neurotics. Tell me what makes them act like they do, if they're not neurotics; see, every fellow pulling for his denomination, greedy. Jesus wasn't like that. He wasn't no hurry about nothing. See? He wasn't greedy. He was our example.
E-216 Crime, the nation, the nation has got more crime than it ever had. What's wrong? Teen-agers, church members, taking lives, men shooting their wives and family, and burning up their children. And look at the crime wave. And they're not neurotics? Then what's the matter? What's their actions?
Power-crazy nations, every one wanting to take every… rest and make it one flag, one nation, that be their flag and their nation. Power-crazy!
E-217 Immorality, why, the world is more immoral than it ever was. Nude women on the streets, nude women, and say they're in their right mind? They can't be. They just can't be.
E-218 Listen. There was one person in the Bible that stripped their clothes off, that was Legion. He was out of his mind. When Jesus found him and give him his right mind, he put on his clothes. Right.
What makes you strip your clothes off? The devil. That's right. Then say they're not neurotics? Start down the street here, and drive four city blocks without seeing a nude woman, and come back and tell me. All right. Find out.
E-219 Then you say they're not neurotic? Then what's wrong? They can't be in their right mind. A right-minded woman wouldn't do that; she's got better sense. She knows what she's putting herself out. A bunch of lust devils out there, just dirty, filthy, sloppy, drunky men, murderers, and everything else. You say…
E-220 The world is drinking more liquor now. They spend more money for liquor, in the United States, than they spend for groceries. I think it's… I forget how many times more the alcohol debt costs each year, in the nation, than it did. And what does alcoholism do? Sends you to the insane institution.
E-221 Cancer. When the medical doctors from around the world write in the magazines, and tell you, "Cancer by the carloads." Cigarettes. Put it on rats, and has proved that it gives you lung cancer. Seventy percent of them take lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. And them women and men will puff them right down and blow it in your face. If that's not neurotics, what is neurotics?
E-222 When, the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be preached and proved, and the God of Heaven in the form of His Pillar of Fire wave over the people and show that Jesus Christ is in the last session of His Coming, giving them the last sign. And laugh at It and make fun of It, and call themselves church members; and then say they're not neurotics? Explain that. My time keeps on going. But just ask if they're not neurotic. Sure. They're educated neurotic. That's exactly. Explain their condition. You can't.
E-223 They cut their hair, wear the worldly clothes, walk out on the street like that. And God's Bible warns against it, even forbids a woman to even pray with bobbed hair. And says that a man… And she does that. She claims, herself, to her husband, that she's immoral, herself, and he has a perfect right to give her a divorce and send her away from him. That's exactly right. The Word of God saying that, and a woman hear that, and continue to wear short hair, and call herself a Christian. If that isn't a neurotic, what is a neurotic? I want somebody to tell me what a neurotic is, then. Yes. They're neurotics.
E-224 Highly educated, degrees, college! We put more time on educating our children, to—to algebra and biology, than we have to the Bible and Jesus Christ. There ain't a kid in this country can't tell you who David Crockett is. There isn't a third of them can tell you Who Jesus Christ is. Then, it's not neurotics? Certainly, it is. How we could go on and on and on, how they do!
E-225 Just remember. And the churches endorse it, when the Bible condemns it. Is the ministry neurotics? Educated neurotics. That's exactly. Churches endorse it.
E-226 Remember Lot. He was a smart man. Look at him, just a minute now. Don't—don't… Let's not…
Excuse me for running just a couple minutes over. This is—this is too important. It's going out on… You come to hear me make this tape.
E-227 Look. Look. Now, just stop a minute. Pray just a second, in your heart, "Lord, let me see it." Open your understanding. May God do it. Look at the… Just take this nation, alone. Let's see what God said.
E-228 The Bible said, that, "The sins of Sodom vexed the righteous soul of Lot daily." He just didn't have the plain nerve enough to stand out against it. That right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] He couldn't do it, for he was the mayor of the city. He couldn't. But the Bible said, that, "The sins of the—of the Sodomites vexed his soul." He knowed it was wrong, but he didn't have nerve to do it, to stand out against it.
E-229 Now look. How many Lots in America, yesterday, reading their Bible, to prepare their message for the day, and run across the water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ? How many of them run across the baptism of the Holy Ghost? "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever"? Mark 16, "These signs shall follow them that believe"? John 14:12, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also"? "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you, ask what you will, it shall be done"? How many Lots saw That? But, because of their excuse, of their denomination! It looked out and see in the Bible.
E-230 Look at their congregation of bobbed-haired women, and they know the Bible condemns it. Look going down the street, at their own church members going down the street, with shorts on, and they know the Word is against it. But they haven't got the nerve to call out against it. But, yet, the man professing to be a Christian, his soul within him cries out against it, but he hasn't got the nerve. If that ain't modern Sodom, where is it at?
God, give us somebody that'll cry out against it. That's right. Like John the Baptist said, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree." That's what we need today.
E-231 Watch. They're a modern Sodom. Remember. See? The whole land has become a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot again living on over. No, living it all over, for his honest convictions tells him by the Word that he's wrong.
E-232 Look in Chicago, greater Chicago, when them three hundred preachers setting there. And the Lord told me that night what they was going to do. They had a trap set for me. Me, go on over there. I went and told Brother Carlson. I said, "You're not have it in that hotel. You'll have to take it to another place, and it be a green room. And they got a trap set for me, haven't they, Brother Carlson?" He dropped his head.
He set there in my office, few days ago, for me come, Chicago meeting. Said, "I'll never forget that, Brother Branham."
And I said, "They got a trap set for me. Why, Brother Carlson? Are you afraid to tell me why, you and Tommy Hicks?" They dropped their head. I said, "Tommy, why don't you go speak?"
Said, "I couldn't do it."
I said, "I thought you said you'd do me a favor."
E-233 I said, "Last night the Lord told me. You're going down there today, and you find out you're not going to get that building. You're going to another building. Doctor Mead will be setting this side. That colored man, his wife, that sings, will be setting right here, and so forth, where they'll all be setting." I said, "There'll be a Buddha priest there." And I said, "Now find out. They got it against me because I preach the water baptism in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. They got it against me 'cause I preach the serpent's seed; and against the evidence, that, every man speaks with tongues has got the Holy Ghost, and things." I said, "Come down and watch God."
E-234 Got in there, they went down there, and the very two hours from then, or better, some time that afternoon, they called up Brother Carlson. And he said, "The guy that let him have that, and paid a down payment on it, said, 'We have to cancel, because the manager said he had already promised it to a band for that night, or that morning.'" And they couldn't have it.
E-235 So we went out to the Town and Country. And that morning when we got in there, and stood in there. And—and Brother Carlson said, "There's one thing. You brethren might disagree with Brother Branham, but," said, "he's not scared to say what he believes." He said, "He told me these things would happen just exactly the way they are." He said, "Now here he is. Let him speak for hisself."
E-236 I took the Scripture, "I'm not disobedient to the heavenly vision," as Paul said. I said, "You've got it in for me, for water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. Better than three hundred of you introduce yourself as Doctor So-and-so, and Doctor So-and-so." I said, "I haven't even got a grammar school education. But I challenge any man here to bring your Bible and stand here by my side, and deny one of the Words that's been said."
You got it on tape out here, if you want to hear it. That was the quietest crowd you ever heard. I said, "What's the matter?" Is there anybody here, tonight, was in that morning meeting, let's see you hold your hand. Yeah. Well, sure, look all around.
I said, "Then, if you can't support it, then keep off my back." Right. Lot of howling, when they're around the corner. But come face-to-face with the issue, it's different. That's right. It's… Them men went out.
E-237 Tommy Hicks said, "I want three hundred of those tapes, to send to every pretender trinitarian preacher I know of."
Them men shaking my hand, said, "We'll come down to the tabernacle and be baptized over."
Where they at? Excuses. "I can't do it. My denomination won't let me do it. I married a wife. I bought an ox of yoke, or yoke of ox, rather. I—I bought a piece of ground. I got to go look at it." See? Some of those things, like, excuses. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Is that life worthy of the Gospel? ["No."]
If the Gospel is right, let's sell out everything we got and live for It. Be a Christian. Yes, sir. Amen. Notice now, as we close.
E-238 But their excuses is their creeds and their denominations.
It's like a tree. I was looking at Brother Banks, other day. I had a—a pine tree, I planted when I first moved up there, about, oh, about fifteen years ago, or better. And I let them vines, the branches grow out on the pine tree, and we couldn't get the mower back under there. And there wasn't a sprig of grass, anyhow. And I went out there, took a saw and sawed them limbs off, until that pine tree was way up here, where you could walk under it with a mower. And the prettiest bunch of grass you ever seen is under it now. What was it? The seed was there. It had to get the light.
E-239 And as long as the denomination, your excuses, try to shadow that Seed that you know actually lays there, you're taking the part of Lot. Throw them things away, and let the Gospel Light shine in upon there, the power of Jesus Christ. Yes. Keeping the Light off of it, will keep it from living. For, if the Light ever gets to it, it will spring forth to Life.
That's the reason the people say, "Don't go to some of them kind of meeting." They're afraid some of the Light will strike one of their members.
E-240 Remember the woman at the well. She was a prostitute.
There stood those priests. They seen Jesus tell Nathanael, "I saw you by, when you was under the fig tree."
And the priests said, "He's Beelzebub. He's a fortune teller. That's the devil."
E-241 This little women, when she walked up there, in her immoral state, living with six men. And when she walked up there in that state, in that state she was. And Jesus said, "Bring Me a drink." The conversation started. He said, "Go get your husband and come here."
She said, "I don't have any."
Said, "You said the truth. You've got five, and the one you're living with, not your husband."
She said, "I perceive that You are a prophet, Sir. I know the Messiah will do that when He comes."
Jesus said, "I am He."
E-242 That settled it. When that Light flashed across that Seed laying in that little old harlot, the harlot days was over. Into the street she went, glorifying God, said, "Come, see a Man Who told me the things I've done. Isn't This the Messiah?" What was it? The Light got to that seed back under the shadow of a prostitute shelter. Yes, sir.
Now let's close, in saying this. I don't know how many more pages I got, but I—I sure won't take them all. About ten, but that's just about one-half through. But let's close, in saying this.
E-243 Let's compare something, one time, of a life worthy. Let's compare the life of Saint Paul to the rich young ruler. The same Light struck both men. Both had the same invitation from Jesus Christ. That right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] They both was well trained in the Scriptures. They were both theologian. 'Member, Jesus told—told the rich young ruler, "Keep the commandments."
E-244 Said, "I've done this, from my youth."
He was a trained man. So was Saint Paul. Both were well-trained in the Scripture. But, both of them had the Word. One had It from a knowledge; the other one had the germ of Life in it. When that Light flashed across, in front of Paul, he said, "Lord, Who are You?"
Said, "I'm Jesus."
"Here I am, then." He was ready.
E-245 The Light struck both men. One was germitized; the other is not. That's the way it is today: church spiritual, church natural.
E-246 The rich man had his excuse. He couldn't do it. He was too weighted down with too many friends of the world. He didn't want to quit associating.
That's what's the matter with a lot of people today. You think, because you belong to a lodge, you just couldn't forsake that brotherhood. "They all drink and things like that. They do this." All right, go along with it; nothing against the lodge, nothing against the church. I'm talking about you. See? Yeah. See? Nothing against that. For, six of one, and half a dozen the other. I've just got through telling you the church was nothing but a lodge, the denomination, if they deny the Word of God.
E-247 Notice. The rich man had his excuses. He never forsaken his testimony, though. We find out that he went to great business. He had knowledge. And he went to such a place till he had to increase so much, till he had to build new barns to put his things in. And when he died; and some bachelor, with his collar turned around, preached his funeral, no doubt. And when he did, he might have said… They half-masted the flags, and said, "Our dear beloved brother, the mayor of this city, now is in the arms of Almighty, because he was a great member of the church. He did so-and-so, and so."
And the Bible said, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." See?
E-248 And remember, he still wanted to hold his profession in hell. He seen Lazarus, in the bosoms of Abraham, and he said, "Father Abraham, send Lazarus down here." Still calling him "father." See?
He took his knowledge, and went to an intellectual church. When the Light struck him, he turned It down.
If that isn't the modern trend of the church today, I don't know it. No matter what God flashes across their path, the Pillar of Fire or whatever it might be; they still, with their knowledge, they can explain It away, and go to the intellectual group, for the social standing.
E-249 But Paul was already in the social standing, with great knowledge, a great scholar under Gamaliel, a right-hand to the high priest, insomuch till he went to the priests and got orders to put all them holy-rollers in jail. But when the Light struck his path, and he seen that that same Pillar of Fire that led Israel through the wilderness was Jesus Christ, he forsook all he ever knowed. He come to Life.
E-250 Could you call that rich man's life a life worthy of the Gospel that he heard? Though he was a believer, could you call that kind of a life… Amongst the intellectuals and entertainments, that night up there on the… as the sun went down, giving a toast, and maybe some priest saying a prayer, up on top of there. And he had the entertainments, and a beggar laying at his gate down there. And he give his toast, and talked about his great faith he had in God. And before daylight, the next morning, 'fore the sun could get up, he was in hell. That's right. There is your intellectuals.
E-251 But Paul, when the Light struck him, let's compare his life and see whether it's worthy. What happened? When, Paul, the Light struck him, he forsook all his knowledge and got away from that intellectual group, and he walked in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Glory to God! With… As smart as he was, he never even used big words.
When he come amongst them Corinthians, he said, "I never come to you with the wisdom of man. I never come to you with swelling words, because you put your faith in that. But I come to you in simplicity, in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that your faith would be in there." There's a life. Watch it.
E-252 He never used his education. He never walked with the intellectual bunch. He walked in the Spirit of Christ, humble, obedient to the Word of God, when It was very much contrary to their creeds. But Paul saw the Light and walked in It (that right?), letting the Life of Christ reflect Jesus Christ to the age that he lived in, that the people might see the Spirit of God in him.
And the humble believed it, so much, till they even wanted to bring handkerchiefs in. They take them off of his body. And they believed it, so much, he's such a representation of Jesus Christ, till, whatever he touched, they believe, was blessed. Yes. What a man that was, give his life, his riches, his everything he had! His education; forgot all, to walk down with fishermen, and beggars and bums on the street, to let his lights reflect the love of Jesus Christ.
He said, "I been striped across the back, forty and nine times; don't bother me." Said also, "I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ." The poor little fellow in such a terrible condition, he said, "I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ." What a different from this great dignitary with the priests all around him.
E-253 And when he was at Rome, and nobody standing by him. And they was building a block, to cut his head off, out there. There's where she told it. Oh, my! He said, "There is laid up for me a crown, that the Lord, the Righteous Judge will give me at that Day; and not only me, but now all them that love His appearing." There is a life worthy of the Gospel, or, a son.
E-254 He stood for Christ. He let the Gospel reflect through him. Before he did, he went and learned the Gospel. Went down in Arabia and stayed three years, and took the Old Testament. And showed, by the Old Testament, that He was Jesus Christ. And he let It reflect through him, to a humble bunch of people. That, he, when… He said, "I know how to have a belly full, and I know how to be hungry and wanting."
A man with an education like him, and a scholar like him, standing by the… with a scholarship from Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers there was of the day, and stood arm-and-arm with the high priest. Brother, he could have been worth millions of dollars and had all kind of buildings. That's right. But he said, "I…"
E-255 He didn't even have but one coat. And Demas saw a man with such a ministry as that! Second Timothy, the 3rd chapter, he said, "Demas has forsaken me, and all other men, loving this present world." Said, "When you come, bring me that coat I left up there. It's getting cold." A man with a ministry like that, and could only have one coat? Glory to God!
E-256 Reminds me of Saint Martin, when he was trying to stand for the Gospel, and everything, before he was converted. In the—in the Pre-Nicene, or the Nicaea council, the Nicaea Fathers, in the history. One day, he was going through the gates there. He was from Tours, France. And there was people… An old bum laying there, dying, no clothes. And the people passed by, that could have give him clothes, and they didn't do it. They passed him by and ignored the old fellow. And Saint Martin stood there and looked it. They said he…
E-257 Every soldier had a—had a man to keep his boots shined. And he shined his servant's boots.
And took his coat off, and took a knife and cut it, half, in two, his sword. Wrapped the old bum up in it, said, "We both can live."
He went home and went to bed. Laying there, thinking the old man had cried. Directly, Something woke him up. He looked. Standing in the room, there stood Jesus Christ wrapped in that same old piece of garment that he wrapped the bum in. Said, "Insomuch as you have done unto least of these little ones, you've done it unto Me." That's a life worthy of the Gospel. You know how he sealed his life, too, don't you?
E-258 Look at Polycarp, standing for the Name of Jesus baptism, against the Roman Catholic church. And they burn him to a stake; tore down a bathhouse and burn him. Look at Irenaeus, the rest of them, that suffered for this cause. That's lives worthy.
E-259 Look at what Paul said in the Book of Hebrews, 11th chapter. Said, "They were sawed asunder, pulled apart; wandered about, in sheepskins and goatskins, and was in desert, and destitute and so forth; lives that this world is not worthy of." There you are. That life is worthy of the Gospel. How is mine and yours going to stand in the Day of Judgment, with men like that?
E-260 Look at Paul now. We'll go on down. He stood for the Gospel, let Jesus so flow through him. No matter how, what, regardless of what anybody thought about it. Where, the high priest, why, he went and had his head cut off, for It. He was a worthy representation of the Gospel. Letting… Look at there. Regardless of what people thought, letting the current of Eternal Life flow through him, insomuch that he said, "I would be accursed from Christ, for my brethren."
Now you know what you do when you get Eternal Life. There is your question. There is your answer. You take the intellectual side; or, take This side, if you've really got Eternal Life. That's what happens.
E-261 That's what happened. Paul, ready to be accursed from Christ, to let his people… The blind, ignorant people that wouldn't listen to his Gospel!
I think, a shame on my own self. I was ready to give them up, because they wouldn't listen to me. I feel like repenting. And I have repented. See?
E-262 Notice. Regardless of what others thought, this kind of a life is worthy of the Gospel.
Now I'm closing.
E-263 The rich man, like most of us today, shut out and rejected the Word of Life, and become a church member; and showed a life, that proves in the Bible, was unworthy of the Gospel that he was asked to receive. That right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] How could the Gospel shine through a darkened light like that, denying the power of God?
E-264 Now, the only way to live a life worthy, is to let Christ and His Word (which, He is the Word) reflect Itself so perfect in you till God vindicates what He said in the Word. For, Christ died that He might present Himself before God, a Sacrifice. And It returned back in the form of the Holy Spirit, to reflect Hisself through His people, to carry on His work; reflecting Hisself through you, to fulfill His promised Word in these future days.
Like John the Baptist heard, when he heard Christ come. And Christ walked out into the water. And John said, "Behold the Lamb of God."
Nobody else saw It. But he saw It, that Light coming down from Heaven, like a dove. And a Voice saying, "This is my beloved Son in Whom I'm pleased to dwell in." He saw It coming.
And Jesus walked out into the water, Immanuel, before a—a preacher that was supposed to be a radical. Walked out into the water, before the people, and said, "I want to be baptized of you."
E-265 John said, "Lord, I have need to be baptized of Thee. Why comest Thou to me?" Both them eyes met one another, a prophet and his God. Amen. Could you… I… Wouldn't I love to stand and watch that? See them stern, deep-set eyes of John peel down and find them stern, deep-set eyes of Jesus; second cousins to one another, in the flesh.
E-266 Jesus said, "John, suffer it to be so now, for thus it behooveth us. We're the Message of this hour. It behooveth us to fulfill all righteousness."
E-267 John thought, "Yes, He's the Sacrifice. The Sacrifice must be washed before It's presented." Then he said "Come on." And he baptized Him. Amen. Other words, "It behooves us to fulfill all righteousness."
Jesus, knowing that that man was genuine, said, "There's never been a man born of a woman, like him. He's more than a prophet; you can receive it, this is more than a prophet." And Jesus, looking into his heart, and knowing that. His own cousin met Him there, face-to-face.
E-268 John said, "Lord, I got need to be baptized of You. And why do You come to me?"
E-269 Said, "Suffer it to be so, John. But, remember, it behooveth us to fulfill all that God has promised. And I am the Sacrifice. I've got to be washed before presented." Oh, my! My!
E-270 And, today, when the evening Lights are shining, when there's not a man in his right mind but what can't say, any Bible scholar look in the Bible, knows this is the last day. Then, it behooves us to fall from these big walls, or get away from these things, and to get into the righteousness of Jesus Christ in this last day, and take on the Seal of God before the devil gives us the mark of the beast. Oh, my. Yes.
E-271 Pray God to let the Light of this day raise in you, to be an obedient servant to God. And then let the fruit of the Spirit ever remain in your life. And that is a life is worthy of the Gospel.
E-272 Let me say this, in closing. The only way, the only way that you can live a life that's worthy of the Gospel, is let the Gospel Itself, every bit of the Gospel, come into you and reflect His promises back, make them vindicated. Let God live in you, to vindicate the promises of this day.
Just as John, as Jesus said to John, "Suffer it to be so, John. That's right. But we are the messengers of this day, and we've got to fulfill all righteousness."
And if we are the Christians of this day, let's receive Jesus Christ into our heart. And He is the Word. Don't deny any of It. Say, "It's the Truth." And place It in your heart, watch the fruit of the Spirit upon you, and fulfill every promise that He made in the Bible. God wants to fulfill His Word, and He don't have any hands but mine and yours. He don't have any eyes but mine and yours. He has no tongue but mine and yours. "I am the Vine. Ye are the branches." The branches bears the fruit. The Vine energizes the branch. That's the life that's worthy.
E-273 My prayer is, to those in radio or in… on the tape land, and those that are present. May the God of all grace, of Heaven, shine His blessed Holy Spirit upon us all, that we, from this night, henceforth, can live a life that God would say, "I'm well pleased. Enter into the Eternal joys that's been prepared for you since the foundation of the world." Let the God of Heaven send His blessings upon all you people.
E-274 I pray that God will bless you women, tonight, that's got short hair, in such a way that you will see, and get away from this modern trend of the day, and realize that the Bible says that you shouldn't do that. And if you're guilty of wearing immoral clothes, that the God of Heaven will shed His grace in your heart, that you'll never do it again, that you'll never be guilty of such a thing again. May the Holy Spirit just open it up to you and show you. May you, without the baptism of the Holy Ghost…
E-275 May you men that's got your wives, and let them be the boss of the house and lead you around, may the God of Heaven give you grace to set your foot down and bring that woman back to her right mind again, yeah, and realize that that's your place in Christ. Not a boss, now, but you are the head of the house. Remember, she's not even in the original creation. She's only a by-product of you, give by God, to you, to take care of you, to keep your clothes clean and fix your meals, and so forth. She's not your dictator.
E-276 You American women run around with a gob of paint on your face, and your nose up in the air (it'd rain, it'd drown you), and then think you're some sort of a dictator. You are, to a sissy, but not a real son of God. Right.
E-277 May God give you men grace, as sons of God, to stop such nonsense as that. That's right. May He give you grace, to throw them cigarettes down, stop listening them dirty jokes, all that nonsense. Let's be sons of God, that we can walk a life that's worthy of the Gospel.
And somebody goes down the street, say, "If there ever was a Christian, there goes one. There goes one that God just shows Himself right through, and that man is a real Christian, there ever was a Christian. You might think she looks old-fashion. She's a genuine lady." There it is.
E-278 Be a reputable Christian, for we are aliens here. This is not our Home. Our Home is Above. We are sons and daughters of a King, of the King. Let us let our lives be a—a reputable life. Let us live a life that'll honor that thing that we claim to be, a Christian. And if you can't live that kind of life, then stop being called a Christian, 'cause you're only bringing reproach upon the Cause.
E-279 Thank you, people, this hot night, setting here. I trust that there'll not be one of you lost, at that Day. I—I—I trust that you and I, together, will find grace before God, that I'll be able to always stand for that which is Truth, never to hurt you, but never to pull a punch from you. See? If I would, I wouldn't be the right kind of a daddy, if I let my kid just do anything. I'll correct them. Any love will do that. Love is corrective. I remember you writing me that note, that day, Pat. I've still got it. And love is corrective. The Bible said so. And if it isn't correct… That's the reason God corrects us. He loves us.
E-280 May we live a life, from henceforth, that's worthy, with sweetness and gentleness. Don't pay no attention, say, "Well, bless God, I know she's got It. She spoke in tongues. She danced in the Spirit." That's all right. But if she doesn't have the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit isn't there. She's only impersonating some kind of an emotion, or something, 'cause the Holy Spirit can only live the life of the fruit of the Spirit. That's the only way He can do.
E-281 God bless you. Let us bow our head, just a moment.
Let the… God, that has shed forth His Light in this last day, That laying here before me, of His Bible; and the picture of these Angels, this mystic Light in the form of a pyramid, that even the scientists don't know how It got here. They can't explain It. But, Father, we're thankful. You told us, months before it happened, and we're grateful to You.
E-282 Let the people, that's called by Thy Name, depart from sin, tonight, Lord, unbelief. May, as… I've had to speak so rashly against our sisters, not because I don't love them, Lord, but I don't want to see the devil wind them up till they drop dead, one of these days, and then try to meet You in that kind of condition, after hearing the Truth of God, like this. May they feel that they owe it to themself, to go search the Scriptures, and see if that's right. Get down on their knees then, sincerely, and say, "God, is that the Truth?" Then that'll be all is necessary, Lord, if they'll be sincere about it, for Thy Word is Truth.
E-283 The people have set. Many of them, maybe, had things that hurt them. But the Spirit of God spoke to them, and they set still and listened. The hour is getting late. The hour is late in the evening, and it's also late in the time that we're living in. The sun is going down. The world is cooling off. God, darkness will soon set in, and then the Coming of the Lord, to catch away His Church. How we thank You for this, Lord!
E-284 We pray now that You'll bless every person in Divine Presence. Every one that hears this tape, Lord, around the world, may they get away from those old creeds and things, and come and serve the living God, come and invest in It, do like the queen of the South did. She come, took her three months to get to where a man was representing Jesus Christ, or the God of Heaven; Solomon. Jesus said, "She come from the uttermost parts of the world, to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here." And we know "the greater than Solomon" is here, the great Holy Spirit Himself is here, working through the people. How we thank You for this, Father. I pray the blessing now.
E-285 Bless our dear pastor, Brother Neville. Lord, as I—as I look at him and think of his labors of love, my heart just jumps. I love him. To see him as he looks upon his wife and his little children, I—I pray, God, that You'll strengthen him. Give him courage. Bless him for many, many more years of service, this great harvest field that we're in.
E-286 Bless all these minister brothers setting here tonight. Many of them are visitors from other places. I pray that You'll be with them there, Junie and Brother Ruddell, and those precious men who are sister churches to this church here, standing and holding the Gospel Light in the different parts of the cities around about, for this same Light, contending for It. Thank You for those men, Lord. Encourage them. And give them grace to stand the great trials and things that comes upon the earth to prove all Christians.
E-287 Heal the sick and the afflicted, Lord. Be with us through this coming week now. Give us courage. May the little, broken up Sunday school lessons of the day never leave their heart. May they meditate, day and night. Grant these blessings, Father. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I ask it. Amen.
E-288 You love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] You believe It? ["Amen."] Let's sing our good song again, "I love Him, I love Him," as we join ourself together. Where is Sister Ungren? Is she here, one of them, or the sister has played the piano, one of the ladies here? I don't see it. Yeah, here she is, the lady over here. That's right.
E-289 I wanted, tonight, with all regards, but I didn't see Brother Ungren. I wanted him to sing for me, tonight, How Great Thou Art! I guess the brother went home. See? I heard that song this morning, and I certainly did appreciate that. My, oh, my! That just rang through my heart. And I—I—I wanted to hear him sing How Great Thou Art!
E-290 Now let's sing I Love Him, everybody, together. Now just close your eyes. And let's look to Him now, say, "Lord, if there's any of this carnality in me, take it out, right now. Take it out." And you, out, hears this tape, when you hear this song, sing with us, then, right in your chair where you're setting.
If there's that, if you're condemned by the Word, if you don't think It's the Word, search the Scriptures, see if It's right. It behooves you. It means Life or death.
And then while we sing this song, if there's carnality in your life, won't you raise up your hand, in your chair. Have your children and wife to raise up their hand, your loved ones around you. Sing I Love Him, and give your life to Him. Say, "Cleanse me, Lord, from all evil."
While we sing now, let's stand.
I love Him, I…
Lord Jesus, I pray that You'll heal the people, these that's going to wear these handkerchiefs. I bless them, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
E-291 Now, in this great blessing! Just keep playing it, sister. Just close your eyes and think, a minute now. Let's pray, in our heart, "Lord Jesus, search me. Do I really love You? You said, 'If you love Me, you'll keep My sayings. If you love Me, you'll keep My Word.'" And then in your heart, say, "Lord, let me keep Your Word. Let me hide It in my heart, never to sin against You, that's, disbelieve anything that You've said."
E-292 Now while we sing I Love Him, let's shake hands with somebody near us. Just reach over, say, "God bless you, brother, or sister." Real quietly now.
"I…" God bless you, brother. "I…" God bless you, my sister. God bless you, sister. God bless you. God bless you, sister. "And pur-…" God bless you, my sister. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. "… -ry's tree."
E-293 Now let's raise our hands to Him.
I—I love Him
Because…
Got something, besides, you want to do? Want you to dismiss.
… me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
E-294 You love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Isn't He wonderful? ["Amen."] I pray for each one of you, children. What good would it do me to stand here and say these things if I, in my heart, I didn't think it was going to help you? When, I'm tired and wore. I just can't hardly stand here. My feets are hurting. And my shoes, I've stood in them till it sweated in there, and everything, till my feet is galded. And I'm so tired! I'm no kid, no more. And I have preached three- or four-hour sermons, and pray for the sick, and going day and night. Why would I be standing here, do it?
You know, all this thirty years, if it was for popularity, I've shunned that. You know I don't take money. You know that. I haven't. Have I told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass? You know that's right.
I love you. It's the love of God that's in my heart for each one of you. I wish I could… I wish I could stand before God, and say, "God, let—let—let me help them. Let—let me do this." I can't do it. Each person has to stand by theirself. See?
E-295 I—I—I believe we're all going up now, one of these days. And if we happen to fall asleep before that time, I'm taken from you, remember, I'll meet you over There. I know It's there. The very visions that's told you everything, being perfect, has come to pass just as He said. No one, of all these years, can ever here say that I ever told you anything that would come to pass but what it did. The world over, knows that. You never seen it on the platform, what told everybody exactly Truth. See? It's always been. That same God let me look a-past the curtain of time. I seen them women and men throwing their arms around me and hugging me, said, "Oh, Brother Branham."
E-296 I—I just can't set still, if I'm tired, I go, anyhow. My back hurts. And I, every day… I'm—I'm—I'm fifty-four years old. You know, you get an extra pain every day.
My prayer is, "God, hold me together. Hold me together, to preach the Word, stand on that Truth, until I see my boy, Joseph, old enough, and filled with the Holy Ghost; I can take this old wore-out Bible, lay It in his hand, say, 'Son, carry It to the end of your life. Don't you compromise on It.'"
E-297 I thought maybe Billy would preach the Gospel. God never called him.
But I believe, Joseph, even the little mean boy that he is, I believe God has called him. That's the reason kids can't get along with him, he's a leader. And I—I—I know that God has called him. I want to train him in the way of the Word, way of the Word of the Lord, that he'll not forsake that Word. I want to do it, myself, if God willing. And when I get old and set back, and can see him there, stand in the pulpit, said, "This same Gospel, my daddy stood for. He is setting there, old and broke, tonight. I want to take his place and fill his shoes, stand there."
E-298 Then I'll look up, and say, "Lord, let Your servant depart in peace." That's what I want to see, so bad, until that time come.
E-299 Then what if I would raise in another generation? I can't. I have to come in this generation. I have to stand with you. You are the ones I have to stand for, and give an account before God, of the Gospel I have preached. You think I'd stand here and try to twist you around, out of Something that I thought was right? I'd be encouraging you to go do It. But I know that, when it's wrong, I want to get you out of that, into what is right. Truly, from my heart, God bear me record, I love you, every one, with real, Divine Christian love. God bless you. Pray for me.
E-300 I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who is holding my future, so I rest in that.
E-301 I turn the, this pulpit over to a man that I have the supreme confidence in, as a servant of Jesus Christ, our pastor, Brother Neville.