Beschämt
Datum:
65-0711
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Dauer:
-
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Übersetzung:
BBV
Jeffersonville, Indiana USA
E-1 Thank you, Brother Neville. Good morning, friends. It's good to be here this morning. And I think I made a... I am an intruder on Brother Neville's time. Sitting back there with his, getting his text together; and I walked in, he started folding up his text, and said, "Well..."
E-2 It reminds me of years ago. There used to be a colored brother down here, named Brother Smith, and Sister Cross. They were very good friends of mine. And when I'd walk in the building at night, the old fellow used... He had a white mustache. Don't know whether any of you remember him, or not. And he would be on the platform, you know. And all of them would be singing, "It's A Highway To Heaven." And Brother Smith, he just sit like this, you know. And I would walk in the back door.
E-3 There was a little girl, kind of real dark, she used to sit in the corner. She'd start clapping her hands, saying, "Lift Him up," that song, you know. They put their own melody to it, you know. And then over in the next corner, be somebody else, says, come in again, "Lift Him up." Well, that's what they'd sing when I come in the door. I just love that bunch of people.
E-4 And so old Brother Smith sit back there, a little bit, you know, and he was kind of a quiet sort of a fellow. He would say, "Come in, elder, rest your hat." Not "rest yourself"; "rest your hat," see. "Come in, elder, rest your hat." He would get up there, and, I could tell the way he started off, I was in for it, see.
E-5 He would say, "Well," he says, "children, you know," he said, "I--I was sitting here just wondering, 'Lord, what You going to give me to say?'" Said, "He--He--He kept shaking His head at me, 'I ain't going to give you nothing to say.'" Said, "I seen Elder Branham walk in back there, and I said, now, 'Lord, I just begin to remember... '" Well, I was right in for it!
E-6 Brother George Wright, how are you, brother? [Brother Wright says, "Oh, good. Sure."--Ed.] Bless you, Brother Wright! Certainly. ["Brother Elijah is back there."] Oh, is that right? Brother Elij' Perry, he said, is back here. Where you at, Brother Elij'? I haven't seen him in a long... Well, my, goodness! Now we ought to have a real meeting here! Elij' Perry, George Wright, and some of them old timers that used to be here when you almost had to hold the shutters on the place, with our hands, the wind blowing. Good seeing you! Mother, Sister Wright with you? Sister Wright in? She is back there, too. Yes, sir. Well, how fine! Sister Perry, I see them all now. Well, that's really fine. Good to be in. It's good to sit in these places. It's good to be together.
E-7 I had planned on, so hard, coming back; burdened in the heart. I just returned from Africa, as you all know. And when I got over there, I had a restricted visa, and wouldn't let me, wouldn't let me preach because it gathers too many together. They're expecting an uprise there at any time, and--and they--they wouldn't let me preach because of that gathering too many people together. The only way I could, would to have some organization that's represented by the government, in the government, to invite me over, then that would automatically let the government send out a militia for protection. See, they're just... There is just going to be an uprise, and that's all there is to it. It's just right in hand, see. That government man said, "The last time he was here, he had about a quarter of a million people together." And he said, "Then, you see, that would just be the very thing that communism is looking for, for an uprise." So, I couldn't preach.
E-8 Those people standing there, waving their hands, and crying, "Remember my mother! Remember, my brother died! My..." There, and in behind a bar, you know, bars of wire, and it just made you feel real bad. And I come back home.
E-9 And I thought, "Well..." My son, Joseph, back there, had let down a little bit in his reading. And he had... He passed all right, but he had to take it over; wasn't reading good enough. So I thought, "Well, we're going to have to stay home a little while." And I said, "If we stay home, it's going to ruin the kids' vacation." See we just postponed it, and taken him over to another part in August, and let... and come back here for a couple, three weeks.
E-10 I said, "I believe, while we're back there, I'll just take and hold a meeting. We'll get that school auditorium up here, and--and we'll have a meeting from the twenty-eighth on through to the first, a meeting at the school auditorium. I wanted to preach on the subject of the outpouring of them seven last Vials." And so we called ahead, and we had a little disappointment. They won't let us have these schools no more, too many people crowds in. We can't have it nowhere. And so then I decided, while I was back here then, instead of... [Revelation 16:1]
E-11 We can't put all the people, if we'd adver-... It's never been advertised, now. So if we put all the people, try to put them in the Tabernacle here, we couldn't do it. See, it just... five days in here would be awful.
E-12 So, sitting in there talking with Brother Neville and Brother Woods, and them, we have decided to do this. If we can't, instead, that would make us have five services; that would be twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first, and first. Well, I feel if we have, beginning next Sunday, we can have two services, Sunday morning and Sunday night, that's the eighteenth. And then on the--on the twenty-fifth, have Sunday morning and Sunday night. That's four services. Then on August the first, have a Sunday morning and Sunday night. That would give us six services, and then it won't make such a jam to get the people in. And I think that.
E-13 Don't you think that would be better than having everybody just crowded and mashed together, and everything? Then just that for them two services, we can put up with that, but everybody kind of pull together. For five nights, straight, it would make it hard.
E-14 And I want to get with the trustees and the elders here, while I'm here.
E-15 This is becoming everywhere. We're living in these last days, to where the Gospel does not have the--the premises as It should have. It don't have the rights that It should have. It's all sewed up in politics and things, and just like a union. And that's what it's finally coming to, because the mark of the beast has to come by union, we know. So we--we... Cause, it's a boycott, "no man can buy or sell, save him that have the mark of the beast." [Revelation 13:17]
E-16 And now I want to find out, through the elders. I feel led. I've never had such a hunger in my heart for God, in all my life, than I have now, see. For... And I--I want to get my own tent and my--my stuff, like the Lord gave me a vision to, and I believe the time is just now at hand. And I want to see while I'm here, why we can't get the tent.
E-17 And--and then when we go, like come here to Jeffersonville, instead of having just a day or two, or three or four days, we can go out here and put up this tent, and have two or three weeks, you see, and nobody can say nothing about it. We can either take a ball park, or, if they won't let us have that, there is farmer out here will let us have a farm. We'll rent the farm and--and put it up. The only thing we'd just have to do there, would be make our--our outbuildings, and so forth, and for our conveniences. And that could be easily done. And then we'll start having our services like that because that's according to a vision from the Lord, and it's to be done that way. [Habakkuk 2:3]
E-18 And coming in, yesterday, and finding, you know, this, that. And was going up the street, and a good friend of mine going along there, said, "Hello, Billy." I looked at him, and snow-white hair, that much tummy. And the boy is my age. We run around together, handsome young fellow, when I was a kid. It kind of made me feel funny.
My little son, Joseph, said, "Why you sad, Daddy?"
E-19 "Oh," I said, "I can't explain it to you, Joseph. See, I can't, can't tell you."
E-20 And I look at Elij' Perry sitting back there, and Mrs. Perry; seem like yesterday they were a little black-headed couple out there, living next door to me, when we had the old boat, Wahoo, and down on the river and fished at night. See them both white-headed, you know, it says one thing, it's a little buzzer that comes on, "You ain't got much more time." See?
E-21 So, I want every day of my life to count for Him. What I have left, what time I have, I want to spend it somewhere doing something, if it's no more than stand on a street corner, testifying to the glory and honor of God. And I--I'm here for that purpose.
E-22 And I've got a little secret place up here at Green's Mill, Indiana. It's not a city, now, it's--it's a wilderness. And some people has taken it over, and they don't even let you set a foot on it. But I got a cave there that he would never find me when I got into it. I go at nighttime, and he'll never know when I go in or come out. And he don't know where the cave is, and couldn't get to it no matter where it was. And I want to go over and talk to the Lord, a while, I feel that it's a necessity.
E-23 The wife, she wants to come, want to come back and visit around, and Rebekah and Sarah, and them, with their friends. And we're back here now for the next three weeks, and if the Lord willing.
E-24 And I think, instead of trying to jam the people all together, for them meetings here in the Tabernacle... Course, this belongs to us, belongs to the Lord, give it to us. And it's air-conditioned. Like to have a Sunday morning service, a Sunday night service. That would let people go back to their place, then wait over until the next coming week.
E-25 I don't think I could take and--and officially do justice to the pouring out of those last Vials, 'cause they're very, very great Message in that. But I could pray for the sick, and do things that... I have Messages, too, as the Lord will give them to me, for the church. Through the week, I'll get out here in the wilderness somewhere and study, come back on Sunday morning, have Sunday morning service like this, and a Sunday night service. Our most gracious little pastor, Brother Neville, I asked him if that would be satisfaction to him. That's taking all of his services away from him, but he was more than glad to surrender it to--to over to that. I just...
E-26 Brother Capps, he, I guess, got the roaming fever, too, and I see he has left, and--and Brother Humes. And the Lord had a Brother Mann here just to take right over, and the place. You know, isn't that wonderful how God will do things? He always has everything timed just right. I come up and I heard somebody preaching. I said, "That don't... I believe..." [Ecclesiastes 3:1]
E-27 Brother Capps, he come to Tucson, and I think it bluffed him right quick, it was about a hundred and ten degrees. He didn't want nothing to do with that, so away he went, him and Brother Humes, and went up to Phoenix. Course, it's a hundred and fifteen to sixteen, eighteen up there. That was still worse, so I think he took off to Texas after that; he, trying to find a place.
E-28 But you don't want no Arizona this time of year, I tell you. It was a hundred and forty, the other day, last Friday, a hundred and forty degrees, at Parker. And that's where Brother Craig, from the church here, lives. And you can break an egg, and it'll fry before it hits the ground. [Brother Branham laughs--Ed.] You, you spit and--and the moisture is gone, it just... There is no humidity nor nothing, it's really a bake oven this time of year. But from about November, December and January, wonderful. But when it comes about March and April, you better get away if you don't want to suffocate.
E-29 And so Brother Capps and them happened to come just at that time, which I think run them out. So maybe the Lord did that for a purpose. I'm believing this, that God orders the footsteps of the righteous. Sometimes it seems hard. [Psalms 37:23]
E-30 Like the other day on this trip to Africa, I was so sure that I was moving in the will of God. Because, a year ago, I was down in the South, holding a series of meetings, and, they--they, I thought...
E-31 Coming from that organization, said, "You can come on, through the Christian Business Men, but we'll have nothing to do with it."
E-32 Well, I don't want to throw them man right in on it, you know, make conflict. I--I want to make them feel good at one another. So I just said, "Well..." Wrote them a letter, I said, "Remember, I have tried to get into Africa for years, again, feeling that my ministry isn't finished in Africa. I have no..."
E-33 Why would I have to go to Africa, when I got six, seven hundred cities right here in the United States, calling, see, just right here, without leaving Canada, Mexico, or any of those places? Why should I want to go there? But it's something in my heart, that pulls me to Africa. There, those people, there--there is something about them, that I love, and I want to go just for the colored people only. And there is something in a lot of them, them leaders, they don't feel I should do that. I--I want to go to my colored friends. That's where the Lord called me. And now they're needy. Many of those people, those white people, can have doctors and everything. But them poor natives live out there, and half rot. I--I--I feel they're the ones that looks like they would receive It. They're the ones. There is something about it.
E-34 When you get to a spot, you're so smart that you know everything, then God can't do nothing with you. But if you get to a place that you're willing to listen and learn, then--then it's God's time, can move in and talk to you.
E-35 And so I wrote them a letter back, and told them. And I said, "Remember, at the Day of the Judgment, let them boney hands reach out of the smoke, condemn you! Their blood be upon you, not on me, 'cause I've tried for about ten years to get back."
E-36 Then when I mailed the letter, come back, Something said to me, "See Sidney Jackson, take a hunting trip." And, the same time, the Lord spoke to Sidney Jackson, said, "Yellow-mane lion, Brother Branham camping; Durban, big meeting."
E-37 Well, he was over here, and he spoke with you here. By the way, we baptized... He was firmly against this baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. And his wife was worse than he was, she would just walk away. You could... I'm telling you, I never seen any more devout people. They've got about a hundred and fifty ministers over there, baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and they're just burning the country up. The Message is just sweeping Africa, everywhere, aviators and great man coming, being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. [Acts 2:38]
E-38 And so I, when I started to go over, I'm telling you, I never had so much trouble in all my life, of trying to get there. And then at the very last minute, very last minute to go, here was wrote across my visa, "Cannot anticipate in any kind of religious service; can only come hunting." Well, then, it was rank.
E-39 But I said, "I don't care what the Devil does, I--I can't... I can't voucher for what Brother Jackson said about yellow-mane lion, and this, that, or the other. I--I can't vouch it. But I do know God told me to 'see Sidney Jackson, and go hunting.'"And I said, "I'm going." And sometime... And I had one of the greatest trips.
E-40 I found out what the trouble was. Now I think, about October, the Lord willing, I can go back and have a meeting and everything, full cooperation, everything else, see, in Africa now. I got to the bottom of it and found out where it was at, what caused it. Up here, writing, this one has got this to say, and something's got something to say, and this one there. The best thing to do, is go find out, yourself. And I know where the trouble was, and what the reason of it was; it was because of so many people gathering together, the government wouldn't let me have it.
E-41 Now if the Christian Business Men or any organization, which will bring us in, then the government automatically... because it's the organization is represented with the government, the government sends militia protection. If there would be twenty-five man out of one denomination, twenty-five out of another, still they won't receive that. It's got to be the--the head of this organization. And Christian Business Men is a nonsectarian organization representing all the churches. Doctor Simon, their head over there, a very fine man, I got to meet him and talk with him. And they are taking the meetings, and all the rest of the churches is coming in together. See? And I believe we'll have one of the greatest meetings that's been had in--in Africa.
E-42 But my point was this, when you know that you--you're trying to do what's right. The first thing is, if you feel led to do anything, then check it with the Word and see if it's right with the Word, and then let nothing stop you. I don't care how many wheels the Devil throws in our way, just move right over the top of them. [I Thessalonians 2:18]
E-43 I told my wife and I told Brother Wood, when I got here, and some friends that I met yesterday. I have had about five years here that I hardly knowed what to do. It's been a--a nervous... See, the revival itself, amongst the churches, had died. Everyone knows that. You feel it in this Tabernacle. You feel it everywhere. There is a thump, dead feeling. There is just something isn't right. It's because the revival enthusiasm has gone away from the people. Go into the churches, you'll see them sitting there. And the pastor is stumbling around for a message and something another. And the first thing you know, he turned it off on some kind of a party they're going to have, or something. It seems to be a dead thump everywhere.
E-44 Billy Graham notices it; Oral Roberts. Mr. Allen had some trouble, as you know. Oral Roberts has got that fifty-million-dollar buildings, and so forth, in there. He's got a school. And, well, nobody on the field now.
E-45 I left here, by a vision, to go yonder to Tucson, to see what the Lord wanted me to do. There He met me up there, as He told you here that He would do it, and the form of seven Angels, and said to return back and the Seven Seals was to be opened. That's just exactly what happened.
E-46 He said, one day with Brother Woods when he come out there, we went to the same place, and throw up a rock, it come down, He said, "Within a day and night, you're..." Some, I forget just what the words was. "You're going to see the glory of God."
E-47 And the next day, a whirlwind came down out of the skies, and we know the story of what taken place. When it went up, they asked what it was. I said, "It spoke three words, in three great blasts." The men only heard the blasting. I understood what It said. And said, "'Judgment striking West Coast!'" Two days after that, Alaska like to have sunk. It's been thundering around, earthquakes, everything. Just look at them, every day, earthquakes just shaking everywhere. [Job 38:1], [Nahum 1:3]
E-48 My last meeting, last meeting I had. This will be my first Message, really, to preach since then. I was preaching in Los Angeles, at the Biltmore Auditorium, and I was speaking on a man choosing himself a wife. You probably got the tape of it. It's, I said, "It reflects his character and his ambitions." That, when a man takes a woman, he takes a young girl, and to be his wife; he takes, you know, a modern girl that's a common Ricketta, it--it just shows what he's... If he marries a beauty queen or a sex queen, whatever it is, it shows his, what's really in the man. But a Christian, he looks for character in a woman, because he is planning a future home with that woman. He plan, he gets a homemaker. And I said, "Then, Christ, according to His Word here, tells us what our future Home will be. What kind of a wife will He choose then, a denominational prostitute? Never! He'll choose a woman that's characterized by His Word, and that will be the Bride."
E-49 And while in there, Something struck me, and I didn't know nothing for about thirty minutes. There was a prophecy went out. First thing I remember, Brother Mosley and Billy, I was out on the street, walking. And It said, "Thou Capernaum, which calls yourself by the name of the Angels," that's Los Angeles, city of angels, see, the angels, "which are exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For, if the mighty works had been done in Sodom, that's been done in you, it would have been standing till this day." And that was all unconsciously, to me. See? [Matthew 11:23], [Luke 10:15]
E-50 And how I just got through exhorting, Christ, exalting Him and telling the church. I said, "You women, no matter how I try to come to you, or preach against these things; and you man, you preachers; you constantly conned all the time, do it just the same. You walk over It as if the Word of God wasn't nothing." [Matthew 11:23]
E-51 And when I understood that, I went, I said, "There is a Scripture about that somewhere." And I went and found it was Jesus, rebuking Capernaum by the seacoast. That night I looked up the Scriptures. Come home, got the history book; and Sodom and Gomorrah was once a--a thriving city, a Gentile headquarters of the world. And you know, that city, by an earthquake, sank into the Dead Sea. And Jesus stood, and said, "Capernaum, if Sodom would have had the works done in it that you've had done in you, it would have been standing today. But now you must be brought down to hell!" And about two hundred or three hundred years after His prophecy, with all them coastal towns, every one of them still standing but Capernaum, and it lays in the bottom of the sea. An earthquake sunk it into the sea. [Matthew 11:23-24]
E-52 And then prophesying, "Los Angeles will be in the bottom of the sea." And I come home, and went to Africa. And while I was in Africa, they had an earthquake. And scientists... You seen it, it was on a broadcast, that some big, fine homes tumbled in, in Los Angeles, and a motel, and so forth. And now there is a...
E-53 Since that earthquake, there is a two- or three-inch crack that come in the earth, starting in Alaska, goes around through the Aleutian Islands, comes out about a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles in the sea, comes back up at San Diego; takes in California, or Los Angeles, and comes out again just below the northern part of California there, a little place called San Jose, just below there.
E-54 And this scientist was speaking, being on an interview. We was watching on television. And he said, "Beneath that is just a churning lava." And he said this, he said, "That is a chunk will break loose," and said, "and it will." And this inter-...
E-55 The man, scientist interviewing this chief scientist, said to him, said, "Well, that could then all sink?"
He said, "Could? It's got to!"
E-56 Said, "Well, course, will probably be many, many years from now."
E-57 He said, "It can be in five minutes from now, or it can be in five years from now." He just lotted five years.
E-58 But just as I sure was standing there under that Inspiration, put judgment on that West Coast, and then followed it right up here with the sinking of Los Angeles, she is gone! That's right. It will happen. When? I don't know.
E-59 But, oh, what happened? You know, we only got six continents now. We had seven, that one that sunk between Africa and the United States. Oh, it's historical, you know about it. Now, if that goes down, then I want you to watch when...
E-60 This was a sermon that I preached on when, I believe, Brother Elij' Perry might have been deacon here in the church at the time, for all I know. But it said, "The time will come..." I didn't know it until Mrs. Simpson brought me the--the sermon the other day. And I got it wrote in a little book, that the desert that..." The ocean shall weep its way into the desert." That was thirty years ago.
E-61 And, of course, the Salton Sea is about two hundred feet below sea level, and if that big churning, that earth swallowing in like that, with hundreds of square miles, hundreds and hundreds of square miles sinking into the earth, that will throw a tidal wave plum to Arizona. Sure, it would.
E-62 Oh, we're at the end time, glorious hour, the appearing of the Lord Jesus! He said, "There shall be earthquakes in divers places, perplexed of time, distress between nations, men's hearts failing in fear." Said, "When these things begin to happen, raise up your head, your redemption is drawing nigh." Oh, my! [Matthew 24:7], [Mark 13:8], [Luke 21:11]
Nations are breaking, Israel's awaking,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with harrows encumbered;
Return, O dispersed, to your own. (Be sure to do that!)
That day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with God's Spirit, have your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your redemption is near! (That's right.)
False prophets are lying, God's Truth they're denying,
That Jesus the Christ is our God.
E-63 You see the picture the other day, how He turned that picture sideways there? And the very picture of those seven Angels being lifted up, turn it to the right-hand side, and there is the face of the Lord Jesus looking down to the earth again.
E-64 You remember when I preached The Seven Church Ages, I couldn't understand why Jesus standing there with a "white" over His head. He was a young Man. I took it back in the Bible, it said, "He came to the Ancient of Days, Whose hair was white as wool." Jesus was only thirty-three and a half years old, at His crucifixion. [Revelation 1:14]
E-65 I called up Brother Jack Moore, a theologian. He said, "Oh, Brother Branham, that's Jesus in His glorified stage." Said, "After His death, burial, and resurrection, He turned to that." That sounded all right for a theologian, but it didn't go good, it didn't hit the something.
E-66 I went up there and started on that first church age, there the Holy Spirit revealed it. Now you got it right on your Church Ages. I guess the books will be out pretty soon now, the full detail of it. And it showed that Jesus was Judge. There is a white wig that they used to wear, put a wig on and wear it as a judge, England still does it when you got supreme authority. And that turning sideways in this picture, there He is, His black hair, you can see it in the side of His beard, and the white wig on. He is the last of the authority, He is Supreme Authority. Even God said so, Himself, "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him." [Matthew 17:5]
E-67 There He is with them Angels, the Message, which was the seven breaking of them seven seals that revealed serpent seed and all these things here. And it shows that it is His very covering, it's--it's His Supreme Authority. He is Supreme, and He is wigged, or--or covered. The Bible said that He changed His countenance, or He changed Himself, en morphe. The word comes from the Greek word, en morphe, which means a Greek actor that plays many parts; today he is one thing, in the next act he is something else. He was God, the Father, in one act; God, the Son, in another act; and then God, the Holy Ghost, in this act. See? There He is, His Word is still Supreme. We're living in the last days. [Revelation 1:14]
E-68 Coming back from Africa the other day, I kind of tired. You see, it's just it's nighttime there now, and you have to turn around. And then time I got turned around, come back again. We had a wonderful trip, hunting trip, one of the best I ever had in my life. Then Billy's got some pictures, maybe he'd have a time he can show it somewhere, and show you the trip.
E-69 I had a dream. I'm always dreaming of being back at that Public Service Company, somehow. So I--I thought I was kind of ratting on the job, I was supposed... They just let me have my own way, and I thought I would... Instead of going out and walking the line or collecting the bills, or something I was supposed to do, I just said, "Well, I'm my own boss," I just went swimming. And I got down there and took off my... these clothes, and put on my swimming clothes. I was by myself. And I thought, "Say, this ain't right, the company... This is daytime, the company is paying me for this time." Thought, "That's strange." And then I thought, "Well, the money I collected on the route..." I had both the patrol and the route mixed together, and I said, "Well, the money I collected, I've done something, romping around here; I've lost all my tickets, and I got their money and my money mixed together. Now how will I know who paid the bill?" I thought, "Just because I wasn't paying any attention!" I thought, "That's not right. There is only one thing for me to do, that's, go back to my superintendent and tell him." That was Don Willis, I said, "Don, I lost those tickets. Now here is all the money I got, and here is their money, together. Leave it here at the cashier. And the people, when they come in, they'll have a receipt that I received their bill."
E-70 Probably people sitting right here that I--I... I know there is. That I collected from them in--in the days, and I'd... and I'd give a receipt. You know, it was only ten percent if you let your bill run over. And maybe, a dollar and a half, be fifteen cents over. A lot of them people lived... We just liked.to get together and talk, and they'd just let their bill go, and me come talk to them a while. Give fifteen cents, you know, just to sit down and talk a little while, and to collect their bill. So it got it rank, and just got so many bills I couldn't collect them.
E-71 Well, I thought that's the only way I could do it. And I woke up.
E-72 The place where we live, Sister Larson. I don't think she is here. She's been very nice to us; and she don't like for me to say that. But she is a very fine lady, and we've been living in her rooms. She's got two apartments, small apartments together, we rented them both. And wife and I sleep over here in--in the other apartment where I kind of receive the people when I can, and there is a couple of little twin beds in there.
E-73 I woke up. She wasn't awake yet. And after a while, she woke up. And I waved over at her, and she looked back and batted her eyes a few times. I said, "You sleep good?"
She said, "No."
E-74 And I said, "I had the awfulest dream. I was back at that Public Service Company again." I said, "What have I done?"
E-75 I remember, as a little boy, or a young man, I walked all those lines at Salem, Indiana, different... I'd go in, buy a--a breakfast, maybe a bowl of oats. In that hot sun and everything, and it'd just make me sick, to eat breakfast. I'd turn in ten cents, on my petty cash. The superintendent come down and said, said, "You know what they said in the--in the meeting? 'Who is that knothead that would turn in ten cents, for breakfast?' Said, "You ought to at least turn in fifty cents." Now, all of you know, fifty cents was a big breakfast in them days.
And I said, "Well, I don't eat that much."
He said, "Well, the rest of them turns in fifty cents. You ought to turn in fifty cents."
I said, "Well, I don't use it."
Said, "Turn it in, anyhow." That was my superintendent.
E-76 Well, I thought, "Well, what can I do? I have to charge fifty cents, and I eat ten cents." So I'd go out on the street and get some little kids that didn't have no breakfast, and get them forty-cents worth of breakfast.
So then I thought, "Well, what could... Maybe that's what He holds against me."
E-77 And I remember, here not long ago, they come through on the patrol, tore up that back yard back there, and said, "Turn in your bill." You know they got patrol rights, but they have to pay for damage.
E-78 I just wrote back and said, "You don't owe nothing." I thought, "That'd pay for them forty-centses. Maybe I've spent twenty or thirty dollars during that time, giving it to kids. Maybe that will do it." Kept on dreaming.
E-79 Then I had a big tree out there, the kids played under it, and the patrol... Now they patrol in a helicopter. And so he come in and said, "Billy, how about cutting that tree?"
E-80 I said, "No, don't cut it. We're going to trim it." I said, "Brother Wood and I are going to trim it."
Said, "Well, I'll just have the man come by and trim it."
I said, "Now, don't cut it."
He said, "I won't cut it."
E-81 I went off on a trip. When I come back, she was cut plumb on the ground. Then I had a lawsuit coming, you see. I said, "Well, Lord, this will clear it up, what I owed." So I struck that off, that was all right, just let it go. Well, I still dreamed it.
E-82 When I got up the other morning, I said, "Well..." The first thing we do of a morning when we get up, is pray together, then pray when we go to bed at night. And then after she went on over to get the kiddies' breakfast, I started to pray. I said, "Lord, I must have been an awful guy. What have I done in life, that I--I can't get away from that Public Service Company.
E-83 I went in and took a bath, and come back out. And something just seemed to say to me, "Maybe I'm ratting on His job." I thought, "Here is about five years I ain't done nothing, just waiting on Him."
E-84 Standing up there the other day. They built us a new home up there, and Brother Mosley come down, was talking about it. I said, "That's just a little gift from my Father." And he started crying. I said, "You see, He said, 'If you will leave your homes, houses, lands, fathers, mothers, I'll give you houses, lands, fathers, mothers, and a hundredfold in this life, and Eternal Life to come.'" I said, "See, I had to leave the Tabernacle that I love so dearly. My home that the Lord give me up there, had to leave it. He just give me this one back." I said, "He is wonderful, you see." [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] And he started crying. [Mark 10:28-30], [Matthew 19:27-30]
E-85 Well, I--I said, "I had to come out here and separate myself, come to this desert." And I thought, "Wonder why God would bring me to a desert, out here where there is nothing but scorpions and Gila monsters?"
E-86 It's not only a desert, is it hot, but it's spiritually a desert. Oh, my! There is no spiritual life at all, in the churches, they're against... Why, you never seen such in your life! We don't even have a church to go to, or nothing. And then when... The people almost perish, spiritually. I notice it in the people that come out there, see the differences in them, watching it.
E-87 And so you stay under the Spirit of God, and your life becomes sweet, tender, like water brings this grass and soft buds. If... this grass, in Arizona, wouldn't grow; these trees would be cactus, them leaves just wind up and make stickery. That's the way it is when you get dry around the church, everybody is sticking one another, you know. And, see, you got to have soft waters of rain soften you up, and make leaves and shade for the pilgrim that passes by. [Galatians 5:22-25]
E-88 And so something said to me, "Maybe you're ratting on God's job." So, I prayed for a vision.
E-89 And Meda just got me a new Bible; and Brother--Brother Brown, from up in Ohio, got me a new Bible; both of them at the same time, at Christmas. I went and got one of the new Bibles. I said, "Lord, in the days gone by, You had a Urim and Thummim."
E-90 Now listen, let me say this. Course, they're not... this, is not taping this meeting, the reason I'm ask... saying this. Let me say, don't do this. It's not a good thing.
E-91 But I said, "Lord, it used to be, when a dreamer dreamed a dream, that they took it down to the Urim and Thummim, and told it. And if the--if the Urim and Thummim flashed the lights back, a supernatural Light, the dream was true." I said, "But that priesthood and that Urim and Thummim is done away with. Your Bible is the Urim and Thummim now; Lord, may I never do this again. But I've asked You and prayed to You, to give me a vision, speak to me about why am I dreaming these dreams. And what have I done? If I've harmed, if I've done anything to any person in the world, let me know. I'lE--I'lE--I'll go make it right. If I owe the Public Service Company, if I done something wrong to them or any other person, if I done something wrong to You, let me know. I--I want to make it right."
E-92 Let's make it right, now. Don't wait till after a while, it may be too late. Let's do it now.
E-93 And I said, "Surely, there is something in this Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, that some character in there that You dealt with, would be on the same basis that would be my question. If somebody done something, and--and You got after him about it, then let me turn to that place in the Bible. And if somebody, whatever they done, it'll lean my way. Where I've done wrong, or something You want me to do, or haven't done, let me see some character in the Bible like that."
E-94 And I closed my eyes, just let the Bible fall open, put my finger on a Scripture, Genesis 24:7. Eliezer, Abraham's faithful servant, the model servant of the Bible, being sent to hunt the bride for Isaac. Chills run over me. Sure, that's my... that's right with the rest of my Message, pulling out the Bride. [Genesis 24:3-7]
E-95 He said, "Sware that you'll not take a bride out of these, but go to my own people."
He said, "What if the woman won't come with me?" [Genesis 24:8]
E-96 Said, "Then you're free of this oath." He said, "And the God of Heaven will send His Angel before you, to direct you." He went right straight out and begin praying, and he met the beautiful Rebekah that become the bride of Isaac. [Genesis 24:12-14]
E-97 Just a perfect Message, back to the Word, "Go get that Bride!" That's a duty. That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm trying to do, is call out a Bride.
E-98 Remember in California there, that interview of the Bride, preview, I had it here. How that Bride come up first, and seen Her go by. Then here come Miss America, Miss Asia, and all, oh, the awfulest looking thing! And then the same Bride passed by again. One of them got out of step, and I was getting Her back in step; two of them, it was. And that's what I was supposed to do, keep that Bride in step, hunt that man.
E-99 I said, "God, I'm going back home, renew my vows again, and start out anew." So that's what we're planning on doing, that's what I'm here for.
E-100 I think it would be a good thing if we did this, started on the eighteenth, next week, next Sunday morning, next Sunday night; the following Sunday, and the following Sunday. How many thinks that would be a good thing? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Thank you.
E-101 Now I want you to do something for me. If you have notified any people that there--there is going to be a meeting on the twenty-eighth, will you renotify them again, that we couldn't do it. Tell, write them a letter, or something another. We don't want the people come and be disappointed, but we could not get the auditorium.
E-102 See, we couldn't get it. And so because the last meeting I think we had so many up there, and everything, they just... You know how the public is, and they... Well, we're just living in the last days, that's all. And they claim that the people come in and disturb the school, and they were there too early, and they did this, or that, or something another, and the place was too jammed up, and the fire marshall does this and that. And, well, you know.
E-103 So we will set up those Vials and those Trumpets, I want to place them in. I told you I would. They come under another thing. So does the Vials come over, the sounding of trumpets; but we want to take the entire course right straight through, and bring it, tie it in together.
E-104 How many has read any of Brother Vayle, on rewriting that, and fixing it up and grammarizing it for me? Have you read any of it? You have, two or three of you. I think you done a real job, Brother Vayle, a real job! You, I think Sister Vayle did it; and you just wrote it down and she done it. She was a... See, I'm not always against the women, am I, Sister Vayle?
E-105 So now let us, for the next fifteen, twenty minutes, read a Scripture here.
E-106 And I got a little book here. I told, I believe, it was to Brother Vayle, or, who was it, or I believe it was Roy Borders. Brother Vayle bought me the book. I want to make a little textbook.
E-107 But if anybody ever looked at what I call notes! Like I want to preach about the Morning Star, I'll draw a star. And if I want to preach something about... I make it all in symbols here, scratches, nobody can ever know what it was. While I'm out, and I think of anything, I got to, on riding on the road, sometimes the car is jumping up-and-down, and I'll jot this down, and say this and that, and make little signs, and cross and bridges, and--and all kinds of things. Like I want to preach on the descending of the Star; and I'll put the pyramid, draw it out here and put the five-point star of David coming down on it. And I know where I'm going in the Scriptures like that; and Moses, a certain thing he done. Just make little turkey tracks, like.
E-108 I got several of them in here. And I thought, this morning, back there when I thought I'd speak on this subject for a few minutes here, on a note, maybe it'd take me twenty minutes.
E-109 And then I ain't going to take Brother Neville's service tonight. I--I--I'm going to rest tonight, listen to him.
E-110 And then, the Lord willing, next Sunday morning we'll start the service. And you all help me, and we'll pray, because it was in my heart to try... They said, "Well, we could go to Louisville or we could go down in New Albany." But the meeting was supposed to be for Jeffersonville. I'll go to Louisville and New Albany, at different times, but this is supposed to be here at Jeffersonville.
E-111 Now let's bow our heads just a minute while we been... I been talking to you here for about thirty minutes. Let's speak to Him a moment.
E-112 Lord Jesus, we are--we are certainly a blessed people, above our thinking, above our understanding. For, if there was a noble among us, such as some personnel from some other country, or a diplomat of some sort, we would think it was great to have such a noble person among us. But today we have the God of Heaven, not only among us, but in us, dwelling, living His Life through us. And we're so thankful for this, Lord! It's beyond our understanding, of course.
E-113 But now speaking on what the services, and going to Africa, and the things that we've tried to arrange for these few days here in Indiana. And somehow or another, Lord, it may be You are driving us to that tent, to make that vision fulfill. So Thy will be done, we've committed it this way, the best of our understanding. So we pray, Lord, if there is any thing contrary to Your will, You'll make it known to us, that we might know to do Your perfect will.
E-114 Now bless us in these next few minutes. Speak to us through Thy Word, Lord, for Thy Word is Truth. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Let's turn in the Bible, to Mark, the 8th chapter.
E-115 When do you usually let out, twelve o'clock? [Someone says, "About twelve o'clock."--Ed.] All right. Now, now just a little short Message here that I can speak to you about the Word, after testifying about over there, and so forth.
E-116 Mark, the 8th chapter, and let's begin about the 34th verse, to the thirty-... taking the 38th, the rest of that chapter. I like to read what He said, 'cause I know that's true. Now we...
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;... whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation;
of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. [Mark 8:34-38]
E-117 I want to take a little text from there, if it'd be called that, called: Ashamed. You know, I like that. "Whosoever is ashamed of Me and of My Words, I'll be ashamed of him."
E-118 Now, the word ashamed could be also translated "embarrassed." You know, something that you're... You are faced with something that you're embarrassed about, being ashamed. [Mark 8:38]
E-119 That, another thing being ashamed does, it shows that you are not sure of what you're talking about. If you know what you're talking about, and have the assurance that you know what you're talking about, you can tell anybody that; you're not ashamed. But if you feel put out, out of place, it shows you're not sure.
E-120 You notice there is so much of that today, especially on the subject that I'm speaking of, "ashamed of the Word." Now, He and the Word are the same.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,... The same yesterday, today, and forever! [John 1:1], [John 1:14], [Hebrews 13:8]
E-121 So, "Whosoever is ashamed of Me and My Word," and He and His Word are One, so being ashamed of His Word in this sinful, present generation, "I'll be ashamed of him." [Mark 8:38]
E-122 Now we notice today, if somebody says, "Are--are you a Christian?" It's very much a popular thing, say, "Oh, I'm a Christian!" See?
E-123 "But do you believe the Word of God, where It said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe'?" [Mark 16:17]
E-124 "Oh!" Even ministers' faces will blush. See?
E-125 Are you ashamed of, say, of Divine healing? Are you ashamed of the full Gospel? Are you ashamed of your pentecostal experience? That's being ashamed of His Word. That's His Word made flesh in you.
E-126 So, His Word has to live Itself out for every generation. It lived Itself in the days of Moses. Because, in that day, the Bible said, in Hebrews, 1st chapter, "God, in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers by the prophets." [Hebrews 1:1]
E-127 And those prophets! The church got all so twisted up that when... Those prophets, those daring messengers of God, come without church, without denomination, without organization, without anything; defied kings, kingdoms, churches, and everything. When the priests was brought before... They was brought before the priests, they wasn't ashamed, because they had directly THUS SAITH THE LORD. [Hebrews 11:32-40]
E-128 If you notice, the prophet, in one sense of the word, in the Old Testament, when he said THUS SAITH THE LORD, now watch him, he goes right into the phrase of taking the place of God. You notice, when he placed out before him, THUS SAITH THE LORD, he fell right into God, and he acted as God. Then he gave his Message, which was God speaking through him, "THUS SAITH THE LORD!" [Deuteronomy 18:18]
E-129 I think of the prophets of old, when they come with that Message, and It embarrassed the kings, and It made the people feel uncomfortable. The priests, even, they would feel uncomfortable, because they were supposed to be leaders, religious man, and when they... the Word came forth in that manner, It exposed them, and they felt embarrassed, or ashamed.
E-130 And many times we see that, not many, too often today! That man, you say, "I am a Christian!"
"Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
"Oh! Huh!" You see, they're--they're embarrassed about It. [Acts 19:2]
E-131 Somebody say, "Do you belong to that group up there that does all that there shouting, and all that Divine healing stuff?" Many times, Christians back up.
E-132 They want to announce, if--if they got a denomination, now, "I'm Baptist. I'm Presbyterian. I'm Lutheran." They're not ashamed of that.
E-133 But when it comes to being a Christian that can take God's Word just the way It is, then they're--they're--they're ashamed. "I don't belong to any denomination," see, they, they're--they're ashamed to say that. They've got to be like the rest of the world, represented by some organization.
E-134 Now, that's just recently come into that. In the days of Luther, to recognize yourself as a Lutheran or a follower of Luther, well, it almost meant death by the Catholic church. In the days of Wesley, to know that you had defied the Anglican church, it was almost a penalty of death by the Anglicans, to announce that you were a Methodist. In the days of Pentecost, it was a shame, almost, to say that you was--that you was a pentecostal, because you was quickly counted a holy-roller, or--or some tongue-speaker, or something like that. Now they organized and went right in with the rest of the group.
E-135 Now when the calling-out time comes, that you don't belong to any of it! It's very popular to say, "I'm Pentecost." It's very popular to say, "I'm Presbyterian. Lutheran." But what when it comes to the time that you'll have to come out and stand for the Word, "I don't belong to any of it"? That, that embarrassed.
E-136 Jesus said, "Now, if you are ashamed of Me, then I'll be ashamed of you." Why would He be ashamed of you? Because you are claiming to be His, when you won't follow Him. [Mark 8:38]
E-137 What if I said, "This little boy, he's--he's my son"; he turn around and say, "Who, me be your son? What do you think I am!" It would embarrass me. It would, to your son.
E-138 And that's the way that's so-called Christianity today. If you name it a name of a denomination, all right, they accept the fatherhood of a denomination. But when it comes to accepting the fatherhood of the Word of God, Christ, no, they're embarrassed. They don't want to say, "Yes, I have spoke with tongues. Yes, I have seen visions. Yes, I believe in Divine healing. Yes, I praise the Lord. I'm free from all organization, I'm not bowing down to any of that. I'm a servant of Christ." Oh, my, that'd just tear them to pieces.
E-139 The other night, a great speaker come in amongst the Full Gospel Business Men in Chicago.
E-140 And may I stop here just a minute, to say this. You excuse me. But many times you think, and I do too, that what we're talking about, the Truth of the Bible, don't go over amongst the people. But, It does. Sometime they'll rear right up against It, but they really don't mean it. They're trying to find where you're standing.
E-141 As the story was about a bunch of drunks, arguing that there was no such thing as Christianity. One man said, "I know where there is one at, that's my wife."
Said, "Well, I--I don't believe it."
Said, "Come on, we'll... let's all act like we're really drunk."
E-142 Went up there at the house, and done everything they could. And--and told them cook them some eggs, and then he throwed them out on the floor, and said, "You know better than to cook my eggs like that!" Carrying on in the house. And they went over in the other room, fell down in a chair. They heard somebody out there sweeping it up, not saying a word, saying, singing a little song to herself.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
There is a cross for every one,
And there is a cross for me.
And this consecrated cross I'll bear,
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home a crown to wear.
E-143 That one old drunk said, "What'd I tell you?" Said, "She is a Christian!" See, they was only trying her. And sometimes the world, I've found out, try you.
E-144 So I never thought this would happen, but last Saturday night, I believe it was, or Sunday night, the great speaker... I don't subject to calling people's names. But he's trying, working exactly contrary. I'm trying to keep them churches out of that ecumenical move, and this man is trying to put them in there. So, he was speaking for the Christian Business Men. Which, I was supposed to have had the meeting in Chicago, and I thought I'd be in Africa at that time, so I couldn't take it. This man said, got up there and said, "The greatest move, the greatest thing in the earth now, that's ever been; all the churches are returning back to the Catholic church, in the ecumenical move, and the Catholics will receive the Holy Ghost." What a trap of the Devil!
E-145 And this leader, Brother Shakarian, the president of the International Business Men, stood up and said, after the man sat down, said, "That's not the way we've heard it." Said, "Brother Branham has told us, that, 'This ecumenical move will move them all to the mark of the beast.'" And the man setting on the platform. Said, "'It'll move it to the mark of the beast.'" And said, "We're inclined to believe what he says is the Truth." [Someone in congregation says, "Amen! So are we!"--Ed.] And he said, "How many of you would like to hear Brother Branham come and give you the true side of it? Raise." And there was five thousand something people. They screamed and cried, just to come for one day, one day.
E-146 Brother Carl Williams called me up, said, "Brother Branham, boy, I went out through that crowd," said, "they had piles of hundred-dollar bills laying in my hands, to get your airplane ticket up here, and back." See, just for one day!
E-147 See, those people, that Word is sinking in where sometimes we don't know it. See? But, see, when you're really... No matter how much the world is against It, how much the denominations are against It, God is proving It to be the Truth. When the great hour finally strikes, things will happen maybe that we didn't think about.
E-148 Yes, it shows you're not sure, if you're embarrassed, so you would rather not discuss the subject. If you're going to be ashamed of it, you wouldn't want to discuss it; hold back.
E-149 But how can a man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, how can a man full of the Power of God, and the love of God in his heart, talk to a man a few minutes and not mention something about that love that's in his heart? See, there is something that it--it happens; you can't do it.
E-150 This is, must be that evil day that Jesus was speaking of. People are ashamed of the Word and of the Spirit of God that acts within them. But when the Truth is made plain to the people, God then, Himself, revealing Himself through the Word.
E-151 Now, any man can make any kind of claims. And we've had it in these days, where there has been so many claims claimed, that it's been horrible. But, you see, if there is a Truth, it must be by the Word. Because, they say they had all kinds of things, of oil flowing through people, and blood out of their hands, and women on their back in this blood, and running down their shoes, and raise up their shoes and pour oil out, and frogs jumping out and hopping down the platform, and all kinds of things like that. There is no such stuff as that in the Bible. There is no promise of anything like that, in the Bible. Only, It said, "In the last days, the spirit would be so close it would deceive the Elected if possible." But there is no Scripture for that. [Matthew 24:24]
E-152 But when it comes to genuine, unadulterated Word of God, confirmed by God, It seems to even embarrass the other group, on the radical side. See, there is an embarrassment about It.
E-153 But It's a reality to a man or woman, boy or girl, who really is a genuine Christian. When God made the promise of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and you receive It, there is Something that settles within you, that there is nothing takes Its place. When a man ever meets God; not in some emotional work up, some enthusiasm, or some religious doctrine, some catechism or creed, or a dogma that he has accepted for a--a comfort for hisself. But when he really comes to the place like Moses did, on the back side of the desert, walk up face to face with Almighty God, and you see the Voice speaking to you, exactly with the Word and the promise of the hour, there is something It does to you! See, you're not ashamed of It, It does something to you. Now, let us look now, for just the next fifteen minutes.
E-154 There is some people that receive such an experience. And as I speak to you today, not as a church or as a denomination, I speak to you as an individual; not because you come here to this Tabernacle, because that I love you and you love me, not because of that. Let me speak to you as a dying mortal, that someday you've got to come to the end of this life. And I may not be there, and another preacher might not be there. But there is only One Who can meet you there, and that's God. And you--you listen to It, and not whether "my wife is a good Christian" or--or "my husband is a good Christian," but, "Am I right with God? Have I met God like that?" Not because "my pastor met God," or because "my deacon met God," but, "Have I met Him?" Not because "I shouted," not because "I spoke in tongues," but because, "I met Him as a Person!" Then you'll never be ashamed of That, there is Something that's so perfect and pure, and true. [Revelation 3:20]
E-155 And remember, you might meet a spirit that would act like God. You might meet a spirit, would do this, that, or the other; follow it a little bit and see how it compares with the Word of God. You might meet a spirit that would tell you you are saved, and give you a glorious feeling, and you would shout and scream; then when it comes to denying the Word, how can the Holy Spirit, that wrote the Word, deny His Own Word? That Spirit must punctuate every promise of God with an "amen"! If it isn't, then you never met God, you met a deceiving spirit. And the world is full of it today! [John 16:13]
E-156 But when you see God come down and make a statement, that He's going to do a certain thing, then it comes back and does that, time after time after time, then you've got a genuine Spirit of God.
E-157 How could a Spirit be on a man, the Holy Spirit that wrote the Bible, then turn around and deny, "That's not right, That was for some other day"?
E-158 He said, "The promise is unto you, and to your children, to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That was Acts 2:38. How can a spirit then accept anything different from That, and be of God, when Hebrews 13:8 said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"? [Acts 2:38], [Hebrews 13:8]
E-159 What if somebody said, "Oh, I believe He was a philosopher. He was a good man. He was a prophet. But as far as His power..."
E-160 I was speaking the other night with George Smith, the boy that goes with my daughter, Rebekah; a fine kid, sang here in the Tabernacle. A Baptist boy that just took, told, "Take my name off of that thing! I want nothing to do with it." And there was a young lady... They was having a conference, this certain Baptist church, up in the hills.
E-161 And--and they're so firmly against me, all of them out there, and about not... They've not got nothing against me; it's against this Word. Me, as a man, they can't say nothing against me, I never done them any harm. But That is what they're afraid of. See? Now we were...
E-162 They was having this meeting up there, rather, and they had, was going to have a missionary to take the last three nights of this great conference, up in the hills where it was cool. Happen to be, this missionary got up and come onto Mark 16, and he said, "There is many people today who can't believe in Divine healing." Said, "I was in India. I'm an Indian. And I was in India when a man here in the United States, by the name of Brother Branham, come." The pastor begin to move over. Said, "My wife was dying with cancer. I was blind," or something like that. "He prayed for one of us, and the other one he called out in the audience, not even knowing our own language, and spoke the Power of God." And said, "We're here, healed!" Well, they tried to shut him up. They couldn't do it. That's, see, right in their own conference.
E-163 Then they even denied of anything. And some of the people, even my... this boy's sister, them on the ground, wouldn't even have nothing to say. They wanted to know if she wasn't connected, some way they could get down to find out.
One of the ladies said, "Well, I believe it."
E-164 Rebekah and George went to see this lady. And she went and got a girl that was suffering with a--a... kind of retarded, a little. So they had me come over there to see the girl, the other night. And I went over there, the little lady was sitting there, and I said, "Are you a believer?"
E-165 She said, "Nah, I don't know whether I am or not." Well, she wasn't retarded; just a devil spirit. They don't realize it. See, it takes you, and you don't know it. It comes, then violence overcomes the person, and they don't know it.
E-166 Women that walks out here on the street, with these shorts on, they don't realize. They might be, they could might could prove and sware to it, that they've never done anything evil against their husband, or so forth, like that. But in their heart, they don't realize, but the spirit of the Devil has took them over. They are possessed of it. Why would a woman want to strip her clothes off, off before a man? There is only one person who done it, in the Bible, and they were insane. Others try to cover themselves; they don't realize. It's so cunning, so subtle! You have to watch, weigh yourself with the Word of God, and see where you're standing.
E-167 This young lady said, "Oh, they told me that I was baptized when I was a kid." Said, "I don't know whether to believe that stuff or not."
I said, "Don't you believe Jesus Christ?"
E-168 And she said, "Well, I don't know whether I do or not." She said, "Some of that hocus-pocus stuff, I don't believe it."
E-169 I said, "Well, of course, you don't believe hocus-pocus stuff." I said, "But do you believe that He was the Son of God?"
"Oh," said, "He could have been."
E-170 I said, and I said, "Do you believe He is the same today, the God that would save you?"
E-171 She said, "Is any of that there stuff about that there miracles and stuff like that? I don't believe nothing about it."
E-172 And I said, "What would you do if you were setting in a meeting and seen God, the Holy Spirit, which is the only God there is, working amongst the people; God in the Fatherhood, the Pillar of Fire, and the prophets; God in His Son; then God in His people? It's just attributes of God, one great God Who covers Eternity." I said, "What would you see if He, among His people, made the--the blind to see, the deaf to hear, look out upon the audience and tell the people what was wrong with them, and like He did when He was here on earth?"
She said, "I believe it would be horoscope." [Matthew 4:23], [Luke 7:22]
E-173 I said, "You are in a worse shape than I thought you were. You would be better off if you was crazy, see, you wouldn't be accountable." But I said, "You're just possessed of an evil spirit." I said, "When Jesus told the woman at the well about her husbands, when He looked upon the people and perceived their thoughts, would you call that horoscope?" See, just so wrapped up in a denomination, called Lutheran, that anything contrary to that would be wrong! [John 4:18]
E-174 Now God wants man who is wrapped up in the Word. Anything contrary to That is wrong! Jesus said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be the Truth." [Romans 3:4]
E-175 There was a man in a very scientific age, by the name of Noah. He wasn't ashamed of God's Word. God met him, and He talked to him. He knowed it was God. And He said, "It's going to rain!" It never had rained, but he believed it was going to rain. And the faith that he had, he wasn't ashamed to exercise it. He took a hundred and twenty years to build an ark, when the world was against him. He wasn't ashamed of God's Word, in his day. God saved him and his household, for it. There was a... How foolish it might have seemed to be to other people; but, to him, he met God. No matter how scientific the other was, that was contrary, how it said "it couldn't happen, it couldn't happen," he met God! [Genesis 6:5-22]
E-176 That's what it is when you know that you're talking to Him! You would think it was a foolish thing when somebody... When, I know that there is a few people in the world holds on to what I say to be the Truth. To stand here and say, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, I'm going to Arizona, there I'll meet seven Angels in a cluster," well, there was a group of man standing there to see it happen. The other night, saying it, "Los Angeles would fall into the ocean." But when you have met God, and the God Who doesn't fail, the God Who does exactly what He said He would do, He has always done it, you're not ashamed of it then. You don't have to walk back and be embarrassed about it; you can tell the whole world. When a man meets God, talks to Him, and the reality of God becomes his in his heart, he's not ashamed of It.
E-177 Noah wasn't ashamed. It seemed foolish to the rest of the world, but not to him.
E-178 Moses, when he was before Pharaoh, he wasn't ashamed to tell Pharaoh that these certain things would happen, because he had met God. God told him, in the burning bush. Moses said, "I--I stutter." That's what he had, an impediment of speech. [Exodus 4:10]
E-179 He said, "There comes Aaron. You be God to him, and he'll be prophet to you. I know he can speak well. But I'll be with your mouth. Who made man to speak?" Amen. I like that. That's God. "Who made man be deaf or dumb, or who made man to speak?" God has.
He said, "Lord, show me Your glory."
Said, "What's that in your hand?"
He said, "It's a stick." [Exodus 7:1], [Exodus 4:2, 11-12]
E-180 Said, "Throw it on the ground," it turned to a serpent. Said, "Take it up again," it turned back to a stick. Amen. He's God. "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in, pulled it out, white with leprosy. Said, "Put it back and pull it again," and it was like the other hand. "I'm God." [Exodus 4:3-5]
E-181 Then he walk up before Pharaoh and say what He said he would say. He said, "It's going to be thus and thus." Picked up sand and throwed it up in the air, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, let fleas come upon the earth," and the fleas came. Took water and poured it out into the river, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," and the whole rivers and everything turned to blood. Called hail down out of heaven. [Exodus 8:16], [Exodus 7:17], [Exodus 9:24]
E-182 You know, in the last days there is supposed to be them plagues repeat again. And remember, an adulterer, in the Bible time, his penalty was death by stoning. And the unbelieving church will be stoned to death, with hailstones, was once God's way of punishment. He'll stone this unbelieving world, this adulterous generation. He'll stone it from heaven, with hailstones weighing a talent apiece, which is a hundred pounds. The adulterous church will die, adulterous world will die under the punishment of God, under stoning, like He did in the beginning. Get right with God, church! That's what we all must do, turn back to God!
E-183 That old fuzzy-faced, gray-haired whiskers, bald-headed, skinny arms, eighty-year-old Elijah sitting up there in the wilderness, looking out upon the sins of the people. God spoke to him one morning, said, "Go down there and tell Ahab that not even the dew will fall from heaven till you call for it." [I Kings 17:1]
E-184 I can see his little old eyes looking out from under that fuzzy-looking white beard, that stick in his hand, walking down the road like a sixteen-year-old boy. Walked right up in the presence of the king, and said, "Not even dew will come from heaven till I call for it." He wasn't ashamed of God or His Word; tell a king or anybody else. He wasn't ashamed. Didn't have to hide, say, "Now, Ahab, you'd be a..." [I Kings 17:1]
E-185 It puts me in mind of something like ourselves. Then I said to the people, "I'm getting to a spot, I need more faith." That's what I'm home for now is to get a--a new burst of faith.
E-186 Got so, look like, when you pray for people, you apologize, "Mr. Devil, would you please move over and let me...?" Nothing! Faith has got muscles, and hair on its chest. When it speaks, everything else shuts up. Don't go in, "Mr. Devil, you move out?"
E-187 "Get out of here! I'm a son of God, commissioned of God. Leave them alone!" That moves. You have no apology to the Devil, nothing to do with him. Not ashamed of the Word of God, not ashamed of your commission, not ashamed of who we are.
E-188 The only shame that I am, is I'm a Branham, that's my earthly birth. I'm ashamed of my failures.
E-189 But as His servant, I'm not ashamed! I'm not ashamed of His Word. Whether it's denominations, kings, potentates, or whatever it might be; just ready to give an answer, God calls for it.
E-190 Moses walked up before Pharaoh. He wasn't ashamed to tell him that they would not compromise and take his so-many days out in the wilderness.
He said, "Some of the women stay, by your children."
E-191 Said, "We'll all go! Not even one hoof will be left behind, we'll take our cattle and all." He wasn't ashamed. Why? He had come into the Light of deliverance. [Exodus 10:9]
E-192 That's the reason a man or a woman, sick or anything, once comes into the Presence of God, and knows that God has healed them, you're stepping into the Light of deliverance. You don't compromise on anything.
E-193 Deliverance was in his heart, for he had met the God Who said, "I am the God of Abraham, Who give Abraham the promise. And the time, time of redemption, of deliverance, is at hand. I'm sending you down there to take them out." What's to apologize, about that? [Exodus 3:6]
E-194 Pharaoh could have killed him. He was just a man. He was a slave. He could have killed him. But he wasn't ashamed of the Word. He didn't come down and get on his knees and beg to Pharaoh for nothing. He said, "I come to take them."
Pharaoh said, "Well, you can't take them!"
E-195He said, "All right, then there will be fleas upon the earth, till you will wade through them." And there is what happened.
Said, "Oh, Moses, take them away!"
He said, "All right. Now do you repent?"
Said, "Well, you can go so-many days in the wilderness."
E-196 He said, "Then flies will come." Amen. Said, "Darkness will come." It was so dark you couldn't see one place to the other.
E-197 And finally death come. From Pharaoh to the servant, it was death for the oldest child in the family. Didn't have no apology to nobody. He was a son of Abraham, born in the Spirit of God, given commission by God, the Message of God, to go down and take those people out.
E-198 Well, can't God call the same thing in this hour, to take out of the church a Bride? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Daniel wasn't, or...
E-199 David, rather, wasn't afraid before Saul. When everybody was afraid of Goliath out there, he wasn't afraid to walk up. And said, "Your servant..." This little ruddy-looking fellow said, "Your servant was herding his father's sheep, and a bear come in and got one of them. I chased him out in the wilderness and killed him, with this slingshot. A lion come in." Oh, my! "A lion come in and got one of them, and run out in the wilderness, and I knocked him down with a slingshot. When he got up, I killed him." He said, "And the God..." That backslidden king standing there, them wishy-washy soldiers claiming to serve the God of Heaven, and let that uncircumcised Philistine stand out there and defy the armies of the living God. Said, "Your servant also will slay him. For, the God Who delivered the lion and the bear to me, will also deliver that uncircumcised Philistine." He didn't stutter, didn't say, "perhaps it'll be done." He said, "It'll be done!" He wasn't ashamed. [I Samuel 17:37]
E-200 Daniel, before the king, wasn't afraid to defy his orders that nobody would pray, only to him. He opened up the windows and threw up the sash, and prayed three times a day. He wasn't afraid. [Daniel 6:10]
E-201 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, wasn't afraid of that fiery furnace. Said, "Our God is able to deliver us. God can deliver us. But if He don't, we're not bowing down to your image." They wasn't ashamed of it. No, sir. No, sir. They certainly wasn't ashamed of it, because they knew. [Daniel 3:17]
E-202 Samson wasn't ashamed before the Philistines. When a thousand run up to him, he picked up the jaw bone of a mule. And them helmets, they was about an inch and a half thick, of brass. He beat a thousand down with it, and still had the jaw bone in his hand. He wasn't embarrassed. He just picked up what was in his hands, and went to work with it. He knowed that the Spirit of God was upon him. He knowed he was borned a Nazarite. He knowed that nothing could bother him. He was a servant of God. As long as he was in the will of God, nothing could stand in his way, no matter how many kings or Philistines, or whatever more come up. Right. [Judges 15:15]
E-203 John wasn't ashamed of the Word of God that came to him in the wilderness, and told him to go baptize with water. He wasn't ashamed to say, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," for the Spirit of God was upon him. He wasn't ashamed before the priests. [John 1:29]
E-204 He wasn't ashamed of the Word of God when he walked up to Herod. Philip's wife was living with Herod. Walked right up in the face of the king! This old wooly-faced fellow out of the wilderness there, come out of there, with no education or nothing else, and walked right up in the face of Herod, and said, "It's not lawful for you to have her!" He wasn't ashamed of God's Word. Sure. He absolutely was not ashamed of It.
Stephen, he wasn't ashamed of God's Word. [Matthew 14:4], [Mark 6:18]
E-205 First, the pentecostal people up there on the Day of Pentecost, when they gathered in the upper room, the Holy Ghost fell upon them, by a promise of God. Luke 24:49 said:
... behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but wait... in the city of Jerusalem, until you receive power from on high. [Luke 24:49]
E-206 And the very promise that the Word of God promised to them, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but wait there; don't get no more theology or educations, and so forth, wait till you're endued with Power." And when that Power from Heaven came, like a rushing mighty wind, they wasn't ashamed of the Gospel. [Acts 2:2]
E-207 Peter stood up, said, "Repent, every one of you. You man, with wicked hands, you've crucified the Prince of Peace, which God has raised from the dead. And we're a witness. For this is what Joel said would come to pass in the last days, 'I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.'" He wasn't ashamed of the Gospel. [Acts 2:17, 38]
E-208 Little Stephen, as I mentioned him a few minutes ago, when he went through there like a--a--a tornado. He wasn't a preacher. He was just a deacon, but he testified everywhere of the resurrection. He had met God. And it's just like...
E-209 Try to stop him? Well, it was like trying to put a--a house, a burning house, fire out of it, on a windy day, in a dry time. Why, every time the wind blew, it just set another fire.
E-210 They jerked him up before the Sanhedrin Council. Can you realize what that is? That's like the Ecumenical Council. All religions head up, in under the Ecumenical Council. All of them headed up there under the Sanhedrin Council. Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, whatever they were, they had to come into that council. And they snatched him up, just not one organization, but the big council snatched him up. "We'll scare the liver out of him."
E-211 When he walked up, that morning, the Bible said his face looked like an Angel. He said, "Men and brethren, let me speak to you. Our fathers dwelled in Mesopotamia before they came to Charran," and so forth. He still went and give the Scriptures. Then when he got all wound up, the Spirit come upon him, he said, "You stiff-necked, uncircumcised of heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost; like your fathers did, so do you." He wasn't ashamed of the Gospel, wasn't ashamed of the Word. He wasn't embarrassed before any Sanhedrin Council. No. [Acts 6:15], [Acts 7:2, 51]
E-212 Paul said before Agrippa. Being a Jew, taught under Gamaliel, a great dignitary he was. But one day, on the road down to Damascus, he come in Presence, contact with God. An Angel came down from Heaven, in a form of a Pillar of Fire, a Light that struck him on the ground. Raised up, and said, "Lord, Who are You?"
And He said, "I am Jesus." [Acts 9:4]
E-213 Standing before Agrippa, he repeated the story again. He said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for It's the Power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes." Sure. [Romans 1:16]
E-214 Now, friends, we come on down with man, down through the age, but we're past time.
E-215 But let me say this. A man who has once come in contact with God, which is the Word, and the Word has been made plain and manifested to him, there is no shameness about that. You're not embarrassed. Doesn't embarrass me to say I believe every Word of God. Doesn't embarrass me when the Lord says to say anything, you go say it and do it. It don't embarrass me to say that I've been filled with the Holy Ghost. It don't embarrass me to say that I've spoke with other tongues. It don't embarrass me to say that our Lord has showed me visions. It don't embarrass me to say He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews 13:8]
E-216 "When you're brought before rulers and kings, for My Name's sake, take no thought what you shall say, for it'll be given to you in that hour. It's not you that speaketh, but My Father that dwelleth in you. But whosoever is ashamed of Me and My Word, in this generation, him will I be ashamed of before My Father and the holy Angels." God help us not to be ashamed, but help us to be a living testimony. [Matthew 10:19-20], [Mark 8:38]
E-217 Every man in the Old Testament, when them prophets came, they become--they become the living Word. They was the Word. Jesus said they were called gods, and they were, because the Word of God came to them. They say, "It's THUS SAITH THE LORD." [John 10:34]
E-218And any disciple of Christ who has come in contact with Him in redemption, and salvation has come into his heart, he is a possessor of God. And what kind of a life should we live, and how should we walk, and how should we talk, if God is representing Himself through our own mortal bodies? Who could be ashamed of that?
E-219 If I come to a place that I was on the police force here in Jeffersonville, walk down the street, in all the authorities, I wouldn't be ashamed of the city. I would be part of the city. I would be a police, a part of the city, to keep order and conduct. If a man run a red light, I wouldn't be ashamed to tell him he done wrong, give him a ticket. That's my duty, 'cause I'm--I'm getting paid by the city. I'm living by the city. I have the authority from the city. No matter if he was drunk, or what was the matter with him, they'll back me up. I stand my grounds, 'cause I'm a policeman and or-... I'm ordained, or put in here and given authority to do this. You're supposed to take the law and rights, and things, and see that it's done right.
E-220 Then, if I'm a Christian and been filled with the Spirit, wearing the testimony of Jesus Christ's resurrection, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, don't let any devil try to push you around, say, "You don't do this and you don't do that." You do do It. God has give you the...
E-221 See, we don't have power. That policeman don't have power to stop one car. It's about... sometime they're three or four hundred horsepower motor, what could he do about it? But he's got authority.
E-222 And that's the Church. We have authority, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His promised Word, hallelujah, "The things that I do shall you do also; more than this will you do, for I go unto the Father." [John 14:12]
E-223 Don't be ashamed of Him in this generation; sinful, perplexed, the last generation that'll ever be on the earth, this sinful, adulterness, and full of all putrified sores. All, everything that's been decent has become indecent. National politics, filth! Nations are broke up.
E-224 Way back in the jungles of Africa, on safari hunters, they had to take high-powered radios to hear Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, and them guys with that rock-and-roll and twist. And the natives, trying to see them act along, jerking their head and acting like that, the natives stood and looked at him. But, you see, they're not Americans like Pat Boone, and Elvis Presley, and Ricky Nelson, and them guys are. They're not Judases of that type, but they're... See, it's a spirit. And the spirit is not only in America, it has spread itself out over the world, to bring them to the battle of Armageddon. They act like that, whether they are... Whatever nation they come from, Africa, India, wherever it is, that vulgar and stuff has spread all over the earth, by just one man starting it.
E-225 So has the Gospel and the Power of Almighty God, has spread around the world! And the separation time is now taking place, when God is a-calling a Bride, and the Devil is calling a church. Let me be part of the Bride!
Let us pray.
E-226 Dear God, we see the handwriting on the wall, Lord. We're at the end time. We know that there is great things laying ahead, but yet somewhere, somewhere out in this mess out here, is still honest people that's been ordained to Life. It would be impossible for one man or two man; but, God, all of us together, let us spread in every corner we can, the good news that Jesus is coming, and, see, just spread a little Bread along, a little Word. Wherever the Eagles are, they'll follow that Food. Whether It comes by a tape, or whether It comes by a word or a testimony, Eagles will follow It to Its headquarters. For It is written, "Where the Carcass is, there the Eagles will gather." Dear Jesus, we know that Thou art the Carcass that we eat. Thou art the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We pray, God, that as we scatter the Word, that the true Eagles will find It. [Matthew 24:28], [John 1:14]
E-227 Let us not be ashamed when we stand before people, wicked, indifferent people, religious, whatever it is. As Paul told Timothy:
... Let's be instant in season, out of season; reprove, and rebuke, and... with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they'll not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall... heap for themselves together teachers, having itching ears;
And will be turned... from the truth,... to fables. [II Timothy 4:2-4]
E-228 God, we're living in that day. You've let me live long enough to see that happen. As, that lays right here in the cornerstone of this tabernacle today, of thirty-three years ago.
E-229 God, bless each one in here. If there be one in here, Lord, that's not ready to meet You, that they cannot just agree with Your Word, and they haven't met You face to face and know that You're not just by an act of some sort of a--of a--of an acception, like you would a creed or something, but has met the living God; and if they haven't did this, Lord, may they do it right now.
E-230 I--I believe You are--You are real near at this hour. I don't know who they are. I don't know even if there is any here, but I just feel led to pray to You. Not that the people hear me, for that would be a hypocrite rite. God forbid. I don't want to be a hypocrite. But I pray it with the sincerity in my heart, Lord.
E-231 Whoever he or she is that You speak to this morning, may they humbly not be ashamed, but way down deep in their heart receive You now, coming this evening and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, following every Word, every Word; if they've been baptized different, or sprinkled, poured. Remember (we do, Lord) that You said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out of the Book, add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life." Though he tries, comes, puts his name on the book, it--it won't work. Let us be sincere and humble. [Revelation 22:19]
E-232 Now they're in Your hands, Lord. You do with them as You see fit, for they're Yours. In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
E-233 Now while we have our heads bowed, I want you to think real seriously now. I apologize, first, for being about fifteen minutes late. Now we want to hum. And you just think in your heart now, "Have I really met God?" Just think it real sincerely now. Cause, it won't be too many times maybe until... May be the last time now, that we'll meet before His Coming. It's close, friends. Every Scripture, looks like, is just about fulfilled. And it might be, for you or I, this might be our last chance. We may be gone before night.
I'll go with Him, with Him all the way.
I can hear, "Are you ashamed of Me and of My Word?"
I can hear my Saviour...
E-234 Now just imagine you are laying on your deathbed now. "Can hear..." Then it might be too late, but it isn't right now.
"Take thy cross, and," might have to sacrifice now, "follow Me."
Now, in your heart, answer this:
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him, with Him all...
E-235 Now with our heads bowed, let's just raise our hands and say:
I'll go with Him through the judgment,
Now, that's what's going on right now, He is judging us.
I'll go...
Lord, do You find me guilty? Then, forgive me.
... through His judgment,
What do You judge me to be this morning, Lord?
... with Him through the judg-...
Try me, Lord, see if there be any unclean thing in me.
... with Him, with Him all the way.
E-236 Father, we thank You this morning for all these hands. I didn't see one person but what they had their hands up. I thank You, Lord. I--I trust You didn't either, Lord. No one that didn't have their hands up, they are ready to go through the judgment. Judge us, Lord. And if there be any wrong in us, forgive us for it, Father. Give us of Your mercy, for we don't want to meet Your judgment when mercy is not present. So, mercy is present now, so we pray, God, that You will judge us and forgive us of our sins, according to Your Word and Your promise. And let us live for You all the days of our life, not being ashamed of the Gospel.
E-237 Now, Father, if it's Your will, we're starting three straight Sundays now, of meetings. Prepare our hearts for it, Lord. Prepare me, O God. I'm the one that is standing so deeply in need of You. I pray that You will guide me and direct me in the things that I should do and say, in these days to come.
E-238 Guide and direct our precious Brother Neville, that gallant servant of Yours, Lord; and also Brother Mann, and the deacons of the church, and the trustees, and every person that assembles here.
E-239 Prepare us, Lord, that we might be able, in a--a real Christian way, to bring sinners to You, and to bring church members to a knowing the God that we know, that we have met personally, let Him become their God, too. Now, Father, this we cannot do, we cannot send them in. But Thou, Holy Spirit, move upon the people, the members of churches.
E-240 And as the little experience I had with You the other morning, "Go get my Son a Bride. Take It from among the people, among the churches. Pull out that Bride." Let me, in prayer now, Lord. You send the Rebekah; I'll try to be the Eliezer. Help me to be a faithful servant. And may the God of Heaven send His Angel before me, before us, that we will collect the things together and select the Bride that He has chosen. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
E-241 Now, I'm sorry to have kept you a little late. It's twenty-five after. I should have been out here, twenty-five minutes ago. But, now, you like that old song, "Take The Name Of Jesus With You"? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Ain't that pretty? I've sang that now for some thirty-three years, as a dismissing song. Water baptism, "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." And I think this is so pretty, "Just take It everywhere you go!"
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope... (Now shake hands with somebody by you.)
Precious Name, precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
E-242 Now remember the service of tonight, seven-thirty, seven-thirty tonight. Now let's sing just one verse, see.
Take the Name of Jesus with you,
As a shield from every snare;
When temptations around you... (What do you do then?)
Just breathe that holy Name in prayer.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
E-243 Was there any come to be baptized after this service? If so, raise your hands. Somebody to be baptized? Two, all right, to be baptized immediately after this service. If the rest of you, any of you that wants to be baptized, we'll have baptismal services at every one of these services. The only thing you have to do is ask. We're ready to baptize you. That's our duty, to baptize you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's our duty to do it. And we'll be glad to do it, anytime. You that's to be baptized, just go to the rooms, immediately after the service, and we'll go right ahead with the water baptism. Anybody wants to follow them, you'd be sure that we're here... if you have repented of your sin and you've accepted Jesus as your Saviour.
E-244 You have been a Christian for years, and never seen the Light, and the Light of deliverance has come now. A woman, a Bride that must take the Name! Jesus said, "I came in My Father's Name, and you received Me not. But there will be one come in his own name, and you'll receive him," that's your denomination. [John 5:43]
E-245 Any son comes in his father's name. I come in my father's name. You man come in your father's name.
E-246 And what was His Name, what is the Name of the Father? Jesus! He, "came in My Father's Name, you received Me not." Now His Bride will have His Name, of course.
E-247 I took a woman, by the name of Broy, and she become a Branham.
E-248 He is coming for a Bride, be sure and remember that as you come to the pool.
Let us bow our heads now.
E-245 And Brother Vayle here is no stranger to us. He's a very precious brother, been with me in many meetings, him and his wife. And he is also now the writer of these sermons and things that goes into book form. Brother Vayle, would you dismiss us in prayer, while we bow our heads. [Brother Vayle prays--Ed.]
E-246 [Brother William Marrion Branham expressed his desire to take the Message to Africa in this statement on Thursday evening, May 27, 1965, outside of a house in Johannesburg, South Africa, as an interpreter translated it into Afrikaans. He spoke about this Africa trip in his next Message, Ashamed, July 11, 1965. Due to its brevity (3 minutes, 40 seconds), it is placed here at the end of "Ashamed."--Ed.]
This is one of the highest moments of my life. I have waited fifteen years for this time. My heart has longed to see you again, ever since I left you. I have prayed very much, to get to come back. And a few weeks ago, I was under great anticipation, believing that I would get to come and have a meeting. But when I got the visa, "restricted," I almost had a heart attack. I wanted to come so bad!
But I still believe that, through God, I will minister again, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, among the people of Africa. God has promised to give us the desire of our heart, and that's one of the desires of my heart.
I can remember the great meetings here in Johannesburg. I remember the boy with the short leg, coming long again, normal. And the lady, that the little girl was healed from a back condition, and her mother fainted and fell back in the--the cot.
[The interpreter speaks in English, "Brother Branham, that was my wife's cousin."--Ed.] Your wife... Oh!
There is so many great things! No doubt, there is many of those people, attended those meetings, are with the Lord now. I have gotten old, too, since then. It won't be too long till my time to go up, then we will be together forever, no visaes.
I feel like bringing the Message. But it is written in the Scripture, "Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
I'm expecting to meet you here in a few moments, shake your hand and have fellowship again together. I appreciate all these fine men.
I wish I had all my brethren, in Africa, here today, of all the denominations, that we could just get together and talk, all evening. And I would like to hear what the Lord has been doing over here for you. I would like to tell you what He's doing for us across the sea. Maybe He will permit that, some day. Until that day, I'll be praying for you, and you be praying for me. God bless you. [Matthew 22:21], [Mark 12:17], [Luke 20:25]
E-2 It reminds me of years ago. There used to be a colored brother down here, named Brother Smith, and Sister Cross. They were very good friends of mine. And when I'd walk in the building at night, the old fellow used... He had a white mustache. Don't know whether any of you remember him, or not. And he would be on the platform, you know. And all of them would be singing, "It's A Highway To Heaven." And Brother Smith, he just sit like this, you know. And I would walk in the back door.
E-3 There was a little girl, kind of real dark, she used to sit in the corner. She'd start clapping her hands, saying, "Lift Him up," that song, you know. They put their own melody to it, you know. And then over in the next corner, be somebody else, says, come in again, "Lift Him up." Well, that's what they'd sing when I come in the door. I just love that bunch of people.
E-4 And so old Brother Smith sit back there, a little bit, you know, and he was kind of a quiet sort of a fellow. He would say, "Come in, elder, rest your hat." Not "rest yourself"; "rest your hat," see. "Come in, elder, rest your hat." He would get up there, and, I could tell the way he started off, I was in for it, see.
E-5 He would say, "Well," he says, "children, you know," he said, "I--I was sitting here just wondering, 'Lord, what You going to give me to say?'" Said, "He--He--He kept shaking His head at me, 'I ain't going to give you nothing to say.'" Said, "I seen Elder Branham walk in back there, and I said, now, 'Lord, I just begin to remember... '" Well, I was right in for it!
E-6 Brother George Wright, how are you, brother? [Brother Wright says, "Oh, good. Sure."--Ed.] Bless you, Brother Wright! Certainly. ["Brother Elijah is back there."] Oh, is that right? Brother Elij' Perry, he said, is back here. Where you at, Brother Elij'? I haven't seen him in a long... Well, my, goodness! Now we ought to have a real meeting here! Elij' Perry, George Wright, and some of them old timers that used to be here when you almost had to hold the shutters on the place, with our hands, the wind blowing. Good seeing you! Mother, Sister Wright with you? Sister Wright in? She is back there, too. Yes, sir. Well, how fine! Sister Perry, I see them all now. Well, that's really fine. Good to be in. It's good to sit in these places. It's good to be together.
E-7 I had planned on, so hard, coming back; burdened in the heart. I just returned from Africa, as you all know. And when I got over there, I had a restricted visa, and wouldn't let me, wouldn't let me preach because it gathers too many together. They're expecting an uprise there at any time, and--and they--they wouldn't let me preach because of that gathering too many people together. The only way I could, would to have some organization that's represented by the government, in the government, to invite me over, then that would automatically let the government send out a militia for protection. See, they're just... There is just going to be an uprise, and that's all there is to it. It's just right in hand, see. That government man said, "The last time he was here, he had about a quarter of a million people together." And he said, "Then, you see, that would just be the very thing that communism is looking for, for an uprise." So, I couldn't preach.
E-8 Those people standing there, waving their hands, and crying, "Remember my mother! Remember, my brother died! My..." There, and in behind a bar, you know, bars of wire, and it just made you feel real bad. And I come back home.
E-9 And I thought, "Well..." My son, Joseph, back there, had let down a little bit in his reading. And he had... He passed all right, but he had to take it over; wasn't reading good enough. So I thought, "Well, we're going to have to stay home a little while." And I said, "If we stay home, it's going to ruin the kids' vacation." See we just postponed it, and taken him over to another part in August, and let... and come back here for a couple, three weeks.
E-10 I said, "I believe, while we're back there, I'll just take and hold a meeting. We'll get that school auditorium up here, and--and we'll have a meeting from the twenty-eighth on through to the first, a meeting at the school auditorium. I wanted to preach on the subject of the outpouring of them seven last Vials." And so we called ahead, and we had a little disappointment. They won't let us have these schools no more, too many people crowds in. We can't have it nowhere. And so then I decided, while I was back here then, instead of... [Revelation 16:1]
E-11 We can't put all the people, if we'd adver-... It's never been advertised, now. So if we put all the people, try to put them in the Tabernacle here, we couldn't do it. See, it just... five days in here would be awful.
E-12 So, sitting in there talking with Brother Neville and Brother Woods, and them, we have decided to do this. If we can't, instead, that would make us have five services; that would be twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first, and first. Well, I feel if we have, beginning next Sunday, we can have two services, Sunday morning and Sunday night, that's the eighteenth. And then on the--on the twenty-fifth, have Sunday morning and Sunday night. That's four services. Then on August the first, have a Sunday morning and Sunday night. That would give us six services, and then it won't make such a jam to get the people in. And I think that.
E-13 Don't you think that would be better than having everybody just crowded and mashed together, and everything? Then just that for them two services, we can put up with that, but everybody kind of pull together. For five nights, straight, it would make it hard.
E-14 And I want to get with the trustees and the elders here, while I'm here.
E-15 This is becoming everywhere. We're living in these last days, to where the Gospel does not have the--the premises as It should have. It don't have the rights that It should have. It's all sewed up in politics and things, and just like a union. And that's what it's finally coming to, because the mark of the beast has to come by union, we know. So we--we... Cause, it's a boycott, "no man can buy or sell, save him that have the mark of the beast." [Revelation 13:17]
E-16 And now I want to find out, through the elders. I feel led. I've never had such a hunger in my heart for God, in all my life, than I have now, see. For... And I--I want to get my own tent and my--my stuff, like the Lord gave me a vision to, and I believe the time is just now at hand. And I want to see while I'm here, why we can't get the tent.
E-17 And--and then when we go, like come here to Jeffersonville, instead of having just a day or two, or three or four days, we can go out here and put up this tent, and have two or three weeks, you see, and nobody can say nothing about it. We can either take a ball park, or, if they won't let us have that, there is farmer out here will let us have a farm. We'll rent the farm and--and put it up. The only thing we'd just have to do there, would be make our--our outbuildings, and so forth, and for our conveniences. And that could be easily done. And then we'll start having our services like that because that's according to a vision from the Lord, and it's to be done that way. [Habakkuk 2:3]
E-18 And coming in, yesterday, and finding, you know, this, that. And was going up the street, and a good friend of mine going along there, said, "Hello, Billy." I looked at him, and snow-white hair, that much tummy. And the boy is my age. We run around together, handsome young fellow, when I was a kid. It kind of made me feel funny.
My little son, Joseph, said, "Why you sad, Daddy?"
E-19 "Oh," I said, "I can't explain it to you, Joseph. See, I can't, can't tell you."
E-20 And I look at Elij' Perry sitting back there, and Mrs. Perry; seem like yesterday they were a little black-headed couple out there, living next door to me, when we had the old boat, Wahoo, and down on the river and fished at night. See them both white-headed, you know, it says one thing, it's a little buzzer that comes on, "You ain't got much more time." See?
E-21 So, I want every day of my life to count for Him. What I have left, what time I have, I want to spend it somewhere doing something, if it's no more than stand on a street corner, testifying to the glory and honor of God. And I--I'm here for that purpose.
E-22 And I've got a little secret place up here at Green's Mill, Indiana. It's not a city, now, it's--it's a wilderness. And some people has taken it over, and they don't even let you set a foot on it. But I got a cave there that he would never find me when I got into it. I go at nighttime, and he'll never know when I go in or come out. And he don't know where the cave is, and couldn't get to it no matter where it was. And I want to go over and talk to the Lord, a while, I feel that it's a necessity.
E-23 The wife, she wants to come, want to come back and visit around, and Rebekah and Sarah, and them, with their friends. And we're back here now for the next three weeks, and if the Lord willing.
E-24 And I think, instead of trying to jam the people all together, for them meetings here in the Tabernacle... Course, this belongs to us, belongs to the Lord, give it to us. And it's air-conditioned. Like to have a Sunday morning service, a Sunday night service. That would let people go back to their place, then wait over until the next coming week.
E-25 I don't think I could take and--and officially do justice to the pouring out of those last Vials, 'cause they're very, very great Message in that. But I could pray for the sick, and do things that... I have Messages, too, as the Lord will give them to me, for the church. Through the week, I'll get out here in the wilderness somewhere and study, come back on Sunday morning, have Sunday morning service like this, and a Sunday night service. Our most gracious little pastor, Brother Neville, I asked him if that would be satisfaction to him. That's taking all of his services away from him, but he was more than glad to surrender it to--to over to that. I just...
E-26 Brother Capps, he, I guess, got the roaming fever, too, and I see he has left, and--and Brother Humes. And the Lord had a Brother Mann here just to take right over, and the place. You know, isn't that wonderful how God will do things? He always has everything timed just right. I come up and I heard somebody preaching. I said, "That don't... I believe..." [Ecclesiastes 3:1]
E-27 Brother Capps, he come to Tucson, and I think it bluffed him right quick, it was about a hundred and ten degrees. He didn't want nothing to do with that, so away he went, him and Brother Humes, and went up to Phoenix. Course, it's a hundred and fifteen to sixteen, eighteen up there. That was still worse, so I think he took off to Texas after that; he, trying to find a place.
E-28 But you don't want no Arizona this time of year, I tell you. It was a hundred and forty, the other day, last Friday, a hundred and forty degrees, at Parker. And that's where Brother Craig, from the church here, lives. And you can break an egg, and it'll fry before it hits the ground. [Brother Branham laughs--Ed.] You, you spit and--and the moisture is gone, it just... There is no humidity nor nothing, it's really a bake oven this time of year. But from about November, December and January, wonderful. But when it comes about March and April, you better get away if you don't want to suffocate.
E-29 And so Brother Capps and them happened to come just at that time, which I think run them out. So maybe the Lord did that for a purpose. I'm believing this, that God orders the footsteps of the righteous. Sometimes it seems hard. [Psalms 37:23]
E-30 Like the other day on this trip to Africa, I was so sure that I was moving in the will of God. Because, a year ago, I was down in the South, holding a series of meetings, and, they--they, I thought...
E-31 Coming from that organization, said, "You can come on, through the Christian Business Men, but we'll have nothing to do with it."
E-32 Well, I don't want to throw them man right in on it, you know, make conflict. I--I want to make them feel good at one another. So I just said, "Well..." Wrote them a letter, I said, "Remember, I have tried to get into Africa for years, again, feeling that my ministry isn't finished in Africa. I have no..."
E-33 Why would I have to go to Africa, when I got six, seven hundred cities right here in the United States, calling, see, just right here, without leaving Canada, Mexico, or any of those places? Why should I want to go there? But it's something in my heart, that pulls me to Africa. There, those people, there--there is something about them, that I love, and I want to go just for the colored people only. And there is something in a lot of them, them leaders, they don't feel I should do that. I--I want to go to my colored friends. That's where the Lord called me. And now they're needy. Many of those people, those white people, can have doctors and everything. But them poor natives live out there, and half rot. I--I--I feel they're the ones that looks like they would receive It. They're the ones. There is something about it.
E-34 When you get to a spot, you're so smart that you know everything, then God can't do nothing with you. But if you get to a place that you're willing to listen and learn, then--then it's God's time, can move in and talk to you.
E-35 And so I wrote them a letter back, and told them. And I said, "Remember, at the Day of the Judgment, let them boney hands reach out of the smoke, condemn you! Their blood be upon you, not on me, 'cause I've tried for about ten years to get back."
E-36 Then when I mailed the letter, come back, Something said to me, "See Sidney Jackson, take a hunting trip." And, the same time, the Lord spoke to Sidney Jackson, said, "Yellow-mane lion, Brother Branham camping; Durban, big meeting."
E-37 Well, he was over here, and he spoke with you here. By the way, we baptized... He was firmly against this baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. And his wife was worse than he was, she would just walk away. You could... I'm telling you, I never seen any more devout people. They've got about a hundred and fifty ministers over there, baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and they're just burning the country up. The Message is just sweeping Africa, everywhere, aviators and great man coming, being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. [Acts 2:38]
E-38 And so I, when I started to go over, I'm telling you, I never had so much trouble in all my life, of trying to get there. And then at the very last minute, very last minute to go, here was wrote across my visa, "Cannot anticipate in any kind of religious service; can only come hunting." Well, then, it was rank.
E-39 But I said, "I don't care what the Devil does, I--I can't... I can't voucher for what Brother Jackson said about yellow-mane lion, and this, that, or the other. I--I can't vouch it. But I do know God told me to 'see Sidney Jackson, and go hunting.'"And I said, "I'm going." And sometime... And I had one of the greatest trips.
E-40 I found out what the trouble was. Now I think, about October, the Lord willing, I can go back and have a meeting and everything, full cooperation, everything else, see, in Africa now. I got to the bottom of it and found out where it was at, what caused it. Up here, writing, this one has got this to say, and something's got something to say, and this one there. The best thing to do, is go find out, yourself. And I know where the trouble was, and what the reason of it was; it was because of so many people gathering together, the government wouldn't let me have it.
E-41 Now if the Christian Business Men or any organization, which will bring us in, then the government automatically... because it's the organization is represented with the government, the government sends militia protection. If there would be twenty-five man out of one denomination, twenty-five out of another, still they won't receive that. It's got to be the--the head of this organization. And Christian Business Men is a nonsectarian organization representing all the churches. Doctor Simon, their head over there, a very fine man, I got to meet him and talk with him. And they are taking the meetings, and all the rest of the churches is coming in together. See? And I believe we'll have one of the greatest meetings that's been had in--in Africa.
E-42 But my point was this, when you know that you--you're trying to do what's right. The first thing is, if you feel led to do anything, then check it with the Word and see if it's right with the Word, and then let nothing stop you. I don't care how many wheels the Devil throws in our way, just move right over the top of them. [I Thessalonians 2:18]
E-43 I told my wife and I told Brother Wood, when I got here, and some friends that I met yesterday. I have had about five years here that I hardly knowed what to do. It's been a--a nervous... See, the revival itself, amongst the churches, had died. Everyone knows that. You feel it in this Tabernacle. You feel it everywhere. There is a thump, dead feeling. There is just something isn't right. It's because the revival enthusiasm has gone away from the people. Go into the churches, you'll see them sitting there. And the pastor is stumbling around for a message and something another. And the first thing you know, he turned it off on some kind of a party they're going to have, or something. It seems to be a dead thump everywhere.
E-44 Billy Graham notices it; Oral Roberts. Mr. Allen had some trouble, as you know. Oral Roberts has got that fifty-million-dollar buildings, and so forth, in there. He's got a school. And, well, nobody on the field now.
E-45 I left here, by a vision, to go yonder to Tucson, to see what the Lord wanted me to do. There He met me up there, as He told you here that He would do it, and the form of seven Angels, and said to return back and the Seven Seals was to be opened. That's just exactly what happened.
E-46 He said, one day with Brother Woods when he come out there, we went to the same place, and throw up a rock, it come down, He said, "Within a day and night, you're..." Some, I forget just what the words was. "You're going to see the glory of God."
E-47 And the next day, a whirlwind came down out of the skies, and we know the story of what taken place. When it went up, they asked what it was. I said, "It spoke three words, in three great blasts." The men only heard the blasting. I understood what It said. And said, "'Judgment striking West Coast!'" Two days after that, Alaska like to have sunk. It's been thundering around, earthquakes, everything. Just look at them, every day, earthquakes just shaking everywhere. [Job 38:1], [Nahum 1:3]
E-48 My last meeting, last meeting I had. This will be my first Message, really, to preach since then. I was preaching in Los Angeles, at the Biltmore Auditorium, and I was speaking on a man choosing himself a wife. You probably got the tape of it. It's, I said, "It reflects his character and his ambitions." That, when a man takes a woman, he takes a young girl, and to be his wife; he takes, you know, a modern girl that's a common Ricketta, it--it just shows what he's... If he marries a beauty queen or a sex queen, whatever it is, it shows his, what's really in the man. But a Christian, he looks for character in a woman, because he is planning a future home with that woman. He plan, he gets a homemaker. And I said, "Then, Christ, according to His Word here, tells us what our future Home will be. What kind of a wife will He choose then, a denominational prostitute? Never! He'll choose a woman that's characterized by His Word, and that will be the Bride."
E-49 And while in there, Something struck me, and I didn't know nothing for about thirty minutes. There was a prophecy went out. First thing I remember, Brother Mosley and Billy, I was out on the street, walking. And It said, "Thou Capernaum, which calls yourself by the name of the Angels," that's Los Angeles, city of angels, see, the angels, "which are exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For, if the mighty works had been done in Sodom, that's been done in you, it would have been standing till this day." And that was all unconsciously, to me. See? [Matthew 11:23], [Luke 10:15]
E-50 And how I just got through exhorting, Christ, exalting Him and telling the church. I said, "You women, no matter how I try to come to you, or preach against these things; and you man, you preachers; you constantly conned all the time, do it just the same. You walk over It as if the Word of God wasn't nothing." [Matthew 11:23]
E-51 And when I understood that, I went, I said, "There is a Scripture about that somewhere." And I went and found it was Jesus, rebuking Capernaum by the seacoast. That night I looked up the Scriptures. Come home, got the history book; and Sodom and Gomorrah was once a--a thriving city, a Gentile headquarters of the world. And you know, that city, by an earthquake, sank into the Dead Sea. And Jesus stood, and said, "Capernaum, if Sodom would have had the works done in it that you've had done in you, it would have been standing today. But now you must be brought down to hell!" And about two hundred or three hundred years after His prophecy, with all them coastal towns, every one of them still standing but Capernaum, and it lays in the bottom of the sea. An earthquake sunk it into the sea. [Matthew 11:23-24]
E-52 And then prophesying, "Los Angeles will be in the bottom of the sea." And I come home, and went to Africa. And while I was in Africa, they had an earthquake. And scientists... You seen it, it was on a broadcast, that some big, fine homes tumbled in, in Los Angeles, and a motel, and so forth. And now there is a...
E-53 Since that earthquake, there is a two- or three-inch crack that come in the earth, starting in Alaska, goes around through the Aleutian Islands, comes out about a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles in the sea, comes back up at San Diego; takes in California, or Los Angeles, and comes out again just below the northern part of California there, a little place called San Jose, just below there.
E-54 And this scientist was speaking, being on an interview. We was watching on television. And he said, "Beneath that is just a churning lava." And he said this, he said, "That is a chunk will break loose," and said, "and it will." And this inter-...
E-55 The man, scientist interviewing this chief scientist, said to him, said, "Well, that could then all sink?"
He said, "Could? It's got to!"
E-56 Said, "Well, course, will probably be many, many years from now."
E-57 He said, "It can be in five minutes from now, or it can be in five years from now." He just lotted five years.
E-58 But just as I sure was standing there under that Inspiration, put judgment on that West Coast, and then followed it right up here with the sinking of Los Angeles, she is gone! That's right. It will happen. When? I don't know.
E-59 But, oh, what happened? You know, we only got six continents now. We had seven, that one that sunk between Africa and the United States. Oh, it's historical, you know about it. Now, if that goes down, then I want you to watch when...
E-60 This was a sermon that I preached on when, I believe, Brother Elij' Perry might have been deacon here in the church at the time, for all I know. But it said, "The time will come..." I didn't know it until Mrs. Simpson brought me the--the sermon the other day. And I got it wrote in a little book, that the desert that..." The ocean shall weep its way into the desert." That was thirty years ago.
E-61 And, of course, the Salton Sea is about two hundred feet below sea level, and if that big churning, that earth swallowing in like that, with hundreds of square miles, hundreds and hundreds of square miles sinking into the earth, that will throw a tidal wave plum to Arizona. Sure, it would.
E-62 Oh, we're at the end time, glorious hour, the appearing of the Lord Jesus! He said, "There shall be earthquakes in divers places, perplexed of time, distress between nations, men's hearts failing in fear." Said, "When these things begin to happen, raise up your head, your redemption is drawing nigh." Oh, my! [Matthew 24:7], [Mark 13:8], [Luke 21:11]
Nations are breaking, Israel's awaking,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with harrows encumbered;
Return, O dispersed, to your own. (Be sure to do that!)
That day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with God's Spirit, have your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your redemption is near! (That's right.)
False prophets are lying, God's Truth they're denying,
That Jesus the Christ is our God.
E-63 You see the picture the other day, how He turned that picture sideways there? And the very picture of those seven Angels being lifted up, turn it to the right-hand side, and there is the face of the Lord Jesus looking down to the earth again.
E-64 You remember when I preached The Seven Church Ages, I couldn't understand why Jesus standing there with a "white" over His head. He was a young Man. I took it back in the Bible, it said, "He came to the Ancient of Days, Whose hair was white as wool." Jesus was only thirty-three and a half years old, at His crucifixion. [Revelation 1:14]
E-65 I called up Brother Jack Moore, a theologian. He said, "Oh, Brother Branham, that's Jesus in His glorified stage." Said, "After His death, burial, and resurrection, He turned to that." That sounded all right for a theologian, but it didn't go good, it didn't hit the something.
E-66 I went up there and started on that first church age, there the Holy Spirit revealed it. Now you got it right on your Church Ages. I guess the books will be out pretty soon now, the full detail of it. And it showed that Jesus was Judge. There is a white wig that they used to wear, put a wig on and wear it as a judge, England still does it when you got supreme authority. And that turning sideways in this picture, there He is, His black hair, you can see it in the side of His beard, and the white wig on. He is the last of the authority, He is Supreme Authority. Even God said so, Himself, "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him." [Matthew 17:5]
E-67 There He is with them Angels, the Message, which was the seven breaking of them seven seals that revealed serpent seed and all these things here. And it shows that it is His very covering, it's--it's His Supreme Authority. He is Supreme, and He is wigged, or--or covered. The Bible said that He changed His countenance, or He changed Himself, en morphe. The word comes from the Greek word, en morphe, which means a Greek actor that plays many parts; today he is one thing, in the next act he is something else. He was God, the Father, in one act; God, the Son, in another act; and then God, the Holy Ghost, in this act. See? There He is, His Word is still Supreme. We're living in the last days. [Revelation 1:14]
E-68 Coming back from Africa the other day, I kind of tired. You see, it's just it's nighttime there now, and you have to turn around. And then time I got turned around, come back again. We had a wonderful trip, hunting trip, one of the best I ever had in my life. Then Billy's got some pictures, maybe he'd have a time he can show it somewhere, and show you the trip.
E-69 I had a dream. I'm always dreaming of being back at that Public Service Company, somehow. So I--I thought I was kind of ratting on the job, I was supposed... They just let me have my own way, and I thought I would... Instead of going out and walking the line or collecting the bills, or something I was supposed to do, I just said, "Well, I'm my own boss," I just went swimming. And I got down there and took off my... these clothes, and put on my swimming clothes. I was by myself. And I thought, "Say, this ain't right, the company... This is daytime, the company is paying me for this time." Thought, "That's strange." And then I thought, "Well, the money I collected on the route..." I had both the patrol and the route mixed together, and I said, "Well, the money I collected, I've done something, romping around here; I've lost all my tickets, and I got their money and my money mixed together. Now how will I know who paid the bill?" I thought, "Just because I wasn't paying any attention!" I thought, "That's not right. There is only one thing for me to do, that's, go back to my superintendent and tell him." That was Don Willis, I said, "Don, I lost those tickets. Now here is all the money I got, and here is their money, together. Leave it here at the cashier. And the people, when they come in, they'll have a receipt that I received their bill."
E-70 Probably people sitting right here that I--I... I know there is. That I collected from them in--in the days, and I'd... and I'd give a receipt. You know, it was only ten percent if you let your bill run over. And maybe, a dollar and a half, be fifteen cents over. A lot of them people lived... We just liked.to get together and talk, and they'd just let their bill go, and me come talk to them a while. Give fifteen cents, you know, just to sit down and talk a little while, and to collect their bill. So it got it rank, and just got so many bills I couldn't collect them.
E-71 Well, I thought that's the only way I could do it. And I woke up.
E-72 The place where we live, Sister Larson. I don't think she is here. She's been very nice to us; and she don't like for me to say that. But she is a very fine lady, and we've been living in her rooms. She's got two apartments, small apartments together, we rented them both. And wife and I sleep over here in--in the other apartment where I kind of receive the people when I can, and there is a couple of little twin beds in there.
E-73 I woke up. She wasn't awake yet. And after a while, she woke up. And I waved over at her, and she looked back and batted her eyes a few times. I said, "You sleep good?"
She said, "No."
E-74 And I said, "I had the awfulest dream. I was back at that Public Service Company again." I said, "What have I done?"
E-75 I remember, as a little boy, or a young man, I walked all those lines at Salem, Indiana, different... I'd go in, buy a--a breakfast, maybe a bowl of oats. In that hot sun and everything, and it'd just make me sick, to eat breakfast. I'd turn in ten cents, on my petty cash. The superintendent come down and said, said, "You know what they said in the--in the meeting? 'Who is that knothead that would turn in ten cents, for breakfast?' Said, "You ought to at least turn in fifty cents." Now, all of you know, fifty cents was a big breakfast in them days.
And I said, "Well, I don't eat that much."
He said, "Well, the rest of them turns in fifty cents. You ought to turn in fifty cents."
I said, "Well, I don't use it."
Said, "Turn it in, anyhow." That was my superintendent.
E-76 Well, I thought, "Well, what can I do? I have to charge fifty cents, and I eat ten cents." So I'd go out on the street and get some little kids that didn't have no breakfast, and get them forty-cents worth of breakfast.
So then I thought, "Well, what could... Maybe that's what He holds against me."
E-77 And I remember, here not long ago, they come through on the patrol, tore up that back yard back there, and said, "Turn in your bill." You know they got patrol rights, but they have to pay for damage.
E-78 I just wrote back and said, "You don't owe nothing." I thought, "That'd pay for them forty-centses. Maybe I've spent twenty or thirty dollars during that time, giving it to kids. Maybe that will do it." Kept on dreaming.
E-79 Then I had a big tree out there, the kids played under it, and the patrol... Now they patrol in a helicopter. And so he come in and said, "Billy, how about cutting that tree?"
E-80 I said, "No, don't cut it. We're going to trim it." I said, "Brother Wood and I are going to trim it."
Said, "Well, I'll just have the man come by and trim it."
I said, "Now, don't cut it."
He said, "I won't cut it."
E-81 I went off on a trip. When I come back, she was cut plumb on the ground. Then I had a lawsuit coming, you see. I said, "Well, Lord, this will clear it up, what I owed." So I struck that off, that was all right, just let it go. Well, I still dreamed it.
E-82 When I got up the other morning, I said, "Well..." The first thing we do of a morning when we get up, is pray together, then pray when we go to bed at night. And then after she went on over to get the kiddies' breakfast, I started to pray. I said, "Lord, I must have been an awful guy. What have I done in life, that I--I can't get away from that Public Service Company.
E-83 I went in and took a bath, and come back out. And something just seemed to say to me, "Maybe I'm ratting on His job." I thought, "Here is about five years I ain't done nothing, just waiting on Him."
E-84 Standing up there the other day. They built us a new home up there, and Brother Mosley come down, was talking about it. I said, "That's just a little gift from my Father." And he started crying. I said, "You see, He said, 'If you will leave your homes, houses, lands, fathers, mothers, I'll give you houses, lands, fathers, mothers, and a hundredfold in this life, and Eternal Life to come.'" I said, "See, I had to leave the Tabernacle that I love so dearly. My home that the Lord give me up there, had to leave it. He just give me this one back." I said, "He is wonderful, you see." [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] And he started crying. [Mark 10:28-30], [Matthew 19:27-30]
E-85 Well, I--I said, "I had to come out here and separate myself, come to this desert." And I thought, "Wonder why God would bring me to a desert, out here where there is nothing but scorpions and Gila monsters?"
E-86 It's not only a desert, is it hot, but it's spiritually a desert. Oh, my! There is no spiritual life at all, in the churches, they're against... Why, you never seen such in your life! We don't even have a church to go to, or nothing. And then when... The people almost perish, spiritually. I notice it in the people that come out there, see the differences in them, watching it.
E-87 And so you stay under the Spirit of God, and your life becomes sweet, tender, like water brings this grass and soft buds. If... this grass, in Arizona, wouldn't grow; these trees would be cactus, them leaves just wind up and make stickery. That's the way it is when you get dry around the church, everybody is sticking one another, you know. And, see, you got to have soft waters of rain soften you up, and make leaves and shade for the pilgrim that passes by. [Galatians 5:22-25]
E-88 And so something said to me, "Maybe you're ratting on God's job." So, I prayed for a vision.
E-89 And Meda just got me a new Bible; and Brother--Brother Brown, from up in Ohio, got me a new Bible; both of them at the same time, at Christmas. I went and got one of the new Bibles. I said, "Lord, in the days gone by, You had a Urim and Thummim."
E-90 Now listen, let me say this. Course, they're not... this, is not taping this meeting, the reason I'm ask... saying this. Let me say, don't do this. It's not a good thing.
E-91 But I said, "Lord, it used to be, when a dreamer dreamed a dream, that they took it down to the Urim and Thummim, and told it. And if the--if the Urim and Thummim flashed the lights back, a supernatural Light, the dream was true." I said, "But that priesthood and that Urim and Thummim is done away with. Your Bible is the Urim and Thummim now; Lord, may I never do this again. But I've asked You and prayed to You, to give me a vision, speak to me about why am I dreaming these dreams. And what have I done? If I've harmed, if I've done anything to any person in the world, let me know. I'lE--I'lE--I'll go make it right. If I owe the Public Service Company, if I done something wrong to them or any other person, if I done something wrong to You, let me know. I--I want to make it right."
E-92 Let's make it right, now. Don't wait till after a while, it may be too late. Let's do it now.
E-93 And I said, "Surely, there is something in this Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, that some character in there that You dealt with, would be on the same basis that would be my question. If somebody done something, and--and You got after him about it, then let me turn to that place in the Bible. And if somebody, whatever they done, it'll lean my way. Where I've done wrong, or something You want me to do, or haven't done, let me see some character in the Bible like that."
E-94 And I closed my eyes, just let the Bible fall open, put my finger on a Scripture, Genesis 24:7. Eliezer, Abraham's faithful servant, the model servant of the Bible, being sent to hunt the bride for Isaac. Chills run over me. Sure, that's my... that's right with the rest of my Message, pulling out the Bride. [Genesis 24:3-7]
E-95 He said, "Sware that you'll not take a bride out of these, but go to my own people."
He said, "What if the woman won't come with me?" [Genesis 24:8]
E-96 Said, "Then you're free of this oath." He said, "And the God of Heaven will send His Angel before you, to direct you." He went right straight out and begin praying, and he met the beautiful Rebekah that become the bride of Isaac. [Genesis 24:12-14]
E-97 Just a perfect Message, back to the Word, "Go get that Bride!" That's a duty. That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm trying to do, is call out a Bride.
E-98 Remember in California there, that interview of the Bride, preview, I had it here. How that Bride come up first, and seen Her go by. Then here come Miss America, Miss Asia, and all, oh, the awfulest looking thing! And then the same Bride passed by again. One of them got out of step, and I was getting Her back in step; two of them, it was. And that's what I was supposed to do, keep that Bride in step, hunt that man.
E-99 I said, "God, I'm going back home, renew my vows again, and start out anew." So that's what we're planning on doing, that's what I'm here for.
E-100 I think it would be a good thing if we did this, started on the eighteenth, next week, next Sunday morning, next Sunday night; the following Sunday, and the following Sunday. How many thinks that would be a good thing? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Thank you.
E-101 Now I want you to do something for me. If you have notified any people that there--there is going to be a meeting on the twenty-eighth, will you renotify them again, that we couldn't do it. Tell, write them a letter, or something another. We don't want the people come and be disappointed, but we could not get the auditorium.
E-102 See, we couldn't get it. And so because the last meeting I think we had so many up there, and everything, they just... You know how the public is, and they... Well, we're just living in the last days, that's all. And they claim that the people come in and disturb the school, and they were there too early, and they did this, or that, or something another, and the place was too jammed up, and the fire marshall does this and that. And, well, you know.
E-103 So we will set up those Vials and those Trumpets, I want to place them in. I told you I would. They come under another thing. So does the Vials come over, the sounding of trumpets; but we want to take the entire course right straight through, and bring it, tie it in together.
E-104 How many has read any of Brother Vayle, on rewriting that, and fixing it up and grammarizing it for me? Have you read any of it? You have, two or three of you. I think you done a real job, Brother Vayle, a real job! You, I think Sister Vayle did it; and you just wrote it down and she done it. She was a... See, I'm not always against the women, am I, Sister Vayle?
E-105 So now let us, for the next fifteen, twenty minutes, read a Scripture here.
E-106 And I got a little book here. I told, I believe, it was to Brother Vayle, or, who was it, or I believe it was Roy Borders. Brother Vayle bought me the book. I want to make a little textbook.
E-107 But if anybody ever looked at what I call notes! Like I want to preach about the Morning Star, I'll draw a star. And if I want to preach something about... I make it all in symbols here, scratches, nobody can ever know what it was. While I'm out, and I think of anything, I got to, on riding on the road, sometimes the car is jumping up-and-down, and I'll jot this down, and say this and that, and make little signs, and cross and bridges, and--and all kinds of things. Like I want to preach on the descending of the Star; and I'll put the pyramid, draw it out here and put the five-point star of David coming down on it. And I know where I'm going in the Scriptures like that; and Moses, a certain thing he done. Just make little turkey tracks, like.
E-108 I got several of them in here. And I thought, this morning, back there when I thought I'd speak on this subject for a few minutes here, on a note, maybe it'd take me twenty minutes.
E-109 And then I ain't going to take Brother Neville's service tonight. I--I--I'm going to rest tonight, listen to him.
E-110 And then, the Lord willing, next Sunday morning we'll start the service. And you all help me, and we'll pray, because it was in my heart to try... They said, "Well, we could go to Louisville or we could go down in New Albany." But the meeting was supposed to be for Jeffersonville. I'll go to Louisville and New Albany, at different times, but this is supposed to be here at Jeffersonville.
E-111 Now let's bow our heads just a minute while we been... I been talking to you here for about thirty minutes. Let's speak to Him a moment.
E-112 Lord Jesus, we are--we are certainly a blessed people, above our thinking, above our understanding. For, if there was a noble among us, such as some personnel from some other country, or a diplomat of some sort, we would think it was great to have such a noble person among us. But today we have the God of Heaven, not only among us, but in us, dwelling, living His Life through us. And we're so thankful for this, Lord! It's beyond our understanding, of course.
E-113 But now speaking on what the services, and going to Africa, and the things that we've tried to arrange for these few days here in Indiana. And somehow or another, Lord, it may be You are driving us to that tent, to make that vision fulfill. So Thy will be done, we've committed it this way, the best of our understanding. So we pray, Lord, if there is any thing contrary to Your will, You'll make it known to us, that we might know to do Your perfect will.
E-114 Now bless us in these next few minutes. Speak to us through Thy Word, Lord, for Thy Word is Truth. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Let's turn in the Bible, to Mark, the 8th chapter.
E-115 When do you usually let out, twelve o'clock? [Someone says, "About twelve o'clock."--Ed.] All right. Now, now just a little short Message here that I can speak to you about the Word, after testifying about over there, and so forth.
E-116 Mark, the 8th chapter, and let's begin about the 34th verse, to the thirty-... taking the 38th, the rest of that chapter. I like to read what He said, 'cause I know that's true. Now we...
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;... whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation;
of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. [Mark 8:34-38]
E-117 I want to take a little text from there, if it'd be called that, called: Ashamed. You know, I like that. "Whosoever is ashamed of Me and of My Words, I'll be ashamed of him."
E-118 Now, the word ashamed could be also translated "embarrassed." You know, something that you're... You are faced with something that you're embarrassed about, being ashamed. [Mark 8:38]
E-119 That, another thing being ashamed does, it shows that you are not sure of what you're talking about. If you know what you're talking about, and have the assurance that you know what you're talking about, you can tell anybody that; you're not ashamed. But if you feel put out, out of place, it shows you're not sure.
E-120 You notice there is so much of that today, especially on the subject that I'm speaking of, "ashamed of the Word." Now, He and the Word are the same.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,... The same yesterday, today, and forever! [John 1:1], [John 1:14], [Hebrews 13:8]
E-121 So, "Whosoever is ashamed of Me and My Word," and He and His Word are One, so being ashamed of His Word in this sinful, present generation, "I'll be ashamed of him." [Mark 8:38]
E-122 Now we notice today, if somebody says, "Are--are you a Christian?" It's very much a popular thing, say, "Oh, I'm a Christian!" See?
E-123 "But do you believe the Word of God, where It said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe'?" [Mark 16:17]
E-124 "Oh!" Even ministers' faces will blush. See?
E-125 Are you ashamed of, say, of Divine healing? Are you ashamed of the full Gospel? Are you ashamed of your pentecostal experience? That's being ashamed of His Word. That's His Word made flesh in you.
E-126 So, His Word has to live Itself out for every generation. It lived Itself in the days of Moses. Because, in that day, the Bible said, in Hebrews, 1st chapter, "God, in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers by the prophets." [Hebrews 1:1]
E-127 And those prophets! The church got all so twisted up that when... Those prophets, those daring messengers of God, come without church, without denomination, without organization, without anything; defied kings, kingdoms, churches, and everything. When the priests was brought before... They was brought before the priests, they wasn't ashamed, because they had directly THUS SAITH THE LORD. [Hebrews 11:32-40]
E-128 If you notice, the prophet, in one sense of the word, in the Old Testament, when he said THUS SAITH THE LORD, now watch him, he goes right into the phrase of taking the place of God. You notice, when he placed out before him, THUS SAITH THE LORD, he fell right into God, and he acted as God. Then he gave his Message, which was God speaking through him, "THUS SAITH THE LORD!" [Deuteronomy 18:18]
E-129 I think of the prophets of old, when they come with that Message, and It embarrassed the kings, and It made the people feel uncomfortable. The priests, even, they would feel uncomfortable, because they were supposed to be leaders, religious man, and when they... the Word came forth in that manner, It exposed them, and they felt embarrassed, or ashamed.
E-130 And many times we see that, not many, too often today! That man, you say, "I am a Christian!"
"Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
"Oh! Huh!" You see, they're--they're embarrassed about It. [Acts 19:2]
E-131 Somebody say, "Do you belong to that group up there that does all that there shouting, and all that Divine healing stuff?" Many times, Christians back up.
E-132 They want to announce, if--if they got a denomination, now, "I'm Baptist. I'm Presbyterian. I'm Lutheran." They're not ashamed of that.
E-133 But when it comes to being a Christian that can take God's Word just the way It is, then they're--they're--they're ashamed. "I don't belong to any denomination," see, they, they're--they're ashamed to say that. They've got to be like the rest of the world, represented by some organization.
E-134 Now, that's just recently come into that. In the days of Luther, to recognize yourself as a Lutheran or a follower of Luther, well, it almost meant death by the Catholic church. In the days of Wesley, to know that you had defied the Anglican church, it was almost a penalty of death by the Anglicans, to announce that you were a Methodist. In the days of Pentecost, it was a shame, almost, to say that you was--that you was a pentecostal, because you was quickly counted a holy-roller, or--or some tongue-speaker, or something like that. Now they organized and went right in with the rest of the group.
E-135 Now when the calling-out time comes, that you don't belong to any of it! It's very popular to say, "I'm Pentecost." It's very popular to say, "I'm Presbyterian. Lutheran." But what when it comes to the time that you'll have to come out and stand for the Word, "I don't belong to any of it"? That, that embarrassed.
E-136 Jesus said, "Now, if you are ashamed of Me, then I'll be ashamed of you." Why would He be ashamed of you? Because you are claiming to be His, when you won't follow Him. [Mark 8:38]
E-137 What if I said, "This little boy, he's--he's my son"; he turn around and say, "Who, me be your son? What do you think I am!" It would embarrass me. It would, to your son.
E-138 And that's the way that's so-called Christianity today. If you name it a name of a denomination, all right, they accept the fatherhood of a denomination. But when it comes to accepting the fatherhood of the Word of God, Christ, no, they're embarrassed. They don't want to say, "Yes, I have spoke with tongues. Yes, I have seen visions. Yes, I believe in Divine healing. Yes, I praise the Lord. I'm free from all organization, I'm not bowing down to any of that. I'm a servant of Christ." Oh, my, that'd just tear them to pieces.
E-139 The other night, a great speaker come in amongst the Full Gospel Business Men in Chicago.
E-140 And may I stop here just a minute, to say this. You excuse me. But many times you think, and I do too, that what we're talking about, the Truth of the Bible, don't go over amongst the people. But, It does. Sometime they'll rear right up against It, but they really don't mean it. They're trying to find where you're standing.
E-141 As the story was about a bunch of drunks, arguing that there was no such thing as Christianity. One man said, "I know where there is one at, that's my wife."
Said, "Well, I--I don't believe it."
Said, "Come on, we'll... let's all act like we're really drunk."
E-142 Went up there at the house, and done everything they could. And--and told them cook them some eggs, and then he throwed them out on the floor, and said, "You know better than to cook my eggs like that!" Carrying on in the house. And they went over in the other room, fell down in a chair. They heard somebody out there sweeping it up, not saying a word, saying, singing a little song to herself.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
There is a cross for every one,
And there is a cross for me.
And this consecrated cross I'll bear,
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home a crown to wear.
E-143 That one old drunk said, "What'd I tell you?" Said, "She is a Christian!" See, they was only trying her. And sometimes the world, I've found out, try you.
E-144 So I never thought this would happen, but last Saturday night, I believe it was, or Sunday night, the great speaker... I don't subject to calling people's names. But he's trying, working exactly contrary. I'm trying to keep them churches out of that ecumenical move, and this man is trying to put them in there. So, he was speaking for the Christian Business Men. Which, I was supposed to have had the meeting in Chicago, and I thought I'd be in Africa at that time, so I couldn't take it. This man said, got up there and said, "The greatest move, the greatest thing in the earth now, that's ever been; all the churches are returning back to the Catholic church, in the ecumenical move, and the Catholics will receive the Holy Ghost." What a trap of the Devil!
E-145 And this leader, Brother Shakarian, the president of the International Business Men, stood up and said, after the man sat down, said, "That's not the way we've heard it." Said, "Brother Branham has told us, that, 'This ecumenical move will move them all to the mark of the beast.'" And the man setting on the platform. Said, "'It'll move it to the mark of the beast.'" And said, "We're inclined to believe what he says is the Truth." [Someone in congregation says, "Amen! So are we!"--Ed.] And he said, "How many of you would like to hear Brother Branham come and give you the true side of it? Raise." And there was five thousand something people. They screamed and cried, just to come for one day, one day.
E-146 Brother Carl Williams called me up, said, "Brother Branham, boy, I went out through that crowd," said, "they had piles of hundred-dollar bills laying in my hands, to get your airplane ticket up here, and back." See, just for one day!
E-147 See, those people, that Word is sinking in where sometimes we don't know it. See? But, see, when you're really... No matter how much the world is against It, how much the denominations are against It, God is proving It to be the Truth. When the great hour finally strikes, things will happen maybe that we didn't think about.
E-148 Yes, it shows you're not sure, if you're embarrassed, so you would rather not discuss the subject. If you're going to be ashamed of it, you wouldn't want to discuss it; hold back.
E-149 But how can a man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, how can a man full of the Power of God, and the love of God in his heart, talk to a man a few minutes and not mention something about that love that's in his heart? See, there is something that it--it happens; you can't do it.
E-150 This is, must be that evil day that Jesus was speaking of. People are ashamed of the Word and of the Spirit of God that acts within them. But when the Truth is made plain to the people, God then, Himself, revealing Himself through the Word.
E-151 Now, any man can make any kind of claims. And we've had it in these days, where there has been so many claims claimed, that it's been horrible. But, you see, if there is a Truth, it must be by the Word. Because, they say they had all kinds of things, of oil flowing through people, and blood out of their hands, and women on their back in this blood, and running down their shoes, and raise up their shoes and pour oil out, and frogs jumping out and hopping down the platform, and all kinds of things like that. There is no such stuff as that in the Bible. There is no promise of anything like that, in the Bible. Only, It said, "In the last days, the spirit would be so close it would deceive the Elected if possible." But there is no Scripture for that. [Matthew 24:24]
E-152 But when it comes to genuine, unadulterated Word of God, confirmed by God, It seems to even embarrass the other group, on the radical side. See, there is an embarrassment about It.
E-153 But It's a reality to a man or woman, boy or girl, who really is a genuine Christian. When God made the promise of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and you receive It, there is Something that settles within you, that there is nothing takes Its place. When a man ever meets God; not in some emotional work up, some enthusiasm, or some religious doctrine, some catechism or creed, or a dogma that he has accepted for a--a comfort for hisself. But when he really comes to the place like Moses did, on the back side of the desert, walk up face to face with Almighty God, and you see the Voice speaking to you, exactly with the Word and the promise of the hour, there is something It does to you! See, you're not ashamed of It, It does something to you. Now, let us look now, for just the next fifteen minutes.
E-154 There is some people that receive such an experience. And as I speak to you today, not as a church or as a denomination, I speak to you as an individual; not because you come here to this Tabernacle, because that I love you and you love me, not because of that. Let me speak to you as a dying mortal, that someday you've got to come to the end of this life. And I may not be there, and another preacher might not be there. But there is only One Who can meet you there, and that's God. And you--you listen to It, and not whether "my wife is a good Christian" or--or "my husband is a good Christian," but, "Am I right with God? Have I met God like that?" Not because "my pastor met God," or because "my deacon met God," but, "Have I met Him?" Not because "I shouted," not because "I spoke in tongues," but because, "I met Him as a Person!" Then you'll never be ashamed of That, there is Something that's so perfect and pure, and true. [Revelation 3:20]
E-155 And remember, you might meet a spirit that would act like God. You might meet a spirit, would do this, that, or the other; follow it a little bit and see how it compares with the Word of God. You might meet a spirit that would tell you you are saved, and give you a glorious feeling, and you would shout and scream; then when it comes to denying the Word, how can the Holy Spirit, that wrote the Word, deny His Own Word? That Spirit must punctuate every promise of God with an "amen"! If it isn't, then you never met God, you met a deceiving spirit. And the world is full of it today! [John 16:13]
E-156 But when you see God come down and make a statement, that He's going to do a certain thing, then it comes back and does that, time after time after time, then you've got a genuine Spirit of God.
E-157 How could a Spirit be on a man, the Holy Spirit that wrote the Bible, then turn around and deny, "That's not right, That was for some other day"?
E-158 He said, "The promise is unto you, and to your children, to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That was Acts 2:38. How can a spirit then accept anything different from That, and be of God, when Hebrews 13:8 said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"? [Acts 2:38], [Hebrews 13:8]
E-159 What if somebody said, "Oh, I believe He was a philosopher. He was a good man. He was a prophet. But as far as His power..."
E-160 I was speaking the other night with George Smith, the boy that goes with my daughter, Rebekah; a fine kid, sang here in the Tabernacle. A Baptist boy that just took, told, "Take my name off of that thing! I want nothing to do with it." And there was a young lady... They was having a conference, this certain Baptist church, up in the hills.
E-161 And--and they're so firmly against me, all of them out there, and about not... They've not got nothing against me; it's against this Word. Me, as a man, they can't say nothing against me, I never done them any harm. But That is what they're afraid of. See? Now we were...
E-162 They was having this meeting up there, rather, and they had, was going to have a missionary to take the last three nights of this great conference, up in the hills where it was cool. Happen to be, this missionary got up and come onto Mark 16, and he said, "There is many people today who can't believe in Divine healing." Said, "I was in India. I'm an Indian. And I was in India when a man here in the United States, by the name of Brother Branham, come." The pastor begin to move over. Said, "My wife was dying with cancer. I was blind," or something like that. "He prayed for one of us, and the other one he called out in the audience, not even knowing our own language, and spoke the Power of God." And said, "We're here, healed!" Well, they tried to shut him up. They couldn't do it. That's, see, right in their own conference.
E-163 Then they even denied of anything. And some of the people, even my... this boy's sister, them on the ground, wouldn't even have nothing to say. They wanted to know if she wasn't connected, some way they could get down to find out.
One of the ladies said, "Well, I believe it."
E-164 Rebekah and George went to see this lady. And she went and got a girl that was suffering with a--a... kind of retarded, a little. So they had me come over there to see the girl, the other night. And I went over there, the little lady was sitting there, and I said, "Are you a believer?"
E-165 She said, "Nah, I don't know whether I am or not." Well, she wasn't retarded; just a devil spirit. They don't realize it. See, it takes you, and you don't know it. It comes, then violence overcomes the person, and they don't know it.
E-166 Women that walks out here on the street, with these shorts on, they don't realize. They might be, they could might could prove and sware to it, that they've never done anything evil against their husband, or so forth, like that. But in their heart, they don't realize, but the spirit of the Devil has took them over. They are possessed of it. Why would a woman want to strip her clothes off, off before a man? There is only one person who done it, in the Bible, and they were insane. Others try to cover themselves; they don't realize. It's so cunning, so subtle! You have to watch, weigh yourself with the Word of God, and see where you're standing.
E-167 This young lady said, "Oh, they told me that I was baptized when I was a kid." Said, "I don't know whether to believe that stuff or not."
I said, "Don't you believe Jesus Christ?"
E-168 And she said, "Well, I don't know whether I do or not." She said, "Some of that hocus-pocus stuff, I don't believe it."
E-169 I said, "Well, of course, you don't believe hocus-pocus stuff." I said, "But do you believe that He was the Son of God?"
"Oh," said, "He could have been."
E-170 I said, and I said, "Do you believe He is the same today, the God that would save you?"
E-171 She said, "Is any of that there stuff about that there miracles and stuff like that? I don't believe nothing about it."
E-172 And I said, "What would you do if you were setting in a meeting and seen God, the Holy Spirit, which is the only God there is, working amongst the people; God in the Fatherhood, the Pillar of Fire, and the prophets; God in His Son; then God in His people? It's just attributes of God, one great God Who covers Eternity." I said, "What would you see if He, among His people, made the--the blind to see, the deaf to hear, look out upon the audience and tell the people what was wrong with them, and like He did when He was here on earth?"
She said, "I believe it would be horoscope." [Matthew 4:23], [Luke 7:22]
E-173 I said, "You are in a worse shape than I thought you were. You would be better off if you was crazy, see, you wouldn't be accountable." But I said, "You're just possessed of an evil spirit." I said, "When Jesus told the woman at the well about her husbands, when He looked upon the people and perceived their thoughts, would you call that horoscope?" See, just so wrapped up in a denomination, called Lutheran, that anything contrary to that would be wrong! [John 4:18]
E-174 Now God wants man who is wrapped up in the Word. Anything contrary to That is wrong! Jesus said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be the Truth." [Romans 3:4]
E-175 There was a man in a very scientific age, by the name of Noah. He wasn't ashamed of God's Word. God met him, and He talked to him. He knowed it was God. And He said, "It's going to rain!" It never had rained, but he believed it was going to rain. And the faith that he had, he wasn't ashamed to exercise it. He took a hundred and twenty years to build an ark, when the world was against him. He wasn't ashamed of God's Word, in his day. God saved him and his household, for it. There was a... How foolish it might have seemed to be to other people; but, to him, he met God. No matter how scientific the other was, that was contrary, how it said "it couldn't happen, it couldn't happen," he met God! [Genesis 6:5-22]
E-176 That's what it is when you know that you're talking to Him! You would think it was a foolish thing when somebody... When, I know that there is a few people in the world holds on to what I say to be the Truth. To stand here and say, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, I'm going to Arizona, there I'll meet seven Angels in a cluster," well, there was a group of man standing there to see it happen. The other night, saying it, "Los Angeles would fall into the ocean." But when you have met God, and the God Who doesn't fail, the God Who does exactly what He said He would do, He has always done it, you're not ashamed of it then. You don't have to walk back and be embarrassed about it; you can tell the whole world. When a man meets God, talks to Him, and the reality of God becomes his in his heart, he's not ashamed of It.
E-177 Noah wasn't ashamed. It seemed foolish to the rest of the world, but not to him.
E-178 Moses, when he was before Pharaoh, he wasn't ashamed to tell Pharaoh that these certain things would happen, because he had met God. God told him, in the burning bush. Moses said, "I--I stutter." That's what he had, an impediment of speech. [Exodus 4:10]
E-179 He said, "There comes Aaron. You be God to him, and he'll be prophet to you. I know he can speak well. But I'll be with your mouth. Who made man to speak?" Amen. I like that. That's God. "Who made man be deaf or dumb, or who made man to speak?" God has.
He said, "Lord, show me Your glory."
Said, "What's that in your hand?"
He said, "It's a stick." [Exodus 7:1], [Exodus 4:2, 11-12]
E-180 Said, "Throw it on the ground," it turned to a serpent. Said, "Take it up again," it turned back to a stick. Amen. He's God. "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in, pulled it out, white with leprosy. Said, "Put it back and pull it again," and it was like the other hand. "I'm God." [Exodus 4:3-5]
E-181 Then he walk up before Pharaoh and say what He said he would say. He said, "It's going to be thus and thus." Picked up sand and throwed it up in the air, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, let fleas come upon the earth," and the fleas came. Took water and poured it out into the river, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," and the whole rivers and everything turned to blood. Called hail down out of heaven. [Exodus 8:16], [Exodus 7:17], [Exodus 9:24]
E-182 You know, in the last days there is supposed to be them plagues repeat again. And remember, an adulterer, in the Bible time, his penalty was death by stoning. And the unbelieving church will be stoned to death, with hailstones, was once God's way of punishment. He'll stone this unbelieving world, this adulterous generation. He'll stone it from heaven, with hailstones weighing a talent apiece, which is a hundred pounds. The adulterous church will die, adulterous world will die under the punishment of God, under stoning, like He did in the beginning. Get right with God, church! That's what we all must do, turn back to God!
E-183 That old fuzzy-faced, gray-haired whiskers, bald-headed, skinny arms, eighty-year-old Elijah sitting up there in the wilderness, looking out upon the sins of the people. God spoke to him one morning, said, "Go down there and tell Ahab that not even the dew will fall from heaven till you call for it." [I Kings 17:1]
E-184 I can see his little old eyes looking out from under that fuzzy-looking white beard, that stick in his hand, walking down the road like a sixteen-year-old boy. Walked right up in the presence of the king, and said, "Not even dew will come from heaven till I call for it." He wasn't ashamed of God or His Word; tell a king or anybody else. He wasn't ashamed. Didn't have to hide, say, "Now, Ahab, you'd be a..." [I Kings 17:1]
E-185 It puts me in mind of something like ourselves. Then I said to the people, "I'm getting to a spot, I need more faith." That's what I'm home for now is to get a--a new burst of faith.
E-186 Got so, look like, when you pray for people, you apologize, "Mr. Devil, would you please move over and let me...?" Nothing! Faith has got muscles, and hair on its chest. When it speaks, everything else shuts up. Don't go in, "Mr. Devil, you move out?"
E-187 "Get out of here! I'm a son of God, commissioned of God. Leave them alone!" That moves. You have no apology to the Devil, nothing to do with him. Not ashamed of the Word of God, not ashamed of your commission, not ashamed of who we are.
E-188 The only shame that I am, is I'm a Branham, that's my earthly birth. I'm ashamed of my failures.
E-189 But as His servant, I'm not ashamed! I'm not ashamed of His Word. Whether it's denominations, kings, potentates, or whatever it might be; just ready to give an answer, God calls for it.
E-190 Moses walked up before Pharaoh. He wasn't ashamed to tell him that they would not compromise and take his so-many days out in the wilderness.
He said, "Some of the women stay, by your children."
E-191 Said, "We'll all go! Not even one hoof will be left behind, we'll take our cattle and all." He wasn't ashamed. Why? He had come into the Light of deliverance. [Exodus 10:9]
E-192 That's the reason a man or a woman, sick or anything, once comes into the Presence of God, and knows that God has healed them, you're stepping into the Light of deliverance. You don't compromise on anything.
E-193 Deliverance was in his heart, for he had met the God Who said, "I am the God of Abraham, Who give Abraham the promise. And the time, time of redemption, of deliverance, is at hand. I'm sending you down there to take them out." What's to apologize, about that? [Exodus 3:6]
E-194 Pharaoh could have killed him. He was just a man. He was a slave. He could have killed him. But he wasn't ashamed of the Word. He didn't come down and get on his knees and beg to Pharaoh for nothing. He said, "I come to take them."
Pharaoh said, "Well, you can't take them!"
E-195He said, "All right, then there will be fleas upon the earth, till you will wade through them." And there is what happened.
Said, "Oh, Moses, take them away!"
He said, "All right. Now do you repent?"
Said, "Well, you can go so-many days in the wilderness."
E-196 He said, "Then flies will come." Amen. Said, "Darkness will come." It was so dark you couldn't see one place to the other.
E-197 And finally death come. From Pharaoh to the servant, it was death for the oldest child in the family. Didn't have no apology to nobody. He was a son of Abraham, born in the Spirit of God, given commission by God, the Message of God, to go down and take those people out.
E-198 Well, can't God call the same thing in this hour, to take out of the church a Bride? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Daniel wasn't, or...
E-199 David, rather, wasn't afraid before Saul. When everybody was afraid of Goliath out there, he wasn't afraid to walk up. And said, "Your servant..." This little ruddy-looking fellow said, "Your servant was herding his father's sheep, and a bear come in and got one of them. I chased him out in the wilderness and killed him, with this slingshot. A lion come in." Oh, my! "A lion come in and got one of them, and run out in the wilderness, and I knocked him down with a slingshot. When he got up, I killed him." He said, "And the God..." That backslidden king standing there, them wishy-washy soldiers claiming to serve the God of Heaven, and let that uncircumcised Philistine stand out there and defy the armies of the living God. Said, "Your servant also will slay him. For, the God Who delivered the lion and the bear to me, will also deliver that uncircumcised Philistine." He didn't stutter, didn't say, "perhaps it'll be done." He said, "It'll be done!" He wasn't ashamed. [I Samuel 17:37]
E-200 Daniel, before the king, wasn't afraid to defy his orders that nobody would pray, only to him. He opened up the windows and threw up the sash, and prayed three times a day. He wasn't afraid. [Daniel 6:10]
E-201 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, wasn't afraid of that fiery furnace. Said, "Our God is able to deliver us. God can deliver us. But if He don't, we're not bowing down to your image." They wasn't ashamed of it. No, sir. No, sir. They certainly wasn't ashamed of it, because they knew. [Daniel 3:17]
E-202 Samson wasn't ashamed before the Philistines. When a thousand run up to him, he picked up the jaw bone of a mule. And them helmets, they was about an inch and a half thick, of brass. He beat a thousand down with it, and still had the jaw bone in his hand. He wasn't embarrassed. He just picked up what was in his hands, and went to work with it. He knowed that the Spirit of God was upon him. He knowed he was borned a Nazarite. He knowed that nothing could bother him. He was a servant of God. As long as he was in the will of God, nothing could stand in his way, no matter how many kings or Philistines, or whatever more come up. Right. [Judges 15:15]
E-203 John wasn't ashamed of the Word of God that came to him in the wilderness, and told him to go baptize with water. He wasn't ashamed to say, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," for the Spirit of God was upon him. He wasn't ashamed before the priests. [John 1:29]
E-204 He wasn't ashamed of the Word of God when he walked up to Herod. Philip's wife was living with Herod. Walked right up in the face of the king! This old wooly-faced fellow out of the wilderness there, come out of there, with no education or nothing else, and walked right up in the face of Herod, and said, "It's not lawful for you to have her!" He wasn't ashamed of God's Word. Sure. He absolutely was not ashamed of It.
Stephen, he wasn't ashamed of God's Word. [Matthew 14:4], [Mark 6:18]
E-205 First, the pentecostal people up there on the Day of Pentecost, when they gathered in the upper room, the Holy Ghost fell upon them, by a promise of God. Luke 24:49 said:
... behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but wait... in the city of Jerusalem, until you receive power from on high. [Luke 24:49]
E-206 And the very promise that the Word of God promised to them, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but wait there; don't get no more theology or educations, and so forth, wait till you're endued with Power." And when that Power from Heaven came, like a rushing mighty wind, they wasn't ashamed of the Gospel. [Acts 2:2]
E-207 Peter stood up, said, "Repent, every one of you. You man, with wicked hands, you've crucified the Prince of Peace, which God has raised from the dead. And we're a witness. For this is what Joel said would come to pass in the last days, 'I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.'" He wasn't ashamed of the Gospel. [Acts 2:17, 38]
E-208 Little Stephen, as I mentioned him a few minutes ago, when he went through there like a--a--a tornado. He wasn't a preacher. He was just a deacon, but he testified everywhere of the resurrection. He had met God. And it's just like...
E-209 Try to stop him? Well, it was like trying to put a--a house, a burning house, fire out of it, on a windy day, in a dry time. Why, every time the wind blew, it just set another fire.
E-210 They jerked him up before the Sanhedrin Council. Can you realize what that is? That's like the Ecumenical Council. All religions head up, in under the Ecumenical Council. All of them headed up there under the Sanhedrin Council. Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, whatever they were, they had to come into that council. And they snatched him up, just not one organization, but the big council snatched him up. "We'll scare the liver out of him."
E-211 When he walked up, that morning, the Bible said his face looked like an Angel. He said, "Men and brethren, let me speak to you. Our fathers dwelled in Mesopotamia before they came to Charran," and so forth. He still went and give the Scriptures. Then when he got all wound up, the Spirit come upon him, he said, "You stiff-necked, uncircumcised of heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost; like your fathers did, so do you." He wasn't ashamed of the Gospel, wasn't ashamed of the Word. He wasn't embarrassed before any Sanhedrin Council. No. [Acts 6:15], [Acts 7:2, 51]
E-212 Paul said before Agrippa. Being a Jew, taught under Gamaliel, a great dignitary he was. But one day, on the road down to Damascus, he come in Presence, contact with God. An Angel came down from Heaven, in a form of a Pillar of Fire, a Light that struck him on the ground. Raised up, and said, "Lord, Who are You?"
And He said, "I am Jesus." [Acts 9:4]
E-213 Standing before Agrippa, he repeated the story again. He said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for It's the Power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes." Sure. [Romans 1:16]
E-214 Now, friends, we come on down with man, down through the age, but we're past time.
E-215 But let me say this. A man who has once come in contact with God, which is the Word, and the Word has been made plain and manifested to him, there is no shameness about that. You're not embarrassed. Doesn't embarrass me to say I believe every Word of God. Doesn't embarrass me when the Lord says to say anything, you go say it and do it. It don't embarrass me to say that I've been filled with the Holy Ghost. It don't embarrass me to say that I've spoke with other tongues. It don't embarrass me to say that our Lord has showed me visions. It don't embarrass me to say He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews 13:8]
E-216 "When you're brought before rulers and kings, for My Name's sake, take no thought what you shall say, for it'll be given to you in that hour. It's not you that speaketh, but My Father that dwelleth in you. But whosoever is ashamed of Me and My Word, in this generation, him will I be ashamed of before My Father and the holy Angels." God help us not to be ashamed, but help us to be a living testimony. [Matthew 10:19-20], [Mark 8:38]
E-217 Every man in the Old Testament, when them prophets came, they become--they become the living Word. They was the Word. Jesus said they were called gods, and they were, because the Word of God came to them. They say, "It's THUS SAITH THE LORD." [John 10:34]
E-218And any disciple of Christ who has come in contact with Him in redemption, and salvation has come into his heart, he is a possessor of God. And what kind of a life should we live, and how should we walk, and how should we talk, if God is representing Himself through our own mortal bodies? Who could be ashamed of that?
E-219 If I come to a place that I was on the police force here in Jeffersonville, walk down the street, in all the authorities, I wouldn't be ashamed of the city. I would be part of the city. I would be a police, a part of the city, to keep order and conduct. If a man run a red light, I wouldn't be ashamed to tell him he done wrong, give him a ticket. That's my duty, 'cause I'm--I'm getting paid by the city. I'm living by the city. I have the authority from the city. No matter if he was drunk, or what was the matter with him, they'll back me up. I stand my grounds, 'cause I'm a policeman and or-... I'm ordained, or put in here and given authority to do this. You're supposed to take the law and rights, and things, and see that it's done right.
E-220 Then, if I'm a Christian and been filled with the Spirit, wearing the testimony of Jesus Christ's resurrection, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, don't let any devil try to push you around, say, "You don't do this and you don't do that." You do do It. God has give you the...
E-221 See, we don't have power. That policeman don't have power to stop one car. It's about... sometime they're three or four hundred horsepower motor, what could he do about it? But he's got authority.
E-222 And that's the Church. We have authority, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His promised Word, hallelujah, "The things that I do shall you do also; more than this will you do, for I go unto the Father." [John 14:12]
E-223 Don't be ashamed of Him in this generation; sinful, perplexed, the last generation that'll ever be on the earth, this sinful, adulterness, and full of all putrified sores. All, everything that's been decent has become indecent. National politics, filth! Nations are broke up.
E-224 Way back in the jungles of Africa, on safari hunters, they had to take high-powered radios to hear Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, and them guys with that rock-and-roll and twist. And the natives, trying to see them act along, jerking their head and acting like that, the natives stood and looked at him. But, you see, they're not Americans like Pat Boone, and Elvis Presley, and Ricky Nelson, and them guys are. They're not Judases of that type, but they're... See, it's a spirit. And the spirit is not only in America, it has spread itself out over the world, to bring them to the battle of Armageddon. They act like that, whether they are... Whatever nation they come from, Africa, India, wherever it is, that vulgar and stuff has spread all over the earth, by just one man starting it.
E-225 So has the Gospel and the Power of Almighty God, has spread around the world! And the separation time is now taking place, when God is a-calling a Bride, and the Devil is calling a church. Let me be part of the Bride!
Let us pray.
E-226 Dear God, we see the handwriting on the wall, Lord. We're at the end time. We know that there is great things laying ahead, but yet somewhere, somewhere out in this mess out here, is still honest people that's been ordained to Life. It would be impossible for one man or two man; but, God, all of us together, let us spread in every corner we can, the good news that Jesus is coming, and, see, just spread a little Bread along, a little Word. Wherever the Eagles are, they'll follow that Food. Whether It comes by a tape, or whether It comes by a word or a testimony, Eagles will follow It to Its headquarters. For It is written, "Where the Carcass is, there the Eagles will gather." Dear Jesus, we know that Thou art the Carcass that we eat. Thou art the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We pray, God, that as we scatter the Word, that the true Eagles will find It. [Matthew 24:28], [John 1:14]
E-227 Let us not be ashamed when we stand before people, wicked, indifferent people, religious, whatever it is. As Paul told Timothy:
... Let's be instant in season, out of season; reprove, and rebuke, and... with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they'll not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall... heap for themselves together teachers, having itching ears;
And will be turned... from the truth,... to fables. [II Timothy 4:2-4]
E-228 God, we're living in that day. You've let me live long enough to see that happen. As, that lays right here in the cornerstone of this tabernacle today, of thirty-three years ago.
E-229 God, bless each one in here. If there be one in here, Lord, that's not ready to meet You, that they cannot just agree with Your Word, and they haven't met You face to face and know that You're not just by an act of some sort of a--of a--of an acception, like you would a creed or something, but has met the living God; and if they haven't did this, Lord, may they do it right now.
E-230 I--I believe You are--You are real near at this hour. I don't know who they are. I don't know even if there is any here, but I just feel led to pray to You. Not that the people hear me, for that would be a hypocrite rite. God forbid. I don't want to be a hypocrite. But I pray it with the sincerity in my heart, Lord.
E-231 Whoever he or she is that You speak to this morning, may they humbly not be ashamed, but way down deep in their heart receive You now, coming this evening and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, following every Word, every Word; if they've been baptized different, or sprinkled, poured. Remember (we do, Lord) that You said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out of the Book, add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life." Though he tries, comes, puts his name on the book, it--it won't work. Let us be sincere and humble. [Revelation 22:19]
E-232 Now they're in Your hands, Lord. You do with them as You see fit, for they're Yours. In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
E-233 Now while we have our heads bowed, I want you to think real seriously now. I apologize, first, for being about fifteen minutes late. Now we want to hum. And you just think in your heart now, "Have I really met God?" Just think it real sincerely now. Cause, it won't be too many times maybe until... May be the last time now, that we'll meet before His Coming. It's close, friends. Every Scripture, looks like, is just about fulfilled. And it might be, for you or I, this might be our last chance. We may be gone before night.
I'll go with Him, with Him all the way.
I can hear, "Are you ashamed of Me and of My Word?"
I can hear my Saviour...
E-234 Now just imagine you are laying on your deathbed now. "Can hear..." Then it might be too late, but it isn't right now.
"Take thy cross, and," might have to sacrifice now, "follow Me."
Now, in your heart, answer this:
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him through the garden,
I'll go with Him, with Him all...
E-235 Now with our heads bowed, let's just raise our hands and say:
I'll go with Him through the judgment,
Now, that's what's going on right now, He is judging us.
I'll go...
Lord, do You find me guilty? Then, forgive me.
... through His judgment,
What do You judge me to be this morning, Lord?
... with Him through the judg-...
Try me, Lord, see if there be any unclean thing in me.
... with Him, with Him all the way.
E-236 Father, we thank You this morning for all these hands. I didn't see one person but what they had their hands up. I thank You, Lord. I--I trust You didn't either, Lord. No one that didn't have their hands up, they are ready to go through the judgment. Judge us, Lord. And if there be any wrong in us, forgive us for it, Father. Give us of Your mercy, for we don't want to meet Your judgment when mercy is not present. So, mercy is present now, so we pray, God, that You will judge us and forgive us of our sins, according to Your Word and Your promise. And let us live for You all the days of our life, not being ashamed of the Gospel.
E-237 Now, Father, if it's Your will, we're starting three straight Sundays now, of meetings. Prepare our hearts for it, Lord. Prepare me, O God. I'm the one that is standing so deeply in need of You. I pray that You will guide me and direct me in the things that I should do and say, in these days to come.
E-238 Guide and direct our precious Brother Neville, that gallant servant of Yours, Lord; and also Brother Mann, and the deacons of the church, and the trustees, and every person that assembles here.
E-239 Prepare us, Lord, that we might be able, in a--a real Christian way, to bring sinners to You, and to bring church members to a knowing the God that we know, that we have met personally, let Him become their God, too. Now, Father, this we cannot do, we cannot send them in. But Thou, Holy Spirit, move upon the people, the members of churches.
E-240 And as the little experience I had with You the other morning, "Go get my Son a Bride. Take It from among the people, among the churches. Pull out that Bride." Let me, in prayer now, Lord. You send the Rebekah; I'll try to be the Eliezer. Help me to be a faithful servant. And may the God of Heaven send His Angel before me, before us, that we will collect the things together and select the Bride that He has chosen. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
E-241 Now, I'm sorry to have kept you a little late. It's twenty-five after. I should have been out here, twenty-five minutes ago. But, now, you like that old song, "Take The Name Of Jesus With You"? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Ain't that pretty? I've sang that now for some thirty-three years, as a dismissing song. Water baptism, "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand." And I think this is so pretty, "Just take It everywhere you go!"
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope... (Now shake hands with somebody by you.)
Precious Name, precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
E-242 Now remember the service of tonight, seven-thirty, seven-thirty tonight. Now let's sing just one verse, see.
Take the Name of Jesus with you,
As a shield from every snare;
When temptations around you... (What do you do then?)
Just breathe that holy Name in prayer.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
E-243 Was there any come to be baptized after this service? If so, raise your hands. Somebody to be baptized? Two, all right, to be baptized immediately after this service. If the rest of you, any of you that wants to be baptized, we'll have baptismal services at every one of these services. The only thing you have to do is ask. We're ready to baptize you. That's our duty, to baptize you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's our duty to do it. And we'll be glad to do it, anytime. You that's to be baptized, just go to the rooms, immediately after the service, and we'll go right ahead with the water baptism. Anybody wants to follow them, you'd be sure that we're here... if you have repented of your sin and you've accepted Jesus as your Saviour.
E-244 You have been a Christian for years, and never seen the Light, and the Light of deliverance has come now. A woman, a Bride that must take the Name! Jesus said, "I came in My Father's Name, and you received Me not. But there will be one come in his own name, and you'll receive him," that's your denomination. [John 5:43]
E-245 Any son comes in his father's name. I come in my father's name. You man come in your father's name.
E-246 And what was His Name, what is the Name of the Father? Jesus! He, "came in My Father's Name, you received Me not." Now His Bride will have His Name, of course.
E-247 I took a woman, by the name of Broy, and she become a Branham.
E-248 He is coming for a Bride, be sure and remember that as you come to the pool.
Let us bow our heads now.
E-245 And Brother Vayle here is no stranger to us. He's a very precious brother, been with me in many meetings, him and his wife. And he is also now the writer of these sermons and things that goes into book form. Brother Vayle, would you dismiss us in prayer, while we bow our heads. [Brother Vayle prays--Ed.]
E-246 [Brother William Marrion Branham expressed his desire to take the Message to Africa in this statement on Thursday evening, May 27, 1965, outside of a house in Johannesburg, South Africa, as an interpreter translated it into Afrikaans. He spoke about this Africa trip in his next Message, Ashamed, July 11, 1965. Due to its brevity (3 minutes, 40 seconds), it is placed here at the end of "Ashamed."--Ed.]
This is one of the highest moments of my life. I have waited fifteen years for this time. My heart has longed to see you again, ever since I left you. I have prayed very much, to get to come back. And a few weeks ago, I was under great anticipation, believing that I would get to come and have a meeting. But when I got the visa, "restricted," I almost had a heart attack. I wanted to come so bad!
But I still believe that, through God, I will minister again, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, among the people of Africa. God has promised to give us the desire of our heart, and that's one of the desires of my heart.
I can remember the great meetings here in Johannesburg. I remember the boy with the short leg, coming long again, normal. And the lady, that the little girl was healed from a back condition, and her mother fainted and fell back in the--the cot.
[The interpreter speaks in English, "Brother Branham, that was my wife's cousin."--Ed.] Your wife... Oh!
There is so many great things! No doubt, there is many of those people, attended those meetings, are with the Lord now. I have gotten old, too, since then. It won't be too long till my time to go up, then we will be together forever, no visaes.
I feel like bringing the Message. But it is written in the Scripture, "Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
I'm expecting to meet you here in a few moments, shake your hand and have fellowship again together. I appreciate all these fine men.
I wish I had all my brethren, in Africa, here today, of all the denominations, that we could just get together and talk, all evening. And I would like to hear what the Lord has been doing over here for you. I would like to tell you what He's doing for us across the sea. Maybe He will permit that, some day. Until that day, I'll be praying for you, and you be praying for me. God bless you. [Matthew 22:21], [Mark 12:17], [Luke 20:25]