E-1 Let's bow our heads. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight because that You answer prayer for us. This poor dear woman laying there, where surgery has failed. But, O God, we remember the first surgery was ever performed in the earth, You did it Yourself. You taken from the side of Adam, a rib, closed up the incision, and made a wife. O Father, I pray tonight that Your hand will come down now and will perform this great thing that we're asking for. And these others, Lord, this woman that's suffering with mental oppression, all others who's got requests, we just commit them to Thee, Father, with our whole heart. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Indeed a privilege to be here tonight and have this fine audience to look at. And fine singing, the wonderful little choir. I was just thinking the difference, seeing them boys standing there with… clean-looking fellows, clean haircuts. I was thinking, last night, of—of the place where I'm staying; a bunch of hoodlums came in down there and trying to drowned a boy in the swimming pool; they had to call out something and get them out of there. What a difference, see kids standing, singing the Gospel songs; what a difference.
E-2 Thinking, as Brother Henry said there, "those man with them hair like the women should have," you see. That—that—that's right. Look like the… I see these boys kind of have that hair, they even put these roller-curlers in it, around their face. I don't know, I… sometimes I become discouraged. It looks like it—it's a true time of perversion. Man are trying to wear women's clothes, and women wearing man's clothes. And man leaving their hair like women, and women having hair like man. What's the matter with this people, anyhow? Has the, really, the very threads of decency and honor left this nation and these people, this world?
E-3 This is a horrible time, but it's the most glorious time in the world, to preach the Gospel. If I could've stood on the brink of time before it come into existence, and the Father would have looked at me, and said, "What time down through these ages would you want to preach?" I'd want it right now, that's right, just before His coming.
E-4 Looking out upon the audience, setting here before us… A minister friend of mine, in Tucson yesterday, was riding a horse. (Thinking of this man with this… this woman with the disk in her back.) This horse threw him. Another man called me at one o'clock this morning, to my hotel, and said, "The man's at Veterans Hospital, and his eyes are glassy, his back smashed, his kidneys are pushed out, and his heart's about to fail." And there I got down on the floor, on my knees; telephone, got him on the other end, and prayed for him. And here he sets here tonight, setting right there. That was last night. Bob, would you just stand up there? There's the man, right there. [Congregation applauds—Ed.] God answers prayer, morning, night, noontime, midnight, or anytime.
E-5 Now, I—I am such a long-winded preacher, as they call it. I just kind of hate to get started this time of night, and—and I thought I'd just come over. The other night, why, we was speaking over here at a certain place, and the… fifteen minutes after I had been on, the people was picking up the dishes and motioning to me, "Quit! Shut up, you got to get out of here," smoking cigarettes, and carrying on. It wasn't the—the banquet's fault, it was the people that we had it rented from. And the—the chairman's wife went around and told the manager, said…
E-6 Said, "Well, you're supposed to be out of here at 9:30."
Said, "You never put that in the contract."
This lady, tonight, she come down here (real nice lady) and she said, "We understood that you want it," said, "just take it as long as you want." So that was very nice. So I'm very thankful for that. That's very fine.
Brother Henry, I certainly appreciate your—your kindness of inviting me here, and this chapter.
I had the privilege last night of being down here at the Assemblies of God where I believe a Brother Boone is pastor. Had a wonderful time down there with that group of people. And tomorrow night we're going somewhere over here, I don't know where it's at, and it's another chapter. They take care of that; I just keep praying, reading, and going along, and it's about all I can keep up with.
E-7 But, now, we're seeing strange things in this day. Now I've remember the last time I was here, it was in a tent meeting. I remember of speaking of it last night, of a little couple that brought their dead baby in. It—it's up somewhere up here, they drove all day and night. The little mother setting, sad, holding that little baby in her arms. Now, she may be setting right here now, for all I know. And she… the little husband, couple of more couples with them, and they was… And she said… asked me if I'd come over (the man did) to the car. I took the little baby out and was just holding it; a little, dead, stiff, cold form; and I started to pray. And when I prayed, that body begin to feel like it was getting warm. So I just… I kept on praying. He started kicking and moving, going along, so I… started crying. I handed it back to the mother, she went on back home with it. So, they might not even been Christians, for all I know. See? That was wonderful.
But what I'm thinking about, tonight, I know a church that's dying, too, it's our Pentecostal people. We got to shake out of this, uh-huh, that's all. And the only way you're going to do it is prayer and lining up with the Word of God. It's the only way we're going to do it. There's only one way out, He's that Way, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Would we want our church get in the condition as he said over there, like in England? That's the reason I've been, you think, so rude, bawling you out. And I don't mean to do that, but I don't want to see the church get in that kind of a shape. You don't want to be in that shape. But yet you've just got to drive It down so hard till you nail It and make It clench. It's got to be done.
E-8 So now, tonight, I've just got a… some Scriptures and text here I want to speak on for a while. I ain't going to say no certain time. You get tired, why… I may be through in thirty minutes, and just depends on… I always just kind of leave it to the Holy Spirit, just whichever way He leads.
E-9 Let's bow our heads just a moment longer, speak to the Author before we open His Book.
Almighty God, the Author of this Book, through Jesus Christ we pray. We are thankful for what we've already heard tonight. If we should—should punctuate this meeting by saying, "Amen," and go home, it was good to be here, for we know that You've been with us. And, Father, as we open this Word now, speak to us directly out of this Word, that we might know the hour that we're living. If we know the hour we're living, then we can prepare for that hour; but if we go in blindly not knowing what or where, then we don't know how to prepare. So, Father, we pray that You'll let us see the Ark there, and the Door, open, and the Message calling us in. Grant it through Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
In the Holy Scriptures, I want to read a text here; found over in the Book of Saint Luke, at the 24th chapter, the… I'm going to begin at the 13th verse, and read a portion of It.
E-10 And, behold, two of them went the same day from the village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore—score furlong.
And they talked together… these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and… Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, What manner of communication are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad?
And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered and said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and has thou not known all these things which have come to pass… in these days?
And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
And how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him to the… be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Yea, and certain of the women also of our company made us astonished, which were… at the sepulchre;
E-11 … when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said unto them… which said that he was alive.
E-12 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but he they… but him they saw not.
E-13 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe (not to believe) all that the prophets have spoken:
E-14 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and… entered into his glory?
E-15 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them… all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
E-16 May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Words.
E-17 Now I take… if I call it a subject, I'd like to take this: The events… Modern Events Are Made Clear By Prophecy. Now, it's always been God's… the unchanging God's way to fore-… let His people foreknow before certain events happen.
E-18 If the people in the days of the Lord Jesus would have only have sought God and knowed what was just about to take place, they would not have condemned Jesus to death. But the reason it was, because the Scriptures had to be fulfilled, because the Jews had to be blinded. We all are aware of that.
E-19 Do you realize that that's promised again in this very age that we're living? The Laodicean Church Age, this seventh church age that we're in now, is naked, miserable, blind, and don't know it. The same as He blinded them back there for the purpose of getting His Message through to the elected people, He's promised to do the same thing today.
E-20 And if I'd say this to respects, and to all my brethren and sisters in Christ, one of these days somebody's going to say, "Isn't it written that these things should happen first?"
E-21 And it'll be the same way it was then, "Verily, I say unto you, he's already come, and they had did what they listed to him."
E-22 When they asked Him, said, "Why, the scribes say, and the Scriptures say that—that 'Elias must first come.'" They said that to Jesus.
E-23 He said, "He's already come, and you didn't know him." See? And that's perhaps the way it'll end up again.
E-24 Now we want to be posted, to know what's to take place for this age that we live in. God has lotted His Word to each age, so much to each age, and we must notice that one age cannot carry over into another age. It just won't work. For instance, as I've said, I believe last night or… I'm constantly speaking, night after night, places, and sometime I make a remark the second time. I don't mean to repeat myself. But I say this: What would… good would it have done Moses to try to preach Noah's message? Or what good would it been… would have done Jesus to try to preach Moses' message? Or what good would it done Martin Luther to continue on with the Catholic message? What good would it done Wesley to continue on with the Lutheran message? What good would it done Pentecostals to continue on with the Methodist message? Or what good will it do Pentecost to continue on when the Bride's being called? See, we're right up into the seed time, we're here at the end time. Now, unless a corn of wheat falls in the earth, it abides alone.
E-25 As the critic, as I've made remarks since the book come out, probably you got it here in your—your city, that German author that wrote one of the most critical articles. He's an infidel. Course not… I'm not condemning him because he's condemned me so; but, because, being an infidel, the book shouldn't never be on the shelves. And he said, "A God that could set up and say He could open up the Red Sea and deliver His people, and then set with His hands across His stomach and see through the Dark Ages those Christians being tore to pieces by lions; those mothers with their hair saturated in tar, and hung onto crosses and burned; and their baby… expecting mothers, they'd split the stomach and gamble on the sex of the child; and set up and let it happen; people who was supposed to be servants of this God."
E-26 You see, the Scripture is inspiration. You'll never be able to know the Scripture just by setting down and reading It from a theological standpoint, from an educational standpoint; it never has worked.
E-27 I was speaking with a Baptist minister not long ago, he said, "Until we learn the correct Greek, until we…"
E-28 I said, "In the Nicaea Council, before that, they were arguing about the Greek words in the Bible." You'll never know It.
E-29 The Bible is to be revealed by inspiration. That's the only thing, the revelation. Jesus told Peter, "Upon this rock." This rock of revelation reveals Who He is. "Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonas, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed this to you; upon this rock I'll build My Church." Not upon Peter, not upon Himself, but upon the spiritual revelation of Who He was.
E-30 And He is the Word! Saint John 1, "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." Hebrews 13:8, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever."
E-31 Therefore we're living in the day when the manifestation of the Word of God has to come to a different age than the Pentecostal age. And that's right. Remember, you'll… I'm an uneducated person; but you can't beat nature, because God works in the continuity of nature. Just like, as I've said, the sun rises and sets; and goes through the day, and like a school age; and dies in the evening, to rise again the next morning. The trees let the sap down in the winter time, go into the roots, and come back in the spring.
E-32 Notice, He likened It to a grain of wheat, the Bride, the reason that God had to let that go like that. That fine, real, genuine Church that was established on the Day of Pentecost, had growed and growed since the Day of Pentecost, into a great church, it had to fall into the earth in that Dark Age and be buried like all seed does. It had to die so it could come forth in the reformation again. It come forth in the person of a reformation, Martin Luther. And from there, just like a stalk of wheat coming up. The first thing comes up, there's two little blades, then it keeps adding more blades. Up come Martin Luther, and then Zwingli, and on down, Calvin, and as they moved on.
E-33 Finally it goes into a tassel. Now, that was John Wesley in the Wesley age. It had a pollen drop back.
E-34 From there come the Pentecostal age, so close, just like a real grain of wheat if you look at the stalk. But if you'll take that wheat and move it back, there's not one grain in it at all, it's only a shuck in the shape of a grain. But it's set there for a purpose, to shelter the grain until… If the sun hits it like that, it'd kill it.
E-35 It's got to stay in there until a certain time, and all the Life leaves the shuck (as It left the stalk, left the pollen), leaves the shuck and goes into the wheat, and forms again just like it was down in the ground.
E-36 Now, all of us know that whenever a message is given, in three years they form an organization. When they do that, it kills it right there; it did of the days of Luther, 'cause, it did it in the days of Wesley, it did it in the days of Alexander Campbell, and all the rest of them, and it did it in the days of Pentecost. Exactly! See? You get to a place, each one gets starchy, and gets off, and they can't receive new revelation. They're settled down; and there they are, and there they die. And the Life goes right through that, and goes right on to make the wheat. And when the wheat comes, that Life that's traveled through that wheat, the resurrection, brings the whole thing out; yes, brings up for the Rapture.
E-37 Now, remember, this Message started first with Divine healing, performing miracles. Now, if God let that go through a ordinary church, just like we already had, then it wasn't God. God don't have to show off; He don't—He don't have to do these things, to entertain us, like we Americans are used to (entertainment), but He does it to attract the attention of the people, that He's fixing to do something.
E-38 Look at Him Hisself when He come. "The wonderful little prophet, the rabbi, the prophet of Galilee." Why, His ministry was wonderful, He was welcome in every church.
E-39 But one day He set down, said, "I and My Father are One."
E-40 "Oh, my!" That was out. "Away with such a fellow!"
E-41 "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you have no Life in you."
E-42 "Why, he's a vampire! Get away from such a person!" See?
E-43 See, there was something had to follow that sign. See, something followed.
E-44 The shuck held it, but now the shuck pulls away; it has to. And remember, twenty years has passed by and no more denominations has come out of it, and it won't. We're at the end of denominations, the wheat's taken shape. But what's the matter with the wheat now, you can't… it must lay in the Presence of the Son, to ripen, before the combine picks it up.
E-45 Now, the events that we see taking place, it's absolutely showed in the Bible, of every age. We think we're all out of cater, but we're not, everything's moving just exactly with God's Word.
E-46 Now, the Bible is a different book from any other sacred book. There's no book like the Bible, because the Bible is God in word form. See? It's… A word is a thought expressed. God's thinking expressed It, His Words through the prophets; and they wrote the Bible, which is in word form. And Jesus called It, "a Seed." And any seed will bring forth of its kind if it's in the right condition, the right atmosphere. Now, this Book of… is a… This Book of prophecy, It—It is foretelling future events. Now, the Book contains the entire revelation of Jesus Christ. You don't add to It or take from It, and every revelation must come by It. See, it must be the Word.
E-47 So people say, "I had a revelation." Yes, we know Joseph Smith and many had revelations and things, but was contrary to the Word.
E-48 It's got to come according to the Word if it comes from God, because it's to vindicate or to prove God's Presence. And He foreknew all these things, being… By His foreknowledge He ordained, foreordained (it's called in the Bible, "predestinated") every age to its place, and every man to its place, and every messenger to its place. He is God, the devil ain't pulling nothing over on Him. And He's God, and He has ordained everything to take place, and falls just exactly in line with His Word.
E-49 So if we can see, by His Word, what age and what time we're living, you'll see it right here in the Bible, of this age, what we're supposed… what's supposed to take place at this time.
E-50 Now, the—the other books, we find lots of books that they call "sacred books," and so forth. And I've read the—the Koran and many others. But, you see, their—their sacred books are only a code of ethics, of morals, or of theology.
E-51 But this Book is a Prophet, It's a different from any other book. The Bible is the Word of God foretelling the future. It foretells because It's forewarned.
E-52 If God sends anything, He says and promised in the Bible that He would do nothing upon the earth until first He revealed it to His servants the prophets. That's Amos 3:7. He… and God cannot lie. He reveals It, that's been His way of doing it all down through the ages. He's never failed to do it.
E-53 Now, we are promised, in the last days, for this to be restored. There'll be no—no church, no denomination, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, they'll never (in their modern conditions) ever take this church to a Bride. They can't do it, they fail. They're too much at one another's throats, and worldliness has creeped in, and so forth, and—and they died right in their tracks. And so God knows that.
E-54 And to reveal this Word, one say, "Well, I got this. And bless God, It's like that." That's just the way it was when Jesus came the first time; everyone has a doctrine, everyone has this. It'll have to be something sent to us from God. And God's promised it. And the only way He'll do, is—is keep His same pattern. He promised to send us, in this last days, according to Malachi 4, a prophet upon the earth, "That would turn the hearts of the people back, the hearts of the children back to the apostolic fathers again." He promised that in His Word. Luke 17 and many other places that He promised it, that He… what He would do in these last days to bring this thing to a vindicated Word.
E-55 See, a man can say anything, but 'less God interprets that Word… See, now, we have our own interpretation, we say It means this. And this one, Methodist, says this, the Baptist says this, the Pentecostal said this, the Oneness says this, the Twoness says this. And, oh, my, there you are. But God don't need no interpreter, He's His Own Interpreter. He interprets His Own Word by vindicating It in the age that It's purposed for, the age that It's given for.
E-56 We're not living in a Pentecostal age, we're living in another age. See, we're not living in a Methodist age, we're living in another age. We're living on up here to the Bride age, the calling out of the Church and getting It together for the Rapture. That's the age that we're now living. To my honest opinion that's exactly the Truth.
E-57 And this Book is a book of prophecy. Its believers are commanded to honor It and to read It, and believe Its Author, for every Word that's written in there must come to pass. Everything that's been promised has to come to pass, because It is Jesus Christ in each age. The same yesterday, it was Jesus Christ, was in Noah; it was Jesus Christ in Moses, it was Jesus Christ in David, it was Jesus Christ in Joseph; it's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it's Jesus Christ among His people today, doing the things that He promised He would do in this age. It's Jesus Christ.
E-58 But the church has become so starchy, so far away, like the brother said here. And—and our churches are becoming the same way, until we've got to have something to shake us back to the Word. How do we know it's going to do it? It's got to come according to God's Own plan. It cannot come by layman, it will not come by the businessman, it cannot come by churches. God has laid down His plan.
E-59 I spoke here in Shreveport the other day, on a national broadcast across the nation, that, Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will. David tried to bring the ark of God back into the house. He was anointed king. Why, he—he consulted his—his delegates, his captains of thousands, and ten thousands, and so forth. And they all said, "That's the Word of the Lord." And he consulted the priest, "That was wonderful." And they all got so inspired, they shouted, they done every religious act that was. And they was absolutely contrary to God's will, because there was a prophet in the land by the name of Nathan and he wasn't even consulted about it. See? And we found out it didn't work though they were sincere, trying to do God a service.
E-60 And you can be ever so sincere; but, until we know what we're doing, you're fighting at the air. Come back into the Word of God and get lined up, and then go; then you know. Like a—a soldier, don't know what to do until he gets orders to do it. We must be Christian soldiers, and get orders from the Bible for the hour now; not the charge yesterday, the charge the day before, but the charge today (which way we go). Find out the hour that we're living in.
E-61 And these modern events is slipping by us too swiftly, and one day we're going to find out we'll be left behind without nothing, and be caught, sealed into the mark of the beast before we know it.
E-62 Now, and with patience we have to wait for this, for the prophecies that's promised, every one of them must be fulfilled in its age. For It foretells us, the Author has before done this, and we wait to see Him do it again. What a time it is that we're living in! Something like a—a calendar; you look at the calendar to find out what day of the year you're living in, and you look at God's Bible to see what age we're living in. We're not living in the Methodist age, the Baptist age. We're living in the Bride age, the calling, bringing back to God through a channel that He promised to bring it back in. He promised to do it.
E-63 But as it's been in every age, people let man put their own interpretation to It by theology, and will not believe God's Divine vindication of It (that's, God's interpretation); not what I say, what somebody else says; but what God has promised and what God does, proves that it's God doing His Own interpreting of His Word.
E-64 They told you Pentecostals, forty-five, fifty years ago. Your mothers and fathers, when they were genuine pentecostals, come out of a organization and cursed the thing and walked out of it. Then like a dog to its vomit, went right back in it again. Done the same thing that killed that church, you killed your own by the same thing. Nothing against the people in there, nothing against it, it's the systems of the thing that's what's doing it.
E-65 Home, I'm… go home… I don't preach this in other man's meeting. I'm going to preach The Trail Of The Serpent, and listen to it if you take the tapes.
E-66 And, notice, they missed seeing the confirmation of the prophecies of God's Word being fulfilled. If those priests… They had it fixed up just exactly the way the Messiah was going to come, they knowed what was going to take place. The—the Pharisees had their idea, the Sadducees, Herodians, and, oh, they had their ideas. But He come not… He come contrary to every one of them, but exactly with the Word. Jesus said the same thing was here: "If you would have known Me, you should have known My day. If you had knowed, you'd… You say, 'Well, Moses! We have Moses.'" Said, "Why, if you would believe Moses, you'd believe Me; because, he wrote of Me."
E-67 But, see, when God was confirming exactly what He promised, they had it in some kind of a dignified way that Jesus was supposed to come, and the… I mean the Messiah. The Messiah had to come right to their group or he wasn't Messiah. Well, it's that way, almost, today, "If you don't see through my glasses, you're not looking at all." See, and so that's—that's just the way it—it is. We… That's the truth. We hate to think that, but it's absolutely the Truth.
E-68 In Hebrews 1:1, God in sundry times wrote the Bible by His Own chosen way. He never wrote It by theologians, neither does He interpret by theologians. There never was a time that—that the theologians ever had an interpretation of the Word of God. The interpretation comes only to a prophet. And the only way we're ever going to get out of this mess is for God to send us that prophet, just exactly, the only way it's going to be done. It's been believed, watched for, and—and fulfillment.
E-69 See, It was not wrote by man, but It was wrote by God. It's not a man's book, It's not a theologian's book. It's the Book of God, which is a Book of prophecy wrote by the prophets and interpreted by the prophets. The Bible said, "The Word of the Lord comes to the prophets." Exactly!
E-70 How beautiful that was illustrated, or, demonstrated when Jesus was come on earth, and John was the prophet of that day, and he—he was prophesying. They said, "Oh, you mean to say that God's going to tear down our big associations here and all these things? And there's going to be a time, when our—our temples won't no more be worshipped in?"
E-71 He said, "There was coming a time when God would make a sacrifice out of the Lamb of God, a Man." And he said that—that he would know Him when He come. And he said… He was so sure of his message, he said, "He's standing right among you now and you don't know it." He's right among you and you don't know it.
E-72 And one day when Jesus walked out, John looked up and seen that sign above Him, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." That same minute Jesus knowed then that He was a-vindicated before the people. Now, He was the Word, would we doubt that? The Bible said He was the Word, "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." And here He is, the… Here's the Word on earth (look! perfectly!) comes right out into the water to the prophet.
E-73 That's right, the Word always comes to His prophet. So we can't expect It to come to theologians. We can't expect It to come to denominations. It's got to come God's channel route that He foretold us about, and that's the only way It'll ever come. It'll be hated, despised, rejected. When It does come, It'll be throwed out to one side, and everything, but God will do it anyhow. It was rejected in Jesus Christ, it was rejected in John, it was rejected by Jeremiah, it was rejected by Moses. It's always that way. But God moves right on in the way that He promised He would do it. Yes, sir, He never does fail to do it the same way.
E-74 The man who's seen the vision or heard His voice, never altogether understood It. In many cases he didn't know, because he's just an instrument of God. It's God's thoughts expressed through man's lips; a thought, course, is a word expressed. God does His Own choosing by His—His predestinated choosing. He done it in every age, He set forth the man for each age. Like when Moses, when he was to fulfill what He told to Abraham. Moses was borned a proper child, he couldn't help being that way. He was born that way because he was borned for that purpose.
E-75 And so we find out that God does that in every age. God does His Own choosing by His Own predestinated choosing, choose His prophets and things for the age. Fixes—fixes his nature, the man's nature, the man's style of preaching, to honor His gift, and all that He does is to meet the challenge of that day. God creates that man and sent him. And in His Own mind, as I preached on last night, we are a germ of the gene of God. He knowed that man would be there at that age, before there ever was a molecule, or a light, or anything else in the earth.
E-76 For you're a gene of your father, and you were in your father, yet your father had no fellowship with you because he… You was in there, but you knew it not and he knew it not, but you was manifested that you might… that he might fellowship with you. And you being borned again, you're borned of Eternal Life. And that's the only one form of Eternal Life, and that's God's Life, Zoe, the Greek word "Zoe," only one form of Eternal Life.
E-77 Then if you are a son of God or a daughter of God, you were in God all the time. But He knew what bed and time that you'd be planted. So now you're made a creature, a son of God, manifested son or daughter of God to meet the challenge of this hour to vindicate the true and living God of this hour, the Message that's coming forth in this time. That's right! You was done there before the foundation of the world. If it wasn't… If you wasn't chose that way, no matter how much you try to impersonate It, you'll never make it. How can you get blood from a turnip when there's no blood in there?
E-78 That's the reason I try to say about… Then people thinking we was… we're hollering at women about short hair, and people telling me about saying those things, "You're going to ruin your ministry." Ruin a ministry that God Himself ordained? Far be it! And when people hear the Word of God… When a baby is conceived in the womb of a mother, when that one cell goes in there, another cell builds on top of that. It's not one cell of a human, the next of a dog, and the next of a cat, and the next of something else; it's absolutely, straightly, human being. And when a man is borned of the Spirit of God, he don't inject anything into his life, It's unadulterated Word of God vindicated for that hour. He takes the full Word of God, he don't put no creeds, nothing else into It. It's purely unadulterated, God's Word made manifest among us.
E-79 Look in the Bible, you see where, what age we're living in then, when you see these great things being made manifest. When God promised to do it, He always does it at the end of each age when the church is come to the turning place, and is turned from the Word back to sin and worldliness. Worldliness is sin. The Bible said, "If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you."
E-80 Speaking last night, I was speaking about the—the sacrifice that was offered, the Lamb. It was to be seven days, representing the seven church ages. There was to be no leaven found amongst the people, no leaven for seven days. That means that there's nothing mixed with It, It's unleavened, constantly. And we don't want no creeds, leavens and things mixed with us. We don't want world mixed with us. It's got to be the unleavened Bread of God, the Word of God, the unadulterated Word of God, which, "Man shall live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
E-81 Our denominational systems, and differences and things, has put leaven in us, and this and that and world and fashion. And, oh, it's got so it's almost Hollywood everywhere. It'll finally come till it'll be like England there, a altar call will be ashamed. My! As brother said, "How can you get the fish in the boat?" That's right.
E-82 We've got to have the Gospel preached in Its fulness, with the power of God to vindicate that according to the promise of that age and prove that that's exactly God's will. Outside of That you're just a church member, no matter how much you try, you try to do God a service. You might go to the stitch-and-sew party, you might be ever so faithful to church; but unless that germ of Eternal Life was foreordained in you, to be a son or daughter of God, you'll grow up a deformed something; but never be a real, true son or daughter of God.
E-83 Often give my little story of a little eagle. How the farmer set the hen one time, and he had… I hope it don't sound sacrilegious to you. But a farmer set a hen, and she was… lacked one egg in having a setting. I doubt whether anybody here know what a setting of eggs is, how much it consists of. But, anyhow, he lacked one egg, in having enough. So he robbed the eagle's nest, she had two eggs. And he put the egg under the hen.
E-84 When that eagle was hatched amongst all them chickens, he was a funny bird. He couldn't understand the clucking of the hen, didn't talk like his… like he wanted to hear her talk. And she scratched in the barnyard, and eat from the barnyard, it wasn't food for him. He was an ugly duckling among them. The hen would cluck and he didn't understand it. She'd go this way and eat this and eat that, he didn't understand it. So one day his mammy, or mother, rather, to you. I… In the South we say "Mammy."
E-85 So, anyhow, he… his—his—his mother knowed she had two eggs, and only one of them was there, she went after the other one. She circled every… crossed the country, and finally she flew over the barnyard. She seen him down there following that old hen. She screamed, "Junior! You're not a chicken, you're an eagle!" That sounded just right to him. Why? He was an eagle to begin with.
E-86 And when a man or woman has set under creeds and cold, formal religion, if he's ordained to be a son of God, and he sees the Word of God preached in Its power, and God vindicate It; he's an eagle to begin with, he'll run to It as sure as two two's is four. He can't help it, because his very nature loves the Word of God. I don't care what anybody else says, when he sees the Word of God being made manifest, he flies to It because he was a little eagle.
E-87 As they go on to say, he said, "Mama, how am I going to get up from here?"
E-88 And He said, "Just make a jump, I'll catch you."
E-89 And that's the only thing you have to do, is make one jump to your feet, one jump to God, one promise, "Lord Jesus, I believe You with all my heart. I believe the Message of the hour. I see It confirmed, and I know It's right." Jump to your feet, Mama will catch you. Don't worry, you're an eagle, she'll be right there to get you.
E-90 Now, we realize that we're living in a tremendous time and a great time, but when the truths of this Bible, believers has seen that vindicated, the very vindication of It is the evidence that God is in It. Absolutely! It's then that the promised Word, that God promised, is made known. The seed is bursted forth, and they see It and they believe It. Others just can't see It, somehow they'll set and look at It.
E-91 You know, I've preached hard enough to—to… across this country, that it shouldn't be a short-haired woman in the country. But, every time when I come back, there's more. What's the matter? There's something wrong! You know the Word says that! You say, "Well, that don't make any difference." It does make a difference!
E-92 There's a fine brother, said, "I'm going to lay hands on you, Brother Branham. I love you. You're ruining your ministry." Said, "You ain't got no business telling them women about that." Said, "Let the pastors do it."
E-93 I said, "They don't do it though." I said, "Now…"
E-94 He said, "Well, it's not your business, you just pray for the sick."
E-95 I said, "Whose business is it, then? I was called to preach the Gospel."
E-96 Said, "I'll lay hands on you and ask God to take it away, from you."
E-97 I said, "You'll let—let me lay hands on you, too." See? And I said, "I'll pray that God will open your eyes and you'll see It." So, that's right!
E-98 He said, "You ought to preach… The people believe you to be a servant, a prophet of God." He said, "You ought to teach them women how to—to get great gifts and prophesy and things."
E-99 I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they won't even believe their ABC's first?" That's right! So you—you can't do it. That's just in every… That's right. If you can't do the common things, how you going to do the spiritual things? The natural things. Certainly! Brother, sister, it might sound like a joke, but It's the Gospel! It's the Gospel Truth. That's right!
E-100 Notice, we find today that people… There's many people just can't believe It, even Spirit-filled people. I'm going to give you one that'll choke you. The baptism of the Holy Ghost don't mean you're going in, not at all, not on that, don't have anything to do with your soul. That's the baptism, see. Here's the inside soul, in here, that has to come from God. But then on the outside you have five senses, and five out… inlets to your… contact your earthly home. The inside, you have a spirit, and in there you have five outlets: your conscience, and love, and so forth, five outlets to that spirit. Remember, in that spirit you can be baptized with the genuine Spirit of God and still be lost. It's the soul that lives, that was ordained of God.
E-101 Didn't Jesus say, "Many will come to me in that day, and say, 'Lord, haven't I cast out devils, done great and mighty works, prophesied, the great gifts of God?'" He said, "Depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never even knew you. Many will come in that day."
E-102 Didn't Caiaphas prophesy? He was a devil. We find out there… And them priests, them great man, was supposed to be great leaders in them days, with humility and everything else, but failed to see the Word of God Itself made manifest before them.
E-103 We could just take a bunch of them I got wrote down here. How about Balaam? He was a… You say, "God changes His mind." He doesn't change His mind!
E-104 When Balaam went out as a prophet, and went down there, a bishop, preacher, whatever you want to call him, he was a great man. But when he consulted God about going down there and cursing Israel; he didn't like them to begin with. So when he asked to go, God said, "Don't go!"
E-105 Then they sent a dignitary about some… maybe of bishops or presbyters, or something, down, said, with more education to persuade him. He went back and asked God again. You don't have to ask God the second time! When God says it first, that's It! You don't have to wait anything.
E-106 Rebekah didn't wait to get the second order. They asked her, said, "Will you go?"
E-107 "Let her say."
E-108 She said, "I'll go!" She was firmly inspired of God. She become one of the queens of the Bible for acting upon the pulsation of the Spirit of God that moved upon her to receive what was absolutely the truth, and she believed it.
E-109 Now we find out, Balaam, of course, he couldn't see. He went out and looked upon the people, said, "Now, just a minute! We're a great, big people up here, you're just a scattered bunch." You see? "And we all—we all believe the same God."
E-110 That's true. They all believed the same God, and they all worshipped Jehovah. Look at Balaam's sacrifice: seven altars, God's perfect number; the seven churches, see; seven rams, speaking of the coming of the Lord. Fundamentally, he was just as fundamental as Moses was; but, you see, there wasn't a Divine vindication. In there, they were both prophets.
E-111 But under Moses' ministry, there was a supernatural Pillar of Fire, a Light that hung with the camp. There was Divine healing, there was a shout of the King in the camp, great signs, Divine healing, and wonders and things performed among them. It was a sign of a living God among His people.
E-112 Fundamentally, they was both right. And Balaam tried to persuade the people, and bewitched them into it. When? Just before they reached the Promised Land. Another day or two, they'd a-been in the Promised Land.
E-113 But now I'm afraid… This is a hard mark to make, some of these days I'll be shot for It. But remember this, that, the churches are being bewitched by this Ecumenical Council, he's taking you right into it, to say "You're the same group." You're not the same group! Come out from among that stuff and be separated! Certainly is, It's true. We're to keep away from that stuff, as far as you can from it.
E-114 Balaam said, "We're… let's let our children marry together because, after all, we believe the same God."
E-115 "How can two walk together 'less they be agreed?" How can you walk with God 'less you're agreed with His Word? How can you add creeds and so forth to It, when you're ordained not to do it, or, commanded not to do it? You can't do it. There's no way of doing it, brother, sister. You can't mix that leaven with the unleavened. Oil and water will not mix. Darkness and light will not mix. Light's so much powerful, it just puts the darkness out.
E-116 And so we cannot mix it together. Neither can you mix sin of the world together. You can't mix Church and denomination together. You can't mix Church and creed together. You can't mix the world and the Gospel together. It won't mix! "Come out from among them, be ye separated," saith God, "I'll receive you to Myself. You'll be My sons and daughters, I'll be God to you." We can never do it until these things are manifested, and the Word of God for the hour is proved to be the Truth. Follow in the footsteps.
E-117 Pentecost, that's why Luther lost his message. That's how Wesley lost his message. See, if the Wesleyan church would have went on, they'd been Pentecostals. If the Lutherans went on, they'd have been Methodists. See? And now if the Pentecostals go on, it'll be the Bride. If you hang back and keep going back in the world like you're going now, you'll be lost! It'll only be the shuck, and the stalk is to be burned. We know that. He will gather His wheat into the garner. But the husks He'll burn with unquenchable fire, although it was a carrier. It certainly carried, but the Life left it as soon as it become a leaf, it went on out to make something else until it come to its full stature.
E-118 And so will the Church come through Justification, Sanctification, Baptism of the Holy Ghost (restoration of gifts), right on into the formed image of Christ. Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is the Bride, and the Bride is a part of the Bridegroom. It'll have to be a Word Church, not a denominational church. It'll be the Word Church, the Word that's made known, and by the vindicated Word of God.
E-119 Balaam, he couldn't see the difference. Many can't.
E-120 Pharaoh couldn't see It, though It vindicated right before him.
E-121 Dathan couldn't see It. Dathan come out there, and he seen Moses and knowed. He went out there, said, "You try to think you're the only one in the bunch. The whole congregation is holy!" God never did deal like that. He ought to have knowed better than that. And he said, "Well, the whole congregation is holy. You try to make yourself…" If we'd say it today, the street expression, "The only pebble on the beach."
E-122 And Moses knew that God had sent him down there for that. He just said, "Lord…" fell in the—the doorway of the tabernacle.
E-123 And God said, "Separate yourself from him." And He swallowed them up.
E-124 And remember, the sin that Israel did (by Balaam saying, "They're all the same."), that sin never was forgiven Israel. And look, let me give you a striking figure; out of two million that left Egypt, two of them went into the Promised Land. Every one of them eat the same thing, they all danced in the Spirit, they all had everything in common; but when it come to the separated time, the Word done the separating. So is it today! The Word done the separating! When it come time, he said, "Why, here, we're…"
E-125 So close, look, the Bible said, "In the last days the two spirits," Matthew 24:24, "would be so close, it would deceive the very Elected if it was possible." That shuck looks just exactly like the wheat, but it ain't the wheat. See? It isn't the wheat, but it looks just exactly like it. See? So close, it would deceive the very Elected. You denominated and fall into that denomination, and dry up and die, and the wheat moved right on out through the… See? That's exactly right! It's a carrier, but not the wheat.
E-126 Remember, the wheat just keeps going on. In the resurrection all that strength of the wheat will come right up into the wheat, as it goes to make the head, to come out in the great resurrection.
Never forgiven!
E-127 Let's stop here just a moment. I hope I don't choke you out. But, look, let me ask you something. Let's just take that. Say, for instance, this count would be right. When the sperm from male and female come, if you ever known test tubes or—or hybriding and so forth of cattle, you'll find out that the discharge from the male puts out about a million germs. And the discharge from the female puts out a million eggs. But did you know there's only one of them that's fertile? Them little calves, or whatever they are, in these millions of germs, a million germs, there'll be that one little germ will work itself up among the rest of them germs and go right over and find that fertile egg and crawl into it, and the rest of them die. One of them is ordained to life, the others are not, though they're all the same. One out of a million!
E-128 What if it'd be that way tonight? There's five hundred million, supposed to be, I think, Christians in the world, about that figure, just a round figure. If the rapture would come tonight then, in the living going, there'd only be five hundred people. Well, there's that many missing any day, almost, that they can't 'count for. The Bride will be taken away and we'd wonder what it's all about; and the people going right on preaching, saying they're "getting this or that, and the other," and look what a deception that would be. Say if it would be that; I don't say it is, I don't know, I'm no authority of that. God's the Judge of that. But look how easy it could happen, in all figures and things, how it could be proven.
E-129 Why didn't Korah see That? Why didn't Dathan see That?
E-130 Why didn't Ahab see It? When Ahab… When Jehoshaphat went down to Ahab, he said, "Ahab, we're in trouble. Do you know God gave us this land, Joshua divided it up? You know this piece of ground up here that the Syrians taken, isn't that our ground?"
"Yes!"
E-131 "Our children's hungry, and the Syrians (our enemy) are feeding their children, filling their bellies with the wheat that ought to be ours." That's scripturally right. Said, "Will you help me to go up there and take that?"
E-132 Now, sometimes a good man under the influence of evil will give in. Better watch, church, watch real close.
E-133 Now, the first thing you know, Jehoshaphat, being a great religious man, he said, "Well, we should go up, sure, to our church, we're all the same people." But they wasn't the same people! No! He said, "Well, our church is your church, our people is your people. Sure, we'll go," he said, "but let's consult the Lord first."
E-134 So he said, O Ahab, "No doubt, we should have thought of that. Well, we'll…"
E-135 "Is there a prophet of the Lord?"
E-136 Said, "I got a seminary full of them. I got four hundred down here, the best ones there is. They all got their Ph.D., LL.D., their double L.D.'s, and everything else that goes with it. They're every one…" Now remember, they were Hebrew prophets, from a school of prophets.
E-137 Said, "Bring them up, let's hear them."
E-138 Now, I believe it was Zedekiah (the great head over the bishop, all of them) come up there, and he had the inspiration. He had inspiration, absolutely. He come up there, and made himself two big iron horns. He said, "You know, THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'You're going to take these horns and push the Syrians plumb out of the country.'"
E-139 Well, all the rest of them prophesied, "That's exactly right!" Every one of them, the whole seminary, in agreement. See?
E-140 Ahab said, "You see?"
E-141 Jehoshaphat, being kind of spiritual, you know, he hadn't dried up altogether, he said, "But isn't there just another one somewhere, that we could consult?"
E-142 "What do you want to consult others, when the whole Ecumenical (the whole council), it says 'It's all right'?" (Excuse me, see.) "The whole thing said, 'That's what we ought to do.'" See? "That's what we should do."
E-143 He said, "But isn't there just another one somewhere?" That odd one, you know.
E-144 He said, "Yes, there is. There's one, Micaiah the son of Imla, but I hate him." Always that way. "I hate him because he's always just bawling our people out, and cursing me, and telling me all the evil about me. I hate the man!"
E-145 Said, "Ah, don't let the king say so." Said, "Go get him."
E-146 So they went over there to the son of Imla, some of the—the bishops, or, some of the elders, and went over there, said, "Now, listen, do you want to get back in the organization again? You say the same thing that they say, they bring you back."
E-147 But there happened to be that God had a man that they couldn't put their hands on him; God had His hands on him. He was just the reflector of God's Truth. Said, "Sure," said, "I'll go down, but I'll only say what God puts in my mouth." There's the man of God. He said, "Give me the night." So the night come, and the Lord spoke to the prophet, little nobody. And first thing you know, he come out the next morning.
Said, "What about it, Imla?"
E-148 He said, "Go on up," said, "but I seen Israel scattered like sheep on a hill, having no shepherd."
E-149 He said, "What did I tell you! What did I tell you about it!"And he said…
E-150 Then the big bishop walked up and slapped him in the mouth, said, "Which way did the Spirit of God go? Cause I know I had the Spirit; I danced in It, I done all these things. See, I—I had the Spirit on me. Which a way did It go?"
E-151 Now, see, Imla being a son of God, or a real prophet of God, he examined his vision with the Word. If it wasn't with the Word, it's wrong. See? The Word for that hour, see. Now, he said scripturally, the land belonging to them, the land was theirs. Scripturally, everything seemed to be right but one thing.
E-152 Remember, it was one Word that caused the whole mess to come, Eve disbelieved one Word of God; in the first of the Bible, one Word caused the trouble. Jesus, come in the middle of the Bible, said, "Man shall live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." At the end of the Bible, said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out or add one word to It."
E-153 It's not part of the Gospel… The Methodists have part, the Baptists, Presbyterians, and so forth, they had part of It, Catholic had part of It, Jehovah Witness, all the rest of them.
E-154 But It's the whole Word, all the Word, the Word of the hour; what counts. And we'll never do it until God anoints a prophet that can stand and tell It, and confirms him, and prove It that It's right. It'll slip right through the people and they'll never know It, just like it's always been.
E-155 You Catholic, like Joan of Arc, you burned her at the stake for being a witch; later you dug up them priests' bodies, two hundred years later, and throwed them in the river. You didn't know Saint Patrick and the rest of them.
E-156 It'll go right through your hands again, the first thing you know. God will do it, and you'll never even know it's done. See, He just slips right through and gets His Bride and takes Her right on up, and steals Her away, right out of the midst of the people.
E-157 We find out, this little Micaiah said he examined, he knowed that God had said to a real prophet before him. The prophet before him, what did he say? He said this, he said, "Ahab, because you shed the righteous, or the blood of the righteous Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood also, and Jezebel." And that's just exactly, had to come to pass because God had said it. How could that prophet prophesy good when it was evil against it?
E-158 How can I tell this Laodicean Church Age the good things when God spoke against it? You're naked, miserable! You say, "I'm rich, I have better… I have churches like the Methodist, and the Baptists, and the Presbyterians. I have this, I have that; the best this, that, and the other." That's right, but don't know that you're naked, blind, miserable, to the real thing that God is manifesting. It'll go right through you, like that, moving right out. See? Believe, people, before it's too late.
E-159 Now, we find out that he smote him in the mouth, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of God…?"
E-160 Micaiah said, "I seen God setting upon the Throne. And all… He called the delegates of Heaven, said, 'Who can we get to go down and deceive Ahab?'" Said, "And one lying spirit come up and fell before God; a liar." And remember, that lying spirit got into those prophets, they ought to have knowed then that the spirit was upon them wasn't according to the Word. But they were so carried away because they were the king's prophets, because they had everything fine.
E-161 And that's what the church has done today. You've got away from that old-fashioned experience you had years ago when you stood on the street corner and preached the Gospel. Come out of those organizations and call yourself "a free people!" Nay! because you're wrapped in it again, like a hog to its wallow or a dog to its vomit. If it made him vomit the first time, it'll make him vomit again. That's right! God spued you from His mouth, He said, "You're lukewarm, neither hot or cold"; have a few meetings, then play a few… musicians, sing a little bit, when, it's absolutely… it's almost become a disgrace to Christianity.
E-162 My son called me over the other day to look at a television, supposed to be singing bee where the people come. That bunch of little Ricky's standing there, shaking around like this rock-and-roll, and singing them hymns, it's a disgrace to Jesus Christ! There's no more solemnity in the church at all. It seems like it's all become a rock-and-roll something, and a fashion show, in the stead of the Church of the living God where Jesus Christ can manifest Himself in power. Seems to be, there is something wrong somewhere. They're slipping away. And the Bible said it would be that way. See? Look where you're at. Be careful, wake up before it's too late.
E-163 Now we find out, He said, "Who can we get to go out there and deceive Ahab, to get him up there to fulfill that prophet's words?" See, if the prophet said a Word, heavens and earth will pass away but It can't fail. It's got to come to pass. So that's what, it had to take place.
E-164 He said, "Put this man in the inner jail, feed him with bread of sorrow and water of sorrow. When I return in peace, I'll take care of him."
E-165 Micaiah stood there firm, knowing he had the Spirit of God. His prophecy, his visions was right. His Message was right, 'cause It was THUS SAITH THE LORD from the visions, THUS SAITH THE LORD from the Word. It had to be right, was THUS SAITH THE LORD. He said, "If you return at all, God never spoke to me." And you know what happened, sure. See, you…
E-166 Understand, brother. Listen.
E-167 Sure, Caiaphas, he couldn't see It. Why didn't he look down…? He was a—he was a bishop, he was a pope of all the churches together. Why couldn't that man see Jesus standing there? Why couldn't he understand? When they was singing the 23rd Psalm, the 22nd Psalm, rather, in the church, and, "My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?" and there He's hanging on the cross. The very Scriptures, the very God that they were worshipping, they were condemning Him and killing Him for "a fanatic." There it is.
E-168 It'd shock you if I'd tell you that's just about to repeat again. The Bible said He was on the outside trying to knock to get in, and nobody would let Him in, "He that I love I chasten and rebuke, I scold him, I shake him down, but it's because I love him. Open up and let Me come in." Yeah. Could not… "Remember, I didn't want to get in the church; it's he, the individual." He couldn't get in the church, had Him locked out. Only… then, only organization of all of them, is this church age, that He was on the outside the church. Put out! Refused! Rejected! Because… He was only manifested in temporarily in the other churches, in the form of justification, so forth; but in here, the age that's coming now, is the full manifestation of the vindication of Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh, I'll admit we got a lot of impersonators, but examine the first one, the original.
E-169 Moses went down with the commandments of God, to deliver Israel; and when he did, he performed some miracles. The impersonators followed him. If they had been first, he would a-been the impersonator. See, he had the Word of the Lord, and the Lord vindicated; he just set still.
E-170 And, you know, that same thing's promised in the last day? "As Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses, so will these man of reprobate mind concerning the Truth." And when an organization keeps a… takes a man right down through that organization, it showed it did not come from God; because, God does those things to attract the people's mind, and then the Message follows it. If it isn't, then it's not God. It's not God! God always does that.
E-171 Judas couldn't understand It. He walked right with Him, he didn't see It.
E-172 But the real, ordained of God, that real gene, that real germ, a soul of God that was in God before the foundation of the world; remember, you that's really got the Spirit of God in you tonight, you were here in Christ because He was the fulness of the Word. He was the fulness of the Godhead bodily. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Do you believe that? Look, He was in Christ. Then if you were in God, a gene, a word, a attribute from the beginning, then you walked with Him here on earth, you talked with Him on earth, you suffered with Him on earth, you died with Him at Calvary, and you rose with Him again; and now you're setting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, communing with Him (the Word) as It feeds into your soul, that, "Man shall live by ever Word that proceedeth."
E-173 Not the Methodist word, the Baptist word; remember, if there was any left over in the sacrifice, it must be burned before morning, 'cause tomorrow's another church age. That right? Exodus, It's true. A symbol, type of the Sacrifice.
E-174 The Door. Said, "I'll make one place. Don't… You won't worship Me in every door that I've give you; but there's one Door, and in that Door I'll put My Name." And where the Lord puts His Name, that's the place that God will receive your sacrifice. We've made all kinds of doors, but God made a Door. God made a Door, and that Door was… Saint John the 10th chapter, Jesus said, "I am that Door."
E-175 God put His Name in Jesus. Do you believe that? He was the Son of God. Every son comes in his father's name. He said, "I come in My Father's Name, you receive Me not." I come in my father's name, you come in your father's name. Jesus come in His Father's Name, so His Father's Name is Jesus; exactly, 'cause He came in His Father's Name.
E-176 "And you receive Me not. Another will come, and him you will receive." You'll take your denominations and go on with them. Just go ahead, the Bible said, "They were raised up to fulfill this place. Blind, naked, and don't know it." Church, religion, oh, very pious, just the same as Cain was; make a sacrifice, make everything just the same as Abel did. But by revelation it was revealed to him what the sacrament was, not fruits of the field and something you do with your hand.
E-177 The believer can see the Word made flesh; the others cannot do it.
E-178 All them Israelites, after they had seen Moses perform that and brought them right up to the great council, where it was to be held, every one of them said, "We'll go with Balaam, because we think Dr. Balaam's right. He's smarter, is more educated, everything, so we'll just take it."
E-179 And God never did forgive them, He destroyed them right there in the wilderness. And Jesus said, Himself, "They'll never come, there's none of them saved." Jesus said…
E-180 They said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness for forty years."
E-181 He said, "They're every one dead, eternally separated from God. They're every one dead." Certainly! Because they listened to an error. When Moses, the vindicated of God, and a leader to show them the way to the promised land, and they had come so far all right, but then they wouldn't go along with him.
E-182 Now, believers can see It, but unbelievers cannot see That vindicated.
E-183 Look how pious Caiaphas was. Look how all them priest how pious they was. And Jesus turned around, said, "You are of your father the devil, and his works you'll do."
E-184 But there was a few believers setting there. Do you think them disciples could have understood when Jesus said, "I and my Father are one"? They couldn't have explained It. When He said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, drink His Blood, you have no Life." Could they explain It? No. But they believed It, because they seen God being vindicated and made flesh.
E-185 Jesus said, "If I do not the works of My Father, then believe Me not. But if I do the works of My Father, the Word that's predicted for Me to do, then you… If you can't believe Me, believe the works that I do, that you might be saved." See? Jesus said, "My sheep know My Voice. They know My Word, they see It when It's vindicated for that age."
E-186 "Well, Caiaphas knowed the Word too!" But not the Word for that age. He had the word of what the Pharisees had poked into him, but not the vindicated Word of the hour.
E-187 "They know My Voice, they know My sign, they know My wonder." How now, to…
E-188 Oh, let's get back to our text, 'cause we're just going to miss a lot of this Scripture if we don't, 'cause I got to close in the next few minutes anyhow, 'cause it's going to be ten o'clock in a few minutes. I love Him.
E-189 Friends, you people who walked down that aisle and put that offering in there a while ago; people that's fed my children, put clothes on their back; the people that's put your money (that you hard earned) in an offering plate, you know where that goes? That helps take me overseas to the heathens that never has heard anything about God. That's what I do with it, every penny, God's my Judge. Here's some of my… the man's setting right here now that's in—in the treasury of my church. I get one hundred dollars a week, and that's all; rest of it goes to sponsor overseas meetings where they can't come.
E-190 The churches won't have me. They don't want me. No. That's right! They term me now: "He's…" they say, "He's a 'Jesus Only,' or he's something like that, or some heretic, fanatic, and all like that, a—a Jezebel." And I—I look for that, they called my Lord, "Jezebel," and they called Him… not a Jezebel, but a "Beelzebub." They called Him all those bad names. "If they called the Master of the house, 'Beelzebub,' how much more will they call them of His disciples?" So that don't make any difference.
E-191 And you yourself, by the help of God, you think I'd stand up here, a big hypocrite, and tell you something…? Or, wouldn't I fall right in line with the thing if I thought it was from God?
E-192 But if I love you and know what's the Truth… Have you ever heard me say anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass? No. I ask anybody. There are thousands of things that's been said, they all come to pass. Remember that time when Samuel was called out, I believe it was, and he said…? Israel wanted to make themselves like the rest of the nations. And that's what you Pentecostals are coming to. You want to act like the rest the people. You're not them kind of people. Keep away from it. The big churches and big fine things, O brother, don't do that. We preach the coming of the Lord is at hand, let's get to the fields down there and notify the heathen. See, do something about it.
E-193 But, you see, Samuel said, "Have I ever at one time taken any of your money from you for my living?"
E-194 They said, "No, Samuel, you never done that."
E-195 Said, "Did I ever tell you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass?"
E-196 "Oh, that's right, Samuel. We believe you're a prophet sent from God. Yes, sir. Everything you said come to pass, Samuel. But we want it anyhow." You see what happened. O brother, the Scripture just keeps repeating Itself back and forth through the Scripture, 'cause it's God's way of doing it, you see. You see, you hit these kind of times.
E-197 Let's get to our text right quick. Now, I been all this time, I didn't come to my text yet.
E-198 It's on my heart! I love you! Don't perish with the world! If you're of the world, you'll perish with the world. If you're of God, you'll go with Him in the resurrection. So change your nature tonight from the love of the world and the things of the world, and all these creeds and things, and look straight to Calvary to your Sacrifice; meet Him there on them grounds, 'cause that's the only place He'll ever meet you. He…
E-199 The Methodists says, "It's in our church"; the Baptists says, and the Pentecostals, and this, and the Presbyterians, and this.
E-200 But He said, "I'll meet them in one place, the Place I put My Name." That's in Jesus Christ. That's where God put His Name. That's the only place He'll meet you; and it's Christ, is the Word, the same yesterday… It's growed from the feet, thighs. And now it's in the head, fixing to go; manifesting in full measure the Bride, the same as the Groom.
E-201 Now let's go to our text, right quick, for about ten minutes, and then we'll close. Now our text, we… where we want to consider, is, it had happened again, as our text, as it usually has happened.
E-202 God sent His prophet as He… Word had promised of Malachi 3, "A messenger I'll send before My face to forerun His coming."
E-203 Now if you want to vindicate that, to prove it; Matthew, 11th chapter, vindicates the same. When the disciples of John came over and they seen Jesus, they said, "John is in prison." Said, "We've come to ask You whether he…"
E-204 John's eagle eye had been filmed over. And he was in the prison, he was fixing to die; said, "Go ask Him."
E-205 See, John said, "Oh, His fan's in His hand, He'll thoroughly purge His floor." He thought the Millennium would start right then, he thought the grain was ready. But it had to die and go into the stalk, come up again to make the true Bride. So he said, "He'll gather His wheat into the garner, and He'll burn with fire." Watch that—that forerunner of Christ in that age, what he said would happen. "The grain…"
E-206 And I hope you're not asleep. The grain is here! It'll be gathered into the garner. It was that Bride, that part of it. But what did He say will happen to the stalk? It'll be burned with unquenchable fire. Seek salvation now while you can. Be a grain, not a stalk. See? Go into the Life, not the old dead form; go into the Life of Christ, the Word made manifest, the… made manifest and vindicated so. This is the—this is the gathering time, the combine is coming. You'd better get into the grain, 'cause the shuck's going to be left behind.
E-207 Now, we find out it happened… Jesus… To finish my quotation here, this Matthew 11. See, He didn't give John… He say, "Now, wait, I'll give John a book on how to conduct himself, A Believer In Jail." No! He said, "Stand around and watch what happens. Go back and show John what happens: the lame walk, the blind see, the dead's raised up, and the Gospel's preached to the poor." Just exactly what the prophet said would come to pass. "And blessed is you who's not offended in Me."
E-208 And his disciples started across the hill, He turned, said, "What went ye out to see when you went to see John? Did you go to see a man that's catering in soft raiments, and so forth, the turned-around collars, and all this, you know?" Said, "They're in kings' palaces, they kiss the babies and bury the dead, he don't know how to hold a two-handed sword." See? Said, "What'd you go to see? A—a reed that's shaken by any wind, 'Come on, John, I'll give you more money if you come over here'? ('Well, bless God, I ain't Methodist no more, I'll be Pentecostal, I'll be Presbyterian, I'll be this, that, as long as there's more money.')" Said, "You never went to see a reed shaken with the wind." Said, "What did you go to see there, a prophet?" He said, "Yes, and more than a prophet."
E-209 John had just paid the poorest tribute he could to Jesus. Know it had to come that way; asked Him after he introduced Him and seen that Sign above Him, he said, "This is the Messiah," then he comes and asks, "Are you He, or do we look for another one?"
But, look, Jesus knowing that, He turned and give him a tribute, said, "What did you go to see, a reed shaken with the wind?" Said, "There's never been a man borned of a woman as great as John, till this day." That's right! What a compliment to pay the man!
E-210 But, you see, there it was, that prophecy had been fulfilled right before their face, with a forerunner coming, exactly what Malachi said. Now, that's Malachi 3, not Malachi 4.
E-211 John the Baptist was Malachi 3, Jesus said so. When they asked Him, said, "Why does the scribes say…"
E-212 Said, "He's already come. They did what they said."
E-213 But, remember, Malachi 4, immediately after the Malachi 4 prophet, the fourth coming of John the Baptist in… or the… of Elijah. The fifth coming will be the Revelation 2, the witnesses, when he comes for the remnant of the Jews. But God has used that same Spirit five times: grace, J-e-s-u-s, it's all been Jesus all the time; f-a-i-t-h, g-r-a-c e, and so forth. You see? The number five is a grace number and He used it. Won't use just three, won't use just two, three, four. It's five times He uses it.
E-214 Now, notice quickly now, as we finish up. He said, "This is he who was spoken, 'I send My messenger before My face.'"
E-215 But in Malachi 4, immediately after that prophet prophesied, the whole earth is to be burnt over, and the righteous walk out upon the ashes of the wicked. See? Exactly! See, that's the Malachi 4 prophecy.
E-216 And notice in Luke 17, where He said, "In the last days, it'll come like Sodom and Gomorrah again." Have we got it? We got Sodom and Gomorrah again? The whole nations, look at it. Look what he just said about England, the whole thing is perverted. Even the food is perverted. And looky here what science… You see in Reader's Digest, I believe it's last month, they said, "Little boys and girls go through middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old." I meet them in the meeting, little girls in menopause, and twenty, twenty-two years old, in menopause. What's it lotted to? The perversion, hybriding. That's exactly what corrupted, the whole thing's corrupted the body. We're nothing but a mess of—of… just like a hybrid plant.
E-217 You take a hybrid plant and set it out there, every germ will run right to it. But a genuine, original plant, a germ will go away from it, he can't stand on it. And that's what's the matter with the church, we've hybrid it.
E-218 That's what's the matter with Pearry Green's old horse up there, and he throwed that boy the other day, he's nothing but an old quarter horse. See? The only thing it is, he… It's just like a mule, he's—he's… a mule don't know who his papa or mama is, he don't know nothing; he's half mule and half horse, and half this and donkey; he don't know what he is. You could never… He'll wait all of his life to get to kick you. That's right! You can call him, say, "Come on, boy. Come on, boy." He'll hold his ears up, and, "Haw! Haw! Haw!" See?
E-219 Like some of these saying "Days of miracles is past, Haw! Haw!" all these half-breeds, supposed to be church members and Christians. I ain't saying that for a joke, but it's the Truth. But a genuine, thoroughbred, brother, he knows who his father was, who his mother was, who his grandfather, grandmother was, you can teach him something, he's gentle.
E-220 And a genuine Christian that's born of the Holy Ghost and filled with God's power and Word, he knows who his father is, who his mother is, who his grandfather, grandmother was, he knows all about It. You can teach him something.
E-221 But a half-breed, that's what's come to churches. Hybrid between the world and religious organizations, and putting a little Word in it here, a little Word there, just enough to deceive. That's right. When you see the real Word of God being manifested like Caiaphas and them did, they turn away from It, they don't know. Hybrid!
E-222 Now we find out, and in this message, Isaiah 40:3 also vindicated John. He said, "A voice of one, a prophet, crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make His path straight.'" The church did not believe him, for he was not of their group. That prophet was raised out of a wilderness, come up knowing no one. He had the very Spirit on him that Elijah had: he was a man of the wilderness, he hated immoral women.
E-223 Remember how Elijah… What caused his head to be taken from him? Was Jezebel. Jezebel was the cause of his death. It run him into the wilderness.
E-224 John the Baptist, another wilderness-lover, a hunter, a woodsman. Watch him. He had no education. Watch his—his text, wasn't like a theologian. He said, "O you generation of vipers!" The filthiest thing you can find in the wilderness, the sneakiness, was a—was a snake. And he called those priests, "You generation of vipers! Who's warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Don't begin to say, 'We belong to this, and we have this or that,' for I say unto you, God's able of these stones," wilderness. Also, "The axe" (what he used) "is laid to the root of the tree; and every tree that don't bring forth good fruit, hewn down and cast into the fire." Amen.
E-225 He was a preacher of nature. A great man of God, lived a short time, but certainly set a blaze across the earth. He shocked that generation in them six months of his ministry. God raised him for thirty years, to get that six months out of him. But God does His Own way, He knows what His harvest is.
E-226 And we find out now that this is exactly what had took place. They didn't believe him, because he wasn't of them. They didn't. They did as usual, they didn't see It. They did not believe God's Word of Malachi 3, or they would have seen plainly, by the letter, that this was that forerunner. They hadn't had a prophet for four hundred years, and here one rises on the scene all at once. See? And the people, the believers, believed him to be that. See, they did not believe It. They did not believe, 'cause when they seen the letter completely confirmed, what He said He would do, and everything, and seen It clearly vindicated when the Word come right into the water to the prophet. There they stood.
E-227 There's many argue on that Scripture there about John. See, John said, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and why comest Thou unto me?"
E-228 Jesus said, "Suffer that to be so, for thus… but thus it's becoming to us, behooving us (becoming) that we fulfill. All right, John, you being a prophet, you know the sacrifice has got to be washed before it's presented. And I am that Sacrifice, and you're a prophet and know that." Then he suffered Him and baptized Him. See? And he knew it was.
E-229 Look, they laughed at him, called him "a wild, screaming, unlearned fanatic," as usual, that prophet forerunning the first coming of Jesus.
E-230 I don't say that they're… don't have the same impersonations today of—of genuine. They do, they absolutely. But, remember, when you see a bogus dollar there's got to be a real dollar that's made off of. Where you see one impersonating to be a Christian, there's got to be a Christian somewhere; because if there wasn't, that would be the original. You've got to get to the original. But check the first one, and see if the original is just exactly with the promise. If it is, then believe It: the promise for the age.
E-231 Then John's prophecy was vindicated in God's order. The Word came to the prophet and vindicated him truly as that person.
E-232 Again Jesus came in a… different from their understanding of that prophecy. They didn't understand It that way. (Now, we're going down to the end now.) But according to the prophet's Word, It was fulfilled to the letter. The prophecy is fulfilled; but the way they thought It would be, It wasn't that way. Now, how could they have understood and knowed which was right or wrong? To see if it was vindicated by God, if it was God interpreting what He said. There had been false Jesuses raise up, and led a man, a bunch of… four hundred, out in the wilderness and things; but he never proved to make hisself in the Word, you see, like He said.
E-233 Jesus, when He come, He was to be a Prophet. That's right! And today, before Jesus comes again, the full manifestation of the person of Jesus Christ is to be manifested in flesh. Think of it! Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed." What is revealed? Unfolded, made known. The secret had been brought forth, revealed. In the day that the Son of man will be revealed, the world will be in a Sodom condition. We've got it, haven't we? Yeah! How many believes that? It's in a Sodom condition. And that's exactly right! Look where it's setting, now.
E-234 Remember, there's always three groups of people in every bunch of people you gather, that's, make-believers, unbelievers, and believers. We have them in every group. They've had them in all time. There was the Sodomites, there was—there was the Lotites, and there was Abraham.
E-235 The Abraham was a called-out group, he wasn't in Sodom to begin with. Now watch their Message! They'd been looking for a promised son, looked for it for years. God had showed Abraham many great signs and wonders, but here God came down Himself like a man!
E-236 You say, "That was an Angel."
E-237 Abraham called Him, "Lord," capital L-o-r-d. Any reader of the Bible knows that that capital L-o-r-d is Elohim. "In the beginning God," Lord God, Elohim, the all-sufficient One. Abraham called Him, "Lord God, Elohim."
E-238 Now notice, there was two people that went down into Sodom with a message, and they preached to the Sodomites. They didn't perform nothing, but blinded them; which, preaching the Gospel does blind the unbeliever.
E-239 But watch what kind of a sign the Abraham group received!
E-240 Now, we are supposed to be the royal Seed of Abraham, Isaac was the natural seed. But the faith Seed, the faith in the promised Word, the promised Word (don't miss It) was that royal Seed; that was the Seed, Abraham's faith. "We being dead in Christ, we're Abraham's Seed, heirs with him according to the promise."
E-241 Notice when all that was taking place, down in Sodom there was two ministers down there preaching with a great message.
E-242 There was One set up here with Abraham's group that didn't fool with that group down there. Now watch the One that stayed with Abraham's group, what kind of a sign He give them. He said… Now, remember, his name was Abram a few days before that; and it's S-a-r-r-a, not S-a-r-a-h (princess). And this Man, with His back turned to the tent…
E-243 The women then were different than they are now. They have to get out and get in their husband's business and everything else, you know; but they didn't do it then, they stayed back behind.
E-244 So they… so them Angels setting there. The Messenger, and He said, "Abraham, where is your wife (S-a-r-a-h) Sarah?" How'd He know it? How did He know it?
E-245 Abraham said, "She's in the tent behind You."
E-246 He said, "I'm going to visit you according to the time that I promised you. I'm going to visit you." And Sarah kind of laughed to herself.
E-247 With His back to the tent, and He said, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'How can these things be?'" If she hadn't been in Abraham, his bride at that time, God would have slayed her. So would we today with all of our unbelief, if we wasn't in Christ. That holds us right there, see. He couldn't hurt or couldn't take Sarah without hurting Abraham. See?
E-248 And so remember, Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man." We see everybody agree that the world's in a Sodom condition. I picked up a Los Angeles paper here not long ago, and said, I think it's "Homosexual is on the increase of twenty or thirty percent in Los Angeles, each year increasing that much." It's… Oh, it's horrible! In our government and everywhere, everything's just become a pervert. That's right! The whole thing, the whole system, church and everything else is perverted. It's in a perverted age.
E-249 Now I want to ask you theologians something, my brethren. Not I'm speaking against you, my dear brother; I'm here to help you, brother. I'm here to stand on what God's Word says is right. Hold your hand and bring this crowd of people out of this stuff. That's right!
E-250 But looky here, we never have had a messenger down in Sodom before that his name ended with a h-a-m till now. We've had a Spurgeon, a Wesley, a Luther, and everything else, but never a international messenger that his name end with h-a-m before. That's right! See, G-r-a-h-a-m, six letters, G-r-a-h-a-m, Billy Graham; that noted evangelist, great work of God, the man is sent from God. He's got that justification down so pat, and he shakes the nation with it, see, like that. There's not…
E-251 Look at Oral Roberts to the Pentecostal denomination. When was there ever one like that?
E-252 Six letters, not seven. Abraham is A-b-r-a-h-a-m, seven. Billy Graham is G-r-a-h-a-m, six.
E-253 Now look at the messengers. Look at the time we're setting, never was a time in history. Look at the same signs that He promised would be give to each group. Look where they're at. Same, exactly, positionally, setting right in order. Nature, the world, everything, setting right exactly to the time.
E-254 Now don't miss It, while we sketch the rest of this Scripture! Quickly now, cause I'm holding you too long. Call… Looky here. And according to the prophet, he came just exactly to the Word, just exactly to the time.
E-255 Now look at the age now where we're living. Aren't we living right in that Sodom time? Watch the messenger to Abraham's group. Watch the numbers, letters, and the numerology of his name. You say, "There's nothing in a name." Don't you never let anybody tell you that. Why did He change Abram's name, to Abraham, Sarra to Sarah? Why did He change Simon to Peter, and all those other? See? Sure there is. Exactly!
E-256 That's the reason I say don't ever call your child "Ricky," or "Elvis," or something. Elvis means "cat," Ricky's a "rat." See, when you say… That's exactly right. Les, or something, don't you never call one of your child… children that. If it is, change it right quickly, people. Don't you… You that… If you believe me to be God's servant, don't tack that name on that poor child. See? No, sir, give him another name besides that. My! I oughtn't have got off on that, 'cause I'm off of my subject, but I said it and it's all over. I… That's how you do, you don't know when you say it. See?
E-257 Called Him, "Foreign, a fortune teller, a devil, a Beelzebub," and said, "He made Himself God." Oh, my!
E-258 Didn't Isaiah the prophet said, "He would be called the Mighty God"? Isaiah 9:6, "Unto us a child is borned, a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His Name shall be called Counsellor, Prince of Peace, and Mighty God, the everlasting Father." That's right! Also, Saint John 1:1, "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." You believe that? He was just not… He was a Prophet, but He was more than a prophet; He was the God-Prophet. Why did He have to come?
E-259 Remember, He comes in three son's names. He came first in the name of the Son of man. He never called Himself the "Son of God." You know that. See, He came in the Son of man, a prophet. Jehovah Himself, the Father, called Jeremiah, "son of man"; a prophet is son of man. He come…
E-260 Now He come after the Day of Pentecost, He come back in the form of the Holy Ghost, supernatural Spirit. Now He's Son of God.
E-261 In the Millennium He'll be Son of David, setting upon the throne of David. See, He come in… He's Son of God, Son of man, Son of David.
E-262 Oh, the Bible's full of these nuggets. We can't get them all in one night. But it's just fitting to set this now. Tomorrow may never dawn. We may be gone before tomorrow. I may be preaching to a person that'll be dead before in the morning. I could be gone before in the morning. Brother, sister, that's not myth, that's actual facts! We don't know what time we're going, and you'll not have any chance after that last breath leaves your body. Make it right now, don't wait till in the morning, may be too late.
E-263 Notice now, they had done to Him just exactly what the prophets said they would do, just as they are doing to this very same day in the Laodicean Age. If you want to look at it, read Revelation 3, "Blind, naked, and don't know it. Turning Christ…" When He begins to reveal Hisself into the seed form again, the same one that went in the ground come back to be the Bride; just the Bride and the Groom, is the same flesh and blood, the same ministry, and the same things, doing just exactly what He done; the Spirit.
E-264 And here they're impersonating and doing everything else, and each one has got his book and running, and this. Oh, you never heard such sensations! And… [Brother Branham inhales through his nose—Ed.] "I smell a devil now." All this, that, just as unscriptural as it can be!
E-265 And the genuine thing laying right there before them, they walk away, "They don't belong to my organization." My, my, just, see, just blind leading the blind. Won't they all fall in the ditch? Blinded by man's denominational traditions, they put Him out of their church as God said they would do, in Revelation 3; as usual, as prophesied.
E-266 Notice how Jesus sel-… made Hisself known to these disciples, now, and we'll close. These two disciples, Caiaphas… Cleopas, rather, and his friend. Now we're in the resurrection, the morning after the resurrection, the first resurrection; what a beautiful morning, Jesus is up from the dead and living among His people. What a beautiful thought!
E-267 He's here the same today as He was that day, because He's the same yesterday, today, and for… And revealing Hisself more today than He has in any other age since that day; come through the wheat and stalk and shuck (is all past now), we're into the wheat again. See, we're back into the grain.
E-268 Known as… know… Watch how He made Hisself known to these people, now, remember, as their Messiah (just before we close) of the promised Word of the age. Notice! He appeared unto, to the… as He has said He'd do, to the prophets. Notice, "Fools, and slow of heart to believe that all the prophets has wrote of Him had to be fulfilled."
E-269 Watch Him! He refers right back to the Word of God, He never come right out and told them, "Don't you know Me? I am the Messiah that's resurrected." He never said that. See, He just give them the Scripture; like John did, and the rest of them. See? He just… They have to pick that out themselves. They have to judge for theirselves. Now, don't go to sleep, judge for yourself.
E-270 "Fools, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets has said had to come to pass." What a rebuke to them that claimed they knew Him. See?
E-271 Notice how He approached the subject. He never come right out, as I said a few minutes ago, and said, "Well, don't you know I'm your Messiah for this age? Don't you know that I'm He?" The real servant of God never identifies himself that way; the Scripture identifies who he is. Sure, he will. But called their attention to what the prophets had said to look for in the Messiah's age. See it? Go right back: "Fools, and slow of heart, not to believe that all the prophets said about the Messiah should come to pass."
E-272 He, as John, let the Word of the Bible identify Him, what He was to them. That should been made plain enough. If the Word had identified Him, that should be plainly, Who the promise was they was looking at. They knowed he had… someone had to come on the scene at that time.
E-273 Why, He said, "Now let Me show what the Word says is supposed to happen in this day."
E-274 Am not I, tonight, trying to tell you, Word by Word (even to the position, the place, the names, the numbers, everything else, and all the signs, times, and everything), that we're right here at the end time? Surely you can see what I'm talking about. See? Look! That's so plain it should need no more identification. He said, when He was here on earth, "Search the Scriptures, in them you think you have Eternal Life, they are what… they testify what I am, see, who I am."
E-275 Notice, He begin with Moses the prophet, a prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15. I'm watching the Scriptures here. Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses said, "The Lord your God…"
E-276 See, God spoke to him on top of the mountain. And, oh, my, the thundering; they said, "Let—let the Lord… Let Moses speak, not God, lest we perish."
E-277 He said, "They said well. I'll… I won't speak to them no more like this, but I'll raise them up a prophet." And that's been His message all the way through. That's what's got to settle the whole thing at the end. It's just got to, because the Word of the Lord has to come to the prophet. It's the only thing It can come to. If it don't, it breaks God's Word and makes Him tell something wrong. See? It'll never go to a seminary. It goes to a prophet. And the prophet is sent from God, ordained. And how you know it is, and not what the man said,…
E-278 We've had Elijahs, and coats, and everything else, and mantels, and all kinds of nonsense that went off into organizationism with everything else.
E-279 But there will come on this earth, by God's promise, a genuine servant of God, identified by God (by His Word being the answer of this day), that'll set the Bride in order (a real little minority of the church) and take it up. That's right! He'll introduce, "Behold, there's the One I talked about, see, that'll come."
E-280 And all that the prophets had said about Him, and for this age, why it sure would be interesting to have heard Him say that. Wouldn't you like to have heard Him say it? "All the prophets said about…" Remember, He said what the prophets would say about Himself, quoting His Own Self, what He had said (and He was the Word); quoting.
E-281 Now let's listen to the Words that He quoted. Would you like to hear what He said to them? Let's just carry their conversation now, just before we stop.
E-282 Now, they were briefed on all the late happenings of the crucifixion, of the story at the grave and the tomb, and the women had seen Him, and another one said they seen Him, and so forth. He said… They—they briefed Him on that. And He goes right on with the Word about… quoting Himself through the Word:
"Now look in Zechariah 12." (He must have quoted Zechariah 11:12.) "'For He was sold with thirty pieces of silver.' Was not the Messiah supposed to be sold by thirty pieces of silver?"
"In Psalms 41:9, 'He was betrayed by His friends. See?'"
"Zechariah 13:7, 'forsaken by His disciples.'"
"In Psalms 35:11, 'accused by false witnesses.'"
"By Isaiah 35:7, 'dumb before His accusers, never opened His mouth.'" (All right, sir.)
"Isaiah 50:6, 'He was scourged.'"
"Psalms 22—22, 'He cried at the cross, "My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?" All My bones they stare at Me. They pierced My hands and My feet.'" (Look at the prophecies He could talk about!)
"Isaiah 9:6, 'Unto us a child is born, a virgin shall conceive, so forth.'"
"And also in Psalms 22:18, 'they—they—they parted His garments among them.'"
"In Isaiah 7:14, 'a virgin shall conceive.'"
"Psalms 22:7 and 8, 'made Him a… mocked by His enemies, His… supposed to be His friends; His enemies, the church.'"
"In Psalms 22 again, 'He was… not a bone was to be broken, but they pierced His hands and His feet.'"
"Isaiah 53:12, 'died with malefactors.'"
"In Isaiah 53:9, 'bruised, and buried with the rich brother.'"
"In Psalms 16:10, 'He was resurrected from the dead. David said so, "I will not suffer My Holy One to see corruption, neither will I leave His soul in hell." He was raised from the dead.'"
"Malachi 3, John the Baptist was His forerunner."
E-283 And all of the types He might have went to! Even to Isaac being the type of Him upon Mount… upon the mountain where his father Abraham took him, in Genesis 22.
E-284 It was now that they begin to see Who had fulfilled these Scriptures that was promised of that day. It was then, after it was late, they begin to see. "Oh! Well, wait a minute! You know what?" They knew then that their crucified Friend, Jesus, was that Prophet that was promised. They knew because… See, they hadn't been briefed on the Scriptures.
E-285 "But, here, all these things that's supposed to happen at the cross, all these things. Fools, slow of heart to understand all the prophets have said; how that the Messiah shall suffer, and enter into His glory, and raise the third day."
E-286 Still they go, "Oh, yeah. That's right. I see. He—He—He… Did not our hearts burn within us?" they said. No wonder their hearts burned! The prophecies that He was giving that was fulfilled.
E-287 Then they begin to understand that their Friend, the Man that they eat with, talked with, associated with, fished with, laid in the woods, that that fulfilled every Word of the promised hour! There it was. They had walked six miles, it seemed a very short time, I suppose, and they had heard a six-hour sermon on vindicated prophecy (a little longer than what we've had tonight, see). It was now getting kind of late in the evening time, the evening Lights had come.
E-288 It's the same time now, church! The evening Lights has come! Hebrews 13:8, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." Oh, events made clear by prophecy, same today. The evening Light promised by the prophet of God, in Zechariah 14:7, may again open the true believer's eyes to the events that's taking place today, that's proved by the prophecies that we're at the end time. Jesus is coming.
E-289 The very… It's…
E-290 He said, "There will be a day that it won't be called night or day." He said, "But in the evening it shall be Light." Now, we know, geographically, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Now, the prophet said, "There'll be a long stretch of time that'll be dismal, kind of a… couldn't be called day or night; it's kind of a dark, gloomy day."
E-291 Now, where did the Son rise? What… That was S-o-n we're talking about now. That the natural s-o-n rises in the east and sets in the west. The very same God, very same… Sun, rather. And the S-o-n of God rose first in the east, to the eastern people.
E-292 And now after He left, what did they do? Three hundred years later, they started their first organization, the Roman Catholic church. Through the Dark Age they went, and out they come. What'd they do? The same thing. It's been a day of… It hasn't been called day or night. They had enough orders, and they believed that He was the Son of God, and walked in the light what they had, they made their churches, they built hospitals and schools and so forth, and seminaries, sent their children to school.
E-293 But the prophet said, "It shall be Light again about the evening time. The Son will peep out again, it shall be Light." What? The same Son (S-o-n) that was revealed in flesh at the morning time, back there, will be revealed again in the evening time.
E-294 Now compare Saint Luke 17:30, "And in that day, as it was in the days of Sodom, the setting of the world, in the time that the Son of man is being revealed."
It shall be Light about the evening time,
The way to Glory you will surely find.
E-295 Oh, my! People, where are we at?
Nations are breaking, Israel's awakening,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with horrors encumbered; (Watch her slide into the sea!)
Return, O dispersed, to your own.
The day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit, have your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up! your redemption is near. (You better.)
E-296 Brother, sister, it's a scary time. Watch the things that's prophesied, watch the things happen. Watch all the prophecy being fulfilled, then we see what all this is about. It's not a bunch… a streak of fanaticism. It's God confirming His Words exactly, exactly. The Rock is smitten, friends, flee to It as quick as you can. Prophecy is vindicating the day that we are living in.
E-297 Let us bow our heads. [A brother speaks in another tongue. A sister gives an interpretation. A brother on the platform says, "Can we hold steady for just a moment? God has spoken to us through Brother Branham, and the anointing is on Brother Branham, and he's not through. And…" Blank.spot.on.tape—Ed.]
E-298 Dear God! Are you realizing the day that we live in, friends? Would you dare dispute God? Would you say that "He's not right," when He's proved It? He's His Own interpreter. Do you want to serve Him?
Now with your heads bowed, and your hearts bowed, brother, sister.
E-299 This may be our last meeting time. We may never… If I would be back a year from today, if I live, there'd be many that's here now won't be here then. And I'll have to meet you at the Judgment Bar and answer for everything that I said tonight.
E-300 Before God, while you're in your right mind, would you now do this much to God? If you know that you're… Just look at yourself in the looking glass of God (the Bible), no matter who you are, and say, "I know I'm way short from being a daughter of God, look the way I do. I'm way short from being a son of God, look the way I do. But, God, I don't want to be here, I—I want to strive to that place." I want you to raise your hand to God, just ever who you are, wherever you are across the building, "Yes, I want to be a son of God. I want to be a daughter of God. I want to fulfill everything that my Lord has commanded." Now you… God bless you. I guess ninety percent of the audience.
E-301 Now looky here, my friend. What if you would have lived in the days when you heard John preach? What if you would have lived in the days when Jesus was here? Whose side would you have took? If you'd a-lived in Jesus'… Remember, if He… If you'd lived back there, it would be just like it is now. The same Jesus is making Himself known by His Word, see, and It's very unpopular.
E-302 But let me tell you, I'm not trying to tell people to leave church or… My, I want you to go to church, "Don't forsake to assemble yourself together." But what I'm trying to tell you to do is press into the Kingdom of God. Get these things, the world, church…
E-303 Pentecostals, you people are getting too worldly. You're getting too much after the world. It's just easy, you keep watching televisions and all these things, and the way they're doing, and all this, and the first thing you know… The seminaries, the schools are beginning to compromise here and there, and this, that, and the other, and the first thing you know… It's got to come that way. The Pentecostal church, it's been my greatest support, I can't say nothing against it. But that's what I cry out, "My brethren, get out!" Call… You don't have the meetings that you used to have. The people are not like they used to be. But Jesus Christ is the same, let's move into Him.
E-304 Now, you with your hands up, remember, there was a Rock smitten in the wilderness, and that Fountain is still open tonight. Their Rock had been smitten, Christ, He is that smitten Rock.
E-305 And tonight, so far as I know, the church may be… The time of calling may be already past, I don't know, I can't say that. Remember, the people went right on having the meetings, just the same, after the crucifixion of Jesus. And the… and all the people, they—they'll come, they… Watch! They—they'll go right on preaching, and saying they're "getting saved" and everything, just as if… "The world continues on as it was," they say. But it'll be too late then.
E-306 While you got a chance, my brother; while you got a chance, my sister; come into the Kingdom of God. You don't have to come in under anything else but just plain faith to believe His Word. He is that Word! "Lord Jesus, I know I'm looking at myself now in the mirror of God's Word; oh, how short I am. But, dear God, here tonight, on this Monday night, here in San Bernardino, California, in this auditorium here, this is—this is all I have, Lord, but I'll give it to You. Will You take me as I am, Lord? Will You let me flee to the cross right quick? I even see the messengers. I see the time, I see the calling out of Sodom. I see the signs. I see the Abraham's group receiving the Light. I see the manifestation, Jesus being manifested again right among us like it was. I see all the things that You promised. I see the impersonators; I see You said that, 'As it was in the days of Moses,' how this Jambres and Jannes would come back to impersonate, and still remain right in that same dump that they were in."
E-307 See, they couldn't follow Moses through that Word and take those children out of there into the wilderness, because they was associated in Egypt. They couldn't do it, though they done the same works he did. But their folly was made manifest. And the Bible says, That's THUS SAITH THE LORD, "It will take place again in the last day."
E-308 And you see it with your own eyes, if you're spiritual. I'm… I can't explain It. It's not necessary for me to explain It. "My sheep hear My Voice." Let's go to Him now, while we have a chance. Will you?
E-309 If you have need of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if you have need of a rededication, a new life; your pastor won't despise you, he'll love you for it. Just give yourself completely to God tonight, while we're here. Let… Yes, I know it's been hard, cutting, strange, I don't do that to be mean, I do that to be honest. I do that because I love you, I love God, and I do it to try to help you. And truly, friend, I—I—I believe… And with all my heart, with all my faith, I believe that my Message comes from God. It's—It's been proving that to you through the years.
E-310 Now listen, tonight surrender everything you got, everything that you have need of. I believe, with a true, surrendered heart, if you will just stand upon your feet, and raise up your hands to God, and say, "Dear God, here I am. Take me, Lord. No more will I try to use my own mind and my own interpretation. Your Word says I must be 'holy, I must be borned again, I must be filled with the Spirit, and then the Spirit will lead me into all the Truth.' Dear God, here I am, lead me." Would you do that much? If you do that much, raise your hand, say, "I'm willing to do that, I'm willing to."
E-311 Then let's all stand up on our feet.
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy Blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bids me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, (God's only door)… come! I…
Now get all of your work, everything else, your tiredness, everything… What if you were dying now?
Just as I am, Thou will receive,
Will welcome, pardon, cleanse, receive;
Because I…
Will you put your hand up, on this verse now?
I promise, I will believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
E-312 Now while the organist continue—continues to play, let's each one of us…
E-313 Young teen-agers, do you want to get like this out here on the street, this bunch of hoodlums?
E-314 Sister, do you want to wear short hair, when it's your Nazarite honor to God to have long hair? "It's a shame for her to cut her hair." Would you wear these little ol' skirts and things that they wear today, this—this immoral dress, with your body showing through it, out there on the street? Did you know every man that looks upon you commits adultery with you in his heart? And you present yourself like that. Do you know, women, you that wear makeup, there's only one woman in the Bible that ever wore makeup? And God fed her to the dogs. A Jezebel, a name that's been hated since her day, because of her acts of that. You know it was Elijah the prophet who cursed that and called her out in that manner? Do you know it was Herodias that John the Baptist got after? Do you… You don't want to be that Hollywood thing of the world. "If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God is not in you."
E-315 Brother, minister friend, nothing… Please understand me, I am your brother. Do you want to associate yourself, and you church members of some church (Methodist, Baptist, or whatever you been), do you want to hold on in that denomination because your mother and your grandmother held on that? She come out of something to come into that, that was the Light of that day; that, like in the times of Noah. This is another day.
E-316 You say, "Well, I had the…"
E-317 This is not the day of Pentecost. The Pentecostal age is past. Pentecost is gone, this is harvest time. See? And the harvest time, the grain; the water's done been poured out, the grain's getting ripe. Come into the grain, my dear brother. Hear me, believe me, if you believe me to be a servant of God, let each one, in our own way, bow our head in humility and offer the prayer that we—that we know that we should offer, "God, take me as I am."
E-318 And brother, sister, I lay myself on the altar tonight, too: God, mold me and make me different. Do something, God, make me in Your fashion.
E-319 You think it's easy to stand here and cut the people to pieces like that? It's a hard thing to do. But woe unto me if I don't do it.
E-320 Dear God, as this audience bows their head and heart, in this solemn moments here of closing of this Bible lecture; when we see the a-vindication of the Holy Spirit that shook this nation back and forth, and back and forth, great revivals and indication, knowing that something has to follow that. And then see those seven Angels come down there on top of that mountain yonder in Arizona, when even the magazines across the nation's packed It. To see Jesus Himself there in the skies, looking down, and saying that, "In the Revelation 10:7, in the seventh angel's Message, these seals would be opened, the mysteries of God would be made known." That the reformers didn't live long enough to—to bring it out. And here, these seven seals that sealed the whole thing is to be opened in this day. To see all these great signs and wonders that's been done, vindicated, foretold before it happened, and not one time have You ever failed us, but brought it to pass just as it was said.
E-321 Dear God, we realize that Jesus Christ is in our midst. We know that He is here. He's here tonight, the invisible God is here with us, and can confirm every promise that He made in His Word. How You have stood and proved to them, with backs turned, in the original beginning before the impersonators even entered the ring, Lord, or entered into the—the—the race, as it was. You showed and proved, prophesied and told exactly the way it would happen, and we see it's happened that way. And Father, God, we know it cannot be man, it has to be God. So we know it's You here tonight. Forgive us of our sins.
E-322 Dear God, You've healed our sickness, now for—forgive our sins, Lord, of not being the kind of Christian that we should be, not… Professing to be a full-Gospel man or woman, and here we find ourselves slumping off like a denominational chicken. Help us, dear God, take us and shake us with Your Holy Spirit. And if there be anything in us that's not like You, take it out of us, Lord. And plant our feet on God's Holy Word, and let the Holy Ghost burn down into our heart and take all the dross of unbelief and the drowsiness of this day; oh, arise and shake ourself. Grant it, God. Cleanse us! Mold us! Make us! God, grant it.
E-323 If there's any in here tonight, Lord, that's holding in their heart that grain, that gene of God that's ordained to Life from the foundation of the world; I know, Lord, that they're bound to hear at this hour. So, I pray, God, that You'll fill their soul and illuminate them with a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost, and send them on their road, rejoicing and happy.
Lord God, they… I give them to You. I don't know who they are, You do. I'm only responsible for preaching Your Word, Lord, as You reveal It. You're responsible for the rest of it: where the Seed falls. I just throw It. Lord God, I pray that It fell in good, rich soil tonight. That many will see It, Lord, and rise to shining Christians in this last days, that the great thing that we're looking forward to come, will come quickly. Grant it, Lord. And You'll take Your Church, Your Bride, and take Her home. We see It all setting in order. Come, Lord Jesus. We commit it all to You, in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the results. Amen.
E-324 I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's…
E-325 Do you love Him? Well, then you have to love one another. Shake one another's hand when you sing it again:
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On…
E-326 Now let's give Him praise. How many knows this song:
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory all ye people,
For His Blood has washed away each stain.
E-327 Let's sing it now:
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory all ye people,
For His Blood has washed away each stain.
E-328 Don't you feel all scoured out? Raise your hand, you say, "Oh, that makes me feel good." Brother, I love those old-time songs. Don't you? They go down to the heart.
I will praise Him, I will praise Him,
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory all ye people,
For His Blood has washed away each stain.
E-329 Let's just raise our hands now and praise God, every one of us, in our own way:
Lord Jesus, we thank You. We praise You, Lord. We give You praise for a called-out people, out of Babylon. We thank You for the Blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank You because He makes us clean this minute. We for-… We ask forgiveness of our wrongs, our stupidity, Lord, our stumbling in the dark. O God, may we rise and shine, and walk in the evening Light, and be the fruit of the Tree that's coming forth by the evening Lights. Grant it, dear God. We commit ourselves to You, in Jesus Christ's Name.
Now with your heads bowed, I give you the pastors backing the service.