The Oddball

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we indeed this morning can say our hearts burned within us, because He has spoke to us along the way. We thank Thee for this grand opportunity that's been ... that's come our way, that we could assemble here with these people, thy children, and enjoy this moments of fellowship. And we pray, heavenly Father, that your blessings will rest upon us as we journey different places and meet others.

We thank Thee for every testimony of this fine Christian atmosphere here this morning, and for all these ones that's been a long time in the way, and for this young man that's just crossed over Jordan to see what it really means to live. We can all appreciate that, Lord, knowing that one time we were on the other side, too. But no more of the old life now—it's back in Egypt.

Now we pray that you'll bless our fellowship together as we read thy Word, and speak a few words from this great Word of God that we all believe in. And bless it to our hearts, now, to continue the service. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen.

Brother Leo, Brother Gene and pilgrims, I deem this one of the grand privileges that I've had, to come here to see for myself what you have here on these grounds. It's a ... I have been blessed as I moved across the little creek there, and see this court. And I.... One time when Brother Leo was making tapes, and I told him that surely there was something greater in life for him than to make tapes. And of course tape-making is something we must do, but.... It blesses. But there's something else. We're all cut out for different things to do.

And to come here this morning, and look at this fine little Jerusalem sitting out here, a little.... I called it Goshen, I believe when we come over this morning. Remember, Goshen was one of the places that they worshipped, one of the first places the tent was pitched. And to meet old friends, and new, and to have this time allotted to us, I just.... It seems like that you just don't want to leave. There's just something that wants to hold you. I can see why you people would want to stay here, see. It's something that grips you.

I don't believe I was ever in any sweeter worship and fellowship as these songs, and things that.... I sat there and biting my lips, and shake my feet, and try to hold myself back from screaming out, when I heard those old songs sang in the way that I think that they ought to be sung—and that's sung in the spirit. That's what we.... Paul said, “If I sing, I'll sing in the spirit.”

Now, I can't imagine the Spirit as being screaming to the top of our voice. I think the Spirit of Christ is love, and gentleness, and peace, that brings something to our souls that feed us. And I think that's the way them songs should be sang.

And to be here with you, a dedicated people to a cause—the cause of Christ—there's just so many things that I could say that the time wouldn't permit me.

I come for.... I thought, “Well, I'll run up and visit Brother Leo and the church up there and ... a portion of the body of Christ that's waiting for his coming, and a part of the bride that's sojourning here.”

And how you've separated yourself from the rest of the world, and come over here to live this way.... I was thinking, even the little creek here, on this side of Jordan out here, you're in the land here. You've come over an exodus, a coming out of the world into a place to where you can congregate yourself together, and worship God, really according to the dictates of your conscience.

And that's what we stand for as a democracy, as a nation. We stand for this very thing, that each man can worship. And it's just too bad we don't have more like this (that's right), where let the world be in their place, and God's people be in their place—where we can have this.

And I certainly had.... If I said “Amen,” and walked out the door, I'd say it would pay me every Sunday to drive up here, or have my children even to come up to sit under an atmosphere like this—because it's always the atmosphere that brings the results.

You can lay a seed out there in the ground. No matter how much that seed's germitized, and lay it there, it's got to have an atmosphere to make it live, see. That sun has to come to a certain part before ... bring it to a certain atmosphere. An egg has to have an atmosphere, or it won't hatch. No matter how fertile it is, it's got to have that atmosphere.

And I think that in a group like this, Christians hatch out, are borned again, in such an atmosphere as this. This is the kind of atmosphere I was borned under. No matter where I go and visit the cold world, in mission fields and so forth, I can even stand and close my eyes and think of this atmosphere.

This reminds me, when I was just a boy preacher and just starting out, we had little groups that met from house to house. We separated ourselves from the things of the world, too. That's what made my heart the way it is today, in love with Christ.

Where we can dwell together.... I believe the Scripture said, “How sweet it is that brethren can dwell together in unity.” It's like the anointing oil that was on Aaron's beard, that ran to the hems of his garments. And there's just so much could be said. I ... maybe the Holy Spirit will interpret to you after I'm gone what it is.

Wish I could stay all afternoon, and just forsake meals and everything else, just sit here and hear you sing, see—hear you sing, and talk, and testify. It means so much.

My daughter graduates tonight, or it's just the baccalaureate service tonight, and I have to hurry back. And I didn't know that, that it was to be this ... baccalaureate service was to be until just last night. I'm kind of busy, and don't notice it.

And visiting with Brother Leo and Brother Gene, as they come down, I've longed for the time to be here, wondering, just really. I heard people say, “Well, they've got a lovely trailer court. They're over on one side, and the world's on the other. And on this side's all dedicated lives, and things.”

I thought, “I'd like to see that. I'd just like to see what it really is.” And you all are blessed to be here.

I want to read just one verse out of the Bible, and I think just reading this one verse will absolutely make a complete service. But I have.... Coming up here, I had just a few comments that I thought I would say. It won't take me but just a few minutes. And then I would like to say these comments to what I ... what I feel now.

In the book of II Corinthians, the 12th chapter, and the 11th verse, I would like to read this. Paul speaking:

I have become a fool in glorying; yea compelling me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

I would like just.... If I would call this a text.... I think the Holy Spirit's just among us. And we ... it wouldn't be just to read a scripture. He ... that's what He lives on. And every word is given by inspiration, and it's fitting. For time—it never ends. It's like a chain. It just keeps going on. It never ends, the Scripture.

And I thought while reading this, and thinking of this little place up here, this come on my mind, Paul saying, “I have become a fool,” see. Now, that's a very strange thing for an apostle to say. “I have become a fool.”

Now, a fool is a person that really isn't in their right mind. And how would this apostle say such a thing as this, “I become a fool....”? And then, thinking of this group, no doubt that in the eyes of the people on the other side, you've become a fool. You have become what we would call today, “the oddball.” No doubt but what people think that of you. And remember that on the other side, they're oddballs too, see.

So, you have to be somebody's fool; so I'd rather be a fool for Christ, see. I'd be a.... God said his people were a peculiar people, odd, a chosen, elected—a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God that is the fruits of our lips, giving praise to his name.

Some time ago, this little sense of humor.... I hope it doesn't break the fine spirit that's in here. Just come on my mind. It was a Brother Troy, of the Full Gospel Businessmen, was telling about this.... I was thinking of this for this young singer here, that's just come to the Lord.

When he was working in a ... he was a meat cutter, and he was working at a butcher shop, and there was a German there. And he just kept talking to him about the Lord. And this German couldn't talk English very well. So he said, “Well, come on to the meeting.” He said, “You need the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

So the old Dutchman wanted him to know that he was a Lutheran, you see. He was all right—he was a Lutheran.

He said, “Well, you come on up, and visit us once.”

And so they come across a bunch of, perhaps, oddballs too, as we call it, you see. And that night this German man received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the next day he was cutting meat, and speaking in tongues, and he was having him a regular jubilee.

And so, after a while the boss of the factory come by, and he said, “Henry,” said, “what's the matter with you?”

He said, “O glory to God!” He said, “I got saved.”

And he said, “Why,” he said, “where you been?” Said, “You must have been down there with that bunch of nuts,” he said.

He said, “Yes, glory to God!” He said, “I was down there with the bunch of nuts.” He said, “You know, if you didn't have the nuts,” said, “you take ... like the automobile. It comes down the road. And you take all the nuts out of it, and what you got but a bunch of yunk!” That's just about right.

And you take the nuts out of anything.... Now, it takes that to hold the things together. The world gets in such a place in a turmoil, and the church gets so sewed up in worldlyism, and denominationalism, and so forth, till it takes sometimes a nut, to hold the thing together. That's right. If we don't have it, we don't have it ... we don't have the church.

Now, we can think of that subject just for a few moments. Paul said, “I have become a fool [or a nut] just for....” Now, you have to be somebody's nut. You can either be a nut for the world; or a nut for Christ. One day in California, I was walking down the street, and there was a man. He had a sign in the front of him, like this. Said, “I am a fool for Christ.” And on his back he had a sign that said, “Now, who's fool are you?” for a testimony. So he had to be somebody's fool.

So Paul, here, had chosen to be a fool for Christ. And you can imagine how the world thought of him at that time—and not only the world, but the church. That man had been trained to be a priest. He was trained under Gamaliel, a great ... one of the greatest scholars and greatest teachers of that day. And when he had, maybe say, his Bachelor of Art, and his Doctor's degree, and was ready for to be called into the priesthood; and maybe some day, with the possibility with the enthusiasm this young man had.... And then, to change that all at once, all because something happened! He met Christ on the road to Damascus. And then to the world he was a fool, and to the church he was a fool. To the denominational church he was actually a fool. That's what he said here: he had become a fool. He was a fool to those people; but he was the instrument that God used to hold the church together, to hold the body, as it was in that day, together. He had become a fool for that sake.

We can imagine of Noah, as the brother sang of him here, “while God sent his love on the wings of a dove”—one of my favorite songs. And I've always wanted to get somebody that could play that. I wanted to speak on it.

One time I read a story of some soldiers being pinned down, and the enemy (Germans in the first World War) had them pinned down. And they had a little pigeon to take a message. And when the.... That's a form of a dove of course, just one variety of dove. And when they put the message on the little pigeon, he flew up in the air. And bullets shooting at him every way 'cause they knowed what it was. It broke his legs. His little legs was hanging down crippled, and his wings had the feathers shot out of it. He was turning sideways, and everything, through the air. But he dropped right in the camp where he was supposed to, and they got help. You know what I mean from there on, see.

So, we were in that kind of shape one day too, you know. And He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity, but the message got here just the same. He got the message to us.

And Noah in his days, I can imagine a man of his caliber—a prophet that was vindicated of God. And God spoke to him one day. What a strange thing it was, in a great scientific age. Perhaps could shoot the moon with their radar, and they could build a sphinx, and the pyramid.

And God spoke to him, and said, “Noah, it's going to rain water down out of the heavens.” Could you imagine a man of his caliber—a prophet of the Lord—go out with such a silly message as that, and say? ... It had never rained, remember, from the heavens in them days.

God watered the earth, the Bible says, by irrigation through the ditches and so forth—springs. It had never rained a drop. There was no water up there. So they could prove there was no water up there.

And then, a man come out with a message. And not only that, but separated himself from the rest of the world. He become a nut to the world. That's right. He was a nut of his age. How a man with such a crazy message would try to bring a people out into a little trailer, or ark, or whatever it was they were building up there. And he was actually a foolish man. But what did he do? In doing so, he was the nut that saved the believing church in that day. That's just what happened. He had to take them from the world. But he was preparing a place that he knowed that Christ could come to, and would take them. He become a nut.

Could you imagine Moses in his day, a man going down to a great intellectual [blank spot].... They'd conquered the world at that time. And their scientific and their art and stuff, really, I guess exceeded ours today—and their master art, and their mastership of buildings, and so forth, and the great things that they did there in that day.

And could you imagine a man coming down there and said he met a God that they didn't even believe in, in a burning bush. And he came down.... Being a military man to begin with, he'd been trained in all the maneuvers of military world. And we find that he comes down there with a stick in his hand, to take and deliver a people out of a nation that had held the world captive.

Why, to Pharaoh he was a nut—that's all. He was crazy. Said, “Let him do it, go ahead, rave on. He'll declare himself insane.” Well, now, really to Pharaoh, and his great scientific world, he was a oddball. He was a nut to them, you see. He was.

But what did he do? He delivered the people, because he was sent of God. It took ... it takes something peculiar, something that's different from the rest of the world. You see, the world is so one way on their great scientific achievements, and so forth. And when a man is led of God to do something that's odd to that, he becomes a fool. He's crazy. But see, it takes something like that to hold the thing together.

Now, we think of Elijah in his day, when Ahab.... And Israel at that time had every nation under heaven fearing them under this Ahab's reign. And Ahab was a great man. It was a great day. Something on the order we have now. The church had all become fashion, see. It was Jezebel's paint, and Ahab's worldliness, and compromising, and they tore down the altars. And it got, “Oh, just you serve a god, what difference does it make?”, see. “We'll go up to the groves, and you can serve any god you want to.”

That's just about the way it is today, see: all fashions, and dressings, and clothing, and things of the world. And, “Oh, if you want to belong to this, belong to that; belong to this, belong to that, it's all right, see. Just as long as you go to church, it doesn't make any difference.”

It does make a difference what I belong to, and what God I serve, and how I serve Him! He's got one way to me serve Him: He's got that wrote out here in this Word, and that's the way we're to serve Him, see. Now, it does make a difference.

But when Elijah came out there with such a message as he had, could you imagine? He became a nut to Pharaoh, or to (pardon me) to Ahab. He became a regular ... separating himself. But, you see, there was seven thousand among those people, see, that could be saved, see. And he came for them. He had to become a nut to the world in order to catch them. So did Noah—had to become a nut to the world to catch eight souls with himself, see. He had to become an odd sort of a person.

Amos, in the days when he brought his message, and he prophesied.... And we find out that when he come into Samaria, which had been given over to the world.... And the women in the streets had become almost public prostitution, and the fashions—it was a modern Hollywood. When this little unknown bald-headed fellow raised up over the mountain one morning, and looked down upon Samaria and saw it in sin, why, I'd imagine his heart almost failed.

Only thing he'd knowed had been a herdsman. He wasn't really ... the Lord just give him this message, and sent him down there. And now, he had no sponsorship, he had nobody to back him up. But he was led of God to go bring this message to the people, to call them out from judgment. Well now, I'd imagine to the great scientific age, and the age of glamour, something of the order today, Amos became an oddball, see. He became a fool, and they wouldn't want nothing to do with him. But yet, he had “thus saith the Lord,” see, and he delivered what could be delivered.

John the Baptist, when he came in his days in that great religious world, coming out of the wilderness like this, out of the rocks and things, in the wilderness of Judaea.... And he wasn't dressed like a priest. He wore the rough clothes of a working man, perhaps, with a garment around him—not some great theological seminary teacher or so forth. But he was just a common man that could work with his hands, or anything. And when he came down out of the wilderness there, and the sheepskin wrapped around him, he had “thus saith the Lord,” for he knew that the time of the Messiah was then.

He could thoroughly identify himself in God's Word. He

said.... For remember, he identified himself in Malachi the 3rd chapter, see, as the messenger to forerun the coming of the Lord. He knowed the coming was so close until he had to come out. Why, the people thought he was a wild man, just a fool, see. A nut, we'd call it today. The reason I chose that word “nut,” it sounds flat. But yet, it's a good word for what I want to use it for, because that's the way the street expression would use it today. “Just a common nut,” we'd call him.

Well, here is John the Baptist. He was just simply staying out there in that wilderness, preaching his little sermons right down there on the Jordan, walking up and down that banks of the river, crying, “The hour is at hand, and come out and separate yourself. The Messiah's coming.” Why, I'd imagine the priests and all them.... He'd become just a regular nut, that's all. See, that's all he was, just a oddball. And them that followed him become oddballs, just simply fools.

Do you know our Lord was declared the same thing when he come—a mad man? See, He didn't go over into the cities, and into the great ... joining the great organizations, and things. He was calling a people. He was calling them out. And He was considered by the religious of his days a regular nut.

Just like Paul was in his day—a trained man—and yet would do such a thing as he did: separate himself from the rest of the world and from the denominations, and try to call a people. He was an apostle to the Gentile church. He is our apostle—we know that—to the Gentile church. He was the nut that brought the Gentile church out of Roman heathenism, and pagan worships of the day.

Martin Luther, he was a nut to the Catholic church, see. Could you imagine a priest that had throwed all of his teachings away of the church, and refused to give this communion because the church said, “It is the body of Christ”? And he knowed he ... the nuns and them had made that kosher up in there. He knew that wasn't Christ; that was a piece of bread, see, a little sugar wafer. And he knew that wine wasn't no literal blood of Christ; it only represented it. So he put it down in his honest conviction. He wanted nothing more to do with it, see. He was through with it.

Now, probably the Catholic church said, “Oh, let him alone. Look what a little group he's got out there. What is it he's got? Just a false ... and us a big church. That's all it is. It's just the thing....” But you see, he was the nut, see, that was holding it together, see, in reformation. He brought forth the reformation.

How about after he organized and got to a place.... And after his death, and the message that he preached had finished, then the church got so cold and starchy again, that God raised up another nut called John Wesley. That's right. Well, he was a nut to the Anglican church, see. But what did he do? He saved the world. The world ... the church that was in the world, may I say. He saved the church that was in the world. Why? By becoming a nut. That's right. He saved

what and....

Now, then we come on after his time, and the great Wesleyan age passed over, and then we had the Baptists from John Smith, and then we had Alexander Campbell, and then we had Buddy Robinson of the Nazarene. And finally it just kept waving off away from the real stem. And then God raised up another bunch of nuts —Pentecost. And they become a nut to the people. They're crazy to the world. But what did they do? They did a great work, they certainly did, the Pentecostal age.

Now. Now, I believe it's time for another nut to raise, don't you think so? I think it's just about ... Pentecost has done the same thing that the rest of the world went. But it's time for another nut, see. So, if we had.... If we're laying on this side of the branch (you see what I mean?), and the people think that we're so odd and peculiar, the way we separate ourselves, and the way you have here (and we're not divided; we're one, see), the way that we are ... we've separated ourselves from the world....

Brother Leo led to come up here, and there was.... You had little children that has to be trained up, see. You got women, young ladies, here, that don't like to walk in the way of the world. You got men, here, that's aged and retired. They want a place to where they can settle down, and feel at home, dwell among their own kind of people. But see, I think that God can raise up something to take care of that. Don't you think so? I believe that with all my heart. And He does that.

Now, we find out it's time now. Notice, the nut always was what pulled them together. Like all Americans today—we find so much worldlyism and things, in our churches and our denominations, and things. Let something raise up on the Word.... See, they got off to the creed, and not the Word. Let something raise up with the Word, you know, they say, “Well, the people think you separated yourself.”

I talked to your pastor here, our Brother Leo. And someone said, “Well, why don't you come into this, and come in that?”

He said, “No, no.” See, he's sold out to one thing, the Word, see. The Word, see.

Well, now look. If there is a nut sent, there's got to be a bolt for it to fit on. Is that right? Now, God sends nuts. Don't you believe that? I'll explain this in a little bit. But to make this point, there's got to be a bolt, and that bolt's got to be threaded to fit the nut. I'm so glad to be threaded with the Word. I'm so glad that there's a bolt that's threaded the same way. And what's it to do? It's to draw out the bride from the world, set it aside for something different. Yes, friends. We may be a nut to the things of the world, the people of the world; but we are only drawing out, that we could thread it for this.

Noah was threaded in his day, and the rest of the prophets, and down through the age. And the righteous men was threaded because He sent it. What would be the use of having a (bolt), a nut if you didn't have a bolt for it to go on? And what is a bolt and a nut together? It is to draw something together, you see?

It's the drawing powers of Christ that draws us out from the things of the world, see. And then we fellowship with Paul, and his great ministry, saying, “I have become a fool.” So when people think that you are odd, see, see where you stand, see? You've become a fool to them, that you might be drawed by the power of God to which....

Something was in you, something in your heart threaded you.

I might say this morning, “Who is Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal Assemblies, this, that, and the other?” There'd be all kinds of hands go up here, forty or fifty people, see, There would be that, and everybody different. But what makes you sit here? Why are you here, see? It's because you were threaded to something, see. And when it begin to come, it makes sense to you.

If you try to put a certain thread upon a bolt of a certain kind that wouldn't fit, it doesn't make sense to you. You see, it won't go on, see. But when something comes along that fits just exactly, it pulls you from Chicago, from New Orleans, or wherever you come from, to here, see. And now, see, you become oddballs, sure enough, to the world. But don't let that bother you, see. Don't let that bother you.

Now you say, “How do I know I'm threaded right?” Watch the Word, see. Now you know whether you're threaded right, whether we are nuts to Christ, or whether we are nuts to the world. Now, the world also has received their nut. Exactly. I had a little something wrote down here I didn't want to forget. And we ... it said here, we become (bolts), nuts to the world (that's exactly), that we might hold the kingdom of God together on earth, see—the kingdom of God together. All right.

Remember, the world ... they ... the outside world, they have their nuts also. Satan gives them a nut, in the days of this great thing. See, it all works to pro and con, see. Now in the days of.... The world had a nut, and that was Pharaoh, in the days of Moses. There were, see—there had to be. The devil has his nuts, too. Well, there was Pharaoh, see. Now Israel.... And Moses sent down to draw those people out was a nut to Pharaoh. But also Pharaoh was a nut to them, too, see.

And so, it has to be that way. So you're somebody's nut. I'm so glad to be wound in the Word, aren't you, with the thread of that?

Somebody will teach.... That Ahab, he was a nut (exactly) to Elijah, and the seven thousand, and all of his group out there. Jezebel and all their fine, fancy fandangles and things they had out there, that was a nut to that seven thousand that never bowed their knee to Baal. And so was Elijah a nut to them, see—the same thing. We find out in the days of Herod, John was a nut, see; and Herod was a nut, also. The world had one.

All right. In the days of Jesus, He was a fool to the world, see, to Pilate. But Pilate was a nut, also, to turn Him down. That's right, see. He wasn't threaded. He had a opportunity. But when he had his opportunity to accept it, he wanted some kind of a clown, some kind of a trick, some kind of a magic rabbit to bring out of a hat, you know, or something. He said, “I would see you do some tricks,” you know, or something like that. He was a nut himself, see. He had a chance to receive it, but he didn't.

The Sadducees also, and the Pharisees, was the same thing in that day, by not accepting Paul, the one that said he become a fool to the world, see. But the church has its nuts too, see. And the world has its nuts. Christ has his, see.

Now whose are you? The only way you can know.... You say, “How do I know this is right, Brother Branham?” “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....” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, the Word still is here. So if we're threaded with that, see, though we be a nut to the world, if we are threaded in Christ's Word, and Christ's showing the way He's pulling it together, see, pulling his church together.... Let them raise and do what they want to.

Now, Jesus in Matthew 24:24 said that these two groups would be so close in the last days to deceive the very elected, if possible. The people ... still, the people.... Sometimes the Pentecostal ... you outcomers from Pentecost, you see, when they organized and got over there in those groups like that, and you come away from it.... See, the Bible said that it would deceive the very elected, if it was possible, see. The very elected—that's the ones that's elected to do this.

Said, one ... see, the bolt.... Don't come say, “Oh, there's a nut,” see. You see, he's got to be ... he's got.... When the threads was cut in the bolt, it's got to be cut in the nut the same way. See what I mean? It's got to fit, see. And the elected, therefore, you see, it won't tighten up with anything else. It's just got to come to Christ, you see. It's the only thing that'll fit, see. And that's where we fit it in, see. Thanks be to God! All right.

Now, we find out, also, that the world has their nut. And you know, there's so much to be said. We haven't the time to say it, of course. But this one thought. Do you? ...

I notice this fine little bunch of ladies, that sang over there a few minutes ago. Boy, I wish I had that song! Get that on tape for me, will you, these songs? When you all sing here, tape up a song some time. I'll pay you for the tape. I'd like to have it, see. That was beautiful, that real sweet worship like that.

Now. You know, there was a ... the young women of today, they—like so-called Christians, the women who go to church—they wanted something to satisfy. They knowed that they wasn't getting it just going to church. But they want to maintain their testimony just the same, see. They want to hold their testimony. “I'm Methodist, Baptist, I'm Christian,” you see. They want to strip their clothes off of them. They wanted to wear shorts, and bikinis, or what you call them, all this, you see.

They wanted to do these things. They wanted to have a haircut like men, and do these things. And so, they wanted to do that, see. And yet, did you ever think why they did? Jesus said them two spirits will be so close, it'd deceive the elected. That has to come to pass, see, see. So they would ... they didn't get....

A human has to worship. You have to worship something. It's just in you to worship. So, a human has to worship something. So they had no worship in their church, so God raised them up a nut—Elvis Presley, Pat Boone. They still hold their testimony: Elvis Presley, a Pentecostal; Pat Boone, a Church of Christ. See, a absolutely nut to fulfill Jesus' words here: it would be so close it would deceive the very elected, if possible. Still maintain ... sing hymns on Sunday, and rock and rolls on Monday, see. To us that's a nut, see. It really is.

Now, but you see, in there He had some fine women, also, that wanted to act like ladies. They had decency in them. They wanted to be what Christ wants them to be. So, He sends the person along with a message that, to that church that they belong to, is foolish. He becomes a nut. But you see what it is? It fits just exactly.

When you talk about long hair, and looking like a lady, and dressing like a lady, and acting like a lady ... instead of singing like these girls this morning....

I was watching a little girl there, her eyes looked heavenly (what I mean, glassy), as she looked up like that, singing something in her heart, what's in here. As them young ladies sang, I thought, “O God! What if a Hollywood star could get that in their heart?” They'd be the same thing, see.

But what is it? Why did they go that way? You couldn't pull one of them girls in Hollywood. If you'd give her ten thousand dollars a day, she wouldn't go. Why? She's threaded different. That's exactly right. She's threaded different. That's right.

You couldn't pull Leo, Gene, and them into some organization. Why? Couldn't pull you fellows into one. Why? You're threaded different, see. So if you're threaded, there's got to be a nut [unclear words], to hold that together. Isn't that right? See, then it's complete.

Thanks be to God (like the little Dutchman said) for the nut. If you take them out, it becomes a bunch of junk. What have you got? A bunch of denominationalism, a bunch of cold formalism, no Christ in it at all, no Word in it at all, just a bunch of creeds, and so forth. And what have you got? Take the nut out, you got a bunch of junk. That's right—nothing in the world but firewood, something that's waiting for the blazes and punishments of God, to judge and to burn up at some day.

So, I'm thankful this morning, to fit right in up here, see, where you might be an odd person on this side of the river. Even some of your people might think that you are odd. I know they do. I've had letters from them, see, that said you were odd, you were different, what in the world happened to you? I just chose this little thing to say to you, this morning, see. Sure, you're a nut. That's right. But I'm glad to be one. But if I'm not tight with this Word, then I'm yunk, see. I'll just be a nut for Christ.

Yes, I get letters from many of your people. Some of them come by and say, “Do you know what happened?”

“What?”

“This odd guy, so-and-so, went up there, and done so-and-so.”

I said, “Wait just a minute.” It depends on what you're wound on, see. So may the Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd of the flock, ever keep your hearts so wound into Him, that when the great shepherd does appear you'll appear with Him. Can we pray?

Heavenly Father, seeing that time has run out, I'm just rushed. Such a lovely, sweet bunch of Christians, and such a rude text. But in the room the other day, and thinking of what I'd seen on letters, and what I'd heard people say, when I ... your little servants, here, asked me to come up and visit them, and fellowship with the little flock, this rude text of being a nut, I thought I'd use that, so I could get the thought over to them. They would understand what I think, too.

We have become a fool, like Paul, to the world. But yet, Lord, we want to be so tightened to You and your Word, that when the rapture comes, we'll ... we want to be with it, Lord. So help us to ever have our hearts knitted and bound together in the love of Christ.

Bless Brother Leo, Brother Gene, and Brother Daulton, and all these fine men and these lovely women in here. Hearing their testimonies, happy, happy, contented; walking the room up there, where one that's paralyzed, and to see the smiles.... No wonder our Brother Leo said it's a bit of sunshine to walk up here. No wonder. To see even when the men, not even a bit of relation to her, or nothing, but concerned—that they'd take her trailer and make it so she could be happy. See, Lord, the thread works just right. Walk into that home, and see someone who really could be grouchy, and fussy, and nasty because they're not out and able to run and dance and cut up, like many women. But she's happy to be here with her kind.

And to be here with the Word of God, where it can be preached, and not any creeds tacked to it—just truly unadulterated Word of God, to worship in spirit. Come into a little place like this—there's a little trailer where we meet together. It's the church. “Wherever two or three are assembled, I'm in their midst.” And we know You're here, Lord. And we worship You, and we praise You.

I pray, God, that You'll keep sickness away from them. Keep the enemy across the river. May this great exodus.... It may be in a minor form. But, Lord, someday it's going to grow. And I pray, Lord, that this little exodus here, that You'll be with them as You did with Moses and them, as they crossed the Jordan; and Joshua, as they went into the promised land.

And I pray that You'll help them, Lord, and keep their hearts genuine, true to You. And bless them as they teach the Word. And may they live long, happy lives. And some day, if we're around here, Lord, living on earth when You come, may there come a shout from this side of the branch out there, and the church go up. Grant it, Lord, because somebody (wasn't) was foolish enough to the world to become a nut, to hold it together, Lord, until You come.

Then, as John of old, in the days gone by, as the little ladies and them sing, he was separated, and how he had to be alone. But when he did, the little church that he'd drawed together.... When he seen Jesus, he said, “Now my work is over. He increases; I decrease.”

Father, I pray that You'll ever keep us happy and healthy. May we meet many times more upon the earth, and loving, and serving you. May thy divine blessings rest upon this service, upon the services that shall follow.

And may we all live such in this life, and the life to come, we'll have eternal life in the great age to come, over in that great millennium reign where we shall see Him and look upon his face and see Him. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

God bless you, my people. I am so sorry that I took a text something like that, see, such a rude thing. But you get what I meant. So when anyone says you're odd, you know why you're odd, don't you? God bless you, Brother Leo.

[Congregation sings closing songs.]