God's Covenant With Abraham And His Seed

................. only believe.

While we're standing let's sing it like this once, “Now I Believe,” right now. Not “I will after awhile,” but “Now I Believe.” Let's sing it now.

Now I believe, now I believe,

All things are possible, now I believe;

Now I believe, now I believe,

All things are possible, now I believe.

Shall we bow our heads just a moment for prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight above every thing for the Lord Jesus Christ. How that He's made it possible that we could be called the children of God by the suffering, and coming down, and humiliating Himself in the form of sinful flesh. And taking upon Him our sins, and bore them away to Calvary, that we who were unlovely, might be made sons and daughters of God through the reconciliation, by the offering of His own body and blood. And Thou did give us justification by rising Him up again on the third day. And now, He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and sending forth the Holy Spirit which shows signs and wonders, preaching the Gospel, hearing the good news through songs, and through the Word.

We pray tonight, Father, that through this ministry that Thou will bless us continually as You already have through the hearing of the music, and by the singing, and what more. We pray that You'll fellowship around the Word with us tonight. And may the Holy Spirit take the things of God, and reveal them to each heart as we have need of. For we ask it in the name of Thy beloved Child, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

One of the writers once said, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord.” And that is true.

Hearing that old song, Only Believe, kind of makes me feel like a divine healing service starting. That's kind of the song they sing in welcoming. Always I've heard it in so many different languages now around the world, and how they sing it. And it's been a favorite song of mine. I first started with it about ten years ago. And it's always been a campaign song. The campaign theme is Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever. And I've heard it in Africa, and India, and all Europe, and Asia, oh, everywhere almost: Only Believe.

And if I happen to go before the Lord Jesus comes, and I have a regular funeral service, they're going to play it when they're letting me down in the ground: Only Believe, All Things Are Possible. And that's my testimony I want to leave to the world.

I believe the report of the Bible that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. That He through His righteousness of His coming to the earth in obedience to God, I'm justified by faith and believe in God, and have the privilege to be son of God. So, that makes us kind of feel real religious, doesn't it, to begin with—how happy.

Now, last evening I was just a little late, with keeping you for the first time, but my mother said I talked before I walked. So, any of you women know what that's a sign of? Tongue be your ruin. So, I talk a lot, but I like to talk about the right thing, you see. The right thing, which is the Lord Jesus. And I really like to talk about Him.

Someone said not long ago, said, “Brother Branham, there's one fault I find to you.” Said, “You brag too much on Jesus.”

I said, “Oh, no.” I can't brag too much on Him. He's worthy of everything that we could say about Him. That's right. There's nothing we could say that would be too much to say about Him. And He is the most lovely One.

Now, tonight we want to start a little study on the covenant. I have found that so many people in along the line, evangelism, that there's so many people, especially in the Protestant move today, and in the full Gospel move, that so many of them doesn't understand their position. And that's where it makes it so hard for healing services, that people doesn't understand. You've got to know how to approach God for anything that's provided for you. And so you must know how to approach.

I've often said I found two classes of people. And being kind of tutored as a Baptist, makes me just a little Calvinist, so then ... not the extreme side. But I said, “I found two types of people. And one of them is the Pentecostal (or Full Gospel, it's called), and the other is the fundamentalist.”

Now, the fundamentalist positionally knows where he's placed in Christ Jesus, but he hasn't went deep enough to have faith with what he's got. And the Pentecostal has went far enough to get the born-again experience, and the Holy Spirit, but he isn't fundamental enough to know his position.

So, it's just like a man has got a lot of money in the bank, but he can't write a check. The other one can write a check, and hasn't got any money in the bank. So, if you could just get those two together, you'd really have it. If you had fundamental teaching and Pentecostal faith, or Pentecostal faith and fundamental teaching, why then you would have it just right. But that's what we're going to try to do for tonight, especially not knowing one night from the other, and what the Holy Spirit will have, and just these little go-by meetings, why we just have to wait and see.

So, today I was reading in the Scripture, and I thought it would be wonderful to try to get the church, you know, to some real good things of the Bible that we would understand.

So, we're going to speak tonight about God's Covenant With Abraham And His Seed. And for a starting in the Scripture, which we may refer to many, we want to start in Genesis the 12th chapter and beginning with the 1st verse.

And the Lord ... said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and multiply thee greatly....

And I want you to notice now that God said in here, “And I, I will.” Now, when God, as we were speaking last evening, He made a covenant, a joint covenant with the children of ... with our first parent: the Eden covenant. It was a conditional covenant. God, when He spoke to Adam, and blessed Adam, and He made a covenant between He and Adam: If Adam would do a certain thing, He would do a certain thing. And then we find that Adam broke his promise to God, and men always breaks their promise to God. We break our promise to each other.

So we're just in a category here, as we said last night, God is infinite, and His mind is infinite. And we are finite so we cannot comprehend to what the great things are of God, only, if it was, we'd know as much as He does. But we do not try to know what He knows; we just accept what He said by faith, see. No man can know God at all, otherwise than by faith. He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Now, in the garden of Eden there were two trees. One of them, say, on the right side, was the tree of life; on the left side was the tree of knowledge. And as long as man eats from the tree of life, which is faith, he lives. But the first bite he took off the tree of knowledge, he separated himself from his fellowship with God. Do you see it?

And notice then, in separating himself, he continually bites off of that tree, continually eating from that tree. Then he's brought it in to his ... try to mix that knowledge with fellowship with God. And God never made a man by his knowledge to know Him. And all the knowledge we have will never understand God. God is known by one element: that's faith. God put man in five senses to contact his earthly home: see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. Those are to contact the earthly home, but none of those are to contact God. A man is a makeup of a triune being: soul, body, and spirit. A trinity in a man, just like God was a trinity in a man.

Notice, but man is a trinity: soul, body, and spirit. And now, in his body he has five senses to contact his earthly home, but he has two senses of his spirit. And one of them is unbelief, which is of the devil, and the other is faith, which is of God.

Now, unbelief can do nothing for you but damn you. That's all it can do is destroy you. And faith is the only thing that can help you, see. So, unbelief, if there's no value in unbelief at all, and unbelief accompanies fear; see, unbelief accompanies fear. When you go to reasoning and wondering, see, then you begin to fear.

I said sometime ago, “If I was in a death cell and was to die in the morning by the governor's estate was putting me to death in the morning, fear wouldn't do me any good at all.”

Lady sitting here sick, I guess, she has a pillow, laying by her. Now, she's a sick person. She has probably come to hear the Word, and maybe to be healed. Now, all the fear you would have, sister, would do you no good at all. Fear has not one value to it, so discard it.

You say, “Well, Brother Branham, if you was going to die in the morning, the governor had done signed your death, what would faith do any good?” Faith can sign my pardon, but fear will never do it, see.

You ... so if fear is no good at all, no value in it, let's discard the thing altogether. And let's have faith and believe God. So it's by faith we know God, not by knowledge.

Now, with all due respect to our great schools, and seminaries, and teaching, and our degrees, and so forth (They're wonderful), but all of those without faith is no good. No matter how much you know of God, you've got to know God personally.

Now, and then when God saw the weakness of man and how that he broke his covenant with him in the garden of Eden.... Then if you notice, God making the covenant, of the coming of Christ, He never included anyone. And He said, “I....” And I is a personal pronoun. “I will put enmity between thy seed and the serpent's seed.” Unconditionally. Do you see it?

Unconditionally, God said, “I will.” In other words, send a savior. Not, “Now, Adam, if you'll do a certain thing out here....” Why, we'd never had a savior, because Adam would have never done it. But He said, “I will.” And when God says, “I will,” it's already done.

Now, I believe that God in the beginning.... Now, I realize I'm in a school, also besides a church, and if my teaching happens to contrary something that's taught here, discard it, see. We don't bring that ... or, say these things for that.

But look, just like eating cherry pie. I love cherry pie, and I imagine I have a lot of sympathizers out there too, or fellow citizens of the same gastronomic feeling. I love cherry pie, but when I'm eating cherry pie when I hit a seed I don't throw the pie away; I throw the seed away.

When I'm eating fried chicken I don't ... when I hit the bone, I don't throw the chicken away; I just throw the bone away. So, you do the same thing when I'm teaching: If it's contrary to your faith, or the Word of God, then just throw that away and take what you think is right. So, that'll be fair enough.

Now, I believe that the.... I do not believe that Satan is a creator. I believe that Satan is a perverter, but not a creator, 'cause God is the only One who can create. And in the beginning when he become a co-partner to God, the Son of the Morning, and so forth, when He walked up and down the fiery brimstone, and so forth that when Satan perverted good to evil.... You know what pervert to do anything.

Married life is of God. The Bible said that married life is of God, the bed is undefiled. But prostitution and illegal, that's perverted. And look at the whole mind of American people, peoples of the world, is gradually becoming so perverted till it's just become.... Even the radio, and television, it's all one big conglomeration of sin, because the hearts of men call for that. Every intention of a man's heart, just like it was before the antediluvian destruction, every desire of man is becoming continually evil.

If I just had a few weeks, I'd like to preach on the second coming of the Lord for two or three nights. And just by the Scriptures, and by scientific proof, can prove to you that we're right at the junction right now. That's right.

I don't know just what time. No one knows, but we're close. And it behooves the church to sit up and take notice to these things. You people that's come so far along the road, be ready, for in an hour that you think not, then He comes. Not in time of poverty stricken, but in a time of plenty, in a time you think not, see, He will come.

Now, notice. God.... When Satan done this evil thing, here's what I think of God: That He knew right then what would be the entire plan that He would use to bring man back to Himself again—when the thing was first produced before the foundation of the world. And if you notice over in Revelations, He said, “The beast that would come upon the earth would deceive all those whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world.” When were they written? From the foundation of the world.

Now, Jesus didn't come to Calvary just for a haphazard thought, “Well, I'll die up there, perhaps maybe somebody will feel sorry for me and come down to get saved.” No, no God don't run His office like that. You don't run your office like that. Jesus come for one specific purpose: that was to redeem those that God foreknew would be redeemed, see.

Now, God's not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. But in order to be God, He had to know ... now, the word predestinate, as is used in Ephesians 1:5, predestinate there isn't a good word. It means.... And speaking of predestination to the people, sometimes leads them to think that God just predestinated you to push you through a little pipe, or something. That's not right. Predestination looks back to foreknowledge. And foreknowledge looks to destiny.

Therefore, God being God before the foundation of the world knew that who would be saved, and who would not. Romans 8, He could say that He hated Esau and loved Jacob before either child was born. For by foreknowledge He knowed what a little shyster that Esau would be, and how He would save Jacob. So therefore, by foreknowledge, God knew those things. See, foreknowledge.

So then, look now I'm basing something. Wish we had about three or four hours on this one subject, but we haven't; we just have to hit the high places. And notice, now by foreknowledge God knew, and He did say that there will be a church.

Now, talking.... Bring it right up to the age of eternal security here. I do believe in eternal security in this way: I believe that the church has eternal security, and as long as you are in the church, you are secured with the church. Do you get it? As long as you are in the church, you are secured with the church. Do you get it?

Now, then how do we get into the church? By joining? No, by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body. Not Methodist, not Baptist, not Pentecostal, but by one Spirit. I Corinthians 12, “We're all baptized into one fellowship.” And in there, as long as we're in this fellowship, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us continually. God, looking through the red (as we had last night), sees you (and it's a red sinner), but sees you white through red.

Then God foreknowing, and there will be ... the church is going to be, whether you are in it or I am in it, it will appear before God without spot or without wrinkle. God has done said so, and that settles it forever. Now He never said, “In this church will be William Branham.” He said, “The church would be there, and she would be a glorious church, washed in the blood, ironed out, and would be without spot or wrinkle.”

Now, it's up to me whether I want to stay in that church or not. He didn't say He would predestinate me, and I'd be sure to be there, but He give me the assurance if I was with this group, I would be there, or if I was in Christ Jesus, which is the bride, I would be there.

Now, that brings us down to election now. Now, God by foreknowledge could set election. Therefore, when He called Abraham.... Who was Abraham? Abraham was no more than any other man. He came down from Babylon with his father, and his wife Sarah, which was his half-sister, and He dwelt in the city of Ur, and the plains, and the valley of Shinar there.

And supposingly, of a morning he went out and picked some berries and eat them, at noon he went into bush and killed meat, and lived a pretty long life, they did in those days, with the way his diet was considered and everything. And they did live a long life.

But notice, Abraham was no different from no one else. But God, by election, called Abraham, for he was no more than anyone else. Now, watch the four patriarchs. Abraham is justification. We could stay two weeks on that. Or, Abraham (I beg your pardon), Abraham is election. Isaac represents justification. Jacob, grace (Anyone knows that); Jacob, grace. And Joseph, perfection. Election, justification, and grace, and perfection. Not an aught against Joseph anywhere.

But now, Abraham was called of God by election, or foreknowledge, knowing that Abraham would walk before God. And that's the only reason tonight, by the same way.... How many Christians are here? Let's see your hands. All over the building everywhere. Why are you a Christian? Because God elected you. Amen.

I hope you see this. God said ... Jesus said, “No man can come to the Father except by Me, and no man cometh unto Me except the Father draws him first.” Is that right?

So, if the Father has drawn you, it's God's foreknowledge of election. “And all that comes unto Me, I will give them everlasting life, and will raise him up at the last day.” God gave the promise. What you worried about?

Now, notice just a moment. Now we see in the election that God, calling Abraham ... and notice the first thing when God calls a man He calls for total separation from the world. “Separate yourself, Abraham,” as soon as he got his call.

Now, here it is. Every Christian in here that's born again, when God called you, called for total separation. If He didn't, you got the wrong call, see.

God doesn't make any difference between His children. Every son that cometh to God must first be tried, or chastised. Do you get it? First be tried, or chastened, corrected, child-trained, schooled, everyone not one exception, every son. Have you went through trials? Have you went through tribulations? Have you suffered persecution? Then you endure these things, you are real children of God.

But when you can't bear chastisement, when the rod comes down heavy and you run off and back into the world, the Bible said, “You're illegitimate children, and not the children of God.” For when a man's born of the Spirit of God, he expects those things, and he loves those things.

And the Bible said that the trials that come upon us, fiery trials, is more precious than gold to us. Think of it.

So, you see these with these ups-and-downs, they've never been there at the first place, see. They're just a make believe. Amen. Salvation is for believers, not unbelievers or make-believers. It's for true genuine believers. And it's not a case of law, and God's going to make you do something, it's because you love to do it.

When I leave my wife to come on this trip, I don't have to say, “Now, looky here Mrs. Branham, you are a married woman. Thou shalt not have any husbands before thee while I am gone. Yeah, thou shalt not do this and do that.”

And she turn right around with the law to me as a married woman and say, “Now, Billy, you'll not have any more wives before you while you're gone.” No, that's not the idea; this is a love affair.

I go to her and I say, “Sweetheart, the Lord calls me to go preach the Gospel.” Kiss her goodbye and say, “Pray for me, honey, God bless you.” Away we go. I don't think nothing about home, and whether she's doing this or that. Neither does she because we love one another.

And as long as we love one another like that, don't worry, it'll be all right. And if I serve Christ just to escape hell, hard to tell what I'll do; but if I love Him.... Oh, I wouldn't do nothing against my poor little old wife for nothing in the world. Bless her heart, I love her. I'd do everything I can to please her.

Sometime I go home from overseas and I'll get a strange little thing, you know a little trinket that she likes. I'll take it to her. I won't say nothing about it for a long time. No, I carry it in my arms, I won't send it by plane 'cause I'm afraid it'd get broke, see. And I love to come to her, and surprise her, say, “Sweetheart, looky here.”

“Oh,” she says, “Billy, my, oh I'm so happy.” See? That makes me feel good, see. I love her.

Now, that's the way you serve God. Not because, “Well, I ought to take my Bible tonight and go down to John's house, he don't know nothing about the Lord. I ought to go down there, but I tell you, oh, Christian life is so hard.” Oh, you don't love God. You've never been born again.

When you love Him, you love to go do something for Him to bring in souls to Him. It isn't a duty, it's a love affair. Amen. I hope that goes way down to the fifth rib on the left side, and anchors there and stays. See it? It's a love affair, you love to do it.

If you love your wife, you love to do something for her. Now, that kind of love, you can't have that same type of love for Jesus. As the Greek words put it, one is called a phileo love, and the other one's agapao love.

Now, phileo love and agapao love (as we've said) is two different things. But when you divinely love Christ, like you love your wife, only it'll be a greater, higher level than this is down here. Oh, don't worry you'll be about the Father's business trying to win souls, and pray for the sick, and do everything you can. Because you love Him, you want to please Him.

Oh, you think, “God I know where there's a fellow that I believe I could lead to You.” And away you'll go, and talk to him in a nice way, “How do you do, John? I want to talk to you tonight about going fishing.”

“Yes.... Oh, I love to fish.”

Talk fishing to him for awhile. Talk about his chickens, or whatever farming he's going to do for awhile, until God opens up the way, and gives you a chance to send home the Gospel. Then when you win that soul, you present it before the Father, like I said I did the little present to my wife. “Here, Father...” with happiness you do it because you love it. Not a duty, but a love. Amen.

Now, Abraham, being an alien, alienated from God like all we sinners. Alienated from God, without hope, without Christ, in the world, sinners by nature. All of us was born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies without one exception. Your father and mother might have been so sainted until they never said a bad word, kept all the laws, went to church, sanctified, holy, and filled with the Holy Spirit, all that God would have for him. And yet you are born in sin.

Everyone that comes to God is born the same way. Everyone comes into the world is born the same way: sexual desire. Only one that was ever born without it, that was our precious Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of Mary.

The blood cell comes from the male, and the male produced the blood cell. And the male this time was a supernatural Being which could not have sexual desire. And God, the Creator, created a blood cell in the womb of Mary that brought forth the Son, Christ Jesus. Do you believe it? Outside of that you're lost, if you don't believe that. There's not a way in the world for you to be saved.

Just recently over in Switzerland, Billy Graham preached just before me in Switzerland. He had one afternoon, and I had the next afternoon. I began.... He only had one service. And I've always respected Billy Graham as a true servant of God.

And there, while he was preaching, and they have the Zwingli doctrine. And Zwingli did not believe in the virgin birth. Zwingli said that Jesus was the son of Joseph called the Son of God, but actually the sexual contact was between Mary and Joseph. That knocks every foundation out from under Christianity, and makes it no more than Buddhism, or Mohammedanism, or anything else. He was virgin born, the Son of the living God. And Billy certainly didn't hold back any punches, but expressed it in that way, that He was Emmanuel, God with us in this day. When they lower Christ to just a prophet, or a good man, or something like that, it makes the righteous indignation stand up in a man.

The people say, “Oh He was a philosopher. He was a teacher. Oh, He was a prophet.” He was God! He was nothing short of God. If He wasn't God, you're lost.

It was Emmanuel's veins that our sins was plunged by when we plunged beneath His. If He was a prophet, He was a good man. He was none other than the virgin-born Son, created, born of the living God. And God Jehovah dwelt in Him, reconciling the world to Himself. Amen. So, He was more than a man.

Some Christian Science woman told me not long ago she said, “Reverend Branham, you put so much emphasis upon Jesus being so divine.” Said, “If I prove to you He wasn't divine, will you believe it?”

And I said, “If the Bible said so, I would believe it. Cause that's my stay the Word of God, and prove all things by it.

And she said, “Well, if I prove it by the Bible He wasn't divine will you accept it?”

I said, “If the Bible said so, then it's true.”

And she said, “All right. In Saint John the 11th chapter when He went down to the grave of Lazarus, the Bible said, 'He wept.'”

I said, “What's that got to do with it.”

She said, “Well, He was a man. He was mortal, and He wept.”

I said, “Yes, but He was a God-man.” I said, “When He went to the grave of Lazarus weeping, He was a man. But when He pulled His little frame together, and stood there, and said, 'Lazarus come forth,' and a man that had been dead four days, and stinking.... That was more than a man speaking. That was God speaking through His Son Christ Jesus.” Amen.

He was a man, when He come down off the mountain hungry, and wanting something to eat. Yes, sir, He was a man, when He was hungry. But when He taken five biscuits and two pieces of fish and fed five thousand, that was more than a man. That was a God, in Christ Jesus His Son, proving what He was.

He was a man when He laid on the back of that boat that night out on a stormy sea, like the bottle stopper flipped up and down in the storms when ten thousand devils of the sea swore they'd drown Him. When He was asleep, and tired, and virtue had gone out of Him, He was a man laying there asleep. But when He rose, and put His foot on the brail of the boat, said, “Peace be still.” And the winds and waves obeyed Him, that was more than a man speaking there, that was God speaking through His Son, Christ Jesus.

He was a man when He called for mercy at the cross dying a mortal's death. Dying not only a mortal's death, but a sinner's death. Our sins was upon Him, and He went to hell for us and carried our sins away as a scapegoat. But when He was hanging there at the cross, and He was crying for mercy, and He died like a man, but on Easter morning He broke the seals of the tomb, and rose again. He proved He was God.

No wonder the poet said:

Living, He loved me; dying He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever:

Someday He's coming—oh, glorious day.

That's the hope of the Christian. No wonder Eddie Perronett could say:

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.

Yes, sir. That's He.

Now, He was the One back there in the bosom of the Father, the Logos that went out of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And He was with Abraham. He was the God of Abraham. He was the One that was in the bush with Moses, and so forth.

Now, notice when God called Abraham, He called for total separation. “Separate yourself from your kinsmen. Separate from your father's house. Separate from all your associates. And completely annihilate yourself from all these things, and walk with Me.” What a privilege it is, when a man's being called like that. How happy a real Christian is to separate himself. Amen. Separate yourself.

And He said, “Abraham, besides all this I (not 'if you will') I am, I've already settled it. And I'm going to make a covenant with you now, Abraham. And I'm going to make you an heir to the world and all the nations. You'll be the father of every nation. And I'm going to make a covenant with you and your seed. You're coming to be in an old age. There's no doubt about it. And you're going to do a great work for Me. And besides, I'm going to give you a child by Sarah, your wife through him all nations shall be blessed.”

Oh, I go to talking about that, you just feel Something moving you: the Holy Spirit. “I will,” not “if you will,” but “I will.” Then if the covenant He made with man in the garden of Eden, without any strings attached to it—He would send a Saviour—God is obligated to do it, and He did it. And if that covenant was perfectly fulfilled, so will the covenant God give Abraham and his seed unconditionally will be fulfilled, as certain as Jesus Christ come to the earth to fulfill what God had said do. It's got to be. So, what are we worried about?

There's no need.... The Christian people seem to be backed in the corner, “Oh, I'm afraid.” What's you afraid about? Why you ought be the most freest people in the world.

“Well, Brother Branham, when I get in the Millennium....” I ain't waiting for the Millennium; I am right now.

We are now the sons and daughters of God. We're sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When? Right now, present tense. Every man, or woman, or boy, or girl, that's been borned again of God, and received the Holy Spirit is sitting in heavenly places. When as many as two or three are gathered, Christ promised to be in the midst. Amen.

When you.... Now some people goes by feeling. I'm not saved because I feel like I'm saved. The devil can beat you around the stump every day on that. But I'm not saved because I feel like I'm saved, I'm saved because I met God's requirements. God called me, and I accepted it, and by faith I believe it. Whether I feel good, whether I feel like it or not, I am anyhow, because God said so.

Accepting your healing, lady. It ain't how you feel, it's what you believe.

Jesus never did say, “Did you feel it?” He said, “Did you believe it?” Amen. Based solemnly upon the finished works of Christ at Calvary, every redemptive blessing belongs to the believer.

When you become a Christian, God gives you a checkbook in there with Jesus' name signed at the bottom of it for anything you got need of while you're in life's journey. Are you afraid to cash it? Amen. Fill it out, and send it to the headquarters, and see what God will do about it. Amen.

“Well, if I knowed there was deposit enough.” His blood is sufficient. For what? He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, with His stripes we were healed. It's already deposited at Calvary. And sickness is an attribute of sin, and when you touch sin, you've got to touch sickness. Amen.

The same word saved is translated both ways. The word comes from the Greek word, sozo. See? That when.... He said to the woman that touched the hem of His garment, “Thy faith has sozoed thee, saved thee,” physically or spiritually, either word. Both words are just ... every time it means saved by the soul it means saved by the body. You're physically saved, or spiritually saved. You're saved from your sickness, or you're saved from eternal separation. And it's all done by the finished works of Christ at Calvary. Amen. There you are. Hallelujah!

Oh, that's enough to make a Baptist shout, isn't it? When you think of it: already finished. What's finished? Our complete ticket all the way to Glory. It was wrote out at Calvary in the blood of Jesus. And God calls you, how? You never called God, God called you. And He accepted you, and He gave you the ticket. Hallelujah! Just on our road, that's all.

We could stand now and all sing:

I am bound for the promise land,

Who will come and go with me?

I'm bound for the promised land.

You've sung it, no doubt at all. Great old song of the church. Certainly, all fear is done gone.

Jesus constantly, “Fear not, fear not. I am He that was dead, and alive forevermore. Fear not, fear not. I am with thee always, even to the end of the world. Fear not.” And the Christian keeps sitting there, “Oh, I just wonder.” Oh, my! Turn loose. Amen.

Get all the things away from you, say, “Mr. Satan, you are defeated. Jesus Christ stripped you of every power you had when He died at Calvary, and you're nothing but a bluff. And you can't bluff me.” Amen.

“I'm made out of that stuff that don't bluff. That's what come from Calvary. Hallelujah! Don't bluff it, go don't receive it. So, just step aside, I'm moving on for Christ.” Amen. You can see the red light go over the hill where he left. Amen. That's right. God will take care of His own, and all things work together for good to them that love Him. It moves on.

Now, to Abraham.... Abraham was seventy-five years old. Now, some of you elderly brothers and sisters here think, “Well, if I was a young man or woman tonight, I'd believe I'd try it.” Oh, no. It don't come that way in the first place: “Try it.” Just come take it that's all, it's yours. If God knocks at your heart, it's time. He knows His own. “My sheep hear My voice.”

And He said to Abraham.... Sarah was sixty-five and Abraham was seventy-five, and now the old man went along testifying, saying they was going to have a baby. Could you imagine what would take place today if something like that? Now, father Abraham, living today, seventy-five years old, and his little toddling wife, Sarah, they'd go down to the doctor to make arrangements for the baby to be born; you know what they'd say? “The old man's slipped up here in his mind,” see. “There's something wrong with him.” Sure it is, there's something wrong. He's lost his fear, and believes God by faith, and that's exactly. That's a good thing to get wrong with you. Isn't that right?

People have said one time said, “Billy, you sling your arms, and you act like a soap salesman, or something.” Said, “My goodness the way....”

I said, “Well, I'm happy.”

Why, said, “You'll be crazy.”

I said, “Then let me alone. I'm more happier crazy than I am the other way. So just leave me alone.”

When you can believe the Word of God, it's foolishness to the thing ... to the world, but it's eternal life to everyone that believeth. Amen.

The church needs some vitamins. It has become anemia. Its nerve system is run down. Now, I tell you, God's got a whole storehouse full of vitamin here. Yes, sir. It'll beat all they got in the drugstore. Just accept them spiritual vitamins, and it'll build you up, a peculiar people, a holy nation. Amen. Certainly.

Notice then, and when he got the promise, the Bible said in Romans 4 that Abraham was strong in faith giving praise to God. I could hear him go back and say, “Sarah, I just talked to God, and He told us we was going to have a baby. And the first thing we ought to do is go down and get some Birdseye, some pins, and get everything ready, because the baby's coming. The Lord said so.”

That's the way to believe it. That's the way to believe. Every man that says, ... a person that's sick, like the sick lady here, say, “Hallelujah.” Sister, take my pillow over there. God said so, if I could believe it, and I do believe that I'll be healed. Make ready for it. Amen. Get everything ready, get set, for time comes, you're going to receive it. God said so.

So, I can see Abraham when they got everything ready, and all the little booties, and everything they had to have for the baby. And her being sixty-five years old, forty, fifty, sixty, about twenty-five years past menopause, been living with her since she was about eighteen years old, him seventy-five years old, been living with her all this time, no children. But God said, “You're going to have it anyhow.”

Abraham believed God. He never thought it was reasonings. He never thought of ... well, now the mind reasons, but faith believes anyhow. Faith don't look ... the Bible said that he, against hope, he believed in hope. When there was not even a hope, he still believed anyhow. And it was imputed to him for righteousness.

And if you haven't got that kind of faith, you're not Abraham's seed. You say, “Are we Abraham's seed, to receive from?” Yes, sir. “Should we believe like Abraham did?” Yes, sir. Why?

The real seed of Abraham does. You say, “Well, he was talking about Jews.” Oh, no.

The Bible said, “If we be in Christ, we take on Abraham's seed, and are heirs according to the promise.”

How do you get in Christ, by joining a church? No. By Holy Ghost baptism, you're inducted into the body of Christ, and you're Abraham's seed. And you're heir of the same promise that was give to Abraham is give to his seed. Amen. Say, brother, that gets the devil in a tight spot: Just place the Word down on him.

Jesus, with all the qualities of ... well, the Father was in Him. With all of His power, with all of His signs, and everything He had in Him, He didn't use one of them to defeat Satan. He took the Father's Word and defeated Satan.

Satan said, “If Thou be the Son of God, perform a miracle here, let me see You do it.” That old devil still lives. “Let me see You do something. Heal old man Jones down here. Let me see You do it.”

Jesus said, “It's written that man shall not live by bread alone.” He knowed He hadn't met Moses right then. So He took Him upon ... upon ... said, “Now, it's written in the Scriptures....” He quoted Scriptures, or coated, you know, like icing over a cake.

I heard a preacher say today, “Just coated it.” There's a lot of difference between “coating” and “quoting.” So, He quoted the Scriptures for him.

He said, “It is written, 'Angels give charge concerning thee, lest at any time, thou dash thy foot against a stone.'” He never dashed His foot against a stone. He said, “...bear thee up.”

And He said, “And it's also written.” Amen. And He took the Father's Word, and defeated Satan right on his ground.

What did he do? He was proving to the weakest of Christian that you can defeat Satan anywhere, anytime on the plain Word of God. Just take it and say, “Thus saith the Lord, it's written.”

That takes all the cowardness out of the church. Takes the wishbone out, and puts a backbone in there. People say, “I wish I had.” What you wishing about? No wishing. God promised it, and it's so.

We get a meeting stirred like that, we could have a healing service get started, when you get some ... when you take that old wish, “I wish I could, I wish....” No wishing, nothing about it. God gave the promise and that settles it. When God says anything, it's wrote in heaven and that makes it good forever. Amen. Oh, my. I feel religious, sure enough. I feel like a shouting Baptist.

Notice. Brother, if the Word of God won't bring life, there's something wrong. That's the seed. The seed just has to go in the right kind of ground, it'll produce life. Yes, sir.

You know that as being farmers here in this lovely state of South Dakota. Only thing you have to do is put the wheat in the ground. You don't have to go out every morning, dig it up, and look at it, and say, “Let's see if ... well, that wheat ain't no good.” Put it back in and the next morning, “I'll try it again.” Uh-uh, it ain't sprouted, it ain't no good.“ You'll never have a crop as long as you do that.

That's the way it is, saying, “Now let me see if my hand's any better. No, no.” Then, the next morning, “Well, we'll try it again.” Go next night be prayed for. “No—no—no, it's not no better.” You'll never get healed.

What do you do? You put the wheat in the ground, and commend it to God, and it's God's duty to see that it raises. That's the way you do the seed of God.

Listen to me, the right mental attitude towards any divine promise of God will bring it to pass. I don't care what it is, if you can get the right mental attitude towards the promise. For His promise.... “Every word of God....” Jesus said, “The Word is the seed.” And every seed is a promise in there. And if you can just take them seeds into your heart, no matter what it's for, God will honor it, and it'll bring forth just exactly what it promised. Oh, my.

Abraham got everything ready. First month passed, he thought, “It'll sure happen this time. Sarah, how are you feeling?”

“No different.”

“Well, hallelujah. You're going to have the baby anyhow.”

Second month passed, “How are you feeling, Sarah?”

“No different.”

“Hallelujah, you're going to have it anyhow.”

First year passed, “Sarah, ain't you feeling a little better this year? You're sixty-six now; any different?”

“Not a bit, Abraham.”

“Glory, we're going to have it.”

“Abraham, what do you think?”

“Because God said so.”

“Well, what are you shouting about?”

“Well, if it comes this year, it'll be a greater miracle than it was last year: it's one year older.” Amen.

But we call ourselves the seed of Abraham, we don't get everything we want right now, we say, “Oh, well maybe I forgot I ever done it.” Oh, you little petty thing you. You've been Gospel petted. That's right.

Come out, and take it like men and women say, “God I believe You.” That might sound burly and sassafras. But brother, it'll sure do you good. That's right.

I was a little boy; we used to have to.... We lived so poor, mama use to take meat skins and boil them in a pan ... or, put them in the oven—old bacon skins we'd get from the store, ten cents for a sackful about that high. And that's how we got the lard. And they'd put that in the corn bread when we made our corn pone. And we'd have that and black-eyed peas, and sorghum molasses was about all we had the year 'round.

And then we, in that ... the diet wasn't so good, so every Saturday us little kids would all have to take a bath, in the same tub (just pour a little hot water into it, and take the next one); and then everyone take a dose of castor oil. Honest, I've taken so much castor oil, I can't stand to smell it today. And every time I go.... I don't say that for a joke. This is not a joking place; this is the pulpit. And so when I'd go to my mama and I'd said, “Mama, it just makes me so sick I can't stand it.”

She'd say, “Son, if it don't make you sick, it don't do you any good.” That's right.

And this is the way with preaching the Word, if it don't stir up your gastronomical digesting orders of the Gospel, it don't do you no good. If we're Abraham's seed, then let's act like it. Amen.

Here sometime ago down in the South, where they have slaves, and they was buying slaves—fellows was going around buying slaves. And there was a farm had about a hundred slaves, and there's a buyer came by one day, and he found all of them.... You know, they brought them from the Boors, brought them for ... the Dutch, from Africa, and brought them over here and sold them for slaves. And they'd whip them and everything, cause they was homesick, and they'd never go home no more, and see their loved ones, and they were all disheartened. They'd have to whip them and make them work, and so forth.

And one day there was a young fellow would walk around, didn't have to whip him. Brother, he had his chin sticking out, and his shoulders back, they didn't have to whip him. He was right on the job for anything. So, a buyer come by and said, “I'd like to buy that slave.”

He said, “He's not for sale.”

He said, “Well, what makes him so much more gallant than the rest of them?” Said, “Perhaps he's the boss over the rest of them.”

Said, “No, he's just a slave.”

He said, “Maybe you feed him just a little better than you do the rest of them.”

He said, “No, I don't feed him. They all eat together.”

He said, “What makes him so much different—up and ready the way he is—and the rest of them so puny like?”

He said, “Well, I'll tell you, I didn't know that myself, until I found out that he was the son of the king of the tribe. Though he's an alien over here, he keeps his chin high, acts brave to keep the morale of the rest of them up.”

And I thought, “O, God,” when I read that story, “how we are Christians, we're alienated from our Father, we're in a world of sin, but let's walk and behave ourselves like Christian gentlemen and Christian ladies.”

Let's be up and at our Father's business, believing everything God says, and acting on the same. Let men and women act like Christians, and live like Christians, and be like Christians, support the young fellows that's coming on. Amen.

[Blank spot on tape.] ... years passed, “Sarah how do you feel?”

“No different.”

Abraham said, “Praise God, we're going to have it anyhow.”

Well, he got to a place to where he was about a hundred years old; twenty-five years had passed. “Sarah, what about it now?”

“No different.”

“Oh, glory to God, we're going to have it anyhow.”

God promised. The Bible said, “He got ... he was strong in faith, giving praise to God.”

Now, if we don't get just what we ask for spontaneously, why then, there's nothing to it, we walk back. That shows we're not seed of Abraham. Abraham waited twenty-five years, and was stronger at the end of the twenty-five years believing he was going to receive it, than he did the day God told him about it. But we can't wait from one day to the other one. “Oh, well. God, You prove it to me.” Oh, my. What a weakling we are.

You say, “Well, God promised Abraham.” He promised you too. You're the seed of Abraham. If you're in Christ, you're the seed of Abraham. And every promise was to Abraham is unto you. Amen. Do you see it? Not because you did this, because you joined church, but because God by foreknowledge elected you and called you to Jesus, and you accepted it.

A great good Baptist brother of mine (I was raised among them), a very fine fellow said to me not long ago, he said, “Brother Branham, what more can....” He said, “Do you believe that you receive the Holy Ghost like you did years ago at Pentecost?”

I said, “Yes, sir. Peter said, 'The promise is unto you and to your children and them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.'” I said, “You can't rub that out, brother; that's the Scripture.”

And he said, “Well, you don't mean the same Holy Ghost.”

I said, “There's not two of them, there's only one.” That's right.

I said, “Jesus said a little while and the world will see no more ... Me no more, yet you shall see Me for I will be with you.” I is a personal pronoun. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. “I will be with you, in you.” Christ promised to be in us unto the end of the age. Anybody knows that who reads the Scripture.

Notice, and it's the same Holy Spirit. He said, “Brother Branham, we receive the Holy Ghost when we believe.”

I said, “No, no. unh-uh. No, no.” I said, “You receive eternal life when you believe, but not the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, 'He that heareth My words, and believeth on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, but the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of the believers.'” I said, “You Baptists get that in your mind, and I'll go with you on eternal security.” That's right.

He said, “Well, when we believe, we receive the Holy Ghost.”

I said, “When Paul met a bunch of Baptists up in Acts 19....” Apollos, his converts, which was a convert to John the Baptist. He said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? Since ye have believed?'“

They said, “Well, we know not whether there be any Holy Ghost.”

Said then, “How was you baptized?” Amen.

They were Baptists, and had believed and had joy, but had never received the Holy Ghost, see. Baptized into the body of Christ, the believers. Amen. Then is when we have fellowship one with the other. You know, in the Baptist, no matter what church you come from, you've got to be baptized into the Baptist fellowship, because they believe that one baptism is “water.” But one baptism is Spirit. Amen. The Holy Ghost baptism. Yes, sir. For by one Spirit we're all baptized, not one water, one Spirit into one body. Amen. Oh, my! How I love Him.

Now, he said ... one day when he was about a hundred years old, God called him out, said, “Abraham, I'm going to confirm this oath to you; you've believed Me for twenty-five years that this divine healing case was going to happen.” It was a divine healing; we ain't got time to get to it tonight, but tomorrow night, God willing, I'll prove it to you, it was divine healing. All right. I can prove to you the glory of God's divine healing.

Notice. He said, “Here I'm going to show you what I'm going to do, and confirm it forever with you, Abraham.” And He called him out. He said, “Now, I want you to go get a she goat of three years old. I want you to get a heifer of three years old. And I want you to get a ram....” Notice the two females and the male, we'll pick that up maybe, if we don't get to it tonight, tomorrow night. “And two turtle... a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

And Abraham took them.... Now watch, friends. Here's where He was going to show him how that He was going to do this, and make him the father of nations, and confirm the oath to him forever. How was it going to be confirmed? Now, it's a shadow. Now, watch it close.

And he took the she goat and split her open. He took the heifer and split it open. He took the ram and split it open, but the turtledove and the pigeon he did not cleave. Did you notice it? Why? Anyone who reads the Bible knows that's the offering for healing was the turtledove or pigeon: cleansing, and so forth. Which God changed dispensations from law to grace, but He never changed the thing by faith. Never did offering a certain thing ever make it so, a divine healing case, but it was faith that did it.

And the dove was not clave apart, but the animal, showing the difference between them, that there would be a time that law would change to grace, and so forth, grace was first. And grace had already provided a Saviour down in Egypt. They already had a Moses to deliver them out. They already had a sacrifice. They already had everything, but where Israel made her final, fatal move is in Exodus 19, where she taken on, and wanted law, and rejected grace. That's right.

Grace is always right, not law (what you do), it's what you believe. It isn't works, lest any man should boast. It's by grace are you saved through faith.

And notice. Then when He gave him this promise and Abraham.... Now, I want you to notice: God told Abraham to do this, and he laid each piece out, and then he watched it, and kept the birds off of it until the sun was going down.

Now, listen close while we're getting ready to close. Watched it until the sun was going down, and when Abraham, when it got towards sundown, a deep sleep fell on Abraham. What was it? God say, “Now, Abraham, My son, I'm going to show you that it's not going to be nothing that you have to do. I'm going to do it anyhow. I'm determined to save men, regardless.”

And God's going to do it, by grace He will do it. Oh, when I think of that, it just makes me want to scream. I think, “Oh, nothing I could do, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What have I got to offer? Nothing. My utmost righteousness to Yours would be filthy rags in His sight. I'm a sinner to begin with, and there's nothing I can do about it.” But something He could do. He took His Son's blood and covered it over me like that. So, He sees me a righteous man, because His Son's blood made me righteous.

Notice quickly, and as He watched, a deep sleep, and a horror fell upon him. And notice, he went into, as it was, a nightmare, death. That's due every sinner, every sinner is subject to death, and deserves it because he is a sinner. He deserves death, that great horror.

Now, watch in these shadows now how God was showing Christ at Calvary. What He was going to do through Abraham's seed, where the covenant would be confirmed through Isaac, and through Isaac come Christ, and what he did at Calvary with Christ. Draw it in a picture now, for our time's getting short, I can't hit every place.

Notice, and first thing that every man has nothing to do with it; God taken Abraham plumb out of his senses. That's right. He was asleep. And then a horrible fear, dread come on him. That's death due to everyone. And then he looked towards the sacrifice, and when he did, he saw a smoking furnace. Every sinner deserves to go to hell. That's right.

And then he noticed beyond that went a little white light; that's the Shekinah glory. And they went right in between every piece of this animal. God writing His covenant to Abraham, what he would do with the final ram up yonder, with the final ram of God, which we'll get to tomorrow night, the Lord willing, and prove that that was Christ slain from the foundation of the world, (that little male, that little ram) and went between them. And there He confirmed the covenant to Abraham, that through Abraham's seed, that was Isaac, that He'd raised up Jesus Christ and He would die yonder at Calvary. Watch Isaac in Genesis 22 go right straight up the hill (the same place Jesus went, packing His wood and everything, and was the sacrifice), just like the sacrifice back here; and there He confirmed the oath to Abraham, and gave him the promise that he and his seed after him, you and I.

Now, look in the Old Testament (Now, this may be shocking, just a few minutes.) in the Old Testament how they confirmed an oath. Here's the way in China, or Japan, down in there, they have some funny things in Japan. When they go to make an oath.... Now, when we make a covenant with one another, what would we do? If I'd say, “Brother pastor, I tell you what I'll do: Let's me and you meet down in Korea next week. What do you say?” I'd do like this, I'd say, “Let's shake,” see. That's a covenant, that's an agreement. That's the way we do it here in America, that's our covenant. “Let's shake.” That's a covenant.

In Japan we make a covenant with one another, we have a box of salt. And I just take some and throw it on my man; that's covenant with me. And he takes some and throws it back on me. That's the way you make a covenant.

But, listen if you ever go to the Orient, this is a brand new Book to you. It was a new book to me when I went to the Orient. This is not a Western book; we understand it from the Western knowledge, but it's all together different when you hit the East where it was wrote at. It's a different book altogether. It's not wrote for Western knowledge. It was given for Eastern.

And then when we find out there in the time of Abraham, how they made a covenant; here's the way they made a covenant: Two men would come together and take a piece of paper and draw up a covenant. Write it up, such-and-such, and so-and-so. I thought maybe I'd find a little piece of paper, I guess this.... Will this be all right to tear this little piece ... [Brother says, “Go right ahead.”] All right, here it is.

We would write out on this piece of paper, “I'll do a certain-certain thing,” each one of us. All right, that's agreed. We both sign our names to it. All right, I tear it in two and give him a piece, and I take a piece. And doing that, we're standing right in between a dead body. We take a animal, (Pardon me.) we take a animal and kill it, shed its blood, and cut it in two. And then we lay the animal down, and we stand right in between the dead pieces of this animal, and say, “Let us be as this dead animal, if we break our covenant.”

That's what God did. That's what God did at Calvary. He brought His Son. Now, when we come together no other piece of paper will dovetail with that. It couldn't do it, see.

I have to have the same piece of paper when we come together, each piece of paper has to hit just like that and make it perfect. We have to, that's our covenant over a dead beast.

And that's how God did at Calvary; He brought Jesus Christ to the earth. Do you believe that? And He took Him up to Calvary in the antitype of what He did to Abraham, and there God killed Him at Calvary. And He tore His body apart from His soul, and He set up the body upon His right hand, and sent back the Holy Spirit that was tore out of Jesus at Calvary.

Just like the mantle of Elisha that come up on ... or, Elijah upon Elisha. And the Holy Ghost that was in Christ came out of Him, God tore it away from Him at Calvary, and took the body up on high, and sent the Holy Ghost back here on earth. And the only way that covenant will ever be confirmed, when we've got the same baptism of the Holy Ghost that Jesus had. It'll have to dovetail with Pentecost. Hallelujah! That's the covenant of the living God.

And you men who are shallow and would teach church joining, and something like that to take the place of that covenant, it'll never dovetail with Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Let the Spirit that was in Christ be in you, which was the Holy Ghost.

He said, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”

She said, “Yes.” The mother of the children.

Said, “Can you be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?”

Said, “Yes, I can do it.”

He said, “You will.”

Elijah being a type of the church, and Elisha ... I mean, Elijah the type of Christ. And Elisha the type of the church, the young and old. As they went forth from place to place, and finally come to Jordan, when they crossed over he said, “What will you that I do?”

He said, “That a double portion of your spirit come upon me.” Hallelujah!

Oh, the trouble today, we got too many spiritual cross-eyed children—church members. One eye on the world and one on Calvary.

You'll stumble as sure as the world. Let your eyes be set straight on Calvary, and look close. Could you imagine Elisha taking his eyes off of Elijah? Certainly not. He kept his eyes right on him like that. “If you see me when I go away, you'll get what you ask for.” He watched him.

And when the chariot of fire come down and picked him up, Elijah took off his mantle, and throwed it back, and Elisha took that same mantle and done a double portion with it. Elijah done eight, and he done sixteen. Hallelujah! A very type of Christ.

He said, “These things that I do, greater than this shall you do, or more than this shall you do, for I go to My Father.”

And when God made the covenant with Christ, Christ made it with the church, and the same Holy Ghost was on Christ will have to be in the church or it won't go in the rapture.

He doesn't have a freak body.

There won't be one piece of it hanging this way, and one hanging this way, called Methodist, and one Baptist, one Presbyterian, one Pentecostal. It'll all be the Holy Ghost Spirit that was in Christ Jesus will be in the church. It'll rapture it, and it'll go right straight to its place, and God's covenant people will go into the rapture. Hallelujah!

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can wash away all sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

No Pentecostal, no Baptist, no Presbyterian, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah!

Don't get scared. Hallelujah means “Praise our God.” He's worthy of every bit of it. Oh, my. Have we got time for one more quotation? Listen.

After He done that, Abraham had faith more. And watch him in the 17th chapter, He appears to him in the name of El Shaddai, the Almighty. Said, “Abraham, I am El Shaddai. I am the Almighty, the all sufficient God.”

Now, let's break this down now. You women, and little girls, and all understand me as your brother. El Shaddai means “the breast.” Shaddai is the woman; the shad, the breast. And El Shaddai is in the plural, which means “He is the breasted God.”

“I am El Shaddai, Abraham. You're a hundred years old now.” Think of it. Said, “But I am the breasted One.”

Like the mother: When the little baby is sick and fretting, the mother takes the little baby up in her arms and nurses it and the little baby draws its strength from the mother.

And that's the way, He said, “Abraham, your strength is dried up. You're a hundred years old, but I am your strength, Abraham.”

Now watch, not just breast God, but the breasted God. “He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed.” Amen. The breasted God.

See it? Pull Him up. If you're sick, come over here. By His stripes you were healed. If you're weary and heavy laden, come over here. Not only does a baby draw from its mothers breast, but it's satisfied while it's a drawing. The little baby just lays up there, and he quietens him. You get all nervous and flusterated about where you're going to spend eternity, just come to El Shaddai. If you're sick and have need, just come to El Shaddai. He is the breasted One. Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, O Jesus, You're still El Shaddai. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins. For He was wounded for our transgressions, by His stripes we were healed. Down beneath upon the earth bathing, come striped blood, come salvation blood. The same from the same man, the same Immanuel bled, wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed. And there is the fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins. Every promise is ours, Lord.

O God, back before the foundation of the world, did You see some of these people here tonight? Did You ordain them to everlasting life? They have never accepted You yet and You've never become their Saviour? Have they seen the fountain? Have they seen the covenant of God in that Holy Spirit knocking at their heart now? Let them know that that is You. This is the time. This is when faith cometh by hearing. Hearing the Word, and the Word maketh alive.

I pray, Father, tonight that You'll draw each one to Thy breast, Lord. May some young man here, some young woman, who's all tore up in this frantic age that we're living in, a age of luxury, a age of sin, and hatred, and God despising. The age where people have a form of godliness, and would deny the power thereof. You said they would do it. You said, “From such turn away.”

And maybe there's some here tonight that's done no more than just joined church, come in because their mother went to church. They have never been borned again. You said, “From such turn away.” Let them come to the real fountain, and be washed and cleansed in the blood. Let them come to the nursing place, where they can receive strength and become ministers and workers of the Gospel. Maybe there's some here that's sick, and weak, and needy, Lord. They're Christians. Satan has shot his arrows, they've connected and it went over the top of their shield of faith, and anchored, but Thou art the great Doctor.

Come, Lord Jesus, and remove the dart, pour in the soothing healing oil, and bandage it up by the Word. And may they go out of here tonight well. Grant it, Lord. Thou art El Shaddai, the breasted One, the breasted God, the life giver, the nourisher, the sustainer of life, the all sufficient One.

We pray that You'll grant it to every person here, Father, this night. And while we have our heads bowed, and the sister will give us a chord on the piano: “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood,” if you will, sister.

I wonder if (while your heads bowed, Christians, praying): Is there one here tonight who really never has knowed what it is to really receive strength from God? Never knows what it is to say, “O God, thou art mine. I've wandered far away. I've done many things, but really tonight I see the truth; I see that it was Jesus that did all this for me. And I've never been borned again. I might of joined church; maybe I did, or maybe I did not.”

Church joining doesn't mean nothing at all. That's reformation, that's to reform. We're not reformers, we're Gospel preachers. You got cops out here, and policemen you pay to reform, schools of reform, but we preach the Gospel. To them that's predestinated, or foreknown by God to eternal life, “My sheep hear My voice.”

Will you now raise your hand to God, and say, “God by this uplifted hand I believe tonight, every word that's been said, and me in my condition, I now come to Thee and ask for pardoning grace.”

Will you raise your hand just now, raise it up high say....

God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. God bless you. That's right. Someone else raise your hand say, “By this uplifted hand, I now accept Jesus. I now want to know what it is to move up to God, and get strength.” Will you raise your hand?

I want you to raise.... God bless you, young lady. That's very fine. Three right here on the front row now coming to Christ. A little fellow in the back coming to Christ.

Will you come right now? God sees your hand. He knows all about you. Will you put up your hand just now to God while nobody looks but just the Holy Spirit and I.

......fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel's veins,

When sinners plunge beneath the flood....

Will you come right now? By faith, I plunge beneath the flood. I bring myself to Calvary right now. The wind blowing, the blood splattering out of the Son of God. Look, the world rejected Him. He didn't die on the earth, neither did He die in heaven. He died between heavens and earth, He was God's sacrifice. He couldn't go to heaven, He had our sins.

The earth wouldn't have Him because He was the Son of God. He didn't even have a place to die. They lifted Him up that every sinner might see, and all that's called to eternal life will come, and none of them will be lost. Is this your night? Will you raise your hand to God say, “God by this uplifted hand I now want to receive Jesus. I now believe.”

God bless you, lady. God bless you, my sister. God bless you, my sister. That's good. That's another one. That's about five or six. Will someone else raise their hand?

What did Jesus say? “He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life. And shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life.”

What made you raise your hand? God did it. He's talking to others in here. You've been in my meetings, you've seen the discernment of spirit. So, you realize by God's grace what I'm speaking of. That's the reason I said there's others here. Won't you raise your hand to God right now? One more call. God bless you, sonny. That's good. The Lord be with you.

Somebody up in the balcony raise your hand say, “God by this up lifted hand I now accept Jesus. I want Him to come to my heart, be a real Saviour. Give me the faith of Abraham. I'm getting tired dilly-dallying around with ... just making out like I'm a Christian. I'm miserable.” Sure you are.

Come where's it's a pleasure to live Christ. Come into the Shekinah glory. Come into the inner courts, let the veils drop behind you like it did on Aaron the high priest. That's the inward, hidden life. Then you'll live victorious. Won't you come by raising your hand saying, “I pledge this to God.” Pastor will make an altar call just in a moment.

All you that raises your hand I want you to come to the altar, and kneel down and pray, have a word of prayer. You've already accepted Him (that's good), but I want you to pray too. Will you come?

Now, one more verse. Then when we sing this verse, I want you to make up your mind; every Christian, pray hard now. There's at least two more people here that should raise up their hands to come to Christ this night.

I want you to pray. I'm not a person to come down from the platform. If the Holy Spirit can't talk to you, what good's it going to do for me to come down there, see. I'm praying now. All right.

E'er since by faith I saw the stream,

Thy flowing wounds supply....

Will you come now upon the basis of His flowing wounds? Raising your hand way back in the back there. “I now want to believe. Brother Branham, I now accept Christ with all my heart. By God's grace I'll live for Him as long as I'm on this earth.” Won't you come?

Lose all their guilty stains,

(Just one little stain holding you back.

.....all (What is that stain? Unbelief.)

...........guilty stain.

When sinners plunge beneath the flood,

Lose all their guilty stain.

With your heads bowed, and the piano, if they will, continue on, and the organ. Thank you, sisters.

How many here hasn't received the Holy Ghost since you have believed? Would you raise your hand say, “It's me, Brother Branham.” God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

Right now is a good time to do it. Right now, this may be the very hour, God calling you. Right now is the time, will you come and receive the Holy Ghost? How many sick and needy? I know one lady sitting here at the pillow. Someone else, raise your hand. Now, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I pray tonight for every sinner. The children, God, I ask that You'll bless them. Heal the sick tonight, dear God. Heal this poor woman sitting here crying. May this be the most glorious time of her life. May she come right now by faith, and be healed. Bring those who are sick in their soul, Lord, knows that they are not right. Many are kneeling at the altar. God, I pray that in Jesus' name that You'll send others.

Will you come, kneel around the altar like these two women, and them? Will you just come, you who are seeking God? Would you come kneel at the altar just now while we sing once more ... or, play once more? Without even asking them to the altar, at this time they come anyhow.

If you don't believe He's El Shaddai ... I mean, if you do believe it in your heart. If you don't believe it, don't come. But if you're willing to come, come watch what He does for you. He'll give you everything you got need of, if you'll just come right now the way you are, and come and accept it. God bless you. That's right. That's right. That's good.

Just As I Am: now one time, sister, if you will.

While we continue in prayer just a moment, we're going to sing one time:

Just as I am without one plea,

That Thy blood was shed for me.

You say, “Brother Branham, what makes you hold that altar call like that?” Oh, brother, I want to preach on hell one of these nights, what I know of it, of the Bible. And what hideous sights the demons are, and how you'd be haunted forever.

Look at this sweet little girl here about the age of my little Becky. God bless her little heart. That ought to be something to the older person that's calloused. Sweet little blond headed thing come, and kneel down, put her little hands down on the altar to pray. You think Jesus don't see that? Sure He does.

Let something like that start happening, then you're going to have a healing service. You'll have a real one. Won't you come now while we sing one time through now with your heads bowed, every Christian praying.

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that thy blood (Where was it?

At Calvary.) .......for me.

And that thou bidd'st me come to Thee.

O Lamb of God, I come!

Will you come just now. How many believes that this is the truth? Let's see you put your hands up say, “I believe it with all my heart. This is the truth, Jesus died in my stead. I'm a sinner worthy of death, Jesus taken my place. No matter what church I belong to, Jesus is my Redeemer.”

.........blood was shed for....

(Let's pray once more.)

Heavenly Father, may there be maybe one more. Come Lord, come quickly. Look at these on the altar, Lord. This poor little sweet girl here. You said in the Bible a little child shall lead them, speaking of the Millennium. And Father, I believe now that little children many times lead the way.

This darling come here and kneel on the altar, God bless her. These two women and men who knelt here to my left, Lord, oh, without even being asked to the altar, they come anyhow. The sister, elderly, over to my right, God be merciful. Other's raising up their hands needing the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and many other things from You. I pray that they'll receive it tonight, Lord. Grant it, may they come kneel around the altar, and receive that blessing.

Come to El Shaddai just now, and receive in Jesus' name. With our heads bowed, let's continue now, while we're praying now. That's right, sister. God bless you. Come right out. Someone else now, dare to come out? “Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God I come.”

How you want Him to say, “It's well done,” that day. While we sing again, every Christian in prayer.

Just as I am without one plea.....