God Keeps His Word

... days gone by and I am grateful to the one that makes this effort to sing it for me when I come. Sister Angie and Sister Gertie, the Lord bless them. When I hear that, it brings back old memories of long ago. Just before leaving the tabernacle we had a great revival of a complete winter of preaching on the book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus. And almost every Sunday night they would sing the song: Keep Holding On. Thank you, Sister Gertie. And I am certainly happy that they sang it again tonight for us.

Sister Angie was saying that she was just a bit hoarse. Well, don't feel lonesome; I am too. But this morning after making the people suffer through about a two and a half hour sermon, as one of my minister types, I got outside when it was a little wet on the ground. And of course, that's the way I get. But I just love the Word and especially the blessing of the Holy Spirit with the Word. And when He is blessing and helping, I just simply can't find a place to stop. So, you know how it is.

Now, maybe not quite so long tonight, that I wish to speak because of being a little hoarse, but depending on God for our blessings and for His spiritual help that we vitally need in our lives.

And now, as Brother Neville has announced with his program ... on his program, rather.... And I wish that every listener would listen to that program. Now he doesn't tell me to say this. But I never was so blessed in listening to a program as I was this last Saturday. How many heard that message? That was a masterpiece. WLRP nine o'clock until nine-thirty each Saturday morning: The Neville Trio.

And I was speaking to the brother who takes the recordings, Brother Leo, which is in the room, and he was so carried away with it that he didn't.... He said, “Say, who is this preacher?” He had the radio on, and Brother Gene, or some of them, said, “It's Brother Neville, this is his time.” And it really was wonderful. Not only that, but everyone.

I tell you the reason I just love to hear Brother Neville speak, not mainly because he's a good preacher, but because I know that he lives what he preaches. And I would rather you would live me a sermon than preach me one. It'll be more effective.

And now, I have.... Now I've had it announced that I would speak on tonight for a few moments: God Keeps His Word. And this morning I was speaking on: The Impersonation Of Christianity. And now the Lord add His blessings now as we read His Word. And I want to read from several places in the Scripture, at least three, or maybe quote some more. Because it's the Word that we are speaking about.

In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. After the complete Bible has been ... being finished, here was the message to the church. That's the 22nd chapter of Revelation, and beginning with the 17th verse:

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst say, come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in the book.

He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

And then over in Saint John, the 12th chapter of Saint John, and beginning with the 39th verse:

Therefore they could not believe, because ... Esaias said again,

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

And then in Saint Matthew, the 24th chapter, and in the 35th verse, Jesus speaking:

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away.

And in Galatians 1:8:

... though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be unto you accursed.

Now let us bow our heads just a moment for a word of prayer.

Our God, we come to Thee in the name of Thy beloved Son, who has bid us to come, saying, “Ask the Father anything in My name, I will do it.” So we come in Jesus' name to first repent of our own sins and our short coming. And to ask Thee to cleanse us from all of our iniquity. And to purge our thinking, that we will think upon the things that are right and pertaining to the kingdom of God. And may our thoughts be tonight on something that would better the kingdom of God. And would better the people that are in the kingdom. And may our hearts be purged from all foul things. We desire to walk upright before Thee with clean hands and a pure heart. And oh, God alone can do this. And we pray Father, to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Wash us in the waters of separation from the things of the world, by the Word.

And may through the Word.... Thou hast said, “You are clean through the Word.” And we pray that the Word will search deep into all of our hearts tonight, and will cleanse us from any disbelief, that may our hearts be renewed in the Holy Spirit. And may He bring to us tonight those things which would be profitable to the kingdom of God.

Help those, Lord, who are feeble along the way—having, finding, difficult in believing the Word. And O God, in this dark and treacherous hour that we are living, and as we look ahead for the world crisis, we see only darkness ahead. And Thou has said, “Look up when these things begin to happen, for our redemption is drawing nigh.” And may we be exhorted tonight. And by the Holy Spirit, to take this to heart, to look up in the face of the God of Heaven, who has promised our redemption at this time.

And as John on the isle, prayed, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” And we pray that You'll grant these things to us tonight. And heal all that are sick and afflicted. And comfort the saints, call sinners to repentance, and renew all of us, that we would go from here tightening on the full armor of God, to go forth as soldiers prepared for the battle that lays before us.

Now as we have gathered tonight, each in prayer, and the banner over us, the morning star leading the way. And the host of the enemy has encamped, also. And the great challenger comes out and makes his boast, saying that “These days of miracles is past.” But, O God, raise to us a David, a warrior, a challenger, and may that Spirit dwell in every heart richly; for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

In approach to this most vital subject, and it is not aimed to anyone's belief, or to upset, or to disturb, or to make enemies. It is only meant for the gathering and the uniting of the people of God together.

And the reason that I have chosen to speak this to the tabernacle tonight, is because of the condition of time that we're living. I believe that we are at the beginning of something that the whole world is aware that's fixing to happen. No one seems to be able to put their finger just on it. But yet we know something's fixing to take place. It's not only here, it's everywhere.

And I think that it would be most appropriate tonight if we would take this time while the people are gathered together, to speak something that would be of a vital importance: to embetter, to cause us to understand, and to equip us with better understanding of Christ and of the Gospel and the time that we are living.

Now to start with, I wish to say this, that not long ago, I was in a Lutheran Seminary. And the Lutheran brethren said to me, after they had wrote me a letter, a very harsh criticism—the dean. And speaking and telling me things that I was a soothsayer and many evil things which, really, they could not prove, because I said, “The devil could not heal.”

Now if the devil can heal, he is a creator. And a Creator: There's only One, and that is God. The devil cannot create. The devil is not even omnipresent. He can only be at one place at a time. His demons are present everywhere, but God is omnipresent. The devil can only be present at one place. God is omnipotent; the devil has a limited power. That is, as long as he can throw his bluff in. And the only legal thing that he has is to turn you back to the dust of the earth. That's the only thing that he has. And that's still with the blessing of God, by a promise of God, for the resurrection.

So God is the only Creator, and God is the only One who can build cells, and cells is creation. And creation only comes by God, so God is the only healer, and there is no other healing but divine healing. We have famous doctors who could set a bone, but God heals. We have doctors who can cut appendix out, or remove a growth, which is only the right thing to do. But, who does the healing? God does the healing, for He is the only Creator. Now!

And he said, “What of us Lutherans? Do you think that you consider us Christians?”

I said, “Most certainly.” I said, “The kingdom of God has been like a man that planted his corn in a field. And of a morning he went out and he looked, and there was the two little blades that come up in the early spring. And the farmer said, 'Look at my corn field.'”

Now did he have corn? Potentially, he did, but not in the ear. Now it's just like if I gave you a.... You asked me for a oak tree, and I gave you an acorn. Potentially, you have the oak tree, because the oak tree is in the acorn. And then, in the grain of corn you do have the corn, but yet, it's just potentially. You have the grain.

Now the farmer said, “Look at my corn patch, isn't it beautiful? My corn.”

He called it corn, yet it was in the shoot. By and by, that corn stalk grew till it become a tassel. The tassel is where the pollen comes ... or, the pollen falls from the tassel, which causes the breeding of the corn, the sex between the male and female. Now what if the tassel should look back and say to the leaf, “Now, I have nothing to do with you. You are not even in the picture. I am a different thing. I am the tassel. I'm the one that's recognized; you have nothing to do to it.”

But yet without the leaf, the corn cannot pollen. Because the tassel drops into the leaf and there's where the ears springs from. And the same life that's in the leaf, is also in the tassel. By and by comes an ear. And the ear comes on, the grain. And then the grain says to the tassel, “I have nothing to do with you. You're not even in the picture.”

But if it hadn't been for the tassel, there would've been no grain. So the thing is, is the little stalk was the Lutheran revival. And the tassel was the Methodist revival. And the ear is this revival. But altogether the same spirit, the same life that was in the little stalk of corn to begin with, is the same life that is in the grain.

Now the only thing that the Pentecostal (I mean the real Pentecostal, not the so-called, but the real Pentecostal) message is nothing but a restoration of the same thing that went into the ground that has been packed through the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian. Now it just come to an ear.

And now as bad as I hate to make this statement: there has been some fungus growing on it. And you farmers know what that is. It's something that imitates the ear. Now, that's what we're wanting to cut at tonight, because if you don't pull it off your corn, it'll cause the whole patch to go bad.

So, that is one thing I wish to make clear, that the people of all denominational churches as they have come up through great times, it has been the maturing, and now the church is in the seed; and it's got to bring forth the same thing that went into the ground. So, it's just a fully matured church that we're living in. And one part cannot say thus to the other part, for they lived good in their day. And they were the corn patch in God's sight. So we do not wish to belittle anyone.

But there has been some teachings today, especially on famous worldwide broadcasts, that has been belittling the Word of God, and saying that God dwells in a church and not the Word. I heard one of the famous teachers a few evenings ago, said, “Where did you get your Bible? I suppose that it was God taking a notion to write you a Bible up in heaven and give it to some little angels and they come down through the corridors of Heaven and presented it to you people.” And said that no one could live the teaching of the Bible; and it wasn't exactly authentic.

And they claim to be the first beginning of church. Now those people, now that go to that church, are men and women like we are. And they love, and eat, and drink. And is there any way to stop it? Not when the Bible says it's going to be this way. That's right.

But to encourage you, I want to make myself clear and plain, that I believe that this is God's full, infallible, unadulterated Word, that nothing can be added to or taken from it. It's God's complete program of His church. No other foundation can any man build but that which is already been laid. Do you see it? That's why I believe in the infallibility of the Word of God. I said to one of those people, “Where did you say this Bible was? Your church? Your church wrote this Bible?”

“Yes, our saints wrote the Bible.”

I said, “Then why has it thus been taken, that you are so much different today from this Bible?”

“Well,” he said, “you see, them men lived in one age, we live in another age.”

“But,” I said, “God lived in all ages, and the Bible, if it's inspired, it's the infallible God who wrote the Bible. And He said in His Word that heavens and earth would pass away, but His Word should never pass away.”

Now, it is most alarming to the men who had never thought, to see these things approaching, but if you only knew, it's only a fulfilling of the Scripture. And as bad as I hate to say this, in America, and our fantastics and things that we got in the so-called religious moves today, (not degrading them, God's people dwell in them.), but I wish to say this: that it is come to America, who has taken away and got away—both Catholic and Protestants—from the teaching of the Word and they have adopted a system. And this system is an intellectual system that presents a glamour instead of the Word. And American people fall for glamour!

The American people has become a place, to a worship of goddesses. I have the deepest and highest respect for women. My mother is one, and my wife, and I have young daughters. And a woman that keeps her place and is a lady, there is nothing any more precious, outside of salvation, to our nation, than a real woman. But when it comes to a place to worship women, then you're out of the Bible plan. There's no plan in the Bible for us to worship any women—a Mary, or a Saint Cecilia; there's not one speck of scripture for it, and contrary, it's against such.

Then why was it? If this was the beginning, these who walk with Christ and wrote by inspiration, you'd think I would take any other man's word for it? No, sir. This is God's eternal Word. Now the minister ... or, the priest who spoke to me, he said, “God is in His church.”

I said, “God is in His Word.”

God is in His Word. The Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” God is in His Word.

Now, notice, in the Old Testament they had two ways of understanding a message to be correct. That when a prophet prophesied, or a dreamer dreamed a dream, they told that before the breastplate of Aaron. The breastplate of Aaron had the twelve patriarch birthstones in this breastplate. He wore it on his bosom to show that he was a high priest of the twelve tribes of Israel. And when they were speaking this vision, or telling this dream, and if God vindicated it, there was a supernatural light came around on this Urim Thummim, and vindicated that that message was true.

No matter how realistic it seemed, no matter how well it

seemed to be fitted together with the time, if the supernatural light on the Urim Thummim did not flash, it was rejected because God was not in it.

And I say today. (Oh, I want you to hear.): any message, regardless if it's from priest, from preacher, from prophet, from anything else, any man, no matter how spiritual, what his office is, what he has done, if he's raised the dead, if he's healed the sick, if he's the archbishop of Canterbury, if he's the pope of Rome, if he is the head of any great denomination, no matter how spiritual, though he has spoke with tongues, though he's danced in the Spirit, though he has preached the Gospel, no matter what he has done, if his message doesn't come out of the Bible, it's wrong! This is God's Urim Thummim.

When the Bible was completed, the Angel came down, was talking to John. Then Jesus come Himself, said, “I, Jesus, sent My Angel to testify of these things. And now close this book but don't seal it. For whosoever shall take anything out of it, or add anything to it....” That's God's Word

Paul, in cooperating with the Spirit, said, “If an angel from Heaven,”—not an archbishop, not a pope, not a cardinal—but “If an angel from heaven brought any other message than what this is here, let him be to you accursed.”

But now, we are fixing.... As years ago, by the Holy Spirit, I've always told you before when Hitler and Mussolini raised, I said, “It'll all heap up. Communism will take the whole thing and come down from the north.” Now keep your eyes on this, church: the devil is putting out this propaganda. And it's not Scripture. It's to confuse the mind of the unlearned, the unspiritual people. And we are living in the most glorious day that any people has ever lived, and yet in the darkest day for the unbelievers that they.... And the most confusing time for those who don't know. It is remarkable, that the day that we're living. And what a joy it is to know that your anchor holds.

Now, today as we're approaching it, in this dark evil time.... Now I do not like to call people's names, but I'm going to have to call somebody's name now, but I pray for the young man. And I pray all the time for him. But he is a instrument in the hands of the devil, and that is this man Elvis Presley. The people are gone boogie-woogie or rock-and-roll wild. The American people has gone. And they're trying by that same spirit to get the thing into the church.

I like church music played like church music, and not rock-and-roll in the church. But when they get these spirits, there's something behind this, and the devil puts himself out a challenger. And it happens to be that this poor backslidden Pentecostal boy said the way he learned his maneuvers of jerking and shaking, he caught it, and learned it in the church. He is a member of the First Assemblies of God of Memphis, Tennessee. His pastor is a friend of mine. And he is the devil's instrument, of deluding and polluting the minds of these teenagers. Of getting them into a place, till they just left a place in Canada, I think they sent fourteen young people to the insane asylum a few days after he was there.

And all over the country, but the people have gone wild, frantically. The reason they do that is because they don't know anything better. Oh, how I wish that they knowed the Lord Jesus. How much better.... I do not condemn; I feel sorry for the mortal. And now, would not it be appropriate in the day that we live, that when things are going the way they are? And the idol of America is the Hollywood glamour girls, when she sets the pace of all America. When, let her come out with her immoral dressing on and practically every woman in America will fashion after her.

It was a heart pain to me, not long ago standing in Rome, when the newspapers give a headline of this woman that they had in the paper the other day was going to have a baby, in Hollywood, a Roman. And they said in the paper, the newspaper, which my friend, Baron Von Blomberg could speak seven different languages and read the paper plainly, he said, “She may be an American goddess, but she's here a Roman prostitute.”

What a disgrace! Now they have to have things like that. That has to happen to cope with the spirit of today. That's the reason that this church is coming in with the worship of Mary, of other women and things. It's that same spirit under a religious head. And that's the reason they have to get your mind off the unadulterated Word of God, to produce that program! Church, do you see the twist that we're in? Do you see the American youth, what condition it's in? That's men and women of tomorrow. No wonder Jesus said, “Except these days be shortened, no flesh would be saved.”

Therefore, I'm basing my thoughts here, that we're at the end time. The Lord Jesus shall come soon. But the spirit of the day.... Oh, can you see? Take on your thinking. Can you see what has happened? Before this great onslaught coming on to bring the mark of the beast, and to fulfill the Scriptures by forcing the people after the hope is gotten. Just like it is in other countries: force them into things that they do not accept, to cause the persecution and the boycott to come. Can't you see America has fell for the glamour and the goddess, and this.... It's paved.... The devil in the realm of flesh, making a way for this to present itself. Amen. I hope you understand this. Stay clear from it! I don't care how many DD's, PhD's, or ever what's behind it, it is a lie! For, “Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be true,” saith the Lord! “For heavens and earth will pass away, but My words shall never pass away.”

God's eternal Word requires that man shall be born again. Anything short of that, they are eternally lost! No matter what church you belong to, or where your name is, or what you had did, it's lost! God's Word shall never fail.

Now, so much for that. And I hope that you get it in the spirit it was given. You dear Catholic people, I am not belittling you; you are my friends. And if you wasn't, what motive.... If I stood here to fight back at you, I should go to the altar and get my heart right with God. I'm standing here with a heartache to have to say it, but a Spirit according to the Word, is pressing me to say it, and to warn the flock of who the Holy Spirit has made us overseers.

And to see these great programs across the nation of literally making fun of that Bible. Said, “It's like mud puddles that you walk through; no one could live by it.” That is correct as soon as the flesh is concerned, but the Holy Spirit is the One who dominates and leads a person. May the Lord let you see the interpretation. God's Word is first, and last, and eternal forever. God once speaks a word, it can never change!

God before the foundation of the world, said, “In the beginning was the Word.” And what is the word? Is a thought expressed. The Father, God seeing the plan of redemption, He looked it over and seen what Satan had did. And He thought, and He seen the only program; it's a thought now, but when He expressed it, it became a word. And once the Word, it can never die! It has to be eternal. For His Word can no more fail than He can. His Word can no more become lifeless—than He can become lifeless. His Word.

Men of old through the ages has read this Bible. It has inspired congregations ever since it was written. I'd write you a letter, you might appreciate it, saying, “Brother Branham, I appreciate your letter.” You are the only person it was designated to. After it's done run out for awhile, that letter will become worthless, unless it was any evidence for me or against me.

But once God has spoken, it's for the entire human race. And it's just as fresh tonight as it was the hour it was spoke. God spoke and said, “Look, Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” When God drew His program in His mind and spoke it, Christ was slain right there. Though He actually wasn't slain for four thousand years later. And God in there, through foreknowledge, seen who would be saved and who would not. And there our names are written in the Lamb's book of life at the foundation of the world and associated with the slain Lamb.

And the Bible said, “In the last days,” listen, “and the antichrist deceived all that dwelt upon the earth who's names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world.” Stay with the Word!

Now, I have noticed amongst our brethren, and I say this to you Protestants reverently, not with hatred, not with malice, not to have something to say (It would be easier to speak on something else.), but that I know, and the Bible says, “Watchman, what of the night?” And if the watchman sees the enemy coming and fails to warn the people, God said, “He would require their blood at the watchman's hand.” But if the watchman warns them, then the watchman's free. So I must warn.

And among our Protestant brethren, I have noticed many times.... After my message this morning on the new Spirit, and then God's Spirit. How many was here this morning? All right. In the new Spirit and God's Spirit; so many with the new spirit without God's Spirit. I want this to be understood.

Today we find a great moving of confusion among the Protestant people. And when I go into their churches, it is very much upsetting sometimes. And now please pardon this expression, but as the Holy Spirit....

As I talked to my little wife back there the other day, when I seen my cousins laying there, both looking, face to each other, as their life had been claimed, one with a prayer bead in his hand as a Catholic, and the other one a Baptist on the other side; both my cousins. And I looked at them, and I thought, “O great God, how can these things be? Have I failed, has there been something?”

I said to wife, I said, “Here's many things that I do not know, but there's some things that I do know.” I said, “Since a little boy I have watched the sap in the winter time ... fall of the year, move down out of that tree and go into the roots to hide itself and keep warm through the winter. I have seen it supernaturally in the spring move back up, bringing leaves with it, and fruit. I have seen the flower in its beauty in the summer, bow it's head in the winter to the frost and die, and the seeds perish, and the pulp perish. And then I seen in the spring of the year, that flower rise back.” I said, “I believe, I know they do that, I believe that the One who is called Jehovah God, I believe that that Jehovah God does that. He operates nature. I watch Him with the pine tree, with the pawpaw tree, or with the birch tree, with the apple tree, and every one differing from another. And how that man, made in one way and another, all designed by a Mastermind. That was God.” I said, “I know that.”

“I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that in His body He was a man. He was born of a woman, just like I was. But His blood was not of a woman; it was of God. And Jehovah God, the Logos, who brood over the earth, in my message this morning, and brood the first man out of the dust of the earth, overshadowed Mary, and brood over her to fulfill His Word, and created the blood cell that brought forth the Son of the living God. I believe in a body He was man. I believe in His soul He was God. He was God's manifestation here on earth. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. I believe that He was not just a mere man, neither was He a prophet; He was God Immanuel. I believe with all my heart, that being truth. I can't prove that truth, because if I could then it wouldn't be of faith. But I know the trees come and go; I know the flowers come and go. I know all nature revolves, the world sits in its orbit by some great supreme power.”

And another thing that I know, that by the grace of God, there's Something that comes to me in a form of an angel, a light. And He tells me things, what's going to happen. And I see it. I know that it's not natural. It shows me things years to come. And not one time has it ever failed! I believe it's the same God that was with Joseph, that was with Daniel, that was with Elijah. I believe that it was the same Holy Spirit that led the children of Israel by a pillar of fire. Therefore, I'm satisfied that there's something, that the Bible is right because every nature, everything that I call faith, everything that I watch that I could not prove, proves by this Bible that it is the truth.“

I see Jesus, He was not what the Jews think Him to be, He fulfilled every requirement that the Messiah was to be. He was the Messiah. And I see the Spirit rose upon those men there, see it come right down here and do the same thing. Therefore I have been a firm believer in the Word of the living God. No matter what fantastics arise....

I have went into churches, and I say this with reverence now. I find that many times in the churches, I believe people get one another's spirit in the stead of the Holy Spirit. You go into a church and watch, where the pastor maybe jerks his head, the whole congregation will do it. You go into the church where the pastor says he has got oil running from his hands. The first thing you know, the whole company believes that, and they have it. Go into a church where there's a lot of dancing and jumping and running around. I'm not condemning these things; I'm just speaking from an observation to present a point to you. If you'll get a pastor that's very emotional, the whole congregation will be emotional. You get a pastor that's starchy and stiff, and the whole congregation will be starchy and stiff. I believe you received each other's spirit.

Take a good man and a bad woman and put them together, one will go to the other. It'll either become a bad man or a good woman. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. And may I say this with reverence, and in our Bible, with all my heart, I have tried with all that is within me, to never be a fusser, because the vision, the morning that I laid the cornerstone, said, “Preach the Word, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves together, having teachers with itching ears and shall be turned from the truth unto fables.”

What is the truth? Thy Word is truth. John 17, “Sanctify them Father, through the truth: Thy Word is the truth.”

Now, if I am guilty, I pray, God, forgive me. But I've tried with all my heart to present the Word to the people that the spirit that would follow, when I stand at the judgment, would not be the spirit of some fantastic, a frog jumping out of people, or bugs flying, or so forth, or oil dropping from hands, but would be the Spirit that's in the Word of the living God that wrote in this Bible with the Bible experience. That's what I have tried hard.

Now, to base our little thought on a characters of the Bible. Picking up one tonight to go to ... bring our thoughts together, to cope them together, and present them to you, then you do with whatever you desire, what God places on your heart.

Let us go back into I Kings the 22nd chapter, and we would find this: that there had been a man, a king, by the name of Ahab. And he had been a mighty king, a military man, and a great man, but a lukewarm borderline believer. His name was Ahab. Finally, the prophet Elijah, which was vindicated a prophet, had pronounced the doom of Ahab. Years after the passing of Elijah there was a prophet by the name of Micaiah.

So Jehoshaphat, his father, was a righteous man, which was a king of Judah, came down to visit Ahab the king of Israel. And Ahab had had a great, glamorous kingdom. Now watch: a great, glamorous kingdom. For he had a little old painted up wife by the name of Jezebel. And she had simply wooed the entire nation, except the elect, to the idols of her nation. Do you, oh, brethren, can you see the spirit of that same devil working in America today? The little Jezebels. That spirit of wooing the sons of God away from Christ! I say that not jokingly, this is no place for jokes, this is the pulpit, this is where the judgment seat of God is. And the Word is God's judge. It is His judgment, the Word is.

Now notice, how that this little woman, such a cute little thing she must have been. But she absolutely swayed a nation. And what have we got swayed by today? Remember, I predict this, that America is a woman lover. She's a woman worshipper. The spirit in America absolutely is woman possessed. These little women can come up on Hollywood, they can walk out on the street and send more men to hell than all the barrooms you could clang together.

And yet, in her right condition she is a jewel to a man's heart, and a blessing to the kingdom of God. You see it? Now watch just a moment, that no one might be prejudice, just sit still and listen. Let the Holy Spirit open it to you.

Now, today, we've got in that condition like it was in Ahab's time. Well, whatever the woman said, that's what Ahab did. Now, even into the church, they worship women.

Not long ago my righteous indignation was brought up. In Mexico when I seen a poor little woman ... knowed of her, rather, coming down, crawling over miles of hot rocks. And the father walking along with a baby in his arms, two of them, and one following along the mama. And her crying, and the hide off of her knees, and pulling her hands through the rocks and crying. And everybody looking at her. She'd went up to some statue of some dead woman was supposed to be a saint. And I don't say this critically; I say it in the light of God's Word. It's absolutely unadulterated spiritualism. The Bible said, “There is no intercessor, there's no mediator between God and man but the man Christ Jesus!”

If the early church was Catholic, then why have they changed? When the early Catholic condemned it and this Catholic accepts it. It's a woman's world. The spirits and the slogans just making that true. That is exactly right. And I predict that a woman will be a great woman. You younger people here tonight remember Brother Branham has said this, and I said it in '33 when I saw the coming of the Lord. How the automobiles would continually shape up like an egg until finally they would come into a perfect egg shape. Maybe part of you here know it, it's written on all papers and things. The morning when we was over here at the little Masonic temple where we were having the orphanage over here on the next ... second street over, where I was having the meetings.

And I seen a woman lying, vulgar as she was, and dominated the country. And I predict that a woman will either be President, or come into great power of some sort, in the United States before the total annihilation of the world. Keep that in mind, that I have said it.

Notice, now, what takes place? Jezebel, she ruled Ahab. She slammed him around. It used to be poor papa ... or, mama sat home with the babies while the drunken husband was out. It's poor papa now taking care of the babies while the drunken woman's out. Now that's not joke; that's the truth. I'm not speaking of righteous people, no, sir. I'm only showing the spirit that's in the world.

Now notice, isn't this another glamour? Look at the times of Ahab, how the country flourished. Oh, my. The great golden age was then. How Israel flourished under Ahab, that hypocrite. And Jezebel was really the ruler behind it. And that is up to you Bible scholars, as Ahab married Jezebel and brought idolatry into Judaism, in the dark age, so has Protestantism married Catholicism and brought paganism back into the Christian church. And today remember, the Protestant church was called a harlot, where she was called a prostitute, too. Remember that. So pot can't call kettle black. You can't jump from the fire ... the frying pan into the fire to help yourself.

But let's notice truth. Truth is what we want. We are eternity bound people. And we've got to meet God. And let's find the truth. Now, I want you to notice, if you will. There came always.... God sent down or.... First thing, Jehoshaphat, the righteous man, came down to visit Ahab. Then he got himself in trouble. You can't mix right and wrong together and get anything out of it. You can't put oil with water; it won't mix. Neither can your associates and your affiliations be with the things of the world and still live a victorious life. The Bible said, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.”

Now, see, you say, “Well, Brother Branham, I know.” But you're taking your own intellectuals; it's contrary to the Word. And the Word is the truth! I believe the Word.

Now, notice, Jehoshaphat come down to Ahab, and oh, he put on a great feast, sure. We'd call today, in the street expression, a blow out, and he invited everybody, to kill ox and so forth, and sheep. And they had a great feast among them. And that's when a believer gets in trouble.

“Oh, I tell you, you're just narrow-minded as a holy-roller place. That's all, you should come to the big church. You should come. Oh, you should see, our pastor has a DDD, PhD. You see. Our pastor.... Our choir sings like the angels.”

That has nothing to do with it, if it's contrary to “thus saith the Lord.”

Now, look. And when they killed the oxen, they had a big feast. Ahab had and alternative in that, and his motives were wrong. He was trying to make a big show-off to trap Jehoshaphat. And that's the same thing the devil's trying to do today. “Well, we're the majority.”

Sure, the church of God has always been in the minority, until Jesus comes. “Fear not, little flock; it's your Father's good will to give you the kingdom.” That's right. We are in the minority. But that's all right. As long as God is there, it's still majority to me, and I know it is to you. For if God is with you, who can be against you?

Now, but he had a motive behind it. And when he did, he said, “Now that we're all here, having such a big time, will you go up to Ramoth-gilead with me to battle? Because actually, Syria ... I have it up there, but Ramoth-gilead belongs to me. It's rightful, we have the right, we're the first church, we have a right.” You see it?

Then Jehoshaphat said, “Well, now, being that we're having a good time,” said, “my men is like your men. Why, we're all believers anyhow, so let's just associate together.”

He made a vital mistake. He did. And Jehoshaphat, being spiritual enough, as I believe with all my heart that it was a type of this day, surely, somewhere, somehow, God will get the message to the true in heart. He said in the beginning He would, so He has got the program lined up. [Blank spot on tape.] Let's line up with it. Now watch him!

He said, “Sure, I will go up with you.” Then he said, “Wait a minute. I believe before we go, we ought to ask the Lord. Don't you think so? If we're all believers, then let's ask the Lord.”

“Well,” Ahab said, “certainly that's right. Oh, why didn't I think of that? Hmm, sure. I should have thought of that all along.” Said, “I've got four hundred of the best prophets there is in the nation. I've got them all well-clothed and they all got DDD's, PhD's, and all things. They got a great organization down here, the prophets. So I will just bring them up here, see what they say.”

You know, that just didn't hit right down with Jehoshaphat just right. So they went and got all the four hundred prophets, well-fed, well-dressed. Ahab fed them with his own.... Because he had them to do just exactly what he said do. There you are. There you are.

“Oh, sure, we've got fine churches here, great big places.” But many times if the preacher preached over twenty minutes, the deacon board would excommunicate him. But bless your heart, a man of God won't listen to that nonsense. That's right. If he bent down too much on sin, why, the whole congregation would vote him out. But, that's because he's in a denomination.

But in the church of God, you're not voted in, or voted out; you're borned in, once saved forever. Only God can put you out, and He swore by Himself He'd never do it. Amen. He knows what you're made out of before He brings you in. He don't run His business loosely like our organizations does: taken in thirty days or sixty days or ninety days on probation. He knows what they are before they ever speak, before they ever come into the church. He knows exactly what they're made out of. That's the reason it's got to be borned-again.

Now, when he brought them all down there, he got on his throne, the other one got on his throne, and they sat out there and said, “Bring up all the preachers, the prophets.”

And they all come up and went through their maneuvering and they had a big time all right. He said, “Now, don't they look nice? Listen at the language they use.”

Oh, my, how swell they could speak, you know. “Oh, aah-men.” And all these maneuvers that they went through. And they had their whole mix up, there they had it all.

So then the first thing you know, they said, “Go up! The Lord says, 'Go on up.'”

He said, “Now you see, Jehoshaphat, see, I was right after all.”

Why, they knowed what to say. They better know what to say, or they lost their credentials. Oh, yes, sir. The district man come by, and the state presbyter, and I mean, they got excommunicated right quick if they didn't say good things about the hand that was feeding them, because all they knew was material food anyhow. I'm glad there's a hand that was scarred that does the feeding of the church of God.

Notice, then I seen them all prophesy, “Oh, yes, king, ”Thus Saith The Lord,“ go on up.”

And now the strange thing is, they were actually inspired. But now watch. But that kind of inspiration didn't strike that man of God, Jehoshaphat. He said, “Wait a minute, I believe I made a mistake here. There's something wrong; I oughtn't to got mixed up in this,” see. The ox knows his master's stall, see. He said, “Pardon me, Mr. King Ahab, but haven't you got one more? Another prophet?”

Well, Ahab would say, “Well, four hundred with one accord, and the best scholared men we got, and here they are with one accord said, 'This is the will of God. This is the will of God.'”

He said, “It just don't sound right,” somehow down in his heart. Amen. Oh, are you ready? Here it is. He knowed that didn't sound like the Word of God. He said, “Isn't there just another one?”

Now listen. Ahab said, “Yes, we've got a holy-roller. We got one by the name of Micaiah. But, I'm telling you, I hate him!” Oh yeah. “We got one more, but he don't belong to our organization. They excommunicated him a long time ago. He's out there in the hill somewhere. His name is Micaiah.”

Jehoshaphat said, “I'd just like to hear what he says.” Amen. That's it! A type of today. “Isn't there just one more?”

He said, “Yes, but, oh, he is a fanatic. He always just says bad things about me.”

How could he say anything else when the Word of God said bad things about him. “Why, he even condemns our organization. Why, he's a church breaker; that's all there is to it. Why, the prophets tried to take him down and give him his bachelor's degree, but, oh, he wouldn't stand still. He stomped right out of there; he's just an old fanatic,” see.

Jehoshaphat had enough Spirit of God about him from his daddy, he said, “I'd like to hear him. Go get him.”

“Well, I'm warning you, I'm warning you: he slobbers and everything else; he just hasn't got the dignity these other fellows have.”

“I'd like to hear him.”

“My sheep know My voice; a stranger they don't follow.”

It happened to be that Jehoshaphat was one of God's lambs. He said, “That don't sound just right; it hasn't got the right.... It's got a rattle, but it hasn't got a ring.” Like a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, it doesn't sound right. “Like pouring peas on a dry cowhide,” as Roy Davis used to say. It doesn't sound just right.

He said, “Let me hear this fellow that's a fanatic, that you call—the one that won't join up with your organization and the one that's just got his own ideas.” Because he knowed that man must have the truth, because he knowed that wasn't.

So, he said, “I'll send and get him then.”

So, out into the hills they went and down into the alley, wherever he was preaching, or the little mission. And here come a runner in, and while they were gone, oh, my, did they have a tantrum.

Why, even one guy, named Zedekiah, he went and put horns on his head. Oh, brother, he had the revelation just right. He had oil in his hands and everything else. He was having him a time, yes, sir. “Oh, 'Thus saith the Lord,' we're going to push Syria plumb back into her land with these horns.” They was having them a time.

So the runner who came, said, “Micaiah?”

Said, “Yeah.”

“Are you the son of Imlah?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Are you the prophet, the holy-roller, the fanatic?”

“Well, I suppose that's me.”

“Well, the king wants to see you.”

“Oh, he does?” Micaiah already knowed that, no doubt. The Lord done told him what all that gathering down there was about. So away he come.

So he said, “Now wait a minute, before you start this revival, I'm going to tell you what to preach on. Now all the other preachers don't preach about these things. Don't you say nothing about horse racing. And don't you say nothing about this, and this, and that, because, you see, the other preachers don't say that.” Said, “You say the same thing they say.”

Now, that was what it would be today. Now we're going to say what the Scriptures says. He said, “Micaiah, the other prophets prophesy good to our king. And now you know, he's a dignified man,” in otherwise. “Now you must say the same thing they say, and prophesy good.”

He said, “As my God liveth, I'll only say what 'Thus saith the Lord' is.” Amen! God give us a Micaiah. Stay with the Word! He might've had not all the fantastics the others had. He might not a had the degree the other one had, the PhD, he might not a had the social standing, he might not've been the big DD in front of the people, but he had the Word. Amen.

Oh, that's it! He knew God would keep His Word! So he said, “Just what God tells me to say, I'll say the same thing God says.” And if God predicts these days are coming, if He predicts these wrong things, the worship of women, or the intercession of saints, or communion of saints, if He condemns all this nonsense, and these other things, and said, 'As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so will these in the last days,' I condemn the thing in the Word of God! And say it's wrong.

Stay with the Word! I don't care how many sensations you feel, how much you can jump and shout, how much you can do this, that, or the other, if the Spirit of God doesn't lead you to a clean, perfect life before God, condemn the thing! If God wanted you to run oil, He'd made you an olive tree, or a Texas oil well.

Let me tell you something, God has purposes for everything. Stay with the Word! What the Bible says, stay with it; it's God's Urim Thummim. And old Micaiah the prophet stayed on the Word of God, walked down there just as boldly as a lion. That night the Lord give him a vision, he knowed where he was standing. And watch. Oh, brother. The others had a vision too. But their vision didn't cooperate with the Word of God. But Micaiah's was with the Word of God. Cause Elijah, which had the Word of God—the prophet, the seer—had already said what would happen to Ahab. So how could Micaiah say something good was going to happen, when the Word of God said bad was going to happen? So he was with the Word.

Brother, regardless of how high the steeple is, or how well-dressed people go, what an education the pastor's got, or anything about this, or what Bishop Sheen says, or anybody else, if it's contrary to that Word, stay away from it! Stay in the Word. There's where the true servant of God lays: right on that Word. That's right.

Micaiah walked up there, and he saw his vision. And when he prophesied and saw the vision, he seen that cooperated just exactly with the Word, dovetailed right with it. He knowed he had “thus saith the Lord.” Walked up there and he said, “Micaiah, the son of Imlah, must I go up to Ramoth-gilead, or must I withdraw?”

Micaiah said, “Go on up.”

Said, “Now that don't sound right.”

Even he knew better himself. And many of those people join those big classical things just to be popular. They know different. The spirit of life that works in the world would tell them that's different, if they had any spark of life about them at all. They go after these fantastics of frogs jumping and bugs a flying, shaking and jumping and running and everything, when they know that's contrary. But they go with it because of a sensation.

I don't care about sensations; I want “thus saith the Lord.” That's right, what the Word says. Now I believe in a heart felt religion, I believe in the joy I can know, I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe in divine healing, I believe in all the manifestations of the gifts; but they must be reverently placed in the body, working exactly in harmony with the Word.

Why, I go into a place and start preaching and make an altar call, and a woman raise up and speak in tongues. Why, what a disgrace. What a pity that is. That shows that their pastor had ... is not on the Word of God, or he'd stop that thing and said, “Don't you do that.” Nothing against the gift; it's misused, see. And many things, I could take hours with it. You know what I'm speaking about; that's all together Catholicism and Protestantism. But stay in the Word!

Notice, now. And when he saw the vision, he went and told him, he said, “Go on up.”

He said, “How oft would I adjure you to tell me the truth?”

He said, “But I saw Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd.”

And he said, “I told you, I told you, I knowed what he would say before you brought him here.” That's right, he couldn't say nothing else. He had the Word of God; he couldn't do no more but condemn the thing.

And I say tonight, in the light of the Bible, I condemn this nonsense sensation, fanaticism, and things that ... saying the Word of God is nothing to it, and the church is right, and all of this stuff. I condemn it, in the name of Jesus Christ, on the authority of God's Word. Let heavens and earth pass, but God's Word will remain forever the truth. That's right.

Now, said, “Go on up, if you want to.”

And what happened? This guy had all the big sensations, having a big time; he walked around because he was the head of the church. He walked around and smit him on the cheek with his hand, smacked him. Oh, I can hear him say, “You're a little counterfeit holy-roller; where went the Spirit of God out of me when it went to you?”

He said, “You know what I saw?” He said, “While you all were having your big time down here, in your big shindig, as it was down here, there was something going on in heaven at the same time.”

And I'm telling you, while the prodigal sons are in the pig's pen and America's dancing under the rhythm of boogie-woogie and rock-and-roll with their Elvis Presleys and their, “Who loves Suzy?”, there's a meeting in Heaven going on now. He said, “God opened the windows and let me look in. While you were having your rock-and-roll time, God let me look into the heavens, and in there I saw something.”

Said, “What did you see?”

He said, “I saw God's great host, God sitting on the right and left hand, and there was angels on one hand and on the other hand.” And said, “When I saw the angels, one sitting on one hand and one the other, a host of Heaven gathered up,” and God said, “Who will I get to go down?” Oh, my! “Who can I get to go down, so that we can bring Ahab up there to fulfill My Word, which was spoke by My prophet?”

Stay with the Word, brother. Regardless of how many rock-and-roll parties they have, and how much they play it in church, and how much they act in church, how much they do this, that, or the other, stay with Word. That's right. God keeps His Word, every time.

Notice, and said, “Who can we get to go down? Who can we get to go down there and get Ahab up here, because it has got to be fulfilled?”

And he said, “I saw a lying spirit come up.” Said, “Let me go. I will go down and get in every one of them bishops and them prophets, and all the state presbyters, and all the rest of them. And I'll inspire them to prophesy a lie so I can get them up there.”

Now wait a minute, hold on. Are you ready? Inspiration, inspiration that doesn't cope with the Bible is wrong inspiration. “Brother Branham, how can we be sure we're right? We see this coming up, we see this coming up, and all these things and fantastics?” Stay with the Word!

Sure, they was both inspired. Here was the little fellow standing by himself. He was inspired. Here was four hundred fine bishops and they was inspired. And each one saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” Well, how do we know which is right? Stay with the Word! Micaiah had the Word. He knew that evil had to be treated evil. He knowed that hypocrisy—that make-belief religion, that stuff that had a lot of class to it, and a painted up Jezebel, and all these other things—had to be dealt with by the hand of the living God! For the prophet, the Word of God, said so. You say, “Was the prophet God's Word?” Yes, sir.

“Fear not, in sundry times and divers manners, the Lord spoke to the fathers through the prophets. And in this last day through His Son, Christ Jesus.” That's right. Through the Word of God.

There they were, inspired, thought they were right. I don't say they wasn't sincere. They were sincere. They were great men. They wasn't unlearned men. They wasn't just overnight men, they were great men, taught in the Word, inspired. But their inspiration didn't cooperate with the Bible's Word. That's the reason Micaiah knew they were wrong. And the Bible said, “That in the last days men shall be lovers of their own selves.”

“Why, you mean to tell me that little two-by-four could tell me? I'm a bishop, I'm the head of the so-and-so. I'm the great fellow in the Catholic church. I'm the great in the Methodist, the Baptist, or even in the Pentecostal. I'm the state presbyter, and you mean to tell me, you let that man....” Yes. “You mean to tell me this, that?”

The Bible said, “They'd be lovers of their own self, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, without natural affections, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good; having a form of godliness,” just like they did, “but denying the power thereof,” the Word. If they speak not according to that, there's no life to them. That's right. “Having a form of godliness, but denying ...; from such turn away, for this is the sort that goes from house to house with their little books and campaigns and so forth, and lead silly women laden with sin, led away by divers lusts; ever learning, and never able to come to the truth.”

What kind are they? Jannes and Jambres have all kinds of fantastics and everything. “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so will these resist the truth: men of reprobate mind concerning the Word.” Trying to take the Word of God and pervert it into something else, into a fantastic or a religious organization, or build them up a great name, or make themselves some great name. From such, turn away! Stay with the Word!

What happened? He said, “I saw this lying spirit,” said, “I'll go down inspire them. I'll make them prophesy a lie.”

Those men so willing to please the public. O God, help us. So willing to take this ... be a teacher with itching ears. Shall be turned from the truth to fables, as the Holy Spirit warns, told us in the last days how they would be. So willing to become popular theirself, to get a greater radio, a greater television, or a greater name, or a greater possession in the church, a greater something; with own self exaltation. So willing to do that till they fail to watch it in the Word.

But Micaiah was watching the Word, he had the truth, he had the Word. Notice, then he told what would happen. And this fellow walked up and smote him in the face, said, “Which way went the Spirit of God?”

Said, “You'll see it when your sitting in the inner cell hiding.”

And Ahab said, “Put that fellow in prison. Shut up all these meetings anyhow; we don't want no more of these holy-roller acts around here.” Don't worry, it's coming. “Put him in jail and give him the bread of sorrow and the water of sorrow, and when I return in peace, I will deal with him,” other words, “have his head chopped off.”

Oh, Micaiah, standing on the Word of God, knowing his vision. O God, knowing that his vision was exactly with the Word of God; it could not fail. He said, “If you return at all in peace, God hasn't spoke to me.” Amen and amen.

Oh, people, the hour is late, but I want to say this to you, my dear friend: Don't you never listen to a program that tells you this isn't the Word of God and the truth. Don't you never listen to any fantastics that is not put forth and predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ; because when He came Himself and healed the sick, He only did it that the Word might be fulfilled—only to fulfill the Word. He predicted both for the, oh, types of churches in Revelations the 17th, He said, “I saw a woman, a whore, sitting upon a great scarlet colored beast, on seven heads.”

The Vatican is on seven hills; I just left there a few months ago. And said, “She was a mother of harlots”; that's daughters that were born from her.

Any bad woman can bring forth a good daughter. But watch. What is a harlot? A prostitute. What is these ill-famed women? Is women who commit adultery and live with other men that's not their husband. And these people, these churches, claim to be God's servants, and God's church, and tolerate, and do the things of the world. They commit spiritual fornication. They let their congregations paint, their women wear shorts. And they let them go on and dress like the world, and never condemn it. They let the men smoke a social cigarette or take a drink of liquor. They let them have their little card parties, and play pool in the basement, and have the proms and dances in the church. And soup suppers and every other thing, and teach their little petty theology instead of the Word of the living God! You know that's the truth.

It's petty, juvenile, sissified (I don't know what), of the devil. And in Christ's name I condemn it in the light of God's Word. And say, “We must be a regenerated, Holy Ghost-inspired, born again, walking in humility, and in the presence of God, to ever make the Rapture in the days to come. Turn from the things of God, ye people, to your knees you church of God, who claim that you've touched of the realm of the blessings of God. Stay with God's Word, and anything's contrary to it, stay right away from it and keep moving on. The evening lights are here. The Lord Jesus is soon coming. May we bow our heads just a moment.

Oh, to that great day, that day of day and that book of books. And the books were opened and every man was judged according to the word that was written in the book. My, poor, deluded friend, not all.... Yes, my friend, and you who have tried in vain and have fought the air....

Just like a bird, I noticed, trying to beat his head against the window to put the light out. What did he do? He only beat his own brains out; the light shined on.

One day up there in the Statue of Liberty, up in the great arm, the little birds was laying dead all around. I said, “What happened?”

The man said, “There was a storm last night. And in the storm, these little birds flew in the light. Instead of using the light to go to safety, they tried to beat the light out with their little wings, and they beat their brains out.”

Don't try to beat your brains out to make God's Word say something it doesn't. Don't try to cope with societies of this day because, “If you love the world, or the things of the world, the love of God isn't in you.” Why not just take the Gospel light and fly to safety tonight? Oh, protect us, God!

Heavenly Father, as men and women who are sitting here, boys and girls, an eternity bound people, the petroleum and cosmic light of this world, with the sixteen different elements that we're made of. In their body is a soul that's precious—the beginning, the start. And I pray Thee, Lord, to deal just now with that heart, that soul, that tender spot that lives forever, that gives us our moving about. And I pray that You'll save every lost sinner tonight. May they realize that these great mile posts that we're passing, these signs flashing on both sides of the road, is only the pointing of the soon appearing of the righteous One, the Lord Jesus, who to be a friend of, means life, to know is eternal life.

And we can only know Him according to the Bible—not by our church, but by the birth, the new birth, being borned-again. And Father, I believe with all my heart, there's not a mortal person here, along with myself, who would want to be condemned or go to hell. And why would we let something stand in our way? Why would we accept a counterfeit when the skies are full of the real? And while the earth is in its great Babylonian wine party—drinking, lying, carousing, half-dressed women, concubines as Nebuchadnezzar had —there's a handwriting moving on the wall. Seers are seeing it come, who rises up above the average person. We see it because it's written in the Word. No more water, but fire this time. And we see the handwriting on the wall. We see that every nation is condemned.

God is going to take His church, the borned-again. The hour is coming when those back in the Lutheran age, the Methodist age, all down through the ages, that fell asleep with true hearts in God. When the corn was only a little leaf, and when it was a tassel, but along together will that life be gathered together and the resurrection will come. All those will make up the great beautiful body of the Lord Jesus, soon is at hand. He said, “Those who rejected will be cast into outer darkness with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.”

Father, God, there's not a person would want to be there. Oh, have mercy on us, God. And with our penitent hearts, with our heads turned towards the dust where You taken us from, and if You tarry, we will return. God, be merciful to us, as I plead for this waiting audience after this message tonight. I pray that You will wake up people to the realization of their standing in Your presence.

And while we have our heads bowed, is there a person in here ... how many, rather (There's bound to be plenty of you.), that you realize that your life hasn't coped with God's Word, you've dilly-dallied along, you've half-way believed, and you've took a little world and a little of this, and a little of that. And you're sick and tired of it tonight. Oh, you joined the church, that's true. Maybe you did not, I don't know. But before God, who we may stand in His presence before morning: There might be an atomic missile destroy this whole thing in annihilation before day breaks in the morning. Remember, it's daylight in Russia now. He said, “Two will be in the bed,” must be nighttime somewhere when He comes, “one will be taken, the other left.”

Are you satisfied in your heart in the light of God's Word, you have been borned again of the Spirit of God, and the fruits of the Spirit follow your life, with love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, patience—it's following you. If not, would you be so sensible, may I put it in that way?) as to raise your hand to God and acknowledge you're wrong and say, “God, be merciful to me, and help me to be the type of Christian that You would desire me to be by giving me the Holy Spirit and let me live a godly life?” Would you raise your hand to God? God bless each one. Many, many, hands are up.

Now, is there others that would like to raise your hands, who did not at that time? Would you put up your hand? Women, God bless you. Men, women, do you real.... God bless you, lady. God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. God bless you, sister. God bless you, little boy.

Do you realize just the seriousness of this? You don't come to church just to hear a message ... or, to see a messenger, I mean. You come to hear the message. And the message is the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God and giving it to you. Now, what about? Maybe in the morning it'll be too late. Are you willing, in the presence of God, to raise your hand, you who have not yet, and say, “God be merciful to me, I want Your Spirit in me.” God bless you, sir. God bless you. God bless you, back there. God bless you, and you, and you, you, yes. God bless you, sir. God bless you, sir.

Would you be willing to say, “God, I'm going down to the potter's house. I'm sick and tired. I've always wanted a consecrated life. And tonight, I'm going down to the potter's house to lay my heart down and say, 'God, break it all up and give me a new heart a new spirit, and put Your Spirit right in the middle of it. And let my life run right along according to Your Word. Make me a Micaiah of this day, that I can stand on ”thus saith the Lord.“ And my vision, and my life, that I live before You, not I, but the Spirit in me, lives the life that the Bible requires. That's the way I want to be. O God, by Your mercy, make me thus.'”

Someone now that hasn't raised your hand, would you now do it? God bless you, lady. God bless you. God bless you, lady. God bless you. Just sit real quiet. While you're praying now. Every head bowed, every eye closed, everyone praying. Just softly, sweetly accept it now.

.............swift translation,

Naught of earth unmoved can stand,

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Shut in with God now.

When our journey is completed, (Oh!)

If to God you have been true,

Fair and bright your home in glory,

Your enraptured soul shall view!

Now what must you do?

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

(That's His Word.)

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

[Brother Branham hums “Hold To God's Hand.”]

He's right there by you. Looking back across the audience now, to a dear little man. Told his sweetheart goodbye the other day, just for a little while; and another one sitting here somewhere, told his sweetheart goodbye for just a little while. As they went out they were holding to God's unchanging hand. Their beloved husbands are here tonight, holding to God's unchanging hand, to know that sweethearts going to meet again. What would it be if they didn't have that? Oh, build your hopes on things eternal.

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Our Heavenly Father, as the music sweetly chording, and this is a message, a preacher, the Holy Spirit preaching to us now through the music, telling us what to do with this message tonight. Just hold to God's unchanging Word! Heavens and earth will pass away and change, but My Word shall never pass away. It cannot change. It's the Word of the unchangeable God. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart,” said the psalmist “ that I will sin not against You.”

There's been twenty or thirty hands up tonight, Father; men and women has heard the Word, when faith cometh by hearing. They have made this one all-sufficient decision that, by Your help and Your grace from this hour on, they'll serve You. Now won't You sweetly, Father, move down into their hearts? Put Your Spirit in their new spirit. You had to give them a new spirit or they would never held their hand, they wouldn't have desired it. But they went down to the potter's house, and they let You change their emotions and their ideas. And now, in their hearts has been tendered, and You said, “No man can come to Me except My Father draws him.” They could not have raised their hands, from the youngest to the oldest, unless You had told them to do it. They did it because that You spoke to them. And it's God giving them to Christ, as a love-gift. They yielded their hearts, and we can hear Your great voice say, “He that heareth My Word.” Not Your church, Your church has Your Word, and it isn't contrary to Your Word.

“But He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto life.” Bless them Father, with long life, with eternal life, and raise them up at the last day as Thou has promised. And may this be a great service of dedication, when saints of the living God will rejoice and be renewed. May the sick, everyone (if there is any present), may they be healed. May Your Spirit be manifested through Christ our Lord.

Now with our heads raised just a moment, I wonder you that raised your hands, I believe you accepted what you said. But, and I believe that you were sincere, and I take you to God's Word, which is the truth. Now, there's only one question: Did you mean that? If you did, it was God knocked at your heart; that's right. Now if you really meant that, then the old things is passed away. God said so; it can't change. Jesus said, “He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.”

I think, if it really taken place in your heart, that you would feel grateful enough to God, that you'd like to walk up to His altar here and kneel down and give Him thanks for what He has done for you. And while the sister continues with the same song, I would like for everyone that raised their hand, and along with those who did not that wished they should, come up and let's kneel down and give a word of thanks to the Almighty for what He has done for us. That proves you were sincere.

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

When our journey is completed,

If to God you have been true,

Fair and bright your home in glory,

Your enraptured soul shall view!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Now I wonder.... We got many pastors and evangelists here tonight who love to see souls in the kingdom of God. I wonder, brethren, if you'd.... Come here, pastor. And I wonder if the brethren would take their place right along here. We're going to offer prayer for these dear people.

Do you know what? According to the Word, I give it a test trial. They raised their hands that they would accept God's eternal Word this night and believe. And I said, “Now we pray.” Now look what Jesus said.... Let's take it to the Word now. We have a lot of fantastics, but let's take it to the Word. Jesus said, “He that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life and shall not come to the judgment, but has passed from death unto life.” God said so. That settles it forever. “No man,” said Jesus, “can come to Me, except My Father draws him. And all that the Father has give Me, will come to Me.” None are lost. “He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood, has everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last days.”

Oh, how marvelous, to look on this altar. When one soul's worth ten thousand worlds. They never come to join a church. They come because they are a member of the body of Christ. They come here to offer thanksgiving and praise. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will unctionize and fill every heart up and down this altar tonight with a peaceful, and sweet, humble spirit that'll bring forth the fruits and righteousness of Christ, as long as there's breath in their body, and go home to glory.

Would the evangelists and pastors come, stand around with us while we offer prayer, if you will. Everyone, no matter of your affiliation with churches; that has nothing to do with it. We just want you to come right around the people.

I'm going through, yes, I'm going through,

(Let that be the motive of your heart.)

I'll pay the price what other Christians do,

I'll take the way (like the Micaiah) with the

Lord's despised few,

I've started in with Jesus, and I'm going through.

I'm going through, yes, I'm going through,

I'll pay the price what other Christians do,

I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few,

I've started in with, Jesus, and I'm going through.

I'm..................................

Is there another would like to take the way? “You're ashamed of me before my Father, or before men? I will be ashamed of you in the morning before the angels. Are you ashamed before this little audience tonight to take your stand? Are you ashamed? ”He that will confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father.“ I'll take the way, Lord.

.................I'm going through,

I've started through with Jesus, and

I'm going through.

Just be in prayer, everybody, while they're offering thanksgiving to God, for the pardoning of their sins.

O God, the Father and Redeemer of mankind, these have come tonight confessing that they have not been sufficiently placed into the body of Christ. And they come tonight to take their position by the guidance of the hand of God and the Word. And we pray now that You will place them into the position in the kingdom whichever they shall serve. And may they, with one accord tonight believe on Thy holy Word. And may You, by the Holy Spirit, speak to them. And may they just, by the inspiration, be led to the position in the body of Christ unto which You have called them.

O God, how we thank Thee for this. This is glorious in Thy sight. It thrills our heart to see men and women who will kneel humbly at an altar and confess their wrongs and plead for mercy. Take them through, Lord. Your anointed servants, the ministers of the Word, are standing by the side of these people. And I'm standing here by this sacred desk. This is a wonderful moment. The angels of God have stuck down their camp along the side of this place tonight. For it is written in the Word, “The angels of God are encamped about those who fear Him.” And in the great unseen world that now is around us, stirring our emotions to repentance, and to bring evil before our eyes, that we have done wrong. With penitent hearts we surrender our evil ways, Lord, and ask for divine mercy. And may the Holy Spirit, who has promised us mercy, give it to each of us as we humbly beg and ask God to fulfill His Word and to mold our lives and our character to fit His Word. We ask in Christ's name.