God Keeps His Word #1

While we remain standing just a moment, let us bow our heads to Almighty God and offer to Him a word of prayer. Shall we pray.

Our kind heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight for the love of the Lord Jesus and for being with us through this another day, and has by thy grace permitted us to assemble here together tonight. And thou has promised that “Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I will be in their midst.” And we know that Thou art here, because You have promised it. And we pray that You will bless us tonight, Your presence being here. May we all recognize it, and may the Holy Spirit take the Word of God and give it to every heart just as we have need. Save sinners. Heal the sick and afflicted. Call the backsliders back to the home of grace. Grant these blessings, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

As the nights grow on, and the meetings begin to come towards the last of it—of this present meeting—I am trusting to God that many things will be done for His glory. I am hoarse in my throat, not from a bad cold, but just too much speaking. This is about four months straight with hardly a night off. So, you can imagine what a great terrible strain it is. From the frozen regions until the tropical jungles, and there is no let-up yet. I've got to go from here; immediately leaving Monday morning, I've got to be at La Christiance at one o'clock Monday, after leaving here. And then, on up into California, to Oakland, back into Kansas, dedicating a church. From there up into Canada, around through Canada. And then if the Lord so permits, immediately after the Chicago Christian Businessmen convention, a complete worldwide tour, all the way around. So, I need prayer and need it very bad, so you pray for me.

Now, tonight as we open this blessed Word of God.... I just love to read of the Word. Don't you like the Word?

“Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word of God.” We can rest so assured on God's Word, because it is eternally right. It's forever the truth. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, I would like to read for a text, praying that He will give us the context, out of Numbers the 13th chapter and the 30th verse.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are ... able to overcome it.

Just as a Scripture reading. And now I trust that God will help us as we go into this. And now tonight if it would be so, for the next two or three nights, I'd like to teach on the subject, this: God Keeps His Word.

When I was first converted and was ordained in the Baptist church, I had a good old teacher by the name of Dr. Roy Davis. He was a lawyer before his conversion, and he took everything from a legal standpoint in the Bible. And I remember my first sermon I preached; I preached on Samson a-grinding for the enemy. Well, I went over and had my own hands tied to the post, and, oh, I went through every emotion, I guess, that I thought the preacher could go through. And when I noticed old Dr. Davis sitting there with his finger up to his mouth, just watching me. And after the service was over, I had made my altar call.

A lot of the old mothers was walking up, patting me on the shoulder. Oh, they said, “Billy, that was wonderful.”

And Dr. Davis said, “I want to see you in the study.” I said, “Yes, sir.”

He said, “That was just about as ridiculous as I ever heard in my life.” Oh, it really took the sails off of me.

So, I said, “Why what's the matter, Dr. Davis?”

He said, “One time when I was practicing law,” said, “I went down and I heard a few cases tried.” And said, “When I heard the cases, I watched the emotions the attorneys went through.” And said, “When I tried my first case, after I was sworn to the bench,” he said, “I took off my coat. And it was a lady I was defending.” And said, “I pounded on the desk. I cried. I walked back and forth.” And said, “I thought I had the case whipped, that's all there was to it.” And said, “The old judge sat there. After a while he wrapped on the bench, and said, 'Judge, your honor, how much more of this ridiculous thing can your court stand?'”

Well, said, “Then, I felt just like that I was just whipped.” Said, “I walked out defeated.” Said, “I went out home, and said, 'Well, I'll study something else. I'll never make a lawyer.'” Said, “After a while somebody knocked on the door. And who was it, but” said, “the old attorney. And he come down. He said, 'Roy, I was watching you.' And he said, 'You know, this court,' said, 'the reason I did that, I want you to be a real lawyer.' Said, 'I know it's in you to be a lawyer, but this court doesn't make its decisions upon your mental emotion.' Said, 'You had a lot of mental emotion, but you had no law in defense. And,' he said, 'that's the reason I said that.'”

And I think that's a very good thing. I said, “Dr. Davis, I thank you.”

He said, “Billy, all of your emotions and going on, and tying Samson to the post, and whipping him and putting his eyes out, you didn't get very much scripture. Men are not saved by emotions and all the little sad stories you tell. Man is saved by the Word of God.” That certainly fixed me up.

Since then I've decided this, that God doesn't judge us upon our emotions or upon our affiliations with church, but He judges us by His Word. Heavens and earth shall pass away, but God's Word shall never pass away.

Now, in the day that we're living and the times that we're living in, I think it behooves us to check up with the Word of God and see where we're living and the hour we're living.

Now, God spoke of this day. And this day is one of the most outstanding days that the world has ever seen. It is one of the greatest times to preach the Gospel that the world has ever known.

Now, in the Old Testament there was about three ways of knowing the will of God. Of course, one of them was the written law; the next was by a prophet; the next was by a dreamer. And when a prophet prophesied or a dreamer dreamed, they let that speak before the Urim Thummim, and that was the breast plate that was on Aaron's breast. And in there was stones that represented each tribe. And if that prophet was right, or that dreamer was right, there come a sacred light over that breast plate, and was called Urim Thummim. And no matter how real it seemed.... Now, I want you to get it. No matter how real it seemed, if those lights didn't flash on the Urim Thummim, God had refused the message. Any Bible scholar knows that.

The Urim Thummim has been done away with, because that priesthood ended. But God's Urim Thummim today is God's Word. The Word is His Urim Thummim. Woe unto him that'll add or take away anything from this book. This is God's eternal truth and in the day where there is people saying, “Oh, we don't need the Bible. It's been translated fifteen times, or more; how do we know its right?” Till heavens and earth pass away, God's Word will never pass away. Every doctrine and everything else of the Bible, that we have in the church, must be based upon the Word of God—must come from the Word. Not just one place; but, from Genesis to Revelation it must say the same thing, because we cannot base our thoughts upon one little Scripture. For, the Bible said, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.”

You could take one Scripture, fix it around. I can say, in the Scripture, “Judas hung himself. You go do likewise.” But that wouldn't be rightly dividing the Scripture. See, that was pertaining to Judas, and not to you.

And now we're starting tonight on—two or three nights, if the Lord permits—on: God Keeps His Word. He's got to keep His Word. In order to be God, He has to stand behind everything He said in His Word. And that's exactly where my faith rests, is upon the spoken Word of God.

Now our text starts off tonight with a covenant people, way down in Egypt. Yet they were in there waiting on the Word of God, which had been spoken by ... through Abraham, that his seed would sojourn in this strange land for four hundred years. But, in such a long wait, the people had got away from the real meaning and wasn't looking for the day to come. And another thing we could say: They wasn't looking for it in the way that it did come. And that's what's the matter with us today: We got our minds set up on the way God has got to do things, just the way we think He's going to do it; and usually we're wrong. God promised He would deliver them. And when a little baby boy was born down there in a poor peasant home, little could they ever think that that was the emancipator of Egypt ... or, of Israel. But it was. And when the time come for them to be delivered, Israel failed to recognize their leader to bring them out. What did it take? It taken forty years more, before God could ever get the church in condition to take it out.

Now, I believe this. I could be wrong; I'm just a man as you are. But I believe the coming of the Lord is past due. I believe the reason that God can't come, is on the condition of His church. It's all separated and broke up and everything that could be thought of is mixed into it. It's got to come a time for an old-fashioned shaking down, settling down, for the church of God.

Now, as we see this day that was a perfect type then, of this today. First thing they had, they had the ark, a prophet, an angel. The word, their prophet, their angel—a sacred light that followed them. And as they came out of Egypt, after Moses finally.... God taken forty years to bring them into condition. And they were forty years passed, because of their differences, and not recognizing.

The Bible said that in the days of Noah, God was long suffering. He wasn't willing that any should perish. And He said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man. I believe the coming of the Lord is past due then. For, He had to wait long in Noah's time. He had to wait long in bringing out Israel. I believe He is waiting long, but I believe His patience is getting thin with us.

I just met Brother Hooper a few moments ago—first time I seen him for a long time. Said, “Brother Branham, I want just a minute or two with you before you leave Arizona, for this may be our last time seeing each other.” It seems like there's a great checking-up time somewhere, as I think of it.

Now, after forty years, finally God got them together and they recognized this prophet Moses, who went down there with the Word. And on their road out, coming out of Egypt, following God, and they came to a place looked like a halt, or a standstill. And after they had done seen the glory of God down in Egypt, with signs and wonders that God had did; when they seen the pressing time come: when the Red Sea had them cut off, the deserts had them cut off, and Pharaoh's army just behind them! Oh, what an hour! But God seems to take pleasure in getting His children in such a position. It's strange how God leads His children.

As a poet used to say, “Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through deep trials, but all through the blood.” God has a way, leading His children, so odd and peculiar; and how strange, that new-born baby. Come up out of this great wilderness of sin, and was lead right up here and cut off. Why, seemingly, that all nature mourned for them.

But God's path happened to lead through the Red Sea, and how beautiful to notice just in that crucial hour. Oh, I love God for that. God waits till the very crucial moment, but He can speak in things He puts according to His Word. He had promised them to take them to the promised land, and He is obligated to His Word. That great dark crucial moment.... How easy it was for God to figure it out. He just took the pillar of fire and moved it over in between the Egyptians coming, and it was light to Israel and dark to them.

Now, that's what it is coming to now, my brother. It's coming a place that those who reject Christ, He's becoming darkness to them; to those who except it, it's becoming light to them. We are living in that day just before crossing. And did you notice how easy it was for the Creator, God, to send down a strong east wind, and just divide the Red Sea and take His children across.

Oh, the Red Sea got scared and just walled itself up, because God's path lead through the middle of it. That's the way God does things. If people....

These people who was keeping His Word walking in the light, moving on following God's commands: everything just opened up for them. And if you want things to open up, take God at His Word and start moving forward.

Now, we understand that they came to a place called Kadesh-barnea. That was the judgment seat, or a testing time for all of Israel. And God always tests His children by His Word. Did you hear that? God tests His children by His Word. If you believe His Word, God tests you by the Word.

Now, if you notice, there come a time to go over and spy out the land. And when they went over to spy out the land, they came back—the twelve. Ten of them said, “We can't take it. We just can't take it, because the cities are all walled and we look like grasshoppers up beside of those great giants.” But two of them said, “We can take it.” That was Caleb and Joshua.

And friends, I want you to notice that Caleb and Joshua was looking at one thing, and the ten was looking at something else. The ten was looking at circumstances, and Caleb and Joshua was looking at God's Word. They said, “We can take it, for we're well able to do it, because God said we could do it.”

And I believe tonight—as hard as I have preached and other ministers who sees the vision—I still believe that there's some way that we can break down the middle wall of partition and make churches of God one together as a brotherhood. I don't know how it will be done, but God has said that He would have a church without blemish, without spot, without wrinkle. And He's going to have it. I believe it.

Then, they got them a false prophet. When people won't receive the truth, though it be in the minority, they'll raise them up a false prophet. The Bible said in the last days that false prophets ... the people would heap for themselves teachers having itching ears, and would be turned away from the truth unto fables.

Now, God has to keep His Word; He has to do it. “...turned away from truth unto fables.” And you notice, they went and got another man by the name of Korah. And Korah got all the people together (as many as he could), and pulled them off and segregated them from the rest of them, and started himself a little denomination of his own.

Saying, “There's more prophets besides Moses; There's more holy men. We are all holy men, and each one of us has just as much right to believe this as they have to believe that. But, brother, it was a lie to begin with.

God has a program and that program is written in His Word. And His Word said, “We should be one, altogether.” Not a divided, divisions, and fusses, and stews, but we should be one. Christ prayed that we would be one, and He said, “This will all men know you are my disciples, when you have love one for the other.”

How can gifts and signs work in a church? How can God perfect His church when there is so much division among us? How can, when one says this and one says that and one says something else and all contrary one to the other. There is one supreme judge: That's God's eternal everlasting Word. And God keeps His Word. So, quicker we can line up with that word, better off we will be. God keeps His Word.

Now, if you notice, what caused this trouble, there was a mixed multitude went up with them. The supernatural had been done down in Egypt. And when the supernatural had been done, everybody flocked to it, and it caused a mixed multitude to go with them: Unregenerated, unconverted hearts going up, trying to impersonate the real believer. And it's been that in the days of Noah; it was in that in the days of Christ; it's prophesied in God's Word for to be the same thing in this day. The supernatural has been done. And there's a mixed multitude's gone up: unregenerated, hearts not conditioned, not keeping God's Word, but impersonating something.

What happened to you Lutheran? Many years ago at the first reformation you held the torch light of freedom in your hands. You were God's light. What happened to you? Because you read in the Bible, “The just shall live by faith,” and you organized yourself around that one Scripture and become a bunch of isolationists, and God took the torch light out of your hand. That's true. The just shall live by faith, but there's more Scriptures than that.

What happened to you Methodists? In the days of John Wesley, who had the great revival that saved England, when Wesley and Asbury and many of them were over here in one of the greatest revivals that this nation ever knew, you held the torch light in your hand. But after the going of John Wesley, what taken place? You've got a bunch of seminary students in there that organized the great group and you set your doctrine upon sanctification—and denying it now—and God took the torch light out of your hand. Right.

And some little one-eyed Negro man down yonder in California received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and God stuck the torch light in the hands of Pentecost. But what happened? You held the torch light in your hand, but the first thing you know, you went and made a little issue, just like the rest of them did, and settled down; and God has took the torch light out of your hand. You started breaking up. First thing that God did was restore the gifts. He started on speaking in tongues, and you did speak with tongues. Then you made it a doctrine, initial evidence: no one could get the Holy Ghost without speaking in tongues, and all that spoke with tongues got the Holy Ghost. That's all right, but you made it a doctrine, and God took the thing out of your hand.

Along come the new issue, the Oneness. They started baptizing in Jesus name. That was all right; that's in the Bible. But what happened? You made a issue out of it, and where are you at tonight? On the side lines too, because you didn't hold the torch light. You organized and put a period after that, and that settled it.

God started a move of divine healing out of the interdenominationals, and what's happened tonight? Brother, they made a issue out of it, and now they've built their ministry upon fantastics, and it's got to a place where it's all kinds of sensations. I'm going over to the West Coast; I hope it never hits me. But oh, mercy, everything that you could think of in the almanac, and not in God's Bible, all kinds of isms, and fantastics; and the Pentecostal move has become placed down on little isms and emotions. And God will jerk the torch light off of divine healing, for He can't place any real thing on nothing that's got no foundation. God's Word is His foundation.

My friends, no wonder Pentecostal people are losing out. You once waved the torch light, a few years ago, but there's just two factions left. One of them has gone off to a big bunch of starch rituals. All you do is have a little ... like a Presbyterian: go to the church and have to hurry home at night to stick your head in the television to see “Who Loves Suzy.” You know that's right. And you got nothing but baseball playing, soup suppers, and everything else in your church. You know that's true. And God could never base and place in that anything else but confusion.

And the other side has went off on the deep end to a bunch of everything: isms, addicts, fanatics, radics, everything else that they could find in the way of sensation emotions. If the devil can't get you to see a truth, he will push you off on the deep end somewhere.

Dr. Roy Weed, the state presbyter of the Assemblies of God, of Indiana, one of my bosom friends, a real church ... a brother. And here not long ago Brother Weed was speaking, and he knowed that my position was: Stay in the middle of the road. Never go fanatic, or never go formal, but stay with the pure unadulterated Word of God, and build upon that solid foundation, and accept nothing unless it's confirmed in God's Word.

And I told him, the middle of the road. At a Businessmen's Convention recently, Brother Weed, I guess, not knowing I was there, he said, “I heard Brother Branham say, 'The middle of the road.'” He said, “Of course, you know that's not good ethics. A man that gets in the middle of the road will get run over.”

In a few minutes the master of ceremony, said, “Brother Branham, you got a word to say?”

I said, “I sure have.” I said, “Brother, these brethren become so earth bound till they can never soar up to see 'thus saith the Lord.'”

This road we're traveling is a one way road; you don't come back on it. You either go on with God, or off on the deep end, one side or the other. And the only way you can do it.... Brother, we don't need all this formal stuff that we have today, neither do we need all this fanaticism we have today. There's too much of the real genuine Holy Spirit—the skies are loaded with it—and there's no need to take a substitute, and try to get to heaven on some sensation, when God's Word tells you you can't do it. What's the use of accepting a substitute? Neither by joining a church and putting your name on the book, or going over here and getting into some kind of a stuff that you are going to have to jump up and down, or oil run from your hands, or bloody faces, or something, when that stuff is out of hell. It's not in God's Word. You believe me to be a prophet of God, receive my word and stay away from such stuff.

The Bible said that in the last days the antichrist would deceive the very elect if possible. If you would have stood with me in the jungles of Africa, and watched those heathens produce blood in their hands, pour it into a skull and drink it, you'd know better. Certainly. You see, I believe in signs and wonders, but they got to be God's signs and wonders.

At the junction of every time that I am going to speak on in a few nights.... Listen to this, brother: When all heaven opens up, all hell opens up with it. The Bible said, “In the last days that they would say, 'Lo, He is in the desert.' 'Lo, He's here.' 'Lo, He's there,' all kinds of signs and wonders.” Said, “Believe it not, for as the lightning cometh from the east, and shineth even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. And every eye shall see Him, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess.” Certainly. In the last days this is to happen.

Children, the Bible said, “As Jannes and Jambres (the two-headed god of Egypt) withstood Moses, so will these resist the truth —men of reprobate mind concerning the truth.” The truth is God's Word. He said, “What is truth?”

“Sanctify them Father through the truth.” Thy Word is the truth. We don't need some bogus something when God has got the real thing for us. We don't need....

I was speaking with a minister in Los Angeles a few months ago, when a.... There was something about bringing a little woman over from Egypt. And anyone with good common sense knows—those Madonnas; why, we got them in our town.

There's a little woman lives at Charlestown, Indiana, who is a rank sinner, and a drunkard. She pours blood from her hands every month, every twenty-eight days. When I was in the Vatican City in Rome, they got dozens of them there. Certainly.

And when this minister put out that the oil off that woman's hand would heal people, put it on their face, when the blood off of there would mean salvation to nations, I called the minister out and said, “Brother dear, I love you, but you've built your ministry upon sensations, and it has got to come to naught.” I said, “If I could preach the gospel half as well as you could, I'd never mention such a thing.” Right. I said, “Do you realize if that oil or that blood has one speck of virtue in it, what happened to the blood of Jesus Christ?” It's taking away from Christ, which is antichrist—against it.

If anything could come from you, it goes to show it's corporal. If blood could come from a vision and drop in your hands, then that was a corporal body of Christ and He's come. There might be a vision, sure, but no literal thing. If a frog come out of you, it went in you. Right. I'm not angry (I can't be and be a servant of God), but what gets me is to see these things pushed down children of God.

Oh, what started any cult? It was hungry children trying to find something to eat. And if you lazy bunch of preachers won't give them the Gospel, they'll eat out of a garbage can. That's right.

I lay it on to you preachers. That's right. If you won't give the children the bread of life, they'll take some kind of a scum out of the garbage can and eat it. That's right. There's no Scripture for that; there's no such thing. Only, the Bible's condemning it. Jesus does not appear with scars in His head. If He does, He's come and every knee has bowed, every tongue has confessed. But the Bible said they'd say, “Lo, He's in the desert (around Phoenix or whatever it might be), but believe it not. Lo, He's in the secret place, believe it not.”

The Bible said that in that day many will stand and say, “Lord,

have not I done many things in Your name? Have not I prophesied in Your name? Have not I done mighty works in Your name?“

He said, “I will confess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.”

Brother, until something's happened down in a man's heart that has changed him.... Oh, if I knew that praying for the sick had ever started and worked up to such as that, I'm sorry I ever mentioned it. But I know that there is a real Spirit of God who heals the sick. And I know the devil is trying to make counterfeits everywhere. It only proves that there is a real one, and it doesn't come from oil from a humans body, neither does it come from blood, neither does it come from anything from a man. It's a finished work at Calvary and your faith in that finished work. If every appropriation has been made at Calvary, if everything that God promised was finished at Calvary, and if the finished product, you don't need nothing else but faith to believe it. That's right, how true.

Stay with His Word. God said these things would happen. Here they are before us. We see them; we look at them.

The other day before I left home to come to Phoenix, Arizona, I had thirty calls, less than two hours from Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama, and many places. The ministers saying, “Brother Branham, that West Coast dogma has struck this country. Leave Phoenix alone and come here, Brother Branham. Surely they'll hear you. If they don't, our churches is lost.”

I said, “Brother, I can't come. (I promised to go to Phoenix.), but you as a man of God, climb in the pulpit and take that Word of God, and, ”My sheep hear My voice, and a stranger they'll not follow.“ That's right.

Oh, little children, what's the matter? We go off on the deep ends. Let's stay in the Word. We're going right on down into that this coming week now—the rest of the week.

Oh, brother, isolate yourself to Christ; stay with Him. Don't you know the time is coming, the Bible said, “They will go from the east to the west, north and south, trying to find the true Word of God and fail to do it.”? Don't you realize we're in the last days? Don't you realize that these things are supposed to take place in the last days? We're here! God keeps His Word.

And the Bible said, (Revelation 21.) that this antichrist move, one place it said, “It would deceive the very elected, if possible.” What is the elected? There's a mixed multitude with Pentecost today as there was then. The supernatural has been done, and there's a mixed multitude went with it, that will drink in any kind of slop. That's right.

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The mixed multitude.... The Bible said these days would be here and how it would be, and we're living to see it. It's here.

Now notice, back there, when He said, “It would deceive the very elected, if possible.” Now, before the world began, Jesus Christ was a lamb slain, before the world began. Do you believe that? All right. Then back in the beginning, when God looked down and seen what was going to happen, He spoke of the slain Lamb, and God's Word is always confirmed in heaven, and the Lamb was slain right there before the foundation of the world, according to God's Word. Is that right? But it never happened for four thousand years. But it was a finished work back here. God said so. And the Bible said that you in this church tonight that's born again....

How it's nice for the poet to say, “There's a new name was written down in glory” tonight. But the Bible said that every one that was saved, their names were put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. When the Lamb was slain, you was associated with it. Then what are you going to do about it? “All that comes to Me, no man can come except my Father draws him.” There's the elected from the beginning.

The Bible said in Revelation 13, “And the antichrist deceived all

that dwelt upon the earth whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life, from the foundation of the world.“

With those signs and wonders.... Oh, you ought to walk with me to India, watch there. You want to see oil and blood, if you want to see them pull off their shoes and walk through hot fire, come right back out without a scorch on them.... Seen a man take a sword, put it over his heart, and push it right down through his heart and the doctor went to the platform. They took water and poured it through this, then it ran out that side and come back; he jumped up and down, shouting.

In the school of the prophets ... or, the feast of the prophets, in the Mohammedan temple, a man sitting there working himself up, saying, “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.” And got into such an emotion till he took splinters and pushed them through their fingers, pull them out with no blood. And one took a lance and started from his chin and run right up through his nose, and come back and proved that Allah was God.

Listen, brother. You're never saved by any sign. You're never saved by any sensation. You're saved when you meet God's condition of His Word, and nothing else are you saved by. That's right. God's Word has made a way. You're not saved because you feel like you're saved. I'm not saved because I feel like I'm saved, because a lot of times I don't feel that way. But I'm saved because God gave the promise. I met God's conditions and upon God's holy Word I can defeat Satan seven days in a week, and as many nights, because it's God's Word.

“He that heareth my Word and believeth on Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come to judgment, but is passed from death to life.” That's what the King of kings said. Do you believe it?

If you believe, not if you shout, not if you run. Them things are all right, but you are trying to base, and make a doctrine out of it. And even on divine healing you're making a doctrine, and divine healing is a minor. How can the church ever major on a minor? Ask that question, and think it over. It's a mixed multitude; it's a multitude. That's the reason, friends....

Let me tell you something. Two weeks ago... There's men sitting here looking at me right now that was in the meeting, in Lima, Ohio. Where I had the Methodist, the Baptist, and the Presbyterian, and some Nazarenes, Salvation Army all sponsor my meeting in a great big auditorium. There standing on the Word and proving by the Word the Lord Jesus, and the real Gospel things that was to take place, and night after night hundreds of them walked down to the altar, giving their hearts to Christ. Upon—not a sensation; upon the Word!

Let me tell you something, brother. Now, I want you to listen quiet, and as I close on this. I am firmly believing this. And I say this not knowing whether I'll live to see daylight or not. But there is a supernatural that has been done (That's true.), but you're going wild with it. You're going on the deep end with it. The devil is pushing you off with it. You got plumb out of the Bible now. I believe in the supernatural. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And does the same things that He did yesterday, and will forever. That's right. I believe that.

But now listen, I have went to places and I want you.... Some of you may be strangers to me; some of you may never come back to hear me preach again. That's going to be up to you; you know it one time anyhow. I want you to search the Scripture. Let me tell you, listen to this.

I have begin to believe.... Now, listen. Let's go back to the bottom. You take a good man and let him marry a bad woman, that woman will either become a good woman, or he will become a bad man. Spirit: That's my life. I deal with spirit. I don't look at the person; I catch him by his spirit.

I've went out and sat down with ministers, around a table, see one of them there with venereal disease, living with another man's wife. Look over here and say, “ Oh, Brother Branham, I love you.” And he's a hypocrite and a liar; I know he don't. That's right.

“I believe that every word you say is the truth, Brother Branham.” And a dark shadow hanging over him right then. I'd just rather not know it. I want to love him anyhow; I do anyhow. If I don't, then I go back to God. But you imagine what kind of a life I have to live. You imagine how hard it is to come to children that you love, and know you're going to have to stand yonder.... I'm a man forty-seven years old, biggest part of my life is finished, and I've got to stand before God, but I've got to answer with this Book. That's exactly right.

And I've went into meetings. I want to ask you something: You go into a meeting, a pastor that jerks his head, watch everyone of the congregation jerk their head. You go to a meeting that a pastor's a real wildfire, skitty, run-a-bout, you watch everyone of the congregation act the same way. But you go into a place where a pastor is a solid Gospel teacher, all hell will never move that church. That's right.

Brother, you take one another's spirits. That's exactly right. You take one another's spirits instead of the Holy Spirit. Just like a good man takes a bad woman's spirit or vice-versa, you take each other's spirit. And I have done this one thing, brother.... If God.... If I know my heart, with my Bible here tonight, if there's one thing I've tried to stay clean of, I've never tried any sensations or anything to get people to look at me. I've tried not to even to lay my hands on a person, but preach the Gospel, and let God do it. And if there's one thing, when I stand at the judgment bar, I don't want to have to give an account for a bunch of illegitimate-born children. I'm going to preach to them the Word, the Word of God, and they have the Spirit of the Word, or they don't have it at all. It's God's Spirit comes by the seed of God, is a Word of God that's planted in your heart that brings Christ Jesus. Not some emotion, not some fantastics. What a time we're living in!

A mixed multitude has gone up. What do we need today? We need men as gallant.... We need men—not one of three days' examination, mercy no. We need men who know God. That's right.

I went to a school, not long ago, that was shipping them out by the car loads overseas, for a two weeks' diploma and know all about divine healing. Why, it's like a incubator putting out illegitimate chickens. That's right. Why, it's a shame. They know no more about God, some of them, than more than a Hottentot knows about an Egyptian knight. That's true. What they need is a good old-fashioned Gospel scolding to go back home, and take the Word, and lay into it until they're born again of the Spirit of God; that keeps their eyes set on Christ and not upon sensations. And you know that's right.

I'm obligated to God. I'm obligated to that Word, and that's truth; and you know it's the truth.

And now, my brethren, this place where I went ... and giving these fellows a six weeks' diploma, and sending preachers out that didn't know no more about the message than nothing in the world. They know they can work themself up in some anxiety, and bring out some sweat in the middle of their hands, and go wipe it off on somebody and call it healing. Brother, that's antichrist if I ever seen it or heard it in the Bible. There is no thing can come out of you, that can help anyone, unless it's the Gospel, the Word of God coming through a true preacher's lips. That's right.

Calvary and healing and salvation is a finished product of Calvary. That's the Gospel, and nothing else will take its place. Now, you say, “Are you angry with somebody?” No, sir, I'm not angry with nobody. If I was, if I did this to spurt off, I ought to go to the altar and repent for it. That's right. I say these things on pure Christian love.

And you who will not come back, I want you to do me a favor: Mark a little piece of paper, and put it in your Bible and say, “Brother Branham said, 'Thus saith the Lord.'”

Then if God lets us live, watch what this thing is coming to. If God lets us live for a few more years and I pass through Phoenix, get that little yellow piece of paper out, and walk up to the pulpit and say, “What about this, Brother Branham?” Then I will tack it on my back, and you get in your car and drive me down the street, as a sign on my back: a false prophet.

This thing is coming from the devil, and it's going to confuse and tear up the church, as sure as the world, because it's not in God's Word. It doesn't flash on the Urim Thummim; stay away from it. Amen.

God is true. God does signs, God does miracles; but we got a mixed multitude, brother. They've seen the supernatural done, they're trying to work up some anxiety, and do something else. And the first thing you know, the devils could gradually come in on that, till he slipped it off on the side, and now, applying it to salvation and healing. It'll come to a place to where they'll even make fire come right down out of heaven, to prove.

Listen, let me show you what the Bible said. Paul said, “If an angel from heaven come and preach any other Gospel than this what you've heard, let him be accursed.” He said, “Though I could speak with tongues as men and angels and have not love, I am nothing. Though I can have faith to move a mountain (bring bread from my hand, oils from my hand, or do anything else), I am nothing.”

Anything he'd do in the light of that was nothing yet. He could give all his goods to feed the poor, he could do all these different things, and yet he is nothing until that little main spring is come down in here to take his life, just according to God's Word. That's right. I know that's rough, that's rugged, but it's the truth. So help me, Almighty God, it's the truth, see.

Now, I've told you the truth; now I want you to believe the truth. I want you to know that God is here to confirm the truth. God confirms His Word, but if His Word....

If the signs that's following is not in God's Word, then it's a made-up product of something else. What good would it do you? Divine healing is of God, certainly it is. But divine healing is a finished product. That's right. There's nothing else you can do about; you've got to accept God. Got to accept it and believe it on faith.

How do you come to Christ? Not because you boo-hooed at the altar; not because you cried all night; not because you sought God, because you never sought God. No man sought God at any time. Jesus said, “No man sought Him at anytime. No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first, and all that My Father gives Me, comes to Me.” That's right. “And he that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out.”

Listen here, the Bible said, “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life,” without one sensation, without anything else. “He that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life.”

Now you take that “everlasting life” and run to a Greek word to it and see if it ain't “Zoe.” Zoe is “God's own life.” Ever who believes on Jesus Christ (I don't mean, intellectually believes, but with your heart believes on Jesus Christ), God's life comes into you and you got eternal life. And you've passed from death to life, and Christ said, “He will never come to the judgment, but I will raise Him up at the last day.”

Now, that's God's Word for it. Do you believe God's Word or somebody else's? Better take God's Word for it. That's right. For, heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't. So stay with God's Word.

Let us pray.

Oh, my little children, my poor friends of Phoenix. How many times have I been to Phoenix? Have I ever begged you for anything? Have I ever even asked you for one bite of food? Have I ever asked you to get me a place to stay and pay my way? No, sir, never. Have I ever asked you to follow me and let me build you a great big church here, and come stay with you? No, sir, I haven't. I think you got ministers; you got churches. I only come to help you; God knows that's right. I only come to help you, and that's what I come for this time, to help you.

“Brother Branham, what do you think about these ministers that's teaching that?” I believe they're God's servants, certainly I do. I believe they're men God. I believe they're fine preachers, can out-preach me any time. And God favors them. But, they just got on the wrong road. That's all; it's just the wrong thing, brother. It isn't in God's Word; it doesn't flash on the Urim Thummim. And there's not a scholar in the world can place it on the Urim Thummim sensibly, and run it through the Bible like you can on divine healing, and other things like that.

Then what am I here for? I'm here to help you. I'm here to try to get you to go back to your church, go back. And if you pastors are here and fell in error, repent and go to your pulpit and say, “Church, we're coming back to God.” And have an old-fashioned revival, and quit fussing with your neighbor across the other way. If he don't believe just like you, shake hands with him and be a brother anyhow.

Mix up yourselves together and have union revivals. Get preachers who stays with God's Word, and not scattering about here. Read the Word. Some of you don't read the Word once a week. You ought to read chapter after chapter, every day. Meditate. If you'd get your head out of them old magazines and things you're reading, and out of this old ... so many papers and so-called religious literature that oughtn't to never be on the market. That's just as bad as reading some of the other magazines. Stuff that's false doctrine, and all kinds of dogma and basing it upon ... on truth. Why, doctrine can't be based upon some experience. Doctrine is based on God's Word, not on experience. People can have experiences of everything.

I've traveled into the jungles. I've seen the witch doctors; I've had them to challenge me. Stand out there and do all kinds of things—the devil. Watching how he would do.... Watch him take a stick and hold it in the air, lay it down, make it walk away, like a snake crawling. Turn back around, took a glass of wine ... of water, turned it to a purple-looking color like wine, and wanted me to drink it. And then that same group said the Lord told them of all them sensations. It finally comes to this, said, “Take your mother, and lay her down there, and kill her; put her up on the body ... upon the altar, and I will raise her up on the third day. For it's written, 'present your bodies a living sacrifice,' and you put your mother there.” The authorities had to get him for killing his mother, certainly.

Man come to himself, one with all these sensations:

pouring wine to water, and stuff like that, and corn stocks walking away. All that kind of stuff is of the devil. Certainly it is. God don't need nothing, you don't need nothing to prove, but the Bible and the Holy Ghost that's here to vindicate resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I talked to a man no longer than a half hour, three quarters ago ... before I come to the meeting, raging like a maniac. Oh, he thought he could do something too, see. Got on the wrong road. Come back to God, church.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I am free. I've said that which is on my heart. I've spoke rough to both people and ministers. As Paul said in Corinthians, how he told them where they was, that he loved them, but then he begin to let the whip down to the Gospel. And they told him the Lord said to do so-and-so. He said, “What, came the Word of God out of you, and came it from you only? If any man be spiritual, or a prophet, let him acknowledge that what I write is commandment from the Lord, but if he be....” If any man think let him be ignorant that's your Word, Father. And I believe that Saint Paul of the Bible was Your servant. And I believe that everything that he wrote is the truth that come from You. And I pray God, tonight, that you'll shake this little church in this solemn hour as they're bowing their heads, many in here.

And Lord God, to the ones that's going about with these sensations, Father, I pray that you'll please, some way, speak to those men, Lord. Let them see that it's not the Holy Spirit; it's not the Holy Spirit. The Bible condemns it in the spirit that's within me. If I be your servant Lord, then there's something in me that says that it's wrong and to cry out against it.

And Lord, I've done it with all my heart. Not to try to down any brother, or to try to down any man's thoughts, but to hold the Gospel and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, which is now speaking through Thy servant. And I believe it with all my heart. Bless the people.

And I pray that this will be a night of an old-fashioned crying meeting at their house, an old-fashioned repentance. And may tomorrow night, a real revival break, that the people will come to every church and there will be everywhere in this city, and a great Holy Ghost revival going on, with the true signs of God. And may it be built upon the Bible, so that the foundation can be sure. Grant it, Lord. For there is no other foundation that could be laid, but that which was already laid. And, Father, we humbly want to build upon that foundation.

Divine healing, apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, we believe those things; and we pray, God, that you'll help us to receive those things.

And now some day when my voice comes on Your screen up there before Phoenix, and before the other cities that I cry out against, then, I pray, Father, that it will be said then that it would be “Well done.” I pray that them that are here that's ordained to eternal life that You'll hear Your voice tonight, and come. For I ask it in Jesus' name.

With our heads bowed, just a moment.

I know you think it's a horrible time to make an altar call. But still, something in me says do it. Now, I want you do bow your heads just a moment, and I want you to think it over just a little bit. Just think, just quietly.

Have I ever told you anything wrong? Have I always tried to stay with God's Word and in God's Bible? I want you to think of that. Has God ever one time failed to vindicate the thing that I've said? Why? It's not me; it's Him. He honors His Word. That's right. Think it over now.

If you've been growing a little cold and getting away from the Word, and you'll promise God that from tonight on you'll examine the Word, with everything that you do; you'll watch closely and see that it's the Word. Will you raise your hand to Him, with your heads bowed? God bless you—you. That's fine. That's good. That's good. Just literally hundreds of hands.

How many believes that what I've said has been the truth? Every head bowed now. Raise your hand. God bless you. That's good. About ninety-ninety percent, looks like. Thank you. I love you for this.

I wonder if there's a sinner here that knows that in this day when it's such a tremendous time, such an awful time, such a time of trouble, and these things are happening. When you see the enemy appearing like this, and you see all these things taking place, don't you know we're at the end time? Don't you know that's a milepost?

The Lord willing, I'm going to preach, in a couple of nights, on “The Junction.” I want you to hear it. Just show you word by word through the Bible. I want you to bring your tablet and pencil. You'll see where we bring this right straight up to the present day. Everything started in Genesis; so did this. And it's coming to seed now.

Now you, a sinner, would you raise up your hand and say, “Brother Branham, pray for me. I'm a sinner and I don't want to get on the wrong road. I want to be right.” God bless you, sonny. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. That's good. Up in the balcony, raise your hand and say, “Brother Branham, I'm a sinner, but I actually believe you're telling the truth. I want you to pray for me.” God bless you, lady. God bless you, Spanish lady. And God bless you, lady sitting there. Up in the balconies to the left. Someone up in there. “Brother Branham, I'm not a Christian, but I believe that you're telling the truth. Pray for me.” Would you say it with uplifted hands?

All right, the balconies to the rear. Would you say with uplifted hand, “I believe, Brother Branham, you're telling the truth. I want you to pray for me.” Balconies to the right, would you raise your hand and say, “I believe with all my heart you're telling the truth, preacher. I want you to pray for me, that I will be anchored right.”

Oh, listen here, children. If you're not anchored right.... This is a minor thing. It's just starting now. You let it go about three or four years, and then watch what happens. You'll see everything. All right. There'll be all kinds of signs. God said it would be.

Now, while you got your heads bowed, let's pray. Just listen to the music.

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,

Hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

Saviour, Saviour,

Hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

Now, with your heads bowed. That song used to be sung in a Methodist age, when they had the Spirit of God on them. And people would faint and fall out on the floor. Preachers would preach hard about hell. People would scream and cry and run to the altar. And we Pentecostal believe that we got something that they didn't have. I think we ought to go back and get what they had.

Heavenly Father, these who raised their hands are Your children, by the pure unadulterated Gospel. And I pray heavenly Father, that the coming week You'll help me to get into it. And I pray that You'll bring many, many, many together. O God tear down the wall of partition between ministers of this city, and of other cities, and make them all one great big brotherhood. Grant it, Lord. May Thy Word find its place, sweet and deep, in every heart, in Jesus' name.

I pray that You'll save everyone that raised their hands tonight. They said they believed it. They believed it, because they believe it to be the Word. They're trusting, not in anything else, but the Word. God said so, that settles it. And I pray that You'll bless them. Bless each one that raised their hands. Grant it, Father.

I'm so happy that better than ninety-five percent of the people—yes, more than that—raised their hands that they actually believed it to be the truth, when no more has been said than just tonight, because they believed me, Lord, to be Your servant. And I pray that You will confirm that, and grant it to be truth, that they might know that your servant is not here, for own self man-made pride. I'm here for your Gospel sake. And I pray that You'll save everyone and bring in an old-fashioned revival built upon the solid Rock, Christ. And put into the church real Bible signs and real Bible miracles. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

I told Billy not to give out any prayer cards, and he never. There's no prayer cards give out. But I'm going to take this upon myself to believe in the message that I have preached to come from God. And if I have preached the truth, God's obligated to confirm that to be the truth. That's right.

And I believe in true Bible signs. I believe that the same Jesus did when He was here on earth, He does it today, no more or no less. What He did, He did then, He does now. And these things are written. And not to take into, or add to or take away from.

Now, if I told you the truth.... I pray that God will confirm that, and let His Word say so. And whether you've accepted the truth or not, may God vindicate it, without one person called to this platform. Now, I don't say He will. You're sitting out in the audience. I don't know. But if He will, will it make all of you believe that God is putting a seal on what I've said, as long as I prove that it's God's Word? Will you believe it?

Then pray, you that's sick and needy. Some of you here in the front (so you're closer to me); just pray. Start in praying if you're sick, needy. Let God anchor it, and if He does it, then surely you'll see that....

Now you say, “Brother Branham, there's a sign.” Yes, but that's what the Bible said would happen. “The things that I do, shall you also.” What did He do? Think it over. Pray.

If you could only believe, little lady. If you just wouldn't doubt it.

Now under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that the Angel of God that followed the children of Israel.... How many knows it was the pillar of fire (Let's see.), a pillar of fire? How many believes that was Jesus Christ (Let's see your hands), the Logos. How many knows when He was here on earth, He said, “I come from God, and I go back to God.” How many knows it? How many knows when after His resurrection, when Paul saw Him on the road, He was still a light? How many knows it? How many seen that picture, not of me, but of the light? I believe that's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He's hanging right over this woman, right here. She's suffering with a trouble in her chest. That's exactly right. If that's right lady, raise up your hand. Hurting, pulling, holding down; laying down, you can feel something pull. When you get up at morning, you can hardly straighten yourself up. That's right. That's exactly right. Now, you know I don't know you, do I? And I'm not reading your mind. Now, you say, “Just by chance.” Do you believe that God will heal you?

Now look, I can't do it. I haven't got nothing here to heal you with. Nobody else has got anything to heal you with. But, there's a Spirit of God here that you've touched, to bring back the real Bible truth that He's raised from the dead. Did a woman touch His garment?

Just that might not think it's an accident: The woman sitting next to you.... Like you was in a prayer line.... lady sitting next to her there, look here. Do you believe me to be a servant of God? You? Well, look this way just a minute. You have no prayer card, or nothing; you could never be in the line. You have no prayer card or nothing. All right. Look this a-way, just a minute.

As Jesus talked to the woman at the well, of Samaria.... And He talked to her till He found out where her trouble was, and He told her. And she said, “That's the sign of the Messiah.” Now, if that could be repeated, it wouldn't be some sensation, but it would be a sign of Messiah. Not me, but you, both of us together, working together by the Messiah.

Now, you know I don't you, never seen you. You have no prayer card, no way for you to get here nor nothing. But how many will believe now that God will reveal it? I don't say He will.

Now, God, You see the situation. Let it be known, Lord. The woman has got cancer. Now, if that's right, stand up on your feet. Is that the truth? Raise up your hand.

Now do you believe? Why is it? There's a shadow hanging over; it's black. It's death. Exactly.

Now, heavenly Father, I cannot control that, but I can ask You. When You was on earth, You said, “I could speak to My Father and He'd send a legion of angels.” I pray that because this woman has been used tonight as an example, that You will take away the demon from her body. And may it leave, as this church prays. Not only me, but the rest of us. That, that shadow will be gone from the woman. She knows there's something there by her, and has told her by the Bible, page after page, that it's the truth. Now, may the demon leave; because, it is said in the Bible, “In My name they shall cast out devils.”

That's the sign You said. And I ask it to leave, in Jesus Christ's name for a confirmation to these people I've told the truth. Amen.

Now, look, lady, you standing there, now, you don't feel like you did when you stood up. Do you? You feel better; don't you? It's gone. That's exactly right.

Now, you see? Now, you say, “Is that the Bible?” Absolutely. Jesus said, “The things I do shall you also.”

What do you think, sitting next to her? Little lady sitting there with your hands in your lap, crying. You're right close to me. You believe? You be the judge.

I don't know you; you don't know me. But God knows you. And you should have an operation (so it's said) for a gall bladder condition. Now, if that's right, stand up on your feet. Now....

What do you think little lady, sitting next to her? Do you believe with all your heart? If God will reveal to me what your trouble is, will you believe that I tell the truth? You have swelling. Do you believe that God will make you well of it? Do you accept it? Stand up on your feet, just stand up. The Lord bless you. By your standing up, you accepted it. It has gone from you. Now, you can be seated and be well.

Examine that by the Word. Find out if it's true. There's a lady sitting by this empty seat, sitting right behind. She's praying, crying, an elderly woman. What makes her cry? There hangs that light over her. What is that light? It's Christ. The Bible said so.

The woman wants to be healed. She wants to be healed from a gall bladder condition. Do you believe that God will make you well? You do? Then stand up on your feet. You now except it? All right, go home and be well, in Christ's name.

Just believe. Do you think God will heal you of that liver condition, lady, and make you well? You accept it, believe that He will? He can. You can have it also, just have faith in God. Believe.

You with the back trouble, what do you think? Believe the same thing? All right. Thou canst believe.

Look here. See that woman sitting there praying? Right on the end? You'd like to get over the arthritis, wouldn't you? That's right.

Little lady, next to you, also has trouble with the liver, also. That's right. The lady failed hers; she didn't answer to it. That light went straight across ... actually fell by you first time, see. Do you accept yours? Stand up on your feet then. Amen. Then you got it. There's light around you. Jesus Christ still lives.

Do you believe? I've told you the truth, the Bible truth. God said it's the truth. Then let's believe God with all of our heart.

How many in here wants to be healed tonight? I mean by God. Can't you see there's something here? It's the Spirit of God. Why? It's vindicating the Bible—not one little place, not two little places, but the entire Bible.

Jesus Christ has raised from the dead, doing the same things that He did yesterday. Will today, and will be forever, the same Lord Jesus. Do you believe it? Then put your hands over on each other. Let's have a word of prayer for the sick.

Now's the time. Oh, if I could only sink this into the heart! You're the person that's sick. I'm tired; I've just preached and strained, and begged, and done everything. It's up to you. God's come down, and done everything He can do to prove it to you. It's your time to pray. It's your time to accept Christ. I've already done it. I already believe Him. Do you believe Him? Then you start praying awhile. What about praying for yourself?

Every baby has to cry for his own candy. One baby can't cry for the next baby's candy. You start crying out to God, it you want to get well. It's up to you.

Now, start praying, everyone of you, praying for yourself, and praying for the person next to you. Start praying and get well. Believe in God. And when you feel that you've got sufficient faith, raise up, and accept it. That's the way to do it.

Now, heavenly Father, here's a group of people. I'm so tired, Lord, my ... oh, my heart groped and everything else. O God, what more can I do? What more can You do? Nothing. It's up to the people. O God, I pray in Christ's name, that You'll actually fill this building with the Holy Ghost. And such.... I don't know what more You could do. You've brought it by your Word, you've brought it by Your Spirit, you've brought it by the same marks of the Bible. And everything that You said would take place has already done it.

O God, may the people loosen up and undo their starchy conditions, and get away from their isms, and come back to the true living Lord Jesus, and be filled with God's power, and healed of their sickness and diseases.

O blessed God, I charge the devil in Jesus' name to depart from this place, and out of these people. And it's written, “In My name they shall cast out devils.”

All right, stand to your feet if you believe it, and accept it. Amen. Raise up your hand and give Him praise now. And the Lord bless you until I see you. Amen.