God Keeps His Word

Good morning, friends. It's a privilege to be here this morning in the service of the Lord, and to feel this wonderful welcome and fellowship. It just means something to a traveler's heart to feel that welcoming spirit (You know, it just ... it comes to you, and there's just something that don't take its place.), and to be back at the Tabernacle again, in the service of our blessed Lord.

And now, we have some dedication service for the babies, but I think, maybe, we'll just get that in a few moments. We are nearing Easter; I think it comes on about the 21st; and I was wanting to get here just a little early to see the elders and Brother Neville, and about ... I.... Maybe it would be a good thing if we had a little meeting here just before the Easter service, maybe start, say, on a Wednesday and run through Sunday, and end up with the baptismal service on Easter Sunday, and have a little meeting, a get-together.

This is the little tabernacle that I was cradled in; it's my first and only church. And I would just like to come back for these holy days and worship the Lord with you all. All would be in favor of that, think it would just be the Lord's will? Well, the Lord willing, we will begin Wednesday before Easter on Sunday.

And I would like to say that we would maybe ask the treasurer or the trustee and them, if they would put a little ad in the paper here somewhere, tell the children that we are here to worship, and we'd love to have a little fellowship with them all. Little kind of like coming home and make ready for.... Maybe the Lord will give us a resurrection of a greater portion of His Spirit for this coming Easter. It's like the fall and spring.

I think spring is such a beautiful time when everything begins to take on new form and new life, and reminds us of the resurrection. Easter comes such an appropriate time, in the springtime.

We notice God's Word always runs just exactly right with His nature and so forth.

So we're, if the Lord willing now, we will start this. And if they'll put a little ad, I said, in the paper, and don't make it glamour; just tell the folks that we want to worship the Lord together, and we would just love as many as would like to come along and fellowship with us a little while.... We'd be glad to have them and come along, all churches. And you get on the phone and tell your neighbors about it. And tell them that we're just going to talk about the Lord, and just all worship Him together.

I kind of make a move, if it would be pleasing with the people and good in the sight of God, and all right with the trio, I'd like for the Neville trio to help us out during that time, wouldn't you all? That's right. So, we'll see that they're taken care of in this manner, if the Lord so sees fit for us to do it.

And so, we invite other singers from different churches to come in and help us as we go along. The singers from your church, we'd be glad to have them. See Brother Neville, maybe the night before, and be able to get them on the program to have them to sing for us. We love good singing.

I would just like to have a good old-fashion homecoming time; it's just where we just get together. And get Angie, or.... Is Sister Angie here this morning? Get her out, so her and Sister Gertie can sing “Homecoming Time” for us once and “Keep Holding On.” And that seems something like the beginning of a revival again, Sister Gertie. A lot of water's went down the river since we used to sing that here.

I had a birthday yesterday, and I know I'm no boy no more. I said, “I'm past twenty-four now.... And that's just my years.... I don't count the ones I was literally, naturally born in physical; I'm just counting my spiritual years, you see. It's about twenty-four years ago, I was borned again. And that's eternal, and it's one great blessed birthday. And it'll never run out. That's one thing sure.

Now, I want Sister Gertie, if she will, before we bring the little ones up for a baby's dedication....

Now, many times in the Bible, we find out the only place that I know of in the Scripture, where the order of babies.... Now, a lot of people sprinkle them, you know, and call it baptism and so forth, which that's okay. But I always just like to stay just the way the Bible says it, you know. In the Bible they never baptized little children; neither did they sprinkle them. They just brought them to our Lord, and He took them in His arms and blessed them, and said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven.”

And the strange thing was now, that I just turned right down in the Bible just exactly where that's at, Mark 10. Here it is right before me. And so, the Lord brought the little chil.... They brought the little children to Him, and He just blessed them, and said, “Suffer the little ones to come to Me, and don't forbid them, for such is the kingdom.”

Now, we know that our Lord has gone to glory, and His Spirit returned back in the church to carry on the message until He comes again. We're looking for that. And the way we do it here, is just bring the little ones up, and we bring the elders of the church up, and I take the little ones and dedicate them to the Lord.

I think it's such a sweet little service to see those little bitty fellows, 'cause it's.... No matter how young we are or how old we are, one of those little ones has just got a place in our heart. Isn't that right?

Now, when we come to God, that's just the way we are in God's heart. We never leave that stage. We're always little children.

When Abraham was ninety and nine, he was still just a little baby to God. God told him said, “I am the Breast that you nurse from, Abraham. (See.) Just lean against Me and nurse, and everything will be all right.” And He changed Abraham back to a young man again, just by holding on to His words.

Now, I believe we sing a little song of “Bring Them In,” and you bring your little ones up here now, you who want to dedicate them. Now, I'll ask the elders if they'll come forward, too. All right.

Bring them in, bring them in,

Bring them in from the fields of sin;

Bring them in, bring them in,

Bring the wand'ring ones to Jesus.

Oh, how I love to see these little fellows. Now, what is your name? What's her ... what is her name? Little Sharon Louise Riddle, and I'm sure we all love Brother and Sister Riddle. We know Brother Riddle here. He runs the bootery down here in the city, and they've got the cutest little baby here, little Sharon—Sharon Louise—Sharon Louise Riddle.

How old is she, Brother and Sister Riddle? Four months. My, my. That's a little idol to the heart, isn't it? And now, the Lord has given to you this lovely little one, and now you are dedicating it to Him, putting it into His arms, that God, who has give, you are returning back to Him. Giving it to Him, that He might bless its little life and make it a life of service, and pray that God will make it a child that would bless your hearts when you're old; and if Jesus tarries, it'll be a great worker for God, and you'll be proud of this little girl. May God grant it. I'd be ... take her and to bless her.

Now, I want all the ladies, and 'course the men, too, look at this fine little baby. Isn't that sweet? Little Sharon. Let us bow our heads now.

Our blessed heavenly Father, in the precious Word we read that they brought to You little children, that You might put Your hands on them and bless them. And now this couple this morning in this holy wedlock that You have given into their trust this lovely child, little Sharon Riddle. And we pray, dear heavenly Father, that You will bless this child, as they are coming this morning to give dedication to bring the baby back to the One who gave it. And I ask Thee, God, to bless them; bless their lives. And may this little child live, grow, and have perfect health and be Your servant, and may it be a woman that'll be after the heart of God and the heart of the parents. Grant it, Lord.

And now, as Your elders, we raise the child to Thee, as they have placed it into my hands; and I raise it to Thee. In Christ's name, may You bless this baby, and may it live, and grow, and be strong and healthy, and a servant of God. We ask this as we present it to You in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Bless you, little honey. You're a mighty sweet little baby. God bless you. Amen. God bless all of you.

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves;

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Won't it be wonderful then? Now, let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer.

O God, who formed the heavens and the earth, just let His breath go forth with His Word, and everything taking its right position. The earth, the moon, the stars all swung into place, just as God breathed on His Word. And O God, today we ask that You'll breathe on Your Word as we are trying to bring it to the people. May it take its position this morning, its place, and be rooted and grounded in every heart, that every person here might receive Your blessings.

Help those, Lord, who are out of the way, crippled and lame in their spirit. They don't know You as a loving Saviour, as we have been privileged to. We pray that You will bless them abundantly today, and may they, when they leave this building, be happy and rejoicing over the new found Christ that they have become acquainted with during this meeting.

If there's some that's sliding away to the cares of the world, O God, bring them back. And the sick and the needy, Father, we pray for them that You'll heal every sick person here today. Encourage those who are weary, and bless those who are holding faithfully. Grant it, Lord. May Your Spirit be upon all. Bless the Word as it goes forth, the speaker that shall speak it, and the hearer that shall hear it. And all together get glory for this gathering this morning, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Now, I haven't got just exactly rested up from the long meeting, which has been now some four months; and this last five weeks meeting has been very tearing down. For we've had a wonderful meeting all the way across the nation now, from New York to San Francisco (the whole nation), zigzagging back and forth as we have crossed. The Lord has saved many, many hundreds of people.

Last Sunday, a week ago, alone, our blessed heavenly Father.... I seen between a thousand and fifteen hundred sinners repenting at one time at the altar at Oakland, California, in the big arena. It was just packed out. And we had to seat the middle of the place, down the middle instead of the arena sides, and the Lord just blessed.

And we had in there the great earthquake, as you have heard; and that was my wife's first one to be into. She was just a little shaky afterwards. It was very strong, as the buildings shook, and the dust flew, and the bottles on the.... We was standing in a drugstore getting some postcards to mail home, and the bottles shook, and the chimney fell off and the big buildings rocked together. The road split open, and part of it sunk underneath, and.... It just goes to remind us that the handwriting's on the wall. There will be earthquakes in diver's places. And that one day, eight earthquakes struck that same city.

And then about ten o'clock that night, we had just got in ... or, ten-thirty, and gone to bed, and the lamps sitting in the middle of the floor, liked to rocked over from another great heavy earthquake. Just goes to show that eight thousand miles beneath us is nothing but burning red lava. And it was just at the time when we'd hear our aggressors across the sea saying that they were forbidding the people to go into Scandinavia and so forth, that they'd annihilate them with atomic weapons. And we wonder what would happen if they would start dropping those bombs, and bursting those places into the earth. When it would just exactly do what God said it would do: no more water, but fire this time.

So, it brings joy to the heart of the waiter, that's waiting on the coming of the Lord and the blessed hour that when these old vile bodies shall be changed and made like unto His own glorious body. And we shall see Him—no more struggle, no more sorrow, no more old age, no more infant of days, no more hunger, no more weary, no more sickness, no more death.... Oh, we just can't fathom. I'm telling you, friends, it's hard, because we're human; and death is such a thing that we all hate to face it. But it's a blessed relief; it's a blessed thing to know that He'll come someday and these things will be changed.

Now, remember and get on to your ... especially your sinner friends now, for to come to the meeting, this revival coming up.

Now, just in the way of a little speaking.... My throat, as I said, hasn't been cleared yet exactly, and I'm still a little tired. But I rested this week, kept away from even the phone and everything so I could get a few days of rest. And then, this coming week I want to rest up a little, if I can, and then get ready for the little revival.

Then I go to Canada, and from Canada back to Indianapolis, from Indianapolis then to Chicago, and from Chicago, after the Christian Businessmen International Convention.... And they got me booked now (You pray for me, and especially during this revival, that God will direct me.) a complete world-wide tour to be start in June and come back in November ... or, July, rather. And that's to go into Europe, Asia, all down through the islands and seas, and come back through by the west coast: leave the east and go plumb around the world, come back to the west coast. Such a needy time.

And now, there's something kind of checks me a little. I don't know whether it's something in the road or what. I don't know. But you pray for me, and God will surely work it out right.

Now, I got two places in the Scripture that I have chosen this morning to read, because of this, that the people are coming to be prayed for. This is just a little time to pray for the sick and the needy. Now, I'd just like to teach a little on the Word. Then maybe, the Lord willing, tonight might not only teach but preach a little from the Word.

Now, I'm going to read from two places. And that's over in the Old Testament, both of them: one in Numbers thirteenth chapter and the thirtieth verse, and the other's in Joshua the first chapter and the ninth verse.

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

And then over in Joshua the ninth verse of the first chapter:

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest.

And may the Lord add His blessings to His Word.

I just love the Word. And if I would say for a subject this morning, I want to take ... to find the context in here a text called, God Keeps His Word.

Now, if we could just dwell on that for weeks, hold a year's revival and still be just as fresh at the end as it was at the beginning of that subject of God Keeps His Word. There's one thing that God cannot do. Did you ever think of it? There is one thing that God cannot do: that's fail. He can do everything but fail, but He cannot fail.

So, if our most holy confidence is built this morning upon that wonderful One who can do anything there is to be done, except fail, how much confidence should we have in His eternal Word. My heart has been stirred in the last year, after I have looked across the nations, and seen the things heap up the way they are, and the little isms arising.

It well brings to my memory what's wrote there in that cornerstone on that morning when we dedicated ... or, laid the cornerstone. When the Lord woke me up, not knowing what visions was in those days. I'm looking at the chimney on top of the house, five feet or more from where I was sitting when the vision taken place twenty-three years ago in 1933. Be about twenty-four years ago, I suppose. I'm looking at the chimney right now.

It was long before I was ever married. I was single at home. We were just building this church, and we was laying the cornerstone that morning, when the Lord gave me the vision. I'd woke up and looked out the window, and it was along in June and the honeysuckle ... or, the buds a blooming. And there ... looked like I went walking out or something, and I saw the Lord Jesus, and saw my tabernacle; and He pronounced to me that this was not my tabernacle, and kept me under the skies.

Many of you know the vision, because it's wrote and published in, I believe the fourth or fifth edition of nearly a hundred thousand books has went in seventeen different languages. And just watch how that has come to pass word by word, just did never fail. How that we come together in a lovely little group of people and how the Lord did bless us. And then, from place to place, but finally into the evangelistic fields and over the world now.... How it's gone.

And how the time has come that there would be these things that's happened. How that the world would ... heaped up teachers with itching ears, and the truth would be rejected and would be turned to fables. And then that how that He said, “Preach the Word. Stay on the Word.”

And if anything I've tried to do, is stay on God's eternal Word. We're living in the closing hours of this world's dispensation. I don't see how that anyone could look, and just take a look at the newspapers, or turn on the radio, and not repent. I can't see it. How that we're just at the eve of some great something that's fixing to happen. Even nature shows it. The world is becoming nervous. It's bursting forth its volcanics, and it's having a nervous prostration. The great earthquakes are shaking and splitting the roads, and fearful sights of the flying saucers, and missiles that they can hurl through the earth and destroy, annihilate a nation in five minutes.

We're at the end time. Something's taking.... There's no way to stop it. There's not a way. There's only one way out of it, and that's up. There's no way of trying to hide. There's no hiding place, but one.

As the little girls used to sing here, when I just a boy preacher, they use to sing, “There's no hiding place down here. I went to the rocks to hide my face; But the rocks cried out, there's no hiding place down here.” But there is a hiding place: “The name of the Lord is a mighty tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.” How glad we are to have this hiding place at the end time.

As we look around and see these great signs a moving; and this coming revival, if God willing, I want to go all the way into Genesis and bring out those great striking points that we're at the end. We're here.

I believe that this existing generation is on the earth right now, that will see the coming of the Lord Jesus. I'm forty-eight; I may not see it; I don't know. It may come tomorrow, but I believe that there's some here that will see the coming of the Just One, the ending of the time. And I believe that most all of us, especially that's in this church this morning, will never die with old age, until we see one of the most horriblest things happen, that's ever happened to people, that's going to happen right here in this nation. It's the truth.

Brother, we've waded past the borders of mercy until there is nothing left but judgment. But the righteous will not have to be punished with the unrighteous. God will come, and Jesus will redeem His church, and we'll go up in the air to meet Him, and it'll be far beyond any bombs or any troubles. And we'll be protected during that time.

So children, back to your God, quickly. Don't tangle with the world for anything. Stay out of this modern world; stay out of these modern theologies. Just look to the Lamb of God; read your Bible and pray all the time. Don't be weary. Be rejoicing, happy, for the redemption of the church is drawing nigh, when we shall see Him who died for us.

Our text is the setting to kind of coincide with the age today. To begin with, the first scripture I was reading in Numbers, it was speaking of a people that had been called out from a great mighty nation, that was near and had received their judgment.

I want you to understand that sin will not go unpunished, regardless if it's in a nation, or a church, or a home, or an individual. Sin must be dealt with on the basis of judgment. No other way. It cannot be atoned: Say, “I done wrong; now I'll do good.” That won't work.

You cannot make reconciliations yourself, because reconciliations is already been made. It's a confession that you're wrong. And then come and straighten up.

So, sin must be dealt with. And God always deals with sin by judgment. That's why our Lord died the death that He did on Calvary, is because that sin was such a horrible thing, that judgment of sin was placed on Him, that those who desire might go free through believing on Him and accepting Him as their sin bearer. Not how good we can be, but how we believe and accept Him. And when we accept Him, He comes into our heart, and that's where the good part is. It's not on what we could do; it's on what He has done, and what He has done for us. There's where He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquity; and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed.

Now, these people had been down in Egypt some four hundred years. And we're all acquainted with the great going down of the children of Israel, and how that down there God had turned them over to the Egyptians. And they had mistreated them, because God's Word said that they would do that.

Now, God promised Abraham, four hundred years that his people would sojourn in a strange land. And when the time of the promise drew nigh, God had everything ready to meet.... Oh, I just love that. When I think of that: Just at the crucial time, He's not one minute late. He's always just on time. If we can just be like that.... Oh, we try to push the thing. We try to make it our time, but we can never do that. God makes it on His time. We can't make it any different.

Yesterday, standing in the backyard of my sister that lives next door to us, Sister Wood, we was noticing a little cocoon that had formed on a tree. And the wind was a blowing it back and forth. And she was telling me that in the “Streams Of The Deserts,” I believe that she was reading an article about the cocoon. It's a little worm that goes in there and forms a little shell around him to keep him through the cold, and....

But when it comes time, this person who was dealing with the little fellow, they seen the little cocoon a moving and wiggling around, and they felt so sorry for the little fellow, so they thought they would just cut the end of it off and let the little bug out. Because when he come out of there, he was going to have wings. He went in as a bug ... or, a little worm; he comes out with wings in more like a glorified state.

And as he was wiggling and pulling and tugging and beating and biting and trying to get out of the cocoon, they felt sorry for him, so they thought they would just give him a short cut. So, they go get the scissors and cut the end off. And when they cut the end off, the little bug come out, but he never was right, because he didn't have any strength in his body. He had no ... he couldn't use his wings.

And I think that's the way we try to duplicate, to get down to the altar, and say this, that, or the other, and try to get the people back to God, or into the church, or to come to Christ. Just let them boo-hoo it out; that's all. Just work your way out of it; that's all. If you try to give them a short cut, they'll never able to stand. I just like to see them struggle and work at it, till God gives them a real birth in the natural way. Just give them the real birth, just....

People say, “Well, honey, I think you've prayed enough.”

You just stay there until you're ready to fly. That's the only thing. God has a way of doing it.

“Oh, well, if you want to be good, just go over to join the church. Mama went to the same church.”

That might be just fine, but you know, it takes a death to bring a life. And we got to die until then we are so dead that there can be a new life come in. Then our wings will be valuable and our experience that we have will be valuable to others and to ourselves.

Israel wasn't ready, but God was ready. And He had a little baby born by the name of Moses. And he was right there at the age of forty to take the children out. But Israel wasn't ready. And by the reason they wasn't ready.... Then they had to labor twenty years longer ... or, forty years longer, it was. Forty years longer they had to toil down in Egypt, when they would've been able to have come out forty years before that, if they had only been ready. God was ready, because the time of the promise drew nigh. God sent an Angel down to the earth to make ready the people to fulfill His Word. For God always keeps His Word.

He said to Moses, “I have seen the afflictions of My people, and I have heard their groans and their cries, because of the taskmasters. And I have remembered, I have remembered My Word, My promise.” Four hundred years had passed, but God still remembered His Word.

Almost two thousand years has passed, but God still remembers His Word: “I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” And I believe the time of the promise is drawing nigh.

Notice, as He was speaking and getting ready, and four hundred years had passed, and God was on time with His Word. Then we find out that after forty years longer.... And I might stop here just to say these words. Now, you can quote me, because I know it's going on tape back there. I believe that we are.... The coming of the Lord Jesus is way past due. I believe it was due a long time ago, but it's because of the church is not ready to meet Him.

Now, if you'll notice, He said as it was in the days of Noah, in the days of Noah before the flood, how it would be. And God was not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance. Then He suffered long. The flood stage was way past due.

Down in Egypt, it was way past due. Do you get it? In the antediluvian destruction now, way past due, the destruction and judgment, and coming out of Egypt, way past due, forty years overtime. But God was determined; God was determined that His Word would not return to Him. He was going to keep His Word. He has to keep His Word. He must do it in order to be God. If He has to make a change of everything, and by grace He will do it. That's the reason I say, if the church does not get herself ready.... That's your duty to get ready: “The bride has made herself ready.” The garments is paid for. They are ready, but you must be ready to wear those garments. The church has made herself ready.

Now, brethren, listen. If the church doesn't get ready, God's able of these stones to rise children unto Abraham. If this holiness people don't straighten themselves up and get back into the harness again, get back to the Gospel, God will raise up out of.... He can bring Catholics up, Presbyterians, or whatever He wishes to. He'll do it.

A few weeks ago, at Lima, Ohio, [maybe some of you sitting here now that was present], amongst the Presbyterian, Baptists, and Methodists, they streamed to the altar. They received and responded to the Gospel, much better—much better than many times the holiness people does. We've just got it on our minds that we're called by His holy name, and let it go like that. It means more than to be called by His name. It means to live for Him who died for you. It's a life, a consecrated life to God. Oh, how we need back to the Bible.

Here a few nights ago, I was saying to the Lutherans.... For, at the meeting up there now, they just said, “Give us five more colleges like this of those Lutherans.” Seventy-one of them received the Holy Ghost that day at the college when I was there. Said, “Give us five more schools like that, and the Lord tarry ten years, we will have the entire Lutheran church filled with the Holy Ghost.” Oh, my.

Sure, God is able of these stones.... He's going to have a church presented without spot or wrinkle or a blemish. His grace is all-sufficient. And He can do the exceeding abundantly.

And I said here not long ago, the Lutherans did have the torch light to the world. What happened? If you was run out of the world, you Lutheran people at one time at the first reformation, what happened to your light? Why did it go out? This is the reason it went out, is because you left God's Word. You believed that the just should live by faith, which is absolutely the truth; but there's more than that—the just shall live by faith.

Then along come the Methodist. You Methodist people, you picked up the torch light of sanctification, and you did hold the torch light for a great revival. That's all true, but what happened? What happened to the Methodist church? Is because you let the light go out; that's what happened. And you preached sanctification, the second definite work of grace, which is positive, the truth of the Bible, but you just let it go at that.

And then along came the Pentecostals with the restoration of the gifts. And you spoke with tongues, and then you made a doctrine out of that. And then what happened? Your light's gone out. What's the matter, is because you failed to stay with the Word.

God's words were unfolding, and we must unfold as God's Word unfolds, as time unfolds, signs unfolds. And if the natural world.... This man is the same man he was six thousand years ago when God made him. He's the same intellectual; he's the same intelligence; he's just the same man with the same five senses, that he was thousands of years ago; but look what progress he's made in the past fifty years.

Look what that fallen son of God has did. He's invented automobiles, and radio, and electric lights, and atomic bombs, and jet planes. Look how fast ... the pages are turning fast inside it. But we are trying to linger back on some old church creed, and stand there when God wants us to unfold the Word. We're living in the last days. We're living in the time that God's great beautiful church ought to be standing on its feet shining like the lily of the valley.

But we're back some: “Well, I belong to the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Pentecostal. I'm this or that.” Oh, what a disgrace.

We should be unfolding, God's Spirit pouring out, not just one little gusher, not one little baptism, but baptism after baptism. Not a revelation, “Just shall live by faith,” or sanctification, or the gifts of the Spirit, but revelation after revelation, power after power, glory after glory, for we ought to be way up the road, ready for the translation.

And we're lingering back down in the old things and saying, “Well, we keep going back.” Let's go forward.

Those Hebrews said, “Now here, we're fed pretty well, though we work hard. And now we got the things that we have. We got the garlic pots and so forth. So, let us be satisfied.”

But Moses had a revelation. He had been in the presence of God. He had something else. He went back and showed them that the very God that existed many hundreds of years before that, was the very same God. And He done signs and wonders before them to prove that He was the very same God. Oh, blessed be His name. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The dispensations change, the times change, the people change, but God remains. He has to be the same all the time. His Word is eternal truth. He cannot vary from right court to the left. He must remain the same.

Then we find what takes place. Here comes Moses down with the signs, “I have been in the presence of God. I have seen God, and God has did great things.”

He performed a divine healing act. He performed another act as a miracle, and he showed them that the very God of heaven had appeared to him.

After hundreds of years of the supernatural being gone, he showed that God was still living and God had sent him and said, “Go tell them that I AM has sent you.” Not “I was,” or “I will be.” “I AM”—a present tense.“ He is not ”I was.“

How people can claim God, and say “the days of miracles are past, and divine healing and all the blessings are gone,” and still say He is the living God, and the I AM. If He's “I AM,” He's just as real as He was at the burning bush. That great name that He appeared there, and no scholar yet has ever been able to interpret it.

J-v-h-u. No one. They call it “Jehovah,” but it wasn't. No one can interpret it. Why? He's the eternal One. Amen. He dwells in light; He dwells in eternity; He dwells in immortality: the everlasting I AM. Hallelujah!

My faith is stayed on that solid rock. There's nothing can ever harm, when you're anchored to that place. The storms may shake and batter, but my anchor holds within the veil. When a man or a woman has anchored against that rock, there is nothing can ever shake you from it.

Just as their time was for deliverance and they failed to see it, so is the time for the deliverance of marching orders for the church. It's at hand.

Look, my friend. They had what? First the Word, second a prophet, third an Angel to lead them, to guide them; every one agreed with the other—the three of them. The Word agreed with the prophet, and the prophet agreed with the Word. The Angel agreed with all three of them, all of them. The Word, the prophet, an Angel: They were ready for the march. Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord God. We're at the end time. The Word, the prophet, and the Angel, all three of them together, one great testimony.... God always said, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.”

And a true prophet will always agree with the Word, and any Angel will testify of truth. Amen. We're ready for marching orders. Sure.

And he brought the people out. On their road up they started rebelling against the prophet, and against the Angel, and against God, and against the Word. And they got into trouble. The Bible said, “There was a mixed multitude that went with them.”

A mixed multitude came out. What was it? The supernatural had been done. There'd been miracles and wonders. Any person, a human being longs to see behind the curtain from where he come, and from whence he will go someday. He longs to see behind the curtain, but many times when the supernatural acts has been performed, then there's a mixed multitude that goes.

That's what happened in the days of Luther, when the mixed.... God's been trying to bring them out since that day. And in the days of Luther, “The just shall live by faith,” they tested it and tried it and found it so. A mixed multitude went, and as soon as Luther went, what happened? They organized a church and made a great big ecclesiastical system. And when they did, the church went back on the shelf.

Along come John Wesley, one of the great mighty warriors of the middle age. And he stepped right out and defied the Anglican church, and defied the Catholic church, and defied the world: that the holy God said people must live holy. And he stayed on His promise, of God's promise, and he brought a miracle. What happened? A mixed multitude started with him, and when Wesley went, then the mixed multitude come in. And what have they done? Corrupted the church, till many of them won't even have blood songs in their hymn books. Certainly.

A while after that, come along the Pentecostal. And the Pentecostals begin to find the gifts. As soon as they got to the gifts.... First thing the littlest gift in the whole group was speaking with tongues. That's the last and smallest; God started with the amateur things, and they couldn't even hold that.

Looky here. The first gift in the line of gifts is wisdom. The second is knowledge. And if you don't have any wisdom, how do you know what to do with knowledge? Seek the best things first: wisdom. And if you haven't got wisdom, what can you do with knowledge, or speaking with tongues, or these other things? It takes wisdom. It takes God's wisdom. Solomon said, “Call it your mother.” Right.

But what did they do? The Pentecostal received the speaking in tongues, and they made a denomination out of it. And they went to, “This is it.” Sure they did. And a mixed multitude went with them.

And today what's happened with the Pentecostals? There's two factions of them. One of them is just as cold and formal and stiff and starchy as they can be. And the other one's after a big bunch of isms: running oil and blood from their hands, and everything else across the country, and call it evidences of the Holy Ghost; and frogs and lizards and things jumping out of people, and putting them in a little alcohol and so forth. Anyone knows that a devil doesn't have a corporal body. And if the blood of Jesus Christ dripped down on a man, it was a corporal body, and Christ is already come; and it's wrong, then.

The Bible said, “When Jesus comes, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.”

He will be.... His coming will be like the light that cometh from the east even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. We know that's true.

Then when we see those things happening, when we see those things coming to pass, then we know that there's a mixed multitude that's went up with the people. After a while one faction become way over on one side; one become way over on the other side; and there's your mixed multitude. There's your reaction again. There you're coming....

And when they did like that, they come to the place of Kadesh-barnea. And when they come to Kadesh-barnea, that was the judgment seat, where trials must be settled. Oh, if you could only understand it, little church.

Now here's where we want to squeeze just for a moment. Now, listen closely. Kadesh-barnea was the testing time, and every child that comes to God has got to be tested. There's no exceptions at all. God tests and tries every child that comes to Him. Is that right? The Bible said they are. And as we notice now, when those trials come and testings....

There's testing times comes for nations. Now, I say this; I'm not a politician. God runs His own nation. He doesn't run these nations; the devil runs these, everyone of them; the Bible says he does. The devil operates every nation.

Notice, when the testing time comes for the nations.... When the testing time come for Israel, she failed. And when she did, God turned her over to Babylon. As a nation, she failed. And when the testing time come for Rome, she failed. When the testing time come for Greece, it failed. When the testing time come for France, it failed. When the testing time come for Russia, she failed. Listen. And I say this with a reverent heart to God, “The testing time has come for America, and she's failed.”

The Gospel has been preached from east to west, from north to south; they've combed every little place and crack and corner. Great revivals has went forth: Billy Grahams, and Jack Schullers, and Oral Roberts. And they have.... Oh, just hundreds of them have combed every little crack and corner.

The devil throwed out a television yonder, and God worked it around to throw man on the television, and every drunkard in the barroom, or wherever he is, will stand without an excuse. Yes, sir. The testing time has come.

What did I tell you from this pulpit? Last year America made her fatal mistake. I said, “Fatal mistake.” She sure did. And look what she's doing now. You see it in the governmental affairs. They're trying to go right over and hook up with the Arabs. Don't you know, God's Word said, “Ever who curses Israel, will be cursed.”? Certainly.

I stand with Israel, take our ground or take it. Certainly. They're doing the wrong thing. Sure they are. Brother, look at every nation that turned against the Jew; they sunk. Look at Germany, when she turned against the Jew, and they burnt the bodies in the incinerators, and look what it is today.

Look at Italy, that turned against the Jews, when Mussolini ousted them from Italy. Look at her today. If we wasn't feeding them, they'd be starved to death.

And here the Gospel come and give a mercy call throughout the nations for years; and we've turned it down. And now working.... The devil, taking his seat, is turning the hearts of these political men against Israel, and they're hooking up over yonder with the Arabs. Brother, we're as good as gone. That's right. We'll sink as sure as the world.

I love my nation. I love what it stands for; but brother, I love my Lord above everything. And I love to see my nation to its knees, but I'm afraid we'll never do it. We're at the end time. What happened? A mixed multitude got in.

Watch our churches. A few years ago when they had the old-fashioned holiness churches, when they stood for God and righteous, when women dressed and acted like ladies, when men dressed and acted like men, when people went to church on Sunday morning, when they had all-night prayer meetings; when they had the old-fashioned type, they had a real revival. God blessed.

He cut off every enemy before them. They were journeying on, but when the wedge of Achan got in the camp, there was nothing left but destruction. We're on our road. God keeps His Word.

The testing time come. The testing time come for the Lutheran church; the testing time come for the Methodist church; the testing time come for the Pentecostal church; it comes for every church. It comes for every person. The testing time, and there's only one way that you can ever know that you're right: Stay with God's eternal Blueprint; stay with the Word.

What God says, say, “That's right.” Don't take nothing less or nothing more. Why should we have to have substitutes for this, that, and the other, when God's Word is full of promises. Yes, sir. We don't have to take any substitutes; this is the truth. God keeps His Word. No matter how unreasonable it may seem, God keeps His Word anyhow. He certainly did.

What would your grandfather ever said if your great-grandfather would've told him that there'd come a time when the carriages would go through the streets without horses? He laughed at him maybe, but they're here. That's right. What about these other things that would take place, when all these great prophecies has been made, but we're here. And someday Jesus will come, that glorious majesty of the Son of God; He promised He'd do it. He promised He'd judge sin. Brother, you'll either accept God's provided sacrifice for sin, or you'll stand alone in judgment: nation, church or individual. The testing time....

Watch. They sent someone out (twelve of them) to find out what they'd say. Ten of them come back and said, “Oh, we can't do it. It's impossible. We just can't do it.”

But little old Caleb and Joshua climbed on a stump. They said, “We can do it. We're able to do it.” Why? It depends on what you're looking at.

If you're looking on the outside, “Doesn't look this way; doesn't look....” Don't look what them people says or what anything else says; if it's contrary to God's Word, stay with the Word. God promised them that land. That's what Caleb and them was putting their hopes on. Read the book of Deuteronomy. See how Moses correctly said, “I did this, and I did that. And God did this and said this; but you would not.” God stays with His promise. Oh, sometimes it seems like it's hard. Now, I want you to listen to this: It's hard; it's a battle.

Way down in Egypt God said, “I have given you that land and all that's in it.” Now, He never just said, “I'm going to pick you up, take you up there, and set you down.” They had to fight for every inch of ground they had. God, when He commanded Joshua there, He said, “Be of a good courage. Be not afraid; neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest.”

The Lord thy God is with thee, wheresoever thou goest. No matter what it is, how hard it is, how great the obstacle is, that doesn't matter. If it's down through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest.

Oh, how Joshua could call Israel together and say, “Stand here and watch the glory of God.” God is with His Word.

God made the promise. God said to Joshua, “Every place that the soles of your foot set, that yours. I've given it to you.” Amen.

If it's for salvation, if it's for divine healing, if it's for more blessings, if it's for peace, if it's for anything that God promised, make footprints. Amen. “Every place the sole of your foot sets, that have I given you for a possession.”

God promised it, God keeps His Word. God's Word is everlasting truth. I believe it; you believe it. Brothers, it's time for us to make footprints. We can't stay right here in this same camp; the fire's moving on. Let's move on from glory to glory, from Bible experience to Bible experience. Let's unfold and open up our hearts, raise up our hands to God. Keep sane. Stay in the Bible; don't get outside of that; stay right there. Follow.

We've got the prophet of God; we've got the Word of God; and we've got the Angel of God. He's leading this church just exactly like He led in them days. That's exactly right. The Word of God is before us; the Prophet of God is the Holy Spirit; the Angel of God is leading the church. We're moving in the pillar of fire, in the glory of God, sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now we are sons and daughters of God, and the great revelation of the Word, the Holy Spirit sinks it into the hearts and bringing forth the trees of salvation: righteous living, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, patience. Sure it is.

It just only won't happen to a Branham Tabernacle, or to another tabernacle; it happens to individuals. If the whole Branham Tabernacle gets together in that one accord, the whole thing will be moving in one big unit for God. But if there's only one in that Branham Tabernacle moving like that, God will move with that one. And only one way to do it; that's fall in line with it, march on. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God keeps His Word.

Why, those fellows said, “We can't do that. We can't have a revival over there. Everything's against us.” Oh, my. “The Amorites are there, and the Hittites, and all those are all walled up; we look like grasshoppers.”

But little old Joshua, about forty years old, beating himself in the chest and Caleb saying.... Caleb standing there saying.... Caleb said, “You know what? We are more than able to do it.” Oh, brother, a little bitty hook-nosed Jew standing there, bounced up-and-down, saying, “We're more than able. We're not only able, but we're more than able.” Why? God said so. That settles it.

Brother, we can have healings; we can have miracles; we can have revival; we can have the blessings. Why? God said so. We can have a true Pentecost; we can have a real revival. God said so. God keeps His promise.

Just as God keeps His promise with His blessings, God keeps His promise with His judgments. We've got to take judgment or the blessing. We've got to walk forward or walk backward. We've got to go with Him, or go alone. No one can go there with us. Stay on His Word.

I can think of a very good friend of mine that's gone on to glory: old, blessed old brother, a sainted man filled with the Holy Ghost, by the name of Paul Rader. One time out yonder on the west coast, when just before he died.... (You know his testimony.) His song that he has written, “Only Believe,” has called me to the pulpit.... I wonder if Paul, in glory, hears that old song being sung by the thousands and thousands, and by the different languages. How did he know that that poor little old boy sitting before him there, with ragged shoes on and not even a necktie, needed a haircut, that God would let me take that song around the world. God keeps His Word.

“I the Lord have planted it; I will water it day and night,” He said, “lest some should pluck it from My hand.”

It may seem like it's sinking, but it will never sink. Oh, that little old ship that night, when all hopes was gone, and she was tossed about; looked like the last hour was there, but all at once Someone come walking on the water, just as calm. He's always there. He's never late. One more dash, and the ship would've went down, but He's always there. Certainly.

That day down there in Babylon, when the Hebrew children was walking in that fiery furnace, it looked like that the very end had come. But as they stepped in, there was One like the Son of God stood by them. He's always there; He's never late. He keeps His Word: “I will be with you.”

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” said David. He's always there; He keeps His promise. He's eternal true; He cannot fail. His words can never fail, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word can never pass away.”

Paul said one time.... He was having a struggle. He was out in the islands, and he had a fever. He was nearly a hundred miles from a doctor, out in the swamps. In the swamp, Blackwater Fever had took him, and that's sudden death. And it got dark, and he told his little faithful wife, said, “You stand right by me, honey, and pray. It's getting so dark in the room.” But said, “I believe in God.” Said, “I don't care what happens; I believe God. I'll stay right with it.” Said, “You stay here and pray, honey.” And she prayed.

And it got darker said, “Dear, it's getting darker in the room, but oh, I feel at peace.” And after while, it got so dark, he went out; he went into a dream. He thought he was dreaming; he was back up in Oregon, where he come from, cutting some timber. And the boss said, “Paul, go up to the top of the mountain there, and cut me a tree, so many inches through, so many feet long, and bring it down to me.”

He said, “All right, boss, I'll do it.” Went up there, and downed his little old tree and stuck the ax in it, reached down to get a hold of it, and he just couldn't lift it up. He said, “I've lost my strength. I just can't go any further. I have lost my strength.” Why, he said, “Here I'm a big man. I weigh better than two hundred pounds. I got a great muscled back.” Why, he said, “I used to just get my knees together, get a hold of most any size log, and could raise it up for them to put chains under it.”

He said, “And here, a little limb, no bigger than that, and I couldn't lift it.” Said, “I tussled and I tried till all my strength was gone.” Oh, he said, “Then I thought, 'What can I do?'” Said, “I sat down and leaned up against a tree.” He said, “Oh, I'm so sad. My boss wants this little tree down there, and I'm not even man enough to take it down.”

Oh, what our Boss wants. He wants a church without spot, without wrinkle. He wants a blood-washed bunch of people. He wants a people that'll cling to ... or, stand on His Word, and say, “That's God, eternal truth; It was meant for me and I believe it.”

And said, as he sat there, he was leaned against a tree, and he was weeping, and said he heard his boss speaking. Said, “Paul.”

And he said, “Yes, boss. Here I am, but I've lost all my strength. I just can't go any farther. I've tried to do, and I've tried to obey you, and do what you said do; but I just can't get this thing off the ground.” He said, “I've struggled, I've tried, I've done everything.”

I just wonder if that ain't the attitude of a many good, true-hearted preacher today, that's longed to see a church built without spot or wrinkle, to see the promises of God made manifest. We've tussled, and tried, and screamed, and cried, and preached till we was hoarse, and laid on our pillows and wept.

O God, why is it just when we get straightened up, that in comes the devil, and busts up, and tears up, and just knocks down everything we got? What can we do, when we see our lovely people and how they be scattered and gone about like that?

And said, when he heard his voice of his boss, he thought, “That sounds strange. I never heard my voice speak ... that boss speak so gentle to me.” And said, “When I turned around, it was my real Boss; it was my Master, my Saviour.”

He said, “Paul, you're just struggling yourself to death. That won't do you any good.” Said, “Paul, don't you see that little stream of water running there?”

He said, “Yes.”

He said, “Just pitch the thing in there; get on it and ride it on down to the camp. It goes to the camp.”

He said, “I jumped up, and rolled the log in, and jumped on the log, went down over the ripples just a screaming to the top of my voice, screaming, 'I'm riding on it; I'm a riding on it; I'm a riding on it.'”

And when he come to himself, he was right out in the middle of the floor, and his wife screaming to the top of her voice. He was out in the middle of the floor, saying, “I'm riding on it; I'm riding on it; I'm a riding on it.”

And brother, sister, “I know the trials are hard. I'm getting old, and I've preached. I've done everything that I know to do. I've got to a place to where I see I can't do no more. I've just laid the whole thing in the lap of the Lord Jesus, and I'm riding on it. I'm riding on God's promise. I, the Lord have planted it; I have watered it day and night, lest some should pluck it from my hand.”

God's church will endure forever. The Word of God will stand, exactly right, wherever. And regardless, if kingdoms come, or atomic bombs fall, or America backslides, whatever takes place. This is His Word; He keeps it. And I'm riding on it. I believe it with all my heart. Let us pray.

Blessed Jesus, oh, what a ride, down over the ripples of joy, down through hallelujah current. Oh, we're just riding on it. You promised. Your promises is all true. And we know that every one of them bears record that they're true. And through the ages, we've seen the blessed old Bible unfold to us. And now the great hour is approaching: the midnight hour.

Lord, great holy ministers of the Gospel has went across the nation preaching, crying, drinking branch water, persecuted, run from pillar to post, run out of cities, locked up, made fun of, scorned, laughed, starved. But the church has moved right on, for Your Word says, “Upon this Rock, I will build My church. And the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.”

And we're riding on it today: the Rock, God's eternal revealed truth of the Lord Jesus Christ; upon that solid Rock the church stands today. The atheists, the communistic, the elements of this earth has rose, and they've beat, and they've stormed, but she's built upon that solid Rock. The devil has sent in fault finders, it's made fun, it's persecuted. It's called everything in the world. And we've been docked about, and tested, and tried, and, oh, everything.

But, O God, as Caleb and Joshua of old, we still say we're standing eternally on the Word of God. He keeps His promise. He said He'd do it and we believe it. And may each individual here this morning get a close view of that now, what it means. That now, now, we're riding on this.... Someday we'll be there at the camp, where the saints are camped on the breath of the earth. God and His children will be rejoicing forever. Grant it, Lord.

And while we have our heads bowed, our eyes closed in this tabernacle this morning, I wonder if in Christ's name, if someone would have the courage to say, “Brother Branham, this day right now in this church, I now raise up my hands to Christ and saying, 'From this day henceforth, I'll ride on Your Word, Lord. I'll stand there, accept Christ as my Saviour. Never try to do things to try to merit my own salvation; I'll just believe on the Lord Jesus, and accept Him, and let Him put that deep Divine love in my heart, and the peace that passes all understanding. I will wait on the Holy Ghost to give me.... I raised up one time, and thought I could go do it, but I found out that I couldn't.'” Sure, you never will. But if you'll just stay there long enough till He does it, then it'll stay there. Then it's anchored. But if you just try to do it, you've going to fail; you're got to fail. That's the reason you have your ups-and-downs, and ins-and-outs, and all the things you're doing. It's because you try to do it. You say, “Oh, I believe I'm all right now.”

That ain't it. That isn't it. No, it's the Holy Spirit that comes in. He takes the place. He takes all the old roots of bitterness out—the old anger, and temper, and jealousy, and love of the world, and things—takes it all out of you, and then you're a new creature.

Would you raise your hand and say, “Christ, make me that kind of Christian this morning.”?

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, lady. God bless you. God bless you, brother. God bless you, sister. “Make me that kind of a Christian this morning. I want to be like Jesus. I want all the roots of bitterness taken out of my heart.”

Now, there's been a number of you raise your hands. Now, right where you are, if you will with all your heart, now not just imagine, but believe that Jesus Christ, God's Son, is standing right by you and will take that old bitterness away from you, that will make you what you long to be, He'll do it right where you're.... He'll perform the operation in your hospital, if you'll just let Him do it.

For all things are possible, only believe.

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe............

Just keep praying, “Lord....” Remember, child, it's your soul. You may not be in another service, till all ... this may be the last one. Let God do it right now.

Say, “Brother Branham, should I come up to the altar?”

If you want to. Sure. If you don't want to, stay right where you are. You just believe it. “He that heareth My words, believeth on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life and shall never come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” That's it.

If you'd like to come to the altar and pray, it's open. If you want to stay where you're at and pray, it's your soul. It's you're the one. The time is at hand, brother.

The church is just about made up. The old stream's muddy. We've seined, and fished, and throwed these old lead sinkers out there, until the whole thing's become muddy. Too many hogs in the wallow. She's muddy. As me as a minister, I just feel this: that if God's going to do it, it's going to have to take God. I can't. So, it's up to you. There's the Word; there's the truth. You see it unfolding right here before you.

The end is at hand. Jesus may come at anytime. It may be that there may not even be any United States time the sun goes down tonight. They could send five thousand atomic bombs at one time. There wouldn't even be one living creature on the earth in another hour from now. If you want, that's up to you. Think of it now, while we pray.

Blessed heavenly Father, at the closing of this Word, as I turn the pages back, the message is sealed up now. The coming of the Lord is drawing nigh. Several in the building this morning raised up their hands and said by that, “I want to become a Christian. I want to be a real, real borned-again servant of God.”

And Lord, maybe many years You've dealt with their hearts. You told them that. Your grace is still reached out to them; they're not altogether gone yet. Some has done gone to a place; they have no more desire. Year ago, they use to put up their hand and say, “Well, I'd like to be a Christian.” Now, it's done too far. They don't feel it no more now; just about all over.

And that seems to be the general run of the nation: Hearing great evangelists, as they've crossed the nations, they've sent out feelers. They've done everything. They've organized groups. They visit homes to those who had raised their hands and try. Where thousands and thousands made starts, two or three would hold on.

Well, it's over, Lord. It's over, God. We are gone. O Father, I know that You said that all that come to Christ, You'd keep. And I believe that with all my heart. And I believe, Lord, that You will keep those whose hearts and minds are stayed on You.

And I thank You, Lord, for the church and for the saints of the living God that's in that church, this great spiritual body. But O God, how my heart quivers for those outside of that, knowing that they see the handwriting on the wall, seeing the great things a happening, the signposts. And America's still full of old dirty jokes, and uncensored programs on television, radio, and love story, and scoffers and laughers, and big time frolics, and Hollywood evangelism, and, O God, it's.... The midnight hour's striking. Truly, she's ready to go.

And what can I do, Lord. I've worried; I've cried; I've begged, I.... It's just on You now, Lord. It's all I can do. I've preached it. I will just stand right on the Word, Lord. I'm trying to ride that into the camp now. Time won't be long.

Now, God, to those who has the honest heart today, God, do something for them just now. Let them become Your children from this day on. Heal the sick in the midst of us, Lord. Make them well. Bring back those cold backsliders, Lord. Let them know, they're just ... they're playing on such treacherous grounds. Soon they'll be gone. It'll be too late then. Grant now that Your Spirit will deal greatly with us. In Christ's name. Amen.

To the young people, I would say this. If I could this morning, after a birthday yesterday of forty-eight years in this life, twenty-some-odd years of that, about twenty-four years I've spent for the Lord Jesus. As a boy of about twenty-three years old, I started preaching the Gospel. If there is any regrets that I have, any regrets.... If I could touch a button this morning and go back to the fabulous age of about sixteen or seventeen, I would only want to do it for one thing: that is to serve Christ. That's what it means. To serve Christ, and God who knows my heart, knows that's true, to serve Christ alone.

I have never seen anything or thought anything that ever compared with this blessed anchor of Christ in my heart. I don't know nothing. I've sailed the sea; I flew through the air; I've seen all the sights the world has; I've seen the seven mysteries of the world. I've seen the seven outstanding sights, rather, of the world. I have seen all the mountainsides, pretty near of the world. I'm a hunter. I've hunted in all kinds of nations. I've done everything: fished, I've rode horses, I've ranched. I've done everything that I knowed to do. And I will say this: “That there is all of it put together, won't make one little dot to the love of the Lord Jesus.”

What could I do? What could.... Oh, yes, as these little kiddies here, I've had my little girlfriends, and slicked my hair down, and put my windshield back on my car, and went out with my date, I thought; but it just didn't satisfy. There's something you're lacking all the time.

I've seen the girl with the pretty brown eyes, and it would.... You know how you'd feel, as young folks; I thought that was just it. If I could only have the date with this young lady, it would just take all my anxiety; that would just settle it. I'd have a date with her, be out with her fifteen minutes, and looking for someone else. It just doesn't satisfy.

Oh, there's nothing. But that blessed hour (Blessed be His name.), yonder in a little old coal shed in the back of the building, kneeling on an old grass sack in an alley, where I knelt down there in the wet ground and said, “Lord Jesus, can You do something for me?”

That's when a peace that passes all understanding (twenty-four years) ago anchored here in this heart of mine, and it's worth all there is in the whole world. I've never seen nothing to compare with it.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

It's grace that's brought me safe thus far,

It's grace that'll take me on.

I've trusted Him in the hours of sickness and accidents. I've trusted Him when the airplanes was spinning in the storm, and you didn't know.... I said, “Lord Jesus, are You finished with me? If not, straighten this plane out.” See her, just pull around to her right condition.

I've stood in the clinics, where the best of doctors in the nations, and they'd look at me and say, “Just a few more minutes to live. He's going.”

And when the best doctors that could be got for me, and I said, “Lord Jesus, are You through with me?” And all of a sudden, I was normally back to myself. Certainly.

Oh, amazing grace, how sweet that sound. How I wish I had tongues to explain what it is. It's too great for the human mind. Take my word: Don't you take a substitute, friend. Don't take a substitute. Don't just go and say, “Well, now, I do this. I tell you what; I'm a pretty good person.” Don't rely on that. Don't do it.

Just stay there until something just reaches down, takes away all the sin, and puts a kiss there that just burns. And when the trials come, you don't have to wonder if I'm going to do that; it's just something holds there.

And as a middle-aged man now, I've got to come down and think this: that one of these days, I got to go. If Jesus tarries, I got to go.

I don't know what'll it be when I get down to the end of the road. I don't know. I'm not trusting upon my preaching. No, sir. No, I'm not trusting upon the things that I've done. Oh God, no. Oh, let that be far from me. I've done things since I been a preacher: neglected and done this and that. I don't want to trust in nothing. No, sir. I don't want to say, “Lord, I've won over a million souls to You.” That has nothing to do with it, not a thing.

The only thing I'm trusting is His grace, His promise, is where, Lord, You said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” You said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” When I'm pressing that pillow and the cold death's sweat's running off of my brow, He'll be there. Just as sure as I'm standing here, He will be there.

When I preach my last sermon, close the Bible, and walk away the last time, and the work's over, He'll be there. Yes, sir. And just as sure as I believe that He's coming, when He comes again, I'll be there, too. Yes, sir. Not because I merit it; it's because He has for me; and I accept it upon the basis of His eternal Word. And I know by that, there was something happened. Something happened.

Not how much noise I can make, how well I can say.... If I was the greatest preacher in the world, if I'd raised the dead or whatever, that has nothing to do with it. It's because something happened. Something taken place in here. It taken all the old jealousy, and bitterness, and evil, and everything from my heart, and now I just love Him day and night. Something happened. I want to see Him someday, and I want you to also.

Little church, struggling now for the kingdom of God, don't never falter in this day. If you do, quickly repent. Jump right back, see. If you stump your toe, don't fall. If you fall, get up. Get up; my, get up. Sure. If you've made a mistake now and this revival coming on, and you went back and got cold, indifferent, wait.... Get down to your Bible; walk out in the apple orchard somewhere; get out to yourself, and say, “God, now here I am. I'm sorry of this thing.”

You're going to get a whipping for it; just remember that. Yes, indeed. You'll reap what you sow out. Yes, sir. But whatever you do; take your whipping here. Get right up, and straighten up, and say, “Father, here I am. Whip me, just as Thou sees fit, Lord. Here I am.” That's right. And walk right back with a hallelujah on your heart.

God lets the whip down on you, just say “Yes, Lord, I deserve every bit of it.” Just keep on going. God will take you through all right. It'll be over one of these days.

I think that good old song, Brother Neville and them used to sing, “I'll soon be done with troubles and trials.” Yes, that's right.

How many loves Him? Let's see your hands. Give us a chord, “Amazing Grace.” Everybody just be [unclear words]. Slowly now.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound.

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I'm found,

Was blind, but now I see.

Was grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Now, all of us together.

When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun:

We've no less days to sing God's praise

Than when we first begun.

I used to hear of old Doc Davis ... many of them. And I've heard many of those old saints, when they was coming down after they passed ... up when the ministry was getting ripe. I've heard them talk about how they felt: Just begin to realize that now (Amen.), just begin to realize it. Oh, how.... What a wonderful thing.

What would I hold to today? Where would I go? Where you going? Amen. What would I do? What would happen to me today, if it wasn't for Christ? Where would my hopes be anchored? I'd be a maniac. When I see what's fixing to happen, and know that was all of it forever, oh, my, what would I do? But oh, I am so glad. I'm so glad it's just the dawning of day. We're just in a dream. We're fixing to wake up. Oh, in a nightmare, as it was, to come out of it into a springtime of everlasting youth, everlasting health, everlasting joy, everlasting peace. Isn't it wonderful? He is so real.

I wonder, how many here's sick now, and wants to be prayed for? Let's see your hands. All right.

I want to tell you what's happened this last week. We've had some of the most marvelous things to happen in the meeting, of course, at the platform. And I have.... Coming into a type of something, that it just seems to be greater than what it was.

I have come to the platform, and God has given a gift, a prophetic gift, which can.... That's beyond question. I can prove it to you right here, see. That's beyond question. But I see it just doesn't get the job done the way it should, because it's just a gift. And another thing, it's an individual (You see.); it pertains to an individual, through a gift.

But I done something the other day, tried to get the people in Oakland, just to ... in the big arena there.... I said, “Just this Presence,” and just stayed right with that Word. And got the people with the.... You know what? There was more healings than I believe I ever seen in any one meeting taken place (outside of the big meetings like in Africa and around like that), but for its size.... The people just recognizing the presence of God in the meeting, just sitting there, and get in the presence of God, and the people would get up, healed; crossed-eyed straightened, and oh, it's....

I believe it's coming to a time where.... Paul said, “Where there is prophecies, it shall fail. Where there is tongues, they shall cease.”....

I believe it's coming to a time, till when the saints will get together like this, and just a love spirit will just sweep over the audience, and just every person in there, all that's wrong will be taken out. It'll be that there's such a Presence of the Holy Spirit.... I believe while we're to lay hands on them and to pray for them now, (It's a contact maybe of a minister anointed, and laying hands on them just as a blessing to God.), but I believe it's coming a time when God's church is going to be so culled out like that, where the saints will sit together and the Holy Spirit will just come in and just woo, just like it was on the day of Pentecost (See.), and just heal the people, and raise up the people, and great things.... I begin to see it happen. Because I tell you for why.

Men has went forth with gifts. That's true. I have no doubt to say, I'm not a critic of anybody's.... What they believe; that's up to them, see. But I've seen men with gifted ministries, but they went forth and more or less made a.... What would I say? Now, with respects and with love, and God knows it's from my heart, see.... They have made more like a money gathering affair out of it, you see. Just get people together and want to put on some great big something, and maybe they put the money out, and.... Well, that may be all right, but it seems to me, they say, “Well, if the end's coming, what's the people need with their money.”

Well, what do you need with it yourself? See. So the thing of it is: is get the Gospel to the people, you see. As I preach, I believe if we just.... And gifts.... You see, signs and.... Now, a person could come here this morning, and stand here in this pulpit and work great miracles and signs; that wouldn't even mean the person was saved. Devils work signs and wonders. Sure they do. Sure they do. And the Bible said they'd do more than that in the last day. Well, Jesus said, “Many will come to me and say, 'Lord, have not I cast out devils in Your name, and have not I did this, and have not I done that, and all these things.'”

He said, “I didn't know you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.”, see.

I believe the time is coming.... The manifestation of the gifts that's give to every man to profit withal. That's true. I believe gifts are wonderful, and we need them and respect them. But I believe the time's coming when it's going to be on a higher standard than that. Why, after all these things is done away, that which is love will endure forever, see. It's the love of God.... We'll just be standing, preaching like this, or talking, and just a love will just settle over the building. Whew. My. You see?

This is the day of preaching. This is the day when we got to move in and get sinners and pull them out. See what I mean? That's what the preaching of the Word's for, is to the sinners, to bring them out. Now, we have to watch in there and we've.... Signs and wonders are done by the laying on of hands and so forth, 'cause it's preaching. But I believe the time's coming now, when she's just about ... the church is about anchored away, see.

God won't have a freak body. He won't have six fingers on one hand. It'll just be five fingers on one hand; the body of Christ won't be freak. And when the last person has come into the body of Christ, then it's over. It's over. I don't know which one; this might've been the last one this morning. You might've been the last one. Maybe over in Africa today, the last one will be brought in. But when the last one's done, I mean the gos.... You may go ahead preaching the Gospel, but there'll be no response, see. There's no response.

Talking with Billy Graham and them, where they went into a place where thirty thousand ... or, twenty or thirty thousand was converted, they couldn't find twenty or thirty people within a year. Think of it. Just think of that, see. Now, that makes me a Calvinist, exactly. What God has made, God has made.

Now, Jesus never come to earth just to say, “I will have preachers go out and preach some, tell them about what I done, and maybe somebody will feel sorry for Me and get saved.” God don't run His office like that.

There God at the beginning knowed exactly who would be saved. Jesus come to save those that God knew would be saved. He wasn't willing that they'd be lost. But to be God, He knowed who would be lost and who would be saved. Therefore He could predestinate ... not predestinate.... By foreknowledge He could set in order to make everything work to His glory, because that's....

The devil isn't omnipresent nor omnipotent. Neither does he know the end from the beginning; God alone knows it. That's one thing, God just up here, He knows.

The devil don't know what's going to happen. He doesn't know what's going to happen. Only thing he knows: He's just the devil. And he just does what he can do. And everything he can get into, he does it. But God knows the end. Amen. So God knowing the end, He can make everything work right to His Glory. Amen. Oh, I love Him. My, my. See, He's God.

So, remember, when the last person that had their.... When was your name put on the Lamb's book of life? Yesterday? last year? year before last? No, sir. When the world was created, your name was put on the Lamb's book of life. That's what the Bible said.

The Bible said in Revelations, “And the antichrist deceived all that dwelt upon the face of the earth, whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world.” Your name was written then.

Now, the only thing you say, “What's preaching the Gospel then?”

Well, the Bible plainly explains it, see. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that took a net and went to the sea or a lake, and he cast the net into the sea, and he pulled it out.” That's preaching the Gospel, see. There's a whole sea. The United States is a lake, and the ministers.... Now, I go out here and stand at Jeffersonville on this corner of the lake. Say, “Brother Neville, you been seining?”

“Yes.”

“Doing any good?”

“Not too much.”

“Well, let's.... I'll seine with you a little while.” And I'll throw my net out, and he throws his. And here we pull, preaching. Pull in, a bunch of people come up and say, “Yeah, I want to accept the Lord Jesus.”

All right, look around, which is fish, which ones? I don't know, see. Well, I....

“What are you going to do now?”

“Well, I'm going over in California. The Lord sent me over to California. I'm going to seine over there awhile.” I'll go down, throw my net out like this, and push in. Fifteen hundred comes at one time. Was all of them saved? I don't know. There they are. I take the net up; that's the Gospel net.

Some of them, the Bible said, was all kinds of things that was in the water. They all breathed on the same water, lived in the same water. Is that right? See, there was terrapins, mud turtles, snakes, frogs, lizards, scavengers, and real fish.

Now, those that were fish when the Gospel net went over them, was fish when they were on the bank. Those that were terrapins in the Gospel net, were terrapins on the bank. It won't be long till they'll take right back for the mud again. As a hog to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit, away they go, see. But at the beginning, they were terrapins to begin with. It's not my business to say they're terrapins. I don't know. I'm just seining (See.), just pulling the net. But when the last fish is come out of the water, brother, that's it.

Oh, the Lord Himself will come and we'll say the work is done. The station will be changed after while. That's right. That's right. Yes, sir.

He will say the work's done and it's finished. It's all over when the last one's come out. And there's been a whole bunch of hog wallows around and everything. God's pulling them fish out of there just as fast as He can. Preachers from every side just swinging nets from one way to the another; we're even wrapping nets around one another. We're just a pulling just as hard as we can, seining. She's just about ready. He'll blow the old pond up one of these days, and she will all be over; but the fish will go to the good clear waters out yonder, where they'll have eternal life forever. Amen.

Oh, when that last one comes.... My, what a privilege it is for God to say, “Would you like to be a fish?” Amen. “Would you like to be a fish on My table? Would you like to come and be meat at My table?” Oh, my. Sure, sure Lord, see.

But their nature is fish, see. When you're a Christian, your nature is a Christian. You don't have to say, “Now, you can't smoke. You can't drink. You can't do this.” You don't have to say that. They just don't do it anyhow, see. Their nature is different. The Spirit of Christ is in the person, and Christ don't do those things, see.

You say “You have to love the Lord; you ought to go to church.” You don't have to tell them people that. They go anyhow. They'll walk through rain. They'll go.... They'll go through death to go to church. Sure. They love it. They just got to get there. That's all there is to it. It's their life. If they don't, they feel like they're perishing. Sure. Yes, sir. You just got to get there.

And whenever just something is burning in your heart—not to go there to argue now, not to go there to fuss—but to go there to worship. My! And you go home refreshed. Isn't that a wonderful life? How many's experienced that? let's see your hands. Oh, many of them.

That's right. Gertie, let's sing that. “Peace....”

...peace! wonderful peace,

Coming down from the Father above;

Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,

In fathomless billows of love.

Want you to do something now. Ever who's sitting right next to you, shake hands with them and say, “God bless you, brother, sister. I want to meet you in heaven.”

Peace! peace! wonderful peace,

Coming down from the Father above;

Sweep over my spirit forever (Oh, my.)

In the fathomless billows of love.

Down at the cross where my Saviour died,

Down there for mercy from sin I cried;

There to my heart was the blood applied;

Glory to His name!

Glory to His name!

Glory to His precious name!

There to my heart was the blood applied;

Glory to His name!

Now, while we sing the next verse, I wonder if the sick could line up right up here now for the prayer, right over on this side. And I want the ministers if they'll come forth now to help us pray for the sick. Line up on the right-hand side; come around this away. That's right, over on the right side, those to be prayed for....

I am so wondrously saved from sin,

Jesus so sweetly abides within,

There at the cross where He took me in;

Glory to His name!

Glory to His precious name!

Glory to His precious name!

There to my heart was the blood applied;

Glory to His name!

(Chord “The Great Physician” for us, will you, Sister Gertie?)

Now, I want to ask you something. Are you coming with anticipations ... or, with expectations, rather, that you're going to be healed this morning? Is that what's in your heart, real down deep? If you're coming like that, my friend, I will just assure you that your healing is just as assured as your salvation—just as sure.

Now, your healing is not as permanent as your salvation. Your healing will fail you. You could be.... If you're healed, you'll be sick again. You could be healed today with pneumonia, perfectly normal and well, pronounced well by the doctor, and next week die with pneumonia. That's right.

You could be totally cured of TB this week, and two months from now die with tubercular. They could pass a test with not one germ in your body that they can find. And then die in two more weeks with tubercular. That's right. And you've got to die anyhow, but the benefits....

David cried, “Forget not all His benefits. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:” (Benefits, what is the benefits in the journey?) Who forgives all of mine iniquity ... (Iniquity is something that you going out, and you do it, and you know you oughtn't to have done it: He forgives it. You ask Him; He forgives you.) ... forgives all of my iniquity; who heals all my diseases;“

Now, I want to settle this for you forever. Then somebody says, “Brother Branham, do you believe in divine healing?”

Now, let me say this sensibly and sanely. I want some person, some doctor, some scientist somewhere, I invite them in this revival to come to this pulpit and show me one place where anybody was ever healed outside of divine healing. I want you to go to your doctor or to anybody that you wish to, and show me any person that was ever healed outside of divine healing. I want you to bring me the medicine that'll heal. I want you to bring the doctor that says he's a healer. He will be a healer all right: “heel—a heel of a doctor.”

But God is the only One who can heal, or ever did heal, or ever will heal. If we had some medicine that would heal, we could build a man right here on this platform with the medicine. That's right. We could build a man, create him right here on the platform. Just think of it. All healing is Divine healing. God has methods of doing it. Now, you say, “Well, Brother Branham, I had an operation;, the tumor or appendicitis, that the doctor had to cut it out, or I'd died.”

That's probably the truth. But did you know, the doctor never healed you. The doctor moved the obstruction. He just cut the appendix off. That's the thing was hurting you, but he never healed it.

You broke your arm. You say, “Well, I broke.... I bet if you'd break your arm, you'd go to the doctor.” I sure would, but he couldn't heal it.

What if I went in and say, “Doc, heal my arm right quick; I got to work on my car this afternoon.” See, why, he'd know I need mental healing.

He'd say, “I can set your arm.” But who does the healing?

You say, “Brother Branham, what about penicillin, when they give it to you for a disease, germs in your body, like venereal and whatever you got, pneumonia? Does penicillin ... don't penicillin heal you?” No, sir.

Penicillin is an antibiotic. And an antibiotic is a killer. Antibiotic kills; all other medicines kill. Medicine does not build; it kills. Medicine is a killer, not a healer. Show me a medicine that heals; show me a medicine that isn't a killer, and you ain't got no medicine. Medicine kills, kills germs. Just like if you had rats in your house, and you put out rat poison, and the rats was eating holes through your house. Well, the rat poison kills the rats, but it doesn't patch your house, see. Penicillin kills the germ, but God has to heal the place where the germ has eat. See what I mean?

Anyway, God's Word.... We're going to get into that. God's Word cannot cross itself up. It's absolutely the truth. I just want the person to come, put your finger on the Word anytime during the revival to show me a contradiction in God's Word, where it crossed itself up, that can't be straightened out by the Word of God. It isn't there. Sure. It isn't there. There's no contradictions in the Word at all. Absolutely.

You can get a subject. I can write you one letter and tell you something, write you another letter, and another letter; first thing you know, these two been talking on two different subjects, see. Certainly. But God is the only One that ever did heal, and ever will heal, or ever could heal. You break your arm....

Now, I'd say, “Well, I got a tumor. What about that?” All right.

Now, if that little place where that tumor's hooked on, if God by casting out the evil.... And the life goes out of that tumor, it'll die. If the doctor cuts it off, then God has to heal up the place where the doctor cut. If he don't, you'd bleed to death. Is that right? What if he takes appendix out of you, and God doesn't heal you. Then what about it? You'll die right there.

You clog up one of the main veins in this street out here. You get out here and clog up one of the main veins and find out on this street out here—this sewer—and watch what happens. You go out here and clog up the main ... cut off the main water valve down here, one of the water valves, watch what'll do it. It'll blow her out down here at the pumping system.

There's not a place, not a thing or system in the world like the human body. But you can cut an artery in two, and clamp it off here, and God will make a way to bypass that blood and take it into that artery again. If it didn't in one minute's time, if that back up would hit your heart [Brother Branham snaps his fingers.] you'd be dead like that, the first time you scratch yourself. Who's a healer? Oh, my. God's a healer, see.

You can't have no mechanical systems work like that; it's got to be supernatural. I had the arteries shot in both my legs, see. And God.... There, me, a little old sinner boy dying on that field; God knowed He wanted me to preach the Gospel, and He bypassed the blood. I don't even know about it, unless somebody tells me, or I happen to look down and see the scar, see.

God in the artery. You break the main band on this pump out here on this pumping system. Watch out there at the government, what takes place. It'll back up there and blow it out. Sure it will. That water just forcing down like that will push right back. But God makes a bypass and goes around. Who does that? What intelligence does that? Show me a water system will do it. Hallelujah.

It's the intelligence of God; it's the great Creator that does it. Yes, indeedy. What makes a tree different from the other? What makes a bird color from another—different? What makes his speech different? What makes us what we are? It's an intelligence. It's God. Don't be afraid now. This is His promise. It ain't to hear Brother Branham. It's His promise. “I'm the Lord, who heals all your diseases.”

“If any is sick, call the elders of the church, anoint with oil and pray over them: prayer of faith shall save the sick. These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

And then when that orders been done, accept it just the same as you would to repent and be baptized here. Walk right away and say, “It's a finished work.” It's all over, see.

But we're watching for some great outstanding miracle to happen. It does happen, when there's faith enough there to make it happen. But if there's not faith enough to make it happen, it'll happen anyhow, by and by.

Look what Jesus said in the translation there, when He said about the mountain. He said, “By and by, it shall come to pass if you ask this mountain to move, and believe in your heart it'll do it,” said, “by and by it will come to pass.” See, it will.

Now, you're sick. Many of you are dying, in bad shape. I see them a holding a man here now. The man's very sick. Cancer's a horrible thing, but God can heal cancer. My, I can show you in here.... How many in here's ever had.... Has anybody here now been healed with cancer? Raise your hand. Look here. It's all over the church, see. Sure, everywhere. We've had them brought, because God's a Healer.

Now, everyone of you out there, in appreciation, I want you to bow your heads, want you to pray. Brother Neville, come here.

Now, as you people.... I want the elders to get here so we can pray for the people. And when you come by here, do this now: When you come by here, believe with all your heart. Just take my ... not my word, but God's Word for it. Just believe with all your heart; this settles it; that's it. It's all over. God said so; His Word said so. It can't fail. “I don't care I feel; I'm going on right up anyhow, saying it's the truth.” Watch what happens. But see, if we stand back, and say.... Come by the prayer line like this ... just never happen. That's all.