Hebrews, Chapter Five And Six

...of the book of Hebrews. Then we get into the seventh, the Melchisedec priesthood. And then we get in, from the Melchisedec priesthood, into that great days of an atonement, and separating, dividing the atonements. Then into that great faith chapter, the eleventh chapter. And the twelfth chapter, “Laying aside every weight.” And the thirteenth chapter, “That eternal home not built by man's hands; but God, alone, who has made this great home.” How wonderful.

I'm glad to see our sister back there, that's just entered the service. I see her and her husband. Yesterday, we were on our road up across a place that.... I thought that I knowed every little crack and corner by being game warden here in Indiana, and patrol for several years; I knowed every place. But I could have got lost yesterday up there, where they was at, on top of the knobs, a new road.

And the lady had cancer in the lungs, and the Lord definitely healed the woman. Oh, and how it all come, we were sitting there.... Brother Roberson—he's probably in today; I see his wife—and Brother Wood, which is in. And we were up there in an old truck, Brother Roberson and I and Brother Wood. And we got in this truck and went up there, top of the hill. And there the Lord showed the cancer definitely. And then we stood there and watched it leave the woman. With our own eyes, we stood and watched it leave the woman. And she called back to Brother Wood's wife; and was telling me, she was spitting up that real black stuff. And here she is this morning sitting back in the church, her and her beloved husband, having a wonderful time in the Lord. Isn't He wonderful?

And I didn't know that here.... Usually, to the people that's around, very seldom visions happen here. This is my home. I mean in the church.

Sunday, a week, we.... How many was here to see the man in the wheelchair? Blind, crippled, unbalanced, mental nerves gone, and Mayo's had give him up. And some Catholic doctor friend of mine sent him up here. And before coming to the service, the Lord gave a vision of the man. You all know that. And there the man was healed by “Thus saith the Lord,” see. And then got up, walked out, took his wheelchair, could see like you could or I can. And walked out of the building pushing his chair, normally. And the balance nerve ... you know, you can't hold yourself up. See, you just can't. And for years it's that.

And yesterday when I got there, the lady had been having a dream of seeing me come in just at two o'clock and pronounce her with cancer and then “Thus saith the Lord,” she was healed; and she woke up and it was just exactly two o'clock. And the Spirit of the Lord came down, and there that dream that she had ... and the Lord gave the interpretation. And she was healed right there on the spot, right there where we was watching. How wonderful!

Can't think of her name. What is it? What is your name, Sister? Walton, Sister Walton, sitting back there. Would you stand up Sister Walton? Want to ask you how you're feeling. Amen, that's good, fine and dandy. He is so good to bless us in that manner. So we're expecting the exceedingly, abundantly, of God's great measure.

A doctor had keep'n this back from her. He told her that she was only breathing out of one side. What it was, a cancer had growed across and cut the breathing off of that side of the lung, you see. You can't see cancer through X-ray, because cancer is a cell, itself, and it's life and you just look right through the cancer with an X-ray. You don't see it.

But the Lord has really.... We stood there and watched it ourselves, with our own eyes. Watch it moving and seen it leave, with our own eyes. So, we're so grateful for that.

Pray now for us, this week, while we're gone, And Brother Neville will probably take up where I left off for the Wednesday night service. Don't miss it now in this great chain of the book of the revelation.

Now, I know much prayer has been offered, and we know that God hears prayer. But this morning we want to offer just a little prayer before the reading of the book. Now, any person that's able can read the book this a-way, or can open it this a-way. But it takes God, alone, to open the understanding, for He's the only One who can do it.

So, let us bow our heads just a moment:

Now, Father, in the name of Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, we most humbly come now to submit ourselves as Thy servants, that You would speak through us. Circumcise the lips that speak and the ears that hear, that the Word might be spoke by God and heard by the Spirit in the people. Grant it, Father. May He take the Word of God and minister to us just as we have need, for we ask it in His name and for His glory. Amen.

Now reading this morning.... We're studying, we're not preaching, just studying this book of Hebrews. How many's enjoying it? Oh, we're having a wonderful time. And now just studying close, scripture upon scripture. The whole entire Bible ties together. There's not one Word out of it's place, if it be placed together by the Holy Spirit.

Now, man has said, “The Bible contradicts itself.” I want to see it. I've asked twenty-five years for that, and no one's ever showed it yet. The Bible does not contradict. If it did, it isn't the Bible. The great, infinite Jehovah could not contradict His own Self, so there's no contradiction in the Bible. It's just the misunderstandings of peoples.

Now for a little background, till we go back.... Now, the book of Hebrews was written by Saint Paul, to the Hebrews. He wrote one to the Ephesians, that was the people at Ephesus, the Christian church; one to the Romans at Rome, and one to the Galatians, and one to the Hebrews.

Now, we notice that Paul, being a Bible teacher to begin with.... That's what we learned. That he sat under the great teacher, one of the greatest of his days, Gamaliel. And he was well versed in the Old Testament (he knew it well), but became a persecutor of the way that was Christ's way, because he had been trained in the Old Testament under teachers. But the teachers, usually carnal ... (I hope I don't say anything wrong.)

But, usually, if a man has just the teaching and the way of the schools, it's usually man-made. See, it isn't inspired, because it becomes a doctrine of a school. We have it today: Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, all. These schools have their theory and they just wind the Scriptures into this.

And it was the same in the Old Testament. But Paul, being well trained, and knew the Scriptures by the Word.... But, you see, the Scriptures, no matter how well you know them, if the Spirit doesn't quicken them, then the letter killeth. The Spirit giveth life. See, it must be quickened, or made alive, by the Spirit. If the Spirit doesn't liven the Word and make it a reality to you, then the letter is just intellectual. That's where we have so many confessed Christians today—or professed Christians—is that intellectual conception of Christ.

Then we got off on, “Well, he had to feel something, and he had to do something, and....” (Oh, we will get into all that after while.) One had to shout: the Methodists used to have to shout before they had it. The Pentecostals had to speak with tongues before they had it. And, oh, some of them, the Shakers, used to have to shake. They'd walk up and down, man on one side and women on the other, see. Shakers. Then the Holy Spirit come on them and shook them, they had it. But it's all just fantastics; there's none of it the truth.

God lives in His Word. “Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word. By faith are you saved, through grace.” Not by anything ... whether you shake, or speak with tongues, or whatever takes place, that has nothing to do into it at all. Jesus said, “He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath eternal life. He that heareth My Word and believeth (been made quickened to him) hath eternal life.” There it is. Doesn't matter what little thing that you do.

Now, I'm not against shaking, or speaking with tongues, or shaking, oh, that shouting. That's all right. That's fine, but that's only attributes, see. I could give you an apple off the tree and you still wouldn't have the tree. See, it's the attributes.

Lying, stealing, drinking, smoking, gambling, committing adultery, that's not sin; that's the attributes of unbelief. See, that's what.... You do that because you are a sinner, see. But first you are a sinner. That's what make you do that, because you do not believe. And if you do believe, then you do not do that. Then you have love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, patience. That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit, see.

So we got little things, little sensations, is because that men got off of the old, beaten path of the Word. It's the Word! “Faith cometh by hearing.”

So when Paul.... God chose Paul. Man chose Matthias. They cast the lots, but he never did nothing. That shows what a power the church has then, to make a choice, to elect their deacons, and send their preachers to different places. That's carnal many times.

Let a man go where God leads him to go. I like that. If the people in a conference just say, “Well, here's a nice church. This brother's built up a nice church.” And they have a little pet; they'll send him over to this church. They don't realize they're killing theirselves, see. First place, if that man goes in there, he can't fill that man's place. And then they only weaken the church, to try to show favor to some pet. It's always been that way.

But I believe in the supreme authority of the local assembly. Yes, let each church be its own, choose its pastors, its deacons, its ... whatever it is. And then, that way, the man in there has no bishop over him. The Holy Spirit wants to speak something to that church, they don't have to ask anybody about whether they could do this or do that. It's the individual in contact with the Holy Spirit. Show me in the Bible.... What's greater in the Bible than a local elder to a local church? That's right. Yes sir, the sovereignty of the local church, each church in itself. Now, brotherhood, that's wonderful. All churches ought to be in a brotherhood like that, together. But the sovereignty of local church.

Notice Paul, being a great master teacher, well trained, on his road down to Damascus, one day, to arrest the people that were in this new way. Now, he was sincere. God does not judge you by your sincerity; I never seen any more sincere people than the heathens. Many of them even kill their own children and things, for sacrifice to an idol. It's not the sincerity. A man could take carbolic acid sincerely, thinking he was taking something else. Sincerity doesn't save you. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death.” Paul was sincere when he gave witness, in his own authority, to stone Stephen. Later on in years—I like the apology of Paul—he said, “I'm not worthy to be called the disciple ... or to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church even unto death.” With sincerity!

And on his road down, he struck an experience. The Holy Spirit come out in a big pillar of fire, and it blinded him. Now, we've went through that; that pillar of fire was Christ. And He's the same pillar of fire that led the children through the wilderness. Christ was God, and God was Christ. God was made flesh and dwelt in the body of the Lord Jesus. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, showing what He was.

In the Bible back here, in the former verses, we've been reading that He made Hisself lower than the angels. Taken on the form, not of angels, but taken on a form of flesh. Angels had not fallen; they need no redemption. Flesh had fell—human beings—and they needed redemption. So, in the old laws, a man could be a redeemer, first he had to be kinfolks: the great book of Ruth, we went through here, sometime ago. And how that God, being spirit, was made kinfolks with us (by becoming one of us) in order to redeem us and give us eternal life. He had to become us, that we through grace might become as He.

And we find the pillar of fire led the children of Israel. And when it was made flesh here on earth, we hear Him talking one day, and He claimed that He was the pillar of fire. They said, “Do you say that you're greater than our father Abraham?”

He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Who was the I AM? The pillar of fire in the burning bush, a perpetual memorial through every generation; not only that generation, but this generation (the same pillar of fire). And we're thankful this morning that we even have the picture of it, that He has not changed. He's the immortal, eternal, blessed One! He does the same things now that He did then, and how happy it makes us feel.

But before Paul would accept this experience.... Knowing that the Angel of the Lord was the pillar of fire, which was Christ. Well, He was the Angel of the covenant, which was Christ. Moses thought better that ... chose, rather, to suffer the afflictions with the people of Christ, and to be led by Christ, than all the treasures of Egypt. He followed Christ, which was in a form of the pillar of fire.

Then Christ said, “I came from God,” (when He was here on earth) “I go back to God.” After His death, burial, resurrection, glorified body sitting at the right hand of the Majesty to make intercession, Paul saw Him as a pillar of fire again: a light that put his eyes out, almost (smote him blind).

Peter saw Him come into the jail as a light, and opened the doors before him as he went out. We find out that He was the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

And here He is with us today, doing the very same things that He did then, making Hisself visible back to us, showing it to the scientific world.

Oh, in this great hour of darkness and chaos over the earth, we should be the happiest people in the whole earth. To rejoice, to know.... All the time, when people are indoctrinated, and all kinds of isms and things in the earth.... And yet, today, the real living God, by His Word and by His visible evidence, shows us that He's here with us: working, moving, living, acting just exactly as He always did. What a privileged people that we are to have this. We ought to.... The Bible said, then, in the second chapter, “We should hold fast these things. Because, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

Now, we come on to find out, before Paul would accept that experience.... Now, we're drilling. Now, no matter what kind of an experience you ever have, church.... I want to ask you something. No matter how good it looks, how real it seems, it first must be tested by the Bible. Always on the Word! Don't never leave that for any kind of an experience.

And Paul, before he would accept it, he went down into Arabia, and there stayed three years testing this experience with the Word. And when he come back, he was sure. Nothing could upset him, for he was solid on the Word, unmovable. And here is where he's turning now to show to these Hebrews, those great things that was spoke of, of the Old Testament, was made manifest in Jesus Christ. What a glory!

Now, last Sunday ... or last Wednesday, Brother Neville in here (in the fifth chapter) hit some very high places 'cause it's a wonderful chapter. And we find him dealing on the 4th chapter, last Sunday, on the Sabbath, the keeping of the Sabbath. Are you sure, this morning, you know what the keeping of the Sabbath is? If you do, say “Amen.”

The Sabbath is a “Rest” that we enter into, not by days, not by law, but by entering into Christ which is our Sabbath. He is our Sabbath. We run it all through the Old Testament, and showed that the time would come when the Word would come “line upon line, precept upon precept.” And He proved that we entered His rest on the day of Pentecost, “For this would cause the weary to rest (cease).”

We find out that God limited a day in David, about the seventh day. And God did rest the seventh. Give it to the children of Israel in the wilderness. And again, He limited a day. What day was it? A certain day in the week, “The day when you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” That's the day He's entering in, to give you an eternal peace, an eternal Sabbath.

You don't go to church on Sunday to become religious then. When you're borned of the Spirit of God, you enter into rest forever, no more sabbath-keeping. You're in the Sabbath continually, for ever, and for eternity. “Your worldly works has finished,” says the Bible, “and you've entered into this blessed peace.”

These first five chapters are positionally placing Jesus as High Priest. “God in sundry times and divers manners spake to their fathers through the prophet, but in this last day through His Son, Jesus,” (1st chapter, 1st verse).

Then on down to the ending up of the fifth chapter, we find Him represented as Melchisedec, who had no beginning of days, no ending of life. But continually a priest forever. Think of it. Who was this great man? We get it in about two more chapters. The entire life of Him, we're going to study. This great man who met Abraham, who never had any papa, never had any mama, He never had any time He ever begin life, or He never will have a time that He will ever end life. And He met Abraham coming from the slaughters of the king.

Notice this great person, whoever He was, is still alive. He had no end of life. It was Christ, he met. We're going on a deep study of that, in a few days.

Now, we want to start over here in the fifth chapter now, just for a little background before we hit the sixth, for it's really an outstanding something. Watch close; we're going to start about the seventh verse of this chapter. Well, let's start at the sixth verse:

As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he ... offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying ... tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Though he was a Son, yet learned ... obedience by the things which he suffered;

Now here's where I want to get to: this ninth verse. Listen! I guess Brother Neville hit it Wednesday; I wasn't here. Well, listen:

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchisedec,

Of whom we have many things to say,...

We leave it there on that, because we're going to pick up Melchisedec in a few nights.

Now we're going to start on this, our regular study. I wish I could just read the rest of this for a moment, the eleventh verse:

Of whom we have many things to say, ... hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

For when ... the time ye ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, instead of strong meat.

For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. [Oh, I hope that Holy Spirit's taken that right down in the bottom of you now.]

For he that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he's a baby.

You give a baby strong meat, you kill it. That's the reason so many people say, “Ah, I don't believe that,” and walk away. Still babies! They just can't understand. They can't grasp that truth. It kills them. Great, mighty things the church should know today, but you couldn't teach it. They stumble over it. They don't know what to do with it.

Paul, speaking to this Hebrew group.... Yet scholars, he's speaking to now, scholars, well learned. We find that, in a few moments, very scholarly. But the deep spiritual mystery, the church is still blinded to it. He said, “When you ought to be teaching others, you're still a babe.”

Oh, I know there's many rise up and go out and say, “Oh, I don't need to go to church anymore. Praise God, the Holy Ghost has come; He's the teacher.” When you get that idea, you're just wrong. For why did the Holy Ghost set teachers in the church, if He was going to be the teacher? See? There are first apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. The Holy Spirit set teachers in the church, so He could teach through that teacher. And if it isn't according to the Word (God doesn't confirm it) then it isn't the right kind of teaching. It must compare with the entire Bible, and be just as alive today as it was then. There's the real thing made manifest.

Now notice:

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reasons of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. [Know what's right and what's wrong, by the discernment.]

Now, notice, starting now on our lesson. This great background now, let's go for the first verse:

THEREFORE leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, ... [What's he saying? All these first five chapters has been laid on Christ, to show who He is. Now we're leaving those principles of the doctrines of Christ.

What did we find Him to be? We found Him to be the great Jehovah God made manifest in flesh. We found Him to be not a prophet, but the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was Jehovah made flesh. And the body, Jesus, only tabernacled Him. God dwelling in man! God being reconciled to man, through man, by the virgin birth of His own Son. And Jehovah, the Spirit, dwelt in Him.

Now, how many remembers the teaching about the Godhead? How we went back and found God like the great rainbow with all the different spirits ... how it was. And then the Logos went out of God which become the Theophany, and that was in the form of a man. And Moses seen it pass by in the cleft of the rock. And then that Theophany was made absolutely human flesh. Christ! And how we find out that we through His grace have eternal life. Now, the word forever is “for a distance, for a space of time.” It said, in the Bible, “Forever and forever,” a conjunction. But forever only means “a time.” But eternal means “forever.” And everything that had a beginning has an end. But things which had no beginning has no end. So God had no beginning and He has no end.

And so, therefore, Melchisedec, the great Priest (like a man), He had no beginning and He has no end. And when we, through that Theophany that.... We were made in the image of God before the world was ever made. When that Theophany has been made flesh and dwelt among us, then through His death we ourselves receive His Spirit and we have no end, eternal life; not angels, but men and women. Oh, somehow, if I could only get it in a way that my audience would catch it. You will never be an angel. God made angels, but God made man. And what God does is off of God, which is as eternal as God is. And man's just as eternal as his Creator, because he was made from eternity.

But sin has an end. Suffering has an end. Therefore, there cannot be an eternal hell. There's a hell, fire and brimstone—we know that—but there's no eternal hell. There's only one type of eternal life, and that belongs to God. If you're to suffer forever, you got eternal life. Hell has an end; it may be billions of years but it'll finally come to an end.

The Bible doesn't say anywhere that they suffered eternally, said, “Forever and forever.” Jonah thought he was in the belly of the whale forever, too. Forever has a distance or time limit, but eternal is perpetual. It has no beginning or end. It's like a ring, a circle, and as our time moves on, we're only revolving around the great motives of God.

God's motive was to make man in His image, to fellowship with Him. And He made him a tangible being. Now, sin brought us into a place of corruption, but that never stops the program of God. And sinner friend, today, if you're not borned again of the Spirit of God, you have an end somewhere. And your end is chaos, in ruin, and suffering and misery. But to you who have believed on the Lord Jesus, and accepted the same as your personal Saviour, it's just as eternal as God is eternal. You have no end, “I give unto them eternal Zoe, 'God's own life,' and they will never perish or come into the judgment even, but is passed from death unto life.” That's what He was. That's what He come for.

Now, Jesus in His coming, of His priesthood, did not come just for a sympathy's sake. Many people teach it like that, that He come saying, “Well, maybe if I suffer, I will be a pitiful sight and people will surely come to Me.” That's an error, there's no scripture for that. For every person that ever will be saved, God knew them before the world was ever formed. The Bible said so. God's not willing now that anybody should perish; He wants them all to come to repentance. But, being God, by foreknowledge He knew it.

Look in Romans, the eighth chapter. Paul was holding up there, saying about the election of God; that Esau and Jacob, before either baby was born or anything, God said that He knew them and He hated Esau and loved Jacob—before either boy had a chance to express their gratitude—for He was God. He's infinite. If He's infinite, He knowed every flea, every fly, every gnat, everything that'd ever be on the earth. He knew it! He's the infinite, eternal, immortal, blessed God, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. There's nothing that He doesn't know, that's the reason He can tell what the end will be. He knowed the end from the beginning.

What is prophetic is just His knowledge. He's a chief attorney. He's a judge. And He just speaks to the lawyer some of His wisdom. And that's what prophecy is, that can foretell it, because He knows what's going to be. Now, there's the God that we serve. Not a god of history, not like the Buddhists and the Mohammedans and so forth, but a God that's omnipresent (right now) here this morning in this Tabernacle, right now; Great Jehovah, I AM, who formed Himself in humility to take on the form of sinful flesh. Here He is. That's who redeemed you. There can be no other, nowhere, at no time can do it.

God didn't have three people up there and sent one of them, His Son; it was God, Himself, come in the form of a Son. A son has a beginning, and the Son had a beginning. That's some of you dear Catholic people, I got your book, Facts Of Our Faith, said, “The eternal Sonship of God.” How you going to express that word? How you going to make it have sense? How can it be eternal? That's not the Bible; that's your book. Eternal Sonship: That word's not right, for anything that's a son had a beginning, and eternal has no beginning. So it isn't eternal Sonship. Christ become flesh and dwelt among us. He had a beginning. Wasn't no eternal Sonship; it's the eternal Godhead, not Sonship. Now He came to redeem us, and He did redeem us.

Now, Paul, getting there, which I'm sure that through the past lessons you've understood it. We will go over it again, sometime, the Lord willing, just verse by verse.

Now:

THEREFORE leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; [that stumbles them, doesn't it? Let us do what? Let's go on unto perfection] not laying again the foundation....

Watch this: let's get this word “perfection.” Do you know there's only one way you'll stand in the presence of God? That's perfect! God cannot tolerate unholy things.

And you legalists: how could you ever perfect yourself, when you have not one thing to perfect yourself with? You were born in sin. Your very conception was in sin. The very desire of you being here was sin: “borned in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies.” Now where are you going to stand at?

Where are you, sinner, that said, “I will quit smoking and I will go to heaven.”? Where are you, lukewarm, mossback, so-called Christian, that goes around here with a long face and saying that “Well, I belong to the church.”? You sinner! Right! Unless you are born of the Spirit of God, you're lost. That's true.

How you going to heaven? You say, “I never lied in my life. Oh, the little darling. It was just a angel to begin with.” That's a lie. I don't care how good you are, you're a sinner. And you don't have one thing; there's no priest, no bishop, no cardinal, no pope, nor nothing else can save you, because he's in just the same boat that you're in (We're getting into it in a few minutes), just in the same shape. The pope of Rome was borned in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies, borned by the sexual desire of a man and a woman. Where you going to get righteousness out of that?

“Well, his papa and mama were born the same way, and they were born the same way, and his grandma and grandpa and on back.” It's sin to begin with!

So who can say this is holy and that's holy? There's only one thing Holy: that's Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, Who's been made perfect. And our requirement is to be perfect. Now how we going to be it? Try it yourself. I'd hate to try to get to heaven on the merits of: “I was born five minutes ago, and going out of the world right now.” I'd be lost! If I never had a evil thought in my life, if I never spoke a bad word in my life, if I never looked at anything evil, never thought anything evil or nothing, I'm just as rank and black as the smutty walls of hell. I'm a sinner.

I could come through life and stay locked up in a room, and like some of the Carmelite sisters or something, and never see the world, stay in there and pray all my life, do good, born a multimillionaire and give to the poor everything I got, and I'm still a sinner and will go to hell. Yes, sir.

I might join the Lutheran church, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, when I'm on the cradle roll, and live faithful to that church until a hundred years, and my life is took, and no man could point their finger at me and say, “He ever even had as much as a bad thought,” I will go to hell just as sure as I'm standing.

I'm a sinner. Correct. I have nothing; there's no way at all I could find any price to be paid. God required death, and if I give my own life, if I give my life, then how can I repent, because the debt's got to be paid first. And God was the only one who could lay His life down and take it up again. So He could become sin and lay His life down and pick it up, and call it “justice” and the debt's paid. There you are.

Now let's turn to Matthew, about the eighth chapter, I believe it is—seventh or eighth chapter. We will see what Jesus says over here. All right, it's Matthew the fifth chapter and the.... Jesus preaching the beatitudes, the forty-seventh verse:

And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? do not even the publicans...? [Watch.]

But be ye therefore perfect, ... [What?] Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. [That was Jesus' commandment.] Be ye so....

They say, “Nobody can be perfect. The Bible said, 'There is none perfect.' There's your contradiction.” Is it? All right, you cannot be perfect in yourself. If you're trusting in what you done, you're lost. So be ye perfect, even just as perfect as God is perfect.

Now:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father ... in heaven is perfect.

THEREFORE....

Now the fifth chapter ... sixth chapter of Hebrews:

THEREFORE leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection;....

Now you Branham Tabernacle: Oh, I know, “We have healings.” That's wonderful. “We have visions.” Oh, that's fine. And you have spiritual dreams, and sometimes they're not spiritual dreams. And sometimes we try to help the poor. We do what we can. Oh, that's all right, but that's not what we're talking about now. We're entering into another phase:

...leaving ... the doctrine....

“Oh, yes, we got the doctrine of Christ, we believe He was the Son of God, and virgin-born. We believe that, all these things.” That is just wonderful.

But leaving that, let's go on to perfection! Oh, my, wish I had the voice of an archangel now, to bring this to a place where you could see it.

Now he says:

...leaving ... all the doctrine of Christ, ... [All the theologians, and all the theology that we know, all about the Deity of Christ, how He was God made flesh, all these other things.]

Paul goes on to explain it all here, just in a few minutes. Let's just read it, just a little bit before we get to it:

...laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, [now, we believe that] and ... faith towards God, [we believe that].

And of the doctrine of baptisms, [just how you must be baptized] ... [we believe that] and of laying on of hands, [we believe in laying on of hands, don't we? See, all that. Sure] and of the resurrection of the dead,..

[we believe that].

Now watch, you see here, judgment is used “Eternal.” That's forever. When judgment's spoke of God, it's forever. Then, there can be no more reconciliation after judgment's been past. Now you can understand why God had to take His own ... as we'd call it, His own medicine. When He condemned man for sinning, the only way He could reconcile, was to take the man's place Himself. That's the only way he could be reconciled ... or could reconcile us, was take our place and become a sinner. God, Jehovah, became a sinner and He gave His life.

Now, you could give your life, as a sinner, to die for the cause. Paul said, “Though I give my body to be burned as a sacrifice, I'm still nothing,” because it won't work. See, when you die, you're gone; you die as a sinner, you're lost.

But God came down in flesh and condemned sin in the flesh, being made sinful flesh; because He was the eternal God, and raised His own body up. So He's the justifier.

Now, “All these things.... Let's go on to perfection,” said Paul.

Now watch:

...of eternal judgment.

...this will we do, ... God permit. [Third verse.] Now: “Go on to perfection.” Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” And we're, every one, condemned. No matter what we ever do, we're condemned. We were borned condemned. Your mama and papa was borned condemned. All your ancestors was borned in sin, shaped in iniquity. So how you ever going to get it? How you going to be perfect? If you never done a thing (never stole, never lied, never done anything in your life), you're still condemned. You was condemned before you breathed your first breath, you were condemned. That's correct, And you were judged of God before you breathed your first breath. For you were judged by the sexual desire of your father and mother who through their act brought you here on the earth, and God condemned it in the beginning. You're condemned to start with. And every other person on earth was condemned with you. Now where you going to get perfection?

Watch! Let's turn just a moment to Hebrews, the tenth chapter. Listen close. I want to read a little bit out of the ninth chapter, first, the eleventh verse:

But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, ... [His own tabernacle, His flesh.]

See, the old tabernacle.... Did you notice the old tabernacle had a veil in it that hid the ark where God lived? How many knows that? Sure. Well, that old man-made tabernacle here (the curtains out of dyed goatskins and so forth) were made a tabernacle to hide the presence of God. How many knows that only one man could go in there once a year? Certainly, that was Aaron, go in once a year, and he must be anointed. Oh, the requirement! And he must have fire in his hand; and if he went without that, he died as soon as he moved that veil back. He'd drop dead. He must go in there and light these candlesticks, and sprinkle the mercy seat which called out the blood of the death the substitutionary, so Christ come to fulfill it.

But God then became in another type of a tabernacle. And that Tabernacle was who? Jesus. And God was inside of Jesus, and He was hid, but He was reconciling the world to Himself by His expressions. Christ revealed God; He said, “It's not Me that doeth the works, it's My Father that dwelleth in Me. I do nothing in Myself but what I see the Father doing. The Father in Me, showing Me these visions, and then I go do just what the Father told Me to do.” You get it? God was inside of a human body, not behind goatskins dyed, but was a-living, moving. God had hands; God had feet; God had tongue; God had eyes; and it was Christ! There He was.

Now He went away, and the Spirit come in that, that through His death, He might perfect the church and bring the church submissive. And then the same Spirit that was in Christ is in the church, doing the same things Christ did: “A little while and the world won't see Me no more, yet ye shall see Me, for I will be with you even in you to the end of the world.”

Now listen to this:

But Christ becoming a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; [He wasn't made of hands. How was He born? Virgin birth.]

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, ... [was this body ever sacrificed ... or sanctified] but by his own blood.

You know that the blood comes from the male sex. And then somebody said, “Oh, Jesus was a Jew.” He was not a Jew. “Oh, we're saved by Jewish blood.” No, we're not. If we were saved by Jewish blood, we're still lost. Jesus was not Jew, neither was He Gentile. He was God: God the Father, the Spirit, the unseen One, “No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten of the Father has declared Him.” He manifested God, what God was.

Now His church is supposed to manifest God, to show what God is, see. What do we do? Organize ourselves, and “I'm nothing to do with them; they're Methodists, they're Presbyterian. I don't want nothing to do with them; I'm Baptist, I'm Pentecostal. You're lost with them kind of a motive. Right!

Who can brag? Who can say anything? Look at the disgrace the Presbyterians has brought. Look at the disgrace, the Baptists; look at the disgrace, the Catholic. Look at the disgrace of Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Pilgrim Holiness. Look at the rest of them. But I challenge you to point one hand, in disgrace, at that! Amen. Point one finger, when God Almighty said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I'm pleased to dwell in, hear ye Him.” There He is. That's the perfect One.

Now, let's read just a little farther here now:

Neither by the blood of goats ... calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [Do you get it?] eternal redemption for us.

Not to be redeemed today and then next week when the revival starts be redeemed again, and then, oh, we backslide and be redeemed again. You're redeemed once, forever. That's right. No more redeem, redeem, redeem. Eternal redemption! “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me hath eternal life, and shall never come into the judgment, but passed (past tense) ... passed from death unto life.” (Because he has shook? Because he was baptized a certain way? Because he had blood in his hand?) “Because he has believed on the only begotten Son of God!” That's how we have eternal redemption.

Listen now:

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of ... heifers sprinkle the unclean, sanctify to the purifying of the flesh:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? [Passed from death unto life.]

What do you care what the world thinks? What do you care what your neighbor thinks? Our conscience has died and we're regenerated and born again by the Spirit of God, to serve the true and the living God. There you are.

Now drop over to the tenth verse ... tenth chapter, rather, right across the page:

...the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices that they offered year by year continue, make the comers unto p-e-r-f-e-c-t-e-d. [P-e-r-f-e-c-t, it is there—perfect.]

...leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection;...

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father ... in heaven is perfect.

The law having a shadow of good things to come—all the ordinances and the baptisms and all the other things they had—could never make the worshipper perfect. And yet, God requires perfect.

You join the Nazarene church, will never make you perfect. You join the Baptist church, Pentecostal, whatever it is, it'll never make you perfect. You being a good, loyal man will never make you perfect. You can't merit one thing. There's nothing about you to merit, you're lost! You say, “Well, I kept the law. I keep the sabbath. I keep this, all the ordinances of God. I do this.”

Paul said, “Let us lay aside all those things now.”

“That's all right, but we will do this. We will baptize the people, and we will lay hands on them for their healing and so forth.”

We could take it verse by verse, each one of those things. Baptism, we believe it. “There's one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We believe that there's a baptism. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. Absolutely! We believe Jesus died and rose again. We believe that. Laying on the hands for the sick, that's what it said: “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.” We believe that. But what is that? Paul said, “It's all dead works!” It's something that you do. Now let's go on to perfection. Oh, my!

We're coming into the Tabernacle, not the foundation, the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle, itself. That's the foundation: the law, and righteousness, and joining church, and being baptized, and laying on of hands. Them's all orders of the church, but now let's go into perfection. And there's only One that is perfected: that's Jesus.

How do we get into Him? “Through the Methodists?” No! “Pentecostal?” No! “Baptist?” No! “Through any church?” No! “Roman Catholic?” No.

How do we get into it? Romans 8:1:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ ... that walk not after the things of this world, the flesh, but after the things of the Spirit [that pay no attention to what the world's got to say].

Even if you're sick, and the doctor says, “You're going to die,” you pay no attention to it, don't bother you a bit.

If they say, “You have to become a Catholic before you're saved, or a Presbyterian, or have to do this,” you pay no attention to it. Therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (the things that they see). Everything you see with your eyes is earthly.

But it's the things you see in your spirit, through the Word. The Word is God's looking glass that reflects what He is and what you are. Hallelujah! Oh, my! It tells you.... This is the only book in the world that tells you where you come from, who you are, and where you're going. Show me any page of literature anywhere, with all the science or anything else, every good book that's been written, none of it can tell you that. This is God's looking glass that shows what He is and what you are. Then in between there's a blood-line that shows what you can be if you want to make the choice. There you are, “By one Spirit.”

Now, I Corinthians 12. How do we get into that body? “By shaking hands?” No sir! “By joining the church?” No sir! “By being baptized backward, forward? In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? The name of Jesus Christ? The name of the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, Morning Star? Anything that you want? That has nothing to do with it, just a answer of a good conscience towards God. And yet we fuss, and stew, and argue, and split, and make differences. That's right. But all those are dead works! We're going to perfection.

That's things that I done. A minister baptized you. Whether he baptized you face forward, backward, or three times, four times, or one time, or how he did it, that has nothing to do with it. You're just baptized into the fellowship of that church anyhow, proving to that church, you believe the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Laying on of hands to heal the sick, that's wonderful. But it's all natural, and that body will die again just as certain as you're living. It'll die again. Now let's lay aside all those things and go on to perfection.

How do we get to perfection? That's what we want to know. Christ is perfected, “God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace upon Him, with His stripes we were healed.” That's the body we want to get to. That's the body. Why? If you're in that body, you'll never see judgment, you'll never taste of death. You're free from all death, judgment, sin and everything else, when you're in that body.

“How do you get into it, preacher? By joining this tabernacle?” You're lost yet. Couldn't join it anyhow; we don't have any book. “How do we get into it? By joining some church?” No, sir! “How do you get into it?” You're born in it.

I Corinthians 12:

For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,...

By the Holy Spirit baptism, we are baptized into that body and are free from sin. God don't see you no more; He only sees Christ. And when you're in that body, God can't judge that body. He's already judged it. He took our judgment and invited us in. And by faith, through grace, we walk and accept our pardoning. And the Holy Spirit brings us into this fellowship with Him. And we walk no more after the things of the world, but we walk in the Spirit. Quickened, the Word came to us. He died in my stead. I'm made alive. Here I am, who was once dead in sin and trespasses, been made alive. All my desires is to serve Him. All my love is to Him. All my walks want to be in His name. Wherever I go, whatever I do, I glorify Him. If I'm a-hunting, if I'm a-fishing, if I'm playing ball, if I'm ... whatever I'm doing, I must be “Christ in me” in such a life that'll make men long to be that way; not tattling, backbiting, and fussing about your churches. You get it? “By one Spirit we are baptized into that body, 'and when I see the blood I will pass over you.'”

Listen. Let's read just a little further here, please.

...what could never ... make the comer unto perfect.

For [second verse, the tenth chapter] For then they would not have ceased to be offered?

If that could make the person perfect, and God requires perfection.... If keeping the laws and doing all the commandments would make you perfect, then there's no need of having anything else; you're already made perfect. Because when you're perfect, you're eternal; because God's the only one that's eternal, and God's the only one perfect. And the only way you can be eternal, is become part of God.

...once purged should have ... no more conscience of sin. [What?] ... the worshipper once purged ... to have ... no more conscience, [if you write the translation of that, it's “desire”] the worshipper once purged ... has no more desire of sin.

If the worshipper was once purged.... You go up now and say, “Oh, hallelujah, I got saved last night, but I.... Well, bless God, she made me backslide. Hallelujah, someday, I will get saved again.” You poor untrained illiterate. That's not the way it is.

“The worshipper once purged has no more conscience of sin.” The Bible said....

Listen, as we read on just a minute:

But of those sacrifices ... as remembered against sin yearly.

Now we're going to drop down to hit the eighth verse, to save time where I want to get to:

Above then when he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt-offering ... for sin thou wouldest not, neither has thou pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

Ninth verse:

Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, [the law] that he may establish the second.

Wish we had time to stay on that. As long as you're Presbyterian, or Pentecostal, or Baptist, or Methodist, He can never do nothing with you. He has to take that all away, first. See, so He can establish the second. As long as you say, “Well, I'm a Methodist.” I'm nothing against the Methodists, or Baptists, or Pentecostal. But, brother, that don't spell it. You got to go on to perfection, that's into Christ.

Watch this now, just a minute:

By the which ... we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. [Huh?]

Let's just read just a little further. And hold that, let that soak in while we're reading (“once for all”):

And every priest standing daily ministering the offering oft time the same sacrifice, which can never take away sin:

But this man, [Are you ready? You got your vest open now, so it won't dodge, it'll go right to the heart?] But this man, [What man? Not the pope of Rome, not the bishop of the Methodist church, or any other church.] But this man, Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sat down at the right hand of God;

From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

Watch! Here she comes:

For by one offering he has p-e-r-f-e-c-t-e-d ... he has perfected [Until the next revival? What did that say?] he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

(Do you get it? “Let us go on to perfection!”)

Now you holiness people say, “Oh, yes, we believe in holiness. Hallelujah, we believe in sanctification.” But you're taking your own. You just quit this and quit that, you know you shouldn't do it. Unless Christ has opened the door and quickened it to your heart, ... and you become a place where sin is dead, and desire. It's all gone. Then, He taketh away your own self-righteousness, He may establish Himself in you. And it's Christ, the Son of God in you, the hope of Glory.

“Let us go on to perfection.” How can we be perfect? Through the death of Christ; not through joining church, not through our good works, what we do (that's all all right), not because we were baptized this way or that way, not because that we been healed by laying on of hands, not because of any of these other things, “we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection.”

Paul said, “I could speak with tongue like men and angels (that's both the tongues that is understood and the tongues that cannot be understood, has to be interpreted), I am nothing. Though I have the gift of knowledge and understand all the wisdom of God (to explain the Bible from ... tie her together), ”I am nothing.“ Don't do much good to go to school then, does it?—to learn the Bible. ”Though I have faith that I can move mountains....“ Healing campaigns don't mean very much then, does it? ”I'm nothing, though I give my body to be burned as a sacrifice.“

“Oh,” they say, “that man's religious.”

“But he's nothing,” Paul said, “never become nothing.”

“For where there's tongues, they shall cease; where there's prophecies, it shall fail; where there's all these other things, will fail. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be done away with.” See, that perfect. What is perfect? Love! What is love? God! Let us lay aside all these little dead works and ordinances, and go on to perfection. You see it? We're perfected through Christ. How do we get into it? By Holy Spirit baptism!

“All right, what happens?” You've passed from death unto life.

“Well, do I shake? Jump?” You don't have to do nothing. You've already done it. God brought you from death unto life, and you're alive. Then your fruits of your life show it.

A lot of you Methodists and Nazarenes shouted just as hard as you could shout, steal corn out of a man's patch. That's right, do everything that could be.

A lot of you Pentecostals spoke in tongues like pouring peas on a cowhide, sure, went right out and run away with the next man's wife, done all kinds of things. That's not it, brother.

Don't try to have any sensation or anything to take the place of the Holy Spirit. When the new birth is come, you're changed. You don't have to do anything to prove it, your life proves it. As you walk, your love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience: that's what you are. And the whole world sees the reflection of Jesus Christ in you.

Now, speaking in tongues, shouting, that's just attributes that follow this kind of a life. And you can take and impersonate those attributes and never have that life. We see it. How many knows that that's true? Sure you do, certainly you do. My, you see it all around you.

So, there's nothing you say that's the evidence of the Holy Ghost, unless it's your life that you live. Now if you want to speak with tongues, that's perfectly all right if you live the life to back it up. That's right. And if you want to shout, fine, that's good. I shout, too, get so happy sometimes I can't hardly wear a pair of shoes, I like to jump out of them. And that's wonderful. I believe it.

And I've seen visions, and the sick healed, the dead raised. When they're laying out there and the doctors walk away and say, “They're finished and gone,” lay there a couple hours; and the Holy Spirit come right down and show a vision, go down there and raise that person up. I've seen those who are deaf, dumb, and blind, and crippled, walk. That doesn't ... that's just attributes.

Brother, a long time ago, before the world was ever ... had a foundation to it; God through His eternal grace, He looked down, and by foreknowledge He seen you and I. He knew what age we'd live in, He knew what we would be. Therefore, by election, He chose us before the foundation of the world, to be with Him without spot.0

Now, if He chose us before the foundation of the world to be in Him without spot, and we're borned all spotted and nothing else can ... nothing can cleanse us, how we going to be without spot? “He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not have an end of life, but have eternal life; should never perish, but have eternal life.” Then when we come into Him.... By faith, through grace are we saved, by the Holy Spirit calling to us.

Before there was a body on this earth, your bodies were laying here. It's made out of calcium, potash, moisture, cosmic light, and petroleums and so forth, sixteen elements, And the Holy Spirit begin to brood over the earth, “wooing.” And as it did, first thing you know, up come a little Easter flower. Then He brood out some grass, and some birds, and after awhile, a man come forth.

Now, He never made a woman out of the dust of the earth. She's already a man to begin with, the man and woman are one. So He took from the side of Adam, a rib, and made a woman, a helpmate to him, and then sin come in.

Then after sin came in.... God will not be defeated no matter what takes place. He will never be defeated. Then women began to bring men on the earth. And God, through eternal grace, seen who would be saved and He called you, “No man can come to Me, except My Father calls him first. Not him that willeth, or him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy.”

You say, “Well, I sought God! I sought God!” No you never! God sought you. That's the way it was in the beginning.

It wasn't Adam saying, “O Father, Father, I've sinned. Where are You?”

It was Father saying, “O Adam, Adam, where are you?” That's the nature of man. That's the strain of man. That's what he's made of.

“And no man can come to Me except the Father draws him. And all that the Father gives Me....” Hallelujah! “All that come, I will give them eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” What a blessed ... what a blessed promise, of a God of heaven. Where we get to tonight, where He swore by Himself, there's none greater. You take an oath by someone greater than you. There's no one greater, so God took an oath to Himself. We're getting into it: how He did it and when He did it, and took an oath to Himself that He would raise us up and make us His own heritage.

Oh, how perfect and solid we can stand, this morning. How you can look at death staring you right in the face, you could say like Paul, “Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There you are.

Why? “Oh, you did so-and-so.”

“I know it, but I'm covered by His blood!” Hallelujah!

“By One Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.” You Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, whatever you are, we were baptized into one body. And we have fellowship and we're citizens of the kingdom of God, professing that we are not of this world.

My little girl come the other day and said, “Daddy, this little girl did so-and-so, and they did so-and-so, and we went over to the house and did so-and-so.” Said, “Why don't we do that?”

I said, “Honey, we are not of that world. They live in a world to theirself.”

Said, “Don't we all walk on the same ground?”

I said, “Of the world, Honey. We're not of them people.”

The Bible said: “Come out of them, be ye separated,” saith God. See, you're not of that. And when that new nature comes into you, you don't have to be pulled out, you don't want to go back like Lot's wife. You're just born out of it. And you're in another dimension. And that looks trashy to you. And this, the great, fabulous America that we live in, has become one big chaos of it. Everything is lust and women. And women the way they're dressing, the men the way they're acting, and the things they're doing, and then call themselves “Christians.”

For instance, this Elvis Presley, go and join the Pentecostal church now, course that's where.... Judas got thirty pieces of silver; Elvis got a fleet of Cadillacs and a few million dollars for selling his birthright. Arthur Godfrey! Look at that!

Look over here at Jimmy Osborne, in Louisville, out there with that old boogie-woogie, rock 'n' roll, old tommyrot, and filth. And on Sunday morning, take the Bible and stand on the platform and preach. What a disgrace! No wonder the Bible said, “Every table's full of vomit.”

Why, we're living in a terrible day. And people say, “Oh, they're very religious.” Oh! Don't you know that the devil is religious? Don't you know that Cain was just as religious as Abel was? But he didn't have the revelation. That's it: he didn't have the revelation. Yeah, we all go to church, but there's some's got life, that's the ones that got the revelation of Jesus Christ in their heart. Not by shaking, jumping, not by joining church, but the revelation. God has revealed Him.

Look what said, “Who does man say I, the Son of man, am?”

“Some said, 'You're a prophet.' And some say, 'You're Elias.' And some....

Said, “But who do you say?”

Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That wasn't from his lips.

He said, “Blessed art thou, Simon, the son of Jonas, for flesh and blood never revealed this to you. You never learned this in some ethics of the Bible, or some theological seminary. Blessed are ye, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven has revealed it. And upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it.”

If you're a Christian this morning because you belong to church, you're lost. If you're a Christian because you've passed from death unto life, you're free from judgment—into Christ; you're becoming into perfection all the time. God cannot see one thing.... You say, “Will I ever make a mistake?” Sure, but you don't do it willfully.

Now we're getting into that, just in a few minutes, “For he that sins willfully after he received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” We get into that tonight because it's a little too late now.

Let's read just a couple more verses of this, so we can feel better about getting down a little more. All right, where we start right in on that tonight? The fourth verse, listen to this:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and made ... and have been ... and have tasted of the power ... the heavenly gifts, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And ... tasted the good word of God, and the power of the world to come,

If they shall fall away, to renew themselves ... unto repentance;....

See, and we take that into Hebrews 10, and back and forth, to show what this is.

Friends, let us go on to perfection. We're without excuse today. We have no excuse at all. The God of heaven has appeared in these last days and is doing the very same things that He did then, when He was here before, when He was on earth. He's proved. As we are coming through this Bible, and you, class, know this; that we have taken miracle by miracle, and sign by sign, and wonder by wonder, that He did with the children in the wilderness, the things and signs that He did. The things that He done when He was here on earth, manifest in the flesh, and the very same things are taking place today, right here among us. Here's the Word to vindicate it. Here's the thing to say it's right, to make it right. Here's the Spirit of God to do the same thing, so we're without an excuse. Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, seeing that we are compassed about by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every word, every thing, every wrong, every evil word, every bad-spoken word, every thought, and let us run with patience the race that's set before us, looking to the author and finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. O blessed be His most matchless and holy name! How that He came to earth to redeem fallen men, and to bring them back into the fellowship of the Lord God. And we thank Thee for this. And now by His grace.... We never chose Him, but He chose us. He said, “You have not chosen Me, but I chose you.” When? “Before the foundation of the world.”

And, Dear God, if there be some sitting here this morning, maybe who's put this off for years and years, but constantly, there's a little knocking at the heart. Maybe they joined church, thinking, “Well, it'll be all right.” Father, surely the Scriptures has explained it this morning: that you cannot hide behind a church, and be righteous; neither can you be good, not lie and steal and do anything bad, and still be righteous.

There's only one righteousness we have, not of our own, but His righteousness. He has perfected our salvation. Therefore, being in Him, God does not see our mistakes. When we do anything wrong, there's a spirit in us screams out, “O Father, forgive me!” Then God does not see it. And we are brought into fellowship and grace with Him. Grant it, Lord, while we close this service, in Christ's name. Amen.

Just for a moment, I'd like to ask you.... No matter what you do, you're lost. Listen to this. Sometime ago.... I might have told it before. Here's a little experience happened to me:

I was up at Toledo, Ohio. I was in a revival and having a meeting down there and so many people. They knowed the hotels was at; so they had taken me out into the country. And I was staying out there, a little motel.

We had been eating at a little Dunkard restaurant; it was a wonderful place. The little ladies in there just as Christian and sainted looking as they could be, clean and real nice. Sunday come, I got hungry. I had been fasting a little and I wanted to go across the street to another and order a little ... a little road there by a corner near the ... just a regular, common, American place there, to eat. Little ... had a little place, a cafe, open all night. When I walked in there on that Sunday, about two o'clock in the afternoon, before going down to preach that afternoon....

I was so gotten, I didn't know what to do. I walked in and the first thing I noticed was a young lady about sixteen, eighteen years old (some papa's darling, some mother's darling), standing back there with a boy, with her hands around her hips. Bunch of teen-agers sitting at the counter.

I heard a slot machine. And looked over here and there was a policeman standing there with his arm around a woman, up around here, her waistline, and playing a slot machine. Now, you know that gambling and slot machines is illegal in Ohio, you Buckeye people here. And you know that's illegal. And here was the law, playing a slot machine; and a man of my age, probably married, bunch of children, maybe a grandfather. A policeman, road patrol, playing a slot machine. There was that young.... What's a teen-age done? What's this done?

I stood there, nobody noticed me coming in, they was too busy, half of them drunk. So, I watched. I heard somebody saying, “Well, do you think the rain'll hurt the rhubarb?” And looked around over here, and here sat a lady sitting there, old lady, she was sixty-five, seventy, close to it. And the poor lady.... I don't blame anyone from looking their best, but when she.... She'd fixed herself.... She made her hair blue, real blue looking, and all cut off over the top and made it real blue. And she had on real thick manicure, or what you call the stuff put on her face, and a big spots. And she had on little bitty shorts and the poor old thing was so wrinkled till the meat, flab, meat was hanging down like that over her legs. And she was drunk. She was sitting there with an old man, in the summer time, with one of these old, gray army overcoats on, or olive drab. It hanging down like that, and a big scarf around his neck. Drunk, two of them, and they was with this poor old woman.

I stood there and looked around, I said, “God, how can You stand it? How do You look at such as that? When it makes me (a sinner saved by grace) think that, how can You look at it? Why, it looks like You'd burst the thing open. Will my little Rebekah and Sarah have to come up under that kind of an influence? Will my two little girls have to meet a popular, so known, world as it is today, where the people act like that? God, how can I ever ... what can I do?” (Of course, it's His grace. If they were ordained to eternal life, they'll come to it; if they wasn't, they won't. I don't know. That's up to God. I will do my part).

I thought, “How can You stand it, God? Look like You're so holy that You'd just wipe that thing off the earth.” I said, “Look at that poor grandmother sitting there. Look at that young girl back there. And here's a woman standing here, probably twenty-five years old. And that police with his arms around her waist, a-playing a slot machine. And there's the law, the nation's gone. There's the motherhood gone. Here's the elder gone, and there's a young girl sitting back there, and she's gone. Look at the boys, when they ought to be in church or somewhere.”

And I thought, “O God, what can I do? And here I am in this city a-crying with all my heart, and they ignore it and walk as if they were....” I thought, “Well, God....”

Well, then a thought come: “If I haven't called them, how can they come? All the Father has given Me will come. 'You have eyes but you can't see, ears and you can't hear.'”

I thought, “Well, if the president would come to town instead of the revival, everybody'd come out. Oh, sure, that's worldly.”

Then I got to thinking, “Well, God, why don't You just.... Come on and send Jesus and let's have it over with. Why don't You just go and have it all over with, and let it go?”

Then I begin to see something moving in front of me. It looked like a little whirl going around like this. I kept watching it, and I saw a world turning around and around. And I watched it, and where it was spraying something off. And I looked, and it was a spray of red, crimson blood; across, around the world; just like a whirl going around (like a comet) and it had a whirl around like this. And I looked at this whirl, and just above it, I saw Jesus in the vision. He was looking down. And I seen myself standing down here on the earth doing the things that I should not do. And every time that I sinned, God would of killed me, “Because the day you eat of it, the day you die.” And God's holiness and justice requires.... and you'd have to die. And then I looked there, and I kept rubbing my eyes, I said, “I'm not....” I never went to sleep. “It's a vision. I'm sure this is a vision.”

I kept watching (as I stood behind the door). And I seen my own sins come up. And every time they would start to hit the Throne, His blood act like a bumper on a car; it caught it and I'd see it shake, and the blood would run down His face. And I seen Him raise His hands, and said, “Father, forgive him, he doesn't know what he's doing.”

I seen myself do something else; it shook Him again, bump. God would have killed me right then, but His blood was a-catching me. It was holding my sins. Thought, “O God, did I do that? Surely it wasn't me.” But it was!

Then I went walking like this, like I was going through that room, and I walked up close to Him. I seen a book laying there; it had my name on it, and all kinds of black letters wrote across it. I said, “Lord, I'm sorry I did this. Did my sins cause You to do that? Did I spin Your blood around the world? Did I do this to You, Lord? I'm so sorry that I did it.” And He reached out. I said, “Will You forgive me? I didn't mean to. By Your grace I will try to be a better boy if You'll just help me.”

He took His hand and patted His side, took His finger and wrote “pardoned” on my book, throwed it over behind Him (the Sea of Forgetfulness). I watched it a little bit. And He said, “Now, I forgive you, but you want to condemn her.” See? Said, “You're forgiven, but what about her? You want to blow her up. You didn't want her to live.”

I thought, “O God, forgive me. I didn't mean to think that. I didn't want to do that. I—I—I didn't want to do that.”

“You're forgiven, you feel all right. But what about her? She needs it, too. She needs it.”

Oh, I thought, “God, how did I know who You've called, and who You haven't called?” It's my business to speak to everyone.

So, when the vision left me, I walked over to her. I said, “How do you do, lady?” And them two men had went to the rest room. She was sitting there hiccuping, you know, laughing. The bottle of whiskey sitting on the table ... or beer it was, alcohol, sitting there where they'd been drinking. I walked up, said, “How do you do?” And she said, “Oh, hello.” And I said, “Could I sit down?” She said, “Oh, I got company.” I said, “I didn't mean it in that way, Sister.” She looked at me when I called her “Sister.” She said, “What do you want?” And I said, “Could I sit down just a minute.” She said, “Help yourself.” And I sat down. I told her what had happened. She said, “What's your name?” And I said, “Branham.”

She said, “Are you the man down here in this arena?” And I said, “Yes, ma'am.”

She said, “I've been wanting to come down there.” She said, “Mr. Branham, I was raised in a Christian family.” She said, “I got two young girls that's Christian.” But certain-certain things happened, and she got on the wrong road, or started.

I said, “But, Sister, I don't care, the blood's still around you. This world's covered over with blood.” If it didn't, God would kill us, every one. When that blood's moved, look out for judgment. But now, if you die without that blood, you go beyond that place, then there's nothing to act for you. Today the blood acts in your stead. I said, “Lady, sure, the blood's still got you covered. As long as you got breath in your body, the blood has you covered. But someday when the breath leaves here (the soul goes out), you'll go beyond that blood, and there's nothing but judgment. While you got a chance for pardon....”

And I took her by the hand, she was crying, said, “Mr. Branham, I'm drinking.”

I said, “That don't hurt. Something, another has warned me to come tell you.” I said, “God, before the foundation of the world, called you, Sister. And you're doing wrong, and you're only making it worse.”

She said, “Do you think He would have me?”

I said, “Absolutely, He'd have you.”

And there on her knees, we got down in the middle of that floor, had an old-fashioned prayer meeting. And that police took off his hat and bowed on one knee. There we had a prayer meeting, in that place. Why? God's sovereign.... “Laying aside these dead works, let us go on to perfection.” Let's move into that realm where there's....

“I belong to church. And I belong to that.” That's all finished. And let's go to perfection.

My sinner friend, if you're without the blood today, without salvation, without grace, the blood of Jesus Christ holds you. You say, “Well, I got by all this time.” But one day you're going where there's nothing left for you then.

Let us pray now, while we bow our head:

Is there, would be, one here today would like to say, “God, be merciful to me; I realize that I've done wrong.”? Maybe you joined church. That's all right. But if you haven't received the grace of Christ, would you raise your hand and say, “Pray for me, Brother Branham”? God bless you, mister. God bless you, lady. That's right. God bless you, sir, back there. God bless you, and you. Way back in the back, yes, God bless you. Raise your hand. That's right. Just put your hand up, and say, “God be merciful to me.”

You say, “I belong to church, Brother Branham. Yes, I've tried to be good. But I don't know, it just seems like I can't do it.” Oh, poor pilgrim, poor decrepit friend, you've really never seen the vision yet.

You say, “Brother Branham, I shouted. I've spoke with tongues. I done all this.” That might be true, too. That's all right, nothing to say against that. But my dear lost friend, ... but to speak with tongues, or to shake, or to shake hands, or to be baptized—that's all right—but to know Him is to know a person. To know Him is life.

You say, “I know the Bible, real well.” Well, to know the Bible's not life. To know Him (the personal pronoun), to know Him, Christ! That you know He's forgiven you. Would you just raise your hands, again. Someone else. God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. God bless you over here, brother. God bless you back there, young man. God bless you over here, sister. God bless you, way back in the back, there. That's right, to know Him is life. “Brother Branham, remember me. I'm now, right here in my seat, going to accept Christ.”

Say, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and give unto me that peace, that sweetness.” Go to church, play the music as hard as you can, dance up and down, run through the aisle, go home weary and toss and fuss: that's not Christ. You go to church, sit and listen to some little sermon about how the bridge is going to be painted, or something, another like that, and never hear the Word. The Word brings life. It's the Seed. Don't you want peace?

Are you bothered about dying? If you'd have a heart attack today, does it worry you? Or would you rejoice to say, “I'm going to be with the Lord Jesus on the end of this road.”? Do you know Him? If you don't, just raise your hand; we're going to ask prayer for you. Yes, brother, you too.

All right, in your heart now:

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed (For who?) for me,

Because Thy promise I will believe,

O Lamb, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

(tenderly, mercifully)

Just as ... (just walk right to Him by faith.

Believe that He's standing right there by

your side. He is) ...ing not

To rid my soul (of how much now?) of one ...

(temper, malice)

To Him whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb (by faith I will walk to the cross this

morning, I lay my burdens down) ... I come!

God bless you back there, that's it. [Brother Branham hums the hymn.] Don't be indifferent now. Warmly, sweetly, walk right up to the cross.

In the Old Testament, they brought a lamb. They knowed they'd sinned; they knowed it by the commandments. You know it now, because God spoke to your heart. They looked at the commandments: “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not do so-and-so.” And they took a lamb, went and put their hands on the lamb, priest cut the throat. The little fellow was kicking, and bleeding, and bleating, and dying. His hands was all covered with the blood. The lamb died in his stead, but he walked out with the same desire to do it again.

But in this place, we come by faith through grace; God called us. We lay our hands on the head of the Lamb of God. We hear that swinging hammer. We hear that voice, “I thirst, give Me drink. Father, lay not this sin to their charge; they don't know what they're doing.” See, by faith, we feel His death there in our stead. Way down in our heart comes a deep, settled peace when a voice says, “You're pardoned now, go and sin no more.” How by grace, then, we walk away with not the same desire, but a desire never to sin no more or to do anything wrong. The peace that passes all understanding, has entered our heart.

May you receive it now while we pray, everyone, together:

Heavenly Father, they're coming by faith, through grace. There's about a dozen hands went up; it's the fruits of the message. They come to You. They believe. I believe in them, too, Lord. I believe that, truly, the Holy Spirit spoke to them. And by faith they're coming right up Jacob's ladder now, right up to the foot of the cross, there laying down all their sins, and saying, “Lord, it's too much for me. I just can't bear it any longer. And will You take away my load of sin, and take the desire out of my heart to do so? And let me by faith, this day, receive You as my personal Saviour. And from henceforth, I will follow You every mile of the way, to the end of the journey. I catch a glimpse of what it means to 'go on to perfection,' not going into church, and the roots of dead works like baptisms and so forth. But I want to go on, until I can be no more, and Christ can live in me.”

O Jesus, grant this to each penitent soul, this morning. Every one that raised their hands, shall receive eternal life because You promised it. They made a public acception. They raised their hands; they broke all the laws of gravitation. They made science feel ashamed of theirself, because science says your arms has to hang down. Anything would prove that in science: that it must stay earthbound, because gravitation hold it down. But there was a spirit in them that made a decision, and they defied the laws of gravitation and raised their hands. You seen it, Lord. You put their name on the book. “Pardoned!” The old book's back in the Sea of Forgetfulness now, never be remembered no more. Let them go forward today, as loving, sweet Christians, to serve You. And maybe many that didn't raise their hands, grant to them also.

Let the Saints walk just a little closer, Lord, for we're one day nearer Home than we were yesterday. Be Thou with us, Lord, for we ask it in Christ's name and for His glory. Amen.