The Faith Of Abraham

So it's good to be here again this afternoon to continue our little study. I just wish we had this for a long time, where we could get together and.... You know, there's something about it that we.... We always said something like this: We'd get our hands in the honey jar. You know what the honey jar is.

Just reminds me of here some years ago: You always see things when you haven't got your camera. I'd been fishing up in the mountains way up in northern New Hampshire, kind of the home of the little brook trout. And I love to fish for them. And I had a little pup tent I'd packed up there. It's about a two days' hike, way up in the high part of the mountains, the great home of the white tailed deer; just off of a meeting, just relaxing, trying to get my nerves to quieten down.

And so, I'd been fishing up the stream the day before. And there was a nice hole up there where I knowed it had several brook trout in it. But I couldn't work my fly line back and forth on account of the bushes. So that morning I thought, “I will go up and catch two or three for breakfast, and I will take my little hand ax along and cut them limbs off.”

And on the road coming back, I had my fish for breakfast. And on the road coming back, I heard a noise. And I'd come around a little bunch of bushes and looked, and there was an old sow bear and two cubs had got into my tent. There wasn't much left of it.

It's not what they eat; it's what they tear up just to be.... A stove pipe there where I had a sheepherder's stove. He'd get on that and just jump up-and-down to hear it rattle, you know, just mashing it all to pieces.

And then, when the old mother bear spotted me, she run off and cooed to her cubs. But one of them come right on with her, but the other little fellow sat there. And I looked around. I had an old rusty rifle laying in there, was a twenty-two. And I.... Well, I had this hand ax, but I didn't want to leave any orphans in the woods, you know, if you had to kill the mother. And yet, I knowed she might scratch you, you know, if you fool around them cubs. So, kind of put me in a tough place.

So I moved off to one side, and I wondered, “Why don't that little fellow move?” And he wouldn't move. And the mother kept cooing for him, and he just kept sitting there. The little guy had his back to me, sitting like this. I was back there. And I thought, “Well, what's he so interested in?” So I got around this way to where I could look and see what it was.

I like pancakes. How many like.... And I always take me a little bucket of molasses along—you know, good sized bucket, because I was a Baptist. I don't sprinkle them; I baptize them. I really pour it on good and heavy, you know.

And this little fellow had got my bucket of molasses out. They love.... He was molasses all over. I never seen such a drenching of molasses. He didn't know how to get them out of the bucket, so he'd stick his little paw down, then lick, like that, you know. Lick. I said, “Get out of there.” And he turned and looked, and molasses in his eyes. He couldn't open his eyes, you know. Looking at me. And he finally got his eyes open and looked at me and just kept on eating molasses.

I thought, “That puts me in the mind of an old-fashioned Pentecostal meeting: hands in the molasses bucket, just.... Not molasses, but honey this time. Just honey all over, you know, just.... No condemnation, no scare, nothing to be afraid about. God's around; we're just eating honey. Just keep on eating honey.

Wasn't bothering him. The strange thing, after he sopped the bu.... I mean.... (What would you say was the right word? Brother Clibborn, where are you?) That's a Kentucky expression: “sopped.” But anyhow, after he'd got all the molasses out of the bucket, he run off to where his mother and them was, the other little fellow. And the strange thing about it, they licked him all over, getting what honey he had left.

You know, when we get in these meetings, you get around and others can lick off of you the experiences we get. That's right. Just to get among the honey, oh, it's wonderful. I love it, never get enough of it.

Now, we've been speaking on Abraham, the faith of Abraham. And now today, I want to read from the 22nd chapter, 14th verse, just for a text, a setting of a text. Then I want to go back to the 17th chapter where we left off yesterday, where God appeared to Abraham in the name of Almighty God. And now, we're going to read the Scriptures here.

Now, may He add His blessings to the reading of His Word. Jehovah-Jireh. Now, Jehovah-Jireh means, “The Lord will provide Himself a sacrifice.”

Now, God has them compound redemptive names: Jehovah-Jireh, and Jehovah-rapha the Healer, and so forth, Jehovah our Buckler, Jehovah our Shield, and Jehovah our Peace; and all those names are inseparable. That is the nature of Jehovah that He appears in. That's His nature: Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice, Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that heals all thy diseases.

Now, if He isn't Jehovah-Rapha anymore, He also isn't Jehovah-Jireh anymore. And if He isn't Jehovah-Jireh, then there's no sacrifice for you, and you're in your sins. And if He is Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord's provided sacrifice, Jesus Christ, then He's also Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord the Healer. You cannot separate God's nature (see), His compound redemptive names.

Now, last evening we kind of brushed back a little bit to get our place of standing. We found that Abraham was just an ordinary man, and that God promised that through him and his seed, that He would bless all nations. Now, can you understand that, say “Amen.”

God met Abraham, called him by election, and we found out that we are also called by election. God, by His foreknowledge, foreknew all things, and our names were put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world.

That question was asked me one time when I made a statement like that. “Then what's the use of preaching the Gospel?” That's part of it.

Jesus explained it when He said, “A fisherman went down to the lake and throwed in a net.” And when they enclosed many and pulled it in, why, some of them were fish, some were all kinds: spiders, terrapins, frogs, everything. Well, that's the fishermen. I'm a fisherman. These are fishermen. They're fishing on every corner of the lake. I come along to cast my net in with them fishing on this corner. I pull in. What all of the Gospel net enclosed, I pull it in. Some of them are fish. Some of them are turtles. Some of them are serpents. Some of them are frogs. Some of them are crawfish. Some are spiders.

Let me give a little illustration. First thing you know, the old turtle sticks his head out of his shell, say, “Huh, I didn't like this old holiness anyhow.” Creep, creep, creep, right back to the mud he'll go. That's the way he'll do it. Yet he come down to the altar; he's caught in the Gospel net.

Here's Mrs. Spider. She'll look around and say, “Huh, can't have no bridge parties; you have to be different, dress different, act different.” Plump, plump, plump, right back to the water again, see. What was it? She was a spider to begin with. A turtle to begin with, and fish to begin with.

Now, there's so many fish in this lake that's going to make up the body of Christ. And that's the reason in America, my meetings is not so successful. The body's about completed. America is a burnt over territory. There's been Oral Robertses, Billy Grahams, Jack Schuller, A. A. Allens, all different kinds of seines back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, till practically everything's seined out.

This generation is closed up in America. Church is sealed waiting for the time of the coming of the Lord, see. And we're about finished. It's the other fields. I was there nine nights in Puerto Rico the other day, just before I come here. In Puerto Rico, and they registered forty thousand borned again people out of the meetings of nine nights of service. Why, it would take me six years combing through America, and most all of them would be people that'd come to the church one time anyhow and went back.

I believe it was some great man, maybe T. L. Osborn, or somebody, that said one time that no one has the right to hear the gospel twice while one hasn't heard it once. And that's right. But, you see, the American people's got the money. They haven't got it.

I'm a poor man. I haven't got no capital. And I go along. I've never took an offering in all my life, never did, just what people freely send me. Then I take that and hold it together, what I can, and then as soon as I get enough built up, I take right off to the heathens and preach the Gospel with it. I'll have to answer for your tithing, the people that give it to me.

And then, Mr. Roberts, Brother Oral Roberts—we all know him, a great man; he couldn't stand here and hold.... I think his expenses is about ten thousand a day. And I don't know how much others are. I heard that Billy Graham, sometimes when he's broadcasting, runs twenty-five thousand a minute. You know what mine runs? A hundred and fifty a day.

I was talking to Brother Morrison, an old friend back there just a few minutes ago. He said, “If you ever passing by, stop by my church.” Said, “It's too little for a fellow like you; it only holds six hundred.”

I said, “I just closed a revival in a church that held twenty.” Twenty, see. I keep it little so I can go where the Lord leads me, no matter where it's at, see. Now, I'm not criticizing these other brothers. They got television and everything. God's using them in that, you see. But to me, I'd just like to be just Brother Branham (see), little. And then wherever the Lord leads me, I can take off. Money or no money, it don't make any difference, go anyhow, see. And if the Lord wants me to go overseas, the first thing you know, some great big something's coming up. “Well, what's this all about? And the Lord say, ”I'm calling you to India, calling you to here or there“; I take off as hard as I can go with it.

And that's the way I want to live. I never want to be big; I want to be honest, just honest with people, because I've got to meet them all again in the judgment.

Now, we are called of God. “No man can come to me except My Father draws him first.” Then it isn't man seeking God; it's God seeking man. And then we are.... Our name is on the Book, the Bible said, since the foundation of the world. The Holy Spirit's here hunting them out, bringing them in.

Now. Then the covenant was not only made with Abraham, but to his seed after him. Now, not his seeds, because he had about eight sons, but ... nine sons with Isaac. Because he had Ishmael, and then I think he had seven sons by his wife ... other wife after Sarah died. So you see, it wouldn't be his seeds, but to his seed, the one that was promised. That was Isaac, the one we're dealing with. Was.... From Isaac come Christ, through Christ come the Gospel to every creature.

And being in Christ, we are Abraham's seed, and are heirs according to the promise that He give Abraham. Every promise He made Abraham, He made it to his seed after him. And we are the seed of Abraham through Christ.

Then we find that God confirmed this covenant. And we seen how He did it. Not to a group of people, but by one man, by taking the life of one man and killing Him at Calvary, which was His own Son, that we will get into just in a little bit. He taken the life of Him and gave it to the church, the Spirit that was upon Him, and took the body up to His right hand as a bloody sacrifice before Him. He's sitting there to make intercessions upon anything that Christ died for. How could He turn Him down? His own Son's blood right there as a memorial that the price of sin and sickness is paid for. That's all.

See, it's the devil trying to scare you, bluff you off. And the people's been taught against this so much till the American mind is so muddled up (if you'll excuse the expression), till they don't know what to believe. One says one thing; one says another. That's the best thing the devil has done for his side: get the people confused. Come back to the Bible.

If an angel comes to someone, and he says something another that's not written in the Scriptures, don't you believe it. Let everything come right straight from the Scriptures. That's right.

We have everything in this country. We know that. We're no judges. But it must come from the Bible.

Joseph Smith met an angel. I wouldn't doubt that a bit. But when he got off the Bible, that's when I left it. See, right there when he leaves the Bible.

God will never do anything contrary to what He's already written. He has to stay with His Word. That's right. That's the reason I believe it that way. He's got to keep His Word (see), because He's God. And He will keep His Word. And any true angel will testify that that's the truth.

In the Old Testament, they had two or three ways of knowing whether a message was right or not. One of it was by a prophet. The other one was a dream. And then how they would make that confirm it: on the post of the temple, there was what's called the Urim Thummim. It's believed to have been the nine stones ... or, the ten stones in Aaron's breastplate. And when....

See, God's always acted in supernatural, because He is supernatural. And how can people call themselves Christians, do not believe in supernatural. How can you keep from believing miracles, because.... Why, the very ground that you're sitting on is a Word of God. God spoke it and it become material. If it isn't, where did He get it? See, it's God's Word made manifest. Everything that you see is God's Word made manifest.

Now, when they come to this temple, a dreamer dreamed a dream; it might sound pretty good. Or a prophet prophesied; it might sound pretty good. But they took them up to the Urim Thummim. Then they told this dream or this prophecy. And if that conglomeration of lights, all them ten different stones made a conglomeration of lights, like a rainbow flashing, supernatural, showing God received it, then the dream or prophecy was right. If it did not, no matter how real it sounded, God had refused it.

Now, when the Aaronic priesthood left, the Urim Thummim was done away with. But we got a new Urim Thummim; that's God's Bible. If a dreamer dreams a dream, or a prophet prophesies, and it's not according to God's Word, forget it. God is not in it. But if God brings it back and proves it by His Word, then it's God's spoken Word, confirming what He said was the truth.

Now, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

I know I got Baptist friends here. But not long ago there was a fine Baptist brother, very fine brother, real Christian. He said, “Brother Billy, I want to tell you something.” He said ... or, “ask you something,” rather. He said, “How do you get this baptism of the Holy Ghost?”

I said, “It's a promise of God.”

He said, “Don't you figure that was just for the disciples only?”

I said, “No, sir. No. Paul was still speaking and ordaining them plumb over ... disciples after disciples, the house of Cornelius, and all the way through.”

And he said, “Well, how do you get it? You believe you get it like the Pentecostal said?”

I said, “You get it by a promise of God.”

And he said, “Why, we receive the Holy Ghost when we believed.”

I said, “Paul disagreed with you in Acts 19, when he met a bunch of Baptists and he said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?' since you believed.” And that knocks that out. I said, “See, the first Baptist was cut off there.” And I said, “Don't get cut off at the same place.”

Now, see, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed. Them people even had good salvation. They were shouting, having a great meeting up there with Apollos, that Baptist preacher, converted lawyer. He was proving by the Word that Jesus was the Christ, and having rejoicing, and great times, and great joy among them. And Paul said, “But have you received the Holy Ghost since you have believed?”

Then the minister said to me, said, “Brother Branham, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What more can a man do but believe God?”

I said, “That's all he can do.”

He said, “Then when I believe God and accept Him, don't you think it's imputed unto me for righteousness?”

I said, “That's true. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. That's right. But God give him the seal of circumcision as a confirmation of his faith. And if you haven't received the Holy Ghost yet, God's never circumcised you yet and give you the confirmation of your faith. You believe in a weak way. But when you really give up your whole self, God fills you with the Holy Ghost as a confirmation you really believed Him.” I said, “Believe the whole Gospel, and God will fill you with the Holy Ghost.” And that's true, sure.

Then you can understand, because the Holy Spirit's within you. Every time the Bible said “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever,” a good intellectual person that wants to be popular will say, “No.”

“Jesus Christ is a great Healer. Go ye into all the world; these sign shall follow them that believes.” The unbeliever shakes his head. But if the Holy Spirit's in you, He will say, “Amen, amen.” It'll agree with the Word every time. The Spirit and Word has to agree.

And then that's the reason the children of Abraham believe those things, because they are God's Word, and it's God in them, vindicating His own Word. Amen. Now, if you can receive that, that's not skim milk. That'll help you, put vitamins, spiritual vitamins in you.

Notice. We find in there, Abraham said, “Now, I'm an old man, a hundred years old, and Sarah's ninety. What am I going to do?”

God said, “I AM the El Shaddai. I'm the bosom. I'm the breasted God. You just come, lean upon Me and nurse your strength back.”

“How am I going to do it?” By taking His Word.

Now. Then we find after that, that Lot in Sodom was going to be destroyed. And Abraham....

You know, it's kind of strange, but sometimes those who are really trying to live right has the roughest of ways to live. That's why I can't understand that Christians wants everything swanky and a whole lot of polish to it. I'm so sick and tired of a bunch of Hollywood evangelism. I like an old-fashioned, God-sent revival that really cleans up. Some little fellow walking around, you know what I mean. I like real old-fashioned, God-sent, Holy Ghost, backwoods, sin-killing religion that really cleans a man up, and makes him a different person.

Now, that sounds awful rough, but it'll save you. That don't whitewash you; that washes you white. So, that's a whole lot of difference in whitewashing anything; you're just covering it over.

Now. But here's what we need is a good thoroughly cleaning, all the way from the pulpit to the janitor's place, through the church of the living God. We seen too much television, too many programs, too many fancy things. Got to get away from that if we ever get to God.

You know, that's the nature of Satan? I'm way away from my text ... my subject. But in the Garden.... Look. When the two children was there, both Cain and Abel trying to find favor with God, both of those boys built an altar. Both of them made a sacrifice. Both worshipped. If going to church, belonging to church, being religious, make a sacrifice, prayer, if that's all God requires you, He'd be unjust to condemn Cain. Right. But you see, Cain had it all pretty with the lilies of the field, and everything all over his altar. It don't have to have lilies on the altar; it's souls on the altar God wants, see. And Abel didn't have much pretty.

You see, Cain come from his—who he was inspired by—his daddy, Satan. Which we know he was inspired by Satan. He was the first murderer, the first liar, and he killed his brother: Judas Iscariot in a pre-figure, exactly. As Judas killed Jesus at the cross, Cain killed Abel at the cross of sacrifice. Perfectly.

Some people only see three crosses on Golgotha. There was four. There was one: the Son of God, came from heaven, returning to heaven, taking with Him the repented sinner. There was Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition, come from hell, returning with him, taking with him the unrepentant sinner. And Judas was hanging on a tree. And Jesus was on a tree. “Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree.” That's right, see.

So all this here pretty and beauty stuff, that comes from the devil. That's exactly right. Satan wanted a more glamorous kingdom than Michael. And that's the reason he set up his kingdom in the North, and so forth. See, you have to get away from that. America's wrapped up in that kind of stuff. See, don't look to that.

But Abel come with a little rope, maybe a grape vine (I don't guess they had any hemp in them days.) wrapped around the neck of a little lamb, and laid him up on a altar, and pulled his little head back, and took a rock (I don't guess they had any lances.) and chopped his little neck like that, and the blood flying, and him bleating and crying, and the blood all over him like that. But God said, “That's it. That's it.”

What did it speak of? The Lamb of God hanging there, and His bloody locks hanging around His shoulders, speaking in other tongues while He was dying, “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” That's what it spoke of. In righteousness—that Spirit of revelation.

The Bible said, “In the last days they'd be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good.” You say that's communist. That's so-called Christianity. Watch, next verse. “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away, for this is the sort that goes into all kinds of societies and things of the church, leading silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” There you are. “But as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these resist the truth.” See there? “But their folly will be made manifest.” And the hour has come when the enemy's come in like a flood, and the Holy Ghost is rising a standard against it to call His people unto righteousness and to holiness, and back to the Bible. Amen.

Now. Abraham, then one day standing in his tent; Sarah was out there in the tent with him, all the elect in the tent. Lot was down in Sodom sitting in the gate.

And one day, Abraham looked, and here come three men. And there was something about Abraham that he knew that them men was just a little different from ordinary men. There's somehow....

You know, a mason knows a mason when he speaks to him. And different lodges know by different signs. The Christian does too. There's just something about when you speak to a man, and you feel that gentle sweet spirit, you know he's your brother. There's just something about him.

And Abraham, perhaps said, “Good evening, Gentlemen. Come by and stop with me just a little while. I'll fetch a little water, wash your feet (Look at that humility.), wash your feet. I will get a morsel of bread for you, and then you go on your road and rejoice, because it will do you good.”

He said, “Go, do as you've said.”

Goes up there and sets them all down under the shade tree, and the big oak, you know. And oaks and shade's pretty hard to find in that country. Now, they had dust all over their clothes—travelers—and perspiration running down their face. And Abraham went to get the water. When he did, Sarah was in the tent.

Women didn't act like they do these days. They kind of stayed back. Now, they have to get right in front of their husband, and “You shut up. I'll tell you what to do.” You see. So it was different then. So they hadn't seen Hollywood.

So then, we find out that Abraham slipped in the tent, and he said, “Get ready, Sarah, knead some meal now, and get it ready. Make some cakes out here on the hearth right quick.” He run out to the herd and felt around till he got a little fat calf, and had it dressed. He said, “Fry these lamb chops ... (I mean,) these veal chops right quick now, and you get them ready.” And he went out and brought the bread and everything before them and sat down. And I suppose he walked over and got the old fly bush, you know, and begin to shoo the flies.

How many knows what a fly bush is? I'm sure there's Kentuckians here somewhere. We never had a screen door till just recently. Old fly bush, you know, when they was around the table. On Sunday, when they come.... someone come home for dinner, me and my little brother stand each end of the table up on a chair with the old fly bush, going back and forth like this. We run out of newspapers; we had to get us a limb off of the hickory tree out there, you know, an old maple, and shoo the flies away. And when mama's churning, and you know how it goes.

Abraham standing there with the fly bush, saying, “Well, I guess you're traveling, Brethren.”

“Yes, we've been traveling.”

“I see. Looks like You might have come from a strange land. You're strangers around. We have never seen You around here.”

“Yes, I suppose we are,” see.

What were they. It was God Himself and two angels, God Himself and two angels in human form.

As I've often said.... Someone said, “You don't mean you believe that, Bill?”

“Yes, I do. I sure do. God....”

Well, what are we made out of? Sixteen elements of the earth: cosmic light, and petroleum, and potash, and calcium. God just reached over and got Him a handful of each and went “whheww,” stepped right into it. Said, “Come here, Gabriel, 'whheww' get in here. Michael, we're going down and see what's going on in Sodom; been a lot of prayers coming up here, I want to see what's going on.” And He moved out there.

He certainly was God. Don't let that stall you, because Abraham called Him Lord, Elohim, Almighty God. Yes, sir. Abraham ought to know; he was talking face to face with Him.

So he sat there. And this fellow had His back turned to the tent. Now remember, He'd never been around, never seen.... He was a perfect stranger. And after He got through eating, why, Abraham was fixing to question Him a little bit. “Where are You going? What's your business?” As he shooed the flies, you know, and waiting, you know, a little bit.

And then first thing you know, one of them said.... had His back to the tent. He said, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” Say, how did He know he was married, and how did He know his wife's name was Sarah? Now watch. He's talking to the elect church. The formal church was down in Sodom yet. But the elect church was out of Sodom. And so is every borned again Christian out of Sodom. The hour is at hand. We see destruction hanging everywhere.

Now, remember, this Angel did not go down into Sodom. Sodom would not have believed that message. But He talked to these up here who believed the supernatural, Abraham and his group, out from the fire, would not go into the destruction. We cannot go into the judgment. If we do, God will be unjust to do it, for Christ stood our judgment. We have no judgment. He took our judgment, see. We're free from judgment. “He will not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death unto life.” Correct, Saint John 5:24. Think of it, like a handful and two dozen eggs, see. Saint John 5:24: “He that heareth my words and believeth (not make-believeth, but believeth) on him that sent me hath (present tense) eternal life and shall never come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto life.” That's His own Word. That has to be so.

Now, notice what takes place now. There's the angels, and they're standing there—God and two angels—and He said, “Where is your wife, Sarah?”

And Abraham said, “She is in the tent....” Now, notice the Scriptures, so that you'll be sure now. Now, the Scripture is written, not so that the wise can understand it. The Scripture is written.... You have to read between the lines to know the Scripture. Now remember, Jesus thanked the Father because He had written it so, that He'd hid it from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and revealed it to babes such as will learn, see.

Like my wife.... We're so in love, that my wife writes me a letter. I'm overseas; I get it. She said, “Dear Billy, here I sit tonight with the children. I'm thinking much of you, so-and-so,” and she goes talking. Now, that's what she's saying. But because I love her so well, I know her nature. I can read between them lines and know just what she means.

Now, when you're so in love with God, you can read His Word in between the lines, and the love Spirit—the Holy Ghost—will interpret it to you, see. Now, hold that in mind, see.

Now, we find out that Abraham said, “She is in the tent.” And the Bible pointed out it now, that the man had His back to the tent. And she was inside the tent behind Him. And He was asking all these questions. And Abraham said, “She's in the tent behind You.”

And He said, “Now Abraham, I'm going to visit you according to the time of life (you understand what I mean, the twenty-eight days), and you're going to bring this child that I've promised you, you've waited on; I told you I was El Shaddai, and you've laid right with the promise, and now I'm going to confirm this promise to you.” God always does that. And said, “You're going to have this baby just as it was promised.”

And Sarah, inside, not out loud, but the Bible said within herself, said, “Me, being an old woman here, a hundred years old, and going to have pleasure with my lord, Abraham....” She loved him.

Now you women ought to love your husbands like that, because the Bible said so. That's right. So much that she called him her lord. That was little l-o-r-d. Now. And when she did that....

If you do that (see), then if you'll love your husbands like that, and you'll honor and love your wife, the divorce courts will go out of business. That's the way they should do, for what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

Now, we find that she kind of smiled within herself. And that Angel, with His back turned to the tent, said, “Why did Sarah laugh?” You see that sign?

I can imagine Abraham saying “Yes, a stranger, called her name, knowed I was married, and knowed she laughed behind.” Ha, I imagine that changed the difference.

Remember, that was just a few hours before Sodom was burned. That same thing happened just about two and a half years before Israel was rejected, and the other, the Samaritans that we've talked so much about. That sign is the last sign to the church.

Now, Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom....” Now remember, two preachers—a modern Billy Graham and somebody else, we'd say any great evangelist, Oral Roberts, or some of them —went down into Sodom and preached. Now, they were great preachers, for they did do a sign down there, a miracle, but not that sign, see. Went down into Sodom, and they preached a warning message that they'd better get out of there, for God's going to destroy it.

And who's doing any better job on that today than Billy Graham and that bunch? I respect Billy Graham, a great man of God. He's got his ministry. I can see some of them say, “Well, he doesn't believe in divine healing.” Look. God's running this business. It isn't us. God knows.... If Billy Graham would accept divine healing, them churches would kick him out that quick. And God's holding him there for that purpose, so that all will be guilty before God, because you've already heard about it, see. Billy's doing a wonderful job. Instead of talking about him, pray for the man that God will continue to use him. I like him.

Look over there in Australia, that ungodly place, when they tried to run him out, and booed him, said, “Get on back to America; we don't want you no more. And we want Oral Roberts and the rest of them....” Put signs on the streets. Did that stop him? He wasn't made out of running type. He had a commission from God. He stayed right there. And his eye black all around like that, and almost into a stroke, and sick, and everything else. But he laid right with it, till God got the purpose out of his going over there. You have to admire a man like that. Yes indeed. Sure.

Two mighty evangelists went down into Sodom and they preached the Gospel. And just a few came out; Lot and his wife, and two of his children came out.

Watch that last sign He gave. Now, immediately after the destruction.... We're hurrying now; we only got fifteen minutes. I want to pack this part into you straight. Now, look. That was the last sign that was given to Sodom. And Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.

Now, notice. Then immediately after that, Abraham.... Something happened to him and Sarah. I know you're going to disagree with this ... or, some of you. But I want to stop it before you get a disagreement. I want you to realize that the Bible said that they were both well stricken in age. Now, Abraham....

Let's just draw a picture. Now, if the Bible said they were well stricken, not stricken, but very well stricken in age—old. Abraham's old; he's a hundred years old, beard hanging down this way, and probably top of his head bald, and the whiskers hanging down, and a little cane in his hand around like that. And Sarah, a little grandma, with a little cap on her head like that, and the gray hair, and stooped over, and a little shawl going around like this, a little grandma. And yet, they're going to have a baby.

How ridiculous it would look. But see, God likes to do those things, just so He can confuse that bunch out there that thinks they know it all, see. He does it that way.

Now, God did something. Now, I'm going to have to get between the lines with you again, so you just think of it. You know what God did? What He did for Abraham and Sarah, He will do for Abraham's seed from then on. He showed right then what He's going to do for us.

Notice what He did. Now every man and woman will have to say that God had to perform a miracle, because he had lived with Sarah since she was a girl. It was his half sister. And he had lived with her, probably since she was a young beautiful woman of about eighteen years old. Maybe he married her. He was ten years older that she was. And maybe he married her at about sixteen or eighteen years old and had lived with her as a husband. And now she's forty years past menopause—old.

Now we know God had to perform a miracle to make her fertile in the first place, because it said that her womb was as good as dead, and Abraham's body was as good as dead. But he didn't consider that. He didn't bring that under consideration.

Well, why are you bringing your heart trouble under consideration then? What are you bringing the other diseases under consideration? If God made the promise, God keeps the promise. Don't consider it at all. Say, “Well, my arm's no better than it was yesterday.” Don't even consider that at all. God made the promise He will heal you; just be looking any minute for it to stretch out. Yes, sir. I've seen it happen so many times.

I want to stop here a minute if I go five minutes overtime. I just got some women come into the meeting and they was on the platform. And the Lord told one, had a big growth on her neck, and told her who she was and all about it, said, “Thus saith the Lord, you're healed.” She went off the platform, said she believed it. Next one come, she had a serious stomach trouble, said, “Thus saith the Lord, He's healed you. Go on your road rejoicing.”

Well, the woman with the stomach trouble went out; she thought, “I'll really get me something to eat, because I'm about to starved.” She had ulcered stomach. She'd try to eat; she'd vomit.

Day after day passed, till her family said, “You're bringing a reproach upon the cause of the Christ.” No she's not. Said, “You're saying God healed you, when you're not healed.”

She said, “I'm testifying what God said and confirmed to me.” That's right.

What is your testimony? What do you do when you're giving a witness? What are you doing when you're testifying? You're saying the same thing. You're saying like if you was in court, and said, “I seen certain certain thing.” You have to tell it the same way. When I say, “I am healed,” I mean I'm testifying exactly what God said, “By His stripes, I was healed.” You're not lying.

And then, she kept that up. And one morning, she said, about six weeks afterwards.... Well, they was all making fun of her around the neighborhood nearly. And all at the church, they said, “You better forget that, honey, because you're causing a reproach.” That's the devil talking. Certainly is. If you believe it, you hold on to it. If you don't believe it, don't say nothing about it. But if you believe it, nothing can take it out of you, because you're believing it. It's already sunk in, and it's already become a tree, a life to you.

Then, said, one morning the husband went to work, and the children went to work, and she standing washing the dishes, crying. Said, and something happened. She had a real cool feeling like going over her. She got real hungry. So she taken a little bite of the oats out of one of the children's plates. Said she thought, “I will vomit that in a few minutes, but I was so hungry I couldn't help it.” It didn't bother her; she was still hungry. First thing you know, she ate the whole bowl full. Didn't bother her. A few minutes, thought, “Well, that's so good, I believe I'll just fry me an egg.” So when she went to fry the egg, she fried two. Got her some buttered toast, and a cup of coffee, and she had a gastronomical jubilee. She just sat down and really eat. And when she got all that eat, she felt so good, wasn't just about but a half hour, she said, “Now, wait, I believe something's happened.” She went around about a half hour; she felt fine. She said, “I believe I will run down and tell my neighbor about what's happened.”

She went down, and she heard all the crying, and crying on she ever heard. Said it was about nine o'clock that morning, and screaming. And she run and thought something had happened. And she said, “Oh, dear, you ought to know, I just eat some oats, and I've eat some bread, and I've eat eggs, I just had a great time. And my stomach don't hurt a bit.”

Said, “Honey, you don't know the half of it.” She said, “I got up this morning, I've shook every sheet and everything else. That lump's gone from my neck. I haven't got a spot of it nowhere.”

What was it? See, the Angel of the Lord had pronounced that. He passed through the neighborhood, confirming what He had promised. Sometimes God don't answer right at once.

Daniel prayed and twenty-one days, I believe, the Angel was delayed before it got to him. That prince of the Medo-Persians ... or, something out there ... or, Syrians held Him back, till He could get through with Daniel's prayer.

So when you believe anything, symptoms has nothing to do with it.

So then Sarah and Abraham.... Now, we find out that God had to make her womb fertile, and He had to do something to Abraham to bring life back to his dead body in the way of bringing children. So then if He did that to Sarah, then....

Another thing He's got to do.... They didn't have these cigarette smoking mothers in them days, that have to raise their babies on a bottle; they didn't have them. So they raised the babies the natural way, by the breast. And now, He did that. He had to make milk veins in her breasts for the milk, because the baby would have no way of drinking milk. Well, if He does that—she's a woman a hundred years old; she's too old to go into labor with that baby—He had to strengthen her heart.

Now, God doesn't patch up anything; He just made a new woman. Now, you just watch and see if He didn't.

Abraham said the next morning, he looked up, said, “Sarah, honey. Your eyes are turning black again. Your hair, the gray is leaving from it.”

“Abraham, honey, that stoop that was in your shoulder, you're straightening up.” What was it? He turned them back to a young man and a young woman, like He's going to do all the children of Abraham, the seed of Abraham at His coming. All the old age and everything, every trace of sin will be done away with, when we resurrect. We will not be old anymore. All the old things will pass away completely, and we will come forth new creatures at....

I asked a doctor some time ago. “Tell me. How was my body come from the earth?”

He said, “The food you eat turns into blood cells. Blood cells builds the body.”

I said, “I want to ask you something. I'm eating the same food that I eat when I was sixteen years old. Every time I eat, I got stronger and bigger. I'm eating the same kind of food: bread, potatoes, meat, so forth. And the more I eat, the older and shrinking I go. If I'm pouring water out of a vessel into a glass, and it's filling right up, and then when it gets half full, the more I pour, the faster it goes down. Scientifically tell me.” You can't do it. There's no answer.

God's Bible has the answer; it's an appointment. God's got you just at twenty-two years old—exactly where you was your best and said, “There you are. Come on, death, but you can't take him till I let you do it.” That's right.

Now, when we resurrect, we're at our best then. See, that's God's picture. We're growing, growing, growing with food. Well now, if it went on according to science, we'd keep getting bigger, bigger, bigger, stronger, stronger, stronger like that; there'd be no end to it. But see, there is an end, because God has limited that to a man and a woman.

And God is not a God.... He's not Sears and Roebuck, Harmony House either. God is a God of variety. He makes big mountains and little mountains, big trees and little trees. He makes deserts and He makes mountains; He makes oceans, and He's a God of variety. If you were red headed here, you'll rise up red headed. If you were black headed, you'll come up black headed. You put a seed in the ground of a red flower, it'll come forth a red flower. And all Christianity is not based upon reincarnation, but it's based upon resurrection, the same one that went down comes back again. Hallelujah! Amen!

Hey, to drop that letter on the floor and take this in its place, that's replacement. Resurrection is bringing the same one up. That same Jesus went down, came up again. Hallelujah!

I was combing these two or three hairs I got left the other day; my wife said to me, said, “Billy, you're bald headed nearly, honey.”

I said, “But I haven't lost a one of them.”

She said, “Pray, tell me where they're at?”

I said, “You tell me where they was before I got them. They were somewhere, some substance, then they was. And wherever they was before I got them, they are there waiting for me to come to them.” Hallelujah! There it is! Why? I'm a son of Abraham being in Christ. Amen! Certainly. I will be resurrected again. That little William Branham that used to be stout and strong, stood in a boxing ring, won fifteen professional fights, thought I was a great guy. But death took me down, you see. God brought me down. But some day I will come back that same guy.

What am I made out of? Petroleum, potash, calcium. My body was laying on the earth before there was anything at all ever on the earth. When God.... When the Holy Spirit went forth before God to brood up over the earth like a.... A brood means “to coo like a dove or a hen mother.” When there was nothing but volcanic eruptions, when God moved this old star around the sun, and making potash and calcium, He was like a great contractor laying out the lumber to build houses. We were here then. Our bodies was on the earth right then. Hallelujah!

I know you say.... You're going to call me holy-roller anyhow, so you might as well get started right now. That's right. That'll make a holy-roller out of you. Amen.

When I know that God had me in mind. When He made the earth, He made my body there. If He didn't, where did it come from? Whew. Amen. Yes, sir.

And He sent the Holy Spirit forth to brood over the earth. He begin to coo. And the first thing a little potash and a little calcium run together, and a little Easter lily stuck its head up, He said, “That's beautiful. Just keep cooing.” Out of the ground come the birds, and out come the trees, the animals, and so forth. Then up come a man in the image of God. Yes. Then man sinned. It brought along this sexual affair that we got now.

But God still is using His material, and He will raise it up again at the last day. God cannot be defeated. His purpose is perfect, just as certain as you're borned again.

Why, if that Holy Spirit made me what I am without having a choice, how much more can He raise me up again by taking a choice by that same Spirit that coos over me, “I'm the Lord that forgiveth all thine iniquity. I am the One that wants to come and live into you.”

“Me, Lord?”

“Yes, you. I'm calling you. I called you before the foundation of the earth. Now, you are.... I want to come into you and raise you up at the last day, and give you eternal life.”

“Yeah, Lord, come on.”

And the Holy Ghost comes in. “And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed until the day of your redemption.” Amen. Ephesians 4:30. What you scared about? The children of Abraham going somewhere....

God turned Sarah back to a young woman, turned Abraham back to a young man. They took a journey after that and went all the way down into Philistine country to Gerar. Measure it on your map, see how far it is. About three hundred miles. Quite a journey for a grandma and grandpa going down.

And then the thing of it was when they got down there, Abimelech, that young king was hunting a sweetheart. All them pretty girls around there, the Philistine girls was beautiful. When he seen little grandma Sarah coming, he said, “That's the one I've waited for. That's her.” Fell in love with her. There's between the lines. That's what he did. He fell in love. And Abraham said she was fair to look upon; grandma, fair to look upon. God changed her and turned her back again, because she's going to have this baby—He's given the promise—Abraham too. I'll proved it. Abraham as good as dead, and he lived forty-five years after that before Sarah died, and then after that, he married another woman and had seven sons besides the daughters. Amen.

The Scripture don't deny [unclear words] it stays with it. It's our mix up in our own muddled minds. God knows what He's doing. Get in love with Him. I know I act silly, but I feel good, see. When I think of it, I can't help from rejoicing.

God turned Sarah and Abraham back to a young man and a young woman again. He will do all the seed of Abraham the same way: turn them back young again. When they come from the dust of the earth, not old gray-headed and broke down, but young in the very splendor of health. Always will be that way forever and forever, never to blemish. Sin will be done away with. There'll be no serpent in that garden of Eden. He will be done away with forever.

Notice. It'll all be renewed again. God's great purpose. He cannot be defeated, because He's God.

Someone said, “Well, if He's so great, why did He let sin happen?”

Listen. Listen close now. Which is the greatest: a sinner or a Saviour? Why, a Saviour, if He can save from sin. Which is the greatest: the sickness or a Healer? Which was first? Why, a Healer, of course. Why did He permit it? God.... The attributes of God is a Saviour. If there had never been no sin, His display could never have been displayed of a Saviour. If there had never.... He is a Healer; that's the nature of God. And if He hadn't permitted sickness, He'd never been a Healer. Because He permitted sickness and sin to come, makes Him a Saviour and a healer. But His own purpose is working out just exactly the way He promised it—got to be—to the children of Abraham, the one who has the promise.

Now, they come back. In a few months, find out that Sarah was to be mother, and she brought forth the little Isaac. Oh, how Abraham circumcised him the eighth day. And then when he was weaned, he had a big sacrifice, so forth. Now, quickly to my point.

Notice. When he was about twelve years old, fourteen, oh, he must have been a cute little Jewish boy. I can imagine his little long hair hanging down, and kind of wavy over his little face, and his little brown eyes. He must have been a very lovely little boy, just as obedient to his father and mother as he could be. And his young beautiful mother picks him up and loves him, and talks to him. And his dad could hold him on his shoulders, and play with him and everything. Oh, it was a great thing to have this young boy.

And the Lord said to Abraham, “I want you to take him out to a certain mountain that I show you, and I want you to offer him up as a burnt offering for a sacrifice.” There.... What was God doing? He was showing to this country today, to you people, that He is God, and He keeps His Word.

Now, He told Abraham, “I'm going to take this promised child of yours, and I am going to bless all nations through him.” Now, how is He going to do it if he's going to kill the boy? Abraham, spiritual, same Spirit that you have in you if you're the seed of Abraham. The faith that was in Abraham's in you.

He said, “I don't understand it, God,” so much in his heart to say this: “I do not understand what You're going to do, but I received him as one from the dead, You're able to raise him up again.” Amen. There, you see what's happening.

Now, Abraham the next morning, “We won't tell mama where we're going now. We won't tell her nothing about this, because, you know, the mama's heart just break about the baby. And she'd be fussing up a storm about that.” So Abraham said, “We just won't say nothing about it.” So he went out and got the mules, and got his ax, and chopped some wood.

How many ever chopped wood? I've got an old double bitted ax in the morning, cut wood for breakfast, old green poles and things; you got old sassafras popping when it was burning, you know.

And he got a sack full of wood and put it on the little donkey, and he got two servants. And they took a three-days' journey.

Now, before I was called into this ministry, I patrolled a line—power line. And I had to walk thirty miles each day through the jungle. And people in this day's got gasoline feet. Them people in them days were used to walking.

Now, he went three-days' journey. Say that he walked thirty miles each day. Or, say if he just walked twenty-five each day. He was young then—of course he turned back young—he could walk it. Say they went twenty-five miles; that makes him seventy-five miles back from civilization into the mountains. Then he lifted up his eyes and saw afar off the mountains the Lord showed him when He spoke to him in a vision, showing him what to do. And he went, I don't know how much longer till he got to that mountain.

Now, here's where we.... We're in the 22nd chapter now. Notice. He said to those boys, those servants, said, “You stay here with the mule. The lad and I are going yonder to worship, and we shall return.” “The lad and I are going yonder to worship. I'm going to kill him up there on the mountain like God told me, but we shall return.” How's He going to do it? That's not his business. His business is to obey God.

“The doctor told me I was going to die.” But God said you can live. How're we going to do it? I don't know. It's not our business. Just taking His Word.

“The lad and I shall return.” So he got the wood and put it on Isaac's back. Perfect type of the Father and Son, and Christ and God. Laid it on his back. Right up the hill he went, packing this wood. Just like Christ, hundreds of years later, packed a wooden cross, the altar, up the mountain. And when he got up there, he went and got all the stones—maybe the twelve stones, or whatever he got—made a altar. He laid the wood upon it.

And little Isaac begin to get kind of suspicious. He said, “Father....” And that's the first word we have record of Isaac speaking in the Scriptures, saying, “Father.” “Father, here is the altar, here is the fire, here is the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Abraham.... can you imagine how he felt in his heart? His only son, the son of the promise. With a little gurgle in his throat, he turned and looked him in the face. As the old wrinkled face met the young youth's, he said, “My son, God will provide a lamb for that burnt offering.” Just got a few minutes to do it. Amen. Oh, you sons and daughters of Abraham! “God will provide for Himself a Lamb for the burnt offering.”

I can see little Isaac, like Christ, was obedient to death. Abraham reached down and got the rope out from under his belt, comes over, and takes little Isaac's hands, and ties them behind him. Isaac knowed what was going on then, but he was obedient. He never kicked up a storm. Said, “Now, wait a minute, I'm just a kid. I'm too young to be religious.” You know. “I got to have some rock 'n' roll yet. I got to do this.” Oh, you do? Put his little hands behind him, tied his feet, tied his arms, and laid him upon the altar.

“Are you scared, Abraham?”

“Not a bit. I know Who I have believed, and I'm persuaded He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day.” Reached down in here, got the knife out, whetted it a few times, see if it was sharp, perfectly razor sharp, looked up towards heaven, the sky as blue as it could be. Probably the evening sun was going down—about three o'clock in the afternoon when Christ died? Took his little face, and brushed the hair back off of his face. Reached down and kissed him. “My son, my son.” Lays him up on the altar, gets the knife in his hand, pulls his hair back like this, and raises the knife. And about the time he started to come down, something said, “Abraham!” The Holy Ghost grabbed his hand. “Abraham! Stay your hand.”

Oh, sons and daughters of Abraham. I don't care how black it looks, how many prayer lines you've been through, what's been this, and what's been your ups-and-downs, take God at His Word and step forward. He's Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice.

Can you believe it? Do you believe it's the truth? Jesus Christ, God's provided sacrifice, the same yesterday, today, and forever, He's an everlasting, perpetual sacrifice. Thank God the more; He's done tasted death once for all. And for all the human race, He's God's Lamb, a provided Sacrifice, Jehovah did. Spared not His own Son, but took His life, and raised Him up, and sent back the Spirit that was in Christ: “Let the mind that was in Christ be in you.” And don't call His gifts mental telepathy and fortune-telling, see. Let the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit that was in Christ be in you. God has provided a sacrifice. Let us pray.