It Wasn't So From The Beginning

. . . that someday if we shall pass beyond this veil of mortal men and have to go into that dark place called death, and when He comes and He calls, we'll come out from among them that are dead. For we know Him in the power of His resurrection and we're so happy for that. And we're so interested, Lord, in others knowing that way. That's why we have assembled tonight, that others might know this perfect peace, this peace that passes understanding, that gives us that great hope.

Now, You've seen the hands that went up, Lord, and Thou art God that knows the secret of every heart, knows the requests, and we are asking Thee, our Father, that You will remember each one of those, and may their requests be granted, Lord.

Lord, heal the sick, make the blind to see and the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and may there not be a feeble person in our midst when the service closes tonight. May every cot be empty, every wheelchair empty, every man or woman that's got a bad heart, skipping beats, may it beat perfectly, beating normal, all sickness vanish, all sin gone; and may we go from here tonight, going on our way like those who came from Emmaus in days gone by, the first witness of His resurrection, saying the same words, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us along the way?” For we ask it in the name of Him who has redeemed us, Thy Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Just a little bit hoarse. I was preaching this morning at one of the churches here, Brother Fuller's, and we had a great time down there this morning in the Lord. Now, I just get blessed and I just don't know when to stop. And we're thankful for the old-fashioned gospel that never lost its power, and shall never lose its power. Now tonight we have given out again for a healing service tonight, or prayer for the sick. We never want to get that mixed. We can pray for the sick, but a healing service takes God to do it.

Now, remember, healing is something that's in the past. Salvation is something that's in the past. First thing to make you recognize that is God's Holy Spirit. God has to reveal it to you. It will never be real until God reveals it to you. “No man can come to me except my Father draws him first, and all that the Father has given me will come to me.” There you are. So what a privilege it is when any sinner ever feels that little tug at their heart. What a privilege, of God giving a call to the greatest thing that could happen to you—having eternal life.

Now, tomorrow night is an off night for us. They're going to fight in this ring here, a different kind of a fight. We're fighting the enemy, Satan; but the men are going to wrestle, or box, or something here tomorrow night, and it gives us a chance to get just a night's rest.

And then we go through the rest of next week, on until next Sunday night, the Lord willing. Then we hurry off from here to Oklahoma, to start in Tulsa. About . . . have about four days of rest, I think, and then start in Tulsa. And then, if the Lord willing, from there we may go. . . . After we leave here we're on our way overseas, the Lord willing, for a complete European trip, and so we desire your prayers.

Your fine cooperation in these meetings has been wonderful. Tuesday morning, I couldn't take this man's place, but I'm going to try to—Brother David DuPlessis, my associate and bosom friend, one of the outstanding teachers of this day. And God is giving him a ministry that's unique, bringing the churches together in a fellowship. That doesn't mean just only Full Gospel. That's all of the churches—all believers, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist. And many times when we may . . .

I have often been accused of saying things against churches. And remember, if I do that I don't mean it in that way. I'm meaning I'm getting after sin that's been permitted to operate in the church. I don't mean the church, no denomination. I love them, every one, because in every denomination God has children, see. They're in all denominations.

That's Brother David's great vision, and he's been blessed of the Lord to speak at Harvard and many of the great universities here in the States and different places. And God has given him favor among all different churches. He's been speaking over at Eleventh and Garfield of a morning. He's flying out to Indianapolis, Indiana, to be with the Methodist people there. Then coming back Tuesday sometime, and I'm to take his place, or try to, Tuesday morning to speak to the ministers, which I love to do that, and have fellowship with the ministers and their wives, and so forth, on Tuesday morning. I think that service will begin at 10:30 with our precious brother here that I've just learned to love more every day, our Brother Shores. And so we're to be there Tuesday morning. Brother Borders, I guess, will remain here with us, and Leo and Gene and the rest of the staff. And Brother David will be back for Wednesday morning to take his post again.

Now, I am trusting that the Lord will give us a settled faith tonight. I trust that this will be the night that that great thing that we have looked forward for (I have myself for the last two or three years) to break right in on this meeting here tonight in Phoenix. Oh, may God in His mercy look down upon us! How I would like to say it started at Phoenix. One night this next week, the Lord willing, I will give you what I know about it, if the Lord willing, of something I believe is . . . I've never. . . . Well, we'll just wait.

Now, we wish to read some of the Scripture here tonight, because I do not think that any service is complete without reading the Scripture. Seeing this group of people here tonight, before we do it, I know that someone has dismissed their churches for this service. The Lord bless you, my brethren, and your fine cooperation. God be with you.

And now, we wish to read tonight out of the book of St. Matthew's gospel. And I want to read maybe a few verses in here and let us begin reading at the . . . let's just read the eighth verse of the nineteenth chapter.

And He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Now, we are not going to speak on marriage and divorce, but I'm going to take those last few words in there for a text: “It Wasn't So From the Beginning.” When Jesus came to the earth to tabernacle with mankind and as He . . . first thirty years of His life was . . . we haven't got much record of it. But when He began to go out among the people He found very strange things going on, and He found the teachers of that day teaching things that wasn't just exactly right.

And I wonder if He come today, if we wouldn't be kind of a little bit on the same way. I'm taking all of us together, the whole universal church, that if He wouldn't say like He did in that day, “It wasn't so from the beginning.” Now, if you notice, He referred back to the beginning, and therefore if we want to know what's truth, what right things are, we'll have to go back to the beginning.

Now, God is infinite. We all know that, that He cannot change. There's where our faith can rest so assured. If God says anything, it has to be that way forever. It can never be changed.

Now, God is omnipotent, omnipresent. By being omniscient makes Him omnipresent. He knows all things, but God cannot be just like the air is, because God has a dwelling place. God is not a myth. God is a being. God, Jesus, He, God, pronoun, He is a being, therefore He's omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and infinite.

Now, to be infinite, it comes from the word infinite, which there is no limit, see. It's eternal. Eternal is like a ring that goes around and around and you're trying to find where it began or where it ends. There is no beginning or ending to it. God is like a great diamond that sets like this, and the gifts of the Spirit is the reflection of this diamond that reflects rays of light off of this big diamond. Like nine spiritual gifts in the church is like nine rays that the Holy Spirit is reflecting into the church. What a light to walk in, from the one great diamond, God!

God being infinite, He knew all things. Before the world was ever created, He knowed every fly, every gnat, every time he'd ever bat his eye, and how much tallow he had, before the world ever started. That's infinite. He knowed the end from the beginning, so that makes Him infinite. He knows. So then He's omnipresent by knowing all things what's going on. Now, whatever He says, it is forever the truth. If God is ever called on the scene to make a decision, and He makes that decision, it has to be forever the same way. He cannot change that decision, because if He says, “Well, I thought that then, but I know better now,” well, if that be the case, then He is not God.

Now, I can say, “This year I believe a certain thing,” and tomorrow I can come back and say, “No, I was wrong,” because I'm finite. You are the same, but not God. His decision is always perfect. Now, if God made a statement and gave a way of escape for sinners and based it upon faith to believe, the next sinner comes to God, God's got to recognize him just like He did the first one.

And if God based divine healing upon faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, and the first man came received healing, like the man at the gate called Beautiful, through the faith in the name of Jesus, the next man on the same basis will receive the same thing.

If God poured out the Holy Ghost on the people at Pentecost, and that was His decision that how that the church must operate under the power of the Holy Spirit, He cannot change that. He cannot turn it over and say, “Well, I'll give it to bishops. I can give it to this, or I'll give it to that.” He's got to still remain with that same decision. And if the church on the day of Pentecost received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and . . . the reaction that came from that baptism of the Holy Ghost will be the reaction on every person that ever receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Medicine. Medicine, if it's given like a certain Salk vaccine or whatever it might be, if it's supposed to work and operates on a certain person, makes them act a certain way, the next person that it takes ahold of will have to act the same way for its inoculation. That's the way it is with the Holy Spirit, with God. His words are perfect. He is infinite. Now, when God says it must be this way. . . .

Now, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was speaking and the people were . . . been speaking with tongues, and making a noise, and speaking in other languages, acting like they were drunk men; and they were questioned about these things, and wanted to know how they could be saved. And Peter told them to repent and be baptized, every one of them, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, “and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” The promise is to whosoever will, let him come. So you see, God cannot change that. If that is the Word of God, it's perfect forever.

Now, we find out that as the ages go on, men come in and pervert that Word of God to make it fit a certain tradition. Now, they'll come around and say, “There's no more need of receiving the Holy Ghost. It's just to come in a fellowship.” Now, if it was in fellowship, the Holy Spirit would've not had to come.

Now, some of them say, “We keep the commandments, that's all we have to do.” If keeping commandments is all that God requires, Jesus died in vain. The Holy Spirit didn't have to come, because they had the commandments before the Holy Spirit came. But it takes the Holy Spirit to keep the commandments! You have to have it. God's Word is always perfect and always the same each time.

Now, man perverts it and changes it, and when Jesus come the first time He found men that was doing this very same thing, perverting the ways of God. And Jesus said to them, “In vain you worship me. In vain you worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” Now, anything that's in vain, as . . . well, there's nothing to it, it's no good. If I walk down the street to pick up a dollar bill and there's no dollar bill there, then I walk around there in vain. It's in vain.

And Jesus told those worshipers of that day that they was worshipping Him in vain, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. What am I trying to say? You've got to go back to the Word of God to get back. You've got to go back. The church will never be able to move forward and go further until it gets to the Word and moves on the Word. We've got to come to the Word. No matter what the sensation is, what it looks like, how big the church is, how mighty the people are, you've got to come back to the Word of God. That's God's eternal Word and we have to come to it.

Jesus said in them days when He come, He found people looking to the church for salvation. Now, so many people do that today. They say, “Well, I belong to the church. I belong to this church.” And they're looking to it for salvation. What did they find? What did Jesus find them worshipping? Not the Word of God, but tradition, creeds. And if He come today He'd find a lot of us in the same thing, taking creeds.

Now, if Jesus would come today and you'd say, “O Lord, my church, the first thing that we do, we quote the Apostle's Creed,” Jesus would say, “It wasn't so from the beginning.”

“Our church don't believe in divine healing.”

Jesus would say, “It wasn't so from the beginning.” You'd go back to the beginning.

“Our church doesn't believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

Jesus would say, “It wasn't so from the beginning.” We've got to go back to the beginning, go back to where it started from. Therefore Jesus said, “You take the commandments of God and make them of none effect by your traditions,

taking the church . . . the commandments, the teaching of the Bible, and explain it all away, and therefore you make the commandments of God without any effect.

You take the Word of God and explain it all away into some sort of a creed, and then you cry, “Where is the God of the Bible?” You've explained Him away. You've took it all away from the people when you tell them that the days of miracles is past, there is no such a thing as the Holy Ghost, there's no such a thing as divine healing, there's no such a thing as visit of angels, there's no such a thing as miracles. When you do that you explain all the supernatural away from the Bible, takes God right out of the church when you do it, by tradition.

Now, I think that for me I want to worship and to worship with a church who believes the full gospel and preaches every word of it and practices every word of it; goes back to the full gospel, back to the power of God, back to the Holy Ghost. Go back to the beginning and receive it like they did at the beginning, and it'll bring forth the same results it did at the beginning, if you'll just go back to the beginning to pick it up.

Oh, today it reminds me, many get so upset by trying to find great big places and beautiful pipe organs. Those things are all right. If a church has got a million-dollar gold cross on the top of it, it's got a million-dollar gold organ, and in that church the Holy Spirit has the right of way, praise God, I'd like to belong to that church. That's right. But I don't care what it's got, if the Holy Ghost isn't there, it's no place for me. I want to be where they preach it like it said at the beginning! That's where I got it, like they got it at the beginning, and it's the only thing I know about, the way they got it at the beginning.

That's the reason tonight that I'm here in Phoenix, the reason that this crowd is gathered out here, is because we believe it like they got it at the beginning.

God is infinite, He cannot change. Time changes, times changes, kings changes, world changes, churches change, but Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever and can never change. He's just like He was at the beginning. Oh, you say, “Well, our church has been in existence for years and years and years and years.” That's good. That shows that it's held on. But, brother, if they don't have the power of God, preach the full gospel, it wasn't so from the beginning.

I got one little girl sitting here looking at me, little Sarah. And I got another little girl at home, Rebekah. Rebekah is quite a good-sized girl now. She's about fourteen years old. Sarah is only about eight, and they're both daddy's little girls. And so when I go out on a meeting and come home, they usually sit up to wait for me. And I got a little parable, a little thing I want to tell you about.

One night I was late coming in, and Mother and them had watched for a long time, and Sarah and Rebekah had on their pajamas and they were waiting. This was before Joseph was born. And they were waiting for me to come in, and it got late. The meeting never closed till late night and had to drive a long ways, and so Mother put the little fellows to bed.

And I never got in till around two or three o'clock in the morning. I went and laid down and went to sleep. Along about five or six o'clock, being tired and nervous from the meeting, and the visions and so forth, I got up. I went in the front room and sat down in the chair. In a few moments, Rebekah woke up. She looked around, it was daylight. She thought, “Well, Daddy's home now.” And she looked over and seen her little sister Sarah asleep. Out of bed she went. Here she come through the room.

She woke up Sarah. Sarah realized it was daylight, so here she come behind Becky.

I don't know about your children, but the oldest one gets the clothes and the next one gets the hand-me-downs. And so Sarah was wearing Becky's pajamas and the feet was too long, and they were too big for her. She was a little bitty short fellow. And Becky could run pretty well so she beat Sarah, and Sarah, them big feet flopping like a snow-shoe rabbit, coming through there, falling over everything. But Becky run and got there first, and she jumped up on my lap and throwed both arms around me, and she hugged me. And oh, you know how it makes you feel. Oh, I wasn't half so tired after that.

And after a while, little Sarah arrived on the scene, after she got up two or three times. And she was standing at the door, and she looked. And Becky turned around and looked at Sarah, and said, “Sarah, my sister, I want you to know something.” And she said, “I was here first and I've got all of Daddy, and there's none left for you.”

Well, and little Sarah, her little lip dropped down, her little brown eyes begin to water, and she turned around. I looked at her (I hope that's the way God looks at me sometimes), and she was so disheartened because that Becky had got there first, and she was sitting on across my leg, and she had her arms around me. Now, you can't claim every bit of God. There's room for some more, no matter who was there first.

And then little Sarah started to go away, and I looked at her like that, and she looked sideways at me, them little brown eyes watering. I motioned to her with my finger. Now, Becky had her head leaning up against mine. I held out the other knee, and here she come and jumped up on my knee. And she was kind of full-gospel type—she wasn't quite long-legged enough to brag about any way back to the beginning and things. She was kind of tottery-like, and I had to put both arms around her to hold her, because I was afraid she'd fall off my knee. But Becky was long-legged, and she was pretty well balanced and she could hold herself. But Sarah couldn't hold herself, she was wobbly. And I put my arm around Sarah and hugged her real close to me.

She snubbed four or five times, then she looked back, and she said, “Rebekah, my sister, I want to tell you something too.” She said, “It may be true that you've got all of Daddy, but I want you to know one thing, Daddy's got all of me.”

That's the way it is with this gospel, the old-fashioned gospel. I may not have all the theology, but one thing I know, I want Christ to have all of me. Let Him hold me, no matter how misbehaving, or how I jump and run and shout and slobber. That don't make anything to do with it. As long as He's got me in His full control, I don't care what else happens—how great, or what more. All of me, Lord. Just keep me wrapped in Your arms, that's what all I care for.

Day after day, after they explained away everything, and say, “Oh, them days were gone. Oh, our teachers way back yonder told us that them things ceased with the apostles and so forth.”

Then you say, “Where is God? Where is that great God?” Where is that people today in our churches that's selling out to communism and everything else like that? They didn't have it in the early church.

It was selling the other way, because they got something back there that made them ready to go to death for these things and these principles that Christ stood for, because Christ was in the heart. Oh, that's what we need—back to the beginning.

It reminds me, in the Bible, I've told the story, I read it in there, where at the age of twelve years old Jesus was taken to the feast of Pentecost with His mother and His foster-father. And they went up to Pentecost for the worship, and, oh, they were so took up with their friends and everything, when the worship was over and they started back, they went three day's journey without Him, just thinking He was somewhere amongst their kinfolks.

I just wonder if we haven't gone on a little journey, just perceiving He's all right. Wonder if this nation hasn't done like that. “Oh, we're a religious nation, God is with us, and that's all that makes any difference. He helped us in the war, so it makes no difference.” Just perceiving that He was with their relation. Finally they got uneasy about Him, and they went back to their relation and did not find Him.

And that's the way it is today. We go back to our religious relations. What do we do? Go back to a certain big church. “Well, what about the God that the power fell on the day of Pentecost?”

“Oh, that was in another day. That wasn't this.”

“Where is the divine healing?”

The churches has begin to shake back, men of this day. Brother DuPlessis could tell you the same. The great leaders among great churches are beginning to look back, checking up, and know that Lutheran, Presbyterian background are hunting for the real thing that fell on the day of Pentecost. Right. They're not finding it in their denominations and things, but they're gathering themselves together and saying, “Where did we leave Him at? He's not among our relations. He's not among our acquaintance.”

Where did they leave Him at? Where was Jesus left at? At the feast of Pentecost. That's exactly where the church has left Him. They left Him at Pentecost. The only way to get the real message is go back to Pentecost where we left Him at. Go back to where the Holy Ghost came like a rushing mighty wind and fell on the church. Their hearts were afire and burned with the power of God. They went forth healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits and prophesying, speaking with tongues, and showing signs and wonders.

That's the only way, brother and sister, that we'll ever be able to find God back in the church is go back where we left Him at, at the beginning.

As good as Martin Luther and many of the other great reformers in their day, as good as they have been, other great religious men, we cannot go back into them things and find it. We've got to go back to the very beginning, back to Pentecost. That's where we left Him. That's where the church left Him. That's where great leaders of Lutheran and Presbyterian, and so forth, are reaching back through their denominations and can't find Him, and they're going back to the Full Gospel, hungering and thirsting for God. Hallelujah! “All the Father has given me will come to me,” regardless if they're Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or Lutheran. God's got children in the Catholic church, He's got children in the Jewish Orthodox church, He's got children in the Baptist church, in the Presbyterian and the Lutheran. Right.

And they're beginning to hunger because they've missed Him. Our traditions, our church creeds, will never satisfy a heart that's been called of God. You cannot make him say the Apostles' Creed or be sprinkled or something like that and be satisfied with it when the hunger of God is in his soul. He'll go back to Pentecost, to the beginning, and find the real Holy Ghost that's touched his heart. Amen.

That's what we need, back to the beginning. Jesus said, “It wasn't so from the beginning.”

Jesus also said in that day, He said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches. I am the vine.” Now, listen, friends, you orange raisers, you grape men here that raises grapes, and whatever you raise, if a vine goes forth and the first branch that comes out of that vine bears grapes, the second branch will bear grapes, the third branch will bear grapes, and every branch that comes out of that vine will bear grapes. Right, because it's a grapevine.

And if the first church that come out of that vine was a Pentecostal church that wrote a book of Acts behind it, the second church comes out will do the same thing, and the third church. And every church that rises out of that vine will be a Pentecostal church with the same signs and wonders that the first sign produ. . . or, the first branch produced. It'll be that Pentecost. Every church that rises out of that vine will be a Pentecostal church.

Now, that sounds strange, but you know there's a lot of other things goes on along the vine that doesn't produce vines, doesn't produce branches, rather.

Now, there was a Jewish Pentecostal branch come out of that tree, or that vine, on the day of Pentecost. And we're at the end of the road now. The Gentile branch that comes out of that tree will have a Pentecostal experience. O God, I wish I could push that into hearts. I wish I had something another that I could show the people that the first branch out of the vine bore Pentecostal evidence. The second branch will bear Pentecostal evidence. Oh, there you are, back to the beginning, back to where we started from.

That's the reason today, that through traditions and so forth we explained away all the supernatural, that the Holy Ghost come, fell upon the people. They begin speaking with tongues. The people made fun of them, called them “holy rollers,” and cast them out to one side. They kept growing, growing.

What's it come into now? Greater things than this. Divine healing services started.

Then the angel of the Lord come in, manifesting the Spirit with the gifts, revealing back again the very same Spirit that was in the church at the beginning, that knowed the secrets of the heart and could speak it out, which was the sign of the Messiah. The Bible said so. The Bible declares it. And if that was the sign of the Messiah at the beginning, it's the sign of the Messiah at the end! Oh, if you could see it! Let him that has ears hear, he that has eyes see. If it was so at the beginning, if Jesus Christ made Himself known to the last age of the Jews and the Samaritans by a Messiahic sign, that same sign will take place at the end of the Gentiles, because it's another branch out of the same vine.

Why, the life in the vine produces grapes, the second branch will produce grapes.

Now, you can graft something in there. You can take a graft and put it in there. It'll never bear the life of the vine. Right. No, sir. The life of the vine is grapes, it'll bear grapes. Every one it produces, every one it produces will bear grapes. Men can graft anything in there. That's what's the matter today. We've grafted too much man-made doctrine. We've got wild gourds and everything else in it. But when the vine itself puts forth a branch, it'll be a Pentecostal branch, full of the Holy Ghost, doing the same signs and wonders that they did at the beginning.

Say, “My church doesn't believe in that.”

“It wasn't so at the beginning.”

“My church don't believe in shouting.”

“It wasn't so at the beginning.”

“My church don't believe in speaking in tongues.”

“It wasn't so at the beginning.”

“My church don't believe in water immersing.”

“It wasn't so at the beginning.” All these great doctrines and fundamentals that the Bible teaches, it was so at the beginning, and every branch that comes forth out of that vine it'll be the same thing today. If the branch comes out of the vine, it's been brought out by the vine. You got some man-made branches.

You see that around here today. They'll graft a tree. Put off something on one and graft over here on the other one. That ain't what that tree produced. It's just giving enough life to hold on, but it isn't the original fruits from the tree.

But when that tree puts forth a branch, it'll be like the first one that put forth. And when the church puts forth another church, it'll be a Pentecostal church, with the signs of the acts of the apostles doing the same thing, with the same Jesus working the same, because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. A Pentecostal branch filled with the Holy Ghost—signs and wonders of the resurrection, great things taking place among them. “They who know their God in the last day shall do exploits.”

Yes, we're at the end time.

What's the matter with the world? I might close in saying this, “What's wrong with the world?” It reminds me of something that happened here a few months ago in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, just across the river from where I live, There was a lady who had a little baby. Oh, I guess the little fellow was about three or four years old. And she was taking him into a ten-cent store. Walking along there, and she'd pick up something and say, “Looky here, Sweetheart, looky, Dear.” And the little baby would just stare. Then she picked up something else and say, “Looky here, Dear,” and the little baby would just stare. The people . . . she got nervous. The people began to watch her, the people that was in the store watching her, seeing her. She'd go from counter to counter, and pick up something and say, “Look, Honey, does Mama's little boy see this?” He'd just sit and stare.

And after awhile she picked up a little bell. She was picking up little trinkets, and so forth, just like a little boy that age ought to be attracted by, and she'd shake them. Finally, she picked up a little bell, and she shook it, and he just stared. Said, “Don't you hear that, Honey? Looky here, mama's darling, look, see that?” The little boy just stared. And she fell across the counter, and said, “Oh, no, no, no, it isn't so!”

And some of the people run around to find out what was the matter with the woman. And when they did, run around to see what was the matter with her, come to find out that the little boy had just been to the doctor. And something had happened to him, and he'd lost all interest of anything like a little boy should at that age. He just sat staring in space. Something mentally had happened to him, and he didn't pay any attention to things that was brought to him, like a boy ought to, looked like, at that age. And she said, “The doctor said he's better, but he isn't.”

That's what's the matter, a whole lot like the church today. God has took the church in His arms, and He's shook an Oral Roberts, a Tommy Osborn, a Tommy Hicks, many others, gifts and wonders has He shook before the eyes of the people and they who claim to be religious; and they sit and stared and acted like they didn't even pay any attention to it.

There's something mentally wrong with the church.

Something's wrong. God displays His gifts, they'll walk around and say, “Ahhh, mental telepathy. Oh, they're just putting on that speaking in tongues. There's nothing to it.” See people shouting and praising God, the tears running down their cheeks, “Aw, she's just worked up, there's nothing to it.” See, a church ought to be paying attention to that, a Christian, because it's written in the Word. They did that at the beginning.

There's something wrong with the church, something wrong with the people, something wrong with the nation.

We ought to go back to the beginning, go back to where we left Jesus, go back where the church left Him at. The church left Him at the Pentecostal feast, like the mother and them did, like Mary did, like Joseph did. They were good people, but they left Jesus at Pentecost. People today are fine people, religious people, but they're leaving Jesus at Pentecost. They're afraid of it, they won't take ahold of it.

It's a shame to think of it, but just the same, God is here. The Pentecostal blessing is here. No matter how much they try to explain it away, God goes right on giving them the Holy Ghost who believe in it, showing His signs and wonders. So at the day of the judgment He will not be responsible, but we'll be responsible for not taking heed to what He has showed us by His Word and by His Spirit. That is true.

God is here now. There's no reason for sick people to be lingering any longer. There's no need for people to be sitting in wheelchairs, laying in cots, and mutes, and so forth. God is here. God is here. The power of the Holy Ghost is here. The same Jesus that performed wonders at the beginning is here.

But you say, “Why is people still laying sick?” There was many laid sick in His days too. He passed through by the pool of Bethesda. There laid a great multitude, two or three thousand people perhaps, laying around there, lame, blind, halt and withered. He went right through that audience till He found a man laying on a pallet. And He knew that he'd been in this condition for so many years, and He said, “Sir, would you be made whole?”

He said, “I have no one to put me in the water.”

He said, “Take up your bed and go into your house.” Jesus was questioned no doubt about why He didn't heal the rest of them. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself but what He sees the Father doing.”

There was many people sick the day that the woman pressed through the crowd and touched His garment. There might have been hundreds of sick people standing around there, but she touched Him with a touch that brought God there on the scene for her.

That was God at the beginning. That's God today. He cannot change! He's the same God. He heals by faith. That's the way He said it at the beginning, that's the mark He laid down. Not by your salvation, not by your goodness, not by your money, not by your affiliation of church, but by your faith. That's what it is. If you can believe it, He'll make Himself known that He's here. He'll make Himself known that He's alive. He'll make Himself known that He's the God of Pentecost. He'll make Himself known in His church that He's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever; but He'll never touch you until you touch Him first. That's right. He'll show Himself, but you've got to do it. Amen. Do you believe that? Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, my words might be as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, but one word from You, Lord, will change the whole scene. Let it be known tonight, Lord, that these broken up words are truth. I pray that You will bring them together in some way and sink them into the hearts of the people, and let them know that You're still Jesus tonight, the great Son of God, who walked through Galilee and never made no respect of person, but whosoever had faith to touch You, whosoever had faith, was healed.

Multitudes You passed by and never received healing, because they did not believe it, but those. . . .

When You went into Your own country, many mighty works You could not do because of their unbelief. So is it tonight. That's the way it was at the beginning. That's the way it is tonight. But You walked through the people and showed the people that You was the Messiah when You told Peter who he was, what his name was. He knew You right quick that You were the Son of God. When You told Philip, Nathanael, and down through the Bible, the Samaritan woman, and many others.

We're told in the Bible that the Word of God, which is Jesus. . . . “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” “The Word [Jesus] is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the . . . asunder and the marrow of the bone, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart.” Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

O God of heaven, seeing the evening shadows falling, the time coming close at hand, and You're so gracious, Lord, let people see tonight that You are gracious. You're full of love and full of mercy and full of compassion. And now, let these people who are blessed by receiving Your Holy Spirit, these who are blessed that feel the call of God in their life, I pray, Father, that You'll give them faith to press in now and touch the garment of Him, the high priest that sits at the right hand of God in the heavens ready to be touched, holding out His . . . not only His garment but His hands, to take every sinking person tonight that's without hope and give them mercy and heal their bodies. Grant it, Father, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

My watch didn't go off. I had it set for twenty minutes but I run a little bit . . . about twenty-five minutes, but I didn't mean to keep you so long. But do you believe that message is the truth? Do you believe it? Back to the beginning, back to the beginning! If somebody says “I don't believe in divine healing,” you say, “It wasn't so from the beginning.”

“I don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

“It wasn't so from the beginning.”

“I don't believe in divine healing.”

“It wasn't so from the beginning.”

For in the beginning they believed in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, they believed in speaking in tongues, they believed in all the spiritual gifts. Paul wrote them in the book of Corinthians and set the church in order. That's the way it was at the beginning. That was the will of God at the beginning. He's the infinite God, He cannot change. If that was His will at the beginning, that's His will tonight. Anything contrary to that is creeds, and man perverting the commandments of God. Then we wonder where is that spiritual church today? Where is that church that rocked the world at the beginning? What's the matter?

I heard a noted evangelist not long ago saying, “I went into a city and held a revival. In there we claimed thirty thousand converts in six weeks.” He said, “I went back in another year, we couldn't find thirty of the thirty thousand.” He said, “What's the matter, it's you lazy preachers, sit with your feet up on the desk, and don't go out and see the people.” Oh, how he did burn them up!

I thought, “Sir, that's true, a lot of it, but I want to ask you something. You said Paul went into a city and had one convert, and went back the next year and he had thirty from that one. What did Paul do? He led them to the fountain. Not just by shaking hands and putting your name on a book. Not by making some kind of a confession and promising you'll do better. But stay there until you are dead and your life is hid in God through Christ and sealed by the Holy Ghost. The fire of God will burn in that heart till you'll make. . . .

If a person will accept Christ on those basis tonight and I come back here a year from now, I'll have great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren off of that. That's right. Right! Want to get another, another, another, another, another one and just act like that. But what you've got to do first is come close enough.

The world's trying to live tonight on a painted fire. They're trying to live, trying to get warm by a painted fire. You can't do that. You paint a picture of fire, and say, “Oh, go down and get warm.” That paint won't warm you! You've got to have a living fire today; not go back and say, “They had a great church one day and a great church back yonder.” We need a great church today because He's still a great God looking for a great people that'll serve Him with all their hearts, that'll forget their creeds, and so forth, and serve God.

If you're a Methodist, stay a Methodist, but get the Holy Ghost. As Brother David DuPlessis said, “God don't have any grand-children.” He doesn't. God has altogether sons and daughters; no grandchildren is right. Yes, sir. If you're a Methodist and a son of God, amen. If you're a Methodist, a church joiner, you're a grandchild and not recognized with God. If you're a Pentecostal church joiner—because your daddy was Pentecost, you're Pentecost—you're a grandchild and not a son. But if you're born of the Spirit of God. . . . God don't have grandchildren. You're right, Brother DuPlessis, He don't have any grandchildren. We're sons and daughters of God, or we're not even in the family. God doesn't recognize them.

Not because your father was something; it's what are you?

Every man's got to be born again, and his sinful nature killed in him and a new man born in him, which is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Then you surrender yourself completely to Christ, and Christ comes in and writes the book of Acts through you. How I know that's the truth, my friend, how I know it's the truth.

I've said, “If you can only yield yourself.” What did that woman do that touched His garment? She knowed how to yield herself. She touched Him by yielding herself.

How about the visions on the platform, out through there, and over the country, wherever it is? It's yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit, getting yourself out of the way, your own ideas, and just be led by the Spirit. That's right.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

How many born-again Christians would raise your hands with me and sing that with me now?

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Oh, what the Spirit could do now! [Congregation continues humming.] Sister, on this cot, have you got a prayer card? You don't. Do you believe what you've heard tonight to be the truth? Have you ever heard of these meetings before? Do you believe that you in your condition could touch the hem of His garment, the high priest? If He would know, just like He did the woman at the well, what your conditions are, and would tell you—me being a stranger to you and would tell you your conditions—you think you could enjoy the meeting and be well? You do. I don't know you. I've never seen you. You're a stranger to me but you're not to Him. Now, here's your conditions. Look at me. Do you believe me to be His prophet, or His servant? You do. You accept that and believe it? See, what I mean He told me, “If you can get the people to believe you. . . .” Like Peter and John said, “Look on us.” I have no idea what's wrong with you, but He does. But, if He can reveal to me. . . . See you turn around there and put your hands down like that, start crying and praying. Now, I'm . . . just a conversation with you. Now, we do not know each other, you're way younger than I am. First time ever meeting, but here we are.

There's some connection with this person here with you. It's your mother. Is that right? True.

What do you think about it, lady? How did I know that that was your daughter, you was the mother? God revealed it. Thank you, sister. Then you stop worrying about that cancer in your stomach. See what the Holy Spirit can do? And you young lady, yours is some sort of [unclear word] weakness where you can't walk at times. Forget it, get up off your cot and go get you a seat somewhere and go on rejoicing.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Praise God. Now, somebody out there. . . . How many out there is sick? Wait just a minute, sister, just a minute, young lady. Somebody out there that's sick, raise up your hand. If I can get somebody that's sick, needs healing of the Lord. I need two seats, just a moment. Lord, You give them, please, that the people might know that You're God and these message are true.

Got hemorrhoids. Do you believe God will make you well, sitting there? Yes. Do you believe . . . I'm a stranger to you, am I, young man? That's true. I'm a stranger. You got hemorrhoids. By the way, the man sitting next to you has also got hemorrhoids. That's right, on this side. All right. You got hemorrhoids. How's your father getting along? He's beginning to see now, hasn't he? He was healed here at the platform last night. He's a preacher. I never seen you in my life, but if that's right, wave your hand. Now, you just get away from your hemorrhoids, and that man, get up, give these women your seats, go back there and stand up, because God has made you well. Amen.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Have a real strange feeling, don't you, sister? That nausea will never bother you no more. You can go home now and be well. Jesus Christ makes you well. See how good He is? Have faith. This elderly lady sitting out there crying, see there's that light over her. That bronchial condition goes away, sister. You may go home too and get well. Jesus Christ makes you well. The message I have preached tonight that He's the same, go back to the beginning, you can touch His garment, He's the high priest, just the same tonight as He was then, that can be touched by. . . .

Did he give out prayer cards? He said he give out some more. Let's get a few of them up here now so the people that's got prayer cards. . . . We don't need but a few of them. Let's start. Thirty can be prayed for, just run a little line through here right quick. Let's see, 1 to 50 last night. Let's just take the last [blank spot on tape].

That's right. He said He would be here. “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I'll be in their midst.”

Now, is He the same yesterday, today, and forever? Do you believe Him to be the same? The same in principle, the same in power? The only thing that's different tonight, that He's using your flesh and my flesh, because His flesh sits at the right hand of the throne of God in majesty and glory. “And he that overcometh shall sit with me on my throne, as I have overcome and sit down on my Father's throne.” Oh, what a wonderful thing!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sitting in the heavens, and all those mortal souls that's just under the altar look up and see that body sitting there, that corporal body. Oh, I feel religious. That corporal body. You notice, down in Egypt, they gave a corporal body. Joseph, which was a type of Jesus in every manner, that corporal body laid there. And every Israelite, beaten in their back and striped from the Egyptians, walked down there and looked into that casket and saw that tomb. There laid Joseph's body. And know that someday they would go out of there. They were going out when that body raised from that tomb, and if they packed it out, they were going out with it.

That's the same way it is in heaven. Those souls under the altar, crying, “How long, Lord, how long?” That's theophany there. But now they're looking to that corporal body of the Son of God sitting there. Someday He'll rise from that throne. Oh, my. Them that are in Christ will God bring with Him at the resurrection. They'll take . . . this mortal will take on immortality, and then we will be like Him. We will see Him as He is, eat the wedding supper with Him and all forever be with the Lord. Isn't that wonderful?

Sent His Holy Spirit down here to come into our flesh which He has sanctified with His own blood. You believe in sanctification? “Be ye holy for I am holy.” Now, you cannot be holy. I'm not depending on my holiness. I have none, but I'm depending on His holiness. It's His holiness that I'm looking at. Not what I was, but what He is. That's it. Go back to the beginning. There it is. Jesus Christ the same yesterday. . . .

[Get them all in line. All right.] Now, the Lord bless. Oh my, that just sounds so good. Are you ready? Let's just stop for a minute with some of these people. Are we strangers to one another, lady? We are. I just feel so full of the Holy Spirit tonight I just feel like bubbling over. It's just . . . oh, I wish it would stay this way. May it never leave.

You're believing. This is the night that anything can happen. Now, if I could heal you and wouldn't do it, I'd be an awful person. But I cannot heal you. But if Jesus Christ the Son of God which has healed you—if you're sick, I don't know—but if He has healed you and will come here and prove that He's standing here, working through my flesh, through your flesh, for you to believe that He sent this message, and He's here to confirm this message, and will do something here like He did the woman at the well, would it make you believe Him? There'd be not a shadow of doubt then. If He knows what you have been, He'll surely know what you will be.

Now, this woman and I never seen each other, I suppose, in life. This is the first time I ever seen her, and she said that we are strangers one to another. I say the same. That's right, isn't it? We're strangers. All right. Now, if Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever, then He'll act the same yesterday, today and forever. Now, go back to the beginning. What was the beginning? How He made the people know that He was Jesus Christ the Messiah? He told the secrets of their hearts. By that they believed. Is that right?

The woman at the well said, “Come, we know that when the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us these things.” Sign of the Messiah. Said, “But who are you? Are you a prophet?”

He said, “I am he.”

She run into the city, said, “Come see a man who told me about myself. Isn't this the very Messiah?” And they believed. They had a revival after that, when Philip went down there, because they were believers.

If the Lord will tell me what's your trouble, then you'll believe me to be His servant? It's just a gift that He's given me. Now, I couldn't do it unless you believed me. That's the reason I'm questioning you. But it will help you and will help the audience. Will it, audience?

Now, looky here, here's the Bible, here's the woman, here's my hand. As far as I know, I never seen her. I don't know her. She does the same. She don't know me. I don't know her no more than just a name. I don't know her name, of course not, but I just know she's a woman standing there. She might know that I'm Brother Branham by being here in the meeting. Now, real reverent. Now, is Jesus the same from the beginning now? Now, the Bible says He is. Is that right? Now, is He? is the next thing. Now, if He is, He'll do the same.

Your trouble is in your kidneys. No wonder you didn't know me, you're from way away from here. You're not from Arizona even. You're not from United States, you're from Canada. Mrs. Clark, you can go back to Canada and be made well. Jesus Christ. . . . Another thing, I seen somebody else appear in the same country you're from—a sick friend in Canada you're praying for. You'll find them well if you'll believe. Is Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? Praise His holy name.

We are strangers to one another. God knows both of us. I do not know you, and perhaps you don't know me no more than by name, but Christ does know you. Do you believe He is able to reveal to me what your trouble is? Would it help you to believe? It won't heal you, but will it help you to believe? All right. Now, you know I don't know nothing about you. Then if God reveals it, it has to come from some spiritual resource right here on this platform. Think of it, church! Surely He won't turn the alarm off. Now, I trust that the little buzzer will just buzz in your heart, the Holy Spirit, now and say. “Be not afraid, it is I.”

You've had an operation, a goiter. It wasn't too successful. The goiter operation was all right, but you had a bad aftereffect. That's right. And the operation caused you to have some kind of aftereffect that settled to your stomach. You've got stomach trouble. And you've got something wrong with your arm. That's right. That is true. That you might know that I be His prophet, His servant, no more to be His prophet than it is His preacher, or His teacher. I'm not ashamed of it. Do you believe your husband is going to get well too? Do you believe God can tell me what's his trouble out there? He's got an allergy. That's right. Go and take that little thing you got in your hand and put it in his pocket and that allergy won't bother him no more if you'll just believe. Return and be made well, for Jesus Christ makes you well.

What if I told you the heart trouble left you sitting there, if you just believe it? Do you believe it? All right. Just go on out, say, “Thank You Lord Jesus.”

We are strangers to each other. I don't know you. God does know you. Do you believe God could reveal to me what your trouble is? Would it make you believe? You see, it's making me weak but I just want to talk to you a minute. Something went in the church . . . somebody was healed then. A great healing taken place somewhere. You might not know it right now, but you'll find it out. You felt it. You saw a light when it left and come back. She saw the light when it left and come back. That's right. It's standing between us right now. It's standing between us now. Do you see that? All right.

Here you are. You are suffering. You've had a . . . yes, you've had an operation too and it caused something wrong in the tissue. It's in between the . . . about the kidney and the bladder, and the doctors want to operate again. That's right. You believe you're going to be all right? You believe God knows who you are? Mrs. Graves, you can go home and be well. Jesus Christ makes you well. Have faith in God.

We are strangers to each other, sir. I suppose our first time ever meeting, but God knows both of us. Do you believe He's the same God that when Simon Peter came up before Him, He knew him? Told him all about him. You believe it's the same Jesus? Now, you're suffering with ulcers. That is right. Besides that, you've got someone you're praying for. It's a child, a daughter here. She's got some kind of knots on the chin. You're not from here either. There's something strange about you. I see my friend Mr. Norman. You're from Tucson. That's right. Mr. Johnson, you can go back home and be made well. Jesus Christ makes you well. This guy's connected with a friend of mine that was here—Mr. Norman, somewhere in the building, somewhere.

Do you believe Jesus Christ . . . what if I told you He healed you right there, would you take my word for it? Go on your road and be made well. Jesus Christ heals you.

Stomach—go eat, Jesus Christ makes you well. Have faith. Hallelujah! Do you believe your back trouble and everything's going to leave you and you're going to go home and be well? Just go on rejoicing, saying, “Thank You, Jesus.” Do you love Him with all your heart? If you love Him, what if I told you you got healed coming up the steps, would you believe it? Go on your road rejoicing, say, “Thank You.”

Study too much. That's what made that peptic ulcer condition in your stomach. Now go eat your supper. Jesus Christ makes you well. All right.

You're nervous because you have fluttering in your heart. Going to be well now. Go believe the Lord Jesus. Now, if you'll believe with all your heart that back trouble will leave you and you won't get up like that the next time. You'll be all right. Go believe with all your heart. Have faith. Nervous, ladies' trouble and heart trouble. Do you believe that God will make you well? Go on your road, say, “Thank You.” You believe . . . what if I told you you were healed standing there, would you believe it? Go believe it and be well.

Do you believe with all your heart?

What about you, lady? If I told you that you was going to get well, would you believe it? If I told you. . . . Do you want me to tell you what's wrong with you? Would it help you if I told you what was wrong with you? All right. You got hay fever. You've got a tumor. Supposed to be operated on for it. You're not from this country. You're from this . . . you're from this state, but you're from Flagstaff. You got a boy up there. He's unsaved and he's sick. That's right. Your name is Mrs. Earl. Go back home and be well in the name of Jesus Christ.

Do you believe with all your heart? How many in here. . . .

Let's stand to our feet. Oh, my. What more could He do? Do you love Him? Raise your hands to Him. I will praise Him, I will praise Him, Give Him praise for all . . . lame walk, sickness are healed.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

I want to tell you, my friend, if that part of the Word of God is right, the rest of it is right. How many believers are in here? How many wants the Holy Ghost in here? Wave your hand. How many wants healing for your body? Raise your hands. All right. I'm going to quote you His scripture.

I'm no more than you, I'm smaller than you. Many of you here had the Holy Ghost before I was born. Listen, Jesus said with His own lips, “Go back to the beginning. These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover.” They laid hands on each other to receive the Holy Ghost. Now, turn right around to somebody and put your hands on them and let's pray together and believe that God's going to pour out the baptism of the Holy Ghost, He's going to heal all the sick and afflicted, He's going to get glory to Himself. That's it, turn yourself loose. The devil's defeated.