Fellowship

We just bow our heads again for just a moment of prayer. Gracious Lord, we are indeed thankful for this gathering this morning, and what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. Bless everything that we do to Thy glory. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

That nice compliment from Brother Carlson, these other brethren, Brother David DuPlessis and Brother Arganbright, different ones, Brother Kash. I could just kind of talk on that and make an all-day's talk on it. Look back to Brother Arganbright, raising of that little dead baby, been dead since nine o'clock that morning and that was ten-thirty that night—doctor's statement—and the things that the Lord has done. Brother Arganbright and I was talking about when the witch doctors came, sat on either side, and tried to throw a spell on me and bring that storm up (tent just about to blow away, the big thing), and was stopped. Spoke to God, see the clouds parted back on both sides, and communists running to the altar, giving their hearts to Christ. The great things happened in the meeting. Brother Kash, how he spoke there of how God had blessed him.

Now that's what ... when I first heard Pentecost, that's the way it was. That's just the kind ... them fellows would preach till they'd get out of breath, and you could hear them catch their breath a half mile away almost. I used to pack a Bible under my arm, you know. When I was ordained in the Missionary Baptist church, I said, “I'm a preacher.” And I heard one of them preach.

They said, “Are you a preacher?”

I said, “I don't think so.” Oh, they could preach.

I remember when I was just a little boy, my father was a rider, and he used to do quite a bit of riding, and got hurt. And I thought they needed me to be out West to break the horses, you know, because I used to ride our old plow horse (you know, Brother Tom), after he was kind of wore out in the afternoon. And I'd get on him and take off my hat, and put some cockleburs under the saddle and pull it down, and I thought I was a rider. When I got out West and found them horses can really buck....

Somebody come by and said, “Are you a rider?”

I said, “Don't think I am.” Sure makes you feel different when you hear something like that. I want you to notice Brother Kash, what made his success—what I gathered caused it—he put God first in everything that he did.

Brother David and his speaking there of how that the whole body fitly joined together, that's wonderful. That's exactly right, Brother David. When we can ... each one of us has a different ministry. Each one works different. Each one of you has a ministry, a separate ministry. All that comes into Christ has a ministry. That's right. Not only the preacher, but you have a ministry to something, there's something you can do.

And I hope this don't sound sacrilegious, but usually God has to drive you into your correct ministry. Some Methodist brethren the other day had just received the Holy Ghost, are farmers up in Indiana. Oh, they was just all on fire. And he said, “I've been reading some books.” Said, “Brother Branham, should we all come together now and seek for our ministry?”

I said, “No, you ruin yourself doing that.” I said, “You don't do that.” I said, “A man that's always seeking for God to do something —certain such-and-such a thing—usually don't amount to very much. It's a man that doesn't want to do it, that's the one God can use.”

Look at Moses and Paul and different ones running from it, trying to get away from it. You take a fellow that always, “Lord, I'll do this if You'll do this,” and things like that, God knows he'd be a stuffed shirt anyhow. So He just takes somebody who don't want to do it and say, “Maybe I can use him a little while till he gets to be one.” So that's about it. They try to get away from it all the time. Great ministries has always been somebody trying to get away from it, see, not one who's always.... Because let God do something for them, and then they're all puffed out big—how great and everything. But a man that doesn't want to do it, he's just forced to do it, and then he wants to get away from it as quick as he can, get out of sight; and that's usually the way that God works.

Now this ... I wouldn't want to say that out in the campaigns somewhere, but here at a breakfast....

And how I appreciate Brother Carlson and all the Christian businessmen, Brother Boze, and this Brother Sullivan. I guess he's gone again, but he sure is one fine man, that Brother Sullivan. He's a prince of a man. I really like him. And I think we need more men like Brother Sullivan, such a fine character he is, wonderful. And we all love him. He's just real country-like and ... because I'm country too, you know, birds of a feather, so he.... I believe Brother Sullivan is a man just plain ... and as we call it down in Kentucky, just “sassafras,” you know. How many knows what sassafras is? Look at the Kentuckians. Well, I was almost raised on it—sassafras tea, poke greens. Now, Brother Evans, look over here and laughing when I said poke greens. They have them down in Georgia, too. They come in a little earlier there than they do up here.

But the meetings, going back to the meetings, our meeting has been wonderful this week. The Lord has blessed us tremendously, and we believe we're inviting you.... Brother DuPlessis, and I, and Brother Sullivan, and many of the ministers around are going to carry on tonight and tomorrow afternoon, praying for the sick, God helping us.

Now I want to read just a little text of Scripture found here in Hebrews, the ninth chapter beginning with the sixth verse. And let us read now just for.... Let's begin, yes, at the sixth verse.

Now when these things which were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, to accomplish the service of God.

But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not ... made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

Which was a figure of the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifice, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

Which stood only in meat ... drink, ... divers washings, ... carnal ordinances, imposed upon them until the time of reformation.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word.

Now there's been so much said that I kind of feel like I'd be imposing a lot of extra time upon you to handle that the way that I believe that could be if it was out in the meeting. But just for a little few statements, or comments, as a context for this, I would like to take a subject this morning of “Fellowship.” I notice each one speaking of a fellowship.

Now, why does men, and why do we come together, as we have many times, to fellowship together? What makes these breakfasts so impressive, as Brother DuPlessis said a few moments ago? I'll agree with him, it's one of the most impressive times of my life is to get with this bunch of mixed-up people of different denominations, and come together and eat and fellowship. Fellowship first; and we notice, eating is implied in fellowship. Why do we have a breakfast? Why don't we just meet and talk? But there's something about eating that brings the fellowship. And now, did you notice, Jesus, in the closing of His life's journey? He wanted a little time of fellowship with the disciples, so He called them apart and set a table and broke bread and blessed it and had eating. And the last supper was a fellowship with His disciples just before He crossed over into the other land to be our High Priest.

And I think today as I look around and see rich men, poor men, all fellowshipping together, there's something about it ... we have on one common grounds, that is Christian fellowship. And each man, maybe the man is ... someone spoke like the brother that was talking the Lord had blessed him with so much money. And the other people, maybe, you think you don't have that much money, and you don't want to give your testimony. But God's given you something, just like what Brother DuPlessis said, that He hasn't give this man. It's altogether different.

You don't know how I felt the other day, when I was over in Tulsa. I went through Brother Osborn's meeting ... or, his place of business. And such a fine Christian brother is Tommy Osborn. And he showed me his map of all around where he had missionaries, hundreds of them all over the world. Put his arms around me, commenced to weeping and said, “Brother Branham, you was the one, by your ministry, that sent me out to do this.” He gave me a little monument of a figurine, of a man with a native with a block in his mouth. Said, “Just think of our ministry, how many of them we've delivered from that.”

I looked at Tommy's great work there, and, oh, how it was so beautiful, and such a great place. And all the people, how they were a sanctified group, and how they loved the Lord and come together in the chapel to worship. And I spoke to them, and they started weeping.

And then I went down to Brother Oral Roberts, another great soul and a servant of God, humble. He hurt himself while I was there and just going to the platform. He sent me come quickly to pray for him, his knee. Didn't know whether he'd broke it or what had happened. And while I was praying, the blood veins run together and made a big “V” on top of his knee. And I laid my hand on top of it and the glory of God fell in his room there, and got up and come on to the door with me, and a wonderful character.

Then I looked through his great building. If you've ever had the privilege of seeing it, it certainly is a memorial to the faith of one man, what he can do when he sets out to do it. Oh, I've never seen.... I've been in Hollywood, I've been in all different places, I never seen anything like that building in Tulsa of Brother Roberts. How it's made in the shape of the trinity, and everything in there has imported marble, and ... what a beautiful place. And be sure to see the mirror. When I went out to see that, those hands reaching for the cup of blessing, and I was just weeping for joy to know that.... Even the ceiling made out of little aluminum wires wove together, I've never seen anything like it in my life. And to think that one little old boy born in a dugout in Oklahoma accomplished that by faith.

I stood outside and I begin to think of it. No one was with me (Brother Fisher had taken me through). I was looking around, and I thought, “O God.” Think, “Brother Oral's ministry started off of mine. Brother Osborn's ministry started off of mine. And I'd be ashamed of them to see my office—one little typewriter sitting in the end of a trailer. That's right, one little typewriter.” And I thought, “Well, Jesus never even had an office, never had an office at all. He never....” No place in the Bible ever said Jesus had an office.

Then I stood there, and I wept for joy to see how God had blessed my brethren, and I got thinking, something said to me, “But what about you, see?”

I said, “Well, I must just be a hypocrite. It must be that God couldn't even trust me. Maybe that's the reason it is.” And while I was standing there, tears running down off my cheeks, I looked at that great big building, something spoke to me and said, “But I am your portion.”

“All right, Lord.”

“I'll be your portion,” see, because I haven't education, ability to handle great things like that that the Lord has given my brothers who are able. But as long as I'll just keep this way, see.... I know how some business men would feel, to hear the men that how God is blessing; but remember, God is your portion too, brother. God is your portion. When we come together, our fellowships are the same, see. We fellowship one with another.

And now, it says here that Christ entered once for all into the tabernacle. Now we find out that fellowship is based upon an agreement. It has to be that way, because fellowship is something that we like to do, come together. It's just like a young man and a young woman meeting each other, and they love one another, and they just can't keep out of one another's sight. We know, brethren, how we felt, and, sisters, how you felt when you met your husband, and there's a fellowship. Every night, you just can't wait for the time for your date. You want to take her somewhere to get something to eat, and you can sit and talk, and you watch her. It's fellowship, see. And now before that can be a fellowship, it has to be based upon an agreement, see, upon an agreement. And that's just as true as it can be.

And God, before we could have fellowship with Him, first.... Oh, what makes us want fellowship is because it's something in us that requires it.

Now, fellowship in love affairs, like a young man and a young woman, that's fellowship in what we would call the Greek word of phileo. That's just an earthly love.

But fellowship in the gospel, like this, is agapao, the Greek, high, divine love, as I spoke the other night of my vision. When you're in there it's neither male nor female, we're just all one in Christ. And we should get acquainted with that kind of a fellowship here on earth, while we must have respects for each other, and love for one another, and highest of thoughts for our sisters and our brothers, and never any foul thing. We must not even let it come into our minds, just brush it away, because we are citizens of the kingdom of God. We are a called-out and separated people. That's the reason we can come in with Christian dignity, with real men and real women, with the highest of thoughts, and the best for each other. That's the way we should have it.

Now, God wanted fellowship. And if we.... No matter if man today is the fallen son of God, there's some parts of God still with that man in his fallen state. You take a man today that can split an atom, a molecule, or whatever you want to call it, and could drive a jet plane around the world in a few hours, and you can see that he is something in his fallen creation. Now he cannot create anything, but he can pervert what has been created into something to better himself. And that shows that man never come from animal life, because animal continually builds his same habitation to live in. But man makes him a better house, a better way of living, better clothes, and better transportation. Now all that shows that something behind, even in his fallen estate, he's still a son of God, fallen. And then when He wants fellowship, and when we want courtship and things like that, it has to come upon a basis of an agreement.

Now when God made man in the beginning to fellowship with Him, then this man was in perfect fellowship in the garden of Eden. He was in perfect fellowship with God. And how it must have been on that day when God would come down in the cool of the evening and call Adam, and he and Eve would come up and they would worship God, and they would fellowship and commune one with the other. That's the very thing that calls us together like this—sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, fellowshipping in the Holy Spirit. No difference in us, we are all one in Christ Jesus, in that perfect harmony of fellowship. There's nothing like it I've ever found on earth, is to come together in heavenly places and have communion, fellowship with God and with each other. Now, that's what God intended in the garden of Eden.

Then that fellowship from God and man was broken by sin. Now, God made a basis and a ground upon which man could remain ... or, retain his fellowship. And it wasn't through a get together or organization or an education; it was on the basis of the shed blood. And that's the only place of fellowship that we have with God today, and the only meeting place is through the blood of Jesus Christ. That's exactly right.

Now we have tried organizing to fellowship. You break off with another group when you do that. All right, we try to educate them to fellowship, and what do we get? Well we get a bunch of educated idiots. That's horrible for a preacher to make a statement like that, but that's the truth. Something happened to me a few weeks ago, and I'm determined by the help of God never to be negative on anything any more, to [unclear word] my heart out [unclear word] no matter what it costs. Be sincere and down to the bottom of it, and that's the truth. And men has educated themselves till they educate themselves away from one another, they get complexes.

You don't get no complex by the blood of Jesus Christ; you get love. That's right. You get love, not a complex that I'm a little bigger than someone else, a little better than somebody else, know a little more than somebody else. You've just got your arms around everybody. And it's a basis of love through the blood. The blood cleanses.

Now, fellowship comes by love, and love requires fellowship. If you love your wife, you've just got to get with her and talk with her. If you love your friend, you got to get with him and talk to him. And if you love God, there's got to be a basis for fellowship. You cannot have complete fellowship and livelihood without these agreements. You cannot be married without an agreement. You cannot have a wife without some kind of an agreement, and that agreement is based upon your vows. You cannot have fellowship with God without coming to God's agreement. And there's a basic thing for fellowship, and that's the blood, the blood only. It's been God's way from the beginning, and it will be till the end. The only place of fellowship is through the blood.

Now we find out in the Old Testament that God had one meeting place, one meeting place. The only place He would meet with His people was in one place—the tabernacle—and that was under the shed blood. The only place God met with His people was under the shed blood. That's the only place He can meet with us today. He cannot meet with us as an organization. He cannot meet with us as an intellectual group. He can only meet with us as we have fellowship, as we come under the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. That's the only basic place that we can meet.

Some time ago I was dedicating a tabernacle. They asked me to bring the words back, a brother down in Tennessee—I forget what his name was now, the church of God down there. And I said, “God is a being.” Now God's just not like your ... like the air. If He would, you would never have to seek the Holy Ghost. It be in you, because it fills all space and things. God's omnipresent, sure, by being omniscient, knowing all things. But God has a dwelling place because He is a being. That's exactly right. And God dwells with fellowship under the shed blood of His Son, and that alone. Amen. Not upon our denomination, our affiliation, but upon the shed blood we meet God face to face.

Now, Job believed that, the oldest book in the Testament. God met Job on the basis of fellowship through the burnt offering and the shed blood. Remember Job, he said, “Now, peradventure that my children have sinned, and if they've sinned, I'll just offer a burnt offering.” Because that's all God required. God only required the shed blood, the burnt offering, and Job made an offering for his children. And we realize what happened during that time. A storm came and killed his children, took all of his cattle away. We know how he was distressed, and how he was perplexed. But there came a time when God restored all back to Job.

And when he was out on the ash heap there scraping his boils, his wife said, “Why don't you curse God and die the death?”

He said, “Thou speakest like a foolish woman.”

And when the people come to bless him, instead of that, they turned their back upon him and called him a secret sinner. Job knowed he had not sinned, because he had met God's requirements.

Now, accidents and troubles don't happen to people because they are sinners, because I've seen sinners prosper and go on. But it's on the basis of fellowship. Because a man prospers in business doesn't make him altogether a Christian, because there's many sinners prosper. That's right. Our fellowship is not upon the basis of how much God prospers us, but on the basis of coming under the shed blood in fellowship with one another. There's where the real part of Christianity lays. That's what makes these meetings so real, that when people come under those basis of the shed blood, we have things in common, we sit in heavenly places.

Now, Job was told by his wife, “Why don't you curse God and just die the death?”

He said ... now he didn't call her a foolish women, he said, “You speak as a foolish woman.” Didn't say she was foolish, but she spoke that way. Said, “The Lord gave and the Lord taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” for he knowed that he had met God's requirement. He had worshipped God under the basis of the shed blood and the burnt sacrifice, and he stood flat on it. No matter what happened, he still knowed that he was justified because he had met God's requirements. No matter how much they try to call you a fanatic, or a holy roller, or whatever they want to say, as long as you know you've met God's requirement and you're under the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you're standing justified in the presence of God. You don't have to belong to any certain group, you just have to be under those places there for fellowship.

Now, God begin to restore back to Job. He restored his stock, his animals, livestock, and everything, double. But did you notice about his children? God restored back Job's children. Didn't say He doubled them, but he restored them to him. Wonder where they were at. Did you ever take a thought of that when you read the book of Job? They were in Glory waiting for him, because he had offered a sacrifice under the shed blood and he knowed where they were waiting for him at, under the shed blood. Now, He never said He give him back another bunch of children, but He restored Job's children to him because they were waiting for him under the shed blood of the sacrifice.

In the wilderness, the tabernacle, there was a way made of fellowship for the believer. Now, the first thing was taken, they took a red heifer. And she must not have a spot on her. And this red heifer was a symbol of the blood of Jesus—red. Red speaks of bad words sometimes, red lights, and so forth of that, warnings; but the blood also speaks red is an atonement color, also. Did you ever notice? Even in scientific life, you take red and look through red at red, it's white. You ever try that? Look at red through red, it's white. And then when God looks at the worshipper through the blood of His Son, no matter how red crimson his sins might be, he's as white as snow and ready for fellowship. Red through red turns white.

Now, notice this red heifer must be killed outside the camp, perfect type of Christ. She must be burnt in ashes. Hoofs, horns, and all together must be burnt to make a water of separation. Now, her blood was caught in a charger and taken by the priest to the tabernacle door. And there was seven stripes put over the tabernacle door with the blood of this heifer, which represented Christ. Now, notice. Oh, it's beautiful here! And that blood put on the door was put on with cedar and hyssop and scarlet. Scarlet was a dyed wool, and hyssop was common weeds or flowers on it, and cedar is a wood that is red with white in it. Oh, my! I get into those symbols and we wouldn't go home at noon. That's right, into those, and how beautiful!

I want to call your attention to one thing here especially, that is on the hyssop. Hyssop was the applying ... the blood was applied with hyssop, and hyssop is as common as weeds. And the blood is applied by faith, something common, reach out and get it anywhere. See? That's how the blood is applied. We don't have to go some place to get it. You just take the weed, the common things, by simple faith in Christ, and believe. And the blood is applied to the door of your heart by faith, simple faith, just believing. Not nothing you have to get any different, just the faith that you got now.

If there's sick people here, I challenge you to take that simple faith you got, and apply by faith the blood of Jesus Christ to your sickness, and watch what happens. Any person here that feels that you have a gift within you, something that you don't care to do but just something that God is moving you to do, apply the blood by simple faith to that and watch what takes place. Just try it once and see. Just barge out into it, and you'll see what takes place.

Now, then the ashes of this heifer, how we could stay on that. What a beautiful lesson for some time in a camp meeting or something, to take each one of those symbols and bring that hyssop down, bring that scarlet, cedar wood, which was the cross, and the blood and so forth, in the cedar that was mixed with it. Now, we could just take a night on each one of those symbols and bring them up. But quickly, watch now.

They've taken the ashes of the heifer and put it in the courts for use for a water of separation, to wash the unbeliever in the waters of separation for purification. For we are now washed by the water of the Word of God, washes us. And then watch the believer coming in now. The first thing he did was to come into the courts, and to hear, and to receive. The first thing taken place, that he taken the Word first. The Word was preached to him like it is to a sinner, and it's applied. That's the waters of separation, for we are washed by the water of the Word, see. Now what were we trying to do?

Now listen close, we are drawing up to a real place of fellowship, what real Christian, Holy Spirit, born-again fellowship means. Oh, if you can get the idea, brother, you are sold out to everything of the world right then, if you can only catch it. Now, the believer comes first and he hears the Word. Faith cometh by hearing. Get your hyssop. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word of the water of separation. See? The unbeliever, coming into the courts, the first thing (if a man was fallen away), the first thing he did, he come to the courts and was sprinkled with the ashes of this heifer called the waters of separation, showing that something died, that the ashes of this heifer died for his sins. That's what preaching the gospel brings, a waters of separation. You begin to find out you was a sinner, someone died for you; God gave you His Word, promised the blood, the Son. Then you receive it by faith, by applying the hyssop, see. By faith you reach and get the waters of separation, the Word.

Now the next thing you do, you're starting.... You're not in fellowship yet. There's where, my Baptist brethren, I certainly disagree with you. Yes, sir. Many of them say, “Well, you receive the Holy Ghost when you believe.”

And someone asked me a question here not long ago, put it on the platform, “Brother Branham, did you ever read the original? The Greek says that you receive the Holy Ghost when you believe.”

I wish you'd bring me that Diaglott. I wish you'd bring me that Greek Lexicon that says that. It does not say that. It says, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed”; not when you believe, but since.... I've got the Emphatic Diaglott of the original translation from Vatican City, of the original Greek. Then I've got the Aramaic and many of the others that proves that he says, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed.” They were believers, and Paul said, “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you have believed?” Now they had not come into the full fellowship yet. Then Paul laid his hands upon them, they received the Holy Ghost, and then the power of God fell on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied, then they were filled and in perfect fellowship with the rest of the church. That's the only basis.

Notice, we come through the water of separation applied by the hyssop, the weed, the common faith. Then what does he do? They turn him then towards the door of the tabernacle. Now before.... In there is where the Lord is on the holy place, on the inside. Now we can even pick it up from the inside of there and go on to the Holiest of Holies and so forth. But now let's just take it this way. When he's coming to the door, over the door is seven stripes of blood. Before he has entered into this fellowship, he must recognize that this blood has cleansed him from his sins, which is sanctification of separation. After the Word's been applied, we have received it, now we go under the blood.

“There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and Holy Ghost: these three are one. There are three that bear record on earth [I John 5:7], the water, the blood, and the spirit.” They are not one but “agree in one.” Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one. But water, blood, and spirit agree in one, because you can be justified without being sanctified. You can't have the Father without having the Son, you can't have the Son without having the Holy Ghost, so they are one. But when you're justified by faith, you are not sanctified yet. And you cannot be sanctified.... When you are sanctified, then you haven't got the Holy Ghost yet.

Now, the elements that came from the body of Jesus was water, blood, spirit. What come from His natural body is what constitutes the new birth.

When a baby's born, what's the first thing happens? Excuse me, my sisters. What's the first thing happens? Water breaks. What's the next thing? Blood. What's the next thing? Life. Exactly right. What constitutes a natural birth is the type of the spiritual birth. What is the first thing? Water, the waters of separation, justification by faith. As brother read the Scripture this morning, Romans 5, justification by faith. What's the next thing? The cleansing, sanctification, taking the mug and.... Justifying it is picking it up, sanctifying is cleansing it, then it is ready for filling of the Holy Spirit, see.

The word sanctify is the word means “cleaned and set aside for service,” but not in service. There's where you brother Nazarenes and Pilgrim Holiness that thinks that sanctification is the entire work of the Holy Spirit, it is not. Sanctification cleanses you, but the Holy Spirit fills you. The [unclear word] is set aside for service but not in service until it's put in service by the Holy Ghost and filled with the Holy Ghost. See? That's it.

Now, notice this man. First, he received it by the waters of separation. Faith cometh by hearing. Second, cedar wood... He's applied now, you see, he has to recognize the blood that cleanses him. He's yet not into the church, he's not into the fellowship yet; but he's on his road in there. He's heard the Word. Faith cometh by hearing. Then he looks and recognizes those seven stripes.

We have time to take that. The seven stripes meant the seven church ages, or the seven dispensations, or whatever you wish to call it, that through every age God only recognizes the blood. From Genesis to the end of Revelation, it's the blood that cleanses. That red streak has run all the way through the Bible, from one lid to the other one. It's through the blood is the basis of fellowship. That's exactly right. The only grounds of foundation for fellowship is not through organization or cooperation. It's through the blood of Jesus Christ, where the blood cleanses us from our sins and brings us into a common place.

Now, if Pharisee, Sadducee, or whatever he might be, he had a right to that fellowship. But he couldn't be because he was a Pharisee, because he was a Sadducee; he come into that fellowship by coming under the blood. Here he goes towards the wall now. He's recognizing these seven ages. Six thousand years God built the world. Seven thousand is a type of the Millennium, His rest. Now, as I said the other night, two thousand years something's happened. First two thousand, Noah built the ark. Second two thousand, Christ come. Nineteen hundred and sixty, almost to the end, see. And now the seven....

As God labored and built the world in six days, six thousand years—which we know the Scripture speaks of a day as a thousand years in heaven—and the seven thousand.... The church has labored against sin for six thousand years, and the seven thousandth is the Millennium, and a memorial to all creation that God has redeemed His church. Told Adam, “The day you eat thereof, that day you die.” When He lets a man live through the thousand years it's a type and a memorial that He'll never no more destroy man, and he'll never no more be sin, that he's back in fellowship with God eternally. Amen. That's right. We're right at it now.

Now, we're coming to the door, recognizing the blood. Then when you come under the blood, you go into the sanctuary covered by the presence of the Holiest of Holies, the Shechinah glory, all in the sanctuary. When it was dedicated, the whole room become smoky, when Solomon dedicated the temple. First, waters of separation. Still not right. Recognizing the blood, you're on your road, you're at the door. Next, into the Holiest of Holies. What would I speak of that? Luther under justification, believing the Word. Wesley under sanctification, at the door. Pentecost, in the Holy Ghost and the fellowship in the Shekinah glory. You can't stand outside the door and look in say, “What's the matter with them people?” You've got to come in beneath that blood and get into the Shekinah glory. Then the power of God begins to fall. Then you begin to see what's taking place. As I said the other night about coming into the water, you've got to get into it before you know what it's all about.

Now, just like you living your life, you live the same thing.

You only live in a three room house (God lived in a three room house): soul, body, and spirit. God lived in a three room house: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And you live in a three room house. The Spirit comes to a three room house: justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost.

And you live in a three room house natural. First you have the kitchen. Next you have is the parlor. Next you have is the bedroom. Notice the young couple before they can complete in that phileo love. What's the first thing is ... they make a promise one to another. They get married, and they live in this three room house. Now, you might have two bedrooms, you might have an extra dining room, but you only still live in three rooms. And you're living in this body is a three room house—soul, body, spirit. Everything. Anywhere you want to go through, nature or whatevermore, it all comes to those three. God is perfected in that number three.

Now, notice this now as it come. They come into the kitchen, what? To eat. You eat in the kitchen. That's your first. Next, you go into the room to talk things over, recognition, making all your confession. But then when you go into the bedroom, it is when your married life is completed. It's ready then, life is, for the little ones, and so forth.

That's what the church is. When it comes through justification, sanctification, into the baptism of the Holy Ghost, she's in travail. The church is then to bring forth little ones, crying, “My God, my God [See?]; Abba, Father.” That's how we come through those elements into the presence of God for fellowship. Fellowship is only recognized under the blood.

The man on the outside standing in justification, he can hear the Word. He might be an orator of any kind that could explain that Word in ways that the other fellow know nothing about. But still, if he hasn't walked through those elements in under the blood to the fellowship in the Shekinah glory, he doesn't know what we're talking about. But here, where we've all received the Holy Ghost, we're all together one, for we've been all made drink of the same Spirit. Whether we are oneness, twoness, threeness, fiveness, Assemblies, Pentecostal Holiness, whatever it is, we're all one in Christ Jesus. For by one Spirit we are all baptized, after we've been sanctified into one Spirit. Justification, waters of separation; sanctification, cleansing up our souls; and when we go into the Holiest of Holies where the Shekinah glory is, by that one Spirit we're baptized into that one body and have fellowship with God. Amen!

God's back like He was in the garden of Eden, communing with our souls, speaking to us.

No wonder people stand on the outside with the intellectual education, trying to find out what these people are doing on the inside there. You'll never be able to do it by the waters of separation alone. You've got to recognize that that animal, or that thing that died for you, did have a body that it give. It had a blood that it shed, and has a life that comes back to you. Jesus is that water of separation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God.” This is God, God's message to you that Jesus died for you—waters of separation. Sanctification is what cleanses us up. And the Holy Spirit that come out of Him....

The reason the animal life couldn't give them the Holy Ghost is because the animal, the life that was in the animal when that life was taken, it was an animal's life. It would not coincide with a human life, because an animal has not a soul. But when Jesus died, then He was not only man, but He was God and man, God enveiled in man. And when that cell was broke, God was turned loose again to come back through the shed blood to sanctify and to live in every vessel that would dare to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's exactly right.

There's why we have that fellowship. That's what makes the real thing. It's something like that.

God has a preparation. That's the reason these people are happy. That's what makes the people the way they are, because they've come unto this Holiest of Holies. They're under the power of God. They're walking in the beauty of His resurrection. Why, certainly that God that resurrected, living in this Holiest of Holies.... I tell you what taken place. You watch them straighten up, old dead lives that they couldn't do nothing. Watch what happens to them.

Well, one day they left Aaron's rod in there. My, my. When they come back the next year to pick it up, it had blossoms on it and already got life in it. It had leaves on it and blossoms on it. You take any old dead life and lay it in that Holiest of Holies for a while, and let it come through that process of blood water and sanctification, and then go into the Holiest of Holies, it'll blossom out. If she's the orneriest women there is in this city, or the worst gambler there is, you'll hear him stand up on a breakfast some morning and give a testimony that will shake the shingles off the top of the houses. Why? It's because that he has come into a fellowship. That dead life has been renewed again.

Now, you take Aaron's rod and lay it on the waters of separation, it wouldn't do that. Lay it upon the blood, it wouldn't do that. But after it gets through the blood into the Holiest of Holies, there is where fellowship comes. There's where life comes. Life comes by the Spirit. Amen. Then God made a remedy for that.

In closing, I might say this. In the garden of Eden, when God saw that His children had sinned and had gone from Him, God Himself, who is the supreme judge, made a reconciliation so He could restore that fellowship to His creatures by the shed blood of an animal. And that shed blood lasted for many years, under speaking of the coming of Christ. But one day nineteen hundred years ago, God made a complete fellowship to restore. Not into a tabernacle, as He said, made with hands, where the priest went every year with the blood for the people and for himself, but on this day Jesus, once for all, purchased an eternal fellowship for us. Not every year to make a commemoration to go back and say, “Well I've sinned, I've done this, and I went and done this”; and offer another lamb and another thing.

Jesus, once for all, one time, He has perfected forever those that have come into that fellowship with an eternal blessing, eternal fellowship, with an eternal presence of God, with the power of the Holy Ghost—not in a symbol out yonder or in some word or in some theology, but the Holy Ghost in you. The power of God that raised Christ from the grave is made alive in you, and you are a new creature. Then you are a son and daughter of God. Oh, brother, that's it.

Oh, it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to stir. It takes the power, the life that was in that blood,

see. There's an element of life in the blood. Life is in the blood cell. Life comes from the male sex, not from the woman. The woman can't produce life, because she's the egg, but she produces the egg, but the male produces the germ. The germ of life comes from the male because it's in the blood cell, and in that blood cell lays life. And in the blood cell, in the place of Jesus, was not the sexual affair of a man, but the creative power of God. It created a blood cell in the womb of Mary with that egg that brought forth the Son of God, which was the tabernacle that God lived in Himself.

Oh, brother, one of these days I want to preach on the super sign for you. Everybody is wanting a sign, and God gave him a super sign. The super sign was, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” The super sign, one that was to be forever a commemoration that God Himself made Himself a body and came down. He crossed Himself from God to become our stock. Hallelujah! God became man, stretched His tabernacle to live with us.

Talk about a super sign. He could have come an angel if He wanted to. He could have come a full-matured man, but a baby over a pile of manure, crying? Talk about a super sign, that's a real super sign. A baby, Jehovah, crying as a baby, a super sign. Oh, my! Then people saying He's just a prophet. Oh, my.

The super sign: Jehovah, as a boy playing; Jehovah, a man toiling in a carpenter's shop; Jehovah Himself, made flesh and dwelt amongst us, stretched His tent down here, made Himself a body to live in, and to have a blood cell that that blood cell could be broken. Hallelujah! That was the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world, that brings us eternal redemption. The Bible said so. Here He brought us eternal redemption. We are purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which has given us eternal life. How did He do it? I don't know.

You know the devil always looked in to find out what He was. One day they said, “If He's the Messiah, He'll certainly do some strange signs.” He said, “If thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.”

Messiah's a miracle worker. He is yet, has always been. Certainly. The Messiah was the anointed one. The anointed one today is the Messiahic church. This church, this church of the new born, this church that's come through the water. Faith cometh by hearing, through the blood-cleansed life, through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost is the anointed one, the Messiahic church. Glory! Why, Messiahic church will have the signs of the Messiah in it! Hallelujah! Sure, because it is the Messiahic church, it is the church of the Messiah. Amen. That makes me feel as good as that fellow did a while ago. Yes, sir. A Messiahic church, with a Messiahic power, with Messiahic signs! Amen. There you are. There's where you have fellowship. Oh, there's nothing like it. It's perfect.

Now, think of Jehovah doing a thing like that.

Here He was. The devil looked at Him, said, “I wonder if that really is the Son of God. I wonder, is that just an ordinary prophet, or is that the Son of God?” He said, “If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be turned to bread.” See, he was really an intellectual boy, he really knowed what he was talking about.

But Jesus said, “It is written.”

Now he taken Him up and kept trying to find out. One day he got Him in the Gentile courts, and he kept wondering, “Could that be?” See, God really pulled the wool over Satan's eyes when that super sign came. He didn't know what He was. How could Jehovah be born in a manger? How could Jehovah cry like a baby and wear swaddling cloth? Why, sure. He bypassed.... Jesus, the self-sacrifice of God.

I think the sweetest scripture there is in all the Bible is this scripture, “Father, I sanctify myself because of them.” He was a man, He could have had a wife. He was a man, He could have had a home and a place to lay His head. He had rights to that. He was a man, He could have had good clothes. He was a man, but what did He say? “Father, I sanctify myself for their sake.” What was He doing? He was training up twelve disciples that were going to preach the gospel in all the world. He put an example.

And brethren, as ministers, I tell you, it pays us not to get too much of the world's goods and things hanging around us. You preachers, I'm talking to. Sanctify yourself for them that you're going to lead. That's what we need today is a complete consecrated, sanctified life of ministers that walk upright before God, that's not entangled with the things of the world. Keep away from it. “Father, I sanctify myself for their sake.” Not that He had to do it, but He did it for their sake.

Now, when the Romans put a rag around His face, and they knowed He could see visions, so they hit Him on top of the head with a stick and said, “Tell us who hit you. If you're a prophet, tell us who hit you. Now we're going to believe you.”

But He opened not His mouth. See the wisdom of God? If that had been an ordinary prophet, He would have boiled loose there or something. But He was God, He knowed what to do. He knowed who that was in them people. When He got up at the ... started up the cross, they said, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” That was the greatest compliment was ever paid Him. Why if He would have saved Himself, He couldn't have saved others. But He gave Himself so He could save others and make a preparation. The God of glory glorifying ... God in glory, glorifying the God of glory. Amen. Talk about the super sign, and a way provided, a place that we might have fellowship.

Let's look at Him a few minutes. The world's in darkness. The church in it's intellectual standpoint has fell to the ground, just toppled. The nation itself is in captivity. It's a dark morning. First, the sun rises pretty, and then smoke begin to gather in the earth. We're standing in an upper room in Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago. Let's just take a little trip now and look where our fellowship, what happened, the reason that we could have fellowship. Let's just watch it a few minutes and see if it isn't on the basis of the shed blood. I see Him. I hear a noise outside the window. What is it? Some of them saying, “What has He done?” I see a little woman run out in front say, “What has He done? He's only healed the sick and comforted the poor and brought life, hopes of life, to us.”

Some man snatch her off the streets, said, “Would you hear her instead of your own pastor, your priest? Away with her.”

Someone else raise up and say, “I had a crippled leg and He healed me!”

“Take Him to the gallows.” Oh, what a time!

I'm listening to something bumping. Let's pull up the shade and look out. I see coming down the street a sight that would break the heart of an iron man. A one that was innocent of any sin, but yet taking the sin of all the world upon Him, never knowed no sin. He never one time displeased God His Father. There never was one time that He did anything that was wrong. He was the perfect and the only perfect man in the world, and the imperfect church condemned Him to death. Talk about a place. They wanted their own organizations, their own fellowships and so forth. But God was making a way for the true believer, for the real, sincere, the honest believer. As I said last night, “Every time the devil produces a Goliath, God's got a David somewhere.” Said, “Just always remember that.”

Now God was making a way for the true believer. As Jesus has said, “The time is coming when ... God is a Spirit and He'll ... He seeks those that'll worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

I hear it bumping. I look down and see a little bitty frail fellow. He's got a little white robe laying over His shoulders, wove throughout without a seam. As He goes down, dragging the cross, it's bumping on the street, hitting against His head. Thorns, blood running over His face as He starts up the hill.

I notice some little red dots on His coat. Let's question. What are those? What are those little red dots on the back of His coat, as He goes up the hill? As farther He goes, the brighter those little dots get, and the wider they spread, spreading farther, farther. And the first thing you know, all of them go into one great big red splotch, and the blood's beating across the legs like that. What was it? God making a provision for fellowship. God making a way—from the foundation of the world—of fellowship, that we could come here under the power of the Holy Spirit and enjoy the spiritual blessings, leaving the world on the outside knows nothing about us, knows nothing about our worship, knows nothing about our God. They're just out there in some kind of a ... they go to church. Oh, sure. What I was speaking last night, don't try to be like them. Come under the blood of the fellowship. Let's come together and set in heavenly places.

I noticed as He staggers and falls and gets up on His feet, and they're whipping Him and beating Him, slapping Him, spitting on Him, the face hanging full of spit. What a shame! If you could only see that and know that's your sins is what did that. That was Him taking your punishment, that was a bumper that was standing between you and God right now. God would slay you this minute because He can't look upon unrighteousness, but there was a propitiation made for our sins. The blood was bathing the ground from the innocent Abel plumb on to that time, through the lamb after lamb after lamb, and heifer after heifer after heifer. But now the Word was being made manifest. The Word was going to become Spirit. The Word was going to be dwelling among us. The Word is going to be in us. “I'll write my laws upon the fleshy tables of their heart.” Something was happening.

Now notice going up the road. There come a bee. The devil said, “You know what? A man with that much disgrace upon Him could not be God. That's all, He couldn't be.” That's the ways they think today. How could a people that would scream and try to jabber in some other kind of language, and would go out there and carry on...? And women, beautiful women, would sacrifice themselves from showing their bodies to the people, which they were made for, and all these other things. And like, how would they cover themselves up like that and young pretty girls without any make-up on, just set in such things as that? See, they don't get it. They say, “How is it?”

That's what the devil said about this man, “How could He become disgraced?”

Take a girl out of rock and roll, let her come into this fellowship, she'll clean herself up right quick. She'll let that hair grow out and put on a nice decent dress, take them old shorts and slacks off, and she's different. Say, “What happened to that woman?” That's the same thing the devil thought, “Oh, that can't be right. [See?] That can't be right. He's not the Son of God.” So he said, “Come on, death. Go down there and get Him. He ain't no Son of God, or He wouldn't be in that much disgrace.” What he thought was disgrace, but He was bearing the reproach. I hope you see what I'm talking about. I might not be able to make it plain enough, see. He's bearing the reproach.

And as He goes up the hill, the devil said, “Come on, death, you go down and sting Him and kill Him now.” All right. The devil come out, the stinger of death come down, begin to buzz around Him. You know everybody dreads that sting of death, because it's horrible. The sting of death. You hear them screaming and crying and hollering for mercy.

I've got a book on the last words of great people, and half of it's put on the last words of great people of the world, kings and queens that died without God. One queen said—I believe the queen of somewhere, England or somewhere—said, “I'd give my kingdom and all that was in it if I had five more minutes of life to repent.” See? She couldn't do it, see.

And then I've had lives of great men like Dwight Moody and them, when they raised up, said, “Is this death?” Said, “This is my coronation day.” Sure.

I got life of Paul Raider which was spoke of ... was converted in his tabernacle. Paul, when he was dying, he called in his brother Luke which was in the next room. He said, “Where's Luke?” And Luke was over in the next room. He said—him and Paul kind of run together, like Billy and I together—and he said, “Luke, we've come a long ways together, haven't we, brother?” He said, “We've come through many a hard battle together.”

Luke said, “That's right, Paul.”

Paul said, “Think of it, in five minutes from now I'll be standing in the presence of Jesus Christ, clothed in His righteousness....” [Blank spot on tape] I hugged him, kissed him, we walked away. And I went away weeping. A few hours from then, he raised up in the room, and he said, “Well, if there ain't Brother So-and-so, was converted in my meeting.” The guy had been dead fifty years. Shook his hand, stood on the floor shaking hands with the saints of God done gone on to heaven, his converts from fifty years ago. I wonder if he didn't enter that place where I was at the other morning, and seen them there, shaking hands like that.

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

With partings, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

While sailing over life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

That's right. Now, this bee said, “You know what?” This death said, “He's just a man, that's all there is to Him. He's just an ordinary prophet, or He'd have done something about it down there. God wouldn't die like that, so I'll sting Him.” And he anchored that stinger in Him on the cross. But brother, did you ever know, when a bee anchors it's stinger, you know what happens? If it's really anchored deep, he don't have no stinger no more. And when the sting of death was anchored in the flesh of God, it pulled the stinger out. That's right. So today we don't have any sting in death.

It can buzz and make a noise, but we can stand like Paul that's under this fellowship, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There's where death was swallowed up in victory, when the bee lost his stinger. The bee of death lost its stinger when it stung God Almighty manifested in flesh at Calvary. Today he has no more stinger.

Aren't you glad to be under this fellowship?

Aren't you glad you heard the Word? Faith cometh by hearing. Taking simple faith and applying it, taking the cedar wood of the cross and being sanctified from all the things of the world. Then entering in by the scarlet, the dipped wool, into the dye that dyed the wool red with an animal's blood. In this way the wool—our own selves—being dyed. Oh, my.

I was a leper one time, just as spotted with sin as I could be. But He take me to the vat of His own blood, and He dyed me in there. Then I'm on the inside of the tabernacle of God now, with the grace under fellowship. Once I'd standing on the street, my father a bootlegger and everything, nobody ... no clothes to wear, and hair hanging down my neck, and no shoes on my feet out on the ground, and people wouldn't even talk to me—even a young man—because the family had such on awful black name, shooting, fighting, killing and everything. Somebody be talking to me, they'd walk away, see somebody else come up, because they didn't want to be standing talking to me, to be met on the street. I kept holding on, “There's something greater than this, there's something somewhere.” I went to the vat and was dyed in the blood of the Lord Jesus. And the other day my wife said....

When I go home, I have to slip off somewhere, go out in the woods to keep people away, to get a few minutes of rest. What did it? Personality? I have none. Education? I have none. What did it? The precious blood of Jesus Christ that cleansed me from sin, and sanctified me, dyed my soul in His goodness and His mercy. And now I am under the fellowship with tens of millions of the saints of God around the world. That's the real true fellowship. I'm so glad I'm one of them. Aren't you?

Going to sing you a song. I know it'll shock you, but I'm going to sing you one. I don't know whether I can or not, but I'm going to try it.

They were gathered in the upper room, all

praying in His name,

They were baptized with the Holy Ghost, and

power for service came;

Now what He did for them that day He'll do

for you the same,

I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.

I'm one of them, I'm one of them,

I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them;

(Hallelujah!)

One of them, I'm one of them,

I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.

Come, my brother, seek this blessing that will

cleanse your heart from sin,

That will start the joy-bells ringing and will

keep your soul on flame;

Oh, it's burning now within my heart, oh, glory

to His name,

I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.

Aren't you glad this morning you're one of them? I remember walking down the street. You know my little story about the colored woman in Memphis that time, how I was going down the street humming that song and she was standing there waiting for me. The Lord healed her boy. Yes, sir.

Oh, these people may not learned to be (not

educated), or boast of worldly fame.

They have all received their Pentecost, through

faith in Jesus' name;

And they're telling now, both far and wide, His

power is yet the same,

I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.

Oh, my. How did I get it? Through the fellowship of the blood. I've come in from an alley rat to be your brother, to fellowship with you in the good things of God, under the shed blood where the fellowship of the saints worship with God. Let us bow our heads.

Would there be, by chance, someone here who hasn't entered into that fellowship? You don't know what the Shekinah glory is. You say, “Brother Branham, I'm a Christian. I made a confession.” That's fine. You've come through the waters of separation. “Oh, Brother Branham, I've been sanctified; I don't smoke or drink.” That's very fine, my brother, but have you come into the fellowship yet, where God meets you under the shed blood? After you have come under the shed blood, the life in that blood comes back in the form of the Holy Ghost, which is Christ in the Spirit, to fellowship with His children. If you haven't and want to be remembered in prayer, would you raise your hand say, “Remember me.” God bless you, lady. Oh, my. Eight or ten, fifteen hands. Let us pray.

Lord, oh, the hour is late, but God, this precious truth, this place of fellowship that's underneath the blood of the Lord Jesus. How glad that I am. “Amazing grace!” said the poet, “how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found, I was blind, but now I see.” Father God, help me to keep myself sanctified, little, never to be big. Just let me be as You'd want me to be that it might get the poor brother that hasn't the opportunity, that maybe he can see that Your grace is sufficient for all men. Let it be a footstep, Lord, upon the sands of time when my life is finished. As Brother Carlson said, Brother Roberts and I and all of us must go someday. But, God, while I'm here, let me remember the pit from where I was hewed from. Let me remember the precious blood all the days of my life. Keep myself little that the poor brother that might think that God can only deal with the up and up, the rich, let him see that God.... Let me make a footprint somewhere, Lord, that would lead this brother to the place of fellowship. Grant it, Lord.

Bless these hands that was up. They're in here seeking and longing to come under that fellowship. Maybe they have received the Word and been separated. Maybe they've been forgiven of there sins. And truly, after their sins are forgiven, they may be sanctified from the things of the world but have never come into this Shekinah glory. They'll have to come in by the baptism of the Spirit that baptizes us into this one body of Shechinah glory. I pray that You'll do it, Lord.

So thankful for these men this morning who spoke before me, great men that's fellowshipped in this great thing maybe before I was born. What honorable people! How I'm so happy to be numbered with them this morning, Father. I pray that Your eternal blessings will rest upon each and every one of us, and may the meetings continue on great. Bless Brother David DuPlessis. Bless Brother Carlson, and our precious Brother Sullivan, and all these singers, and precious brethren around everywhere, Lord, and our sisters.

Lord, sometimes I speak so rough to them women. I pray that, Lord, they'll never get the wrong impression of me.

When I seen that woman the other morning; said, “You led her to Christ after ninety.” Lord, I just want them to be sisters, and may they understand that. May ministers; maybe like that one on the platform the other night You called out and told him he was smoking cigarettes, right on the platform. How You called his sins out and yet a preacher. God, I love that brother. I love all of them brothers, but—if I didn't, there'd be something wrong with me—but, Lord, when I have to speak it out, let them know it's not me doing that. That's Your Spirit that's calling out the sin of the world. And how can I hold my peace and maintain my ministry, Lord? I cannot do it. And let them not feel evil but just go to the Word and seek God. Grant it.

May every sick person in the divine presence this morning, may they reach over just now, jerk a handful of hyssop out of their own life—what little faith that they have—then apply the blood of Jesus Christ to that sick place, watch it welt away. O God, grant it.

Forgive us of our short comings. Bless the evangelists, pastors, teachers everywhere, and may millions of people yet enter into this fellowship under the blood of Thy Son. We ask it in His name. Amen.

God bless you. I'm sorry to keep you all this time, but I just didn't look down to see that it was that late. I thought I was only been up here about fifteen minutes....