Sir, We Would See Jesus

Thank you very much, Brother Borders. You may be seated. [Someone asks Brother Branham a question.] If you please. I certainly deem this a great privilege of being here this evening to begin this campaign here in this lovely city. I'm supposed.... I'm a little too close to that. Can you hear all right out there? Can you hear back in the back all right? That's fine.

We've been looking forward to coming here for some time. I can remember my early days of my ministry—how that I ministered here in Oregon, and the Lord did bless in such a wonderful way. There's no doubt but there's people here tonight who was in those campaigns back in 1948, '49, along in there, at Portland, and Ashland, and Salem, I believe; and, oh, I don't know, several different cities, Eugene, Grant's Pass, we had great meetings. The Lord blessed wonderfully.

And I've always wanted to get back out here and catch some of these trout that you people are missing, but I just haven't had a chance yet. And looks like every time I come, I'm on a mission to preach, but maybe I can.... No, I can't retire. Ministers don't retire, do they, brethren? They just can't retire. So maybe some day, I will just take off and go with some of my brethren here fishing. I noticed today coming down, everywhere we seen was fishing license, hunting license, and that certainly looked good to a tired, wore out preacher.

And so, we are very glad to be here to start this ten day campaign here in your lovely city. And we're trusting that it'll be a great blessing to you and to me. We are here for no purpose but to bring our ministry to you to help further the cause that you're now contending for: that is the faith once delivered to the saints. We are not here to bring anything different, but just to help our brethren, to pitch our ministry in with theirs, to move along towards the kingdom of God.

We truly believe that the Lord Jesus will come some day in a physical body just like He was taken up. And it looks to me like that that time is certainly drawing nigh. When we see all kinds of signs appearing of His coming, and the Scriptures being fulfilled, and we just wonder how much longer it will be until we will see that blessed One that we've looked for so long.

If I'm not mistaken, the last time I was in Oregon (or one time) I was with Dr. F. F. Bosworth, great gallant soul. Died at eighty-four years old recently. Never died—just went to sleep. I went to see him. I heard he was dying, and I went to see him. When I got there—the aged old prophet laying on his little bed—I come in the door, and he raised those little bony arms out. We'd just come from Africa together on a great campaign. I took him in my arms, and I cried, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” Such a gallant old soldier for Christ.

And I said to him while I was there, I said, “Brother Bosworth, when was you the most happiest in all your Christian experience?”

He said, “Right now, Brother Branham.”

And I said, “Do you realize that you are going?”

He said, “Sure.”

And I said, “Why could you say that while you know that death is right on you now?”

He said, “Brother Branham, all that I have stood for and lived for for better then fifty years, I'm expecting Him to walk in that door at any minute to take me with Him.”

I thought of the Psalm of Life:

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

With partings, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

That was a footprint to me, to know that after better than fifty-five years of ministry on the field, preaching many years before I was born, that still at the end of the road, Jesus meant more to him than any time in his life.

And about one hour before he went to be with the Lord Jesus, before He came in and got him, he had been laying on the bed sleeping. And he woke up, looked in the room. His wife came in, and his son, many of the loved ones. And he looked around the room, and raised up and shook hands for over an hour with friends of his that had been gone on for thirty or forty years. Shook hands, said, “Why, I remember you. You came to Christ in my meeting at Joliet. I remember you. You was at Montreal, when you....” And called them by name, someone who had been dead for years and gone on. The saints don't die; they just go to be with the Lord, that's all.

And then finally, after meeting his mother and father and all, come back and laid down on a little cot there, folded his arms, closed his eyes, went to meet the Lord. Such a gallant man. I'm sure that if we could ever have the privilege of visiting that great land before the coming of the Lord, that we will see Brother Bosworth there with his friends, happy, enjoying eternal life to its sublime.

Now, we come to this city on the invitation of our precious brethren here, the different denominations and different phases of the Christian faith. And we come to join forces with them for the benefit of this community, for this city, and for the round about regions; that it'll make it a harder place to do wrong after this meeting, a easier place to do right after this meeting. Come to make life a little sweeter for you, see if we can pray a prayer of faith, that God will heal the sick in the community along with our brethren to make a call to the sinners, maybe the last call that they'll ever receive, that they'll enter into that blessed land where only the redeemed can go.

And that's what we're here for purposely. Our main purpose is to see you be prepared for that. Next is to pray for the sick and see that they get well, praying to the Lord. And then another thing, is to those who have strayed away from church, to go back to your church and take up your fellowship again among the believers. And then also, we would like to get those who've backslid and gone away, back into the precious fellowship of the church again with the people.

Now, we will try not to keep you long each night. Tonight being just my first time here, perhaps maybe not five or six people here that I ever seen in my life or ever seen me, but I am.... You know, the first night it's usually kind of hard.

You say, “You know, I don't like the way that preacher wears his tie.” Well, my wife doesn't either. So you know, and something another.... I used to say the way he combed his hair, but that's out of the question now.

And so we.... Just something you have to meet, and meet the person. And then after a night or two, you get acquainted. Then the Holy Spirit moves in and begins to bless us, and all the little, you know, as I call it, the little frictions and the little bugs combed out. And then we're ready then to go into the worship. And we got ten days, the Lord willing, for this. We pray that it will be a great thing.

Now, it's not my meeting, it's our meeting. We are together and every little effort that we can put forth, even to speak to somebody to come. Send and get some poor sick person and bring them in to be prayed for. Get some poor strayed sinner, that they might come in to be saved. Get some unbeliever to come in, sit back and watch the meetings. Maybe he might change his attitude. Just remember, many great infidels has been converted just listening at the gospel. How can you be converted unless you hear the gospel? because “Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word of God.”

And now, we're going to open this precious Word and read just a verse out of it, or two, for a little text—to find a context. Then I believe that Billy was supposed to give out some prayer cards tonight. Did he do it? Raise up your hands if there's anybody got.... He did it. All right.

Sometimes on the first night, we don't pray for the sick. We just.... We never have any set, cut and dried program; we just let the Holy Spirit lead. And I think that's what the people want—is just let the Spirit of the Lord lead. We don't know what He will have us to do. But if we will just keep ourselves prayed up. Don't overeat—eat least that you can—and pray. Call on the phone, get somebody to come, attend every meeting you possibly can. And I'm sure that with all that effort, God will meet us more then halfway on the ground. I believe that.

Now, just before we read His Word.... We believe this to be the Word of God. We believe this to be the true Word of God. Everything that's in here is God's Word. Do you believe that, the whole church? That's good.

Just a few weeks ago, there was a grocery man lives out the lane from where I live. And he's a very staunch believer, a Catholic. And he said to me, he said, “Brother Branham, I've often wondered why you wasn't a Catholic.”

And I said, “I am a Catholic.”

“Oh,” he said, “I don't understand.”

I said, “Yes, I am a Catholic.”

And he said, “I never see you at our church, and you've got a church down here.” And said, “I just don't get that.”

I said, “Well, I want to ask you: Is it true that the Catholic church believes that this Bible is a history of the early Catholic church, that Jesus Christ established the Catholic church, Peter was the first pope, and that the acts of the apostles is the acts of the early Catholic church?”

He said, “That's exactly truth.” (Of course, many of my people are Catholic. I'm Irish and kind of know their doctrine.) So, he said, “That's true.”

I said, “Well, and then the reason you don't live by this Bible now, because that the pope has the church.... The pope has a right to change anything in the Scripture that he wants to, because he was given the right to do that. And this is just the history of the first church.”

He said, “Yes, sir.”

I said, “Well, now. See?” I said, “I believe I'm more of a Catholic than you are.” I said, “Because you're one of these new day Catholics, the one that takes the doctrine of the Catholic church today. And I'm an old-fashioned Catholic, that believes what the old-fashioned Catholic wrote and done.” I said, “Surely, they ought to know more about it. They walked with the Lord Jesus. And Peter, the first pope, said, 'There's no other mediator between God and man, but the Man Christ Jesus.'” And I said, “I just kind of believe that.” And I said, “I teach just exactly like the early Catholic church did—just what they wrote in the Bible and what they done.”

He said, “I believe you got something, son.”

So that's right. Oh, I just love God's Word. It's certainly food to us to study it together and read it. I'm not a theologian. I have not the education to be a theologian, and I don't try to be. I just love the Lord Jesus, and just try to walk the way He would have me to walk, and say what He has me to say, and pray for the sick people. And He's blessed me so far, and I believe He will bless us tonight.

Now, before we open His precious Word, let's bow our heads just a moment while we speak to the Author.

Our gracious heavenly Father, we come to Thee just as humble as we know how. We come approaching Thee in the name of Thy loving Son, the Lord Jesus, knowing this, that He said, “Ask the Father anything in my name, I will do it.” Then we know that we have a right to approach You. Come by the way of His name, coming by the cross, asking mercy and forgiveness of sin and healing for our sick bodies, and for the grace of Thy presence, Lord, in this meeting to just continue to be with us night after night. May this beginning and this revival be just a beginning of an old-fashioned revival that'll break out through this valley, and every church, and amongst all the people, that people will come from over these mountains everywhere to learn of the Lord. Grant it, Lord.

Bless our ministering brethren, these anointed disciples of Yours, that's held forth the fort here, bringing out the truths of the gospel and preaching that without favor of men and standing for truth. And how that You have blessed them. We pray that this meeting will be a stepping stone to them, Lord, that it'll inspire them in their meeting, and in their churches, and their people.

And when the services is over, may there not be one among us but what has received Thy Spirit. May there not be one feeble person walking among us, but may the Holy Spirit heal every one. Grant it, Lord. Call back to fellowship those who have strayed away, Father God.

And when we leave tonight to go to our separate homes to begin a new day tomorrow, may we say like those who came from Emmaus, “Did not our hearts burn within us, as He talked to us along the way?” We know that He did something before them, just like He did it before His crucifixion. No other man ever did it like that. And when He got them on the inside and He closed the door, then He did this thing that He did before, and they recognized quickly that it was Him.

God, we've come into this school auditorium tonight, to which we are thankful for. We pray that You'll bless the school, and the teachers, and the principals, and the trustees, and all that's concerned, because they've opened the doors to a religious meeting.

And we've come in and closed, as it was, the world on the outside. May You come among us tonight and reveal Yourself the way You did it before You were crucified. Then we'll know that You are the risen Lord. It'll strengthen our faith, Lord. And we will give Thee the praise. For we ask it in the name of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

The Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word now. I want to take just a little Scripture reading found in Saint John twelfth chapter, twentieth verse.

And there were certain Greeks ... that came up to worship at the feast:

And the same came ... to Philip, which was of Bethsaida and desired ... of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

Now, our theme is this ... been my theme since I was here before, or in Oregon: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's found in Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And now, on this familiar (to many of you people) this little scripture: “Sirs, We Would See Jesus.”

This Greek asked this question. He came to Philip—to a minister—and asked to see the Lord Jesus, and was granted the privilege of seeing the Lord Jesus by a minister of the Lord Jesus. And then, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why can't we ministers then bring to the people, or the people to the Lord Jesus just as Philip brought these Greeks to the Lord Jesus? For He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, it's a sensible.... And it's scriptural. And it's just as logical as it was in that day, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now, I believe that the Scriptures cannot tell anything that's wrong. There's many things in the Scriptures that I only wish I was able with faith enough to make them real to the people. But I'd never stand in the way of anybody that could do it. If I couldn't take a walk like Enoch one afternoon with the Lord, and just get so overjoyed till I'd just walk up home with Him, I would not stand in anybody's way that did have that much faith, that could just walk up home with Him without dying or tasting death in this world.

And we are trying today, as we see the end time approaching, there should be endtime appearings of the Lord Jesus that He predicted in the Scripture. Because whatever He said, it must come to pass.

Now, we ourselves are finite. We can make many mistakes—and I make more than all—because we are finite. But He is infinite, and He cannot make a mistake. Now, I can promise you something, and with the very best of my ability, I can say I really mean that, but not be able to fulfill what I promised, because circumstances would alter cases. But not so with God. He cannot make a promise that He cannot fulfill.

Moses thought the same thing ... or, Abraham, rather, “Staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong, giving praise to God; for he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to perform.” Therefore, all the Scriptures that God has given to us are promises.

Now, we get ourselves worked in with the human element of the time element. And the only thing we know is inches, feet, yards, miles, measurement, days, weeks, hours, months, years. But God's eternal. We have the limited powers and limited intelligence, but God is infinite in all things. He knows all things, knew all things before the world began. He knew this meeting would be here tonight. He knowed all things before there was a world, because He could tell what would be in the end time from the beginning—makes Him God. Nothing else, no one else, no other being, no other person could ever do that, but God alone.

Now, we sometimes wonder why He's so great, and yet why we don't see Him more than what we do.

Now, if I would go down in the city tonight to each denomination of church, and I'd say, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever?” to their lovely pastor, he'd say, “I certainly do.”

I'd say, “That's very fine.” Well then, I'd say, “Do you believe that He is still the same Saviour that He was?”

He'd say, “Most certainly I believe that.”

“Do you believe that He lives today as He did then, only in the form of the person of the Holy Spirit?”

“Certainly I believe that.”

Then if He died, and through His great, holy blood that He gave at Calvary—which was not Jewish or neither was it Gentile—it was the blood of God.... The blood comes from the male sex. And in this case the male was God, created a blood cell in the womb of the virgin that brought forth the Son of God, in which God spread forth His tent and tabernacled with human beings—Emmanuel.

Now, through that blood, He sanctified a church that He might continue His work, Himself living in that church. That's the gospel. That makes Him the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We are absolutely unworthy of any blessing. There's nothing that we could do to merit that. But by unmerited grace, God gave us this privilege to be called His children, His sons and His daughters, sanctifying us as we confess our sins, sanctifying the world from us, that He might work His way through us by the Holy Spirit to do and will His work.

Now, He said when He was on earth, “The works that I do shall you also; greater than this....” The right translation there is “more.” No one could do any greater, but He'd be in more places. Then God was manifested in one man; now He's manifested in the entire church universal, everywhere. God can work through every man and every woman that'll open up their heart and let the Lord Jesus come in and work His will through them.

I don't care if you don't even know your ABCs; just the only thing you have to have is a humble, submitted heart to God, and God will work His will through you. That's right.

You don't have to know a whole lot. You only have to know one person: that's the Lord Jesus. To know Him is life. That's the only person you have to know to have eternal life. To know Him—not know the Book, not know the creeds—but know Him is eternal life. Know Him as your personal Saviour, know Him as the one who has filled you with His goodness and His mercy, that's sent the world away from you, discharged it, sent it away like the scapegoat in the Old Testament to go into the wilderness to be killed, to be no more.

And the very thing that made you sin and do the things that you used to do has been drove from you by His precious blood that sanctified you and set you aside for His service, that He might will His will through you, to work through you. Just as simple ... and to believe it.

Now, we too would join hands with that minister, saying, “We believe these things.”

Now, I might say to this certain person, “Do you believe that He is in every way the same except the corporal body?”

He'd say, “Well, I don't believe that He still performs miracles.”

Then He isn't the same. He's got to be the same. He's just as much Saviour today as He was then. He's just as much healer today as He was then. For the prophet said, “He was wounded for our transgressions; with his stripes we were healed.” See, past tense.

I do not believe that man has any magic power to heal people. I believe that the power lays within the individual that's being prayed for. It's their faith in Christ that does the healing. Now, the initial and most gracious way of any way to be healed is to hear the gospel preached and accept it. That's the only way to be. The gospel of salvation, the gospel of deliverance, the full gospel—full gospel for the full man, for the full son, for the full daughter. All of the gospel, all that He said, all that He done, all that He promised is to every person that will believe it. “Whosoever will, let him come.” Methodists, Baptist, Pentecostal, Pr....

Well, Pentecost, I've never.... I've been.... I was a Baptist minister, you know, just as much Baptist as I ever was. Pentecost is not a denomination; Pentecost is an experience. It's an experience that Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, anybody that wants to receive it is welcome to come and receive it. It's an experience, and you cannot organize an experience. It's something that God has done to the human being, see. And He will do it to any one, no matter what church you belong to.

Now, in this.... Now, of course, we have fellowships and organizations. That's exactly fine, because those brethren congregate together and make their organization, which is just exactly right. Sure. But I mean, you can't say, “You have to come to the Pentecostal church before you get the experience.” You can get it out in the field if you want it, up there in the woods, down on the street corner. Wherever it is, whatever church you're in, if you're still hungering and thirsting for Christ, Christ is here to fill you with the fullness of His power of His Spirit. That's right. No matter where you are or what your church you belong to, it's for you.

Now, if He is the same, He's not just halfway the same, or two-thirds the way the same. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, His Word said, “A little while and the world (which the Greek word there 'cosmos' which means 'the world order') will see Me no more. Yet ye shall see Me (the church); for I (and I is a personal pronoun), I will be with you, even in you to the end of the world. I will be with you, even in you to the end of the world.”

See what His death, burial, and resurrection was? Was to clean and sanctify a church, set it aside, and fill it with His power to continue the same works that He did, making Him the same yesterday, today, and forever to continue on and on.

Now, the only way that we will ever be able to draw from this text the thing that we want to say, is to find out what He was yesterday. Then that will be what He will be today, and what He will be forever. What type of a person was He?

As we see the day approaching, it makes me just shiver to look out upon the streets as I pass through the cities, and see and read the newspapers, and hear the broadcasts, and so forth, of sin abounding. And the day drawing nearer, nearer all the time of the coming of the Lord. But you can't do nothing about it, because God said it would be just that way. I can speak a voice against wrong; it's our duties to do that. You and I are supposed to speak against the wrong, the evil. We will never be able to conquer it and stop it. It's just those who has an ear to hear that will hear it. “All the Father has given Me will come to Me. My sheep hear My voice.”

Now, then as we see this day appearing and see God sending great revivals across the country—you Baptists, a Billy Graham; you Methodists, a Jack Schuller; you Pentecostals, an Oral Roberts —why, what God has done. Great signs, wonders, and miracles has taken place throughout the nations everywhere and continually the nation wades on into sin. Do you believe that to be the truth? Why, it's right before our eyes. There's no way of.... Continually getting worse all the time.

It reminds me of a little story, a little thing that happened rather in Louisville, Kentucky, about six months ago. There was a lady that had her little baby, and she was in one of those five-and-ten-cent stores in Louisville. And they begin to notice the little sister.

She picked up little gadgets, you know, and say, “Look, Honey, look, Honey.” Then she'd get nervous and run to another counter and say, “Look, Honey, look, Honey.” And the little baby would just sit staring, staring.

Then she'd go to another counter, and another counter, getting more nervous all the time. Finally, she picked up a little jingle outfit. And she shook it, and she said, “Look, darling, at this.” Anything ought to attract a little boy's attention like that. But he just sat and looked, stared in space. And she fell down at the counter and begin to scream. She said, “Oh, no. It just can't be.”

And the people that was in the store, they went to her to find out what was wrong. And she said, “My little boy, about a year ago, set in to just staring in space.” And said, “I have done everything. I've had him to the doctor. And the doctor said he thought he was better, but he isn't.” And said, “I've just done everything I can to attract his attention with little gadgets, that ought to attract a little boy's attention of his age.” And said, “This little thing, little horse cart, it's got little jingle bells on it, like a little boy near Christmas time like this ought to be listening to this little bells in the snow and so forth.” And said, “And he just sits and stares in space.” Said, “He's no better.” And her little mother heart screamed out for her baby, because she knew there was something mentally wrong with her baby.

I think that's a great deal with the church today. God has shook every kind of a gift and things that He could before the church. And it just sits and stares in space. “Well, that was a very nice meeting. Brother Roberts had a fine meeting.” “Brother Billy Graham has great speaking.” But they don't move. What we need today is a soul-stirring revival, something that'll go down to cause all night prayer meetings, men and women getting right with God, and cities turning to God. Great signs and wonders would just keep accumulating.

God sends His gifts, He shakes them before our eyes, and if we turn them down, then what can God do about it? If that mother thought that about her baby, what does God think tonight about His church, when we've had so much before us—great men in the land. Tommy Osborn, and Brother Allen, oh, how many great men has crossed the nation from place to place. All kinds of signs and wonders has showed up right at the end time. And yet the church sits dazed, say, “It was pretty good. I believe I may go to another night, see what will take place at the next meeting.”

That's not the thing to do! What we need when we see God moving in our midst is to get down to business with it—pray, and cry out, and do all that we know how to do. Let the gospel in this last days attract our attention. The Bible promised that this gospel would just become so each day....

Like in the days of Luther, he taught sanctif... or, justification. It come in the minority when He come into the Wesleyan Methodist age through sanctification. Then when they'd settled down to a church, and that was all there was to it, God raised up Pentecost. And now, it's got to the place that Pentecost is becoming formal and indifferent. God moves right on. He won't stop at all, He goes right on.

The children of Israel followed a pillar of fire. And every time that fire stopped, they stopped with it. And if they didn't move, they was left in the wilderness. They had to move where the fire moved. That's the way God's church always does: it moves with the fire.

When Martin Luther saw the fire in the first reformation, he come out of the Catholic church, and he built his denomination under it. The fire moved into sanctification. He was already organized under that and couldn't do it, go any farther. Methodists took it, they organized under that. They couldn't go no farther. Pentecost come and took it from them. Now, if we don't watch, the fire will move right on again. Let's stay under the fire, worship under the fire, worship in the power of the Spirit, believing God's Word, laying aside every weight and every sin that doth so easily beset us.

And what is sin? Unbelief. “He that believeth not is condemned already.” There's just two sins, two things in the world: one is faith, and the other one is unbelief. Committing adultery, smoking, drinking, that's not sin. That's the attributes of sin. You do that because you're not a believer. A believer doesn't do those things. You either believe or do not believe.

There is three classes of people usually attends the meetings anywhere, and that's unbelievers, make-believers, and real believers. And they're always that crowd everywhere. And now what we want to do is be real believers, throw our heart into this Word, and let the Word be ... the Word of God be the final decision of every one of us.

You owe it to me. You owe it to me as a minister. If you ever see anything that's going on in a meeting that's not exactly with the Scripture, then you owe it to me to come tell me. That's right, you do. I believe that God does things that's not wrote in the Bible. I believe that. God's God, He can do what He wishes to. But as long I know it's staying right in that cover there, and know that God made a promise, I feel assured with that. As long as I can have that, I will be satisfied with whatever.... Anything else ... nothing else will satisfy me like that, as long as I can stay right with that.

Now, the only way to find out what Jesus is today is to go back and find what He was yesterday, if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Is that logical? Is that sensible? Well now, let's go back then.

I was reading here a few moments ago in Saint John, the twelfth chapter, I believe it was. Yes, sir, the twelfth chapter and the twentieth and twenty-first verse. Now, let's go back to the first book of Saint John. I want you to study with me, and through the week, so we won't stay too long.

I guess you heard that go off just then. That was my watch. I have an alarm watch from Switzerland, and I think when I've said enough, I have that alarm set. But I haven't got started yet, so I just had to turn it off.

Now, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. Let's turn back to the first chapter of Saint John and find out.... If you read a book, and it said, “Mary and John lived happy ever after,” who is Mary and John? You'll never know till you go back to the first of the book and read the book through. And if the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the only way we will ever know what He was, what He should be today, we will have to go back to see what He was yesterday. Is that right?

Now, let's find out. We get Saint John 1. We'll will just quote some scriptures—I want you to read it. I'm going to go over a few chapters in it tonight, tomorrow night pick up some more, and so forth as we go along, the way the Holy Spirit will lead. Well, let's find out what He was yesterday. Then if we can see exactly what He was yesterday, and see Him come into our midst, and do the same thing today, every sick person in here ought to get up and thank God and walk out. Say, “It's all over.”

Now remember, before we get to it, divine healing is not some magic words that someone says over you. Divine healing.... Every sick person in here is already healed in the sight of God. He was wounded for our transgression.

You say, “Brother Branham, what do you mean by that?”

All right, sometimes I say, “How many were saved twenty years ago?” A lot of hands would go up. “How many was saved two years ago?” Lots of hands would go up.

Well, I differ with you. You were saved nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus died for you at Calvary. You just accepted it twenty years ago and two years ago, see. That's your salvation. The plan's finished. Jesus said at the cross, “It's finished.” The whole plan of man's redemption was finished, and every blessing that he needed in life's journey was completed at the cross. For there “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; with his stripes we were healed.” Do you believe that? Now, there we are.

Now, we'll go back then to catch what He was. Now, we find out in Saint John, the first chapter, there was a fellow named Andrew. We know about His birth, and about His preaching of the ... going into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And then after forty days, He came back out. And there was a man by the name of Andrew that went and got his brother, Peter, and brought Simon Peter. (Which, his name was not that at that time. His name was Simon, but not Peter. Peter means “a little stone”.)

So he brought him into the presence of the Lord Jesus. His ministry was young now. Saint John, the first chapter. He brought him to the Lord Jesus, and as soon as Jesus looked at him, He said, “Your name is Simon, and your father.... You're the son of Jonas.” Is that right? “Your name is Simon, and your father's name is Jonas.” This illiterate fisherman, who the Scripture says that “He was both ignorant and unlearned.” Did you know the Bible said that the first pope—according to the doctrine of the Catholic church—was ignorant and unlearned? The Bible said it. “He was ignorant and unlearned.” Saint John 4. I mean Acts, the fourth chapter. (I beg your pardon.) And he was both ignorant and unlearned, but they had to take notice he had been with Jesus.

And as soon as He said that, quickly he recognized Him to be the Son of God. Why? Why did he recognize it? Because.... If there's any Jewish people in here, you'll know it, any Bible reader will know it—that the Jews were looking for a Messiah to come. Is that right?

Moses said, “The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet liken unto me.”

Is that right? And they knowed this Messiah would be a God-prophet that would give the sign of a prophet like Moses was, for that was the prophet they were looking for. And when He said to Simon, “Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas,” quickly he recognized that that was the Messiah that they were looking for.

We find out a few days after that, there was a fellow named Philip. And he was so enthused, he really got in contact with Christ. And I believe beyond any shadow of doubt, that when a man comes in contact with Christ once, he can never be the same no more as long as he ever lives. There's something about Him that's different from any other man or any other person. Once meet Him, and you'll know you've never met any one like that before. No wonder they sent back and said, “Why, never a man spake like this man.”

You once here Him speak, that still small voice in your heart, that attracted the prophet, not even the fire and thunder and everything else didn't attract him, but that still small voice. He veiled his face and come to the end of the cave. It's that meeting Christ once, then we find....

Notice, when Philip had got in contact with the Lord Jesus, he was concerned about all of his friends. There's something about Him, that whenever you get in contact with Him, He changes you so much till you want everybody else to have that wonderful fellowship. There's something about it. Oh, it attracts and makes your heart yearn. It'll drive you to the frozen regions of the north, and to the tropical jungles of the south, in the midst of all kinds of devil worship and everything else, to snatch a soul from the hands of the enemy, whenever you have once found that precious jewel, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Quickly, he knowed he had a friend that belonged to the orthodox church, and he took out to find him. Now, if you'll go to Palestine, you'll find out it takes a good day—about fifteen miles to walk around the mountains and so forth—to get to where Philip went over to find Nathanael. And I can imagine....

Let's take a little journey and listen at him a minute. I can see him going up to Nathanael's door and knocking at the door, and his wife come to the door.

He says, “Well, how do you do?” Said, “Where is Brother Nathanael?”

“Well, Brother Philip, we're so glad to see you. Believe he's out in the orchard. He was out looking his olive grove over.”

Out through the orchard he went, and he found under that fig tree back there, a man knelt down praying. Of course, him being a Christian gentleman, he stood still until he got through praying. I want you to notice, he never jumped up and shook his hand, and asked about how everything was going on. When a man meets Jesus, his heart's on fire, he's got no time for nothing else but Jesus. That's it. He's just got to tell somebody about it.

Watch quickly. He said, “Come, see who we have found, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Not “How do you do?” or “How's everything getting along? Is the fig trees bearing good this year?”

No, sir. The message was urgent. And if it was urgent then, what about now? If it was urgent then when we had two thousand years yet for the gospel to be preached, and this is the end time, how much more is it urgent today? Too many social affairs, too many parties, too many other things besides the real message of the Lord Jesus straight to the core, “Come, see what I've found. Come, get this experience of the precious Holy Spirit that's come into my life, that's changed me, that converted me from what I was to what I am now.” Oh, how thankful we are for this.

He found Nathanael under this tree. And he said, “Come, see who I found, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Well, I can imagine this great orthodox believer rising up, dusting off his Palestinian garment, the dust from it. He said, “Now, Philip, I know you to be a good, sane man. And what's this that you're telling me? 'Come see Jesus of Nazareth'? Could any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

Well, I think that Philip gave him the best answer I ever heard in my life. He said, “Come, see.”

That's the idea. Don't sit home and criticize; come, see for yourself. “Search the Scriptures; in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me,” said the Lord Jesus.

Now, he said, “Come, see.”

I can imagine as they go along the road on over.... Well, he was willing to go. Oh, I can hear him telling about seeing the Holy Spirit coming upon the Lord Jesus at the baptism, how He went out into the wilderness.

Why, he said, “When it started, it was just that pillar of fire that was following the children of Israel as we come to this land. And then when it got closer, it looked like a dove. Then the next thing, it was in three different symbols. Then it fell into Him and a voice spoke, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'”

Then I can hear him say, “Do you know that old fisherman that we went to buy them fish from that time, and he was so illiterate, he couldn't sign his name to a receipt, that you wanted a receipt?”

“Yes, I remember it.”

“Well, just yesterday before I left, he came up before the Lord Jesus. His brother went and got him. And so he brought him up here. And when He saw Peter ... or, Simon, He said, 'Your name is Simon, and you're the son of Jonas.' Oh, it wouldn't surprise me, Nathanael, that when you walk up before Him, He will say, 'Your name's Nathanael.'”

“Oh, now just a minute now, Philip. You're going just a little bit too deep with that. He will never read my mind; I'm one of them strong-minded men, you know. He will never read my mind. I will never believe that.”

Well, he comes on up till he gets in the presence of the Lord Jesus. No doubt as soon as he heard Him speak, that man spoke different from any man he had ever heard. He spoke with authority; He knowed what He was talking about. So He said to ... standing, speaking, or in the prayer line, or whatever position He was in when Philip and Nathanael came up.

Jesus turned His eyes and looked out into the congregation, or into the line, wherever it was, and said, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

Well, some critic might say, “Sure He knowed he was an Israelite, it was in Palestine.”

There were Greeks, there were Arabians. They all dressed in the eastern garment. Not the way he was dressed, not his color of brown. It would've not made any difference. But Jesus knew that he was an orthodox believer. He said, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

Now Philip.... Nathanael was a well trained scholar. So he said, “Rabbi (which means ”teacher“), when did You know me? How did you know that I was a man with no guile? [I'd say today, ”a honest, good man.“] How did you know it?”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” That was Jesus yesterday. If He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, that's Jesus today.

You know what Philip said when He.... I mean, Nathanael said when He did this? He said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.”

Jesus said to him, “Because I've told you this, you believe? Then you'll see greater things than this.”

You get it? There it is, see. He believed it, because he knew that the Messiah would be a God-prophet: a man that stood and would prophesy and could foretell, foresee and forthtell. Also He would be Emmanuel.

He said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.”

He believed it, and his name is immortal among men tonight and his soul is immortal with God. He will live forever, because he recognized it at the beginning, and said, “Rabbi, You're the Son of God.”

Now, of course there were those standing by who didn't believe that. There were many of the priests standing by. Great men, religious men, good men stood by. And they had to answer to their congregation. They knowed the thing was being done, and that was more of a miracle than healing the sick, because it could be that the sick could get up. But that could not be—it had to be some supernatural power. So instead of trying to explain it, you know what they did? They just classed it as the devil.

And they said, “He is Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. He does these signs through that.” Beelzebub, a fortuneteller, and anybody knows that fortune-telling is of the devil. That's the devil and the devil's works. All right.

So he said, “He is a devil.”

Jesus turned around and said, “You say that against Me, the Son of man; I will forgive you for it. But [in otherwise like this] there's coming a day that when the Holy Ghost will come, and He will do the same thing. And whosoever speaks one word against it will never be forgiven, in this world and neither in the world that is to come,” see. It was new to them then. Now, Christ has died. Now, the Holy Spirit's here.

Then, read the next verse. “Because they call the Spirit of God an unclean spirit.” Called the Spirit of God, who knew those things and was revealing it to the secrets of the heart as the God-prophet was supposed to do, they said, “He is a evil person. It's a bad spirit in him. Some kind of a Beelzebub, a devil, that's in Him that's reading the minds of those people. That's what's doing that.”

Oh, what a horrible sin! Unbelief. Why, those people.... There was nothing against their lives. They were holy, just, priests in a lineage of priests. They had to be Levites. They had to be borned a certain.... Their daddy and their grandfather, and their great-grandfather on back, had to be priests. They knowed the law. They knowed the Word, just exactly letter by letter, lived in it day and night from childhood up. No one could put a finger on their life. And yet, Jesus said, “You are of your father, the devil,.” because they believed not when they seen the work of God going on. He condemned them, because that they believed not. The worst thing there is is to disbelieve God. That's the only sin there is: unbelief, to disbelieve it.

Now, we find.... Let's go with them a little farther. Let's go over now.... That's Acts.... Saint John, the first ... the second chapter. Let's go to Saint John the fourth chapter.

Now, there was three classes of people in the world then. There's three classes of people, three generations of people, or classes of people, rather, in the world today. And them was out of the three sons of Noah. If we believe the Bible, the whole world, the generations, all the people in the world, come down from those three children: Ham, Shem and Japheth, those three sons, Jew, Gentile and Samaritan.

Now, the Samaritans was looking for a Messiah also. And when the Messiah comes, He comes to those who is looking for Him. You believe that? I believe when He comes for His church, He will come to the church that's looking for Him to come. Now, don't let it parallel that one: “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” But then, He had made Himself known to the Jews by performing this certain sign, that they knowed that He was the Messiah.

Now, He had need to go by Samaria. Samaria was ... you know, you ministers and Bible readers, shows how the Samaritan race raised up. Now, we find out that they were looking for a Messiah too. And Jesus came to the well there, Sychar, and along about noon, He sent His disciples away to get some food.

And there was a woman. Let's think that she was a ill-famed woman. And she was living with her sixth husband. And she came out to the well to get some water. No doubt your pastor has preached on it a many time. But I'm trying to say what He was yesterday, so that you can see what He would be today.

Now, He's made Hisself known to the Jews. (Many other places we'll get to later, but just to hit the point, in a few minutes to call the prayer line.)

Now, He comes to this woman. Or this woman comes to get water, rather. And it's about noontime. And I can see her coming out with her hair hanging down, not combed. And she had the pitcher on her shoulder, as the oriental women usually carry it. They can put five gallon of water on top of their head, five gallon on their hip, and five gallon over here, walk right on talking to one another and never spill a drop, just as perfectly balanced. And this woman maybe had this water pot. Let's see, she might've been ... because she'd been out all night and just got in, the reason that she was ... or overslept. It might've been because she couldn't come to the well with the decent type of women. There was a great segregation among that in them days. An unclean woman couldn't mix with the clean women.

So anyhow, she was at the well. And Jesus.... It was kind of a panoramic, the well there at Sychar is something like this, vines growed up over the wall, and the city well there where the people come to get their water. I can see the woman come up, take the two big handles and put the hooks in it, and let the windle down to get water. And she heard a voice, said, “Woman, bring me a drink.”

And she looked over, and she seen a middle-aged Jewish man, sitting over against the well. Perhaps He looked a little older than what He really was. I believe when He was about thirty, they told Him that He looked fifty.

They said, “You are a man yet not no more than fifty years old, and you say that you've seen Abraham?”

He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

So they.... But He looked fifty when He was only thirty. And so He might've looked a little aged sitting back there. Maybe a little streak of gray in His hair or beard, because the great burden, the sins of the world was placed upon His shoulders. And there He sat there.

She seen this Jew. And they had a segregation in those days, just like there used to be in the north and south between the white and the colored people.

Then she said, “It's not customary for you Jews to ask a Samaritan woman such a thing as that.” Said, “We have no.... We have no dealings with one another.”

Listen at the voice come back. “Woman, if you knew who it was that speaks with you, you'd ask me for a drink. I'd give you water you don't come here to draw.”

And she said, “The well's deep, and you have nothing to draw with.”

The conversation went on about worshipping in this mountain and at Jerusalem and so forth. After awhile, Jesus standing there.... He had need to go by, the Father sent Him there. And then He didn't know what would happen. What was He doing? He was trying to find what the woman's trouble was. When He found her trouble.... How many knows what it was? Sure, she was living in sin. And what did He say? “Go get your husband and come here.”

She said, “I have no husband.”

He said, “Thou has said well, for you have had five husbands, and therefore, the one you're living with now is not your husband.”

Now, did she say, “That man is Beelzebub”? No, sir. Did she say, “He must be a ... something wrong with Him. He must have a horrible case of mental telepathy”? No, sir. She knowed more about God than half the ministry does today. That's right.

She said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” Amen. “I perceive that You are a prophet. We Samaritans, we know that when the Messiah cometh, He will tell us these things. But who are You?”

He said, “I'm He that speaks to you.” Too bad that we don't know the same thing, isn't it? That's right.

She said, “We know—we Samaritans know—that when that Messiah cometh, He will be a God-prophet. He will tell us these things.” She was taught. Yet in her sins, she knowed what to look for when she seen it. And she said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. And I know that when the Messiah cometh, He will tell us these things.”

He said, “I'm he that speaks to you.”

And she dropped her water pot and ran into the city. Listen at her: “Come, see a man that told me the things that I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah?” And the Bible said that the men of that city believed on Him because of the saying of the woman. Oh, my!

That was Jesus yesterday. That was the way Jesus made Himself known. He never one time represented Hisself amongst the gentiles like that. Why? The gentiles wasn't looking for Him. The gentiles.... We had a club on our shoulder, serving idols in them days. But the Jews was looking for a Messiah, and the Samaritans was looking for a Messiah. But we've had two thousand years of church world, and we're looking for a Messiah in the last days. Did you know He promised He'd do the same thing? We'll get to it later in the week. I will give you one right now.

Jesus said over in there (just before we close), Jesus said over in the Scriptures, when He's telling about the coming of the ... His second coming. The seas roaring, waves and every so ... four things taking place, mighty signs to be taking place. He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.”

Do you notice when He said in the days of Noah, He give what they were doing, so that the spiritual mind would be able to pick it up. He's hid it from the eyes of the wise and prudent. Get on your spiritual eyesight now, get on your spiritual understanding. He said, “As it was in the days of Noah, they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage.” But He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man.”

Now, watch, we've always had three classes of people, three races of people, three different stages of the people. Look, there was a Sodomite sinner to who wouldn't have it. There was Lot, the lukewarm church member, down there preaching in Sodom. And there was Abraham, the called-out and elected. I feel religious right now. Brother! All the called out, the separated people. The church means “separated, called out from the world.”

There was Abraham, the called-out, having life kind of hard, persecuted, made fun of, sitting out in the wilderness on the bare ground in the shade of the oak tree. But when the hour of the message came, he looked out in the heat of the day, and he seen three men coming up, dust all over their clothes. And Abraham looked again—he knowed there was just something about it. A real borned-again child of God knows the Spirit of God when it strikes. Yes, sir. “My sheep know my voice.”

Abraham looked real quick. He walked out where they was, and said, “Turn aside. Come, sit under the oak a little bit and rest yourselves. And I will fetch you a little water and wash your feet, and I will give you a morsel of bread. Then go on your way.”

Well, they come by and sat down, strangers from a strange land. Oh, sure, a long ways away. And they sat down under the tree. He slipped in the tent. Let's break in on their conversation. “Sarah, honey, just as certain as I'm standing there, there He stands right out there. Go right quick and start getting this meal ready. Sift it real good and get it fine upon the hearth there. I want you to bake some cakes.”

He ran out, and felt around, and got the fattest little calf he could find, slayed it, and had it dressed, and come out and fed them meat and milk and bread. And I can see old Abraham with the flybush, you know, as it was, shooing the flies. How many Kentuckians are in here, difference, knows what a flybush is? No, I'm too far away from home. Oh, no, I am not. That's right. Yes, sir.

Well, I've stood many times at the table with a.... Mom used to make a paper thing on a stick when I couldn't get a green brush, you know, and shoo the flies, when we didn't have no screens. Little old cabin door, and no floor on the thing, and just a little old bed in the corner made out of shucks, and.... Why, certainly, corn shucks. I seen my daddy with a corn shuck shaving brush like that. Take that corn shucks for ... make a shaving brush. We lived hard.

And back in those days, I can see Abraham standing there, watching—you know, there's something. And women wasn't as brazen as they are today. They stayed back and take care of their business in them days, so she was back in the tent. Today, she has to run her husband's business, and all the rest of the business, and everything else. But I ain't saying that to you sisters—of course you all don't do that. But I'm talking about the women of the world. So Sarah, she stayed back in the tents where she belonged.

Abraham said ... begin to notice one of them begin to look over towards Sodom. He knowed something was going to take place. Two of them got up.

[Blank spot on tape.] ...these two to bring a message—a modern Billy Graham, if he ever was, to preach repentance. And repentance always.... No miracles, only the blinding of the people, and the preaching of the gospel blinds the unbeliever. That's exactly right. There he was down there, preaching, went to the church, to Lot. And with Lot, he tried to bring conviction to that.... Why, the blinding of them ... they still felt through the night to find them, to find these men. They were absolutely polluted if there ever was.

Now, watch this one that stayed back. Now, that's the message. The nominal church today has had its message through the Billy Grahams, and the great men of that denomination. They've had their message to come out of Babylon. But they won't listen to it, no more then they did back there in that day.

But now wait, there was an Angel stayed. One of them stayed behind. How many knows that's true? One of them stayed behind with Abraham, the elected church. Let's see what He did. He never called for no repentance. Let's see what He did. Jesus said the same thing would repeat. And I want you to notice, after this Angel done what He did and was taken out of the sight of Abraham, Abraham....

[Blank spot on tape.] flesh, foreshowing what He would do in the flesh of His church in the last days. “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” God, living in the flesh of His church. Doing what? What He did there, what He did when He come on earth. Watch Him. What did He do?

He sat there looking at Abraham. The Bible said His back was to the tent. He said, “Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?” Did you ever read it? “Where is your wife, Sarah?” How did He know he was married, and how did He know he had a wife, and how did He know his name was Sarah? What kind of telepathy was that?

And Abraham said, “She's in the tent behind You.”

And then the Angel said, “I'm going to visit you according to the time of life [as we know, the twenty-eighth day].” Said, “I....” Sarah was an old woman. Said, “I'm going to visit you according to the time of life, and you're going to have this child by Sarah, that I said that you was going to have. I'm going to fulfill my promise.”

And Sarah, in the tent behind Him, laughed to herself. Is that right? And the Angel, looking this a-way, said, “Why did Sarah laugh?”

“As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” He will come to the gentile church. The gentiles never had it in any age until this age. Here it is today. What is it? Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ—the same Lord Jesus, with the same signs, the same Holy Spirit living in the church today, performing the very things that He did.

Jesus said in Saint John, the fourteenth chapter, I believe about the eighth verse, He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.”

Now, we see what He was yesterday. That's what He was. They believed Him, because that He was the Messiah, proven to be the Messiah. Now, if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, He will have to do the same to the closing of this age of the gentiles, just like He did to the closing of the age of the Jews and Samaritans. If He doesn't, then He did something for them that He did not do for us. Then He would not be just. He's infinite, He cannot change His plans. And if God lets us come into His presence, this gentile age, without doing and showing to us the same that He did to them back there, then He done something for them He did not do for us. But He has not let us do it. We're here at the hour today when Jesus Christ lives.

He's raised from the dead. He is not dead. He is a-living to perform and to do the same as He did yesterday in His church that will yield itself and let the Holy Spirit move.

You Pentecostal people, many of you, upon the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with speaking in tongues, has give messages and all those things. That's exactly what the Bible teaches. That's exactly right. You gave prophecies and so forth. Then why can't we, when we see this has begin to move down now—we're settled on that—God moves His church a little higher, a little higher, just like a pyramid, when it comes to the top, finally to a peak.

Did you notice, the pyramid was rejected. The stone that went on the top of the main pyramid (if you was ever in Egypt) never did cap it. Why? The headstone was rejected. And what's that stone? Each stone, as it comes up to the end, had to be cut just in order for the headstone. Now, the church coming up from Luther, Wesley, Pentecost, it'll have to get into shape till the headstone Christ Jesus and the church will sit together (Hallelujah!) to cap the whole church together for the resurrection of every mortal that died believing on His name. Amen.

I believe that we are here today, that Jesus Christ still remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do you believe it?

If He would come in this midst tonight, and would perform and do just as He did then.... You say, “Would He heal me?” He couldn't heal you; He's already done it. “Would He save me?” He couldn't save you; He's already done it. You have to accept it. He could show Hisself present here. He could prove to you by some saint back there to speak with a tongue, and this one to interpret, or some other way like that, or a prophet raise up and say something was perfectly truth, or do something that the Scripture said that He would do in the last days, Then you could believe He was living with us, He was in us.

Paul said, “If you all speak with tongues, and there be no interpreter, the unlearned sit in the midst,” said, “then, won't they go away and say you're all mad or crazy?” See? “But if one is a prophet and prophesies and reveals the secrets of the heart, then they'll all fall down and say, 'God is with you.'”

Is that right? Well, we all know that's the truth. Then if they had that in the early church, we got to have it in this church at the closing of this gentile age. We're at the end time. And I believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And you say, “Sir, I would like to see Jesus.” I trust tonight with all my heart that He will make Hisself known among you. Now, how will He do it? The same way He did then, just the same way He did then. He promised it, He said it would be in the last days, we believe this is the last days. The last day's signs are appearing everywhere, the church cooling off, and all of the things going the way they're going, there'd come a falling away, all the things that was spoke of. But in that day, He promised these things would take place—and here it is.

Did you notice, when Jesus started out in His ministry, how that He begin to not say so much about His day then. He was telling more about His second coming than He was His first advent to the earth, speaking what this would be in this day.

Now, if He will come.... Now, no matter what kind of a gift He'd have standing here, or a gift out there, they have to get together. You have to believe it or nothing will happen. The little woman touched His garment and she was healed, because she believed it. She had faith.

A woman pushed through the crowd. Perhaps she.... Say they had prayer cards then. (They didn't, but say they did.) She couldn't get to Him. She had no way of getting to Him. She didn't have no means of getting to Him.

There'll be people out there in the audience tonight, will have no way of getting up here to be prayed for. We have to take them just as their numbers come. Well, we'll get everyone if we can, and before.... Every man that's got a prayer card, woman, just hold to it; we'll get to you sooner or later. We don't know how it'll be, but the just the way the Spirit will lead it.

Now, this little woman, what did she do? She said, “If I will just touch His garment.... I believe that man told the truth. I know I'll be healed. Why, certainly. That's what He promised.”

All right—her faith. And then when she touched Him.... Oh, everybody was touching Him, my, with their arms around Him, and “Hosanna” and some hollering, and criticizing, and everything. Of course that's the mixed-up crowd again, the multitude. Christ's gatherings always produces the believer, unbeliever, and make believer. Now, when they come....

Then she touched His garment, and she went off in the audience (like you are tonight) and sat down maybe. Maybe she stood up, I don't know. However, Jesus turned around and said, “Who touched Me?”

Insomuch till the apostle Peter rebuked Him, and said, “Why do you say such a thing as that? Everybody's touching You.”

He said, “But I perceive that virtue has gone from me.” Virtue is strength—He got weak. She touched Him, He got weak. He looked out over the audience until He found her and told her about her blood issue. And from that very minute, she believed that she was healed, and she was. Is that right?

Now, if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, do you believe that He is...? The New Testament, the book of Hebrews says that He is right now sitting at the right hand of God, power on high, and He is a High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Now, if you're sitting out there and not on the prayer line here, if you believe with all your heart, and you're sick, say, “Lord God, I'm sick too. I need help. Will You help me, O Lord?” See what He does. Certainly.

If you'll believe Him with all your heart, He's the High Priest. Wouldn't do no good to touch me; I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Wouldn't do no good to touch any of the rest of us. We're just sinners saved by grace.

But if you'll let your spirit move beyond us, and go up yonder and say, “Lord God, I believe with all my heart that we're living in the last days. This is the signs that You said. The man read it out of the Bible, said it out of the Bible. I will read it. I've read it many times—I know it, and I believe that it's the truth.”

If He will come among us tonight, I don't say that He will, but if He will, then you say, “Let me, O Lord God.” Then you touch His garment, and see if He don't turn right around and do the same thing that He did yesterday. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let us pray.

Our heavenly Father, we are so happy to be Your servants. We are so glad to know that You live. And in this great day that when we know by the turn of history, we know by the looks of things, we know by the way that the U.N. and the different nations are shaping up, that we're not here very much longer. We know that soon somebody's going to do something wrong. They're going to fire one of those missiles. And all around the world, great islands filled with atomic missiles, hydrogen bombs that will go 175 miles square, 150 feet deep in the earth, and thousands of them are aimed right at every city across this nation and around the world, from one side to the other. And the first time one of them hits a screen, the other one will let loose. The world couldn't stand it. And before all this happens, You said we would go. How close is the coming then? If we could look for that at any hour, how much the coming of the Lord.

Now, Father God, we know that just a small group of us here tonight. But we're here trusting, Lord, that we're in one accord. We're believing. And this that we've held on to.... Here's ministers sitting on the platform, long before I started preaching was ministers preaching the gospel. There's many out there the same way, that's spoke of and prophesied of this day. We're nearing the end, Father. Time is so short. We try to press so much in at one night. We think maybe there might be a sinner here that wouldn't be here again tomorrow night. Catch his soul tonight, Lord. Grant it.

Now, let the Holy Spirit come tonight. Anoint us, anoint the congregation, anoint the ministers on the platform, anoint me, Your unworthy servant. And may You use us, Lord, to fulfill Your Word that You've promised that You would do. You said, “The works that I do shall you also. A little while, and the world will see Me no more.” That's true, Lord. This meeting advertised up, down the streets, everywhere. The world's still at its go, water seeping its level.

But there's some who has pressed through the heat, sitting in this little building tonight. They're hungering and they're thirsting. They love You. They want to know more about You. And I've stood here by Your Word, telling them that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever to encourage them. If they are hungering for You, You're here to save them. If they're hungering for healing, You're here to heal them. Your very presence is here, and it'll heal them if they'll believe. It'll save them if they'll believe.

So, Father God, come tonight and do something like You did back there. And that was a proof to those coming from Emmaus as we mentioned awhile ago. It was proof to them that You was the resurrected Jesus—not another one, the same one, for You did the same things You did before Your crucifixion. They knew You were alive.

Father God, there may be men and women in here tonight that's never experienced this yet. May they experience it tonight. It's for Your honor, Lord, and Your glory. I commit myself to you, with the rest of the church, that You'll use us to Your honor. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

If there was a way for me to make the sick well, I would certainly do it. I would be glad to do it. I have no power to heal. I don't believe anyone else does ... men. I don't believe a doctor does. I believe healing lays in God. A doctor has a right. He can move something, or pull a tooth, sew up something, take appendix out, or an abscess or whatever it might be. But he doesn't build tissue; neither does medicine. Nature, God does that, that's right, all from God. You break your arm. Go to the doctor and let him set it, but he doesn't heal it. He just sets it. God does the healing; He heals it. He furnishes the calcium and whatever goes into the bones to heal it.

Now, how many in here is sick tonight? Raise up your hand that's sick and needs healing in your body. Half of the audience. Now, my son give out some prayer cards. We haven't got room to call them all at one time. But let's just call a few, then later on, we will get the rest of them, maybe tonight, maybe not, tomorrow night, or next night, or whenever the Lord moves.

But now remember, I say this: I do not say that He will. Now, that's up to Him. I have no way of assuring it will. But He has never failed me yet before as many as five hundred thousand at one time. And He won't tonight, and I'm sure He won't.

Now, let's let the prayer cards.... Now, the prayer card's got a number on it and they number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, like that. We can't stand them all up. Or, I guess he started from 1. I guess one.... Where's he at? Anybody got prayer card number 1? Raise up your hand. Let's see. Boy's not here. Is there a prayer card number 1? Somebody has a prayer card 1? Well, maybe I got.... Maybe it didn't start.... Oh, this colored lady here? All right. Come right here, lady, right around this side.

Prayer card number 2, would you raise up your hand, ever who has it? The gentleman? Right over here, sir. Prayer card number 3? All right, lady, come right here. Number 4? 4? All right. Number 5? Who has prayer card number 5? Would you raise your hand, ever who has it? Is this lady here got.... One, two, three, four, five, six?

Reason I call them one by time, because somebody might be deaf and can't hear it. Number 6? Come on then. If you can't get up, we've got.... These are ushers standing here? All right. They'll pack you if you can't come. All right. Number 6, 7? Would you just raise your hand quickly if you can? Look at your prayer card. Number 7? All right. 8? 8? Prayer card 8?(mising text)

Now, if you get a prayer card, you keep it yourself. Don't take it off and give it to a neighbor. Let the neighbor come and hear the instructions too, if they're going to be prayed for. The prayer cards are inexchangeable, be turned out of line, see. Now, you must hear the message yourself, come for yourself. And now, if you miss your turn, then remember we called your number.

Eight not here? Don't get one and then leave the building. Stay with it, stay here. All right. 8, 9? 9? Someone with prayer card.... All right, bring the lady. 10? 11? That's right. 11? 12? 12? No 12, 11 or 12? 13? 13? No 13? 14? 14? 13? Does that lady have 13? All right. What say? All right. 13, 14? 14? 15?

The reason we call them ... it's not an arena. It's a church, you know, where you.... You've been in meetings and seen when you.... Oh, they just ramble over one another, and oh, very irreverent. So we don't want.... We want reverence and respects to the gospel.

Fifteen, did that person come? 15? 16? 17? 18? 19? That's all? How many did you give out? Fifty and something.... Well, okay. Maybe some, you get a little bashful and backwards. Let them stand there. All right.

Everyone reverent now. Now, no one moving around. Be reverent. How many ever seen the picture that the science has taken of the Angel of the Lord, right over the building. (Leo, do you have them, son? Leo?) They've took it. It's at Washington, D.C. It's copyrighted—the only supernatural being that was ever photographed, same pillar of fire that led the children of Israel. There was one taken right down here in California just recently, when He was there at the platform. Now, He's just....

Jesus said, “I came from God and I go to God.” How many knows He said that? He came from God. What was Jesus when He came to the children of Israel? He was the angel of the covenant. We know that. Well, He was a pillar of fire that was in the burning bush. Is that right? How many believes that? Say, “Amen.” All right. Then when He died, raised again, and went back to the Father, then when He met Paul on the road to Damascus, what was He? Same pillar of fire, a light that put out Paul's eyes, see. “I come from God; I go to God.”

And that same Jesus has appeared even to the mechanical eye. When George J. Lacy, the head of the FBI, of Fingerprint and Document, examined the picture, he said, “The light struck the lens.” Put the testimony, and wrote it down and signed his name to it.

He said, “Mr. Branham, I once criticized you myself.” Said, “I said it was psychology.” He said, “But the.... I said you were reading those people's minds.” He said, “But the mechanical eye of this camera don't take psychology. The light struck the lens.”

There it is, the big photographed picture. They got it four or five more times. Took it in Germany here not long ago, three different pictures—it coming down, when it was anointing, going away. Germany said the same thing under their examination. Germany, Switzerland. See there? It's not....

Friends, we're not playing church. We're living in the presence of the Lord Jesus. Now, I want you to remember that. Now, the meeting is your meeting.

Now, how many people out there is strangers to me? I don't know. Raise up your hands. You know that I don't know you, or know nothing about you, raise up your hands? You know you're sick and.... Well, I guess the whole audience. Far as I can see, there's no one here that I know. My own son, Brother Borders.... I met the brother minister there. I think I've seen him before, but I just can't place him exactly. I've been trying to in my mind. Outside of that, I don't know any one.

How many in the prayer line knows that I know nothing about you, nor nothing about...? Raise up your hands, you in the prayer line, I am a stranger to you. Here's my hands—I don't know any of them. And here lays my Bible.

Now, those people.... Maybe they're sick, maybe they're not, I don't know. They may have financial troubles, they may.... I don't know what it is, domestic affairs, I don't know. But the Lord Jesus knows. Is that right?

How many of you is out there that doesn't have a prayer card, and you're sick, and you want Jesus to heal you? Raise up your hand. Everywhere. Well, I guess it's just everywhere, see. All right. You just have faith, believe with all your heart now. Just have faith. If the Lord comes and begins to bless the people, then you say, “Lord, let me too.” And watch and see if He don't do the same to you that He does on the platform. This is just getting some people up here, so that you'd see it's just nothing but right here on the platform where everybody's looking.

Now, this lady here. Now, if He will do today, the same tonight that He did in the days gone by, how many will believe it's Him here present? Raise up your hand. Oh, thank you. If you keep that up, you'll see a great meeting here in the next ten days. You keep that faith moving. That's what.... Just as soon as you did that, something just lifted out of me, see. The anointing dropped on me right then, see. Now, He's here right now, the presence of the Lord.

I'm so glad to know tonight that.... You being a colored sister standing here, now, it just gives me to back to what I spoke of. In Saint John, the fourth chapter, there was a man and a woman met, which was a Jew and a Samaritan, two races of people, the first time they'd ever met in their life. Is that right? You believe it? Raise up your hands. That's right, first time they'd ever met.

And Jesus said to the woman, asked her for a drink. He went to talking to her. What do you think He did that for? It was to contact her spirit, see. Contact. The Father.... He said He had need to go by ... the Father sent Him by like He did.... If you'd turn over to the next chapter, where we will get to maybe tomorrow night—the man at the well ... man on the five porches, beautiful illustration there, how He would come to that one man—pass by lame, halt, blind, withered—went to that one man, for He knew that He had been this way. See, the Father had sent Him.

Then He turned around and He said.... (Saint John 5:19) They asked Him why didn't He heal all of them or so forth, condemned this man for packing his bed on the Sabbath. He said, “Verily, verily I say unto you: The Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing.” Is that right? Then Jesus never performed one thing until God showed Him a vision on what to do. Is that the Scripture?

Listen, let me quote it. Saint John 5:19: “Verily, verily [That's 'absolutely, absolutely'], I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself. But what He sees [not hear], what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise. The Father worketh, and I worketh hitherto.”

In other words, He said, “I do nothing till I see the Father show me a vision first on what to do, then I do it.”

The other night when I met Dr. Lamsa, of the Lamsa Bible, he said, “What's the matter with these American people?”

Said, “I don't know.” Seventy percent of the Bible is vision, yet they can't believe.

This is just like it was in Samaria—two races of people. I'm Irish; she's African. We meet here for the first time in a little panoramic—two men. In them days there was a segregation. Jesus let her know right quick there was no difference between a man's color before God. We all come from one family: Adam and Eve. The country we lived in and changed our colors—yellow, brown, black, white—has nothing to do with God. We can give each other a blood transfusion. One blood, God made all men. Do you believe that? Yes, sir.

Where one lived in a hot country and the other a cold country, and like that—tempered and so forth, it changed their colors. That has nothing to do with the blood, or the soul, or anything else. God let her know that God seeks them that'll worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Now, this woman, we're strangers to one another. Now, I never saw her in my life. Perhaps she never saw me in her life. And here we are meeting for the first time, like the woman at the well and our Lord. Now, if our Lord remains the same, and if He will....

Now, if the woman's sick, and I could say, “All right, lady. You're sick. Come up here,” come up, lay hands on her and say, “I cast out the evil spirit,” or stomp my feet, or whatever it was. Say, “Satan, get out of her. Go home, lady. Get well.”

That could be all right. That's scriptural. Certainly. “In My name they shall cast out devils.” Many brothers has ministries like that, far more success than mine: Oral Roberts, for instance. My ministry don't take in the United States. Takes overseas—then it really goes then. I seen thirty thousand raw heathens come to Christ in one altar call, when something happened on the platform, just telling one, seeing a miracle performed. Thirty thousand blanket natives busted their idols on the ground, come to Christ in Durban, South Africa.

Now, if we don't know each other, the Lord Jesus knows her and He knows me. Now, if He will tell her something that she has done, or something that she's intending to do, or something that she knows that I know nothing about, then surely, if He can tell her what she has been, He can certainly know what she will be. Is that right? Now, how much greater would that be if something would tell her, like something happened in the Bible, and would tell her that. If He would do that, would you believe He was the same Lord? You would.

You know it couldn't be your brother here. I just have to yield my spirit. I'm just like this microphone, a mute until He would speak. Because what man would know that? None. It takes God to do it. Now, if God will let me know just by talking to you.... Yes, sir, I am trying to contact your spirit. That's exactly right. That's just swept from the audience, and that's right.

Now, if He will tell me something about you, something you're here for, like the woman at the well, or like the woman with the blood issue, or something, then you'll believe with all your heart. How many out there will believe also when here, me and this woman here, we don't know one another, never seen her my life till right now. Now, may He do it. I trust that He will. And if He does, then it'll give you faith; make you feel assured that He loves you, and He knows about you. And if He knows about you, He knows about everyone out there. So then, that just shows He's presence. So that would just make everybody accept Him and be well (is that right?), or accept Him as their Saviour and be saved.

Now, if anybody can still hear me: I come to take every spirit in here in the name of Jesus Christ. This woman who knows now that something's going on.... The lady is suffering with an extreme nervous condition. That's right. It's just real extremely nervous. Is that right? If that's right, raise up your hand. Now, do you believe?

Now, what it was, I don't know what I said. But I told her something. I seen her doing something, seeming like she was trying to wring her hands or something, or upset about something or something another.

You say, “Brother Branham, you guessed that.”

I didn't guess that. How could it be perfect every time out of tens of thousands times thousands. If you think I guessed it, let me talk to the woman a little longer. It's your meeting.

She seems like a nice person to me. You just.... I don't want you.... Just let your mind be dormant. Just.... You believe that you're in the presence of the Lord Jesus? Now, you do feel a real sweet feeling. Isn't that right? If that's right, just raise up your hand to the people, see. I'm looking right straight at a light hanging right over the woman.

Yes, she's all upset. She's nervous, got a nervous condition. And you're concerned or praying about somebody else. There's a little girl, and the little girl's got a tonsil trouble. That's her sitting right out there. That's right, isn't it? All right, Sis, it's over. Besides that, you're a minister, you're a woman preacher. You believe God knows who you are? Mrs. Peters, your request is answered. Your nervousness is gone. Go home and be well in the name of the Lord.

Do you believe with all your heart? Just have faith. Just believe. Now, that's what He was yesterday; that's what He is today, He will always be. Now, as He manifested Himself before Abraham in human flesh.... God was manifested in Christ. Do you believe that? “It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father that dwelleth in Me.”

Now, wasn't that simple? Just believing? I never even asked prayer for her, but she's healed just the same. What did it? Her faith healed her, whatever it was. All right?

How do you do? We are strangers to one another. The Lord Jesus knows us both. Now, we are men, different ages, first time we've met. If God will reveal to me what your trouble is or something, will you believe me to be His prophet, or His servant, rather? You'll believe it?

You're very sick with a stomach trouble, very, very bad. You're not from this city. You're from another city. It's out in a wheat, level country. You're from Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma. That's right. You're Italian by your nationality. And you were at one of my meetings before. It was at the Tulsa meeting, tried to get into the line and couldn't get a prayer card. That's “Thus saith the Lord.” Do you believe with all your heart now? Go eat your supper. Jesus Christ makes you well. Go on and rejoice. God bless you, sir. God be with you.

Do you believe on the Lord? Now, whoever you are, just have faith. Don't doubt. If thou canst believe, all things are possible. Do you believe that? All things are possible to them that believe. How many out there in the audience is believing, saying, “I believe with all my heart”? No reason why you shouldn't be healed. Just have faith.

How do you do? Do you believe me to be His servant? We're strangers to each other. But you believe that God knows all about you? Do you believe that He's able to make you well and to heal you? What if I told you you were healed? Would you believe me? You sure would. You want your husband healed too, don't you? Do you believe that He will heal him? You want to know what his troub.... You want me tell you what his trouble is? Bladder trouble. You have female trouble. The doctor says a dropping uterus, a fallen uterus. That's right. You're a minister too of the gospel, a woman preacher. Go receive your healing, Jesus Christ makes you well.

Have faith; don't doubt. Do you believe with all your heart, lady? If God will reveal to me something about you that I do not know...? We're strangers, are we? If He will reveal to me something that you know that I do not know, then you'll know it's not your brother; it's your Lord. Is that right?

Somebody in the meeting somewhere, you're suffering from a condition that you should be operated on for—they say you should. It's a growth. You believe I can tell you where the growth is by the power of God? On your side, under your right arm. That's right. Go believe with all your heart, be healed in the name of the Lord Jesus. Just have faith. Don't doubt.

How do you do? We're strangers to each other, I suppose. You saw me once in the meeting? Just in a meeting. But I mean, I don't know you and you don't know.... Just sitting out in the meeting, you saw me once. Well, if the Lord will reveal to me the secret of your heart, tell me of something that you have done or planning on doing, or something's wrong with you, or something or other, then you'll know it has to be God. It has to be a Spirit; it couldn't be me.

Stomach trouble, throat trouble, and then you've got a burden on your heart. It's a boy. Shall I say it? He's in a juvenile home. He's got a heart trouble. Believe on the Lord Jesus, and God will deliver him. Have faith. Do you believe with all your heart?

Now, that you might know it's not a telepathy, this lady here....

Come here, lady. I don't know the lady. (Just put your hand on mine.) If the Lord Jesus will show me this way what's wrong with you, will you believe me to be God's servant? Do you? All right, then your heart trouble leaves you. Have faith in God; believe with all your heart.

Now, when I said that to her.... You had a real funny feeling when I said that to her, because you had heart trouble too. Go believing with all your heart, and be made well.

Do you believe with all your hearts? All right. Now, this lady must have healing or die. Are you aware of what's wrong with you? You're shadowed for death, a cancer. But do you believe that God can move that cancer? Come here.

Satan, I charge thee by the blood of Jesus Christ, His vicarious suffering at Calvary, His triumph over you, and all your kind. In the name of Jesus Christ, come out of the woman and leave her. Amen. Go, believing with all your heart.

Nervous, heart trouble, go believe. Be made well in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Come, lady. Speak English? If the Lord will reveal to me what your trouble is, do you believe that God will make you well then? You do? All right. It's a lady's trouble, female trouble. Go, believe, and the Lord Jesus will stop all that.... If thou canst believe.

Do you believe God will heal you of that heart trouble, make you well? Believe it? Will you give up something for Him? You want to give them up anyhow. Cigarettes? Throw them away—don't smoke no more. Remember, don't come here with sin. He knows it. You see?

All right, come believing with all your heart. All right. All right, come. Bring him on, sister. That's all right. If I lay hands on you, do you believe you'll get well? Lord Jesus, grant it. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Believe it now with all your heart, and see if you don't get well. Now, believe it.

Nervousness is nothing for God. Do you believe He will make you well? Go, believing then, and the Lord Jesus heal you and make you well.

That lady sitting there by that one's shouting, got something wrong with her arm. Do you believe that God will make you well sitting there, lady? Now, Who did you touch? You touched the High Priest that could be touched by the feeling of your infirmities. He heals you. Go home and believe with all your heart.

Tell me what she touched. She never touched me. She's too far away from me. You believe with all your hearts now?

The lady sitting back there weeping, on the end, with that bladder trouble. Do you believe that God will make you well, lady? All right. Handkerchief up to your mouth, crying like this. All right? Do you believe it with all your heart? You suffer with bladder trouble. It's tremendously burning and so forth. Do you believe with all your heart now? Raise up for your feet and accept your healing. I command that demon in the name of Jesus Christ to depart from that believer. Have faith in God, don't doubt. Have faith in God.

The man sitting right back there suffering with hemorrhoids, do you believe that God will make you well, sir? Stand up on your feet; accept your.... What did you touch? You're twenty yards from me. You touched the High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Go home, and be well. Jesus Christ heal you.

Can you believe? Can everyone believe?

What about you? That lady.... Oh, I know that woman. That's Sister Dauch setting there. I know her. That man next to her, you had your hand up didn't you, sir? Do you believe with all your heart? I seen the Angel of the Lord appear there. Do you believe that back trouble will leave you? All right. That's what your trouble was, wasn't it? Shake your hand like this, if that's right. Wave your hand back and forth. All right. Go home; you received your healing. Jesus Christ makes you well.

Turn around and go back off the platform there, sir. The heart trouble left you, and you can go home and be made well now. God bless you.

Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? How many here that's not a Christian, that's not a Christian and wants to accept the Lord as your personal Saviour, stand up on your feet right now while you're in His presence. Somebody's backslid, wants to come to the Lord, you're right in His presence. You believe Him? Stand on your feet right now and we will have prayer for you. If you'll stand to your feet, any sinner, any backslider. God bless you. Somebody else?

Sir, I condemn the evil that's bothered you all these years. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven you. Go, believe with all your heart.

Someone else would rise and say, “I want to accept Jesus.”

How many of you here is sick, and believe that He's here in His presence, in His power? Raise up your hand. How many knows the Bible said, “These signs shall follow them that believe”? How many of you is believers? Raise up your hand. Now, what we'll do.... “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Just the same as He promised this would come to pass, He promised that the believers should lay their hands on one another and the prayer of faith should save the sick. You believe that? Then lay your hands on one another. Just lay your hands over on one another. There you are.

Now, don't you pray for yourself. You pray for the person you got your hands on. I will pray for you all.

Our heavenly Father, we bring to You this audience while the baptizing of the Holy Spirit is upon this people. Hear us, O Lord. Hear us, we pray. We condemn all sickness. These believers have their hands on one another. We know that You're here. We know that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. We know that You cannot fail. We know You've triumphed over the devil, over his power, over every principality and power. You bound every unclean spirit. You cast out every devil when You were here on earth. I pray Thee, Lord, that You'll hear our prayer.

Now, as they have their hands on each other. “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”

Satan, I charge thee by Jesus Christ, come out of every person in here that's got their hands on ... someone's hands laying on them. I charge thee through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, leave this building and come out of the people, that they all might go home tonight and be free, because the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.