Sir, We Would See Jesus

Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada

62-0724

1
Thank you, Brother Borders. You may be seated. I deem this a great privilege to be here in the meeting tonight down at Port Alberni, among friends who are pilgrims and strangers to the world, sojourning now, waiting for the coming of the Lord, to be taken to a better city, a better land where there is no death and no sorrow. And we are waiting for that time of the coming of the Lord.
2
Not long ago I had the privilege of being with your pastor, Brother Byskal. And we had a little trip together afterwards, a little hunting trip up in Northern British Columbia, and he told me he was missionarying to the Indian people over here on the Island. And, oh, I've always wanted to help somebody who's trying to help the Indian people. I've had a few experiences down in the States with speaking to the Indians—the Navajo, and Apaches, and many of them down there—and find such a wonderful faith; and Brother Eddie, not underwritten by anyone. And I said, “Maybe some time I'd have the opportunity to come by and help you, Brother Eddie.”
He said, “I'd be so happy for that, Brother Branham.”
So we are here tonight on his invitation. And my son ... he came over a few moments ago, and he gives out prayer cards to pray for the sick. Usually we don't do that around the first night when it's going to be a big meeting, until we get everybody settled down till they understand.
But tonight, being we've just got three nights, I said, “You better give out some prayer cards, and we will pray for the sick the first night so that we can get started right along.”
And he come, and he met me, and said, “Daddy, there's just one bad thing about the meeting.” Said, “Just to be three nights—it ought to be three weeks.” He said, “These are such lovely people.”
3
Now, we never judge people by how much they own, or how bigger homes they live in, how they dress. We judge them by what's in their heart. That's where God lives, in the heart. And when you find simplicity, humility, loveliness and ... that's what we love. We just love that. I was borned again in a little group of people like this one time, and I've always thought they were the humblest, nicest people. And they're the ones I've lived with on earth, and I believe I'll live with them in glory through the ceaseless ages to come.
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And I remember my first experience with ministering to Indians, and I suppose these are Indian folks sitting out here in the front. I just imagine so. And I'm very happy to be with you. My! Real Americans! That's correct, real Americans, the ones that God gave America to—the Indians. So, I'm so thankful.
Down deep in my veins flows just a little bit of the blood. My mother's grandmother come from the reservation. And I've always deemed that one of the greatest privileges, to say that down in me is part really American. For there's a little background somewhere of Indian blood that I'm very happy for, very thankful. And I've always wanted to minister to them, because....
My mother was a real lady. She just went home to glory, an aged, old woman, with a real experience of being safe in the arms of Christ. I held her hands while God come and took her just recently. And I know what she was, and what a sweetheart she was to me, and a mother, and I love her. And I'm so glad tonight to be ministering to the people.
5
I was in Arizona some ... first beginning of my ministry, and there was.... One night coming through the prayer line where I was ministering with the Spanish-speaking people.... And there was two Indians, the first two that I ever ministered to. And one of them was an alcoholic, and the other one was a tubercular on a stretcher case.
And when I seen them come into the line I stopped a few moments, and I said, “Just a moment.” And I said, “Heavenly Father, this is my first time now to pray for what I call full-blooded Americans.” I said, “If You ever want me to minister to them and go to the tribe, if You'll heal them, I promise You I'll go.” And I prayed for them. And before I got to the next meeting in California, the alcoholic had lost all taste for alcohol, and had became a borned-again Christian; and the tubercular, in a week's time, was pronounced by the doctor out on the reservation that she was sound and well. So I went back to the Apache tribe. I'll never forget it.
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I hope I don't take too much time now. I'm always used to talking too long. Everybody always tells me I talk too long. (That's for white people, not for Indians.) Yes, sir. We ... I preached a short sermon the other day down at my tabernacle at home. Just six hours, that's all I preached. But, we Indians are never in a hurry, you know. So we got plenty of time to listen.
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And so, that night they'd taken me up to the reservation, and, oh, my! I never seen so many ... it was a beautiful sight. They come in their wagons, and everywhere been announced all across the reservation. And they sat down out on the ground. I was standing on a little porch there at the little church, about like this. There were many Indians on the inside, and.... But, oh, my! Half of the tribe, or more, were sitting out there. Oh, I made a guess—four or five thousand, something like that, had gathered on the outside.
And so, I was speaking from the church steps, a little Assembly of God church. And the missionary had been pastoring there for some time. And so, I had one interpreter. They could not understand English. And so, I had one interpreter, which was a lady.
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Well, I tried in the simple way that I could, to lay out the Bible to them. And I remember they just sat and watched, you know. I say this through love. An Indian, when once convinced, he never moves. But he's something like feeding a horse. He don't eat in the wrong stall, see. He waits till he's sure what he's talking about. So, they were waiting. And so he was watching to see what I was going to say.
And I kept telling him, I said, “Now, I'm just one vote, one person here in the country.” I said, “I do believe that there was some kind of a deal that should not have been done to the Indian.” I said, “I believe that. If some other nation had come in, that would be a sore feeling with us.” But I said, “That's what man does.” I said, “I'm going to tell you there's somebody who loves you. That's Jesus Christ, and He'll be right there with you to the end of the road.”
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They sat.... Now they was kind of odd. I asked for a prayer line. Well, in those days when we first started, why, we did not give out prayer cards. That's the only way to keep order. And so, I didn't have prayer cards, and I said, “Does anybody out there want to be prayed for?” The interpreter said the same thing. Nobody moved. Well, I thought, “My! I guess I won't have a prayer line.”
So, in a few moments, the Indian missionary went back with the white missionary and picked up some people from the inside. The first one come out was a great big, strong, woman. As soon as she.... I looked her in the face. Many of you, I guess maybe Brother Eddie's told you about the ministry. She had a social disease—not because that she was immoral; but because the way she had to live. And when I told her that, she looked at me very strange. How did I know that? After, it explained it in the Scripture.
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The next was a little cross-eyed boy. I'll never forget it. And the mother.... I said, “Do you believe for the boy?” And the lady thought I asked what was wrong with the boy, so she just caught him by the hair, and pulled him back. His little eyes were crossed. So I picked up the little fellow, and give him a stick of chewing gum (See, he couldn't understand English.), something or other, to kind of get him quiet, see which way the Holy Spirit was moving. And I got him quietened, and laid him upon my shoulder.
And I said, “Heavenly Father, if I can find grace in your sight, let it be now,” see. I said, “I pray you'll straighten the little boy's eyes, so that the people will see that. They don't understand this, and they must understand that You love them.” And I no more than said that, I looked out, and there was a vision. The little boy could see.
I said, “Now, before I bring him from my shoulders, if this little boy's eyes isn't straight, normally,” I said, “then I'm a false prophet. But if they are straight, you'll believe God.”
And the interpreter said, “Yes.”
I never looked—just turned around like that. There he was. His eyes were straight as they could be.
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So then, the next come up was a little girl, and she belonged to one of the ... I guess, one of the head men in the tribe, and she was deaf and dumb. And so, I got them to get her to look up to me just a little bit. I said, “Yes, she's both deaf and dumb. And what caused it was a fever she had about four years ago, and left her deaf and dumb.”
The interpreter asked ... said that. The lady nodded—the lady that had her, the Indian sister. That was right.
And I said, “Now, I cannot give her her hearing. I'm only a servant. I cannot. But if I will pray for her, do you believe God will heal her?” She believed it. So I took the little girl up in my arms, and I prayed for her, and I set her down. And I told the interpreter, I said, “Now, you just say in Indian—their language, the Apache language—what I say in English.”
“All right.”
And I said, “Do you love the Lord Jesus?”
And she said.... She looked at her real strange. She could hear. And I said, “Tell her to say what I said.” And when I said that, she turned around and looked at me. She could hear, see. And when she got back like this, I went [Brother Branham snaps his fingers]. She turned and looked to see where it was at. I said, “Now, tell her to say, 'I love Jesus.' ” And she mumbled off something. I'd really never heard the language.
I said, “You know, she'll talk better after a while.”
And the lady that was doing the interpreting, she turned back and said, “Her talk plenty good now. [She was speaking in her own language.] She talk plenty good now.”
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Now. And you talk about a prayer line! Two hundred ushers couldn't hold them. That's all. There was a prayer line, I never seen—just like a stampede. And everybody wanted to get in the prayer line, and we couldn't stop it.
And there was ... next coming out was an elderly lady. Now, they're very poor, but they're God's people. And she was very old, and she was supposed to've been the next in line coming this way, only a young fellow (little brave just about so high, sturdy-built, real strong), he just broke through, and run over everybody else, and he was going to be next. Well, we couldn't make him understand.
So Brother Moore, a man who was with me just took ... had to take him by his arm, and tried to tell him that it wasn't right for him to do that. This lady was next. Finally they got him to understand. And the poor old lady, they brought her out of the room, 'cause these had started first; let them come first.
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Well, here she come, and I noticed her. Now, it's pitiful the way.... She had two broomsticks, cut off, and a hole bored up through a little piece of 2x4 to make the cross part of the crutch, with rags wrapped around it. And when she come out, she could only set those crutches like this, then ... arthritis, see. She couldn't move her legs like that. Then she set these crutches out, and she'd....
I just stood still, let her come. And she got right up to me, and she looked up. Poor old thing was shaking with palsy—great big deep creases in her cheeks. When she looked up, her graying hair (leather wrapped in it, as it hung down her back), the tears was making their way down through them wrinkles. I thought, “Somebody's mother.” I stood there.
And when she looked at me like that, I never said a word to her. She just kind of smiled. She reached over and got one of those crutches, and put it with the other crutch; handed them up to me, and went walking off there just as good as anybody, see. I said ... I asked her how did she come to have that faith?
She said, “If Him make cross-eyes straight, Him make legs straight.” That was good enough for her.
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Just simple faith. That's all it takes. When you try to figure it out.... You can't figure out God. You got to believe God. You don't ... it don't take an education. That gets us away from God. The more we know in education, the further we go from God. That's the biggest hindrance the gospel's had, is educating. Then they get to think they know more than God. But if you make yourself simple, and just believe Him, that's all it takes.
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One more little thing before closing my testimony. I prayed all night long. It was coming along about three or four o'clock in the morning. I couldn't stand no more. I had to stop the discernment after five or six. I was just laying hands on them. And I began to notice coming across....
Now, the river runs right down through the reservation. And that's the Salt River, coming down through the reservation, and it gets pretty deep along in places. And I noticed the Indians coming in was wet, way up around their waist. So I said, “What's the matter?” to the interpreter.
And she said, “They thought you were false to begin with.” Said, “But they know it's truth now, and they are packing their loved ones. The ford's about fifteen miles down here. But they're walking right on across this way with their loved ones, packing them in through the night,” just to be there one night.
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Next in line coming in, coming up over the platform, was an old man. They'd made a stretcher to pack him on. They had took a board about this wide, and they'd put a stick across it this way, and a stick this way. And then they'd took the old man and laid him up on there. And one leg hung over one end of the stick, and then his arms like that. There was two great big, fine-looking, young men packing him, just standing there, and their lips blue, shivering. It's cold on the desert. It gets real cold early in the morning like that. They were shivering, waiting. I seen them come up in the line.
I kept praying for the people, just laying hands on them, praying as they come by. So this fellow stood up there. He was shivering, holding like that the old man. I said, “You're wet.” Looked at me, and I said. “Do you speak English?”
And he said, “Little.”
I said, “Aren't you afraid you'll take pneumonia?”
“Nope.” Said, “Jesus Christ is take care of me. I brought my dad.”
I said, “Who's that on the other end?”
“My brother.”
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I said, “Bring him by.” He couldn't speak English. The fellow had palsy, shaking like this, which seemed to be a great disease among them—that, and glaucoma. So I said, “Sir, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?” And his son said that to him, you know, and he nodded his head he did. I said, “All right. If you believe now, just simple faith, God will make you well.”
And I laid my hands upon him. I said, “Heavenly Father, there's a daddy. No doubt but what he struggled many days to make food for them boys.” I said, “Now they believe, and they've packed him across that river there, and from way out in the reservation. Probably been hours getting him here.” I said, “Sure. I believe that You'll make him well. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I ask it. I lay my prayer upon your altar, and believe.” And I said, “All right. Now you take him home, and don't doubt.”
“Thank you,” started off.
I said, “Next one.” Brought the next one up. After awhile I heard somebody (I was on this porch) making a noise, and all the Indians screaming and shouting. I looked down there. The old man had the board on his own shoulders, going out waving at everybody. Now you can see why I like to minister to Indians. They believe.
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Now, I want.... I'm here to say this, my brother, sister, and to the white people, too, see, to all of you. We are here in a country, and a climate, and so forth, changing our colors of skin. God by one blood made all men. We all come from Adam, whether we are white, brown, black, yellow, red. Whatever we are, we are all off of one tree, Adam—God's first man. And therefore, we are as pilgrims.
Everywhere ... I've been around the world several times, and I never seen yet where we ever found people who loved God but what they were wonderful people. I've been down where they didn't even know which was right and left hand. They never even knowed to wear clothes. They were stripped naked—knowed nothing, didn't even know they were naked. Men, women, boys, girls, they never knowed nothing about it. But stand there, and let them receive Christ, and receive the Holy Ghost standing there, they do the same things you do, see. Without being told, they do it anyhow, see. That goes to show that the Holy Spirit is universal, see. It's ... everywhere it's the same, all around the world.
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So when that great time comes, when our Jesus does arrive, there'll be two in a bed where it's night time, “I'll take one and leave one”; two in the field, where it's daylight on the other side of the world, “I'll take one, and leave one.” See, it'll be everywhere. A resurrection, a great rapture of the church will come, and we'll all go home together. And the old will turn back young, and oh! it will be a wonderful time.
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Now Christian friends, and to Brother Eddie, and the staff of minister brothers here, and to you out there, we are not here to represent any certain denominational church. We are here in behalf of the love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are here not to make members of any certain church, but of the church. And there's only one church after all, and that's the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we do not join it. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, which is the church of Christ. And that's how we become Christians. And we love Him, and I know the rest of them does.
Now, we do have organizations, denominations. Them's all right. That's fine, but ... as long as you don't draw a line, and say, “We are it; and you're not,” see. We are all it, if we're baptized into the body. And I've said, “I've been with the Branham family, now, for over fifty years, and they never did ask me to join the family.” You know why? I was borned in it. I was a Branham by birth. And that's the way we become a Christian. It's by birth. No matter what church we belong to, we are Christians by birth. And then by birth, brings his life into us, and produces his life through us, you see.
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If you could take the sap, the life out of an apple tree, and put it in a grapevine, that grapevine would bear apples, see, because the life that bears apples ... the germ is in the life, and it would bear apples on a grapevine. Depends on what kind of a life was on the inside of it, see. That's right.
Now, if you could take a peach tree, and a pear tree, and take the life out of the peach tree (just take out all the life), and put it over into the pear tree, every bit of the life (no more pear-tree life in it, but peach-tree life), it would bear peach leaves. It'd have peach leaves, and bear peaches, because it's got peach-tree life in it.
And no matter how bad the sinner is, how wicked, how bad they are, how much of an unbeliever, if you can just take all that old unbelieving life out of him, see, put the life of Christ in Him, He'll be a different person. That's right. He sure will. He'll sure be a different person.
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And I believe the Bible to be God's Word, see. I believe that it's perfect. And it ... and there can be nothing taken from it, or nothing added to it.
Now, background, I'm Irish by descent, so, therefore, my people were Catholic. But in our church ... my own home they never married in the church, so they belonged to nothing. And there's where I got my calling. You've probably got the books, and read them, of my life story. And then I was called to this ministry.
Now when I first become a Christian, to believe on Christ.... From a little boy it started with me, when I was first ... when I was born. When I was born, that light that you see in the picture here, was hanging over the cradle where I was born—way up in the mountains, with not even a wooden floor, just dirt.
And we didn't even have a.... They didn't even have a table. Papa cut a piece of a stump off, and put legs on it for a table and I had a little bed made out of corn shucks. I don't know whether you know what ... the husks off of the corn, the shuck. And they made the pillow and bed out of that. And that's where I was born, at five o'clock one morning. And didn't even have glass in the window—just a little door you push out. And then that light come in. Goes to show that God don't have to have a palace to come to—just a humble home, anybody that will believe.
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And now, I believe the Word of God is so perfect that we cannot misinterpret it. We must just teach it the way it is, and live it the way it's taught. Now, I believe now.... Now, like the priest told me, he said, “God will judge the world by the church.” Well, if it's by the church, which one is the church? The Catholic: one side there's a Roman Catholic says, “We are”; the Greek Catholic says, “We are.” And oh, my, the different Catholic phases, which one of them's right? see.
Then you say, “Well....” Then the Lutheran says, “We're the church”; the Baptist says, “We're the church”; the Methodist says, “We're the church”; the Pentecostal says, “We're the church.” The ... well, there's 960 different denominations, so which one is the church? It'd be very confusing, see. But God will judge the people by his Word, 'cause that's the Word.
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Now over in the book of Revelations, it said, “Whosoever shall take out anything out of the book, or add anything to it, the same will be ... his part will be taken from the book of life.” Now, I believe it's so perfect that the reason we got death today, sorrow, sickness, these graveyards out here, every man that ever died, every little suffering baby, every sickness, was because when Eve failed to believe that God's Word was sufficient. She mistrusted God's Word, and that brought death.
God gave his church.... God cannot change. So God gave his church the best thing, and when God ever makes a decision He can never say, “I was wrong,” see. Do you understand it? Look, God (Maybe I talk too loud. I hope I don't.), God can never change his decision. When I say anything, or you say anything, we're finite. That means just human. And we say.... Next year we learn more than we knowed the year before. See, I get smarter. You do. Each one of us does. But not God. He's infinite. That means He's perfect to begin with. Every decision is perfect. He can never change his.
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Look. So you'll not misunderstand it, in the garden of Eden, when man first sinned and disassociated, cut himself off, from God, fellowship with God.... Now, he tried to make himself a religion. He sewed some leaves together to cover himself up. But his man-made religion wouldn't work. And God made a decision of the offering of blood. He killed some animals, took the skins and covered them up.
Now, that was God's decision in the garden of Eden to save man, and to fellowship with man through the shed blood of an innocent being. And He's never changed it. We'll never be able to come to a place till we all must be Lutheran, we all must be Catholic, we all must be this, or that. But one place God meets man, and that's on the basis of the shed blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son. It was so at the beginning.
In Israel, man met only ... God only met man under the shed blood in the days of Job, only the shed blood. All down through the history it's been shed blood, because that was God's first recognition to man, how to save him—by the blood.
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See, when God once acts, He's called to the scene to act (now don't forget this), when God is one time called on the scene to act, the way He acts the first time, every time that that case is called again, or any case similar to it, He's got to act the same way He did the first time, or He acted wrong when He acted first. Now, do you understand real clear? My Indian friends understand that real clear?
Look. In other words, if a man sinned and God said, “I'll save him under the shed blood,” that's ... the next man come, He's got to save him, too; the next man, the next man, every man. And then, if a man's sick, and God healed the first man on the basis of his faith in God.... That's the way God healed the first man. And now, every man that comes afterwards, with faith believing, God's got to do the same thing. If He didn't, He acted wrong on the first man. Now, you know what I mean? He was wrong when He acted first, see. So He's got to act the same each time.
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Now, you say, “Well now, maybe this didn't mean that.” Don't you never believe that. Every word that God spoke He means eternally, see. The Word is God, see, so, it cannot fail.
Now you say, “Well, it doesn't make any difference.” Yes, it does, friends.
Now look. When Lot was called out of Sodom.... You people remember the story? Sure. Now the angel said to Lot and his wife, his family, “Don't look back.” And now, think of that mother, Lot's wife. Her children were burning up down there in the judgments of God. Her grandchildren were burning up in the judgments of God. And she merely turned her head to look back, and she stands there yet today as a pillar of salt. We know that, see. It does make a difference. When God says anything, He means just what He says. Now, how many in this building, both Indian and white, that believe that God means just exactly what He says, He cannot change, He means what He says? All right.
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Now, before we approach his Word, now I want ... I'll speak to you just a little bit on the Word. Now, we'll never leave the Word. You say, “I believe the Word.” God can do many things that He hasn't written in his Bible. But as long as I ... if I just see Him do what He's written, that's enough for me. Just let Him..., just right like that. I believe that then we know we're right.
Now, to my ministering brethren here, the clergymen, so.... They're your ... that's your pastors. Now, in the Old Testament God had a way of finding, or ... and the people had a way of finding out whether a message was right or not. Now, when a prophet prophesied, or a dreamer dreamed a dream, they took him down to the temple where Aaron's breastplate was that had all them breast stones (twelve). And when this prophet prophesied against that stone, or the dreamer told his dream.... That's called the Urim Thummim. And if them lights didn't flash over that Urim Thummim, then no matter how real it'd sound, it was wrong. The Urim Thummim had to speak whether it was right or wrong. You know that, brethren? That's right. Well now, that was for the Levitical priesthood. Now, what God did there.... Now, He never changes, remember. He can't change. He has to stay.
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Now, Jesus, when He come, He said, “You've heard them of old times, 'Thou shalt not kill.' But I say that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause has killed already.” Is that right? Now see, He never changed it; He just magnified it, made it greater, see.
He said, “You've heard them of old time, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'” He had to be in the act to be guilty. He said, “But I say to you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart,” see. He brought it from the real act to a lust for the act, see, made it greater.
Now, when the Urim Thummim from the breastplate of Aaron was changed, it was brought to the Word. “Heavens and earth will pass away but my word shall not pass away,” see. Then it must be according to the Word.
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Now let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer, and we're going to approach Him. Now just in the eve of this three nights' meeting with you lovely people, I wonder among you, tonight, is there a request that you'd like to be remembered before God, saying like this, “God, you know my heart. I have something I have need of. I'm going to raise up my hand. And, God, before this meeting ends, these three-night meetings, give me healing for my body, or, for my sister, for my brother, for my mother, father, or for salvation,” or whatever you have need of.
If you've got such a need, would you just raise up your hand to God? Just let it be known as you raise your hand, say, “God, remember me.” All right. Now let us pray.
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Our heavenly Father, we are approaching thy throne of grace. We would not come by the throne of judgment, the throne of justice. We could not stand there, for justly we should not have the right to come while we were sinners. But we've come by the throne of grace, which You told us we had rights to come.
Now, heavenly Father, You know what's behind these hands that raised up. Down beneath there was a heart, and in that heart was a request. God, grant that before these three nights shall pass, that every one of them shall be answered. Grant it, Lord. Save the lost, heal the sick, Lord.
Now we know that You were wounded for our transgressions. With your stripes we were healed. Now, we realize, heavenly Father, that when You died for our sins, then every sin in the world was forgiven. But it will never help us, until we accept Him as our Saviour from that sin. But the sin question has been settled, when Jesus Christ, the Son of God died to take away the sin of the world.
And we are taught that by his stripes we were healed. Now we know that healing has already been settled in the face of God, because his own Son was striped for our healing. With his stripes we were healed. And we know that we can accept healing when we believe it, just like we accept salvation.
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Now, Father, will You come into our midst, and let us know that You are raised from the dead? that You are living today, and You still remain the same loving Jesus. And that the time ... looking upon the earth at these sights that's coming, you said that was the time to lift up the head, for our redemption's drawing nigh.
The prophet told us there would be a day that could not be called night or day. It would be a dismal day, lot of fog. But in the evening time, it shall be light. And the same sun that rises in the east is the same one that sets in the west—the same s-u-n that crosses the sky. And the same S-o-n of God that come in the east poured out the Holy Spirit in this last days in the evening time, over here on the West Coast—has pulled back the fog, and poured out the Holy Ghost to give evening light, just as He comes. Thank Thee for it, Father.
Now, I'm up here among the sojourners of these precious people that's dwelling here, looking for the coming of the Lord. Now we pray that You will magnify yourself before us, in such a way that we will know that You are here.
And when we leave tonight to go to our different homes, may we say like those who came from Emmaus that day after the resurrection.... You walked with them all day, and they didn't know You. And when You got them in the evening time, and had taken them on the inside and closed the doors, then You did something the way You did it before You were crucified, and they knowed no one could do it like You. And that was You.
So they rushed over, and said, “Truly, the Lord has risen. Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us along the way?” Grant it, Lord, tonight. As we go to our homes, may we see the risen Lord Jesus right here in this building, healing the sick, and showing mercy to all. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Now over in the blessed old Bible, and just for a text.... And now, I want you to listen real close now, and I'll just take my time, and try to explain this the best that I can. Now, if you will catch this real close....
Now, all my Indian friends know English. Is that right? They all can speak English? Good. Everybody in here speaks English? Norwegians, and whatmore? You see, I want you.... Really, I was going to say if they didn't, I'd have somebody to come and interpret 'cause I don't want you to miss this.
Now. You're such a nice audience, I could just stand and talk for hours, and I love you because I know you love our Lord.
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Now I want to read two places out of the Scripture. And one of them is found in St. John 12:20, the 12th chapter and the 20th verse; the other one is our theme of our campaign, Hebrews 13:8.
Now, this is just a little formal message that we usually introduce the service, and then we'll pray for the sick. And then tomorrow, maybe, you'll understand better. Remember, come to the church early.
And now, there will be a boy here—my son, or Brother Eddie, or Brother Roy, or some of them. Somebody will be here with prayer cards. And they bring these prayer cards up before you, mix them all up together, and go down and give everybody a prayer card, so that the boy that mixes them up, he will have nothing to do with what prayer card is given.
Then, when I come to the meeting we never know just where the prayer line will start. We might start at fifty, we might start at twenty, we might start at ten, we might start at one, we might start at a hundred and come back—just any way. Anyone has ever attended the meetings—you brethren, I guess, have—know that that is true. So, therefore, then you don't have to have a prayer card, if you just got faith. There's usually about ten in the audience healed where one's healed on the platform, if you just have faith and believe.
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Now, St. John, the 12th chapter, 20th verse:
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:
The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida... , and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Now in Hebrews 13:8 it said:
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
Now I'm going to make a text out of that and say this, “Sir, We Would See Jesus.” Now how many would like to see Him? Let's see your hands, just how many now? Thank you for your interest of seeing our Lord.
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Now as I have told you, I believe the Bible is God's Word, and it must be just exactly what God says, and He has to keep every promise, or it isn't God's Word. If He don't keep his promise, then it's not God's Word. God couldn't be God, make a promise and then not keep it, see. No, no. That would be man. That would be a man-made book. But God's Book is God's Word.
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Now, these Greeks had heard of Jesus, but they had never seen Jesus. And they came to one of Jesus' disciples, which name was Philip of Bethsaida, in Galilee, and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Now he was Jesus' servant, so he took him before Jesus, and showed him Jesus.
Now, the Bible said here, Paul writing in Hebrews 13:8, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You all believe that? All right.
Now if those Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and you want to see Jesus; and one of God's servants took and showed them Jesus; and if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why couldn't God's servant show Him to you today, if He is the same?
“Well,” you say, “but He died.”
Yes, but He raised again, see. He's not dead. He is a-living. He isn't dead. He is alive. Now, his corporal body (that's the flesh) was taken up before God, sits on the throne of God. And the Holy Spirit came back down (which was the Spirit of Christ) and lives in the church. You believe that, don't you? Now, if we would ask this question, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and now if Jesus....
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Being a missionary, I travel everywhere around the world. And I was just in Bombay, India, here not long ago where I was entertained in the temple of the Jains, the Jain religion. And there were seventeen different religions represented in that temple that afternoon to speak to me. And every one of them was against Christianity.
Now think of it. They worship idols, animals, and some of them believe in reincarnation. That is, you die one thing, you come back another. It was the awfullest mess you ever seen. But when our Lord Jesus come on the scene, that did it. I took this same text before 500,000 that night (That's a half-a-million people sitting in a great big stadium, amphitheater-like.), and took that same text, where Mohammedans and Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains—oh, my! every different kind you could think—and the Rajahs sitting on silk pillows. The Mayor of Durban was there, Mahatma Gandhi's boy was there, and, oh, so many.
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And there, when the Holy Spirit began to reveal to the people.... And then, came a man.... And they thought it was a telepathy. Then came a blind man to the platform with his prayer card, the fourth person. And I saw a vision that he was going to be made well, and I challenged every religion on the ground to come give him his sight.
I said, “If that's just telepathy, you come give him his sight.” I said, “Then why don't you come? The Mohammedan's priest, why don't you come?” I said, “You think...? I wouldn't ... nothing, I wouldn't say that for anything. I'd be afraid to say it. But I just saw a vision that he's got his sight. Now if he doesn't, then I'm a false prophet. If he does, how many will accept Christ as Saviour?” Just oceans of hands.
I said, “Come here, sir.” And it told him he had been blind so many years, and he was a beggar, and so forth; and all about how many children he had, and so.... That was all right, but they still believed it was a telepathy, like a mind reading, see.
And so, I said, “Now, mind reading ... I know nothing about psychology.” I said, “And anybody that knows psychology would never call that psychology.” So then ... I said, “Now, if that's so, you professors of psychology come here, and give him his sight.” It was a mighty quiet group.
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I said, “You Mohammedans are the predominating religion of the world.” That's right. There are more Mohammedans than any. And I said, “Why don't your priests come up here then, and give him his sight?” I said, “What about you Buddhists?” Buddha lived about 2300 years ago, a Chinese philos... or Japanese philosopher. I said, “Now why don't you come, and give him his sight?” I said, “I was in the temple this afternoon of the Jains. There is [like the pope] the highest man of them. You come give him his sight. I'll join your religion.” Nobody said nothing.
I said, “What's the matter with you?” I said, “Now, if this is telepathy, then you come. You're masters at it. I'm not. Come give him his sight,” see. I said, “If Mohammed ... somebody's got to be right, and somebody's got to be wrong. We can't all be right.” That is true.
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I said, “Let the God that's the God of creation create him a sight. Then we'll know whether it's right or not.” I said, “I wouldn't say that if I hadn't already saw he was going to receive his sight. But,” I said, “he is. If he doesn't, then you turn me out of India. I'm a false prophet. If he does, you receive Him.”
I motioned to him to come there. No more than I prayed, he screamed. He could see good as I could. Sure. And then, they had.... I couldn't even get out of the building, and things like that. They had ... even a militia of soldiers there. Oh, I guess fifteen, sixteen hundred soldiers before I could ever get to the car two hours later. And....
But what is it, friends? God, if He ever was God, He's still God. And if He isn't the same God, then there is something wrong. He couldn't have been God to begin with, see. So He's got to ever remain the same.
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Now, if we'd say, “Sir, we would see Jesus”.... Now, if I'd say to the Lutherans here tonight, “What do you think about it?”
“Oh, sure. I believe He's the same.” Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Catholic, whatever more, it'd all be, “Yes, He is in our church, and we've got Him. This is ours. He's our God. He's with us.”
Well, now, I believe that, too. I'm going to believe that with you. But now, just a minute. There's only one way to make that thing right. There's only one way to correctly know, is to find out what He was yesterday, see. Ever what He was yesterday, He's got to be the same today. Is that right? See, it isn't whether....
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Now, we wouldn't go down to town to find a man, look around.... We say Jesus Christ is with us. We wouldn't go downtown to find a man had on a robe, and nail scars across his head, or thorn prints, and nail scars in his hand. Any hypocrite could do that, see. It takes the life in him to do it, see. His life. The life of the man....
Jesus said here in St. John, “He that believeth on me [St. John 14:12] ... He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” 'Cause his life.... If we were sinner tree and had a Christ tree put in us, then that life would bear fruits—just exactly like the peach tree to the pear tree, or so forth; the apple tree, to whatever it was. Is that right? See, you'd have to see what He was yesterday.
Now, Paul speaking here was speaking of yesterday, means the Old Testament. What He was yesterday He is today, and will be forever. That's the Old Testament, the New Testament, and forevermore. The same yesterday, today, and forever, see.
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Now. What was He yesterday? Now, if He was a great rich man yesterday, He'd be a great rich man today. But when He come yesterday, we find out that He didn't even have a place to lay his head. Right. “The birds of the air have nests, the foxes has dens; but I don't even have a place to lay my head.”
He had ... when He come to the world, He borrowed a womb to be born in. They had no cradle to lay Him in, so they laid Him in a box of straw. When He died, He was nailed to a Roman tree under capital punishment. He had one robe to put on. It had been made for Him, wove throughout without a seam. He had to borrow a grave to be buried in. So there's none of us that bad off.
He come to show what God was. Anything that is high and haughty isn't God. God is low and humble. That's what made Him God, see, something that comes low—not them that goes high. So God doesn't dwell in hierarchies, and things. He dwells in humility. The way up is down. Humble yourself and you will be exalted; exalt yourself and you will be humbled. That's right, see. God knows how to do it. So you have to remember, humble yourself before God. Don't try to think your own thoughts; think his thoughts, see.
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And the whole Christian armor, now, is unseen. The Christian looks at what he doesn't see natural. Now look. That's the only way you can be a Christian. You've got to believe God, who you can't see. See, now look. Watch here. The whole Christian armor is love, joy, faith, longsuffering, patience, meekness, gentleness—Holy Spirit, see. All those things are unseen. They're unseen. But the things that's unseen is the ones that has the reality—the unseen things.
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Now. We'll take Jesus. We all know his birth, how He was predicted from the garden of Eden. The seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, and he'd bruise the heel and so forth.
Now, but when He came, He was born in a manger, and He raised up in a humble home. And then went to live with some people—Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. At the age of thirty years old, John the Baptizer baptized Him in the river of Jordan. And God came down in the form of the Holy Spirit ... in the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and went in Him, and dwelt in Him.
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Now, remember. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Is that right? All right. “Not me,” said Jesus, “doeth the works: but my Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” Now, if you're putting Scriptures down, St. John 5:19, Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in himself, but what he sees the Father doing: that doeth the Son likewise.” Now remember, not what He hears the Father saying, but what He sees the Father doing.
Therefore, Jesus never did nothing until God showed Him by a vision what to do first. If He didn't, the Scripture's wrong. St. John 5:19 said, “Verily, I say unto you [that means absolutely], I say unto you, The Son can do nothing in himself, but what he sees the Father doing: that doeth the Son likewise; for the Father worketh, and I worketh hitherto.” In other words, He just acted out in drama what God, the Father, showed Him to do, because God was in Christ.
Now, Matthew 3, it said, “This is my beloved Son,” when He was coming down, a voice speaking from that, God, that was coming down like a dove. John bare record seeing it. And a voice come from it, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom ... in whom I am pleased to dwell.” And if I was going to make it so you'd understand it better ... that the early translators in King James.... If you get the original Greek, it reads like this: “This is my beloved Son in whom I'm pleased to dwell in.” But you see, it is the same thing. “In whom I'm pleased to dwell,” see. “I am pleased to dwell in my Son.” Then He became Emmanuel, God with us.
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Now. St. John, I read from it: St. John 12:20. Now, let's go back to St. John, and start, and just stay in St. John tonight, showing what the Scriptures are in St. John about Him. Now we'll see if we can find out what He was tonight. Tomorrow night we will go a little deeper in it, and the next night, just keep going.
Notice now. St. John, we read the 12th chapter. Let's go back and read the 1st chapter now. Said now, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now can you get it? “In the beginning was the Word.”
Now, what is a word? A word is a thought expressed. You have to think it before you say it, see. And in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And if the Word ever was God, it's still God. See it? “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” St. John, the 1st chapter, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The Word of God was made flesh among us in Christ Jesus. You believe that? He was the Word of God made flesh. Now.
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And Jesus said in St. John, the 1st chapter; also in the 10th chapter, and the 37th verse, He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, then don't believe me.” In other words, what the Father had expressed that He was, if He didn't do that, then don't believe Him. That's only sensible, see.
And in St. John 5:39, said, “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they that testify of me.” In other words, He was the living Word. He was God's Word made manifest. Oh, how I like to get into that! God's Word made manifest—in other words, made known. God's Word made known. In other words, He was the one that God lived in to make his word known.
Christ expressed what the Word taught. Amen! There you are. Christ was the expression of the Word that was wrote. Christ expressed it. No wonder He said to those Pharisees, religious leaders of his day, He said, “You hypocrites!” Said, “If the sun sets clear, you say it's going to be pretty tomorrow. If it's red and lowering, you say it'll be foul weather.” Said, “You can discern the face of the skies; but the sign of the time you cannot discern. For if you had known me, you would've known my day.”
They had religion. Oh, my! plenty of it. But they failed to see Him as the Messiah, because....
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Now you know He didn't come the wrong way. He come exactly the way the Word predicted it; but not according to what they was thinking. They had it some other way. But He come exactly the way the Bible predicted He would come. Only, they had the Bible misinterpreted.
I wonder if it could be so again. No doubt but what.... There's too many different interpretations to it. So you can see, there's got to be something wrong somewhere. Some of them says, “There's no such a thing as divine healing.” Others says, “The days of miracles is past. The Holy Ghost only fell on the twelve apostles.” And others say one thing.... There's got to be something right and something wrong somewhere. That's right.
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And remember, before you can have.... If you've got a bogus dollar.... That's a counterfeit dollar. Before that counterfeit dollar can be made, there has to be a real dollar it's made off of. If it didn't, it's the original one. There's got to be a real religion that that's made off of. Exactly right.
Every one of them started on Pentecost, but they just went different ways, and got away from the Word. And that's the reason.... Today, how can we expect God to ever perform, and bring the church back to a Pentecostal experience, when we deny the very fact that He does it?
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As I've often said, “What good would it do to feed the canary bird good vitamin C, to make big strong wings and good feathers, and then keep him in a cage?” Wouldn't do no good, would it? Certainly not. If you're going to feed him vitamins, and make his wings strong, turn him loose, let him fly. That's what we got to do. We need some canary birds flying. That's right. Turn loose. And them things that we believe about God, use that faith. Certainly. We believe it. Don't pin Him back, and say, “No, the days of miracles is past.” No, it isn't. It's past for them that believe it's past. But to them who know better, it's different.
Fellow said to me not long ago, said, “I don't care what you'd say, how many people you'd produce,” said, “I still don't believe in divine healing. No, sir!”
I said, “Certainly not. It wasn't for unbelievers; it was only for believers.” That's right. It's just for those who believe. That's all.
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Now. We find Jesus now has come to express the Word. Now, that's what He was yesterday. That's what He is today. That's what He will be forever—God's Word made known. Is that a better word? God's Word, expressed, showed that it's truth. And everything that God said He would do, He did it. Everything that was wrote in the Bible of Him doing, He done it, just exactly, because He was the Word expressed.
Well, if He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all these promises hanging to this generation, why wouldn't He be the same today to express everything that God's Word promised? See? It has to be exactly the same, 'cause that's what He was then; that's what He is now; that's what He will be forever—God's Word expressed. Amen! Even in the great millennium, He'll still be God's Word expressed. Oh, how that ought to kindle our faith, see, to know that it's there. And if He is the Holy Spirit to light upon that Word....
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Now, the Word is a seed. Now, most of you brethren here I suppose, farm. And you put a seed in the ground, and the next morning you go out and dig it up, and say, “My corn ain't growing yet”; put it back, cover it up; the next morning, “See if it's growing,” again—it never will grow like that. No, no. Every time you dig it up, you delay it. Isn't that right?
What do you do? You know the earth was made to grow the corn (Is that right?), or the seed. And you plant the seed, commit it to the earth, and forget about it. God does the rest of it. Well, that's the way you do with the Word of God. You just plant it. Don't dig it up. Just keep on believing it. Commit it to God. He makes it grow. That's right, see.
Any promise that God makes, you just plant it in your heart and say, “It's mine. God gave it to me,” see. Now, you may not see any results right now. You never see a corn crop as soon as you plant your corn, but potentially it's there. As long as you leave it alone, and keep watering it, it will grow. Don't worry about that. It'll take if it's a germitized seed. And every word of God is germitized by God, Himself. God is in the Word, so it will grow. You know it will.
There you are. We have to take his Word, accept it, believe it, commit it, and it grows. That's right. Don't keep digging it up, now. You will ruin it. You'll ruin your crop every time you do that. So just commit it to God, and believe it.
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Now, for instance ... like say for instance, I was up here on top of the mountain somewhere marooned, and I had nothing to eat. And before I could get anything to eat.... A loaf of bread would save my life, and the purchase price of a loaf of bread is, say, twenty-five cents. Well, I'd say....
Somebody come in, say, “What's the matter, Brother Branham?”
“I'm starving to death. I'm going to die.”
“Why?”
“I haven't got no bread.”
Well, you say, “Why don't you get some bread?”
“I haven't got no money.”
“Well, a loaf of bread's worth twenty-five cents.”
“Yes, sir. But I haven't got twenty-five cents,” see.
Well, you'd would say, “Here, Brother Branham, take this twenty-five cents, and get you a loaf of bread.”
Oh, my! I'd just dance a little jig all around. Why? I can be just as happy with a quarter in my hand to buy the loaf of bread, as I would be with a loaf of bread, because I've got the purchasing power for the loaf of bread.
Just like, there's a store. All I have to do is lay it down, and I get the loaf of bread. So I can be just as happy with the quarter in my hand as I could with the loaf of bread, because it's the buying power of the loaf of bread.
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So what is the evidence of your healing when you believe it? No matter what takes place.... You say, “I don't feel better.” That don't have nothing to do with it. You've got the purchase power if you believe it. So, just start dancing a little jig, saying, “Praise God. I'm going to be well, because I've got the purchasing power of that loaf of bread.” There you are, see.
Now, there's no one can heal you, because you're already healed. How many knows that the Bible teaches that? You're already healed. By his stripes you were healed, see. Now, no man can heal you. You can't ... if Jesus stood here Himself, He couldn't heal you. He's already done it, see. That's exactly right. You'd have to believe it.
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Now when He was made manifest, and ... see what He was yesterday, let's carry it just a little further. Now, we know that the prophets of the Old Testament.... God always had his people to believe his prophets. We know that, don't we? Because the Bible said that the Word of God (the Word, now, which was God), came to the prophets. Is that right? The Word of the Lord came to the prophets. The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. The Word of the Lord came to Moses. The Word of the Lord came different ways to the prophets—was the one who had the Word of God.
And they, by having it, they manifested it, see. They manifested it, because it come to them. They had it; they spoke it, told exactly what would happen; and it happened. That's the way they knowed they were prophets. Now you get it?
See, the Word came to the prophets. A portion, not all of it. Just part of it would come to the prophet. And he would express exactly what the Word was, and it happened just the way he said it.
And God said, “If there be one among you who is spiritual, or a prophet, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in visions, speak to him through dreams. And if this prophet prophesies, and what he says comes to pass, then hear that prophet, for I am with him.” That's the Word in him. You get it? “But if he prophesies, and it don't come to pass, then don't fear that prophet, for I ain't with him.”
But you see, if it does come to pass, then that proves that it was God's Word in the prophet. He said it, and it happened. Now, they always was to believe their prophets.
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Now in Deuteronomy, the 18th chapter, Moses, who gave the law to Israel, he told them about the end time, and he said, “The Lord your God shall raise up among you of your brethren a prophet like me. It shall come to pass that whosoever will not hear that prophet will be cut off from the people.” Now that ... then we know that he was speaking of the Messiah, 'cause all down through, they even asked John, “Art thou that prophet? Art thou that prophet?” They kept saying, “Art thou that prophet?” see, 'cause they knowed that prophet was coming.
Now the last prophet of the Old Testament was Malachi, four hundred-and-something years before the coming of Christ. Then all at once, Christ comes on the scene, and He was baptized in Jordan by John. The Father comes down in the form of the Holy Spirit, goes in Him. In the wilderness He goes, to be tempted of the devil forty days; then comes back out with his ministry. Let's watch what He was. Now we see what He was. What He was in the prophets, we found out.
Now we're going to find out what He is ... what He was yesterday; then, as Paul said, today; then we find out what He will be forever, see.
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Now here He comes out. The first thing we find Him doing.... There was a man named Simon, and he had a brother named Andrew. And Andrew had been attending John's meeting, and John said, “There's the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world.” And Andrew went with Him. And he was thoroughly convinced that that was the Messiah. So he come told his fisherman-brother, Simon (that we know by the name of Peter), told him, said, “I found the Messiah. Come see Him.” I can imagine....
Let's just break in, and see what Simon must have thought. He said, “Now, wait a minute here. Now, I am a Bible reader. My old daddy, before he died, he told me, 'Son, there's going to be everything before the Messiah comes, 'cause there's always a bunch of false raises up to counteract the right.'” (We know that, always do.) Now, he said, “Now, there will be all kinds of people wanting to be Messiahs.” (That's Jesus, the Saviour.) Said, 'There will be many of them, but' said, 'don't you be deceived. Stay with the Word, for that Messiah will be that king-prophet.
“'You will know Him because He will do the sign of the prophet, see. For Moses ... our scripture told us that the Messiah that was going to be raised up among us would be a prophet like him.' ”
The Word of God would be with Him. He would be manifesting the Word of God. Amen.
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You get it? The Word of the Lord would be with Him, because He'd be a prophet, and He'd be manifesting the Word of the Lord.
That's the reason Jesus said, “Search the scriptures. In them you think you got eternal life, and they testify of me. And if I don't do them works, then don't believe me. But if you can't believe me, being a man, believe the works that I do, that you might be saved.” Perfect!
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Now, they were looking for this prophet to raise up. And when ... 'course Andrew come running in, tell him.... Oh, he might have thought “Andrew, you've gone off on the deep end.”
So one day he walked down to find Jesus at the shore. And when he walked up in the presence of Jesus.... Now, remember, Simon (his name was Simon then).... But when he walked into the presence of Jesus for the first time (Jesus had never seen him. Now watch Him now.), as soon as he walked into his presence, Jesus looked around at him, and said, “Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas.”
Oh, my! That got him. Oh! He not only knowed who he was, but He knowed that godly old father of his. So there was a prophet. No one could deny it. There He was, doing just exactly. He knew him, and knew his daddy. He said, “Your name is Simon. You are the son of Jonas. And I am going to call you.... From henceforth, I'm going to call you Peter (which means ”little stone, confession“),” because Peter confessed Him.
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Now there was one standing there by the name of Philip, the one we just read about taking this man to Jesus. He seen that, and he thought, “Say, that seals it, because the Bible said that that Messiah would be a prophet. And here He is. We see!”
So, he had a friend that he had studied the Bible with, the old scrolls, and his name was Nathanael. So from where Jesus was preaching, if you're ever there, it's fifteen miles around the mountain here, to where Nathanael lived. So Philip took off, and run around here that day. And the next morning he picked up Nathanael in the garden praying, and he said, “Come see who we've found—Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.”
Well, they had studied the Scriptures together since boys, went to the same church. He said, “Now, wait a minute here. Just a minute. Could there be any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
He said, “Come see.”
“Could something like that come...?”
Now, that's a good answer to anybody. Don't stay home and criticize it. Come find out. That goes good yet today.
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“Come see for yourself.” Here they go around the bend, coming around. He said, “Now look. Do you remember that old man named Simon, that couldn't write his name, when you ... he bought some fish from you, and you couldn't give ... he couldn't give a receipt?”
“Oh, yeah. The son of Jonas.”
“Yes. Yesterday he came up before the Messiah—that we know Him, Messiah. He'd never seen him in all of his life. And He said, 'Behold, your name is Simon, and you're the son of Jonas.'
“Now look. We both know the Scriptures. And doesn't our Bible tell us that the Messiah would be a prophet? And here He is, doing this!”
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Aw, Philip couldn't believe that ... or, Nathanael. So he come up in the presence of Jesus. And when he walked up in the presence of Jesus, Jesus looked right at him, and said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there's no guile.” In other words, a righteous man.
And it astonished him. He said, “Rabbi [which means teacher], Rabbi, when did you ever know me? You've never seen me. Why, I'm from another part of the country. I just come in here. You never seen me. How do you know I'm a righteous man?”
He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you.” What eyes!
You know what that Bible scholar said? He said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” Why? He saw He was exactly the manifestation of God's Word. Four hundred years without a prophet, and here He stood. Exactly what the Bible said He would do. “Rabbi [teacher], you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”
Jesus said, “Because I told you this you believe? Then come on, follow me. You'll see greater than this.”
All right. Oh, that was Jesus yesterday.
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Now there is only three races of people in the whole world, if we believe the Bible. Oh, I know they claim there's many, but look. We all sprung from.... After the antediluvian destruction, when the world was destroyed with water (we believe that as Christians), Noah had three sons—Ham, Shem, and Japheth. And we all come from them three boys. Had to.
And now, if you notice, Peter was given the keys to the kingdom, and that was Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan. Now, Peter had the keys to the kingdom. On the day of Pentecost, he opened the gospel to the Jews. Acts 7, he opened it to the Samaritans. Philip went down preaching to the Samaritans, only.... They had believed, only been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and he went down and laid hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. Then in Acts 10:49, he opened the gospel to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius, see. There's both Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. Get it? The three races?
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Now, there were two races of them looking for a Messiah. That was the Jew and the Samaritan. But we Anglo-Saxons, Gentiles, we worshipped idols—club on our back, and we worshipped idols. We wasn't looking for no Messiah. And He never did that before any ... Messiah—that sign there—before any Gentile. Never. It's not written in the Word. But look. That was his sign that proved that He was the Messiah.
Look at these staunch Jews—Peter, and who else could we say? Many of them: the one with the blood issue that touched his garment; Zacchaeus up in the tree; blind Bartimaeus whose faith stopped Him, and He turned around. All those staunch Jews. He showed that He was the Messiah by being the prophet that manifested Himself.
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Now, now, we find out we take them two ... we're just going to take.... Now we're going to leave.... We'll come back tomorrow night, and pick up some more Jews. But now tonight, we're going on to a Gentile, or to a Samaritan. There's another race looking for a Messiah. Now when He's on earth, He's got to manifest Himself to who's looking for Him. Got to. Notice.
Now, here He made Himself known to the Jews by what? Speaking the secrets of their hearts, telling them what they'd done, and so forth. We know that. Now did that prove He was the Word? How many believes that?
Now, you who are putting down Scriptures, put this down. Hebrews, the 4th chapter, and about the 12th verse, it says, “The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the ... sunder of the bone and the marrow ... and is a discerner of the thoughts in the heart.” Is that right, brethren? The Word of God discerns the thought that's in their heart. He looked upon them, and perceived their thoughts. Is that right? What was it? It was the Word. The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart. That's the reason they knowed that He was the manifestation of God's Word. That was Jesus yesterday.
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Now, He was on his road down to Jericho. Jerusalem sits on the hill; Jericho sits in a valley. He was going to Jericho, but He had need to go by Samaria. Now, that's the city of Sychar. He stopped. He sent his disciples in to get something to eat. Must've been about noontime.
While they were gone, there was a pretty woman come out there. She was of ill-fame. We know what you mean there, the red-light type. But she might've been a lovely girl. No doubt but what she was a lovely girl, but maybe she had something to cause that. Maybe her mother turned her on the street when she was a kid.
You know, we talk so much in America about juvenile delinquency. It ain't juvenile delinquency; it's parent delinquency. Sometimes a girl goes wrong because her mother don't make her do right. That's exactly right, till.... Lot of times it's parents' fault; not children, a juvenile delinquency.
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So here we find this young girl. She come out. She's a young woman, probably in her early twenties. She came out.... Now, I've been in the Orient. I know the customs. It never changes. Now the reason she didn't go early with the virgins to the well to get water, she wasn't permitted to. They don't associate together. And so, she had to go out later. So here she come out along about noon.
And you ought to see the way they pack water. They got a great big.... It isn't a bucket; it's a clay pot. It holds about three gallons, I guess, and it's got handles on it. And then, they got a well with a windle. And they take these hooks and dip in these big jars, and let it down, and get it full of water, and windle it up.
And I've seen young girls ... no, well, just young girls sit and put one of those big pots of water on top of their head, one on each shoulder; and a whole bunch of them going along talking, shaking their heads, talking to one another, and never spill a drop. How they do it, I don't know. They still do it—talk, just as ladies can, you know. So they go along there just really carrying a conversation, and never spill a bit of water. And they still do it.
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Now she come out to get her pot of water, and she started to let it down. Now, that well—it still stands there—it's just ... it's the one that Jacob give Joseph, his son. And so, it was a little panoramic about like this platform up here. And this.... And there is a wall around, and there's a public well there where the people drink. So she started to let down the bucket, or the pot, and she heard somebody say, “Woman, bring me a drink.” And she turned and looked.
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Now, He wasn't but about thirty-three years old, but He looked over fifty. Do you know the Bible said that? In St. John 6, when He said, “I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. Your fathers eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.” He said, “But I'm the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. If a man eat this bread he will never die.” Oh, they went ahead discussing a little while. And so, then He said ... He told them....
They said, “You say you've seen Abraham, when you're not over fifty years old?” He was only thirty, but his work must have made him look fifty. “You're not a man over fifty years old, and say that you saw Abraham?” Said, “Now we know you got a devil, and you are mad.” Crazy, see.
He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” That settled it.
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And here He was now, about ... a young Jew sitting over there just watching. And so, He said, “Bring me a drink.”
And she said, “It's not customary.” They had segregation then like we used to have in the South, you know, between the colored and white. Said, “it's not customary for you, being a Jew, to ask me, a Samaritan woman, for anything.” Said, “We have no dealings with one another.”
He said, “Woman, if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask me for a drink, and I'd give you water you don't come here to draw.”
She said, “The well is deep,” see, still the carnal thinking. “The well's deep.” And said, “You have nothing to draw with.”
He said, “The water that I give is everlasting life, springing up.”
They've got the kind of.... What was He doing? He was contacting her spirit, see, contacting.... When He caught what her trouble was.... How many knows what her trouble was? She had five husbands. She was living with her sixth. He said, “Woman, go get your husband, and come here.”
She said, “I don't have any husband.”
Said, “You told the truth.” Said, “You've got five ... had five, and the one you're living with now is not yours. In that you said the truth.”
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Now look. When He did that before them Jews, them Jews said—them big, high priests, and educators of them days—said “Humph!” They had to answer their church. It was being done, so they had to tell their congregation something. They couldn't bypass it, 'cause they had to meet the issue.
So he said, “Humph.” Said, “This man is Beelzebub, the prince of the devils—a fortune-teller,” in other words. Said, “He's a fortune-teller,” and anybody knows a fortune-teller is of the devil. So said, “He's Beelzebub, the fortune-teller.” All right.
And when he did that, He turned around and looked at them Jews. He said, “I forgive you. I, the Son of man, will forgive you for saying this, blaspheming the Word of God. But,” said, “some day [in other words] the Holy Ghost is coming to do the same works. And one word against it will never be forgiven a man in this world, neither in the world that is to come.
So you see where it puts us. One word against it will never be forgiven. That's blaspheming the Holy Spirit. When they saw Him standing there with the.... He was the Word, and the Word was expressing itself just like the Bible said, and they said, “He's a fortune-teller.” You know what happened to them. Every one of them was lost. Exactly.
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Now. Here He stands with this woman, and He said, “Go get your husband.”
She said, “I have none.”
He said, “You said well. You've had five, and the one you're living with now is not yours.”
She what? Look at this little prostitute. She turned, and she said, “Sir, I perceive that You're a prophet.”
What a difference! That woman knowed more about God than half of the preachers in the United States (that's right)—in her condition.
Look. She said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. We [the Samaritans], we know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. And when he comes, that will be his sign.” Oh, my! That's what He was yesterday, see? “We know that Messiah, which is called Christ, when he comes he'll tell us these things. Who art thou?”
He said, “I am he that speaks to you.”
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And what did she do? She left that waterpot. She run into the city, and she said, “Come see a man that's told me the things I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah?”
And the people in the city believed on Him because the woman said that He told her what she had done. Is that right? Well, that was Jesus yesterday.
Now, it wasn't his dress. They all dressed alike. Wasn't the way He wore his beard, or combed his hair. They all wore it the same. But it was the manifestation of God's Word in Him, discerning the thoughts of the heart. How many believes that?
Well, that's Jesus yesterday. That'd be Jesus today, wouldn't it? The same Jesus; same Jesus that was with Moses. Moses forsook Egypt, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than that of Egypt. That was Jesus yesterday. Paul said, “He is the same today, and will be forever.” Why is it? Jesus is the Word, the manifestation of the Word, the Word made flesh.
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Now, in closing I might say this. We could stand here all night, but we'd never get to the end of it, 'cause it's just the whole Bible, just hugged right around there, see. Now, remember. That was the end of the Jewish dispensation, and the Samaritans. That ended them.
Now, being three ... that was Ham and Shem's people. Now what about Japheth's people, this people, the Gentile? Now, we wasn't looking for no Messiah. And they had four thousand years to believe He was coming. And when He come, they didn't believe Him. And He done the Messiahic sign to prove that He was Messiah, and those Jews that were ordained to life believed it.
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Look at that little prostitute. Well, she'd stayed out of their churches, probably formal, cold and stiff. It didn't do her no good. But she was predestinated to eternal life. And as soon as that thing was done, quickly she recognized it. What was it? That life ... that seed broke forth to life. Yes. “All the Father has given me will come, and no man can come except my Father draws him first.” Amen. There you are.
And as soon as that light flashed, what'd she say? Said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. We know Messiah is coming to do this thing. And when he comes....”
He said, “I am He that speaks with you.”
Now, it wasn't right for her to go into the city, but try to stop her. No matter what she was, try to stop her once. It's like putting a house out and it on fire on a windy day. Oh, she had a testimony! She knowed the Word, and she said, “There's the Messiah there. He told me the things I've done. Search the scriptures. Isn't that the very Messiah?”
And the men said, “That's it,” and they believed on Him. He didn't do it no more. He just done it to that one woman, showed her that. And all the men of the city believed on Jesus because the woman said so. Oh, my!
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Now He didn't do any miracles there. He walked away, because He knowed Philip was coming right down to do right behind Him, you see. So, He just left that alone, walked away. They knowed that was Messiah. That was enough. The miracles would take place as long as you recognize the Messiah.
Now, look. Now we've had two thousand years of theology, like the Jews had four thousand years. God from the Gentiles will take a people for his name. Do you believe that? All right.
Now, do you believe we're at the evening time? Now look what Jesus said over here. I am going to quote from you ... from Luke 17:28. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom (now, I'm closing), in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.” How many ever read that? “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be when the Son of man comes.” Now, it can't fail. He said it, see. Now notice.
Now He went ahead and told about Noah, how they were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, the immorals of it. And then said, likewise, as it was in the days of Sodom will it be at his coming.
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Notice. At the days of Sodom.... Now wait.
There was a man who had been called by election—Abraham. He was just an ordinary man. God called him when he was sixty-five years old ... he was seventy-five, and his wife was sixty-five. Told him they was going to have a baby. And he believed that word for twenty-five years. And he was a hundred, and his wife was ninety, and the baby come. Wish I had time to go through that little study with you for about a week. Oh, my! I believe that Indian faith would go plumb out of the top of the Tabernacle there, see, to lay that out.
I just come through Grass Valley down there. Oh, my! And in Grass Valley, where the tapes and things had been played, prior to coming.... And I took that.... I didn't pray for anybody, just leave it alone. And took that, and laid that Abraham's seed, and Abraham's faith and Abraham's seed....
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Not only God promised Abraham, but his seed after him. And we are Abraham's seed, and we are in Christ. We are the royal seed of the promise. And what did Abraham do? Called those things which were not as though they were, because God said so. My! Now you see, when God told him.... Said, “Abraham, you are going to have a baby by your wife.”
Now, remember, at sixty-five she's about fifteen, twenty years past menopause, change of life, see. Now, he had lived with her since she was eighteen years old, and there was no baby. She was sterile ... she was barren; he was sterile. No baby. And yet, God said, “You're going to have it,” and Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong, giving praise to God. Right.
What about his children? That was the natural seed. How about the royal seed through Christ, with the same faith that he received to get him by? Amen! Oh, my! That'd pack you up there beyond the moon, and stars; and run you up the Milky White Way. Yes, sir! Past Jupiter, Venus, and Mars, and go on. On that faith, you see—Abraham's faith. Notice.
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I can see Abraham saying ... come home out of the field, say, “Honey, get ready. We are going to have a baby.” Could you imagine an old man, seventy-five years old, and his wife sixty-five, going down to the doctor, and say, “Doc, I tell you what. Make ready. We're going to have a baby. We want to get a hospital room ready.”
The doctor will say, “Oh, oh. Yes, sir. Uh-huh,” and call the police right quick, to pick him up. He's off of his head, you see.
Anybody that takes the Word of God, believes the Word of God's considered a little crazy, you know. They are, because they've lost the mind of the world. They got the mind of God, see.
“Get things ready.” Well, then, the first twenty-eight days passed, and our little Sarah got the booties ready, you know, and got all the little booties ready, and got the Birdseye, and the pins, and everything. Got ready. So, going to have the baby, sure as the world. And then twenty-eight days passed.
Said, “How you feeling, sweetheart?”
“No different.”
“Glory to God! We'll have the baby anyhow.”
... say, “Ahhh! I told you you wouldn't have it.”
God said, “Separate yourself from them unbelievers. Come over here in another land. Walk with Me.” Oh, my! “Get away from them old unbelievers. They'll hurt you. Come out from among them.”
That's right. Get away from them. They don't want to believe.
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First year passed. Abraham walked up, and said, “Sarah, honey, how do you feel?”
“No different, sweetheart.”
Glory to God! The baby is a year more a miracle. Hallelujah! We're going to have it anyhow. Keep the booties ready.“
About ten, fifteen years, maybe twenty years passed. She said, “Abraham, honey, these booties are getting kind of old.”
“Knit you some new ones. Hallelujah! Going to have it anyhow.”
“But, Abraham, I don't feel any different.”
“It's nothing what you feel. God said so. That settles it. Going to have it anyhow. God said so.” Oh, brother!
Now, he's a hundred years old. Oh, my! And Sarah's ninety, little grandma, you know. “How do you feel, honey?”
“No different, dear.”
“Hallelujah! We're going to have it anyhow.”
Look what God did for him. He changed him, made him a young man again. Her, too. Sure, He did. Absolutely. If that's not right.... When they went down to Gerar, why did the king fall in love with that little grandma? Looking for him a sweetheart, and said ... the prettiest thing he ever saw. Said, “You are fair to look upon.” Little grandma nothing—she'd turned back to a young woman, showing exactly what God's going to do to every one of Abraham's seed. Hallelujah! Every man and woman, no matter what your age is, and how old you are, God will turn you sometime back to a young man and a young woman again, for the glory of God, for ... if you're the seed of Abraham. Oh, my! How I love that!
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Now, notice. He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom....” Now we see Abraham come up to Sodom. God had dealt with him through the years, with all kinds of signs and wonders. But, now wait. Just as He did Abraham's seed.
We've been at Pentecost now for fifty years. We've seen speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues. We've seen divine healing, signs, and everything. But now wait a minute. Sodom's fixing to be burned. Not Noah's flood, now. This is Sodom, He said.
And look at the immoral increase in the world, in the last few years—forty years, or something. Look how it's increasing by the day, by the hour. Passing over Hollywood the other day, I had ... sometime, I had a plane [unclear words], where homosexuals in Los Angeles has increased ... California had increased thirty percent over last year, perversion, just exactly like Sodom. The whole world's turned that way, this West Coast, where the east and west has met here, see. That's right.
So now we see we are at the last days, like Abraham. His royal seed has come up at the last days, like Abraham himself come up at the last days.
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Now remember, there's always three classes of people, and here I'm going to name them. That's believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. They are in every crowd. So, you have them. So, there they was. Here was Abraham, the called-out and elected church; Lot, the cold formal church down in Sodom, with the Sodomites.
And one day, when the hour was just about ready for the burning of the earth at that time, Abraham was sitting under his oak. Now, listen real close. Don't miss this. Now, Jesus said it will repeat at the end time, just before He comes.
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Now, there come up three angels, and one of them was God. So He sat down with Abraham, and two of them went down in Sodom, and preached the gospel to them. Is that right?—a modern Billy Graham to the church normal that's in Sodom; great men, like that Oral Roberts, going down there performing. They didn't do much of a miracle, not too many. They did something, smiting them blind. Preaching the gospel smites.... There they was in that denominational realm. Went down there preaching the gospel, Billy Graham that great, mighty evangelist to the Baptist, and Presbyterian. Oh, he lays the line down to them. But you see, he preached to them calling them out.
But there was one stayed behind with Abraham, and He gave Abraham a sign. Now listen real close. Just a day before that, his name had been Abram, and her name was S-a-r-a-i, Sarai. And He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, father of nations; h-a-m, A-b-r-a-h-a-m—seven letters. A-b-r-a-h-a-m, Abraham. Now. He changed Sarah's name from S-a-r-a-i to S-a-r-a-h, princess. Now.
The angels that went down in there went down and preached the gospel, and told them to get out of that mess down there. “Come out from among them.” And isn't that what Billy Graham, and them great ... Jack Schuller, and them guys today, calling out a Babylon worldwide? But the angel that stayed with the church that never was in Sodom, watch what He did for a sign.
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Now Sarah wasn't like the modern women of today. She sat in the tent. So this angel said to Abraham, He said, “Abraham [not Abram], Abraham. [How did He know his name was Abraham now?] Where is your wife S-a-r-a-h, Sarah?” How did He know he was married? How did He know his name was Abraham, when it was Abram? How did He know Sarah, his wife, was ... Sarai was Sarah?
“Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?”
Abraham looked at Him, said, “Why, she is in the tent behind you.”
He said, “Abraham, I am going to visit you according to the time of life. [I, that personal pronoun again, the very One that give him the name, see.] I am going to visit you according to the time of life.”
And Sarah, inside the tent behind the man, said, “Me, an old woman? Why,” said, “I haven't had pleasure with my lord [her husband there, for, maybe it had been twenty years].... Said, ”Me an old woman, and my lord also old? We have pleasure again like young people?“ And she, what we call, laughed up her sleeve, kind of to herself.
And the angel said, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Whew! Scared her to death. What was it?
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Now, what was that? And that man that talked to Abraham, Abraham called Him God, capital L-o-r-d. And any Bible scholar knows that's the self-existing One, Elohim, see, the self-existing God.
Some man said to me, said, “You wouldn't believe that was God?”
I said, “The Bible said it was God.” I said, “Why, what's that to God?” I said, “We're made out of sixteen elements. That's calcium, potash, and petroleum, and cosmic light....
“God just reached, and got a handful of those elements over there, and said, ”Whoosh! Step in there, Gabriel. We're going down to Sodom.“ Reached over, and got another handful, ”Whoosh! Step in there, Michael,“ and, ”Whoosh!“ stepped in Himself. Why, He did. He eat. He eat a calf that Abraham killed (is that right?), drunk the milk, and eat some cornbread, and eat some butter. That's right. God! Well, I'm glad. It's nothing for God. You just forget who He is. I'm so glad.
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I've got just about four or five hairs left, you know. And the other day I was combing them four or five hairs, and my wife said to me, she said, “Billy, you're getting bald-headed.”
I said, “But I haven't lost a one of them.”
She said, “What?”
I said, “I haven't lost a one of them.”
She said, “I pray you, tell me where they are at.”
I said, “All right, sweetheart, I will. You tell me where they was before I got them. They're there waiting for me to come to them.” Yes. That's right.
He said, “Every hair of your head's numbered. Nothing will be lost. I'll raise it up again in the last day.” He that give it to me now, can't He give it back again by a promise? If He can make me what I am without a choice, how much more can He make me back by a choice, by taking Him? Amen! Oh, I feel religious now (yes, sir), to know that there's coming a resurrection, and we'll be restored again like He showed Abraham in there. Notice. Now Jesus said that was God manifested in a human flesh.
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I want to ask you something. Isn't it strange (to that nominal church out there) we have never in all the ages.... Never have we ever had a man, a minister, in them churches that his name ended with h-a-m until today, h-a-m. Did you know that's right? We've had a Moody, a Sankey, Billy Sunday, and Knox, Calvin, Spurgeon. All down we've had all kinds of men, but never one ended with h-a-m—G-r-a-h-a-m to the church down in Sodom. G-r-a-h-a-m, the messenger to the church in Sodom, showing exactly the message that they did then.
And did not Jesus say, “As it was in the days of Sodom...?” There's Billy Graham, G-r-a-h-a-m, out there in the field.
Now He sends the messenger to the church elected, the Pentecostal elected, pulled-out: not out there in the nominal church, but the church elected. And the church in itself is.... The Holy Spirit moving in the church is what does the works. That wasn't that body of flesh. It probably vanished. But it was God in that flesh, showing that God would again dwell in the redeemed flesh of his church in the last days, and would do the same sign. “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” Hallelujah! There you are. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. “Sirs, we would see Jesus.”
Oh, sure. What would you see? The manifestation of the Word. And the Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even the ... sunder of the bones, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Friends, that was Jesus yesterday. And if the Word is manifested again today, won't it be Jesus today? would be the same yesterday? How many believes that? Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, your great, august presence is in here making your children happy, pouring out the oil of faith into their hearts to receive the blessings of God that's laid up for them. Now we are called by your name, and You said if we'd assemble and pray that You'd hear from heaven, heal the land. And here we are tonight, way up here at the end of the road, out here on the island, way out past the West Coast, way back. And You said ... the prophet said, “It shall be light in the evening time.”
Sitting in this building tonight are the Indians that You put here. The secret is with You, how You got them here. But You brought them here. We're right at the border of the waters. And we see the messenger that's gone to the called seed of Abraham, the church positionally, that's got out there in Babylon, showing his sign out there.
Oh, Lord, we pray tonight that in Jesus' name that You will let this little group of people know that You're not dead. You've raised from the dead, and two thousand years of criticism couldn't get rid of You. You're still here, proving that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Heavenly Father, a lovely group of people here, they sit in this hot building. And now, reward them, Lord. And I'm looking with child anticipation, with a heart like a child around Christmas time, waiting. Ever ... all these years, Lord, You've never failed us. But yet my heart jumps every time I think of You coming into our presence, or us into your presence. Now I pray, Father, that You will come into our hearts.
Give these people faith, tonight, to believe. And grant now that You will give me faith, Lord. But my faith without theirs would do no good. We must have faith together, because we are a unit. We are the body of the Lord Jesus, and we've assembled ourselves together in a little rented hall tonight, as they did in days gone by, two thousand years ago.
Now we pray in this upper room tonight that You will move in here, and will show to this people that You're still alive. And, Father, if you'll just do it, everybody in here will go away happy. They'll go away believing for their sickness and their sins to be forgiven. They'll have courage. Many of these poor people who don't have even hardly enough to eat, perhaps, and some of them are down to meager living. Others are maybe, Lord, just struggling day by day. And we're all poor, Lord, and we're trying to make heaven our home.
Come among us tonight, Father. These words that I've preached, they'll just fall by the wayside if You don't come and confirm them. Grant it, Lord. We'll thank You. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Now, I'm going to tell you.... It's a quarter until ten. Would you give me just a little, short, prayer line, about fifteen minutes? Let's ... will you do it? All right. Now. I believe Billy said he give out about fifty prayer cards. All right.
Now, the prayer cards—everybody that's got a prayer card, hold it like this. It's just a little prayer card, with a number on it. It's got a number on a prayer card. And now, we would like to see.... Let's see, where shall we start? Let's start at 1 tonight. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's see them stand up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Prayer card number 1, who has number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? Let's see your hand. 1, 2, 3. Let's see another one. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
You sure all the people know English? All know English? Who has prayer card number 1? Raise up your hand. Number 1. Number 2, 2. How would the Indian say 2, if he'd say it in his own language. All right. You heard it. Number 2? Prayer card number 2? Number 3? Who has number 3? A lady has number 3. Number 4? Who has number 4 prayer card? That lady there. All right.
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Surely there is 1, 2, or 3 here somewhere. Look ... everybody look at one another's cards. Everybody's got a card, raise up your hand. Everybody that's got a prayer card, raise up your hand. Now look at one another's cards. Look over ... see, maybe they can't hear. See it may be somebody's deaf, and I missed them right by, or maybe they can't walk. They're crippled and can't walk. 1, 2. Who has 1 or 2? 3?
The lady has it. 4, we have it. All right. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. All right. Let them stand up and come over here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Let them just come right over here in the corner. That's good. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
There's three cards missing now. There's three missing now. You see, the reason I want to get every one of them, because somebody writes and tells me later, said, “Well, nobody told me. I was deaf. I couldn't get up, and nobody told me,” see. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Here's another, this fellow here. Now what's his number? 2? All right, 1. 1, prayer card 1. We got 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We lack one. Number 1. Well, if they stepped out.... Maybe they've stepped out, and they'll be back in just in a minute. All right. If they do, they got their place in the line.
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Now remember, everybody holding a prayer card, if we don't get to it tonight, we're going to get to it. And we're going to pray for everybody that comes to the meeting and wants to be prayed for.
Now, let's see. That's 10, 9. Let's see 10, 11. Who has prayer card 11? No? 12? All right, sir. 13, 14? All right, lady, over here. 15.
Now when you come ... let me say this. Now, when you come and get a card, hold to it, see. Don't change it. You give it to somebody.... You've got to be here to get it yourself. Take your card, and hold it, see. You see, someone else would take that place, you see.
If you get a card, hold it. We don't know where the Holy Spirit'll have us pulling, and we want you there on that time. So you come get your card. Let's start right with that. Others come in, and we've got two or three missing, but that will be all right. Now we want you to believe now, with all your heart.
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Now, I want your attention here. How many in the building that's sick, and does not have a prayer card, and won't be called in the line? Raise up your hand. Let's see. Everybody? Well, it's just practically all the way around.
Now, here now, while they're getting that prayer line up through that room there, I want to ask you something. Listen now, close now. All I've said will go in vain, if this isn't so. If.... Any man can say anything. But if it isn't God's Word, don't believe it the first place. But, if it's God's Word, then look for God to keep that promise, 'cause God's got to keep his promise in order to be God. If I'm going to be honest, I've got to keep my promise, see. A man of honor, a man of honor always keeps his word, see. You always keep your word.
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Now each one of you out there that's not in this prayer line, and won't be in it without prayer cards, you just look this a-way. Let me tell you what you do.
There was a little woman one time in the Bible. I'm going to give you a little story. She didn't have a prayer card either, but she seen Jesus come across the sea, and was down there. Someone told her, and she believed if she could only touch his garment that she'd be made well. Did you ever hear the story? How many of you heard it? Sure.
The woman touched.... She had a blood issue. And now, remember, I've been in that country. The Palestinian garment hangs loose. It's a robe, and it's got a underneath garment under that, to keep the dust off the limbs.
Now, if she touched the border of his garment physically, He didn't feel it. You know what I mean. He didn't feel it in his body. But she said within herself, “I believe He's a holy man, and if I can just touch Him, I'll be made well.” Is that right? And she had a blood issue.
And she pushed through the crowd, and she got down, and she touched the border. That was that fell from his legs, where the garment swings out. And she touched the border of his garment, and got up, and went back, and maybe sit down in the audience. And Jesus stopped. He said, “Who touched me?”
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And you know what Peter said? Peter rebuked Him, said, “Lord, why would you say a thing like that?” Said, “Well, everybody's touching you.”
“Hello, Rabbi.”
“Great prophet of God!”
“You deceiver!”
Everybody, see, everybody's touching Him. He said, “Everybody's touching you. Why would you say 'Who touched me?' ”
He said, “But I perceive that I've gotten weak. [Virtue, strength, went from Him.] I've gotten weak.” That one little woman touched Him, and made Him weak, and He turned. And He looked over the audience until He found her, told her what her trouble was, and said her faith had made her well. Is that right?
Now, that was Jesus Christ yesterday. Is that right? Well, if He's the same today, won't He do the same?
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Now for my minister brothers, they might want a scripture for that. I'm going to give you one now. The Bible said in Hebrews, the 3rd chapter, that Jesus Christ—right now, today—is a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Is that right, brethren? How many knows that's the truth? the Bible says that? He's the high.... Well, if He is the same high priest, how would He act today? The same as He did then. Does that make Him the same yesterday, today, and forever?
Then now, if you come here and touched me—I'm like your daddy, or your brother, husband, or whatmore—it wouldn't do a bit of good. I'm just a man. Touch your pastor, same thing.
But you touch Him, and watch the Spirit move down, see. Amen! That's it, you see. That makes Him the same yesterday, today, and forever. It wouldn't be me; it would be a gift that He works through.
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Brother Wood, did you bring them pictures with you, or anything? You got them? Oh, you have them up there on the platform? Did you see them tonight? We'll have them tomorrow night? How would you like to see a picture of it? We got it right here, brother, right by ... hanging in Washington D.C., copyrighted—the only supernatural being was ever photographed, that same pillar of fire that followed the children of Israel. Here it is. And it will do the same work that it did.
Jesus said, “I come from God.” That's ... went to God. He died, rose, ascended into heaven. And Paul, on his road down to Damascus, a big pillar of fire struck him blind. He said, “Lord, who are you?”
He said, “I'm Jesus.” Is that right? The same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Now, you without a prayer card, you look this a-way and you start praying. You start praying, saying, “Lord Jesus, I believe You. And that little old man standing up there on the platform, he doesn't know me.”
There isn't a person in this building I know, outside of Brother Wood. I see him standing back there. I believe that's a couple of brethren there. Brother Fred Sothmann from Canada here, I know him, but no one in this vicinity here. How many of you here's a stranger to me? Raise up your hand. Everyone's a stranger, and you know that I don't know you, raise up your hand. You people in the prayer line knows I'm a stranger to you, raise up your hands. All right.
Now you just believe, and say, “Lord Jesus, by faith I believe that what that brother says is truth. I'm sick, Lord. Let me touch You.” And then say.... Act upon Him. Watch the Holy Spirit move right down through here, and do the same thing He did. If it doesn't do it, then I'm a false prophet. If it does do it, then you believe it. That's right.
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Now, did you give the boy your card? Speak English all right? We're strangers to one another. I believe he's a Indian brother. Is that...? Indian? Well, here we are, two strangers, two men. Never met before in life. Now, he stands here. He's just a man. I stand here as a man. He's here for some reason I don't know. I've never seen him, and this is our first time.
But now, if Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he might be ... this man might be here for.... Maybe it's financial needs, maybe it's domestic trouble, something wrong in his home. It may be that he's sick. Or maybe he's standing here for somebody else. I don't know. I never seen him. But now if he was standing here, and I said, “Glory to God! Hallelujah! God sent me to pray for the sick,” lay hands on him. I'd say, “You sick, mister?”
He'd say, “Yes, I'm sick.”
I'd lay hands on him, and say, “Glory to God. Go, get well.”
That'd be all right. But what if the Holy Spirit comes down here, and tells him what he has been? He'll know whether that's the truth or not. And if he knows what he has been, he can surely believe what he will be, if He can tell me what has been. Is that right? Now how many would believe that with all your heart? say, “I will accept it”? Now may the Lord God grant it.
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I just want you to look this way, sir. Just talk with you a minute, being a stranger. And if there is any way that I could do to help you, I would do it. But if the Lord God can tell me like ... what you're here for, what you've done, what you should have done, or what's wrong with you, or something, you'd know whether that was the truth or not. And so, then it would make the audience believe—make you believe, wouldn't it? 'Cause you know I couldn't do it myself, 'cause I'm just a man like you are. It'd have to be some supernatural power. And if it's a supernatural power....
Now, the Pharisees of that day said it was Beelzebub, the devil. See what happened to them. Them that believed it was Christ received Christ's reward.
Now, I tell you now. The man standing here is under difficult. That's right. He's standing here because he hardly knows which way to go, because it's something strange—first time in this country. Don't be alarmed, sir. That won't hurt you. That's Christ. Let me show you that it is. You're here for healing. You're weak. You've had some trouble. You've been in an operating room. You've had an operation, and that was for an ulcer in the stomach, and you've gotten real weak over that. And you're here for .... Is that right? Raise up your hand. It's all over. You're going to get well. God bless you. Your faith makes you whole.
You believe? Sir, we would see Jesus. We would see Jesus. Now probably his Indian friends out there knew him. If you can just believe.... All right.
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Now here is a woman from the Anglo-Saxon. Now here is a man and a woman. I suppose we're strangers to one another. We've ... first time we've met. Now, I do not know the woman. I have never seen her in my life. She's a stranger. And now we've probably.... She's a little older than I, and we're born miles apart, and years apart. This is the first time we meet.
But now if the Holy Spirit of God will let me know what you're here for, or something about you, you know that I don't know. Then it would make you believe, won't it? All right. You just believe now.
The lady, I see her sitting at a table. No, she's backing away. It's her stomach. She has stomach trouble. That's exactly right. Peptic condition, and it causes burning, acids, and so forth. Got a nervous condition ... causes you to get gloomy way late in the evening. You get all wore out, and tore up. That's right. You believe God can tell me who you are? Would that help you? Miss Vering. And.... That's right. All right. Go believe now that stomach trouble will leave you. You believe with all your heart? Now just have faith. Don't doubt now.