The World Is Again Falling Apart

Amen. The Lord bless you. You can be seated. Sounded so good to come in tonight and hear you praising the Lord, and get back home again and see everybody. I been looking for this since last Thanksgiving when I was here, to get back to my tabernacle again. I don't know where he went. Here he is over here. I just wondered if he was going to still say “amen” to that, you know. It's always good to be here. And I looked forward, as I said, since last Thanksgiving.

We have just left New York City, where we had a wonderful campaign. The Lord blessed us there in a mighty way. And we was at the Morris Auditorium, and the crowds packed in, and up-and-down the streets. And they would stand out there, waiting. If one come in, just a bystander, you know, and would think, well, something; some people, you know, go to church, and then the first thing, something said, that they don't like, they'll get up and walk out. And they was out there voting, who would get that seat when they come out. And I come by each night, and nearly a city block away, and they would be piled up-and-down the streets. And the Lord did bless us and give us souls, and many great healings taken place.

And then at the Businessmen's breakfast, we had a wonderful time, sold out their tickets. And then I think they had to let hundreds in that didn't have tickets. Then they filled the corridors, and around the hall and doors, and so forth, that we just had a wonderful time. With Episcopalian priest and everything there, and the Lord blessed us greatly.

And then we stopped in at home, my other home, in Jeffersonville. 'Course, I live now in Tucson, Arizona, as you know, for the last two years.

And I'm on the road back to Tucson now, for the Businessmen's breakfast next week at Phoenix. Where, right immediately after the first of the year, we start a campaign there, a few days prior to the Businessmen's international, I believe, or national convention at the Ramada Inn.

And it's so good to be here in this fine city of Shreveport, tonight.

Now, usually I speak a long time, but I'm going to try my best to keep it down, three or four hours, anyhow, to this time. And I know I just wear you out, but, see, I don't get to see you so often. And many goes home before I . . . go home to glory before I get to see you again, and I think, “Well, this will be our last earthly chat together before you take your flight.” And many has gone, no doubt, since this time last year. And probably, if the Lord tarries, and we get to get back again next year or some time, it will be some more, here tonight, maybe myself. We don't know what time we're to be called. And, you know, the Lord Jesus might even come before this service is closed tonight.

Now, as you know me, I'm not an orator, I'm not a speaker. I just love the Lord and do what I can for His glory. And when I stand here in this platform, knowing that men like Brother Moore and many great men has stood in this platform, it makes me feel kind of . . . not out of place, I don't mean that. But, I mean, my grammar and things, I feel like, if the people didn't love me real well, they'd get up and walk out when I got in the pulpit. So they just bear with me, and I'm thankful for it now.

But I always come with this objective. I don't come here just to be seen; if I did, I'd go to your house for a visit, see. I come here to do the very best I can for the Lord Jesus Christ, while I'm here. I'm here for no other purpose but to serve Him, and the best that I know how, and to bring to you the Word just as it's given to me, pray for your sick and afflicted. Now, we'll have a night, or two, Brother Moore and I will get together, that we're going to pray for the sick.

Then, each night, we want every person that's not a Christian, hope something will be said or done, that you'll become a Christian. And if you're not, if you've already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and accept Him and been baptized, and you haven't received the Holy Ghost as yet, don't let this get by. Just let this be your night. Because, remember, there will be just so many names on that book. And when the last name is added, that's all of it. And yours might complete it.

When the Lamb come and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, that was the book of redemption. And all those names was put in there before the foundation of the world. When that last name was called, the book, the plan, everything else was revealed then, the seven seals was opened by the Lamb. The mysteries of the whole Bible was hid in there. If we had time, I'd like to. . . .

Just got through with those seven seals, just recently. I'd like to go through them again. And just how the Lord blessed us! So many of you has heard of it, and read in Life magazine, and things, the things that taken place during that time. When, they caught the picture, even, of the seven angels, as was predicted as we went West. And He told me, three months before, where it would be and how I would be standing there, and there it was! And the cameras, oh, for hundreds of miles, caught the picture of it right there, just exactly. Was foretold exactly! And if I ever preached anything that was inspired, in my life, it's the seven seals. And so I know we're at the end-time.

And the last name goes on that book, or, the last name that's redeemed, that was put on that book, that settles it, He comes to claim what He redeemed. And it might be a strange time. Did you ever think: people will go right on preaching, the church will go right on even thinking they're getting people saved. It's too late then, it's all over, see, and the message will go to the totally lost; just like it did in the days of Noah, seven days in the ark. It did in the days of Sodom. Jesus Himself, His third stage of His ministry, He went and preached to souls that were eternally lost, that were in prison, that repented not, long-suffering in the days of Noah. And we don't know what time these things might happen.

And let's be warned. Don't just stand around, let's do something about it. If we're not right with God, let's get right with God.

One time, I think, in the 11th chapter of Matthew, I believe it is, about the 6th verse, or something, I'm not sure of that. It's the 11th chapter, I'm pretty sure. John's disciples was sent by John, one time, to see the Lord Jesus, to ask Him if He really was the one, or should they look for another. He said, “Go show John the things that happens. Tell him, 'Blessed is he who is not offended in me.' ”

And then when they crossed the hill, and Jesus perhaps watched them, He said, “What did you go out to see?” And they said, “Did you go to see some kind of a man dressed in fine clothes?” He said, “They're in king's palaces. And a reed shaken by a wind?” He said, “Did you go to see a prophet? Said, ”I say unto you, and more than a prophet. If you can receive it, this is he who the prophet spoke of, Malachi 3, 'And I'll send my messenger before my face.' “

The disciples asked one time about this question. They said, “Why does the scribes say, the teachers of the Scripture, that, 'Elias must first come before these, all these things happen'?” Now remember, He was talking to the disciples, not to the Pharisees. The disciples, they said, “Why did the scribes say that, 'Elias must first come'?”

He said, “Elias has already come, and they did to him what they listed, and you didn't know it.”

What if someday you'd find out, we'd hit a tribulation period or something, you'd say, “Well, I thought the rapture was to come first”? See? And the voice would speak back and tell you, “The rapture is already, and you didn't know it.”

“As it was in the days of Noah, wherein eight souls were saved by water, so will it be at the coming of the Son of man.” People will go right on, just thinking they're just doing the right thing, and it'll all be over. O God, have mercy on us! Let's check up, right now in these next few nights, see where we're at. Let us bow our heads again.

Lord Jesus, with these things in mind, presented to this church, presented to these people; God, I pray that You will save every soul in Shreveport, this time, that's wrote in that book. If there is some here that isn't saved, Father, may this be the hour that they're saved. If there is any in this congregation tonight, may this be their night.

Bless Brother Moore, Sister Moore, and their family, their children, their children's children. God, we just thank You for them. And Brother Lyle, Brother Brown and all the brethren here at the church, Brother Don, and these fine bunch of people, all the members here, the laity, we just thank You for them.

And we pray, heavenly Father, that our meeting together here at this Thanksgiving . . . It might be the last Thanksgiving we'll ever meet together on this earth, so, God, let us take advantage and conserve the time. We realize that it's getting late, and we want everything that we can do that's in our power to get the work done for the Lord Jesus before He comes. Somehow, I kind of feel that He is waiting for us to finish the job. So, help us, Lord, tonight, as an individual, each one of us, that we might be so concerned about others, that we go out into the streets, or into the neighborhood, and bring in the lost, that they might be saved.

Bless Thy Word. Thy Word is truth, Lord all truth. So we pray that as we try to endeavor to break this bread of life, truth, to the people, that the Holy Spirit will come, because of that broken body there at Calvary where sin had to break it, and will divide Himself among us again, in fellowship around the Word. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, if you will, I want you to turn with me. Many of you like to kind of keep the Scriptures where a minister reads, or an evangelist. And I want to read some, tonight, from Deuteronomy, the 4th chapter, beginning with the 7th to the 14th verse. And the book of Hebrews, 14th chapter, the 25th verse through the 29th, inclusive. Deuteronomy 4.

For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

Especially the day that thou stood before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they will learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, and darkness and clouds, and thickness, and darkness.

And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard his voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard the voice.

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land wheresoever ye go over to possess it.

And now in the book of Hebrews, the 14th [12th] chapter, beginning with the 25th verse.

See that you refuse not him that spake. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shall, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

And this word, Yet once . . . signifies the removing of . . . things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. There . . .

Wherefore we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptable with reverence and godly fear:

For our God is a consuming fire.

Now I got a few notes here, and some scriptures written down, I'd like to refer to for a few minutes, as I would title this a strange little title. And these tapes is ready at any time anyone would want them. Mr. McGuire here will be able to furnish you with these things. And I want to take the text, from a text of this subject, rather, like this, “The World is Again Falling Apart.”

We was coming down yesterday, or last evening, through Memphis, Tennessee, got in there kind of late in the afternoon, or part of the evening. And we could hardly get through the streets, the children and people were so crowded. And I thought, “What could this be?” The people wasn't dressed like they had been to a religious meeting like maybe our good brother, Billy Graham or Oral Roberts. And I didn't think they were in that district at that time, anyhow. And the women were wearing slacks, and the little children around them, was just with overalls on, and so forth, coveralls. And I wondered what it was, and finally we found out. They had had a Santa Claus parade. They had . . . been many thousands had been watching it on the streets, and so forth. And we just had an awful time getting through Memphis, because it's coming Christmas time.

And Christmas is such a great commercial day, until it's taken Thanksgiving pretty near out of the picture, because . . . in the world of business, anyhow; because that the commercial world is so much greater influenced by Christmas, because there is so many people shop. And they just. . . . Thanksgiving is just a little passing-by. And we find out, as we see Christmas nearing again, I thought it would be a good thing to speak on this subject, as we're nearing it. Seeing that, really, Christmas is not. . . .

We celebrate this 25th day of December for the birthday of Christ, but, of course, anyone knows that it wasn't Christ's birthday. That was the Roman sun-god's birthday, that when the church was converted into, or, brought into Catholicism, was formed at the council at Nicaea. Instead of it being the sun god's, they made it the Son of God's birthday that was when the sun . . . it's from the 20th until the . . . I mean the 21st till the 25th, it's kind of in it's . . . I forget what the name you call it, rightly. It's when it's hardly a second-or-two's time when it's passing through that stage. And it was the sun-god's birthday, and they just taken the Son of God and made that His birthday, to blend it in with their pagan tradition. And it's no means, at all, being Christ's birthday.

He could not've been born at that time, because Judaea is about the same on the . . . high up on the equator, as this is, and we find out that, in Judaea, in the wintertime, 25th of December, she is blizzardly and cold. Shepherds cannot be on the hill, and many reasons that it couldn't be.

And then He was nature born, like all other nature, He came forth in the Spring; usually when the lambs are born, in the Spring, and He was the lamb. Now, I believe, He was born, myself, March, April, or somewhere along in there, in the early Spring.

But we find that they made a day of merchandise out of it. People crowding on the streets, and rubbing shoulders, and fussing over things, and wondering about giving somebody a present, how much they will pay for it.

The other day, I was surprised. In a place I was standing, and two ladies was talking about giving their father the birthday . . . or the Christmas present for this year. And one of them said, “I got him a quart of whiskey.” And the other one said, “I got him a pack, or a carton of cigarettes,” or something another like that. And they were saying, one give so much more for the whiskey than they did the cigarettes.

And I thought, “If that isn't a way to give a . . . swap or give a present in commemoration of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!” What a death-finding thing it is!

And I see our world in such a sadness as it is now, polluted from every side, not a way in the world for it to ever come back to itself again. We better take heed, of what we're doing in these days. For we have, just now in mourning, of one of the great tragedies, and one of the great. . . . We never thought that thing would happen in America, but it's here anyhow. And our own letting-down on the gospel, it's become worm-eaten with such stuff as that, and will get worse. There is no doubt at all, in my mind, but what it'll just continually getting worse.

But we find out, at this Christmas, to get down to the subject, that this Christmas finds the world just about like it did two thousand years ago, when Jesus came. It hasn't changed very much since then. 'Cause, this, that Christmas found the world falling apart, and was looking for a Messiah to help hold it together. And that's about the way it is today, we are doing the same thing. The world is again falling apart.

Now, that's not only in America here, but that's all over the world, wherever you go; the religious world, the political world, the everything, the world of moral. There is just no more of it, it's just. . . . Morals is just amongst the good people, anymore, and that's very hard to find. It's a shame. And politics and everything is corrupted, till the whole thing is sick and putrefied sores, from the head to the feet, the whole world. Our political system, our religious system, our moral system, everything we've got, is gone! Just, there is no way to keep it together. She is finished! We're at the end of the road. That's all there is to it.

I know we talked about it a long time, but one of these days it's going to be a-passed talking about, it's going to be a historical thing, and we'll find ourself outside if we don't watch at this time.

I wonder, if we this Christmas, if God should send Him again like He did back there two thousand years ago, if He'd send Him to us in 1964, I wonder if we wouldn't do with Him as they did then? I just wonder if His coming would be any more . . . He'd be any more welcome, in the political world or in the religious world, than He was then? I just wonder if we're in any more shape to receive Him, as He was then? But we know He was rejected then.

What would we do to Him if He come? Perhaps the religious world, that I'm basing this on, would do to Him like it did the other time. They would crucify Him if they could, (they haven't changed), for the same reason that they did the other time.

Why did they do it? Did they crucify the very one they were praying to come on the earth to save them, to get them out of the chaos? They crucified the only hope that they had. Why, why did they do it? Because, when God answered their prayer, He answered it in a way that they didn't expect it to be answered. When He come, He never come in the taste of their theology.

And if He come again today, He would come the same way; out of the taste of the world or the churches' theology, the way they would think of Him. He always comes. As God's people, when they get in trouble, and pray, then God gives them what they pray for, but He gives it in the way that's good for them. And they refused it, because it don't come the way they think it should have come. They rejected God's anointed Word, and He is the Word.

Now, God, in all ages, at all times, “When He spoke His Word in sundry times through the prophets, in this last days through Jesus Christ, His Son,” we find out that each one of those prophecies was to suit a certain age. Like King Nebuchadnezzar when he had this dream, and the Gentile world from the head to the feet, and Daniel gave the interpretation of this dream; that was a prophecy to the whole world, for every section of the Gentile kingdom, as it would come from the head to the feet. And the prophets has always spoke the words that should happen along each age. And when God. . . .

The people gets in trouble, and God answers them. He sends them a anointed prophet or some kind of a messenger, because He cannot go back on His Word that He has destined for that age. But, what He does, He sends a messenger to make that part of the Word live to that age. Always does it, see. He formed His Word in the beginning. He knowed the end from the beginning. He spoke His Word. And each age, when they get in trouble, they would pray, and God would send an anointed one. And that anointed one would absolutely make that promise of that age, that was foretold for that age, live. And that's what He does all the time. God never changes His program. Now, we never find God changing.

God settled it one time how He would save man, that was in the garden of Eden, under the shed blood. We tried every other system, from fig leaves to education, psychology, denomination of systems, and so forth, and every bit of it has been rejected; and it never has worked, it never will work. God will only meet man under the shed blood, and that's the only place that He'll ever meet him, because that was His first decision. He'll never meet man under any kind of an ethical system. He'll never, no way in the world! Just come right back to God's way, that's what He said first. And He is infinite, cannot change, and He's always the same. That's where He meets man, and there only. That's the reason we fail to have fellowship today, that's the reason the church is so separated, because each one is separated in a system, and when they do that, then God turns them down, right there. He wants us to meet under the blood, where we have all things in common, down by the cross. God's only purpose of doing it! God always sends His Word.

And we find, today, that the world today is just like it was in that day; finding itself, it's political system, and so forth, all falling apart, and looking for a messiah that will hold it together.

Now, the word “messiah” means the anointed one—something anointed. God! This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the whole book was sealed with the seven seals of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was in Genesis; Jesus Christ was in the middle of the Book. Jesus Christ was in the Exodus and Genesis, and He was in the middle of the Book and He was in the New Testament, and in the Revelation and plumb on to the end, the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's all God!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets.“ When the Word of the Lord came to the prophets, and them only, because they was anointed with the Word, they had the right to interpret the Word. And God worked through them, proving that the Word was right. ”If there be one among you who is spiritual, or a prophet, I the Lord will make myself known to him. And if what he says come to pass, then hear him. If it doesn't come to pass, don't hear him.“ That's no more than good reasoning, to any man.

Now we find ourselves here, in the last days now, when we're looking for the coming of the Lord again.

Well remember the old Baptist preacher that baptized me into the name of Jesus Christ, when I was just a little boy. And he used to discuss this subject with me, about John the Baptist. He said, “Brother Billy,” he said, “when John. . . . When He said, 'Suffer it to be so,' and then he suffered Him.” He said, “Then John, baptized. . . . Jesus baptized John, because we know John had never been baptized, and yet he was preaching baptism.” Well, that always kind of stunted me, a little.

Then here not long ago, it was revealed to me, this way, that there met in that pool, in that hole of water, the two greatest messengers the world ever seen: A man that was above all the prophets, which was John, “there never was a man born of a woman, as great as he”; and there was God, Himself, manifested in a body of flesh. And remember, and the Bible tells us that, “The Word of the Lord comes to the prophet.” And when the Word was made flesh; here stood the prophet in the water. And the Word and the prophet came together, they knowed one another! Right! The Word itself, made flesh incarnate Son of God, came to the prophet, in the water.

Prophet said, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and why comest thou to me?”

He said, “Suffer that so, for thus it is becoming to us that we fulfill all righteousness.”

Notice! John, being a prophet, knowed that He was the sacrifice. And the sacrifice must be washed before presented for sacrifice. And that's the reason He had to be baptized.

Oh, today, it's becoming to us, that we fulfill all righteousness of our day. The hour is here. The Bible tells us what's to be happening in this day. We know what the Bible says will take place in this day. It's up to us to hold onto God until these things happen. It's the hour! Pray for the anointed one that will give us the deliverance that we are looking for, because God has promised it.

They rejected God's anointed Word then, and so it fell apart. And again we find out, at this time, it's also falling apart again. I find out, as I said, our politics are corrupted, our church life is corrupted. Why taken place? Here is what did it; when you get away from, any time, away from God's program, you'll find corruption. It cannot stand. God's Word is infallible, and there is nothing else will take its place, never can.

Our educational system, our denominational system, has took the place of the Holy Spirit leading in the church. Our great fine training of ministers and things has taken place of the all-night prayer meetings, and the old-time way we used to get to God. Now, instead of having preachers, we got lecturers, men knows the Word just as well, they can sit there and put it together in such a way that it's astounding how they can do it. They know the mechanics, but that ain't the dynamics. We want the dynamics. I don't care about the mechanics; I want to know the dynamics. What does it do?

I don't know how that car runs out there. It's got pistons and cylinders, and I don't know how much pressure it used. The only thing I know is the dynamics—put her out there and drive it.

That's what we know, God made the promise, “I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and daughters shall prophesy.” How is He going to do it? I can't tell you. I just want to know the dynamics of God's system. That's the main thing.

Today we've studied the mechanics until it's all mechanical. What good is an automobile without something in it to drive it? What good is the lights if there . . . or the fixtures if there's is no current to go in it? See, we've got all the mechanics, we got schools and educators, and so forth, that can train a man, till he can stand in the pulpit with such manners till he's an eloquent person. That still don't bring the power of God. Where is the power of God that used to be to the church? Where is that Pentecostal blessing that used to flow through the churches? That's the reason our world is falling apart, because we've got away from the real principles of God, and educated men into systems and things. And that's what's got us in the condition we are today. I believe that's the reason our world is falling apart.

These episodes has been on the earth since the days of Noah. We find out when God's . . . had Noah, the prophet of righteousness, going forth with his message, there was an episode of immorality in that day, as the Bible said, “. . . eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage.” We find out, gluttonous and immorality, and so forth, taken place in that day. And then the world fell apart because the people rejected the message of God, for that day. Noah was a prophet anointed of God, sent of God, with a message from God, and he gave the people a warning before the judgment come. And they snickered and laughed, and made fun of it, and scoffed, and the whole world system fell apart, in that day, and they was drowned beneath the seas. Right. Why? They rejected the message of the hour.

We find out the same thing took place in Egypt, when Moses led the children of Israel out. The whole Egyptian system had become corrupt. And we find out it taken place again, when God sent an anointed messenger down there for His Word. It was to fulfill His Word.

You say, “Was it to fulfill His Word?”

He told Abraham that's exactly what He would do. And there had to be someone come on the scene, at that time, to make that Word live right before them. God had sent His Moses down there, and the very thing that He promised to do, he did it, because he was the anointed Word for that hour. He said it would judge that world. God's Word said, “I'll judge that nation with great, mighty wonders and signs.”

There stood a man, just an ordinary man like you or I, got the Word from God, and went out there and spoke creation into existence. Said, “Let. . . .” Picked up the sand, and said, “Let fleas come from the earth.” And the Word of God, through that prophet's mouth, being it was right in the hour that it was supposed to be, fleas covered the whole earth. He covered the earth with frogs—with lice. He covered it with all kinds of pestilence and things. Because, God made the promise, and the hour was there for it to be anointed, the anointed Word for that hour that they live in.

That's what we need today, is not back in some seminary system, but anointed Word for the hour that we live in, to bring forth Jesus Christ to the world again. “The same yesterday, today, and forever.” There is a program laid out for this day, a promise of God. And the only way that we'll ever be able to get right, is to let that Word be anointed. That's right. It's always happened. Yes.

We find out the great moral pollution in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. He had a man anointed. When the hand writing come on the wall, He had a man could read it.

Days of Lot and Sodom, we find again the world falling apart. God saved what could be saved, out of it.

In the days of Jesus Christ we find out that man-made systems had got the world in such a condition, and the politics of that day, until they. . . . The whole world was falling apart at the first Christmas.

Now we've done the same thing, turned right back around and corrupted the Word of God, by systematic religion, till we find it falling apart. What one of them systems can we rely upon now? What system can we go to? the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal system? There is nothing at all we can do but come back to that anointed Word of the promise for this hour. These systems are frail, they're faulty. They're man-made systems, and they will not save you. There is no life in them. The only life is in the Word of God. It is life. He said so.

And the way it was then, as they were praying, people finds themselves at the end of their journey, or the end of their ropes, as it was in the days of Noah and the days of Moses, and so forth. When they find themselves, that they can't go no farther, then they begin to pray. And when they begin to pray, God always answers. Then Jesus was born.

The world at that time, as I said, was falling apart. Each nation was looking for a messiah, just as we are today. Rome was looking for a great genius who could come among them a great fellow who had all the military gimmicks, that he could go over there and stomp out Greece and the rest of the world. Greece was looking for the same thing, somebody who could tell them how they could conquer the rest of the world.

The Jewish religious world of that day was looking for a general. They thought there would come a messiah down from heaven, with a great rod of iron in his hands, and He would beat Rome down, stomp them off and run them into the sea. And all they was looking for that type of a man. They wanted a general.

Like a whole lot like our denominations of today, our denominations are looking for a superman. Our nation is looking for a superman. Russia is looking for a superman. The eastern world is looking for one. The U.N. is looking for one. The churches are looking for one. But what kind of a one are they looking for?

Russia is looking for a messiah that's anointed with brains that he knows how to conquer outer space for them, beat everybody to the moon. They want to conquer the world. That's just. . . .

But you see, when they ask these things, and ask for this, they don't ask as Jesus said. We try to make God like an errand boy, “Lord, You do this for me! And You do this for me! And You go do that.” Telling Him what to do.

Jesus said, “When you pray, pray like this manner, 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thine will be done.” Who, find where we do that? We're always wanting God to run errands for us, or do something for us. But when we're willing to say, “Thy will be done,” commit ourselves to Him, commit our ways to Him. All that we are, commit it to Him. That's when God will move, when you're willing to let Him work on you, not you work on Him.

Let Him tell you, not you tell Him. You twist it around. “Come to our system, O Lord God, make all of us Methodist, all of us Pentecostal, rule over the rest of them. We want a genius, we Pentecostal people, we Methodist and Baptist.” We got seminaries, building great big ones, saying, “The end of time is at hand, the coming of the Lord,” building millions of dollars worth of seminaries, and so forth. Trying to what? Get us a messiah. That's right.

Let the Lord raise up something out somewhere, every denomination gets them one of the same kind. That's exactly. Find out. Watch when divine healing struck, how many divine healers? Every one had to be a divine healer.

There was one Moses in the days of that come-out. There was one Elijah, one Elisha, one Isaiah, so forth.

Now we find out that the world wants their own messiah. Russia wants theirs, and United States wants theirs, the church world wants theirs. Each one wants their own messiah, but they want it in the way that they can control it. They want to have control over this messiah. Oh, sure. They . . . if they could have. If God would send it in their own taste, they certainly would accept it. But you see, then, God knew their needs. He's not promised to send us our wants and what we ask for, but our needs.

They wanted a general; they got a baby. See, that's what they needed. They needed a baby (what?) to humiliate them, to humble them.

That's what the self-styled church needs today, humble itself back again. Got to a place, there is no confession and there is no love among the people. It seems like it's dying daily. The church is cooling off. Everywhere, you find the revival is over, and you find a cooling off. We need a humiliating. And we. . . .

They asked for a general; and got a lamb. Why? That's . . . God knew what they needed. That's what they needed. They needed a saviour. They thought they was saved, but God knew they wasn't.

And that's what the world needs today, again, is a saviour, a saviour of this condition, something that can hold it together. Not an educated regime, some kind of a mechanical system, or some kind of an educational system. What we need is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, in saving grace, back in the church again, when men, women, boys, and girls can be saved.

Have we waited too long? Is there many out that will never come in? Has the last name been redeemed? Is that what's the matter today? It could be, you know. You know, it could easily be and never interrupt the Scriptures at all. It could be. So, we don't know now, let's be careful.

But they thought they was saved, and . . . but God knowed better than they did. And the same thing happens today.

They had took the Word that God had give them for that day, that they ought to have knowed the day that He was coming, and had made a tradition out of it. Jesus said, “You've taken the Word of God and made it of no effect, by your traditions.”

That's the same thing that's happened today in our systematic, religious systematic world. The systems of the world has took the Word of God and made it traditional. And that's the reason it hasn't got any effect in it. There is nothing will come out of it, because it's been mixed up.

You can't put genuine corn in something that won't, 'less it's earth, and it won't grow. You can lay it in the sun and keep it warm, you can do what you want to, but it takes a certain kind of earth. It must be in there. It must be buried. It must be under the right atmosphere, to make it bring forth.

And so does the Word of God! You can't take a church and bring it to life on some tradition. You might bring members by the millions, but you'll never bring down the power of God until we get back to the original Word again, back to the foundational Word, back to the blood, back to Jesus Christ, back to the old-fashioned prayer meetings, and back to God! We may be so far gone, now that the hour is far passed. But, anyhow, the gospel must be preached. We're not to judge that.

God knew what they had need of, so He gave them what they had need of. So again, we find what they had, we have done the same thing.

Russia and all the rest of them wants theirs. And the different scientists wants to make themselves a great name. Each nation wants to get its brainy men. We want ours. We want the educational system in it. We want a denominationalism. That's just exactly what we got. That's what you did. That's what you wanted, that's what God gave you. Now what are you going to do with it after you got it?

We're talking about Russia for another minute. The Russians are calling for a man who can conquer space. They're training them as fast as they can, their scientists. What if they get one, what if they get their messiah, what're we going to do? And mercy on us if they get it! Remember, Germany just got such a messiah not long . . . not very long ago, a Hitler. And we know what it done to them.

Now what about the church, what kind of a messiah is the church looking for today? The church, has cried the loudest. So, what're we hollering about a messiah, what are we hollering? “Revival in our time! Back this, that, and the other.” What are they looking for to do it? What more do you want? What does the church want, anyhow?

We've already got it! God gave it to us. It's His promise for this hour. We look in the Bible, we see it everywhere through the Bible. Anointed ones come on and made that Word live again, right in the hour for that hour. And we've got the Messiah. This is Him—the Word! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And the Word remains God, Hebrews 13:8, “. . . the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We know what is supposed to take place in this day. We're wanting a messiah. And God gave us a messiah, His promised Word for this day. It's just waiting for somebody with faith, to anoint it and make it live again. Yes, sir. It's a real messiah, it's the Word of God. Which, Jesus said, “Both heavens and earth will pass away, but my Word shall never pass away.”

But the church sits spiritually dead, gone, the hour has passed them. They're in a slump, they hardly know what to do, one running this way and one that way. And here every promise that God made in the Bible, every one of them, is laying there just as good as they ever was. It's the hour! What makes the church like this? We're in the age of the Laodicea, when she has to come this way. This is the hour for it.

But remember, in there is the hour that the sleeping virgin come to buy oil, and that was the same hour that the bridegroom come. We find today, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and different denominations, that a few years ago, you couldn't have hired to've got around a bunch of Pentecostal believers. Certainly not. But there they are today, coming in. Don't you know what Jesus said? They come in to buy oil, and said, “Give us some of your oil.” The ones that had oil, said, “Not so. Go buy it, lest . . . from them that sell it.” And while they were trying to buy it . . . while they were trying to get it! Do you know what hour we're living in, Pentecostal people? When they come, they might have got a confusion, they might have done this, that, or the other; but, according to the Scriptures, they did not get it. While they were trying to do it, they might have went through all the emotions, and then all the isms and the sensations, but the devil can impersonate all those things. While they were buying it, or trying to get it, the bridegroom came, and the ones that had oil went in.

And there is the hour we're living. We never seen it before. Jesus said it would be so, then it's so! What are we seeing? We're seeing the Word, that God said would happen in this day, happen right under our faces. “Oh, then awake, ye saints of the Lord, why slumber when the end is nearing; let's get ready for that final call,” for we don't know when it will be. Yes.

Our world system, our church system, our denominational system, all of our systems, are polluted and corrupted. What we lack today is what they had yesterday. That's right. It seems like a drying out of the churches, hardly can find a church anymore that's alive with the Word and with the Spirit of God, and great things taking place like it was not long ago.

Now, we find out that God knows what they had need of, so He always answers a promise. It's just this great Word that we see, a promise, they ought to knowed that it was just exactly what God promised, that would take place in that day.

You say, “How, what was to take place?”

Isaiah 9:6, the prophet said, “Unto us a child is born, a son is born, a child is given: and his name shall be called Counsellor, Prince of Peace, the mighty God, everlasting Father; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

We know that we was to have a child born in that day, a virgin should conceive and bring a child. And it didn't come through any of their systems, therefore they didn't want nothing to do with it. They rejected it. But the anointed Word, God, Emmanuel, made flesh among them, stood there, He said, “Which one of you can accuse me of sin unbelief? Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.” He was thoroughly identified that He was the Messiah, the Messiah to take place in that day. And the systems had messed the people's mind up in so many systematic rules, and so forth, till they had made the Word of God of no effect. They couldn't see He was the Messiah.

And as it did it then, so has it done it again. That's right. The systematics of the world, the mechanics, has got the pistons where the exhaust pipe ought to be, in their big mechanics. And therefore how can it run? It can't do it. It wasn't built that way.

The church cannot run without the power of God, through the Word. And the Holy Ghost will only confirm the Word of God, for that's what it's to do. The anointing is to confirm the Word.

And Jesus was the anointed one, the Word made flesh. That's the reason He walked out into the water there, He was the Word coming to the prophet. He was baptized by the prophet. And the prophet then raised up, and said, “I must decrease; He shall increase.” We find that that's God's way of doing it.

But did they receive it? They should have knowed it. They stood and watched the acts of God. They seen the Word fulfilled. They knowed the Scriptures said it, but they couldn't believe it'd come like that. It had to come either to the Pharisees or the Sadducees. If it come to the Pharisees, the Sadducees would not have received it. Vice versa, the Sadducees wouldn't receive it, because they said the Pharisees would have it.

That's just the way it is today, our systems, and the whole thing was rotten and polluted. Oh, my! The hour that we're now living, blinded world, walking in darkness, stooped in the systems of this world, like sheep without a shepherd. When they've had the Word of the living God vindicated before them, and walked right away blindly, and leave it, how can you expect anything else? Amen. There we are.

Then, the world is falling apart. Why? The very Word that bound it together has been rejected. We find out in Hebrews, the 11th chapter.

Einstein said . . . I was listening to a lecture of him, here the other night, New York City, that he made one of his last lectures. He was talking about a constellation, a little galaxy, it was, out in the constellation. He said, “If a man started through space, traveling at a speed of light [What is that? eight thousand . . .], 186,000 miles per second, it would take him 150 million light years to get there.” He found eternity. Then said, “To come back, it would take him another 150 million years, which would be 300 million years. And the space that he was gone from the earth would only be fifty years.” There you are, broke into eternity! Oh, my! The greatness of God, when He made the whole solar system!

And this astronaut, the other day, flying around over Russia there, and said he seen no God—angels. How ignorant can people be!

When God. . . . And the whole solar system, He blowed it off His hands; and He sits so many million years, light years, beyond that. And the whole thing is upheld by His power and His Word. Hallelujah! Every star has to hang to its place. Yes, sir! Then, was humble enough to come down and be made one of us, to die for us; we're without excuse. If one of them stars would happen to move from its sockets, from its orbit where it's at, if that would move, it would effect the whole system. The whole system must turn exactly the same, for one depends on the other.

And God's system, when it's in perfectly harmony with Him, the whole thing works perfect. That's right, because it has to.

But the church never took God's system, it made a system of its own. That's the reason we're all out of harmony. That's the reason the church is so scrupled. That's the reason the world is falling apart today, because we've adopted our own systems. That's the reason the political world is apart. That's the reason the religious world has fell apart, is because we've adopted a system instead of taking God's eternal plan for the ages. Amen. That's what's the matter with the world. That's exactly what's wrong, is because they've adopted something else. It's got the people so, “I'm Presbyterian. I'm Methodist. I'm oneness. I'm threeness. I'm. . . .” Oh, mercy! No wonder we can't hold together, there ain't nothing to hold us together.

Mr. Nixon made the brightest remark I've heard any president or vice-president make in the last few years, when he said the other day, “What's the matter with American people, they've lost love and respect for one another.” As American citizens shooting one another down, in the street, how can we? My!

If you can't differ with a man, and love him the same time, then shut up. If you can't tell him, like a daddy correcting his child, with a willing arm to put it around his neck and hug him afterwards, you better leave it alone. You haven't went far enough, yourself, to know what you're talking about. That's right. I can differ with a man, certainly; still he is my brother, I hold his hand. I can't let him get by with that; if I do, if I didn't tell him, I wouldn't be the correct brother to him. That's correct. But I can tell him, and tell him I love him, and prove it to him, I love him.

You don't have to shoot him down, in the street. I differ with Mr. Kennedy and his politics, and his religion, and so forth, but he didn't deserve that. No, sir! No indeedy! No man deserves that.

So, we find out the whole world is corrupted. Our nation, politics, religious systems, and everything, it's corrupted.

It's just waiting. The Word of God, that was prophesied for this day, it's waiting for somebody to come by and vindicate it. Wonder if He has already done it? Then where are we at then if He had done it? If He's done it, then where are we at? Most miserable!

I said a hard thing about Mrs. Kennedy a couple of times, about her setting fashions for the world with these waterhead haircuts and, “How our sisters and them cut their hair, and dress like Mrs. Kennedy,” I said, “like a Jezebel of old.” That's true. I believe that I feel sorry for the little mother there tonight, with her children. Exactly.

But let me ask you something. If Jacqueline Kennedy would have heard the messages that some of you Pentecostal has, about bobbing your hair and things, she might not even have bobbed hair. You're supposed to be Pentecostal, and you still do it! She might not do it if she had the opportunity and heard the message you've heard. There you are. We're in a bad place, folks. That's exactly right. Yes, indeed. O God, how the morals, the thing. . . .

Womanhood is one of the things that holds our nation together. It's the backbone. And womanhood, the fine virtue that God give for a woman to be mother, why, it's gone. Long ago has the women of this world, the virtue of them, bowed to a Hollywood fashion goddess; pattern themselves, and dressing themselves, and acting as some of these Hollywood stars does. And many times that even ungodly dressing, sex appeal, is regarded as fashions in the churches. And the pastors behind the pulpit, with not the audacity, not the strength of the Holy Spirit; like a Lot sitting down there, vexing his soul, and too much of a meal ticket to tell the people that it's wrong. Yeah.

What we need today is a rooting out. We may root out too late now. The hour might be passed. May never have another revival. I know you're looking for it, but I don't see it in the Scripture.

I look for a rapture, for just a handful of people. That's right, just a handful of people. They'll never be missed in the world. When they go, you'll never know it's gone. That's right. It'll come like a thief in the night.

If He don't cut the work short for the elected's sake. . . . There is some elected to eternal life, we know that; all of them are, that's got eternal life. And if they or. . . . He don't cut it short for their sake, no flesh will be saved. The world has met its doom every two thousand years. We know the system it's fell apart. It fell apart in the days of Noah. Days of Christ, it fell apart. And here is 1964 coming up, what does it leave? Thirty-six years to another two thousand; the twenty-first century coming up. What happens? The work still has got to be cut short. Jesus said, the corruption of this day, “The elected would be deceived and wouldn't be saved, if it would be possible.” There we are. And the calendar tells us, according to science, that we're about fifteen years off of that. We're behind on the Roman calendar, according to the Jewish calendar, that we're fifteen, twenty years behind on that.

So where're we at? We see nations a-breaking, and Israel awakening, the signs that this Bible foretold for this day. We see the mechanical things taking place. Now the Spirit, the dynamics of that promised Word, to get into His church and drive them into Calvary yonder, and to the rapture! There we are.

No wonder we're falling apart, there is nothing. . . . The very thing that created the earth, the very thing was put here for the earth to turn on, the very thing that systems and everything else was to revolve around, this Word that, by God, framed the world. Einstein said in his . . . said, “There is only one explaining of the Scripture. . . . Only one explaining for this world being in existence,” said, “that is Hebrews 11, 'By faith we understand the Word of . . . by the Word of God, that the worlds were framed together by the Word of God.' ” That's all. There is no one can tell how it hangs there in the air, and how it can turn around and make its twenty-four hours around the equator, so forth like that, and around its orbit, everywhere, and come back to the same spot and never miss a second. And every star turning in its cycle like that, and helping one another as they go around.

How that moon watches down there upon that sea! If that moon ever moved out of its place, we would be covered over with a hundred foot of water, in just a second, or two. That moon! Watch, even you could drill a hole here, you people drilling oil, drill down here. See how far the coast is from you? You drill a hole down here in the ground, and watch in the evening time, how the tide comes in, it'll bring the water up in your pipe, your salt water. Certainly. What is it? That moon controls it, yonder there.

It's God's system. It's God's plan. It's God's commandment. But, we make our own, we won't take His. Let's hurry now, to get through. Like then, it's the same this Christmas, we do find our world falling apart. Oh!

God got anointed. . . . And He promised His Word. He anointed us back there, and He told us . . . told them, “When He anointed Jesus Christ. . . .” Peter said on the day of Pentecost, he said, “Jesus Christ, a man approved of God among you by signs and wonders, which He did in the midst of you; you yourself know.” They're witnesses. Also said, “After the resurrection, and so forth, how He had done! How by wicked hands you took the prince of life and crucified, Who God raised up; and we are witnesses.” How Nicodemus came and said, “Rabbi, we know. We Pharisees, the Sanhedrin courts up yonder, we know that you're a teacher sent from God. No man could do the things that You do unless it be of God.” They knowed that promise was for there, and they knowed it was, but their systems had them so tied till they couldn't do nothing about it.

So is it today, the very same thing. You can't do it, you'll give up your fellowship card the first time you do it. You just mark out there on that Word of God sometime, see what happens; you are finished. You won't be popular. You'll be kicked out from among them, and everything else.

Oh, if you got a little ministry, they'll hold you for what money they can, draw a crowd in off of your ministry, pull money and things. But just watch when it comes to the Word, watch them how they back up on that. You think a servant of God don't know that? Well, Jesus even knowed that Judas was among them. Why didn't Jesus say something to Judas? The same reason it is today, you have to wait till that hour comes for that deceiving. That's right. They got it. They'll get it.

Notice, but they didn't want the way that He came, so is it today. The churches then wanted their systems anointed. The Pharisees wanted the Phariseeic system anointed, the Sadducee wanted the Sadducee system, Herodians so, so forth. That's the way today. If they'll. . . . If God will send an anointing, and anoint the oneness, oh, my, wouldn't they tell the twoness about it, or the threeness, or whatever it is? Wouldn't the Assemblies tell the oneness about it? “I told you we were right!” The Methodist would tell the Baptist, “O boy, see, we got her!” You are wanting your system anointed.

But God only promised to anoint His Word. Amen! I know that is scorchy, but that's what is truth. God never changes. He anoints His Word. Yes, sir. The anointed, promised Word for that age is what God anoints. The promised Word for that age!

Today they want an educational system, (why?) so they can do anything they want to, and still hold their Christian profession. Oh, if they got a great big something, where you can go in, go down the lines, and things, and chew chewing gum, and kick one another in the side; and go out and have recreation halls and things, where you all go out and play basketball and things like that. I ain't got nothing against basketball, baseball, football, or whatever it is, a big . . . if that's all your god is, is a big bag of air. But let me tell you, what we need today is the Word of God, anointed for this age, that will bring forth the power of the Holy Ghost again. Yes, that's all right, but that don't belong in the church. No, sir. Have to build something like that, to keep the church together, you'd better burn it down or kick it out, or get something in there that will bring the Word back again. That's the things of the world, oh, mixing it with the Word of God, you cannot do it. No, sir.

Yes, sir, now they are wanting a system. The world will take a system. Now we find out, each little system in its own, each one of them says, “I want it to come to me. I want it to come to mine.” Oh, they're getting great machines, and educating preachers, and things like that, and bringing them out, hatching them out, boy, with intellectual, till, my, a fellow feels his words, his grammar is so bad, you hate to even go in the pulpit behind one. But what we need today is not educational system, it's not lectionaries.

What we need today is the gospel handled by the power of God, to vindicate the Word of this hour, to where will come somebody who will stand up and call black “black,” and white “white,” somebody that will stand up and tell the truth, whether it takes the hide off or shucks you down, or what it does. That's exactly what the hour calls for, today.

But the people want something. The people today, women, what do they want? They want a people, a pastor, who will stand up and say, “It's all right. You can do this, or do that, or, that's all right, there is nothing wrong with that, dear.” That preacher needs a gospel whipping; let bobbed hair, wear paint.

No, you say, “What does that got to do with it?”

Don't you know the outside of you reflects what is on the inside? Don't the Bible say you shouldn't do that? “It's not even common for a woman to pray like that.”

And you men want something like that? Preachers, you can't say it, because you'll give up your fellowship card, the big council will kick you out if you say something about it. God help a man that would think more of a council card or a fellowship card than he would the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the Word! How can the Holy Ghost, that wrote the Bible, deny what He wrote?

“Well, the days of miracles, oh, we don't need that today. Divine healing, these other things, that, there is no such thing. That's fortune-telling, that's, oh, mental telepathy.” You, poor, degraded. . . . What's the matter with you? You need the gospel, that the Holy Ghost is in you!

If I told you, “The life of Beethoven was in me,” I could write music. If Beethoven lived in me, I'd live Beethoven's life. If Shakespeare was in me, I could compose poetry. I could write plays, if Shakespeare lived in me.

And if Jesus Christ lives in you, the works that He did, and His Word, He is the Word, will confirm itself this day, by the very promise that He give. Amen. That's what God is a waiting for. That's what holds the world, apart, what holds the world together, the religious world together, is His Word, hold any of the Word together. Yeah.

The people wants that kind of a system, though. They're going to get it. They are already in it, right now. The world council of churches will give them just what they want, every one of them together. How these Pentecostals can sit in these conventions, and get in the Vatican City and write a circulated letter, and say, “The most spiritual thing I ever said, when I sat beside of holy father Pope So-and-so,” and be a Pentecostal and know how. . . . It's a dead Pentecostal movement. The whole thing's dead. It's corrupted. It's gone! It's right back in the confederation of churches where it belongs. Exactly right.

But the church of the living God, that bride, moves right on just the same. And she'll go in the rapture, by the Word, that's right, the Word and the Word will come together. If we're a part of Christ, part of it, we have to be His Word, 'cause He is the Word. Right. Yes, sir.

They have refused the anointed Word of promise, of this age, and He is always the Word. If God sent us an anointed, promised Word again, for this age, in 1946, He would be the same He was when He come in the beginning—the anointed Word for the age. Hebrews 13:8 throws it right back in your lap, and says, “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” That's exactly right. And we. . . . And He would stay with the Father's promised Word for this age. If Jesus comes, He would be just exactly what the Word said it would be in this age.

That's what Elijah was in his age. That's what Moses was in his age. That's what Noah was in his age. That's what every prophet ever come. And the Word, when it come in fullness, the entire Word made flesh among us, it did just exactly what it said it would do in that age.

If it come today, it would be just exactly Jesus Christ living out His promise of what He promised to do, just as the Word.

We was the Word. Isaiah 9:6 is Jesus Christ. And when it was made flesh and dwelt among us, it lived just exactly what it did. Moses said over there, in the book of Exodus, “The Lord your God [or Deuteronomy], the Lord your God shall raise up a prophet, likened unto me; and it shall come to pass, whoever will not hear him, will be cut off from amongst the people.” And when He come, He did just exactly what the Word said He would do. And they found fault with Him, because their systems had cut it off and made the Word of God non-effective to them, see. They couldn't believe such things as that. They couldn't believe those kind of things, because it was passed the time, they thought. Oh!

For, He has proven His Word to be the same. He would vindicate the Word today, as He vindicated it then. He would condemn, fiercely, every denominational system in the world, if He come on the earth today. That's what He did, the first place. That would be the thing He would hit. That's exactly what He hit when He come the first place. As He did then, so would they do this time, too. And He did then, for He never changes His Word. He never changes His system. It's always the same, it's the anointed Word each time, for the age. That's right.

So again, as we find it today, if He come, His plans for holding the world together would be rejected just like it was then.

But listen, in closing, I want to say this. We are not promised a system, we are not promised a denomination, a super denomination, a super plan of some sort. But we are promised a kingdom, an eternal Kingdom. Amen. That's what we are promised, having eternal life in this eternal kingdom. And the government is controlled by the eternal King, His eternal Word given out to His people that has eternal life. And the eternal life people feast not upon the things of the world, but it's written that man shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So when we both now. . . . We receive this kingdom, and we find out that both heaven and earth will pass away, but this Word shall never pass away. And this Word is the kingdom. This is the King and kingdom, the system, the life it's every bit right in here.

If God judges His world by a church, which church is He going to judge it by? How many is there? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different denominational churches. If the Catholic is right, which Catholic? If the Greek Catholic is right, then the Roman is wrong. If the Roman is right, the Greek's wrong. So, you see, if the Methodist is right, the Baptist is wrong. If the Baptist is right, the Pentecostal is wrong. If the Pentecostal is right, then the Presbyterian is wrong, see. So you'd be all so confused.

But God hasn't left us without any witness or any standard that we should stand by. That's this Word! He said, “Let every man's word be a lie, and mine be the truth.” That's right.

For, “Both heavens and earth will pass away.” We're told here, that we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved. Yes, sir. When all these worldly kingdoms are falling now, and the whole world falling apart, yet we are baptized into a kingdom that cannot be moved. Amen. We receive a kingdom. So, when the world falls apart, we are borned into this kingdom that cannot fall apart. It's God's eternal Word, and we stand on that. It can never fall apart.

We hear so much about this new system going to bring, the religious system, you know, going to bring peace upon the earth, when the Catholic and all the Protestants unite together. Some of them believe in divine healing, some don't believe, and some believe this, and some believe that. And you have to forfeit your big fuss you've been fussing about all the time, your evangelical belief, to get into the world council. And every denomination will have to come in there. So, if denomination is cursed, and to belong into it, what does it do? It throws you right back. If Rome is the mother of denomination, and she is the beast and the mark of the beast, then they made an image unto it, council, the churches all together make an image to the beast, so right straight back to the mark of the beast again! The system of the world, denominationalism, has brought up a system to bring the mark of the beast.

And you see it as well as I see it, that right now it's going to be forced, that all that's not in that already set in order, the big machine sitting there; the mechanics is there waiting for Satan to get into it, with the dynamics, see. And, when it does, no man can preach the gospel, no man, without belonging to this system. There is the mark of the beast. And remember, at that time, the bride is gone, so you see how close it is. All right, so you see where we're at.

You can see what this great slump, this thing is going on about. “O wake, ye saints of the Lord, why slumber when the end is nearing?” Why do you do it? Sometime you sin away your day of grace. Don't you never do that. Yes, sir.

Now, this system will not bring about a world peace. If that will bring about a world peace, what happened to the Prince of Peace that was the Word? It's antichrist in its teaching. It's against exactly what God stood for, what He told us. “These signs shall follow them that believe,” they believe that's nonsense. Acts 2:38 is another thing, to them, they know nothing about. All the Word, and so forth, they know nothing about that, and they deny it. Fulfills exactly what the prophet said in II Timothy, the 3rd chapter, “They'd be heady, high-minded, having a form of godliness, and would deny the power thereof, in the last day.”

That denominational system is the mark of the beast. You've knowed it. You never heard me say it before, that's the reason I've rapped it so hard. Because now that I think the time is just about finished, so might as well let it come forth and tell the truth about it. There she is. That's the marking of the beast, exactly. Rome was the beast, and she was denomination, the first organization.

And we come out of her, we Pentecostal people, to not be partakers of it; and turned right back, like a dog to its vomit, and a hog to its wallow,“ right back in. No wonder our Pentecostal system is done, and so is the Methodist, Baptist, world council of churches and all! They've been swallowed up in the council of churches, making a mark or an image unto the beast, to give it its power. ”And it had a head wounded unto death, and then lived,“ pagan Rome to papal Rome. Oh, my, how blind has Protestants been! And here you are, right now sitting right in the midst of it. And there is nothing you can do now. The system is done formed. They'll take it and don't know they've took, it. They'll just be in there, that's all. They can't get out of it. It's already done.

It's not foreign to people, though. It's been preached. Remember, God give a witness of it, vindicated it by His Word. The things that He said He would do, He did it just exactly. So, it's without excuse. Yes.

It's a false mechanics. It's brought about things just exactly what Jesus did, “You by your traditions has made the Word of God of no effect.” For rejecting that true Word, they're right back in the same thing again, their teachings and the same thing like they was in the beginning, and that against Christ, teaching the Word to believers in this age and tell them to reject and to turn down.

When God made His Word flesh among His people, in the age of Jesus Christ, at the first Christmas, what did the Phariseeic moves and all them denominations? Said, “Don't you even go to one of them meetings. If you do, you'll be excommunicated when you do it.”

Don't you see how things repeated right back again? “Who is this man? What school did he come from? What fellowship card does He have? What group does He have? Whence cometh this man?” And if He come today like He did then, “We'll not have this man rule over us. We'll not have nobody tell us what to do. We are oneness. We are threeness. We are Presbyterians. We are this. We don't have to put up with it!”

I know you don't, but you'll either take the Word or perish! That's all. That's no other way but that, but that's what holds us together. God's kingdom is not a kingdom of this. . . . It's not. God's kingdom is not a system of this world. Jesus said so. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it was, my delegates would fight.” He is the Word.

We're like Abraham. Abraham received the Word. And anything was contrary to the Word, He called it as if it wasn't. And any true born child of God receives God's Word, and I don't care what anybody says, what system speaks against that Word. The Word is true, anyhow.

God is obligated to meet you on the basis of them promises. Outside of them promises, He can't meet you, because you done cut yourself off from Him. That's the reason our world is falling apart. In closing, we might say this.

Anything that's contrary to it, it's though it wasn't such a man-made system, we never look at that. No, sir. Being then baptized into this kingdom, we are now sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, oh, my, with our anointed King with us; feasting on His kingdom, promised Word anointed and vindicated right among us. Amen. Whew! There it is, His kingdom promise made right before us, nothing can turn you from it. No, sir.

Abraham, though his wife old, and him getting older all the time, didn't bother him a bit. He never staggered at the promise of God, through unbelief. No matter how much you say, “It's impossible. He can't get by with it,” he stayed with it, anyhow. Because why? The King was with him, showing him the visions and showing him what would come to pass, and it happened just like He said, and he knowed that was God.

And when God makes a promise and you see it, and He tells it and it happens, and tells it and it happens, and tells, it happens, and it never fails, it's God for the day. Oh, feasting on these heavenly promises of His promised Word for this age, oh, knowing, with an absolute assurance of faith, that there is coming a new heavens and a new earth. Amen. A new heaven and a new earth, for this first heaven and first earth will pass away. But in this new heaven and new earth, Paul said over here in the book of Hebrews, the 20. . . 14:25, he said, “For we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved.” How do we get into it? Not by a religious system; but, a kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom! The King and His Word is the same, and it's within you, vindicating the hour that we're now living in. The promise that God made for this age, here we are, living with the King, sitting in heavenly places, watching Him doing these things.

And how can we turn from that Word, to some system? What does it do? It denies the Word. You have to receive . . . to reject truth, before you can have an error. That is exactly right. Do you believe that?

The hour that we're living, O God, the world is falling apart! There hangs in the hangers, bombs, there hangs the things to do just exactly.

The church is ready. She is sealed in, ready to come. There will be a big outpouring of the Spirit, yes, sir, to grab that church and take her into the skies. Exactly. Because, see, the church, the Wor. . . the bride, and Christ. His ministry is in His bride, which is His body, the celestial body, or I mean to say, the supernatural body of His here on the spiritual body on earth, His Spirit is in there living His life right out, until Him and the church becomes one in the wedding. See, they become one. He takes them, just a little minority in the last days.

And then all those virgins that has slept, down through the age, they all rose, you see. Now, that is on the seventh watch, the seventh church age, the last, end-time, the Laodicea, at the end, when just a little group of them went in. But, it brings all the resurrection of all those who died in their ages, living to that Word that was ordained of God and preached to happen in that day, as we went through those church ages and seen exactly the Word that would meet them in that time; how Luther raised up, how we find out, in Luther age, went forth the beast like a man's face on it, and went forth, which was a reformer, meaning “man.” And when all ages . . . each one met just exactly to the requirements of God's Word.

And so will this age meet exactly to the sign and wonder and thing that God promised to do in this last days. And the church itself will be ready and will go in the rapture with Jesus, because, “We receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. It cannot be moved. Heavens and earth will pass away, but this kingdom shall never pass away.” Amen. I'm glad to be, tonight, amen, tonight, in that kingdom. Aren't you happy to be in it? Oh, my, to be in a kingdom that. . . .

Just think, what could you promise yourself today? In another ten to fifteen years, if the world shall stand, if it does stand that, every man in Shreveport, every woman, you'll have to pack a gun, on the street, with you, in your pocket, to protect yourself. The hoodlums! How're you going to stop it? Try it. Well, the whole. . . .

I was in New York, the other week. And went down through there, for miles, was nothing but these teen-age hoodlums with earrings in their ear, and ratted hair, legotards on, and girls with little bikinis, they called it, on like that, out on the street. And the public has to give them the right of way. Oh, what is the matter with this country? It's because it's a sign of a moral-decayed, God-rejected nation. That's all.

How can you build upon the chars of some ruins like that? How're you going to do it, when hoodlums walking the street and shoot the very president right out of his car?

And another night, a roadhouse man, up for rackets and everything, just walked right in and jumped before the Texas police force with over a hundred and something standing there, walked right in; and everybody looking at him, pulled his gun out, and shot a man in cold-blooded murder, and walk out. He'll plead insane, and go free.

Right in our city, a man walked right into a garage, the other day, in a little syndicate, and took a man that was a car dealer. He didn't like him, and he just pulled out a gun and shot him, four or five times. He said he was insane; they let him go. If it's insanity pleaded for that man, then also Oswald had a chance . . . should have had a chance to plead insane.

What is it, though? You see where it's at, the whole thing is a big bunch of corruption! The whole thing is guilty, and the whole world stands guilty, and the church stands guilty before God. Amen. No wonder we're falling apart!

Let us pray.

Lord God, here we are. The hour is here, Father. It may be later than we think. Maybe corruption has so set in, and the canker worm has been eating, and the caterpillar, until all the life is gone. I pray Thee, Lord, to be merciful. Grant, Lord, if there is a man or woman, boy or girl, in presence now, that doesn't know You, that they will accept You just now, Father. It might be the last name that will ever go on the book, out of Shreveport.

And while we have our heads bowed. Is that person here would raise up your hand, say, “Brother Branham, I am thoroughly convinced that what you said is right. The world is falling apart, and we receive a kingdom that cannot fall apart. And, as for me, I am not sure whether I'm in that kingdom, or not.”

Don't you rely upon whether you have had some kind of an emotional work-up. Don't you rely upon whether you spoke in tongues. I believe in those things. Sure, I believe in speaking in tongues. But I've heard devils speak in tongues and give the interpretation to it, write in unknown tongues, witches, see. You can't go by that.

But if the life of Jesus Christ is in you, it'll live itself out, believing every word of God. Because, He can't deny Himself, He is the Word.

Now, if He is the Word, and He is in you, and then you say, “Well, Brother Branham, I tell you, I just can't take that. I don't believe this, these things are for this day,” and here it is promised for this day, oh, my brother, you've been deceived. Some spirit has got upon you and deceived you.

Lady, if you, or man, or whoever you are, if those things that's so real, real in the Word, that Jesus Christ died for; not just to have a church or to have an emotional bunch, but to have a bunch that's got His Spirit, living in Him; His bride His Word is in there, every Word is true. And you know it doesn't operate through you that way, you know there is things, in the Bible, that you just can't believe to be so; and you want to be remembered in prayer? Now with every eye closed, every head bowed, I wonder, if at this late hour when. . . .

It may be almost passed feeling time, see, because it'll come a time like that when the Spirit of God will be taken from the earth, there will be no more. The church will remain a while, that's right, preaching, 'cause it has to preach to the eternal lost, just as every ministry did, coming down through the age. The last part of every ministry preached to the eternal lost. And there will be a ministry now that will preach to the eternal lost after they have refused to receive it.

But if there still seems to be a spark in your heart, that you would like to have Christ in you, and all the world dead, would you raise up your hand, say, “Remember me in prayer, Brother Branham.” The Lord bless you. Yes, yes, ten or fifteen hands. Would there be another before we pray? Now we're fixing to close, in about two or three minutes. God bless you, young lady.

Just think of it, think of it, what if it would be too late? What if you're the last person He'll ever knock on the door?

She is falling apart, we know that. You can't stay here, that's one thing sure. You can't stay here. You're going. Just mark it, you are going. And if you're. . . .

Just don't be worked-up. Don't just say, “I belong to church.” You be sure of that. If Christ doesn't live in you, till you're . . . all your mind, heart, soul, body.

You say, “Well, I think. . . .” You haven't got no thought coming, brother. Let the mind that was in Christ be in you! “I think the days oughtn't to be . . . I think this oughtn't to be. I think the Word don't mean this.” We have no thought coming.

If the mind of Christ is in us, then we will recognize that Word to be the truth, and it lives right through us. You can't help it, it's Christ!

Take the life out of a watermelon vine and put it in a pumpkin vine, it'll bear watermelons. You can't keep it from it, 'cause the life in it is.

And if you say, “Well, I don't believe that, the Word here . . .”, then that ain't the Spirit of Christ. See, it's some other spirit in you.

Is there another before we pray? God bless you. God bless you, and you, you. Yes, that's good. Now, somebody else, just a moment now. God bless you, young fellow. You, little lady. You, sister. God bless you, and you. All right, is there another? God bless you, back there.

Don't be afraid now. Don't be ashamed now. Tomorrow night may be too late, see. It might be tonight that heart stops beating. It might be tonight you turned it away, your last time.

How many in here doesn't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, raise up your hands, you know that you don't have it? My! That's the way you go in. The Holy Ghost is Christ. That's how you are sealed into the kingdom, Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of your redemption.” And if you have thoughts of this Bible, that it isn't true, then the spirit in you is not Christ, 'cause Christ is the Word.

There is the kingdom that cannot be moved, that's the Word. That's the kingdom that cannot be moved. “Heavens and earth will pass away, but my Word will not.” If the Word is in you . . . “If ye abide in me, and my Word in you; ask what you will, it'll be done for you . . . works that I do [St. John 12:14], the works that I do, shall you do also; even more than this, because I go to the Father. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; yet ye shall see me for I will be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.”

Watch what His works was, see if it's returned to us in the last days. Have they rejected it? Worldwide! And the world is falling apart again, this Christmas, like it was that Christmas.

Our heavenly Father, there was many hands went up here tonight, maybe thirty or forty, in this little group of people, went up tonight, that they knew they wasn't just where they should be. They knew that You did not dwell in them, in the measure. Some, maybe something in the Bible, they say, “I just . . . I accept it because I just think maybe I ought to.”

But, Lord, You promised that You would be the Word, and You are the Word. “And I will come to you, and make myself known unto you.” We find that your system . . . your system never changes.

When You come in the Old Testament, You said, “The Word came to the prophets.” And when it did, they prophesied and it come to pass, because it was God.

Now we realize that when You sent us away, and commissioned us to go into all the world and to make disciples, and You said, “When He the Holy Ghost is come upon you, He will bring these things that I have taught you, unto your memory.” That's again! “And will show you things to come.” Still! “God, in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets; in this last days through his Son, Christ Jesus.” The Holy Ghost itself, coming, a revealer of the written Word and a shower of things to come! It said the Word of God, in Hebrews 4, is sharper than a two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts that's in the heart.

And sinful and church men, today, can sit and see You do the same thing, and call it an evil spirit, just like they did in the days gone by. “If they call the master of the house Beelzebub . . .”, and we see it.

Lord, God, what more can we do now? There is hungry hearts here that's raised their hands. Take them right now, Lord, fill each heart with Thy love. Grant it.

And while we have our heads bowed. If you that raised your hands would like to come around the platform here, don't put it off, see. Just this next moment now, just get right up, real quick, and come here, just stand. This might be the night that you receive the Holy Ghost.

Friends, look, this isn't going to last all the time. It's going to end. It's ending right now, and it may already ended. But as long as you're trying to desire to get to Christ, then there surely is something there, yet, pulling you that way.

Won't you come now and stand right here for prayer? You that desire to, would walk right up around the altar, just a moment, while we keep our heads bowed. Now the people are coming right up. That's right, come right up around the altar. Say, “The world is falling apart, I don't want no world in me. I want a kingdom in me, that cannot fall apart.”

Jesus said, “There is nothing will be lost. I'll raise it up again at the last days. Yes, I'll raise it up.” He promised, so you cannot fall apart. God is going to raise it up. I don't care what it is, He is going to raise it up.

Did you know there is nothing can be annihilated by man? Nothing can be annihilated. You say, “What about fire, when it's burning up something?” It don't annihilate it. It's just the atoms in there breaking those chemicals apart, you get heat from it. It goes right back to its original condition, the way it was in the beginning; acids, gases, lights, and so forth, as it was. You can't annihilate nothing. If the world stood long enough, it might come right back to another piece of paper, or another tree, or whatever you're burning. See, you can't annihilate it. God has made it so.

Oh, you can't annihilate God's creation, that's exactly right, so how much more can He raise up that what He has promised!

Won't you come? Will there be some more now? There is a little group here, not half what held their hands up. I thought you really meant it when you raised your hands, especially on a message like that.

How many of you is here, now with your heads bowed, knows this, that you have seen God keep His promise, right here across this platform, and knowed the secrets of the heart? One, not one time has He ever told anything but what happened. You know that's true. In the meetings, everywhere, just exactly what Jesus Christ did when He was here on earth, He has done it again. You know that. You're aware of that. I was thinking of His healing.

Two weeks ago, before I went to New York, there was a lady come in with a cancer in the throat. The Holy Spirit spoke to her, in the meeting. Here she was there, Sunday, with a cancer in a piece of a rag, she had coughed it out. The doctors looked at it, and said, “The life went out of the cancer, and it's come loose.” And she coughed it out.

Another one had a cancer in the female glands. And she had it right there, with an enlarged picture, with the doctor's statement with it. She had passed it, two days later.

A little fellow standing there that hadn't had no memory, for months and months and months. He had fell and hurt the back of his head. He didn't even know who he was or where he was at. With just a word of prayer, and laid hands on him, I said, “What's your name?”

He said, “Billy Dukes.”

I said, “How old are you?”

He said, “Nine years old.” Said, “Where am I at?”

The power of God! Wish you had been with me in Colorado, a few weeks ago . . . [Blank spot on tape.]

Now, if you're not coming, see, I can't . . . I . . . All I can do is just tell you the truth, see, then it's up to you. Like Noah, he went in, the ark shut behind him, nothing happened for a while; but the world perished on the outside, and the world went right on living just the same, see.

Pilate went right on, after he had crucified Jesus. I'll preach on that, in a few nights, “Blood on Your Hands,” the Lord willing.

Notice now, is there another one, before we close?

Now I'm going to ask the real consecrated women and men, who knows God, to come down and stand here and lay hands on these people. This might be the last time that they'll ever have this opportunity. Some of you consecrated people that know God, come up and stand with these people. They're having pink cards on them, nearly every one of them, that means that they're strangers among you. I think that's right. Come, lay your hands on them. Some of the Life Tabernacle members, come here. Some of you brethren up here on at the top. Come on, this is the hour. Don't you love this, people? My! Where is our zeal? Where is our something that makes us move on? What's the matter?

Now if the audience will wait just a moment, for this prayer.

You people that's standing here, now look, don't you rely upon some emotion, although it has emotion in it. Don't you rely upon whether you're going to speak with tongues, or not. Don't think nothing about it. God will take care of that, see. You ask for Jesus Christ to come into your life and to live Hisself through you. You don't want no more thoughts of your own. You want His thoughts. “Let the mind that was in Christ be in you.” Oh, this is. . . .

This . . . well, you're just going to hear these things the last time, once. Now look, I want all the audience to stand to your feet, out there. Now, you dear people that come up here for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, there is no working tomorrow. This is your soul, brother, sister. This is your eternal destination. This . . . it's either now or never. And as long as you feel that one little draw! And just think of these truths, they're laying right before us. Don't be dead on those things, folks. It's real. It's proven, real, perfect every time. And it's the Word, confirmed!

I'm looking at a man standing right here. I can't think of his name. I believe it's Blair, Reverend Blair. When I was over at Hot Springs, here not long ago, I picked up out there in the audience, that man sitting there, and an evil spirit was trying to get to that man, to make him doubt me. Now watch what happened. I said, “You might need me some time, see.” It wasn't but just a few weeks ago until his wife called me, the man was dying, see.

And the man accepted, he knowed then it was the devil trying to get him to believe it was some kind of a hoax or something. “But how would he know that?” he thought. So then he. . . . By prayer we drove the evil from him.

And then a few weeks ago, see, Satan knowed that that time was coming, where he would be laying there with swelling in his side, I believe his wife said, or something, with a high fever, delirious in his head; know not what it was, some infection in his side, swelled his sides out. And his little wife called me at Tucson. I said, “Sister, have you a handkerchief?” I believe she had something another there, a little scarf or something. I said, “I can see it. Take this and lay it on Brother Blair, in the name of the Lord Jesus.” And he had asked her to come call.

What if Satan would have succeeded and make him disbelieve, and knowing that was there? He wouldn't be standing here tonight with his Bible over his heart, see.

It's Satan trying to make you disbelieve this. That's right. Don't you listen to it. Remember, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.“ See, these things are proven so.

Now let's just all, you here at the altar, let's just raise up your hands, and say, “Lord Jesus, help me right now,” each one praying.

Our heavenly Father, we are assembled here, O God, it's between death and life, for these people standing here. Let the Holy Ghost come into their life right now. May there come the power of God, that's brought them up around this altar, may it come to them in the resurrection of Christ, and will give to them that great eternal life that they are seeking for. Lord, churches everywhere are dying, spiritual water seems to be taken off of the earth. And while there is an opportunity for these people to come beneath the fountain, grant, Lord, that their parching souls, tonight, that's hungering and thirsting for God, may be filled with the Holy Ghost right now. Grant it, Lord. Let Thy mercies and grace be upon them.

Now just keep your head . . . keep praying, just keep praying. Everybody, see, just keep praying. I pray for you. I'll do all I can, but I can't give you the Holy Ghost. God has to do it. Look, form Christ right before you, in your mind. Look out there and see if you see Christ before you, as you close your eyes. Then walk right into Him, and say, “Lord Jesus, here I am. You and I are going to be one, from this on. I'll take every word that You've told me tonight.” Now just stay there, just keep staying, if you stay tonight, tomorrow, the next day, just stay until it's all over, praying, believing that God will fill you with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Come here, Don, lead us in prayer. God bless you, Don.