The Identification Of Christ In All Ages

I certainly deem this a grand privilege to be here tonight. It's my first time ever being here in this fine city of Birmingham, though I've wanted to come many times. But it just seems like it works around, and the Lord has his own set times for things. So that's how He's worked it out. We're grateful for this time, and for these fine sponsors. And now tonight is kind of ... we always have kind of a get-acquainted night.

And you know, when you're in a building like this, where there's ... hasn't been used for church services, I don't suppose. I understand it's a armory—probably drill and play games, and so forth. It isn't like coming into a church, where you.... I believe in church you have ... the Spirit of God is there, and it seems like it's a sacred feeling. But when you come into a place where there's amusements, and sometimes carrying on, then it seems like it's hard to get started for awhile, until we get acquainted with each other.

And then all of us being strange, one to another, it makes it kind of.... Well, we look and wonder. But if we just try to get that away just as quick as possible, and just remember we're here to serve the Lord Jesus. We're here to do what we can—everything that we can to further his kingdom. And I'm putting my efforts forth, and I can't do it alone. It'll take your help, with my help, and with God's help. And with Him we'll be able to see the glory of God come down and visit us. And that's what we're wanting. That's what we're here for—a visitation from God.

Now, we're not many in number, and we don't have too big of crowds. We don't stay very long. And another thing, my message is mostly to the full gospel people. It's on them ... basis, although everybody comes.

We pray for the sick. We don't claim to be a healer, or somebody that can heal someone. We believe that there's only one healer—that's God. But we believe that He ordained men to pray for the sick, and we do that. We pray for the sick. And the Lord has been gracious to us, to answer our prayers so many times. And we ... around the world we've seen, well, just multiplied thousand times thousands of people—crippled, afflicted, blind, lame, halt—healed.

And we're just ... believe that we're just ... that He was wounded for our transgressions, with his stripes we were healed, and we believe that that's a benefit that's a privilege of ... to believers. Now, it isn't to unbelievers. People say, “Well, I don't believe that can happen.” Well, it'll never happen to you. Just ... you just settle that. It'll never happen to you. But it will to those who believe, for it's only to believers.

Now, that doesn't make us a healer no more than preaching salvation makes us a saviour. We know that there's one healer and one Saviour and that's the self-same person, Jesus Christ. We're here to glorify Him to the people.

Now, a revival isn't exactly adding new members to the church. A revival is reviving that what you've already got. And sometimes I've wondered what a revival is for. This may sound a little strange for a stranger to you to say this, but I was standing by the lake shore one day, in Lake Michigan. I was watching the waves—how they come in, and went out—and they'd leap, oh, heavy winds a-blowing. And the waves would dash way in the air, and churn up and down, and roll in, and come back out, and roll in again. I thought, “My, what a revival!”

But you know, there's no more water in that lake than it is when it's perfectly normal and quiet. It's just got the same amount of water, see. And then, I wondered, “Why is that lake all stirred up?” Just the same as we get stirred up in a revival—we churn around. You know what it always does to the lake, though? It cleans it. It washes all the trash out on the bank.

So that's all we have to have a revival for: get all the unbelief and things away from us, so we can see more clear what God wants for us. That's what we're anticipating this time, is a revival among the people.

Now my sponsor, Brother Ershimer, these brothers here, and probably some sitting out in there, now, they're ministers of God just the same as I, or all other ministers. And the.... Jesus said one time, “The kingdom of heaven is liken to a man that took a net and went to the lake. And when he cast the net in, he drew it out, and in there he had all kinds.” The gospel net catches all kinds, now, all kinds of fish, see. There were ... probably some of them were, say, was water dogs. Some of them were serpents, some of them spiders, some turtles, and so forth. And some of them were real fish. So we don't know what we catch in the net. We're just seining.

And now, I come.... Two seines will reach farther than one seine. And I come to put my net (it's a seine, we call it up further in the north, a seine), and I come to weave my net with their nets, your nets.

Let's cast away out as far as we can, and put our nets together, and our hearts together, and our efforts together. And let's pull in to see if there's some fish that the Master could use. And He's the one who judges that. We don't know. They all look the same to us. They're just caught in the net. But God knows who they are, and knowed them from the beginning. So we're just seiners. We're not judges to judge who is, or who isn't; we're just seining. So I'm here to help you.

And now this week pray, get on the phone, call someone and invite them over to the church, over to the armory here. We just got a short time. Nervous ... makes the people nervous when you ... just about time you get acquainted and the people get settled down, then you have to go somewhere else.

Now, I have often wondered sometimes if I couldn't, one of these days, have a tent and come in around a big city like this, and set it up so we could stay several weeks; and have a ministerial meeting of a morning, and meet all the ministers, and discuss the things.

I trust that the Lord will bless our efforts this week. I trust that there won't be one cot or wheelchair, whatever it is, left here, or one sick person with a heart trouble, TB, cancer, but what the Lord Jesus will heal. Now be praying.

I don't visit very much because, you know, this type of ministry.... It's not as I don't want to visit. But it is that I can't serve God, and then man, at the same time. I have to stay to myself and pray. Now, I'll be doing that for you, and you be doing the other part—getting together, and getting the people in, and so forth, and bring the sick and afflicted, and praying for me. Each one pray for me. That's how we win the victory.

Now, just to kind of lay the foundation of what we are trying to do, we.... First place, we don't represent any denomination—not against any denomination, but just don't represent any. We stand.... I was ordained a missionary Baptist, and then I gave up my fellowship card (not fellowship with my brethren), just so that I wouldn't be represented among any group.

I come over into Pentecostal when I went to praying for the sick, and was commissioned to do so. I come over among the Pentecostal and I find out.... Thought there was just one group of them. I find out there's as many groups there as there is in the Baptist, different ones. So I seen they were fussing. And they were fussing in the Baptists, about this, that, and the other. So I just let them fuss. And I try to put our arms around everybody, and say, “We're all brethren. Let's just serve the Lord.” And what little influence I can have, I don't place it upon any certain denomination—just on Christ. And there we try to serve Him that way.

Everybody's invited, no matter. Everybody's welcome. As long as you behave and be orderly, why, you're just as welcome as you can be.

Now, another thing is our system of praying for the sick. I ... each day Brother Borders, or Pearry, or Brother Sothmann, or Billy Paul or.... Usually it's Billy Paul. That's his job. And if he can't get here, it'll be one of these other men will be giving out prayer cards each day. They do that. Come down and take the prayer cards, one hundred of them, and mix them all up right before your eyes. And then give the people a card who wants one. Now each day they do that, so that....

When we first started, we found out that you had to have prayer cards. It's not an arena, you know, pushing over each other. It's ... you got to have it in order. And then we found someone trying to sell prayer cards, and guaranteeing people to get up to the platform. And so, then, had to stop that. And then I put my own son on that, 'cause I knowed he wouldn't sell one.

Then the thought come up: “Give me a certain prayer card. Where you going to start praying from tonight? And then, I'm going to pray.... I want that prayer card.” Well, to make that boy sure that he don't know where that prayer line is going to start, he mixes the cards up and hands you.... He don't know which one he's handing you. He just hands you a prayer card. One might get number one, another get fifty, and then so forth.

And then to double that back, I come down of a night and nobody.... And I don't know myself where I start calling them prayer cards from. I might start from one, I might start from twenty-five, might start from seventy-five; or a hundred and work backwards, sixteen and go forward, and then backward. Anybody's ever been in a meeting knows we do it that way—just back and forth, anywhere.

And then, every day.... First, we go down and give all the prayer cards out the first day. Then any newcomers come in, they failed to get a prayer card. That settled it—they didn't get prayed for during the meeting. But now, we give them out every day, so that anyone that wants a prayer card can have one. Maybe one night we don't get to all of them. But hold your card. We'll get to it before leaving.

Now, but there's many, many healed out in the audience—many more than there is healed than when you're here on the platform. It's your faith that does the healing; it isn't our prayer. Our prayer will help, there's no doubt. We all get together and pray for you, it'll help. And if ... and then, on Sunday afternoon, the Lord willing, we'll be praying for everyone—taking up their prayer cards, and praying for all. Or maybe Saturday night, one. Depends on which one the brethren want us to do it.

Now we want to say this, so that you'll understand. The reason that I put that prayer line off to meet every person, is because my principle—my objective—is this: that people will receive Christ as their healer without anybody laying hands on them.

Usually ... you take an evangelist, comes to the city, well, he's everything in the church. When he leaves, sometimes the congregation looks at their pastor and say, “Well, what about my pastor?” I want you to know that your pastor is a godly man. And I want you to have respects, and know that that man's just as ordained to pray for the sick as anybody else is ordained.

And we want you.... And by the way, our objective mainly is for you to see the presence of Jesus Christ, and know that He's here. And then, while you're in his presence, just accept Him as your Saviour and your healer. If you're not saved, accept Him as Saviour. If you're saved and not healed, then accept Him as your healer. Then no one can say, “Brother So-and-so laid hands on me.” No. You laid hands on Him. Then, that's the main thing.

Now I want you to bear that in mind all the time. It's you laying your ... touching Him. And the Bible said that He's the high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. And now, remember that. It's you touching Him, not....

The pastor's got a right to lay hands on ... lay .... Not only the pastor—“These signs shall follow them that believe.” Just believers—anybody—lay hands on the sick, have a right to do that. It's identifying yourself with the person in prayer, just like you lay your hands by faith upon Christ, and identify yourself with your sacrifice. So remember that now as the week goes on, and pray sincerely.

Now, I think that just about covers it now. And then, each night we try to get out early, just as early as we possibly can. Now we're starting out at twenty-five minutes till nine by my watch. And, if the Lord willing, we want to be out every night at 9:30, or maybe before, so that you can have ample time go to your homes, and come back.

Now, if you're not prayed for, don't catch it the first night.... My ministry may be a little strange to you. But if it's strange, don't just throw it off to one side. Sit down and consider it. Take the Bible....

Now, I believe that God can do things He never wrote here in the Bible. But I want Him just ... if He'll just keep what He wrote here, I'll be satisfied by it,

'cause we're living in the days of all kinds of strange things, isms, that's unscriptural.#20 But, you know, in the days of Noah ... Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah....” You know, people perhaps built boats in them days, whether they were God-constructed or not. But they didn't float when the time came for it to float. So I like the message to be God-constructed with the Scriptures, a scriptural message. And right there with it, everything with the Scripture—it's “thus saith the Lord,” then. And it's got to stand because it isn't my word that's in question; it'd be his word that's in question. Bring it from the Scripture.

We're in a changing dispensation. We're changing now. And every change is like building a building. You come to the corner, you have to make that bend. It's strange, everybody wants to run right straight on down. You'd have just one big wall. But we're building a building, and we're ... come to corners, and you got to change those corners. As Brother Don Price so well ... he so well stated it, not long ago: “Those changes is where the trouble comes, where the.... It's hard, on that corner, to make ... cut that corner, and make it just right.”

Now, just before we read the Word....

Each night, Brother Borders is the field manager, and he also speaks at the platform. And Dr. Lee Vayle is here somewhere. I guess he got here. He met me in Kentucky, driving 30 miles an hour—breaking in another Ford. And so ... coming down, and I met him. He's the public relation man. He'll be speaking, I guess, somewhere at the meetings, some every day. So, if there's any questions, or anything, why, ask Brother Vayle. He'll be able to help you in these questions. All right. Now as we ... before we read the Word, I have a custom that we stand as we read God's Word. We stand when we play the Star Spangled Banner, and pledge allegiance. Why not stand while we read the Word of God?

I'm going to read tonight from Hebrews, the thirteenth chapter, beginning with the first verse:

Let brotherly love continue.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bonds with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Remember them which have ... rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, ... to-day, and for ever.

Let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer. Now with our heads and our hearts bowed, I just wonder if there would be some requests tonight, would like to be remembered? Would you just raise up your hands to God, say by that, “Remember me, O Lord.” Thank you.

Our heavenly Father, as we approach thy divine throne in the all-sufficient name of the Lord Jesus who said, “If you ask the Father anything in my name, it'll be granted,” we're so grateful for that promise; knowing this, that our faith presses right out now, beyond all shadows of doubt—knowing that we by faith are talking personally with Almighty God—for it's a promise.

And again it's said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” Now each of us has a request, Lord, as we raised our hands to Thee. Thou knowest what's in our hearts beneath our hand. And we pray that you'll answer us, Lord. Not that we're worthy of the answer, but because You promised to answer. You said You would grant it, and I know You'll do it, for You are ... You're the great God that made the heavens and earth, and the judge of all heavens and earth. And would You say something that You would not make it right? Far be it from God of doing such as that. What is lacking is our faith to believe it.

And we pray, Lord, that this night will so spur our faith, and push it out, and at such a place that we'll walk with it, Lord, beyond the understandings. We won't try to understand; we'll just believe.

And faith is the substance of things that we hope for, and the evidence of things that we cannot see, or prove. We just believe it, and God makes it happen. And we pray, Father, that their ... that the angels of God will stand at every door, and every line of seats, and at every seat, and will convict sinners that they are wrong. And may they accept the Lord Jesus then.

And those without the baptism with the Spirit, may the Holy Ghost fall while we're speaking, and while the presence of Christ is so real. Grant it, Lord. We pray that there'll not be a feeble one among us. May every person that enters these doors, Lord, be so inspired with faith that they'll be healed, every one.

Bless these ministers, Lord, these churches throughout the country. May, by the cause of this great effort that these people has put forth.... A small people we are, but yet, Lord, a people that's sincere, and trying to hold that faith that was once delivered to the saints in the midst of darkness.

May there come an old-fashioned revival that ... just break out through the churches everywhere, and hungry saints begin to cry out, and sinners born into the kingdom of God as saints. Grant it, Lord. That's our purpose. That's what's in our hearts. We're trying to do this for your honor, Lord, for we know that we haven't too much longer to stay.

We see the earth quivering and shaking again on a Good Friday, like it did 1900 years ago on a Good Friday. You said there'd be earthquakes in divers places. We see all the signs appearing, and we know the time is close. So, Lord, we want to work while we can, for when life is over we work no more.

And we pray, heavenly Father, that we'll put forth our efforts at this time. And when the meeting goes to history, may we feel that we have done the best that we can. Grant it, Lord. Bless my brethren everywhere. Bless all now that will come into the meeting, and those that'll hear, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, Brother.

I want to take a text tonight, just if I call it a text, a little formal talk, and call Jesus ... or the Christ, rather, is identified in all ages. In other words, “The Identification of Christ In All Ages,” because Hebrews 13:8 said, “He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And we want to see how in past times what He was. Now, we talk so much about Him, and that's what we're here to do now, is talk about Him.

And now, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and if He was seen, and knowed in the yesterdays, then why not today? If He was seen, and knowed, and identified, in days gone by, then why not we do the same thing today? We find this great person.... No one could ever hear of Him without they want to find out more about Him. There's something about Him—that name of Jesus Christ. There's just not another name, nowhere, that attracts the people like that. It's something about it.

A man is ... knows he comes from the beyond in a dark shadowy curtain, that hangs between him and where he was before he come here. He knows he must go behind that curtain. And he's always wanting to know where he come from, what he is, and where he's going.

We have millions of volumes that's been wrote, I suppose, on the subject. But there's only one book, and that's sixty-six volumes in itself, that can tell you where you come from, who you are, and where you're going. And that is this Bible. It's the Word that tells you where you come from, who you are, and where you're going.

So many people have so many different ideas about Christ, and especially in this day that we have now. We have some of them that regard Him just as a great teacher—and He was. But He was more than a great teacher, see. He was ... there never was a man that spake like Him. But He was more than just a great teacher. But that seems to be more like a great philosophy among many of the churches today, just to regard Him as a teacher that ... never taught like Him before.

He's just a great, marvelous, ancient historian, or teacher rather, from days gone by. His teaching's fine; you can believe part of it, and part of it you can't. But He was quite a philosopher. In other words they regard Him something like Confucius, a Chinese philosopher of many hundreds of years ago. Now, He was more than a teacher. He's more than that.

Then some of them think of Him being just a good man. Well, He was a good man. He was the only good man that we really ever had, was Him. There had to be one good man to die for us bad men, to make us good. Not by our merits, but what one good man done redeemed the whole bunch of us, see.

How foolish it would be, after the only one way of redemption, and only one plan made, and then turn that down. That would be a rashal thing to do, to turn down the only way, the only plan. That's God, God's plan. There's many other plans, but God has a plan. That plan is through Jesus Christ, and Him alone. It's not through any system, any educational system, or any denominational system, or anything. It's through Jesus Christ, and Him alone. That's God's eternal plan, through Him. God always does things in one way. He never changes his way of doing it.

Now, we find out that some say He was a prophet,

and a prophet He was. But He was more than a prophet. He was a prophet, plus. And they had many prophets. All prophets died at the gate of death.

But this man took the keys—death, hell, grave—like Samson did the gates of Gaza, and took it out; took the sting and death itself, and swallowed it up in victory, and rose up on the third day. Triumph! Makes his believers more than conquerors; it's already conquered. There's nothing left to do but walk right straight in, with the victors' song in our hearts. He is the great triumph one. And this great one was more than a prophet.

Prophets were great men. We know that. The Word of the Lord came to the prophets, and it comes to them and them only. And we find out that that's the Scripture, what it says. He does nothing unless He tells his servants, the prophets, first. And they were great men. But this man was more than a prophet.

Now, we find out then.... Many people think that He was an organizer of church, made ... was a great man with a great mind, and organized churches. No doubt He put them together. I heard a priest speaking not long ago, said, “Jesus Christ organized the first Roman church, and He ought to know how to do it.”

Now, the church never was organized, and it never did begin in Rome. It began in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and not in Nicaea-Rome. And Jesus never organized nothing. The only thing He did was call. You never ... you're not organized to Christ; you're borned into the kingdom of God.

I just passed my birthday last Monday, and I was fifty-five years old. And you know, the Branham family never did ask me to join the family. I was borned a Branham. And that's how we're Christians. We're just borned a Christian, by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we are Christians by birth. That makes us new creatures. In our old nature we could never be Christians.

That's the reason today we have so many calling themselves Christians, and living any kind of a life. They've never experienced that borned again, that something that changes you, that takes the life out; like pulling the blood out of a man that's got a certain type of blood, and putting another type in him. It's pulling the old life out of the man, and injecting the life of Christ in the believer. Then he becomes a new creation. He's a new creature.

Now, the only way that we'll ever know and could make all people be satisfied.... If I'd ask the Pentecostals tonight, “What do you think He should be?”, they'd have Him a Pentecostal.

If I'd ask a United Brethren what He should ... “Why, He was a United Brethren.”

If I'd ask the Methodists, “Why, He was a Methodist,” the Baptists, and so forth. But now, there's only one way to satisfy that, and do it Scripturally. Now we want to always in this platform be exactly with the Scripture. If it isn't, you're duty bound to come to me and correct me.

Now, it wants to be with the Scripture. So, the only way to know what He is today is find out what He was, see. They said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if we can find what He was, then He's got to be the same today, because He can't change. The Bible said He's the same, s-a-m-e, same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now in I John, or St. John the first chapter, we find out ... here's what the writer said. Being inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote this: “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.” May I break it down? In the beginning was the Eternal. He wasn't even God. “God,” our English word “God,” is an object of worship; but He ... there wasn't nothing to worship Him. He was just the Eternal.

In Him was attributes. Anyone knows what an attribute is. In others words, in Him was his thoughts—just thoughts. That's his attributes. Then his word—and a thought expressed is a word. “In the beginning was the Word.” Before it was even expressed, it was a thought—attribute. In this thinking He was to be God. Probably created angels first, then He was worshipped, he was God.

And then, in Him was attributes to be Father, be Son, be Saviour (nothing lost, something had to be lost, so there had to be a way made for that), to be healer (nothing sick, so He ... something had to get sick so He could heal it). It's only displaying his attributes.

And now, remember, if you ever did, or ever will have eternal life, you had it with Him then, see. You had it with Him because Jesus came, and Jesus was the redeemer. To redeem anything is to bring it back from where it's fallen from, or went from—redeem it, bring it back.

And you, the way you look, or who you are, or who ... what your name is: that was God's thinking before the foundation of the world. And Jesus came not to save the whole thing. He wanted to; but He come to redeem, bring back, them that was in his thoughts before the beginning. That's the reason He was the Word made flesh. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. The Word, God's thinking of how He would do it, He expressed Himself in Jesus Christ. It was God becoming material.

Now, where you are now, you have to die, because you're yet.... Just like snapping a picture—you're the negative. Any negative has to go into the dark room, through acids, to develop the picture to make you see what it is. We're now in the express image of Him. It's the negative. It's been taken. We're human life. But we must go in the dark room, down into the grave, to go through the developing to come back forth in the image.

Oh, my! Young forever! All the old age and all the defects and everything will be taken away. Then we are redeemed, God's attributes right back—God, material with Christ and the church, just like man and his wife. That's right. Christ and the bride, 'cause it redeems back his thinking, and his thinking is expressed out.

Now you say, “That took a long time.” Not to God. We're finite. We just have to hurry. I was thinking, when I left Jeffersonville and driving 30 miles an hour, I drove down to Birmingham in one day, and a little bit of the night. And I thought, that didn't mean so much to me, but what if a little ant tried to run that. What would it mean to him? See, he couldn't make it in thousands of life times; but it didn't mean nothing much to me. What about a airplane, what about a jet, then an astronaut? Then what about God?

See, Jesus was only crucified yesterday afternoon in God's time, if He had time. A thousand years is only one day with God, as it was. It ain't even that, only, as it was one day. So this hasn't been just hardly a week, if you want to count time, between the whole ... since the beginning of creation, just developing it out. God with his thoughts becoming material, and then that brings us with eternal life. And eternal life, there's only one form of it: that's God.

And then, it's God expressed in his church, like God expressed in his Son. It's the same God all the time—God above us, God with us, God in us—just bringing the whole thing right back. Now. In the beginning was the Word.

Now, if we was going to talk about who's going to judge the world, why, you'd ... somebody'd say.... I heard, a Catholic person, said, “God'll judge the world by the Catholic church.” If He does, which Catholic church? See, they got so many different ones of them—the Orthodox, the Greek, or the Roman, or what? See, what Catholic church will He judge the world by?

Well, if He judges it by the Catholic church, then the Protestant's out. If He judges it by the Protestant church, then the Catholic is out. If He judges it by the Methodist, the Baptist is out. Well, you say, “Wait a minute. They're all....”

Oh, no.

Remember, in the beginning the one ... the only fortified that God gave Adam and Eve was to stay behind his Word, and just not to.... Satan didn't misbel ... didn't tell her it wasn't so. He just misquoted one little phase of it. And if one little phase caused all of this—troubles, sickness, and heartaches, and sorrows—one little phase will keep us out of it. God will judge the world not by any certain group; He'll judge the world by Jesus Christ. And Christ is the Word. He is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” So, He is the expressed Word of God in every age. He makes Him the same yesterday, today, and forever.

...identified Himself in the beginning with the prophets. Now, remember, the prophets is who the Lord speaks through. And now notice. He identified Himself in human beings from the very beginning.

From the very start of time, He always has a way of doing things, and He never changes his way. That's the reason I can believe his Word. If God was ever called on the scene to make an act, and.... The decision that God made when He was called on the scene, He has to act the same way every time He's called on the scene, or He acted wrong at the first place. Otherwise.... If He was called to save a man, He saved him on a certain basis. And if He's ever called to save another man, He's got to do the same way He did the first time, or He did wrong when He did it the first way.

If He was ever called on the scene to heal a man and He healed Him on the basis of some certain thing, if He's ever called again to heal, He's got to heal on them same basis or He acted wrong. And He's infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, He's infinite God. So, He doesn't change.

Now, we're finite. We can say this is right today; tomorrow we can find something different. We can be better. We got a better ... build better houses than we did a hundred years ago. We got better cars than we had twenty years ago. And we got better transportation, and whatever more you want to go into. We're better because we're learning. But God hasn't, because He's perfect to begin with. Therefore, He and his Word is the same. So his Word is perfect.

If you don't believe that, don't never come in the prayer line, 'cause that's the only basis that you can accept anything. Faith can only take its rest upon something that it's sure of. And a real genuine faith rests itself on the eternal rock of God's eternal Word. It doesn't shift. It stays right there, regardless. Talk about rock of Gibraltar; that's the Rock of Ages it stands on. The Word never can change, and faith rests upon that.

He said, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but my word shall never fail.” Men and women who ever amounted to anything were men and women who believed that to be the truth. And that is the truth! He ... the Word is the truth.

Now we find out that He ... in the beginning God 'lotted so much word to each age, to each age. And then as that word ... became time for it to be revealed (don't miss this), when it come time for that word to be revealed, usually men had it so messed up till He appeared to a prophet. Search the Scriptures, see. Now remember, the unchanging God, He cannot change his ways. He must every time do it the same, unchanging.

Let me just give you one example. When man fell—sin—and God was called on either to throw him into judgment, or to make a way of escape for him.... Now, God in the garden of Eden made one plan to save man, one way. And that was through the shed blood of an innocent subject. He's never changed it. We've tried to build cities, towers, educate, denominate; but it's all failed. God can only meet man under the shed blood of the innocent. He did that in the garden of Eden, and He's never changed it. God never changes his ways. He ... if He does then He's finite, like I am, you are.

We say, “Well, I was wrong there, but I'll be right this time.” Not God; He's right in the first place. He don't have to change nothing. He made the promise, and He's got ... He stays by it.

Here's Abraham. He was persuaded that God was able to keep anything that He promised, so He called anything contrary to the Word as though it wasn't. He just went right on just the same against scientific ... the scientific proofs, and against reasons, against hope, against everything there was. God's word come first. Abraham said let everything else be wrong, He's going to have the baby anyhow. And so he had it, see, because he believed it.

Now, we find then that the unchanging God always does the same.

Now notice, just briefly in the history of time, go with me now just for the next few minutes. Let's go back and find out. In the beginning He spoke to the prophet, and the Word of the Lord came to the prophet. And the prophet being able to foretell divine things and it happened just like that, was his identification. A prophet, seer, means one who foretells, or tells forth, and also is a divine interpreter of the written Word. Anybody knows that, that knows what a prophet means.

Now, the English word “prophet,” p-r-o-p-h-e-t, means a preacher—just anybody preaching. But a seer of the Old Testament, which was referred to as a prophet, he was the one that foresaw things. He said, “If there be one among you who is spiritual, or a prophet, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him. And if what he says comes to pass, then hear him. But if it doesn't come to pass, don't hear that prophet, see, 'cause he's prophesying falsely. But if I have sent him, that'll be my identification. What he says will come to pass.” He's borned in the world, ordained, foreordained of God to do that, 'cause all gifts and callings are without repentance. They are foreordained of God.

Before the world ever begun He knowed all about it. He knowed every flea, every fly, and how much tallow it would make, and how many times it would bat its eyes. That's infinite, see, infinite. That's just.... If it isn't, then He isn't infinite. He knowed everything, and He's omniscient because He's omnipresent. That makes ... omniscient makes Him omnipresent. He knows everything, knew it before the world began.

He knowed before the world began we'd sit here. He knowed how many times I'd raise my hands up and down. He knowed the words I'd say. He knowed how many times you'd bat your eyes, what you'd think, before the world ever started! What are we afraid about? God is our Father! That's right. He's our Father. We have no worry. People's just lost their faith and confidence in Him.

We find that that goes for seasons, and then ... there's words that God has spoken to come to pass. And then they all get mixed up, and then God sends a prophet on the scene. And that prophet vindicates that word for that age, always. Go through the church ages, what we're supposed to have. See if you don't picture out those men down through the church ages, as we see them since the apostles.

Now notice this again. God spoke to Noah (and he was a prophet), told Him about what was coming. He prophesied, and it happened.

Now, along come Joseph. Joseph, a perfect example, that was Christ in Joseph. Why, you notice he was loved of his father, despised of his brothers because he was a seer. They hated him without a cause. The man couldn't help.... What he was, he was. And the other brothers hated him—a very good type of all ages. Always when a seer comes on the scene, the rest of them hate him for the same cause as they did Joseph.

He couldn't help it. He could interpret their dreams. Never was he wrong. He foretold things. Never was he wrong. And his brothers hated him without a cause. And notice, his life portrayed Christ to us exactly—even sold almost for 30 pieces of silver, taken up out of the ditch, and sat at the right hand of Pharaoh, the ruler of the world of that day.

And every time he left the palace, they sounded a trumpet and said, “Every knee bow, 'cause Joseph is coming,” a perfect type of Christ in the millennium when the trumpet sounds. And He'll come forth, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to Him.

Notice, in his prison he was a prophet. That's when he was sold, and put into prison on account of Potiphar's wife. Then we find that in there the butcher and the baker, they both had a dream. And he interpreted the dream, and one was lost and one was saved. So did Jesus on the cross exactly. One was lost, one was saved, when He was in his prison, tacked to the cross. Just a perfect example.

We find out that when Moses come on the scene, now.... Now, Moses could have not come in the same spirit, or the same way, with the same message that Noah had. It was another age, to fulfill another word. God said, “Your seed will sojourn in a strange land, be a servant for four hundred years. And then I'll bring them out with a mighty hand.” But when Moses was called.... Took forty years of schooling; then forty years to get it all out of Him again. Then God called Him by the supernatural light, a pillar of fire laying back in a burning bush. He knew more about God in five minutes than he learned in forty years, because he was in his presence.

That's what I want! When a man is in the presence of God, then he knows something. He knows something that ... he can't learn it in books. You can't learn God by books, education. You say, “He's DD., Ph.D.” That just takes him that much farther from God, to me. You don't know God by education; you know God by faith. You believe in his promise, to know God.

And that's why I think our meetings in the divine presence of God ought to spur the peoples' faith to know, that no matter what science says, what the unbeliever says, Christ was sent to you—the believers. You have a right to enjoy his fellowship, and his blessings, and everything that He died for. There you are.

No man has a right to preach the gospel until he's knelt on those sacred sands, back there, in the presence of that pillar of fire, and heard the voice of God speak to Him.

You know, the religions today can explain it all away. “This happened, and that's gone.” And “This was for another age. And this....” But a man that's ever met God face-to-face and talked to Him, there's no scientist, or no devil, or nothing else can come on that sacred ground. He was there where he met God, and he knows what he's talking about. And no need of anybody else trying to tell him.

God, speaking in the ages through his prophets, identifying Himself each time to the age that come on.

Now, along came Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, too. The Bible said He would. Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses said, “The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet liken unto me, and to him shall the people hear.”

Now notice. Every age, all Israel, all the people believed that ... the prophets, when they were identified prophets. Hebrews, the first chapter said, “God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets; in this last days through his Son, Jesus Christ,” see, through his Son, Jesus Christ. Notice, never changes his way—the same thing—always the continuity of God's word.

God never did use a system, never did use an organization, never did use groups. He uses one single person.

If you're Methodist, Baptist, (that's all right), Presbyterian, Pentecostal (that's good); but God deals with you as an individual. It's you, not your church. You are the one that's responsible, not what your church says.

What God said to you, it must be with the Word. God deals with individuals. He always did. The prophets is not a school of prophets. They tried that one time and failed. So they find out....

Ahab had a bunch of them down there. But God had one, too, by the name of Micaiah, that all the rest of them hated. But he had the truth. He had the truth by the Word, because his prophecy was according to the Word. It's always got to be, the prophet is sent to vindicate the word promised for that day. Now, there's exactly how they failed to see Jesus. That's exactly.

Look at those men, those Pharisees and Sadducees—scholars that we don't have today. They must be born of a certain tribe: Levi. Their great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers were priests. All the way through, they studied that Word day and night, day and night. But when the Word was vindicated, they didn't know it. See, they had traditions. Jesus said, “You with your traditions has made the word of God of no effect.”

Now He come just exactly the way the prophet said He would come. But you see, they had a tradition. They couldn't see that.

This baby born down there, illegitimate birth, and in a cow stable. How could that be? And this guy didn't go to any school. He had no credentials, He had no fellowship card, He didn't belong to any organization. They knowed no school He went to. How could this be anything? But it was! They failed to see.

He said, “The works that I do testify of me. Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they that testify, tell you who I am. They are my testimony, the scriptures. But if you don't believe me, believe the works that I do. They tell you who I am.”

They said, “We have Moses. We believe Moses.”

Said, “If you'd believe Moses, you'd believe me. He wrote of me,” see. It was so dark, and still they couldn't see it. Wonder if that couldn't repeat. It's prophesied to, you know. It was prophesied to there.

You say, “In this day?”

Oh, yes! “Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, despisers of those that are good; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” It's prophesied, and all prophesy must be fulfilled. I wonder if we're close to that time. I just wonder if we are. Let's look around just a little bit, and see how at ease we are in Zion.

Now we find out,

let's see what Jesus was when He come. He was the Word. He was absolutely the Word. And the Word is always corrective. It corrects the error, although the error don't believe it sometimes. But the Word corrects the error.

Look at Jesus at just twelve years old, a little boy about like this little fellow sitting here asleep, with the braces on his legs. Jesus was a little boy about twelve years old, no record where He ever went to school.

But they went up to the feast of the Passover, and when they ... or the feast of Pentecost, rather. And they went up to the feast, Joseph and Mary, and all the congregation from down in the city. They went up to Jerusalem. And three days' journey, they presuming He was around with the people and some of the kinfolks there, but they missed Him. They went to looking, and He wasn't there. They went back to Jerusalem and found Him in the temple disputing with the priests, disputing with those men.

Notice here. Not to hurt you Catholic people, but you who take Mary for a goddess, or a intercessor, looky here. She had give a testimony—watch her condemn her own testimony. She said, “Your father and I have sought you with tears.” Look what she did. She condemned her own testimony. She was calling Joseph his father.

But watch. Just a kid, just a little boy (but the Word always corrects the error), said, “Know you not that I must be about my Father's business?” The Word spontaneously, see, corrected the error.

She said, “Your father and I....” (Joseph), right before those priests, who she had already told that she was conceived by the Holy Ghost. And here she testifies, and identifies Joseph being his father, condemning her own testimony.

But watch the Word pick it up. He was the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word picked it up to correct the error. “Know ye not that I must be about my Father's business?”

If Joseph had been his father, He'd been down in the carpenter shop in his business. But his Father's business was condemning those organizations, and things. He was condemning them up there, where they belonged. He was having a time there, where they couldn't even understand how this boy would know such as that. But He was the Word! Never a man spoke like Him. What He said, He had the authority to make it work.

Those prophets did too, 'cause they lived in the hour. He was all the prophets made in one, plus even that, 'cause He was the fullness of the Word. He was all the Word. The prophets was just the Word to that age; but He was the Word to all ages. He was God, Himself, coming down and manifested in a body of flesh—the Word made flesh and dwelt among us.

Let's watch how He identified Himself. First, after He came out of the wilderness from baptized with the Holy Spirit, baptized with John.... Here's another little thought that you might catch, just before you think of it. You know, the Bible says the Word comes to the prophet. If there's a prophet in the land, the Word has to come to him. Look at ... John was a prophet, the first one they'd had, see. And he was a Word prophet. And while he was standing there prophesying, the Word came to Him in the water. Jesus was the Word, walked right out in the water.

And John said, “I have need to be baptized of thee. Why comest thou unto me?”

He said, “Suffer that to be so: for thus it's becoming to us that we fulfill all righteousness.” Why? Then John being a prophet, and Him being the Word, knowed that He was the sacrifice, so the sacrifice has to be washed before it was presented. So he baptized Jesus, washing the Word before it was presented, you see.

So He said, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it is becoming to us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then when he suffered Him, Jesus went straightway out of the water: and lo, the heavens was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God like a dove, descending down upon him.“

And He went into the wilderness and was tempted for forty days, and He came out.

Let's follow his ministry now. We're in St. John 1. Let's watch what takes place, and see what He was then. Then we can find out what He was now, then. Look at Him in the back ages. Now we're up to the time of Jesus. Then we'll close, maybe pick it up tomorrow night there. We just got a few minutes left.

Here He comes out of the wilderness. The first thing, there was a man by the name of Andrew. He had been going to attend John's message, and John begin to say.... John knew that he was going to be the introducer of the Messiah, because he had done said.... You know, his father was a priest, but he never followed his father. His job was too important to go to any theological school. So he went to the wilderness at nine years old.

He knowed he had to identify ... had to see the sign that would prove who that Messiah was. And he knowed it so sure ... he knowed his calling.... He was so sure of it, he was standing among a bunch of people like this and he said, “He's right among you now. There's one standing among you who you don't know. He'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.” Said, “I'm not even worthy to loose his shoes.”

And then, first thing, Jesus walked out and he saw that sign. He said, “I saw the sign, and I'm sure that that was Him.” And he baptized Him. Now when Jesus....

And no doubt that Andrew had told his brother. Now, his brother was kind of a ... Simon, he was kind of one of these hard guys, that didn't want to believe anything. He said, “I remember what my father told me. He said, 'Son, one day....' He said, 'You know, we've fished, and we trusted God to give us fish to pay our debts, and get something to eat.' He said, 'Many times we've had to pray, way before mother died and all, to give us a good catch of fish so we could have food for the day. And I've always looked, as any good Hebrew would, for the coming Messiah.' Said, 'Now I'm getting old, and I suppose I won't see Him.'

“'But I want you boys to know, just before He appears on the scene there'll be all kinds of false things rise up, see. But I want you to know we must trust the Word. Moses, our prophet, told us that the Lord God would raise up a prophet. Now we haven't had a prophet for hundreds and hundreds of years. But when the Messiah cometh, He'll be identified prophet. Now you'll know Him, 'cause He'll be a prophet.'

And then, this fellow was preaching, doing nothing else but preaching (John), so he, Simon, couldn't go for that. So he told him that this one he was speaking of had come, so that identified him as a prophet, see, that he ... what had happened. So Andrew and Simon went down one day and, washing their nets, and they were ... went down to see Jesus. And when Simon come running up into his presence, Jesus looked at him, and said, “Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas.” That did it! He knowed right then that that was that Word made flesh.

See, he knew it. Why? Hebrews, the fourth chapter, twelfth verse, which is known through all scholars, that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. How many readers know that? Hebrews 4, 4:12.

Now, when he saw that, he knowed that He'd not only knowed who He was, he knowed that godly old daddy of his, too. He knew right then that was the Messiah. He was given the keys to the kingdom later.

Then, there was a fellow standing there by the name of Philip. So, he had a fellow had been studying the Bible with him, oh, for many years, and that was a fellow named Nathanael. He lived about fifteen miles, if you check it on the map, where he went around the hill to find Nathanael. And when he found him, he was.... He was a grove man. He raised olives. He was out there in the grove praying. And, of course, Nathanael after, or Philip (pardon me), Philip, after seeing Nathanael praying (he was a gentleman), he waited till he got finished praying. When he stood up, he said, “Say, come see who we found: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. This is the Messiah we were talking about.”

“Aw,” (then listen to this fellow) said, “Now, could there be any good thing come out of a bunch of people like that, out of...?”

And I think he gave him the best answer anybody could. Said, “Come and see.” Don't stay home and criticize. Come find out for yourself. Bring your Word along with you, and let's search it, and find out what it is. You know what the Word says that this Messiah's going to be. What He was yesterday, He is today. Search the Word, find out what He is—whether He's an organization, whether He's a group of people. What is He? See?

So we find out there, that they've come around the hill. And no doubt that Philip related to him what He had said. “Why, that old fisherman—that didn't have enough education to sign that receipt, when you got that fish—He told him who he was, and told him who his daddy was. Wouldn't surprise me if He don't tell who you are when you get there.”

“Aw, go on. I'll have to see it,” he said.

Walked right up into his presence, maybe like this, prayer line, wherever it was. Jesus was praying for the sick. And when Jesus looked upon him, the first time He'd ever saw him, He said, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”

He said, “Rabbi [which means teacher], when did You ever see me? This is the first time I ever saw You. When did You ever see me?”

He said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree I saw you.”

Why! Watch the after-effects. “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

That man kno....

Look at the difference between Him and them priests standing out there. Them priests didn't believe it. And they knew it happened, so they had to give an answer to their congregation. So you know what they said? They said, “He does.... He's a fortuneteller. He's Beelzebub, the devil. He's a devil!”

And Jesus said, “I'll forgive you for that. [The atonement wasn't yet made.] But when the Holy Ghost comes [now], and does the same thing, one word against it will never be forgiven in this world or the world to come.” So you see where it would throw us, if we seen the same thing.

Now, we go just a little bit further. We find out then, that there's only three classes of people on earth, three races. We know that: Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. That's the Jew, and the Samaritan, and the Gentiles. Now the Samaritan's half Jew and Gentile. Now, we know that the Jews were looking for a Messiah. So was the Samaritans. But we Gentiles were Anglo-Saxon. We worshipped idols, carried clubs on our backs, was heathens. We wasn't looking for no messiah, and no messiah was showed to us either—not his sign. We seen a man walking, but not a Messiahic sign.

But there was Samaria. So Jesus, one time on his road down to Jericho, went around the mountain—had need to go by Samaria. And He come to a city named Sychar. It was along about noontime, maybe a place something on the order of this here. And he went to the well, and sat down, and sent the disciples out to get victuals, food.

While they were there, a woman, a young lady of the city—a kind of a bad reputation.... She'd had too many husbands. She came out to the well, 'cause she couldn't come with the rest of the women 'cause.... That's still a custom. They can't mix together. So, she come out to get water.

And when she started to let down the water pots by the windle to get the water, she heard a man say, a voice say, “Woman, bring me a drink.”

And she looked around, and there was a Jew. And He must have looked a little old for his age. He might have looked a little older than what He was. You know, they said in St. John 6 there, that “You're a man not over fifty years old, and said you'd seen Abraham. We know now that you've got a devil.”

He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” So, but his work must have made Him look a little ... maybe grayed a little, or something. He was only about thirty-three, but He looked a little older.

Said, “You say ... you being a Jew, and ask me a woman of Samaria.... We have segregation. There's nothing ... we just can't do that. You can't ... supposed to do that.”

He said, “But if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask me for a drink.”

What was He doing? Carrying a conversation. The Father had sent Him up there, but He had.... Here was a woman—that must be the time. So He said ... He talked to her until He caught her spirit. See, the Word discerns the thought that's in the heart, and He was the Word. How many believes He was the Word? Sure, see. And the Word discerns the thoughts in the heart, see.

He said ... find out what her trouble was. We all know what that was—too many husbands. He said, “Go get your husband, and come here.”

She said, “I don't have any husband.”

Said, “You've told the truth. You've had five, and the one you're living with now is not yours.”

Look at that little woman, see. She had fallen from God's thoughts. She could be redeemed. She was a subject. She had representation in heaven. She turned around. Look at the difference between her and them preachers, or priests. Them preachers, when they saw it they said, “But this man's a fortuneteller.” They didn't know the Word.

Look what she said. “We know, sir, you must be a prophet. We haven't had one for hundreds of years. And we know when the Messiah cometh that's what he's going to do.”

Oh, my! She could teach Birmingham something. She could teach the rest of the world something. Yes, sir! She could teach these theological seminaries something, see. “Same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Look. “We.... Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet,” see. He read the thoughts that was in her heart. She said, “You must be a prophet. We know, we Samaritans, we're looking for it. There'll come a messiah. We haven't had a prophet for four hundred years. Malachi was our last prophet, and he said there'd be a forerunner. We've heard of him, a man down on the Jordan there. 'I'll send my messenger before my face to prepare the way.' I've heard of it, and we're looking for a messiah to come right away.”

He said, “I am he that speaks to you.” That settled it!

Into the city she went, said, “Come see a man who told me the things that I have done. Isn't that the very Messiah?”

My friends, we haven't got time to go further, but if that was Messiah yesterday, it's Messiah today: for He is the same yesterday, today. He died in order to make an atonement to make these things come to pass, to give you the privileges of drawing from what He done for you.

Now remember, if you're a sinner, you were actually saved when Jesus died at the cross. But you have to believe it, and accept it as your own personal salvation. And if you're sick, you were healed when Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. “With his stripes, you were healed.”

Now, if He was standing here tonight with this suit on, that He gave me, there could not be.... If you'd say, “Heal me, Lord,” He could not do it; He's already done it, see.

But now. What if somebody, you'd say, “Could Jesus be in Birmingham, then, tonight?”

Yes, sir. He promised He would.

“Well, how would He be here? In the form of what?” The Holy Spirit. That's what He is, same yesterday, today, and forever. He's in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Now I wish I had time to inject one more thought here, but I probably won't. Let me get it just right quick. Will you suffer with me a few minutes? I don't want to keep you too late, and miss your buses. Jesus said in St. Luke the sixteenth chapter, or seventeenth chapter, “As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” Did He say that? Now watch what it was.

He was reading the same Bible we was reading, Genesis 22, or 19, 20, right along in there. Notice, He was reading the same Bible. Watch the setting of Lot. Oh, what a sinful nation it was, what a sinful place! Look what we're in today. Look what He said. “A sinful and adulterous, wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and they'll get it”—the sign of Jonah: raised from the dead, or raised from the ... being as good as dead in the belly of the whale for three days and nights, the Son of man, the resurrection sign. This adulterous generation would receive the resurrection sign.

Now Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Lot....” Notice the setting. There was two angels down there amongst the Sodomites, preaching, two great messengers. There was one stayed with Abraham. And them that went down with Sodom down there, they done signs by.... What did they do? Preach the gospel, and smote them blind. Their own preaching made the people blind.

If that wasn't a modern Billy Graham, I never seen one. Never had a messenger yet in all the ages, that his name ever ended with h-a-m to the church. Remember, we've had a Moody, Sankey, Finney, Knox, Calvin, so forth, Billy Sunday. But never a h-a-m until this time. H-a-m—father to the nations, there now, see, down there. Look at Sodom's setting.

And remember, there was a man stayed up with them up there, which Abraham called “Elohim,” God. Watch what he ... how he knowed He was Elohim. He said, “Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?”

Said, “She's in the tent behind you.”

A hundred years old. Said, “I'm going to visit you, according to the promise I give you, at the time of life [the other twenty-eight days]. You've been looking for twenty-five years now. [Sarah's ninety, and he's a hundred.] I'm going to visit you according to the time of life.”

And Sarah went “Hmmph” to herself in the tent.

He said, “Why did Sarah laugh?”—in the tent behind him.

Abraham called Him “Elohim”—God manifested in that human flesh, eating a calf, drinking the milk from the cow, and eating bread, corn cakes, and God manifested in human flesh.

Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man,” when God would again manifest Himself in human flesh. And remember, that was the last sign. Abraham had seen sign after sign after sign. But here was God, this time manifested in flesh, and could tell what Sarah was thinking about behind Him. That knowed it was the Word, because the Word discerns the thoughts that's in the hearts, see. Get it? Raise your hands if you do. All right, see. Now that was the last sign.

Now remember, Abraham and his group was not in Sodom. They were out of Sodom. Not out there in that denominational world; out of that—out there. You see what sign they got of great intellectual messages? But watch what a sign the elected church got. Abraham.... G-r-a-h-a-m is six letters—world—man's number. Man was created on the sixth day. He is six. But A-b-r-a-h-a-m is seven letters, see, the elected church, standing out, Notice, they got that sign, God manifested in flesh.

And Jesus said, now watch, Luke the seventeenth chapter: “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed.” And remember, when the Son of man in this last days is being made manifest to his people, through Himself working among the people.... John, as it was in 14:12, said, “The works that I do shall ye also.”

And we're promised that to restore. Every voice has a message behind it, and the message was restore the faith back to the original faith (Malachi 4), restore back the faith of the fathers to the people. They've got off on all kinds of everything, but restore back again that faith. The message of the hour is, “Return back to the Word.” God....

Remember, we're looking for a promised Son, and we are the seed of Abraham (Is that right?), royal seed through Christ. And they were looking for a promised son, Isaac. And the royal seed today ... we're looking for a promised sign (Is that right?), a promised Son of God to return. And they'd had all kinds of messages, and all kinds of things Abraham had seen. But just before the promised son, the last sign before the Gentile world was destroyed, was this God manifested in flesh that knew the secrets of the heart.

Now that's the last sign that the church in the spiritual ... church gets. That's the last sign that the natural church gets, and the Gentile world will be destroyed. And she's ready for it right now,

the earth shaking all over with earthquakes. Why?

The first time the earthquake ever shook the whole earth was on Good Friday. The last time it shook it was another Good Friday. What did it shake for? Because they had rejected their Messiah. Why did it shake again? They've done the same thing, see. Laodicea church age, any scholar knows that He was on the outside knocking, crying, “Lo, I stand at the door and knock.” The only church age that ever completely put Him out.

And the ecumenical council, that's just exactly what you've done to form the mark of the beast, taking in there.... Well, what's ... how can two walk together unless they be agreed? And by doing that, they've rejected the Word again. It's on the outside. Can't even get cooperation nowhere. That's exactly right. O God, have mercy! Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let us bow our heads.

Lord God, You identify yourself in all ages, God. You was God, in sundry times who spoke to the fathers through the prophets; in this last days through your Son, Jesus Christ, who we love and believe, and know that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as He has promised.

Now, Father, such a wonderful crowd, fine faith. It's easy to speak to them. But, O Lord, may that faith just move up now, just into another cycle now, step right outside of the human thinking. They have heard this. They have been taught that by their pastors. They've looked for it, for years and years, to come.

And now, we pray, Father, that You'll make it known to us, tonight, that You are not dead; but You are alive forevermore, and living among your people as a lily in the valley amongst all the other flowers—the fairest of ten thousand. Now we pray, O lily of the valley, that You'll come to us tonight.

Make yourself known among us to identify yourself in this age, for it's promised. I've just told them the Word, that in the last days as Sodom and Gomorrah, so would the Son of man reveal Himself as He did at Sodom and Gomorrah before the promised son come to the elected, and destruction came to the rejected. So I pray, Father, that they'll understand this, and may You come and keep your Word, which I know you will, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, I believe Billy said he give out some cards. Is that right? Raise up your hands, if there's cards give out. What is the letter on them? B? All right, B. Let's right quick, now.... I'm going to ask you one thing. If you'll just sit real still now, don't move around, just give us ten minutes. Will you do that? Just ten minutes.... If everybody will sit just perfectly quiet for ten minutes. Don't move around. All right.

Let's start from number 1. Who has B number 1? Right quick now. Raise your hand if you can't.... The man was moving on the cot. See what his prayer card number is. If, see ... you got a prayer card? You don't have one. All right, now. All right.

Number 1. Did I miss it? Or maybe we start from somewhere else, then. All right. Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Number 1, number 2, 3. Number 2, raise up, stand up when you ... I call your number. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5. Watch your card now. 5. Come right over here, and form a little line. 5, 6, 6, 7, 7?

If you can't get up now, let somebody raise your hand. We'll pick them up. All right. 7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 8? Now we're just, we're really running overtime now. All right. That's all right, just let her sit there till we get ready to call her and just put her right in the line where she belongs then. All right. 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11? Stop there, then. All right.

How many here doesn't have a prayer card, and you're sick? Raise up your hands. How ... raise up your hands. How many here that doesn't know me, raise up your hand. Knows that I know nothing about you, raise up your hand. Now, you look this-a-way, and believe now. Everybody real reverent.

Now, just remember, one word from Him will mean more than I could speak in a hundred lifetimes, see. I could preach just.... How many believes that that's the truth? All right. Now, if it's the truth, God's obligated. If that's his Word, that's his promise, He's obligated to do it. He's obligated to confirm his Word. Is that right? And if He does do it, will you believe it? You believe it.

Now, you can say, “Jesus? I don't look around, see Him anywhere.”

Look. What if some man walked in here with nail scars in his hands, and stuff all over his face, and blood, and so forth? Any hypocrite could do that. And remember, Jesus won't come like that. When He comes like that, time will be no more. There will be no more time, when He comes like that. But why would you know that it was Him then, if He come? Because He would identify Himself by his Spirit, his sign, his life in you. “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” Now, you just remember, and believe that with all your heart now.

Now, this your prayer line? All of them there? I don't know. Eight or ten? All right. That's all right. Come here. Tomorrow night we'll try to pick up more. Everybody real reverent. Now just let them come one by one, as they come.

Now, first place, I want all that's in that prayer line that knows that I don't know you (the little prayer line here), that knows that I don't know you, raise up your hands—know that I don't know nothing about you, know nothing of you, know not what's wrong with you, have no idea. All right. Now, real reverent.

Now just remember where we're standing. The Word has been read. Now, remember. I cannot heal no one, no other man can heal no one. But your faith in what is Christ is what does the healing. Now, if He'll make Hisself known here, like He did, identify Himself like this, as He did in other days, would you know Him by that? That's the only way He said He'd identify Himself. That's the only way He ever did identify Himself. And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So now, here's a woman, just like St. John 4. Jesus met a woman at the well. I just referred to her a few minutes ago. Here's a man and a woman. I've never seen the woman. She just raised her hand that I've never seen her, and she never seen me. So we're totally strangers. She just got a prayer card and her number happened to be called.

Are you.... [Brother Branham listens to the woman speak.] She said one time in Hammond, Indiana, I prayed for her. But said for her personal life, I know nothing about her, know nothing. Don't know what you're here for. Of course, there's hundreds of people in prayer lines, and I might have been in meetings, and so forth like that. But I mean, that I know.... God in heaven knows, this Bible over my heart, I'd never remember that—somebody in the distance like that, somebody that had been prayed for, maybe years ago. Hammond, Indiana. That was a long time ago. Many years ago, when I was in Hammond, Indiana—eight or ten years ago.

So now just ...

now if the Lord Jesus will reveal to me what you're here for now, that would make St. John 4 exactly right. Whatever was in your heart, then the Word discerns the thought that's in the heart, like Jesus did the woman at the well. Would you believe that to be true, then? You would? Would the audience believe it to be true?

Now, here's my hand on the Bible, that I never remember the woman, wouldn't have no idea. And she raised her hand, too, I wouldn't know what she was here for. Said she saw me in Hammond, Indiana. That'd be.... You, every one might have been there, for all I know. I wouldn't know, just at the meeting. But now, may the Lord Jesus grant this, if He will. I don't say that He will.

Now I take every spirit in here under my control, in the name of Jesus Christ. Now be real reverent. If you're not a believer, I wouldn't advise you to stay in the building, 'cause diseases go one to another. We know that. So does afflictions. Many has been in meetings before, and seen that happen.

Now, I just want to talk to you, like our Lord did that woman. Now, see. You're standing there in need. And you're probably a Christian. I don't know. You are? He'll tell me if you are. And then, I'm a Christian.

Now, it's two together—man and woman—and then the Spirit of God here, with a gift to let you know what you're talking to Him about, what you're saying. It might be financial. It might be domestic. I don't have any idea. But whatever it is, you'll know whether it's the truth, or not, if He reveals it. It's a tumor. If that's right, raise up your hand. Now, you believe? Now watch. You want me to tell you where the tumor's at? It's in your throat. If that's right, wave your hand like this. Now you believe? All right. Go on your road, just thanking the Lord that you believe.

We are strangers to each other I suppose, lady? We don't know each other. God knows both of us. You believe God can reveal to me your trouble? Would it help you? Cause you to believe? Be real reverent, real reverent.

Now remember. There was a woman one time that didn't get any prayer card, we'll say. She went to the ... touched the border of his garment. And when she did, Jesus turned around and said, “Who touched me?” Is that right?

She had a blood issue. She said within herself, “If I can touch that man, I'll be made well,” and she touched Him.

And He said, “Who touched me?”

And even Peter rebuked Him. Said, “That would sound like You was a mental case, or something.” He said, “My, why everybody's touching You.”

He said, “Yeah, but I got weak. I perceive that virtue went from me.” He turned around and looked over the audience till He found that woman. And He told her what her blood issue was. It was healed. You remember that?

Now the Bible says today (let the ministers answer this for us), that He's a high priest right now, that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Is that right?

You just take it, and say, “Lord God, that preacher don't know me. And let me touch your garment. Will you speak through Him?”

If He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, He'll act the same way. He's in human flesh, now, acting out—redeeming his people. Now, just pray now. Believe with all your heart. Don't doubt. Don't doubt one thing. Believe all things. Just believe. With everything that's within you, believe.

Now, I want to ... just to contact your spirit, lady, just to talk to you. Do you believe that these things are true? Do you believe that the Lord Jesus could reveal to me what you're here for? You also have tumor. That's right. You believe He could reveal to me where it's at? It's in the female glands. And what gland it's in? It's in the womb. That's right. All right, believe now. Go with all your heart.

Now, here's a man. A man once came to the Lord Jesus, and his name was Simon, now, and he was called Peter. Jesus told him who he was, and where he come from, or what about it. Now, if the Lord Jesus can reveal to me what you're here for, will you believe that.... You'd know it would have to be the truth, if you know whether it's the truth or not. Do you believe me to be his servant? You do? Thank you, sir, thank you. May the Lord help you, now, to believe that with all your heart. (It's this little thing here. I'm just trying to get it wound up all right.)

Now, as you look this way again.... Yes, sir, you should be facing an operation for a rupture. That's right. And also hernia, you have a hernia. You believe I can tell you who you are? You believe it? You are a Reverend. You are a minister, 'cause I see you at the pulpit. And your name is Wallace. Have faith now. Don't doubt. Just have faith. Believe now.

Now, we are strangers to each other. God knows us both. Do you believe that the Lord God can tell me something about you, what you're here for, or something? (I'm kind of rushing because the people are crowded up, you know.) You believe that He can reveal to me something wrong with you? You do. And you know that feeling that struck you, just then, couldn't be from me. That's Him. Makes you feel real, like sweetness, humbleness. That's ... did you ever see the picture of that light? Why, it's exactly what's around you, right now.

Now, the lady's moving back from me. She's suffering. I see her, she's kind of crippling up. She's got arthritis. That's right. If that's right, raise up your hand. That's right. Then, you also have a thyroid trouble. You're suffering with thyroid. That's true. And then you have a heart trouble. It's bothering from your heart. That is true, too.

You're not from here. You're from some other kind of a country, where there's a lot of.... You're from a way away. You're from Pennsylvania. That's right ... come down here. Now go home and be well. Have faith now. Don't doubt now.

Don't move. Please don't. Just a little bit now, we'll.... If you'll just give me one more.... Give me this case, and then we'll stop. If you'll just let me have this case, don't move. Please don't. I know I'm holding you real long. But see, your spirit when ... just in contact with each one of you now, see. Now have faith.

I'm a stranger to you, I don't know you. Christ knows you. There's a man keeps coming. Oh, it's this gray-headed man sitting here, suffering with trouble in his knees. You believe that God will make you well, sir, and heal you of that knee trouble? And you believe that He'll make you well? That man right behind the wheelchair there, if you'll believe, with all.... You're suffering with knee trouble. Raise up your hand. All right. You touched something, didn't you? You touched Him. That's right.

Say, by the way, the lady sitting there next to you, the wife, do you believe me, sister? So that they'll know it comes from God, you believe me to be his prophet? You believe me (that rebound on that)? You're suffering with a blood pressure. If that's right, raise up your hand. All right, lay your hands over on him, too, 'cause he never got it too well. And then you believe with all your heart, and you'll both get well. What did they touch?

Here, a lady just caught that then. She's sitting right back here, got her head down praying. She's praying for the Lord to heal her. What she.... She's suffering, sitting right on the end of the row there. She's got a ruptured stomach that she's praying about. And you believe that God'll heal you, lady? Raise up your hand, the little dark-headed woman, wearing glasses, that was praying for God to heal her.

I don't know her—never seen her in my life. God knows that. If I'm a stranger to you, wave your hand, lady. That's right. I know nothing about you. Now, you know that that's true, isn't it? All right. Jesus Christ heals you, if you'll believe it.

Say, sitting right behind her, that lady sitting there, sitting right in behind her there, she's praying too. Just follow that light. Don't you see that light hanging right there?

Now look, the lady's had an operation. But what she really wants Christ to do for her, is take growths off of her arm. You believe now He'll do it? Raise ... yes, raise up your hand. All right. If you believe it, you can have it. Just have faith and don't doubt. Believe.

I ... no, it's two different men. I thought this man ... it's this man sitting here. Do you believe, sir, sitting right here? You believe with all your heart? You believe God's going to heal you of that prostate trouble? Make you well? You got prostate trouble. Wave your hand if that's right. That's right. Your faith makes you well, sir. Jesus Christ heals you. I've never seen the man in my life.

Don't you see He's here? Don't you believe Him? Don't you see that's Him?

Now wait just a minute, just wait. I don't believe He told you nothing about yourself, did He? Do you believe that He can do it? Do you believe that I can do it, through his grace and power? It will be his promise? You're suffering with something wrong with your neck. You had a fall, and that's what did it. That's right. Go back now. You're going to be well. Jesus Christ make you well.

Do you believe? Everybody believes now with all your heart? Now, how many believers is there here? Raise up your hand. All over the building, up. All right. You believe.

Now, right quick. We're really about ... pretty near a half-hour overtime. You do this right now.

Jesus said.... Do you believe He's the same yesterday, today, and forever? You believe He promised to do this in this day? You believe that's the last sign that this church is going to see now, before the coming of the Lord appears? You believe we're right at the end? All the scriptures was fulfilled, ready for the coming of the Son?

Now, Jesus said, “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Now you lay your hand over on somebody right next to you. Now you're a believer. “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Now, if he keeps his word to do this, He'll keep his word to do that, too. Now you pray for the person next to you; they're praying for you, see. Now, don't you pray for yourself; you pray for the person. They're praying for you. Now, let's all bow our heads while we pray.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful to see the risen Messiah. Nineteen hundred years, of all kinds of theology and movements, but still in the darkness of all of it, You promised that You would appear here in the last days, in this Sodom day, and You'd make yourself known to the children of Abraham, the called, the elected. And here You are tonight.

After nineteen hundred years You're just as much alive, tonight, as You was when You talked to the woman at the well. It's God manifested in flesh, now in the flesh of his bride. For the bride and the husband is the same-self flesh. These two are one. And the church is becoming the bride all the time by believing the Word, so that the Word and the church becomes the same—the Word in the church making it the bride—the last sign, God identifying Himself, the Word in the church.

O God, these people who say they believe have their hands laid on one another. They're praying. Look down from your glory, Lord. Watch, confirm your Word. You said, “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover.”

O God, may Satan lose his hold in their faith tonight. May God come in, and let them know that He's identified Himself right here among us. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is here with us now, the identified, resurrected Jesus Christ making Himself known—first time He's done this since 1900 years ago. And here He is tonight.

May Satan lose his power, his unbelief fade out, and may the power of the resurrected Christ come into these people and heal every one of them. And we cast out Satan in the name of Jesus Christ. May he go from this people right now, that they all may be well, while they are praying one for the other with their hands laid upon each other. Grant it, in Jesus Christ's name.

Now, just keep your hands on one another. Believe now. Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed. Believe. I don't care where you're at, what's wrong with you. That doesn't have one thing to do.

If God, after nineteen hundred years ago, He stands right here, identifying Himself raised from the dead, and taking mortal people and showing Himself the Messiah in all ages, same Messiah doing the same thing by the same sign—He's raised from the dead. Promised He would do it just before his second coming, and the destruction of the Gentile world. Here He is.

We'll go deeper into it this week as we go along. But you, why suffer the rest of the week, when you can be healed right now? Somebody's got their hands laid on you. A believer has their hands laid on you. He said these words, “These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover. They'll get well.” Do you believe it with all your heart now?

If you believe it with all your heart, and believe that Jesus Christ, the resurrected Son of God, the one that'll judge you at the judgment bar, is here tonight in the form and person of the Holy Ghost, and making Hisself known by his same scriptural signs that He promised to show you, that He was alive.... Here He is.

If you believe that with all your heart and accept Him as your healer, I charge you by his name, and through his name, that you stand on your feet now, and accept your healing in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Stand up, if you believe. Stand up. That's fine! People come from cots, raised up out of wheelchairs. That's wonderful!

Now let's give Him praise, everybody! Raise up your hands. Now's the time to shout. There's people out of the wheelchairs, out of the cots, and everywhere raised up. Let's give Him praise. Everybody raise up and praise Him.