Sortir du camp
1 Let's remain standing just a moment. Dear God, we are grateful to You for this another privilege to stand in the house of God and worship the living God. We're so grateful that we are still granted this privilege in the land. And now, we're thankful for these faithful people too, Lord, that have come many miles, hundreds of miles, many of them. And some of them will try to--to storm their way back tonight down the highways, across the highways. God, I pray that You'll be with them and help them. Guide them, O Father.
We thank Thee for this little shower of rain that's cooled the air for us temporarily. And, Father, we pray that You'll meet with us tonight in Thy Word, for that's why we have assembled, Lord, is to meet You in the Word. Help us, Lord, that our gathering will be so beneficial to Your Kingdom, and that we might be so helped, that we might help others. Grant these things we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen. (Let you be seated.)
3 Having just a few private interviews in there... And just before the meeting started, Billy had give me a--such a--a load of them till I--I hardly know which way to start. But we are praying that--that God will bless you for your effort of staying over for the evening service.
Now, God willing, next Sunday morning I'll be having a service again. I just talked to the pastor, and it's all right with them.
5 And now, I wished I had the time to recognize every good friend that I have in here, but I know you're waiting. It's hot. And I--I'll just omit that time and--and just say this: "God bless you."
You know, I don't know of any greater thing that anyone could ask for me, than to say, "God bless you." See? If He'll do that, that's all I need, just--just that. I think that's the greatest word in the--in the dialect, "God bless you." And now... And I know He does.
7 And as I said to the wife a few moments ago, I was--I was trying to take a bath, and I couldn't get dry. I'd--I'd dry off, and then I was wet again. I'd dry off, and I couldn't get my shirt on even. And it's a little different out in Tucson. It's about twice this hot, but then you--you don't have any perspiration. There's no--there's no moisture in the air, so it dries it up as soon as you get out. You set a pan of water there, and it's gone. You can't perspire, 'cause it just takes it away from you before you can--you--you can perspire. You perspire all right, but you never see it. So... Here I was trying to have an awful time getting dry, so... And I--I'm soaking right now.
Been back in the room there, and we had seven or eight people in that were emergencies and--that had to be seen right away.
9 Now, the reason that I--I have the--you to stay and ask you to--to come, is because I--I feel that it's--it's beneficiary to us. I--I wouldn't do that, friends. I--I think too much of you to do that and just to come to--to hear somebody, or listen to what I have to say, or something. I--I wouldn't do that. That wouldn't be right. It wouldn't show my love to you, just to come like that. And I don't believe that you come, though I know you love me as I love you... And--and so I--I--I know that, or you wouldn't do the things that you do. So I think enough of you, that I wouldn't have you set in the heat and things like this if I didn't think it was something to help you.
10 Then before I come here I always try my best before God to pick out a little something, a Scripture of some way, and ask His guidance the last thing before leaving, "Help, Lord God, somehow and give--give all You can to them dear people." And I expect and do believe that I'll always live with you. I believe that this is the shortest space that we have while we stand together like this. We will be together in eternity. See? I do that. I--I--I believe that. And I want to help you. And I... If I say anything wrong, the heavenly Father knows it's not because I'm intending to do it; it's because I do it not knowing; I'd be ignorantly doing it.
11 Therefore, knowing that you are my responsibility and on my hands by the Gospel, I'll always want to keep you right in the pages of this Bible. And--and I... Many times people's come to me and said, "Brother Branham, if you'll just step out here and say, THUS SAITH THE LORD to my little child that's sick, it'll be well. Go out there and just say it'll get well. That's all I want you to do."
Now, that is loyal and lovely; how I appreciate that. But you know, I can't do that until He tells me first. See? I can pray for the child, do all I can, but... You see, what if I went out there under enthusiasm and said that? See? If I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," it really would just be thus saith my enthusiasm. See, see? And then it might happen, and it might not happen. But then, what if that same person is under my enthusiasm, and it didn't happen? Then that person might be in a--a case sometimes between life and death. Then where would their confidence be? They'd be afraid that I might be under enthusiasm again? See? So when I say it, I want to be dead earnest that it's right with all I know. And then when He speaks to me, I can just say what He showed me. Whether it's good or bad, I have to say it. And sometimes it's--it's not pleasant to tell people those things, but yet I'm just as duty bound to tell people the--the evil things that will befall them as I'm duty bound to tell them the good things that will befall them.
And after all, we want the will of the Lord. Sometime the will of the Lord is contrary to our desires. But still, if we want the will of the Lord, it's just as precious to know that the evil will befall us if it is the will of the Lord. Whether it be good or evil, it's the will of the Lord that we want done. And I know we look at it in that manner.
14 Now, I--I know the brethren here usually have a thirty minutes--twenty to thirty minutes' message on Sunday night. And I--I don't know whether I can do that or not, so I'm--I'm just going to do the best I can.
Now, I think there's a baptismal service immediately after this. I heard they baptized a great group of people this morning. Constantly there's baptism going on here all the time. Ministers, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Church of God, Lutheran, whatever it is, are coming and being baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And before God, when I have to stand at the judgment bar, I've got to answer for that. And if I was just as clear in my thoughts of being justified in everything in my life as I am of that, I'd be ready for the rapture right now. For I know that is the Gospel truth. See? That is the truth.
16 There's not one Scripture in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized in any other way but in the Name of Jesus Christ. The commission of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is only, "Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost," not in the--not call this title over them, but baptize them in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everybody in the Bible was baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and the Bible said that whosoever shall take one word out of It or add one word to It in any way, woe unto them. So I have enough I have to fear about besides adding something or taking it from the Scripture. It's got me in trouble many times, but I stay right there. He is my Defense. It's caused me to separate from a many a friend. They've parted from me because of that. But just as long as I keep this Friend here, the Lord Jesus... And He is the Word. No matter, rugged be the path, hard is the way, He come the same way. And if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of His disciples.
18 Now, the Lord be with you all, and bless you through the week, and give you the best that I can pray for God to give you, is my prayer.
Now, we're going to read from the precious Word. And--and now, remember again, Wednesday night... Is there any midweek prayer service or anything? [Brother Branham speaks to Brother Neville about services--Ed.] Monday and Tuesday night is cottage prayer meetings. I guess the people knows.
20 Brother Junior Jackson, is he in the building? I... Brother Jackson, I don't... He's here, Brother Jackson. All right, I--I... Another Brother Jackson here. I... And Brother Don Ruddell, is he in the building tonight? Brother Don? Over here. And many of the other brethren... I see the brethren here from Arkansas, and Louisiana, and--and different places around the country.
And I have some--a elderly brethren here tonight too. I have Brother Thomas Kidd setting over here to the right: be eighty-four years old in a few days. And about three or four years ago, operated for prostate trouble and was dying with cancer; the doctor had just laid him back to die. And I liked to ruined my old car getting to him up in Ohio. And the Lord Jesus healed him sound and well, and here he and his little companion tonight... And many of you know them; maybe some don't. But here is a man and woman that was preaching the Gospel before I was borned. Think of that, and I'm an old man. See? Now, and I look at them, and them still going; then I take courage.
22 All of us know Brother Bill Dauch setting here in the corner. And oh, how thankful we are for all of God's great blessings. May it continue to be with us until that last trumpet blows. And you know, we'll be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Think of it. Missing people, they can't see you no more, but you're getting together with the rest of the group. "They which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (or 'hinder,' the word is) those which are asleep." Not dead, no, Christians don't die. They're just taking a little rest (See?); that's all. Oh, my. "And the trump of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, appear to many..." And all at once you happen to stand and look, and "Well, there's a brother..." And you know it ain't long. In a few minutes we'll be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye, and together with them be missing on earth, caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
23 And to think with all that we have seen in the Scriptures and the clear cut vindications of the hour that we're living in, it could happen before the service ends. Just think of that, this night. Then by that, we approach His Word. While we turn to Hebrews the 13th chapter, and we are going to read from the 10th to the 14th verse of Hebrews 10 and--or now, pardon me, Hebrews 13:10 to 14.
Now, as I have said, we, when we pledge allegiance to our flag (which is fine), we always stand while we pledge allegiance. And all other great events we--we stand in respect to our salute and so forth to our nation. And when they're playing "The Star Spangled Banner," we stand at attention. And as Christian soldiers, let's stand at attention while we read the Word of God.
25 Listen close to the reading of the Word. The reason I like to read It, my words may fail, but His won't. So if I read His Word alone, you'll be blessed: 10th verse of the 13th chapter of Hebrews.
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
26 Lord God Who is responsible for this Word, and responsible for taking care of It down through the ages to see that It's come to us unadulterated... It is pure virgin Word of God. We so cherish It in our hearts at this moment. Break this text up, Lord, into a context for us tonight, that we the children of men might understand the bidding of God. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
27 My subject for the--this evening is "Going Beyond the Camp." It's quite a little subject; it's a little odd. But you know, usually we find God in odd things. The world gets so set in a custom thing, till anything irregular from the regular trend, it becomes odd, as I preached here a few days ago here at the Tabernacle on the "Oddball." And the farmer is an oddball to the businessman, the businessman an oddball to the farmer, the Christian is an oddball to the unbeliever and so forth. You have to be somebody's fool.
So anything unusual, it makes you kind of a fool to the--the regular trend. And therefore, God's people, and His prophets, and His--His messengers through the age that carried His message from the Word has been considered fools to the outside world.
Noah was a fool to his great intellectual world that he preached to. Noah... Was certainly a fool to Pharaoh with his foot on the throne and then forsake it for a bunch of mud daubers as they thought. And Jesus was a fool to the people. And all the rest of them that's worked and lived for God has been considered fools. They have to go beyond the camp that they had.
30 More and more I am made to believe that people are not getting to Christ. Now, I am here to try to help in every way that I can and make my statement as clear as I know how to make them. And you suffer with me if you will.
As I look and preach across the nation and watch the people, I--I'm fully persuaded that the people are not getting to Christ. And I believe that it's the enemy that's throwed this hindrance, because... The reason I believe this, He is not the object that they had been pointed to. They have either been pointed to a dogma, or a doctrine, or a party, or experience, or a sensation, or something like that, instead of being pointed to Christ the Word. That's why I think that people are resting their eternal destination upon some dogma or some sensation, like some say, "I danced in the Spirit," or; "I spoke with tongues"; "I--I--I felt fire run over me." And do you know, all those things can be impersonated by the devil? There's just one thing that he cannot impersonate; that's the Word.
32 In the debate between he and Jesus, each time Jesus defeated him, "It is written," the Word. And I believe today that the reason that people are not coming to Christ, is because they're pointed, many of them, to a--a--a denomination. "You come join our church," or; "You read our catechism," or; "Believe our doctrine," or--or some system of some sort. They're pointed in the wrong way. And their actions and the life that they live without Christ proves in their own life, is vindicated by that very thing.
33 For instance, I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling, but back and forth across the nation I have condemned women wearing short hair. That's the Bible. I've condemned women wearing shorts, using makeup; and every year it gets worse. It shows that there is another finger somewhere pointing them some other way. And they're not getting through to Christ.
And they say, "We belong to a church; our church don't..." Don't make any difference what your church believes; God said, "It's wrong." And if they did get through to Christ, they would stop that. And not only that, but man would take his position if he got through to Christ and be against that. Husbands wouldn't let their wives act like that. Genuine men don't want his wife acting that way.
35 A young fellow here in the city the other day like to killed two young boys. They were at a certain filling station (You Jeffersonville people seen it in the paper.), and this young girl run into a filling station with nothing on hardly at all. And the two young men setting there made a remark, and the attendant like to killed the two boys, and was arrested for it, and put in court. And the judge asked him, "Why did you... She dress like this?"
He said, "I think she looks cute."
Now, there's something wrong with that man. I don't care whether he's a... If he's a sinner, there's something wrong with him. His love to that woman couldn't be genuine and putting her out for a dog bait like that. There's something wrong. Has man ever come to the realization that they could judge between what's right and wrong?
37 Did you see the new bathing suits they brought out? Do you know my prediction that women would finally come to fig leaves, thirty-three years ago? And now, they've got them that's dressed in fig leaves, transparent skirts. The Word of the Lord never fails. And that was to take place just before the end time--come to a fig leaf again. I was reading it in "Life" Magazine. That was said thirty-three years ago before women took their fall. It was told how they would do it in this day, and here they are, how they'd wear garments like men, and how they--the immorals of the women would drop in this nation. Lowest of all the nations there is in the world is this America. She's the filthiest of the bunch. That's according to the statistics.
The marriage and divorce rates are higher in this nation than any other place in the world. And other nations pattern... We used to pattern from France, filth and dirt of that nation, and now they get their dressing from us. We stepped beyond their boundaries.
39 I know there's some reason that people are not getting through to Christ. If they would, they wouldn't act like that. Jesus suffered without the gates, that He might sanctify His people with His own Blood. "Sanctification" comes from the Greek word, compound, which means "cleaned and set aside for service." And when God cleans His people with the Blood of Jesus, He cleans them from the filth of the world and sets them aside for service.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Even to the Full Gospel people has come right back into the rut that they come out of. What was the Pentecostal church forty or fifty years ago? They cursed, and damned, and ridiculed the churches that they come out of, them denominations. What did they do? Just like a dog to its vomit and a sow to its wallow, they turned right back in the same place that they were hewed from. Now their churches is just as filthy as the rest of them.
41 It was something as I said this morning, like... The people are like Peter said in St.--St. Matthew 17:48, where he said, "It's good to be here, let's build three tabernacles."
But the Spirit bade them not to do it, said, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him." And He is the Word. That's Who we're to look to: the Word, not our enthusiasm or something else. "He is My Word; hear ye Him." And what did they see after this Voice spoke to them? Even Moses and Elijah wasn't present; neither was there a creed; neither was there anything left but Jesus only. And He is the Word. That's all they seen.
43 Now, going without the camp... We find that on their camp where this great occasion took place upon Mount Transfiguration as Peter later called it the holy mountain, where He met with them... Now, I do not believe the apostle meant that the mountain was holy. He meant it was a holy God on the mountain. It isn't the holy church; it's not the holy people; it's the Holy Ghost in the people. The Holy Ghost is holy. He is your Director and your Leader.
And we find on this little camp up on the mountain, Transfiguration, when they were commissioned to hear... The only thing they was commissioned to do was to hear the Word. Only thing they seen was not a creed; they never seen nothing else but Jesus; and He is the Word made flesh. How beautiful that is to the same camp that was in the garden of Eden. When God fortified His church in the garden of Eden, His people, they had one Wall to stay behind; that was the Word. They had one Shield, one Armor, one thing, because God knowed what would defeat the devil; and that's the Word.
Jesus did the same thing. "It is the Word; it is written." And Satan tried to--to coat It, not quote It, coat It for Him. And Jesus said, "And it's also written." Now, we must stay with that Word.
46 And in this little camp that they had there of Peter, James, and John; and Jesus, Moses, and Elias... And in their camp they seen the heavenly host of the shadow or the Pillar of Light hanging in this cloud that transfigured the Lord Jesus. And when they were ready to make a denomination, one for the law and one for the prophets and so forth, the Voice said, "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him." Then the... What they was commissioned was just exactly like it was in Eden, "Stay with the Word." That's God's Camp for His people.
47 It seems today to be a day of when people are going beyond the camp in everything. They're going beyond.
You know, I was told sometime ago that they had a jet plane now that can--makes them noises we hear around here, that shakes the windows. It's when the plane has got so fast that it crosses its own sound, called sound barrier. And when it goes beyond its own sound barrier, it's almost unlimited to what it'll do. And I think in there that we get a lesson. When we go beyond our own sound barrier into the Word of God, then it's unlimited what God can do with a man that's ready to go beyond the camp--the camp of man, that is.
49 Now, we see that going beyond the camp, going beyond this... I see Satan also is taking his people beyond the camp of reason, beyond the--the--the--the camp of--of common sense. Satan taken his people the other way beyond the camp; God taken His people beyond this other way. And Satan has taken them beyond the camp of common decency. When it comes to a place that people and--can act, and do, and get by with the things that they're doing today in the order of morals...
It's beyond my thoughts of how that a man can set his wife out there dressed like that, and then slap somebody for insulting her. It's beyond common sense. He ought to know better than that. Beyond common decency...
50 Where is the stopping place? Some man or woman at my age, I might ask you this. What if my mother or your mother about fifty years ago walked out on the street with one of these pair of shorts, or bikinis, ever what you call it on? The law would've picked them up immediately and put them in the insane institution. A lady left the house without her top clothes on, and she should be in the institution, because mentally there's something wrong. And if it was mentally to do a thing like that then, it certainly is a sign that something's went insane. It's still a mental deficiency. Going beyond reason, filth...
51 And when a man can smoke cigarettes, and the doctors proving to him that thousands die every year from the cause, and can still puff away at cigarettes, it seems like there's something wrong with that man's mind. And when a man has a mental shock, and he doesn't--can't get hisself together what he's doing, he'll search every doctor's office there is in the country to find out what's wrong with him. But then he'll stand at the bar, or in the car, and drink till he's totally insane, spend his money to shove himself into that. And if he happen to going into it without the intoxication of liquor, then he'll spend every penny he finds in the doctor's office trying to find out what's wrong with him. It doesn't make sense.
52 If there would come a chicken hawk flying over the city, and I'd get my rifle, and go out in my back yard, and shoot this hawk, in ten minutes from there I'd be in jail. They'd have me arrested for--for disorderly conduct, handling a firearm in the city, endangering people's lives with a rifle, shooting up in the air at the hawk. I might kill somebody they'd say. He ought to be put away. And then they will sell a man enough liquor to get him drunk and stick him in a car that might kill a whole family full, and when he's caught he's give five dollars and costs: premeditated murder. What's the matter with the world? Something's wrong somewhere.
53 Now, going beyond the camp, beyond decency, beyond reason... You notice, our politicians today won't say nothing about reading the Bible in school. They're afraid; they don't know which way the wind's a-blowing. They don't know whether they'll lose a vote or not.
We need another Abraham Lincoln; we need another John Quincy Adams; we need somebody who'll stand up regardless of which a-way the wind's a-blowing and give their honest convictions. Today a denominational preacher, though you show him in the Word the Truth, he don't know what to do. He's afraid he'll lose his meal ticket. We need men and women today that's burly with the Gospel, somebody that'll stand and tell their convictions, point out what's right and what's wrong, whether the Word of God's right or whether the denomination's right.
55 Jesus said, "Let every man's word be a lie and Mine the Truth. Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away." So you see, they go beyond the camp of God's Word to find their answer.
When he was--persuaded them from the camp of God's Word... Like he did Eve in the garden of Eden, Satan has done the same thing today. All right. We find that. People are persuaded to their dogmas and creeds without the camp, and their camp of dogma and creed. They have a camp also, and that puts them into his camp. His is the camp of education, theology, works, doctor's degree, educational, personality, everything that's against God's Word camp. God has a camp for His people. The denomination has their own camp.
57 Three thousand years ago a man could meet God most anywhere. It was a common thing for a man to meet God. But why don't they meet Him today? There's more people, thousands time thousands and millions of more people than there was three thousand years ago. And yet, God is some ancient something that was talked about, some ancient history. They don't meet God in Person like they did many years ago, as I said, three thousand--some three thousand years ago. They don't... It's not common for man to meet God. If a man talks about it, he's considered a crazy person, somebody that's lost their mind. It's so uncommon to them.
58 In the case of Abraham and in his camp, why, it was almost a every day occasion that Abraham met God. He talked to Him. Not only that, but when they went down in the--Gerar to sojourn, we find out down there that God was in the camp with Abimelech, a Philistine. It was a very common thing. They lived in the camp of His Presence. Today they live in their own camp, and they haven't got nothing to do with God's camp. They want nothing to do with it, because it's fanatically to the world. It's fanatically to them. But remember, when God fixed the first camp for people, He fortified them with His Word. He always does. But today in their camps they don't do it. That's the reason you don't hear so much about God.
59 Now, I believe that the--that the camp... As Moses... How He met Moses in the wilderness... Moses had a camp out there where he was feeding his father's--law's sheep, Jethro, on the backside of the desert. And one day to this old eighty-year-old sheepherder, he seen a Light or a Pillar of Fire in a bush, burning. And he met God--a man that was running from God. The next day... Sometimes meeting God makes you do things unusual. Moses was very unusual the next day. He had his wife setting astraddle of a mule, with a baby on her hip, and his long beard down, with a crooked stick in his hand, going down to Egypt to take the nation over. Now, that was a ridiculous sight. "Where you going, Moses?"
"Going to Egypt."
"What for?"
"To take it over." He had met God. A one man invasion. It seemed awful strange. But the thing of it was, he done it, because he had met God. Just like one person going to take Russia over, that's all you need, one person in the will of God. Moses was in the will of God, and a crooked stick he had in his hand, not a sword, a stick. The unusual things, God does.
61 But remember, Moses had to get out of the camp that he had been living in to do this, because he had been down there with a whole army and couldn't do it. With all the armies of Egypt, he couldn't do it. But one day God invited him into His camp. He said, "Who are You?"
He said, "I AM THAT I AM." not "I was," or "will be," present tense, "I AM. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob. I've heard the people's cry, and I remember My promise. And this is the time for this to be fulfilled. I'm sending you down, Moses, with this stick that's in your hand." What was it? He...
63 Now, the people thought he was crazy, but what had he done? Got out of his own camp. Pharaoh educated him forty years in the school camp, and he failed; and it taken God another forty years to get it out of him. All of his education and all of his theology that he had been taught, it taken forty years to get it out of him, and then God used him a forty years.
God has an awful time preparing His men. But you see, He never could get Moses--ahold of Moses, till Moses got out of his own manmade camp from the military way of doing it, and the natural way of doing it, unto the supernatural way of doing it. Then when he got in that camp, God could use him.
65 Now, we find out that in this wilderness... We notice when they tooken--taken their stand and come out of Egypt into God's camp, come out of the camp of the priest and all them saying, "Settle yourself; we're slaves for the rest of the time."... When Moses the prophet came down and vindicated the Word of God was at hand, that God Who made the promise was there to deliver the people, they moved from the camp that they were in into the camp of God's promised Word of the hour. They believed that prophet, because the sign of vindication was proving that it was exactly the Word of God. And the things he did proved that it was right, and the Pillar of Fire followed him along, proved that it was the Word of God.
66 Now, in this camp... Miracles, signs, and wonders was in this camp. He moved them out into the wilderness. They left their natural camp; they left the mud-camp; they left the camp made with straw and brick to dwell in tents out in the wilderness where there was no grain or nothing else. Sometimes God asks us to do foolish things to our own thinking. If you ever leave the camp of your own reason, that's the place you'll find God.
Notice, as they went out into the wilderness, there were miracles, signs, when they moved into this camp. Now, remember, they left Egypt's camp and moved out into the wilderness with God's camp. How do you know it was? God said, "Your people shall sojourn for four hundred years, but I'll bring them out with a mighty hand, and I'll give them this land here." And they were on their road by a vindicated Light, a vindicated prophet, with signs, wonders that God was in the camp, and they were on their road. They had a Pillar of Fire; they had a prophet; they had manna; they had living waters. Amen. They had chanced--changed campgrounds. They had to do it; they couldn't see those things in Egypt. They had to change the campgrounds in order to see the supernatural.
So will the people of this day have to change the camp from them denominations that say, "The days of miracles is past. There's no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost," and; "All these Scriptures are wrong; and they were for another age." You'll have to change your campgrounds. Go beyond that camp to where all things are possible. All of them was vindicating His Presence in the camp.
69 Now, notice. Then--them... They made a manmade camp of traditions and creed after Moses was dead. And God dealt with the people for many years. God's not in His camp anymore, in their camp, because they made them a camp, self-made camp.
Remember, when they were called out of Egypt, God provided them a prophet, provided them a sacrificial lamb, provided them all they had need of, a word, a sign, a miracle, a prophet to lead them, an atonement to take care of them, the Pillar of Fire to lead them; and when they got out into the wilderness, they still wasn't satisfied. They wanted something they could do themself. Grace had provided that; now they want something to do themself, so they could make them an organization and fuss and fight and stew who was going to be high priest and who'd be this, that, or the other. One day God said, "Moses, separate yourself from them," and He just swallowed them up in the gainsaying of Korah.
71 Now, notice, all these signs and wonders vindicate His Presence. Then made--man made himself a camp, a camp of creed and tradition, not God's camp of His Word, a camp of their own. He had to leave them, for He is the Word. He cannot stay where people are taught out of this Word. God cannot stay in the camp. He can't. He never did. He must stay exactly where His Word is.
72 When He had to leave that camp then of that whole gang of people that He brought up out of Egypt, He only dwelt among His prophets to whom His Word came. The Word came to the prophet to vindicate the hour. He dwelt among the prophets and revealed to the prophet, how they cursed the people and cursed the things. And God taught them His commandments and the way of life. And the people was always against it, and persecuted the prophet, and finally stoned him, or sawed him to pieces, and got rid of him.
Jesus said, "Which one of the prophets didn't your fathers murder? Which one of them of the just ones that was sent to them and said, 'The works of your father you'll do.'"... He wasn't talking to Communists; He was talking to priests, denominational people, Pharisees and Sadducees. I suppose His voice wouldn't change very much tonight, only be a little worse maybe to them.
74 Now, we find out that He dwelt then among His prophets. He then became a Stranger to them, for He dwells only in His Word to confirm It. The Bible said that He watches over His Word to confirm It. He's trying to find someone... If He can just get a halfhearted man like Samson... Samson surrendered his strength to God, but he gave his heart to Delilah. That's the way that many times we do today: just give something to God, but not all. But God wants all of us.
Like an insurance policy, when you get an insurance policy, you might as well get full coverage. And that's what this blessed assurance does for us. It's a full coverage policy. It covers all we have need of here in this life, and our resurrection, and Eternal Life; it includes everything.
76 Notice. God stayed out of their camp then for four hundred years. Why? He had no more prophets. From the prophet Malachi to the prophet John, four hundred years there's not one turn of a wheel that Israel done. God was out of the camp. They put Him out by their creeds, and their selfishness, and their difference towards the Word. Four hundred years without the Word... From one prophet to another He journeyed until the last prophet was Malachi, and then there wasn't another prophet for four hundred years.
And then God came on the scene again. One day He walked among them again, but their traditions had so took His place among them, He was a Stranger to them. The traditions of the fathers had... Washing pans, and--and the way to groom their hair, and wear the certain buttons on their coat, and their certainly fleeced priest robes, and--and one's a staunch Pharisee, and the other one's a Sadducee; and that had taken the place of the Word among those men, till when God visit them, He was a Foreigner.
78 May I say this with love and respects, but to drive it home. It's the same thing today. It hasn't changed a bit. When He comes among the people in His power and manifestation to prove that His Word's the same yesterday, today, and forever, 'cause He is the Word, the people says, "A fortuneteller, a Beelzebub, a Jesus only," or--or something like that. Some class you somewhere. But it has to be that way. See, we haven't had a prophet now for almost two thousand years. The Gentiles didn't get one, you know: promised at the end. Now, we know that by Scripture. We know that also by history that this is promised to us.
79 Now, after four hundred years God walked right among them one day. According to the Scripture He was to be made flesh and dwell among them. "His Name shall be call Counseller, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father." And when He came among the people, they said, "We'll not have this man rule over us. What--what fellowship card does he pack? What denomination sent him?" He had no cooperation; every church He went to, they throwed Him out. They had nothing to do with Him, because He wasn't one of them.
And as it was then, so is it now. The Bible said the Laodicean church would put Him on the outside, and He was knocking trying to get in. There's something wrong somewhere.
80 Now, why? They had made their own camp. They... If they would've knowed the Word, they'd have knowed Who He was. Jesus said, "If you... Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life; They are the ones that tell you Who I am." That's what the Scripture said. Now. "They testify of Me. And if I do not the works that was promised for Me to do; if I do not the works that My Father, the Word..." In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. "Now, if I am that Person, search the Scriptures and see what I'm supposed to do. And if I don't qualify, if My works, the works that the Word testifies, the Father testifies of Me, if they don't vindicate Who I am, then I'm wrong." That's right. "If you can't believe Me, believe the Word," He said, the works that the Word produces.
81 See, He was a Stranger among them. They didn't know Him. "We'll have nothing to do with this fellow." Just a odd Fellow that'd been born down there in a stable somewhere; and they believed that His mother had this Baby before that It was born--or before It was--had this Baby from a illegitimate birth, rather, and then they--that before the Baby was born that she went off and married Joseph, and he did that just to hold the black mark off of her, her character; and He become a odd sort of a Fellow, because He was a illegitimate born child, and that's the reason He was... And when He come out, what did He do? Tear down their creeds, turn over their tables, beat them out of the place, and say, "It's written." Amen. That ought to told Who He was. "It is written."
82 Well, they'd have nothing to do with such a Fellow as that. But way down deep in their heart, they knowed Who He was, for Nicodemus plainly stated that: "Rabbi, we (the Pharisees)--we know You're a teacher come from God, for no man could do the things that You do except God be with Him." Why didn't they confess Him then? It's because their camp had set its boundaries; it wouldn't let Him in the camp and wouldn't let anybody go out to Him. They had their own camp. He come by night when the gate was really closed, but he found that he could--met Him anyhow.
Yes, same now. They have... He's become a Stranger, Foreigner. They don't understand it: "Why would this be?" and, "Why would that be?" when the Word Itself testifies that this is exactly what's supposed to be done in this day. How... We went through it over and over, but it's the Truth.
84 He was to them in their camp, a fanatic, a breaker of their tradition, a upsetter of their churches, really just a fortuneteller, a spirit that's called Beelzebub. That's what He was. And I believe if He come among us today, He'd be the same thing to us, for we have traditions, we have denominations. We can't even get along with one another. Why? There's only one place that man can get along; that's under the shed Blood. And the Blood was shed as a germ of Life to germatize this Seed, the Word. Outside of that, our denominational barriers will always keep people away.
85 But He'd be a Stranger today; He'd be called the same thing. He'd be acted... He'd be put out of the camp. And did you know, the same Bible that said, "For He'd be rejected of men, a Man of sorrow, acquainted with grief; and they rejected; and we did esteem Him smitten and afflicted of God," the very Scripture that told that... The very prophet that sang out, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? My bones, they all stare at Me. They pierce my hands and My feet."... When they were singing that hymn in the church, their Sacrifice, the God that they thought they were serving, they were crucifying. So is it today. The very God...
86 Look what the prophet said, Amos, when he come into Samaria. And his little eyes narrowed as he come up over that and seen that sinful city, women laying in the street with men: a modern America... When he looked up over, his eyes narrowed. And he had nobody to sponsor him; he had no fellowship card. God had sent him. Would the people hear his message? No, they wouldn't hear him. But he prophesied, and he said, "The very God that you claim to serve will destroy you." And I say in the Name of Jesus Christ, the very God that... This nation claims to be a religious nation; the very God that they claim to serve will destroy them in their iniquity. It'll destroy every denomination off the face of the earth, what they claim to serve.
So notice. He rebuked them, and they put Him out of their camp. Jesus suffered without the camp. They put Him out of the camp, outside, way beyond their camp.
We find out that the Bible said in this last day under this Laodicean age they'd do the same thing. They would be put out of the camp (Now, watch what He says to do now in closing.)--put out of the camp where the sacrifices was burned. That's where He belonged; He was the Sacrifice.
89 Now, brother, sister, do you know that each one of you all must sacrifice, you must be God's sacrifice, sacrifice the things of the world, sacrifice your own pleasures of this world, sacrifice the things of the world? You know the reason that people won't do it?
You know, a sheep--a sheep don't have but one thing to--to offer, and that's wool. And now, he's not asked to produce or to manufacture some wool for this year; he's asked to--to bear wool. We're not asked to manufacture something; we're asked to bear the fruit of the Spirit. That is, the inside of the sheep... What he is on the inside, makes the wool on the outside. And when a man has got Christ on the inside, it makes him Christ-like on the outside, not some artificial put-on.
Well, we find when that takes place, when Christ comes back, how is He treated? Just exactly like it was at the beginning. Always has been.
92 So He so rebuked them, that they put them out of His camp and made Him as a sinner; which He became sin for us.
Now, after hundreds of years, yes, 'most two thousand years, He's visit their camp again according to His promised Word that He'd do in the last days. He's visit the camp again. He's visit the camp to manifest this Word today, just like He visit back in that day, and He did in Moses' day. That was not Moses doing that; Moses was a man; it was Christ.
94 Look at Joseph, the life: loved of the father, hated of his brothers because he was a seer. And they hated him without a cause. That was the only cause they could hate him for. Perfect type of today, exactly, the church again, they hate the spiritual things. And we find out that he was sold for nearly thirty pieces of silver, supposing to be dead took up and put in a prison house (like Jesus was on the cross), one man lost and one man saved, and was taken from there to the right-hand of Pharaoh. It's exactly the way Jesus was done.
95 It was David in--went up through the streets a-crying, rejected king, and set upon the mountain weeping over Jerusalem. That wasn't David. The Son of David, a few hundred years after that set on the same hill and wept because He was a rejected King among His own people. It's Christ always. And today when it's prophesied that Christ must come into the camp, you know what happened? It'll be just exactly like it was then. It's got to be that way to fulfill what the Word here promises He'll do.
Now, remember, Christ was in the age of Noah. That was Christ, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, the rejected Word of the hour.
97 Notice. And His prophecy of Revelations 3 found when He come in this last day, as He prophesied He'd come in this last day... And how did He find the church at Laodicea? Rich, have need of nothing, and set as a queen, and can see no sorrow, and put Him outside the church, had no use for Him. He went without the camp again. But then she didn't know that she was naked, blind, and miserable, and knew it not.
Again, if He'd come again in the same way as He was then, He would rebuke every woman that wore shorts. He'd rebuked every bobbed-haired woman, every painted face, every man that would be little enough to let his wife do that. He'd still... Then He'd tear down every denomination there was and break up every creed we had. You believe He'd do it? He sure would. That's right.
What would they do with Him? Put Him out the camp. They sure wouldn't cooperate with Him. No, sir.
100 Now, we find Him again in this day as the Bible said He would: put out the camp. For He ever remains the same, the Word, same yesterday, today, and forever.
They--they don't want Him. They rejected Him again with their council. They would prefer today like they did then when He was on trial... And today when the Word is on trial, what's happened? They have rejected again like they did then and accepted a Barabbas, a murderer, instead of Christ. The council would do the same thing. And today because they have rejected the Word and the perfect vindication of the hour, they have sold out and preferred a Barabbas, the World Council of Churches, a murderer of the Word.
102 They deny His Word, deny His baptism, deny His power, deny His signs, and with a creed or tradition again of wearing turned around collars and everything, making themselves creeds and so forth, they're trying to, upon good works. They wasn't ordained to Life to begin with. They had nothing to believe with. "He that knows Me, knows My Father. And as the Father has sent Me, so send I you." The God that sent Jesus went in Jesus, and the Jesus that sends you goes in you. "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (black, yellow, white, brown, whatever he might be). These signs shall follow them that believe." Why for? All the world and to every creature.
103 A little Baptist minister not long ago in Tucson came to me, he said, "Brother Branham, here's your trouble. You're trying to make this an apostolic age." He said, "There is no such a thing as apostolic age today. Apostolic age is over. "
I said, "It is? I didn't know it."
Then he said, "Well, it is."
I said, "You sure?"
He said, "Sure, I'm sure." He said, "All right."
I said, "How do you think it's over?"
Said, "That was for the apostles."
I said, "Peter said on the day of Pentecost... Do you believe his word?"
"Yes, sir."
"He said, 'Repent every one of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ; for this promise is unto you, and to your children, and to your children's children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.'" This same promise, we've got to come back to it.
107 Doctor Simon Peter wrote a prescription. The Bible said, "Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?" Well, you know if you take a doctor's prescription... When he finds a disease that's in your body, and he writes that prescription; you better fill it, get some real druggist that'll fill it just the way it's wrote, because he has to put in so much poison, and so much antidote, so much that your system will take. You see, he... It's already been tried and proven, and you must take that prescription. If you don't, you get some quack doctor to go to fooling with that, that don't know how to measure out that medicine right, he'll kill you. And if he puts too much weakness in it, won't do you no good.
108 And that's what's the matter with a lot of you doctors. You're fooling with that prescription. Peter said, "I'll give you a everlasting prescription, for you and to your children, and them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Not, "Come and join," but, "Repent every one of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the results (Amen.), the Holy Ghost, for the promise, this prescription's for you and to your children." Now, some of you quack doctors, quit writing those fake prescriptions; you're killing your people. That's the reason the real thing isn't getting to them. Yes.
109 You know, on this same prescription, how the doctor finds his medicine... They always take and... The scientists try to figure up something, then they give it to a guinea pig and see if it kills him or not. And then you know, medicine's got a chance to take. You--you might get well, and it might kill you (See?), because all people are not like guinea pigs, maybe. So... But there's one thing about this prescription; it's for all.
And then, any real good doctor that won't--got a lot of faith in his own medicine, he won't ask somebody else... Some of them's cowardly enough to get a prisoner with life term, and then set him free if he lives over it, let him take prescription. But in this place we had a real Doctor; He come took the prescription Himself...?...
111 "I am." not, "I will be." "I am the Resurrection and the Life," saith God; "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Martha said... He said, "Believeth thou this?"
She said, "Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ that was to come into the world. No matter how much the rest of them call You, I done seen it."
And at Calvary He took the injection Himself. And on Easter morning death couldn't hold Him: "I am the Resurrection and the Life." They injected death into Him, but He rose up victorious over the--death, hell, and the grave. He took the injection Himself, and He sent out some doctors to write a prescription who had the revelation of Who He was: "Who does men say I the Son of man am?"
Peter said, "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
He said, "Blessed art thou, Simon. You've got it now. I give to you the keys to the Kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth, I'll bind it in heaven. If you loose on earth, I'll loose it in heaven."
116 And on the day of Pentecost when they seen all this going on, he said--they said, "What can we do to get this inoculation?"
Here he read the prescription; he said, "Now, I'm going to write a prescription that's for you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall ever call." Don't fool with the prescription; you'll die. They make it so weak today, till it's nothing but denominational water (That's right.), some embalming fluid they inject into a dead man to make him deader. Oh, but, brother, there is a genuine anointing. There is a Balm in Gilead; it's for the healing of the soul. Just don't fool with the prescription. Take the prescription just the way it's written, and God's obligated to His Word, not obligated to the creed, or the dogma, or the denomination; He's obligated to His Word. Follow the prescription; that's the first basis. Start off; then you're signed up and ready to go to work.
118 Notice, out the camp. They have chosen a Barabbas today. When the Gospel has passed back and forth around the world, great signs and wonders has followed the revival, but instead of coming in and trying to do it, they're joining right up with Barabbas. "Before we'll have this nonsense and so forth in our church... We'll be classic like the rest of them." Now, they got Rome and all of them together, a Barabbas.
119 Notice, we are then in that great camp. We are invited to go beyond that camp.
... Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us go... to him beyond the gate,... (Watch!)... bearing his reproach.
What was He reproached for? Not because He was Methodist or Baptist; I'll assure you that, not because He was Pharisee or Sadducee: because He was the vindicated Word.
"Bearing His reproach..." For what? The vindicated Word. That's right. That was what He did. He said, "If I do not the works of My Father, don't believe Me. If I'm not the Answer to all the Scriptures' questions..."
122 Jesus of the New Testament was Jehovah of the Old. Exactly right. I believe (as I was telling you here now, sometime ago or somewhere in a meeting; it might not have been here) "Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New." Do you remember the--the--the--when I was going squirrel hunting that morning. And there it was, them three big stems run into one out there, right on the mountain, me standing there looking at it. And I drew up close and took off my hat, laid down my rifle. Got up there, and a voice shook the woods, said, "Jesus of the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old. Remain faithful." So... Right below there is where the squirrels appeared then, come into existence when there was none there. See? That's truth. See? It's truth. So God knows, before Who I stand, it's the truth...?... That's right. It's the truth.
Right down in Kentucky... And there's people setting right here tonight was present when it happened again, the same thing. Yes, we know that it's the truth. Jesus of the Old Testament...
124 Like when the Chinese people first come over here, they couldn't read nor write our language. But they were great laundrymen. And so they would... You go down to the Chinese laundry. He just got him some clear old white tags. He couldn't read one thing, and he knowed you couldn't read it if he wrote it. So when you come, he just took this little white piece of paper, something on this order, say, right here--and he tore it a certain way like that. Now, he give you one piece of paper, and he kept the other piece of paper. And then when you come back for your laundry, he said, "Let me see your piece of paper." And he got them; if it matched, that was it. You got your dirty clothes back clean.
And Jesus matched every prophecy, every design of, "Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New." He matched everything. Let me say this with godly fear and respects, but love, but sincerity, and knowing where I'm standing, the message of this hour has matched everything the Bible spoke of for this hour. Now, if you got some dirty clothes, turn them in. Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
126 Notice, bearing His reproach, 'cause He was the vindicated Word. As then, so is it now. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13--12 and 13--we find--Hebrews 13:8 also.
Bearing His shame of the Gospel, bearing His Name... He said, "I came in My Father's Name." What is the Name of the Father? He came in His Father's Name. Said, "I came in My Father's Name and you received Me not." Well, what is the Father's Name? I guess you ought to know. See? Bearing a reproach of the Word? It was always carried out of their camps; they turned It out. You'll be laughed at, made fun of...
128 And today, where I once started across the nation... Not speaking about myself, please don't think this is a personal. But my time's gone; I've got about ten pages here. You can see what's left of it (See, see? all right!)--of notes.
But listen. First started out... Did you notice Jesus when He first started, "Oh, the young Rabbi. Oh, He was a wonderful Man. Come over our way. Come preach to us."
But one day He set down to them, and He said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you."
What do you think the doctors and intellectuals of the crowd thought? "This man's a vampire. (See?) He wants you to drink human blood. That's too much for us. Get away from... They--the priests said he was crazy; I believe it." And the Bible said they walked away.
132 Then He had seventy ordained preachers. And He said, "I can't have them." So He looked around to them; He said, "Well, what will you say when you see the Son of man ascending up into heaven from whence He come?" Now, He never explained these things. He just let them alone. See?
And they said, "Son of man? What? We eat with the man; we fish with him. We lay on the banks with him. We seen the cradle he was rocked in. We know his mother; we know his brother. Who can receive a thing like this?" And the Bible said they walked with Him no more.
134 Then He turned around to Peter and the rest of them, said, "I chose twelve, you twelve..." Now, from the thousands He's down to twelve. He said, "I chose twelve; and then one of you's a devil. I knowed it from the beginning." He said, "Now, do you want to go with them?" He didn't have to baby, and pet, and, "I'll make you a deacon if you'll join my church." See? Ain't no axes to grind. He never even explained it. Neither could the disciples explained it, but you remember, He'd just told them, "I knew you before the foundation of the world. I ordained you to receive joy with Me." See? There it was, before the foundation of the world, predestinated.
135 Those apostles stood there just as stern. They couldn't explain how they was going to eat His flesh and drink His Blood. They couldn't understand how He ever come down when He's been right there with them all the time. He couldn't explain it. The people couldn't explain it; nobody could explain it. But Peter made those notable words. No wonder He give him the keys. He said, "Lord, who would we go to? We are persuaded; we know that You and You alone are the vindication of the promised Word today. We know that Thou alone has the Word of Life. We can't explain those things, but we believe it anyhow."
136 Little Martha said, "My brother is dead. He's laying in the grave; he's rotten; he's stinking. Lord, if You would've been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, whatever You ask God, God will give it to You." Oh, my.
He said, "I am the Resurrection and Life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die. Believest thou this?"
She said, "Yea, Lord. I can't explain it, but I believe it. I believe that You're the Christ that was to come into the world. I believe by the noted Scripture that You meet the qualification of that."
Said, "Where have you buried him?"
Oh, my. Something has to happen. Every wheel's coming right together at the right time. See? He walked down to the grave. The Bible said, "no beauty we should desire Him." Probably a little stoop-shouldered Fellow, stood with the little shoulders down, tired and weary from walking, He said, "Lazarus, come forth." And a man that'd been dead four days stood on his feet.
141 A Christian Science woman... Excuse me if I hurt your feeling; I don't mean to. A Christian Science woman right from this church met me out there one day, and she said, "Mr. Branham," she said, "I like your preaching, but there's one thing you do too much upon it."
I said, "What's that?"
Said, "You brag too much on Jesus."
I said, "I hope that's all He's got against me." See, see?
She said, "You make Him Divine." See, they don't believe He was Divine. They believe He was just an ordinary man, good teacher, philosopher. Said, "You make Him Divine, and He wasn't Divine."
I said, "Oh, yes, He was."
She said, "If I'll prove to you by your own Bible He's not Divine, will you believe it?"
I said, "My Bible said so. I--I believe the Word. That's Who He is."
And she said, "In Saint John the 11th chapter when Jesus went down to the grave of Lazarus the Bible said He wept."
I said, "What that's got to do with it?"
She said, "Well, that showed He wasn't Divine."
I said, "You just fail to see Who the Man was. He was both God and man. It was a man weeping, when He was weeping for their sorrow; but when He stood and said, 'Lazarus, come forth.' and a man had been dead four days stood on his feet again, that was more than a man." Yes, sir. Yes, indeed.
147 And I've often made the expression, when He come down off the mountain that night, hungry, He was a man. He was hungry the next morning. He was a man. But when He took two biscuits and five fish and fed five thousand, taken up seven baskets, that was more than a man. Yes, sir. He was a man on the cross when He cried, "My God, hast Thou forsaken Me?" When He cried, "Give Me a drink," and they give Him vinegar and gall, He was a man crying, but on Easter morning when He broke every seal of death, hell, and the grave, and when He rose up, He was more than a man.
148 He was a man that night, laying on the back of that little boat where He was out there with the disciples, and ten thousand devils of the sea swore they'd drowned Him. Out there in a little old ship like a bottle stopper out there like that, He was so tired, didn't even wake Him up. He was a man when He was asleep, but when He put His foot on the brail of the boat, and looked up, and said, "Peace, be still," and the wind and the waves obeyed Him, that was more than a man; It was God. No wonder the poet said:
Living He loved me; dying He saved me;
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
Someday He's coming--oh, glorious day!"
Yes, sir. Go beyond the camp. I don't care what it costs.
This consecrated cross I'll bear
Till death shall set me free,
Then go home a crown to wear,
For there's a crown for me.
150 Closing, I say this... I was reading a story sometime ago on a judge. He was a just man, a good man, was loved. And there was a bunch of people in the city that thought they could get by with anything, so they had plenty, so they opened up a house of ill-fame, run a liquor store, liquor, everything like that, and was illegal. And they was caught by the law, the federal men, and was brought to court. And when all the people of the city, the little city, gathered in... They knowed this man had done a lot of things around there, the man that had run the ill-fame place. And they--they... The jury found the man guilty, 'cause he was caught open handed. And so then the judge found them guilty and sentenced them for so many years, without bond, without appeal, or anything, he sent them, because that's what the law read.
151 The people outside the court raced him and said, "You know what? Every person in this town will hate you." Said, "They hate you for making that decision on that man." They was all gamblers themselves. And said, "We--we'll all hate you. We'll never elect you again. We'll never be a one of us vote for you." booing him as he went down the street.
He stood, "Just a minute." said, "Let me have a word." He said, "I've done exactly what was my duty. The man was guilty, no matter who he was. And I had to sentence him according to the law that I swore I'd uphold."
He said, "You're hated in this town."
He said, "But I'm loved greatly at home by my people."
We might think the same thing, if you'll pardon the expression. I've stood for what I have been saved to do, uphold this Word of God. I know the denominations hate me for the things that I say, but I'm greatly loved in His House, among His people. Let us pray.
155 Lord Jesus, we may be hated by the world, but loved of the Father. Help us, dear God; help these people, that each one of them, Lord, that Thy blessings will rest upon them. Let us go beyond the camp now. Let us go beyond our own thinking. Let us go by the thinking of God. It... The Bible said this: "Let the mind that was in Christ be in you." So let us think His thoughts, not our own thinking, because most the time we're wrong. So to be sure, let His mind rest in us. And His mind was to do the Father's will, and the Father's will is His promised Word.
Let us go beyond the camp tonight, Lord, and find Jesus. We'll never find Him by joining the church. We'll never find Him by shaking hands with some minister, or--or signing some creed, or something that we promise to go to Sunday school so many days out of the year, and so forth. We'll only find Him in the Word, because He is the Word.
And as we see this day promised that He'd be outside the camp, put out again, now, let us go beyond the camp, ready to bear His reproach, hated of this world, but loved of the One Who has invited us to the camp. Grant it, Lord.
158 If there be those here who doesn't know Him and has never went beyond the camp of some church affiliation, yet you profess to be a Christian... But when you say these things, "I believe it was for another day," that shows it cannot be the Holy Spirit. How can a man that's filled with the Holy Ghost ever be baptized using the name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost, when Paul, the great apostle, said, "If a angel comes from heaven..." You might've done it one time not knowing any different. Those people did it not knowing different in Acts 19. But said, "An angel preaches anything different, let it be accursed." How can you accept some creed, or some ism, some something another when the Bible said the promise is unto you, this same thing, the real baptism of the Holy Spirit...
How can the Holy Spirit that wrote the Word be in you denying the Word? How can It deny, when the very Holy Spirit Itself said, "If any person shall add one word to This or take anything from It, I'll take his part out of the Book of Life." How can the Holy Spirit then take anything from the Word or add anything to the Word?
160 My friend, both here and in the invisible world where the tape will go--invisible to us now, let that go deep in your heart from this morning's message on the teaching, seeing where we are. If you never have yet ever taken this prescription that I spoke of awhile ago, won't you receive it? We're here to do everything that we can for you to help you.
I'm only a witness; I'm only a electioneer, as we have in Louisville now the--the Democrat Convention the--of Kentucky, the--they're building the platform for their man to be elected. I'm also building a platform for My Lord. Won't you receive Him tonight as your own?
162 With our heads bowed and our hearts also in this moment, would you just raise your hands and say to God (not to me, I'm just a man), raise your hands to God, say, "God, be merciful to me. I truly want all these things that I've heard about. I want to go beyond the camp. I don't care what anyone says." God bless you. My, at the hands, at the hands. "I want to go without the camp. No matter what it costs me, I'll take my cross and bear it every day. I'll go beyond the camp. No matter what people say about me, I want to follow Him outside the camp. I'm ready to go."
163 Heavenly Father, You seen those hands. Maybe a hundred people or more in the building raised up their hands. Lord, there's something near them now, some other Person, the Person of Christ, the invisible to the natural eye, and has caused them to make a decision. In their own life they know as they look into a mirror; they see there's something missing; and they want their lives to be shaped according to the promise of God. And they've raised their hands with deep sincerity. Help them, Lord, to the great Door tonight to the sheepfold. May they come in sweetly and humbly. Grant it. They're Yours, Lord; deal with them.
164 Now, they could not have made that decision, they could not have raised their hand without a supernatural something. It shows there's a life there somewhere; for according to science, gravitation would hold our hands down. But there was something that struck their mind that made them defy the law of gravitation and put up their hands towards the Maker that brought them. "Yes, I want to go all the way. I want to go beyond the camp tonight."
Lord, the pool is ready for the first move after repentance, then being baptized, and a promise to receive the Holy Ghost. In this last days a calling back to the original faith, the original prescription... We see too many people away from Christ, dying under these other manmade prescriptions. They may be ever so good in their denomination, but, Lord, I--I want Your prescription. You're our Doctor; there is a Doctor; there's Balm in Gilead; there's a Physician here tonight to heal every sin sick soul, to heal every physical being. Great Doctor of all times, great Creator of the heavens and earth, come now, will You, among us and speak to us. In the Name of Jesus Christ.
166 While each one prays in their heart, "Lord Jesus, help me now." And if you've never been baptized, and you're convinced... I haven't preached on baptism, but you're convinced that you should be baptized in Christian baptism, the only way that any Christian...
What if you come up there baptized in some other way, and the same Jesus Who said, "Who will take one word or add one word, the same will be taken out of, his part, of the Book of Life."... Jesus said that, and He said, "All Scriptures is inspired and must be fulfilled." Now, you know different. What will you do about it?
168 If you've only had a sensation or something... I believe in sensation. If you've only danced in the Spirit, spoke in tongues... I believe in that too. But if that's all the farther, and your spirit in you tells you not to follow the Word when you know It's right, there's something wrong with that spirit. It isn't the Holy Spirit. It can't be. See? It would identify Its own Word; you know that. You can make ready to come now while we're praying.
Jesus of Nazareth, come close now and speak to every heart. I commit them to You, may they be... All these hands, they're trophies of the message, Lord, from You and Your great august Presence that's with us now. Any man that's sensitive to the Spirit can tell that You're here, this great feeling of sacredness. Grant it, Lord, just now. In the Name of Jesus Christ.
170 Now, with our heads bowed, if there's men here that would want to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, want to repent, want to seek the baptism of the Spirit, there's a room open to my left. Women, to the right, there'll be someone in there to instruct you. There's baptismal gowns waiting, everything. Now, while we keep our heads bowed, singing:
I can hear my Saviour (We'll be meeting...)