Un prophète qui rougit

Date: 56-1125E | La durée est de: 54 minutes | La traduction: VGR
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1 Now may the Lord add His blessings to the subject of: A Blushing Prophet.

2 This morning we were very much took up with a prophet who wore a secondhanded robe. And we know tonight, since in the Scripture, this morning, that we ourselves wear a secondhanded robe. We…the robe. And I am so happy that it is a secondhanded robe, for this robe that we wear now has been reckoned to God as righteousness, through Christ Jesus. And we’re not taking the moth-eaten robe of some man’s theology who has been eaten up with moths and crickets, and so forth, saying that, “The days of miracles is past, and there is no such a thing as the—the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit now.” But we are wearing a robe of His righteousness.

3 [Blank spot on tape—Ed.] Not in our own ability, but in the—the ability of our Lord Jesus.

4 And when I come down to the Jordan, I want to have on His robe, trusting in His. And the great shadow of the gate that’s set before us all, called “death,” each time our heart beats, we go one beat closer to that great gap that every man and woman must go through. And when I come to that gap, along with you believers, I’m so happy to know that I’m not going there with this in my heart and mind, that I have done something great. I’m going there, confessing and knowing that I’m a sinner, and knowing this, that, I want to wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness; with this testimony, that, “I know Him in the power of His resurrection.” That, when He calls from the dead, I want to come out.

5 Now, our scene and drama is set tonight for our text, of another day in Israel, which was about several hundred years past the—the time of Elijah. Many up’s-and-down’s had come in the reign of Israel. And now we’re at the scene tonight…

6 This morning we were at the scene of where there was a lot of carnal impersonation, how that the school of prophets were up there training to be prophets. And how simple they were, till even they couldn’t understand the power of God. They thought the power had lifted Elijah up and throwed him out on the mountain somewhere, and they sent a search party to hunt for him. When, Elisha knew, good and well, that God had taken him to Glory. For, he was not. God had taken him, and he escaped death by going Home to God, on a chariot of Fire and horses of Fire. And then we seen that their seminaries and their works of their own theology didn’t work. It taken election and calling of God to make a prophet of God.

7 And now, tonight, we find Israel in a backslidden condition. Israel had its up’s-and-down’s. It was a very type of the church today. Some time they were on the housetops, the next time they were down in the valley. That’s what takes to make us appreciate the good thing. There’s what they call the law of contrast.

8 The black man of Africa never knowed that he was black, his skin, until he seen David Livingston. And he said…Then he realized his skin was black, because Livingston’s was white. It’s a contrast.

9 You would never know how to appreciate a day if you didn’t have a night. You would never know how to appreciate the sunshine if you didn’t have a cloudy day. You would never know how to appreciate righteousness, unless you had some unrighteousness. You would never know how to appreciate good health, unless you’ve had some foul health, some bad health. It’s only those…

10 And that’s the reason I think that we’ll appreciate Heaven so much, because we’ve lived on earth once. And I think the law of contrast…The reason that we appreciate the Holy Spirit so much, tonight, is because we lived so long in a church that told us there was no such a thing. The reason we appreciate it, tonight, because we have had the other side. And that’s the way God has intended it to be, because His people has had their up’s-and-down’s. You never know how to appreciate a mountaintop, unless you’ve been in the valley. And, so, you never know how to appreciate good water unless you’ve drank some bad sometime. And then you—you…All the way through, it’s a law of contrast.

11 Now, Israel was in one of its backslidden states, and what a thing they had done!

12 Now, Israel was a chosen, elected, selected people, that God had chose Israel for one specific purpose, that the blood of Israel should be the cleanest blood stream, for out of that lineage was going to come the Messiah Himself.

13 All down through the Old Testament, God appeared in man. God appeared in Abraham, as a faith believer. God appeared in David, as a king. He appeared in Joseph, as righteousness. He appeared in Moses, as prophet, priest, law-giver. He appeared down through the ages, in the prophet. He always made Himself known in men, in portion, through prophet, king, priest, law-giver, so forth. But, in Christ, He dwelt in Him, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and knowing that this Spirit must finally find a resting place. On Elijah, he was a man of God’s justice. He blatted out the justice of God. And, Moses, he was a law-giver, that you toe the mark or get out. In all these things, God represented. But when He came to Christ, He was perfect, the entire fullness of the Godhead bodily rested in Christ.

14 And God represented Himself once in the fullness, beforehand. In the Book of Genesis, in the order of Melchizedek, “Who had no father, no mother; no beginning of days, or ending of years, or ending of life.” And He was a Priest, the King of Salem, a priest of God, of the Most High God, Who was without beginning or without ending. He was none other than the prefigure of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause, He was the King of Salem, which is the King of Peace, which is the King of Jerusalem. And He was in prefigure. Even the patriarch Abraham paid tithe to Him. He was a prefigure of the coming of the Lord Jesus. The same Melchizedek met Abraham out on the plains before the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrah. And—and He met him after Sodom and Gomorrah, when Abraham paid Him a tithings of all the spoil that he had taken from the king.

15 All these things is shadowed, typed up to Christ. And now, all the shadows of the Old Testament saints, their up’s-and-down’s, was a shadow and type, and examples for us today.

16 Now, we find that Israel was not to mix marriage. Their marriage was to be among one another, not no Israelite to ever marry a Gentile, but was to keep their blood stream clean. And even till this day, I believe the Jewish blood stream is the cleanest blood—blood stream on the face of the earth today, is the Jew. They’re still looking for that Messiah. But, He…We know that He has already come; and their eyes were blinded, that we could have a chance of repentance through Christ.

17 Now, during the time of the reign of Ezra, the children of Israel had become backslid. They had went out and got the Moabite women, and they had got the women of the Amorites, the Perizzites, and many of the other nations. And had not only had married them, but was committing fornication among them, uncleanliness, and polluting the very blood stream, which is the life stream.

18 And what a picture that is today of our churches, the way they’re falling away from the old-fashion hewing line that God laid down for the church. The precepts that we were to live by, the church is committing fornication with the world. It’s got out into the world, and begin to dally in the world.

19 Now, this had embarrassed the prophet so much, till, when he come before God, he blushed in his face. The first when he heard about it, and he seen the—the moral decay of his people, it hurt him so bad until he sit down and anointed himself, plucked his hair out and his beard out, and was heavy-hearted before the Lord, in prayer. Then when the evening sacrifice was offered, he went into the temple and fell on his knees and blushed before God, for the sins of the people.

20 Now, he didn’t blush for the scarlet street of the red-light district. He didn’t blush for the booze drinkers in the hell hole, although as bad as it may be. But, he blushed because the sin of the elect.

21 And what we need today is some more prophets with enough God in their heart to blush in the Presence of God, for the sins of the people who call themselves the people of God and doing the way they’re doing. What a disgrace we’ve brought to this place! The morals of our people…

22 This is not an easy subject to speak on. I could think of many things that were easier to speak on. But, brother, if somebody don’t stand out in this sinful, adulterous day that we live in, and call the colors, what’s going to happen? Somebody has got to speak the thing. Somebody has got to place it before the people.

Perhaps Ezra didn’t want to do it, but it was in his heart.

23 And when you see a servant of God get so sincere till he is on his face with his hands in the air, a praying to God, and blushing because the iniquity of the people, then you’re going to see a revival start. A man cannot lay in the Presence of God, a church cannot stay in the Presence of God, under repentance, unless the Holy Spirit comes down and gives unction and power to start a move of God in there among those people. Just got to be!

24 Show me a man. Show me another Calvin, Knox, Finney, Sankey, or any of those who feels the burden of the people, that’ll lay on their face and cry and pray before God. Send us a John Smith of the Baptist church again, who prayed all night for the iniquity of the people, until his eyes would be swelled shut the next morning, from weeping, till his wife would lead him to the table and feed him his breakfast out of a spoon. Show me a John Wesley again, a fire brand snatched from the fire, I’ll show you a revival.

25 What they’re doing today, we’re patting it on the back. We are calling it this and that, and a revival, when there’s no revival to it. That’s right. There’s a stirring of emotion of religion among the people, but no revival.

26 They had a religious group in that day. They had a stirs in that day, but they needed a revival.

27 Why, my dear brother and sister, the morals of this nation has become so low till it would make a dog ashamed. It would make a hound blush if it could do so, the immorals of our people! The people, even years ago, the things that we have, the—the nation has done, the things that the people has done! It’s all the lack of prayer.

28 The church that used to, didn’t believe in picture shows, they wouldn’t let their children go to picture show. They would shun picture show. And, today, why they even have…They had the picture show in their own house. Every house has a television.

29 In the place where they used to think it was wrong to drink beer, in the place where they used to think…John Barleycorn, what a great ornery fellow he was. Today, sixty percent of so-called Christians take a social drink at least once a year. Then they get on a big spree, around Christmas, when they have their celebration. Because, they have adopted education to take the place of salvation. It’ll never do it.

30 What we need is a revival. We put corn plasters on, take them off; another corn plaster, take it off, and still find the pain is there. What we need today is not social regeneration, it’s not intellectual talks. What we need today is an old-fashion, God-sent Blood transfusion from Heaven. The corn plasters won’t do no good. We are anemia. We need a Blood transfusion. We need to come back to the old-fashion Gospel that calls out for repentance before God. And not a dry-eyed, hand-shook profession; but a God-sent, Holy Ghost revival with the possession of the cleansing of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into every human heart. We need a revival to start in the Church, and sweep the nation across. We’ll die, we’ll perish, we are gone, without that type of revival.

31 I’m so sick and tired of seeing little petty Hollywood revivals, so-called, where people come in and get emotionally stirred up for a couple hours, and, or a day or two, or a week or two, and go out and that’s all of it. Brother, you can be in a…worked up by a revival. You can have emotion. You can have good intentions. All those things are fine, but we don’t need that today.

32 We need a baptism of the Holy Spirit, to change the emotion, and the intellect, and the view, the habits, the life of the people, and put them back on the right road again. Outside of a Blood transfusion from Calvary, all of our reformations won’t do any good at all.

33 We don’t need a U.N. We have a U.N. there, and what’d they do? God’s Name is never called. They’re afraid to call It. It was once asked, by a clergy group, “Why didn’t they have prayer?” They said, “Might offend somebody else, one of the others who didn’t believe in God.”

34 Oh, what we need is a revival. Don’t make any difference who it offends, we got to preach the Gospel and call our colors to work. Right. I wouldn’t give you a dime for any program that left God out of it, whether it’s the U.N., or a big-four, whatever it might be.

35 Until this nation wakes up to the place, that we are dying without the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; until individuals wake up to the—the cause, that we are dying! The reason we are dying, is without the original, the way, the remedy, the cure that God gave us at Calvary.

36 No wonder it makes a man blush! No wonder! A real, true preacher look upon his congregation and try to lead them before the throne of God. And visit their homes, and find them smoking cigarettes, telling dirty jokes to each other, entertaining in the back yard, with beer parties; walking around on the streets, their young women, and middle-age, and so forth, and even grandmother with a little shorts on. Mother out on the street with a baby on one arm, dressed sexy enough to attract the attention of any bootlegger that walked the street; and calling themselves Christian. It would make any true man of God blush, to bring such a person in the Presence of God. Right!

37 And all of our joining church and getting a better class, has come to nonsense, and it did in that day and it will this. Bring us back to God, not with an injection of education, not with an injection of religious reformation, not in the injection of some kind of man-made theology. But an old-fashion baptism of the Holy Ghost sent down from God, out of Heaven, in a pentecostal experience of burning out the carnality. And replacing in there the jewel that God intended to be in there, of a son and daughter of God. Till we do that, brothers and sisters, we will still have bobbed-haired, make-up, on sexy-looking women; and men drinking, smoking, and calling themselves Christians; because they don’t know no better. In their heart, that very root of carnality lays there, and we need a church cleaning-up, from the basement to the pulpit. Amen. And that’s right.

38 What we need today is some blushing prophets. God…Sometime people come in the prayer line, to be prayed for, look like they’re going to a house of ill-fame. That’s right. Coming to ask God for something, and looking like a Jezebel. What we need today is a house-cleaning and a heart-warming, of prophets of God who will stand in the pulpit and call the thing out, and tell what’s right and what’s wrong; and preach the Gospel without compromising, until sinners fall on the floor, and weep till God sends the Holy Spirit to clean up their life. Amen. We know that’s right. That’s right.

39 I preached here not long ago and said that every woman in this city was guilty, in one way or the other, of adultery. They are. The women go downtown here and they can’t hardly buy a dress, unless it’s so like they was poured in it. I’m not here to…This is my own church. I have a right to preach what the Holy Spirit tells me to do. Right.

40 Let me tell you. I’m not criticizing you, my sister. But don’t the Holy Spirit teach you different? If it doesn’t, I’m afraid you didn’t get the Holy Spirit. That’s right. The Holy Spirit is not “shouting.” The Holy Spirit is not “dancing in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is not “speaking in tongues.” The Holy Spirit is righteousness. God, give us a Holy Ghost revival of God-sent righteousness.

41 Don’t you realize that when you dress yourself like that and walk down the street, and men looks at you in the wrong way, that at the Judgment…You may be as pure as a lily, before your husband. But, at the Judgment, you’ll be guilty of committing adultery with the guy that you’ve presented yourself to.

42 No wonder it’ll make a person blush! No wonder! What does it do to God? When, the Bible said, in the beginning, that, “It grieved Him, that He made man.” It grieved the heart of God, when He looked upon them in the days before the antediluvian destruction, that He ever made a man. What happened? “The sons of God saw the daughters of men was fair.” It was a perversion. It was a sex mix-up. It was that thing that drove the children of God from the garden of Eden. It was that thing that drove God’s judgment, to bring peace upon the earth. It was that thing that caused them destroyed. It was that same mixing up, between women and men, that caused Sodom and Gomorrah to sink in the bottom of the Dead Sea.

43 It was told by the prophets. It was told by the Lord Jesus, that, “As it was in those days, so will it be before the Coming of the Son of God.” We look today, and see that the church is taking its pattern not out of Bible, out of Ruth and out of Naomi, and out of Sarah and the ones in the Bible. But they’re patterning, even the women of the church, after Hollywood and the very drags of the devil.

44 And how that our people, who call themselves Christians, go out here and get this evil man’s ways. These records of Elvis Presley, ever what his name is, one of the most deluded, devil-possessed people that I ever heard of in my life. Arthur Godfrey and such as that, and listen to them kind of nonsense on your radios; and refuse to hear the Gospel sermon preached in the Bible. God have mercy on you. What kind of a spirit have we got among us? That is right.

45 No wonder the prophet of God blushed before the—the Lord. He knew that was unrighteousness. And he stood and pleaded the case, and said to God, “We’re unrighteous.”

46 And we are, friends, until we can come back to that spot of a Blood transfusion. Quit trying to put on plasters. Quit trying to put on some salve. The healing can’t come unless the blood stream is right.

47 That’s the reason the people has got diabetes. If one would ever cut himself, it probably will never heal. Why? Because the real red blood cells is eat up.

48 And the whole church has become diabetic. And every little cut that comes, instead of walking on, you pick at it. It can’t heal. Selfishness, greed, immorality, everything else that’s in the calendar of God’s “wrong-doing,” the church is picking up those habits. Men drinking, smoking, telling dirty jokes. Women cutting their hair, wearing make-up, doing all kinds of things, dressing themselves immorally to face the people. All those things are because it’s a lack of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen. That may seem hard. Sure, it’s hard, but it’s the Truth.

49 If we don’t belch forth the judgments of Almighty God, you’re going to be caught one of these days in an atomic explosion here, that will send every soul out into Eternity, to meet a God who will only recognize the Blood of His Son, Christ Jesus. I’d like to see you come under the Blood. My advice, to you, is to get right with God. My advice to you.

50 Well, why can’t we have faith? Why can’t we have greater healings than we do have? Why can’t we get ourself soundly builded? Is because we’re putting on corn plasters; because we’re putting on stickers; putting on pieces of tape. We are trying to cover the thing up, instead of saying we need a transfusion. We’re without Blood. We’re without Christ. Don’t let yourself be fooled.

51 Don’t let the devil pat you on the shoulder, saying, “Well, I go to church.”

52 The devil does, too. That’s right. He sure did; come up to God, went to church up in Heaven; come before the Throne of God, with the sons of God, sit down with them; had an audience with God. He said, “Where you been?”

53 Said, “Walking to and fro, up-and-down, on the earth.” That’s where he had been.

54 So, the devil goes to church. The devil belongs to church. The devil acts like a Christian. He’s a deceiver. And if he didn’t act like a Christian and act like a church, he wouldn’t be a deceiver; no man could be deceived. Only thing, it’s difference as black and white. It’s contrary to one another. But He…The Bible said, “It would be so close that it would deceive the very Elect if possible,” that spirit in the last day. Friends, we’re there.

55 It’s time for the prophets of God, oh, brother, for the preachers, if you would say it, across the nation, to fall on their face.

56 Why, though, there’s nineteen million Baptist churches…Nineteen million Baptists, rather, in America; thirteen million Methodists; eleven million Lutheran; ten million Presbyterian. Mercy, think of that! And constantly to ball game, to amusement. And on Wednesday night, and sometimes on Sunday night, stay home to listen to the television and the radio, of old short jabs and jokes they pull from Hollywood. Your soul is rolling on that kind of stuff.

57 When, you ought to have your Bible out somewhere, laying out before God, on your knees, a praying for the sins of the country.

58 And I’m guilty with you. I have made my mind up. By the help and grace of God, if our God will give me strength to do it, I’m determined to press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, till death shall set me free. God be my helper to do so! “Help me,” is my prayer. Seeing the works, and seeing the things that I have seen and you have seen, and lagging behind, and become a spiritual anemia.

59 And this tabernacle which is known throughout the entire world, this little concrete-block place sitting on the corner, God has lifted you up before the nation. Right.

60 I think of what David, one night, when he said, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, and the ark of my God dwells in the tent.” He said, “I’ll build Him an house.”

61 Nathan, the prophet, said, “Do all is in your heart, ’cause God is with you.”

62 That night, God appeared to Nathan and said, “Da-…Go tell David, ‘Who was you, David? You were…I took you from a sheepcote, from attending the sheep. And I made you a great name, like great men of the nation.’”

63 Who was it in this little tabernacle sitting here? A little old back-wash, kicked-out something sitting on the corner of Eighth and Penn Street, till hardly Jeffersonville knew where it was at, and the people that come here. And today, God, by His mercy, has picked you up and made you a great people. Bombay, India knows where this tabernacle is setting. Durban knew you; all these other nations. Africa knows where this place is; India, Germany, England, Finland, Sweden, Europe, Asia, they all, way down in the islands of Thailand, and down in there, they know all about it. And God has made us an example to the people. And to think, then, after God doing that, and we turn around and dillydally in the things of the world, and become a very spiritual anemia. Why, we ought to be the lighthouse that’s set on a hill, a candle that cannot be hid. O God! I’m as guilty as the rest of you.

64 What I mean, I want—I want an old-fashion, God-sent repentance, and a calling back to God, that when men and women walk in that door, on crutches, they’ll walk out without them. When the blind is led in the door, they’ll go out seeing. When the deaf comes in deaf, they’ll go out hearing. When sinners come in, black and smutty with sin, will go out, washed in the Blood of the Lamb. Can’t we do it? God called Israel and made them an example. God called us and made an example, but we have let down on God, and it blushes us in the Presence of God.

65 To think that, the things that He has done for us! How He’s lifted us up from the sheepcote! How He has made us known, all over the world! How He has done the great thing for us! And, yet, we dillydally, and mingle around and go out, and we’re not seem to be sincere. We don’t have prayer any more, and things just don’t, like, going right. And we’re try to put on little programs, corn plasters, to ease the pain. You can’t ease the pain until you get good, rich Blood in there to heal the thing. Right!

66 You cut an old corn out, and you’ll get yourself a diabetes, and it’ll take your foot off. Don’t try to dismiss this, and bypass this, and cut a corn plaster on this.

67 But the thing to do is come straight out before God, and say, “God, I am anemia, and I need Your Blood to cleanse me from all my sin.” That’s my prayer, trust that it’s yours.

68 Think of these things, friend. One of these days; it’s just as apt to happen before daylight in the morning, as it is to happen fifty years from today. One rocket bomb, one of those cobalt or hydrogen bomb could…The whole nation is on an alert.

69 You seen it in the paper the other day where they’re requiring science, the Pentagon, to answer the flying saucers. It wasn’t myth. It wasn’t something it imagined. It was real. It was an intelligence. They flew in battle formation. They could stop. They could start. They could stop. They could tell. It was an intelligence. They know it. The people laughed. They said, “Flying saucers?” made a fun out of it.

70 But you know what I’m thinking? Jesus said, before He comes, there will be signs in the Heaven above. Did you notice? Before He started, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sex affair, He sent Angels down to investigate it. Angels has come to the earth in the last few years. They’ve been seen among people; I mean, honest Blood-washed people who knows it. They’ve even stood and had their pictures taken. That’s right. Angelic Beings has visit, taking word back to the Father, that sin has heaped till the stars can hardly shine. [Brother Branham knocks on the pulpit five times—Ed.] The moon…The whole world is reeling like a drunk man coming in at night. Right.

71 Sin among the Christians, among the Elect! They’ve sold their birthrights out, for popularity. The minister has swapped the Gospel for a social party. He has swapped the old-fashion Blood-washed Gospel for intellectual with the people, to preach intellect, talk of society, and mis-use the Gospel. Many of them has went out into the fields, a preaching, and used the Gospel for personal gain, to make money. Many of them has got big barns and cars, and things that they never would have had, personal gain. Not all; I’m thankful that there is still a remnant.

72 In the days of Ezra, when Ezra begin to weep, and to call out and to rebuke the sin, you know what happened? All the elect, that trusted God, gathered around him.

73 What we need today is men and women…Your preachers is preaching, those churches, and call sin “sin,” and rebuke it, the real people of God would gather right up around you, and stay with you. That’s right. It’s time to call out, and say which is which, separate right from wrong. God grant it to us, that we’ll have the courage to do it.

74 Just think what could happen. As I was telling you, I believe, this morning, or heard someone say it, that upon…One of these watchers that’s watching; I forget what you call it now, for the bomb, or planes to come. Not long ago, there was a program come through somewhere, that they had called out the big fleets, with three hundred jet bombers with atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs hanging under them.

75 Not long ago, at the big airport in Shreveport; one of the boys was converted over there in the meetings at Brother Jack. He said, “We got atomic bombs hanging right in our hangars.”

I said, “Aren’t you…”

76 “In the…” I mean, “In the—in the planes; and we’d go up and practice with them, daily.”

I said, “Aren’t you afraid?”

77 Said, “They haven’t got the triggers in them. But we’re so on the alert, that within the space of a minute, sixty-seconds, we could have the triggers in there and gone. And fueled up and ready, they could fly to England with them, immediately.”

78 The great hangars are setting out in the oceans, everywhere. And they’re saying to Russia, “Dare you drop one bomb! Just drop one atomic bomb on the U.N. or somewhere there, and look what happen!”

79 What will it be? It’ll be an onslaught go to Russia. And if they would do that, and start dropping those atomic and hydrogen bombs, it would cause a chain reaction that would burn the earth to—to a wick, just in smelt. You know, it wouldn’t disagree with Scripture a bit. “For the earth shall burn, and the heaven, too.” The atoms of the earth shall burn.

80 We are living in a dangerous day. We’re living in a day when men of the world are scared to death. The great men, they’re—they’re afraid who is going to burst that first bomb. The first bomb that goes off, then the whole thing goes into a—a rally.

81 It ought to be the happiest time in the world for the Christian. Times are going to change. The old is going to become young. Oh, my! Death is going to fleet away. Sickness will be no more. No more prayer meetings for the sick. No more prayer meetings for the lost. But God shall come and take the Elect from the four winds of the earth, and shall gather them under His own wing, and we’ll live and reign with Him forever in His Heaven.

82 Oh, brother, sister, friend of mine, if you’re not prepared tonight, may you be prepared at this hour. I give you an invitation to come to Christ Jesus, tonight, and receive. You that’s been different, you that know that you are not where you should be with God, I invite you to the altar with myself. I invite every one of you to come here, and not only to say, but to stay here until God has cleansed your soul from everything that’s unlike Him, until you can go out of here a new person. Not with a corn plaster on, but go out of here with a Blood transfusion that purifies your blood and gives you new Life and new hope. Go out with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Go out, not shouting, not dancing, not so much…Them things are all right. They all belong in the Church. They all belong in the Bible. But what I’m talking about is the Holy Spirit, God’s love.

83 A young man was talking to me the other day. His mother, a dear woman. I’ve knowed the woman, met her once or twice. And she said, “Oh, honey,” to her boy, “come here, I want you to look. I have the oil in my hand.” Well, I have, too. It’s where I been sweating. Now, said, “I got oil in my hand.” Said, “What do you think of that?”

84 And the boy looked at his mother, and said, “Mother, I want to ask you something.” She was want him to pray, want him to pray that she’d have a closer walk with God. He said, “When the oil come in your hand, did it take away all your condemnation? Did it give you a sweet experience with God, when the oil…”

“No.”

Said, “Then I’d leave it alone.” That’s it.

85 Oh, the world, the religious world, the pentecostal people, are looking for fantastic. The world, the educated (so-called) world, the denominational world, is looking for some great solution that they can en-better their denomination and get more members into it, “a million more,” you know.

86 And the—the nations are looking for some kind of a police force that can bring all the world to their knees, and bring righteousness.

87 Brother, it doesn’t come by pentecostal fantastic. Neither does it come by Protestant organizations or by Catholic hierarchy. Neither does it come by pentagons, or turning new pages. It comes by a surrendered life to Jesus Christ, through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Anything short of that, it’s wrong.

Let us pray.

88 I’ll ask our sister to come to the organ there, the piano, at this time. While we’re in prayer, while every person has their head bowed, and every person in prayer. I wonder, at this moment, if you would test your spirit against the Word of God. Are you right?

89 After this service, as I told you. I got a mother-in-law laying yonder, at the very point of death. I got to see her. She is dying. Other friends, that I know of here, that I visit, that’s laying at the point of death, people who has sit in this church. Oh, brother, sister, you’re coming down there, too. You got to come down there.

90 Now, you say, “Well, I—I know that, Brother Branham. I’m aiming to get that thing fixed up, some of these days.” But it may not be “some of these days,” for you. This may be the only day.

91 How little did that man know, coming from California, going to Michigan, the other day, with his little wife up here, driving the—the car; him in the pick-up, going to their new home. He had just retired from the Navy. How well did he know when he started off that morning, maybe from a tourist port, that his wife and baby would be a corpse in a few minutes? But, just above Henryville there, their car collided with a bus. And the driver made the—the…his vehicle do a jack-knife, almost, but it killed the woman and the little girl. I trust that their soul was right with God.

92 A few weeks ago, when Brother Wood and I went up here to an airplane that fell back behind the place here, and watching them pull pieces of eight men’s body, when heads and legs and arms was all over the place. Picking up the body, and the entrails falling out of the man’s body; a good man, perhaps, a famous man from Chicago. When that man got in the plane that morning, I wonder the night that he went to church, if he had good intentions. Did the pastor give an altar call? Did he rebuke sin, and the man had a chance? Or did he go out like an animal? Was the man, in the sight of God, a son of God?

93 Think of those things, friends. They are important. They are not only important, they’re the most important thing to you this hour. This is the time when you’ll make up your mind. This is the time when you may make your decision of this life, for the life hereafter. May you do it while we pray.

94 Heavenly Father, as we read in the Bible of what You said about sin, and those who do it and not confess. We realize what it means to die without knowing God. We know that by experience of others, that we have seen go. Those who intended, those who put it off too long. God, those who have professed and not possessed what they said they had. Those who had acted like Christians, and yet never was a Christian. Their life proved it, and their death made it manifest.

95 Now, Father, I pray that You’ll speak to every heart here tonight. And myself, Lord, for being dilatory, for many things that I could have done and did not do, I confess my wrong. I confess the wrongs of this people. I confess the wrongs of this nation. I ask You to have mercy, Lord. I’ve got three little children there to raise. And we’re living here on a hot spot, and, God, there’s no need of running. You know all about it. God, I want to be right with You.

96 Someday, if the atomic bomb don’t get us, a wreck will. If a wreck don’t get us, some disease will. Something has got to take us. But we’re so happy to know that there is a way of escape. “The Name of the Lord is a—is a tower, and the righteous run in thereat and are safe.” God, may the sinner friend, tonight, boy, girl, man or woman, see the open door, the opportunity, and run to Christ this hour.

97 Now while we have our heads bowed, is there some here, or, I know there is some here that would like to say, with an uplifted hand to God, “I’m ashamed of my life. And I—I want to confess my wrongs before God, and ask for mercy.” Raise up your hand to God. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. There’s many of you, many of you. Yeah. There’s many of you here, too, that…God bless you.

98 Many of you here, who has professed Christianity for a long time, and know that you have failed to toe the line with God, know that you’re doing things right now that you ought not to do. And you’re going, unconfessing them, just loosely floating along with the tide. Looking at the kind of programs you should not look at. Look at the kind of magazines and reading the literature that you should not read. It’s not becoming to Christians. Listening to the jokes of vile—vile and dirt and smut that you know you shouldn’t do; both men and women. You know of places where you could have spoke and did not do it, and you’re guilty, maybe, the sin of omission.

99 I wonder if you’d raise your hand to Christ, to have mercy on you, and forgive you. Raise your hand. God bless you, young lady; as the woman walked out, to come to the altar, to confess hers. Raise your hand to God. God bless you. That’s right, mister. That’s right. God bless you. Raise your hand. You know you done wrong.

100 I wonder if you have the courage, tonight, to meet me here at the altar. Let’s kneel around here and say, “God, be merciful to all of us. We’re in need of You.” God bless you, lady.

101 To see these young women coming, weeping, life before them! They’re at the crossroads. They are victim of circumstances. What? Do you realize, old men, when we were boys, our boys has got ten times the temptation that we had? Sister, do you realize that your daughter has ten times the temptation you had when you was a girl? What will her daughter have? Look at the things, the pictures the devil is a painting.

102 Oh, how we need to pray! Now we’ll go back to you again. Brother, do you realize we don’t pray half as much as our fathers did? Pastor, do you know we don’t put as much time on our knees as the pastors before us did? Women, do you realize you don’t instruct your daughter, and pray with her at night, like your mother did you? Then, what about it, who is guilty? We are guilty. There is no way around it. We are guilty.

103 I’m guilty. I’m guilty of not doing the job of God, like I should do. I’m confessing it, that I’m wrong. I’m asking God to be merciful to me. I look out here and see the opportunities I have missed, because of petty things, little, old insignificant things that didn’t mean nothing. I’m ashamed of myself, as a Gospel minister before you. I repent before God, and ask God to forgive me, and the church to forgive me, for being so dilatory about the work of God. By the grace of God, and by the help of God, I’ll—I’ll not listen to what…Everyone trying to tell you something to do. They got a program. They got something for you to do. Nonsense. I know God’s program; it’s written out here in the Bible. And I’m ashamed of myself as a minister of the Gospel. One million souls won; I ought to have ten million souls won. I’m a way behind.

104 What about you? How many souls you won since you’ve been in Christ? Christianity just goes from one to another. How many souls you won since you been a Christian? If you’re not winning souls, you are guilty, you are barren, you have brought shame on the Church and the Gospel. How many people you get out for Wednesday night prayer meeting? If you’re not doing it, you ought to be ashamed of yourself before Christ. You’re guilty, and your place is at the altar. I invite you to come with me, for repentance. [Brother Branham pauses—Ed.]

105 Then will you bow your heads, and keep it bowed a minute, while I feel my guilt and would like to repent. Just bow your head. [Brother Branham leaves the pulpit and kneels at the altar—Ed.]

106 Our Heavenly Father, I bow upon this altar and ask forgiveness of my sin. I ask forgiveness of the sins of those who are around the altar. I ask forgiveness for this church, for the body—for the body of believers nationally and internationally. I ask for mercy for us, being so dilatory concerning the things of the Kingdom. I ask that You’ll pardon us of our sins, and take away our—our—our transgression. And forgive us for being so stupid, for the stupidity of the people. How we have come short! How we have taken bodily exercise! How we have done things that we ought not to have done! How we have sinned before You!

107 And on this Sunday night meeting, Father, seeing the blushing prophet of the Bible, we blush tonight. I blush before You, because of the sins of the people. The people, my nation, my people, I’ve been ashamed of them, Lord. To see our young ladies walking the streets and acting the way they are! To see the prostitution, the young men living in—in all kinds of life! See them staying home from the church, and reading old magazines they ought not to read! Looking at uncensored programs! Listening to Hollywood’s dirty jokes! Listening to old boogie-woogie music of the devil, that’s hatched out from men that’s of ill-fame and got vile conscience, the devil’s influence, to inspire the works of the devil on!

108 O God, I’m ashamed of myself for not rebuking in the way that I should. O God, take away my guilt. I ask You to do it. I ask You to forgive these people that’s here, first, us all. Help us to raise from this altar as new men and women. Help us to go from here as Christians ought to go.

109 Help us to “Lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race that’s set before us.” Looking not to the television, not looking to the comedians of the world, but, “Looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who despised the shame of the cross and bore it for us, and suffered without the gate, that He might sanctify the people with His Blood.”

110 Cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and take us as Thy own children, tonight, and receive us in this prayer of repentance. And give us, Lord, peace and joy. And may all beds, tonight, as we lay, thinking of this night’s meeting, may we think of the conditions of the world, that the Bible has revealed to us now. May we, as we think of it, our faces struck out for shame, and may You bring peace and happiness to every heart. We are repenting, Lord, before Thee, on this altar.

111 God, help me as I’m breaking forth now, by faith, and praying that it’s in Your will, that many, many, many hundreds of people may be won for Thee. And help me to have faith and courage, as I move on; not looking to anyone but to Thee, the Author and Finisher of our faith. God, grant it.

112 Forgive every deacon of this church. Forgive the pastor. Forgive the lay members, Lord. Forgive everyone, of all of our sins. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive every stranger in our gate. And may we feel the impact of the Holy Spirit on our life, because we are humble before Thee, tonight, repenting with all of our heart, that You’ll receive us and make us a humble, quiet, sanctified, humble people for Your service. Grant this blessing, Lord, at the altar we’re upon. Give it. And bow our head and hearts before Thee. In the Name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, we ask this. Amen, and amen.

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,

And it told Thy love to me;

How I long to rise in the arms of faith,

And be closer drawn to Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,

To the cross where Thou hast died;

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,

To Thy precious, bleeding side.

113 Along the altar, tonight, among my brethren that’s up here on the altar, I’m glad to see, tonight, about as many as men as there is women. Usually, it’s the women that can easily break. Their hearts, there’s something about them, can easily be touched because of the feminish. And they’re—they’re ladies, and you can sometimes touch them. But I’m so glad to see the Holy Spirit can touch men, too, and bring them to the altar.

114 And I wonder how many of you at the altar, that’s knelt now, that feels that you have made a consecration to God, that you’re going out of here tonight, to live a better life, by the grace of God, and to do more for the Kingdom of God, and for His cause. Would you raise your hand to Christ, if you’re around the altar, say, “I believe that now I have repented.” May God bless you.

115 How many of you back there feel that you repented in your seat; feel like you want to do better? God bless you.

Now let us stand.

116 You here at the altar, face around that way, if you will. Now, you here at the altar, raise your hands out there, that you desire their prayer, that you may continue on. Will you raise your hands to the ones in the audience? All right. Now you raise your hands back here, at the altar here, that you may desire their prayer, too. That we’ll…God will help us to do. May the Lord Jesus bless us.

Now, don’t forget the Sunday night service.

117 Have you a word to say, Brother Neville? [Brother Neville speaks to Brother Branham—Ed.] Tuesday and Wednesday night…Where is that mission located? [Brother Neville answers.] 1628 West Market, this coming Tuesday and Wednesday night.

118 And then on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be at Madisonville, Kentucky, at the auditorium there. And then we go on up into New York.

119 Now, the reason we’re letting out early, I got a mother-in-law that’s very, very ill, and they’re calling for me. Now let us…

120 You got a word to say, Brother Neville? [Brother Neville says, “No.”—Ed.] Nothing.

121 Let us bow our heads just a moment, while we pray. All right. Slowly now:

God be with you till we meet again! By… 

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