La Loi Qui Possède Une Ombre
E-1 Thank you, Brother...?...
Good evening, friends. It's a privilege to be here in Binghamton
tonight representing our Lord Jesus Christ, and His love to all
mankind. It's a--an odd thing of me being here. I was fixing to go
somewhere else, and just in a spur of a moment, something happened that
I come to Binghamton. And I don't understand it yet.
We just come back from overseas, from India, son and I. Then I'd had a
little meeting down at Owensboro, Kentucky, with the Assemblies of God.
And we was down there a few nights, come from there and was many
places, as you know how it is the... So many of God's children are sick
and needy. And I'd kinda purposed in my heart to just preach the Gospel
awhile and let the healing go for a little bit; not saying I'd let it
go, but make, relax, and so I can talk to people... Usually under that
terrific anointing of the Holy Spirit... There's many of you has
probably all been in the meetings, I--I'm... kinda has an awful effect
upon me, weakening me and so forth. And I've never had the chance just
to shake hands with ministers, and get acquainted, and so forth. I just
going to take a little time around just kinda getting acquainted with
everyone. We might as well get acquainted here; we have to know each
other up there a long time. Don't we? So we just might as well get used
to each other here.
E-2 And usually in that type of
meeting is, they keep me fastened in a room. You know how it is. And
come and knock at the door, and you're by yourself all day long, and
all night long, and into the meeting... And 'course, everybody you
meet, you start talking to them; there starts the vision. You see? So
then it's just tears you up for the meeting that's coming in the
evening.
So we've taken this time just to go around, visit our brethren, many of
them calling from different parts of the nation.
And Mr. Boze in Chicago... They have the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, and
then they had the inside sports arena there for the--for the service.
And Mr. Boze had just come down. I was just about ready to go over and
tell him, all right. And he was at the airport. And I put on my coat,
and started to walk out the door, and when I did the phone rang at the
house. And--and so we got four phones we can answer on, so I just
stepped back and picked up the phone, and it was Mr. Gardner of the
city here, one of the Christian Business Men. And so I knew him well,
and he said, "Come up and have a meeting for us, Brother Branham."
E-3 And I said, "Well, Brother
Gardner, I..." you know, I said, "I'm just going over to the airport to
meet Mr. Boze for a meeting in Chicago or something." I said, "I don't
know what they'd do. I've kinda been moody for the last few days not
knowing which way to turn."
And he said, "Well, our church has been fasting and praying." And
Something said to me, "You'd better go up there." So here I am. So
I--I'm just kinda on your hands now. I don't know just what to do. And
I come up to minister, to speak of the Word of the Lord.
Our Brother Smith here, I've met him, your pastor, a lovely brother. I
don't say that because I'm standing in his pulpit, but he is. And then
the brother from New York, who was our singer, I've met him before. And
meeting many of the different Christian Business Men today, and it's
been a great time since I've been in Binghamton the last two days.
And I've always been a little partial of New York. I like New York.
It's one of my favorite states in the union. And I'm--I'm thought
someday I would like to live up here at one of these lakes.
E-4 When I was a little boy... I--I like to hunt, and my conversion never took it out of me. I still like to hunt. So I... New York is one of my favorite states. And now, up around Lake Placid and up in the Adirondack, you know. And I think it's just one of the garden spots of the world, to my opinion. And I like good cold weather. And I'm initiated right tonight. So we just... I like it real well, better than I do the hot weather of the south. And your people here are nice, and I have always been treated so nice in New York. My uncle lives at Plattsburg up here and my wife's sister lives at White Plains, and so I have many things in common in New York.
E-5 So it's a great privilege
tonight to be here in this lovely church with this lovely group of
people, to minister to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus. And I--I
don't sit and make itineraries, because my meetings are just a little
sometimes a little different; not I don't mean for it to be that way,
but just, God deals with individuals different ways. And sometimes I
been right in meetings where ten thousand people gathered and He'd pull
me away to one person somewhere. And so I just have to kinda follow the
leading of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that we all understand that as
Christians (Don't we?) to follow the leading of the Spirit.
So we don't know just what will take place. I'm... So I... I'm just
here. That's all. And whatever He leads, well, that's the way it'll go
on, I suppose.
E-6 Thank you for your kindness
of coming out tonight, the opening night, the first time in this
country that probably, you know, we may be just a little curious and so
forth; and let's shake that away from us tonight, and just let the Lord
speak to us and tell us what He wants us to do. And--and if He wants me
to stay more than these two or three nights, that's all right.
I'll--I'll just want to stay till He says,"I want you to go over
somewhere else, to Macedonia." And so that's the way I like it; and I'm
sure we all do that, being--by loving our Lord Jesus, and being His
servant.
And now... We have just returned from India, to a wonderful, successful
trip. Coming up a few moments ago, when they started singing that song,
"Only Believe," oh, I just think of how many times that's called me to
the platform the last few years, thousands of times.
E-7 And in India, we had a great meeting. And we preached and had a Divine healing service, right in the shadows of the Vatican and in Rome. And in Portuguese, went on into from Lisbon, on down into Egypt and to, then over into India. Where I--I think our greatest audience was in India that we ever had. We couldn't even see them. It was estimated around five hundred thousand people at the meetings. So it was much larger than the African meeting where there was about a... Oh, we could put about fifty or seventy-five thousand inside the racetrack, then you couldn't see down the streets and up-and-down what was... The people were there. Our Lord Jesus was great to us there. And--and the thing that thrilled my heart more than the thousands of healings and the miracles that our Lord Jesus done, was to see thirty-thousand raw heathens come to Jesus Christ at one altar call. Thirty-thousand people who had never accepted Christ before, worshipped idols and so forth, come to the Lord Jesus at one time. Now, just about imagine how you'd felt. You just felt like you could cry, or, well, you felt kind of religious, you know, and kinda like you would just... real good. Missionaries weeping, laying on the ground, and so it was really a marvelous time.
E-8 God might not give us that
many converts, but He will be with us here at Binghamton. Don't you
think so? Right here, He loves us just as well as He loves those people
over there and in denominations. 'Course, we--we don't--we don't
represent any denomination, perfectly interdenominational. I was...
My people before me were Irish, which were Catholic. I was converted,
and joined an--a Baptist church which I was licensed and ordained under
the Missionary Baptist church, in a Southern Baptist convention. And
then we... After that, well, I... The Lord appeared to me to pray for
His children, and it was a little misunderstood with the Baptist
church. And so... I'd thought, surely, if God wanted me to pray for His
children, He'd--He'd have somebody who believed it. So I got over with
the Pentecostal people, and it was just like putting a glove on your
hand. It would just fit right in, because they believed in such, so I
was just right at home.
E-9 And I was always kinda
misunderstood as a boy. I... You--you've read my life story, perhaps,
how He appeared to me and said, "Don't never drink or smoke and so
forth..." Now, some of you here might smoke, and still say you're
Chris... that's up to you, see I'm not saying those things. He told me
not to. So I'm not to smoke or anything and defile myself in the way of
immoral living, that there's a work for me to do when I got older.
And among my brothers, I, my associates I was kind of a misfit. And
then when I joined the Baptist church, they thought I had a little too
much religion, I guess. So I was kind of a misfit. So I... You know
what they say, "Birds of a feather..." So when I got over here I--I was
just right at home then. So I've been feeling good about it ever since.
And I love to have this time of fellowship.
E-10 Now, I think that the Bible
is the Word of God. And I--I believe that all, everything must be based
on the Bible, any subjects, whatever it may be. It's... And people many
times different with me, my, but that doesn't bother me. I--I--I love
them just the same. You see? And they're still my brothers and sisters,
and I don't fall out with anyone.
And I just had a entertainment in India, where seventeen different
religions anti-christian met with me in the Sikh--in the Jains temple.
And they're seventeen different religions antichrist. Oh, I never
fussed with them. I just let them express theirs, and then the Lord
vindicated what I was talking about that night. So thousands times
thousands and thousands of them came to Jesus Christ that one--one
meeting. You see? So it's the thing...
E-11 A man can make a statement;
he can be wrong, because he's just a man. We're all subject to
mistakes. But when God makes a statement that's truth. See?
That's--that's truth.
And now, until we get acquainted, and see what the Lord wants us to do,
I feel if we just read some of His Word and talk about That tonight...
We don't want to keep you too long in the meetings at night. The Lord
may give us a great service of evangelism. He may give us a healing
service. We don't know. What ever He does we'll say, "Amen, dear Lord,
that's right."
Now, there's many, any of us that is able to hold a Bible could open It
like this, but there's nobody really can open It but the Lord. See? For
you remember in the vision in Revelations, He saw One setting on the
throne? And He had the Book in His hand, and no man in heaven, or in
earth, or beneath the earth was worthy to take the Book, or to even
look on It, or open the seals of It. And a Lamb that had been slain
from the foundation of the world, came and taken the Book out of the
right-hand of Him that sets up on a Throne and open it and loosed the
Seal, for He was worthy, and that's the Lamb of God, the Author of this
Book. So before we try to open It, shall we speak to the Author of this
Book while we bow our heads.
E-12 Our kind, loving Father, we
come to Thee tonight in the humility of Spirit, and ask forgiveness of
our sins, as Thou through Thy mercy will be grateful to us to forgive
us of all of our sins and our trespasses. And now, heavenly Father, we
ask this through, and approach through the Name of the Lord Jesus, for
we have no other way of assurance. But He has told us, "Whatever you
ask the Father in My Name that will I do." Then we are sure of having
a--a little time with You, if we'll only ask in His Name, we know that
You will hear.
So, Father, we pray now that in His Name You'll forgive every one of us
of our sins and trespasses against Thee. And if there be any sin in our
lives, take it out, Father. We--we don't want it to be there, for it
would just corrupt our--our journey here on earth, and we'd fail at the
end. So we pray that You will forgive us of every short coming, and let
the Blood of Thy Son the Lord Jesus cleanse us tonight from all
unrighteousness.
Bless this little church, Father, the members, the pastor, all of its
workers, and the churches that's represented here. Bless the cities,
Father, here and the surrounding about.
E-13 And we pray that You'll
send the Holy Spirit, and may He go through these cities and comb out,
and put a mark upon the people. Grant it, Father. And may this be a
marking, and a separating, time among Thy people, that men that's got a
desire in their heart to serve Thee may come close to Thee. May the
hearts of the saints be filled with the Holy Spirit. Grant it. And may
sinners find pardoning grace at the altar of their hearts. Grant it,
Lord.
Now, if it be Thy will for us to have services, the healing of the
sick, or anything that Thou would have for us to do, manifest it to us,
Lord; give us the witness of it, appear and show us. We're just here,
Father, moving slowly and waiting to see what You will do.
Now, we commit all these things, these blessings into Thy hands. And
now, come, Lord Jesus, and take the Word. May the Holy Spirit carry It
to every heart just as we have need of tonight. And when we leave, may
we say like them of old who came from Emmaus, "Did not our hearts burn
within us because of the Lord Jesus speaking to us?" For we ask it in
His Name and for His glory. Amen.
E-14 This is a brand new thing for me to start teaching in the Word. Now, years ago as the pastor up at the tabernacle, as a Baptist minister we used to have great classes; and we would run them maybe a series of subjects for a--a complete year: start in the Book of Genesis and just tie the Bible together. And start in the Book with Exodus and run it, the Book of Daniel, wherever... And maybe the Book of Revelations, and just take the entire book, where it... from place to place. And all of God's Word is written by inspiration. There's not a contradiction in the entire Bible. If there is I want to see it. It's nothing in there that's written that cannot be straightened out by the Word of God, if it's rightly put in its place. But we'll never do it by--by man's understanding. The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. And the Holy Spirit is the only One Who can interpret the Bible. And He will give it to us as we have need.
E-15 Now, in the Scripture
tonight, that I was thinking of as coming down here was a... Read some
out and teach a little, if the Lord willing, out of the Book of
Hebrews. One of my favorite places in the Scripture is this great Book,
because it's a--it's a separating.
And now, in the 10th chapter we'll begin and read just awhile, and see
what the Holy Spirit has for us, trusting that He will bless every
heart of every believer, and if there'd be any unbeliever that they
will become believers tonight.
Now, this great Book of the Book of Hebrews, where scholars are in
difference of It, who wrote It... Myself, it sounds to me like It was
Saint Paul's writing. It sounds like his--his technique, the way he
approached the Gospel. Now, in here he's writing to the Hebrews. And in
here, being the Hebrews lived under the law, it's a good thing to begin
right here for it starts:
... the law having a
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of those things,
can never with those sacrifices which were offered year by year
continually make the comer unto perfect.
E-16 Now, the law having a shadow... Many times you've heard people refer to the 23rd Psalm saying, "Yea, though I walk through the dark shadows, or the valley of the dark..." We always use a dark in there; it's not. See? The valley of the shadow, not the dark shadows, or the dark valley; it's the valley of the shadow of death. Now, showing that if it's got a shadow there has to be a certain percent of it light, or it wouldn't make a shadow. So if in death itself is just a shadow... In other words it's a scarecrow to the believer, trying to scare him when there's enough light mixed into it to show that there's light somewhere. And now the law having a shadow of things to come...
E-17 In the 12th chapter of Revelations we would read where the woman appeared in the sky, and she was in travail to give birth to a child, and the moon was under her feet, and the sun was at her head. Now, the... That represented the law. The Church, of course was... The woman was the Church, and the moon under her feet represented the law, and the sun at her head represented the dispensation of grace. And the moon is the shadow of the sun. The moon and the sun represent Christ and the Church. In other words, the moon and the sun is husband and wife, that when the--the moon, only is reflecting the shadow of the sun. The sun is shining on the moon; it gives, reflects the light to the earth when it's dark.
E-18 Now, as Christ went away, like the sun when it sets the moon comes up to give a light until the sun returns. But when the sun returns, the moon just fades out, and the sun makes the light. And that's the same thing it is with law and grace. Law was to reflect, or shadow, of the light until the Light came, and the Light was the Lord Jesus. And law faded out (See?), when the Light taken its place. Now, but the moon in there, there was enough in the reflection to reflect the light, showing that there was a hope, and a blessed place to go to after life was over, for the law reflected that in the Light of the Gospel. Now, the moon is to give light while it's dark, in the absence of the sun.
E-19 And now, the Church is to
give the Light, a lesser Light, in the absence of the Lord. And then
when the light, as the moon is shining, and the sun comes into the
moon, they both blend together, and it makes one light, so will it be
when the Lord Jesus returns. The Light that the Church has reflected...
And the same Jesus, the same works, the same Light, the same thing that
He did when He was here on earth is reflected by His Church, showing
that He is living somewhere.
When I look out tonight and can see the moon a shining, the stars
shining, the lesser light, when I can see that, it's a guarantee of one
thing: that the sun's shining somewhere. That's right.
E-20 Not long ago, a few years ago, I used to pastor the Milltown Baptist church. And I would go home at night out to some friends I stayed with, way out in the country. And we'd pass by an old cedar bush, come up over the hill. And way down in southern Indiana is our rolling country like you have here. And there used to be a nightingale. I guess you have them here. And they... He would sing all night long; and I just love to hear that bird. And as I would pass by at night, I hear him; he would sing all night. I notice on a cloudy night he would sing awhile, then he would stop awhile. Then he'd sing awhile, and he'd stop awhile; and after while he'd cut loose and sing again. So I got to studying the nature of the nightingale. And he sits at night looking at heaven, heavens, heavenly. And as he looks up that way, he'd watch for the stars, and when he could see nothing he'd sing not, but when he could see one star shining, he'd look straight to that star and begin singing. I thought, "What a lesson." There you are.
E-21 Oh, if I could walk out
tonight and ask the stars, "Little star what makes you shine?"
If that little star could speak back to me, he'd say, "Brother Branham,
it isn't me shining; it's the sun shining on me that's making me shine."
That's the way it is with any borned again Christian, when they have
giving a life of testimony or doing something like that, giving their
testimony, living a life for Christ. It is not the individual; it's the
Holy Spirit reflecting back His Light on the individual, making him a
Light to shine.
And as long as that nightingale could see one star shining, he will
sing. And I... Excuse this expression. But as long as I can hear a good
hardy amen, once in a while, I know Christ still lives and reigns in
His Church. When you can hear something that reflects something about
the Gospel, a reflection back, coming back...
Oh, how you can watch God if you just watch the elements of nature.
E-22 Here sometime ago, I was up
in the mountains, and I went by an old spring that I always drink from
when I go up there. And this was the happiest spring I ever seen in my
life. It just bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble all the time. And I
thought, "Little spring, what makes you so happy? Why are you bubbling
and jumping all the time?" I thought, "Maybe because deers drink from
you is what makes you bubble and jump."
If he could speak, he'd say, "No, Brother Branham, that isn't why I'm
jumping."
I'd say, "Well now, maybe because bear come by once in a while and
drink from you; maybe that's what's makes you bubble and jump."
He'd just speak back, he'd say, "No, Brother Branham."
I'd say, "Well, maybe it's because I'm drinking at you, what make you
bubble and jump."
He'd say, "No, that isn't it."
I'd say, "Well, what makes you so happy and jumping all the time?"
If he could speak he'd say, "Brother Branham, the reason I'm a jumping,
it's not me; it's something behind me pushing me, making me jump." And
that's the--the force of the water spraying up.
E-23 And so is every man and
woman that's borned of the Spirit of God, the instant you've become
changed, there's something about you that something has moved in, made
you a different person. You look on life different; you look at things
different. It isn't you that's a bubbling. It's something within you
pushing it out. It's Christ pushing out the testimony and the life. And
it all comes back to Christ.
The law having a shadow of things to come could not make the comer
perfect. What's the subject Paul's speaking of here? Perfection. God
requires perfection. No one could ever come to heaven outside of being
perfect...?... perfect. You must be perfect. And yet the Scripture says
none is perfect. So if you must be perfect to come to heaven then...
And the Scripture says none is perfect, and we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God, how are we ever going to enter God's living
place and dwelling place, when He requires perfection? Jesus said, I
believe in the, in Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Be ye therefore
perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Think of the
perfection that God requires of the person: a perfection.
E-24 Cain was first given in the
garden of Eden, the man was in a perfect state. After while he fell,
and then he marred his perfection. He marred his inheritance with God,
lost his--his fellowship and was cut off away from God. When I think of
perfection, then how could we ever be perfect?
Now, the writer here said, these sacrifices which was offered every
year continually could never make the comer unto perfect. The
requirement is perfection, and the sacrifice of animal life could never
make the comer perfect.
Animal life, the blood of animals, goats, heifers, sheep, so forth was
animal blood, and in the bloodstream lays life. Life is in the blood
cell. Life lays in blood.
E-25 Here a few weeks ago, when
the Sikh or the Jains, rather, with a something over their mouths so
they'd never breathe a gnat. They thought if they breathed a gnat,
killed it, it might be some of their relations that was came back in
the form of insects. And they swept their way as they wanted to be sure
they stepping on an ant or something.
I said, "How could that people ever accept the blood sacrifice, and
would not even kill an ant, or wouldn't even sterilize a knife when
they'd cut one of their fingers off in a operation, because they was
afraid they'd kill a germ that was on the knife." Could you imagine? I
said, "Where does the basis of your religion lay?"
E-26 He said, "On man." All on
own goodness, all on work, no grace. You see? All on goodness, what a
man can do. If a man lives good enough he'd be God himself, if he could
live good enough.
I said, "Look. Life lays in the blood cell. And without the shedding of
blood there's no remission of sin; innocent substitute has to take a
guilty sinner's place." Oh, I want you to get this now.
Notice, an innocent substitute must take the guilty one's place. And it
happened in Eden that same way; that when Adam sinned he cut off his
fellowship with God the Father. And when he had sinned, before he could
stand before God, God had to kill some sheep, perhaps, whatever it was,
and make a covering. Blood had to be offered in substance, because the
blood's where life laid, and God required life at sin.
E-27 Sin's judgment is to take
life. Notice, how people now can look and see that's how we believe so
supremely in the Blood of the Lord Jesus. Jesus, I used to think was a
Jew, or He was Jewish blood. He was borned of a Jewish mother, but He
wasn't Jewish blood. Neither was He Gentile blood; He was the Blood of
God. See? God the Father overshadowed the virgin Mary and created a
Blood cell in the womb, that brought forth the Son Christ Jesus. You
see what I mean? Every male... The blood cell comes out of the male.
Like the hen can lay the egg, but it isn't fertile unless she's been
with the male bird. And I've often said this, not for a joke, 'cause I
don't believe it in the platform, but as an expression. You take an old
mother bird can lay a nest full of eggs, and she can hover them; she
can turn them; she can be so loyal with them until she set on the nest
till she get so poor she can't fly off the nest, so loyal to those
eggs. But unless that mother bird has been with the male bird, they'll
never hatch. They're not fertile.
That's the way it is with a lot of churches today. You can get a bunch
of people, you can baby them, and this, and that, and the other and
whatever you want to, but if they haven't been with Christ Jesus and
borned again, you just got a nest full of rotten eggs; that's all.
That's right.
E-28 It's time to clean out and
get a hold of something, or somebody who's been in contact with the
Lord Jesus Christ, and been borned again. You'll never be able to get
them believing the supernatural, 'cause there's nothing in them to
believe with. Amen. Now, that's not skim milk. Look, that's right. A
man must be borned again by the Spirit of God, and then the [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] Spirit of the Creator
Himself comes into the individual and claims relationship as sonship.
You see it? Then that person is an offspring of God, and God Who spoke
the worlds into existence, and this man's an offspring off Him. He can
believe anything. All things are possible unto him, for he believes
he's a part of God. He's a son of God or a daughter of God.
Say, "You believe in Divine healing?"
"Certainly, God said so. Yes, sir."
"Do you believe in being born...?"
"Sure. Yes, sir, God said so." They'd believe anything. Anything God
says that's all right, because God's Word will be made...
E-29 Any Divine promise in this
Bible will come to pass, if you'll believe it will. The right mental
attitude towards any Divine promise will bring it to pass. Notice, then
how we ever going to get to heaven?
I want to ask you tonight if you only belong to church here, if you've
never really been borned again, I want to ask you how you going to
heaven and the Bible said you must be perfect? And the law testified of
perfection. The law having a shadow could never make the believer
perfect. Then how you going to be perfect?
E-30 Notice, in the Old Testament the believer, when he come and he went out, John Doe, and maybe committed adultery, told a lie or something. He came with a lamb. How the great lamb testified the Lamb slain the foundation of the world. The first thing, the lamb must be perfect. The lamb must be without a blemish for the sin offering. Could you imagine that? A lot of people think... I know there's people in this city, "Well, I could be a Christian if I'd just could quit this. If I--I could just be a better man. If I could be a better woman." You'll never be better in that estate. You can never get better until something comes in you to make you better, and then you're borned again. See? You can't do it.
E-31 Just like under the old law, if a little say, the--the mother horse gave birth to a little baby mule down there, and the little fellow was borned with his ears broke down, cross-eyed, knock -kneed what a horrible looking creature... If... Anyone here that ever plowed knows what a broken eared mule is. See? Oh, he's no good for nothing. And you would look at him, and say, "Well, if the little fellow could see and understand he'd look and say, 'Well, it won't be long, they'll never feed me. When he come out... The master of the place here comes out, finds me, he will just knock me in the head and throw me over in the ditch, because I'll never be no use. Look at me; I'm--I'm no good at all. Look at my ears are broken down; my eyes are crossed; my knees are knocked together; I can't even walk straight. I'm a horrible person.'"
E-32 But if the old mother was rightly instructed, she'd say, "But wait a minute, son. Let me tell you something. The priest will never see you, but the man of the house, when he comes out this morning and sees you were borned under a birthright. You're the first one; you have a birthright. So the master will have to go and get a lamb that'll have to be examined by the priest without a blemish, and he will have to die in your place so you can live. Why, the little fellow could, my, kick up his heels, and run, and have a big time; why, the--the--he's never going to see him. The priest isn't going to see him. The priest is going to examine the lamb, to see if there's any fault in the lamb, not the mule, the lamb, because the mule was born with a birthright. Oh, my, I begin to feel religious...?... See?
E-33 God never examines the
believer for you're dead, and your life is hid in God through Christ,
sealed by the Holy Spirit. God looks at the Lamb. Christ died in your
stead, the Lamb, without a blemish. Notice, this little old mule then
he could have a good time.
Here sometime ago, just a little farmer, he was a--a good farmer. He
didn't have much of a barn, and he didn't have much to work with, but
he was an industrious man. Reminds me of some of pastors maybe, might
not have very big church, or very much this way, but they're
industrious. They like to work and bring some spiritual food to the
church, preach the whole Word.
E-34 So the farmer, he raised a
good crop. His neighbor had got some tractors, and so forth. And he had
a nice big barn, and almost fourteen carats on the door knob of the
barns. And he had a wonderful barn, but he was too lazy to work. So
that year all the farm growed up in weeds. And so when it come harvest
time the only thing the farmer with the great beautiful barn, and
everything could do was cut his weeds and put it up there to feed his
stock. But he had a beautiful barn; oh, it was pretty.
So with the other farmer... He was an industrious man. He didn't have
much of a barn, but he'd raised some good alfalfa. So he put it up in
the barn loft to feed his stock.
E-35 In each barn there's a
little calf born that year. So the next spring when they let him out,
the first thing you know they let the little calf out up there, and it
didn't have very much of a corral to run in. So he run out there. And
he was a little old fellow; he'd got out there, and he's all round and
fat. And my, he begin to kick up his heels in that nice warm spring
wind, and he was having him a big time.
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...
fellow died, he confessed his sins then there was a note made of that
and put in the book. So he took the little lamb up, and to the priest
laid it down, confessed his sins upon its head. He pulled the knife,
the priest did, cut its throat... Did you ever hear a lamb die? It's
the most horrible thing you ever heard. The little fellow there
kicking, jumping, his blood going out of him, and his little white robe
being bathed as the blood sprinkled all over him. And this sinner
setting their with his hands on the lamb, confessing, "That ought to me
be dying, Lord, but the lamb has taken my place." So as he felt the
little fellow quivering, and jerking, and his little muscles and his
wool bathed, and his hands bloody, as the little died he confessed his
sins.
E-36 Then there was a note made
of that and put in the book. And if that man sinned the second time
he'd die without mercy under two or three witnesses. But he had to know
that that lamb died for him, then a innocent substitute. The man went
right back out of the church, with the same desire in his heart he had
when he come in, because the blood cell of the lamb was a animal life
and not a human life. So it could not atone for sin. It was only
substitutionary; it was only a covering. The law only made a covering,
but the Blood of Jesus Christ divorced sin, put it away. See?
Notice. Then that man, even the dying of the lamb he felt the results
of it there on his hands, as he looked up and confessed his sins, and
he was sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. He went back out with the
same desire in his heart. For the offering of sheep and goats could not
make the comer unto perfect. But, oh my, here you are. But a believer,
not emotionally worked up, not upon because of some relative that's
gone on, but with a sane sensible look at it, knowing that he's guilty
of sin, walks to the altar of the Lord Jesus Christ, places his hands
upon the dying Lamb in the respects of Calvary, that pulls down into
his heart, knowing that Christ was nailed there to the cross for him
and died in his stead.
E-37 The worshipper once purged
with the Blood of Jesus Christ has no more conscience of sin. Sin has
gone. Looky here in the 10th verse.
By... which we are
sanctified through the offering of the blood of Jesus once for all. (Not every year
continually.)
And every priest
standing daily ministering the same offer same offerings, ofttimes... (rather)...
the same sacrifice, which can never take away sin:
But let's look.
... this man after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sets down at the right
hand of God.
E-38 You believe it? [Congregation
says, "Amen."--Ed.] Watch,
all right, Christians. This gets you now, this seals it, watch it.
From henceforth
expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. (And the last one is
death.)
For by one offering
he has... (what?)...
perfected... (That's
right.)... perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Whereof the Holy
Ghost also is a witness unto us: for after that had he said before,
This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put
my law in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
E-39 Notice, but one lamb every
year, they come and made another offering. Every year come back and
make another offering, every year make it a remembrance of sin. But
this Man after one time offering up His Blood, set down at the right
hand of God and the Majesty on high and has perfected forever every
believer that's come and been borned again of the Spirit of God. God
has protected forever them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Oh, my, what we scared about? What you worried about? Don't listen what
the Devil's got to say; believe what God says.
Now, how could I be perfect? I couldn't be perfect. You can't be
perfect. But God don't look at us... When we are borned again into the
Body of Christ, God looks at Christ. He took my place; He took your
place. And He is the One that's perfect, and we stand in Him perfected
tonight before God the Father through the offering of His Blood. Amen.
E-40 Oh, how I like that. That's
good vitamins, spiritually speaking, you know; it fattens you up.
Notice, oh, Christ that all emphasis should be laid on Him, not upon
the Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal churches; it should be laid on
Christ. He was the One Who died.
Notice. Now, in the Blood cell that God the Father when He brought
forth Christ Jesus from the womb of Mary... Look. He created a Blood
cell. And now, that Blood cell in that was the Life, God, Himself. How
that He formed Himself into this...
Look at a germ, look at your own body. You can see Divine healing easy
if you'd look at this, see where cancer tumors and so forth come from.
It's devils. I can prove that by God's Word.
Look at you, one time, you was just a teeny little germ (looked to it
through a microscope glasses, which I've had the privilege in
sanatoriums, and clinics, and things where I've been interviewed.) and
looked at the germ in the sperm, of human sperm, that there's just
millions of them, little teeny germs, so teeny that they can't see it
with the natural eye. That was every individual in here at one time.
E-41 Now, that little germ then
cold, and the mother is the incubator, when it comes in there it begins
to develop that one cell, spreads out, and develops another cell,
another cell, another cell. And every seed will bring its kind: dog, a
dog, bird a bird, man a man, same thing.
Now, that's where you come from, but where did the cancer come from?
It's a--it's a big growth too; it's developing cells, started from a
germ. Where did that germ come from? From the Devil; that's what it is.
That's where tumor, cataract, any other germ disease is, demons. That's
exactly. Jesus said He give power to cast out devils in His Name.
That's exactly the Gospel, brother. The Gospel come through
demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
E-42 Notice, now in the germ,
but when God, when Christ, was in the womb of Mary... You're just a
little teeny germ. Before it was a germ... What's after that germ? Is a
life. Then you're in the supernatural; you're in the sixth dimension.
You're plumb out of human reasoning. You're into spirit life. Every
little germ has a life; that life come from somewhere. The life of the
cancer come from the Devil. Your life come from God; that's the
difference.
And God being manifested in the flesh with Christ Jesus the anointed,
wrapped Himself in a Blood cell (Oh, my.) in the womb of Mary, brought
forth His Life. He lived a man; He died a man to give His Blood, that
through His body, and the shedding of His Blood that every believer
could be wrapped in that Blood cell with Him. Which if a borned again
Spirit of a man is wrapped in the Blood cell of the Son of God, and God
can no more deny you than He could deny Himself. For by one Spirit
we're all baptized into one Body, and become partakers of the same
Spirit that's in this Blood cell. And the Church is wrapped into the
Blood cell of the Life of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Then we are sons of
God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom.
E-43 Oh, my. You say, "Brother
Branham, the Devil got me." No, the Devil didn't. You went out to the
devil. The devil couldn't get you. For you are dead. Dead people won't
argue and fuss and backbite. You're dead and your life is hid in God
through Christ, and you're sealed there by the Holy Ghost. How can the
Devil get you? Can't do it. That's right. You get inside one time.
By one Spirit, not by one letter we're all joined into one body. Not by
one denomination are we all brought into the Body. But by one Spirit
we're all baptized by Holy Spirit baptism into one Body. Whether we're
Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostals, or whatever we are, one Spirit has
baptized us into one Body of believers. You believe it?
E-44 Jesus said in Saint John
5:24; be sure to read it. Think about hands full with two dozen eggs,
5:24, John 5:24. "He (personal pronoun, individual, not the groups of
whatever), he that heareth My Word, an believeth on Him that sent Me,
hath (present tense) Everlasting Life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but's passed from death unto Life." Amen.
On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other grounds is sinking sand.
You can say you have to be a Methodist, Baptist if you want to, but He
said, "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me has
Everlasting Life and shall not come unto condemnation, but's passed
from death unto Life." That's His Word.
E-45 I tell you, brother, the
Devil can whoop you around the stumps on how you felt when you got it.
Somebody said, "I feel good, the reason I know I got It." Now, that's
not the reason I know I got It. The reason I know I've met God's
condition and the Devil can't tramp on the Word of God. It's THUS SAITH
THE LORD. That's it. Upon the basis of the promise of God, I've met God
conditions and know I have Eternal Life. That's the way every believer
does it, 'cause he's met God's conditions and the requirements that was
laid down to him. Oh, my.
Sometime ago... It's just so easy to condemn and condemn others.
Sometime ago we was having a meeting up here in somewhere in--in, I
believe it was Pennsylvania, I believe around Erie, or somewhere there.
No, it was over in Ohio, Toledo, I believe it was. And we were having a
great meeting in some arena; thousands were there, and we couldn't get
in and out, and hardly. And they keeping we way out in the country in a
motel. There was a little place across the street there that we were
eating at, was a lovely little place, it was Dunkards, you know, Amish
or Dunkards, whatever they are. And the little ladies that worked in
there were such clean, nice acting little ladies. And we were having a
wonderful time just a eating there and had such a dandy time.
Well, come Sunday they all closed up and went to church. So that's the
thing to do.
E-46 Well, I was left out there.
And Mr. Baxter, the manager, some of them going on in to speak. And so
Billy, and them, had gone to give out prayer cards. And I was there.
And I thought, "Well, I'm just a bit hungry. I haven't eaten now for
two days. I believe I'll just go get a sandwich, because I'm going to
speak this afternoon." It was on Sunday. And usually on Sunday
afternoons I usually tell the life story, or speak to them.
Then I thought, "Well, I'll find..." I looked across there, and I said,
"That's a place that's a restaurant." Just an ordinary place, and I
walked across there, and this is shocking.
E-47 Brother, when as soon as I
walked in the door, there was a policeman standing there with his arm
around a woman, playing a slot machine. Gambling's illegal in Ohio. And
there was the law that's suppose to uphold righteousness gambling
himself. And he was a man as old as I am. So he must've been married
and had a wife somewhere else. What a disgrace.
I looked back there, and there was a young lady at the table waiting on
some boys, and they was all drunk. And the way that young lady was
acting, letting them boys act to her, it was a disgrace. And I thought,
"Looky there, if it isn't from a--from paradise into a rat den, almost."
E-48 Listen, let me tell you.
Don't you worry about Russia coming over and whipping the United
States. Don't you worry about some nation coming over and whipping us.
We're whipping ourselves. All morals is a breaking down. Yes, it isn't
the robin that pecks on the apple that hurts it; it's the worm at the
core that kills the apples. That's what gets the apple. So it isn't
some other nation; it's our own-self.
Communism is not Russia. Communism is a spirit. That's right. And it's
sweeping this place and honeycombing it. You know that to be true. All
right. May have more to say about that some other time.
E-49 But notice, this woman when she was setting over there at that table, that young woman, I thought, "Oh, my." And I looked over here and seen an old fellow setting there, and there set two fellows drunk, one with a great big long army overcoat on, and a dear old mother setting there, old enough to be my grandmother. And the clothes that the woman had on, little bitty short clothes, and a poor old wrinkled arms and flesh... And she had on this here manicure, ever what you call it on her lips, you know. With that... I know that's not the right stuff. I can't, ever what it is; it's paint. And she had it all over her--her lips like this. It was blue, blue-looking, you know. And she had her... And I looked at the poor old thing; she was setting there with a cigarette, smoking it.
E-50 And I looked, and I
thought, "Oh, my." And two old men... I said, "God, why don't You just
strike this thing off, and just wipe it off the map. If me, a sinner,
could look, and just, and despise such as that, how can Your great
holiness look at such a thing as that and stand it?" I thought, "O God,
my little Rebekah and Sarah are going to have to come up here, one
eight, and the other one three." I thought, "How they going to come up
here and see such as that? What will it be in their day? God, why don't
You just clean the thing up?"
And then God taught me a lesson. That's right. You know... The two men
got up and went to the rest room. And I was standing there looking
around. And I thought,"O God, looky here. What is it?" Nobody that
waited on me; I was just standing at the door looking around, kinda
dark back towards the door.
E-51 And the Holy Spirit said to
me, "Come over here." And I went over, and as I set down, I looked. And
I saw like the world, and it was revolving around. And around this
world was a rainbow. It looked like a--a streak of red, like a rainbow
going around and around the world. Then I went right into that, and
when I was standing there in that, I looked and I seen Somebody
standing just above it with His arms out like this. It was our Lord.
And I noticed myself, and every time I'd go do something wrong, just
then according to grace, according to the Word... The Father would have
took my life right there. But Christ... Every time I would do a sin
then, it would [Brother
Branham illustrates.--Ed.] it
would hit Him like that. He'd shake His head like that. In other words
His Blood was acting like a bumper on the automobile. It was protecting
me from death. And I thought, "Oh, I see."
And I--I seen It come again and there was an old Book laying out there,
my name written at the top. And it was a sinner's book smutted up. And
my name was at the top. And I'd sin; it'd be recorded against me; God
would've took my life. But the Blood of Christ protected me. Every time
It would hit, I'd see It like that. And I'd see those scars on His face
from them thorns, and the Blood run down His... bat His weary eyes.
He'd look back at me, say, "Father, forgive him." And then, I'd go
along I'd do something else, and there it would come again like that.
He'd say, "Father, forgive him."
E-52 And I thought, "Oh, I see." If that's the reason God can't take the life of those people, sinners, because they are yet protected. They have a chance yet. The Blood of Jesus is still protecting them. It's like a bumper to the world. I said, "Oh, I see. I see, Lord, what You mean." Yeah, the Blood of Jesus Christ covered the world like this, and every man while you're here, you're still a moral, free moral agent. If you reject it, and reject it, and then you die, and your soul goes beyond that, then you've judged yourself; God don't have to judge you. See? If you die without the Blood of Christ, you're a sinner and you're lost. If you accept the Blood, then you're in Christ, protected.
E-53 And then I seen Him as my
sins kept a beating Him. I got so broken-hearted I come crawling up to
Him. I laid down like this; I said, "Lord, look at my name up there." I
said, "Is that my name?"
He said, "Yes, that's your name."
I said, "God forgive me. I didn't mean to make You suffer like that.
I--I didn't know my sins were hurting You so bad like that. When I did
things, You protected me with Your Own life. Please forgive me?"
He took His hand in His side, like that, and wrote across there,
"Pardoned," and put it back behind Him like that to remember it no
more. And He looked down at me. He said, "Now, I forgive you, but you
want to condemn her."
E-54 Then that made things
different. I come out of the vision. I looked over there that poor old
woman setting there, toddling, trying to smoke this cigarette and
couldn't even get it to her mouth, toddling like that. I said, "Lord
God, please forgive me. I'll not be critical anymore." I walked over to
where she was, and I said, "How do you do?"
She looked up and she said, "Oh, how do you do?"
And I said, "Could I set down a minute?"
She said, "You may." And I--I set down and looked at her. I thought,
"Somebody's mother, no doubt." I thought, "Something's behind that
life; I don't know what it is." And I said, "Lady, excuse..."
E-55 She said, "You want a
smoke?"
And I said, "No, ma'am; thank you."
She said, "Would you have a drink?"
And I said, "No, ma'am; thank you." I said, "I am a minister of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." And I said, "I was standing there and
condemning you, and asking God why He didn't take your life." And I
told her what had just happened, right there.
She said, "Oh, I know who you are." Said, "You're that preacher down
there."
I said, "That's right." And I said, "What's behind your life?" And that
poor old thing begin to tell me of how she'd been mistreated or run out
like that, how she'd belonged to a church one time, and had went
astray. I said, "Have you got children?"
Said, "I got two daughters, married. Both of them are Christians."
And I said, "And you setting out here, aren't you kinda ashamed of
yourself?"
She said, "I am, sir."
And I said, "Don't you want to accept Christ?"
E-56 I begin to talk to her, and
took her by her poor old feeble hands, and the tears running down...
She throwed that cigarette on the floor, and knelt down there, and
humbly come to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference when you look
at yourself one time. Who are we? Where'd we come from? There she got
up wiping the tears from her eyes. She said, "I'm ashamed of myself,
sir."
I said, "Now, mother, go put on your clothes; go to church. Get some
good church, and--and affiliate--get yourself affiliated with it, and
be a loyal member of Christ's Body." I said, "For this day there's
hundreds setting yonder wanted to come into a prayer line or so forth,
and here the Holy Spirit deals with me, to you, and me standing here
criticizing you. And God, as me, as a minister let me know, that where
am I?" Who'd I... Who am I? Where'd I come from? What about me? I may
not have done that; I may not have done them kind of immoral things,
but I'm still a sinner in the sight of God, and the Blood of Jesus
Christ had to protect me. And I accepted it, and she accepted it.
E-57 My brother, one of the
horriblest pictures I can paint in my mind is the garden of Eden, when
God made His beautiful couple there, and put them in the garden. Little
Eve, when God woke Adam up that morning and he looked...
I was standing in Greece here not long ago, and seen where some Greek
artist painted a picture of Eve, and Adam is the most horrible, oh, the
horriblest thing I ever seen. What a discredit to the Bible or to even
civilization, that such a thing could become famous as a painting like
that: Adam with one shoulder up and the other one down, the hairs
hanging out of his nose like that, and Eve the most horrible looking
brute you ever seen...?... Eve... Oh, common sense would say that was
wrong.
E-58 Look at the strain. Look at man today when he sins. Instead of coming out before God and saying, "Father, I've done wrong; here I am." Look at the strain in the garden of Eden. When Adam done wrong, and instead of him running up-and-down the garden saying, "Father, Father, where are You." It was Adam hiding behind the bushes and God crying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?" That strain still stays in man. Instead of coming out and confessing his sins, and saying he's wrong, he will try everything in the world. He will join this church because it don't teach very strict. He will go over, and if it's a little too strict for him, he will fall out with this church and go for the other one, trying to make himself a religion like Adam did. It's in him; that's his strain.
E-59 Looky here. If Eve was that sort of a looking brute, every man in the world would admire a woman that looked dirty, and ungodly, and like that. But there's not a man, I don't care who he is, but what admires a woman that keeps her place and is clean and acts nice. If he's got any streak of man about at all he does. So it shows the very strain that Eve was the most beautiful thing that ever set on the earth. That's right. She didn't need any Max Factors to fix herself up. She had it from God. That beautiful teeth would never turn yellow or fall out. And that... I see her setting there and her hair hanging down there her back, and her eyes was bright as the stars of heaven. When Adam looked at her, it put such a shock that still lives in mankind. That's right. I believe it.
E-60 There she was, a beautiful
specie. And he picked her up in his arms, and he looked at her and
said, "Why, she's flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone." As
sweethearts... Almighty God squared them off there, and performed the
marriage ceremony, and he took her by the arm and down through Eden he
went: perfect, God's children.
And I believe that every woman and man that's borned again in this
building tonight will turn back to that someday.
Oh, brother, when you see the Gospel Light, what difference does
sickness, death, or anything else mean? Nothing can separate us from
God's eternal purpose...?...
Here the other day... I was telling the brother today. I was standing
to a glass combing what few hair I had left. My wife said, "Billy,
you're getting bald-headed."
I said, "But, praise God, honey, not one of them perished." Here a few
years ago I had real thick black hair.
She said, "Well, where are they, honey? Tell me."
I said, "Where was they before I got them? Ever where they was; that's
where they are again. And God will give them back to me." Hallelujah.
Yes, sir.
E-61 Death has set in on this old mortal body here. It's creeping it, and turning it gray, and taking it down; but, bless God, every atom, and every light, and every light meter within this body will return at the resurrection to its perfection. Hallelujah. Death has no reign a righteous. Hallelujah. The soul of man never dies. When my spirit's turned loose yonder with the King of spirits, at the resurrection it'll scream, and every atom that ever made this body when it was as strong and the best it was ever, will zap to its place again. Hallelujah. Yes, sir.
E-62 Death don't bother me; it
don't bother any believer. No wonder David saw it, said, "Death where
is your sting?" or Paul, "Grave where is your victory?' Yes, sir.
There when Adam sinned then... The most horrible thing I can see is
that day when them children sinned. And God called them out behind the
bushes, and throwed them an old bloody aprons in there. There stood His
heritage, His own children standing there. Look at Eve, around that
beautiful body of hers is wrapped an old bloody sheepskin, the blood
running down off of her like that, and dripping down her perfect shaped
body. There's Adam standing there, not a brute, a perfect made man, his
muscles in his arms, the muscles in his big legs, his shaggy hair
around his shoulders, his dark beard hanging: a perfect man.
E-63 Look at that now. I see his
shoulders stooping; around his big body here comes an old bloody
sheepskin; running down those big manly legs comes blood; tears is
dripping off of his cheeks, patting on the top of Eve's head as she
leans over on his bosom, and little Eve crying, the tears patting down
as it mixes with blood running down her bosom. What's the matter?
Something's happened. They can cry now; they're mortal now. They're
dying now. There you are.
I can see God say, "Depart out of My Presence." Couldn't stand it... I
can see Adam start walking away, and as he did, I can hear something
going[Brother
Branham claps his hands--Ed.]" What it is? Old bloody sheepskin
flopping against his leg as he was going out. Oh, I can see God Who
covers space and time, Who has no beginning or ending. I can see it all
bottled down like a funnel, coming down like this for one four little
lettered word l-o-v-e. He couldn't see His children depart from Him
now. Why? He had made the covenant conditional with Adam, but now He
makes it unconditional. Said, "I will put enmity between the woman's
seed," and the--and He would bruise the serpent's head and so forth,
promising a Saviour.
E-64 Let's turn our cameras to another picture. Four thousand years later we're in Jerusalem; we're at a window. I hear a noise. What is it? A screaming mob hollering, some poor man has come against it. We raise up the shade and look out the window. Coming down through the streets comes an old rugged cross, bouncing over the cobblestones, bearing--rubbing out the bloody footprints of the Bearer. He's going to Calvary. His back beaten till His ribs is showing through nearly. There He starts up the road, walking along as He's going. Look at them. I look all over His back. There's little red spots over that little old garment was wove through out without a seam.
E-65 Look at those little red spots. What are they? Directly, they get bigger, bigger, bigger. First thing, they all run into one big spot. Now I hear something again. [Brother Branham claps his hands--Ed.] What is it? There goes the Second Adam. One brought death; here goes the One bringing Life. There's the one who took life out of the world. Here's the One Who's bringing Life in the world, the Second Adam with His Own Blood hitting against His legs like that, the Son of God going to Calvary to bear away our sins yonder, that through the shedding of Blood to perfect a man or woman unconditionally. Oh, "No man can come to Me except the Father draws Him; and all that comes, I'll give him Everlasting Life and raise him up at the last day."
E-66 Oh, my. There it is. As He
goes up there, I can see a little old--a little old something stinging
around him (Oh, my.), death, buzzing at him like a bee as He's going
yonder to be crucified, a dee--bee springing on Him, saying, "Oh, I got
you now. I got you now," as it went moving on, moving on. The bee of
death was going to sting Him, God, Himself, made flesh in order to take
away sin. God the Father in the Spirit could not take death; of course,
He was supernatural; but He had to be made flesh. And there He was
dragging the cross on, and that bee stinging around Him, death.
But you know what, insects, bees, you know...?... them here; you raise
a lot of honey in this country. If a bee once stings, it leaves its
stinger. It cannot sting no more. And God Himself, coming, unfolding
Himself out of heaven was made flesh in the form of man, took upon Him
the form of man, and was going yonder to Calvary to anchor the sting of
death; and death stung the Son of God on the way to Calvary. He
anchored, pulled the stinger out of death; and today death has no sting
for the believer, for we are perfected in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah.
There's the Blood of Christ, what It does.
The sting of death... Paul, when they was going to chop his head off,
and that old bee buzzing around him, he said, "Death, where is your
sting? Grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God Who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus."
E-67 Oh, my. There's God's Lamb that pulled the stinger out of death. There's the One that was perfect. When the Father said, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him," there's the perfection. That's what the law could not do. But what... The law was a shadow back yonder under the offering of sheep and goats, was a shadow of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. When He come and was made flesh, and anchored the stinger of death, and pulled it out where you and I can walk in the face of it; death can't bother us. Hallelujah. It hasn't got any stinger. It can buzz and hum and threaten, make a bluff, but that's all it can do. Death has no more stinger. For every believer that's in Christ Jesus is perfected forever. Praise God.
E-68 Not when you're at church doing a novena, not when you're saying a hail Mary, but when Christ give you the baptism of the Holy Ghost and accepted you into the beloved, He sealed you there until the day of your redemption. If you're riding on a road, in a airplane, wherever it is, you are perfected, and until the day of your redemption. And every man and woman that's born of the Spirit of God has no more desire of sin. Sin has passed from him, and his whole motive is to do the will of God. If you have any more motive besides that, brother, it's time for you to find a place at the altar and pray through, 'cause you're only... The devil's a bluffing you.
E-69 For a grain of corn cannot
produce a cockleburs; neither can cockleburs produce corn. And if
you're sowed with the incorruptible Seed of God, borned again of the
Spirit of God you're whole motive, everything in your whole life goes
towards God.
In the day when God turned the--or Noah turned the crow loose, he was a
bird set right on the ark, set in the ark right on the same floor with
the dove. He could fly just as far as the dove. He could...?... and
make a noise like the dove. But when they turned them loose... The crow
was a scavenger. He could fly from one dead body to the other one and
satisfy himself. But the dove could not satisfy herself. She flew back
to the ark and pecked on the window, until father Noah opened the
window. She was a dove. A dove is a bird that doesn't have any gall. It
cannot digest rotten things.
E-70 And every man that's ever
borned of the Spirit of God, takes on a nature that he can't digest the
world no more. "For if you love the world, or the things of the world,
the love of God's not even in you." And, brother, if you still love the
world and professing to be God's child, for the sake of your own soul,
find a place at the altar and pray through until God takes the world
out of you. For He has perfected forever those that are sanctified or
cleaned by the Holy Spirit, then we are in perfection.
The law having a shadow of things, not even the real things to come,
with them sacrifices can never make the believer perfect. But a
believer once coming into Christ, and by one Spirit baptized into that
Body, He has perfected forever those that are in Christ Jesus. Then the
things of the world... See? And He--He that... The worshipper once
purged has no more conscience (or the right interpretation of that),
has no more desire of sin. For the worshipper once purged has no more
desire or conscience of sin. He doesn't even want to sin to... He will
do things wrong. And as soon as he does it, he will confess his sins
right there and say, "God, forgive me; I didn't mean to do that. You
know it, Father." God never sees it, but He has an advocate. He has a
confession and he makes it.
But the man who goes ahead and sins and says, "Well, I belong to a
church; don't make any difference," it shows that right in him proves
that he hasn't got what he says he's got. No, sir. You can't draw
bitter and sweet water from the same fountain. That's right.
E-71 For God has made a
sacrifice to perfect every believer that's in Christ Jesus. And when we
stand in His Presence, we'll not have to stand on our own self; we're
standing, and Christ stood in our place, to take our place. And He has
judged Christ and not you and I. We have accepted it. We've accepted
it. And if you haven't accepted tonight, my brother, sister, when you
see the agony and the price it cost Almighty God to get your soul
saved, could you turn Him down upon those kind of a basis? Certainly
not, surely you couldn't.
God willing, tomorrow night I want to speak on the unpardonable sin,
what it to sin against the Holy Ghost and never be forgiven.
Now, may the Lord bless you while we bow our heads just a moment. If
the organist or pianist will come a moment... Now, shall we bow our
heads just a moment.
E-72 Our kind heavenly Father,
seeing that clock on the wall moving around so swiftly, just beginning
to speak on the things of Eternal Life, and to seeing the peoples,
Lord, knowing that they have need... We all have need, Father, of
knowing more about Thee and Thy love.
I pray Thee, God, to be merciful to every person here. I do not know
this people. Thou does know them. And now, I pray that You'll send the
Holy Spirit up-and-down the aisle just now. Look through the audience,
and if there be someone who really knows that in their heart they've
never met this condition, to fully surrender, to die out to everything
of the world, and let the Holy Spirit take complete control, enough to
kill all the desires of the world, and the things of the world, God
grant that that person will now accept Thy beloved Son, be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
E-73 While we have our heads
bowed, I wonder in the audience of people (with everyone with your head
bowed), if there would be a person here that would say, "Brother
Branham, I, for one, I know that I have never wretch that place
yonder--never reached it, rather. I have never come to the place to
where I had myself completely under control. I still... And in my heart
I--I'm wavering. I'd like to be anchored, Brother Branham, by the Holy
Spirit with Christ, so the things of the world would be dead to me.
There's little things that I just seem like I can't give up. Pray for
me, brother."
Would you man or woman, boy or girl raise your hand, say by doing
this... Don't nobody look, just let me and the Holy Spirit do this.
Just raise your hand.
E-74 God bless you, sir. Someone else? God bless you, sir. Someone else, someone else around just boy or girl, that's not really knows... Now, you're before God. God bless you, brother. God bless you, sir. God bless you, lady. That's... All right. That's right. Now, someone else just raise... God bless you, lady. That's honest. We want to be honest. God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. That's--that's right. Say, "I--I--I want to, Brother Branham. I--I'd really... My soul, I know that I'm going... These little brittle threads of life I'm walking on is going to break one of these days, and I'm going to plunge out into eternity, yonder. And God knows that that hour I want to go to heaven. I don't want to be lost and condemned. And I've tried for a long time, but I just yet haven't done it. Pray for me that I'll accept it." And you want Christ to remember you, and you signify the same as you raise your hand...
E-75 Would there be somebody
else now that hasn't raised their hand, would want to? This doesn't
save you, certainly not, but it answers your conscience towards God Who
knows you.
In the morning you may not be on this earth; you may be gone. As an
evangelist, and three times around the world, and watching the millions
of people, seeing things, and in contact with God by vision and Spirit,
realizing that I wouldn't say this for nothing in the world 'less I
knew what I was talking about... Would you just raise your hand, not to
me now, but to God? Say, "God remember me. I want to be right when I
die; remember me, God."
Is their another one in the building would raise your hand, anywhere?
Raise your hand. There's about a dozen, I guess. Yeah, God bless you; I
see your hand, sister. Would someone else raise your hand? Say,
"Remember me, God." You're not saying remember me, Brother Branham;
you're saying, "Remember me, God," as you raise your hand. Say, "I--I
want to be remembered in a word of prayer at the close of this service,
Brother Branham. I realize that I'm a long ways from having the nature
of sin killed in my life. I want it, so I can only be a servant of the
Lord Jesus."
E-76 Is there another one would
just raise your hand so God can see? I'm going to ask prayer for you
just in a moment. All right. Remain with your heads bowed.
Now, kind heavenly Father, realizing that every word that we say will
meet us in judgment, You seen those people raise up their hand. It's
written in the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ that, "No man can come to Me
except My Father draws him." Then that's a--a sure sign that You're out
there in the audience dealing with these people. Something has touched
their heart.
Father, "No man can come except My Father draws him." Showing that Your
Spirit is moving upon hearts, "And all that comes to Me I will in no
wise cast out." That's Your Word, Father. And here they are. They
raised up their hand. You seen them.
E-77 Now, if Thy poor unworthy
servant has found grace in Thy sight, I pray You forgive them, Father.
And from this very hour where they're sitting right there in their seat
now, may they go from this church tonight a new person. May the Holy
Spirit just move upon them, just now, and take away all guilt, and
condemnation, and sin, all doubtings, and may they become Thy servant.
Grant it, Lord. Thou knowest all things. I pray that You'll grant it
now, through Jesus' Name. Amen.
Jesus
paid it all.
All to
Him I owe;
Sin
has left a crimson stain:
He
washed it white as snow.
E-78 You feel tonight... This little altar here is open if there's someone here while we sing another verse of that hymn... If you would like to come down here, have prayer, why, we'd be glad to pray with you. I love you, my friends; that's from my heart. If there's anything I never want to meet God, I'd rather meet Him a sinner, than a hypocrite, for I'd be lost either way. But I don't want to stand outside of being a sinner, and then be a hypocrite with it. I'd rather go and get out of the way. I want to be sincere. And I love humanity. That's why I'm--I've gone the way I have, is because I love mankind. I--I--I want to see people right with God.
E-79 And brother, what little...
What have we got in this world? Well, it won't do us any good. What if
we have to leave it tonight? See? And all this just putting off,
putting off, you may just do it one time too much. And remember now, as
your brother...
This altar is open. I come right down here. Surely, if He will hear my
prayer to open the eyes of the blind, the deaf, and the dumb, and you
heard about it around the world. You'll see it a little later on so
just... If He will hear my prayer for that, surely He will hear for
your soul. Don't you believe that? Certainly He will. These other
ministers here that loves the Lord and they're God's servants...
E-80 While we sing, "Jesus Paid
It All," once more, would you want to come down and just stand around
the altar, praying. You want to get closer to God. You want--you want
salvation, you want to be saved, or seeking the Holy Spirit to be born
again, you're invited tonight, while we sing once more. All right.
Jesus
paid it all.
All to
Him I owe;
Sin
had left a crimson stain:
He
washed it white as snow.
How many of you love Him with all of your heart, raise your hands to
Him like this: I love You, Lord. That's so wonderful, almost a hundred
percent of people who love Him.
E-81 I so appreciate you, my
brother, sister, so much. I just love you with all my heart and expect
to spend an endless eternity with you.
Now, tomorrow night, God willing, I want to talk on the unpardonable
sin, if it's God's will. Just a little farther down the chapter. I
looked at it tonight there. And it's just a little farther down. So
we'll speak it tomorrow night, if God willing, not knowing just what
He's going to do. I'm waiting on Him.
Now, is there any sick here raise up your hand, any sick and needy?
Now, shall we bow our heads for those.
E-82 Our kind loving Father, we pray that You'll heal the sick and the needy here in the meeting tonight. Thinking of the days, and seeing Your great Spirit move on the people and heal the sick, and give the blind sight, and take them from the stretchers, cots, and wheelchairs around the world. And the kings, potentates and monarchs... The world shaking and quivering tonight, under the impact of a great revival sweeping the land, and the people is letting it pass right by and not receiving it, just like they let the Son of God go by the gates, and the palace, temples, and so forth and they didn't recognize that it was Him. And oh, if they could come back to earth tonight for another trial. But while He's passing by tonight condemning sin in the flesh, people raising their hands and recognizing that they're not just where they should be in Thee, I pray, God, that You'll heal every sick person here. May Thy Spirit be upon them, and may they be perfectly normal and well.
E-83 And now, Father, for a
healing service, we commit to Your hands. Let Thy Spirit move, Lord, in
any way that It so desire. We're waiting on Thee, Lord, seeing what
You'll say, not knowing what minute, or what hour, or what time the
Spirit of God break in upon us here, Lord, and just shake the whole
valley. We pray that He will do it. God, grant it. May it be done for
Your glory. Get glory out of--in Your servants. Bless every stranger in
our gate, Father, in Jesus' Name.
Now, the Lord bless each one of you now. And now, expect tomorrow
night... Get somebody, get on the phone right quick and get somebody.
We want to see... Get them in here. Bring out those who are needy in
cots, and stretchers, and so forth, put them in here and see what the
Holy Spirit says. You see? We're calling for sinners now.
While we bow our heads just a moment and for our dismissal prayer, I'll
turn the service then to the brother here, while you bow your heads and
the brother...