ÉCOUTEZ SA VOIX
E-1 Thank you, Brother Neville.
I believe it was said by David, "I was happy when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord." There's just something about
Sunday school, that the other parts of the service doesn't have any
other time through the day. We had just awakened up from a good night's
rest, and--and we just feel different. And you're refreshed and ready
for the day.
Now, we understand that the... Last night we asked the--the peoples if
they had a church of their--that they was attending, while visiting,
or--or I mean, regular members of churches, that they should attend
their own church this morning. 'Cause we being an interdenominational,
we just don't like to take people from their own congregation.
And I've been accused lot of times of--of condemning other churches.
Now, that's wrong. I do not condemn other churches. I condemn many
times things that--that they condone, but I certainly don't condemn the
church. But many times when they teach things that's contrary to the
Scriptures, then I--I condemn that. And then when they do things that's
sinful and--and permit it to be done in their churches, I condemn that.
E-2 But, I never... Just like
it said... I have many Catholic friends setting here. And I never
condemn the Catholic people. I condemn the doctrine of the Catholic
church, 'cause I don't believe it's Scriptural, and... No more than I
condemn them, than I do many of the Protestant denominations, 'cause I
do not think it's Scriptural.
And I am duty bound to stand for what's truth. See? You know God will
appreciate you if you'll be honest, and just sincere.
E-3 You know, a lot of times
man seeking wife, a real man, that's got man behind him, he does not
altogether look for the girl that's so--so pretty in the face or so
forth. He knows that'll be lost one of these days. See? He looks for
the woman that's woman in personality, a real woman. And if she's
loyal, and a real woman, that man will appreciate her. I don't care how
much of a--a bad fellow he is, and how much he runs around with--with
bad women, there isn't a bad man in the world but what will appreciate
a woman that'll stand for what woman really should be. That's right.
Because he appreciates that.
And that's the way it is by--by preaching the Word. If--if a man will
stand by just what he believes... Now, not... You--you remember, God
knows your heart. And if you'll stand by what you really believe to be
the truth, then you can have faith in what you're talking about.
E-4 I got couple of good
friends here. Brother Charlie Cox, I see setting out there. And the
last few weeks I've been down in Kentucky with him squirrel hunting,
where I got some rest. Brother Banks Wood and... Now, we training in
our rifles, they... I just got to have mine so perfect that it'll drive
a tack at fifty yards, or I--I just can't hunt (See?); that's all.
Well, what good does it do to drive a tack? See? Because, if you're
shooting at the squirrel, a head shot, and his head's probably that big
around... Anywhere within an inch group would be all right (See?),
anywhere in there. Either one of those boys, "That's all right; I hit
the squirrel." They go on and get the squirrel.
But to me it's got to be just perfect. It's got to hit the tack. It
can't miss it a quarter of an inch. It's got to hit the tack, stopped
it, or I just get all nervous and upset.
E-5 And I was sitting down the other day in the woods, and I was saying, "Lord, well, why am I such a crank? Well, why did You make me to be such a crank?" I said, "Now there, Brother Banks went hunting with his rifle, and he pulled it up to shoot it in with the telescope sights, and he just..." Ever once in a while you'd... one will go off, 'cause if it... factory loaded ammunition will do that anyhow, 'cause you got a little more powder and little less powder. But it would just hit a little bit off for a inch or two, Brother Banks, "Oh, that's all right; I hit the squirrel." That's all right. It don't--it don't bother him: Charlie, the same way.
E-6 But... I... Mine's got to
hit the tack right in the center or it upset me. I said, "I've become a
regular crank."
And then I begin to look back, and I find that my life is like that.
That's my makeup. And I thought, "Well, why did You make me like that?
It even makes me nervous, if--if it goes off just a little bit that way
or that way. And that's the way then the Lord revealed to me, setting
down there up on Glutton Hollow, ever where we was at hunting, that...
I believe it's called Dutton, but the squirrels eat so fast, I call it
Glutton.
So they had... Up on this place I thought, "That's it." I would not
even teach that there was a hell until I was positive of it. See? And
therefore if the Scripture predicts Divine healing... and here looks
like this, and like that, if a Scripture says Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, like there's three Gods, and there--I see there's only One, and
now, how am I going to just haphazardly about some other man's--what
they say about it, take it like that?
If the Bible speaks of predestination and grace, and here it's got
works, and here it's got grace. And I--I--I just can't preach it like
that. I got to solve that, and through, and through, and through the
Bible, till it's perfectly driving a tack (See?), till it really comes
out perfectly through the Scriptures.
Then when I stand, I can really have faith in what I'm doing. See? Know
that what you're preaching is the truth. See? And then if anybody gets
contrary about it, you've already studied enough, till you know just
exactly what he said, where to stop him at. See? Right here. See?
E-7 And that's the way it is...
God makes us different ways, that we can just simply... That makes the
world that way. Well, that's what makes me that nervous, upset type of
a person. It's got to be just right.
And I'm so glad tonight--today--this--this morning to say that I know
that the Lord Jesus is not dead; He is a living. And He's just as much
right here now as He was any time in the world at Galilee, or anywhere
else. He's the living, resurrected, omnipresent, Son of the living God.
That's... And if I couldn't... If I taught a Scripture of some
historical God, and I wasn't sure that He was right here, I--I--I'd be
all confused. It'd make me so nervous, I wouldn't know what I was
doing. See? And I wouldn't know where to tell people, "Well, now He
will do this, or He will do that." I--I couldn't tell you. I don't
know, but when you know what He promised He would do and have seen Him
do it, then you know where you're standing. See?
E-8 And see, how God, in His
great plans just knowed how to make every person just exactly to be a
certain thing, 'cause He's going to use them for that purpose.
You hear that little lady up here awhile ago, Mrs. Stricker, singing
without any music. She had some kind of a little thing she was blowing
through to get her tune, or her key, or whatever you call it. And could
stand and sing with that real low voice, and raise it up, that, "Ship
Ahoy." Now, you ought to hear me try that sometime. It--it would be
terrible.
But you see, God knowed just how to make that woman up, so she'd do
that. And that's the way... We're all have different makeups. If we
would just find our position in Christ, and there abide and serve Him...
E-9 I see a little girl setting here this morning in a wheelchair. Bless you're little heart. What's crippled you up honey, muscle dys--dys... Oh, I can't say that word. When I gets started... The dystrophy, or ever what... Is that what it is, sweetheart, that's made you a crippled, or is it polio? Polio. You know Jesus heals little girls, doesn't He? You're a mighty pretty little girl, and I believe Jesus lets you get well.
E-10 Last night those two little
girls that was setting here with that disease that not even a person in
the world knows what it is... Their little fingers drop off and their
little feet had droped off. Two pretty little girls. And I happen to
know their mother and their grandmother, and just felt led to condemn
that devil, that would torment them little things setting there; right
out. And they had been in wheelchairs, for I don't know how long, and
last night the news come sweeping in over the line, the little girls
are up walking around. You see, that the--that the Lord God was so
graciously to them.
Oh, He's so good to us. We should appreciate Him more.
E-11 Then I was thinking just last night after I had went home, and laying down for a few minutes, I was thinking of when the soul has gone out of a man what is it? It's his inner being that has moved out. He's not dead; he's--he's still alive. See, he--he lives forever. And our loved ones who have passed on beyond this veil is in a--a body that we don't know what it is. It isn't revealed.
E-12 There's three stages of
everything. There's a stage of the mortal body, the immortal body, and
then the glorified body. See? Just like, other things, like Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit goes in one channel, and the three makes the one.
Justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost in a channel
makes the one. And--and soul, body, and spirit makes the one. And it
travels in three's, and three's are one.
And take a--a three cornered piece of glass and lay it in the sun,
it'll reflect the colors. Yet seven colors will come down to one. And
you take red, and look through red at red, how many knows what color
it'll be? White. Uh-huh. Isn't that strange that red through red looks
white?
Red is the sign of redemption. And when you... God looks at our red
sins through the red blood of His precious Son; they're white. See?
So... But He has to look through the Blood. If it doesn't, they are
sinful. So we have to be under the Blood.
E-13 And when the soul leaves
the body, it takes its journey into a place of rest in a body that's in
the form and shape of this body, but it isn't this type of a body.
You'll meet your loved ones; you couldn't shake their hands. You could
talk to them; you could look at them. They look just like they do here.
'Cause when Peter, and John, and James saw Moses and Elijah, they
recognized them on Mount Transfiguration.
But it's a body. But then when that body, a kind of a celestial body,
when it returns back to the earth, it picks up the--the substance that
it once lived in and then it becomes a glorified body. And that body is
the one that we'll see the Lord Jesus in His resurrected body.
E-14 "It does not yet appear what we shall be," said Paul, "but we know we shall have a body like His own glorious body. For we shall see Him as He is." And all these old wrinkled hands and broken down tissues will all fade away into the splendor of youth. You old men and women, remember you... This is... That--that's a mark of the fall, your old age. But in the resurrection there'll not be one mark of anything of sin. But why did God make you like He did? He brought you to a certain age. When you was about twenty-two, twenty-three years old, you were your best. You were eating food, and getting stronger, and healthy, and what a powerful looking person you was. Then after that you become wrinkling away. See, death set in. But in the resurrection all old age will be wiped away.
E-15 I'm looking here at a little old preacher and his wife. They're in their eighties, I guess, Brother and Sister Kidd, preaching the Gospel perhaps before I was born. And I'm an old man. And I see them setting here peaceful looking little old couple. And I just think that in the resurrection what they'll look like. Them old wrinkles and shaking hands of trembling and palsy and gray hairs will fade away into the splendor of youth. It really pays to serve the Lord, really does. We'll see Him someday.
E-16 Wonder if Rosella Griffith
is present? I'd like to get her to say a word: a little alcoholic that
was just healed at the--here a few years ago, and that might help some
alcoholic that's here. Had to go home this morning. All right.
Wonderful case... I thought last night I should've had her to say
something. I would if I'd have knew it that she was going this morning.
So many things... I'd just like the folks at the tabernacle to hear.
E-17 Now, I... Is there any here to be baptized this morning in water? Let's see: one, two, three, four, five, six; about six or seven here to be baptized. And the baptismal service will follow the Sunday school lesson.
E-18 Now, the Sunday school room
for our Sister Arnold, for her little tots, has been cut out. And we'll
just... If you will, Sister Arnold, we'll just almost have to postpone
that until the following day, because we don't have the room for the
school.
And I'll read some Scripture here in a few minutes for the little
children, and that'll give them something to think of too. And then
next Sunday you'll continue on with your regular services and of the
Sunday school.
E-19 Now, we want to say...
Here's another thing I want to say this morning. I--I--I told them not
to do this, but they did it anyhow. See? That was an offering last
night that come to me (See?), an offering. I told them not to do that.
See? And they... But they did it anyhow. And when I... Didn't know it
until Billy told me that my brother, Doc, had brought it to him, over
to his house. And I've never counted it yet, but I believe that it was
reported that there was about three hundred, or a little over three
hundred. Was that? Do you remember Doc what it was? [Somebody
from congregation says three twenty-four twelve--Ed.] What was that, brother?[Somebody
from congregation repeats the number--Ed.] Three hundred and
twenty-four twelve. I thank you very much.
Now, I've been off from work a long time; you know that. And my
secretary, being present, or some of them here this morning, knows that
my expenses, no matter where I am, right here at home runs me over a
hundred dollars a day of my offices and things to take up for
handkerchiefs and things around the world, in expenses.
E-20 And I--I want to say this
in an encouragement to you people here though... For the amount of
people, that's the biggest offering that I ever received in my life. Do
you realize that would amount to around a dollar a piece average? And
most any of the offerings out in the work will average about--around
about twenty-two or twenty-five cents per person. But this was on the
average of a dollar a person.
'Cause I know you can't get in here. They don't take the offerings on
the outside. And you can't jam into this little place over about three
hundred people like; I doubt... You know what the tabernacle seats,
Brother Neville? [Brother
Neville says, "It ought to be somewhere around three hundred, way it is
now."--Ed.] About
three hundred people. So see that's around a--a dollar a piece. God
knows how I appreciate that. I thank you very much. And it goes right
straight into the work of the Lord. I--I thank you for it.
And for the... Is some of them would happen to be leaving before night,
'cause... And I... When I went home last night, setting one the porch
was a little box, like this, and it was a bunch of jelly ,I believe,
they come from someone. You know I just love jelly. And I--I appreciate
that.
E-21 And a--a sister here who...
I better not call her name. She's a bosom friend to our family, and she
left a love gift down at my mother's for me and for Billy. You don't
know, sister, how I appreciate that, and what a time it comes in and oh
so many things. You understand.
And I'm sure that He understands. And so I just trust that He will
bless each one of you exceedingly, abundantly. I wish it was so that I
could go home with each one of you, and--and stay with you a little
while, and talk with you. I love to do that, but it's... You know how
it is. It's just constantly on the move; we just got to go swiftly.
Frankly, right after the service tonight, the Lord willing, I leave the
state, just as soon as the service close. I've got to get out of here
before twelve o'clock. I've got appointment at twelve o'clock. And I
got full this afternoon. And I... You know how it is. It's just
constantly on the go all the time, people sick, dying. And many times I
go into a place and just be standing there and somebody come in and
say, "You know me, Brother Branham?"
"No, I don't."
"Why, I was laying in the hospital dying, when you come prayed for me.
The Lord healed me."
"I was blind when He met me on the street that day the vision come."
See?
And I--I never know what it is. But I'm thinking this one blestful
thought, Brother Egan, that someday when I have preached my last
sermon, I've prayed for the last person that the Lord wants me to pray
for, and I go Home, and on that resurrection morning, oh, what a day
that will be.
E-22 The joy, when I can stand
there when the queen of the south shall come up, and I can see what
influence she had. I'll see coming up there Billy Graham, the influence
he had, Oral Roberts, and all the rest of the... Sankey, Finney, Moody,
Calvin, Knox and so forth. Then I'll see my group come up. Oh, that's
going to be the joy. That's going to be my crowning. That's right. And
by the grace of God, I hope to have several million there.
And now, I've got to go overseas pretty soon. And now, as far as I
know, right in our own meetings (Just think of it.), I'm in my second
million souls winning to Christ. And I--I hope that I see many, many
millions won.
E-23 Now, the baptismal
service... And now the--the appointments and things... Now, this is
continually after the meeting. If any time you're coming back for
private interview, or so forth, just call the agent, Brother Mercier
here. We have to have some sort of a set up that we have to. We know
that.
And Brother Mercier, he gets them down. He puts them down just as they
come. And as soon as I run out of appointments, all of them run out.
I... When I come in, I call him up and tell him, "I'm finished on that
group." He gives me a new group, and away I go again. You see? Then it
all works out of that office. And he knows just how to set them up so
he can get each one in that can get in. You see? So we're very happy to
have this little office operating the way it is.
So that's just Butler 2-1519, and that's... Or if you call
Jeffersonville, just call for me, and they'll answer there at that
office. And thank you very kindly.
E-24 Now, let us just before we
open up His blessed Word... And remember, immediately after this
service is over and the baptismal service, Billy will be here to give
out prayer cards for tonight.
Now, tonight, being a church night, Sunday night, the most of the city
people will be out in their own churches and around Louisville and
around. They'll be in their own churches. But it'll just be mostly the
outsiders. Therefore, I think, maybe we can line up a great prayer line
tonight and pray for every one of them. I'm trusting that we will.
We've got quit a few prayer cards out. I--I think last night... After
last night, oh, I just felt like I was going to take a--one of those
there solo flights; you know, we talk of. Just to see in this little
old tabernacle again hands raised up.
E-25 I've got a little boy here.
He's just all boy. Little Joseph, he's just about three years old. And
when all of them would shouting, if he didn't jump right out there in
the middle of the isle and throw them hands up begin shouting and
praising the Lord right out in the middle of the aisle, out there.
And I think this morning he got into it with his little sister and bit
her on the arm, so I told him that his shouting wouldn't do him much
good as long as he acted like that. Oh, my. Those little fellows, they
can really get right next to you, can't they? But of course, what it
was, he just saw the rest of them doing it, and thought that's what he
should do too, and probably following after us, the way we were doing.
E-26 Now we got His Word laying
open here. Now, let's just speak to Him about It now just a...
Dear God, as we come to Thee just now, reverently, quietly, soberly,
and in faith, believing that You hear and will answer prayer, because
we come in that all-sufficient Name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, Who is
the infallible One and gave the promise that "If you ask the Father
anything in My Name, I'll do it." then we know that we will receive
just what we ask for, for we come in His Name. For we have no other
name that we could approach You in, the great, mighty Jehovah God.
And we come in His grace, not confessing that we deserve anything, but
because that He has made a propitiation for us in that He died for us
and He atoned for our sins. And we feel that we can stand justified in
Your sight by His death; that is our faith.
E-27 And asking for nothing that
would be evil, but that which would be good for each of us; therefore,
Lord God, speak to us through Thy Word. And speak to us in that Voice
that we would understand and would know just how to be better men and
women, boys and girls. Knowing that the great gate yonder at death,
that every time our heart makes a beat we just get one bit closer to
that gate, to which we all shall go in at...
And then, knowing that after we are in there, there is not one
opportunity again to ever make reconciliations. There's never again
that we can have this opportunity that we have just now. And not
knowing just when we shall cross that line, O God, come to us quickly
and bring us to the senses that we should have and know how to approach
Thee, and to plead our case before Thee, and ask for mercy. Grant it,
Lord. We are a needy people. We are sheep calling on the Shepherd that
will lead us through life and down through the valley of the shadow of
death.
E-28 As David of old said "I'll
not fear, when I come to that place, because the Shepherd will lead me
right on through that place." Until our feet rest solidly upon that
glorious shore, where old age, and sickness, and sorrow, and death
shall flee away from us and we shall be free There forever...
Speak, Lord. This little bright eyed darling of someone, setting here
before me in this wheelchair... Just can't keep my eyes off of her
today, all crippled up with this polio, what the evil one has did to
her. O God, bring deliverance to that little darling. Grant it, Lord,
not only to her but to others here who are waiting. Let Thy Holy Spirit
lift them so high this morning that they'll pass every vibration of
doubt and every sin barrier, that Your Holy Spirit might move upon them
and heal them. Grant these things, Lord. For we ask these blessings for
Thy glory in the Name of the Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
E-29 Now, I have chosen for a
text this morning. And you little fellows forgive me for taking the
time all with the adults, and your class is not here to be this
morning. But I want you to hear also what I want to read.
And I want to read this morning out of I Samuel the 3rd chapter. And I
want to take for a text: "Hear His Voice." That will do for little
girls, and big girls, and little boys, and big boys, all. Remember the
text: "Hear His Voice."
E-30 Now, to you that's turning
in the Scriptures to I Samuel the 3rd chapter. This is how it reads for
the first ten verses.
And the child Samuel
ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was
precious in those days; there was no open vision.
Oh, how I would like to dwell there for a minute. Maybe some other
time... It just strikes me. Let me just read it once again, that verse.
And the child Samuel
ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was
precious in those days; for there was no open vision.
See what a vision is then? It's the direct Word of the LORD. And the
LORD's Word was precious.
And it came to pass
at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes begin
to wax dim, that he could not see.
And ere the lamp of
God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and
Samuel was laid down to sleep;
That the LORD called
Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
And he ran to Eli,
and said, Here am I; for thou callest me. And he said, I called not;
lie down again. And he went and laid down.
And the LORD--And
the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli,
and said, Here I... Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered,
I called not, my son; lie down again.
Now Samuel did not
yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto
him.
And the LORD called
Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said,
Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had
called the child.
Therefore Eli said
unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou
shall say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and
laid down in his place.
And the LORD came,
and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel
answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.
E-31 The voice of God... Hearing
His voice in that day was a rare thing. See, there was no open vision.
And it was a rare thing, the real Voice of God. Because the people had
gotten away. They had a church in that day that just didn't follow the
commandments of the Lord. They had a minister by the name of Eli. And
he'd got away from God by just teaching the precepts of what the people
wanted to believe.
If that isn't parallel till this day. He just taught the people, and
he--he took his choice ones, and he had his sons to take the best of
the flesh from their--the hooks out of the--the offering, and it just
become a place where the offering was the main thing.
E-32 And Samuel just careless
about the way that he handled the commandments of the Lord, and the
real Word of God was a rare thing.
That's the way it is today. We go to church, and we find the people
going in and having some great drive on. "We want to make our
denomination this year so many more. Bring your letter from your other
church and unite with us." And slogans like "a million more in '44,"
and all such as that, cry--trying to outgrow the next denomination...
And in doing so we've let the bars down of the Bible. We've got away
and begin to teach different things.
E-33 The prophets spoke of these
days, that when they, for teaching would teach the man's doctrine and
not God's doctrine. And we've seen so much of that, and it's gone on so
long, until today the Word of the Lord is a rare thing, that someone
can come and say, "THUS SAITH THE LORD."
Now, we've had a lot of impersonations of that. Satan is really on the
job. And many years gone by people were afraid to say that unless it
was the Lord. But today they just don't care. But it's a rare thing to
hear the voice of the Lord and to find a person that can say, "The Lord
spoke to me."
You notice that amongst the people anymore, that they hardly hear a
time that when they say, "The Lord spoke to me." When men and women
used to pray all night, and their homes were set in order by the Book
of the Lord, and God was first in their home...
E-34 See, we got too many things
ahead of the Lord. You can't have the prayer meeting because Mr.
Godfrey's on tonight. You can't have the prayer meeting because "We
Love Sucy" is on tonight, or some kind of a foolish nonsense like that,
that takes up the time. And we don't have time to hear the voice of the
Lord.
And those who do claim to be Christians, just kneel down of the little
prayer like this, kinda homemade. "Lord bless me, and my family, and
take care of us. Good night." And the next morning rise and say, "Just
guide us through the day. Good day."... We should wait on the Lord.
You see, we do all the talking. We don't give Him a chance to talk back
to us. That if we would pray and pray until our soul comes into the
Presence of God, and then just relax and listen to His voice...
E-35 But there's so many voices
today that takes the voice of the Lord away from us. There's the voice
of pleasure. So many people are listening to that, where they can go
and have a good time. And many of them are professing to be Christians.
Some kind of an old rock-and-roll coming up, they just can't listen to
what God... They--they say, "Well, I'm a Christian, I read a verse in
the Bible today, yeah, 'Jesus wept.'" That's it, go ahead.
But then, to really get down and pray, they got to many other things to
do. There's so many voices in the world, so many things to attract our
attention from God.
E-36 And yesterday when the wife
and I had run over to the super market to get some groceries... And I
was hurrying, because I was late with appointments, and things, and
rushing real quick, and... There was a little boy standing there half
asleep. And a little old girl come along there with some little
trousers on that belonged to some man. They had to, 'cause they were
made for men. And the Bible says, "It's an abomination in the sight of
God for a woman to wear it." And with a lot of this here lipstick on
and her eyes about half asleep, she said, "Where is the so-and-so?" to
that little boy.
He said, "How do you expect me to know?"
She said, "You remember, I never got in until six o'clock this
morning." And she wasn't over twelve years old.
E-37 Now, Jesus at twelve, which
was our example, said, "Don't you know I should be about My Father's
business?"
No wonder the voice of God is a rare thing today. It's smothered out by
so many different voices, so many things that dim and take away. It's
got to a place until it dulls our senses, until we can't hear the Voice
of God. Our senses, of where we ought to shake ourself and realize that
you are men and women, and you are the creation of God, and you were
put here to serve Him, but Satan's voice and false prophets... "Oh, be
modern."
E-38 As I was speaking a few
days ago, I was coming to church, and I turned my radio on, and I heard
a program out of Louisville that said that they were teaching their
children in churches to just drink moderately, making them modern, so
that they won't go to the excess.
Oh, they need to teach them Christ, not drinking. And that will wreck,
and ruin, and damn any home. How could the voice of God speak among a
family that's half soused with whiskey and their minds paralyzed with
smoking, and drinking, and all night long carousing.
E-39 Men that waits upon God comes into His Presence. And to come into the Presence of God is just like going out early of a morning when the dew and the honeysuckles are all sweet. When you come into the Presence of a person like that, you know they have been with God.
E-40 My wife said to me, coming down this morning. She said, "Billy, I don't mean to say this to flowered anybody." But she said, "Last night," I believe or one of the nights, she said, "I set by one of the little Amish women, and a little lady with the little cap on her head." She said, "And you could tell that woman had been with Jesus, for she was sweet. Her soul was mellow. Her eyes were clear." There's not no sin or nothing to hide behind or anything. She'd been in the Presence of God. Her senses wasn't dulled by whiskey, and tobacco, and all kinds of things of the world. She was refreshed from the Presence of God, reading her Bible, studying God's Word.
E-41 But we modern Americans,
what we do... And the false prophets behind the pulpit say that's all
right. I'm kinda in the notion of saying this; if I'm wrong, God
forgive me. And I'm persuaded that a lot of them don't know God. And
the congregation will never live any higher than its pastor.
No wonder the Scripture says, "These shepherds, how they have scattered
the flock, woe unto them." They are the branches that bares not fruit,
which will be plucked off and burned.
E-42 So many things to dull the
senses of the people today. Oh, but in the midst of all that, in spite
of every dulling and every voice that's in the world today, some of
them pleasure voices... Some of them are--are sinful voices to lure the
people. But in the spite of every bit of that, the truth of God still
remains. "He that will hear My voice and come after Me..."
Men and women who will hear the voice of God, God still waits to speak
to every individual that'll open their ears to hear God's voice.
E-43 If a man who isn't
pastor... Many times people say, "Couldn't you do this? Couldn't you
run over here? Couldn't you do this?"
Oh, I love to do it. But I've got to stay in the Presence of God if I'm
going to do the thing right.
Then people say, "Oh, Brother Branham is one of these isolationists."
That's not it. I love people. But there's just thousands of them. But I
must stay with Him to find out what He'd have me tell them. Somewhere,
just listen, He will have something for you that He wants you to know
about.
Pastor, don't you never get too busy but what you can stay in the
Presence and listen for His voice. God always keeps His Word. And no
matter how bad the times may be, how much your church may teach against
it, Jesus Christ is still willing to speak that still small voice to
anybody that'll listen for Him. He's still ready to do it if we'd just
quieten ourself.
E-44 But we run in flusterated
and say, "Say, pastor, could I join this church?"
"What church do you come from?"
"So-and-so."
"Well, bring us you're letter." Oh, my.
"Could I join this church?"
"Oh, yes, come here--forth, and we'll sprinkle you a little bit with
water, and put your name on the book, and you get the right hand of
fellowship."
Well, the Masonic Lodge has got a better order than that. True. The
Masonic Lodge and all other lodges are all right, but it still isn't
the house of God. There's where God speaks. Those lodges try to make
you moral. But God makes you righteous through Jesus Christ, His Son.
E-45 Now, there's a code of ethics to it. God has a new birth for you. But listen to His still small voice. Everyone of you people who profess to be Christians, get yourself quiet before Him. Don't let the washing hinder. Don't let the work hinder. Don't let nothing hinder. Don't let nobody know what you're doing. Just go before Him. Get up in the woods somewhere. Get out on the side of the road. Go into the secret closet and close the door, when the kids gets at school. There get down on your knees. You've heard all kinds of voices everywhere. But just get down and stay there until those voices are silenced and you begin to lift up. It'll change you. It'll make you different like it did this little Samuel. It'll do something to you if you'll just do it. Now, it'll make you what you should be. It'll make you the kind of Christian that you ought to be.
E-46 Now, let's us go back off of this modern day, until a day that's passed. Let's go back to the days of the early times. And this voice of God has come to men in all walks of life in all ages. No matter if you're a farmer, if you're a shoe cobbler, whatever you may be, God still speaks. If you're sinner, if you're prostitute, harlot, if you are drunkard, if you are what a local church member, nominail--nominal, whatever you might be, the voice of God still waits to speak to you.
E-47 I'm thinking now of Moses when he was already eighty years old and had eighty years of theological training. And he knew the Scriptures. He knew Them well. And he had a promise to him, that he was going to be the deliver of his people. But yet, just knowing the Scriptures and being a--a formal church member of that modern church in that day, he took the thing over in his own hands and tried to do it. He slew an Egyptian.
E-48 You see what you do without listening to God? You just mess it up. And when the devil this morning would say, "Don't you be baptized."... Another would say, "Oh, do it later." One would say, "You'd better be sure you know what you're doing." And the other'd say, "You're going to lose a good time." The only way to settle that is go to God's Word with it. But people today don't seem to want to do that.
E-49 And Moses, he had been to
the best of the rabbis. But they'd gotten formal and cold. He'd heard
the story his mother told him of how that he was hid in the bulrushes,
and how that the big alligators couldn't get a hold of him. How he'd
floating down that stream as that baby, where the--the old alligators
were just fat. (This is for the little children.) They were fat from
eating them little babies. That old hooked-nose women, police women,
never did have a baby, didn't know how the love of a baby was. Why,
they'd just got out there, and take, and kill them little babies, and
throw them out in the river. Them old alligators was just fat on them
little babies.
And, yet, God put upon the mother's heart to place her baby right in
death. Don't you see it was a type of Christ? He went right into death.
And everyone of them old alligators would come up to that little bitty
basket going down the river, you know why they couldn't do it, why they
couldn't eat that little baby? There was an Angel setting there. "Get
away from here."
Why? God gives His Angels charge to watch over His people. Don't you
get scared honey. God's watching you. The Devil may try to do something
to you, but God's greater.
E-50 So the old alligators had
to run away from that little basket. And yet Moses knew all these
things. And yet after forty years of training and then in the
wilderness, he still tried to take the thing over in his hands.
We know the Bible, what God says to do, and yet we say, "Well, now,
we'll make this be this way. It's just the days of miracles are not so
anymore. We know we don't believe we see them anymore. And we believe
the days of miracles is past, and the sprinkling is just as good as
immersing, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is just as good as the Name
of the Lord Jesus. And so we'll just... The rest of them's going that
way, so we will just do that too."
E-51 Moses had been a military
man. And he thought that the way that he was trained as being a
military man, that he could just kill them Egyptians off with his hand,
it'd be just as good as doing what God did.
Did you ever think of it? Everybody condemns Moses for killing one man,
and he come back down under the anointing of the Holy Ghost and killed
the whole thing. Nobody said nothing about it. He slew all of Pharaoh's
army. But God was in it. God wasn't in the first one.
E-52 And then Moses just chucked
full of church theology... He was to be the next pharaoh. And we find
him still not knowing God. But one morning on the back side of the
desert, an old man of eighty years old, his whiskers hanging way down
low, he seen a burning bush, and he turned aside to see what was going
on. And when he got near the bush he heard a voice. God had to quieten
him for forty years before He could ever speak to him.
And we won't stay quiet ten minutes so God could speak to us with all
the rumble and bumble we have of this day.
And yet, Moses after forty years stood there, and in the presence of
that bush and that one voice that called him, He knew more about God in
five minutes after that, than all the eighty years of training had
taught him. It made a different man out of him. It'll make a different
man and woman out of you if you'll just stand still long enough to hear
His voice.
E-53 Like Samuel did, stand still. Don't be excited. If you want something of God, ask Him, then stand still and listen to see what He's going say about it. Just open up your heart, say, "What about it, Lord Jesus?" Just stay there. If He doesn't answer the first five hours, then wait another. If He doesn't answer today then He will answer tomorrow. If He doesn't answer this week, He will answer next week. Stay there till He answers. Hear His voice speak back in your heart, and say, "Yes, I'm the Lord that healeth thee." Then it's all over; you get settled then. See? "I'm the Lord Who forgives all thy sins. Now, go and sin no more. I don't condemn you." Then you can go free. You're all right. But you want to be sure that you hear that voice speak. Moses heard it. He was a changed man.
E-54 Look at Isaiah the prophet.
As a young man he had it made. The great favor king Uzziah in them
days, a righteous man, a good man, he loved Isaiah for he knew he was a
prophet. And so he just leaned upon the king's arm. Everything he
wanted, why, Uzziah would give it to him. And every time he wanted
anything, why, the good king would give it to him.
But there come a time that the king died. Prosperity always ruins
people. That's a hard thing to say. But prosperity takes a man away
from God. God spoke one place in the Bible something on this line. And
He said, "When I blessed you and gave you much, when you were poor and
you didn't have nothing, I come to you and you heard Me, and you served
Me, but when I blessed you and gave you plenty then you turned your
head from Me."
E-55 That's what America has
done: turned their heads. That's what the church has done. You could
set down on the corners and have the great fine buildings and the
millions of dollars for--placed into it, and everything just as easy as
it could be, no wonder you haven't got time to hear God's voice. But
wait till the hour comes when that's took away. Then you'll long to
hear it. Everything's fine now, but the hour is coming when it won't be
that way.
So Isaiah, he could lean upon the king's arm and he was a young man, a
favored fine spirit in this young man, so the king loved him. And one
day the props was knocked out from under him. The king died. And when
the king died, then Isaiah had to go alone. And then he begin to look
around, and he found out that everybody wasn't like the king.
E-56 You'll be kicked out some
of these days from these interdenominationals like this. It'll come a
time when you'll have to belong to an organization or you can't
worship. As you know, the Scripture says it will be. They just make fun
of you now. But there'll be a time where there'll be a boycott. For the
mark of the beast must come. You'll either belong to the confederation
of the churches, the beast like it is in Rome, or you won't worship at
all. That's what the Scripture says.
That's when you'll have to cry out like Isaiah did. And he got down in
the temple, and he realized that; he raised his hands, and he said,
"Oh, Lord, I am a man of unclean lips." You think you're good, but wait
till that time comes. "I dwell among peoples of unclean lips." What did
he? Got desperate. And when you get desperate about this thing,
something will take place. You're not desperate enough.
E-57 "Oh, well, I join church that settles it." But you have to be desperate about it. You have to really need God. Jesus said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." But as long as you're satisfied with the things of the world, how can God ever speak to you? You say, "God never spoke to me." Why? He wants to. But you're too filled up with the things of the world. That's what's the matter with us today. We put all of our time on things of the world and the pleasures of the world, and give no time to God. It's true.
E-58 Now, we find out that
Isaiah got desperate. And he screamed out, and confessed his sins, and
confessed the sins of the people. And when he got through confessing,
he heard a noise up above him. And when he looked up, there was the
Cherubims flying back and forth through the building, wings over their
faces and wings over their feet, and flying with wings, crying, "Holy,
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty."
Something was taking place. Isaiah got desperate. God come on the job.
And Isaiah screamed, "I have unclean lips." For a voice had just spoke.
It changed him.
"Who'll go for Us?" said the voice, "Who'll go, who's willing to stand
in the breach amongst this bunch of theologians? Who'll go in this day
and claim that I'm still God? Who'll go and condemn their uncleanness?
Who'll tare down their denominations and build the powers of the living
God again? Who'll go?"
Isaiah said, "Lord, before I can go I've got to be alternated." Some of
his little fears and flusterations had to leave him.
E-59 So will it be with every
individual God calls. You've got to be borned again, changed and made
new, not imagination but from your heart, something that really takes
place.
And one of the Angels... If you ask you shall receive. One of the
Angels went over to the brazen altar, and took the tongs, and reached
over, and got a coal of living fire, and ran over to Isaiah, and placed
it in his mouth, said, "Now, you're clean, go speak the Word."
Isaiah was changed after he heard that voice. Then in his late years,
he wrote a complete Bible. He started at Genesis and ended up in
Revelation. There's sixty-six Books of the Bible. There's sixty-six
chapters of Isaiah. Why? Because he got desperate in a time where he
seen it needed most.
E-60 Daniel, down in Babylon, as we spoke of him last night, he'd purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the Babylonian doctrines. But one day down there Daniel got in need. And he knowed he wanted to hear the voice of God. Yet he had the Scriptures, but he needed to hear the voice of God. And he went down to the such river. And he just didn't go down there, and park his chariot, and kneel down in the bulrushes, and say, "Lord God, I want to hear You. Where are You at?" No, you don't do it that way.
E-61 Isaiah had took his chariot and the drivers, and had went down to the river, and sent them back. He was going to stay till he heard. That's the way. He got desperate about it. He had to get plumb away from all the soldiers, and all the astronomers, and the wise men, all the doctors of theology and so forth that was trying to tell him, "This... You do this, Daniel. You do this, Daniel." But he got away from all of it. That's the way you've got to do. And he got down on the river and he stayed there for twenty-one days, wrestling with the Angel of the Lord. But we're told that he looked out upon the waters; there he saw an Angel standing with His foot on the land and the sea, and raised up His hands and swore by Him that lives forever and ever, when the things that Daniel saw come to pass, time should be no more. He had been delayed twenty-one days because of the evil of the land.
E-62 And if he was delayed
twenty-one days because of the evil of that land in the days of Persia,
what would He be in this day, how long could He be delayed? But that
undying faith, that hunger and desire in the human heart that won't say
no, to God, but will hold on till God speaks from heaven...
You can't play with This, with this Gospel. It's not to be played with.
It must hit the tack ten times out of ten. It's got to be perfect or it
isn't right and it won't work. It's got to be perfect.
E-63 Daniel prayed. We find in the Bible, in about the 8th chapter, 7th or 8th chapter of--of the Book of Acts, that a little self-made Pharisee by the name of Saul... Oh, he was a theologian all right. He had sit under the teaching of Gamaliel. And he had all the Scriptures right down in the way it should be, according to the theologians of that day, oh, self-styled and self-made. And he seen people doing something that was spiritual, and his manmade theology didn't cope with it. What a parallel of today. Honest and sincere in his heart, as many people are... They think that people who's been born again is crazy. They think that Divine healing and powers of the Holy Ghost is something that they talk about. But it's true.
E-64 So when he was on his road
down to Damascus one day, with some orders in his pocket from the--from
the church bishop, to go down and destroy all that bunch of
holy-rollers that were screaming and shouting and--and jumping
up-and-down, and speaking with foreign languages, and--and healing the
sick, and... "Why, it's a bunch of devils said the theologians. Go down
and arrest them and bring them back up here in chains."
"Sure, at your service bishop." Oh, my. Oh, he was a great man. He had
a D.D., Ph.D., you know. So he jumped on his horse, and away he went
with the company with him. But on his road about high noon something
floored him. And he wallowed in the dust like a mad man, frothing, and
he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" What
was it? Not some theol... theo... theologian speaking to him, but a
voice from heaven. "Why persecutest thou Me?"
E-65 And he turned over in the
dust, and his frowns all full of dust, and tears rolling down his
checks, perhaps, he said, "Lord, Who are You?" And when he flashed his
eyes he become as blind as a bat. There stood the big Pillar of fire
before him, and a voice coming from It said, "I'm Jesus Who you're
persecuting. Your manmade teaching's been wrong." What was it? There
was an open vision, the Word of God was made real. Oh, brethren, that's
what we need today, is some more like that.
I just want to thank the Lord... These little girls in the wheelchairs
last night come a walking up today in the--without the wheelchairs for
the glory... The Lord bless you, girls.
What did it? The same Jesus that spoke in the supernatural voice back
there speaks yet today.
E-66 "Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou Me?" Saul was a changed man. And people ought to be
changed today when they can see and hear the voice of the living God
speak like He did when He walked in Galilee. Oh, sure.
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" What did it? Did He take him
down to a seminary and teach him some new theology? No, He did not.
What did He do? He spoke to him. And their was a literal voice speaking
through a cloud. What was it? The same God that thundered off of Mount
Sinai.
E-67 In the meetings and the
places where the Holy Spirit does come, you hear a human voice changed,
and not knowing hardly ABC's, but Christ can take that voice and speak
out the mysteries of the almighty God. It ought to change every man and
woman that sets in the Presence of His Word.
"I heard a voice," he said. Oh, we so slumber. I hope we'd not--will
have to made any plainer than that. But we so slumber in our churches,
in our theology, in our thinking, and in our ways of life, until we
fail to hear that voice when it speaks.
E-68 "Oh," they say, "it might
be telepathy, it might... you know. Might be this, that, or the other."
What if Moses would've said, "Say, wonder if that was a demon in that
bush." No question to Moses. He heard the voice.
If you say, "Oh, that might be just my conscience telling me that."
If you're a child of God, you'll know it's His voice. "My sheep hear My
voice. My sheep hear My voice." They'll know.
E-69 There was another by the name of Peter, who had become saved and had also be filled with the spirit. And he still wanted to hang on to the traditions of the elders. All he'd knowed would been hearing the Word. And one day on a housetop, when he wanted to keep the traditions of, "Don't meat--eat any meat, and the Sabbath's, and so forth..." There's a many a good person still tries to hang on to stuff like that.
E-70 And one day when he was up
on the house top he heard a voice that said, "Don't you call that what
I made clean, unclean." God, I wished He would take a bunch of
preachers in this valley here and let them know that we're not crazy.
We're not holy-rollers, a bunch of trash. It's a Spirit of the living
God. And men and women are drunk on His goodness. It's not witchcraft
or mental telepathy. It's a Spirit of the living God. Turn loose of
your traditions, elders, and listen to the voice of the living God.
It'll change you.
You won't become one of the persecutors. You'll want to be one of them
if you can pass the barriers of all your doctrines, until you can float
into His Presence yonder. Something will take place. You won't believe
the days of miracles is past. You'll believe that they're right here,
because one would be performed on you. Sure. To change of man, that's
what the voice of God always does, it changes men and women and makes
them what they should be, not what the schools and the teachers has
made, but what God has patterned them for. The voice speaking, I heard
a voice.
E-71 Oh, I would like to go into
personal experiences. And how that you would love to go to personal
testimonies, many of you men and women who has heard His voice. I can
remember hearing it when I was just a little boy way down in the
mountains of Kentucky, and I thought it was a bird setting in a tree,
but the bird flew away. He said, "Don't fear, 'cause you're going to
leave from here someday and live near a city called New Albany."
I heard His voice when He said, "Don't smoke or drink or defile your
body with women and so forth; there's a work for you to do when you get
older."
Oh, He's still the same Lord God. And you hear Him hour after hour
speaking to you in your teeny little closet in your prayer room, come
out before the audiences then speak visible to the people: the voice of
God. It was precious in the days of Samuel. It's more precious today,
for there was no open vision.
Peter heard the voice. And it changed all of his theology. He went
right straight to the Gentiles who he thought to be a bunch of
illiterate offcast. But the voice of God, not his teaching, the voice
of the living God changed him.
E-72 And now just one more.
There was a good man one time in the Bible, a personal acquaintance
with Jesus, who loved Him and believed in Him, and worshiped Him, and
played with Him, and went into the hills with Him, and down to the
river fishing with Him. He was a good man.
One day while Jesus was gone, death come stealing into his room. And
he'd left the old orthodox church, him and his lovely sisters, Martha
and Mary. And they'd come out because they loved Him, and believed Him
to be the Messiah. And by doing so, the church had quickly
excommunicated them.
And this young man got so sick until he died, and had been buried four
days. What good would theological teachings do then? What good to his
church do then? But there was a voice of God on earth, and He spoke to
Lazarus. And Lazarus, a man who was dead and corrupted in the grave,
heard His voice, and come out, and lived again.
E-73 I was dead once in sin and
trespasses. You were dead in sin and trespasses, but it was the voice
of God that said, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest."
I've seen the voice speak to the cripple, straighten him up. I've seen
the voice of God speak to the blind and his eyes come open. To the
dying, cancer ridden, to the leper, and see them return back in flesh
in the perfect health again. I've seen Him speak to the alcoholics, and
neurotics, and the offcast, and the skid row bunch, and they become
ladies and gentleman and saints of the living God because the voice of
God spoke.
E-74 That's what we listen for today. Let me close by saying this. There will come a time, that when your wondering soul has been taken from your body, and it's in its destination somewhere, wondering yonder in darkness or either into the bosoms of God. That voice will speak again. And the Bible said, "That all those that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come out. Some shall come to everlasting shame and contemptment. And others shall come forth to everlasting peace and joy."
E-75 This morning might be the
time that you make up your mind, whether you're going to listen to what
the television says, or what the paper says, or what the theologians
say, or what God said. Let me tell you as a people; don't you listen to
what anything says, but what God says. Wait on that still small voice,
and He will change you.
You say, "I'd like to believe, Brother Branham. I wished I could
believe. I wished I could do certain things." But you can't. Why? You
don't get quiet long enough. You don't get into a place to where
the--the doubts are all gone. When you enter into the place where the
doubts have passed away, then you'll be free and you can hear the voice
of God speaking, "Child of Mine, I am your Saviour. Child of Mine, I am
your Healer. You don't have to do these things. I died that you might
be free." But as long as you're down here in this vibration, mixed up
with all kinds of voices, just whirl away from all of them.
E-76 Reminds me of a time, when I was up in the mountains once. And I shall never forget them experiences. And here about ten years ago, or hardly so long. I was helping Mr. Jefferies on the roundup. And when I... they was a... I was having salt on the horses. And I was taking them to certain licks where I could lay them out where the cattle would know to come, way back seventy miles almost from civilization, or, I mean about thirty miles, thirty-five, maybe forty miles to Kremmling, Colorado, to where you hit into a little city by population about seven or eight hundred people.
E-77 And I had my horse, and
I'd--the saddle bags I'd unloaded and... We look at the--watch the
cattle through the binoculars. And had I'd hooked my horse to a--a
limb, and the trailers was behind him, which is the horse... The bail
horse was in front.
And I went up on the hills and it was so pretty. It was springtime. And
I was looking across the valleys, watching the little ripples of water
way in the distance. And as I watched, it was in the mid afternoon. And
I seen something that stirred me.
I seen an old mother taking her babies from her nest, and old eagle
bird. And she fluttered around over them till she got them on her
wings, and they'd been out of the nest before. But she took them down
into the valley; they'd never been down there before; they're just
learning to fly. So she let them off. And they went along picking on
the grass, and tumbling over one another, just as care free as they
could be.
E-78 And while setting there, I
thought, "Now, isn't that just like a group of a real believing
Christians?" They're care free. Why was they care free? They didn't
have to fear anything, because mama had went right on back up, and set
down on a rock to watch them. Oh, that just changes it so.
When you get to thinking, "What will Pastor So-and-so think if I happen
to get the Holy Spirit? What will Bishop So-and-so say?" I don't care
what they say. Jesus died, and He's climbed the ramparts of glory, and
He sets in the heavens of the heavens. There ain't nothing going to
bother you. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me. And He
watches you.
E-79 And then, when there come,
if there should come a coyote or something to disturb one of these
little ones, why, she'd--they'd better not. She could pick up a coyote
in her hand, in her paws, carry them up about several thousand feet,
and just turn him loose. He would disintegrate in the air.
Nothing's going to bother them little ones. She's going to see to it.
Nothing's going to bother you. Don't be scared to take God at His Word.
Just relax and have faith and believe. He's watching over you. He will
disintegrate anything that tries to bother you. Oh, it might attack at
you. But it can't harm you.
For all things, He permits it. It couldn't be nothing else, for it's
working together for good to them that love the Lord. No harm could
come to you.
E-80 And so, after while, there
come a storm up. And when the storm started, it comes quick, those
northerners: a little flash of lightning and that wind coming sixty or
seventy miles an hour. And that old mother eagle let out a great big
scream and down through the valley she went. And that scream, what did
it do? Them little eagles knew their mama's voice.
"My sheep know My voice," He said. Danger was at hand. Now, they didn't
try to get under a chunks. They didn't try to run out into some kind of
a trash pile. They just waited on mama.
That's what the Christian should do. See what God's going to do about
it.
E-81 And when the--the old
mother hit the ground, them great big feet about like that. She just
sailed down like a great mammoth plane setting down, and she threw her
head in the air, and screamed, and she threw those big wings out, about
fourteen feet from tip-to-tip. Why, it's from this pole to that one.
All those little eagles just run as hard as they could and jumped right
one their mammys wings, reached right down and got a hold with her
little paw, took their little beaks and got a hold of them tight
feathers in there. Mama just took them without a vibration of those
wings and lifted up into that wind. Right straight into the rocks she
went to hide them from the storm that was coming.
Oh, brother the storm is close to hand. Hear His voice it calls to you,
"Come out of Babylon and be separated. Don't be partakers of
their--their sins. I'll receive you. You'll be sons and daughters to
Me. I'll be God unto you."
E-82 Let us bow our heads just a
moment in the closing.
[Prophecy
comes forth from the audience--Ed.] Amen. You heard that.
That's what we call prophecy in the church.
E-83 Would there be some here
this morning, which I know there is, that would say, "Lord God be
merciful to me. All though I have join church, I've made a confession
but I--I don't know what it is to get quiet before You and hear Your
voice leading me and teaching me. I wouldn't know what to do if You
should speak to me in an audible voice. I would love to know You so
that You could speak to me and direct my paths."
Would you raise your hands just now and say, "God, be merciful." The
Lord bless you, everywhere, hands everywhere. Just continue putting
them up. That's right. "Lord, be merciful unto me; I need You so much."
Would there be some more just before closing? God sees your hands back
there, lady, and all you, way in the back standing in rows and so
forth. God sees you. Even to platform, up around here.
E-84 And Samuel said, "Eli, did
you call me?"
Eli said, "No, my son, I never called you." That wasn't me that spoke
to your heart, friend. That was God. Just speak back and say, "Thy
servant heareth. and take me into Your care today, God. Let me from
this day be holy Thine."
Eternal God, Lover of the soul, and Creator of all things, while that
still small voice of God that spoke to Samuel, that spoke to Saul, that
spoke to Peter, that spoke to Daniel, and Isaiah the prophet, and all
down through the ages, has spoke again this morning in the tabernacle.
Perhaps, maybe thirty, or forty, or maybe fifty hands of sinners, and
church members, and people with flusterations raised their hands. Many
of them were here last night. And they heard Your voice come audible.
And now this morning that same voice speaks down deep in their heart.
They've raised their hands with their hands towards heaven, saying that
they are wrong and they want to be right.
E-85 You have said in your Word that, "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first. And all that will come I'll give them Eternal Life, and will raise him up at the last day." You promised it, Father. And now, we call upon Thee as Your servant to give to these, who has raised their hands, Eternal Life and Eternal joy. And may they live for Thee all the days of their life and at the end of the road of life's journey, enter into the joys of the Lord. Grant it, Father. We ask it in Jesus' Name and for Jesus' sake. Amen.
E-86 How many of you love Him
with all your heart, just all your heart?
Now, in these little places here like this... I'm just late. But the
Bible said that we sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The
Holy Spirit come, gets into the Word, moves down through the audience,
and you can just watch It when It sweeps over and changing them. As I
have said, I believe in emotions. Sure. But you... what... See,
emotions doesn't change you. Emotions has got to go plumb until it
touches the morals of your being. That's what changes you from sinful...
What is a sinner? Unbeliever. There's a many a person today with a--a
Bachelor of Art degree, with a doctor's degree, with a PH.D. and double
L.D. on their name, and still sinners, knows the Bible from Genesis to
Revelations, preaches in the pulpit and still believe--disbelievers.
The Bible said, "He that believeth not is condemned already."
E-87 Ask one of them people if
they think the Holy Ghost is for today? "Why, certainly not." Do you
believe that Divine healing is... "Why, certainly not." Then he is a
unbeliever. That's right.
If the Holy Spirit is in you, won't He testify to His own Word? And if
the spirit in you testifies contrary to what God says is true, it's not
the Spirit of Christ. You might belong to the Church of Christ, but
you're none of Christ until your spirit says, "Amen," to every promise
God made. And when He promised...
Peter said on the day of Pentecost, he said, "Repent, every one of you
and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
E-88 And if your spirit says
that was for another day... What did the Scripture say, "For the
promise is unto you (the Jew), and to your children, and to them that's
far off (the Gentile), even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
the same promise.
He said, "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." And if that's the
doctrine of the branch, first branch, the second branch has to have the
same doctrine. And the same doctrine will produce the same results. And
as each branch comes on the vine, it'll produce the same thing.
I'm glad this morning; I am so glad that I know that the Spirit of the
living God still talks and speaks to people and confirms His Word.
E-89 We're going into baptismal
service just in a few moments. If you've been sprinkled, poured, or
immersed, anyway, then in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
challenged to come to the water.
Now, you say, "Brother Branham, would you mean to tell me...?" Yes,
brother. Sprinkling is not spoke of in the Bible. There's no place in
the Bible where anybody was ever sprinkled. Now, remember this. I've
asked this desk, all week: find me where one person in the Bible was
ever sprinkled for the remission of their sins, ever poured for the
remission of sins, or ever baptized by immersing "in the Name of the
Father, Son, Holy Ghost," for the remission of their sins. Their never
was a person ever sprinkled, poured, or baptized in the Name of the
Father, Son, Holy Ghost in the entire lids of the Bible. No, sir.
E-90 They were--they were some
people baptized one time by John the Baptist. And they wasn't baptized
in any name at all. And they were baptized by the same man that
baptized Jesus.
But Paul when he met him, in Acts 19, told them they had to come and be
baptized over again in the Name of Jesus Christ or they could not
receive the Holy Ghost as yet.
When Peter found some that had received the Holy Ghost before they were
baptized at all, he commanded them, and stayed with them till they were
baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.
That's true, friend. I know lot of people say, "Now, Brother Branham is
a Jesus only." That's wrong. I just believe the Scriptures. I don't
belong to any the denominations. And Jesus only don't baptize that way
anyhow. They just baptize in the Name of Jesus. The Bible said, "The
Lord Jesus Christ." There's many Jesuses, but only one Lord Jesus
Christ. See, see ? Christ is the Messiah. See? And that's right.
And now, friends. Now, you that's here this morning and never been
baptized that way, may God's still small voice speak down deep in your
soul, and regardless of what bishop, what church, what anything else
says, come and obey the Lord, is my command to you.
E-91 And now, Brother Neville
will go to this room, for to make ready for the baptismal service and
those who are--are getting the things ready. Some the elders go with
him, I'll be in there with you in just in a minute. But... I want those
who are coming now when we're going to sing "I Can Hear My Saviour
calling." "I'll go with Him regardless what church, I'll go with Him.
Regardless what anybody... I'll go with Him all the way." Let the--the
men make their way to this room and the women make their way to this
room as we sing now. And we're going to be dismissed officially just in
a moment now. All right. All together now.
I can
hear my Saviour calling, (Now,
the men go here, the women over here.)
... my
Sav... (Some
of the women go in here with these women, please.)
I can
hear my Saviour, (What
did you hear, His voice?)
"Take
up My cross, and follow, follow Me."
Where
He... (Now,
do you really mean it?)... I will follow,
Where
He leads me I will follow,
Where
He leads me I will follow,
I'll
go with Him, with Him, all...
E-92 Now, as I say this, friend,
"I heard a voice." And if the voice didn't speak according to the voice
of God here, it's the wrong voice. But, "My sheep know My voice." How
can you come? Here's the reason you come is because your name was put
on the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. The
Bible said so.
Think of a person whose sitting, and knows that that is the Gospel
truth, and yet something holding them, knowing that perhaps their name
wasn't put on, then what? "In vain do they worship Me..." See, in
vain...
Oh, you say, "I'm a loyal man. I'm a loyal..." That don't have one
thing to do with it.
"In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of
men."
E-93 I've told you there's
nobody sprinkled, poured, or baptized in the Name Father, Son, Holy
Ghost in the Bible. Search it. Find it. If it is, come, show me on the
platform tonight. Then if you've been done that way, you're following
man's tradition. And if somebody tells you, "Well, you come up and make
your confession; you receive the Holy Ghost then." That's wrong. That's
manmade doctrine.
There's a false water baptism. There's a false Holy Spirit baptism. The
Devil is impersonated because he's religious. Cain, his father was
religious. As we've been through it. The seed of the serpent still goes
on. And the seed of the woman through Christ, still goes on. "But no
man can come except My Father draws him."
E-94 Now, think of some setting
here this morning that knows that you're baptized falsely in a man's
creed and not according to the Bible. And you're first birth of
confession is wrong. How can you ever be right 'less you go back and
start right? You remember this week I had preached "It Wasn't So From
The Beginning"?
Now... and if you can hear a voice speaking to you, that's God. Because
It copes with the Scripture. If It doesn't, then there's some kind of a
wrong voice speaking to you. But the right voice will tell you to
follow the rules of the Bible: no sprinkling, no pouring, no falsely.
Come right straight out and follow the rules of the Bible.
Do it, friends. If it took every thing... I don't care what it would
cost, I'll lay aside everything to follow the Lord Jesus. "Hear My
voice, My sheep will and will come to Me. And all that will come to Me,
I'll give them Everlasting Life and raise him up in the last days." Is
it right? Here it is right by the Scriptures. No one can disprove that.
That's right. No one can disprove that. Here it is in the power of the
Spirit, doing the same things that Jesus did. Here He is on picture,
the same Pillar of fire moving the same fruits, same Spirit, having the
same emotions, same actions, same signs, same wonders. There you are.
E-95 Hear the voice of God this
morning. And the voice said, "Samuel?"
Said, "Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, here I am. Here is Your servant. Here is
Your servant. I'll follow."
God bless the lady. I'll... You say, "Brother Branham, you make it
awful strong." I mean for it to be strong. It's between life and death,
so I must make it strong.
The Lord be with you is my sincere prayer. Now, before they move the
furniture of the building here to have the--so that you can see the
baptism, place is open at all times. I want to read some right straight
from the Scriptures, so that you'll see that I'm--I'm reading.
E-96 Jesus Christ in the 16th
chapter of Saint Matthew, I believe, told Peter, "I give unto you the
keys to the Kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth, I'll bind in
heaven; whatever you loose on earth, I'll loose in heaven." Do you all
know that?
On the day of Pentecost when the Kingdom of God had come in the
fullness of its power... Do you believe that?
Peter standing... Now, when Jesus rose from the dead, He did not have
the keys of the Kingdom. Is that right? He had the keys of death and
hell, not the keys to the Kingdom.
And here's what he said, when he was preaching. And they were hearing
these things and had hardened their heart, here's exactly what Peter
said. Now, listen close, as I read the Scriptures, so that you'll
understand: Acts the 2nd chapter.
E-97 Remember, how many was here to hear the sermon: "It Wasn't So From The Beginning." Let's go back to the beginning and see what baptismal--baptizing really is. How should we be baptized? Sprinkled, poured, or in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost? Remember, I challenge any minister, any bishop, anybody, anywhere, anytime to show me one Scripture where any person was ever sprinkled, poured, or baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost. It's open. It's not in the Scriptures. No, it's a false-made creed started by the Catholic church.
E-98 Sprinkling was formed by
the Catholic church about six hundred years after the death of the last
disciple. The Father, Son, Holy Ghost was adapted at the same time,
because Catholic people worship different gods. And they made the
trinity of the offices of God, not the three gods; Father, Son, Holy
Ghost. That's pagan. There's one God. "Thou shalt not have no other
gods before Me. Hear you, O Israel, I'm the Lord your God, one God."
The Jew ask us, "Which is your God, the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost?"
There's just one of them. It's three offices that the same God has
worked in, manifesting Himself, first in the Father could not be
touched, hung on the mountain even the cow or animal would touch the
mountain should be killed. Then He came down 'cause He wanted to be
worshipped.
E-99 He got closer to man,
because He become the Son of man. God was in Him. And when He did that
then, He said, "A little while and the world won't see Me no more. Yet,
ye shall see Me for I (a personal pronoun), I will be with you, even in
you to the end of the world."
Said, "I come from God (What? The Pillar of fire.), I go back to God."
He did. He did. And then when He did that, He went back to God, then we
find Paul (in our lesson this morning) on his road to Damascus, and He
found Paul down on the road. And He smote him down. And when Paul
looked up what was He? The Pillar of Fire again, a Light that put his
eyes out.
Look what Jesus done when He was on earth and told the woman her sins.
Done all these things and said, "I do nothing except the Father shows
Me first."
They asked Him said, "Why don't You go down there and heal them people
down there?" Passed through a great multitude where lame, halt, blind,
and whithered; He healed a man with prostate trouble or something
laying on a pallet.
Said, "Why don't you make the whole bunch of them..."
He said, "Verily, verily," Saint John 5:19, now. "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the
Father doing, that doeth the Son."
E-100 Here He has come again in
this last days. The scientific world can't denounce it. The church
can't denounce it. Here it is come right back into the church and doing
the same thing. The Spirit... God wants those who will worship in the
Spirit and in the truth. Here He is. Here's what He said on the Day of
Pentecost, Peter preaching.
This Jesus has God
raised up, where are... we're all witnesses. (Are we witnesses?)
Wherefore being at
the right hand of God exalted,... having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see
and hear.
For David is not
ascended into heaven; but he said himself, The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand,
Until I make thy
foes thy footstool.
... let therefore
all the house of Israel know assurely, that God had made this same
Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
E-101 Now, when they heard this,... (That was the
religious people.)... when they heard this, they were pricked in
their heart, and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men
and brethren, what shall we do? (Shall
we just go and be good, and... No, no. Watch out Peter you have the
keys to the Kingdom now. What you tell them, God said, "I'll lock it in
heaven when you lock it on earth.")
... Peter said unto
them, "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost.
For the promise is
unto you, and to your children, and to them that's afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call.
E-102 One more Scripture,
thirty-two years after that Paul, over here in the 19th chapter.
... Paul having
passed through the upper coast of Ephesus, he find certain disciples,
And he said unto
them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?
Baptist, let that sink into you. Have you received the Holy Ghost since
you believed? It's a birth, not a confession.
... We not know...
whether there be any Holy Ghost.
And he said, Unto
what was you baptized then? (They'd
been baptized.) Unto
John.
Paul said unto them,
John verily baptized unto repentance,... (not for remission of
sins)... unto repentance, saying that you should believe on him
that is come, that is, on Jesus Christ.
And when they heard
this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And... Paul laid his
hands upon them, and the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spoke in
tongues and magnified God.
E-103 Now, let me take you...
Paul closing his a epistle, Galatians 1:8.
... though we, or a
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which
you've already heard, let him be unto you accuse.
I might take you also to Corinthians the 14th chapter 38th verse. Where
it said...
... if any man
professes... to be spiritual or... a prophet, let him acknowledge
that... what I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
If he be ignorant,
just let him be ignorant.
E-104 What are we going to do
about it? Every evidence... If I was in your place and had not been
baptized according to Christian baptism, regardless of what my church
thought, or what my mother thought, I want to know what my Lord
commands.
Lord Jesus, it's Yours now. And I pray that You'll work on every heart,
and give these who are in the pool to be baptized the Holy Spirit as
they wait upon You. In Jesus' Name we commit the crowd to You, that on
that day, Lord, may I not be guilty; but free from the blood of all
men, not standing by some tradition, or some denomination or
organization, but standing by Your Word. Amen.