Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will
65-1127B, Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will, Washington Youree Hotel, Shreveport, LA, 150 min
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L-1 Minister brothers, and you friends out there, I say it's a privilege to be here this morning. Such an introduction as that, why, I don't know how I'm ever going to live up to that one.
L-2 But just setting there talking, Brother Noel and I, I don't believe I've ever met a person just exactly... We all are made in different molds, but by the same God. Like Brother Jack Moore, he's certainly been... Brother Noel was just saying, "Since I've been here with him..." That's his son-in-law, and how he had learned to love him and respect his wisdom and things. And that... I can say "amen" to that. The many fine thing... times that we've had together, he and I, and Brother Brown, Brother Boutliere here. Fine man of God that I really love them with all my heart.
L-3 And as I see we're all not getting any younger, well, I just think of the time now that watching us as we change since about twenty years ago crossing the deserts, and so forth together as younger man. But just knowing that there is a Land where we'll never get old. We'll meet there again someday.
L-4 Last night when I was leaving the tabernacle, there was a little lady laying back there on a cot, and she said, "Brother Branham, years ago..." I think she had been paralyzed. She said, "You told me..." I forget what the woman's remark was now, something like this, I hope that I don't misquote it. Said, "That this affliction I had would be for a purpose," or something, that she would have a baby. And she couldn't understand how that would be done and her in that condition.
L-5 There stood a young, handsome-looking young man, he said, "I'm the baby that she had." Said, "I'm the baby that she had."
L-6 And so many things has happened along the road, we don't even have time here to talk it over. We will on the other side.
L-7 And this Business Man's chapter. I do not belong to any organization, I guess as you all know, but I... This is the only group that I'm connected with, pack a fellowship card, is... They are interdenominational, it's just business man. They have been a great asset to me and to the type of ministry that the Lord our Father has given me. It's... it wasn't exactly that I don't like the organization; it's just a ministry that's given to me, and if I am not loyal to that call, then I'll be a disloyal person to God.
L-8 And, I'm thinking, just before I left Tucson, maybe many of you were there, one day I was in Los Angeles speaking to the chapter. And there was... I had just raked the organization maybe a little--little hard. I--I didn't mean to be that way. If you mean that to be mean, then I'd be a hypocrite. You mustn't do that, no, that's just throw off on someone. But I had talked about a tree that I saw in Brother Sharrit's yard. It had about five different kinds of fruit on it. And I said, "I never seen a tree like that in my life." It was a... it had grapefruit, it had lemons, it had tangerine, tangelo, oranges, everything growing on the same tree. "Well, I say, I sure don't get that. What kind of a tree is it?"
"It's a orange tree."
And I said, "Well, that grapefruit?"
Said, "Yeah."
I--I said, "How could it?"
Said, "That's grafted."
And I said, "Oh, I see."
"It's a orange tree."
And I said, "Well, that grapefruit?"
Said, "Yeah."
I--I said, "How could it?"
Said, "That's grafted."
And I said, "Oh, I see."
L-9 He said, "They're all of a citrus family, and any tree that's of a citrus family be... can be grafted."
I said, "I understand." Then I started shouting just a little bit, you know, 'cause I am nervous and emotionally.
So, he said, "What's the matter?"
I said, "I understand." Then I started shouting just a little bit, you know, 'cause I am nervous and emotionally.
So, he said, "What's the matter?"
L-10 And I said, "Well, I was just thinking of something." And I said, "Now I want to ask you a question." I said, "Now, next year when the blooms come on, there won't be oranges, tangelos, grapefruits, lemons; there'll all be oranges because it's in a orange tree, won't it?"
He said, "No, no. No, each branch bears of its own."
Said, "I see."
He said, "No, no. No, each branch bears of its own."
Said, "I see."
L-11 So that still was sounding real good, because I'm... you know I'm... course I got a degree out of Hartford and all of these other universities, you know. So--so I'm... watch nature, that's the best university that I've ever found yet, the Creator's university. So as I watch that, I get my sermons from the way I see nature acting.
L-12 And I said, "Well, that just makes me feel real good."
He said, "What's the matter?"
I said, "I just thought of something."
He said, "What's the matter?"
I said, "I just thought of something."
L-13 So, that day, I was preaching on that. And I said, "Now, you see, when the church first started out, it was... Jesus said..." I was preaching John 15. "'I am the Vine, ye are the branches. And every branch that don't bring forth fruit will be cut off, burnt.'"
L-14 And somebody just down on my neck real hard on that, said, "You see, I thought if you was actually once filled with the Holy Ghost and saved, you said, 'they couldn't get away from it.'"
"That's right."
He said, "What about that?"
"That's right."
He said, "What about that?"
L-15 I said, "Now you're talking on a different subject. He's talking about fruit-bearing there, not the Vine; He's talking about fruitbearing, and not the Life. He said, 'Well, just cut the tree back so it will grow, bear fruit.'"
He said...
He said...
L-16 And I said, "Now, see, this tree, when it started out, was all genuine, Bible Christians. Then along come a branch called Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian: lemons and whatmore." And I said, "You see, it thrives on the name of Christianity, but it... It's living off of that Tree, but it's bearing its own denominational kind. See? But" I said "if that orange tree ever puts out another limb itself, it'll bear oranges like it did at the beginning."
L-17 There happened to be, setting up there, a head of a great... one of our greatest Pentecostal organizations. I don't know how to make it so that everybody will understand that it isn't my idea that--that I'm--I'm against those brethren, sisters; that is wrong. I'm so misunderstood, and I don't know why. See? People think I don't even believe in people going to church. That's a million miles from the Truth. "We must assemble ourselves together, and that much more as we see the day approaching." See? We must come together in unity. We might not...
L-18 If I lived in a city and they had nothing there but a... well, some church (I don't want to call any name), but just any church, if they only believed one thing, that Jesus was Divine, all the rest of it was wrong, I'd go to that church. If I can't get a whole loaf of bread, I--I'll take a slice. See? I'll go listen, worship the, Lord, and show Him that I'm doing my part. I want Him to know I'm alive. I'm--I'm... want everybody to know what side I'm on. I assemble with the Christians, and there worship and--and serve the Lord.
L-19 But it's so hard, I... used to bother me so bad, and then I found out even our Lord was misunderstood in so many things. He'd say anything, and they'd... be misunderstood. I guess it just has to be that way. But those who are wise will understand. See? The Bible said so. They'll catch It.
L-20 So this morning while saying this... And I said, "Now, they--they live off of the name of Christianity, but they bear the wrong kind of fruit. It has a denominational fruit. They set a thing, and they're living right off of it, and living off the very Life."
L-21 It's what I was trying to say last night, that spirit can be baptized into that Spirit and still not be a Christian. See? You're living right off of the same Life, but the fruits you bear tells what you are. See? That's right. See? They can do all the signs, and pray for the sick, and heal the sick, and open eyes, and cast out devils, and--and do all these things, living right off of the same Life that's in there, but still it's a lemon. See? That's right. "The fruits, you're known," Jesus said. And so then we find out... [Matthew 7:15-17], [John 15:1-27]
L-22 And when I got off the platform, this great leader raised up, he said, "You didn't mean that," he said, "we know that we're all grafted in." Well, that is true that we are grafted, stump grafted, that's right; but not in the Vine, grafted. So then he said... begin to kinda--kinda slur me back a little bit.
L-23 And there was a young fellow there, I think it's some movie star's people. His name's Danny Henry, and he was a Baptist boy. Well, he come to the platform to put his arms around me, and he said, "Brother Branham, I hope this don't sound sacrilegious, but" said "I believe that could almost be the 23rd chapter of Revelation."
And I said, "Thank you."
And I said, "Thank you."
L-24 And he started to say something else and he started speaking in tongues, a Baptist boy. And when he did, there was a--a woman from here in Louisiana, she was a Frenchman, kind of a big heavyset woman, she wrote down the interpretation.
L-25 Well, then there was another young fellow setting over here was a Frenchman, he wrote down what he said. They compared the notes, and they both was the same.
And then a big, light-headed boy standing way back in the back, at Clifton's Cafeteria, come walking forth. He said, "Let me see those notes."
And then a big, light-headed boy standing way back in the back, at Clifton's Cafeteria, come walking forth. He said, "Let me see those notes."
L-26 I went to see what they was, and all three of them was the same for the interpretation. He was the interpreter for the U.N., French interpreter. And it said this:
Because thou has chosen this straight and narrow way, the harder way, you've done it at your own choosing.
But what a glorious decision you've made, because it's MY WAY.
See? And said... and went ahead and said then:
This in itself is that which will bring to pass, and make and bring to pass, the tremendous victory in the Love Divine.
Because thou has chosen this straight and narrow way, the harder way, you've done it at your own choosing.
But what a glorious decision you've made, because it's MY WAY.
See? And said... and went ahead and said then:
This in itself is that which will bring to pass, and make and bring to pass, the tremendous victory in the Love Divine.
L-27 You see, always, even in French, the verb before the adverb there in the--in the--in the interpretation. So in that I couldn't say... Moses, he made his choice, he had to make his choice. We all have to make our choices and do the best that we can. And God... I respect any man's message that he's given about God. I... whatever it is, I respect that with all my heart.
L-28 Now, I see some young Brother come a while ago, Brother Stringer, I think from down in Louisiana... or Mississippi, brought us some pictures here that you seen us watching it. It was of the Angel of the Lord, when It appear. How many's heard the story? I guess every one of you here's heard it. You've had it on tape, and so forth.
L-29 Now, that was told me one morning at ten o'clock, standing in my room in Indiana. Told me I would be at Tucson, be early in the morning, I'd be picking a cocklebur (what we call there, a goat-header) off of my trouser leg. And seven Angels came and bursted this, and ground bursted and everything else, to... rocks rolled out of the mountains, and seven Angels stood there.
L-30 And I said, "Well..." I told my wife, and she's somewhere present this morning, "You get everything ready 'cause no way a man could exist that," I said, "come out of that. I'm going to Tucson, my work is finished here on earth. I'm going home to be with the Lord Jesus."
"Well," she said, "are you sure?"
I said, "Yes. Yeah, no one could--could stand that. There's no way of doing it."
"Well," she said, "are you sure?"
I said, "Yes. Yeah, no one could--could stand that. There's no way of doing it."
L-31 I just preached The Seven Church Ages. That's where I had called our gallant, little Brother Jack Moore to ask him about this, Jesus, in Revelation 1, standing there with white hair and everything.
L-32 I said, "He was a young Man." And that's where the revelation come about that being a wig on, and not Him; He's wigged (and I couldn't understand it), as being Supreme Deity. And the old judges used to in Israel, had to be white-headed. And the white stands for purity. And the English judges till this day, in supreme courts of England, put on a white wig when they come out, because there's no other law above theirs on earth. See? And they're supreme judge. [Revelation 1:8-17]
L-33 And I remember I went there in Arizona and everything, I was trying my best to... scared to death. I went to Phoenix meeting. Remember I preached the sermon, Sirs, What Time Is It? Remember that? I said that I seen that, I said, "Before it comes to pass, remember, THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'Something's going to happen.'" You've probably got the tapes in your library of tape now. And there I said, "You remember now the visions that never fails. 'Something's going to happen.' Remember!"
L-34 And a few days after that, I was getting nervous, and I thought, "What this? Am I going to die? If... I hope it's quick so I can get over it. I don't want to linger."
L-36 And I was up there holding up my hands, praying. I felt something strike my hand. It was a sword. Now, you can just imagine how you'd feel, standing there by yourself and here's a knife in your hand about that long. I pulled it down and looked at it. It was just a knife, one of them... and I'm scared of a knife, anyhow. And it had a--it had a--a metal, something like one of these knifes, like pot metal or something, real sharp and narrow. Had a sheath around it here, where the dueler's used to, to keep from cutting one another's hands, and--and it had a pearl in the handle here. Just fit my hand exactly. Well, I rubbed my face and looked back.
Right on that same spot, the other day, I saw a little, white dove come down. I'll tell you about that later on.
Right on that same spot, the other day, I saw a little, white dove come down. I'll tell you about that later on.
L-37 And I was holding that in my hand, I thought, "That's strange. Now, Lord, I... am I losing my mind? There's no one here. I'm miles from anybody and here is a sword. I had my hand up, and where did it come from?" And I thought, "That's the strangest thing. Now looky here, it's a sword; see, hit it, and it was a sword." And I said, "There's nobody here standing here. I'm up on top of these rocks, plumb on top of the mountain." And you couldn't even see Tucson from there, it was so far down.
L-38 I thought, "Now, that's a strange thing. Now, it's got to be in this vicinity somewhere, Somebody that could create and make a sword and put it in my hand." And I said, "It could only be the very God that created a ram for Abraham, could create those squirrels," that you've heard. And I said, "Here is the material, three different kinds of material in it, and I'm holding it in my hand just as real as anything else I could hold in my hand."
L-40 And I thought, "Now, where did That come from? Was right along there in them rocks somewhere." And I held up my hand like that, and I said, "A king's sword." And I looked around, and the sword was gone. And I said, "A king's sword." That's to... they knight with--with a sword, I think that's right, the army or someway, they knight with it. Then I said, "Well, that's what that was probably for. It means that maybe I'm to lay hands upon ministers, or something like, that, to make them ministers." And then I...
L-42 I thought, "Now, I'm either beside myself, my mind has slipped, or there's something taking place, there's somebody standing around here by me."
L-43 And brethren, these things are true. I don't--I don't know how to tell you, you've always seen it always happen like this. See? See? And it's... I couldn't understand it. So... It's the strangest feeling.
L-44 Just then I thought, "Now, ever Who that is that's talked to me all my life, since a little, bitty baby boy, is standing right here, and I can't see Him at all." I said, "The King's Sword?" That would be... God is the King. "And what is this sword?"
L-46 Oh, my! Down off that mountain I went; crying, screaming, top of my voice, jumping over rocks. I went down, told my wife, I said, "I'm not going to die, see, it's--it's--it's my ministry." (I told her to get with Billy Paul here, and take the children. I said, "Now, I don't have anything, but the church will see that you all don't go hungry and things, and I'll--I'll meet you across the border.") And--and she... I said, "No, I'm not going to die, it's something about my ministry."
L-47 A few days after that I was coming out from a meeting; had a three page telegram, was from over here at Houston, Texas. And that man that criticized me so bad the night that the Angel of the Lord was taken, the picture of It taken there at Houston, he called me up, he said... sent a telegram, the wife said, "I know, Brother Branham, you're busy. My son, Ted Kipperman's sister's boy, is setting in the death row to die in the chair." Said... (what if that was Billy Paul?). He said, "He and a little girl has got to die." And you all read it in the paper, of course. And said, "Only hope we have is for you come and hold a meeting and get the people together."
L-48 And Raymond Huckstra had already wrote me several times, but you know, I had planned there at that meeting to go on a hunting trip with Mr. McAnally and them. And I thought, "Well, if I let them kids die and don't put my effort forth, I'll never be able to go hunting again."
L-49 So I said, "All right, I'd come." I come over to Houston, had the meeting, and course the... they never killed them, they just... they give them life. And that's what they wanted them to do, just give them life. So that's about twenty-one years, I guess, in--in Texas.
L-50 So then, and going back, I went up in the mountain and I went with Brother Fred Sothmann. He's here somewhere. Brother Fred, where you at? Right here. Brother Fred Sothmann, Brother Gene Norman; one day, the second day setting there, the Angel of the Lord came right down into the camp where we was at, and begin to tell about their children and things they were doing.
L-51 I left and went back on the hill. And I had already got my javelina, and I was trying to chase one around to Brother Fred. So I found where they had been eating on the side of a hill, and I said, "Well, now, I'll tell you what I'll do, Brother Fred." I said, "Now, you go over on that point in the morning." We go up there at daylight, climb up over the mountain. "And go there at daylight, I'll get over on the other side. Now, I won't shoot one, but if they run this way, I'll shoot in front of them and turn them back. And pick out a big one."
L-53 So Brother Fred went over there. And Brother Gene Norman (I don't think Brother Gene come, did he?), he was--he was on the other side. Many of you know Gene Norman, a bosom friend of many, fine brother. And he went down a little below. Where, them pigs, they just wasn't there that morning. And I could see Brother Fred, wave at him, he was about a mile away from me. Well, I thought, "Where could they have went?" I went down into a great ravine, and come down, I thought, "I'll see if I can find where they're at." Started back up. It was just a little after daylight, the sun was just begin coming up.
L-54 And I went around a great big chasm, oh, my, hundreds and hundreds of feet, just great rocks in the great canyon there, them big walls. And it was kindly getting... the sun was raising up, about seven o'clock, I guess, or something like that. And I set down and I was looking around, I happened to look down on my trouser leg and there was that bull-header, burr. And I said, "You know, that seems strange. You know, the Angel of the Lord told me I'd be about forty miles northeast of Tucson, I'd be picking a bull-header off of my leg." You remember it? Do you? Yes, sir. See? I said, "That's strange." I was holding it.
L-55 And just as I looked up, I seen about twenty hogs about five hundred yards from me, come out eating this little phyllary and laid down. I said, "Now, if I can just get Brother Fred and get him around to that point there, he'll get his hog right there. But I know he's about a mile or two from me now. So," I said, "if I could cross over this little ridge without them seeing me, up by this little juniper tree there," I said, "if I get around this side, there's a deer trail comes down this side, I can run up there and get out of the way. And hang a little piece of paper here where I know which one of the fingers to go out on, on the canyon, and get Brother Fred there just in time."
L-56 I throwed this little bull-header down, forgetting about That. And started across the hill real easy and looked back, they didn't see me, and run down and hit this deer trail. I had a great big black hat on. I started running up through this canyon real fast, and it happened.
L-57 The whole earth shook, everywhere. Rocks that size rolled down, dust flying like that. And I looked, and standing before me stood seven Angels; just exactly the way it was. I felt like I was standing way up off the ground. First, I thought somebody had shot me, you know, with that black hat on; looked like a javelina hog, anyhow, you know they're dark. I thought somebody had shot me, such a... right close. And I--I seen then what it was. Well, as soon as... I got my commission, and the Scripture, "The Seven Seals which is the seven mysteries." See?
L-58 Someone said to me, said, "Now..." Oh, he said, "Well, now, someday the Lord probably (you seeing visions, Brother Branham) will reveal to you what these things are, we can all get closer to God and have more power than we get in speaking in tongues and things."
I said, "It can't be that way."
I said, "It can't be that way."
L-59 Cause, see, I believe the Word to be the Truth. And the Bible said, "Whosoever shall add one word or take one Word from It." It has to be in this Word. See? It's the mysteries that the people's overlooked. Well, right there is where come my Message of Serpent's Seed and the true Belief of the security of the believer.
L-60 I'm not disgrading my Presbyterian brethren there, and some of you Baptist brethren on the way you have security. I'm not saying this to be different, but you didn't have it just right. See? That's right. See? But, I had it wrong, too. But when an Angel stands from Heaven and tells you, and here it is right in the Scripture, That's true. See? That's right. See, He always speaks exact with the Scripture.
L-61 In there I watched it until that circle went up, started sweeping up, and they turned into like a mystic light, like a fog. Just exactly the way... How many seen the picture of It that was taken in Houston? Remember that? See? Well, that's just the way this was. It turned into the same thing, It kept going higher and higher.
L-62 I was running and running, trying to find Brother Fred and them. After while, about a half hour later, I could see him way down, waving his hands; and Brother Gene coming, waving. They knowed something had happened. And so then I got with them. That's Brother Fred setting right there.
L-63 As it went up, I didn't know that the observatories and things, plumb into Mexico, was taking that picture. Life magazine packed it as It went up. And many of you... Here's Life magazine packing the picture of It. A mysterious thing here, and they said they don't know where it come from; it's too high. It's above all the spheres and everything else to be... It's too high for fog, because it's thirty miles high and twenty-seven miles across after it got up that high. There's not even humidity or nothing up there, you see.
L-64 And they thought of a plane; so they checked all the places, no planes up that day. See, they have to, on account of shaking windows and things. "There's no planes up." Here it is right here in the magazine, will tell you the same thing. And--and it went on and on. And today right in the...
L-65 Here it is in Science magazine, where, they can't understand it, they don't know what It is.
Tucson, at the university, a friend of mine went over the other day and was talking to them about it. Said, "We can't understand what..."
I said, "Don't say nothing, won't do no good. 'Cast not your pearls before swine.'" See? It's to the Church, to the Elected, the called-out. See?
Tucson, at the university, a friend of mine went over the other day and was talking to them about it. Said, "We can't understand what..."
I said, "Don't say nothing, won't do no good. 'Cast not your pearls before swine.'" See? It's to the Church, to the Elected, the called-out. See?
L-66 And then each one was coming, saying, "Brother Branham, I see your picture here. I see this. I..." You know how it is. But that--that long sweep as this brother has on here where it... Excuse me. [Brother Branham gets the photograph--Ed.] Here's the way It started up, sweeping up. Actually this was on the right hand side. And you all remember I said, "The noted Angel was the one that talked to me, was on the right hand side," even before it happened. You remember? His wings pointed back like that. That's exactly the wings of that Angel as it went up. See, as it... So they started taking the pictures because it was so mysterious. But when the last picture, when It formed Itself into the skies and so forth, this is it as Look here packed it. You see how it rose up just as they begin to see it, you see. And there comes the--the real main and last picture, when it formed.
L-67 They don't know where it come from or where it went, they don't know yet. Science is completely stumped about it, don't know what happened. But we know; "there shall be signs in the heaven above." We know it. See? And He promised these things. See? And the only thing that this was permitted to be taken...
L-68 But I know we're just home folks here this morning. If I ever impress you brethren or sisters as a know-it-all, please forgive me. I don't mean to be that. I'm stand... setting here this morning talking before man who are scholars, man who are smart; I--I'm a illiterate, I can't even pronounce my Scriptures right. I got a chapter to read this morning, I'm... was going to ask one of the brothers here to read it for me, 'cause I can't even pronounce the names in it, First Chronicles 13, (if you will, Brother Jack, you can be hunting it up), for my subject. I--I can't even pronounce those names, I'm letting him do it, 'cause he can pronounce them.
L-69 And I know I'm talking to smart man. But, brethren, these things are done that you might not look at my illiteracy, but believe that I'm telling you the Truth. It's God telling you the Truth. That's the Truth. See?
L-70 Now, and when I speak of denominations, I'm not meaning for you to be so cruel and... No, I don't mean for you not to go to your church. Go to your church, what you're supposed to do. But just don't join up with them organizations, because one day I'll be telling you and prove it by the Scripture, it is the mark of the beast. And you just remember, it's the mark.
L-71 I'm preaching... I wouldn't preach it in Brother Jack's church, he'd tell me, "Go ahead and do it"; but I'm going to the tabernacle, it'll be about four hours long. And my subject is, "The beast at the beginning and the beast at the end, through the trail of a serpent." See? Takes about four hours. I got my Scriptures all laying out. The beast from the beginning, he was the beast at the Garden of Eden, he's the beast at the end, and show that he's a religious person and a denomination (that made the denomination); and come right through the trail of it, and prove it to you by the Scriptures that it is. I didn't know that till the Holy Spirit give it to me the other day up there.
L-72 Now, in this, I was watching this one day, standing, and something said to me... looking at it, and I thought... Brother Hickerson, one of my trustees... or deacons at the church at Jeffersonville... If I don't believe in going to church, why do I have churches? We had them all across the country, hooked up the other night, every two hundred square miles had one of my churches.
L-73 Now, this--this picture, I was standing, looking at it, and something... I was standing in my room. Something said, "Turn it to the right." I listened.
L-74 I know that sounds like somebody's a little mentally upset, but, you see, as I said the other night, all these great things are so scholarly... Now, I'm not against that. Remember, we have to have... Send your children to school and get education and so forth, but I'll tell you right now, it won't do them no good in the world that is to come, 'cause there'll be another civilization. All this... so far above this. That civilization won't even have any... it won't have any schools in it, it won't have any death in it, won't be any sin in it. This has all that; no matter how much civilized we get, more and more death is added all the time. See? That one will be without death. But now we have to have school, we have to wear clothes, we...
L-75 I was going to speak this morning on Satan's Eden (many of you's got the tape of it), Satan's Eden. He has made another garden of Eden, and six thousand years it's taken him to make it, just like God did His at the beginning. God made His Eden, and Satan corrupted it. Now Satan's made his own Eden, and God's going to destroy it (that's right) and put His own. [Genesis 2:8-25]
Something said to me, "Turn it right."
I thought, "I think I'm looking at it right."
Said, "Turn it right." See?
Something said to me, "Turn it right."
I thought, "I think I'm looking at it right."
Said, "Turn it right." See?
L-76 I thought, "Maybe that Voice means turn it to the right." And when I did, you see what it is: Hofmann's Head of Christ, at thirty-three. Here, look in here, see His black beard, His face, His eyes, His nose, and everything else. See the part in His hair here coming up. And He's wigged with that white Angel wig to show that the Message of Him being God is the Truth. He is the Supreme Judge of the universe, Supreme Judge of Heaven and earth. He is God, and nothing else but God. He is God expressed in human form called the Son of God, which the Son was the mask. And if that don't make our Message exactly right: identified by the Scripture, identified in service, identified by His Presence, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore those Seven Seals are the Truth, brethren. Might disagree with them, but just set down and study with a open heart one time, just let the Holy Spirit lead you from... [Revelation 1:8-17]
L-77 Here, when Brother Jack... I called him before preaching this and talked to him one time about "What was this white wig?"
L-78 He said, "Well, Brother Branham, I declare it to be that it was in... was after His resurrection in His glorified body." I was talking to Brother Jack. And there's... I don't know of anybody in the world that I'd rely on anymore of their teachings on theology and things as I would like Brother Jack Moore and Brother Vayle, and such man as--as that, real theologians that's read all kinds of books and different angles from everything. Well, but, you see, even with that, and my bosom friend, I--I--I just couldn't receive it, there was something there just wouldn't take it.
L-79 And then when it come, this, then I see what it is. Here's His dark beard. You see It, I guess. See? His dark beard and dark hair, His eyes, nose, everything, just perfectly, and even the part in His hair coming over on this side. He is God! See? And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this is Look magazine... or Life magazine. I think this is the... I forget what issue it is now; oh, May the seventeenth, 1963. That's when it come out, if anybody wants the magazine. It's the same picture that's got Rockefeller and his--his wife on the back of it. And this is the new Science magazine that "it's still a mystery." [Revelation 1:8-17]
L-80 What did I say these things for? That it might give you a little view of the things that we're trying to say, that God is identifying both in heavens and in earth to be right, these discernments, visions. We have plenty of impersonations, we always. But remember, before there can be a bogus dollar, there has to be a real dollar first; first has to be a real dollar, and then they're made off of that. Just like we had a real Moses and a real Aaron, then we had a Jambres and Jannes after them. You see how it all comes? They see it and then they try to impersonate that, when there's truly one original. That's right. Not saying that to harm or to degrade, or misplace something, but just for Truth; to know that I... [II Timothy 3:8]
L-81 I'm getting to be an old man, and I know my time ain't too long. If Jesus, tarries, I may... could stay a little while; but I know that someday this heart's going to make its last beat, and I'm entering into a great, dark chamber there called death. But when that comes, I don't want anything to have to look back for, to try to repent for. I want, when I come to that time, to be clean and pure by the grace of God. I want to wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness, when I enter there, with this one thing in my mind: I know Him in the power of His resurrection; and when He calls, I'll come out from among the dead and live with Him forever. And it's my purpose here now to try to get every man... not to change your theologies or nothing, but to increase your faith in God's promise of this day.
Now let us pray:
Now let us pray:
L-82 Dear God, we are a grateful people this morning, but yet, Lord, we're living in a dark world that... There isn't a one of us here this morning, Father, but what feels that we--we want a closer walk with You, we want that--that touch of You in our lives that can tender us and make us flexible so that You can change us at anytime, mold us into sons and daughters of God. That--that's our purpose here, Father, that's--that's my only objective that I have is to try to--to live before You and to get Your Word and speak It back to the man and women that... not to be a different person but to try to honor Him who's give me Life. Grant it, Lord.
L-83 May there not be a person here today... Or--or if... We're hooked up this morning, across the nation, again. May there not be a person that's in the sound of our voice ever have to go into that great chamber not knowing You in the power of Your resurrection. If there be sinners somewhere across the country, that... or in this building, this great auditorium, setting here this morning. If there are those who don't know You, may this be the day that their conscience will be shook, woke up, and they'll realize that they don't know what minute that we may be called or summoned to answer for our lives, on High. And if our name is still on that stalk book, doomed we'll be; but if it's in the Lamb's Book of Life, the real Life, then we are saved.
L-84 And may, Lord, as that Life travels from the blade into the pollen, into the shuck, then to the grain, while they're passing through this morning if there be some Life that goes into the grain that's laying back in that stalk, bring it out today, Lord, may it follow the moving of the grain, for we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
L-85 Sorry to take so much time. I forgot about this even being on the radio time out there, the phone time.
L-86 Now let us turn for our reading. And Brother Jack, have you got your Bible there? While I'm finding my Scripture, I'll ask Brother Jack to read this Scripture because I cannot pronounce these names right. All right, in First Chronicles 13!...?... [Brother Jack Moore reads First Chronicles, the 13th Chapter:
And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.
And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren every where, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us:
And let us bring again the Ark of our God to us: for we--we enquired not at it in the days of Saul.
And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.
And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.
And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave--drave the cart.
And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
And when they came to the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, and because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before the Lord.
And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place was called Perez-uzza to this day.
And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
So David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
And the ark of God remained with the family of Obed--Obed-edom in the house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had.--Ed.] [I Chronicles 13:1-14]
And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren every where, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us:
And let us bring again the Ark of our God to us: for we--we enquired not at it in the days of Saul.
And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.
And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.
And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave--drave the cart.
And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
And when they came to the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, and because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before the Lord.
And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place was called Perez-uzza to this day.
And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
So David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
And the ark of God remained with the family of Obed--Obed-edom in the house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had.--Ed.] [I Chronicles 13:1-14]
L-87 Thank you, Brother Moore, for the reading of the Scripture for me. Now, sorry I couldn't read that myself, but I--I couldn't do it.
L-88 Now I want you to turn with me to Mark 7:7, and we'll read the first seven verses of St. Mark the 7th chapter.
Let us pray.
Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
And when he saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
But the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they'd washed their hands... eat oft not, holding--holding the traditions of the elders.
And when they came forth from the market, except they'd washed, they eat not. And many other things were--were they... which they have received of the... received to hold,... the washing of the cups, and of pots, and brass vessels, and of tables.
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hand?
He answered and said unto them, Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of man. [Mark 7:1-7]
And when he saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
But the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they'd washed their hands... eat oft not, holding--holding the traditions of the elders.
And when they came forth from the market, except they'd washed, they eat not. And many other things were--were they... which they have received of the... received to hold,... the washing of the cups, and of pots, and brass vessels, and of tables.
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hand?
He answered and said unto them, Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of man. [Mark 7:1-7]
Let us pray.
L-89 Dear God, honor Your Word now, and may It accomplish that which It is purposed for. Use us as instruments to speak It, and our ears to hear It from You, and our hearts to receive It. We ask in Jesus' Name, for the glory of God. Amen.
L-90 Now, my subject for a few moments is this... I...
We are on the national telephone hookup this morning. And I understand that my good friend, Roy Borders, is listening in, pretty well tore up about last night. I'd forgot that we were on the radio... or this hookup last night. Roy, wherever you are, if you're over in San Jose in the church there, or either down to Brother McHughes' church, or wherever you are, don't fear, my brother, everything will be all right. Set still, you just... He'll make it known to me, Roy; don't worry, son, have faith in God.
We are on the national telephone hookup this morning. And I understand that my good friend, Roy Borders, is listening in, pretty well tore up about last night. I'd forgot that we were on the radio... or this hookup last night. Roy, wherever you are, if you're over in San Jose in the church there, or either down to Brother McHughes' church, or wherever you are, don't fear, my brother, everything will be all right. Set still, you just... He'll make it known to me, Roy; don't worry, son, have faith in God.
L-91 My subject this morning is: Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will. Now, that's a strange text, and I trust that the Lord will reveal this to us now. Remember, "Trying to do God a service without it being the will of God." Now, that seems very strange. But, in this, maybe God can help us.
L-92 Another thing I'd like to say this morning, that we're glad to have in our midst a friend of mine, a very dear friend, a young fellow. Many of you people on the radio now can... or the... on the telephone hookup, knows who this is. Today is his birthday, ninety-three years old, Brother Bill Dauch setting here before me, ninety-three years old.
L-93 Several years ago the doctor said, "He cannot live." I just noticed him setting here now. Under oxygen tent, and his lovely wife called me and said, "Brother Branham, if you expect to see your old friend, Bill, alive, you better come at once."
L-94 And I... One of my tires was cut on the side, my wheel had been knocked out, and I tore a tire off of my car trying to get to him. I was just coming from a--a--a station, filling station, and coming from the restroom where I had stopped in Ohio trying to get to him, and walking out I saw a vision. And there stood Brother Dauch, standing in the church with his hand out; it changed, and I seen you coming down the street and shook my hand. Said, "Go tell him, 'THUS SAITH THE LORD.'"
L-95 He was about ninety years old then. He had a heart attack with a heart block, and a complete heart failure. Very shrewd doctor. The man is not... he don't want... No, I won't say that. He's just a man who can afford... get any doctor he'd want. He had a very fine Jewish doctor who met me in the hall and said, "There's not a chance for him to live."
L-96 And I went in and slipped my hand under the oxygen tent, I said, "Bill, can you hear me?" He nodded his head. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'You're not going to die now.'"
L-97 A week from then, when I got in the pulpit to preach my Message, here come Brother Dauch walking up through the building. And when I went over to Furr's Restaurant, across... I mean the Blue Boar, across in Louisville, here he was getting out of the car, coming down the street, holding his hand out; just exactly according to the Word of the Lord. And that's three or four years ago; and here he sets all the way down here, in Shreveport (crosses the nation, not by plane now, by car) uh-huh, setting here this morning. "Happy birthday, Brother Dauch." That's from all across the nation, from everywhere. "God bless you!"
L-98 I baptized him, after being a trinitarian, I baptized him when he... was one of my first meetings, when Brother Banks Wood had to let him have his clothes (he's a good-size man, as you see), and he went into the pool and I baptized him at about eighty-five or ninety years old, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. He said he never could feel right until he found that security of something. Then he received a birth-day where he'll never grow old. That's right, that great Land. He even is expecting to live to see the Coming of the Lord; it can be done. But if he would sleep, he... and we are awake at that time, he'll come first. Right. So, Brother Dauch, there's no way now to miss it. You're exactly on the line. Stay there, my brother, and God bless you. And I thank the Lord for a good man like that, and for giving him all of these years.
L-99 In the Book of the Chronicles, "Trying to do God a service without it being His will." God is sovereign, first, we want to understand that. The people today are wondering why we can't have a revival. Do you believe God's sovereign? See, the Bible speaks this way.
L-100 And we try... As I was discussing with a group of my fine brothers, Baptist brethren, not long ago, and they said, "Brother Branham, we can only have a revival when we take the Word, word by word, page by page, letter by letter."
L-101 And I said, "I believe too, page by page." He said... I said, "They've been trying to do that all along."
He said, "But we must find the Greek interpretation of the Word, what the Greek says."
He said, "But we must find the Greek interpretation of the Word, what the Greek says."
L-102 I said, "I haven't read too much, but reading the history of the church, and the Nicaea Council, and the pre-Nicaea Council, and Nicaea fathers, so forth, they were arguing back there about the Greek. That's two thousand years ago. One said, 'It means this,' and one says, 'It means that. The Greek word means this.'"
L-103 Just like our language; the word see. Use the word see, you could mean "a body of water, I understand," or many things. Bored, "to be boring a hole, make a walk," or--or "you bored me," or "you paid my board," or it could mean any... many things. And those little vowels, and so forth, just change the whole meaning. So you'll never do it like that. God wrote It like that, because...
L-104 And all of the Word is inspired, and He said that, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou has hid these things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and will reveal" (amen) "to babes such as will learn." It's a revelation of Him, as I said last evening, "Will reveal It to babes." [II Timothy 3:16], [Matthew 11:25], [Luke 10:21], [Psalms 8:2], [I Corinthians 1:19-21, 27-31]
L-105 I said, "It won't work, sir." I said, "A revival will never come until God, the sovereign God, sends it; and then He might take up a little nitwit that can't even sign his name, and do it with it, that knows not even good English let alone the Greek."
L-106 That's what He done in the time when Peter preached at Pentecost, you know, he couldn't even sign his name, ignorant and unlearned. But God does things in such strange way to our intellectual thinking. That makes it God. If He'd got a bunch of theologians and dignitaries, and so forth, they'd said, "That smart Caiaphas, you see, he had it just right." But God went down and got fishermen that couldn't even sign their name, and that's what He took. That's God, He takes something that's nothing and makes something out of it to His Own honor. He took a chaos and made a Eden. Uh-huh, it's God. [Acts 4:13], [Matthew 11:25], [I Corinthians 1:27]
L-107 Now, if there's anybody got the mechanics for a revival, is our noble brother, Billy Graham. But the mechanics is all right, but the mechanics won't move it, it takes the dynamics to move it. You can build an automobile, put fine seats in it, make fine pistons and--and prove by science what it can do; but unless the dynamics is there, she's just a dead piece of goods.
So, in the Welsh revival, one of our late revivals before our Pentecostal, no one knowed what started the revival, just a bunch of people.
So, in the Welsh revival, one of our late revivals before our Pentecostal, no one knowed what started the revival, just a bunch of people.
L-108 Now, when we get all... our friend, Billy Graham, will get all of the Presbyterians, and Lutherans, and Pentecostals, and everything together, go into the city and there they'll have a great gathering together of thousands, and thirty thousand will come (in two weeks) and give their hearts to Christ; go back another two weeks and you ain't got a one. See, that's the mechanics. But let God in His sovereign grace just speak to some little nitwit, as so to say, a little nobody; let His Spirit fall into a city and man can't go to work, women can't wash dishes, the maid can't make the bed, a-screaming and crying with their hands up in the air. That's revival, that's in the will of God.
L-109 It was said that some noblemen from the church went over to the Wales to understand, or figure out what all the mechanics was in the revival, during the Welsh revival. And when they got off the ship with their tall hats on, and their round collars; see him come down the street, a little policeman, swinging his club around and around like that, whistling; they said, "My good man, could you tell me where the Welsh revival is?"
L-110 He said, "Yes, my brethren, you're standing in the middle of it!" Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. He said, "You understand, I am the Welsh revival," said, "because the Welsh revival's in me."
L-111 That's sovereign! That's what God does, and He alone has a right to send a revival. Not get the mechanics together, it's pray for God to send the dynamic--dynamic.
L-112 He only reveals His Word in the predestinated. Now, when I use the word predestinate... Now, it's a bad word to use in public, especially when we have mixed crowds between the Arminians and the Calvinists. And not a... I've asked you not to think I know It all, but they're both wrong according to the Scripture. Grace is what God did for me, works is what I do for Him. See? Then you've got It. If you climb out on either one of the limbs, you'll sure find yourself out on the end of the limb and can't get back. The Book of Ephesians pulls it together, I think.
L-113 Now, but the word, when I use it, predestinated, don't think that I'm... that's the only word I know how to--to make... It's God's foreknowledge, see, that He knowed. He--He can't say... He--He died that all might be saved, He did, but by His foreknowledge He knowed who would and who would not. See? That's what He knows, I don't know it and you don't know it, so we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. [I Peter 1:3]
L-114 Now, but God has His Word set, and has in all ages. His foreknowledge has caused Him to set in the church, and in the people, certain things that He did from the beginning. And then the Gospel that's being preached to that age is only revealed to that certain people, the rest of them don't see It. See? "Thank Thee, Father Thou has, hid these things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and reveal It to babes such as would learn." See, that's predestination. Not that He did it by, you say, "I'll choose you, and don't choose you." By His foreknowledge, He knowed what you would do. [Matthew 11:25], [Luke 10:21], [I Corinthians 1:19-21, 27-31]
L-115 By Him being infinite... Do you believe He's infinite? If He isn't, He can't be God. Then, you think, being infinite: He knew every flea that would ever be on the earth, how many times them fleas would bat their eyes, how much tallow was in each flea, every blade of grass it would ever set on; that's infinite. We are finite, we stumble in darkness. God likened us to sheep, and we must have a leader. And that leader's not man, that leader is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ among us. "A little while and the world seeth Me no more." His physical being was raised up to the Throne of God, where the Spirit was on the Throne; now Christ is on the Throne, Jesus. "A little while and the world seeth Me no more, yet ye shall see Me, for I'll be with you to the end of the world, even in you." The, Throne of God, of Christ, is erected into your heart; and He's setting on God's Throne, but in the Millennium He sets on His Own Throne; which, He swore that He'd raise up this Man, His Son, David's Son, to set on His Throne. [John 14:19]
L-116 Now, He reveals these things by His foreknowledge to those who He has ordained to these things, otherwise they don't see It. Standing right there, looking right at It, and he can't see It.
L-117 How many ever seen that picture of a cow in the bush, that you just have to look and look? Did you ever see that? Or, seen the picture of Christ in a bush, or in the sky, or clouds? See, that painter has got that so fixed up till you have to look at it just a certain way. Well, then, when you once see it, you can't see nothing else but that. Every time you look, there it is. How many's seen those pictures? Well, sure you have.
L-118 Well, that's the way Christ is, Himself, the Gospel, the Message is. When you once see the Message of the hour, there's nothing else you can see but That. That's all. Everything else is gone, the rest of it's just a filler, see, see, when you once see the Message! [Matthew 13:45-46]
L-119 That's--was in Noah's time. When Noah and his group... see how... When they saw the Message, nothing else mattered. When Moses' group saw It, nothing else mattered. When John's group saw It, nothing else mattered. When Jesus' group saw It, nothing else mattered. When the apostles' group saw It, nothing else mattered. When Luther's group saw It, Wesley's group saw It, Pentecostal group saw It, nothing else mattered, they pulled away from everything. Why? By His foreknowledge He predestinated these things to happen.
L-120 He chooses His own person by His foreknowledge. Like He said in Romans 8 here, that Esau... that the--that the election of God might stand sure. That Esau and Jacob both borned of holy parents, twins, that His election might stand sure and true, He said, "I hate Esau, and love Jacob," before either boy was borned. See? He knows what's in man, He knowed it from the beginning what it was, therefore He can make everything work just exactly on clock time. We get all nervous and flusterated; you never seen Him flusterated, they don't. See? Everything's working all right, just exactly, the clock's ticking. [Romans 9:10-16]
L-121 These things that's supposed to happen, all these women with short hair, and these man wearing their... like they got hair like their wives. I see them, absolutely, have these roller-curlers in their hair, curl it up here in front. What a perversion! That's the results of Satan's Eden. And look...?... She's trying to cut her hair like her husband. Her husband's letting his hair grow like his wife. And she is wearing his clothes, and he's wearing her underneath clothes. See, there you are. She's getting masculine, and he's getting feminish. See, it's Satan's Eden, contrary to what God made it at the beginning. That's the Truth. [I Corinthians 11:1-11], [Deuteronomy 22:5]
L-122 If I don't get started, we'll never get into this. But these things, and the way for Him to do it, and who will do it, that's His Own chosen way, He chooses. That's the way He wants it done.
L-123 As I heard Brother Pearry Green, our pastor at Tucson, preaching the other night about how that God made things some way (I forget what his text was), but he said, "That's the way God likes it, that's the way God does it." Well, that's right.
L-124 Now, who is it among us that's going to tell Him, "He's wrong"? Who would dare to stand up in God's face, and say, "You're wrong, Lord, You should do it the way I want it done, the way Dr. So-and-so said it should be done"? Who is that far gone in their mental faculties, to say a thing like that? No, you wouldn't come out and say it, but you think it!
L-125 Like on my Message of the Antichrist, "There shall rise false christs." Now, He didn't say false Jesuses. See, nobody would stand still to be called "Jesus," in the term of the Lord. But false christs means "the anointed." [Matthew 24:24]
L-126 Oh, they, each one thinks they got anointing, "Glory to God, he can do this and do that!" But put him on the Word test and find out where he comes out at, see, on the Message of the hour.
They had anointing in the time of Jesus, but not on Him. [Matthew 24:24-26]
They had anointing in the time of Jesus, but not on Him. [Matthew 24:24-26]
L-127 They had anointing in the time... Even Dathan had anointing in the time of Moses. He said, "Now, don't you think you're the only holy one among us, God's got plenty. We'll just start an organization here, a group of man." [Numbers 16:1-3]
L-128 God said to Moses, "Separate yourself from him," and He opened up the earth and swallowed them up. He had give His original Word to Moses, His prophet; that's the only way He ever did do it, and the only way He ever will do it. He doesn't change His plan, see. [Numbers 16:20-35]
L-129 So our ideas is wrong, His ideas are right, always. And don't try to tell Him that He's "wrong." No matter who we think is best qualified, it isn't us to say who's best qualified. Now, there's where you get in your organization.
L-130 Some little brother filled with the Spirit will go into a city and build up an organi-... build up a--a nice group of people, and at the conference they'll meet, and all the holy brethren get along, you know, and say, "You know what? I believe little Jones here," (he's just a little pick among them) "I think he ought to have that nice big tabernacle, I think. Don't you think that's right?" No, my. There he goes. And then the congregation's scattered. See? Separate these! God does the separating, He's the one Who does it. But they all, each one, wants to take this little one, put him over here, and this one down here. That's man's idea. [Numbers 16:19-21, 25-26]
L-131 Man has the keys, but God holds the keys actually. They give the disciples, the holy church, the keys; and watch the first time they used it, when Judas had felled by transgression. They got together and cast lots; and the holy brethren. Who would say they wasn't holy brethren? Who say they wasn't holy? But they cast lots, and it fell on Matthias. And when he... What did he ever do? Nothing. But Paul was the elected one! Amen. That was God's choosing: a little, hook-nosed, sarcastic, high-tempered Jew. Not the Matthias, the D.D., you know, he--he was... But Paul, God chose Paul; the church chose--chose Matthias. See? You have no right to tell God He's "wrong." He knows what to do, He knows what the man's made out of. [Acts 1:16-26], [Acts 22:1-14]
L-132 Who would ever... That church ever chose Paul? Oh, no, never. Said, "That guy's the one that's putting us all in jail."
But God said, "I'll show him what he'll suffer for Me." He know what. [Acts 9:15-16]
All right, no matter who we think is right, God knows who's best qualified because He knows the heart of man, He knows. [Acts 9:1-16]
But God said, "I'll show him what he'll suffer for Me." He know what. [Acts 9:15-16]
All right, no matter who we think is right, God knows who's best qualified because He knows the heart of man, He knows. [Acts 9:1-16]
L-133 Nor does the revival, or does these things, happen at the time that we think they ought to happen. We think, "It's this time right now, glory to God!" I notice in our chapters and so forth of the Business Man, "There's coming right away, hallelujah, a great revival!"
L-134 Don't be deceived, "He has already come, and they did to Him what was list." See? But they think there's a revival. Is it happening? No! It's done, and dead, it's over. Uh-huh. Notice, this is lamp-trimming time, coming out and going in. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." [Matthew 25:4-7], [Matthew 17:9-12]
L-135 Notice here in our text, notice David, king of Israel, he was the one who got the revelation of bringing the ark of God back to his place; that, they never consulted it in the days of Saul 'cause Saul had backslid. So they never consulted the ark at all, the covenant, in the days of Saul, 'cause he had backslid and got away from God. So David, quickly, with inspiration... Now notice this, it's a very treacherous text if you don't get it right. And I feel that the hour is coming where we should be man instead of babies. Uh-huh. We should have strong meat instead of milk. [I Chronicles 13:1-14]
L-136 Notice David, king of Israel, the king had just been freshly anointed the king; or elected king, Saul... Samuel anointed him by the will of God; and he was absolutely God's chosen king, no doubt to it. And here he is, and inspiration strikes him. It was revealed to David. He got the revelation, nobody else had said nothing about it. "Let us go and fetch the, ark, 'cause that's the will of God that we have the ark here with us, that we consult God by this ark." Very, very gallant thing. Don't you think so? All right. [I Chronicles 13:1-3]
L-137 Remember, but, him being king, and got the revelation, he overstepped his place. There was a prophet in the land by the name of Nathan, he was the one that was ordained to get the revelation. There's anything to be spoke, He said, "The Lord doeth nothing until He reveals it to His servants the prophet." But, you see, David being king, with the anointing upon him... Now, is that the Scripture? Anointing upon him, and got a true revelation; but it was wrong. Because Nathan was the prophet of that age, and the revelation never come to Nathan, and when the revelation come to David he never even consulted Nathan about it. He's just going to go ahead and do what he wanted to do. Uh-huh. [Amos 3:7], [II Samuel 7:2-4]
L-138 But notice who David consulted here in the 13th chapter, "But he consulted the captains of thousands and of hundreds," back to his congregation. See? "Now, don't you think we should do...?" That isn't it. Now, he was trying to do God a service, but he wasn't ordained to do it; see, 'cause God had a way. [I Chronicles 13:1-2]
L-139 Just the same as God could have spoke to the--the king about his sore and getting well, but He didn't, He had a ordained way of doing it, that was His prophet. So He spoke to the prophet, Isaiah, told him to go back and tell Hezekiah what would happen. [Isaiah 38:1-8]
L-140 Now, Hezekiah was talking face to face with God, and--and God could talk to Hezekiah, of course, but He made certain channels! You understand it? God has His Own set way of doing things: sending revivals, talking, speaking, whatever it is. He has His way of doing it, and we are nobody to tell Him how to do it. He does it the way it pleases Him to do it. [Isaiah 38:1-8]
L-141 So, you see, David, being inspired... Now, you remember I said the, anointing, the false anointing? Remember the Holy Spirit can come and anoint a person, and still it's out of the will of God. Here, It proves it right here. See? We have to go through God's way of doing it, not our ways, God's way of doing it. Cause, David, being a king, anointed, anointed with the Spirit of God upon him (a type of Jesus Christ), but that wasn't God's channel. [I Chronicles 13:1-5]
L-142 When all the congregation, "it pleased them," the Bible said. Notice, captains of thousands and of hundreds, also the priests and theologians thought that was "wonderful." There is your Bible schools and everything else, they thought it was "wonderful." Even all of the people agreed, and the priests, and--and all of them agreed that the king's anointing was right. Notice! But God had not promised to reveal His Word in Its season to them. God had His way of revealing His Word, but not to them. Remember, it was contrary to God. [I Chronicles 13:1-5]
L-143 Something like in the days of Micaiah the son of Imla. Do you remember that story? Judah and Israel were separated, and they had two different kingdoms, and Ahab was the king over one kingdom. And Jehoshaphat was over the king--kingdom of Judah, I believe it was; and Ahab was over Israel, Jerusalem. [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
L-144 Notice, and then here come in a bunch of alien and took off part of the God-given land that God had give to Israel, and these Philistines up there, Syrians, were holding that ground and was feeding their own children off of the ground that belonged to Israel. And so they needed that ground to feed their own children and their own families. God gave them... That was their God-given rights. [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
L-145 And so Ahab calls down Jehoshaphat, and said, "Come down." He said, "Looky there what our enemy's doing. Is it right that we, the people of God, with a God-given right that we should have this land, it belongs to us, God through His prophet, Joshua, divided this land, it should be ours; it belongs to us, to our children, and here the communists has took it over, and we have... We're so hungry, and they have got our God-given rights. Don't you think that we should go up there and take our land back? If you'll join your forces: if you Methodists, and Presbyterians, and all, and Presbyterians, and Lutheran, and so forth, all take the ecumenical council here now, we'll all set together, and we'll take the thing." (I'm saying and speaking in a parable now) "We'll go get it." [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
L-146 "Why," he said, "certainly, we're all one." Uh-huh.
Now, the Bible said, "How can two walk together except they be agreed?" See?
There where that great man, that great Pentecostal man, Jehoshaphat, got mixed up with the wrong crowd. And that's what happened to our Pentecostals today. There's some real man in there, but they're mixed up in that denominational crowd. Get out of that thing! It's cursed of the Lord! [Amos 3:3]
Now, the Bible said, "How can two walk together except they be agreed?" See?
There where that great man, that great Pentecostal man, Jehoshaphat, got mixed up with the wrong crowd. And that's what happened to our Pentecostals today. There's some real man in there, but they're mixed up in that denominational crowd. Get out of that thing! It's cursed of the Lord! [Amos 3:3]
L-147 Notice now! There he was, and he said, "Yes, that sounds reasonable." Said, "Our church is here, is our people; after all, we're all Jews." Uh-huh. "Sure, we'll go up with you." But is just enough religion left in Jehoshaphat to say, "Don't you think we--we should consult the Lord first?" See? "I think it'd be a good idea." [II Chronicles 18:1-7]
L-148 Why, Ahab, "Of course." Said, "Why, oh, sure, I should have thought of that."
"Well, is there a man of God somewhere? Have you got a prophet?"
"Ah, I got four hundred of them. I got the whole council down here, the whole denomination. They're Hebrew prophets."
Now remember, the Bible said they were "prophets, Hebrew prophets," not heathen prophets, Hebrew prophets; a school of them, a theological seminary.
"Well, bring them up!" [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
"Well, is there a man of God somewhere? Have you got a prophet?"
"Ah, I got four hundred of them. I got the whole council down here, the whole denomination. They're Hebrew prophets."
Now remember, the Bible said they were "prophets, Hebrew prophets," not heathen prophets, Hebrew prophets; a school of them, a theological seminary.
"Well, bring them up!" [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
L-149 And the kings dressed themselves and set before him to impress the prophet. And here come, I believe it was Zedekiah come up, the great chief of the district councilmen, or ever what he was, come up there among them. He made hisself two big horns, he said, "I have heard from God. THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'With these horns you'll push the Syrians plumb out of the land.'" [II Chronicles 18:5, 23]
"O glory!" everybody thought that was wonderful, fine.
"O glory!" everybody thought that was wonderful, fine.
L-150 Watch how close it gets to that razor edge now, between right and wrong. And remember it'll fall on one or the other sides, till it comes down sometime like a honed razor between the difference of right and wrong. It's got to be every Word of God; not just almost every Word, but every Word! And it's got down today, not to Lutherans, not to Methodists, not to Pentecostals, but to that honed age, in this age where the antichrist anointing is so perfectly, it would deceive the very Elected, they'll fall on the wrong side if they don't watch it, like a wedge. Watch! Be careful! We're not living in a Pentecostal age now. We're passed that age, just the same as it's passed Lutheran, and passed... See? [Matthew 24:24]
L-151 Notice. Now the prophets all prophesied, four hundred of them, well fed, well fixed, Hebrew prophets gave them witness, one accord, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'Go up, the Lord is with you.'" [II Chronicles 18:5]
L-152 Jehoshaphat said, "Well, that--that sounds all right. But," said, "have you got another one?"
"Another one? We got the whole denomination here, we got the whole council gathered out here. Why do we need another one?"
He said, "Ah," said, "I thought maybe there might be another one." [II Chronicles 18:6]
"Another one? We got the whole denomination here, we got the whole council gathered out here. Why do we need another one?"
He said, "Ah," said, "I thought maybe there might be another one." [II Chronicles 18:6]
L-153 He said, "Oh, yes, there is another one, but he don't even belong to this council." Uh-huh. "He's an outcast. It's Micaiah, the son of Imla, and I hate him." See? Said, "They won't receive him into fellowship, and he's just a common outcast to begin with. And he's constantly, everything he prophesies, he just won't encourage my seminary a bit." Uh-huh. "And he does all these things evil, he's always prophesying evil against me, just to be different." [II Chronicles 18:7]
L-154 "Oh," Jehoshaphat said, "don't let the king say such a thing as that. But I'd like to hear what this, man's got to say."
Said, "Well, we'll find him." So they sent out somewhere in the wilderness, and they sent a man. [II Chronicles 18:7-8]
Said, "Well, we'll find him." So they sent out somewhere in the wilderness, and they sent a man. [II Chronicles 18:7-8]
L-155 Said, told him, said, "Now, on your road back now, I want to tell you something. Do you want to get back in the denomination again?" See? "Do you want to have fellowship with all of them again? If you do, say the same thing the district presbyter says, say the same thing the bishop says, and they'll bring you right back. Now is the time to do it." [II Chronicles 18:12-13]
L-156 But could you imagine a anointed, true prophet of God compromising on one Word of God? No indeedy!
He said, "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what God says!" We need a son of Imla. "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what He says." That's right, "What He says."
So when they got down there before the people, all the prophets, they said, "Now, you say they...
He said, "Wait, give me tonight, let me see what the Lord's going to say." So, that night, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and told him what to say. [II Chronicles 18:12-15]
He said, "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what God says!" We need a son of Imla. "As the Lord lives, I'll only say what He says." That's right, "What He says."
So when they got down there before the people, all the prophets, they said, "Now, you say they...
He said, "Wait, give me tonight, let me see what the Lord's going to say." So, that night, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and told him what to say. [II Chronicles 18:12-15]
L-157 The next morning he said, "What do you say, Imla?" when they was all standing out... I mean "Micaiah, son of Imla," said, "what do you say now? We're all here together, all of the priests, and all of the prophets, and all of the kings, and everything setting here together. What do you say now at this great council?"
Said, "Go on up," said, "but I seen Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd."
And Ahab said, "What did I tell you! That renegade can only prophesy evil against me!" [II Chronicles 18:16-25]
Said, "Go on up," said, "but I seen Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd."
And Ahab said, "What did I tell you! That renegade can only prophesy evil against me!" [II Chronicles 18:16-25]
L-158 How could he say anything else when God was saying the same thing? A prophet's supposed to be the mouth of God speaking, not his own thinking. His... You see, he's com-... so completely yielded to God, he don't want to hurt nothing, but he has to say what God says, 'cause he has no control of It hisself. See?
He said, "Now, didn't I tell you?" [Amos 3:7-8]
He said, "Now, didn't I tell you?" [Amos 3:7-8]
L-159 And then up come the--the big man with the horn, and smacked him in the mouth, he said, "Which a-way went the Spirit of God when It went out of me?" In other words, let me try to break that down, "Looky here in... Looky here, I want to tell you something, Micaiah. Do you realize that I am a master in the Scripture? Do you realize that I have the anointing?" Or, "the Baptism," we'd say it today. "Do you realize that I have that?" [II Chronicles 18:15-25]
L-160 Imla said, "I'm not doubting that."
He said, "But listen! The Spirit of God has told me, and bore witness with all my four hundred here, that we're 'going to push the Syrians out of the land.' And who are you to come around and say that our great king is going to be slain?" He said, "The Spirit of God told me that." [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
He said, "But listen! The Spirit of God has told me, and bore witness with all my four hundred here, that we're 'going to push the Syrians out of the land.' And who are you to come around and say that our great king is going to be slain?" He said, "The Spirit of God told me that." [II Chronicles 18:1-20]
L-161 Let me just break it down so you'll understand it. And maybe we find Micaiah say, "Last night in the vision, sir, I saw God setting upon a Throne. And I saw all the host of Heaven gathered around Him, uh-huh, and they were having a council in Heaven. They said, 'Who can we get to go down and deceive Ahab? Because under the Throne here is a prophet, a true prophet, his name is Elijah. And he has prophesied by My Word and said that "That wicked Ahab, because he slew Naboth, the dogs will lick the blood of that wicked man," and we've got to make That come to pass because It's already been spoken, It's THUS SAITH THE LORD! It has to come to pass, got to be there. And how are we going to do it?'" [II Chronicles 18:1-20], [I Kings 21:17-26]
L-162 "Then down from the creeping regions of the lost, way down in there come a spirit moving up, he said, 'I'm a deceiver, and if I can do a service to You, I'll go down and get in his prophet.'" Because they was so organized, they'll only understand one thing, and that's a little emotions. "'And I'll cause them to prophesy a lie. And I'll get Ahab to listen to those dignitaries instead of Your real prophet; 'cause he'll examine everything he says with your Word, he'll examine his visions by the Word, he'll examine everything he does by the Word, and if it ain't with the Word he wouldn't listen to it. But if it... I can deceive these others, and I'll... they... Ahab's got so much confidence in that great unity together of their safety, so they go around together and they'll get together. And I'll cause Ahab to listen to them, go out there. And that's how we'll do it.'" [II Chronicles 18:1-25]
L-163 "God said, 'You can do it, you're a real deceiver; you go on down.'" [II Chronicles 18:18-22]
And then Zedekiah smacked him in the mouth, said, "Where was you...?" [II Chronicles 18:23]
He said, "You'll find out when you're setting in the inner cell." Uh-huh. [II Chronicles 18:24-26]
He said, "Go up!" said Zedekiah to the king. Said, "Go up and return in peace!" [II Chronicles 18:27]
And then Zedekiah smacked him in the mouth, said, "Where was you...?" [II Chronicles 18:23]
He said, "You'll find out when you're setting in the inner cell." Uh-huh. [II Chronicles 18:24-26]
He said, "Go up!" said Zedekiah to the king. Said, "Go up and return in peace!" [II Chronicles 18:27]
L-164 Ahab said, "Take that fellow and put him into the prison. Put him in shackles, feed him bread of sorrow and water of sorrow. And when I return back with my victory from out here, which my prophets has told me that 'this revival is sure to happen,'" said, "I'll tend to that fellow!" [II Chronicles 18:24-26]
Listen at Micaiah's last words to that man: "If you return at all, then God never spoke to me." Oh! [II Chronicles 18:27]
Listen at Micaiah's last words to that man: "If you return at all, then God never spoke to me." Oh! [II Chronicles 18:27]
L-165 See, God has His way of doing things. These man thought they were doing God a service. Be careful! Not emotion, not enthusiasm, not imaginations, but it must be "THUS SAITH THE LORD," must be right. All right, no matter... We find these things so.
L-166 Notice now when David had made this great proclamation, and it seemed like that it was good, a good thing to do. There we find out that the... (Am I tiring you? Am I too late to have another?) David made this great proclamation, he consulted not the prophet.
L-167 Now, anyone knows that Amos 3:7 says that God promised that He would never do nothing until first He revealed it to His prophet. Through the church ages we've had reformers; but promised by Malachi 4 that there would be a prophet in the land in the last days (because it has to fit that pattern, see) before the end time come. [Amos 3:7], [Malachi 4:5-6]
L-168 Before Jesus come the first, Elijah come, Elijah of Malachi 3. Matthew 11 says so, "If you can understand it, this is who was spoken of, 'Behold I send My--My messenger before Me.'" Now, He's prophesied, all theologians believe that; that, in the last day, the Spirit of Elijah is to come, too. It has to come five times, God uses that Spirit: Elisha, Elijah, John the Baptist, and for the Gentile church, and then for the Jews in Revelation the 11th chapter. That's, God's g-r-a-c-e, f-a-i-t-h, Je-s-u-s, Jesus, the--the letter five. Can't stop at four, it has to go to five. See? Notice! [Malachi 3:1], [Malachi 4:5-6]
L-169 Now, He promised that, so that sets the Bible just exactly to this day, and the Sodom and Gomorrah. And Elijah was not... That wasn't Elijah; That was the Spirit of God on Elijah; Elijah was just a man. Now, we've had Elijahs, and Elijahs' coats, and Elijahs' mantles, and Elijahs' everything. But the Elijah of this day is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to come according to Matthew the seventeen-... Luke 17:30, says the Son of man is to reveal Himself among His people. Not a man, God! But it'll come through a prophet. Now, He never had two major prophets at the same time, never, in the world. See? No matter how much there's... two--two heads can't... It has to be one head. God has to get one man under His control. See? There's one God; there was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but one God over it all, notice, and just used them offices. So has He with Elijah, the Spirit of Elijah; he used that Spirit, but the same God controlling It all the time to fulfill His Word. [Luke 17:30]
L-170 Now, notice in this now, David thought he had everything in order. And he was inspired. See how the Holy Spirit can anoint a man? But it's got to be in the order of the anointing. The outside spirit can be anointed with the Holy Ghost, and the soul as dark as pitch. The cocklebur grows on the same water that builds... puts life into the wheat, puts life into the cocklebur; but at the bottom of the cocklebur, it's a cocklebur life. It's rejoicing, and blooming, and got life, and doing everything that the wheat does, but the soul of it is cocklebur. See? False teachers can rise, teaching all kind of trinitarianism and everything else, and be anointed with the Holy Ghost, and perform just as many miracles as the true Gospel can. But by the Word here, that's what does it. See what I mean? Now, it's all right to teach this, I guess, I'm--I'm in a interdenominational tabernacle this morning, in--in this hotel here. [II Peter 2:1-5]
L-171 Notice, watch what we're saying. Now, well, listen. David had all the emotion that the real revival had. Notice! They shouted, they screamed, they danced, they really got something out of that anointing. Sure did! All like a real revival, but, you notice, God was not in it. God was not in it. He had a prophet setting right there in the land that they ought to have knowed. See? David should have knowed that.
L-172 Same thing today, we got all the mechanics, like the great denominations, crusades of our time, but the result's turning out the same as it was then; our results of our great crusades, and all of our big fine reason, our big buildings, and our big... building thousands, and adding members and things, it turns out the same way, all a flop. I'm not saying that to be different, I'm saying that to be honest before God Who's Book I'm standing by this morning. See? All turns out a flop, same results.
L-173 Now let us see what happened when God (in His time and age) and His prophets are not considered, just depend on theology, priests, denominationalism like we do today. Now, closely. It all gets messed up. If the true Spirit of God there, It'll direct it into the Word; not just one place in the Word, the entire Word for the entire age. See?
L-174 The Day of Pentecost, the Spirit directed it right into That, to Joel 2:38. See? The day of Luther, It directed it right into That; Wesley; in this last pentecostal move; but this is another age, this is the calling out of the Bride. Not two thousand years ago at Pentecost, or the repeat, or the return. Pentecost... [Joel 2:28]
L-175 The Holy Spirit was in Luther, the Holy Spirit was in Wesley; it's God's Word being anointed. And the, Holy Spirit returned to the people of the age and they begin to have the restoration of the gifts. They found out, by yielding themself to God, the Holy Ghost spoke in tongues through them. They laid their hands on the sick, and they was recovered. They danced in the Spirit. See? That was the age of the reformation bringing the church back into order. And the last order of the church was placing the gifts into the church; like Luther placed justification, Wesley placed sanctification, Pentecost placed the gifts. But what did they do? The same mistake, as nature has patterned to the wheat stalk, they denominated (which is against God, contrary to God).
L-176 Now, we find out that when... Then when these stalk gathers comes together, they form their own idea. And no matter... When the "new issue," as they call it, come forth out of the Assemblies of God, what did they do? They couldn't receive It. No matter how much Truth it was, the baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, they were already the General Council. Man had done took it over, the Spirit had done left them. Right! And then this come forth... I've talked to some of your best leaders; they say, "Well, what would we do now?" They would embarrass themselves. When, they know it's the Truth; if they don't, they're spiritually blind and ignorant to the Bible. Not saying that nasty, now, saying that reverently. Cause, there's not a place in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized using those titles, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." And never was used till after the ecumenical council, the Roman Catholic church. Their own catechism witnesses the same thing. It's a Catholic dogma! Not a Bible doctrine, but a Catholic dogma. And you Methodists brought out your catechisms and everything just like they had, just gradually growing out of it. And now when you come to Pentecost, and spread out some of those dogmas, you still held on to them.
L-177 But now is the Bride-calling, now is when the Seven Seals has been opened, now when the complete things that the reformers left has to be opened; and only Malachi 4 can do that, because it takes the revelation straight from God to an individual to do so. That's right! It can't come to a group, never did. One man! That's what God promised in the shadows of the coming for His Bride, an Eliezer. See? [Malachi 4:5-6]
L-178 Notice when priests, ministers, and so forth, get their own inspiration, and truly anointed. David was anointed. The Bible said so. But, you see, he went through the wrong resource, he went to the wrong channel. He channeled his anointing on the wrong side, to the people and what they thought, to the captains, what they thought, instead of to God's holy channel to find out what THUS SAITH THE LORD was, "Is this the time for this? Is this the season for this? Is this the will of God?"
L-179 Then if he's a true prophet of God, he'll go before God first, say, "Father, what is it?" like Nathan did later on to David.
David said, "Is it right for me to live in a house of cedar, and the ark of my God under tents out here?" [I Chronicles 17:1]
David said, "Is it right for me to live in a house of cedar, and the ark of my God under tents out here?" [I Chronicles 17:1]
L-180 And look at Nathanael, said, "David, do all that's in your heart, for God is with you. You're a anointed vessel of God." [I Chronicles 17:2]
L-181 But that being a prophet, and his mistake, and God's duty bound to His prophet. That night He appeared to him, said, "Go tell My servant David, I admire his courage, I love him for this, 'cause he's a man after My Own heart, and I know it's time that My ark would be that way, put under something, but I just... It ain't the season for it to happen. I'll let his son do it, but I won't let him do it." [I Chronicles 17:3-15]
L-182 Then here come Nathan with, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, David, the great revelation you had is as wrong as it was when you brought the ark up." (Uh-huh! Uh-huh! See?) "Don't you do it. Don't try it! But God said He'll have 'your son to do it.'" There! See? There you are!
L-183 David was anointed to say that because aforehand he could see it, just as Abraham sought for a City on the earth. You know, he was looking for It because he was going to live here someday, Abraham is, in that City. And he went around looking for It. And right on the same grounds where he looked, it was just above him then, and will return in the Millennium and he'll live in that City. But being a prophet, he was ordained and inspired, he knowed there was a City somewhere, and he was looking for It. But, you see, the whole revelation of it was hid from him, it wasn't for his age. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... on down to John, where he saw It coming down from God out of Heaven. That was the City.
L-184 See, everything has to be in its season. You plant your wheat in the spring and... or in the fall and cut it the next summer. See? It's got to come up through the stalk, then come up through the tassel, and shuck, and on into the... It's got to be in season. All nature runs in continuity. The Spirit of God made nature, and all God and nature in continuity. All the things that's put in the temple was a pattern of what He saw in Heaven.
L-185 You see a tree struggling trying to live, that means there's a tree that don't die. You see a man struggling for life, it shows that there is a tabernacle waiting somewhere that don't die. "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have one already waiting." The good Heavenly Father permitted me to walk behind that curtain one day and see it. How many heard the...?... See? Looking a-pass the curtain of time. There it was just the same as I'm preaching to you all, there they stood. Souls under the altar crying, "How long?" Not just a myth, somebody who had intelligence: "How long, Lord?" See? While we feel that now, as our age, like Brother Bill Dauch setting here at ninety-three. There's something longing for that young man again. There's something... You'd give anything. How I'd like to. Brother Jack, and all the rest of us. Go back, Brother Gerholtzer, in here, into that young manhood. What do you want to do it for? To be young and run around again? No, sir! Because we feel we'd have more time to glorify this God that we love. [Revelation 6:9-10]
L-186 And my dear brethren, I have this Message this morning, there is a Land beyond the river that they call that sweet forever. There we'll glorify Him through the ages, and all the ages, and Eternity. Why do we feel that? Because the deep is calling to the deep. And as long as the deep's a-calling, there's got to be a deep to respond to that call or there wouldn't be no call. Before there can be a creation, there has to be a creator first to create the creation, or there's no... That shows the very evidence that there is. [Psalms 42:7]
L-187 Notice these priests, all out of line. Notice the anointing, all right, nothing wrong with the anointing. Same with you Pentecostals, but watch what channel you're moving in now. The day has changed since Pentecost, something else for us. If there'd been no prophet in the land, perhaps David would've been right. That's right. But there stood Nathan, vindicated, ordained, witnessed by God to be a prophet.
L-188 Watch! The ark in the Bible always is a type of the Word to us, because it was the Word of God in the ark. And was... Notice the ark that they brought up, look how they did it. It was not put in its original God-ordained position. Now, God said back here in the Law that it must... how it must be done, how this ark must be moved, and who it must be moved by. But David, under his anointing...
L-189 My brethren, don't you miss this. And my sisters, you who want to be women preachers and so forth, don't you miss this. No matter how much your anointing is, you've got to get in God's provided position. David's anointing was all right, but in doing it he got enthused and stepped over the boundary line. What did he do? He stepped over the boundary line. Instead of putting the ark in its original position, he carried it on a new cart and not over the hearts of the Levites. It was supposed to be carried on the shoulder of the Levites, which is over the heart. The Word is not in the mind, It's in the heart! "Not on a new cart." What was that? Some... Represented something new, David did there, spoke of every denomination there'd ever be. God's Word is not to be by... carried by state presbyters or bishops, and so forth, of denominations. It's the Baptism of the Holy Ghost in the heart of man, and not in some ecclesiastical move. The Holy Spirit is a treasure of God's love in the heart of man and women to obey. See? [Matthew 24:24], [I Chronicles 13:7], [I Chronicles 15:2-4, 12-15]
L-190 Was on the shoulders of His ministers, His ministers was the Levites. Put it up over their left shoulder and packed that ark like that, because it was up over their heart. They had the burden of the Word on their heart. Amen! Now you got the burden of your denomination on your heart, the burden of your congregation: whether you're going to build this, or do that, or do something else. The burden of how many more you're going to get to your denomination; instead of the burden of the Word of the Lord, till that people will see only the Word of God and nothing else. But you got It on a new cart now. See? They're packing It up here in the ecumenical council even, shouldered. I don't want to get critical, and may God help me. I just telling you the Truth. [I Chronicles 15:15]
L-191 Now, influenced by creeds and ecumenical councils, the Word, the real Word of the season of that age was ignored, because they had a lot of emotion. But David, the anointed king... He was king, but he was anointed king. You say, "I'm a minister, anointed." Then stay a minister, don't try to be a prophet. See? If you're evangelist, stay evangelist.
L-192 Remember Uzziah, in the days of Isaiah, the young king... the young prophet. Uzziah was a great man, anointed man, God blessed him; blessed hisself. Yeah, I preached on that to you here one time. And one day he got so highly up till he thought he could just take the office of a priest, and he took the... finally went in before the Lord, and the... them priests told him, "Don't do that, Uzziah!" But he got exalted. The prophet couldn't tell him nothing. The priests knowed their order, they was keeping their order, he said, "That's not your order, Uzziah. Don't do, that!" [II Chronicles 26:1-5, 16-21]
L-193 Well, he made them "Shut up!" And he went with the--with the fire, in to offer, take a priest's job; he was anointed king, not a priest. And those priests was trying to tell him, "You're a wonderful king, you're anointed, God has blessed us now; but you're a king, not a priest." [II Chronicles 26:16-21]
L-194 And you pastors shouldn't never tell a prophet what to do, or you evangelists tell a pastor. See, each one has his office if it is perfectly identified. [II Chronicles 26:16-21]
So he went in with the fire, and was stricken down with leprosy and died.
Now here's David, king, David's trying to do the same thing here. He's taken it upon hisself. "Well, that's fine, got to go. Looky, lots of people. What do you say, captain? You have ten thousand."
"Glory to God, David, I feel the Spirit." Oh, he did! He did feel It. "What do you think, David? Do you feel It?"
"Glory to God, It's all over me! Let's check it and see if it's right, let's see. Where does the ark belong?"
"With us! Belongs among us." [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [I Chronicles 15:2-4, 12-15]
So he went in with the fire, and was stricken down with leprosy and died.
Now here's David, king, David's trying to do the same thing here. He's taken it upon hisself. "Well, that's fine, got to go. Looky, lots of people. What do you say, captain? You have ten thousand."
"Glory to God, David, I feel the Spirit." Oh, he did! He did feel It. "What do you think, David? Do you feel It?"
"Glory to God, It's all over me! Let's check it and see if it's right, let's see. Where does the ark belong?"
"With us! Belongs among us." [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [I Chronicles 15:2-4, 12-15]
L-195 "Who should we consult? Sure, the ark. Just the same thing as that ground belonged to--to Israel instead of the Philistines. That's right. They belong to us. And as I feel the anointing, too."
The captains of hundreds, all the congregation, "Glory to God!" They clapped, and they shouted, and they danced, and jumped up and down. [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [II Chronicles 15:2-4, 12-15]
The captains of hundreds, all the congregation, "Glory to God!" They clapped, and they shouted, and they danced, and jumped up and down. [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [II Chronicles 15:2-4, 12-15]
L-196 They had the Spirit, but what do you think Father was thinking? "How I've sent Nathan, that prophet down there! They know what to do, and so does David, but now he's just all enthused and stepped right over his boundary line and went to do this." [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [I Chronicles 15:2-4]
L-197 All right, notice, "carry It on the shoulders" was God's original plan. There is five must's. I want you to put these down, if you're... I see you're writing. (And it's twenty minutes, twenty something minutes after ten, so I'll try to be through by eleven, if possible. I'll hurry just as quick as I can.) No matter how sincere a man may be in doing God a service, no matter how sincere, how much anointed, how much of a Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal; no matter whether you're a bishop, deacon, whatever you are, pastor, evangelist, prophet, whatever it might be; there's five must's that must be considered first. No matter how much anointing, how good it seemed, how the people shouting, everything the Spirit's a-doing, there is a must. [I Chronicles 15:12-15]
L-198 Now, my brethren, while you're getting your paper ready, can you understand now why? Now remember, you've all thought, and have been taught among you, not... (see, I'm speaking across the nation)... that I did not believe in speaking in tongues. I do believe in speaking in tongues, but you can still speak in tongues and not have the Holy Ghost. First Corinthians 13, says, "Though I speak with tongue of man and angels, I ain't nothing yet." See? That's the anointing of the Holy Ghost, that has nothing to do with the soul inside you. You can speak in tongues and deny the Word. I've seen it done, and you see it too. See? A woman can preach the Gospel and... See? They can do all... They cut their hair, and still shout and speak in tongues and everything else. Uh-huh, that's exactly right. You got to line up with the Truth of the Word. [I Corinthians 13:1-3]
L-199 Notice! No matter how sincere a man may be, no matter how great he's used of God, no matter what he is, he must be this: must be... The thing that he's speaking of must be timely by the Bible. Somebody say, "Well, Moses back there." I know what Moses did, but that not what God's doing today. "Well, back yonder, thirty years ago, Luther said..." That might be fine, but that's not what He's doing today. "Well, forty years ago, Pentecost fell." But that's not what He's doing today. See? It must be timely. [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]
L-200 It must be according to the Scripture. It must be in season, the second one. Thirdly, and it must be according to the way that God's Word spoke it would be. [Luke 16:17], [Matthew 5:18-19], [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]
L-201 And you say, "Glory to God! The Holy Ghost fell on me, hallelujah, just like It did on the Day of Pentecost." But that might be different today. It fell on David, too, didn't it? Sure, It did. Fell on Uzziah, but it was wrong! See, you got to go deeper than that now. See? You got to go deeper than that. Now, don't feel hurt, just--just be reverent. See? [I Chronicles 13:1-7], [I Chronicles 15:2-4], [II Chronicles 26:16-21]
L-202 And notice, and it also must come to the man of God's choosing. Not a denominational choosing, none of the people's choosing, but according to God's choosing. And if it's a message from God, of a great revelation from God, it must come to His prophet. Now, if you want the Scripture of that, it's Amos 3:7. See? Now, it must. [Amos 3:7]
L-203 There's five things it must be: It must be in season. It must be at the time God said it would be. It must be written in the Word of God. It must be in the season of God's time, see. And it must be by God's choosing. [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8], [Matthew 5:18-19]
L-204 And God doesn't need any of us to interpret His Word, God is His Own interpreter. He don't need our seminaries. He don't need our wisdom, it's nonsense. See? Eve got that, uh-huh, and missed the Interpretation by her wisdom. [Isaiah 46:5-13]
L-205 Say, "Oh, boy, that guy's a smart man." Well, that don't mean a thing. Sure. Ahab was a smart man. Belteshazzar was a smart man. Satan was most cunning and crude, subtle, nobody could withstand him, none at all.
L-206 I don't depend on... none... no wisdom, just depend on God. See? How is God? He is the Word. And then how does God interpret His Own Word? Listen close now, don't miss these things. How does God interpret His Own Word? By making It come to pass, not just one here, but all of it for that season. [Isaiah 46:5-13]
L-207 Not say, "Noah go out and preach," the inspired, but, "Build an ark, put doors in it, fix it this way, and that way." What if he put the door on top instead of the bottom? What if he put the window on the bottom, the door on top? See? It's got to be instructed according to the time, because that's exactly what God's going to use it for. It must be that way, and it must come by inspiration. [Genesis 6:8-22]
L-208 I heard a guy say one time, said, "I believe that man prays for the sick, I believe it's fine. But as being a prophet," said "I believe he's God's prophet; but as a teacher, why, he's a 'Jesus only.'" What a... What kind of a person would you call that? A man doesn't know what he's talking about.
L-209 The very word prophet means that "he is a revealer of the Word of God," the Interpretation only comes to that. And that's why today we're in such a need of this great person that's supposed to be sent to us in the form of the prophet Elijah, because it'll be the revelation of God made known to us by vindication, showing that it's the day and the hour and the season that God promised it to be in. And, remember, he'll be spoken against; always has been, always will be. Rejected, just like the shuck will pull... First he'll be accepted, because the shuck only holds the wheat until it's able to get forth to the sun. Pentecost will only sheltered the Message, give It an open door until It gets scattered, and then the shuck will pull away, and the wheat will lay in the Presence of the Son, see, to ripen. [Daniel 2:47], [Amos 3:7]
L-210 There won't be any denomination, you just remember. Brother Jack here's a historian, many of you here are. There's never been a revival but about three years after the revival they started a denomination on it. Is that right? And this last great miracle move of God in this last days, it's went twenty years; and it's a million miles from a denomination, going further away all the time; the shuck's pulling away, no cooperation, no nothing with It. See? Always it pulls away from It. There can't be no more, it's a wheat now. But we're plenty green. Uh-huh. That's right. Have to lay in the Presence of the Son to be mellowed up, that's all of it. Plenty green; we haven't got the sincerity, the sacredness, the thing we ought to have in our midst, to know that the Spirit of the living God, moving in His Word and showing us the things yet.
L-211 We have false impersonators rise up. What's that to do? To deceive. The Bible said they would. "As Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses, so, will these in the last days." See? They do the same thing, come right along impersonating It, just exactly. See? Be careful! Watch the Doctrine of the Bible. Watch the message that follows them signs! Still the same old school of message? Forget it! [II Timothy 3:1-9]
L-212 God sent the miracles and signs to attract attention of His people. When Jesus come just healing the sick and so forth, so did the prophets. They thought, "Oh, glory, He's a-coming, He's going to be a Pharisee. He's going to be a Sadducee."
L-213 But He said, "You generation of serpents and vipers." Said, "You're of your father the Devil, his works you'll do." Said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, there's no Life in you." He didn't explain It. He didn't have to explain It. Hallelujah. That was for another season. Uh-huh. He just said what He had to say, "I always do that what is pleasing to the Father, and that's keeping His Word. If I don't, My life and My works don't compare with His Word I'm supposed to do, then don't believe Me, I'm not Him; but if it does, then believe the works if you can't believe Me," He said.
Notice now these must's that must be done. [Matthew 3:7], [Matthew 12:34], [Matthew 23:33], [Luke 3:7], [John 8:44], [John 10:37-38]
Notice now these must's that must be done. [Matthew 3:7], [Matthew 12:34], [Matthew 23:33], [Luke 3:7], [John 8:44], [John 10:37-38]
L-214 Now, see, God had not revealed the thing to them by His provided way, He had revealed it by inspiration, but it was in the wrong channel. See, inspiration will go fine, but if it's in the wrong channel, it'll be channeled wrong. Like you take a bullet and shoot it directly to a target, it's making its way right to the target, but a puff of wind can blow it out. Now, in your automobile, you go down the road sixty, seventy miles an hour and a puff of wind blows you, you can straighten your wheels back up, throw it back on the road again. But you can't a bullet; ain't nothing there to straighten its wheels up, it misses the target. See, it must travel in its original channel.
L-215 So must the Word of God travel in Its original channel. No little puff of wind's going to blow It off, no little denomination that's going to blow It off, no little persecution's going to blow It off, It's directed to the point! It's going to hit there, too. And then God... When It hits that point, God will vindicate It, "Bull's-eye!" Uh-huh, exactly what He said He'll do. Here it is in the Scriptures, this, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'It shall come to pass!'" Here it is. See? There you are.
L-216 Now, God had not revealed it in His provided way. So they went about to do it apart from His Word, and apart from the season, just the same as they have now. When man, no matter how sincere, trying to do Him a service outside of His provided way, they always mess it up. Like Balaam, Balaam thought he was doing God a service.
L-217 Do you think God lies? Does God ever change His mind? Well, people act today like He did. When He said for women not to cut their hair; they say, "We can cut it, Dr. So-and-so said we could. Brother So-and-so said you're just too narrow-minded." Uh-huh, uh-huh. See?
L-218 "Well, can this happen? This happen?"
"Yeah, uh-huh, So-and-so said so."
God don't change His mind.
"Yeah, uh-huh, So-and-so said so."
God don't change His mind.
L-219 Do you believe Balaam was a prophet? The Bible said he was. Do you believe he was a prophet? Now, remember, Balak come to him and said, "Go down and curse this people, for they're all over the face of the earth. They're not even a denomination, not a nation, they're just a scattered bunch; and we are the dignitaries of the land. Now you go down there and curse them people, and I'll pay for it."
And Balaam done exactly what a prophet should do, he said, "I'll not go. You just wait here, overnight, let me see what God says do." [Numbers 22:5-12]
And Balaam done exactly what a prophet should do, he said, "I'll not go. You just wait here, overnight, let me see what God says do." [Numbers 22:5-12]
L-220 So he went in, he said, "Lord, there's some people out here with me that come, wanted me go down and curse some other people down there." Said, "What do You want me to do about it?"
God said, "Don't you go, for them's My people!"
Balaam went out, said, "Go on back to your house. I can't go with you, God told me not to do it." Now, there's God's original Word: "Don't go!"
Well, then they went back, said, "You know, your bishop wouldn't listen." [Numbers 22:12-30]
God said, "Don't you go, for them's My people!"
Balaam went out, said, "Go on back to your house. I can't go with you, God told me not to do it." Now, there's God's original Word: "Don't go!"
Well, then they went back, said, "You know, your bishop wouldn't listen." [Numbers 22:12-30]
L-221 "Well," the king said, "tell you what we do. He needs a little money, I believe that could persuade him. Or maybe I'll make him state presbyter, maybe I'll get him some great something to do. I'll might make him the bishop, you can't tell what I might do. Here, I'll tell you what I'll do. You fellows ain't got enough education to persuade him anyhow; your his and hain'ts, and tote and fetch and carry, ain't right. He wouldn't listen to you, we'll send a real educated bunch down, more dignitary."
They went down there, said, "Doctor Balaam, Doctor Balaam, greetings to you. I bring you salutations from the king."
"Morning, brethren." See?
"Now, Doctor Balaam..." And, oh, the vocabulary, how it was really poured on. And said, "Now, the king has said that he will exalt you, and he will also give you great honor. And, you know, they only offered you so much money to take this charge, but the king says he'll triple it, quad-triple it, if you'll just come to take it." Then, Balaam, got to get itching hands. He got foolish ideas and he stirred his mind. [Numbers 22:12-30]
They went down there, said, "Doctor Balaam, Doctor Balaam, greetings to you. I bring you salutations from the king."
"Morning, brethren." See?
"Now, Doctor Balaam..." And, oh, the vocabulary, how it was really poured on. And said, "Now, the king has said that he will exalt you, and he will also give you great honor. And, you know, they only offered you so much money to take this charge, but the king says he'll triple it, quad-triple it, if you'll just come to take it." Then, Balaam, got to get itching hands. He got foolish ideas and he stirred his mind. [Numbers 22:12-30]
L-222 Now, remember, he called God by it, anointed, but he stirred God right away from the original plan. And that's exactly what Pentecost has done! To be popular, you Oneness, you Trinity, for popularity you denominated to be different, you organized and you're dead! You'll never rise again. But, you see, you ought to have stayed with God's orig-... He pulled you out of that Assembly to make you a people, but you organized and went right back into the same puke you come (excuse me) out of, the same stuff you come out of, "As a dog goes to its vomit and a hog to its wallow." I'm sorry I said that, forgive me, that's not right for the platform here. See? I just said that in the flesh. Notice now that that's what I mean, to vomit. I should have said it like that. The word was all right, but just misused. See? It was used all right, but just a missound, uh-huh...?... Vomit, "As a dog returns to its vomit."
L-223 If the Assemblies of God, the General Council, organized Pentecost at the first place and got them into that so they could not accept the revelation, don't you know, Oneness, you done the same thing. How could you receive a Message of "serpent's seed, Eternal security," and these other things that's come forth? You're so tightly organized till you won't even let It in your door, uh-huh, uh-huh, same thing Balaam did. But God didn't change His mind.
L-224 So Balaam went over and said, "Lord, now look, I really got an opportunity now to be somebody. You know I been a nobody, but I got a opportunity to be somebody. What do You say about it now, Lord?" Now, he should never have said that! He knowed exactly what God said do! [Numbers 22:5-30]
L-225 So do every one of you that's baptized in the name of the "Father, Son, Holy Ghost," on these other issues of the Bible that's supposed to be in this day, you know what to do about It, is accept It! When you see God plainly vindicate "It's the Truth," that's God interpreting His Own Word. But will you do it? No, your organization won't let you do it!
L-226 Many of the ministers there in Tucson that's listening in this morning. Brother Gilmore, I have nothing against you; Brother Brock, First Assembly, and Friendly church. You man, I was there all that time, you wouldn't even let me come in. I... Sure, you couldn't, you can't and remain what you are. You can't accept revelation, 'cause you're denominated. And listen, just as Uzziah was killed because he was under that false inspiration, so is many true Christians losing their experience back in those old dead denominations, because they're putting their hand on the Ark when they're not ordained to do so. Now you can believe It, or not believe It, that's up to you. God's your Judge. God never did take back His Word. What He said the first time, He says for every time. [II Chronicles 26:16-23]
L-227 He told Balaam, "Don't you go!"
And then Balaam come back, said, "But Lord, could I go?"
Now look! God said, "Go on!" Now, He give him permission to go. There is a permissive will of God, and not the original will of God. You see what a trouble he got into? [Numbers 22:12-20]
And then Balaam come back, said, "But Lord, could I go?"
Now look! God said, "Go on!" Now, He give him permission to go. There is a permissive will of God, and not the original will of God. You see what a trouble he got into? [Numbers 22:12-20]
L-228 And any man that builds anything, any organization, or anything outside of upon the Word of God, it's shaking sands and will fall! It'll die as sure as anything, because the Word of God is a growing Body of the Bride. You can't have it all foot, all arm, all thigh. These things come in their season.
L-229 And Pentecost, you made it all one thing, therefore you can't accept new revelation. That's the reason you stay right where you're at and die; moves on. (So much, going to wear you out.) But God doesn't change His mind, His first decision is exactly right. So God doesn't change His mind, He just let you go on in your permissive will. "God's a good God," as Oral Roberts says. He's also a fearful God!
L-230 Look, just like you say, "Glory to God, I want to speak with tongues!"He'll let you do it, but that ain't no sign you got the Holy Ghost.
Remember what Thomas said, the old doubter? "Unless I have some evidence, got to stick my fingers in His nails, His hands, and in His side, I--I--I--I won't even believe It." Now, there you are, the same thing.
Jesus said, "Here you are, Thomas, stick your hands in here then if that's what you want to know." See? See? Now, if you're the Thomas, right, go ahead. But what did He say? "How much greater is their reward who has never seen and yet believe." Uh-huh.
Remember what Thomas said, the old doubter? "Unless I have some evidence, got to stick my fingers in His nails, His hands, and in His side, I--I--I--I won't even believe It." Now, there you are, the same thing.
Jesus said, "Here you are, Thomas, stick your hands in here then if that's what you want to know." See? See? Now, if you're the Thomas, right, go ahead. But what did He say? "How much greater is their reward who has never seen and yet believe." Uh-huh.
L-231 Notice, notice, by doing this, he caused the death of sincere man; putting his hand on the ark when he shouldn't have done, it. A great, sincere man, think the anointing and everything was just right, but the ark was moving in it's wrong way. "The oxen," the Bible said, "stumbled," not the Levites. The oxen stumbled and the cart was being pitched over; and a sincere man, with his heart full of love, put his hand upon the ark to hold it back, and was stricken dead because no man could touch that ark but a Levite. See how God keeps His Word, keeps His channel, keeps His order? Uzziah was smitten with leprosy. Here is David, altogether caused the death of a man, and a great disaster; being anointed with the Spirit, both of them, but out of God's channel. Is that right? He died. Oh, it scared David to death, it called the--the name of the place, as Brother Jack read it. See? He marked him there. [I Chronicles 13:1-14]
L-232 How many times denominations has done the same thing to sincere believers. The Catholic church, the Methodist, the Baptist, Church of Christ, even the Pentecostals, has caused a-many spiritual death with that same thing. When It come, with these things, they found... and they can't go no further, because that's what their denomination believes.
L-233 Look today, the big crusades, same thing. They don't do nothing but make them more a "twofold child of hell, worse than they was in the first place." Makes them harder, really, come to the Truth. Have one of these big revivals, and all of them come in, carry on a little while, and go back out and they start all this sin again. Hear of another revival, say, "Ah, I had so much stuff; I tried it, there's nothing to it." See? They don't know the channel. Don't see.
L-234 I heard our great evangelist Billy Graham, set one morning at a breakfast like this, and he said, "I..." Here, he puts up the Bible, in Louisville, Kentucky, said, "There is God's example." And that's true, the man said the truth. He said, "You go... Paul went into a city and had one convert, come back a year from then had thirty out of that convert." Said, "But I go into a city and have thirty thousand converts, and come back in six months and can't find thirty." He said, "You know what's a matter?" Said, "You lazy preachers," said "you set around with your foot upon the desk and--and call these people by phone instead of visiting them after supper and talking to them."
L-235 Oh, my heart was burning. I thought, "O great man of God, I hate to disagree with you here, but who was the lazy preachers on Paul's one convert? What he done, he took him into the Word, he took him into the Message, he took him to where he found God; his heart was on fire, he set the country afire! And only thing you do is put them in a Baptist or Methodist church, or something, no wonder there's nothing to burn." Uh-huh. Yes, sir!
L-236 Then look what the Word has promised for today. Let's find out whether it's Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostals, or what, for today. Now you can go to read your Scriptures. Take these Scriptures I've been quoting to you. Also Revelation...
L-237 If I had time, I'd read it, but I just haven't. I got about twelve or fourteen more minutes. I got to close on time, at eleven, if I get out right.
L-238 Notice Malachi 4, Revelation 10, Seven Seals. Didn't the Bible say... Now watch! There was a Angel, a Messenger from above; and a earthly messenger. And each messenger was for the age of the church. He said, "In the days..." speaking now, "there came a angel, messenger" (word angel, English word means "messenger"). "... came down from Heaven, and He put His foot on the land and sea, and swore by Him that lives forever that time shall be no more." Is that right? A rainbow around His head, and all these things just taking place. That Angel was Christ! Certainly! But what did He say? "But in the days of the seventh angel, the seventh church age."
L-239 Always it's right at the end of the church age where they got the thing so... the ecclesiastic so messed up until God sends a messenger, and that's the Message to that church age. Then they take his message, 'cause he just lives a little while, and God... then they take his message instead of carrying it on with the rest of It, they make a--a denomination. And then they come make another denomination; another messenger, take another one.
L-240 You all seen in my book, it'll all be drawed out in The Seven Church Ages, which He told me; which I stand by as a witness to God to be judged at the day of Judgment for It. It come from God, not from my thinking. Notice, here. I thought--I thought different from that, if I was going to have my own thought. Like Brother Jack told me about the Angel there, how that "That Christ was a glorified body." But it wasn't, it was showing that the Message being right, the Supreme Deity, He was God. See? Just the very thing I had been preaching from the Word. The Word always bears record of the Word.
Now, quickly now, as we are fixing to close in a few moments.
Now, quickly now, as we are fixing to close in a few moments.
L-241 Now, He said, "In the days of the Message of the seventh angel, the earthly angel, seventh church age, then all these mysteries that's been lost back through these other six church ages should be revealed right then." Well, that's exactly what those Angels said. Here is the Seven Seals, or the opening of these mysteries. And you try to get It before those denominations. Contrary to what they... Brother, they close up like a clam, but they've always done it. But it's season! [Revelation 3:14-21]
L-242 How many knows that this is the seventh church age? Say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen!"--Ed.] The Laodicean Age, a lukewarm that God spues out of His mouth. And they spue God out of their mouth; there's not another age in the Bible where Jesus was found on the outside trying to knock, get back in. They put Him out, no cooperation. Who is Jesus? The Word! The Word was put out. The husks throwed out the wheat! He said, "I stand at the door and knock, and any man in those shackles out there will hear My Voice." O God, have mercy! [Revelation 3:14-21]
L-243 It was at then, when that man died, that David with the anointing saw what he had done wrong. O David, you pastor, can't you see your dead creeds and denominations you're holding on to? Can't you see what it's doing? It's killing a Uzziah. Spiritually dead, and you wonder why there ain't no revival; letting your women cut their hair, paint their face, wear shorts; send your boys away to ricky schools, and so forth like that, where half of them comes home homosexuals, and everything.
L-244 Notice David's objective: he was bringing the ark to his own house. That wasn't the capitol, that wasn't the place, it belonged in Jerusalem. But David was bringing it to his own house, he wanted the revival to be on his own denomination. "Oh, if you're Assembly, all right. If you're Oneness, all right. If you're Pentecostal, okay."
L-245 Like somebody said, said, "Brother Branham, how you ever have anybody to listen to you?" Said, "I can see Billy Graham, he's got every denomination in the country with him. I can see Oral Roberts, every Pentecostal hangs right to him. But," said "you're against the whole thing." Uh-huh. Said, "How in the world do you ever get anybody?"
I said, "It's God!"
I said, "It's God!"
L-246 "I the Lord hath planted it before the foundation of the world. I'll water it day and night unless some of them should pluck it from My hand," Isaiah. "I'll water, I planted it. I put their names on the Book before the foundation of the world, by predestination. I'll water it, just keep on moving. I'll furnish the water, you just spray It out." Right. See? "I'll water it day and night unless one of them gets plucked out of My hand." There you are.
L-247 Want It come to the city of David, the city of Jerusalem. There was no place ready for it at that time, and so is it today. These great mysteries that's been unfolded by the Seven Seals, there's not a place in any denomination... would have to quit being a denomination to take It. All the way from Luther on down to the Pentecostal Oneness, there's not a place can receive It. Neither can a man receive It and stay in his denomination. He'll have to follow the wheat or go with the shuck, either one he wants to.
L-248 Christ is our Ark, the Word. They want their denomination. He cannot, notice, cannot be carried on the new carts of the denominations, His Message cannot go on the cart of a new denomination when It's supposed to be bore and come on the heart of a prophet. It cannot. He promised it, It would be thus, and that's the way It must be. [I Chronicles 15:14-15]
L-249 So the denomination will never receive It, neither can they receive It. And they're just as blinded to It as the Jews was when they hung Jesus to the cross, when Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they don't even know what they're doing." Don't despise them, but just pray. For what if you was in that same condition with your eyes so blind that you can't wake up and see what's going on?
L-250 Neither could they see that That was their very God. When He was hanging there on the cross, and them singing the 22nd Psalm in the temple, two hundred yards away, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? They pierced My feet and My hands." See? "All My bones, they stare at Me. Why has Thou forsaken Me?" And there, the very God that they had sung about, blind enough to have Him tacked to the cross, and didn't know it. [Psalms 22:1, 6-11, 13-19]
L-251 Now, don't the Bible say that the Laodicean church, that thinks that she's so great by her denominational members, she'd be "naked, miserable, poor, blind, and don't know it"? What does the blind mean? The blind means for this Laodicean church like it did the ending of the Jewish church, blind to the very Christ that they had on the outside, knocking, trying to get in; "naked, miserable, poor, wretched, blind, and don't know it." O God of mercy! [Revelation 3:14-21]
L-252 Why can't the wheat lay out in the Presence, that Son Light, to see the hour we're living in? Yes, Christ is our Ark, but His original way to do it. Then here He is... They had His Spirit all right, we know that. They wait upon the Lord, see His plan on His original Word in Its season to be vindicated, that's what we should be doing right now. And He--He reveals their faith by His Word, seeing Him confirm every plan that He promised, not man's schemes of denomination, not making members for our own ark.
L-253 They got a Methodist ark, a Baptist ark, a Presbyterian ark, everybody's going into this ark for the great tribulation coming; "Glory to God! I was baptized in the Methodist ark, the Presbyterian, the Pentecostal ark." There's only one Ark, that's Jesus Christ, and He is the Word!
L-254 Notice, God told the prophet, said, "Eat the scroll," in the Old Testament. The prophet of the New Testament, He said, "Eat the little book." Why? That the prophet and the Word would be one! See? That's the Ark, the Word of God. [Revelation 10:9]
L-255 God has promised His Word, how It would be fulfilled and how It would come to pass when He chose His Bride, how it would be done. It's happening right before you, in the Name of the Lord, and that's by the original Word! The evening-time Message is here. [Zechariah 14:7]
L-256 How many remembers Haywood when he wrote:
It shall be Light about the evening time,
The path to Glory you will surely find.
It shall be Light about the evening time,
The path to Glory you will surely find.
L-257 Yes, the evening promise of the Seven Seals, of Revelation 10, Malachi 4, Luke 30 and 10. Read Deuteronomy 4, 4: 1 and 4, then 25th and 26th verse, and see what He said about for this last day. This was Moses saying to Israel to "Keep every Word, don't you add one thing!" Moses, that prophet had been up there and seen that Word of God. And It was wrote out to him and a-vindicated by God's Own hand writing It. He said, "You keep every Word, don't you add one thing to It or take one thing from It." You can read that in the 25th and 26th verse of Deuteronomy 4. [Revelation 10:1-7], [Luke 17:30], [Deuteronomy 4:1-4, 25-26], [Malachi 4:5-6]
L-258 Notice! Don't you add to It, don't you take away from It; 'cause if you do, God will take your part from the Book of Life. And it shows that you wasn't His seed." [Revelation 22:18-19]
L-259 Remember! Everything that God has promised us, everything that God's spoke to us, everything that's been told to you in the Name of the Lord, it has happened! God has never made one promise null, but He's kept every promise that He said, has told us, has been the Truth for these twenty years, Shreveport. I've preached to you through the power of God, and the courtesy of your pastor, and I take you to record today. Even to women passed bearing; man, children, afflictions, healing, prophesy, things that would happen, not one of them has ever failed! Now, stay away from those denominations, they're leading you to death.
L-260 Samuel stood one day, and they said, "We want a king, we want to be like the rest of the world."
Well, Samuel said, "Don't take that king. He'll take your sons, and daughters, and he'll do this and do that."
He said, "Yeah, I know you're right." [I Samuel 8:4-22]
Well, Samuel said, "Don't take that king. He'll take your sons, and daughters, and he'll do this and do that."
He said, "Yeah, I know you're right." [I Samuel 8:4-22]
L-261 But Samuel said, "Listen to me. Did I ever take any of your money? Did I ever beg you for a living? Did I ever tell you you had to give me so much salary to hold a meeting for you?" Now judge yourselves, even now! See? He said, "Did I ever tell you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass?" Not one thing. [I Samuel 12:3-5]
L-262 "Oh, yes, Samuel, you never did beg us for money, you never did want big things. Samuel, that's true, and everything you told us in the Name of the Lord come to pass. But, Samuel, we want our denomination anyhow!"
"Then go take it. It's up to you." That's right. [I Samuel 12:3-5]
"Then go take it. It's up to you." That's right. [I Samuel 12:3-5]
L-263 You can think you're doing God a service, and if you're going out of God's way of doing it, you're going to keep messing it up, on and on. O church of the living God! Please forgive my Irish way and my sense of humor, but in the sincerity and sacredness of my heart, you Assemblies of God, you Oneness, Presbyterian, Methodist, whatever you are, flee for your life. Remember, get out from there.
Nations are breaking, Israel's awakening, (getting ready for that remnant)
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The denominational days are numbered with harrows encumbered,
Return, O dispersed, to your own.
The day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear,
Be filled with His Spirit,
Have your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your redemption is near.
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The denominational days are numbered with harrows encumbered,
Return, O dispersed, to your own.
The day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear,
Be filled with His Spirit,
Have your lamps trimmed and clear,
Look up, your redemption is near.
L-264 Do you believe that? We're at the end time, we're here. The handwriting's on the wall, the second Coming is at hand, the Bride is being chosen, watered, drawed out.
L-265 Now, that don't mean drawed out from church, that means drawed out from denominationalism. You must go to church, but don't join any organization. Jesus went with all the organizations, but He never joined a one of them. Neither did He side with any of them, no indeed, but He was among them. There's where the Light's got to be scattered. And you stay right where you are, scattering the Light. See? That's what God's using you for. A hungry-hearted people, let them know that Jesus Christ is real, just the same as He was yesterday, He is today; and will be forever.
L-266 It is possible, a man or woman with all sincerity, trying their best to do God a service, and stirred it in the wrong way. With a genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit upon them, but stirred it contrary to God's plan for the age, and chaos the whole thing. Now, if you believe that's the Truth, say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen!"--Ed.] We just read It. Chaos the whole thing by not coming God's provided way to do it.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
L-267 O church, here and across the nation, listen to your humble servant this morning. Will you? Look where you were at a few years ago when this first started; now look what impersonations has capitalized on It, and great millions and billions of dollars has flown into the organizations. See? Still away from the Word of God. Buildings and organizations is not the way God stirs His Spirit. He stirs It right into His Word, to make It live. And if you were ordained from the beginning of the earth to that Word, every Word will come right on top of the Word. Like a human cell will not have one human cell, and the next the cell of a dog, and the next the cell of a cat; it'll be human cells. But it's got to have a cell first to start with. Is that right? say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Well, if it is the Word cell to start with, the other Word cells are ordained to make it a full body.
L-268 Don't be children, only in love, but be man in Spirit and in judgment. Judge ye whether I've told you the Truth or not. Judge ye whether It's the Word of God or not. Judge ye whether it's the hour we're talking about or not. Judge ye whether these things are promised. Now, are they vindicated? By things that there's not a human being in the world could do it. But It's become so common to us till we're letting It flow right on a-past us. Wait, church, wait.
L-269 If there's one in here this morning that doesn't know Jesus Christ, doesn't stand justified this morning, your sins all gone as though you never had sinned, and you want to be that way... 'cause remember, one day, maybe today, maybe in the next five minutes, but one day that heart's going to stop. And that inside of the inside is going to take its flight to stand in the Presence of God to be judged according to what you do with this Message this morning, according to this Message that you see. Not... It ain't me, I'm just a mouthpiece. Like this microphone, it can't say a thing 'less I'm talking in it. And neither could I say anything unless God was talking through it, but you see God's vindicated it to be the Truth. You want to be a real Christian.
L-270 Now, we have no place for an altar call, but right at the table where you're setting. The place is packed and jammed, overflowed. I couldn't call you to an altar, there's no altar here to call you to. But the altar is in your heart. Won't you let that little conviction that "Jesus Christ is real" move right up close today and call the rest of His body to you, manger Him in your heart? If He isn't there, would you raise your hand, and a sign to Him, saying, "Lord, fill me, fill me with Your Word and with Your Presence, that I might live by You"?
L-271 While every head is bowed, every eye closed, all across the nation, raise your hands here in the visible audience and out there too; and I'll offer prayer for you. That's all I can do, I cannot fill it. God bless you. I cannot fill it. God bless you; and you. God can fill it. God bless you. Hands are going up here in the visible audience, everywhere. "Fill it. Fill me, O Lord. Fill me." And now, after I... Thank you, sister. Thank you, brother. God bless you. After I... God bless you, sister dear. You. After... I think now I've caught the most of the sincere, trying to be, I want to raise my hands with you.
L-272 O Lord, never let me come to a standstill. Continually, Lord, let me not stop at one thing, let me just move on, Lord, till I've completed everything that You ordained for me to do. Regardless of the price, regardless of the cost, regardless of the critizism, how hard the cross is, I'll remember the cross that You bore.
So this consecrated cross I'll bear
Until death shall set me free;
Then go home, a crown to wear,
There's a crown for me.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for every one of His sons,
There's a cross for me.
Until death shall set me free;
Then go home, a crown to wear,
There's a crown for me.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for every one of His sons,
There's a cross for me.
L-273 Dear God, the Word has gone forth. It cannot return void, It'll find Its place somewhere. If the seed has already been planted, It'll water it till it grows. And none can pluck it from Your hand, "All the Father has given Me will come to Me, no man can pluck them out of My hand. My Father has given them to Me before the foundation of the world"; when the plans were all drawed up, as so, Jesus was given His Church, His Bride.
L-274 The bogus marriage of the world, to these denominations. You came and died into the world, You redeemed Her, You justified Her, She never did it at the first place. She was trapped into it, blind. And as the song says:
I once was lost and now I'm found,
I was once in Laodicea, blind, but now I see.
And it's grace that taught my heart to fear,
It was grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
And the water of God fell upon my soul. I was parching.
I was once in Laodicea, blind, but now I see.
And it's grace that taught my heart to fear,
It was grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
And the water of God fell upon my soul. I was parching.
L-275 God, at this little altar of every heart present here and around the nation, may the waters from under the altar of God gush out this morning upon Your Church; and water it, Lord, for the season's just about finished. Give it Life, the Waters of Life, that it might be able to lay in the Presence of the Son to be ripened for Your great garner.
L-276 Father, I pray for them. But the stalk must dry, so I cannot pray for it; it must die, so it is dead. But I pray for the wheat, Lord, that's forming into the Body of Christ. Grant, Lord, that the fresh waters of God will keep Its cheeks bathed with tears of joy and understanding until the combine comes to take it Home. In Jesus' Name, I commit it all to You, Lord; the results is Yours. Amen.
L-278 So Father, God, we thank You. And, Father, we pray for our little sister, handsmaid here, for her strength. I'm thinking of a time that when I--I walked in the presence of her, how that the Spirit came upon her and gave the same message that the Angel of the Lord gave on the River that day: "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of the Lord Jesus, you are sent to forerun the second."
L-279 Seeing it shaping up now into the wheat part, God, we thank You for everything You've done. Our hearts are filled beyond speaking. I feel so full, Lord, I just don't know how to say anything else. But thank You Father, again, for all that You have done for us. Through Jesus Christ's Name.
I love Him,...
Let's just sing to Him, now. Remember, He's here.
Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Let's just sing to Him, now. Remember, He's here.
Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
L-280 Does it make you feel real little, real little? All emptied out, just ready for the Spirit, see.
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Covet not this world's vain riches,
That so rapidly decay,
Build your hopes on things Eternal, (no denomination, now)
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Covet not this world's vain riches,
That so rapidly decay,
Build your hopes on things Eternal, (no denomination, now)
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
L-281 How many is trying to do that? Raise your hand. Now reach right across the table, put your hands in one anothers' hands, like this. Together... You can be seated, that's all right, or whatever you want to do. Listen closely. Let's sing it together now. This represents our unbroken chain of the love of God. We're holding one anothers' hands because we believe in God. We touch each other because we're brothers and sisters, the same vibrating Spirit, the Eternal Word of God dwelling in our hearts being made manifest.
When our journey is completed,
If to God we have been true,
Fair and bright our home in Glory,
Our enraptured soul shall view!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand! (Spirit of the Lord!)
Hold to God...
Just get your mind on Him, see. This is the kind of meetings we must set in in the future.
... unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal, (The Word is the only thing that is Eternal.)
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Covet not this world's vain popularity, education,
That so rapidly decay, (Look at it today, what it's done.)
Seek to gain the heavenly treasure,
They will never pass away!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
If to God we have been true,
Fair and bright our home in Glory,
Our enraptured soul shall view!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand! (Spirit of the Lord!)
Hold to God...
Just get your mind on Him, see. This is the kind of meetings we must set in in the future.
... unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal, (The Word is the only thing that is Eternal.)
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Covet not this world's vain popularity, education,
That so rapidly decay, (Look at it today, what it's done.)
Seek to gain the heavenly treasure,
They will never pass away!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things Eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
L-282 [A sister speaks in another tongue. Brother Branham begins humming Hold To God's Unchanging Hand. Another sister gives an interpretation--Ed.]
L-283 How we thank You, Lord. As we set in this solemn moment, almost like a funeral, for we're facing the burial of a dying, dead world; a dying, dead church.
O God, gather Your wheat quickly, Father. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
O God, gather Your wheat quickly, Father. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
L-284 Bless Thy people, Father, bring sincerity and deepness to the hearts of the people. May we get off of those fragile bubble dances, settle down into the deep riches of the honey of God. Grant it, Lord. Keep our hearts established with love and sincerity.
L-285 Bless Thy people everywhere, Father. As we leave this place may we go in the Name of the Lord Jesus to speak that which is sincere, that which is Truth, that which is right, may we shun that what's wrong, Lord. When a man begins to lie to us, may we quickly turn our back upon him, turn our back to all dirty, filthy jokes and things of the world, and just turn our back and walk away. Help us, dear God. Mold us, make us, break us, and make us into the images of sons and daughters of God that we might act with the virtue of the Holy Spirit. We commit ourself to You, with our hands in each others', in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let's stand. Brother Noel.
Let's stand. Brother Noel.