The book of Exodus, part 1
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1 Only believe, only believe,
All things are possible, only believe;
Only believe, only believe,
All things are possible, only believe.
While we remain standing, could we bow for prayer just a moment?
Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee, to come again tonight and to call Thee Father, and ask if we have did anything through this day, or anytime in our life, that's against us in glory, may the blood of Thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus atone for it just now, as we confess our wrongs and ask His forgiveness.
We pray that the great Holy Spirit will come tonight, take into the meeting, get into every heart, get glory out of the service, save the lost, call back to the fold the straying sheep, and heal the sick. For we ask it in His name. Amen.
You may be seated.
2 Good evening, friends. So happy to be here again tonight to minister in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Just coming in a few moments ago, I was so thrilled to find that Brother Moore had arrived. So glad to have him. And hear that Brother Brown, and Brother Lyle is with them, also; fine men from down Shreveport way. And some very fine people down in Louisiana. I know you'd always be welcome down there.
And then, a little fellow met me, taking a picture right there as they come in, and he shook my hand and said, "Brother Branham, I forget, several years ago, my mother was laying, dying with TB." Said, "You prayed for her." Said, "She's been well ever since." So I just...
3 Get off of a plane and somebody'd say, "Hello, Brother Branham. Seven or eight years ago, my dad had cancer. He's healed." And this, that, and the other, just... I wonder what it'll be when it's all over, and we sit down under the evergreen tree at the Throne of God. Hear those testimonies. "Tell the story, how we overcome, we'll understand it better by and by," says the song.
Now, maybe tonight, if the Lord willing, I've been promising you a night that we would just simply pray for the sick. Just... Usually our meetings is by a divine order of the meeting, by a divine gift of knowledge, or whatever you want to call it.
And I have thought here, a few days ago, that the Holy Spirit spoke to me while I was out in the woods, and was in prayer. He said, "You yet haven't done what I told you to. Pray for the sick."
4 And so, maybe tonight, we may do that. I told my boy today, to give out no prayer cards tonight. We'll just simply pray for the sick, anyhow, if the Lord would provide. We don't know what He's going to do. That's the wonderful thing. We're sitting under expectations. We just don't know what He'll do.
And now, tomorrow night, and then just... Do you know, the week just gets away, doesn't it? Think, this is Wednesday night.
So now, we're going to read just a short portion of God's Word, and then go right straight into the little amateur service of this part, and concentrate mostly on prayer for the sick. So, we won't keep you late.
Last evening, we got all under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and I believe we were here till about quarter after ten. It's a wonder---the amazing grace---the people come back at all, and especially a rainy night like this. But, you're very lovely, and we appreciate you very much.
5 So, bear with us a few moments, if you will, while we read God's Word, and talk about Jesus just for a little while. That's the reason we're here, to exalt Him. And that's our motives, that you love Him, and worship Him. And we meet together to worship Him that way.
Now, in the book of Exodus, I wish to read just a portion of Scripture while I speak, maybe the next night or two, on this marvelous book.
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
And the woman conceived, and bare a son; And when she saw ... that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word.
Exodus 2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
Exodus 2:2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
6 I always like to read His Word, because what I say might be wrong, and it might fail. But, if I read just a verse out of here, I know that the people hasn't come in vain, because that's God's Word, and it will never fail. It'll always be right. Times may change, and people may change, but God's Word will never change. It's just as changeless as eternity is.
Now, this book of Exodus is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament. The very word "Exodus." Exodus means "called out." In otherwise, it means the church itself: Exodus.
They were called the people of God while they were down in Egypt. And then when they were called out, they were then the church of God, because church means "called out, separated."
7 That's the way you know when you're in the true church, when you've been called out by God, separated from the things of the world, and love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul and mind, then you know you're in the church.
Now, they might have different dog tags they put on you, like Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, but that's just the dog tag, you see.
But after all, I didn't mean it that way. Now, I didn't think about that. I meant the brand that you are wearing, you see, otherwise. They have a name of, "You belong to the Methodist church", but really, there's only one church, and that's the church of those who are borned-again. And that's the only church. You never join God's church. There's no way of doing it at all. And you're born in God's church.
8 Jesus said, "Except a man be borned again, he cannot understand the kingdom of Heaven." There's no way of understanding it until you are borned-again, and then God reveals Himself to you, and then you know that you've passed from death unto life, because no man can call Jesus the Christ, only by the Holy Spirit, see.
The only way that you will ever know that Jesus is the Christ, is when the Holy Spirit personally witnesses to you that He is the resurrected Lord Jesus. No matter what He would do, what kind of signs, what kind of miracles, you will never know it until your personal experience with God.
You say, "Well, I believe it because the Bible said so." Well, that's good. The Bible, it's true. It knows it. "Well, the preacher said so." Perhaps, he knows it. "Mother said so." She knows it. But what do you know about it? You will never know it until it's revealed to you individually, by the Holy Spirit. And then, by accepting it, you become a new creature in Christ Jesus, born the second time.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
9 Now, you can't live twice; you have to die once in order to born again. So when you die out to yourself and are born anew of the Holy Spirit, there's no more reasoning the Word of God. You don't... You just take it for what it says, and that settles it. God said it, and that proves it.
So this marvelous book was something like today. I believe the church itself is in a great exodus today. Do you believe that? A great time of separation. God calling His people. He promised He would do it in the last days. He would separate them, segregate His people.
Was speaking not long ago, somewhere, about where the prophet said, "It will be light in the evening." There would be no middle time of light. There would be... There's light in the morning, then there's light in the evening. And there was a day where it wasn't neither night nor day. Just kind of a misty, hazy... Something like today. And that's about the way we've lived. And geographically, and if you'll notice, the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Civilization has rose in the east, and always moved westward.
And now, at the rising of the church in the east was on the day of Pentecost, to the eastern people.
Zechariah 14:7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
10 And now, as it's travel westward across the nations, as the Gospel's been brought, it hasn't been exactly... We've said, "Shine the light," but we've just had the reaction of what light that was taught in the days of the Bible. But we really haven't had the light as they had it back there, but God has promised that in the evening, it shall be light.
We've had enough light to know that Jesus was the Son of God. We've had enough light to know that we ought to live right. But, the light of the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in His signs, and wonders, and miracles, as He always has in every age. Any time when God made Himself manifest, there was always signs and wonders.
Zechariah 14:7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
11 So, the very same light that shined on the eastern people in AD 33 is shining on the western people in nineteen and fifty-five and six. Showing the same Holy Spirit, the same results, the same power, the same Jesus, the same people, the same kind of peoples that it was then. So, it's light in the evening time.
The exodus: God calling out His people. Making a difference. Putting a difference between His people.
Now, we want to speak this week a lot on: Redemption: whether our healing was included in God's plan of redemption. Now, if we can prove that by the Scripture, it should settle it.
12 Now, the book of Exodus is a complete book of redemption---redeemed. Redeemed means "to be brought back, to put in its right position." To redeem anything is something that's went out, or it's out of its natural place, its real place, and to redeem it is to bring it back to its place.
Men are in this earth to be sons and daughters of God. And when they've wandered out in sin, they're out of their original condition, and the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus redeems them back in their right position to be sons and daughters of God. Amen. That's true. Redemption: brought back.
13 A man said one time, said, "Brother Branham, to redeem," he says, "the devil put me in the pawn shop, and the Lord Jesus redeemed me." I thought that was pretty cute, and right, too. That the devil put you in the pawn shop, but Jesus come by and redeemed you.
And there's always a ransom to be paid when anything is redeemed. And Jesus was our ransom. God sent Him, and made Him in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet He was Emmanuel, a created blood dwelt within Him, and He gave His blood for the redemption price, to redeem us back into reconciliation to God, that we might walk with Him as in the beginning. When man, in the beginning, when He didn't have to shift for himself, God provided everything he had need of. But after he got reckless, and shiftless, and done wrong, and sin separated him from God, then he had to shift for himself.
And now, Jesus came to redeem this man back into the care of the hands of a loving Father. Redemption: brought back, replaced, put in position.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
14 And what a wonderful thought tonight, it is, to know that we in the day that we're living, when seemingly that the foundation of every natural thing is falling, that we have the sure rock of salvation, that we've been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a joy that gives the heart of the man who has been partakers of these eternal blessings that God has shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. What a picture. What a loving comfort it is.
I tell you, my brethren and sisters tonight, if I had the world packed out with all the money... By the way, someone sent me a letter, a million dollar check, and I got it today, a million dollar check on the bank of Heaven. I hope it cashes in all right. All right. If it would just had Jesus' name signed on the bottom of it, I'd sure have felt real good about it.
15 Yes, and to think the dear person just saying that, oh, a very fine personal little letter in it. But just remember that I have received that check in reality, and every one here has received the same.
I'm not afraid to cash that check. Amen. Christ signed it, and it's good for anything we have need of in all our journey from here to glory. God has freely given it to all of us. The only requirement is, is don't be afraid to cash it.
Now, in order in redeeming, sickness will have to apply sickness as a results of sin. Now, sin... Sickness is not sometimes your sin direct, but the sickness that you have is indirect, maybe. You inherited it from sins of your parents, or your forefathers. Each generation gets weaker and wiser, because we inherit the differences, and the sickness, and diseases of the body as it keeps handing down from generation.
16 One time man was made, and he lived almost a thousand years. Next time he come down, he'll shorten his days. Keep shortening his days, and on down to a average life, now, is around about forty, forty-five years old, I suppose. See, we keep getting weaker all the time, but wiser all the time. Just to fulfill what God's Word said.
Now, my brethren here tonight who doesn't preach divine healing as the cure, God's cure for sickness, I wonder how you could apply salvation without applying divine healing. Remember, before we ever had any sickness, we never had any sin. But sin came as a result ... or, sickness came as a result of sin. (Pardon me.)
17 Now, then, sickness is a attribute of sin. It's what sin produced---was the attribute. Like the tree: It bears the apple; it's a attribute of the tree.
Now, if sickness is... And some people try to separate it, all the attributes of sin: gloominess, weary, temper, malice, envy, strife. They didn't have to make a separate atonement for each one of those things. The one atonement taken care of all of it.
For instance, as I've often said, if there was a big animal here on the platform, a big bear, or a lion, he had his claw in my side and was tearing my side out, it wouldn't be necessary for me to try to find some kind of a knife that could cut his claw off. If I just knocked the thing in the head, it would kill the claw and all. It would take care of the whole thing as long as I kill the animal, killed its head.
18 Well, the head of every one of the attributes of sin is sin. And when Jesus come dealing with sin at Calvary, He killed sin, and He killed every attribute that goes with it (Amen.) and completely redeemed us back to God. And today, we are sons and daughters of God, perfectly redeemed by a perfect redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Oh! That makes me glad to think about that.
Now, we have not got it in full. That's true. But we have the earnest of our salvation. We have the earnest. If there is... Now, we are not past temptation. Neither are we above sin. But, Jesus will help us in every temptation. And now, when I do wrong, I'm ready to repent. Anyone else is that wants to live right with God. You don't desire to do wrong, but when Satan upsets you somewhere, because there is an atonement waiting for me, if I confess my wrong, God is just to forgive it.
19 And the same thing is, when you have got sick. It don't sign your immune from sickness, but every time God is willing to deliver you from that sickness, see. Every time that you get sick, you go to God and ask Him, and then He's willing to deliver you, because there is an atonement. It's based upon your faith in that atonement, which is your redemption. And if we know that this joy that we have, just being the earnest money on what lays ahead, what will it be when we draw the full benefit of the policy? What will it be?
My! Some people say how people scream and cry and act when the Holy Spirit gets on them. I wonder really what it will be when we get to glory, what kind of a... No wonder that it was... They said, "They sang the songs with palms in their hands, Hosanna, glory to Him, and sits upon the throne. Hosanna." Singing, waving palms! That will be a marvelous time. And if just the attributes makes me feel like I do sometime, what will it be? I'll have to have a different body to stand it. But, it's a one sure thing. When I know a temptation comes up, and I'd flee to Him, my refuge, and then God delivers me from that temptation and sets me free, my heart rejoices, and the glory bells ring; I look back and think, O God! How did You do it?
20 How happy I am! You know, if you, when you're really, badly tempted on something, if you'll just make Jesus your refuge and shut your eyes and pass right by it, it will be the sweetest experience that you've ever went through.
Samson, one time, when a lion run out to kill him, he killed the lion and, when the Holy Ghost come upon him, why, he killed, slew the lion as he would a little kid, or animal. So, when one day passing by a lion's carcass laying there, the old frame, and some bees had built honeycombs in there, and he eat it and he said it was the sweetest honey he ever eat. The very thing that was going to kill him, and when he passed by, and seen the old carcass, he enjoyed the honey off of him. So is it now. Amen.
Judges 14:5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
Judges 14:6 And the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
Judges 14:7 And he went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
Judges 14:8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
Judges 14:9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
21 When I can see that old life that I once loved, and now its dead as all midnight, I tell you, I can raise my hands and praise the Lord and eat the sweetest honey I ever eat in all my life. "It's joy unspeakable and full of glory!" When I can go by and look down there upon ... and see like that young fellow a while ago and many others saying, "Brother Branham, my mother was dying with TB. This one was in a wheelchair. This little fellow was this way, and that way. And now, you ask the Lord Jesus, and He made them well." I tell you, it just makes your heart lift way up. What will it be if that's just the ... is just the earnest, what will it be when we really have full redemption? Won't it be wonderful?
1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
22 Oh, my! How at that great time, the joy it will be. Then, if I am promised the resurrection of this old mortal pest house that I live in here, if I have been promised a redemption, a brand new body (it will never be old; it will never be withered down), what... I've got to have some kind of an earnest of that, out of the atonement, to prove to me that I'm going to have it. And that is, when you see a man laying, ridden on the bed with cancer, and our beloved doctors has said, "It's done passed the stage of our help," and kneel down and ask the dear Lord Jesus according to His Word, and His atonement, and promise to do it, and see that man raise up to a healthy, stout, red-faced man---I'm telling you, it's the sweetest honey you ever eat. That's right. Certainly is. And we are sure of it. God has said so. The redemption, the book of redemption, to be redeemed.
23 Now, this book of Exodus is based upon three heads that we wish to talk about just for a little while. Maybe one of them tonight, perhaps two, and then tomorrow night, catch up with another. It's based upon the power of Satan, and the power of faith, and the power of God.
Now, we read here in the beginning, after leaving Genesis---the beautiful book of Genesis---we come into the teaching of Exodus, the called out, separated. We find Satan right quickly at work with God's program. We see that malignant eye of the devil, that serpent, that's always tried to interfere with God's program before it comes on earth. And he always knows when it's coming, mostly.
24 Look at him. As soon as we find the first chapter almost, in Exodus, the book of redemption, we find the devil there to cut off the very program of God.
The first thing was the issue made by Pharaoh, that they would throw all the children, male children, born of the Hebrews, in the river, and drown them.
Think of it. That same lizard-eyed devil. How that back there in the beginning. Look at Abel. As soon as Satan seen that through that righteous seed, through Abel was going to come out of the redeemer, quickly he went to work to destroy the very thing, the very chosen tool that God was going to use. He went right straight to destroy it.
Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
25 Look at it in the time of Joseph when God was making manifest ... Son of God, Jesus Christ through Joseph, look how Satan come, about the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis there, how that Satan come to destroy Joseph, and would have done it. See, the very tool that God was going to use.
Over in Chronicles, about the twenty-second chapter, the royal seed, how he tried to destroy that. And on over in Matthew two. Look how quickly that Satan was on the job. When he knew it was about the time for the Redeemer to be born, he got into the political leaders and sent forth an issue, and destroyed all the young children from two years old down, in order to kill the Lord Jesus.
26 How he tried to do it, and succeeded, in Matthew twenty-seven. He succeeded in doing it. But---here's what I like---Satan can only ... his dominion only reigns down to the river. River means, "death, separation." That's all the farther Satan's dominion can come; it stops. But then God begins.
What a beautiful hope tonight, to know that every person, every one of the believers, when they stand by the grave weeping over their children, over their loved ones, faith can stand right in the midst of it, and look beyond them shadows yonder to a God of resurrection from the dead.
Oh! What a picture this beautiful book lays out to us here in parables. How that God, teaching us by those things back there, what He was going to do, and confirmed every word of it in Christ Jesus our Lord, the perfect Redeemer.
27 How, that going to the river, they'd take the little ones and threw them in the river. And then, notice, that's the end of Satan's dominion. His domain can only come that far to the river, and then his powers is cut off. It is, that Satan has the power of death, but thanks be to the living God who has the power of resurrection beyond the shadows of death. What a marvelous thing it is.
I want you to look at it. Study it for a minute. Every one of us, under the domain of Satan here in this world which is his. He walked in the fiery brimstones before there was a creature on it. It belongs to him. He's a ruler of it tonight and every government, and every politic, he's the ruler. That's why we have wars, and rumors of wars, and troubles. But, oh, think then, some glorious day!
Oh, when Satan took Jesus up on the top of the mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, that's all it was, or would be. Said, "They're all mine. I'll do with them whatever I want to. And I'll give them to You, if You'll fall down and worship me."
Jesus knew that He was going to fall heir to those things anyhow, in the Millennium. So He said, "Get behind Me, Satan. It's written thou shall worship the Lord, and Him only shall you serve."
Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Matthew 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luke 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
28 And when we see Satan, and all of his corruption of making young ladies, and men, and old, and everything out here on the street, drunk, cursing, swearing, acting the way they're doing under Satan's domain. But we can look beyond that with eyes of faith, and can see a perfect world, with a perfect people during the time of the Millennium where there won't be any cursing, any swearing, any drinking, any death, any sorrow. It will all be wiped away because of the Redeemer.
29 Now, it's your faith, comes in the next power, now, from Satan's power, and he ends at the river. Thank God for that. God has a power beyond anything that any error of death could ever touch. God is the resurrection. There.
Now, Satan cast an end at the river. The river means death. The little ones was cast into the river, and that settled it; they were gone. Crocodiles, 'gators, and everything in there, chewed them up. That was the end of it. Drowned in the river, eat up by the beasts of the river.
Now, when Moses was born---Moses, God's instrument, chosen, provided, fore-ordained, elected, predestined by God for His ... to be His tool to work with in that age---Satan was doing everything he could to catch him, but God pulled it over on him.
30 Why? We find out here that a daughter of Levi ... or, a son of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi and this child was born, and when it was born they seen that it was a right kind of a child. Amen. I hope you get this.
She looked at that baby and there was something taking place. She knew that the time was nigh that they should be delivered, and the Holy Spirit, to my opinion, revealed to her, "This is him." And she wasn't afraid of the king's commandments, and his threats.
There you are. When faith takes a hold, fear drops away. Faith has got big muscles and a hairy chest. When it speaks, everything else keeps quiet. Cancer has to shut up and get out of the way. Tumor, TB, the rest of them moves out when faith raise up, say, "Sit down!" That settles it.
Exodus 2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
Exodus 2:2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
31 Oh, my! Let it be king Pharaoh, ever who it was, when that little old house woman raised up and looked at that child, she wasn't afraid what the king said. That's the second power we're going to talk on. The power of the devil... Sure, he has the power and reign of death, but the second power was given, was faith. And faith puts Satan to shame. Certainly it does.
And that little housewife held that little baby in her arms, and she wasn't afraid of the king's commandments. She didn't care what the king said; she knowed God was able. And God would keep His Word.
Oh, if we could only accumulate that kind of faith, tonight. Get that kind of faith living among us, moving in our beings, moving through the church. Not just an emotional faith, but a real solid faith that won't take no for an answer; know that God said so and that settles it. I love it.
32 Look at it now. What did she do? She didn't try to have her baby to escape the death penalty that was passed upon all the children, but by faith she made an ark, and slimed it within and without, and put pitch in it for an atonement to carry him through the waters of death.
What a beautiful picture of Christ! Never shunning, or, "not my will, but Thine be done," not shunning death, but willing to take death in order to make an atonement for us to ride over the river of death on. What a beautiful picture here we have.
Look at the mother, weaving these little bulrushes together, and taking some slime, and putting all on the inside of it so it would be nice and soft, and pitch on the outside.
Exodus 2:3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
33 Now, over in Leviticus, if you'll read, you'll find out that word pitch and slime is also translated "atonement." Read it, and find out if that isn't true. It's an atonement. It was also made ... called atonement in the days of Noah. When Noah, a hundred and twenty years of preaching, yet saved no souls but his own household, and was warned of God, and knowed that judgment was coming. And he knowed he could not escape it, but God provided an atonement for him. I love that. God will make a way.
Let that soak real deep. No matter what the trouble is, God will make a way.
He's called in the Bible Jehovah-jireh. Jehovah-jireh means, "the Lord will provide." Amen. I'm so glad tonight to know that He's still Jehovah-jireh. No matter what the circumstances is, God will make a way, make a way of escape.
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
34 Though Satan may pin you in a corner with a cancer, God will make a way of escape. Satan may pin you down under a car, God will make a way of escape. Satan may've taken your family away from you, but God will make a way of escape. God has a way.
Notice. And now, Noah... Let's look at that ark just a moment, how he provided it. Now, he just couldn't go out and cut down any kind of a tree, because any kind of thing won't stand the judgments of God. The water was divine judgment that was going to destroy all the world, and it had to be something that would face the divine judgment.
And, friend of mine, I want you to know tonight, that there is coming a divine judgment on all the world. Remember, Satan's having his domain now. You think you're having a big time, but wait! His dominion will end pretty soon. Then the kingdom of God will be established. I want to be in that kingdom.
35 Standing persecutions in present day time now, looking forward to the coming of the great King on whose kingdom and dominion I am trying to uphold before the people, to say that He's not dead like other gods is supposed to be, but He is risen from the dead and is alive forever more.
Look at him. Oh, I love this. It makes me feel real religious when I think of that. To think of it!
Now, God specified the kind of wood that Noah was to build that ark out of. And it was called gopher wood.
One day, I happened to look up and thought, Well, what kind of a wood would that be? So, I begin to look back into the Word ... dictionaries and so forth to find out what gopher wood meant. And then I got the... Find out what it was, and it was a real soft wood, real soft and tender wood. Well, I thought, Say, where could that apply to the believer? The ark is built as the church. The ark was the church. And I said, "Oh, I see it, God." It's built out of believers. Not cold and indifferent, hard, but soft and pliable to the hands of God. That's what the ark was built out of.
Oh, I said, "Praise the Lord." That's good.
Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
36 Tender-hearted, willing to admit you're wrong, say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Then God can take that and move and place it in the ark.
Then Satan come along, said, "But, you better read a little more, and find out what that was." The wood had... Soft wood has open pores. And there's... It's just real soft, and that kind of a gopher wood, if you'd put it in the water, in a few minutes it would be waterlogged, the ship would. If you made an ark out of gopher wood, and pitched it out there in the water, it's so open, the pores so open, making the wood soft, till the waters would soak right into it and the ship would sink just in a little bit.
37 But I noticed then, that God told Noah to pitch this ark. Put pitch in it, on the inside, and on the outside, both sides. Well then, I seen what pitch was made out of. It was a pine tree, hard tree, that was cut down, a evergreen tree, ever alive tree. And it was cut down, and they beat the tree with a beating iron until they beat the rosin out of it. And then they put the rosin in a pot, and boiled it until it got real, real hot, and this hot rosin was poured upon this gopher wood, and it open, just soaked it in. And when it become full of this rosin then when it... Once full of that rosin, it settled, and set up. It was harder than steel.
38 And I thought, That's it, Lord. Get a good open-hearted person and pour in the pitch, which was the Holy Ghost, into the believer with the Holy Ghost and fire, until they're so soaked full they're not theirself anymore. Then she can blunt the waves, bump against the logs and knock them out of the way, keep going on. Hallelujah! The only thing that can stand the judgments today is a born-again Christian, filled with the Holy Ghost. God het the Spirit of God, and poured it out upon them, and soaked His whole being full. Amen. I like that.
Then He can really shove out into the devil's territory without looking right or left. Amen. That's what the believer is. He's actually poured... He's soft-hearted and God just pours him full of divine love, that he can brace the divine judgments that's sent of God. And it carried Noah through.
39 How I like to see this little mother with her little ark there all pitched inside and outside, slime and pitch on it. And now, she comes down to the river. She's not willing ... she's not ready to make her little boy ... have to hide him out somewhere, but by eyes of faith, she seen what God was going to do. She took him right down to the river in this little ark, and no doubt... We couldn't think that was a natural act, friends. It's got to be a supernatural act.
There she was standing there with a crystal tears in her eyes, as she placed her little baby, as it was, in the casket of death that was going to pitch it out on the water there. And 'course, she knew that by faith she believed that behind all the clouds of darkness, there was a living God who would take that baby to its destination, for she seen it was a proper child. Amen.
40 That's the way I think tonight about the little old Holy Ghost church. It may be kicked around this way, or that way, and called everything, but I know that God has poured the pitch into that church, and someday---I don't know how, I can't tell you---but God will take it to its eternal destination. I don't know how. Because, I see it moving by the Holy Spirit. It's all supernatural to me. I don't understand it. I just believe it, and accept it, move on with it, as the tides move on.
How she pitched this little ark, and set it out on the ocean... Remember, in that ocean was crocodiles, and everything. But not one bit of fear was in the mother's heart. For she was... When she placed that baby in there, she was walking in the same footsteps of her father Abraham, years ago, who walked by faith, and called those things which were not as though they were, for he endured seeing Him who is invisible.
41 And the same is tonight with any man or any woman who is the children of Abraham. By faith you pitch out, not knowing, and can't show of any supernatural ... or, any sign, rather, what it is, but you believe it, because God has said so and you take Him at His Word. Amen. Watch Him now, as it goes on.
My, these nights are just not long enough. Notice, just when you get to a point, you have to stop. Just go just a little farther. Let's follow this baby for a few moments.
There she puts him out into the ocean, with faith believing. You know, sometimes when we come to our loved ones, right down to the very bitter tears of laying them away and so forth, like she was there, and a type, putting him in the sea ... or, in the Nile, the waters of death. While the gloomy clouds was all around, her eyes could look through that, and know that behind that cloud, was a living God of the resurrection. She couldn't see it with her eyes, but faith was standing there with her. That man with strong muscles and a hairy chest could look beyond the cloud yonder, and see God behind the clouds.
42 And tonight, maybe a cancer has conquered you, maybe something else has taken a hold of you, some disease, even the disease of sin, or whatever it is. It may look dark and gloomy to you now, may look like you'll never recover. Maybe it looks like you can't get over that TB, that prostate trouble, or that lung trouble, whatever it is, that tumor, that crippled condition. The doctor may say, "Every hope is gone." But standing right by your side tonight, ready to take you in possession, stands the eyes of faith who sees the victory yonder through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
Away with Satan and his gloom, and up with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith of Almighty God! Faith can take its holy stand on the Rock of Ages, and pierce a eagle eye through every stormy cloud, when the very waves of death and disappointment is trying to wash its foundation out from under it. It can stand there and look beyond the skies and say, "God is right," and believe the counsel of the wise and living God. Amen.
43 What faith will do! "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The very faith, the little whit that you have standing by you, if you'll only let it take you into possession tonight, and be... Take you, and believe, and have faith in it, and believe that God's Word is true, and you've accepted it, then faith will work miracles for you. Do you believe that?
God's Word has said this, which is the infallible Word, "These signs shall follow them that believe. In My name, they shall cast out devils, or evil spirits, and speak with new tongues, or take serpents, or drink deadly things, it wouldn't harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." God's Word says that. There's something trying to work in every individual heart here tonight saying, "That's the truth, but does it mean me?" Yes! It means whosoever will let him come! It means you.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mark 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
44 The Holy Ghost is here to save every sinner, to call back every backslider, to heal every sick person: That's the attributes of the death of Jesus Christ, and He's here to make manifest. Night after night you see Him. Hour after hour you see Him working. And right now, while I'm trying to keep away from that anointing of the blessed Holy Spirit which the Angel of God, who's the infallible person in our midst tonight...
I'm having a time, because visions are jumping all over the building at this time; and trying to keep it down, so I can have this prayer line. I'm not a liar, and neither am I a hypocrite. I'm telling you the truth. That's right. Because, why? The Holy Spirit likes for you to have faith. And the Holy Spirit lives on the Word. That's the reason it gets big in you, It stretches out when you receive the Word of God. It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And when you put the Holy Ghost in you, going to drinking in the Word, you begin to rise up in faith. Hallelujah!
Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
45 I know you think I'm crazy. That's all right. I feel better crazy, than I did the other way, so, I'll just stay this way. Amen. If it takes a crazy person to believe the Word of God, let me stay the way I am then, if I'm supposed to be crazy and believe this.
I believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God raised from the dead, standing right here in this building tonight. I believe He's omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Hallelujah! Has all wisdom, all places, fills all space, and is all powerful. He's the true and the living One.
Do you believe that? That's the way to believe, and to be saved. That's the only way you can be saved, is to believe in it. He's here. He's the One who looked over His audience.
46 How many here has got... If people that wants to be prayed for tonight, raise up your hands. I want you to be prayed for. I've tried a long time to get you to believe it. I've roamed back and forth across this United States with a ministry that has been tested in every fire the devil could put on to it, and rung out a hundred percent true, and it always will, for it's not me, it's not mine, it's His, and I know He can take care of His own.
Moses, Abraham, believed God. When He told him he was going to have the child when he was even a hundred years old, he still believed God, for he knew He was able to take care of what He had promised. God's still, tonight. When Jesus Christ said, "These things that I do, shall you also, even more, for I go to my Father," He was able to do it. Not only was He able, but He would do it, and He has done it, and He always will do it, because He's God and can't fail.
John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
47 It's our little weakness of our own human intellectual, what we call intellectual faith. We read a little something, say, "Yeah, that's right, I believe that's right." That's intellectual. Brother, something's got to happen down here to make you really believe It. Your intellectual faith will reason, and say, "Now, let's see. But my case is so hard there's no need to be trying to do it. My case is too hard." That's your reasoning. What's too hard for God?
A long time ago, when I got saved, about twenty-three years ago, I made up in my mind right like this: I wasn't going to worry about anything God said, because God's able to keep His own Word, and anything that's... Any job that's too big for God to do, what's the use of me worrying about it? Amen.
48 If He's Almighty God, He does all things. If He can't do all things, He's not Almighty God. So, I believe Him to be Almighty God. So, I commit myself to Him, my soul to Him, my body to Him, my living to Him, my breathing to Him, my dying to Him, my resurrection to Him, and some glorious day, He will come.
But while He's in the coming, and His church is in the making, I want to stand in the breech with my arms out and claim his resurrected power, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His power has never ceased, and never will fail. He's the same all the way around. Amen.
I love Him, and I want you to love Him. I want you to believe Him. Perfect love casts out all fear. If you love Him with the right kind of heart, you won't have one speck of fear whether you keep His Word or not.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
49 Night after night, standing on the platform before the gross thousands of people around the world, critics sitting there saying, "It's this, that, and the other," witch doctors sitting there trying to throw spells on you, challenge you to duels and things like that, never one time, I say by the grace of God, has one speck of fear ever hit my heart. Not one time. Why? He said He would take care of me, and I believe Him. That's why. If I'd get scared, I'd run.
But I tell you, when Jesus Christ anoints you, you're not made out of running material. That's all. Not the Rock of Gibraltar but the Rock of Ages. You climb up on the Rock of Ages (that's God's Word), and take your position there and stand while the gates of hell is a battling against it, with this perfect assurance: That He who promised it, not fail, will never fail. Amen.
That's faith. That's when you're not scared.
50 The devil's nothing but a bluff, anyhow. Snorting and blowing, all thunder and no lightning. But I tell you, brother, the lightning power of the resurrected Jesus Christ puts a reality there that shocks the soul from a dead slumber of these earthly-bound things into the immortal realms to believe God, and take Him at His Word, and call those things which are not, as though they were. Amen.
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, called out, set aside. A church, bought, and washed, and ironed out, without spot or wrinkle. That's what He's coming for. God help us to get our faith in the right place tonight, and move out on the battlegrounds there and say, "Satan, you are a liar. Jesus Christ died to make me free, and it's mine. Get out of here."
You went to your home tonight, you legitimate people, and there's a bunch of drunks in there kicking around, and carrying around, smoking, drinking, cursing, and living immorally, you'd say, "Hey, get out of here. This is my house." You'd say, "I'm a human being. This was built for human beings, and I got a right here." You'd say, "This is my house. I have an abstract deed that proves this is my property." Then if you show him the deed, and he will not move then, there is a law down here that will make him move.
51 And if that devil that come to you tonight tried to send you to a premature grave, tried to cripple you up, read God's abstract deed: By His stripes we were healed. And if he don't want to believe that, there's a Holy Ghost here, the law of God that will kick him out, that will prove it. Just ring up, "Jesus, Central, J-E-S-U-S." Find out if something don't take place. The angels of God will take their positions, and that devil will get out. You can stand there on your toes and say, "Yes, sir. It's the truth." Amen. Not up here. Down here. You've read your title clear. You know what it is.
Oh, my! Feel like taking wings sometime and fly away, don't you, when you think of that? Lift me up above the shadows; give me fellowship divine. Yes, sir. Stand up in there where all things are possible.
52 Stand up there where Enoch did. My, when he took a little stroll one afternoon with God, and walked on home with Him. Just didn't want to come back. Hallelujah! Not one morning; one evening. Amen. The rapture, the resurrection... He had a testimony: He pleased God, 'cause he believed God. Amen.
That's what we need. That's what we want. That's what we have, but you're afraid to use it. Amen.
What good ... someone give my boy... After this meeting is over, if God willing, we take our vacation, go up in the mountains to hunt. What good did it do that man to give him a gun if he isn't going to use it? It's sitting there, fine gun, but it'll never do no good unless he uses it. That's the way your faith is. Oh, it's a fine faith. You read, you believed, and you have an experience with God. You believe. Yeah, but what good... Faith without works is dead. Put it to work. Don't be slothful; get it going.
My! I just see things happening out in the audience. I'm trying to get away from it so we can get the prayer line started, but I can't. It just keeps moving on me. Hallelujah.
James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
53 No need a grieving the Holy Spirit about things. That's right. Let's believe Him. You believe Him with all your heart. You people sitting there tonight in the audience, this is a powerfulest anointing when I come here tonight, try to pray for the sick without cards, without praying, just bring them up and let them come through, and pray for them, God has poured out, it seemed like, a double portion upon me, and I just can't keep from... I can't call a prayer line. It's just moving everywhere. I challenge your faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus. That's right. You only believe.
54 Lady, you got your hand up there. Do you believe with all your heart? Do you believe me to be His servant? If Jesus Christ will let me know what's wrong with you, standing here, will you accept your healing? [Sister says, "Yes."] You will? Will the rest of you do it? Believe that He raised from the dead and I've represented it right? What is this? This is faith. What was it? He said, "I'll be with you." I believe Him. That's right. If you believe it, that rupture you have in your navel will be cured up tonight. That's what you have, isn't it? You just wave your hand. All right. You believe it, you can have what you ask for. Hallelujah! Believe God. All things are possible. Have faith in God.
Oh, isn't He wonderful? Jesus said, "I can if ye believe." First, you've got to believe.
55 Sitting out there on the end of the row looking this way, with your hand up, sir, out on that first little row looking this way bothered with sinus trouble. Do you believe that God would make you well?
Right there, the person sitting right next to you there. Do you believe, do you? If you do, raise up, lady. That's right. Do you believe? God bless you, and receive your healing. Amen. That's it.
Sitting right back over here, the lady sitting right back over there with her hands crossed like this, you got trouble with your back, haven't you lady, and don't know what it is. Isn't that true? Sitting right on the end of the bench back there. Raise up if that's true. Way back there. That's right. God bless you. There's the Angel of God standing right by the woman. You got something wrong with your back, and you just don't know what it is. Isn't that right? If that's right, raise your hand. I can tell you one thing, it's gone from you now. You don't feel it now. If that's right, raise your hand back and forth. There it is. It's all gone. See, it turned light around the woman. Praise the Lord! Faith, believe it! God of Abraham, Isaac and of Jacob.
56 Lady, you was just so blessed just then. There's a lady sitting right next to you there that has a nervous trouble. She's got her hands up. Raise up, lady, just a minute. Sitting right there next to you. All right. Now you can go home, too. Your nervousness is done. Jesus Christ make you well. Your faith healed you. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! What do you think up there in the balcony up there tonight? Do you believe Him with all your heart? Have faith. Oh, hallelujah! You might call me a holy roller the rest of your days; or mine too. That don't make any difference. I know who I believe. I know what [unclear words] Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Exodus for the church, the Redeemer for all ages is present, showing the same thing that He showed when He was here on earth. Glory to God! Do you believe Him? If you have faith, you can have anything you want. If you haven't got faith, you can't receive nothing.
57 What about you, sir, sitting over there in that chair? Wheelchair, cot, whatever it is. Do you believe Jesus Christ died for you? I don't know you, never seen you. Got a prayer card? You haven't? Do you believe me to be His prophet? Will you accept the same thing? You're sitting there with TB, aren't you, sir? That's right. You come from out of town, didn't you? Come down Illinois, around Bloomington, didn't you? That's right.
There sits another lady right behind you, sitting back there, she's got a fallen kidney. Sitting right... She's from the same town. She come from the same place. A fallen kidney. Got infection in her eye. That's right. Sitting right back there on the end of the seat. Kind of a gray-headed lady with glasses on. I see you all coming from the same town called Bloomington. That's right, lady. Raise up to your feet back there with the glasses on. You're from Bloomington, too. You ain't got no prayer card, have you? Don't have no prayer card. All right. Do you believe me to be God's servant? All right, sir, get up out of the wheelchair. And you can get up, sister, and go on back home and get well. Hallelujah! Believe God. If you want to accept it, have faith in God. Believe with all your heart. You can have what you ask for.
58 Here's the Holy Ghost standing over a colored woman sitting right down here. Sitting right back here. She's got a tumor, and she's got eye trouble. She's got her hand up waving at me. That's right, lady. Stand on your feet. Jesus Christ makes you whole. Hallelujah!
Do you believe? Jesus Christ the Son of God lives and reigns. He's here. He's your Exodus from sickness to health. He's your Exodus from the wheelchair to walking again. He's your Exodus from the cancer to health. Do you believe it? I challenge you in Jesus Christ's name. Stand on your feet and claim it, and God will give it to you right now if you've got faith enough to believe it.
In the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, I condemn every devil, and every doubt that there is in here, and may the Holy Ghost move in this building and burst this old unbelief away, and heal every one in Jesus Christ's name.