Then Jesus came

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1 ... and to the great name of Thy anointed Child, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for His life and for His grace that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. If we would just stop to count the many blessings that's given to us, it would be innumerable. We're grateful for our health and for all the great blessings that money could not buy, Thou has richly by Thy grace, bestowed them upon us. And we are a privileged people to know Thee.

2 And it's our heart's desire that those who do not know You, and not friendly with You, that they might become acquainted with You, and their sins be forgiven, and be friendly with You, Father. For You said, "I am meek and lowly, and the cross was easy, and the burdens were light." And we just pray that You'll manifest that to each one tonight.
If there would by chance be some here who doesn't know You, may they come tonight and receive You. Help the Christians as they're going on. Bless these songs tonight from the people that sing. And help us in the coming revival, these five nights, Lord. We feel that would be Your will that we might dedicate these nights to service just before we celebrate the great resurrection ... the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. Be with us now. Come to Thy Word, Lord, and minister to us and may we have fellowship around the Word by the Spirit of God. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

3 It is such a privilege to try to stand before one person to talk about the Lord Jesus. And I have noticed in my ministry, it just doesn't matter to God whether there is a dozen or there is thousands. He has the same message all the time for the people, which is His grace.
Our subject tonight starts back with one of the most beautiful settings of the Scripture. I think that all the Scripture is just perfect. There's no fault can be found with God's Word. It's just perfect. But the text that we have under consideration is one of the outstanding texts of the Scripture. It's one of the seals of His Messiahship.
You know, men can come to this earth and can make all kinds of statements, and all kinds of promises, but if they're not able to fulfill those promises, why, their promises doesn't do very good. But when a man comes and can make a promise and then is able to fulfill that promise, that makes his word good. And He was the only man that ever lived on the earth that can make this statement: "I have power to lay My life down, and I have power to take it up again."

4 I've been privileged in my ministry to stand by the grave of many great founders of religion---great founders such as Mohammed, and many of the other outstanding religions of the world. But every one of them has a marked placed where their founder died and is buried and lays there to this day. And as yet, in the natural, I have never had the privilege to stand by that open tomb where Christ was laid and the grave could not hold Him. For He was the One who said, "I lay my life down, no man takes it from Me. I lay it down, and I take it up again."
And it's the only religion in the world that can be proved to be correct, is the Christian religion. Our Lord, not only did He die for His people, but He rose again for their justification. And He's ascended on High tonight and sits on the throne of God. And His Spirit lives in His church with His people, doing the very same things that He did when He was here on earth: carrying on His ministry.

5 And after this morning, the Holy Spirit so beautifully coming down and bathing us in His great beauty, I was just inspired to speak them words and say that some glorious day that all of the gifts that's in the church would just be set aside on the mantle, as it was. And the Holy Spirit Himself will just take the church in such a control of divine love until the sick will be healed, the blind will see, the lame will walk, without being hands laid on them. It'll just be one great unity.
And when we stood this morning, in the age and the time that we are, and seen that man walk ... or, packed up here with his head bowed down between his knees, and with a spinal condition that had stooped him over like this, and drawed him down. And while sitting there, begin to rock back and forth in that back. Then to see that man go back and sit down after coming through the prayer line, and to know that he had made the statement and said for many years he'd ... real hard of hearing in his ears, and to see the Lord Jesus open those ears so perfectly till he could hear the lowest of whisper. Going back and sitting down and putting his hands over his ears and crying. A businessman, a man who'd drove hundreds of miles to get here.

6 Then after that, at the platform, the testimonies of those children coming here, the people who had been in serious condition of all kinds of diseases, from across the country, giving testimony of their conditions of how they were dying with cancer and different things. And here they are normally healed.
That's just one of the vindications of His continuing Messiahship. It's a vindication that Christianity is the truth. There's no other religion is truth but Christianity. And it is truth. Christ is the Truth. And the religion of Christ did not die with Christ; it might have died with Him, but it raised with Him, also. And He tonight still proves His great Messiahship.

7 We're taught in some little book that I was reading some time ago called: The Prince Of The House Of David. I believe it was written by a man called Ingraham. And it's supposingly to've been part of it true, and taken off of some old manuscripts off of leather manuscript from many, many years back, that there was a young Jewess in Palestine, at the same time that Jesus was there. And she, writing to her father in Alexandria, was keeping close contact with her father concerning John the Baptist and the Jesus who called Himself the Messiah.
And in there she gives a beautiful picture of our setting tonight. She said that Martha and Mary and Lazarus was bosom friends to Jesus. That after the death of Joseph that they went... He come to live with them and to be with them. Lazarus was learning to be a scribe at the temple. And Martha and Mary were also... They had no father and mother, so they made little tapestries for the temple---the little cloths and things, needlework. And that gave them something to do. And Jesus come to dwell with them before He ever made Hisself known that He was the Messiah.
And Lazarus had been down to the river to hear the preaching of John. So he come back and told them what a great prophet had come out of Galilee, out of the wilderness. And what he was proclaiming, that the coming of the Messiah was at hand. And little did Lazarus know that the very One he was speaking to was the Messiah Himself. And one day he persuaded Jesus, as it was, to go down with him to hear this prophet preaching.

8 And John down there, not dressed with great swelling words, just a common ordinary man, not dressed like the high priests. For God doesn't dwell in the way we dress; God doesn't care very much about it as long as we're dressed decently and look right. You don't have to have your collar turned around or wear a turban on your head. God wants you to have a humble submissive heart. That's what God looks for.
And as he seen Jesus coming with John to his baptism. John turned and looked and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world."
And when Jesus was baptized, of John, they say that He returned back later to the home of Lazarus and Martha. And as He lived there, eat at their table, slept in their bed there in Bethany... And one day God spoke to Jesus and told Him, "I want You to leave this place and to go where I will show You."

9 Now, we know that the Bible said, in Saint John 5:19, Jesus said, "I do nothing except the Father shows Me first what to do." And now God had to show Him then what to do, or He'd never left Bethany. So, He went out about a day's journey, or two, and by and by, Lazarus got sick. And they sent for Jesus to come. But instead of coming, Jesus just ignored the call.
Now, would it not make you feel strange if the pastor did that? It would make you feel like, "Well, he doesn't care about us." But, oh, if you would just stop a minute to remember this, that "All things work together for good to them that love God." Nothing in the world can go wrong as long as you're in God. "The footsteps of the righteous is ordered of the Lord."
And then they sent again for Jesus. And He seemingly ignored their call and just went right on. After four days passed, He said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. And for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there." For if He'd've been there, they'd've been trying to get Him to do something that wasn't the will of God.

10 Oh, how I could stop here for a moment. How that many times, with good intentions, people try to call people out of the will of God. A man should know his absolute calling. You should know what you're doing. And with not just a haphazard way, or let money pull you from one place to another, or popularity do it. No matter how popular you are, or how rich you are, you should always first seek God to know His plan and His will.
Now, when Lazarus was sick, it seemed strange that He would not go back. But Jesus said, "I'm glad I wasn't there." Cause they'd been persuading Him, saying, "Now, why don't You come on over here? Why don't You do this?" And "Why don't You raise him up? You raised others."

11 But Jesus knew better. Jesus knew what the Father's will was. And, oh, what a blessed privilege it is that we can know the Father's will. If we'll seek God, God will make known His will. I'd rather know that I was in the will of God, if I never spoke to another person, than to preach to ten thousand people every night out of the will of God. I'd rather know the will of God.
I believe that it was David that said, "I'd rather be a doormat at the ... or, (something) at the house of My Lord, than to dwell in tents with wickedness." What a privilege to find our place and there abide. No matter how the devil shakes, what he says, and how he scoffs, stay right straight in the will of God.

12 Notice, then when Jesus said, "Now, he's dead." They thought he was taking a sleep. He said, "He's dead, and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there. But I go wake him."
Oh, my! It wasn't, "I'll go and see if I can, I'll go and make a try," but, "I'll go and wake him." For, He knew. God had showed Him by a vision that Lazarus was going to come forth out of that grave. And it wasn't no guess work.
Oh, if God would... Any time that God shows a vision of what's going to happen, it's going to be exactly that way, if the vision's from God. Just has to be. How I could stop here in my text, and just quote over for hours of cases that I know. I've went to cases where I would think, "O God, surely You'll do it." Just going out and just trying to test my faith against it. But many times it doesn't work. But when God shows a vision, oh, my, it's just got to happen, it can't fail. And because that He does it now, it's the infallible proof that He's still the Messiah, that His Messiahship is sealed by the signs and wonders of the vindication of His blessed Word.

13 And then to think that Lazarus, when he got sick... There's no one knows what sickness is until you've had it in your own home. And I'm sure that everyone of us tonight can sympathize with Martha and Mary, of how their only bread maker they had, their brother laid sick in the bed, and perhaps, the doctors had give him up. We're taught that he died with hemorrhages in the lungs, probably tubercular. And he died with that condition, and when he was so sick and the doctor had give him up, and then Jesus failed to come to His friend.
Now, that really was a dark time. Could you imagine those two beautiful young ladies sending for Jesus to come, and He refused to do it? After they had come out of the church and had denied the old Orthodox religion, and had separated themselves from the other associates of the world? And were then putting their whole trust in this man, Christ, who they believed to be the Messiah, Christ. And then He let them down!

14 Oh, we've all have them kind of experiences. I remember when I was first converted, how that my people thought I had lost my mind. "Well," they said, "if you keep that kind of religion, you'll be in the insane institution in a few days." You've had the same thing, of people making fun of you, and your associates saying that you've went off at the deep end. But as long as your faith is in Christ, everything will come out all right. Don't never worry about that.
And I can remember how that the people... I'd meet my boy friends and the young girls that I was going with (meet them on the street), and said, "Billy, you've become a holy-roller." I didn't care, for I knew that something had happened, something taken place. And in my heart I believed it to be the real genuine Holy Spirit. Twenty-four years has passed, and it's just as anchored there tonight. I have the same determination to serve Him as I did the first night I promised Him in that little old wood shed. Certainly. Something taken a hold.
Dark hours has come, tragics has come, disappointments has come, death has come. But in the face of it all, I rest on that beautiful hope that He said, "I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
My faith is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness;
All around my soul gives way,
Then He's all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, we stand;
All other grounds is sinking sand.
(Certainly.)

15 Oh, it must have been a dark time. When their doctor had failed them. When their friend had failed them. And Lazarus was now dying. And the fourth day came and he hemorrhaged his last time and went to be with God. They taken him out, pulled the blood from his body, put spices and spikenard into his veins, wrapped him in cloth, and laid him in the grave. And he laid there four days, dead. His body was smelling.
Now, anyone knows that the human body drops to pieces after about seventy-two hours. That's the reason Jesus had to raise before the three days was up. In seventy-two hours the corruption sets in.
And David in the Bible said---eight hundred years before Christ was born, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit---said, "I'll not suffer My Holy One to see corruption, neither will I leave His soul in hell." That's the reason He said, "Destroy this body and I'll raise it up within three days." He knew that no corruption would set in. So He died on Friday afternoon and rose up again on Sunday morning, is because He knowed not one cell of that blessed body could corruption touch. For God's Word is so infallible. Oh, my! He keeps His Word to the letter! "He will not suffer My holy One to see corruption. Neither will He leave His soul in hell." God's infallible Word could not fail.

16 There laid His body. Sure, people questioned. They said, "Three days and nights." But it was within three days and nights, He said. He knew that it couldn't completely be three days and nights because corruption would set in.
So, here was Lazarus. Four days had passed: the nose had already fell in on the face; the fingers had already turned; the skin worms had begin to crawl into his body and eat up his flesh. Oh, it must have been the darkest hour that little family ever seen. Their friend gone. Their church---they were excommunicated. Their brother was dead. And the people were scoffing and laughing at them, as those two little girls sat together in the home with their black veils over their face as the Oriental custom is, sitting there weeping and mourning of the going of their brother.

17 There they was. No one but who sat in those type of homes, no one but those who sat by the side of their loved ones... We know, many of you know, how we sat by our loved one. Roy, I can see you sitting beside that little boy. Brother Roberson, I can see you and Sister Roberson sitting by the side of her mother. Oh, how the many of you. I can see myself sitting by the side of my little gone baby about eight months old. We know what those things are. Oh, what dark hours.
But it was the darkest hour that little family had ever seen. And about that time Jesus come on the scene. It's usually that's the way He does it. It's in the darkest of hour, and then Jesus comes on the scene.

18 It was way down in Babylon one morning many years ago, when three Hebrew children that had been taken down there captive away from their homeland. They were sad because they were captive. They were sad because there was no place to worship. But they still lived true to God.
And there came a bunch of deceivers along, and they passed a proclamation that whosoever wouldn't bow to a image---which was contrary to their religion---would be thrown into the fiery furnace. And the king with his great brawl came out and said, "Whosoever will not bow to this image must go into this fiery furnace and be burned up."

19 Now, there was a testing time. And there's always a testing time. Every son that cometh to God must first be tested, tried. Oh, I love it! Oh, I don't call for it, but after it's past it yields the beautiful fruits of meekness. The testing time. When the fire is hot. How every Christian through the ages went through that testing time.
And the Bible said if we can't stand that testing, we become illegitimate children and not the children of God. So a real child, in the testing time, with this... They do not walk by sight; their physical eyes are closed to the things that are around them. They only walk by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to His Word and believing that He will keep every word exactly the way He said He would do it. Testing times. Trials.

20 And we see when this trying time come to these three Hebrew children, they proved out faithful. They said, "We will not bow down to the image."
Oh, my, then the great proclamation that had been signed... They went and gathered them together and pulled their hands behind them, and walked them up a great plank or runway to drop off into a furnace that had the skies literally red---seven times hotter than it'd ever been het. And while they were walking up this plank, knowing that in their heart, they did not see how that God would ever do it, but they knowed that God could do it. It was their privilege to walk to their death, as it was, to keep the Word of God.

21 And as they walked up there, perhaps was the darkest hour that they ever seen. They had no home to go to on this earth. They were captives. They were like slaves. They'd been brought from their homeland. They wasn't allowed to go to public worship. They worshipped idols in that country, so they could not go to idolatry. Neither could they have their homeland privileges. They were captive. But one thing: You can't bind a believer from his God. No, you can't.
And that morning as they walked up there knowing that they stood alone with God. And as they begin to make their steps as they went up, perhaps the darkest hour that they'd ever come to. And the heat of the furnace begin to blaze into their face. And as they made their final good-bye step to this world down into that fiery furnace, then Jesus came along just at that time. And He got down into that fiery furnace, pulling a palm off of the evergreen trees from the Heaven, and He fanned the fire away from them until after burning perhaps for an hour or more, the king got all worried and said, "Open up and let's see what's happened."

22 And when they pulled down the great lid of the furnace and the
big steel ... or, brass lid fell down, the king looked in and he said, "How many did we put in there?"
He said, "We put in three."
He said, "There is four in there, and One of them looks like the Son of God."
It might come dark, heated times; it might come testing times; but Jesus is always on the scene, if we'll just be true and faithful.
It was a little woman one time who'd spent all of her money for doctors. And she had sold the farm and the team. Perhaps, and all that she had, she'd sold and give to the doctors to try to get healed. None of them could do her any good. And as she sat alone, her little body was frail because she was losing blood for many years. And nothing could seem to help her. And there... She had heard, you know, "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word." She heard that way over in the other side of the Galilee, there was a prophet over there who was healing the sick. But she didn't have the money to cross the lake. She couldn't oar the boat herself, she was too frail. And she couldn't have any money to pay somebody else, because she'd spent all she had for the doctors, and was still just as bad as she ever was.

23 One morning while sitting out, as we would think, on the porch, with her little trembling fingers trying to do a little crocheting, or knitting, and she looked: down there there was a little noise taking place down at the seaside. And a little boat pushed into the willows, and she happened to look. And after she was sitting there thinking, "Now, all my money's gone, what will I do? Next week I'll probably be put out of the home. The mortgage is done took that. We don't even have food to eat, nor nothing else. And I can't get no relief." It was probably the darkest hour that she had ever seen.
And about that time the little boat pushed in, and Jesus came along. She goes down to the river with her little trembling body. And just remember, because Jesus come, every devil in hell will try to keep you away from Him. That's right. You might hear the message, but the devil will sit right on your shoulder and say, "Don't you listen, don't you listen, don't you listen." But don't you believe him.
He said, "Whosoever will can come and drink from the waters of life freely." Don't listen to him, for he is a devil.

24 And the little woman got down, to where Jesus was coming up. And the people rallying around Him, the poor, and so forth, and there stood the priest and all the great leaders of her religion. And they were making fun of Him and say, "Hey, You're the One who heals the sick, are You? Well, we got plenty of sick. Let's see You heal them." "Well, You're the One who raises the dead, are You? We got a graveyard full up here. Let's see You raise them."
He never even paid a bit attention to them. He just walked on. He had one thing to do. That was the thing that God showed Him to do---nothing less or nothing more.

25 When the Christian gets to that place where you'll lay aside and not listen to all the scandal and stuff that's said, and all the going on, and have one motive: that's to do the will of God that God sent you to do. There'll be a different day and a different church.
Here she walked down to this crowd. And Jesus was walking along in His slow steady walk. And the people were running to Him and saying, "Are You the prophet? Are You this, are You that? Say, how about come over here and doing something for me? Let me see You perform a miracle. We would love to see You turn the waters to wine. Here's a jug full of it; I'd like to have some. They said it was good wine. Make this wine; let me see how it tastes."

26 He never even would raise His head; He just kept walking on. That makes me love Him. You know, it takes little bitty petty people to fuss and argue. A big man never pays any attention to nothing like that. Christians doesn't notice what the world says. If they want to say anything they want to, they got... They're too big to notice those little bitty things. They just keep moving on, just going on.
The little woman thought, "Now, it's the only hour that I'll ever see Him, my last opportunity. The only opportunity that I've ever had, and I truly believe if I could only touch the garment of that man, I'd be made well."
What a faith, what a time.

27 And here as the crowd is trying to keep her back, she gets down on her knees some way, and crawls through all those crowd until she touched His garment. And she walked back and stood in the crowd. Jesus turned and said, "Who's touched Me?"
Why, the crowd said, "No one has touched You." Everyone denied it.
And Peter rebuked Him, he said, "Lord, everybody has been sweeping against You."
He said, "But I perceive that virtue has gone from Me." And He looked around until He found her, and He said, "Thy faith has saved thee."
Her darkest hour. And the Bible said that she felt within her that the blood issue had stopped.

28 Was not the same Lord Jesus here this morning to a man sitting there with advanced cancer till the doctor said, "He can just live a little while." And as he passed by the altar in the darkest hour he'd ever seen, and fifteen minutes stood back there and had to come here and said, "All the heavy feeling has gone from me." Darkest hour, then Jesus comes along.
Brother Burns sitting over there, when his lovely little companion (in glory tonight), how it was, he was laying there in the hospital here in Louisville, with cancer in the spleen. And the doctors was giving him up.

29 And Brother Woods and I were out in the forest squirrel hunting. And we come in and something constrained me to go to Louisville. Why? I don't know. And I said, "Brother Woods, drive right around the corner. I'm going in to Sutcliffs. And when you come back around, you can pick me up. I waited and waited; I couldn't find him anywhere. And after awhile I noticed him turning the other corner and passing by the street, thinking that Sutcliffs was another street up. If the man would only looked, he would have seen Sutcliffs wasn't there. And he deals with Sutcliffs. He knows where the place is.

30 But little Sister Burns (that rests with God tonight) was standing in her home, took that little picture with the Angel of the Lord on the top of it, and knelt down before it and said, "O God, help me to find Brother Branham for my dear husband."
And she goes downtown to pay a light bill, not knowing where I was in this wide world. And she come... I waited for over a half hour, and I kept seeing the truck pass the other corner. I said, "He's lost; I must go up there."
And just as I got to the corner and he come around the corner for me to get in the truck, and just about that time, Sister Burns come around the corner. And there with the prayer of faith, God healed her husband. And there he sits tonight. It was in the darkest of hour, then Jesus comes along. We just think that we're lost, and we're forsaken, and when you get to feeling... Just keep holding on, He'll be there. Don't worry.

31 It was the darkest hour that little Georgie Carter had ever seen down there at Milltown. She belonged to a church that did not believe in divine healing. They ridiculed and made fun of divine healing. And there that little woman laying in that condition, and the Lord spoke to me down here on the bed and said, "Go down to Milltown." I'd never heard of the place. I come to this very platform and I said, "The Lord has sent me to a place called Milltown. There's a little lamb, it's all hooked up in the bushes. And it's crying for help."
No one knowed where it was. And Brother George Wright, who was here this morning, said, "I know where it is. It's just below my place."

32 I went down the following Saturday. I looked everywhere and started a meeting in the old Baptist church. And then Mr. Hall led me over there to pray for this little girl. And I prayed for her. Her people left the house; they didn't want nothing to do with it, because their church had told them, any person that walked into my meeting would be excommunicated from the church.
There she had laid nine years and eight months, flat on her back, not even able to move. She'd cried, she'd prayed, until you can go to this day and look: her little poster bed, she had rubbed all the paint off of the back of it crying to God to do something. And yet her cold, formal, indifferent church did not believe in divine healing and would reject anyone to come pray for her in that way.

33 There her papa was a deacon or something in the church; her mama and them: great pillars in the church. And there they was rejected, all hopes was gone. The doctors give her up five years before. She only weighed about thirty-seven pounds, nothing but bones. Her little legs looked like broomsticks. And there she laid with nothing but just the skin over the bone.
One day going down there, and her mammy run, her daddy left home, they had nothing to do with that fanatic. And one day walked in to pray for her, I said, "Little girl, would you be willing to rise and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, to wash away your sins, and would serve Him?"
I had to get close to hear what she said. She said, "I will do anything."

34 I looked laying on her bed and there laid my little book called: Jesus, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever. I prayed for her; it seemed like it didn't do any good. Two weeks I held a meeting. I went up to baptize, up at the Totten's Ford. And that day the meeting was ending that night. And while baptizing, there was another minister up there who made fun and ridiculed the very thoughts of water baptism and using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "If any of my people that's sitting under this tent, was ever around the man, get out of here now. I want nothing to do with them."

35 And Mr. Wright happened to be sitting there, and he got right up and went out. And the very following Sunday... I never opened my mouth and said a word about the man. And I went on up there to the place to baptize up there at Totten's Ford. And while I walked out in the water, there stood the people from his revival standing on the banks to make fun at me baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when I walked out into the water, about that time Jesus came along. Here come his entire congregation with their good clothes on, wading out in that muddy water screaming, "God be merciful to me." And I baptized everyone of them in the name of Jesus Christ right there in that hole in the water.
Goes on up to Brother George's, and Brother George said, "Brother Branham, come on to supper in a few minutes."
And I said, "I must pray."

36 I went over in the woods and I couldn't pray here and there. And all of a sudden, when it got almost dark, I looked, and there was a light shining down through a little dogwood tree. And said, "Rise from your... Be on your feet and go by the way of Carter's."
Little Georgie laying there crying, and saying, "Oh, Mama, I'm going to be left out. He's going to leave today and I won't be able to see him any more."
And that was the closing service that night of the great revival. There she was with all hopes gone, looked like. And about that time, Jesus came along. And that little woman laying there, only thirty something pounds in weight... When I walked in there and laid her by the hand, I said, "Sister, the Lord Jesus appeared to me awhile ago over on the side of the hill there and said come here and lay my hands on you that you might be healed."
That little bony frame that hadn't raised from the bed for nine years and eight months, stood on her feet and rushed to the piano and begin to play
Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There's a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
That flows from Calvary's mountain.
It was the darkest hour that Georgie ever seen, then Jesus come along.

37 Congressman Willie D. Upshaw, sixty-six years in a wheelchair---pushed from congress hall to place after place---had been prayed for hundreds of times. He was the Vice-President of the Baptist Association of the south, the Southern Baptist. A great man, a wonderful man. A man that would've been President in the United States in 1926 if he'd a sold his birthright, but he hated whiskey. And he run on the prohibition ticket when the Democrat Party would elected him. They said they would and they would've done it. Cause he could have easily done it, he was well loved, but he said, "I wouldn't swap my birthright to be President of the world." Hallelujah! God give us men like that in our White House here. Yes, sir.

38 How would he lay then as a cripple, his back broke since he's seventeen years old. He was eighty-six. One night yonder, before tens of thousands of people, when Roy Davis sent him out there. And he moved him in in a wheelchair after Roy had prayed for him, and hundreds of others. And I never heard of the man in my life. There he was sitting back there just in another meeting. I walked up to the platform, and about that time I looked and I saw a hay stack and a little boy playing. As the Holy Spirit begin to reveal, it pointed him out and told him he was a congressman and that Jesus Christ had made him well.
There him, an invalid, sixty-six years in the wheelchair, eighty-six years old---the darkest hour he'd ever seen, all hopes was gone for his healing. Then Jesus came along. And a man had been in a wheelchair for sixty-six years, raised and run to the platform at eighty-six years old, and touched his feet, and jumped up-and-down and stood in Billy Graham's meeting and sung: I'm Leaning On The Everlasting Arms---on the steps of the White House. The darkest hour, then Jesus come along.
It was the darkest hour Abraham seen when he was a hundred years old, then Jesus came along.

39 One night after being preaching a long time He sent His disciples away and they got in a ship and went out without Him. And looked like it... When He did, then he's out into the sea (the little ship was), and the little storm come up and the devil said, "I've got them away from Him now. I've got these holy-rollers away from their Master. I'll see how much message they'll take to all the world. I'll drown every one of them out here."
So, there come up a great storm. The devil begin to snort his breath, and the storm came up and the little ship begin to bounce up and down like this. The sails broke, the oars broke, the ship filled with water, and it was the darkest time. No doubt, they were holding one another around the waist and crying. They thought, "Oh, where has He gone? What has happened to Him? Why didn't we wait and take Him with us? Why didn't we have Him in the boat?"

40 And many times you might think the same thing. My friend, you might have went off without Him, but remember, He's still watching you. He knows right where you are. There may be trouble in your home, there may be trouble in your soul, there may be trouble in your body; whatever it is, don't you worry. He's got His eyes on you; He's watching you.
He climbed up on top of a mountain. He was looking out there, and He seen every trick that devil was playing. Hallelujah! He not only climbed, but He climbed the ramparts of Calvary, not only to Calvary, but the ramparts of glory. And He sits tonight in the Majesty, He looks down on earth. There's not even a ripple can come on the water without... It's by His permission. The sea can't move, a leaf can't move. A bird can't fly.

41 Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. He's above all principalities and powers. The earth made Him the lowest name that could be brought. God give Him the highest name could be given. The earth put Him as low as they could get Him, in a sinner's grave. But God raised Him in the highest; why, He's so high till He has to look down to see Heaven. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me. He watches you. He knows every thought that's in your mind. He knows every action you make, He knows everything about you. That's right.

42 You say, "But I backslid, Brother Branham."
That don't make a bit of difference, He knows just exactly what you backslid over. He knows just exactly where you're at.
You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I went off without Him too, I had an opportunity one time to speak. I had an opportunity one time to be a Christian. I had an opportunity. The preacher made the call; I ought to've went. I tried it once, I failed. I did this, that."
No matter what you've done, He's still got His eye on you. Those disciples went off without Him and the darkest hour when that devil got them away from there, away from His presence. He begin to storm on them. Maybe that's what he's doing to you tonight. He might give you cancer, he might give you this, he might give you that. He might give you a broken home, he might give you a tore up heart, he might give you worries, he might give you headaches. I don't know what he'll do, but there's one thing I do know, that God's still got His eye on you.

43 This may be your darkest hour. I don't know; God does. But just in that darkest hour, when they were just about ready to go down, then Jesus come walking over the waters, just all undisturbed. The big waves just flattened out in front of Him as He walked along. Peter said, "Lord, if that be You, bid me come to You."
He said, "Come on, walk out here." "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened unto you. For every one that knocketh it shall be open; every one that seeketh he shall find." Certainly. He's still watching.
And the strange thing about it, when those disciples were helpless and hopeless, and when Jesus came to them, it was the only thing that could help them, and they were afraid of Him. They were scared of Him.

44 And I say today, friend, that when nations has failed, that when people has failed, when communities has failed, where the church has failed, where everything else has failed, it looks like we're totally gone. And most any time, any hour, you could hear a scream, and you wouldn't be able to get to the scream till the whole world would be annihilated. One setting off of bombs will do it, that's all you have to do---just one. They don't have to leave Moscow; they can sit right there and drop one on Fourth Street in Louisville. And we can stand right here and drop one on Moscow, too.
And what's it going to be when these big ships laying right into the sea like this, with them trained rockets right on them cities? One on this side training this way, one on this side training that way. The first one touches off either, cuts that way. What's going to happen? What good is your home going to do you then? What good is your money going to do you then? What good is your boy friend going to do you? Or your girlfriend going to do you? What good is anything going to do you if you're not right with God? You're gone for time and eternity.

45 This is the darkest hour that this world has ever faced since the beginning of time. There has never been a time in all the world's history that is dark as it is right now. Cancer is on the rampage. Just think that I heard a statement the other day like this, that there'll be more people die in America this year from smoking cigarettes, (cause cancer), that will die this year in America, than there was killed in the four years of the Korean war. Cancer's on the rampage. Diseases are happening, and everything is taking place. Why, we don't know what to expect. The doctors don't know what to call the diseases, so they're saying they're viruses.

46 What is a virus? Ask a doctor. It's something that he don't know nothing about. He just says it's a virus. That's all there is. There's little old bugs and demons a-firing that man never heard of before. Everything is on the move---everything. We're trying to curb it with natural things, but when we try to do this, it breaks up something else. That's right.
You give a man penicillin for this and it'll set up something else. You give this... It's here, just all out of the way. God has a way, we might as well get into it. The churches has failed, the Presbyterians failed, the Methodists failed, the Baptists failed, the Pentecostal failed, the Pilgrim Holiness failed, the Church of God failed, we've every one failed. That's right!

47 You can't say, "I'm a Methodist" and act secure. You can't say you're Baptist and act secure. Methodist or Presbyterian, whatever you may be, or Pentecostal. You can't say you're secure. Not belonging to the church, because the church has miserably failed. The sicknesses are on such a rampage until, I believe, five out of eight (or something like that) will die this year from cancer. Think of it. And diseases of all kinds, new diseases and things are breaking out that's just terrible to think about. Automobiles are killing every day. And the people are driving down the road so nervously and screaming.
Why, I was walking down the street in Louisville yesterday and a woman was going to slap me off the street. I was walking along like this, and my wife was with me, and I heard somebody behind me and the crowd was just... And some silly-looking woman smoking a cigarette, she said, "Well, if you don't know what side of the street you want to walk on, get off the street!"
I said, "Well, lady."
She said, "Shut up!"

48 There you are. There you are. What is it? It's neurotics, it's mentally. And the doctors claim that nine out of every ten Americans is suffering with mental deficiency. Even the psychiatrists that's supposed to be mental interpreters, they're going wild and insane. They're hooking them by the great cuts in the insane institutions. Insanity is on the move. Rape is on the move. Whiskey is on the move. Sin is on the move. Debauchery is on the move. There's no way to stop it. Communism is sweeping in like a flood. There's no way to stop it, because they're in the government and everywhere else.

49 Oh, but bless be to God, just in this darkest of hour, then here comes Jesus moving in with His outstretched hands and showing signs and wonders and giving salvation and mercy to the people. The darkest hour this world has ever seen. When the rock of Gibraltar will blow to pieces one day, but the rock of ages will stand forever as a memorial to the resurrection of Christ.
God bless you, people. God bless you, children. You may be poor, you may not know where the next meal's coming from, but there's one thing: You are just as welcome at the fountain of life tonight as the richest man in the world. You come without money, without price, it's open to whosoever will.
It's the darkest hour that the family's ever seen. Look at the families broke up. There's more divorces in America alone than there is in the whole rest of the world put together. Divorce on the rampage. Where has the honesty and the sincerity and the womanhood of our American women gone to?

50 Look at the men: All they do is speed over the roads trying to knock everything out of the way they can, going down to drink beer before they go home. Look at our young teen-age girls coming down the street, cigarettes in their hands; and no matter how much the medical science puts out warning, "It's cancer, it's cancer," they don't care. They don't care. They'll puff them right away anyhow. A preacher can stand and preach his daylights out and tell them it's wrong and they'll say, "Oh, you old fanatic." The world is ready for judgment! And we're going to receive it! Mark my words, it won't be too long until there's going to be something take place.

51 When I seen this revival, it's swept in a moment. It's went over. Standing yonder and that morning star hung on the river. Twenty something years ago when He said, "The message will sweep the world." And there's been an old-fashioned Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Ghost and revival fires and healing services has covered the globe.
They made many mistakes. The newspapers right up here not long ago in McGraw ... or, McCall's... When that man sat in my meeting up there at Minneapolis, some of them, Mr. Peterson and them come telling me that he was in the meeting. I said, "No doubt at all, but you never searched your articles right. You said A. A. Allan wrote that book, and A. A. Allan had nothing to do with it. Then if that was such a mistake, I believe the rest of it's a lot of mistakes." I said, "Truly, the brethren might deserve a lot of criticism, they made many mistakes (That's all right.), but, brother, I'd rather be found on the battlefield making mistakes than to be a criticizer of the man that's trying to get souls saved to God. What are you doing about it?"

52 Blessed be the name of the Lord God, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ is just as sufficient tonight, it's the only Rock, it's the only hope, it's the only faith, and Christ has presented it to you. [Gap in the audio.] ... you can drink and live or turn away and die. It's the darkest hour the world has ever seen. But Jesus has come along. And He's here now. His blessings is open. His side is pierced. His hands are reaching. And whosoever will may come and drink from the fountains of life freely. You make your choice. Your eternal destination will be staked upon your attitude towards Jesus Christ. This might be your last chance. And when we bow our heads now just for a word of prayer, I will ask the sister to come to the piano. While every person is in prayer, I want you to think it over.
Where could you go tonight? What would happen tonight if a heart attack would strike you? This may be the last opportunity you have. Think it over now. If it is, won't you take this opportunity? You say, "Well, I'm kind of young." Oh, brother, sister, He's no respect of age. You can cross the line when you're young or when you're old, it doesn't matter.

53 Our Heavenly Father, this message we now give to You in Christ's name. It is the darkest hour the world's seen. It's the darkest time that human history has ever written. There's missiles in the air---flying saucers, they call them. You said there'd be signs in the Heavens and in earth, great earthquakes shaking in divers places. Volcanic eruptions, great waves in the sea. You said, "The sea a roaring." Men's hearts failing. Truly, the world don't know what to do. The first atomic bomb tells it. Perplex of times, distress between the nations. You said, "When these things come to pass," said, "Lift up your heads, your redemption's drawing nigh."

54 When I think of yonder, those Jews, I see that old six-point star of David, the oldest flag in the world, hanging yonder. Why can't the nations see it? And to think that our own beloved nations is going to hook up with the Arabs, look like. They'll be cursed just as sure. They've spurned the mercy of God; now they must stand judgment. See that old flag hanging yonder? See the desert coming forth like a rose blossoming? See those Jews coming back from way down in Iran? Been there for twenty-five hundred years. The Bible said, "They'd be carried back to Jerusalem on eagle's wing." You see those great United Airlines bringing them back on the wings of an eagle, as it was. Them getting off the ships and looking and saying, "Where is the Messiah?"

55 You said, "When the fig tree puts forth her buds, know summer's nigh." We see she's budding. And we see all the other trees a budding; we know it's near. We see Ishmael and Isaac yonder at the gate at each other's throat just as You said. Every prophecy right now striking. God be merciful and save the lost. If there should be one here tonight, Lord, who needs You, speak to his or her heart just now. For it may be that it is the darkest hour. Though we may not realize it, there may be some here who does not realize that this is the darkest hour, but it is. Satan may have them so smugged up in the things of the world until they don't realize it. You said in the Bible, "You're naked, wretched, miserable, blind, and don't know it."

56 God, grant tonight that men and women, boys and girls may come to themselves, and realize that this is the darkest hour the world has ever seen. Now grant, Lord, that if there be any here who doesn't know You, that they'll come sweetly and humbly to the cross tonight and accept Christ as personal Saviour.
Is there such an attitude (with our heads bowed), that you'd like to be remembered in prayer as we close the service. Would you raise your hand to God and say, "Remember me."? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, and you, you, and you. God bless you, back there, and you. Would there be another just before closing? God bless you, young lady.

57 You say, "Brother Branham, does that mean anything when I raise my hand?" It just depends on what you meant. Do you know, when you raise your hand, you defy every law of science? Do you know your hand's supposed to hang down, gravitation holds it to the ground? You know, when you raise your hand up, that it shows that there's something supernatural in you has made a decision? Something that's not natural, something that's not scientific, it's a spirit that's in you has made you break gravitation by a supernatural being in you raising your hand towards the God of Heaven and saying, "I now accept Jesus as my Saviour." You know, it's a Spirit in you doing that? You cannot do it yourself. That's what it means. The difference between life and death. If you're wrong, raise your hand to Him. He sees the sparrow, He sees you. Surely. Now while you're right in your seat... If you want to come to the altar and pray, that's up to you. If you want to remain in your seat, we're going to pray for you. You can make your choice of which way you want to pray. God will hear. There's about a dozen hands up.

58 Now, if you desire, and want God to do for you, right where He's give you the conviction, right on that same spot, He'll take conviction away from you. He'll take your judgment upon Himself. And He's already paid for it. And He'll say, "Father, put all of his account to Mine. It's settled."
God then will give you the Holy Spirit right where you're at. Did you really mean it when you raised your hand? If you did, now let's pray.
Blessed Saviour, I don't know just what night is going to be my last sermon. I want to preach every one just like it was my last one. For I don't know when You're going to say, "It's all finished now; come home." I pray that You keep me. I want to stay to preach the Word. I see the need of the Gospel and the effect it has upon mankind. But here in our own beautiful land of America, we've seen so much ease, riches, money, everything. Oh, we just can't go on like this and most of the world starving. We've been well fed and clothed and we own our homes, our cars; we have no need of nothing. And don't know that we're miserable, wretched, blind (spiritually speaking), naked (without the blood of the Lord Jesus). Though we may have great membership in church, we may have great social standing in the neighborhood, we may dress better, eat better; but, oh, God, about that soul.

59 Now in this dark hour, You're still here, because You're putting conviction on hearts. There has been several hands, I guess a dozen, I may be wrong, may have been more or less, I do not know, Lord, but Thou knowest every one of them. And now solemnly in the closing prayer, I'm bringing them sweetly and humbly to Thy feet. As the attributes of my sermon tonight, as the fruit of the message, I'm bringing them to Thee, Lord, as they raise their hand for me to remember them in prayer. And they're kneeling now in their heart at the cross. Receive them, Father; take them as Thy beloved children.

60 And wherever they go to church at, wherever it may be, oh, may they become prayer warriors. May they become soul winners. "Work, for the night is coming." Grant it, Father. Take them into Thy care and bless them and give them the great desire of their heart. And may the blessed Holy Spirit fill their life. For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
How many loves the Lord Jesus with all their heart? Oh, isn't He wonderful. How many just feels all scoured out? Just like the Lord had just come down and took His great scrub brush and just scrubbed it all over you. Oh, my. Give us a chord on that old, I believe, Salvation Army song:
What can wash away all sin?
Nothing but the ... [Congregation says,
"Blood of Jesus."]
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the ... ["Blood of Jesus."]
That's right. Let's sing it. Altogether now.
What can wash away all sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

61 Isn't that wonderful? You like those old hymns? Oh, my. I want to see something now. Which one of you... All the Methodists, hold up your hand. Good. All the Baptists, hold up your hand. Is there a Pilgrim Holiness? Hold up your hand. Nazarene, hold up your hand. Church of God, hold up your hand. Presbyterian, hold up your hand. Would there be a Catholic? Hold up your hand. Just look at the different churches in here. Now, while we sing that again, what makes a Presbyterian whole? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What makes a Methodist whole? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What makes a Nazarene whole? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What makes...

62 How many Pentecostals? I forgot to ask that. How many Pentecostals here? Raise your hand. Now the people see. They say that we're a Pentecostal church. There was five hands went up of Pentecostals. There you are. We're not Pentecostal in denomination. We are the church of the living God. We are just children of God. We are Presbyterians, we're Methodists, we're Baptists, we're Lutherans, we're Nazarene, we're Pentecostals, we are Pilgrim Holiness, we're all of them. For we're all one in Christ Jesus. What did it? This:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

63 Isn't He wonderful? Yes, sir. Now while we sing: Down At The Cross, I want the Methodist and Baptist and Presbyterian and Pentecostal and Nazarene, all to shake one another's hands. All right, while we sing it.
Down at the cross where my Saviour died,
(Turn right around now, shake hands
with somebody.)
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried;
There to my heart was the blood applied;
Glory to His name!
Glory to His name!
Glory to His precious name!
There to my heart was the blood applied;
Glory to His name!

64 Now, this is communion night. As everybody knows, we take communion tonight. And I forgot about it till Brother Neville just reminded me. Now how many feels real good that you're Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Pentecostal, Baptist? Let's see your hands. I was noticing here, a Baptist and Methodist standing on the platform, shake one another's hands. All right, we want... Isn't it wonderful to be a servant of the Lord?
Now, we're just children, and children has awful funny ways, you know. They'll be fussing one minute and playing the next. And that's the way we got to be. Just get rid of the fuss off your shoulder and go on out and have some more fun, play with your dollies and whatever has got to be done.

65 Now, we got a revival coming up. And we're going to sing the Gospel, preach the Gospel, and just have a wonderful time. How many's going to be praying for it? Oh, that's good. Now, come and help us, get on the phone, get every little way you can, invite all the children in, tell them come on over now and help us now. We're going to have some fellowship in the Word.
Now it's communion time. Everybody's welcome to take the communion with us. Just a few minutes. They bring them up here at the altar; and ten or fifteen minutes, it's all over. Then we observe feet washing.
Brother Neville will now read that Scripture concerning communion, while we be real reverent now as we take the supper.