The sign of the Messiah

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 ...for a vision, what to do first, there's His Word. You believe It's inspired? Could He have lied, or was He just kidding? He didn't do that. He said, "The Son can do nothing in Himself, but what He sees the Father doing: that doeth the Son likewise. The Father worketh, and I worketh hitherto."
For the young folks: Jesus saw a vision what God wanted Him to do, and He just acted it out in drama. You should have been with us at the dinner table today to watch it, the same thing take place.

2 Now, notice, then the Scripture says that He spoke these words: "A little while, and the world will see Me no more;" that's the unbeliever, "yet ye shall see Me: for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world."
Now, is that true or isn't it true? Let's just talk it out and reason it among us. Is that the truth? "I..." I is a personal pronoun. "I'll be with you, in you, unto the end of the world. A little while, and the unbeliever, the church world, will be issued in, and they'll see Me no more; but the Church itself, ye, I'll be with you, in you, to the end of the age." The world, it hasn't come to the end yet, so Christ remains the same.

3 Now, He said, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." Now, the vine doesn't bear fruit of itself, it only purges the branches, and the branches bears fruit. Do you know that? Well then, if you went to a grapevine, what would you expect to find? Grapes. If you went to a watermelon vine, you'd find watermelon, if it's a fertile vine. If you went to a peach tree, you'd find peaches.
But then, if you... if Christ is the Vine, and His members of the church is the branches, what ought you to find in the church? "The works that I do shall you also; more than this shall you do; for I go to My Father."

4 What do you find when you go to church? "We are the Presbyterian." "We are the Baptist." "We are the Pentecostals." "We got the Message." "We got this."
That's not Christ. Christ is love, because He was God. "Have... This will all men know you're My disciples, when you have love one for the other."
But, "We won't go down to that meeting; our church is not cooperating."
All right. "All the Father has given Me will come," said Jesus.

5 Now notice. Now let's search the Scripture, then, and find out just what He did back there, that the people would know that He was the Messiah. And whatever He did then to prove to the people He was the Messiah, then He's got to do the same now, or He isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do you believe that?
Now, we, I know that we, our churches, says different: "Oh, because that we have this denomination. We have this charity."
Those things are fine, but that's not what Christ did, and that's not what He said to do, not at all.

6 So, notice, let's turn back, we're reading in Saint John. Let's go back to the 1st chapter -- we're on the 12th. Let's go back to the 1st chapter and find out, reason He made these quotations the way He did here. All right. Saint John the 1st chapter, we find out here that after He was baptized, and the Holy Spirit was on Him, which was God...
And He had the Spirit without measure. We have it by measure. Here's the idea: All the water that's out there in the ocean was the Spirit that was in Christ; what's in us is a spoonful out of that ocean, but the same chemicals are in the spoonful that's in the entire ocean, just not as much of it. He had it, all the waters was in Him, and we have a spoonful. His was: He was God made flesh and dwelled among us; He was Emmanuel. But we are adopted children by His grace.
Now, after He had received the Holy Ghost in the fulness of the Holy Ghost, where we receive the baptism, He received the fulness of the Holy Spirit. Now, we find that immediately His ministry begins here in Saint John 1.

7 And there was a certain man who got saved. And as quick as he got saved, he went for his brother, Simon, and he brought his brother back in the Presence of the Lord Jesus. And when Jesus saw him for the first time, He told him what his name was, and told him he was going to change it from Simon to Peter, Cephas. Did He do that? And He told him what his father's name was, Jona. Said, "Thou, or, your name is Simon; you're the son of Jona."
Now remember, this is the first thing. And Peter was a ignorant and unlearned man, he never had any education, he could not even sign his own name. The Bible said he was ignorant and unlearned. If education plays such a big part, what about that? And that man was given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Where are we gone to with all of our schools and things? I'm not saying we don't have them, but you're putting too much emphasis on your education. That's all right, but that'll never save you; if you don't watch, it'll damn you. Education has been the greatest hindrance that the Gospel has ever had. That's right, because people try to outsmart.

8 It's the, our criminal record... When Captain Al Farrar, the head of the FBI of the Juvenile, was converted in my meeting, he said, "Brother Branham, your statement of that is true. I'll take you right here to every juvenile case that's happened in the past ten years in the United States, it's amongst the educated people." That's right. Ninety percent of it is. They're so smart, they figure they can just out-figure the law and things like that. That's why they're, get in trouble.
And they think, "Well, we got a great church; we're a great name." That isn't it. You've got to be borned again. Without it, you're lost completely, no matter how good you are. Cain was as good as Abel, worshipped the same as Abel, built a church the same as Abel, made a sacrifice the same as Abel; and God rejected him because he didn't have the spiritual revelation, what was right. Jesus said, "Upon that same spiritual revelation He'd build His Church; and the gates of hell couldn't prevail against it." A spiritual reveal by the Holy Spirit.

9 Now, what's Jesus doing? He's going to the Jews, making Himself known. Now, as soon as this taken place, there was one named Philip. He thought that was thrilling, so around the mountain he went for fifteen miles and he found a friend of his by the name of Nathanael. And Nathanael, when he found him, was under a tree, praying. And he waited till Nathanael finished praying, and he, perhaps, when he got up, he said, "Hello, Philip. Glad to see you."
He said, "Come see Who we found." That's it, not even time to say, "How do you do? Glad to meet you. Is your wife all right?" He had a message.

10 And if the church ever gets that thrilled about Christ, something will take place. But we got all kind of social and everything to go on. No wonder we're dying. Certainly. And we're worried about Russia going to come over here and do... Don't worry about that. It isn't the robin that pecks the apple that hurts it, it's the worm at the core that kills it. It's our own rottenness among us is what's killing us.
We were a real Christian backbone of men and women who stood for God... Instead of going to church on Wednesday night, we stay home to watch rock-and-roll television, and Arthur Godfrey, and all these other people on the radio, and We Love Susie. It shows you love the world more than you love God. If your heart's for God, God comes first, and it's all of your heart.

11 Nathanael... Said, "Come see Who we found, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
And now he... I can just imagine hearing him say, "Now wait a minute, Philip. You surely have gone off on the bad end of it. You went off on the deep end. I've knowed you to be a man, a honest man, and here you mean to tell me that you've gone off with something like that? Why, you must have got into some fanaticism. Do you know, Philip, if that Guy was the Messiah, you know where He'd come to? He'd go to Jerusalem. He'd go to the priest, the high priest. He'd say, 'Great Caiaphas, the high priest of God, we know you're the smartest man in the country, the greatest religious man in the country, and all you holy priests, you know all the Word.' He'd come there and He'd make Himself known."
You Catholics think He'd go to the Vatican. You Presbyterian think He'd go to the bishop. You Pentecost thinks He'd go to the state presbyter; but He goes to who He wants to go to. It's His business.

12 And he said, "Could anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Philip give him the best answer that any man could give him. He said, "Come and see for yourself." There's the way. Don't stay home and criticize. Go find out; search it in the Scriptures. Come find out for yourself. On the road around the mountain, I can hear Nathanael... Saying to him, "You know that old fisherman that you bought the fish from that time that couldn't sign the receipt?"
"Yeah."
"He come up before Him the other day. His name was Simon, you know, and He told him what his name was and told him what his father's name was. It wouldn't surprise me if He didn't know who you were."
"Now, Philip. Now, Philip. Now, you can't tell me that stuff. I'll make up my mind when I get there."

13 So when he walked up into the Presence of Jesus for the first time, Jesus looked around, said, "Behold an Israelite, in whom there is no guile!" Now, he could have been a Arab. He could have been a Greek. They all dressed alike and looked alike, dark race of people, wearing beard, turbans and loose garments, robes. And besides that, he could have been an infidel. He could have been a critic, but He said, "You are a just man, in whom there is no guile."
And he looked at Him, he said, "Rabbi, when did You know me? This is the first time I've ever seen You, or You see me. When did You ever know me?"
He said, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the tree, I saw you."
What did that Jew say? Here's the--here's the attitude of a real believer. He looked at Him, he said, "You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."

14 But there was those stood by, the smart priests, they said, "This man's Beelzebub. He's a fortuneteller."
Jesus turned around and said this: "You speak that against Me, the Son of man, I'll forgive you: but," in other words "there's coming a day when the Holy Ghost will come, and when He does the same thing, one word against It will never be forgiven, in this world, neither in the world to come." How many knows the Scripture says that? Right. The unpardonable sin is to call the Holy Spirit, the working of the Holy Spirit, an unclean thing. There is... "You never can be forgiven for it," said Jesus.

15 Now, did you notice? Jesus never done that to a Gentile, nor in presence of a Gentile, because He forbid His disciples to go to the Gentiles. And when the Syrophenician woman said to Him, "Come, have mercy on my daughter."
He... she said... He said, "I'm only... it's not meet for Me to take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs."
And she said, "Yes, Lord, that's true, I know that: but the dogs eat the crumbs."
He said, "There's great faith: If you've believed it that way, go find it the same way." That's all He said to her, no vision for her, let her own faith do it. See.
Now, He did that and He forbid His disciples to do it. Now, we know there's only three nationalities of people, or races. That's Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. That's the Jew, Gentile and the Samaritan, which a Samaritan is a half Jew and Gentile. You notice Peter, with the keys to the Kingdom: he opened it to the Jews at Pentecost; went down through Samaria; up to the house of Cornelius; never again was it used. There's the three races of the world.

16 Now, "He..." in His day, "He came to His Own, and His Own received Him not." Now, those who made fun of Him and said He was Beelzebub, a devil, a telepathy, or a fortuneteller, or some evil spirit, He said, "I'm going to forgive you for that." They'd never... The Holy Ghost had never yet been poured out upon the nation. Said, "I'll forgive you: but when the Holy Ghost is come, not one word against It, or it'll never be forgiven."

17 And now, notice, one day He went by the way of Samaria. And when He did, He had need, go that way, and He sent His disciples into the city to buy some food. And there's a little place there, a well outside the city, a little panoramic and where the public pump is, where they go get their water. And there's a windle that runs over the pump, and the ladies come out there with pitchers that's got hooks, they go around, just let them down in the well and get the water, and bring it up, and set it on their head, and one on each hip, and walk right along talking, go on.
Jesus was waiting there for His disciples to return. And while He was waiting, let's say she was a pretty woman, real pretty woman come walking out there. She was a Samaritan. And she started to let the pot down into the well to get some water, and she heard, Someone said, "Woman, bring Me a drink."
And she looked around, and it was a Jew setting there. She said, "Well, we don't have any dealings with each other. You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan, a woman of Samaria." In other words, they had segregation, racial differences.
But He let her know there's no difference. He said, "If you knew Who you were talking to; you'd ask Me for a drink and I'd bring you Water you don't come here to draw, or give you Water."
Now listen, that was Jesus yesterday. Now, He's at the Samaritan. Jew and Samaritans, which was the outcast, the off-breed. And now watch again.

18 And she said, "Do you mean that You're greater than our father, Jacob? He dug the well." See, they claimed God, too. "He dug the well. His children drank from it and his cattle, and here You say You got Water that You don't...You say You're greater than he is?"
And the conversation kept going. What was He doing? Contacting her spirit, see. And when He found what her trouble was, He found her trouble. And He said, "Woman, go, get your husband, and come here."
She said, "I don't have any husband."
He said, "That's right. You've had five; and the one you're living with now is not your husband: you told the truth."
Now, what did she say? "Say, are you a fortuneteller? Is that a mental telepathy? You're Beelzebub"? No, sir. She knowed more about God than half the preachers in the United States knows; her, being a prostitute.
She said, "Sir, I perceive that You are a Prophet." Now, if you'll run that reference, it goes back to that Prophet, the One that Moses spoke of. "I perceive that You are a Prophet. We know, we Samaritans," now watch how they were taught, see, "we know when the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us these things. But Who are You?"

19 What was that to be? The sign of the Messiah. It was to the Jew and it was to the Samaritan. The Gentiles were heathen. They knowed nothing about any Messiah. They was worshipping idols, sun gods, and everything. That was our class. See.
And said, "We know when the Messiah cometh..." That's the reason He had to declare it, they'd heard of Him. "We know when He comes, He'll tell us these things. But Who are You?"
He said, "I'm He that speaks to you."
And she ran into the city and said, "Come, see a Man Who told me the things that I've done: isn't this the very Messiah?"

20 If that's the way He made Hisself known to Israel, who was looking for Him; also, to the Samaritan, who was looking for Him to come; what about the Gentile, today, who's looking for Him to come? If He acted that way, and He can't change, in being God, if that was the sign He showed them, as to make Himself the Messiah: the true Jew believed it.
Oh, the great starchy, he didn't believe it. He didn't believe it to start with, although he was holy and a pristine man; he was a great man.
But theologians, we haven't got them today like that: They had to even come through a certain generation, Levite, 'fore he could be a priest. His father's father's father's father's father was a priest, and he had to come down that lineage, holy, without blemish. That don't have one thing to do with it.

21 You might never tell a lie, and live just as true, and go to church every night, and be just as reverent, and pay your tithes, and do everything, and kneel at the altar, and worship, and go to hell like a martin to its box. That's what the Scripture says. That's what Cain done. But where is our self-style religion getting us, anyhow? It's sending us away from God. Certainly, it is.

22 Now, notice. The Jew, the real true Jew, believed it. As soon as he seen that sign performed, he said, "That's the Messiah. You are the Son of God; You're the King of Israel."
Jesus said, "Because you believe when I told you, you were under the tree before you come, you believe? you'll see greater things than this."
And the woman at the well said, "We know the Messiah will do those things 'cause we're looking for that to happen. But Who are You? Are You a prophet?"
He said, "I'm the Messiah."
She come, said to the men, "Now, you've taught me that the Messiah would do these things. Now, there's a Man out there that told me the things that I have done. Isn't this the Messiah?"

23 Now, if He has to act the same... Now remember, it never was done before a Gentile. We've had two thousand years of half-dark and half-light; joining church. But He would be unjust and would show partiality if He didn't declare Himself, the risen Christ, after two thousand years.
And not because we got big churches: that ain't the sign. Because that we've went across the nation, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and all of us, and had great memberships come into church: that's not the sign. That's no sign at all. That's not what He did: say, "Watch here, I'll draw a bigger crowd than John did." That wasn't a sign. But the sign of the Messiah was what I'm speaking of here that He did.
If He did that before that generation of Jews, was cut off, and them half-breeds that was looking for Him, He's got to do the same thing before this Gentile generation, or He did wrong when He acted back there, in that way. If He lets us go in, with all our theology, and things like that, and doesn't declare Himself like He did to them before their destruction...
And this is the great sign to prove that the time is at hand. That was at hand for the Jew. And every Bible teacher knows that the Gentile dispensation is the end, and He's to turn again to the Jew. And God has hardened the heart of Hitler, Mussolini, all them dictators, and Russia; and run those Jews right back into Palestine, where they're suppose to be standing there.

24 I got a picture: Three Minutes Before Midnight according to science. And those Jews coming in with packing their loved ones, old, crippled, on their back. You see it in the Look magazine, Life, coming down from Iran and those places packing those old Jews in. And a friend of mine went to them, got it all in Kodachrome color, said, "Are you coming back to the homeland to die?"
Said, "No, we're coming back to see the Messiah. We're not coming back to die. We're coming back to see the Messiah."
Jesus said, "When the fig tree goes to putting forth its buds, this generation" (forty years) " shall not cease, until all these things be fulfilled."
Do you get it? What's happening? The last call for the Gentiles. The nations are ready to be pulverized at any time. And to think of it, before that can happen, the Church goes Home first. And if we could be pulverized before morning, and the judgment, how about the going home of the Church? It could come at any minute. Certainly. Oh, wake up, people, shake your spiritual soul within you by reading the Word. We're at the end. The time is at hand.

25 We've had theology, we've had church age, but this is the time. And now, the last sign to the Jew, was what? The appearing of the Lord Jesus. The last sign to the Gentile is Him coming in the Spirit of the Holy Ghost back into His Church, doing the same things that He did then, to declare Himself the same yesterday, today, and forever. You look out and you can read the newspaper and see the writing in the skies. You see, we're bound to be doomed. There's no other way out for us.

26 If God lets this nation get by with the sins it's doing, He'll be obligated, as a just God, to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize for burning them up. They're doing the same sins that we're doing. God loves the sinner, but He hates sin, and He's just, and it's got to be judged.
And what He's doing: His Son is moving through the land today in the form of the Holy Ghost; and the church has spurned it, getting away from it, making fun of it, so that He can be just to send the judgment: what He promised He would do. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. That same Lord Jesus, that declared Hisself there, promised, prophesied, said all these things would take place: and here they are. What are we going to do about it? Let's accept it, friend. Let's believe it.

27 Here's a little picture laying here; someone asked me about that: that Light. Now, forget about me. I'm just a man, see. We're talking about the Light. It's a Pillar of Fire. George J. Lacey, the head of the FBI, fingerprint and document, examined it. It's hanging yonder in Washington, DC in the Religious Hall of Art: the only Supernatural Being was ever photographed. It's in Switzerland; it's in Germany: where they've taken it.
Why doesn't it scatter out? Why isn't this to be known? It can't be known. They never know these things till it's done passed by. He said He had, hide it from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and be revealed to babes such as would learn. How many knows Jesus said that? Thank God for it.

28 You Catholic people, you never know who Saint Patrick was. He wasn't a Catholic to begin with, you know that. But after he was dead a long time, you recognized he was a saint. How about Saint Francis of Assisi? A walking preacher with a Bible under his arm. You didn't recognize him then.
How about Joan of Arc? The Catholic church burned her to a stake, and her screaming for mercy. You burnt her as a witch, a Beelzebub. A Spirit-filled woman, saw visions, and done signs and wonders, and you burnt her as a witch, as a Beelzebub. But about a hundred years later, you realized she was a saint. Course, you done repentance, you dug up them priests' body, and throwed it in the river. Now, she's canonized a saint.

29 God always sends His mercy, His sign; He goes over the top of the eyes of the wise and prudent, and reveals to babe; He calls His Church and seals it; there it goes. He's just. He sent it. He's obligated to His Word.
Look at many of those Jews down there in that day, Matthew 12, He said many of them saw the things He done, yet they could not believe on Him, because the prophet said, Isaiah, "They got eyes, they can't see, and ears, they can't hear"; blinded.
The Gentiles are blinded by creeds and denominations. They fail to see the mysterious, resurrected Jesus moving in His Spirit among His Church, and doing the things that He's doing, right here at the end time.
O, God, open our eyes. Open our eyes is my prayer.

30 One more thing He did, before we close. One day He was passing through... He didn't see no vision. He was passing through a little crowd of people, and they were all patting Him, and shaking His hands, and all, and so forth. And a little woman said within her heart, "I believe Him to be a holy Man. I believe He's the Son of God. And I'm just a little woman." And she'd had a blood issue, during the time of menopause, and it's, for many years she'd had it, and they couldn't stop it. The doctors could do nothing about it. And she said, "If I can just touch His garment, I believe I'll be made whole." And she touched His garment. Now, the Palestinian garment hangs loose; you couldn't touch it... the border, that's the bottom of it, hanging way loose. And she touched the border of that garment. She was setting, probably below Him, and she touched the border. He walked a little bit, and He turned, He said, "Who's touched Me?"
That was Jesus yesterday. The Bible said, "He's a High Priest," tonight, "that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities." Is that right? The same yesterday, today, and forever.

31 The woman touched Him. He said, "Who touched Me?"
And Peter, being... oh, he felt big because he was kind of one of the head of the apostles, he said, "Now," rebuked the Lord Jesus, and said, "Why do You say such a thing as that? Well, who could tell who touched You? Everybody's touching You."
Jesus said, "But I got weak. Virtue gone out of Me." Oh, that's the touch I hope that you New Haven people touch.
"I perceive that I've gotten weak. Virtue's gone from Me." Everybody kept still. He looked all around over His little group of people standing there, around them fishermen around the river. And He looked out there, and He saw the little woman. He was endued with power that could tell what was real faith. He said to the woman, told her her condition, and said, "Thy faith hath saved Thee."

32 That was Jesus yesterday. The Bible said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and a High Priest, Hebrews, the New Testament, that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities.
Then, if He is the High Priest yet, if you touched Him, if you set in the audience where you are now and say, "O God, let me touch You, Jesus, I believe You," not excitable, but just touch Him, how would He act? He'd have to act the same way He did then, or He wouldn't be the same Jesus. See? He'd have to speak back, use the lips of His Church, and say the same thing, 'cause we are the vi-... the branches, He's the Vine. He'd have to speak right back and say the same thing He did then, or He isn't the same Jesus, He isn't the same High Priest, He's another.
But He's alive tonight. Oh, I'm so glad of that, friend. He's alive! And in this day when we not... don't have one thing we can rest upon, you--you're... we're just... we're finished. There's only one thing that can stand, that's the Kingdom of God.

33 Our nation? Gone. She's eat to the core with termites. I've stood on the, have, on the places where Pharaohs in Egypt; had to dig twenty feet to find their palaces; and in Rome with the Caesars; and all kingdoms give way because there's coming a Kingdom that can never give way, that's the Kingdom of God. These others, all mortal gives away to immortality.
But, the great nation that we have; and yet the Bible says that every nation under the sun is controlled by the devil. Jesus said so. All nations are controlled by the devil. That's why we fight and carry on the way we do. Satan said, "They're all mine." He showed Him, "Here, I'll give them all to You, if You'll worship me." Jesus know He'd fall heir to them. He said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." See? He knew He was Heir to them.
And as long as we are... We got a marvelous president. Now, I'm not a politician, but I like Mr. Eisenhower, and I think he's a wonderful man, but if we put a Dwight Eisenhower in every county in this United States, she'd still gallop right on in sin. The Bible said she would. There you are. The time's here.

34 Friend, not long ago I took a trip up in Finland, right after the first... the Second World War. I seen those Finnish women, at nighttime, all hooked up in harnesses, dragging a harrow behind them; men, little children packing a lantern. They don't stop for night, just keep on going. The war was ended, they had to plant the wheat. If they didn't get the wheat in, there'd be no crop next year, they'd all starve to death. Little fellows running along with the lantern, and they'd be so tired; and mother pulling, and sweating, and shoulders rubbed, and everything; young girls, and all. Dad coming behind, throwing the wheat like that. Scratch it any way, just scratch the surface, get the wheat in. The snows is coming; lays on all winter. No wheat, no life.
And brother, that's the way it is, today, in the Kingdom of God: It's later than you think. We can't have time to stop for big revivals, got to scratch the surface, get the seed in.