Living, dying, buried, rising, coming

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Sister McPherson made her way through that little door to come out here on the platform, and her memory still lives around here, I'm sure.
I taken a little vacation, about three days and went down to Florida fishing. I'm trying to rest up my voice a little bit. So I had quite an experience down there. I thought maybe I might just kind of pass it on to you tonight.
We'd been fishing back in the Okeechobee swamps, and I'd caught a nice string of fish. And there was one of the Brothers that was with me that... Brother Evans from Tifton, Georgia. He had a brother that lived down there near the swamp, and he fished in the swamp all the time. He'd been after me some time to go down. So recently I was at Brother Theo Jones' place. And that morning I was to have breakfast with Brother Evans.

2 While I was getting ready to leave the room, I saw a vision of Brother Evans trying to hide a sack of fish from the game warden. So I said, "Brother Evans, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but where you fish at is kind of like bayous, isn't it?"
He said, "That's right."
I said, "You and two of your boys and another fellow was down there just recently, and you had sack full of fish, and you was afraid that the game warden was going to catch you, and you hid them fish five times before you got out of there."
He said, "That's right, exactly."
So, his brother had been fishing a week or two before that... or a month or two (pardon me), and he got bit by a ground rattler. That's a little different rattler from the diamondback you have here, but he's very poison. I guess the boy's body's swollen twice its size, and they had him under medical treatment. He was a sinner, not a Christian. So, he had an awful time. He come back out, and his leg's in casts from where the snake had... They thought they might have to amputate that leg it was so bad.

3 Then while we was out there, his Christian brother was fishing along by the side of me. And I had a big fish on the line---just a small pole---and I was walking him up-and-down the bayou trying to land him. And when I got him wore out and up to the edge of the weeds, why, Mr. Evans said, "Just a moment, Brother Branham." And he pulled off his shoes and rolled up his trouser legs, said, "I'll catch it for you." And he run out.
And as he started out, a big old rusty rattler grabbed him. And he let out a scream and run back to the bank and said it felt like that the bone in his leg had just turned to ice, it was aching so hard. Well, if anyone knows what a snakebite is, you get sick right away.

4 So I thought, "Well, if I had to pack him those two miles---he's much larger man than I---how was I going to get him out of that swamp?" And it just come to me then this Scripture, "And they shall tread on the heads of serpents and scorpions." And I said, "Just a moment, Brother Evans." And put my hand over on the place where the two fangs had went in and the little blood oozing out of the holes where the rattler had bit him. I said, "Heavenly Father, Your Word... in Your Word, it says that they shall tread on the heads of serpents and it shall not harm them."
I no more than said that till... He must have been standing by somewhere. And He heard the Word quoted, and all the pains left immediately. We fished the rest of the day, went in that night, and his brother said, "You get to the hospital just quick as you can." Said, "Because, oh, it might break loose anytime."
And his Christian brother said, "If God has cared for me this far, He will take me the rest of the way through." And he's never had any ill feelings of it yet.
The Lord Jesus did that. It pays to be a Christian. The sinner was bitten and almost died. The Christian was bitten and did not even have to have medical attention. Goes to show that every word in God's Book is true---every word, every chapter, every verse, every line is the truth.

5 Now, they have been so nice to us here at the Temple. They told me just to do as the Lord led me. You couldn't want any better than that, could you? And so I said, "Well, we'll... Some nights we'd talk to the congregation, and try to build their faith, and then start their prayer lines, and pray for the sick; and just whatever the Spirit says to do, we will try to do that."
Tonight, I thought, being tired and just got in, I'd just speak to you awhile tonight from the Word, not keep you long, and just so we can get this meetings started.

6 And then, if... I believe that Los Angeles is ready for an old fashion revival. I've always believed that God had never turned Los Angeles loose yet. He's still got His hand here. There's so much goes with this. And like this Temple here that was built upon prayer and tears and sacrifice. God just can't forget those things and men and women today who are laboring to keep it that way. Let's put our shoulders with them, the visitors, with me. Let's do everything that we can to get in the sick and the afflicted and the sinners. If we will get the sinners saved, a revival will start breaking through, for that's the main thing.
God heals the sick; we know that. We're not worried about that. He will do that. But to get sinners saved is what we want to start with.

7 Now, just before we read the Word, let's speak to the author, as we bow our heads, if you will.
Most gracious Father, it is a grand privilege to know that we can begin this service tonight just in Scriptural order. For in the Scriptures we read that music went before the battle. They played the songs, and then the ark of the covenant followed, and then the fight was on. And tonight, after the most lovely music has been played, and the songs has been sung, now we shall bring the Word. And then may the battle be on. We pray, O God, that the angels of God will take their positions, in every corner, and at every aisle, and at every seat in this building. May there be such old time conviction until there cannot be one person walk in this building a sinner and go out the same thing. May whosoever comes in unsaved, may God save them for the glory of His kingdom.

8 We pray also, Lord, that You would remember those that are sick and needy, them that are afflicted and needs Thy power of healing so graciously in their bodies. They want to work for You. And they have, no doubt, made many promises, and consecrated themselves to Thee; and in their consecration, that they have made great promises that they would do certain things. Hear their prayers, Lord. May this be a time of visitation to them.
Bless the Temple and all that it stands for, and its workers. And we pray, Lord, that You'd send an old time revival like used to be when its founder lived and walked in and out of this building. There is such a thing as she being able to hear tonight and to look in upon this scene. I'm sure that would be her heart's desire: to see another revival in this city to which she loved and labored with the people. Grant it, Lord. And we will close our eyes, and bow our heads, and give Thee praise, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

9 Just from a quotation of the Word here that come on my mind, I would like to read a very familiar Scripture known to the---I would say---the least of the little kindergarten school: John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And then in the twenty-second Psalm, and the eleventh verse, I would like to read this:
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; and there is none to help.
And I'd like to take for a text tonight, five words and just dwell with them a few moments. One of them is "Living," and "Dying" is the second one. "Buried" is the third one. "Rising" is the fourth one. "Coming" is the fifth one. "Living, Dying, Buried, Rising, Coming." That's enough to keep me here until in the morning, but... and then not nothing like justify the text. But we will just speak on each one for a few moments.
I think that these words that David wrote here when he wrote this twenty-second Psalm, begins with the crying of Christ at Calvary. "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"
The reason that I chose this: Easter is just past, and the people are still feeling the impact of that great day of when God proved that Jesus was His Son, by raising Him up on the third day according to the Scriptures.
And in living, He was loved. The poet expressed it when he said,
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
Someday, He's coming---oh, glorious day!

10 And when He lived, He loved, because He was God; and God is love. And there can never be anyone who could love like Jesus loved. From the very first time His little baby hands stroked those pretty cheeks of His beautiful mother, He was love from that till He forgive His last enemy on the cross. He was God's expression of love. No one could love like Jesus. God, being manifested in a little tiny baby, come in order to take away the sins of the world.
And when you just speak of the word "Jesus," there's something about it means "love." That's what the world needs more today, is not a Jesus of some past tense, some Jesus of some high ethics, but a Jesus of love, that can be expressed in the church of the Lord Jesus, especially as its members, one to another, ought to always greet one another in love.

11 In traveling, I think if there's any great thing that I've seen missing in the church today, one of the greatest hindrance in the church today, there's... keep a revival back, is the lack of that godly love that Christ expressed when He was here on earth.
It's easy for you and I to love somebody that loves us. But Jesus didn't have that kind of love. He had God's love, and God loved His enemies. For God so loved the world... When the world was unlovable, God still loved the world.
It's a different, even in the expression in the words, the phileo love, like we have one for another. But the agapao love is a Divine love.
And if there's anything that I believe that would start a revival in Los Angeles, would be a time that we could all break down our different barriers and come together as Christians in love---that's the Pentecostals, the Baptists, and the Presbyterians---and all together we could be expressed to the world that we have love one for another.

12 Jesus prayed that prayer that we might love one another as He loved us---as He loved us! And He loved us so much that He died for us. No one could love like that unless they... with the natural love, because it would not hold out. It won't express itself. It'll do as long as there's friendship connected with it. But when the friendships turn, then the people begin to say, "Well, he did so-and-so. She did so-and-so. They backslid, they..." Real godly love goes after that backslider till it finds him. Godly love goes and stoops to the lowest of hell to pick up a man or a woman that's fallen.
That's what we're lacking today. We have a fine cultured church, educated, fine dressed, fine buildings, nice choirs, beautiful music, some of the best the world's ever had. But we are dying for some of that godly love.

13 Jesus expressed it well when He found the prostitute, drug before Him guilty of an adultery. And they drug her before Him, and said, "Now, the law requires for her to die. What do You say do about it?"
I tell you, He showed Himself what He was when He turned with these words, "Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more." What more love could be than to take a wayward person like that, and see who He was, and freely forgive the woman of her wrong.
He expressed it again greatly when He was dying at Calvary in His last words at the cross, and His enemies' spit hanging on His face, He cried, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
No one could love like Him. You can't manufacture that kind of a love. It's the gift of God that comes by the Holy Spirit, the only way you'll ever be able to have that love. "Though I speak with tongues of men and angels and have not that kind of a love, I am nothing. Though I have faith to move mountains..." The Bible said...

14 I was speaking here a few days ago upon the Scripture, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, and but few there'll be that will find it."
And a young man who was riding with me in a car, said, "How many would you say would be saved in this generation?"
I said, "Eight, ten."
"Oh," he said, "Don't say that, brother."
I'll say, "I will lengthen it to fifty, and that's as many as I can go."
He said, "Fifty people?"
I said, "Jesus said when He was on earth, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.' Days of Noah, there was eight souls saved." Now, remember a generation fades out each day, ends that generation. Take fifty a day for six thousand years and see what you've got.
And he said, "Well then, Brother Branham, I'd like to ask you this question: All the people that's claimed to have the Holy Sprit, and so forth, won't they come in the resurrection?"
I said, "If they had the Holy Spirit. But what we've been putting to much emphasis on, is on other things instead of on the real thing, the love of God."

15 Paul said, "All these things could happen... I could have all wisdom, all knowledge, and yet have not love, it profits me nothing. I could speak with tongues like men and angels, and still not have it." And we put so much emphasis upon these things, upon great healing revivals, and miracles being worked.
Did not Jesus say, "Many will come to me in that day, and say, 'Lord, Lord, have not I cast out devils in your name? In your name, have I not done many mighty works?' I will say unto them, 'Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I did not even know you.'"
What a disappointment that will be. But look what a surprise it'll be when He said, those who didn't even think they deserved to be there... "When were you hungry and we fed you? When were you naked and we gave you clothes? We didn't know when you did this."
He said, "Insomuch as you've done it unto these, you've done it unto me."

16 Oh, how the world needs something today. I will give you a little expression to clear that up. In Ezekiel the ninth chapter, I believe it is, when the Holy Spirit was sent forth to seal the people that would go in that day, He said, "Go through the city and put a mark upon the forehead of those that sigh and cry for the abominations that's did in the midst of the city." Then to the slaughtering angels, "Go after them, and utterly destroy everything that doesn't have this seal."
Now, you take it in your own mind, and go through Los Angeles tonight, and you mark, in the name of the Lord Jesus, every person that's so concerned about the sins of the city until they cry and sigh, day and night, for the abominations done. Bring me eight here tomorrow night.

17 All right. You see where we go. We let other things come in to take up the place of the real thing. It's love we're leaving out. Living, He loved me. He died for me when I was a sinner. When I was unlovable, He loved me anyhow.
My prayer is for the church that we can have such love till we will love people whether they love us or not. That's what the church needs today is to express a love, even to a man that could spit in your face, and you could still with, not from a hypocritical standpoint, but from your heart, pray for that man's soul. That's the kind of a revival we need here in Los Angeles with that kind of a love manifested.
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me...

18 Most wonderful life that was ever lived on earth had to die when He was yet in His youth. For God had spoke, and His judgments had to have justice. For it is written, "The day you eat thereof, that day you die." God's justice required death.
And there was no one of us could die for one another. No man could do that. He was the only man could die that kind of a death. For we were all born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. We were guilty from the beginning. So how could a good man die for another man when he was guilty himself? There could not be any of us take that kind of a position. So it had to take His death.
And God came down and was manifested in the flesh in order to die a death. God could not die in spirit, because God is eternal, and spirit doesn't die. But He was God. And He had to unfold Himself, and come from glory to a manger, and take on the form of sinful flesh in order to die to secure His church... or to redeem His church, to reconcile them back to Himself.
Oh, brother, sister, there's nobody could explain that, what God did when He died for us; His flesh was put to death.

19 In the Scriptures in the Old Testament, at the sin offering, when they got two goats, and these goats... And Jesus represented both of them... or they represented Him, rather. And one goat was killed, and the other was... the sins of the nation was placed upon this goat called the scapegoat. And that goat had to go out into the wilderness to die and to be out there alone amongst the beasts and so forth.
Jesus had to be that goat. I want you to notice: He was a lamb; He was sheep. But He was made goat for you and I, that we being goat might become sheep. We, being sinners guilty of death, subject to death, and all sold out under condemnation, yet, Christ become me, that I, through His grace, might become Him, a son of God, seated at the right hand of God in glory.

20 The love that He had: how He expressed it, how He had to make Himself what He was to die to save us. In His death when He died at Calvary... There was never a death could be like that death. We are told that when the Roman soldier pierced His side, there was water and blood came out of His side.
And I've asked a chemist one time, what taken place when that... And this fellow, being a Christian, said to me, "That was not... Jesus did not die because that the spear touched His side... or pierced His side." Said, "Jesus had been dead a long time before that. But He died from grief. The sword never killed Him, or neither did the driving of the nails. But it was grief that killed Him. When He looked out upon the ones that He had loved, and the ones that He had worked His miracles on, and the ones that He had expressed His love towards, and had fed, and see that they turned Him down."
You and I might be grieved. We might grieve. But we could never grieve like that, because we're not made up of that kind of material that we could have that much grief.

21 For the fullness of God dwelt in Him. In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God was expressing His love through human flesh, the tabernacle in which He lived, in His own Son, what He thought about the world.
There He hung there on Calvary's cross, not as you see Him on a crucifix with a little rag wrapped around His loins. They stripped Him naked. They embarrassed Him to everything that they could embarrass Him to, and hung Him there on Calvary. He was disgraced, and despised, and rejected, and spit on. And there He hung, dying, the God of eternity, the one that made the cross He was hanging on. No wonder the rocks rent out of the mountains. The rocks cut out, because the rock of ages was being erected. No wonder the poet said,
Mid rendering rocks and darkening skies,
My Saviour bowed His head and died.
The opening veil revealed the way,
To heaven's joys and endless day.
What did it do when He died there that like that? It opened the veil. It let us look past the curtain of time, let us seen a hope there.

22 When I see Him bruised, and mashed, and spit, and barbs and nails drove through Him, what did it do? It opened the way, that me, a guilty sinner... I know that He paid the price there.
I'm not justified by anything I could do, none of my goodness ---I have none, and neither do you. But it's through His sacrifices, through His death we are justified by believing on Him. There's where our justice stands. Not what I do or what you do, but what He did for us. If that ain't the gospel story, I don't know it. Oh, give me that and take all the rest of it away. See that one who died for me.

23 How could I be just? I cannot justify myself; I'm a sinner. But when I look upon Him and come singing,
Nothing in my arms I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling...
There's where I'm justified, by my faith, believing that He died in my stead and took my place at Calvary.
That's alone where I stand on the platform when demon powers are around, and I see death hanging on the people, and... The devil's got them bound and possessed, and some of them in straight jackets and guards around them. What do I stand on then? I look to Calvary, and know that there Jesus Christ paid the price. I feel religious.

24 There He did it. That person's got a right to be free. Satan don't hold them no longer. If you could get them to see, not their aches and their pains, or some preacher praying for them, or some holy church---that's all right; that goes with it---but the main thing is see what Christ did for you. You're free. Christ died for you. Amen. That's the gospel.
Mid rendering rocks and darkening sky,
My Saviour bowed His head and died.
The opening veil revealed the way
To heaven's joy and endless day.
There's where He died.
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me...
How could I be saved? Get rid of sin. He was the sin offering for me; so He died. Now, if sin is dead, then buried, He carried my sins far away. He was a scapegoat that went out. And the scapegoat took the sins of the people on him and went out into the wilderness to die. Go out there and took the sins of the people and took them far away.
So did Jesus. He took the sins of the people and carried them far away, so far that He put them in the sea of God's forgetfulness. If sin is dead, bury it.
That's why we have baptisteries. When people believe that story, they come confessing their sin that they're tired of it, they've divorced it, they've separated from it, and they're tired of it; so it's dead. And sins has no more power upon that believer, because he stands justified in the death and burial of Jesus Christ. Therefore, he walks to the altar, makes his confession, says, "I'm sick and tired of sin. I want it no more." Then we bury it.

25 When sin is buried---anything is buried---it's dead first. Then it's buried. It's put away from sight. That's why we bury people, to put them away from the sight, the contamination of their bodies, hide them from us. It's a gloomy thing to see what death does.
And when sin is finished, when sin lost its grips, and it died in the death of Christ at Calvary where He condemned sin, then the sinner who accepts that---justified by faith---can scream, "Hallelujah, for God's carried my sins far away. He put them upon my sin bearer, Jesus Christ." He represented both the animals: both dying and taking the sins away.

26 Then as I said a few moments ago, He become... We become... we were goats. He become goat for us. He become sin for us. That's the reason He had to be punished the way He was, because all of our sins were placed upon Him. And there He had to bear them away in His own body to Calvary: a reproach, a disgrace, sinfully hanging there, naked, stripped, bleeding, bleating. When He rolled His precious head around, the bloody locks dripping from His shoulders...
I believe it was Billy Sunday said there was an angel sitting in every tree, saying, "Just pull Your hands loose from the cross and just motion Your finger; we will change the scene."
The Jews paid Him the greatest compliment could be paid, not knowing what they were doing. They said, "He saved others, Himself He can't save." Sure not. If He saved Himself, He could not save others. But He gave Himself that we might be saved. That's the story.
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away...
They're done; they're finished. God's sea of forgetfulness to be remembered against us no more. Oh, can't we shout, "Hallelujah," to that. Sure, it's all over. Christ did it. Oh, my. Sure we can.

27 Now, here comes the greatest of all. "Rising, He justified..." All these great things He done was wonderful. They're superb. There's nothing could be added to it. But yet, a man could die, yet a man could suffer, yet a man could love, but when He rose, God wrote the receipt at His resurrection that He had received it: God's justice had been met. Oh, thanks be to God. Rising, He justified...
God proved by the resurrection that He wasn't phony, He wasn't fake. That was His Son. And He raised Him up, the Spirit, the Eternal Spirit, Jehovah God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who raised up that dead form in the grave there, had been dead for three days and buried, and God raised Him up on Easter morning to justify...

28 There when we come, brother, come into God, there's not one thing... He that cometh must come boldly to the throne of grace. You mustn't come wondering.
When you come into the prayer line, you mustn't come wondering, "Well, if this minister will pray for me, perhaps, maybe he's got healing power." Brother, sister, healing power is in God. It's in the cross, in the finished work at Calvary. When you come, come to be justified. You are justified when you confess your faith, that "By His stripes I was healed. I'm going to make a stand. The doctor says I'm dying. I got tumor, I got TB, or whatever it is. But tonight I stand, because I believe that He loved me, and died for me, and saved me, and buried my sins far away."

29 And God justified us by believing on Him when He raised Him up from the dead. He accepted everything that He died for. "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace up on Him, and with His stripes we were healed." And He raised Him up and wrote the receipt.
That was God's receipt. When the earth began to quiver and shake, and the sun begin to dark... or light the earth on that Easter morning, heaven shook; hell shook; paradise shook; the earth shook; something was taking place.
I can hear the angels in glory screaming, "Hallelujah!" I can hear them in paradise, the old saints of the Old Testament crying out, "Glory to His name." Certainly. Something had happened when up from the grave He arose.

30 He brought out the triumph over the grave, death, hell, sickness, every barrier, everything that stands in the way of perfect freedom for the Christian. Everything that you have need of was taken care of. It was done been suffered for, done been accepted, done bled for, done died, done rose; and God justified Him. He justifies you to believe it. Up from the grave He arose, proved that He was God.
Buddha made some great statements. Buddha died and is in the grave twenty-three hundred years ago, still there. Mohammed made a lot of great statements. But he died, and he's in the grave, and been there for about ... nearly nineteen hundred years. He's in the grave, no speaking afterwards. They might have been great men. Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, many of those great men, Poets and authors, and gods and what-more, they might have been great in their stand.
But when God raised up His Son on Easter morning, it proved it. And He sent the Holy Ghost, and we've got the receipt of it now. I can hear His scream from eternity, "Because I live, ye live also." Amen. That's right. "Because I live, you live also." Amen.

31 For "He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed." You don't have to die before your time comes. Because He lives, you live also. When death shall smother out my breath, I will still be living. "He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall never come to the judgment, but has passed from death unto life. "I am the resurrection and life," saith God. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Whew! I anchor my soul right there. No wonder the poet wrote,
On that bright and cloudless morning
When the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to
their home beyond the sky,
When the roll is called up yonder,
I'll be there.
Why?
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
Someday He's coming---oh, glorious day!

32 I can see my shoulders stooping, my arms, where there used to be muscles, are getting fat and, oh, I'm... See, I'm dying. I don't know how long it'll be before He will call me. But I've got eternal life in here, because He died for me, that He might redeem this that I've offered to Him. Some glorious day He's coming. I believe it with all my heart.
I'll stay at the battlefield by His grace. I'll preach, pray for the sick until death shall set me free, and then go home, a crown to wear. For He paid for it, gave it freely. God justified my belief when He raised up Jesus. Then I have a crown waiting.

33 Forty days after He had visited His disciples, He's standing there on the mountain. You know, gravitation is what holds us on the earth. When we're on the earth here, it's gravitation holds us. But you know what? God took a notion for Him to come up a little higher. Gravitation begin to lose its hold.
God, I hope that I can be that way some of these days, don't you? When this old earthbound condition... Sometimes I've been in meetings, I thought it was going to take place at any time, just feel it breaking loose around you. One of these days it'll do it.
No matter; they could put you in a grave, and put a tombstone on top of you, and seal you up. That won't have one thing to do with it. "The trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise." Someday He's coming---oh, glorious day. Yes, He's coming.

34 Gravitation began to lose its hold. His feet begin to rise, earth began to peek through. But beyond that, "I will come again," He said, "and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." I'm so glad that I can sing that song with a true heart tonight.
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
Someday He's coming---oh, glorious day!

35 Brings me into this little thought. I don't know whether I said it ... told this little story that I read out of a book one time, about a man here in America. His name is Greenfield. He's been dead now about seventy-five years, I guess. He died, oh, I guess he's... Maybe longer than that. But before he died, he dreamed a dream that he'd went to glory. When he got up there, he went to the gate, and said to the saint, "I am Danny Greenfield." He said, "I'm an evangelist. I come to take my position."
He said, "Just a moment, sir; your name has to be on the book here." He looked over the book and he said, "There's no Greenfield ... Daniel Greenfield here."
He said, "Oh, you must be wrong, sir." He said, "I was an evangelist in America."
Said, "Nope. It's not here."
Said, "What can I do?"
Said, "If you wish to, you might appeal your case to the great white throne judgment."
So he said, "That's all I have left."
So he said it seemed like he was passing through the air for a while, begin to get lighter and lighter. After awhile as it got lighter, he got slower till he stopped. He couldn't see just where the light was coming from, but it was all around him. And said he heard a voice that said, "Who is this that approaches My throne of justice?"
He said, "I'm Daniel Greenfield." Said, "I was up at the heaven gates, and the gatekeeper turned me away, and said I'd have to stand before Your judgment. And I appeal my case to stand here, Sir."
Said, "All right. I will judge you by My justice then." He said, "My justice requires perfection." He said, "Did you ever lie when you was on earth?"
He said, "I thought I'd been a honest man and had been truthful." But said, "In the presence of that light, I seen a lot of times I told things that wasn't right."

36 Look, friend, we may go to church every Sunday. We may be very religious. Oh, sure. You might pay your tithes, and you might just be as good a person as Los Angeles has got. That may be true. But I tell you: There's a lot of things going to stand before you if that's all you got, when you stand at that white throne judgment. No wonder few there'll be that'll be saved.

37 And he said, "I thought I'd told the truth." But said, "I seen a lot of things I told wasn't just right." He said, "Yes, I told lies."
He said, "Then, did you ever steal?"
He thought, "There's one I can answer." But said in the presence of that light, he saw a many little shady deal. He never thought of it in natural life.
See, we're just on the negative side. We're looking with shaded eyes. But when we stand there in His presence, the glasses is going to be pulled off. We will see face to face with Him then. That's when it's going to be terrible.
Then he said, "Yes, I--I guess I did steal."
He said, "Daniel Greenfield, My justice requires perfection! Was you perfect when you was in your life?"
He said, "No, Lord. I wasn't perfect."
Said he was waiting to hear that great blast, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity."
Said "he heard a voice. It was the sweetest voice he ever heard in his life." And he turned to look; he said "he saw the sweetest face that he ever saw." Said, "No mother could look or talk like that." Said, "As He walked up close to him, He put his hand upon his shoulder, and He said to Him, 'Father, that is true. Danny Greenfield, in his earthly journey, he wasn't perfect. But there's one thing he did when he was in earth: he stood for Me. Now while he's here in heaven, I'll stand for him. All of his sins, put it upon my account.' that He had paid for it at Calvary."

38 Brother, sister, that's the one I'm going to depend on. I'm not going to depend on whether I'm a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Pentecostal. I'm not going to depend on whether I shouted, whether I spoke with tongues, whether I prayed the prayer of faith for the sick. I'm not going to depend on that. I'm going to depend on my faith yonder---where He loved me, and died, and saved me, and rising He justified. I will stand for Him upon the basis of that while I'm here on earth. At that great judgment morning, I believe He will stand for me at that day. Who would stand for you at that day? Could your pastor? Could your church? Think of it while we bow our heads just a moment.
Dear God, that is a solemn question that we must answer just now. Who would stand for us? Would it be our friends? Though they might be ever so loyal, and would try as hard as they could to stand for us. It might be our beloved pastor, who we love with all of our hearts, and he would stand and scream for us. Yet, he has to scream for mercy too. Oh, there could be no one stand that day but Jesus.
And dear God, I've just tried to speak of a love that You gave to Your church. It seems like that they've caught up with the miracles of the Bible, they've caught up with the membership, and the evangelism, and the missionaries and... But Lord, let them catch up with love now, that'll set the church afire with a real agapao love, with a real sacred love, that could turn the cheek, or the one that would be willing to lay down his life, if it would mean to save others. God, give us that love in our hearts as we wait on Thee.

39 While we have our heads bowed, I wonder tonight, how many in this big audience of people tonight, would just like to stand up to your feet and say, "I'm going to stand right now for Jesus. And by doing this, Lord, I want You to stand for me on that day, because this may be the last chance that I get to ever stand for You. I've been in many meetings. I'm a member of a church." Maybe you are; maybe you're not. Whatever the case is, would you just say, "Lord, I will stand right now, and please stand for me on that day." Stand up to your feet right now, while we offer prayer. Just raise up. That's right. God bless you. That's just fine. All right.
Living, He Loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
Someday He's coming---oh, glorious day!

40 There's a chaplain sitting out here tonight that was in a great meeting of science the other day. You all seen, I believe it was Look Magazine this month, how that general said that this next war will just only be a few minutes. And right now, it just takes one of them to blow their top in some of these (Excuse that expression.) but some of these arguments they're having, just set off one bomb. There we are out there in the ocean with these submarines to rise up. There they are, all different places to send those bombs. Here they come this way. Here they come that way. The world can't stand it. She could go in the... Before that clock strikes another two minutes, this entire thing could be over. Don't you take a chance. If you're not sure you're right...
I wonder if our Sister would give us a chord on this. Do you believe that God would hear my prayer for you? Come here. Let me just ... under them lights out there, walk down here just a minute, will you? Come right here, let's stand here and pray together. Come right on now, if you will. Don't sit down. Just move right up here and stand here. Say, "I've been a church member, I'm not ashamed, I will come right up here and stand here. I want to come. I want to be honest." You'll see a revival start, if you can just see the Spirit of God get into the people. God bless you.

41 If He will hear my prayer to open the eyes of the blind (No doubt you'll see that done these next few days.), make the poison of the snake bite, through prayer, just stop it dead still. I've seen those who had passed beyond mortal life, the doctors had closed their eyes, and folded their hands, and walked away, see them rise back to life again. What? Through prayer. Prayer means something.
We will wait for you in the balconies. Come right on down. Let's stand here and have a prayer together. Would you come right down? Let's pray together. That's what we want to do. How many like to have that love? If you haven't got a love in your heart tonight, that you sigh and cry for the abominations that's did in this city...

42 Listen friends, I'll take any student here to discuss that. The Scripture said that the Angel of God could only seal those who wept and cried for the abominations did in the city. All that has read that say, "Amen." There it is. Just those who sigh and cry for the abominations of the city. "Oh," you say, "I've been a Pentecostal a long time." That's good. So have I. But, brother, what about that spirit of concern about the lost world if you're about the Father's business. You say, "Well, I get a blessing every night."
And if that good, humble, sweet, meek spirit isn't on you... What is the fruits of the Spirit? Love, peace, joy, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, patience. Don't take no chance. In the morning may be too late. A hour from now may be too late.
Why don't you come now before there's any healing service, before there's anything. Come right down, say, "Lord, I want to get right. I want a Spirit in me that'll make me love. I want a Spirit in me that'll make me appreciate what Jesus did for me, insomuch that my heart will be tender and loving, and I can forgive the people from my heart, not because it's a duty."

43 Now, there's some of you in the balcony should be coming down. Walk out. You might be that many steps between you and heaven. I don't say it is; I hope it isn't. But it might be just that much is all you need.
What would you give tonight, if Jesus... If you'd hear something take place, and a rock would go off down here somewhere, one back here, and the radios would be screaming, people be running into the streets, and the atomic bombs a falling the... It's too late then.
You know what would happen? The church would... The gravitation would take ... leave it's hold loose. That church would be raptured just as certain as I'm standing in this pulpit. The graves would open; the dead would come out; they'd go to meet the Lord Jesus. Church members by the tens of thousand, yes, by the tens of millions will be left behind. Better come, be sure that you got love in your heart.

44 While we bow our heads just a moment while we're waiting as others are coming down, let the personal workers get around now also, and you who are coming around to pray with us. Come on, sinner friend; come on, backslider; come on, lukewarm church member; let's go to heaven together. You've come right up here now for this prayer.
I want to pray for you. I want to be sure that I've done everything that I can do, because I'm believing that this week is going to be a... is going to be in this coming week, is going to be a great time around this Temple, if Jesus tarries. And I'd like to see every sin cleaned up, like to see all the old gloomy devils took away, and the church of the living God could stand on their feet with real divine love. There'd be a shaking through this city like's never been known before: lame, blind, halt, everything would take place.

45 Are you finished? You sure now? This is... You're sure that your sins are so under the blood, and you have such a desire in your heart for the sins of this city that you nightly, nightly you can weep to God, "Oh, God!" And through the daytime, you look and see the people living the way they are in sin. It brings tears to your cheeks and sorrow to your heart as you look and just see how sinful it is.
Is that the kind of a spirit that's in you? That's the only kind that's sealed by the Holy Spirit. That's exactly what the Scripture says. The ones that were sealed with the Holy Spirit had that kind of a spirit in them. And what is the fruit of that Spirit? Love, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience, peace, a peace with everyone. Whether they disagree with you, that's all right. That's the kind of a church we want. That's the kind of people we want to be.

46 Don't be ashamed now. Maybe before morning, you may call Him to stand for you. What would He say? "You know I spoke to you when that preacher was saying that last night at the Angeles Temple. Why didn't you come on down there? You turned down your last day."
Well, you say, "Brother Branham, I've been a church member."
Jesus said, "They will come and even say---guys like Tommy Osborn, Oral Roberts, William Branham, all the rest of them that goes out and has healing services---many of those guys will stand in that day and say, 'Lord, I cast out devils in your name. I did great works in your name.'"
He'd say, "I never even knew you."
See, those gifts are worked through faith, but love perfects. Love is what does it. Love's what melts us with God, makes us one in unity, one in heart, one in Spirit.
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
(Can I appreciate Him?)
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
(Now, what am I doing? Waiting, for...)
Someday He will come---oh, that glorious day!
Say, "Let it be tonight, Lord. If it be Your will, let it be tonight."

47 All right. How many out there now, right before the audience and neighbors sitting next to you, say, "Brother Branham, I haven't got the nerve to rise up and go up there. I wish I did. I know I haven't got that kind of a spirit in me, the one that you're speaking about: the kind that Jesus had, the kind of love He had, the kind of sacrifice He gave. And that Spirit was in Him has to be in me, make me act meek, gentle, patient, love, long-suffering, gentleness. I haven't got it, Brother Branham. I've got a temper. I've never been sanctified from that. I got doubts in my mind." There's something wrong.
Sure, when the Holy Spirit comes in, it takes the place and roots all that out. Every root of bitterness is gone, then you're sweet towards every one, love everybody. That's the way you are. You say, "I haven't got that. I haven't even got the nerve to raise up, but I have got this much courage left: I'm going to raise my hand to God, and say, 'God, I can't exactly stand for You now, I haven't got that much courage. But, remember me, oh, Lord.'" Would you raise your hands out in the audience there, that hasn't come up. God bless you.

48 Now, you standing here, each one of you. I want you solemnly, with all your heart to know that you've made this consecration. Now, don't just come down the aisle just because it's... you come just because, "Well, I don't want to go to hell." Of course you don't. "But I come, Jesus, because that something touched me in my heart. I see what You did for me, and I haven't got that what You require. And I'm coming to receive it; I want it." Why do you receive a substitute. Why take a church membership, or some little excitement, or...
Now, I believe in excitement, and shouting, and speaking in tongues, and Divine healing. I believe all those things. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about God first. You can have that and not have God. Paul said you could. Jesus said many will come and saying they had it, confessing they had it. But they didn't have this, see. That's where we're lacking.

49 "I need love, Lord. I need Your Spirit in my heart to make me that kind of a person: tender, kind, gentle, humble, forgiving. That's what I want. And Lord, I'm bowing my head right before You now to say this, 'Lord, change my life right now. I open myself up,' and say, 'Now, Lord, I'm nothing, but You change me. It's got to be You. My emotions has brought me to this altar. But now it takes Your Spirit to change me. Come, do it, Lord. Come place in me that glorious longing.'" That's what it is.
I said to a man the other day, "Oh, I believe Jesus will come most anytime."
He said, "Don't talk about that, Brother Branham. You worry me."
I said, "Worry you?"
Said, "Sure, I'm making more money now than I ever in my life. My business is better."
I said, "Then, brother, you claim you're a Christian, and would fear the coming of the Lord?" [Gap in the audio.]
"It's the greatest moment I could think of---the coming of the Lord. That's the greatest thing that I can think of." That's why I'm here now, is because I believe He's coming. The most... That's the coronation of my days---that's right---when I can see Him. "When all those that love His appearing," Paul said, "there was laid up a crown of righteousness." All that love His appearing...
"Come, Lord Jesus. Yes, Lord, come now. This is the hour, if it so please Thee, Lord." That's the way to feel about it. And loving me, dying for me, buried for me; rising He justified freely forever. "Now, I'm looking for You to come, Lord. And I want to have the same kind of spirit in me that You had in You. I want that kind of a spirit; that if my enemy's spit could be hanging from my face, and with all my heart I could say, 'I forgive you for it.' And I could forgive others as Christ ... as God, for Christ's sake, forgave us."

50 All right, let us bow our head now in prayer. Billy, if you don't mind, I wish you would come here with me. I want you to take the after-service, one of you, if you will.
Now, as you bow your heads, I want you to confess to God that you've been wrong, and you want God to forgive you now, and to place in you... [Gap in the audio.]
Hear me people, just as sure as I'm standing here, He wants to do it.
Now, look. How'd you come? "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first." Why did you get up and come? Because you knowed there was something wrong. Now, you're at the altar where all wrongs are rightened, because there's a sacrifice laying on the altar for you. What was it? A bleeding sacrifice---the Son of God---that cries, "Father, forgive them. They didn't mean to do that."

51 Now, you look upon that as we pray. Lay your hands, by faith, upon His head. Just imagine you now, you've done wrong. Like in the Old Testament, they brought a lamb, put his... put the hands upon the lamb and cut the lamb's throat. And the little fellow, as it quivered, and bleated, and died, and blood going all over the worshiper's hands, he realized that was... He should be dying, but the lamb was dying for him.
Now, by faith, lay your hands on the head of Jesus, and feel that suffering, that forsaken until blood and waters separated. Feel that suffering, and say, "Lord God, upon the basis of this, I now come as a sinner. Be merciful to me."
And dear God, as I realize my position standing here by this sacred desk, I'm standing between death and life to men and women that I will have to meet over there at that great morning. Oh, I might pray for someone, they'd get well, and forgotten. But Lord, here's souls at stake. And I've got to stand with them beyond any shadow of doubt before the just and living God and give an account for the ministry.
And here they are, Lord. They've come because they have believed, and the Holy Spirit has condemned them that they've been doing wrong, and they come now to make that right. And I pray for them. That's all I know how to do, Lord, is to say what the Word says here. And now, they are confessing their wrong. And if they are willing to confess, God is going to forgive---He promised to---and to give unto them the desire on their heart. For it is written, "He will withhold no good thing from them that'll walk upright before Him." They want to have a Spirit of love in their heart.

52 Father, we've had so much shouting; we've had so much joy; I'm afraid we forgot the main thing, Lord. As Elijah standing at the mouth of the cave, hearing the winds and the thunders, but it never alarmed him; he waited for that still small voice. Lord, speak now. Speak down into their hearts that still small voice, says, "Child of Mine, he that will come to me, I will in no wise cast out. I lay every sin you've done upon My own sacrifice, My only begotten Son. You confessing it, because you believed it. He was the only one who could help you, and He did that, and He justified every one of you by His suffering. And I proved it by raising Him up from the dead. And now, I give unto you that Spirit that was in Him, that could forgive, and could love, and could be gentle, and long-suffering, and good, and meek, and kind, and gentle, and patient." God, grant it to them just now.
And now, when I come with them, Lord, down there at that day, this is all I know to do is to bring them here and ask You to do it, and join my faith with them, that You are doing it, that it's already done, and they're believing it, and accepting it right now in the bottom of their heart. I present them to You as love gifts that the Holy Spirit has brought to Christ tonight in the name of Jesus Christ.

53 Now, with your heads bowed, and you feel really ashamed of the way that you've done. Many of you has confessed Christianity and never had a burden like you should've had for lost souls. Maybe you've went to church; maybe you've done certain things---good deeds. But now, you feel different about it. You feel like you're going out now, that God has said something to your heart, that you got more love for Him now; you see Him what He is, what He's done for you. If you do, raise up your hand. All you around the altar, say, "I feel right now." God bless you.
Oh, that's wonderful. One hundred percent as far as I could see. That's it. That's it. It's nothing, not emotional. It's coming humbly, gently walking up, listening for that little voice. "Yes, Lord. Then I receive You, Lord. Now I believe You. I believe You with all my heart. I'm going away from here tonight to be humble, gentle. I'm going away tonight feeling the burden in my heart for lost sinners. I will be praying for sinners. I will do everything that I can from this night henceforth."
Now, if the congregation will bow their heads everywhere, I'm going to ask Brother Billy Adams if he will continue the service.