The Church choosing Law for Grace

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 So glad, tonight, to be here and fellowship with all you believers that are here. Brother, pastor here, Brother Sullivan, precious brother.
We ... praying today together, and talking. Many's been calling in, all day, different ministers, different places, wanting to have a ... leave here to another meeting, or somewhere. But I haven't stopped since Christmas, and I'm getting awful tired. Everybody knows I got about six or seven days to rest. So I just got to have it. I'm just about gone.
And you know, we just left a meeting where some time as many as thirty visions in a night. No one will ever know what that means. That will be a secret that'll go to the grave with me and God. They just could ... no way to explain it. You just can't do it. And no one knows.
Just think of this. One vision from our Lord Jesus, and He said, "I perceive that I have gotten weak." A woman touched Him. Now, how about a sinner, then, that's saved by grace? The only thing that does it... "More than this shall you do [it's a promise] because I go to the Father."

2 And there's... My daughter-in-law, when she'd been on the meetings this last long eight-weeks' journey... When she come home she went to bed for three or four days, just to rest. Said she was nearly dead.
Well, the boys, all of them, was just about ... drooped around. I come home, and no more than got half my suitcases out till here we was, going, going, going, going, going all day, all night. And going, going, going, all day and night. Just keep on like that, on and on and on.
And I said, "Well, now you think it's rough, just to go around just to stand in the meetings; and come down, sit down at the meeting, enjoy it; go home, go to bed---sleep half the next day if you wish to---get up, and go to the next meeting. Then you get tired. Just take the responsibility of one of them meetings upon your shoulders, and know that you're responsible for it, see, answer to everything."
Then preach---when twenty minutes of influential speaking is compared with eight hours of hard work, so science says, to your body. Sometimes I preach a hour-and-a-half, two hours. And besides that, what... One vision will tear you down more than three days of preaching would do, see. And then have thirty of those a night, see, see. There's no ... it's just... It's a miracle, a outstanding miracle in itself, that God lets me live. And He does that for your sake.

3 How many ever heard of Raymond Richey, Brother Raymond Richey? No. In Los Angeles the other night, he knelt down and prayed. You know Richey, Brother Richey was in a... Did you know that? Very bad, throwed him into strokes. He thought he could just do as much as the next one, so he took off to mission fields, and come back, and took a revival. And he's finished. And ... stroked him, nervous, and, oh, he's in terrible shape. He's such a fine little brother.
He came in. Just as soon as he seen me, he tried to talk. And he knelt down, and I was trying to make out what he said. He said, "Brother Branham, don't keep going like that." Said. "Don't keep going. You'll be like me one of these days. Don't do that." But I guess maybe our zeal burns up our wisdom, so we just keep going anyhow, trusting the Lord that it will be all right.

4 So glad to see some of my friends in here tonight. My private secretary, Brother Maguire, and his wife, father and mother from Canada, Saskatchewan. And I'm glad to have them in. And my two brothers here from down in Kentucky. I can never think of their names. I believe you're actually from Arkansas, aren't you, brethren? and ... come up to the meetings. And I see my Brother Dauch, or Doc Dauch sitting out here from ... down here in Ohio, and his lovely wife behind him there.
I'm so happy to see you all in tonight, and different ones I recognize. Brother Charlie, and Rodney, and Rogers, Brother Sothmann. And I understand [unclear word] tonight some ... Billy was telling me this afternoon. So glad that he's here from way down in that sunny Georgia. Some of them said, "How're you getting along?" He said, "Freezing." But we're... Where you at, Brother Welch? I can't recognize you, just little... Well, sitting right under my face here. And Sister Evans. Yeah, looky here. A group from Georgia there. That's fine. Glad to have you all in.

5 Now, the Lord ever bless Brother Sullivan for inviting us here. He's taken the sponsorship upon himself, under God. I think ... you people, as I understand, Brother Sullivan is going to leave you pretty soon, going away. And you're going to miss a great man. For a man that'll stick himself out there before the public to sponsor such as this, see, it shows that he loves you. He's trying to do something for the people, or he wouldn't do that. That's right. A real true servant of God, true blue. I appreciate Brother Sullivan with all my heart.
A man who ever amounts to anything is a man that stands alone, him and God alone. That's the man. On the Jericho road there's room for just two---no more nor no less---just Jesus and you. That's all. And so, that's the way we have to walk this narrow way. Every man that ever did anything for God walked the same road. That's right. Criticized, forsaken, cast out; through all ages, all times, they've had to suffer the same thing. So we are just like they are, same thing. We have to stand it alone. But never alone; He's always there.

6 We appreciate the people that's over this armory here, that lets us have this armory, too. If they're somewhere they can hear my voice, I sure appreciate this kindness of you men. The Lord ever bless you. It's the United States Army, and we do pray that God'll bless them richly, and help them.
And I tell you, we're on a defense program---we know that---up with the other nations, and so forth; and trying to beat them in a missile race. My brethren, there's one race that we must run. That's the race from the cradle to the grave, with our faith in Calvary. That's the race. There's our defense, is in Calvary. Give me every soldier in the United States consecrated to God, on his face praying, and you can blow up all the missiles and let her go. That's right. We'll be so safely protected that every nation under heaven will be scared of us.
Like it was in the days of Solomon. I believe I preached on that the last time up here---The Queen of the South---how that Israel had no troubles in them days with any other nations. They was all afraid of them. They trusted the Lord.

7 (I don't believe you hear me too good. Is there a bounce on that? Can you hear out there all right, way back? I thought it sounded like a rebound. Let's see if I can change this. Is that better? Can you hear that better, way back? Nobody makes a move. Can you hear this better here? I believe I broke my pulpit. How's that? That better? All right. We'll try to leave it there.)

8 Now, we want to get quickly to the Word. I kept you up late last night over at Brother Sullivan's church. But we... I especially enjoyed what the Lord gave us on the sounds, "The Uncertain Sounds." And we tried to describe a lot of uncertain sounds of this day. And then, after we got through with all the uncertain sounds, then we brought over a sound that was certain. (Thank you, Brother Gene. Maybe that'll help us just a little. All right.)
On the certain sounds of the day... And we found out that there was one sound that was certain. That was the gospel sound. And how the gospel came? Not in word only, but through the power and the manifestation of the Holy Ghost. That sound that came on the day of Pentecost, like a rushing mighty wind, that was certainty that life had come, for it was spiritual life.

9 Can you hear me better if I back up? Back it up? All right. I'll try to take some of Paul Rader's ideas. How many ever seen Paul? I laughed at Paul. He used to get way back, like this, always pulling up his trousers. Then he'd get his point, and run right towards the platform as hard as he could and throw both hands up. And so, he'd get way back away from his microphone.
Yeah, I happen to see Brother and Sister Collins sitting back here in the audience. Somebody don't believe that God gives Methodist preachers the baptism of the Holy Ghost? There sits one that He gave the baptism of the Holy Ghost---a Methodist preacher, Kentucky Methodist preacher that received the Holy Ghost; and God's humble servant now.
So we're glad that the Holy Ghost is for anybody that wants it. Anybody that's willing to come to God's terms can receive the Holy Ghost. Yes. It's for Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, Jew, Protestant, yellow, black, white, brown and indifferent; all of us together. The Holy Ghost is for all.

10 Now, I wish to bow... If you will, bow your heads just a few moments while we pray. And before prayer, with your heads bowed, if you have a special request, will you let it be known as you lift your hands to God. Just hold your request in your heart. God bless you. May God give each of you your request.

11 Our heavenly Father, we are approaching thy throne of grace. Not thy throne of justice, Lord---we could not stand it. We do not ask for justice. We'd be lost. But we ask for grace. And we come because Thou hast bid us to come, and we have the promise that we will receive what we ask for, if we'll come boldly, not doubting, and ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. For it is written, "Whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all in the name of Jesus." He said Himself, while on earth, "If you ask the Father anything in my name, I'll do it."
And we're sure that we get what we ask for, for we come in faith believing, with all that's in our hearts to believe with. And we ask it in Jesus' name for grace, and mercy, and courage to surround us tonight. And give us a great portion of thy Spirit in our hearts, as we need it.
Give faith to those who raised their hands---and I'm one of them---for the requests that was in our hearts that we will believe with all our hearts that You will grant our requests. For we commit the service and ourselves to You, to do with us as You see fit. As we approach the Word to preach it, let the Holy Spirit come and anoint the word, and plant them in the hearts of us all, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

12 Now, you that keep down, usually, Scriptures, I'll ask you tonight to turn to the book of Deuteronomy, and the 2nd chapter and the 3rd verse for the text:
Ye have been on this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
I like to teach from the Old Testament, because the Old Testament is a type of the New. As we approach this most solemn, sacred text tonight---like all of his Word is solemn and sacred---I wish to set up a parallel of the Old and New Testament of days gone by, and days that now is.

13 Little did Israel believe, if someone would have told them, that they were forty years from the promised land when they were singing, shouting, and dancing in the Spirit on the other side of the Red Sea. They would've never believed it, if someone would've said, "You have come up out of the tribulation now, and the persecution (God has delivered you), and crossed over." And they wasn't but just a few days' journey away. But yet, their unbelief kept them in the wilderness for forty long years. And our fathers come to that same place about forty years ago, or a little more. The same conditions was existing.
Israel had had a great revival. And they was on their road to a land of promise, where God had sworn that He would take them (to the father, Abraham). And they were going over into this promised land with God's promise, his blessings upon them. And the hour of deliverance was at hand. And God had done all that He had promised to do, and they was on their road to that land.
It wasn't but just a few miles away. Measure it on the map. I really believe that I could walk it in less than five days, myself---just take off, and walk it in five days time, from the Red Sea to where they crossed Jordan, to enter Palestine. Just a small journey. And yet, because of their unbelief, it kept them forty years in the wilderness.

14 Now that's a solemn thing. We should think on it for a little while. Little did they believe that there was the waters of Marah laid before them, or the Wilderness of Sin, or the Mount Sinai, or the Kadesh-barnea, where they totally failed God---when from Kadesh there was only eleven days to the crossing.
They couldn't believe it, because they had already seen so many great things done. They were sure that they were in the will of God, just as our fathers was a few years ago. And they were. But there's where they made their great fatal mistake.
They ... greatest mistake that Israel ever made was when it renounced grace, and accepted law. It made its greatest mistake in Exodus 19---was one of the fatal mistakes that Israel made.
The covenant that God made with Abraham was completely grace. But grace had provided for them a deliverer, a prophet, a sacrificial lamb. It had provided the greatest revival they'd ever had. And yet, they wasn't satisfied with it. They wanted something that they could argue about. They wanted a place where they could have something to do into it.

15 That's the way it is today. That's the way it was forty years ago with our fathers, our Pentecostal fathers. Grace had given them a revival, and had brought them out of the world, and out of the chaos that they were in, in their formal denominations and organizations, and so forth. And it brought them to the greatest revival that they'd ever had---poured out the Holy Ghost upon them, filled them with the Spirit. They were singing, dancing in the Spirit, having a wonderful time. And little did they know that they were all these years away from the full promise.
But as it was with Israel natural, so is it with Israel spiritual. We are Israelites because we are the seed of Abraham. That Israelite is not that which is of the flesh, but that which is of the Spirit. "We being dead in Christ take on Abraham's seed, and are heirs with Abraham according to the promise." So we are ... and Abraham was not a Jew. Abraham was a Gentile out of the land of the Chaldeans, and the city of Ur. He was absolutely a Gentile.

16 Now notice. But they were all this ... away because that they refused to accept what God had provided for them, and they wanted to add something to it. There's where we always make our mistakes, is when we try to add something to what God has done and what God has said. Just let it alone.
They have been for two thousand years trying to add one word to the Lord's prayer to make it better; or take one word away to make it better. You can't do it, because when He speaks it's perfect. And if you add anything more to perfection you're out of order. God does anything, it's perfect.
And when we try to think that He needs our assistance... He doesn't need our assistance. He's God. You say, "Well, He has to use man to preach the Word."
Just as John said, "God's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham," He don't need us. He's Creator. He can do whatever He wants to because He's God.

17 Now, we find out that all these things... They had a Passover lamb provided. God had provided them manna out of heaven for the journey. He had provided them a rock to drink from when they were thirsty, a brass serpent to heal them when they were sick. And yet, with all that, they had to have a law. They wanted a theological experience so that they could have something to fuss, and organize, and break themselves up.
That's just the same kind of a thing that happened to our Pentecostal fathers over forty years ago. God called out a man in California, a Negro, one crossed eye; give him the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. From there formed Azusa Street, the old Azusa Street Mission. From there it scattered, till it swept the whole nation. From nation ... went to nation after nation, until Pentecostal revival was burning everywhere.
What a blessing God had provided by grace! Many of them couldn't write their own name. Some of them come to church in rags. They walked out on a railroad track and picked up hands full of corn, and beat it out on the track---little mothers---to feed their children so their husband could preach the Gospel.
They wandered about, they were made fun of, mocked and called holy-rollers, spent all night in jail day after day. Some of them they wanted to put them in the insane institution, said they were crazy. God had provided for them one of the greatest revivals that this nation has ever known. I don't care when it was, there's never been a revival like the Pentecostal revival. That's right.
Wesley never had it; none of them had it. Spurgeon, Calvin, Knox, great reformers; but they never had the revival like the Pentecostal revival, the greatest thing that struck the earth since the Holy Ghost fell on the day of Pentecost. Nothing. Right now ... they got more conversions last year. The church itself put more conversions than almost the rest of the churches put together. You heard Billy Graham speaking of it not long ago. You can't ignore it.

18 Where did we make our mistake? Like Israel did, we couldn't get along just going the way the Holy Spirit was leading us. We had to add something to cause unbelief to come in.
If Israel would've went ahead following the way the Lord was leading them, within two weeks they'd have been in the promised land. But they had to substitute something. And if the Pentecostal church would've moved on in the Spirit, the way God ordained it to go, and had already proved that He was in it, we'd have been living in the Millennium.

19 But they did the same thing they did back there. As the Bible said in Corinthians, those things were our examples. What happened to them happens to us. What happened the first thing? We couldn't go on being led by the Spirit in a group of believers. We had to have something to tack a name onto us. We wanted to make an organization. So they had ... formed...
And what made it? Somebody got a revelation that people ought to be baptized in the name of Jesus instead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And instead of that, then what happened? The old General Council had to become the Assemblies of God then. What happened with Jesus' name? Had to make them a organization called the PA of W, the PAJC, and all different ones---one coming on a horse, and the other coming on a cloud. There's where you made your mistake! There's where you powerfully sinned! Why didn't you leave it alone?
If that name, Jesus, and all the little things you've got, and so forth, wasn't right... God said every ... Jesus said, "Every plant that my heavenly Father hasn't planted will be rooted up." It'll come to naught, if it's not of God. And if it is of God, who's going to stop it? That's it. Let it alone. Let God be the rule.
But we had to organize. Now we got Oneness, Twoness, Threeness (oh, my!); broke up, fussing at one another. Little groups, "We're the biggest, we're the minority, we're the majority, we're this, we're that. We got the best. We got more money. We got more missionaries. We got..." Oh, my!
We are not divided! We shouldn't be. All one body are we---one in hope and doctrine, one in charity, one spirit. "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war," with one thing before us: not an organization, "but the cross of Jesus, going on before."

20 It's always been that men wants to add their part, do what they think that should be done. Same thing happened when Israel took a notion they wanted to have a king. God was their King. God's always wanted to be all in all to his people. But men wants to make themselves something in it.
'Course we have to have district presbyters, we have to have Ph.D.'s, and we have to have all these other great titles, and so forth, to make us somebody to look up to, that the rest of the brethren say... Well, they'll fuss, and fight, and stew, and cut corners to get a feather in their hat, we call it. Why, it's a disgrace! It brings unbelief.
The Bible said, "How can you have faith when you have regards one to the other," and things like that. How can you do it, when you try to say, "The district man is it. We have to listen to him." "The Bishop is it. We have to listen to him." "The Presbyter is it; we have to listen to him," trying to be somebody in your organization. You can't do it and then have faith in God. You've got to sell out to everything, and have faith in God.
That's what Pentecost began at. That's what Pentecost ... made you Pentecost. The word church means "called out." Israel was called out. Pentecost was called out and separated. Israel was the church of God. Pentecost was the church of God when it was called out and separated.
But what do you do? You have to act like the rest of the people. You have to do the things that they do. You want to be like them.

21 When Israel wanted a king, good old Samuel, the prophet, called them up. And he said, "Listen, I want to tell you something." In other words, like this: "You don't want to be like the Philistines. You don't ... be like the other nations of the world. They had their kings; but you've got one king. That's Jehovah."
Any true prophet would tell you that, not steer you into something else. Put you back on Jehovah. Let Him lead you, let Him guide you. Well, they wanted to be like the other nations anyhow. And old Samuel stood up and said, "God is your king."
God is our king. Don't try to pattern after the things of the world, the other nations. Let them go ahead if they want it. If the other people want their big tight-fit bishops and swell-educated preachers, and all this kind of Hollywood stuff, let them have it. But that's not for the children of God. The Holy Ghost is our guide. He's our spiritual leader. You don't need these things. They want them, let them have them. Not you---that isn't fitting to you.

22 Now we notice what taken place. Samuel said to Israel, he said, "God sent me to be your prophet. Have I ever told you anything in the name of the Lord that didn't come to pass?" Think of that. And he said, "Have I ever begged you for your money? Have I ever took money from you?"
I just got a letter from a brother out in Arizona, where a certain great leader had a meeting. And in this meeting of a little church---no more people than sitting right here, it cost that church six thousand dollars (this man's one on the board) to have the man. It cost ten thousand for the broadcast. And to think of it, brother, what six thousand dollars would do in a mission field, where I know where brethren are preaching the gospel with no shoes on their feet.
And we put millions of dollars in great big buildings. I'm not speaking of any certain person. I'm talking of the whole thing over. Great buildings. I seen just recently where a great organization was putting six million, I think ... three to six million dollars in an office building---and missionaries hungry on the field. And we preach Jesus is coming soon.
Where can you make sense out of that, people? I'm just ... I'm at my wits ends. I don't get it. Your life, what you live, tells really what you think in your heart. Jesus said, "If you speak one thing, and do another..." Said, "You hypocrites." How can you speak good things with your mouth, in your heart thinking something else? Your actions speak louder than your words. Why ... we believe in Jesus is coming, and doing these things? We ain't got no time for those things.

23 Samuel said, "Now, you tell me if I ever said anything to you in the name of the Lord that didn't come to pass."
"No," they said, "everything you told us come to pass."
"Tell me when I ever took your money. Tell me." And said, "Now, if you go to acting like the rest of them, when you bring your king in here, and substitute something under Jehovah..."
"Well," they said, "you see, this will be a king, and we'll be like the rest of them. Well, it'll just work better. We'll have some man that we can talk to; some man that can console us; some man to be these different things for us, talk back to us." Oh brother, if you're just spiritual enough, God will talk back to you.

24 They try to by-pass the very issue of the new birth. That's what takes place. Now, people can't think of this new birth, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and so forth. How did you ever get here, to come into existence, without the natural birth? You couldn't do it. There's no way at all for you to do it, for you to come into existence, and be able to walk around, and to know, without having the natural birth. Is that right? Well, the same thing it is in spiritual. If you're not born again you just don't know nothing about it.
How could you take a man that was going to hire a big bunch of people, saying, "I got a business out here,"---a man going over to the cemetery just as hard as he can run, running to the cemetery.
"Where you going, sir?"
"Oh, I just got a great big project out here. I'm going over to get some people to help me."
"Some people to what?"
"Help me."
"Where you going?"
"To the cemetery. Oh, I've seen names all over the place."
That's what it is. Just names. That's what we become---a bunch of Pentecostal names. That's right. We need something with life in it. You don't get life in a graveyard. You know you don't. You could preach to them all night and all day---there's nothing there to move.

25 Your job will never get done, when you tell people the Lord is coming, and to evangelize, and to go out on the streets and testify, and do something for God. How can you do it when they're dead?
You've got to get somewhere where there's life. A man's got to be born again. The church has got to come back to the principles of Christ, back to new birth, back to the Holy Ghost, back to all-night prayer meetings, places on fire for God.
You say, "Well, I belong to this, I belong to that."
Are you a Christian? "Yes, I belong to so-and-so." That's a worldly-made thing, as good as it served its term. But I'm trying to make a point now, brethren. Just sit still a minute. Some of you good squared-back denominational brethren, don't go to squirming and squalling, 'cause... I know you're good brethren.
Like the little boy was, that came in to eat his sandwiches. He was eating and he said... An old cat come up and was meowing around him. He seen his tail laying on the floor, so he just put a little weight on it. The old cat begin to squall, and his mama said, "Junior, if you don't quit pulling that cat's tail, I'm coming out and smack your jaws."
Said, "Mama, I'm not pulling his tail. I'm just holding a little weight on it. He's doing the squalling. He's doing the pulling." That's right.

26 Now notice. Oh, just a little weight on the gospel! What we want to do is place it where it belongs. And the church made its fatal mistake when it first made its first organization. What did you do?
You say, "Well, they began to make issues." Well, if you was a true believer in God... God has promised us that if He didn't plant it, it'll never go anywhere anyhow. Let it alone. It'll come to its end. "Every plant that my heavenly Father hasn't planted will be rooted up." That's exactly right. But, they just had to do it.

27 Now, we notice, after all the blessings had come to Israel, yet they wanted Exodus 19. They wanted to have a law. They wanted to have something that they could do themselves---some Sabbath days they could keep, or some ordinances they could do, or something another that was brought in to them that they could do themselves. And if you can do one thing to save yourself, then there's not one speck of it grace.
Law is what you do in regards to the grace that God has showed you by saving you. As I've often said, I don't run around with other women because I'm afraid my wife will divorce me. I don't run around with other women because I love my wife. That's it.
I don't believe that you should run around. But a law isn't what keeps it---my marriage vow. It's my love. And it's the reason: I love God. Not because I'm afraid He'd send me to hell---I don't believe He'd do that. But because I love Him so much I don't want to do it. There's nothing in me to make me do it. I love Him too much. I wouldn't hurt Him for nothing. Certainly, I love Him.

28 And when men and women get to a place... "Well, I really ought to stay at home, and see this good play tonight. But I tell you, they'll think I'm backslid if I don't go on down to church." And you sit there and sleep anyhow. You might as well stay home and look at something you'd enjoy more. But when your joy becomes the Lord, and the Lord is your joy, you can't stay away from church. Then you're getting somewhere.
The church was in better shape forty years ago for the coming of the Lord Jesus than it is tonight, way better. They were closer to God. They had more God among them. They had more Spirit among them than they got tonight.

29 What did it? Because we separated ourselves, each little group to itself---going out there and telling the other one, "Well, that's old buzzard roost over there. This is it, too. They haven't got it; we got it," and your little differences of doctrines and so forth. And God wouldn't pay that much attention to it. [Brother Branham snaps his fingers.]
If you haven't got love, what good does it do anyhow? "Though I know all mysteries, and understand all the mysteries of God; though I can have faith to move mountains, give all my goods to the poor, and have my body burned as a sacrifice, and have not love, I am nothing," said Paul. I Corinthians, 13th chapter.
See, you miss the very thing when you begin to separate yourself, seemingly not having the faith. When you begin to separate ourselves: "We are this group, we belong to this. We have nothing to do with them and..."
It's all the Holy Ghost. Each one of those groups all speak with tongues. Each one of those groups has good and bad among them, just the same as the first group did. And they'll always do that. And God gives those the Holy Ghost who obeys Him. So who obeyed Him? The one that believed Him and accepted it. That's the one obeyed Him, see.

30 But we have to have something to do into it ourself. We want to be like the Methodists, like the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Catholic. We have to make an organization.
That's the same thing Martin Luther failed on ... not Martin Luther. He didn't start it. John Wesley didn't start it. It was the groups after them started it. That's right. They didn't start it. No, sir. They kept it clean. But when they left, then the next round of them began to organize.
And that's just the same way it was back in the beginning. First group realized it was God, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and they stayed with it. But the second group come on. "Well, we got to do this. We got to separate ourself from them. They seemingly haven't got the faith, and we've got it. And we'll make our group over here, and pull away." And then that made some leader go over here, and pull away this one. And this one pull away over here, over here, see.
Just exactly the same thing Israel did. They wanted Exodus 19. They wanted a law. They wanted something they could do themselves. They had to have something to do into it. They had to make big fellows; had to have some works that they could do themselves.

31 God will provide the works if you'll just walk in grace. You'll be more at work than you are right now with the Ladies' Aid Society, and all this other nonsense that's been added into the church. Soup suppers to pay the preacher---where'd you ever get such a thing as that scripture? Tithes pays the preacher. He's to live by the tithes of the people.
But we had to get something else to do. We have to have our part into it. And then, if they can't make it up, there's another society will do it, another society. God's way is right. Tithe and offerings goes to Levi, which was the minister. If everybody would pay their tithes, you wouldn't have to have any soup suppers. See, you adopted something else, and leave the tithings off. Say it's an Old Testament ordinance? I'd like you to prove it to me. That's right. You can't do it by God's Word. It's a New Testament order, too. God makes one order; it can never be changed. It has to remain that way.

32 Like the blood. Somebody says, "Well, we ... I'll tell you, we do this and do that. We have creeds and we try to educate people to Christ. We try to denominate them to Christ." We're just fighting the wind. It's no good. There's only one way to Christ: that's through the blood. That's God's program to begin with, and He cannot change. We come through Christ by the blood.
And after receiving the blood, we ... the chemistry of the blood to take away our sins and clean us from our iniquity, then we receive the Spirit that's in the blood, which is the Holy Ghost that comes back upon us, and makes us sons and daughters of God. That's right. Then you're new creatures in Christ. Then you have the same experience they had at the beginning. You live the same kind of life and do the same kind of works as they did at the beginning. Yes.
Exodus 19.

33 Then the Bible said... It's eleven day's journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh. Eleven days after they received their indocumate of theology, the works that they wanted to do, they made the greatest mistake they ever did make. At Kadesh is where they doubted God's Word. From the time that they was falling in line with God until they got indocumated... And then, when they did, they made their fatal mistake ... to believe that God's Word was true.
They took their organizations, the twelve different tribes sent out a representative to go over and spy out the land. Two of them went over and brought back evidence. They brought one evidence that it was a good land. Joshua and Caleb packed this bunch of grapes, perhaps on their shoulder. Everybody tasted and said, "Ummm my! It's so good. Wonderful."
But when they come back before the congregation, they said, "The opposition's too great. We just can't do it. There's no need of us trying it. Why, we look like grasshoppers up beside of them big educational giants out yonder---those great bishops and doctors of divinity. There's only one thing. How could our little two years of school, our little grammar school education, ever compare with Doctor PhD, LLD, SQT, all these others? How will we ever do that with these great big fellows?"
That isn't it! God promised the land. Education has nothing to do with it.

34 God promised the Holy Ghost to "whosoever will, let him come." You don't know split beans from coffee, what difference does it make? If you can't say your ABC's, what difference does it make, as long as you received an experience.
When Peter and James was caught up ... or John, at the gate Beautiful---where they'd made the man to walk that was crippled, made him to walk, was lame from his mother's womb---the Bible said they were ignorant and unlearned men. But yet they'd taken heed that they had been with Jesus. That's the qualification of a real Pentecostal.
Not how much degrees you have, how much a degree that you have took, a Bachelor of Art or whether you're PhD or LLD or whatever it is; that has nothing to do with it. It's let the people know that you've been with Jesus Christ. Let people know that there's something behind there that's got your soul on fire! That's Pentecost.
Sometimes I see the way the church is getting... I left the Baptist church to become a Pentecostal. I left it on the account of I knowed they had something. But when I get over here, it's as tightly organized as the Baptist was---worse. That's right.

35 Now, we come out and look, and look around and see eleven day's journey from theology to total unbelief; from the day they got the law until they finally went into total unbelief. There come two back that had evidence.
The Pentecostal church forty years ago brought back one good evidence that there was a land beyond there, because they had a evidence of speaking in tongues. But brother, that ain't the only evidence. Not only did it have good grapes in it, but it had milk and honey flowing; it had everything!
But they were satisfied just with the grapes and said, "I guess that's all it is." That's what the Pentecostal church has done. Acts 2 and 4, Acts 2 and 4, Acts 2 and 4, till you got so many grapes, I believe it will become from real grapes down to possum grapes, sour grapes. Acts 2 and 4, Acts 2 and 4---you almost become a 2 by 4 preacher (that's right), to suck around a organization.
One thing, don't pay me. I'm free to preach the Bible. And as long as God lets me live, I'll stand right there as a witness against wrong. I don't care where...

36 Not nothing wrong about the organization. The organization's all right. The law was all right. It served its purpose. That's true. But the law didn't do nothing for them. It didn't give them any grace. The law didn't take them over to the promised land. No, sir. The law ceased. Joshua took them over; and Moses, the law giver, died.
And so is the church organization going to die out. And pray for the power of God in the Holy Ghost back in the church, to rapture the church to the promised land. Yes, it served its purpose, but it wasn't the thing that God was wanting. The law died; ceased to be. Moses, the law giver, died. Joshua, the one that believed the promise, he went on and on.

37 Now notice, all of them said, "Oh, we can't do it." What will it do? "It will mar our inheritance." That's what you Methodists thought. That's what you Baptists thought when you walked up to that borderline and looked over. Said, "Oh, I can't do it. I tell you, if I do my Methodist organization will put me out. My Baptist organization will put me out. My Presbyterian will put me out. If I go to speaking in tongues, and stand in my pulpit and somebody in my audience goes to speak in tongues, if I don't turn them down, why, they'll put me out of the organization." There you are---same thing.
Let me tell you the outcome of that. Turn to Hebrews the 6th chapter, Hebrews the 10th chapter, compare them verses together: "For we which were once made enlightened, and made partakers of the Holy Ghost; and tasted the powers of the world to come [see, they which have received the knowledge of the truth and then turn away] to fall away ... unto repentance; seeing that they crucify themselves to the Son of God afresh, and bring him to an open shame."

38 Here it is. A man's called to be a preacher. Yes, sir, the Lord calling him. Fine. All right. He comes and repents of his sins; justified. He becomes a good believer.
Now the next thing he does... He still smokes, he still lusts. He watches the worldly people, the worldly women. The lusts and things is in his heart. He knows that's not right. That isn't becoming to a preacher. So he goes down and asks God to sanctify him. He's on the second step then. Take that thing out of him.
Now he looks over into the promised land, the borderline. He comes up to the place where he can't go no farther. He's got to cross Jordan (that's all), or stay back, see.
... has been partakers, made enlightened and received the knowledge of the truth. And Christ is the truth. How do we get into Christ? By the organization? by the handshake? by the denomination? by the water baptism? No, sir. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Oneness, Twoness, Fiveness, whatever you are, by one Spirit we're baptized into that body.

39 But once ... has received the knowledge. He comes there and he looks over. He says, "Yes. Oh, that's wonderful. But if I receive that, my denomination will put me out. I can't do it because they don't believe in it. I can't let my people do that. If I teach that in my church, what'll they have? They'll have the district presbyters come up together. They'll have great men walk up and say, 'If you do such a thing as that, you permit that, out of the organization you go. If you have So-and-so here, we'll just excommunicate you from the fellowship.' "
O God, to a wishy-washy preacher like that! He needs to go back to Calvary! There's something wrong with him, when you're convinced that it's the Word of God, and not enough real Holy Ghost conviction to stand on what's right! Hallelujah!
A man will respect a woman. She might be as black as charcoal, but he sees that woman as a woman. She stands for dignity that belongs to a woman. A real man will take off his hat to her (right), ' cause she stands for what's right in principle. That's exactly. She might be as ugly as all get-out. He'll have a thousand times more respect for her than he would for one of these Hollywood queens, or whatever it might be, if he's got real man about him. True.

40 So does God when He finds a man that He could put enough trust in him to reveal his Word to him, and he'll stand, stand on the Bible conviction and say, "Prove it to me." That's right. Then you take God's Word, every Word just the way it's written, and preach it just the way it's written. God's obligated to come right behind there, confirming it with signs and wonders as He said He would do it.
Not stop on one evidence; there's more evidences. There's homes, there's places, there's gardens, milk and honey, and good food and many things; waters flowing through the mountains. Everything's good over there, just not a bunch of grapes.
But that's where we stopped. "Bless God, got the Holy Ghost. Evidence, speaking in tongues." That's all right. Shows somebody went over there. But why do you stand at this borderline? See, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the power of the world to come, see that they'll fall back into that same old rut that the Methodist did, the Baptist did, the Presbyterian did.
"And crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and bring Him to an open shame." And we find in the Laodicean church age that He was on the outside of the Pentecostal church trying to get back in. "Bring Him to an open shame." O God, have mercy! If you disagree with me upon these things, search the Scriptures. Find out the day that we're living in. See where it's at.

41 I got an exhortation. I won't read it now, but here it is (Demos Shakarian had it documented), by a man, a Hollywood man, that come up to shake hands with me. Began to speak in French, and the U.N. interpreter there gave the interpretation, with a French woman. Said, "Because you've chosen the hard way... But that's My way. Don't you fear what people say about you, for I'm with you, and I'll be with you, and I'll bring to pass exceedingly abundantly."
I got it written right here, and signed by ... and Brother Demos Shakarian is getting it documented by a notary public. And that man, a Baptist, knowed nothing about it. But I was trying to stand there and condemn the thing that's blinding the eyes of the Pentecostal people---Hollywood into the churches, Hollywood evangelism.

42 A fellow'll pass out some envelopes and say, "Put twenty five dollars in it, and I'll pray for you." Tell you your crops are going to go bad if you don't put in so much in the offering. When did it come to pass that Pentecost was after money?
Why, brother, in the Bible times they sold what they had, and distributed it to the church.
Today we got to have a fleet of Cadillacs, or you're not spiritual. It's a sin. It's a disgrace! We're trying to see if we can't build a better church than they got over there; the Presbyterian, a better church than the Methodist, and saying Jesus is coming soon. They laugh right in your face. That's right.
What we need today is not a better church. You'd be better off if you had a mission! You'd be better off standing under one of these oak trees out here, or pine trees, without a place to lay our heads, and preaching the gospel, than to compromise.

43 We're in a terrible condition, the church itself. What did it? Because we separated ourselves. One separated to this one; one separated to that one. We become great organization-minded and everything, just showing you exactly in type what they did then. And we would've went on over, and been in the Millennium.
I believe that the coming of Jesus Christ is past due. I could prove it by the Bible. The Bible said, Jesus Christ said Himself, "As it was in the days of Noah..." And God was long suffering, not willing that any should perish; was long suffering, waiting, waiting, holding off the wrath; waiting, see if somebody else wouldn't ... waiting, waiting, waiting.
"As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man." God is long suffering, waiting to get his church in condition. What is it? What is it? Instead of getting in condition, we're getting farther away all the time. We ought to've been in the Millennium. We ought to've been doing something for God. We ought to've went in forty years ago. But no. We made the same mistake they did. They come to Kadesh, forty years---and God turned them back because of their unbelief.
What was it? The organization. The people were looking ... what would it happen? Now you say, "What organization?" All of you separate yourselves. You say, "Can I be Assembly, and be spiritual?" Sure. "Can I be a Oneness, and be spiritual?" Sure! God gives you the Holy Ghost if you're a Catholic. No matter what you are, as long as you're a child of God by birth from the Holy Ghost, you're God's child. Then don't just ...

44 Remember the other brother's pulling for some cover, too. The blanket's big enough for both of you. God made it that way. Don't jerk it all, and wrap yourself up in it, and say, "Freeze to death." If you're cold, let me help you.
When it comes to a place you don't want to help a fallen brother... If you think he's fallen, help him some way. Stand between the gaps. Gap up the way with love. That's the cement that puts the church of God together, is the cement of God's holy love among brothers.
... this will all men know you're my disciples when you belong to the Assemblies? All men know you're my disciples 'cause you're Oneness, 'cause you're Church of God? "This will all men know you're my disciples when you have love, one for the other." That's when we'll know.
That's when the world will know that we're Christians. That's when the world will know that we're brethren and sisters, when we have love, one for another. That's the mark of Christianity, is love one for another. When we get that, then God will begin to work among us and bring us milk, honey, great things. Why, it's good when we find what's God's plan and move into it.

45 Now we notice, what did they do, the borderline believer? "For it is impossible for those which were once enlightened, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good world to come, and had a knowledge of the truth," received the knowledge of the truth... Walk up and look into the land and say, "Well, I just can't do it," go back. That's exactly what them borderline fellows did in that day. What did they do? They, every one, perished in the wilderness.
When we think that God's obligated to us because we're So-and-so (the Methodist has nothing to do into it; the Baptist has nothing to do into it; the Oneness has nothing to do into it; the Assemblies has nothing to do into it), then we're wrong.

46 Don't watch your organization. Watch the way the Spirit's leading. And if the Spirit is leading you, it'll never lead you contrary to the Word. It'll never [words not clear] itself uncommonly, long as it stays in that Word.
What did God do? He left them there for forty years in the wilderness. That's exactly what He done to Pentecost. We had the initial evidence, speaking in tongues. Oh, said, "We've had divine healing." They did, too. They had a brass serpent. They had a smitten rock. Oh, sure.
Oh, "Brother Branham, let me tell you, we Oneness, we Assemblies, we So-and-so, we've shouted, we've danced in the Spirit." Oh, sure, they did too. But they stayed out of the promised land forty years.
Did you ever think of what they done? Oh, God blessed them, didn't He? He said He did. They raised good crops. They had good families. They stayed there, and they was blessed and prospered. Why, some of us Pentecostals are ... some of them, why, we're worth millions of dollars---a lot of them. Sure, we ... God's prospered us.

47 I stood not long ago in a meeting (A brother sitting here now was sitting present, Brother Fred Sothmann), when I was talking one night in Kingston, Jamaica. And I was with the Full Gospel Businessmen, the very men that I used to edge in, to try to bring my message to the people, to show that...
Through this organization of businessmen, well, then the businessmen of the church come down to that meeting. It'll bring... Well, if the pastor don't come, it kind of embarrasses him. So that way I can work in there, to try to get the message of the Lord to the people that I see, my brethren. My brethren.
Then, what happens? I preached kind of roughly against it. And this certain leader stood up, and he said, "Brother Branham," he said, "I'll tell you..."
I said, "What's the matter with you Businessmen? What are you doing? You were at that business meeting tonight. Everything you testified to those Jamaicans was: 'I had a little bit of business on the corner. It wasn't prospering at all. Hallelujah, I got the Holy Ghost. God give me a fleet of Catholics ... or Cadillacs, and great big cars, and great big this... And He give me a new home. He give me all this.' "
Them men's got them things. They don't want to hear that. That's contrary to Pentecost. Pentecost, they sold everything they had, distributed it amongst the poor and went out with nothing. They went out with Jesus alone. That's right.

48 This leader that night stood up, and he said, "But, Brother Branham, I want to tell you something right now." He said, "That's when the Pentecostal, that group of people, made their greatest mistake they ever made---when they sold their homes, and they give it to the poor."
I'm not asking nobody to sell your home. I'm just asking you to follow Christ. I'm telling you ... I'm just quoting Scripture.
And then he said, "Well..."
I said, "Well, brother, they were led by the Holy Spirit."
Said, "Well, they made a mistake."
I said, "You mean to tell me that the Holy Spirit would lead a man to a mistake?"
He said, "It proved it. I can prove it to you by the Scripture."
I said, "Stand on your feet and do it." I said, "Now..."
He said, "Here you are: As soon as the persecution rose against the church those people had no place to go. They done sold their home; they give it to the poor. They just wandered about."
I said, "Exactly what God wanted them to do. And the message was scattered throughout all the country. If they'd have had a home, they'd have went back to it. But they had no place to go. Therefore they roamed and scattered the message. It was exactly what God wanted them to do."
People don't want to take that road no more. They don't want that. Oh, no, sir. All us Americans are feathered and fat, and we just snuggle down. And we don't even have to sit and listen at it. We just get up and go home. Sure, that's right. They don't want it.

49 Thing of it is... You remember who the Holy Ghost is going to seal in the last days? You know what the Bible said? "Those who sigh and cry for the abominations did in the city." Ezekiel, the 9th chapter.
So, I want to ask some of you people: How many fingers can you raise up tonight of any person in this city, or your city you come from, that sigh and cry day and night for the abominations of the city? Raise your hands. Tell me. "I can point out five people in my city." "I can point out two people, or can I point out one person." If you can't, keep your hands down.
There's not a hand up. There you are. "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man." See what I mean? We've lost the zeal. The Pentecostal church has got to come back to its original condition.

50 What've we done? We've just got fattened up, and furred up, and sat down, and let it go---dressing like the world, acting like the world; going to worldly entertainment; doing the things the world did; having our organizations, denominations, competing with them; our church buildings and everything, preaching, oh, "Yes, hallelujah."
As David DuPlessis once said, "That's grandchildren; that ain't sons of God. And God don't have any grandchildren." God's not Grandpa; He's Father. Right!
And what do we do? We bring in our children, put them on a roll. And the sinner out there, he joins the Pentecostal church. And you say, "Oh, isn't that wonderful. He come to be Pentecostal." A grandchild.
A real son of God's on fire! He pulls no punches. He stands there knowing nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. Nothing holds him but God. He's led by the Spirit. Nothing else bothers Him. He follows the Spirit wherever it goes: the living creatures, like in the book of Ezekiel where the wheels went, the living creatures followed it. Now notice. The living creatures, not the dead ones; the living creatures.

51 Watch just a minute. They stayed there, they married wives, they raised children, they had good crops, they were blessed. Yeah. And they had a great time. They was in there ... they stayed there how long? The Bible said until all the old fighters was dead (that's right)--- all those that said, "Glory to God, we are the Assemblies." "Glory to God, we are the So-and-so." "God, we are the Oneness. Hallelujah. The rest of them is wrong." "Bless God, we're the Church of God of Prophecy. Hallelujah." "We're So-and-so." All right. Go ahead.
What'd they do? They kept arguing their doctrine till they stayed there till they died. That's what's happened right now. They're dead! Dead with your organization.
I bring any theologian to taw this. A historian ... I know of two good ones sitting right here now, as good as there is in the nation. I ask any historian to tell me that... Any time that God ever moved in a revival, supernatural signs followed. When did He ever move that supernatural didn't follow? And when did they ever organize that to an organization but what it died, and never did raise again? Show me one time that a organization ever raised to its beginning again. It died as soon as it organized. So did the Pentecostals.
The old fighters out there that wants to say, "Hallelujah! We have nothing to do with that old new issue. Glory to God. It's given to us by prophecy. Hallelujah! We'll have nothing to do with the Assemblies, or the Oneness, either one. Hallelujah! We're different." They're dead! That's not pulling any punch. And they're dead! Marked out, X. He stayed there and let them die until they were all the way dead.

52 What was it? One day there come one from among them, said, "This is not all that's written here." What did they do? Right back there over the same old grounds every night, right around, and around that mountain; right around and around and around, right around. Same old thing: Acts 2:4, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:4. "Hallelujah! Receive the Holy Ghost, speak in tongues as the Spirit give utterance. Glory to God. Pray for me that I'll be the last ... the one that God's called in these last days." Acts 2:4. "I got the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues." That's right. That's all right. But why are you traveling on this same old mountain, when there's a promise laying before you?
"Bless God, I joined the Assemblies. I joined the Oneness. I joined this, I joined that." Just the same old thing the Methodists, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, and the rest of them done---died in their tracks! They died! That's hard, I know brother. It's like taking castor oil, but it'll do you good. That's right.
What the church needs today is a good dose of gospel medicine. Get the sluggishness out of you, world, filth. What we need today is the power of the Holy Ghost back, led by the Spirit.

53 What was it? That was a shadow, the type of the Pentecostal church today.
Forty years later, here we find ourselves still Acts 2:4. God might come in with something else, with some more of his blessings, and they say, "Glory to God. We didn't have that. Hallelujah! We believe Acts 2:4. Here, our forefathers organized this. If they don't come up to this, bless God, we won't cooperate with it."
You poor, degenerated, backslidden... What's the matter? Miserable. How can you follow God? How can you go where the Spirit goes? Your organization'd be fine if you end your doctrine with a comma. "We believe this, plus what God can add to it." But you end it with a period. "We believe this. And you toe the mark to this, or that's it."
That's what Luther done. That's what Wesley done. That's what John Smith done. That's what Alexander Campbell done. That's what they all done. And that's what Pentecost done. There you are, dead, forty years on your track. And the promised land, or the fullness of God's blessings, lays right before you.

54 What happened?
One day little old Joshua... He believed every Word God said. That's right. He said, "It's all truth. God took care of us, and kept his promise. He said He'd supply our needs while we're out here. But that's not all of it. There lays the promised land. Let's go to it. You've been on this mountain forty years. Turn now. Turn northward, and upward, and cross over." Amen.
The Pentecostal church has sat in its organization stand for forty years. You've been here long enough, brethren. Let's rise and go to the north, cross Jordan, where the promised land's at; where God promised that "the things that I do, shall you also." The blessings and everything that He promised is for us. Every promise in the Book is yours. But what do you have to do? Come to Jordan first and die to your creeds and denominations. Cross over.

55 Remember, He said, "Now, as you journey, you're going up there along the borderliners. Now," said, "don't you touch Esau." (Now, Esau's Mount Seir.) Said, "Don't you touch him." Said, "I give him that. If you go by, if you eat anything, pay him for it. If you drink any water, pay him for it. Don't touch the borderline believer, because I'll not bless you in it." See. "Don't beat him any more. Just pass by quietly."
Now, if the Methodists and Baptists live up there at the borderline... Every revival ever come forth produced twins. I don't care where it was at, it produces twins. One of them is just like... Just like Esau and Jacob---hey were both represented in them sons of Isaac.

56 Esau was a man of the world. He was a religious man, cared for things, and done things for his father, and was a nice man. But Jacob had discernment. He knew that birthright meant everything. Didn't make any difference how he had to get it, just so he got it. That's the spiritual man today.
There's ... Esau had his inheritance right there by the borderline. And God told him ... told Jacob as he passed by, said, "Don't you fool with Esau. Don't join any of his organizations, don't do any of these things here. Now you've done seen what... You've had yourself down here for forty years. You want to stay another forty years?"
You brethren, do you want to spend another forty years in a denominational racket, fussing with your brother? Let's rise and go over. Let's go to the promised land, where every promise in the Book belongs to you. Jordan means death. Got to die out to yourself before you cross over. That's right. Go over there...
People live in a lukewarm condition. The Bible said so. Them brethren out there on the mountain, they were blessed. They prospered. Why, they had plenty to eat. Manna fell out of heaven. That was all right. But they were still out of the promise.
Just like the Laodicean Church, the Pentecostal church age. They've got blessings. But God didn't deal with them. He couldn't take them to the promised land because they wasn't conditioned to go, until they got to a place that they realized they were dead in their theory. Then God took them over.

57 Now, when he passed by the mount of Esau, passed by the organization, what did he do? Now there was Moab. Sure, Moab was an organization. Said, "You'll pass through his land. Don't say a word to him. I give him that."
Now He gave the Methodist their place, He gave the Baptist their place. He give the Pentecostal organizations their place. Don't say a word to them. Just pass right on by, say, "How do you do, brother? How do you do?"
But, Jacob, we're on our way to Jordan (Amen), on our way to Jordan.
They say, "Well now, listen to what..." Don't make any difference what they say.
Say, "Thank you, brother. God be with you, brother." Just pass by quietly. Don't say nothing. But keep on towards Jordan, 'cause we're going up to take the promised land. It's give to us, the fullness of the power of God.
Jesus said, "The things that I do, shall you do also."

58 People try to wonder why visions and great powerful things isn't happening in the churches; greater healings and so forth. God wants to take the church over, and we're back down here in this mountain, moving around and around. What kind of a mountain? An organization mountain.
"Oh, now wait a minute, Brother Branham. You get..." Oh, no, I'm not. Mount Seir, a mount belonged to Esau, his great organization.
And Israel formed themselves a mountain. They were on a mountain too. But one day God said, "Leave this mountain. I'm going to take you over yonder in the plains. You can't get nothing going with these old stony hills here. You can't do no good. Get over yonder where I can bless you, with milk and honey," and pour in the good things of God and He'll settle you down.
That's what the church needs tonight, is to leave this mount and turn north. Let's leave this cold, formal condition. You Assembly brethren, you Oneness brethren, you Church of God brethren, all you brethren: haven't we been around here long enough?
Let's forget our differences. Let's put our hearts together, our arms together, our efforts together, our motives, objectives together, and go on up to Jordan, and be crucified to these things, and cross over into the promised land where God promised to walk with us, and bless us, and give us exceedingly abundantly.

59 You cannot break the types and shadows of God. That's what Israel done in the natural; that's what they've done in the spiritual. We realize that those things happened to Israel. Now they've happened to the church today, just as they did then. We're about at the end of the road now, brethren. It's time that something happened. I want to cross Jordan, don't you? over into the promised land where we can see...
We've seen good things. God's been good to us. We're not complaining. I'm out here with you. I'm out here on these things with you. But brethren, let's put ourselves together and go over. We must go over!
The great Joshua, the Holy Ghost that received the promise from God, that come down to lead us, He's never doubted it. Joshua never doubted it. He was God's general. That's exactly right. He was God's general, and he was the one who led the children. And it's the same Holy Spirit, God's General, the Chief Captain that stood at the gates of Jericho when Joshua come up. The same Chief Captain, our General, wants to lead us into the promised land, and He's the only one can do it.
Our organizations will not do it. Thus saith the Lord. Mark that down. Put that in your book, and see if that was right or not. No organization will never take you over. It'll keep you right on the mountain. But the Holy Spirit will take you to the promised land.

60 Oh, don't you love Him? Don't you believe Him? Don't you want to serve Him? Oh, that's the intents of my heart, if I know it. Lord, let me see Jesus. Let me see Him only.
Let me reach out and get every Assembly brother there is. Let me reach out and get the Oneness brethren. Let me reach out and get the Church of God. Let me reach out and get all these other brethren, whoever they are, and say, "Brethren, brethren, let's leave this mountain." Come on, Assemblies of God. Come on, Church of God. Come on, you Oneness, Twoness, and whatever you might be. Let's put our hearts together. The days of fighting's over. Let's march towards Canaan. Hallelujah!
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
(tonight by faith),
And cast a wishful eye,
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
O, who will come and go with me?
I'm bound for this promised land.
If it takes everything that's in my life, every [unclear word] everything else, I'm bound for the promised land. Do you want to go? Let's stand to our feet then, just a moment.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye,
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie. (Raise
your hands now as you sing it.)
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
All o'er those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
Where God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

61 We don't want anything leading us. God the Son forever reigns, and scatters all other disfellowships away. Oh, we want to meet Him. Don't you want to see Him? Now you Oneness, Twoness, Threeness, Methodist, Baptist, Assemblies, and all others, shake hands while we sing that. Shake hands with one another and say, "God bless you, brother. I'm on my road to the promised land."
I am bound for ... (turn right
around and shake hands) land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

62 Oh, don't it make you feel better? Let me show you. I was in one of our prominent denominations about three weeks ago, or four. What happened? I made an altar call. Four or five sinners come around the altar. When I did, I said, "Will someone come and pray for these people?" In a Pentecostal church. Nobody come.
I said, "Would some of you saints please come and pray?" I was wore out. I said, "Will some of you saints please come and pray for these people?" You know what? I couldn't persuade them to come. Oh, brother! Forty years ago one of them would've started to the altar, there'd been fifty around them before they could've got there. Their hearts were burning on fire, see.
You talk about Baptists. I'll take you over here to the state of Kentucky, to that old Missionary Baptist Church back there. And they're not just cold, formal, like some of you northern Baptists. They get down at the altar, beat one another on the back till they come through. They get something down there. Yes, sir.

63 And I was down there not long ago, at a Decoration ... where my Grandma and all of them's buried down there. And I was preaching on God coming, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Them old women swing them old sunbonnets and shout, back up there in them hills where you can't even get a... You can't get a car in thirty miles of it. Back in them hillsides there, the old people shouting, the women, them up and down the floor praising God.
And there was a big old boy. I made an altar call. I said, "There lays my old grandma, out there in the grave, that died in my arms praising God." I said, "There's my old aunt that kissed me on the cheek in the hour of her death, and said, 'Billy, I'll meet you across the river yonder.' " I said, "There she lays waiting for that resurrection morning. Hallelujah!" I said, "If any of you here are sinners, come in. Jesus invites you."
An old boy standing there with his hat, chewing on the end of it, like that---he throwed his hat down and said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." There was twenty of those old mammy around him before he even got to the altar, about twenty or thirty right up around the altar there, all the sinners running there.
And we was supposed to eat dinner at eleven o'clock. We eat around three-thirty that afternoon, crying, and shouting, and praising God, and walking up and down through them woods, a-shouting and praising God. Talk about Pentecost! It was in the Missionary Baptist Church.

64 And I come right over here to a Pentecostal church. And sinners pouring out their hearts around the altar and couldn't even persuade, as a servant of Christ, somebody to come and kneel around them. Whew!
Have I lost my mind? Is there something wrong with me? I asked my wife, I said, "Honey, tell me what's the matter?" I asked Brother Moore, ministers, "Have I gone crazy? Is this Word... ? What's the matter? Has too much learning, as Agrippa said to Paul, made me mad?"
I said, "No, sir! No, sir! Somebody's got to stand for it."

65 A great prominent minister said to me, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, I believe you to be a man of God. But let me lay my hands on you, and pray for you. You're criticizing the people too much."
I said, "Brother, do you believe that it's right?"
He said, "No, but that's not your business." Said, "Your business is praying for the sick."
I said, "Nonsense! No, sir. God don't give gifts just to baby, and for fish and loaves. No, sir! He gives you gifts to proclaim the liberty, and preach the gospel." That's right. And I said, "If I don't, who is?" I said, "You can't, because you got too much program to support. I don't have nothing to support but my Bible, and the Holy Ghost that preaches it." Hallelujah! Glory to God!
I'm glad to be Pentecostal. I want everybody to know that I'm Pentecostal. I received the Holy Ghost. Not Pentecostal organization; that's far from me. I'm Pentecostal by experience. Jesus Christ is my Saviour. I love Him. Nothing in me.

66 One great man of a great organization said, "Brother Branham, if you'll just compromise on a few things, we'll fly you to the main nerve centers of the world in our planes, and let you preach---if you'll just come and join up with us."
I said, "Shame on you. A man of dignity and honor, with a doctor's degree, would ask a servant of God to compromise on his Word." I said, "If I'm wrong, then you take the Scripture, and show me where I'm wrong." I said, "God... How could you do a thing like that, brother?"
He bowed his head. He said, "I believe you're a man of God." Said, "My wife would've died years ago. She was worst cancer case I ever seen." Said, "You spoke to her and called her out in the audience like that, by the Holy Ghost." Said, "I believe, and..."
I said, "Then you ask me to compromise? That don't beat in my veins. No, sir! I'll stay with the Word if I die in the pulpit." That's the way our fathers did, that stayed on the Word of God. No matter if it skins you, and shakes the hide off of you, stay there anyhow.
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

67 I wonder, in silence, with the music playing, if you will, sister, "I'm bound for the promised land," is there a sinner in here that don't know nothing about this, what I'm talking about? but yet you believe it to be the truth, that Jesus Christ is God's Son; that the wrath of God was poured out upon Him, and He died at Calvary the death of a sinner to take your place? He died your death at Calvary. Only in Him can you be saved, and you've never done it yet. I'll invite you to this altar. Come here now, and be reconciled to God through Christ.
If you are a church member, know nothing but your organization---though it may be Pentecostal, though it may be Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, Greek, whatever you may be, and you don't know nothing but your organization; you've never met something, a new birth that's changed you and made you alive, uncompromising, for the things of the world. You don't want nothing to do with the world. You want nothing to do with it. You're dead to it, and you want to be alive in Christ. If you haven't received that experience yet, will you come here at the altar while we sing again?

68 If you're without the Holy Ghost, and you want to receive the Holy Ghost, will you come to the altar and stand here while we sing again? All you pilgrims that wants to join with us, and by faith and the grace of God go towards the promised land, sing with me now. All right.
I am bound for the promised land (I invite
you to come. That's all I can do.),
I am bound for the promised land;
(God bless you, brother.)
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.
When shall I see my Father's face,
And in his bosom rest?

69 I want to tell you, right while we're singing this song, I was standing, five hundred at Jeffersonville, thirty one years ago, my first revival, singing:
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye;
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
And I walked out baptizing five hundred that afternoon as a Missionary Baptist preacher. The seventeenth person I baptized... All at once I heard something say, "Look up!" And I looked, and here come that pillar of fire, circling down out of the heaven. Stood right over where I was at and said, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your message will forerun the second coming of Christ." When the Baptist preacher laughed at me...
That went on the Associated Press: "A mystic light appears over a minister while baptizing," all up into Canada and everywhere else. It went on the Associated Press. Hundreds and thousands of people saw it. Look at it today, brother.
Look, its promise is true. "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, and cast a wishful eye." We've been in this wilderness long enough. Let's go towards the promised land.

70 Here stands a group of people around here seeking God, wanting God, wanting to go to the promised land. I wonder now, if some of you ministers, some of you brethren who's got a burden on your heart for lost souls, will stand around here with them.
You that wants to still receive Christ, will you come make your way up around here, too? Stand around the altar. These men and women, boys and girls are here to receive Christ as their Saviour. If you want ... while we sing again.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast my wishful eye;
Moses stood up there and looked over in the promised land. The organization, it was forbidden to go because it failed God. But Joshua took the articles of God and marched over into the promised land. The grace of God will take us through, brethren.
... Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye...
Will you come, young people, old, whoever you may be, join with us?
... Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

71 Now everybody reverent for a minute. I want to talk to these people here. My loving friends, tonight something had to speak to you to make this stand. Jesus said, "All that the Father has given me will come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life." There's only one form of everlasting life, eternal life, and that's the life of God, Zoe.
Because that you raised up from your seat and walked up here, it showed that some spirit... All these years that you've been wrong ... something stood by you tonight and said, "You're wrong." That was the Holy Spirit: "Stand, come forward," and you did.
"He that will confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels." That's his promise. He cannot take it back---it's his promise. There's no taking back to it. He's here to give you... Because that you have made a stand for Him, He'll stand for you in that day. He took your place. Now you're willing to acknowledge that you're wrong, and you come to Him for mercy. There's nothing at all that you can do but believe on Him, and accept what God has provided for you. That's salvation.
Remember. Listen at his Word, St. John 5:24. "He that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, has eternal life." Now God turns you around. That's a portion of the Holy Spirit that turns you.
The next part of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify you, take all the uncleanness out of you. The third part of the Holy Spirit is to baptize you into the body. Then you're filled with the Holy Ghost and the powers of God. That's why you're standing here tonight, because you're taking your first stand to receive Christ as your Saviour.
Now I want the audience to bow their heads.

72 Our heavenly Father, these people standing here are ashamed of their past lives. They are standing here because they heard your voice saying that they were wrong. And they've come to take You as their personal Saviour. They stand here under the stage of justification. "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
"I believe You, Lord. I believe your words are true."
And as I stand tonight as your servant, one of them that's interceding for these people, and I'm bringing back to your remembrance what You said. Here they are. They got up out of their seat and moved up here because they were convinced that You were the Son of God, and You died for their sins.
And they want your pardoning grace. It would be an impossibility for them not to receive it. You promised it. It's theirs. They believe it. They've come to witness it. You said he that will be ashamed of You before men, You'd be ashamed of them before the Father and the holy angels. But, "He that will confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels."

73 Lord, they are yours. They were convinced they were wrong. They stood up here by the Word of God to witness that they're wrong, and want forgiveness. I plead for their souls, Lord. I give them to You, Father. They're the trophies of your Word that condemned their sinful life, and they've come to accept You as their personal Saviour.
I'm pleading to You of your promise, bringing back to remembrance that You said that, "He that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, has eternal life."
They now accept your Word. They are sorry for their sins, and have demonstrated the same, and manifested it by taking a stand for You tonight. Father, I pray that You'll give them the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Sanctify their souls, and make them new creatures in Christ.
I give them to You in the name of your lovely Son, who paid the price to redeem them. They are yours, love gifts, O God. Jesus said, "No man can pluck them from my Father's hand." None is greater than He. And they're in the hands of God.

74 Now with our heads bowed and these who've come to the altar, there's not a thing that you can do. You don't have to feel nothing. Jesus never did say, "Did you feel it?" He said, "Did you believe it?"
Do you really believe now that in the sinful condition that you was, that something convinced you that you were wrong? You've come here from the basis of the Word of God that promised you, if you would confess your sins He was just to forgive them. And you now renounce your sins and accept Him as your personal Saviour. If you will, with your heads bowed, raise your hands. Every one of you at the altar that stood here, now accept Him as personal Saviour. One hundred percent, every one. Thanks be to God! Now I pronounce you Christians, believers, fellow-citizens of the kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to ask you to do something for me. I want you to... That little room there says "Prayer Room." I want you to make your way right around this side and go over there while I make another call. Go over there and be praying while... We'll meet with you just in a few minutes. Go over there, and kneel down, and say, "Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving my soul." I believe God right there will fill you with the Holy Ghost, right there in the room.
Go right this way, and one of the brothers will lead you. Now, while these are going over there, and the instructors now for this affair go with them... These people accepted Christ as their personal Saviour.

75 Now to you who wants the baptism of the Holy Ghost, will you come forward at this time? Walk forward now, while we sing one more time.
Say, "Brother Branham, I've longed for the Holy Ghost for years, but I've never yet received it." Come up here. If you believe me to be his servant, if you believe I'm telling you the truth, come here. Let me pray for you. Prayer changes things. It makes new creatures. If you're deadly sincere, come forward now while we sing.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye;
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
I am bound for the promised land.
(All that hasn't got the Holy Ghost,
I call you. In Christ's name,
come forward.)
O, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

76 Are you sincere? Is this all in this building that doesn't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Brother, sister, how can you, under such pressure of the Holy Spirit, come to a place that you haven't got the Holy Ghost, and won't stand for prayer? How do you expect healing, when you won't even get your soul healed from unbelief to receive the Holy Ghost? How're you ever going to receive divine healing for your body? Won't you come? You're invited.
Brother, sister, fellow citizens that's already accepted Christ as your Saviour, are you wanting the baptism of the Holy Ghost? All right. I want some of you people who's good people who has the Holy Ghost, come here and lay hands on these people while we pray for them. Come forward.
Now lay your hands upon someone. Back there who has the Holy Spirit, some of you ministering brethren, come up here. Lay hands upon these people as representation. God bless you, Brother Gene. Come right ahead. Come right ahead, brethren. Come right over, and lay hands upon these people while we pray. That's good. Come on, Brother Fred, that's good. Come right ahead. Hallelujah!

77 Our heavenly Father, these people are seeking for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They're tired of these grapes. They want milk, honey. They want to go to the promised land.
I pray Thee, Lord, with all my heart, as men have hands laid upon one another, that in the name of Jesus Christ that You'll give them the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord. The prayer of faith will do this, we know. We present them to You in Jesus' name, for the glory of God. Amen.

78 Amen.
That's right. All that wants divine healing raise up your hands. All that wants to be healed raise up your hands. Now, somebody ... your hands on them out there. Put your hands on one another. Here they are. Pray one for the other. We are bound for the promised land, every promise that God made.
Heavenly Father, these are yours. I present them to You, Lord. Heal the sick, fill with the Holy Ghost, those who are needy, Lord. I give them to You, Lord God, creator of heavens and earth, in Jesus' name.