Abraham and his Seed after him

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 I am so glad to be here in Chicago again in this great fellowship with the Full Gospel Christian Businessmen and the fellowship of the people; and to have with me helping me one of my great associates and brother, Tommy Hicks. And we're under the great expectations this week for the Lord to do great things for us.
And I hear that there's been meetings preceding this meeting, and it looks like that there's been some great things accomplished, and we are expecting a greater as we go on towards the end-time. Now, we're to be here through next Sunday afternoon. I believe that is right.
When Brother Carlson just made the statement that these ministries, what they have to go through to make them ministries---how true! And Brother Joseph, standing by me, he said, "Well," he said, "if you're not a soldier, you're not shot at." So I thought that was pretty well placed. That is right.

2 And as the battles rage, why, you become a real target.
So there's only one thing to do: put on the whole armor of faith, stand true to God, and march forward. That's all. God's army does not retreat; it goes on. Many of them drop off to the side, and start this, that, or the other; but the army of God marches forward. We're going right on and on.
Now this week... I sent Billy over about three o'clock or two-thirty, and he said he stayed around till three, and he found two people wanted a prayer card. Said that was all. So they give out we'd be praying for the sick.
Now, if perhaps ... Brother Hicks has got a great ministry of praying for the sick. He's probably already did that.

3 And along through the week, now, I'll have Billy over here around about six o'clock every afternoon, or something like that, to give out the prayer cards, if anybody... When we get some people that wants to be prayed for, Brother Hicks and I and the other brethren will be here to pray for the sick all through the week. And we're expecting God to answer our prayer.
And all these years now---about fifteen years on the field around the world---I have never healed anybody in all my life, but I've sure had some marvelous answers to prayer. God has healed the sick, lame, blind, and afflicted, till it's really been, to me, a thrilling, full-packed life to me. If I should be called this afternoon, I'd be thankful to God for letting me know one thing---Jesus Christ as my Saviour, to know that He lives now, and He is not dead but is risen and alive forevermore.

4 And now this afternoon before we approach the Word... And then I want to make this statement, if you'll excuse me just a moment for stopping. I want to try to make my messages this week a little shorter than usual. I've got a name of preaching anywhere from one to ten hours, or something like that, but I'll try to make it about thirty-five, forty, minutes this week, the Lord willing, so people... Most of the people, I know---I think---are all the way from the south side. (I think that's right. Down that way? South side.) And so, you can get back in time to be back for the following service. Now before we approach the Word, let us approach the author by prayer while we bow our heads.

5 Our heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee for the privilege of assembling together on this rainy afternoon in the name of the Lord Jesus, once more this side of his coming; believing that some day we'll assemble our last time until that great general assembly will be called in heaven.
May our names be written plain and clear, washed in the blood of the Lamb, that we can answer at the roll call at the wedding supper. That's why we're here today, Father, is to prepare our hearts for that great event.
We pray that You forgive us of our shortcomings, our mistakes, the things that we have did and said that was not right. Just remember us, Father, that we are human and subject to all kinds of mistakes. And if we didn't have thy promise of thy grace we would all be lost.
But it's through thy grace that we stand today as soldiers, believing by faith that God has saved us from a life of sin and from a eternal punishment in the world hereafter.

6 We ask now that You'll remember all of our efforts. You know why they're put forth. You know why we're here. You know why I answered Brother Carlson that night on the phone, "Yes, I feel led."
Now, Father, the rest is in your hands. Do with us as you see fit, for we present ourselves to Thee with thy Word, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Over in the book of Coloss... Galatians, rather, for a text this afternoon, I want to take the subject from the third chapter of Galatians and the twenty-ninth verse.
For if ye be in Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

7 And now I'm approaching this subject this afternoon the third time that I've, in the last two months, that I have preached on this subject. Because I did this, is because ... thinking that if we did not have a healing service I could dedicate a little more time to this, because to my opinion it's one of the great outstanding messages for this hour that we're living in.
First, I would just like to ask this question. "How many are here that are Christians, born again Christians? Raise your hands. All over the building, everywhere. I believe it's one hundred percent, everywhere---born again Christians.
The custodian, would... ? You know, I'm not one of these spotlight preachers, and I would... If you'd turn those big lights out, if we can do it, I'd appreciate it very much. I don't like what they call limelights, and different kind of lights. I just like the Holy Spirit light, about the only one that I can think of. And these others kind of upset me a little.

8 And so, now this afternoon you have your Bibles, and maybe a pencil and paper. I would like for you to write these down and study them after the services is over and in the coming week. Now, I believe we're allotted here till about ... what time? Till six o'clock. That'll let me get one third of it finished, and so then, a little later maybe we can go into it a little better. Now. (Thank you, sir. That's very, very fine. Now you look better.)
I want to take this subject, or draw from this subject, the context I hope to be this: Abraham and his seed after him. Now I would like to make... (I believe these are speakers on each side here.) And I want you to be sure to keep these in mind. And I'm going to...
I got two pages of Scriptures written out here that I would like to refer to---these Scriptures to you---because that I truly believe with all my heart that we're living just in the afternoon of time of the evening lights going out, and the coming of Christ is at hand. And I believe substantially and biblically I can prove that by the Scriptures beyond any shadow of doubt, that we're at the end-time.

9 Now whether I can satisfy you with it or not, I do not know. But to me, it certainly satisfies me.
And being not efficient in education, therefore, I approach the Scriptures from the standpoint of a type; and more like a typologist who ... type what has been, what will be, because we know that the Scriptures each have a compound meaning that...
Like in Matthew 3 it said, "Out of Egypt I've called my son." Now if you run that reference back you'll find out that it meant Jacob, his son, and also Jesus, his Son. So in typing we see where the Old Testament types the new, and all these different shadows and types.
Like the moon and the sun is a type of Christ and the church. And as the sun goes down, the moon gives light in the absence of the sun; just like as the Son left the earth to go into glory to the Father, then the moon, the church, gives the light. And how the moon gets its light is reflecting the sunlight to the earth, for a lesser light.
And all these things, they may seem more like a baby form for great theologians, but I don't believe I'm talking to too many of those. And if I am, then you excuse my illiterate way of trying to present it. But I would ask that you'd search it thoroughly before you rudely disagree with it.

10 Now, to Abraham and his seed. I'm going to take on this side over here to be Abraham; take on this side, like this speaker, his seed after him. Now, this speaker here represents Abraham, and this speaker represents his seed after him. Now the Bible said over here in Galatians 3:29, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Now we all will agree that the promise was given to Abraham, and we've often wondered... And I have approached this text in another angle than what I'm intending to this afternoon. I've approached it in the way of faith for the church, the believers, and so forth, to build faith on healing. But being this afternoon they didn't ... no one for the cards, then I thought it'd give me time to explain this while we had a chance.
Now, Abraham...

11 I want the congregation to say it with me---all the class, I'll call you, to say it with me. On this side is Abraham, Abraham and his seed after him. Now the promise was made to Abraham and (conjunction; it ties the sentence), Abraham and his seed after him. Then the Scripture said, "If ye be in Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed." Is that right?
Now, how do we get in Christ? The subject starts on this: how do we become Christ's? It's when we are become Christians. How do we become Christians? When we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, then our life is governed by the life of Christ which is in us.

12 Now, like if a vine brought forth ... a grape vine, it brings forth grapes, and a watermelon vine brings forth a watermelon. Then if Christ be in you, then the life that Christ lived and the works that Christ did, you'll do also. He said so in St. John 14:7, or 8, I believe it is. It said, "The works that I do shall you do also. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he also; and more than this shall he do, for I go to the Father." Now, the promise made to Christ ... or to Abraham and his seed; and we being in Christ are Abraham's seed.
Now how do we get into Christ? Do we get into Christ by profession? No. Do we get into Christ by joining church? No. Do we get into Christ by water baptism? No. How do we get into Christ? I Corinthians, the twelfth chapter, said that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, which is the body of Christ. By one Spirit we're all baptized into one body and become members of this body.

13 Now, we remember that by this Holy Spirit we are brought into the body of Christ, then free from the judgments of God. We cannot come into judgment after you are in Christ, because Christ took the judgment for you. He stood in the place.
Just like Adam. In the beginning, Adam was not deceived, and II Timothy tells us so. Said, "Adam was not deceived, but Eve, being deceived, was in the transgression." Now, Adam was not deceived. He knowed exactly what he was doing; but Eve was deceived. She thought she was doing what was right.
Satan give her about ninety-five percent pure gospel, and the other five percent was enough to throw that off. So we've got to be not just part gospel; we've got to be full gospel. We've got to have the entire Word, for the antichrist is a part gospel preacher. We know that. And his works are part gospel.

14 Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 that antichrist in the last days would be so close like the real Christ till it would deceive the very elected if it was possible.
I heard our Brother Billy Graham say a few days ago in a message that the antichrist had already deceived the elected---but that isn't so, Brother Billy. I'm not disagreeing with a great evangelist like that, but they cannot. "... if it was possible." But it's not possible, because the church was elected to eternal salvation, and there's nothing can separate them. They're Christ's and that's it. They're in the body of Christ and nothing can separate them. And that's part of the subject this afternoon.
Now we're going to approach, and find out what Abraham was, and then what his seed would be after him. Now, I'd like to say this now in regards... The first church, that Christian church that was established, was established in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Every theologian will have to agree with that. Every theologian takes their church back to that time.
The Catholic church ... and it's true the Catholic church began on the day of Pentecost. Exactly right.

15 But on down about two hundred years after, or three hundred years later, they got away from that and become into an organization. And then they organized the great universal church---which "catholic" means universal.
And from that they began to have a apostolic succession, and bring up another man to take Peter's place; and "popes" they begin to call them after bishops, and on and on. And they actually began at Pentecost (that's right), because all Christendom began at Pentecost.
Now the thing that I wonder---if we all believe that we began back there, then why are not we doing as they did back there? Why haven't we got the blessings of God upon the church as they had then? Let us be Catholic or whatever we are, why haven't we got the same Spirit moving and doing the same works that they did back there?
It's because we get a little something or other, and settle down on it and make a doctrine out of it, and a period, and organize it, and let it go like that. Then we say, "Here we are." God moves right off and leaves us. That's just what He did to Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal, and on and on. He's done the same thing, and He'll continue to do it when you draw a line and say that, "Well, we're going to group ourselves together and separate ourselves from the rest of them."
The Bible said they'd do that in the last days, seemingly not having the faith. And that's right. We want the faith that was once...

16 Now we begin there, and know that that was the beginning of the church, and that mainly in the beginning was all Jews. After the Jewish people evangelized, then it went into the Romans, and to the Greeks and so forth, and started. But the reformation come, back in the early fifteen-hundreds, and there began ... the Christian church began to organize itself or get itself together. And we're living in the last church age now, the Laodicean, according to Scripture.
Now that's ... Abraham, this is his seed after him. Now turn, if you wish, to the Genesis 12 and we begin where God called Abraham. Now the first thing I want you to know that when God in Genesis 12 called Abraham, it was by election. It wasn't because Abraham was good. It wasn't because Abraham deserved it. It was because that God chose Abraham. Not Abraham choosing God; it was God choosing Abraham.
And that's the way He calls his seed too. Not what you want to be---"not him that willeth or him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy." Is that Scriptural? Certainly. It's not what you want to be. It's what God has chose you to be, Abraham and his seed after him. Not seeds, now; seed after him. Now, the promised seed.

17 Now we find out that when God called Abraham it was by election.
I've heard people many times say, "I sought God. I sought God." No, I differ with you. You never did seek God. God sought you first. You never seek after God; it's God seeking after you. It's you that will not surrender to God.
It's just like what if you could tell the hog in the hog pen that he shouldn't eat slop. If he could speak he'd tell you, "Why, you tend to your own business," see. Until his nature's changed, then he'll always remain a hog. You'll always remain what you ... a sinner because you're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. And you're a sinner by birth.
And look what Adam did. As soon as he become a sinner he never tried to seek God. It was God seeking Adam. He really represented the human race right there when he hid himself behind some fig leaves that he made himself. Like most people do today---"I belong to the church, and I've got my fig leaf apron on." But it was God seeking after Adam, and not Adam seeking after God.

18 It should've been Adam, screaming, "Father, Father, where art thou?"
Instead, it was God saying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?"
And that's the same thing today. So there's just not one bit of goodness about us that we could say we had anything to do with our salvation. It was God calling us by election.
Now, I want you to keep in mind of three. All times there's three classes of people on earth. They came from three races of people. They came from Ham, Shem, and Japheth. We notice Peter on the day of Pentecost when Jesus had give him the keys to open the gospel to the Jews, then to the Samaritans, and then to the Gentiles. That finished it. According to Scripture all the races of the earth come from those three boys.

19 And now there's three classes of people. Always is, in every congregation, made up everywhere, wherever you find them. That's believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. You find those three classes of people in probably every church there is in the world---is make-believers, and unbelievers, and believers.
Now Abraham ... called by grace. Now, God didn't say... And notice, God, when He called Abraham, He didn't say, "Abraham, if you will do a certain thing, I will do a certain thing." He said, "Abraham, I have already done it." Not what you did, what I did; what God did.
He said, "Now (when he made a covenant with Adam), if you'll not touch that tree you'll live forever." Adam broke it. Moses and them, "If you'll keep the commandments, I'll do so-and-so. If you break the commandments, I'll do so-and-so." When God makes a covenant with man, man breaks his covenant with God. But so that the elected, the church, the elected people, the called-out, separated, group of people would be sure to be saved, God called them by his grace.
Not that God'd say, "I choose you; and condemn you." Never. But if He's infinite... How many believes He's infinite? Well, then, He knowed from the beginning what the end would be. That's what the Scripture says. He's omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and infinite.

20 Now, if He's infinite, by his foreknowledge He knew who would come to Him and who would not come to Him. He knew who would be saved and who would not be saved. That would certainly clear up Romans 8 and 9 for you, if there's any question about God, whether He calls his children by election or not. For there Paul, speaking of Esau and Jacob, before either child was born, not even knowing what was right or wrong, God said, "I love Jacob and hate Esau," before either child had a way to even make a choice. But God knew from the beginning what Esau was. He knowed what Jacob was.
And God knowed in the beginning what you were, and what you are not. So therefore we cannot be nothing but what... If we cannot be like somebody else, let's just be what God made us. That's all we can do. Anything other than that would be hypocrisy. We'd be a hypocrite. So we do not want to be that. It'd be better to be an infidel than to be a hypocrite. Let's be just what we are.
And all these things has to operate together to make the great wheels of God go on. And not one thing is going wrong. I'll guarantee you that. Everything... You think the devil could ever conquer God? My! Certainly not. He cannot. God ... everything's making it work together for the good to them that love Him. He's just making everything pull right in exactly right. Only thing He has trouble with is jerk us back in line where we ought to be. That's where God has his trouble.

21 Now He called Jacob ... not ... called Abraham (pardon me) by election and by grace and give him eternal life, and told him He'd come to him in an old age. He didn't have to do one thing about it. Only thing, it was by grace. And that's exactly the way the church is called today; is, "By grace are you saved through faith." And we know that's right. God calls the church by his grace.
If it wasn't, today, for the grace of God, you'd be out here in the rain watching the ball game somewhere. You'd be out here on the highways running around. You'd be in a barroom somewhere, be out with some man's wife or some woman's husband. You'd be out in the world. But it's by the calling and grace of God that He's changed your minds and made you new creatures in Christ Jesus. And our soul looks up to Him today with expectations of his coming.

22 Therefore over in Colossians we find (Colossians 3) it says don't lie to one another, and all these things that you used to do. Lay them things aside. No malice, no strife, and everything; and love one another. For our lives ... we are dead. Our life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed there by the Holy Ghost. And when Christ, which is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with Him. Oh, what does it do to a man or woman that has that hope living in them today? to see that we're in the last days, and know that our life... Christ, when He appears, we'll appear alive with Him. Amen. We have the earnest of it now by the Holy Spirit.
God called Abraham. And notice, when God called Abraham, He called him to separate himself from all the rest of the unbelief. No matter how religious they was, how pious they was, how nice they was, He called for a complete separation. And God, when He calls a man, He calls him to complete separation, if he is a seed of Abraham---to separate yourself from the things of the world, from this modern life.

23 Oh, the ministers today are having such a time to get their people out to prayer meeting on Wednesday night. They love television programs, and they love amusement. Sunday, they don't want to come to church on Sunday many of them. They tell me, the ministers, that the church pews are empty, emptying out, because that people are beginning to go... The world offers so much class, and so much fancy and tinsel upon the things of the world, and the people fall for that. Now that shows that at the beginning they had nothing to start with, for if you love God you can't ... you couldn't wire you away from church. They couldn't chain you away from it. They can't hide a believer from God in his heart.
Oh, he might be all deceived. Now there's many people that actually think that they are right. But if you'll just stop and watch their life you'd see the Spirit of God isn't in there. If it doesn't cope with this Bible, then there's something wrong with the experience that you have. So you must come back and line up with the Word to see if the life of God is in you.
If you love the world better than you love prayer meeting, if you'd rather watch a television program than to pray, there's something wrong with you. If you'd rather take a Sunday afternoon ride instead of going to church, there's something wrong with you somewhere, because "Where your heart is, there your treasures are also," said the Lord Jesus.
Your heart is built into it. You are a part of it. You become a part of Christ; because you're built into the structure of Christ because you're the bride of Christ, if you love Him.

24 Now, God called him by election, give him the covenant, and in Genesis, the twelfth chapter---now, we want to remember that---and called a total separation from all the things of the world. Now Abraham did not obey God. Now I'm going to call that...
Now if I speak one word here this afternoon that's against anybody's belief, well, now, you just don't get up and go out, because that shows your raising, see. But just let me say this: I believe if a man is a Catholic and he's depending on the Catholic church for salvation, he's lost. I believe if a man belongs to the Catholic church and is depending on Jesus Christ for salvation, he's saved.
If he's a Baptist, or a Pentecostal, and depending on the church for salvation, he's lost. If he's depending on Jesus Christ he's saved---because by faith are you saved through grace, see. It's your personal faith in Christ is what saves you. And no church can save you, no organization can save you, no group of people can save you. It's Christ and Him alone that you're saved. And so you must keep that in mind. So, now, if I strike a denomination this afternoon, or something that you belong to, please just sit quiet a little bit till I make this point for the people, if you will.

25 Now we find out that justification... God called Abraham by justification, and by grace He called him. By election he was elected. By grace he was called, and given the covenant with him. Before Abraham had one word to say, whether it was right or wrong, whether he would or would not, God called him. Is that right? Now you read the first ... the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the first ... about the first ten or fifteen verses, and you'll catch it. All right, now.

26 And then we notice that in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, now, that's what ... God did something else to Abraham. Now how did we call ... how did He call Abraham? By faith. Called him by grace, saved him by grace, justified him by grace. Is that right? How did He call the church, Abraham's seed? By faith---by grace, justification by grace, by faith. Just as He did Abraham, so did He the seed of Abraham after him. All that believe that, say, "Amen." Sure. There's justification.
Now what church would represent justification? In the first reformation was Martin Luther, who came forth preaching justification by faith. All of us know that---that young German priest that throwed the communion on the altar, and said that it was not the blood of Jesus Christ or the kosher bread, that he knowed it was just the bread and wine. So he throwed it on the altar and said it represented the body of Christ.
And that's the difference that separates Catholic from Protestant. One said ... the Catholic says it is the body of Christ, and the other said it represents the body of Christ.

27 Now, Luther said, "The just shall live by faith," and that's exactly the first calling of the seed of Abraham---after the hundreds of years of Dark Ages---to make up the church that'll go in the rapture.
Now, bear with it a minute. Now, how did He call Abraham? Genesis 12, now---by faith, justification by faith. He called the seed of Abraham ... the next, which was by faith, by justification.
Now, Abraham did not fully obey God. Until he fully obeyed God, God never did confirm the covenant to him. Now in the fifteenth chapter we find out that He confirmed the covenant to Abraham. How did He do it?

28 Notice. He told Abraham in the fifteenth chapter... You'll notice this, that He told him to take a heifer of three years old, a goat and sheep three years old and split them apart and offer them to Him. And Abraham taken these three animals of three years---as I told you, the three separations, the three like the trinity, and so forth, the three. Now we see that he cut these open and separated them.
Then he put two---a turtledove and a young pigeon---in there. He never divided them birds, because from the Old Testament to the New Testament the blood for the sacrifice was changed. But turtledove and pigeon represented healing, for we know that was the cleansing of leprosy and so forth, for healing. And healing has always been based upon your faith in God. Then if I say...
You say healing wasn't included in the New Testament, in the new atonement. Well, if the old atonement had healing in it, isn't this a better one? How could you say then it isn't? But it's all based the same.

29 Like Brother Aegery, or some of these brethren not long ago, the Lutheran brethren who told me they knowed a witch that healed the people. I said, "No, you never. You never seen no witch heal a person."
Yet I've been in Africa and seen them go before the witch doctor and get healed. In Alsace Lorraine, France, there's a place there, down at ... there by the ... I think it's the Seine River it is, where the church of Notre Dame... There's a dead woman buried there, this great big place, where they go there and rub it to keep plagues off the city, this rock above this dead woman. Why, certainly. And things happen.
Sure. It's the approach. The people think they're approaching God through that idol. People think they're approaching God through the witch doctor. And many times people on the fields today here in America, men say, "Just come. Oh, I got healing." That's wrong. The good, sound gospel teachers don't teach it like that. They teach that it is in the atonement, Christ heals you; and they're here just as men of God, in faith to believe and pray for you. But when you hear somebody say, "I can heal you. I got healing. I've done this," that is wrong. Christ did that for you when He died at Calvary for you. That's the blessing that belongs to you. It's your...

30 And these people are approaching these idols, and images, and witch doctors, and fortune-tellers, and all those different things like that. They get healed because they believe that through there they're approaching God. And divine healing is based upon faith---if you believe it.
Now that's the reason the turtledove and pigeon wasn't separated. I told you some day I could get to that and I thought, having as much time as I have this afternoon, I would try to get to it for you. That's the reason it was not ... they wasn't separated. But the others was separated, cut in two.

31 Now what was God doing? To kill these animals it taken blood. In order for the sacrifice, for the cleansing of sin, there has to be a blood offering. God based that in Genesis. When man tried to build himself an organization, or some kind of a fig leaf, apron and get around it, God refused to look at him.
And God, when God once makes a statement, when God once says anything, when God ever once called on the scene to make a decision, that decision He makes has to stand for eternity, because his Word is perfect. He cannot go back and say, "I was mistaken yesterday. I know more about it today." How can He be infinite and make a statement and then have to go back on it? How that gives us confidence in the one we're talking about---God. He cannot fail.

32 If God was ever called to heal a sick man and He healed him on the basis of his faith, if another man comes on the same grounds, He's got to meet that same condition or He did wrong when He healed the first man. Certainly. If He saved a man on the basis of faith, then how're we going to get in then upon church joining, and sprinkling, and baptisms, and so forth?
It's by faith, by grace, by the power of God, by something that you ... something that you met God's requirement, and He called you, and changed your life before you even could do anything about it. Why, there's nothing in you. You're a sinner to begin with, and there's nothing there to change. So God by his grace foreknew you and called you to his ministry, and to his wedding supper.
See, it's nothing you can do about it at all---God's grace altogether. God did it by grace. "He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me..." Not make-believeth, but "believeth on him that sent me hath [present tense] everlasting life and shall not come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto life." Amen.

33 How're we going to get around that?
There's so much make-believe---going on sensations, and different things like that. But within your heart you believe it. When something's happened to you, it's God did it, and God's the only one that can do it. So God, by grace and election, put that in your heart to believe it. It wasn't there to begin with, and you had no way of putting it there. God placed it there, and you answered the call.
Now notice. In Genesis, the fifteenth chapter, when He taught Abraham the separation, when Abraham was ready to separate himself from unbelieving Lot, the lukewarm church member... When Lot went down into Sodom and become the mayor of the city, and built him a nice church down there---something, whatever he did---then God met Abraham; and they offered a blood sacrifice for separation and confirmed the covenant to Abraham. Amen.

34 Why, without the shedding of blood there's no separation from sin. It's through the shed blood.
Now, notice what taken place. He took the animals and cut them apart. Abraham watched until the sun went down. And there was a deep sleep fell upon Abraham. And when he noticed the deep sleep come, that meant death. It's due to all of us. We're all coming there to that great, eternal sleep.
Now we notice immediately after that, he looked before him and a great horror of blackness and a smoking furnace. What is it? Hell. Down through the valley of the shadow of death every man goes into hell. That's where he belongs at.
And then just beyond that went a little white light that went in between each one of those cuts of flesh, Abraham having the covenant confirmed to him by the Lord God; that how He was going to take Abraham and make him a father of nations, how He was going to save Abraham and his seed. He was making a confirmation of the covenant by the shed blood of the clean offered animals.

35 Now, how do we make a covenant? Say, for instance, Brother Carlson, here. Stand up just a minute, Brother Carlson. If I was going to say ... Brother Carlson say, "Brother Branham, will you come to Miami at the meeting?"
I'd say, "Well, let's think it over, Brother Carlson." I'd say, "Well, I believe so. All right, I'll come, Brother Carlson. Shake." See? That's a covenant. We'll be there. That's right. That's got it. See, we'll make the covenant, like that. That's the way we make a covenant.
You know in Japan, how they make a covenant? They go out... We go out and eat usually. The Japanese get a little cruse of salt and throw a little salt on one another. That's how they make the covenant with each other, because salt is a contact, it's a savor, you see. So they throw salt on one another, making a covenant.
But in the days of Abraham, you know how they made a covenant back in the eastern Oriental countries then? They killed a beast, and they stood between these dead pieces of beast. They wrote on the parchment, or the lamb skin, whatever it was, and made this Jewish writing, the covenant, whatever it was.
And then over this dead beast's body they took an oath, that if they broke this covenant let them be cut into pieces like this dead beast was.

36 Then they took the skin and tore it apart, and one kept one piece, and one kept the other piece. And then when this covenant was brought back, or when the covenant was brought to its fullness, then these two pieces had to be dovetailed together, and made that skin and them letters meet, letter by letter.
That's the way the covenant was confirmed to Abraham that... He was showing him there what He was going to do in the times to come through the royal seed that he had promised him, yet him without any children. He had promised him the son, that he was going to have it. He was seventy-five years old, and Sarah was sixty-five when the promise was made, and it was twenty-five years later before the promise was ever fulfilled. But God kept his promise with him because Abraham kept faith in God.

37 Now, all along, instead of getting weaker, Abraham got stronger, the Bible says. He was stronger, giving praise to God. He knowed it was going to happen. No matter how long it lingers, it's going to happen. Going to happen.
Like people today, they say, oh, the Bible says they say, "There is no difference from the time our fathers fell asleep."
"Oh, I've heard that coming of the Lord since I was a little kid. My mother said she heard her mother talk about it. There's no such a thing."
You see, then they go out and eat, drink, and be merry. See that? They go out and start off, because why? There's never been any confirmation of it in their heart yet.
But when God once confirms that in your heart, instead of... If you're a real true seed of Abraham, instead of getting weaker as you see the days go by, you get stronger all the time. You say, "Well, if grandmother didn't see it, and mother didn't see it, if I don't see it, I'll be looking for it; and if I don't, my children will see it. We're ... I'm believing it. I'll fall asleep in the first [second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh] watch [either, church age ... the first church age or to the last church age, those watches], which are watches. If I fall asleep in each one of them no matter where it is, I'll awake in Him that morning. So I'm going to be ready, believing that He's coming in this age."

38 Now, but when you get slothful and say, "Well, I've heard that stuff," and go on, see, it's not Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed doesn't take back. They're not up and down, and in and out, and backslid one day and go to church the next day, and then come back. They stay put. Where there is Christ in there, they stand. There's nothing can shake them.
Why, Jesus said, "Upon this rock I'll build my church. The gates of hell can't prevail against it." God's done made the covenant with Abraham and his seed after him, and that church will be there without spot or wrinkle. You can just depend on that.
So, you see, this piece of goods, or cloth (it was in them days not cloth, but a skin) was tore apart, one man taken one piece, the other man taking the other piece. And then when this covenant was brought to its fullness, then they'd come back together. And there's no way to impersonate it because these two pieces had to be just exactly the same in the skin. And also in the writing they had to dovetail, letter by letter.

39 Now, that's exactly what God did by the royal seed of Abraham.
Now, I know Isaac was the seed of Abraham potentially, was the natural seed of Abraham---but not the real seed of Abraham. The real seed of Abraham was Christ, the royal seed. Isaac only was a substitutionary until Christ came, which was the seed of Abraham. Now, and then the real seed of Abraham believes the promise, just like Abraham did, because it's to Abraham and his seed after him.
Now, watch what God did to the royal seed to make the covenant confirmed. He took Christ, which was the seed of Abraham. On Calvary He tore Him apart. He took the Spirit off of Him and put his body in the grave and his soul in hell; and raised Him up on the third day, and raised up his body and brought it up into glory; and there sent the Spirit back down, and kept the body on his right hand side. Sent the Spirit back down to live in the church, to make a church just so much with the life of Christ that in the resurrection the two will come together---bride and bridegroom.
The church and Christ will be exactly alike, with the same kind of ministry, same kind of power, same kind of Spirit. He raised up the body of Jesus Christ and sat it on his right side, his right hand, and poured down the Spirit upon the church on the day of Pentecost. That's how God proved his covenant with his church.

40 And Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." And we see that that's God's way. He confirmed his covenant with his church (Amen!) by a blood offering through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now He sanctified that church then, cleansed it, separated it. And when separation comes, it means to be set aside. Actually the word "sanctify" is a Greek word, compound, which means sanctified, cleansed, and set aside for service. Now the altar sanctified the vessel, and then they set it aside for service.
So, who was the next messenger on earth that preached justification? Luther, to the seed. What was the next message? Wesley. Methodists preached sanctification, second definite work of grace. We find all of us know that. We're aware of that. Now, look. What He did to Abraham by justification, He did to his seed. What He did to Abraham through sanctification (separation)... When He did, He did the same thing. When the church separates itself from all the things of the world, then God applies the blood to it.

41 Now, then when He does that, then you don't want no more smoking, drinking, no more of this running around, carrying on. You're a separated people. That's right. God separates you as a peculiar people. Lot of make-beliefs going on in all these things, but yet the real true church... I'm talking about the real seed of Abraham, the one that really is the seed.
Now, notice, the next thing He did then. After doing that, we find out... Now, did He call Abraham by grace? Say, "Amen." Did He call his church by grace? Amen. Did He sanctify Abraham's works by a blood offering? Amen. Did He do the same thing back there through Wesley? Amen.
Now, in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, turn to the first verse. God appears to Abraham in the name of Almighty God, which the Hebrew word means El Shaddai. "El" means breast ... or, "El" means strong one and "Shad" means breast (like a woman's breast), and "Shaddai" is breasted. "Abraham, you're ninety-nine years old [Think of that!], and you have come through justification, you've come through sanctification, and now I'm appearing to you as a strong, breasted God." Amen.

42 Now, in other words, "Abraham, your life is dead. As far as that's concerned, the life of your body is dead. The deadness of Sarah's womb, it's just, it wasn't... She was sterile to begin with, and now look how old she is now." She's ... if he's ninety-nine, she's eighty-nine.
"And so, now, look how old you are, and look how old Sarah is. But I am the strong one who gives myself out to you. Lay upon my bosom and nurse yourself, my own life into you. By taking my life into you I'll give you strength for the coming son, for the coming one."

43 That's the thing He done to the church, after they come through justification, sanctification. When did He do to the church? All of those was orders that were done through faith and grace. But on the Pentecostal move God called his sanctified people to his breast to nurse from Him the life that was in God in them. There is a baptism of the Holy Ghost for the church, just like He did to Abraham.
There's the elect Pentecostal group that they call fanatics today. I mean the elected group. There they are just as He called ... justification, sanctification, and filled Abraham with his own strength. He called the church through justification, sanctification, and filled the church with his own strength, his Spirit into the church; and give the church the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
And that was the next great move that struck the earth. We know that. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and the Pentecostal move, that's been the move--- justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost. Just the same as He did to Abraham, He's did it to his seed after him. Do you get it now?
Now mark down the fourth and fifth verse in that same chapter there, in the seventeenth. Now I want you to notice what God did here. See, God cannot defile his own laws. He has to keep his own laws. So God cannot disobey his own laws. He cannot annul his own law, in order to be God.

44 Now, if we notice in the Old Testament there was ... when a child was born in a family, that child was, say, a boy. He was a heir, of course. But before that child was fully a heir of all the things that his father had, before he came into power he was first put under a tutor. And this tutor raised this son. Now we ... all the clergy knows that. He was put under a tutor. And this tutor was a man that... The father searched out to find the very best man he could find, because that's his son, that's what's going to fall heir to him afterwards.
So then, he hunts a good tutor. Not a tutor that'll say ... well, tell a lie, and say, "Oh, your church is just doing fine. Your little son's just doing fine," when he isn't. He's a little rascal. That's too much the trouble today, with too many of our bishops, and so forth, and all of our man-made tutors. "Your church is doing all right." But it's a lie; it's not. Having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof---something wrong, somewhere.

45 So, when the father got the very best tutor he could find, the best raiser... Now how that tutor must've blushed when he walked up in front of the father and say, "Oh, your son..."
"How is my son doing?" The father was busy, and had a great kingdom, and many ... like many places and tenants and business to take care of.
Now, how that tutor must've felt to've walked up (knowed he was hired by the father), to walk up and say, "Oh, your son... Oh, he's horrible. I just can't make him listen to a thing. He's going to have his own hard-headed way. Most hard-headedest kid I ever seen in my life. He's just... He won't listen. I've got your book of laws here. I lay them right down to him, but he knows what he's going to do. His old man might've run it one way, but he's going to run it another way."
How that tutor must've blushed when he had to come and tell the father that. How the father must've felt about it, too! And how the Father must feel today.
I hope this don't hurt---just enough to make you get straightened out, for my hour is soon at hand.

46 Notice. But this must be said: how that the Holy Spirit was made tutor over the house of God! Not some dominating bishop, not some overpowering organization, not some of these man-made theories. The child of God is to listen to the Holy Spirit, the writing of the Word, the real child of God, the real son of Abraham.
Now here's where the separating time comes. Notice, "Oh," you say, "we're Pentecostal." You settled at that. But you just got started then, see.
Now how he must have felt! How the Holy Spirit must feel today to go before God the Father! I want you to tell me, on the day of Pentecost did God ordain a Roman priest to be father? Tutor? Did He ordain a Methodist bishop? Pentecostal presbyter? No, sir. He sent the Holy Ghost down to be the ruler of the church. Exactly right. What happened to it?

47 Jesus, catching John up, He said there he'd not die. Some of them said He said it, but He didn't do it. Said, "What will happen to this man after the resurrection?"
"What business is it of yours if he stays till I come?"
But instead of doing that, being that they said it, He just raised him up and showed him on over till He did come, at the end of the church age. So he thought up...
Remember, Jesus said in the second church age, Smyrna, there was deeds of the Nicolaitanes. And what was the deeds in the second church become a doctrine in the third church age.
Now that word is not used nowhere else in the Bible. I looked it up to find out what it was. "Nico" means to conquer. "Laity" means the laity: conquer the laity. Make a holy man---somebody that's holier than thou art. Just go out and get somebody, and he'll be some half-god or something like that, to set up... And you do what you please, and he'll forgive the sins. And there you go, conquer the laity. Take the Holy Spirit away from the church out there, and put it all on the platform. That was not God's way of doing it!
No man on the platform's got a right to say he's the only one that's got the Holy Ghost, and he's the only one that's got a say so in it. The Holy Spirit is to the whole entire body of Christ. I see that where tongues, interpretations, gifts, manifestations of the Holy Spirit... But we conquered it, sure.

48 The very thing that we come out of, Pentecost went right back into it again, just as hard as they could go.
The very thing that you used to call old formal Baptist and Methodist, it ain't formal Baptist; it's formal Pentecostals now. You've done the same thing that your fathers come out of. You turned right back around and done the same thing---bottled it up. Made one church over here, and another over here, and fighting one another. And if this person don't come to your church, you'll have no cooperation with it.

49 Oh, you poor backslidden, hypocritical, so-called Christians! Shame on you! Your hour is at hand. God will punish you for that, as certain as I be his servant standing here---separating the laity, and making differences between brethren. God have mercy! Nothing against the Pentecostals; it's that system. Nothing against the Catholic; it's the system of Catholicism. Nothing against the Methodist; it's that system. Nothing against the Lutheran; it's the system.
Justification by Luther was right. But when they systemized it by organizing it, they did wrong. And Wesley... Luther never organized it; ones after him did. Wesley never organized it; ones after him did. And it wasn't the Pentecostal fathers that come out of that corruption. It's you bunch after them did---exactly what you done. That's where we're at today.
If the Pentecostal church would stand two hundred years from now, the ground that it's gained in the world in these past thirty years or forty, it would be worse off than the Catholic doctrine today. The Catholic started at Pentecost, too. What did it? Twisting up. Now, but the true seed remains right.

50 Notice.
What if that tutor that's taking care of the child back there under the Old Testament... ? Oh, if that child was just like the father, my! Everything the father said, "Yes. That's it. Amen. It's true. We'll do it that way." How that tutor must have walked up before the father and said, "Your son is a wonderful boy. Just the things that you do, that's exactly the way he does it, too.
"I don't care how ... you got some bosses and superintendents out there, but, oh my! They don't bother him. He stands right exactly like you do." Amen!
How the father must say, "That's my son. I'm proud of him. Yes, sir! He's my son. Some day I'll show the world that he's my son." All right. He don't pay no attention to the straw bosses. He stays right with what the father said.

51 And how the Holy Spirit today must feel when He goes before the Father, and says, "Why, you know what? Your women's wearing make-up. They're bobbing their hair. Your men, your children has organized their churches just as tight as the rest of them, and they won't co-operate with one another," and all of these things. How He must feel, how God must feel about his church! How ... it must be a disgrace.
"Why," He said, "I thought I told them to stay out of Sodom."
"But they went right back in it, Father---just like Lot, for a few nickels and a better place to worship in a bigger building, and finer chairs, and a better dressed preacher, one like this that can say, 'Amen' real well, and been off and got PhD, LLD, behind his name. And they can tell the rest of them all about this."

52 God don't care a nickel's worth about that. He wants a man that's filled with power and the Holy Ghost, that'll stand and tell the truth, regardless if it shucks the hide off of us. That's right.
But where do we find it? Everybody's got a meal ticket and a Cadillac. Something's wrong somewhere. Something's wrong somewhere. That's the reason the church is rocking today the way it is, because it's off the foundation.
What happened when that son then became in the Old Testament? I'd like to stay there a little while. I'll get back to it later.
But now, what if that son then was a good boy, stayed exactly like the father ordained it to be. If the Bible said one thing, he stayed right with it. Whatever the Bible said, he stays right with it. Regardless of what it is, no matter what the rest of them believe, all the straw bosses, he stays with the main boss. He stayed with what God said. God said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and mine be the truth." I don't care what comes, or what goes. Stay right with that.
And we know the Bible predicts that the Pentecostal age will become lukewarm, spewed out of God's mouth. We know that. That's what the Bible said. Exactly right. Now we've got to face it. It's here, now.

53 But now, if this son is a good son, then one day we have what we call in the Scripture, the Old Testament, a placing of a son; or it's called sometimes, the law of adoption. Now this same son that was born into the family, and he never... His name's no good on the check. We'll call it like that. His name's no good out there yet. He's never had the law of adoption done to him yet.
But when it comes to the time for the law of adoption, then the father takes his son out into a public place, and sets him up on a place, and dresses him in a certain robe, and performs what's known as the placing of a son, or the law of adoption.
And now, when this son is adopted into his own family, from then on this son is given power. He's gifted. Then his name's just as good as Father's is on the check because he's the boss. He's over the strawbosses. God gives him things that none of the strawbosses know nothing about, because he's a son. That's right.

54 And that's exactly what God did to his own Son after He'd proved Him in everything.
And the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew He'd taken him up on the mount, and overshadowed Him there with a cloud of glory. And his raiment shined like the sun in its heat, or in its strength. And when He did, He heard a voice coming from heaven---Peter, James, and John---said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him."
What did He do? Placed the law, his own law of adoption upon his Son, placed his Son ahead of Himself. No matter whether it's Moses ... "I talked to Moses. There's the law. There's the prophets. But this is my Son." The law of adoption. Oh! Sabbath keepers, and legalists, what's the matter with you? "There's my Son. Hear ye Him." It's true.
That's exactly what God did to Abraham, his son before that, after Abraham had been justified by faith. We believe that, don't we?---Abraham's seed justified by faith. All right.

55 The next thing was then, what did he do? The next thing was sanctification by the blood, sanctification by the blood to the seed. Next thing was nursing God's own strength into him, taking God's own strength into the church. What He did to Abraham, He did to his seed after him. Everybody understand that? All right.
Now notice. Then He said to Abraham, notice this fourth and fifth verse: "Abraham, my covenant now is with you." Amen. What a condition that ought to have been! What a word of encouragement to an old man a hundred years old---right at a hundred, ninety-nine---and telling him that He was El Shaddai.
"Now I've give you the strength. Now I'm going to place you with Me. Now I'm the Father of all creation. My name is Elohim." Anyone knows that the word Elohim means the all-sufficient one, the great self-existing one, Elohim.

56 "Now my name is Elohim, and your name is Abram. And you'll not no longer be called Abram, but you shall be called Abraham."
Now's when we're going to get down to some real stiff teaching. Abraham. Watch. From Elohim to Abraham. He give him part of his own name, when He placed him. Notice, Abraham and his seed...
Now when God got the Pentecostal church raised, He began to place them, and giving them gifts and so forth, and placing them into the kingdom. But everybody wanted to have the same gift, and oh, my! There we went. So... That don't stop God's seed, just the ... or Abraham's seed. It goes on just the same.

57 Notice, Elohim, Abraham---give him part of his own name, because, why? "I have made you the father of nations. A father. I have made you a father of many nations, and I'll put part of my name with your name." Oh, how I could squeeze something right here now. Give him part of that name, Abraham. And changed Sarah's name because she was a part of Abraham.
Now notice. The very next thing we find done here is in the eighteenth chapter, the next chapter, that God appears to Abraham as he sat under the oak. Now watch as he ... you see where he's placed his son: justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving of gifts. Now when He appeared to him just before He burned Sodom...

58 I'm not prone to looking at television because I'm against them uncensored programs. But last night in the place where I was staying, I picked up a book after I got in real late, and looked on the little ... reading the book there and said "Television Guide." And I happened to notice there there was a place where they was going to show these atomic missiles, or something or other, from the Pentagon.
So I went up to this radio, or television, to turn it on to watch this missile, see---this atomic affair, or saucer, as they call it, ever what it is. Been a lot of criticism, and a lot of pro and con. But now, I just watched just a minute. Every man ... you've got a right to your opinion. I have to mine. Let me express mine.
Now, before that Sodom was burned, just before... How many seen that program? I guess there's many of you did. All right. It's not just something made up. It was from the government. And they've been on this work, and on this research for years, and they knowed that it absolutely is the truth. It's true. That's nothing new. If they'd just only read this Scriptures, they'd know right where they were at. They don't have to be worried about that. But now let's place that right on this message now just a minute.

59 Now when Abraham, after he had been justified, sanctified, received the Holy Spirit, received like that, and had placed a son... This son proved that he was, because he had the Spirit of God in him. He did the same works; what his word was, was just exactly like the Word of God.
We can never build a church upon nine hundred and something different organizations, and every one different from the other one. No, sir. No, we cannot. Now notice. But when this son---Abraham's son, seed---is made manifest, then the Spirit of God in that manifested seed will do the same works that Jesus did, because the same works of the royal seed will be in the seed of Abraham. Notice, placing the son, making him just like the son, his church.

60 Now as we move on, Abraham sitting under the oak one day, he looked up and he saw three men coming to him. Now place this down now in your memory. He saw three men. They were dust covered perhaps, and come from a distance. Abraham looked at them, and he recognized there was something godly about the men. They didn't have their collars turned around perhaps, and high turbans on, or neither were they called bishops, or... But he looked at them. They were just ordinary men, clothed and just like the rest of the men are dressed.

61 And Abraham run out to him, and said, "My Lord, will you come in, and sit down under the tree? And I'll fetch a little water, and wash your feet, and give you a morsel of bread. And then you go on your way."
Abraham knew... Now Abraham's seed, now remember. Listen! It was just Abraham that recognized that. Did you know...? I talked to a Jew the other day that believes ... always believed there's one God; and he wanted to believe there's three of them. So he said, "You know, that meant Father, Son, and Holy Ghost there." Oh, mercy! How far can a man get away from God!
"Abraham never said, "My lords." He said, "My Lord---capital L-o-r-d." But Lot, the backslider down there, said, "My lords," when he saw two of them come up. L-o-r-d-s.

62 But the man who was separated knowed. When he seen Him, he said, "My Lord, Elohim, come by and sit down here." And he walked up to him.
And he run in and told Sarah, "Knead some bread right quick of some meal. We want some cakes. And go out and get a fatted calf." And they killed the calf, and got things fixed up; brought it out, and He sat there and eat it.
Two of them went on down to Sodom to preach to Lot, down there in Sodom and to bring that lukewarm church out.
Now notice, the three classes. Now there was Lot, and Sodom, and Abraham, was the three classes of people on earth at that day. Now, please listen close. That's the same way it sits today with the seed of Abraham. See, there was Sodom, the Sodomites, the world, sinners. There was the organized lukewarm church sitting down there, Lot, the sins of the people vexing his righteous soul. That's exactly what the Bible says.
There you are---many righteous, good people down in there, which'll be called out. But I'm not speaking of that right now. Now, they sent a man down there to deliver them people, and he went down and preached to them

63 (watch), to the church that was in Sodom, in the world.
Now sometime this week we're going to take the mark of the beast, and the seal of God, and watch how that started right in Eden, and come right out where Cain went out from the presence of God to get his wife; how Seth stayed in the presence of God and got his wife; how the churches---different ways---went out with the organizations, going out with the organizations (the system) and got themselves a church, a bride; and when the real true church stayed with God. Perfectly.
Now here's what taken place. When these men went down there... And isn't it strange how He changed the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham? and the messenger went down there to preach to these people to bring them out?
And in this last day the messenger that's sent to those Sodomites, and to call them people out of those places down there, is called G-r-a-h-a-m. Not B-i-l-l-i-e S-u-n-d-a-y, Sunday; but G-r-a-h-a-m, a messenger. Show me one ecclesiastical messenger stands in his place today. There's not nowhere on the earth to the Christian church like Billy Graham. What's he doing? Screaming, "Come out of that thing! Separate yourself!" with the word of justification to call them out and separate them.

64 What did he do? His message blinded their eyes to the door. That's what it did today. The message blinds their eyes. They got so much organization in them, they can't see the door. And Christ is that door. That's right. Oh, they say, "Well, I'm Methodist. Well, look here, Mr. Graham. I'm Presbyterian. I'm Lutheran. I'm..." They don't see the door, and the message has blinded their eyes. Don't you see the miracle of God? See the Lot group? Way over there in Sodom.

65 Now, watch. To this one that stayed back behind, to the elected church---one. He said... Now look. Just a few days before that, Abram's name had been changed to Abraham. Now He never said, "Abram, where is thy wife S-a-r-r-a." He said, "Abraham, where is your wife S-a-r-a-h?" How did He know that if He was a stranger? Now watch. He's talking to the elected seed, now, of Abraham.
Now, He's talking to Abraham. And as He did to Abraham, He's got to do to the seed after him. We've found it everything perfectly up till this time. "Abraham [the revelation], where is your wife, Sarah?"
Said, "She's in the tent behind You." Now remember, behind you.

66 He said, "I'm going to visit you. [I, that personal pronoun involved, see.] I'm going to visit you. [That's how He knowed his name was... He's the one changed his name.] Abraham, I'm going to visit you according to the time of life with Sarah. I'm going to send this child just exactly like I said I would do. I'm going to do it."
And when Sarah heard that... Now, my sisters in here, you young women, excuse this, please. But Sarah laughed. You know why she laughed? She said, "Me? An old woman would have pleasure again with my lord, him old also?"

67 Now as husband and wife, as family relationship, had ceased for many years. They was a hundred years old. She said, "Me, again a young woman, could live with my husband there? And we'd have pleasure together like young married people?" And it tickled her. And she said, "Me, an old woman, live with my husband out there again, when we haven't had that type of life maybe for fifteen-twenty years, see. How could that be?"
Then the angel, with his back turned, said, "Why did Sarah laugh?"
Jesus referred to it, and said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man; so shall it be to the seed of Abraham."

68 Can you see where Lot sits? Can you see where the message is? Can you see the message that's gone to the elected church? The power of God back amongst the people, God dwelling in human flesh of his own church, performing those same signs! And they call it mind reading, mental telepathy, fortune-telling. No wonder they're doomed. No wonder guided missiles, as they call it, in the air, and they know nothing about it.
I'll give you my explanation of it. It's angels that's come down like they did there at Sodom. You know, I believe we had a picture of one on the back ... on a picture here somewhere. It'll be in the meeting next couple days. It's got the same spirit. It does the same things. That same spirit in the church will perform the same things Jesus did.

69 And we watch.
And on the Pentagon, when they get around there, and could see those missiles gathering in around them like that... Not something made up, some fiction; it's actually the truth. Here it is on radar. Here it is on a camera, taking it. And they're so fast till they would just disappear.
Einstein proved before he died, if two missiles was coming fast enough, or two men coming down the road in an automobile could be coming fast enough, they could pass right through each other without even disturbing each other, coming so fast. But it'd take billions of miles per second to do it, but they would.
Look at Jesus. We can't understand it. Well, Jesus was come into the room through a stone wall, the doors being shut, and stood there after He had his glorified body, and eat flesh. Hallelujah! Glory! You talk about space age, the church is fixing to take one, fast. Bragging about their planes going so fast... We got a man in the sputnik. Oh, my! What difference does that make to the church of the living God? Goodness!

70 He said, "When these things come to pass, lift up your heads. There'll be signs in the heavens above, and in earth below. The sea will roar, and earthquakes in divers places. That's the time to begin to look up. Your redemption is coming near."
You see the signs of Sodom, the organization, where it's took the church out yonder in a mystic ... oh, a self-righteous, legalistic way. But that man and woman who's waiting on the promise of God has the sign working among them, as the true living God discerning the very thoughts of the heart. It's the Word. Jesus was the Word.

71 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. St. John 1. Is that right?
Hebrews, the fourth chapter, said the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, discerning even the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And when the Word---when God's Word (not half of it, part of it, mixed up with some man-made creed)... " Ye abide in me and my Word in you, ask what you will, and it'll be done." But when the true Word becomes manifested in you, it's a discerner of the thoughts of the heart; and men call it mind reading, mental telepathy.
No wonder they called Jesus Beelzebub. He said, "I forgive you. But when the Holy Ghost is come and does it, one word against it will never be forgiven."

72 Then you see why we got our name on a missile hanging out yonder somewhere. You see where judgment stands. Notice. Sure, we're doomed.
There's the Billy Graham group down there preaching to that Lot, "Come out of Sodom. Get out of Sodom. Get out of Sodom." Maybe the boy don't know it, for all I know. Or the man---I think he's about thirty-seven years old, or forty. No, about forty-four or something ... forty-five, I don't know how... Billy said... Well, he's getting up somewhere in his forties. But anyhow how ... the man maybe don't realize what it is, see. There he is. He's the messenger of the day to that church, not realizing. Be had to be called like that. How everything...
You say, "How did that name have to do with it?" Why did He change Jacob's name? Why did he change all the rest of the names when they come to Him?

73 "Your name is called Simon. Hereafter you'll be called Peter." "You was Saul, but you'll be called Paul from now on." How about all these names if they don't mean something?
Well, you say that's numerology. The devil's got one, that's right. And God's got one. Everything the devil's got he's patterned it off of God. Exactly right.
He changed his name. After Jesus overcome He received a new name Himself. Every overcomer. The church, when it has completely overcome, the revelation of it begins to be real to them. Why was he called that? Why is he the messenger today that when the man...?
Just like it was in Eden, he destroyed himself by his own knowledge. And today he's doing the same thing, destroying himself with his own knowledge. Watch now, just a few minutes before we close. We got ... really got thirty minutes, but we won't have to take it. Look. I want to ask you something. Now, he went down and preached, them angels did. This other one stayed behind, messenger.

74 Some minister asked me one time, "Brother Branham, did you say that was God?"
That was God. Abraham called him Elohim. If you want to argue with Abraham, the Bible, that's all right. But he said it was Elohim stood there, and He eat flesh, with ordinary clothes on. Eat flesh, drink the milk of the cow, eat bread, and vanished out of Abraham's sight. He was Elohim. Proving what? When Jesus referred to that, Elohim would come back into the seed of Abraham at the last days.
And as it was in the days of Sodom, to the elected church so shall it be. Oh, my!

75 And to the church in Sodom, so shall it be. Now we see where they're standing, don't we? We see the names, everything, placed just exactly, just perfectly where we're sitting. What did he do then?
Immediately after that, as I've took this many times (I believe I preached on it one time for you), he changed Abraham and Sarah's body, and put them back to a young man and woman. Now, we know that that is the truth. Now remember.
Now let me prove it to you right here, so that you ... if you get any thoughts that they were ... in them days they just lived longer. The Bible said here that they were both well stricken in age. Well stricken. Then why did Sarah say that "... if could have pleasure with my lord."? And Abraham, the Bible said that his body was as good as dead. The seed in his body was as good as dead. And forty-five years after Isaac was born, he had seven more children. Answer that, will you?

76 Why did Abimelech fall in love, then, with Sarah, when she was an old woman? Said, "Me---an old woman, well stricken in age, me, old like I am now---could ever have pleasure again?" And when she took a three hundred mile journey, and went down and seen a young king, he fell in love with her. The most beautiful thing he ever seen. He changed her body. Why? He had to change her body in order to receive the promised son. And that's the next thing in order---the changing of the body, the rapture.
Now what if he'd have just took Abraham, said, "Now, Abraham, I'm just going to turn you back to a young man, going to turn Sarah back to a young woman. And now, you all just go ahead and have the son.
They wouldn't have done it, because they lived together when they was young, and they didn't have the son. They did not have any son, and they had lived together all these years. If He had just changed them back... There had to be a different kind of change. Oh, glory!

77 What? She couldn't have went in labor with a heart a hundred years old. The milk veins was dried up in her body. Her womb was unfertile. Oh, I know it seems strange. I know it does. It seems strange. What if a little baby before it's born, when it's in its mother's womb, could say, "Oh, woe is me! They tell me I'm going to be born in a few days. What'll I do? They tell me in the big world there's sunshine, people, walking around. Oooh! How will I get a living? I'd rather be right here in the womb. Oh, that big space! What will I do? Woe is me.
But if he could only think of what it was! If he could... After you're once out on this side, and then look back, you'd never want to go to the womb again.

78 And that's like we are now, thinking about what's that going to be? What's the other world, where we can pass from glory... ? Why, when they can take a scope, and see 120,000,000 years of light space... That ain't one-sixteenth of an inch in eternity. Hallelujah! Glory! But Jesus come from heaven to earth in a thought. Glory! And the church will be the same way. Pass ... right with such speed! Glory to God!
You say how can it be done? How do I know now? The only thing I know is inches and yards, and miles; days and weeks, and hours and minutes. That's the way we figure. We're in the womb of the earth. But wait till we're born once on the other side. Glory! Wait till this change comes. Yes. Then space to come, like from the glory here in one split half instant ---such speed, pass right through the wall, and don't even know it's there. There you are. These earthly things will be so simple then. Oh, my! There won't be nothing to it. Watch.

79 When Abraham's body was changed, Sarah's body was changed, like it never had been changed before. Now, we all know that when Jesus comes we'll be caught up in a rapture, and we know our bodies will have to be changed first. And it won't have to be just go back to young men and women, but it will have to be changed because Abraham and Sarah's body had to be changed in a way that they could receive the promised son.
That's Abraham. His body had to be changed to receive the promised son, after being justified, sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit, called by election, manifested God of glory in the midst of him. And then his body was changed in order to receive the promised son.

80 Well, the church has come through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, gifts manifested to us, and now what? The Spirit of God moving in the church, doing the same works that Jesus did before He left as a promise. And what's the next thing? The change.
The next thing happened to Abraham was a changed body. He had to have it, or he'd never got the son. And the next thing happens to the church is the rapture. We'll have to be changed, and caught up in the air to meet Him. We can't meet Him on earth. We've got to go in the air to meet Him. It's the coming Son, the promised Son. Amen! We've looked for Him now for hundreds of years. He will come some day.
But the next thing for the church is to be changed. We've had every sign---justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, placing of a son, manifestation of the Spirit. Now what? The changing of the body for the rapture.

81 Oh, my! How the church ought to be waving its hands in glory, thanking God, thanking God.
Any minute the change could come, for the Bible said it'd be universal. Jesus said there'd be two in the mill grinding, "I'll take one, and leave one. Two in the field; I'll take one, and leave one." Two in the bed showed it'd be on both sides of the earth. Was night on one side, be day on the other. "I'll take one, and leave one." The rapture will be universal, and their bodies will be changed.
Our bodies will have to be changed. We just can't turn back to young men and women. We've got to have a different kind of a body, so we can be caught up in the air to receive the promised Son. That's what the church is waiting for now, the true church. Every manifestation, what He did to Abraham He has done to his seed after him, leaving one thing out. That's the rapture of the church.

82 And "When you see these things begin to come to pass," Jesus said, "raise up your head. Look up. Your redemption's drawing nigh." When Jesus referred to it, and said, "As it was in Sodom..." When you see a modern Billy Graham go down into Sodom; when you see the signs begin to appear before the elected church, and the rest of it fighting against it, watch---the time of the rapture is at hand. The fig tree putting forth its buds over yonder---that generation will not pass away till all be fulfilled, which is way into that generation since the Jews have been returning to their homeland. We're at the end time.
Nations are breaking, Israel's awakening,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with horrors
encumbered;
Return, O dispersed, to your own.

83 Come go with us to Miami, when a man that stood with his hands yonder in Greenland to turn atomic bombs loose that would destroy half the earth, shook, and become a Christian. We'll be speaking. When he saw a missile in a screen, and they thought it was Russia starting... We're ready, too.
Other nations are ready, also---Castro used down yonder just as a puppet, playing up so Russia can get in there close enough they can throw their atomic missiles and things. Here it is, right under our nose. And the gifts of God, the manifestation of God amongst his people, doing the same things that Jesus Christ did, has swept the world across now, see. She's ready.
Now the next thing is the change, to be caught up in the air to meet Him, the change to those who are looking for the promised son. Are you looking for Him this afternoon, waiting? Oh, I'll be watching and waiting that sight to behold. He's coming again. "The Gentile days numbered with horrors encumbered."

84 Why, this earth will blow to pieces one of these days. It could happen before morning. There's only one thing---that's almighty God---could keep us from being blowed to pieces in another hour from now.
Russia's so far ahead of us in science. And as that news commentator said the other night, it's not Russia doing that. Neither is it our scientists. It's the Germans is what's done it. In the war we took some, and they took some, and there you are.
They've got a man now that stands up in a little gadget ... sputnik of a thing up there on the earth, why, they might have hundreds of those. What if they just come over to the United States, and say, "Surrender, or go to ashes."? What would the Pentagon do? Surrender, of course. What would happen? In would come the Russians---out of your homes. You know what would happen.

85 If they don't, what happens? Ashes come. When could that happen? In another hour from now.
But remember, before that happens... Here's where you disagree. But before that happens, Jesus comes for the church.
Before one speck of fire fell on Sodom, Lot had to come out. Before one drop of rain fell, Abraham had to be in ... I mean, Noah had to be in the ark. And as it was in the days of Abra... days of Noah, and in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.
Before anything takes place, the church takes its rapture. Amen. They're in Christ, already judged. And one of these mornings there'll be a disappearing, or one of these nights there'll be a disappearing. And the church will be changed, and caught up to meet Jesus in the air.
And woe unto this bunch then. They'll gnaw their tongues for pain when the atomic sweeps into the nation, burns eyes out, and runs like water down. Tongues are gnawed for pain, and screaming; just one bomb bursting after another. You'll remember how much it was mental telepathy, how much it was a bunch of holy rollers, or fanatics.
Remember, God knows what He's doing. Yes, sir.

86 The next thing waiting is for that elected and called-out seed of Abraham, who's recognized the manifestation of God among his people, and standing waiting. That'll be the one will be caught up to meet Him in the air.
Let us bow our heads just a moment. If there is those here today who does not know Him as personal saviour, that you have not been filled with the Holy Spirit, that the revelation of God has never struck your life; and you've just joined church and lived a good straight life...
Do you know that those Hebrews back there, those priests, they lived a perfect life. No one could put a finger on their life. They were holy, sanctified men, and Jesus said, "You are of your father, the devil."

87 What is sin? It's unbelief. Unbelief in what? The Word of God. Now that's the Word of God to Abraham, and his seed after him.
If you haven't been known to God as his son, being born again, filled with his Spirit, you've never drawed from El Shaddai, the bosom of God, why don't you come right here and stand here. Let's have prayer with you while minister brothers are around to pray.
Will you rise now? I believe the hour of all this persuading is just over. If you haven't received Christ and been filled with the Spirit, come. One poor soul walks to the altar, and that a Jew. Next an Ethiopian. God, be merciful! How can you hear the Word of God and then sit still, friends? Don't you see that...?
Science said about five years ago it's three minutes till midnight.

88 Do you know what God did? He reached ... it's past time. He reached out with his hand and stopped it. He's holding time in his hand, for the church to make itself ready. There's a few more members yet to come in of the body of Christ. Maybe one of them's here today. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm led here, is to try to persuade you.
I'm not saying, "Now, don't be Catholic. Don't be Methodist." I ain't saying what for you to belong to. You can belong to all of them, or none of them. But I want you to be filled with his Spirit. If you're not, you're... Just remember, I'll meet you at that day, and these words will be a witness against you. It's all on God's tape recording, and with his great picture camera. And you sitting, and walking away and leaving it, you'll see your own self at that day in the mirror of God. Will you come?
Have Thine own way.....!
Thou art the potter; I am the clay.
(Just forget everything now.
Come on. I'm the clay)
Mold me and make me after Thy will.
While I am waiting......

89 Are you yielded? Let thy will be done, Lord. Take all the churchanity out of me. Take all the starch and denomination out of me, Lord. Let me be a real Christian.
....... Lord! Have Thine own way
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with thy Spirit Till all shall see
Christ only, always, Living in me!
Have Thine ... (God bless you, lady.
Come right ahead, sister.)
Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter (all you Catholic,
Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist,
Pentecostals);
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am yielded, waiting and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord!

90 Now while the people are moving down, still coming... As long as people are coming, we're going to hold it. I don't think we have too much more time in this world to make these kind of calls.
Now just remember, I speak in the name of the Lord. The hour is coming when you'll scream for a meeting like this. You won't be so anxious to get up and go out. It'll be too late then. You'll go out all right, out into an eternity without God, without...
You call me a prophet. I never call myself that. You do. And where did the Word of the Lord come to? What does the word "prophet" mean? A divine revelator of the divine written Word. Then you have your own interpretation, and take it above the real Word. Signs and wonders prove whether it's right or not.
God told them how to tell it. If what they say comes to pass, then it's right. If it isn't, it isn't. Now you be your own judge. You'd better flee to God, Pentecostal, while you got a chance to. Don't you just take some idea that "I spoke with tongues, and that means all of it." That's just as far as Methodist shouting, Lutheran shaking hands. You'd better come to God.
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

91 Now remember. After this message this afternoon, I am free from all men's blood. The meeting has been give out in Chicago. I've told you "thus saith the Lord." I've proved it to you by the Scriptures that we're at the end now. I'm not guilty of any man's blood from henceforth.
I wonder how many Christians out there would walk up to the altar, and pray with these people around, standing around the altar and pray. Any of you Christians that's filled with the Holy Spirit would like to come up here and pray with these people?
.... me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, Yielded and still.

92 Abraham and his seed after him, Abraham and his seed. Let me tell you something. Just a few days ago I was in California in a great denominational church, Pentecostal denomination. A few people came to the altar, four or five, after preaching a hard message. And then four or five sinners run up to the altar, falling over one another. I had to beg and persuade people to come pray with them.
I did that for a purpose this afternoon, see who would come up. And amongst about three hundred people, look what come to pray. Why, the Kentucky Baptist down there in the mountains, where I was born, would make the Pentecostals feel ashamed of themselves. Let one soul reach up to come towards the altar, they'll be the whole church right around him trying to... So thankful to God that one soul has come in. And then we are Abraham's seed. We've lost all the zeal we ever had. See what I mean? O God.

93 Let's bow our heads. To you people at the altar here, I want you to surrender a life to Him now. Remember, I'm going to meet you at that morning. I'm going to give an account for this message this afternoon. I've been in Chicago since the beginning of my ministry. As it is ending now... I cannot be a prophet and an evangelist at the same time. One ministry will take its place soon.
And time after time, how I've been here in Chicago, stood hour after hour, heart to heart with you. Have you ever heard me tell you anything in the name of the Lord but what was truth? If it is, I ask you to come correct it. No, sir. It's not known. Then I tell you in the name of the Lord, under such a condition, if you come up here today, God led you up.
This is the hour of your deliverance if you'll believe it with all your heart. I want you just humbly just confess everything that you have did that's wrong before God. Say, "God, I'm sorry of it. And now I'm here wanting You to give me the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Grant it."

94 While we close the service with you around the altar here praying, I'm going to ask the congregation all to stand in prayer, your hands on one another around the altar here, you people with these.
Our heavenly Father, we bring to You this afternoon the fruits, or the gleaning. The land has been harvested long ago, and we're gleaning, as Ruth. How well our evangelist brethren know these things. Our brother, Tommy Hicks here, and Brother Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham, how that they know that we're just gleaning in America to see if we can find a stalk here or there.
We know the end is at hand,

95 Father God. These who've come... Thou hast said in thy Word, "He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." And also that "No man can come except my Father draws him first. And all that comes to me I'll give him everlasting life, and raise him up at the last day." That's your promise, Lord. And as your servant, and the fruits of this message I give to You these seekers at the altar. I give them to You, Lord, as your servant in prayer, and with all these other servants of yours who are standing here who are witnesses of your resurrection, witnesses of the power of God.
And we're standing here, deeply, Lord, sincerely from our heart, believing that You are the Son of God; believe that You are coming. And all these fearful sights that we are seeing and hearing... The nations are shaking, and see Israel going to her homeland. The nations are troubled, seeing mystic sights over Washington, fearful things upon the earth, perplexity of a time, and distress between the nations. Distress, such a distress! They're all so nervous they don't know what to do, each one with atomic and hydrogen weapons hid back, secret, just waiting for the other one to make a move.

96 Some day a mistake ... too much Vodka will be drank, or something. Then a missile will fly into a screen. Then here it goes! God, You promised us, and I'm believing You... Noah stood in the ark door and preached to a dying people. And today the real born again men of God stands in the door of Jesus Christ, and shows the people the way out. Not a church, not an organization, but the door, Christ.
May these people come to the door, right now knocking at the door. We know there'll be a welcome hand reach out, and say, "Come ye blessed of my Father. Enter into the joys that's been prepared for you since the foundation of the world"; because no man can come but those who He foreknew. And they've come this afternoon. And I give them to You as your servant, and as your people. Grant it, Lord, to each one of them, in the name of Jesus Christ.

97 While each person in here, you people that's around the altar, by faith... By faith. You don't have to feel one thing. But in your heart... Now, how'd you come up here? God, back there in the audience, drawed you up here. Jesus said, "No man can come to me except my Father draws him. And he that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, has eternal life." And there's only one form of eternal life. That's the Holy Spirit. Now, if you will believe with all your heart that God will give you the Holy Spirit, raise up your hands, and say, "Thank you, Lord. I've come here now to receive it." All you out in the audience that believe with them, raise up your hands, and say, "Lord, we stand ready for the Holy Spirit." Brother Tommy Hicks, I want you to come and offer prayer now over them right here. Yes, sir.