A True Sign that's overlooked

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 ... assemble this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus. And after praying much and... This morning I didn't get up early. I was kind of late getting up. And I suppose everybody knows why that is just now.
I come home the other morning ... or, the other night, and my neighbor was standing in the yard, he and his little daughter. His wife is a nurse in the maternity room out at the hospital. So he had a cane in his hand about this long with a little citation on it, some ribbon, and a little thing said, "Grandfather Branham, as of (I believe about 3:43 or 4:43) October the 11th." Then great big parenthesis at the bottom said, "You're older than you think!" So I have legal rights now to rest a little longer at morning. Is that right, Brother Wright, when you become a grandpa?

2 And so I guess that kind of excuses me then, Sister Kidd, this morning for not being up when you come by from Ohio. I sure feel about ten years older I think, though, after that. As you all know that I have a little grandson out there about seven or eight pounds, something like that, the ugliest little kid I ever seen. They said he looks just like his grandfather. I was just seeing where he went---where Billy went.

3 Last night coming down the hall after making my calls, I met a group of loyal friends from Georgia and around, and we was all out there looking at the little fellows. And they are cute, now; they're just... I always felt something like Billy---you're afraid you're going to break them, you know, they're so little. And I believe it was Sister Beeler said, "I used to think..." She used to think that also, but after, she found out they didn't break so easy. So I think that's about right.

4 Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of being down to one of our sister's homes here of the church ... or her daughter's home (and I think she also is here at the church), where they had a little birthday dinner for Brother Neville. And he had another milepost he passed yesterday. And so we say to Brother Neville, "A real happy birthday," every one of us, because he's a very fine brother. And of course, he just passed twenty-five a little bit, like me. And so... We just passed the second time. Now that's getting to be old men when you go to passing that mark the second time, you know.

5 I remember the morning that Frankie Weber come up here. Lives next door neighbor to us here. His daughter lives there now. He's in Florida. And Frankie and I went to school together, and Frankie put in his birthday offering. And I'd been preaching then about three or four years. I'd led Frankie to the Lord Jesus. And he put in a quarter. I think I was twenty-two. And he put in a quarter. I thought "Oh, my, do you mean to tell me that Frankie Weber is twenty-five years old? Whew! My, I dread the time when I get twenty-five!" Now, I'm fixing to put in three of them, pretty soon, so it just don't take it long to pass.
When I look over here and see Brother and Sister Kidd in their eighties and still going strong, I think, "Lord Jesus, forgive me for complaining at fifty-two, and them..." You're eighty and Brother Kidd's eighty-one, is that right? Eighty-one, and they're still in the ministry. I tell you, that gives us courage, doesn't it? Certainly does. The Lord is certainly good to us.

6 Now, there's only one bad thing that I dread having meeting here of a morning, and that is, it's a horrible ... sounds like a very disgraceful thing to say, but I have so many friends that come so far away to the services. I don't see the Evanses here, but they're here somewhere, I suppose. They never miss a one. And you know how many miles they drive every Sunday to hear the preaching? Thirteen hundred miles. They can't make the trip less than sixty to seventy dollars a week to go to church. That's right. Time they come up here with their family, go over here, pay...

7 Now, not only that, but here's a little brother from down in Alabama, drives about the same distance every week, Brother... Oh, my, what? Brother West. He looks like a boy to me. He's a father, got a bunch of children. But he always just reminds me ... he's so young looking, he and his wife---Brother West.
Brother and Sister Palmer, sitting back there from down below Macon, Georgia. And Sister Ungren, they're usually here from down in Memphis, Tennessee. Are they here this morning? They usually are---Sister Ungren and the group from down in Memphis, Tennessee? Way ... yeah, back in the back. And there is others, they're just too numerous to call. Some of them way down in southern Kentucky, some way up around Chicago, and some from Chicago, and above Chicago, around out...

8 Sunday I understood there was a man here all the way from California. He just had a little bit to stay, wanted to see me. And of course, I was pressed after the meeting. And the man went back without me seeing him. Another one came in from over in Illinois somewhere. If that man's here this morning, them's the nicest, delicious apples I ever ate. And he brought me a bushel of apples. And one of the brothers from down in Georgia (I believe it was, or somewhere) brought a great big package of pecans, about ... them big paper-shells. And, oh, I can really eat them.

9 Right now, of course, I'm not eating pleasant foods in these days---haven't since the going away of my mother. I'm seeking the Lord for a new vision, just eating soft things and such as ... little as I can get by with. Lost twenty pounds of weight, which is... Now, I'm not fasting, no. Just to do that, that ain't giving that to the Lord. You want to give the Lord the best you got, not the...

10 I happen to see Brother Sumner and them back there, too. There's just so many I... Like last Sunday I was mentioning the people who sat up with Mama, and things. And a real faithful sister was there; I forgot to name that woman's name. If she's here this morning, I apologize. But one of them was Sister Beeler and the other one was Sister and Brother Stephie.
And so many, you all know me well enough to know that I don't mean it when I overlook a name or overlook a person---how loyal they all were. And sometimes just sitting here I'll make mention of somebody just coming on my mind, but for that I mean the whole group, everybody. See, it's just so nice. And then everybody lovely and kind to us. And we sure do appreciate that.

11 And now, this morning we are going to try to approach the Word of God again. Now, I'd like to make this statement so it'll be real clear, that I do not just come to any meeting just to be seen. I don't come there just to say, "Well, I want to maybe pray to the Lord to give me a message that will just make the people feel real good and shout." We've had plenty of that, and we appreciate that. That's all right, see, that's wonderful, see. But what I want to know is, "Lord, You direct my thoughts in something that'll be a help to the people, that will place them closer to God, that'll do something for them that ... not so much as build them up spiritually, but build them up in the knowledge and the admonition of God, so that they'll know how to stand when the enemy comes.

12 I was talking to a sister who has been up here visiting this week, Sister Palmer. She wanted to know how I ever lived in this country. You just come in here and... Every time I hit the valley I get sick just as soon as I get in. It's just real unhealthy in the valley here. We know that. But God's got a lot of children down in here, and so one of these days...

13 I'm seeking the Lord now to find out a real straight message from God, see. And by God's help I just aim to hold on till He comes, till He makes some statement to me. For I feel that there ought to be... There's something that's fixing to happen around here. And I want to know what it is, and I want to know directly from God, so that I can say it's "Thus saith the Lord!" And then you can ... the people then will know that it isn't me.
So I want to try to make it so that I hear from Him first---because if He puts His words in a person, well, then it's not the person anymore; it's Him. Then if the man's saying it in himself, then it won't amount to anything anyhow. But if the Word of the Lord is in the man, it'll come forth, and then it'll be just exactly right. That was what we were commissioned in the Bible---over about the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, I believe. It said, "Watch, and if one speaks in the name of the Lord and it doesn't come to pass, then don't pay any attention to that person. But if they speak it and it comes to pass, then you better hear it, because it's coming from God."

14 That's how God has. He's got His regular program laid out here in the Bible. We know how to read that out, but there's certain things that ... to the church and to the time and things that He hasn't got written here in the Bible, so He puts His voice into a person, and they speak it forth, see. So, then, the way to judge that person is find out whether it happens the way they say it. Then if it does, then keeps happening that way, well, then, we know that comes from the Lord. Then we have confidence then to make ready for the things that's a coming.

15 I want to read two or three places in the Scriptures this morning, and I want to read first out of the book of Exodus, and I believe about the fourth chapter of Exodus to begin with.
And now, I might announce while you're getting ready to read these scriptures, I might announce what I want to speak to you, what the Lord put upon my heart to talk about this morning. I don't know what He'll do with it to the people. May be directed to one person here, may be somebody out in the tape land, somewhere else, but I want to announce this morning...

16 I think last Sunday morning I preached on "A True Witness," and this Sunday morning, the Lord willing, I want to preach on "A True Sign That's Overlooked."
Brother Palmer was telling me last night that last Sunday morning I spoke on the subject ... or said I was going to speak this Sunday on "The Four Junctions of the Church." And when I went in last night ... I usually jot it down what... I don't know whether you have to do that or not, but I have so many things to try to think of, I get something, I have to put it down on a piece of paper, see. And I went to look at it, and what I was meaning by that wasn't exactly the four junctions. I said it that way, truly. But what I meant was the four forms of the government of the church. And to do that, I have to get a lot of history together, and maybe the next time I'll have that. But it takes a little more time than I had studying time to get it, because you have to go back and get dates, and so forth. Because all of you understand that it's ... everywhere, why, we want to be positive sure of these things before we say them. They've got to be right, because we're standing here holding the highest office that's held in the world---a minister. And the most truthful and right, accurate, we must be that way. We must depend on God to do it.

17 Now, in the book of Exodus, the fourth chapter:
And Moses answered and said, ... behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD has not appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A rod.
And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it came a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared unto thee.
And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he had took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it had turned again as his other flesh.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, nor hearken unto the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. [You notice the two signs, and each sign had a voice.]
[Let me read the eighth verse again.] And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken unto the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon ... dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

18 And now, in St. John the first chapter and the sixth verse we read these verse ... or, this verse. St. John the first chapter and the sixth verse:
And there was a man sent from God, whose name was John ... a man sent from God, whose name was John.
And in Ezekiel 24:24, I wish to place this scripture in, tying it from the Old Testament, to the prophets, to the New Testament, so that you'll understand it's all the way through from Exodus, the beginning to the end.
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this shall come, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Now, let us bow our heads just a moment as we reverently approach Him now in the way of prayer.

19 Father God, we come in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We come knowing that He will hear us, because we come not as someone who has just come into the building, but we come boldly with faith, believing that what He has promised, that He will do. So we ask today, Lord, that Thou would take each one of us that's present, all the way from the pulpit to the back of the building, throughout all the areas, and open every heart and circumcise our hearing, that the Word of the living God might come forth from heaven this morning and pour into our hearts, that we might believe as we hear the Word of the Lord that has been read to us in our ears this morning. And we thank Thee for thy Word. Thy Word is the truth.

20 And now, as we see the evil hours approaching, all the wrath of God built up into the skies... And it's most any time that there could be something happen to this nation that's forsaken Thee, that there would be one great explosion that would take the nation completely off of the map of the world---with threats behind it of an ungodly country that's anxious to do so. And knowing that instead of drawing nigh unto God, they seem to get further away, knowing that the book of the Revelation and all down through the Scriptures has predicted this day. Then let us take warning, Lord, and not be slothful and be laying sleepy, as it was. May we rise and shake ourselves.
May we have understanding today like we have never had before. May our hearts be so on fire after this day, that there will be a kindled fire in our souls that'll sweep through this country, Lord, and a living testimony wherever we are.

21 Bless the sick and the afflicted, those that are needy, both in our midst and out of our midst, thy people everywhere.
Bless Thy Word, Lord. Sanctify Thy servant and Thy servants that's listening, that together we might be brought to a closer realization of His appearing than ever before in life. Not only do I pray for these who are present, but for those who will hear the tape around the world, that they may be brought into the church of the living God. For we realize there's only one way that we can become a member of this church---that is by a birth of the Spirit. Then we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. I pray, God, for each one of them around the world, that Thou will get glory to Thyself. And may we so prepare our souls, that with one cry around the world, we could scream, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

22 "A True Sign That's Overlooked." Man has sought for signs all the way from Pharaoh until today. And Jesus told us of a time there would be seekers of signs, and said that a wicked and adulterous generation would seek after signs. But yet, they would receive a sign; and that generation was to receive a sign of the resurrection---which would be a weak, wicked, and an adulterous generation would be given a sign of the resurrection.

23 But as this scripture that lays before us in Ezekiel, the twenty-fourth chapter and twenty-fourth verse, this prophet was made a sign, and that's the sign that I wish to speak on.
This man was made a sign to Israel. And all down through the Scriptures, God has used His prophets for signs. And they've always been overlooked. They never seem to catch that sign. They're always looking for a sign of emotion.
Even the Pharisees of the days of Jesus said, "Show us a sign from heaven."
But Jesus referred to them that they would get a sign. "You've already got a sign." Said, "You can discern the skies; you can look at that sign. You say, 'If it's red and lowering, tomorrow will be foul weather.' "
If they would've looked at a sign, they'd have looked at Him and knew that He was God's sign to them, because their prophecies concerning Him was being fulfilled before their eyes. But they still looked for a sign.
How strange it is that men will do that, that will look for a sign when a sign's right with them, right among them. Now, Israel had got into this condition.

24 And sometimes the torture that that sign has to go through is amazing. The torture that Jesus went through to prove the sign of God, that He was the Messiah...
We find right here, this young prophet by the name of Ezekiel constantly became a sign all the time. How he tortured himself! One place here we find where he laid on his left side for three hundred and ninety days. God told him to get some beans and some pottage, put it all together, and cook it up, and lay it down by his side, and go lay on a tile, and lay on his left side alone---not turn over---for 390 days. Think of it! And then said, "Turn over on the right side and lay there forty days again."
And He said here, "What you see [Ezekiel said] ... because you're bearing the iniquity of the people. Each day will I count a year for them." Meaning that every day he laid there, that meant a year they'd be in captivity, and that their iniquities would be remembered to God, and God would not hear their prayers no more.

25 But the torture that that man had to go through! Why would that be necessary? Many has wondered why would such a thing be necessary for a man to do. It's because that people won't read the Word, and they won't pray. So God is sovereign, and He sends His prophet to be a sign. The people won't read. They don't care to read. And they won't pray, because they're too ... got other things to do. They can't take time to pray. And the Bible is boresome to them; it hasn't got enough action for these modern days, or any day.
You know, I believe it was Paul said, "Ye are epistles of God, read of all men." God uses people for signs, to show His sign. And many times that sign (and every time mostly, unless it's with the elected people), that sign is overlooked and criticized, made fun of, cast out, and considered...
Even in the Old Testament in the days of the prophets, they were considered mental, disturbed people. They thought those prophets were psychic neurotics, that they were ... something wrong with their mind. And they'd see them come in from the wilderness and perform signs, and then turn back into the wilderness again. And they would make fun of them, because they did not know the Scripture.

26 Jesus told the Pharisees one time concerning the resurrection... They said, "We had a... The law says that if a brother dies and leaves a wife with no children to him, that his brother is to take that wife and raise up children to the dead." And said, "We had one that had seven brothers. And the first one took a wife, and he died leaving no seed. And then his brother took her, and then he died, and on to the seventh one. And finally the woman died." Said, "Now, in the resurrection," said, "now whose wife will she be of those seven?"

27 Oh, I love that Word. Jesus said, "You do always err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God!" Oh, how He would blaze that out today if He was standing here. "You always err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God!" The power of God's associated in the Scripture. "You do err greatly." Then He went on to say, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they're like angels." He didn't say they'd be angels now, but they'd be like angels---sex glands would be out of them. They don't marry nor give in marriage.

28 We're living in the day of morality ... or, mortal, days of the mortal kingdom. But there's coming a day when there's an immortal kingdom coming. And that immortal kingdom is where the redeemed will live, those that's been redeemed and has... The life that leaves this body to return to the God that give it, will return again from the tree of life someday to reign forever.

29 How this young man, young prophet, sacrificed and give his entire life to be a sign to his people of the punishment that they were going to receive because that they were (what we would call) indifferent. They didn't want nothing to do with God, and they didn't believe them prophets; and they just made fun of them. But besides, no matter how much they didn't want to believe it, God seen that they got it anyhow.
Jezebel didn't want to admit that Ahab was her pastor, but he was. God seen that she got the sign anyhow. So is this nation today. The just and honest God by His Word could not let anything which we're seeing fixing to happen, without having a sign somewhere. He's always had it. Now we have to look for it. And I'm sure that people who has good understanding of the Scripture know how to look.

30 Noah was a sign in his day to the people of the coming judgment. Noah in his day was considered a fanatic. He was a prophet. He was considered one that did not have good mind. And the man hammered away for year after year, building an ark when there was not even water on the earth but what was in the springs. And he predicted something that was ridiculous to the carnal mind. He said, "There's coming water from up in the sky."
No doubt that many would say to him, "Show me where it's at."
The scientist would say, "I can prove there's no water up there." But yet, if God told him that it was coming from the skies, God will see to it that His Word's fulfilled.
And while there was yet no water in sight, while there had never been a cloud in the sky, never had rained a drop---there wasn't such a thing as rain---yet all the time Noah was preparing an ark for the rain. It was a living evidence that this prophet believed what he was talking about, for he was making ready for it.
And any person that really believes what you're talking about, you'll make ready for it.

31 May I stop right here just a minute on the day of Noah. As Jesus said, "So will it be in the coming of the Son of man." If the churches today believe what they're talking about, they would practice what they say.
How could we be building great statues of buildings, and millions of dollars in buildings, and great spreading of organiza-tions, and things like that, and preaching that Christ is coming at any time? How could we continue ... look upon our congregations and see them separating from the power of God, and going into worldliness, and bringing it into the church, and mingling it together, and we permit it? Because of popularity, and because of popular opinion, and denominational differences, trying to outgrow the next organization. How could we practice what we preach? And the world sees that, they know that.
Till religion has become a thing of just like merely belonging to some order, or belonging to a society of something. Religion... The salvation of Christ is not a society. It isn't joining something; it's a living experience.

32 Now, Noah was producing what he was talking about. He said, "There's coming a flood of judgment upon this unrighteous generation. And God will pour from the heavens rain, and He'll flood the whole earth." And not only was He doing that, but He was making a way of escape and bidding the people to come to it. But they wouldn't listen at him.
But Noah as a prophet was a sign to that generation, a sign that was evil spoken of, a man that was thought to be a insane man, preparing something that there was no evidence anywhere, or never had been, that there'd ever be any use for it. But that's the way people seems to think today. They can think of a fallout shelter. What good's a fallout shelter going to do you when there's not even a ... will be a tree or a rock left on the earth? We got a fallout shelter, the Christian has.
As I said a few Sundays ago, or thought somewhere along the road, "It's not a fallout shelter, it's a fall-in shelter, where we fall into it, headlong, with all of our heart, and all of our soul, and all of our mind, into Christ, God's ark of safety."

33 But Noah, a neurotic---considered in that day---through the foolishness of preaching and performing a sign before the people, giving them warning, condemned the world. Condemned the world by building an ark when there was no water for it to float in. He condemned the world, the Bible said---Hebrews, the eleventh chapter. He condemned the world and saved his own house by preparing, and being a sign for God of the oncoming judgments of that day. What a glorious thing!

34 Later years there come another sign---that was Moses, a prophet. That was God's sign to Israel. They'd been four hundred years in bondage. And God prepared a sign for them just before deliverance. And he was a sign of deliverance to Israel, and a sign of judgment to Egypt.
Noah was a sign of deliverance to his people, and a sign of judgment to the lost world, the unbeliever. The very waters that choked the world and drowned the world was the only means of saving Noah. Only thing that could save him was the judgment. The only thing that'll save the church today is the judgment, God laying the judgment to the plummet. But Noah preached the same, he become a sign.

35 And now Israel, after four hundred years, they begin to cry out for deliverance. And God never reveals Himself and shows Himself until His people are ready to receive what He shows.
Now, oh, what could be said right there, how that God has left this nation naked. They know better. Newspapers has published it round and around and around. Signs of His coming has been produced, and they continually go right on like they ignored it. They're without any excuse. We're in the end.
God only sends His prophets when the people wants a prophet. God sends His sign when the people are ready for a sign. But the thing it is, the people seldom... They get to a place that they want emotion, or they want some, "Show us a sign from heaven!" But when God sends a sign, then they don't want to see it. So it's hid from the eyes of the wise and prudent to be revealed to babes that will learn.

36 They overlook the sign. How Israel ought to knowed when that proper child was born, when they looked up there and saw by the time of years they were living in---"Thy people shall be a stranger for four hundred years in a strange land, but then I'll bring them out."---they ought to knowed the time was at hand when they seen that proper child born. That even the mother and father, Amram and Jochebed, wasn't afraid of the king's commandments. And they stuck him right out in the river where the crocodiles was. Not a one of them could bite him. They seen there was a sign. But they ignored it. They wasn't ready for it. God brought him right in and put him right in Pharaoh's palace, and let Pharaoh raise him up, and give him all the education that he could get---to show (God) how He does things; and then took him on the backside of the desert, let him forget all about it.

37 Pharaoh was training him then. God was training him... Pharaoh had forty years to train him, then God took forty years to train him, let him forget all about it. Man's training and God's training. Pharaoh was training a son for a leader, a diplomat, for a warrior, a fighter, for another coming Pharaoh that would hold Egypt in its high places, downing all other nations and make them pay tribute to Pharaoh. But God took him on the backside of the desert, took all that out of him, and showed him in five-minutes' time by a burning bush that He was a living God. He took all the fear out of him and got him ready. He was a sign.

38 God wants His people to pray. And when Israel got so taxed in such a condition that they could not go any farther, their time was fulfilled and their burdens was laid farther than what they thought, then they began to pray. And when the people began to pray, then God began to hear. It was time for God's Word to be fulfilled.
And so when Amram and Jochebed saw that it was time for the Word to be fulfilled, they went to prayer to God. And it's usually those who pray is the one who's got the burden, the one who gets something. It's those who pray that's ordained of God to do so.

39 We were talking this morning at the breakfast table, while we were hurrying through some toast and so forth to get to the church. There was something said about a certain man that had (away from here) ... that had went back to smoking cigarettes after he had been healed of cancer. I said, "What a pity."
So then one spoke up and said, "That is the most horrible thing to get away from there is, smoking cigarettes."
I said, "I know it, because it's a devil." I said, "It's a devil," and I said, "And you cannot stop it unless the power of God's upon you." I know of two fellows in my early life, both of them wanted to be men of God. One of them, as soon as I led him to Christ, he started to light up a cigarette... He smoked five or six packs a day, just sit and just light one off the other one all day long. And he tried to light another cigarette, and something wouldn't let him do it. He walked over to the stove, not knowing that the Scriptures condemn them things, and opened up the stove, and shoved the pack in the stove, and that settled it.

40 Where another fellow that wanted to become a Christian, and he tried his best... He cried out to the Lord. He quit them for two or three weeks. And when he come to hisself in that condition... He went out of his mind. And he come to hisself and found hisself out in the back yard beating on a piece of tin, out of his head. Run in the house real quick and grabbed his cigarettes and smoked a pack before he left the house that evening, just one right after the other one.
See, one was called. "No man can come to me except my Father draws him, and all the Father has given me will come to me." What did the warning mean? It was life to one. He saw it. You can't see it unless God reveals it. It's hid from the eyes of the wise and prudent and revealed to babes such as will learn. That's right.
Amram and Jochebed knew it was time; the hour was close at hand.
ROM9:16

41 And I want to say this while I'm speaking of it. "It's not him that willeth or him that runneth; it's God that showeth mercy." That's right. It's God.
So today... Oh, let this sink deep! If today God has called you and you've separated yourself from the things of the world and the glorious power of God has sanctified you from those things, you should be the happiest person there is in the world. There was millions that would do it if they could, but they can't. It's not for them to have it. This is the day when the church is called out, separated. It's different than what it used to be.

42 Yes, when people begin to pray... When Israel started praying for a prophet, God had the prophet. God had the prophet all the time, because God's always a jump ahead of them. He had the man prepared, but He was waiting for the people to go to praying, the people to want it.
How typical I could say that is today. What we need today is not a revivalist, it's not another man to some great organization, "You get all the groups to organize together." What we need today is a prophet sent from God with a message that will condemn the world. God may have the man if the people's just ready for it. You know what I'm speaking. He's perhaps got him somewhere in the world, but the people's got to want it. God just doesn't shove things down your throat. You have to want it. "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled." That's right!

43 After Moses had been recognized ... after the people, rather, knowed that they needed a leader, they began to pray. They began to pray for God to send them a leader or somebody to bring them out, and He sent them a man, a prophet. That was His sign. Now, if this man was not a prophet, if he'd raised up and said, "I'm a military genius," Israel had a right to disbelieve that man, because God in every time without failure sends a prophet. Mention one time in the Bible there ever was. It's always a prophet that He sends with "Thus saith the Lord."
Even David himself, the greatest military genius that Israel ever had, and yet David was a prophet. Certainly he was. He was the prophet David.

44 He was waiting for the people to have a desire in their heart to hear this prophet that He was going to send. Of course there was a bunch that said they did, that did not. It proved later that they wasn't right. They was just all worked up in emotion, and the Bible said a mixed multitude went with them. What did it do? Brought trouble out in the wilderness. And every time the phenomena is done... Oh, I wish I could make this sink in here! Every time that God sends something, there's some rude, carnal impersonation of it goes with it---every time. Always something to "make belief" of it. And that sets in just good with the people. But a genuine prophet of God stays with "Thus saith the Lord!" It'll never move from that Scripture if he's sent of God.
Moses stayed exactly on the Scripture. God said, "I will bring them out!" He said to Moses, "I've sent you to do the job." Moses had an experience, he had met God, he had the Word of the Lord.
The reason that God sends prophets is because they have the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord comes to the prophets. And if he doesn't have the Word of the Lord, then he's not a prophet.

45 There was a lot of carnal impersonations trying to say they're prophets all down through the ages, but they always get away from the Word of the Lord. But a true prophet stays exactly on the Word! Now, don't forget that quotation---a true prophet stays with "Thus saith the Lord."
Jesus warned us in the last days what would happen, but a true servant, the true prophet, never fails to stay right with "Thus saith the Lord."
Moses stayed with the Lord. He was a sign. He was a sign to Israel that their day of deliverance was at hand; and he was a sign to Egypt that the day of their end was at hand, because they drowned out there in the Dead Sea later, the whole army of Pharaoh. They were at the end of their military power. And a prophet was a sign of a national end.

46 Think of it! How great God is and what simplicity He works in! Surely if the uneducated can understand it, the educated should. If the slaves in the slimepits of Egypt could understand that that was a prophet from God and the hour was at hand, how much more ought the Pharaoh's palace to know it. But that's the kind that doesn't know it. That's the kind that misses it always.
And that Moses stood looking through those windows at those children of Israel passing by. To Israel ... to Pharaoh they were slaves and dogs; to Moses they were the elect of God. The Bible said that Moses chose, made his own choosing, to suffer the reproach of Christ, esteeming it greater riches than the pleasures of sin, for he had recompense unto the reward.

47 Moses knew that them wasn't mud daubers; them were a people with a promise. Himself, he knew who he was. He couldn't tell them. They've got to recognize it themselves. He knew himself what his work was, to be done. He knew that God had raised him up for this purpose, but he couldn't tell them. And as long as they were blind to it, he never did reveal himself openly until they recognized it. Then they seen that sign, and they knowed it.
He said, "I'll give Israel a sign. Take this stick, turn it into a snake. If they won't listen to that, then put your hand in your bosom, pull it out; heal yourself of leprosy, then they'll believe it. And then if they won't hear it, take waters out of the Nile down there, pour it upon the dry land, and all the waters will become blood." That was a national sign. The people will believe it. Them that's ready to receive it will believe it when they see the sign of God moving. But the nation has to have something different. So He give it all a sign.

48 God used a man, a humble man, a prophet to be a sign of the end of that national condition down there. God, send us another one, raise us up another one! And if the people of God would go to praying for such, He'd raise him up. It's the people has got to get that burden. They've got to wake up. They've got to realize. They've got to know what day we're living in and what the situation is around us before they'll ever wake up. You go right on living just like you always did: "Got to build a new home next year. I got to get a better car than the Joneses. I got to do this..." Oh, so much on this, when you realize no matter... That's all right, but you must realize, brother, that all this stuff will perish! Jesus said, "Don't fear him who can kill the body [Russia's atomic bomb]. Don't fear him who can turn this body into volcanic dust in a few minutes, but fear him who can turn the body that way and cast the soul into hell." That's it!

49 As I was speaking to a doctor out at the hospital when my mother was there. He was talking about how great science was to work on different matters of the body, and put medicine in it, and see why it would kill a certain germ, and save the germ of life. I said, "That's wonderful. That's just dandy." I listened at him for awhile, but I said, "Doctor, that's good. I appreciate that. That's so fine, I certainly am thankful to God for that. But look, you're spending all your life on trying to find something on a creation, but why not some time thinking about who created it? Who made it? Who's the designer of it? God is the designer of it. How much greater is the creator than the creation that He made! And why do we put so much emphasis upon the creation when we don't think about the creator who made heavens and earth and made the body and life, and can destroy it anytime He desires, because it's his."

50 This becomes a very wonderful thing---to work on the human body. We appreciate that. They can transfer an eye from one man to another, take those teeny little cords, and take an eye out of a man's socket, and place it over into another man's socket, and that man can see from that eye. That's a wonderful thing.
It used to be if a mother, when she was going to give birth to a baby, and the baby could not be born---she was made thus, that the baby could not be born---the mother and baby both died. That was right. But you seldom ever heard of it---it was different---maybe never. But today they can take that mother after she's already in a condition to have the baby, and if when the mother's even still nearly in times of delivery, they can take that mother to a room and give her a little anesthetic and remove that child, have a ordinary ... a birth, take the baby. We appreciate that.

51 Tell me one system... You stop up a valve out here somewhere on this water system in the city and watch what happens at the main valve. It'd blow it out. But yet we can cut a leg off, amputate an arm, and by the miracle of God, He'll bypass that blood some other way the second time and rush it around some other way to save the life of the person. Who can do that? Tell me.
Cut off the artery, cut off the main line out here somewhere in the water when it's pumping from a valve. What will it do? Try it once and find out what happens. There's no other way to bypass. It has to blow back to the valve. If God didn't make a way for this blood to bypass itself instantly, one back up to the heart, you'd be dead. Every time you stuck your finger it was death instantly. Every time that you cut somewhere that opened up an artery, or something, it would be death instantly. Cut off your finger, you'd be dead. That's all. It'd blow right back into your heart again, it'd kill you. But God...
Now, we think it's wonderful. It is wonderful, and we appreciate how science has ... they can tie those arteries and keep them from bleeding. That's all fine! But who was the one who designed that? See, we look all over the creation and forget the creator of it, see. We're looking at the natural things and forget all the spiritual things. That's what we do.

52 Now, God's prophets have His Word. That's the reason people believe them. That's the reason God said to Moses... He said back there in Genesis, many in Exodus, all the way through, "If there comes one among you who's spiritual or a prophet..." Now, how're we going to know these things? He said, "When he says something, and it comes to pass, says something else, it comes to pass, then believe it," see. That's a sign. So He gives His Word---not to leaders, not to dictators---but to prophets.
Khrushchev's not a sign to the world. No, sir! Hitler wasn't a sign to the world. But somewhere, someplace God's got a humble prophet waiting for the hour. He's the sign. He's the sign that will condemn the world and will save the church---the prophet.

53 Elijah was a sign in his day, the prophet Elijah. He was a sign of God's Word---judgment to Egypt and deliverance to Israel if they wanted to believe him.
In that sinful day of Elijah when all Israel had went back on God, they'd gone back into sin. They'd forgot the order. They'd forgot about being led out by God, and the great Jehovah that opened the Red Sea and brought them out of Egypt, and a great prophet like Moses among them. They'd forgot it. We forget it. You Methodists forget John Wesley, you Lutherans forget Martin Luther, you Baptists forget John Smith. Many of us forget Charles Finney, the greatest of all of them.

54 It's said that 97% of Finney's converts held out. Seventy-five percent of Moody's backslid in a year. And of Wesley's, the holiness group, it was constantly backsliding. But Finney had 97%. Little bitty, skinny, bald-headed guy walked out to the pulpit and look over that audience like that, and men would faint, because he stayed in the bushes one day until the Holy Ghost took ahold of him. That was it. He was a sign to the ending, about two hundred years ago, of that great revival that Wesley and them had had, judgment coming on. He was a sign ... that sinful generation.

55 How Elijah could stand there, bold and stern, by himself, nobody with him---but he was God's sign. The rest of the clergy had all went with Ahab in the way of modernism. They'd got modern in that generation. But how old Ahab and all of his great gain, and had brought all the church into Cathol... Not Catholicism, but about the same thing---into idolatry. Had brought them into a place where they was wishy-washy, some could worship this way, and just freedom---"You can do anything you want to," and got in that kind of a condition.

56 And how that Elijah stood there, bold with "Thus saith the Lord." Oh, God, give us men like that! He wasn't afraid to tell Jezebel about her condition. He wasn't scared of Ahab. He wasn't afraid that he was mistaken. He stood with boldness and walked up to Ahab and said, "Not even dew will fall till I call for it." Amen!
What was he? A sign to that sinful generation. Did Israel see it? No! They laughed at him, made fun of him. He predicted that there'd be a drought, that there would be trouble, hunger, starvation. And he prophesied boldly, standing by himself with "Thus saith the Lord!" Said, "Lord, they've killed all the true off. They've killed them all off. I'm the only one's left that's standing with your Word!"
What was the trouble about? The Word of God.

57 Elijah wanted to stay with the Word. He was a real prophet. The other prophets had said, "Oh, well, it doesn't make much difference. Jehovah doesn't care, you know." Jehovah does care! It's got to be His Word. And Elijah stood boldly on that Word with "Thus saith the Lord." God give him a little secret one day. He said, "I've got seven thousand, Elijah, that you're witness to out here. They haven't got the nerve enough to come out and claim it. They're hiding around in bushes; but yet in their heart, they're my servants. They haven't bowed a knee to Balaam. They're afraid to do it; but I'm giving you a sign, and you are a sign. Stand out there, and stand on my Word. I'll take care of you. Give them a sign." Hallelujah! God send us something like that, who will be a sign of God's Word. And every promise God promised will be backed up in that person, because he's a sign, a forgotten sign.
Oh, they thought because Ahab was a great king and all the nations feared him, that was good enough. But Elijah was a sign of the Word. That's a true prophet, a sign of the Word. So while he was being the sign of the Word, they didn't believe him, they had no use for him.

58 He was a sign to the widow when God sent him off of Mount Carmel, up at the brook Cherith, sent him down there after he'd been fed by the ravens and the brook dried up. He went down to this widow's house. What a place for a preacher to go! But he went down there, because God told him to go. But He went down there. Said, "I've commanded her to feed you."
She ought to have been a sign... He ought to have been a sign when she was out there, had enough meal to make one cake and her and her boy ate it, enough cruse to ... enough oil in the cruse to make a little shortening to go with it. She said, "I'm out here picking up two sticks."

59 On that dreadful, hot, blistery morning when an old wooly faced looking fellow, gray hair hanging down his back, walked out there, and his bald head shining, leaned over the gate, said, "Bring me a little drink of water," and said, "besides, bring me a morsel of meal in your hand, a cake."
She said, "I haven't got enough meal. I'm out here now picking up two sticks to make a little cake for my son. I've just got enough to make one for he and I. We're going to eat and die."
He said, "Fear not, for thus saith the Lord..." That's the man that we need. Was no "Why, it may happen, sister. It might come to pass. I don't know." No, no! Elijah was positive. "Thus saith the Lord, that barrel will not fail, neither will the cruse run dry until the day that God sends rain upon the earth." Amen! There you are. That ought to have been enough sign for her.

60 She represents the church today. After Elijah stayed with her for a little while... She had a little boy. He got sick. His sickness was so bad till there was no breath left in him; he died. Then what did she do? The church has already seen those signs. But what? As soon as a little disaster comes, quickly she wants to blame the church for it. She wanted to blame Elijah. She said, "Thou man of God, now you've come here to call my sins to my memory and take the life of my son."
Elijah took the son, went up into the loft where he was sleeping up there, laid him upon his own bed, stretched hisself over, and said, "Lord God [hallelujah], send back the soul of this boy." And the baby woke up.
He took it back down, and that woman looked at the baby, and then looked at him. Then she knowed something was there. She said, "By this I know that the Word of God's in your mouth." Amen! He was a sign to that widow. When she seen the power of God, who makes alive or can kill, raise her dead baby to life, she said, "By this I know that you're a man of God." She knew it. The nations today would laugh at it like they did then. They wouldn't believe it. But that woman knowed different. It was a sign there, as he was a sign to raise her dead son back to life. Them prophets are always signs of God.

61 When Elijah then called for a showdown, said, "If God be God, serve Him; if Baal be god, serve him!" Couldn't that be a wonderful day for Elijah today? If politics is god, serve it! What have we got in politics? What have we done? We got nothing but a bunch of corruption. We've got nothing, but we've lost nearly every friend we got through the nations, here last week losing two or three more nations to communism. We're taxing the people and getting their money and send it over there to feed those people, and turn to communism as soon as they get built up. It's a hypocrisy. That's right!

62 We profess to be Christians. Let us be like Christians then---not by feeding and things like that. That has very little ... that's... The ordinary good hearted person will do that. That's religion; that's not salvation. So many people gets religion and salvation mixed up. Religion is to feed the widows and poor and so forth. That's religion. But salvation is a new birth, being born again. That's different. Religion, Mohammedan is a religion. There's many religions.

63 Now, up on Mount Carmel that day when he called the showdown, and he called Ahab and the thousands of priests that belonged to the temple of their denominations, he called them up on Mount Carmel, said, "Come up here! Meet me up here! I'll stand the whole bunch!" What did he do? He had "Thus saith the Lord." He wasn't afraid. He said, "Offer up a bullock, call on Balaam. Let the God that answers by fire be God."
So all day, from morning till after dinner, they jumped up on the altar, they lanced themselves, they screamed, they hollered. Elijah walked back and forth, said, "Holler a little louder, maybe he's gone on a fishing trip or something, he's out pursuing or something," for he had "Thus saith the Lord." He was satisfied, he had the Word of God. And brother, sister, what more does any man need than a promise of God? God said He would do it. As Abraham, he counted God able to perform what He'd spoke about. He knowed that God could do it, because God said so.

64 So he called for them to come up there, and so they lanced themselves and hollered and screamed all day, up till the evening sacrifice, then Elijah... Watch how he did it. The first thing he done was roll twelve stones together. God is not divided. Denominations divide the churches, but not God.
One said, "Are you a Christian?"
"I'm a Baptist." Well, that's no more than saying he's a pig.
Say, "I'm a Methodist." Well, that's no more than a pig again to God.
I say, "Are you a Christian?" To be a Christian you must be Christ like, tabernacling deity in you, with the Holy Ghost, like fell on the day of Pentecost---not some emotion, but I mean a real Pentecost. Right!
"I'm Pentecostal!", "I'm Oneness!", "I'm trinity!", "I'm..." Oh, my. That's no more than saying you was something else. Don't mean a thing to God. That divides!
That's what had happened down there amongst them clergymen. But Elijah rolled these twelve stones together to show that God's one God over all of them, rolled them up together.

65 So when he got them together like that, he killed the bullock and laid it up on top of the altar on the wood. He said, "Now, to be sure there's no faking in this, go get me twelve barrels of water." And he actually water-soaked that wood. Oh, hallelujah! He wanted to show that God was God. Because why? He had "Thus saith the Lord." He was a prophet. He had the Word of God.
So that at that day if they say they'll turn you out of the church, they'll do this, that, or the other, if you're baptized in the name of Jesus, and all these different things like that---nonsense! It's "Thus saith the Lord."

66 Lovely person the other night talked to me, come put their arms around me, said, "Brother Branham," said, "I want to ask you something." Said, "If you'll just compromise a little of this stuff that you're talking about..."
I said, "What?"
Said, "All this baptism." Said, "The churches of Chicago and all around just want you so bad, but they're afraid you'll mention that."
I said, "Sure, I'll mention it. Certainly, I'll mention it."
He said, "Well, that's the only thing they got against you."
I said, "Then they're not against me. I wasn't the one that said it; God said it. I challenge any of them to come prove that it's wrong," see.
Said, "Well, you see, you ought to agree and make fellowship." That's the same thing they wanted him to do. God don't compromise. No, sir! He doesn't compromise.
He said, "Now, Brother Branham, I want to ask you something. Did the angel of the Lord... ?" Said, "We all believe the angel of the Lord. Did the angel of the Lord tell you this?"
I said, "I don't care what the angel of the Lord would say. If it's an angel of the Lord, he'll say that. But if he said something contrary, he wasn't the angel of the Lord!" I said, "Regardless of what angel or anything else said, Paul said, 'Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, let him be accursed.' "

67 Angels---and everybody ... some fleshly, puffed up something, say about angels. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and all different cults of the Adventists, and everything else, they see all kinds of things like that, but it's always contrary to the Word. But God backs up His Word. It's His Word.
I said, "It's the Word of the Lord! Sure. All I ever knowed was taught to me by Him. I never went to a seminary or school. It comes from Him." But I said, "Whether it was contrary... If it's contrary to that, I wouldn't believe him, because that's... God's Word's first; everything else be a lie." God's Word, stay with it.

68 So Elijah, when he got through, he water-soaked those logs all over with twelve barrels of water, and poured them up on top of there. He stepped out there just as cool as he could be. Why? God can't lie. God told him. He said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You're God, and I'm your servant, and I did this at your command, because it's 'Thus saith the Lord!' I did this because You told me to do it, because it's according to your Word! Let it be known now that You're God!" And the fire of the Lord fell, consumed sacrifice, water soaked logs, licked up the rocks and everything else, and took everything away. Then Israel cried, the seven thousand, "Let God be God!"

69 Elijah---how beautiful to see that little, old, frail-looking, skinny body all wrinkled up, that little stick in his hand, little cruse of oil hanging on his side, a piece of sheepskin wrapped around him. Why, they'd put him in jail today if he walked on the street. But they let women wear shorts, but they sure wouldn't do that, see. So then... But here he come down through there, across the hill. On this stick...

70 Now, Mount Carmel's not a little vacant spot sits out in the middle of the desert. It's a big mountain. It runs kind of angle like this, runs up to a top, it looks out over the sea. And Elijah and Gehazi ran all the way up to the top. And Elijah fell on his face there and began to cry out to God with his back turned towards the west, towards the sun. Three years and six months not even dew had fell. He said to Gehazi, "Go look and see if you see anything, a cloud out over the sea."
Stand on this mountain, looking out that way, said, "I don't see a thing."
He stayed right there! "God, if these people has repented, if this people has come back to You, if they're ready to get away from all this nonsense and come back to your Word, then You're God to answer your Word."

71 Let me say the same thing today. Take these denominations and break them up. Forget these denominational differences and let people come back to the Word of God, to the hewing line. I'll prove to you there's a God that can still answer by fire.
I ask the people, call on God. Let [unclear words] call for a person. Let the people call for a prophet; God will put him on the scene. I challenge the nations to do that. Fall on your face and call on God to send a deliverer and watch what happens. Just do it one time. God will answer. God always does.

72 Fell down and said, "God, let it be today. These people once was against You. These people's broke up in all kinds of denominations out yonder. But today You've proved Yourself. You're God. And the people said, 'Throw away Balaam!' And I've killed them thousands of priests. They're out of the way now, Lord. All the hindrances is gone, the little barriers that separated us." A Methodist would like to come worship with the Baptists; the Baptists would like to come with the Pentecostals---the true in heart down there, that faithful seven thousand---but they can't do it. If they do, they're kicked out of their churches. Some of them don't care---they come anyhow. That's right.

73 But let them all break down those prejudices and get together and say, "We'll forget all these here creeds and catechisms, and everything we're reading from. Let us come back to the Word of the Lord." Watch what'll take place then. God will raise them up a prophet---He sure will---that'll bring it right down to them if they're ready to receive it. First they have to pray. God waits.
Isn't it strange that God wants the people to have part into it? When Jesus looked out upon the harvest, He said, "The harvest is ripe, the laborers are few. You pray the Lord of the harvest (that was Him), you pray to me, that I'll send laborers into my harvest." It's some part you have to do. God's waiting for His church to call on Him. He's always did it. God is waiting today for the people to call His servant into action. And the servant can't get into action till the people prays.
Israel could not get into action down there with signs and wonders until they fell on their face and prayed for a deliverer. God had His deliverer. God had a prophet hanging up there in the wilderness, kept him there for forty years waiting for them to get right to pray. But when they got right and started praying, then God sent the deliverer. God will do the same thing today, if the people will just get together, get to praying. All right.
He was a sign to those false prophets and to Ahab that he was the servant of God. He was a prophet of God. Then he also was a sign to Israel that he could close the heavens or open the heavens when he desired to. He sure was. Tell me one can close the heavens. Show me one that can open the heavens outside of God. And the Word of God is with the prophets.

74 Micaiah, a sign to Jehoshaphat. Micaiah was a sign to Jehoshaphat that God keeps a true prophet on hand.
Now, notice! He had four hundred prophets, Ahab did. And he called out those four hundred prophets. And with one accord they told him... And yet, down in that Jehoshaphat's heart, a man of God, he knew there was something wrong. He knew there was something wrong. He said, "Haven't you got one more?" After four hundred standing there?
He said, "These are all prophets, Jehovah's prophets. There's the Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterian, the Unitarian, and, oh, my, my, trinitarians and all different kind. We got them all here. And with one accord they say this is the greatest nation there is. We have nothing to fear about [like a little boy whistling in the graveyard, you know, when he's scared]. Don't you worry about that."
Said, "But haven't you got one more?"
He said, "Oh, yes, there's another one here, but," said, "I hate him!" He said, "He's always telling evil about this country. He's always saying something evil's going to happen to us."

75 Jehoshaphat said, "I'd like to hear him!" Oh, yes! What was he? A sign. Regardless of how many organizations or denominations, God's still got a prophet that stays with the Word.
Jehoshaphat knew that Ahab was doomed, because that real prophet Elijah, had been a sign to the nations, said, "The dogs will lick your blood." That's right. He knowed that Jezebel and him had it coming to them. He knew it did, see.

76 And Micaiah said... They come up to him and said, "Now, I tell you, if you want to get into the next association, I'll tell you what you do: you just agree that all these preachers are right, see. You tell him, 'Go on up.' " And said, "You just agree." Said, "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll see that you get in our organization, if you'll just do that, see, if you'll just compromise on a few of these things here that you are talking about. You just agree with them, go on with them." Huh-uh! Could you imagine a true prophet of God getting away from the Word of God? Could you... ?
Well, these fellows said, "But we saw a vision," these four hundred prophets. "We know. We're prophets. We know, for we are prophets!"
Micaiah said, "I don't doubt but what you saw a vision. I don't doubt it a bit, what you saw a vision. But it ain't according to that Word." Amen! Said, "I saw a vision too." Amen! Oh, mercy. He was a sign. He was a sign. He said, "I saw a vision, and I saw Israel like sheep scattered on a hill, having no shepherd."
And this big overseer, bishop, walked up and smacked him in the mouth, said, "Where did the Spirit of God go when it went out of me?"
He said, "You'll see when you're in the prison. You'll see."
Ahab said, "Put that guy in prison and feed him the bread of sorrow and give him waters of sorrow to drink." Said, "When I return in peace," said, "then I'll take care of him."
Old Micaiah stood there with "Thus saith the Lord." He said, "If you return at all, God didn't speak to me." That's it! What was he? He was a sign, as Jehovah's prophets. God's prophets stays with God's Word.

77 You got a prophet that says you should be baptized in the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it's a false prophet. If you say there's a prophet among you that says there's three gods, it's a false prophet. There's no Scripture for none of it. That's right. But a true prophet of God will stay with that Word. And if his vision's contrary to that Word, he's not a true prophet from God.
There's nowhere in the Bible anybody was ever baptized in the title of Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

78 Look at Paul up there in prison, a little hook nosed Jew, bald headed, laying up there, spending twenty years in a Roman prison. He wrote these letters. Now, what do you think the women preachers thought about Paul when he said, "Let them women keep silent in churches. I don't permit them to speak"? I imagine they could've really worked on him. What do you think them bishops thought, them bishops, when he said all these different things? "Quit this here stuff, and this here, all this, that..."
"Paul---tell me, who is this guy anyhow, this guy laying up there in prison?" But he had met Jesus. He knowed what he was talking about. And out of that same group, after the death of Paul, they finally formed out of that bunch of bishops and higher-ups, to the Nicene Council, and that formed the Catholic church, getting away from the Word of God. There come in your Father, Son, Holy Ghost. I challenge anybody, anywhere, any nation, to disprove it.

79 "Thus saith the Lord, 'The baptism using the title of Father, Son, Holy Ghost is false.' Thus saith the Lord." I command every one of you, on here or on tape, that hasn't been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, be baptized again in the name of Jesus Christ.
Paul in Acts 5:9 ... or, 19:5, said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
They said, "We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost."
Said, "Then to what was you baptized?"
They said, "We've been baptized." But not in Christian baptism. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is not Christian baptism. No Christian was ever baptized like that in the Bible, or for hundreds of years after the Bible. It's a Catholic creed and not a Christian doctrine. Show me in the Bible. It's a fraud. It's the working of devils. I don't mean to say the people that's baptized like that are that way. God's got many a person out there today that don't know no better.
But the hour has come we've got to get back to the Word if we expect God to work in this day like He did then.

80 I said to my mother when she was dying---before she died---I said, "Mother, when I became a Christian, as a boy I began to seek and find out. I knowed there was a God, from visions that you know and things that happened all down through life." I said, "Then I found out the Catholic church said, 'We're the church. Don't make any difference what the Bible says---we believe that to be all right---but we're the church. What we say, God binds it in heaven.' And so, then they do it this way. That's one body. The Lutherans said, 'They're wrong, we believe it this way.' The Baptists say, 'They're all wrong---we believe it this a-way!' And there's hundreds of those bodies." Why, how could you ever have faith? Which one of them's right?

81 There's one thing right. I didn't know it then. I said, "Mother, I went back to the Bible and found out the way those first apostles, what kind of a church they had, how they taught, and the things they did. I did it just exactly the way they did it, the way the Bible said, and I got the same results." Amen! Excuse the expression, "But the proof of the pudding is the eating thereof." That's true! Got the same results that they got. Yes.

82 So you can't build confidence on something there's nine hundred different ways of going this way and that way. Then I find out over in the Bible that Jesus said Himself if any man will take one word or change it in this Book, anyone that'll add anything to it, or take anything out of it, the same will be taken out of, his part, of the book of life. Showed he had his name there all right, but it'll be taken out.
Oh, we got to come back to this Word. "Heavens and earth will pass away but my Word shall never fail." Yes, sir! "Let every man's word be a lie and mine be true," said Jesus. Let's stay with the Word! Yeah. Oh, my. Yeah.

83 Jehoshaphat knew that God keeps a real true prophet that stays with His Word and won't compromise it.
No, sir, he stayed right with it. Four hundred against him with their prophecies also, but his was the Word of God with the same sign and things. And I say today, what we need today is a man, a prophet, raise up among us who'll stay with God's Word regardless of what anybody else says or whatever the denomination says.

84 Micaiah had no cooperation. Moses had no cooperation. Noah had no cooperation. None of them ever has cooperation. It's all against them. But they're a sign in the evil days before God sends judgment. And God keeps His Word and wants His Word kept by His people. Praise the Lord!
Now, getting down to the closing, for just a few minutes now. Now, listen close.

85 There was a man sent from God whose name was John, a prophet sign. Before Jesus ever came to the earth to declare Himself, He sent a prophet before Him. Did He do it? He sent a prophet. The Elijah of the Old Testament was prophesied to come in the power of Elijah of the Old Testament. He was to be a prophet sign that Jesus was coming, that there was to be a Messiah coming.

86 And when John came out of the wilderness, he was a sign that the Messiah was on His road. When John appeared, Israel ought to have knowed by their prophets... That's where the people miss it. They don't believe their prophets. They don't believe... "We don't believe what Peter said was all right on the day of Pentecost." They don't believe that's right. They don't believe what Paul said---the same thing Peter did---and said, "If an angel from heaven preaches any other Word, let him be accursed." They don't believe that, see. They don't believe it. And they didn't believe their prophets. If they'd have knowed, they'd know that Isaiah said, "There'll be a voice of one crying in the wilderness that'll prepare the way before the Lord." They should have knowed it. He was a prophet, a prince of the prophets. He told them, but they didn't believe it. No, no. He said, "There's a Messiah coming."

87 This man was a man sent from God. Oh, brother. He had no following. God give him a following, a little flock, just like He did Elijah. God give him his following. He didn't get it from some political organization. He preached the Word, stayed on God's Word, and God give him a little flock. Elijah stayed on God's Word. God give him a little flock.
This man had no cooperation. He had no following, no cooperation, belonged to no denomination, asked for nothing, and feared nothing. That was John. Why? He was a man sent from God. That's the reason he stood. He was the Elijah standing there to prove to the people that the Messiah was coming. He said, "I'm the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, as saith the prophet Isaiah. Prepare to meet the Lord!"

88 Them Pharisees and Sadducees stood out there arguing about their coats and things. Right while they were arguing and fussing about it, right into the midst of them, come the Messiah walking. John said, "Behold, there He is." Hallelujah!
Watch him! He had introduced Him. "There He is. He's standing right among you now." About that time, the heavens roared, Jesus walked into the water, and John bare record, seeing the Spirit of God like a dove coming down, a voice screaming, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm pleased to dwell in." Oh, my, my!
John said, "Now, I must decrease; He'll increase." Oh, what a prophet! A sign to Israel. Yes, sir.

89 He was a man sent from God, though his father was a priest. Oh, yes, his father Zachariah was a priest. But did you notice, God wouldn't let that prophet get mixed up with their organizations. His father would've took him over to the school of theology, to the great so-and-so denomination, made him a fine minister, you know, and trained him all up and give him a whole lot of stuff he oughtn't to've had. But God wouldn't let his soul get contaminated. Do you understand? He couldn't let that man get mixed up with organizations. He didn't belong to any of them ---no Pharisee, Sadducee, Herodian, or whatever it might be. God wouldn't permit it.

90 He had a odd birth. He was a odd child. He was a prophet. His daddy was a priest, but He wouldn't let him get mixed up with all their hypocrite, Pharisaic religions and things. What did He do? He took him out into the wilderness and trained him in the desert.
What a training! Amen! He trained him by experience. That's the best---knowing God. When he come out, he knowed exactly what his commission was. God vindicated that commission. Where did He vindicate it at? On the river. Now, if you can make two and two say four... On the river! Said, "I'm the voice of one that's crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path."

91 John, a man sent from God. God would not let him be contaminated with it. He trained him in the wilderness by God. He trained him not in their schools, not in their theology. If he would, he'd been all indoctrinated with stuff like that come out of the schools today. All kinds of schools. Not just the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist, but the Pentecostal schools (just as bad), any of them schools of theology, brings them out of there. Oh!

92 His coming ... told the spirit of Isaiah. His coming, John's coming, was predicted in the Scripture. Isaiah 40 and 3 said, "I'll send my messenger before me ... prepare the way." Or, that was Malachi 3. Malachi 3 said He would send His messenger before Him. The prophet, the last prophet spoke of him, the last thing spoke of him. Remember, the last book of the Old Testament spoke that Elijah would come to the children of Israel before the showing of the Messiah.

93 Are you ready? The last book in the Bible, Revelation, shows us that there will be a return of him in the last days to the Gentile church. Signs, how they miss it. He's prophesied to come again just before the great and the second coming of the Lord. In Malachi the fourth chapter and Revelation, also, the third chapter, tells us that he will be here in the last days, that same one that'll stand in the breach for the people with a little flock that God will give him. He'll come in the last days. God said so. He'll be a sign to this Gentile nation that her time is no more.

94 And remember, when he appears on the scene, the time is at hand. Let's pray for God to send him. The time is at hand! As soon as his ministry was finished, Messiah showed Himself.
As soon as this great one that'll come in the last days will finish his ministry, the Messiah will show Himself. It'll be so. The time is at hand, so we better pray. You better start praying.

95 His God-given sign to this age will prove what He is. Everybody will know it. God will vindicate it. He'll show signs and wonders like never been done on the earth, by him. I don't mean jerking, shaking, and speaking in tongues. He'll be back with the Word of God like this man was. Why? He's prophesied in coming in Malachi 4 and Revelation 3, so he will come. There's nothing going to stop him. He's coming, he'll be here. Amen! Let the people fall on their face today and start crying out to God and watch what happens. You'll see him show up in power. Yes, sir!
According to the Scripture his sign-message will be the turning... What will his ... what will we know him to be? How will we know it's the right one?

96 You know, Israel asked that one time over in Deuteronomy, the twentieth chapter, twentieth verse, I believe it is. He said, "How will we know that this will be the right one? How do we know?" God tells us we'll know him. What will he do? He'll be turning the hearts of the children back to the original Pentecostal message at the beginning.
Oh, my! A sign that's overlooked, the real sign, and they miss it. They always do. Back to the true church, the true message.

97 He will stand alone against denominations, bold and fearless with "Thus saith the Lord." He'll compromise with no denomination. He'll have nothing to do with any. He'll pull no strings for nothing. He'll be straight out on the Word, "Thus saith the Lord." God will vindicate his ministry with signs and wonders, great revealing of the Word, and bringing forth to the people. What a day is at hand! He'll stand like Peter and John did on the day of Pentecost. After Pentecost that they'd been filled with the Holy Ghost, baptized there, they stood in that Sanhedrin court. They stood there with all the boldness that could be stood in. They said, "We forbid you to teach in the name of Jesus any more."
He said, "Is it right for us to listen to you or God? Judge you between yourselves." Ignorant, unlearned! Amen! They were prophets. They were prophets, anointed of God. They were signs of the Holy Ghost. They were prophets. They knowed.

98 They was just like John. They'd been up there at Pentecost, and they had found something. They wasn't like most of our preachers today---self-styled, boasting of what great organization we have, how many we got in our great groups. "We stand as a great organization. We do great missionary work." Oh, mercy! "Oh, we have bigger crowds than all the rest of them." What is it? It's a political pull (I want you to listen close the next two or three minutes.),

99 a political pull!
Surely I said something a few minutes ago you know what I'm talking about---a sign that's prophesied. I left it alone, laid it in your lap, see. Not only you here, but those who will hear, it's in your lap! Do with it whatever you want to. You pray and watch God move on the scene. Watch Him fulfill His Word. He's waiting.

100 When atomic bombs, and people are scared in the Pentagon, they don't know what to do, and mystic signs in the skies of flying saucers, and everything that God predicted, it's time for that Elijah ---he's somewhere---to rise on the scene.
Let the people, let that little flock, that little remnant that God will give him, let that little remnant go to calling out to God and watch what happens. There'll be a national showdown. There'll be a power that they never seen before. Trouble of it is, this time it's going to be too late for them then. The doors will be closed. So remember, we're at the end time. Pray!

101 Look today what we call ministry. What have we got? (Now in closing I want to say this.) What have we got? We've got nothing. Some of our greatest leaders, our greatest evangelists... One of our great evangelists said, "If I can find 10% of my converts holding out a year, I'll be very thankful," when even no farther back than Finney had 97% of them. Paul had a hundred plus. Hundreds! Hundreds plus hundreds. One got saved, and he was so filled, brother, he went and told somebody else, he told somebody else, he told somebody else---went into the millions. Why? They had something. They were on the Word.

102 Today we just think about big crowds. What is it? It's a political organization. If we come ... some great evangelist comes to the city, what comes first? A bunch of men. And if all the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, all them, they make up a little score that they... "He can only preach this, and he can't preach that; and he can't preach this, but he can preach that." What have you got? And they walk up there...
Women (I'm talking about Pentecostals), women go in there, up to the altar... They keep pleading...
I've always been against an altar call. Might as well say it. I don't believe in them. There's no such a thing in the Bible. How can any man come unless God calls him? You couldn't keep him away. You don't have to call anything if God's called him. Altar call's a Methodist idea. That's right! Altar call... They get ahold of them, say, "John, you know, your mother died a long time ago...
"Oh, boo hoo, yes, brother. Boo hoo." That's not conversion.

103 Here a few nights ago we had a display in Louisville of a woman brought in in a casket, laid up on the platform of the armory. "Hundreds of people," said, "run to the altar." The gospel's not a scare. It's not a sympathetic feeling. It's a conversion of conviction.
Watch at these meetings, these great evangelists, and even in my humble little ministry (not excluding me. Sometimes I feel ashamed going out. Right!). What do we do? Stand and make altar calls and persuade them. Little girls come up there and all chewing chewing gum. "See, see, I'm going..." These women come up there with bobbed hair and painted faces---Pentecostals---and go in, and come out and say they spoke in tongues; and never let their hair grow and still do the same thing they did. You tell me that's conversion? That's a mockery of God. The Bible said it's a sin and a disgrace for them to cut their hair. How can a woman with bobbed hair condemn a woman's got paint on her face? Might as well hear it. The hour is coming till the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewed down.
What's the matter? It was wrong. Because our modern, so-called preachers out here---big crowds, and stuffed shirts, and organizations---know no more about God than a Hottentot does about Egyptian knights. When it comes... They go up there...

104 What if that people at Pentecost would've went up there and said, "Now, Jesus commanded us that we should go up here and stay till we receive power from on high. Now, brethren, we've been here nine days already---let us accept it by faith. Now, we have the Holy Ghost. We go out... Because we've been here, we done what Jesus told us to do." There'd never been no experience.

105 Let me tell you something. I know this is on tape, but here it comes anyhow. Listen. I'm going to tell you something. It's a shame, people trying to... I've never believed that the Holy Ghost was shaking. I've never believed that the Holy Ghost was ... evidence was speaking in tongues, or crying, or shouting. Them's emotional sensations. I believe the Holy Ghost can do that. But the Holy Ghost is tabernacling deity. I believe a great bunch of people that claim to have the Holy Ghost don't know one thing about it. You meet God!

106 How on the day of Pentecost, they said... Now like the Baptist today, the Presbyterian, and Methodist, I ask, "Do you believe you got the... ?"
"Oh, yes, we accept it by faith." By faith, nothing! That isn't it. It's a sensation.
You like to see a sunset, and you stand and watch the sun go down, and cry, and tears run down. That ain't God. That's emotion from something that's in you. You hear of somebody being sick or someone dying, you scream out and cry. That's not God---that's human emotion. How God...

107 I've seen people at a ball game get so happy they'd stammer their lips, everything else. Don't tell me. We're in a need of revival, salvation. And the Pentecostals come around, get the people worked up, and tell them when they speak in tongues they got the Holy Ghost. And some of them live all kinds of lives afterwards. Listen, brother, at the day of Pentecost it wasn't so. They never relied upon any tongues or anything. While they were there standing in one place in one accord, God came down literally among them. They saw on each one of them licks of fire about like that hanging above their head. God was there! It was no "accept it by faith" or some emotion. They were filled with the Holy Ghost, and then went out and began to speak with tongues. But first they met God. That's what's the matter today. People get worked up and excited, emotion, and it's not the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is tabernacling deity. Your words is His words. I tell you, what we need today is a call.
People go in... Women like that go in, speak with tongues, come back out, and you go to their places where they have their churches...

108 I wish Billy was sitting here. I just got a letter from down there somewhere the other day where a woman said, "I belong to a certain great (the biggest organization of the Pentecostals, big trinitarian organization)..." And said, "All of our women, Brother Branham, all cut their hair. I had long black hair." She said, "I always loved it, because I believe it was of the Lord." Said, "I never did wear make-up. Our church teaches that that's old-fashioned." Said, "They tell me when I had my hair rolled up in a bun on the back, said, 'Look out---you got a flat tire on the back,' and all like that. Said, 'You're packing a flat tire on the back of your head.' " And said, "Finally my husband said, 'Why don't you cut your hair and be like the rest of them?' " Now, I got a letter going back to her. She said, "Is it so (I heard one of your tapes) that Christian baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ?" Now, you know what she's going to get, don't you? Yes! She said, "Tell me, Brother Branham, I'm hungering; I want to know what I've done."

109 I'm going to say, "Shame on that backslidden husband of yours and that godless group that you're worshipping with. Come out from among them!" Right! God can't change. When God says anything, He means it. I don't care how many backslidden preachers that wants to compromise to get a big organization or a group. We need salvationists. Men who'll stand and let their wives do like that, I got little confidence in your experience of being a Christian. Right! Repent or perish! My goodness!

110 Go in like that, join churches---Pentecostal churches---come back out and never change a bit, stay the same thing, never move a bit. Oh, mercy! What is it? Modern Jezebels. There's only one woman in the Bible that ever painted her face, and God fed her to the dogs. Modern Jezebels dragging their Ahabs around by the collar. Any little sissified man that'll let his wife do like that, wear shorts and things, and get out here on the street, and dress in dresses look like she's skinned tight like a wiener, skinned up like that, and... I don't say that for a joke; this is no place for a joke. This is God's Word! It's true! Right! Walk down the street with a dress so tight on till she can't walk, then some man make a remark about her and you want to fight him. You ought to ... need your jaw slapped (that's right!) for letting her do it. It shows what you're made out of. That's exactly right.

111 What we need is the gospel. God, rise someone on the scene that's right back to the Word. God said it's not even a decent thing for a woman to even come to church and pray with her hair cut. And a woman that cuts her hair, a man has a perfect right to get a divorce from her. She's a dishonorable woman. The Bible said so. She's dishonorable to her husband, she maybe not know it. Any woman that'll wear shorts is dishonorable. She might not know it. Lady, I ain't trying to hurt you. I'm trying to save you from a lake of fire, hell! Repent!
"Well," you say, "I got the Holy Ghost." And act like that? With God tabernacled inside of you, the very God that said for you not to do it?

112 "Well," you say, "I spoke in tongues." I've seen devils speak in tongues. I've seen, in Africa, drink blood out of a human skull, and speak in tongues, and call on the devil. I've been in camps of witches and wizards where they spoke in tongues and interpret it. I've seen pencils lay on the table and write in unknown tongues, and the man come around and interpret it, it was true. Don't tell me about tongues. We got too much of it now. Yet I believe that God has an unknown tongue. I believe that God speaks in unknown tongues, but don't rely upon that! Paul said, "Though I speak with tongue of men and angels and have not the Holy Ghost, I'm nothing yet. Though I can move mountains..."

113 A lot of people are trying to say, "Oh, this is a great man of God. You ought to see the great miracles." Why, devils go out and perform things like that. I know witches that goes out and things like that, has a apron around her like that, and they put money in; she takes hair out of the back of her head, winds it in blood and throws it in... And them people are---honest people---are believing... It's not that man; it's them people believing they're approaching God through the witch.

114 Didn't Jesus say, "Many will come to me in that day and say, 'I've had great healing campaigns.' "? That's not a sign. It's a sign we're at the end. Didn't Jesus say in Matthew the twenty-fourth chapter, about the twenty-fourth verse too, 24:24, that He said, "False prophets will rise in the last days and show great signs insomuch that they would deceive the very elected if it was possible." But the elected is standing on the Word! They know what a true sign is.

115 How can a man that does these things that denies God's faith say that he is a prophet from the Lord? How in the world can a man... He might be a prophet, like those was down there in the times of Ahab, Jehoshaphat, when Micaiah stood up. But they had one down there that stood on the Word---Elijah. The Word of the Lord was written that Ahab would come to his end, and Elijah's vision was with that. And any man that calls himself spiritual or a prophet acknowledges that every word of this is true.
How can he be a trinitarian? How can he baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and say that he's anointed with the Spirit? How can he teach people that error and still be anointed with the Spirit? It cannot be done. It's an impossibility.
I realize that's not popular, but we don't want to be popular; we want to be honest.

116 Now, Jezebel and Ahabs... Yes, sir! Why? Why do they do it? Why does them women do ... keep their hair bobbed off, and wear make-up, and go out and put on shorts when men are coming by and things like that, their husbands do it? Because they haven't got a true prophet in their pulpit to tell them the truth. They tell them, "Well, that's no different. That's all right. You don't have to do with that."
You... It is the Word of the Lord! The Bible said any woman that'll put on a garment pertains to a man is an abomination before God. God don't change. How can He change and be God? He's infinite!

117 They need a true prophet that tells them that that is a sign of the end. The Bible said they would do it. Isaiah, the fifth chapter, said the women would do that in the last days. Exactly. So there they are.
But they say they got a prophet in the pulpit. Afraid of the Word of God, not... He's afraid of the congregation. Let's pray for God to send us that latter light, them evening lights, send us the one that He promised to do, to the elected church that'll tell them what's truth, stand on the Word of God. Let the Jezebels and Ahabs... Then it'll separate them. That's exactly.

118 Remember, when the women begin to act like that... Now just go back a little piece when they started to cutting their hair and acting like that. When the women begin to act like that, it's at that time and that season that Elijah in the last days is to appear on the scene with the end-time sign. With the end-time sign, like it was in the days of Lot, see. The end-time sign. When women begin to act like that... They're acting like that now. And it's at that time that the Elisha is to appear on the scene, combing and calling, rebuking and tearing down (right), with a sign of God behind him, moving on. He ain't going to call no big bunch, now. The Bible said, "Fear not, little flock, it's your Father's good will to give you the kingdom," see. That's right! That's exactly right.
He has to be rejected by all but the little flock, for he's like Elijah with his seven hundred and John with his little flock. Yes.

119 You see where we're standing today? We've got to go back to the original Pentecost. We've got to get back to the things of God. We got to get back. Brother, sister, don't be deceived in your experience.
We are waiting for that hour. Don't you just take a "I hope so, I believe, by faith I accept it." Don't you do that! You meet God face to face, and you be filled with the Spirit, and then you watch what happens. And if that spirit in you is contrary to this Word, then you leave that spirit alone. Go get a ... pray for God to give you a spirit that...

120 When this Spirit will rise in the last day, it'll be a warning against them that are false, see, because John said, "Don't think to say within ourselves, that you have Abraham unto our father..." "We have the ... we are ... our fathers was Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or Pentecostal." Don't think to say you're children unto Abraham, for God's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham. Don't think because you're Pentecostal that you're going to be excused. Not at all. God's able of these stones to rise children unto Abraham. That's exactly right. Yes, sir.
Just speak the Word of God in the trueness of the last day. His prophecy is...

121 Let me just turn back here just a minute, let me show you how we can find out. I got a lot of Scriptures wrote down here, I've just been referring to them. I want to read one to you from... First, let's take Deuteronomy, the eighteenth chapter, and we'll find out just in a minute, just before we close here, so that I can read this scripture to you. In Deuteronomy, the eighteenth chapter, all right, and let's see now, the twentieth verse of the eighteenth chapter. Deuteronomy, 20...
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods [plural] even that prophet shall die. [That's right. Spiritually gone. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." We got one God, not gods.]
And if thou sayest in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? ["How will we know? There'll be so many of them, how will we know? This one says that and the other one says this, like... One says this and the other one said that, and so forth." Now, watch. We'll know.]
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; thou shall not be afraid of him.
If God hasn't said it, then don't be afraid of it. It's all right, just go ahead and forget about it, see.

122 Now, look at what we hear today---Apostles' Creed, the creed of the Methodist, the creed of the Baptist, the creed of the Pentecostals, the creed... Creed, creed. What is a creed? Where do you get it? I challenge anybody to show me the Apostle's Creed in the Bible. "I believe..." There's no such a thing. If apostles had any creed they ever hung to, here it is: "Repent every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you..." Don't you see where we're at, friends? We're in a terrible condition. What is it? A true sign that's overlooked.

123 Now, you're men and women, most of you, and you're God's children. Don't overlook it. Remember that we're supposed to have these things. They're supposed to happen in this day, in this hour that we're now living in. This is the hour just before the coming of the Messiah. There's supposed to be an announcement come forth from God. Let me read that for you. Let's go back to Malachi. It's the last of the Old Testament. And listen what He says here in Malachi, the... Listen to this just a moment. Now, if you notice Malachi 3 speaking, as Jesus said of John coming:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

124 That was John announcing the coming of Jesus. And He came to the temple, exactly what he said, the messenger of the covenant, the angel that was in the wilderness with the disciples ... or, with Israel. Do you believe He was that messenger? Why, He said, "I come from God, and I go to God."
Now, why was Paul given a sickness to hold him down? After Jesus had been dead and buried and rose again, after a long time Paul met Him face to face on the road to Damascus. He said, "I come from God and went to God." Paul looked up. There was a big light there, that same pillar of fire. Do you know what I'm talking about? The same pillar of fire... And Paul talked to Him, and He talked back to Paul. The people didn't hear Him. They didn't hear Him, but Paul heard Him.
He said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
He said, "Who are you, Lord?"
He said, "I'm Jesus. Now rise and go into the street called Straight; it'll be told you from there on. I got a prophet that's coming up there to tell you what to do, you see, how to..."

125 Paul, took down, was baptized, and called upon the Lord, received the Holy Ghost. And Paul said, "I had an infirmity of the flesh that was given me, a devil, a messenger of the devil that buffeted me." That's like blow after blow. He'd get better, and then it'd hit him again. Said, "I consulted the Lord three times to take it away from me, but the Lord said, 'Paul, my grace is sufficient.' " Then said, "Except I would be exalted above the abundance of the revelation." He had more by revelation than Peter, James, John, or any of them. He seen Him after He'd been gone for, maybe, two years or more, standing in a pillar of fire talking to Him. How much greater today---two thousand years, and He still lives. Amen!

126 He said, "There was given me, except I'd get exalted above, saying 'Now, brother, I'm above you all. See, I seen Him after He was raised from the dead, and I talked to Him; I'm...' Except I get exalted above there, there was something give me to keep me humble."
He was the one who told them to be rebaptized again in Jesus' name. Said, "If an angel from heaven..."
He said, "I didn't go up to their schools, wherever they were at." Said, "I didn't go up to Jerusalem right away---not for fourteen years." Said, "I went down into Egypt, down into Asia down there." And he consulted the Lord, was down there about three years, studying the Old Testament, see it all compared with. When he come back in fourteen years later, met Peter and them, and had the same gospel, baptized the same way, and done the same things. Amen! He knowed it was right. Yes, sir!

127 Listen at Malachi now, over here, Malachi 3. Now, if you could, let me just clear this for you. I believe... Let's turn real easy now to Matthew, the eleventh chapter, and see if I... I may have this wrong. I think I've got it. I might have to look first to see it. Matthew 11. Let's see. Start at...
And it came to pass, when Jesus had made a ending of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
And now when John heard that he was in prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? [John's eagle eye got filmed over down there in the prison, see.]
Jesus answered and said unto him, Go ... shew John again these things which thou ... you ... hear and see: [John's a prophet, and if he'll hear this is what's going on, he'll know who I am, see. He said...]
The blind receive their sight, ... the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, ... the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up ["And all of the denominations are together." It don't say like that does it? No, it don't. It said...], the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, ... the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. [There's the sign. Watch!]
And as they departed...
And blessed is he, who is not ... offended in me. [Now, watch!] Blessed is he who's not ... offended in me. [In other words, or "ashamed of me. Blessed is he who won't be ashamed of me," see.]
... as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? [Watch this prophet now.] What went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? [Not John. Oh, no! "You generation of snakes in the grass," he said to them denominations, "who's warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Don't begin to say, 'We belong to this and that,' because God's able of these stones to rise children..." Oh, brother, it wasn't a reed shaken by a wind with him.] A reed shaken with the wind?
Or what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? [Has to change his clothes two or three times while he's preaching.] Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. [They're the ministers that goes out and kisses the babies, you know, and marries the young, and goes to the school and makes intellectual talks, and you know, all these little sissified things. See, see? He don't swing a two-headed sword out here on the front line. "What'd you go out to see? Some guy like that?" He's asking them.]
But what went ye out to see? A prophet? [Listen] Yea, and I say unto you, and more than a prophet. [Yes, sir! What was he? Said, "He's more than a prophet." He was a prophet plus. He was the messenger of that age.] What went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before my face, to ... prepare the way before me.
Now, look over here in Malachi 3: "Behold, I send my messenger before my face..."

128 Watch! Now Malachi 4, let me read this. He's going to come again.
... behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, . .
That's today. I walk down the street and see these people. You can talk to them, and they laugh at you and make fun of you. I think, "What is it?" The other day I was walking along down the side of the square down here. I was talking to some people, and they just said, "Aw... ," walked on. Something just said to me, "They're atomic fodder, soon to be ashes scattered upon the ground. Let them alone. You spoke your piece. Get ready and get out of here." Hallelujah! I ought not have said that, I guess. "Get yourself ready. Gird up your loins, I'm calling you." That's the reason I'm waiting.
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; yea, all the proud, ... and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubbles: [That's exactly what it'll be. What happens when a great (some of you farmers) ... when a heavy fire hits a wheat field when she's just stubble? She just lays her flat with ashes behind. That's what will do when she strikes.] ... the day ... cometh, that shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [There'll be nothing left of them.]
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness rise with healing in his wings; ... ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves in the stall. [That's the millennium.]
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they'll be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day that I will do this, saith the LORD of hosts. [Coming out in the millennium... The ashes of the wicked.]
Remember ... the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded ... him in Horeb for all Israel, as the statute and judgments.
[Now listen close now.] Behold, I will send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of that great and dreadful day of the LORD:
Now, that could not have been John. It could not, because the world would've been destroyed then. But here He said in Matthew 3, He sends a messenger before Him. And Jesus said, "That's the Elijah that was to come to prepare the way before me. But before this great atomic bomb hits, I'll send to you Elijah the prophet."
And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

129 Prophesied in this day... Now, you say, "Oh, Elijah---that was to be John." The messenger of the covenant was John, truly. That's exactly right. Jesus said so and verified it right here. "That's the one I spoke of." But you see it couldn't be the Elijah that was to come. See, it couldn't be. Because, you see, if it would, then the prophecy was wrong. The earth wasn't destroyed back there, see. "But before that great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, I'll send to you Elijah. And he will restore [watch his first coming] the hearts of the fathers to the children [that's what He did first, brought the message of the new dispensation, the coming of Christ now, pulling the old orthodox fathers away from that orthodox faith, into a new faith that'd just been born. Then when He comes the second time...], and the hearts of the children back to the Pentecostal fathers, the original message."

130 Now, get over in here in Revelation 3 and you'll see it right there again. So it's prophesied. We are at the end time, my brother. That's right.
Like the four hundred prophets against Micaiah, they say... We're in that last day, we know. False prophets show false sign, joining denominations. They say, "Come and join. Let's join up. You come and join our church. Bring your membership. We're open this morning for you to transfer your membership from that church over to this one." Oh, nonsense! What good does your membership do you? If you haven't got an inheritance in heaven, forget about it.

131 False prophets will show false signs. But look, true prophets, they'll stay with the Word of God. True signs will bring forth God's true Word to a true church. And the true church will receive the Word and rejoice over it. When the little flock that will be given in the last days, which will be a remnant of the Gentiles that'll be carried over...
When Jesus came there wasn't but just a very few there that believed. John's little group was the one who believed. Jesus taken them from there on, made disciples out of them and went on.

132 When Elijah... When the destruction come, when Noah's time come, he was a sign; and he took the people in the ark. When Elijah come, he pulled the people out of the confusion they were in. When John came... All the prophets were signs, signs, signs, signs. And He promised us a sign in the last days. In the last days there would be a sign. It's an overlooked sign. People don't see it. They just go over the top of it and let it go.
Brother, sister, don't join a church.

133 (Let me say this in closing now.) If only you've had an experience of some emotion, some sensation, don't you rest upon that. Don't you do it, dear people. You're... I'm talking to the people... (I hear them click the tape recorders back there just then. I'm talking now to the church, see.)
Listen, don't you... (I say a lot of them things sometimes like that so that the people out in the land out yonder...) Stay with God for your true sign. You'll see it. It'll be all around you. But millions will walk right by it and don't see it. When Jesus come, they didn't know Him. They didn't recognize Elijah. You know what they said when Elijah went up? They didn't believe that nonsense. They said, "It's nonsense." The children right there in that own city where he lived at, preached at, done signs and wonders right there in that country, when there come an alarm out, "We can't find Elijah, the Lord took him up in a whirlwind," they laughed at such a thing.

134 Here come Elijah ... Elisha with the same signs on him, a type of Christ and His church. Here come Elijah ... Elisha, the same signs Elijah had, coming right down doing that. Even the little children followed him out, and said, "Old Baldhead, why didn't you go up like Elijah?" See what happened to them irreverent children? Today they laugh and make fun. Don't worry, brother, judgment is hanging in the skies right now, written on the face of every [unclear words] America. That's right! Judgment is hanging in the skies. All the wrath of Almighty God... [Gap in the audio.]

135 ... despisers of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.
Don't you take a sensation. Don't you take an emotion. Don't you take anything till you meet God face to face, and let the Spirit of God come into you. He'll fill your heart and soul with power, love, and burning.
God, help me to find my place yonder somewhere in the next few days, there remain till I see where my next move is.
We've waited a long time. I've waited a long time. I remember mowing my yard back there. When I built this house up here, the Lord called me. My wife cried because she didn't want to leave her mother, said maybe she wouldn't be taken care of. I thought, "I've got an old mother too."
I was sitting down there one day mowing the grass. I sat down; just as clear a voice come and said, "Separate yourself, then I'll bless you."
I said, "Lord God, make me happy here. You see what I'm up against."
All those things are finished now. Mother Broy's in glory, Mother Branham, too. Where's my move, Lord?

136 Judgment's going to strike this country one of these days. There's other nations who hasn't heard the gospel. There's places...
Whatever you do, don't you forget my words. Don't you let this anchor... God, take an iron pen and engrave it in your heart that you won't forget it. Don't forget it. Thus saith the Lord, "Return to God with all your hearts." Come back! Don't rely upon emotion, sensation, or anything. Seek God with all that's in you until something happens to you that you want to straighten up, you want to be godly, you fear God, you want to live right. Do that. Don't you forget it, because we are at the end time.
Now remember, we're at the end time. And remember this as I close to pray in a minute. Don't forget! Hear me, Tabernacle! And if this tape's still going, hear me, world, or where it'll go. There'll rise a sign, a true sign. Maybe it's already risen, and it's overlooked---a true sign that God has always given that's overlooked.

137 Let's pray.
Jesus of Nazareth, as that great voice spoke yonder that day a few weeks ago, standing by the side---as I was crossing over that log around the tree, and that Spirit that came down through them treetops and said, "Jesus of the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old!"... O God, on this rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
For some thirty years, Lord, I've cried out through this valley here. That message, I haven't moved one inch from it, from where I started---just the same message, the same thing---calling people back, not to a sensation, but to an experience of meeting God and being born of His Spirit. Oh, what will be left but a judgment? Them who's rejecting that message, Lord, there's nothing left.

138 Thou hast so fulfilled your Word to declare the last day signs and prove it infallibly that You are God and that we're here. Even when we hear great evangelists in the lands today all screaming out, and our nation's capital, and other nations appointing, and fear falling, and when we hear of these great men, plumb into France predicting that the first bomb will drop in Louisville, Kentucky... For hundreds of miles it'll sweep the land. O God, they had a chance to hear, but they wouldn't.
Newspapers, church items, television, radio has packed it. There is no excuse. Then, Lord, You said, "All that the Father has given me will come, and no man can come except the Father draws him first."

139 Now, Father, I pray this prayer for myself. Here I am getting to be an old man now, and I don't know how many days we have left, Lord. We may not have yet today. But whatever is left, Lord, and what's left in my life, O God, is it possible You can take it and do something with it to your glory?
I pray first for myself, Lord, that Thou will give to me your will. Let thy will be done, Lord, whatever it might be. I want it to be said on that day when I come to meet You, "It was well done." If it is large or if it is small, whatever is in your great heart for my life, Lord, here I am.
Send an angel with a coal of fire and cleanse our lips and sanctify us, Lord, for the last great something that's fixing to strike the earth. Let us be a voice crying in the wilderness of sin, "Prepare to meet God."

140 This little church, these people that come day after day and drive hundreds of miles, O eternal and loving and never forgetting a deed, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, who raised up Jesus from the dead, and now He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, God tabernacled in flesh, bless these people whom I bless in thy name. May they always remember and know that there is a sign, a sign of the end. I pray that You'll give to them and make them winners of others---on their work, wherever they may be, in the street corners, filling stations, or wherever it might be---to testify in the grocery store, to the milkman. Whatever it might be, Lord, if something warms upon their heart, may they be a witness. May they live such godly and sanctified lives until they'll be written epistles read of all men.

141 God, bless our women. O God, I pray that You will let them wash their faces, those who do not, take that Jezebel make up off of them. Let them have the audacity of Christians and the Spirit of God upon them enough to know that they shouldn't wear those unclean clothes that they wear, let their hair grow out like ladies; for it is written in the Bible, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is that little branch that'll escape all this stuff that's coming forth in the last days. It'll be glorious in the sight of God!" as the prophet has foretold it. God grant that!
There's nothing more I can do. I've screamed my voice for year after year, Lord; and unless You move now, there's nothing I can do. I pray that You will. And I know You will, because You've promised it in your Word, and there's where I stand. I can only give a witness, Lord, and no man can come except You draw him; and all that the Father has given will come. I have that assurance that your Word will be taken care of.

142 Bless us, Lord. And if there's those here who are just depending on a sensation... Maybe they have shouted. Maybe they have the Holy Spirit. Or... We wouldn't count that, Lord, because we've seen people at ball games shout. We've seen people at worldly amusements shout. We've seen those so happy till they cry, out on the floor dancing and all those things. That ain't You, God. But to meet You, and to talk with You, and You talk back, that's what we want.
Oh, I pray Thee, God, at this very minute that You'll send that Holy Spirit into the room, this little humble place. There's no place worthy for Him to come. But I pray, God, that in your own way, that You'll send Him right now into the room, convince souls.
As I said awhile ago, Lord, maybe put a stumbling block in somebody's way about these altar calls, begging and persuading people to go up; and when we return back next year we find them a twofold more child of hell than they was to start with. How can they come except You convince them and convict them, the great Holy Spirit?
And I pray Thee, Lord God, if that sinner man or woman, boy or girl, is in this building this morning, that the Holy Ghost will come with such convicting power till tears will run down their cheeks and drip into their soul, Lord, that from the depths of their heart they will believe and accept Christ. Grant it, Lord. They'll need no altar. Their soul will be their altar. Grant it, Lord. Then they come full heartedly to Thee, and say, "I now want to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins that I have repented of." Grant it, Lord. Fill them with the Holy Ghost.

143 Give us evangelists in the world today, not those who persuade, and pull, and make denominational children. God raise Yourself up some children. Have the people, Lord, to pray. I'm thinking of Cornelius's house. It never happened to a Gentile before, but they were fasting and praying. And when that man of God, that prophet, stood there, and while he spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard the Word. God, grant that kind of a meeting.
While Peter spake these words... O God, they were ready. They were fasting, they were waiting, they were sincere. They wasn't just waiting; they was waiting until. Those apostles waited until God come down among them, and they could see Him and talk to Him. They went out with hearts that burnt the world to a crisp. They were bold and stood in the midst of places where it might've meant for them to get their own head chopped off. They said, "Is it right for us to listen to you or your organizations, or your denomination of man, or shall we listen to God? See ye to it." Right straight as soon as they was let go, went right out and preached the name of Jesus Christ again.
O God, give us that, Lord.

144 Raise up this one that You're speaking of in the Scriptures to us. Anoint him, Lord. I call for him. Send him, Lord! O God, our hungry hearts are crying. Send him, Lord, that'll return the people back to the faith of the fathers again, that'll get them away from this denominational puppets into a real experience with God like they did on Pentecost, a real church again, burning with the same message, the same faith, the same doctrine, the same Bible, the same God with the same signs. Raise us a prophet, Lord.

145 Heal the sick in the midst of us today, Lord. There are those here that are needy. I pray for them, Father. I've been so long tarrying this morning, and there are those sitting here... One night while the apostle Paul was preaching all night, a young man fell from the building and killed himself. He'd went to sleep. He didn't mean to, but he went to sleep and he fell, and his life was gone. And the apostle prayed, and life come back into him again.
O Lord God, there's many here that's fallen in sickness, and while we've waited long past the time of dismissing the church, there are those who are sick. O God, let that power, that Holy Spirit that comes personally in a pillar of fire, who declares Himself and makes Himself known to be who He is---and we believe Him---let Him encircle every person in here today. Heal the sick, fill with the Spirit, give deliverance in every manner, Lord, that we have need of it. Saturate our hearts with faith, God, with undying faith, with uncompromising faith, that we have "Thus saith the Lord." Grant it, Lord.

146 It's your people, your message, your Word, your servants, and the devil has no hold on us. He cannot even destroy us when this tabernacle is destroyed, for if this earthly tabernacle be destroyed we have one already waiting. He can't do us no harm, for every-thing that's our enemy is your enemy, for we are yours. We're bought with a price of the precious blood of Jesus. Therefore, you devils that have bound these people with sickness, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of every one of them. As a servant of God, claiming this Word to be the truth, you leave them. You have no rights. Everything that you ever claimed to have was cancelled at Calvary, and you can't hold them longer.

147 Now, God, give every man and woman, boy or girl, in here faith to believe that. The Word has been spoken. "If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart [the prayer of faith saves the sick], you have what you ask for." We know that. We have that confidence in God. If we have any faith at all, if God's living in us, we believe that. And now I know that it's so, Lord. So grant it today, for sickness and salvation. Oh, I must've said ... or, should've said salvation first and then sickness. Grant it, Lord, because the soul is more valuable than the body.
But those who sometimes... Their soul is saved, and this old body still belongs to Satan, and he knows that he will take it at the end time. He'll crush it and send it back till bugs of the earth will crawl into it and eat it up; but he'll never touch that soul, for it's the precious treasure of God. And through that life, like out of a leaf, it returns back to God who gave it, will come forth in the next season with a new body that Satan can never touch. Neither can old age or anything else ever touch it. It'll be a glorified body. We're looking for that, Lord. Bless thy people now. They're yours, and I commit them in your hands. I ask this in Jesus' name.

148 [Prophecy is given from audience. "Hear ye this day, I say unto thee, for I have walked among thee and have come this morning to surely bring the sign that shall be to this generation. For I say unto thee these words which thou has listened to, has it not been well said unto thee to give ear to these things which thou hast heard? Truly I say unto thee, my servant, yea, I have give great diligence in my Spirit to come unto thee for this occasion. And because of this thou has set in motion, according to my Spirit, the beginning of those things which thou has spoken about. Truly I say unto thee this day, ye people, yea, I say, give diligence to these things and gird thyself under my truth. For I say that the impending things that are now taking place shall increase and the spirit of destruction and madness shall surely take thee unawares. Yea, I say, give heed this morning for mine invitation is to whosoever will. Yea, I say, look unto this word which thou hast heard this morning, and believe the sign which is brought into thy presence. For I am the Lord thy God that speaketh unto thee."]
[Another prophecy given. "I speak unto thee, my prophet, this morning. I say, thou hast well broken my bread of life. And I say unto thee I have seen thy heart, and thou art in a time of need because thou needs a leading of my Spirit in this day and hour as never before, saith the Lord. And I say my sheep are wandering about in the world. But I say I have ordained thee from the foundation of the world to go, especially to my lost sheep of Israel, for they require a sign and I have given thee that sign. I say unto thee, my people, that sign is put in thy midst this morning. Thou must take heed of the Word, for I say my servant broke the Word of life the way that I would have him to do. For I have anointed him for this purpose, saith the Lord."]
That is not my word; that is His word. Oh, what we need this hour, this hour that we're living! Do you not understand, friends, that God doesn't come to great celebrities. He dwells among the humble, the little humble things. You don't, maybe, realize what's going on right now, what's moving among this building, what's moving among this people just now.
Why did the Spirit say early before I made anything, through Brother Higginbotham, "Watch this message, for I've brought it [something or another like that] to warn you of this thing that's coming."? Look what happened.

149 Some things, the Scriptures I had written down here, I never even touched, and went plumb off of them. I was led out there by the Holy Spirit, see. Some of the scriptures I never even touched to---I just went off on another thing altogether. Once in a while hearing something come, turn over and find where it was at.
The Spirit speaking in every direction now. Oh, people, be honest, be sincere! Don't try to rest upon... See, you're looking for something great and shiny, when all the prophets... Even David said at the coming of the Lord that every mountain would be brought low and the low places would be made high. Said the mountains would skip like little rams and all the leaves would clap their hands. Why, what did the people think that would be when Jesus came? What did it turn out to be? An old humble preacher, had no education, at nine years old went into the wilderness, not to be trained by man, but to be trained of God. Came out and stood with a piece of sheepskin wrapped around him, with wool all over his face, furry all over, and hair hanging down his neck, living out in the wilderness off of locusts (that's grasshoppers), wild locusts and honey when he lived in the wilderness, and come and stood in the mud on the banks and proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. And the Messiah walked right down, an ordinary man among the people, and was baptized.

150 And all the prophets declared to be one of the greatest things that ever happened and it was, see. They look for something great, shiny, something to take place, see. The Holy Spirit doesn't shine; it glows. Shine is of the world; glow is of God.
Glow over me, Lord, is my prayer. Humble me down. Take me, mold me and make me. Spirit of the living God, move fresh on me. Mold me, make me, make me thine own, Lord, just take me.
I'm just as aware that the Spirit of Christ is moving around through this building here this morning. The God that will judge the world is right here now, just as certain as I'm standing in this pulpit. There has been one, two, three vindications of it, of the Word, just exactly what the Bible said. You hear it shut up at that time after that? One, two, three, everything in spiritual order, everything in Scriptural order. Oh, open your hearts and under-stand. Oh, such a time! What could happen at this time?

151 They were in an upper chamber, all with one accord waiting.
For they that wait upon the Lord,
Shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings
like an eagle.
Don't just go up there and say, "Lord, I'm sorry of my sins. Now, I accept by faith that I've got the Holy Ghost," and walk away. "They that wait upon the Lord, [weeks, days, whatever it is], shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with the wings of an eagle. They'll run and not be weary; if they walk, they'll not faint. Teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait." Wait upon the Lord.

152 Day and night, constantly, Anna was in the temple constantly praying day and night. When they brought Jesus in, she, coming blind through the building, moved around---a blind woman---put her hands upon Him, and blessed God; because in her physical blindness, in her spirit, she was moved by the Spirit up to where He was standing.
There Simeon, waiting for Him back in the prayer room, back there, knowed that he had a promise by the Holy Ghost that He'd not die---an old man eighty, nearly ninety years old. And he told the people openly, "I'll not see death until I see the Messiah!" And at that same minute, a little old baby... What was He? Not a celebrity, all the guards standing at attention when they brought the Messiah in, wrapped up real sweet and nice, and pretty and spiced up, and perfumed like little babies who come to be dedicated; but a little mother that had been spoken evil about, said she had a baby out of holy wedlock, wrapped in swaddling cloth (yoke---ox yoke goods wrapped around Him), walking up through the building and everybody keeping their distance from Him. But here come that little bunch, that little group---Anna for one, Simeon another---walking down through the line, not knowing when he was going to cast his eyes upon it, and raised his hands, and said, "Lord, let thy servant depart in peace now, according to your word, for my eyes are beholding thy salvation." See?

153 Nothing great, shiny---a glow. And though it's evil spoken of, it was a sign. And today, the sign is evil spoken of. It has no cooperation. It's evil spoken of and called everything, but it's a sign that's overlooked, a sign that's evil spoken of. The Bible speaks of that, a sign evil spoken of.
Let us remember this as we journey to our homes. Don't you never let this message die from your hearts. Whatever you do, don't you do it. You meditate on this day and night. And pray day and night for God to rise His witness now. We're ready, for I believe soon time shall be no more. We're coming...

154 "When will it be, Brother Branham?" I don't know. Maybe today. It may be tomorrow. If it isn't today, I'll be looking for it tomorrow. And it may be this year, next year, ten years, maybe thirty years. I don't know when it'll be, but I say, from now on you be prepared every minute.
And don't take just something ordinarily. Don't do that. Don't you rest day and night until you've talked to God. Keep yourself from fanaticism. Don't get worked up in emotion. Don't do that. That's what brings so much radical stuff and makes people afraid of it, see---is because of the radical fanaticism. Don't you accept that---not at all. You stay right there till you talk to God. After all, it's your soul, and you're the one is going to spend eternity out yonder. And you be sure that you just don't shake hands and say a creed or accept something by faith. Don't you do that! You talk to God, let God talk to you. And watch what happens to you. Watch your desires and what happens. Then you'll know whether you talked to God or not.

155 To you who have believed on Him this morning, to you that... I said about altar calls. Do you know how they did it in the Bible? As many as believed on the Lord---as many as believed on the Lord---was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. If you've not... They never had altar calls. They never had people come up. When you do that you get everything. Here's a guy come up to the altar, arrogant looking, and kneel down, because somebody tried to get him. You have twice that hard to ever get him again, see. And what do you do? You get everything in it. And Jesus said, "All the Father's give to me will come to me." Stay with that Word, God will do the rest of it. That's right, God will do the rest of it.

156 God bless you! I hope to see you again tonight. I hope each one of you that can... I know a lot of you have to stay out, away. I'll be down tonight to hear my brother, if it be God's will. I don't want to take both of his messages.
Brother Neville is a sweet man of God, and I know when I hear him preach, I know it's coming directly from his heart. I know that. And Brother Neville, as he said the other night with that comment, said I made a remark, "Someday I'll baptize him in Jesus' name." I did. Why? I saw the sincerity and honesty in him. I knowed if it could ever be given to him and seen if he could really see it, his eyes would come open, he'd receive it. I waited, and telling the church, "Don't you worry, that Methodist preacher will come all right." And here he is today, a pastor of the Tabernacle, just as solid in the work as he can be, in the message. He believes God. And I know when I hear something come from Brother Neville, I know it's genuine, coming from God, because he is that type of a man.

157 I've laid my hands upon your handkerchiefs here that's been prayed over. Trusting each one of you has received a blessing from God, trust that God is on your heart.
We don't come here to get a blessing from God so much as we come here... Every day we breathe a breath we got a blessing from God. What we come here to do is a correction, to cut off, to circumcise our hearts, and to get before God, and to believe God with all of our hearts.
Remember the Word of the Lord, and forget not, and fail not to look over a true sign sent from God. And then I'm going to turn the service to Brother Neville, let him say whatever he wishes to say.

158 [Brother Neville speaks to the people.]
You couldn't ask for something sweeter, could you, from a real brother. The reason that I... See, friends, I know you love me, you love Brother Neville, you love all God's people. We love one another. If there ever was a time that we ought to more in love one another, is today. We should be so close together, brother, that we just ... we'd be more than real blood brothers and sisters. That's the love that ought to be in our hearts for one another, reverence and respects the highest. And I like that. I like that real thing.

159 And hear Brother Neville, and Brother Higginbotham, Brother ... I believe that was Brother Funk (it didn't even sound like him) that give that message back there. That come ... they come from God, them messages, friends, they really did. Anyone that's got spiritual discernment knows that.
But here's what it is. In coming, I like Brother Neville so much till I think this, you see: I don't like to say nothing unless I'm ... really have something from God to tell you, see. And I had this come on my heart about two or three days ago, and I didn't get to look at it much till last night and run up a few scriptures. That's the reason I come to deliver it. It's off of my hands now, see. Whatever you do with it, that's up ... that'd be you. You see? But it's off of my hands.

160 But Brother Neville and I, we're just that way. If I come down here just to speak sometime, and something like that, and Brother Neville had a message from God, I'd sit right down. Yes, indeedy! I'd give place to the message of God always, see. And that's the way we do each other. And that's the reason I say I... If God doesn't give me anything, well, then, maybe, just to speak... And if God gives Brother Neville anything, and I'm here at the pulpit Sunday morning, Sunday night, whenever it is, Brother Neville would just ... he'd be that much of a brother, he'd come to me, say, "Brother Branham, I believe you to be God's servant, but the Lord's just give me a message." You'd do that, wouldn't you?
Yes! I'd do the same to him.

161 If he was going to speak, and I'd say, "Brother Neville, will you excuse me? God has give me a message. I've got to say it to the people right now." And Brother Neville would step right out of the way---either one of us to one another. See, that's the way we do. And then, if I don't have any certain thing, then...
I just love to hear him preach. How many heard him last Sunday night? Such a wonderful message. I tell you, it tied right in with what was said in the morning. And people, I'm telling you, you've got enough Word of God that you surely should live right and be right. God bless you now, Brother Neville.