The reproach for the cause of the Word

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 I said to Brother Neville, "Are you sure you don't have a little bit of anointing this morning?" I'd come down to pray for the sick. There were some people gather in what we... early Sunday morning. What I have to catch there, I just have them to come here at the church. I always think it's better to pray for the sick around church. I don't know; I like church, and to come down here where the congregation, the people out here praying.
There was a little girl back there---the prettiest little girl---why, I think she's sitting somewhere out here now, if the people didn't go home. Oh, I see now. And that's the prettiest little thing, and she's very sick. We were listening when we heard the message of tongues and interpretation go forward. We were listening, and we thought we understood that something was said about a little girl. And we were waiting to see if the Lord gave a message what to say in there, but I think the little girl is all right now and is going to be well.

2 There was a lady that had lost her sight, also, and we were praying for her; and some man in an ambulance out there, a minister. I don't guess the man would have weighed thirty-five pounds or forty. Just very, very... And so I came down to pray for them.
The reason I was kind of hesitant a lot, a filling dropped out of my tooth, and I'm whistling to myself this morning across that place out of my tooth, in front there. And they tell me now I got to have them ground off, and caps put over them. So this old age is creeping up---it's the only thing I know. I had a filling in that one, kind of half of it, and when I start to speak, you can feel it---the wind kind of push out, you know what I mean; out across your lips, and it makes you kind of lisp like.

3 We are indeed a privileged people to be alive this morning, and to be able to come to church. And on this Eve of Christmas, waiting for the celebration that they have, which I hope... There are too many kids here this morning, so I'll just keep still. We adults sometimes we speak things that kids shouldn't even hear, you know.
I think the church has got a little present here for the little kiddies after awhile. I was just looking it over back there. Oh, you'll want to stay after Sunday school; just hold on because I think they've got some presents back there for the little fellows, to give out this morning. Now, you little fellows remember, while we're doing this, (I want to make this clear) it's not Santa Claus, because that's a story that someday you'll learn there's nothing to it---but it's from Jesus Christ, the truth of all truth; the Son of God. We're giving you this little present this morning because it's letting you know that one time God gave the greatest present that could ever be given to the human race---His Son. And we have a poor way of expressing it, and there's nothing we can give to compare with that, but just as mortals, one to another, we do that.

4 Now, I was going to wait till next Sunday (and I probably will anyhow) upon something that I wanted to say. And something has been made known to us up home of a vision, that I must follow it out. And it's kind of, seemingly would be kind of rough, but we never want to think that what God says is rough. His burdens are light.
And being that next Sunday, God willing, we're going to have a service here, (that's just before New Year's Eve) if the Lord be pleased with us to have this service. And we want to have a morning service, prayer for the sick, and perhaps a baptismal service. Then I thought... advertise it out to our friends that they could come in. Then we'll have Sunday morning and Sunday night, and then the people that want to stay over for New Years, then we're going to have watch night service.

5 There'll be several ministers here will be speaking New Year's night, plumb on till midnight, and we invite such ministers to come and speak. The Lord willing, I want to be one of them that has something to say on New Year's night.
And then next Sunday, I thought I would bring up a line of things that's being done--that's been done. Show how God is dealing with His people, and bring it right up into a climax here at the church.
Many of you are wondering about this income tax affair that we've been going through with---it's settled. And so I want to tell you how that happened also. And I think, it would be ... to have to tell it over again next Sunday, so I'll just wait till next Sunday and try to speak to you a little bit this morning out of the Word. And next Sunday I will try to, if God willing, to tell you how it all come about and bring to you each one of the things that the Lord said, and watch it hit just exactly to its spot, just placed exactly to the spot. He does not tell anything wrong.

6 But now, one thing that I wish to say this morning that I probably will not next Sunday, is concerning something that happened yesterday. I was a little reluctant on coming in this morning because I really---kind of torn up, so that I don't feel much like it; but being that I'm here, well, I'll try the best that I can.

7 Night before last I had company, Brother and Sister Sothmann (as we know here, one of the trustees of the church and his wife) came up to visit wife and I. And we were speaking on the oncoming meetings in Phoenix, and around. (If it would be the will of the Lord.) And we were up till about ten-thirty I guess; and I went to bed somewhere around eleven. And sometime in the night, I dreamed a dream. And in this dream I seen someone that was supposed to be my father; a great huge man. Just representing (figuratively speaking) my father. I seen a woman, didn't look like my mother, but yet, she was supposed to be my mother. And this man that was supposed to be like the father (the husband of this woman) was cruelly mistreating her. Insomuch that he had a great chunk of wood, and he would hold her up like this and strike her with this chunk of wood, and she would fall out, and go down. Then after awhile she would get back up again, and he'd walk around, take a notion to strike her again, he'd strike her again. And I was standing off at a distance watching it.

8 Finally, I just got fed up on it. And I was way smaller than this man, that was supposed to be like my father. So I walked up to him, and put my finger in his face, I said, "Don't strike her again." And when I did, something began to happen. My arms began to pulsate, and I got great big, brawny muscles. I never seen such muscles. I just took the man by the collar and I said, "Don't strike her again. If you do, you'll have to deal with me---if you strike her again." And the man got scared of me, and left her alone.
I woke up. Well, laying there, just in a moment, of course the interpretation of that come. That was, of course, the woman, figuratively speaking, is the church, which is kind of the mother. The father is the denomination over her, that dominates over the church like the husband over the wife. And it's these denominations striking that church and don't even let her get on her feet like that. Just every time she tries to get up, or do something, the people in there (the denomination) strikes her down. And it just means to put some faith muscles out here to keep sticking my finger out there and say, "You're dealing with me." You see, because there's some people in there that belongs to God. And that was all right.

9 We'd been up about two hours, or three, I guess; and my daughter, (one of them) Rebekah, back there---she works at the Methodist Hospital in Louisville. It's amateur form of nurse training; it's "candy stripers" they call them, or something like that. They called her to come over that morning, and that's what got me up. And it was early, and she with some other little school colleague here, (they work together) and was going to take them over to Louisville. They had to be there at ten o'clock and the wife wondered why she couldn't get in the bedroom. I had it locked.

10 Now, I have had many things to happen in my life, but I never had anything like that. I went into a trance. I don't know the interpretation. I've never had anything like it in my life. But before me, it seemingly that I realized that it was a vision, and I was in the vision. But I was talking to my son, Joseph (which he was not in the room at the time). But somehow just as it struck me, I was talking to Joseph.
And I looked up, and kind of in the shape of a pyramid, standing before me, were little small birds---something like a half-inch long. And they were up at the top on the limbs, they were---say three or four, and the next limb had maybe eight or ten, and down at the bottom had fifteen or twenty. They were little warriors, because their feathers were beaten; and looked like they were trying to talk to me, saying something.

11 And I was in the west, (seemingly around Tucson, Arizona) and the birds were looking east, and I was listening close. It looked like they were trying to tell me something. And they had... little feathers was all... been beat up and things. They were pretty well battle-scarred.
Then all of a sudden one bird began to take the other one's place---jumping like that---and they (the little birds) swiftly left, flying eastward. And when they did, from that came a larger bird---more like doves, with the pointed wings; and they came in a swarm and swiftly---more swift than what the little birds were---flew eastward.

12 And I, still in my... the two consciences together, I knew I was standing here, and I knew I was somewhere else. And I thought, "Now, this is a vision, and I must learn what this means." And no more than the second group of birds came by, I looked to the west; and it looked like in the form of a pyramid---like two on each side with one in the top, came five of the mightiest angels I ever seen in my life. Such a terrific speed I never seen... Their heads back and their pointed wings just sailing quickly.
And the power of Almighty God struck me in such a way till it lifted me plumb from the ground---all the way from the ground up. (I could hear Joseph still speaking.) And sounded like the sound barrier breaking, a great roar went off way in the distance to the south.
And when I was lifted up, and there was such a terrific speed of the angels... And I can just see them right now. See, as they were coming in that shape like that. Just sweeping right into me. (Now, not dreaming now. No, I was right there, wide awake as I am now.)

13 But here it come, and they were so terrifically fast, that I thought when it lifted up... I heard that explosion like, or like a blast that went out, like a sound barrier; and when it did, I thought, "Well, this must mean that I'm fixing to be killed, see, in a blast of some sort." And while I thought on those things, I thought, "No, it wouldn't be that, because if it was a blast, it would have got Joseph, too, because there he is still talking, thinking I'm there. I can hear him. It wasn't that."
Now, this all still in the vision. See it was in the vision. And then all at once, as I realized that I'd been... They were around me, I couldn't see them, but I'd been brought into this constellation of a pyramid of them; inside this constellation of angels, of five. And I thought, "A death angel would be one, five would be grace." I was thinking that, and I thought, "Oh! It's coming with my message. That's my second climax. They're coming to bring me the message from the Lord," and I screamed out with all my might, as loud as I could, "O Jesus! What would You have me do?" When I did, it just went away from me.

14 I haven't felt just right since. I was... All day yesterday, I had to stay in the house; almost feeling beside myself. I can't make my mind get clear, and the glory and power of the Lord... I was numb all over when it left me. I was trying to rub my hands, and I thought, "I can't catch my breath." And I walked around through the floor and back and forth, and I thought, "What does it mean, Lord? What does it mean?"
Then I stopped and I said, "Lord God, Your servant is... I just cannot understand why---what was that? Make it known, Lord."

15 Well, when the... I can't tell you about when I say, "Power of the Lord." There's no way to explain that. It isn't what you feel here in the blessings. That's the blessings of the Lord. This is a sacred... Oh, my! It's beyond anything that a mortal could even imagine.
And it was bothering me real bad. It isn't a blessing; it's a bother: you're troubled. If you could only... If I could only get some way that I could tell the people what that was, or what the feeling of it was. It isn't just like sitting here wanting to rejoice. It's something that every nerve in you just... It's beyond scare; it's beyond frighten; it's a holy reverence of... There's no way to explain it. Even to my entire back, up and down my spine, through my fingers, up and down, on my feet and toes, my whole being was just numbed. See, just like you'd went out of the world somewhere. And it was leaving me gradually, and I said to the Lord, "Will You just let me know, O God."
I guess the closest that ever came of being that strong again was when I was in Zurich, Switzerland, that time when He showed me that German eagle watching that English horse rider come down through Africa. He said, "All have sinned and come short of the glory."

16 And I was crying out to the Lord to help me. I wanted Him to give me the interpretation, because I wondered if it meant---if it meant that I was going to go away---I was going to be killed. And if it was, I wasn't going to say anything to the family about it. It's my time to go home, I'll just go home, that's all of it. But if that's what it meant, I didn't want to tell the family. I didn't want them to know nothing about it; just let it be done, and that would be all of it.
And I said, "Lord help me. I don't want to tell the family if You're... if it's my call home, well, I'll be going." You see. And I said... you know... You say, "Why didn't you think about what you said in the vision---what the vision said?" But you can't think of things like that then. I can't anyhow.

17 And I thought... just troubled, upset. You don't know how to think; you can't think. And I said, "Heavenly Father, if that meant that an explosion was going to take me, well, let me know now, so I'll say nothing about it. Let Your glory and power come upon me again, and lift me up again, or let Your glory come upon me and then I'll know then that it meant that; so I can keep it to myself." And nothing happened. So then I said, "Then Lord, if it meant that You are going to send Your messengers for my commission, then let Thy power come again." And it like to took me out of the room.
So, I come to myself with my Bible in my hand, and asking God to help me; and when I did, He showed me something in the Scriptures, pertained right to it. Right there. And I thought, "Could that actually be that... How did I do that?" And oh, I can't explain these things, folks. It's beyond anything I know about.

18 My wife's a very odd woman; one of the best in the world. But a little while I didn't say nothing about it; I went ahead. She knew there was something happened. So, when I told her, she said, "You know Bill, I see and hear you in many of those things. You know I believe you with all my heart." She said, "But that really had something." It just seems to shake me.
That blasting, and that swift coming of those angels, like that. Five of them together in a constellation of them, like---kind of like I had that pyramid drawn here. It looked to be... First it looked like, kind of a... In the distance, it looked kind of like that color of doves. And they were coming from this way. And they looked like one, two, three, four, and then one right at the top, making five. And they come with such a speed. There is nothing, no jets, no nothing else could compare with that.

19 I can just see them with their heads kind of turned sideways and those wings tipped back, full armored, and here they come. "Whew!" like that. Just come right down and took me right into this pyramid of a constellation of them. I seen I was up off the ground. I thought maybe ... I heard way in a distance that roar. "Whoom"---like a plane when it crosses the sound barrier. You've heard it happen like that---just like a distant roar.
I thought, "This may mean now, when this vision leaves me that I'm going to be killed by an explosion, or something." I thought, "Here I am. I'm lifted up. They're here somewhere. I'm in this pyramid of angels here, but I don't know. Maybe the Lord is coming to take me home."
Then I heard Joseph down there saying, "Daddy?"
I thought, "No, if that's it, it would have took him, too."
Then something said, "You..." Remember, that I'm waiting, watching for a message that I've always looked forward to---something.

20 In the vision the other day, you know as I had here not long ago telling me about what was going to happen; how I was preaching from the sun into this place, and then he said, "Now remember, the second climax is yet to come." I thought, "There'll be a message." Remember my message here? The opening of that capstone where those seven voices and seals that's not even wrote in the Word of God. Remember? And it took me into that pyramid. And Junior Jackson, (if you are here) that dream that you gave me not long ago---I won't tell it this morning---you were so... God was so perfectly... Excuse me for not giving you the interpretation, because I seen something moving.
J.T.---same thing, see. And I knew that. Sister Collins---exactly the same. And six of those leading right straight to the same thing, and then the vision that I told you all years ago---it happened just the other day (that would happen). And there it is laying right ... everything laying right out there. It's just something moving. I don't know what it is. "God help me," is my prayer. Let us pray.

21 Heavenly Father, we are just mortals. And here we stand this morning, and Lord, You sent me to lead this little flock in this church, and I'm at my end; I don't know which way, what, where, is coming, but I know this one thing: that You said You'd make everything work together for good to them that loved You and are called according to Your purpose.
I pray Thee, God, that Thy great hand of mercy will be upon us. We truly know that Thou art God. And we know that Thou art not one who lived in the days gone by, but You live yet today. You always were God. You always will be God. You were God before time, and You'll be God when there is no more time. You'll still be God. And we are in Thy hands, Lord. We are just clay, and Thou art the molder, the potter. Shape our lives, Lord, in the way that would get the best service to honor Thee. Grant it, Father. We are just in Thy hands.

22 We had no way of bringing ourselves here, or we do not know how we shall go out. But Lord, You give to us life and You have... We give our lives back to You, and in so, You have given us, in exchange, eternal life. Our faith breathes that into our very being. And we love Thee for this, because we know that someday we will see You, and You'll be in Your glory, and we'll look upon Him; and we long to hear those words, "It was well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord that has been prepared for you since the foundation of the world."
Until that time, O God, when we all meet, lead us. We are Your servants, and we ask forgiveness of our sins.
These mighty visions, Lord, are too much for Your servant. I don't know what to do. I just know they come. And I can only say what I seen and what was said. And sometimes it scares me, Lord. And I wonder what to do. Then I take the Bible and read in there how Isaiah must have felt that day in the temple when he seen those angels with wings over their feet. No wonder he cried out, "Woe is me! For mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord." And it was then the prophet cried out---after he'd been cleansed in the temple, when the angel took the tongs and got a coal of fire and laid it upon his lips, after he confessed that he was a man of unclean lips, and living among unclean people. Yet he was a prophet. The angel took the tongs and put the coal of fire upon his lips, and cleansed him and said, "Now go prophesy."

23 Lord God ... Isaiah cried out, "Here am I, Lord, send me." When He said, "Who will go for us," for that wicked and adulterous generation.
O God, let it repeat again! Let it come again, Oh Lord! Send the Holy Spirit with cleansing fire. For I confess that I'm of unclean lips, and dwell in this earth here with unclean people. And we're unclean in Thy sight, Lord, but oh, send the cleansing power---the Holy Spirit. Cleanse us, O Lord. Cleanse Thy servant, Lord. Then speak, Lord! Your servant is listening. I'm longing to hear that voice. I'm Yours. Use me, Lord, as You see fit, while I lay myself upon Your altar. Let the Holy Spirit cleanse me, Lord, and anoint and send forth, Lord; if You want someone to go; if this is the hour, and this is the time.
I don't know, Lord. I just know that I seen those angels. And Thou knowest them things to be exactly the truth. And I pray, Lord, woe is me, so help me.

24 Now, bless this people and we're here today just before the eve of this celebration time of the birth of our Lord. We pray that You'll help us; and this morning Your servant, our Brother Neville, has felt that maybe it would be a time that he should just rest a few moments, and maybe I should speak. I pray that You'll help me now. There's those here, Lord... All of us are in need of You, so we pray now that You'll bless us as we read Your Word and meditate for a little while. Let Thy Spirit come upon us, Lord. And cleanse us and set us on fire with the Holy Spirit, with the message of God, fresh from the altar to shake a dying world, before the approach of the great eternal God. For we ask it in Jesus' name, His dear Son, and our Saviour. Amen.

25 Now, I wish to call your attention to some Scripture here and a few notes that I've jotted down. And I believe Doc or Billy (one of them) told me they wanted to let out a little bit early on account of the kiddies. (They got some presents for them.)
You little fellows that just got out of your Sunday school, you just stick around just a little while. What we say from here may be a little deep for you, but you just sit still with Mama and Papa for a few minutes. I want to talk to them.

26 Now over in Psalms---the 89th Psalm---I want to read a verse or two, of the 89th Psalm. I'm going to try to read the 50th, 51st, and 52nd verses of Psalms 89.
Now, can you hear all the way back in the back all right? If you can, raise up your hands, 'cause ... which is the ... is all these mikes alive? Is this one better? This one? This one? This one? Right here, these two on the side. All right.
Now, I don't know whether they're going to tape this or not. It's just kind of an unexpected event this morning; but don't forget now, have all your friends... And I want you to be sure nearly to try to attend next Sunday's meeting. They'll soon have the church finished out here, I suppose, and I'll be back then for this... Preach those seven seals, if it be the will of God, out of the Scripture here.

27 In the book of the Psalms, the 89th chapter, beginning with the 51st. Listen close to the reading of the Word, now.
Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.
I would like to speak to you for a few moments on ... I want you to mark that first, and read that over and over real good. Maybe it'll bear reading again right now. Listen close now.
Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

28 Study it close as David spoke it. I want to use for a text... It's very strange Christmas text again, but as I preached last Sunday on a strange text (I forget what it was now). It was! "The World Falling Apart." Now, I want to use for a text this Sunday, "The Reproach for the Cause of the Word." Now let me repeat it again real good, "The Reproach for the Cause of the Word."

29 God has a time and a reason for that time to fulfill all His works. God knows just exactly what He's going to do. We don't. We just have to receive it as He gives it to us, but He knows, and there's nothing going to go wrong with what He's planned to do. It all has to come about. There has to be sometimes rugged and hard things to only bring out the real true nature of the object.
You know, rain is born in a jagged, ragged, lightning strode, thundering skies. And if we didn't have rain, we wouldn't live. But you see what it takes to bring rain? Thunder, lightning, flashing, anger; and out of there comes rain.
A seed must die, rot, corrupt, smell, and go back to the dust of the earth, in order to bring forth new life.
It takes the pounding of gold, turned over and over, back and forth, and pounded until all the dross is taken out of it. Not because it shines, because iron pyrite (what is known as fool's gold) shines like real gold; but you put the two together... You set them out to one side---you can hardly tell them apart; but put them together---you can tell it. And the beater always has to beat till he sees his own image reflecting in the gold.

30 And God sets a time and has a purpose for everything that He does. There's nothing happens just accidentally to those who love the Lord, and are called according to His calling, see. We are predestinated. And everything works just right for that; because He cannot lie, and He said that was so---that everything has its time, its season, and it has its way; and God is behind every move. And sometimes you think that everything is going wrong. It's up to us. Those things are put upon us---trials and wondering. It's testing, to see how we will react on a action.

31 Some time ago, up in Vermont, Brother Fred and I went over on the New York side, across the Lake Champlain. And we had got over on the New York side, and I went up in a mountain where that ... up on the Hurricane Mountain, where I used to hunt. And there I remember when I was lost, and how that God led me back---just by the Holy Spirit alone through a storm that ... I'd have died, perished, and so would my wife and Billy down in a little camp miles away. And I was turned around.
There was just a little snow we pulled through to get into the camp early in the spring. I was standing there talking to Brother Fred, and the Holy Spirit said, "Go out to yourself," and I moved out into the bush a little place and He told me, "There's a trap set for you. Be careful, now." But He didn't tell me how or what.

32 I come back and told Brother Fred. Went to the church that night in the auditorium and announced it to the people, and the next night it happened. And then standing there when He told me upon some mockers. He said, "It's in your hands. Do with them; whatever you say will happen right now."
There you are, where somebody irreverent, ungodly; and they were making fun and scoffing at the meeting---a young man and a young woman. And he was trying to vulgar love-make with her in the building, and everybody's attention while I was trying to preach ... and pull her head back and climb up in her lap, and throw her head back and try to kiss her, and going on like that in the meeting---drawing the attention.
And the Holy Spirit said now, "They're in your hands. What will you do with them?" There was a holy hush. Everybody sat deathly quiet. And I thought, "O God, what must I do?"
Then I remembered, if it hadn't been the warning of the Holy Spirit two days before. I said, "I forgive you."
Now, that was what He wanted me to say. See, because after all, I've been guilty---maybe not of that---but guilty. And guilty of the least is of the whole. So I said, "I forgive you." And there are witnesses sitting here now that was there then. Then the Holy Spirit fell through.

33 Now, you see I believe that all these things had a meaning. What would you do with the power? How would you see the reaction of an action. Something that is come as an act, then how do you react to that action? Do you understand what I mean? What would you do? And maybe all this has worked up to where we're at now. I don't know. I just can't say.
But there has always been someway ... and remember that the reproach of the Word has... The Word has always borne a reproach. All through the ages God's anointed Word has always been reproached, and that's the reason it's so hard for people who don't understand---would know how to accept that reproach.

34 Can you remember the disciples returning back and rejoicing because they figured that they were counted worthy to stand the reproach of His name? He said, "All that live godly in Christ shall bear a persecution"---the reproach of the Word.
You always have to stand this reproach in order to give your testing. To see, every man that comes to Christ must first be child-trained for the purpose that God has ordained you for. And remember, if you could just keep quiet! Remember, if He's called you for this, there's nothing that can keep it from happening. There's not enough devils in torment, but what God's Word will be made manifest. You're born for a purpose. Nobody can take your place. You might have impersonators and everything else, but they will never take your place. God's Word will triumph. It cannot fail.
There's where every Christian ought to stand. Knowing that trials will come up, and seem every way to you; but remember, God has a purpose, and it all will work right.

35 Now, let's just call back a few of the events of God's Word being fulfilled, and those who packed the Word in their age.
I felt in the Spirit, not long ago, that someone was criticizing---it might have been in the tape land---of always referring so much ... go back and pick up Bible characters on what I'm saying. Well, I do that for a purpose. The Bible said these things are written that we might look at them, and that's the only way ... without an education, the only way I can do is refer back and say, "You see where this stand, what happened by it; where this one taken place. And then you just place yourself in there.

36 Like I was preaching not long ago, the little boy out on the ship, you know, and the old captain was dying---he was sick. He asked if there wasn't a Bible on board. And they caught the little boy that had the Bible, and he came and read Isaiah 53:5. "He was wounded for our transgressions, ... bruised for our iniquity." He said, "Let me tell you, Captain, how that my mother used to read it." Said, "Here's the way she read it. 'He was wounded for Willy Pruitt's iniquity; and He was chastised for Willy Pruitt, and all these things that He had done was for Willy Pruitt." (That was his name.)
The old captain said, "I like that. Could your read my name in it?"
He said, "I'll try." And he said, "He was wounded for John Quartz' transgressions. He was bruised for John Quartz' iniquity, and with His stripes John Quartz was healed."
He said, "I see it!" And the Lord healed him.
See, read your name in it. He was wounded for William Branham's transgressions. He was bruised for William Branham's iniquity. He did that for me. And He did that for you. Read your name into it.

37 That's the way I like to bring the Scriptures to my people---is what He did for somebody else that obeyed Him; what He did to somebody else that was true to the cause; and what He did to somebody else that was untrue for the cause, then you read your name in it. If you had been there, what stand would you have took? And remember, you've got the privilege today to take the same kind of stand.

38 When Noah, on the reproach of the Word that God spoke to him. Noah---there was a reproach. Noah lived in a scientific age, where there was a scientific achievement that they were able to manufacture, that were beyond anything that we've manufactured today. They were brighter, more intelligent. Their science was far advanced to ours. And just remember, he had to stand the reproach of the Word that he preached 120 years in the face of scoffers. The great scientific ways proved to them that there was no rain in the skies; but yet Noah had heard the word of the Lord, and it was contrary to their conception of it. So before his life could be saved, he must stand in the faith and bear the reproach, that these scoffers reproached him by.

39 Oh, there's no doubt they must have felt sorry for the poor old preacher. They didn't have him put away, or anything, because maybe there wasn't many houses of that type in that day. He was harmless. He wasn't going to hurt nobody, so they just let him alone. "Go ahead, you old fanatic up there on the side of that hill, building a ship way out there where there's no water. Oh, the poor old fellow." But, they were saying, "Where are you going to get your water to float your boat, Noah?"
"It's coming down out of the skies."
"Nonsense, we can shoot the moon and the stars with radar [or whatever they had]. There's no rain up there."
"But," he said, "God said He was going to put some up there."
"How's He going to do it?"
"That's His business. Only thing I'm supposed to do is warn you to get out of here."
It's just about the same now "Where's the fire coming from?" Brother, it's a little plainer today than it was for Noah's time. We already see where it's at. Just ready to strike off, that's all. Science has already... There's no excuse this time at all, because science has already found it. Yes, sir.

40 So now we find out that it was quite a thing. So they felt sorry for the poor old preacher, and just let him go. It was a strange thing, maybe to those people to think that a man that was supposed to be intelligent and would believe that God, the creator of heavens and earth, would do something, or say something that He was going to do, which was contrary of their way of thinking. What they had... Maybe you didn't get it. Look, they thought that they could prove every natural thing by their science. If that isn't the kind of a world we're living in today---an intellectual, educational world, full of science. And anything if they could prove that was wrong... No God could ever speak anything that could be scientifically proven that it wasn't there.

41 Now, they have the same idea today. If your doctor says that you have cancer you've got to die, and science proves that you've got cancer, and it's in an advanced stage; it's silly to think anything different, because you're going to die. That's all. Science says you're going to die. They've examined you, and that's all of it. You're going to die. And they think it's crazy if you try to say that God promised to do it.
See, like it was, you have to stand that reproach. They say if the doctor says here, "We looked through, and the cancer is advanced. We've opened you up, it's all through your body, through your heart, through your lungs, through your liver, all over. It is impossible. So, you see when you say, "But, he's going to live anyhow."
They say, "Well, poor fellow. Just let him alone."

42 I remember the night, Bill Hall; Brother Hall down at the Milltown Church. Many of you remember the case, and when they called me out. My wife, mother-in-law and I went out here. He married a girl that was a sister, I believe to George Copp, was the mayor of the city, or the judge here, that was his brother-in-law. They brought him up here to die. The doctor in Milltown, the doctor in New Albany, diagnosed his case as cancer of the liver. So, I went down to see Mrs. Hall, and he'd took jaundice, and he was yellow all over. I said, "Well, I suppose he's going to die."
She said, "Brother Bill, is there anyway that ... can you hear from God?"
I said, "I don't know, Sister Hall. I can pray." I prayed, and I went back home and the Lord said nothing to me. Then I went back the next day and I prayed again.
She said, "Do you know any good doctor?"
I said, "Well, our family doctor is Dr. Sam Adair down here in Jeffersonville. His father was our family doctor. Young Sam and I have always been bosom friends, and we went to school about the same time and been raised up together. We always go to him, when anything is wrong."
She said, "Wonder if he'd come and look at Bill Hall [her husband]?"
I said, "I'll ask him."

43 Sam said, to me, he said, "Billy, if the doctor said he had cancer," he said, "There is only one thing for me to do. I'll send him to somebody that's smarter than I am, to a specialist, and we'll take the x-rays, and we won't put him to anymore trouble."
We sent to New Albany and got the x-rays from the doctor down there. Took him to Louisville and examined him; took him over in an ambulance and brought him back.
Well, of course, he wouldn't say to Mrs. Hall what was his trouble, so he called me. He said, "He's going to die, your preacher friend. The specialist in Louisville has just called me and said the diagnosis the doctors gave down in Milltown and the doctor in New Albany, gave the right kind of a diagnosis." And said, "It is cancer of the liver, and it's advanced; and Billy, we can't cut the man's liver out and him live." He said, "He's going to die, and if he's a preacher, he ought to be ready."

44 I said, "That's not the question, but he isn't over about fifty-five years old, so he has still got plenty of life in him yet to preach." And I said, "Well, if he's going to die, that settles it then. Thank you, Dr. Sam."
And I went out and called Mrs. Hall out and I told her. I said, "Mrs. Hall, Sam said that the diagnosis of Louisville there was the same as it was in New Albany and Milltown; the man's dying. Brother Hall's going to die. He's got cancer in the liver and it's advanced."
And so, she started crying. I turned around and prayed with him, and he was so beyond himself then till he didn't know that I was in the room. So I came back, and a lot of people was coming at the house in those days. There was nobody else on the field, and it hadn't been contaminated with so much, and the people were coming from everywhere.

45 I wanted to rest a little, so I slipped in ... got up early, about two-thirty or three o'clock, Brother Wood hadn't moved up in the lane yet. And I looked out on the runway, and there was nobody out there; so I got my old hat and slipped into the den room and got my .22 rifle, and I was going to go out and squirrel hunt till it got up to be about eight o'clock and then lay down by a tree somewhere and get me a little sleep. You couldn't get it around home.
I got my hat and started through the room. Hanging on the wall was an apple. And it was the most contaminated apple. It was worm-eaten, and it was knotty. It was scabby all over. And I thought, "What did Meda hang that on the wall for?" And I noticed again, and it wasn't on the wall; it was hanging out in the air. I jerked off my old hat, set the rifle in the corner, fell on my knees; I said, "Lord, what would You have Your servant know?"

46 Down came another one; down came another one, till about four or five apples (I forget now just which it was) hung there. Then a great big pretty apple, stripes in it; just a very big healthy looking apple come down and chomped up those other scavenger-looking apples. And He said, "Rise. Stand on your feet. Go tell Bill Hall he's not going to die; he's going to live!"
Oh, I run as quick as I could and I said, "Mrs. Hall, I got "Thus saith the Lord. He's going to live." And he heard me, and he was trying to cry, and he couldn't speak no more.
I come back and called Sam. I said, "Sam, our brother is going to live."
He said, "How can he live like that?"
I said, "That's not for me to figure out. God said so; that settles it!"
He's living today. That's been about ten years ago. Just strong and healthy. His wife has died since then; he's remarried again. How's it going to happen to George Wright and many more might we say that we could call. What is it? It's to stand the reproach. They laugh and make fun.

47 I remember when before the '37 flood. I stood there where the Fall City Transfer Company, and was telling them about there was going to be thirty-two feet of water (I believe it was) on Spring Street. They laughed at me. They said, "Poor Billy, I guess he ... that kid..." (I was just a boy then.) He said, "Billy's a good kid. It's a shame he got all mixed up." I wasn't mixed up! I'd been baptized in; not mixed up. I was just in. And it happened just that way.
Since I've been speaking, I noticed Sister Hattie Wright, I believe, sitting back there. She remembers that case about Bill Hall. How many are here present this morning remembers the case? Oh my! Sure, there are many of you.

48 Now, they feel sorry for us; feel sorry for anybody that tries to hold to the Word in the days of scoffers, but remember, the reproach must come. It has always been that way. They must have thought, as they did then, that God (after anything was scientifically proven) that God wouldn't speak anything that was against science. Well, that's what makes Him God! If He had just went according to science, then it wouldn't be anymore than what man could achieve, but He's God! He's a creator of science. He can do what He wishes to.
They must have thought, "Poor old Noah! Well, let the old fellow alone. He's missing all the fun that we're having in these days, so just let him alone." It's about the same now.

49 But, now, I want to say another thing right here. Now, we look back and admire his faith. But I wonder if we lived in that day, would we have took the same stand that Noah took? Would we be able and willing to stand the reproach that went with the truth? When of all the millions there was in the world then, there was only Noah and his family that stood for that truth! Did you think of it? Just that man and his three sons, and his daughter-in-laws, and his wife were the only ones that stood for that truth, but they had "Thus saith the Lord." We look back and admire him.
Could we think again? (I got to hurry because of these kiddies' presents.) Abraham---the very word "Abraham" means "father of many." Make him a father of nations. Now, Abraham heard the Word of God. Abraham was a prophet, and he heard the Word of God, and we admire Abraham for his holding to God's Word; how that he separated himself from his kinfolks. How hard it was for Abraham! He was brought up there. Come down from Babel and was down there in the land of Shinar, the Chaldeans and the city of Ur, where all of his associates, his people, and those he went to church with, and everything;

50 but God said, "Separate yourself."
Oh, my. What a horrible thing that was---to leave all that he held dear, everything that was real to him, that he held dear; and God told him, "Separate yourself!" And gave him a very odd thing. "You're going to have a baby by your wife," and he was seventy-five and she was sixty-five. It ceased to be with her as women, as to the order of women, that were going to bring children, for years.
And here after living with her since she was a girl, (because she was his half-sister) and then how could he ever bring that child? And now, could you imagine Abraham going out amongst his associates and saying, "We're going to have a baby, Sarah and I." Could you imagine that?
Why, the people said, "The poor old fellow. There's something wrong with him."
It's a reproach, but Abraham held on to it. And when he was a hundred years old, he never staggered at the promise of God. He still stood the reproach. Sure, holding on to it.

51 Do you notice the difference in there? Sarah tried to give Abraham, or give God rather, a little bit of help by herself. She thought you know that ... otherwise than what God promised. "Now you know, I'm an old woman, but Hagar here, is a beautiful woman. Abraham won't mind marrying her too. So you know that will help God. That will help God because Hagar here, she's probably only twenty years old; she's my maid. And you know what I'll do? I'll give her to my husband for a wife [because polygamy was legal]." So, she said, "I'll give her, and she'll have a baby by my husband; then I'll take the baby, and that's the one God promised."
You see, we're always trying to do something. Can't wait for Him. We got to do something ourselves. Might have been all right. She might have been pretty. It might look very good, but it wasn't according to the Word. God told Abraham the baby was coming by Sarah.
Remember what He said about the little flock. "These signs will follow them that believe. As it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the coming of the Son of man, wherein a few, even eight souls were saved. Those words can't fail, so let's watch ourselves closely and stay with the Word.

52 All right. See, the people are always trying to manufacture something to take the place of God's creative will. You see, as I've often said, and maybe before the church before, you know, you could not ask the sheep, "Will you manufacture me some wool?" No, he can't do that. Now a goat cannot manufacture wool, because his nature won't let him. No matter how much you try to tie sheep wool on a goat, it won't work. The goat cannot manufacture wool, and a sheep does not manufacture hair; but he has wool because he is a sheep. That's what makes him; he doesn't manufacture.
We're not supposed to manufacture the fruits of the Spirit. We're supposed to bear the fruit of the Spirit. An apple tree don't manufacture apples; it just bears them, because it's an apple tree.
And we try to manufacture anything---"I'll help the cause. I'll study for ten years in the seminary. I'll learn this, that, or the other and get my Bachelor of Art and my Doctor's degree. I'll help the Lord along." It won't work. God, by predestination, calls who He will.

53 He gives the kingdom to ever who He desires to give it to.
We learned that by Nebuchadnezzar. We learn that by Jeremiah, when God told him by the Word of the Lord, that there was going to be a time that Israel was going to be carried away into Babylon for seven years. Here come another prophet up; and he already told them and said, "You'll have prophets that will rise up, and you'll have them down there in Babylon that will rise up, and dreamers and prophets that will prophesy contrary to this; but tell the people not to listen to those people!"
Up come a man by the name of (one of the prophets) Hananiah when Jeremiah was standing there with a yoke over his neck. Up come Hananiah said, "Thus saith the Lord, in two full years all the vessels of the Lord [Now, fundamentally it seemed very good.] God's going to bless His people; He's going to bring back everything, just exactly, in two years." And the Bible said even the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen."
"Amen, Hananiah. May the Lord make your words come to pass, but let us think of something, Hananiah. There has been prophets before us, and they've prophesied against great nations of war and so forth; but remember, the prophet is known after his prophecy has been made manifest."

54 Then Hananiah came up, grabbed the yoke off of Jeremiah's neck, before all the priests in the congregation, (maybe a million and a half people) and took that yoke that God had put upon Jeremiah's neck for a sign, broke it to pieces, and threw it on his feet, just enthused, and said, "Thus saith the Lord, in two years they'll be back."
Jeremiah just looked at him. It was contrary to the Word, so he just walked away; and God said, "Go back and tell him that I never spoke to him." He was just enthused. He took his own impression, see. He never waited till actually he saw it and knew it wasn't him, that it was God saying it. He went back all enthused.

55 We find it across the country today. One of our tapes was being played recently in a home, where a group of ministers were right then convinced and were coming to be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. And a man rose up in the room and spoke in tongues and said, "Thus saith the Lord: hold on to what you got. Just keep on going on I'll bless you."
They said, "Well, if the Lord said that, I guess that's it."
You see, it isn't examined with the Word. It's got to take the Word first. There you are. It was contrary to the Word.
Here come Jeremiah back, that anointed prophet. God told him, said, "I know Hananiah broke that wooden yoke over your neck that I put but I'm going to make one out of iron." He said, "And all these nations that has went down to serve Nebuchadnezzar, my servant..."---and he was a heathen, and Israel keeping all their sacrifices, but they wasn't... See, God made a promise that He'd bless, but them blessings are under conditions, and you've got to meet those conditions to make that work.

56 Sitting awhile ago with a little sweet girl here. First I combed that family through to see if there was anything wrong. God will heal, but it's under conditions. Only thing I found was the mother was afraid it was wrong to take medicine, and I said, "Don't you think that, sister, get that out of your mind. Go right ahead with the child. Give it the medicine. God will make that known, see." Now, but the thing is fine. Know, and then if it's "Thus saith the Lord," okay.

57 Now, we find out here that these people---they were trying to manufacture something (Hagar and Sarah) to help Abraham---help God to make His promise come true. You can't do that. There's no way at all of doing it. It's against everything. God's Word is going to happen anyhow. You just got to stand right on the Word and say, "It's this way," and keep the Word.
Now watch. They manufactured something to take the place of His Word. Maybe Abraham's friends too, (if we ever noticed) maybe Abraham's friends came by and said, "Well, father of nations, how many children do you have now? [when he was a hundred years old.] Say, father of nations, father of many, how many children do you have now?" Scoffers!

58 Now, haven't you seen the time? Haven't we seen it when sometimes that we prayed for something, it didn't happen? Here sits an old man, they say, "He's blind; he's deaf; he's dumb; he's sick, he done this. Go down and heal him you divine healers; we'll believe it."
Do they realize it's that same devil that said, "Come off the cross, and I'll believe you." "Turn these stones into bread, and I'll believe it," see. That same devil that tied a rag around our Lord's eyes, and hit Him on the head with a stick, and said, "Now, if you're a prophet, tell us who hit you, and we'll believe you."
Well, you know He knew who hit Him. He could have turned those stones to bread, or He could have come off the cross; but what would we be today if He had? See, they don't know the program of God. You must find out what God has promised.

59 Now, I must hurry. Now, they might have said, "Father of nations, we heard you twenty-five years ago say you were going to have a child by Sarah, and out of that was going to come nations of people. Just how many children do you have at this time, father of nations?" That's that same old critical spirit that would criticize. What did Abraham say? He staggered not at the promise of unbelief!
"Why here you prayed for so and so, and they didn't get well." That doesn't matter! If I prayed for ten thousand tonight, and ten thousand die in the morning, tomorrow night I'd still anointing the sick and praying for them. God said so. It doesn't stop it a bit. God promised it; I believe it---certainly. Don't make any difference what they say. Still ... but they'll scoff. That's the reproach of the Word. Abraham standing on God's word---finally it was fulfilled. Oh my!

60 Watch the scoffness of barrenness; being scoffed at the reproach of barrenness, first. She had to stand the reproach of being barren for all those years, (she was nearly a hundred years old; she was ninety) but the word of God that said she would also be princess, a mother of this child. And she and Abraham barren ---both of their bodies as well as dead---but yet they never doubted that word one bit! But they had to stand that first, and then (Hallelujah!) God kept His word in that dark hour! Isaac was born, and his seed is like the sands of the sea or the stars of heaven. See, God always answers His Word. Yes, barrenness first; then Isaac.

61 Zacharias and Elisabeth likewise---that old man and old woman still holding on. When Zacharias came up there, and could write out on his slate, and said, "An angel met me; told me I would bring forth a child by Elisabeth, my old wife here. I can't talk no more; I'm dumb, and I will be dumb till the day the baby is born; but there's coming a baby, and he's going to be the prophet of the highest. He'll introduce the morning star. He's a forerunner of the Messiah."
How could it ever be? Some said, "Poor old fellow. Oh I guess he's kind of got a little bit off at his head, you know. There's a little something... Look at old Elisabeth out there, around eighty, and look at Zacharias, way old and shaking, and then he's going to say such a thing as that. Well, poor old fellow." But he had the Word of the Lord! Such a reproach till she hid herself for several days, but he stayed with the Word. Oh, my!

62 Refusing popularity; refusing popular opinion; refuse the polish of the day and the styles and things of their day; they refused it. They refused to walk with the crowd of unbelievers. They refused the things of the world. They had to do it to stay with God's Word. They had to do it.
So is it today. You separate yourself from every thing but you and God. Not what the church does, it's what you do with God. It's you as an individual.

63 Yes, but look what God gave him. When Jesus Himself come, Zacharias was gone and Elisabeth too; but when their son came into the wilderness with "Thus saith the Lord," Jesus said, "There never was a man born of a woman as great as he is." Amen! What? She suffered the reproach of barrenness. She stayed on the Word and delivered such a son.
Like Sarah of old, like Abraham of old, the old couples held on to it. Look, most that was ever born, like the sands of the sea. There's not a race of people in the world as many as the Jews. Like the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky.
What happened? It happened in the minority. One child! (Now you see where I'm going.) One child! That's all it took. It took one child to shake the nations and point to the Messiah. It took one obedient. That's right. God just needs one man. That's all He needs. Somewhere He can have a voice. That's all He wants---to get one man in His control. Oh, how He loves to get one man!

64 He got a Noah one time; He got a Moses one time; He got a Jeremiah; He got an Elijah; He got an Elisha; He got a John; He got a Samson. As long as He can get one man in His control, that's His voice; He can speak through it; He can condemn the world.
Oh, my. How He hungers and pines to get a man in His control. "That I can speak through him. I can let my voice be known. Though he'll stand the reproach, but I'll make my voice known."
Oh, yes, barrenness first. Have to be barren; have to stand the reproach of barrenness. Sarah had to stand it. So did Zacharias and Elisabeth have to stand it.

65 Look today---now, I'm going to stay something---look today at the children of the harlot! She has taken nations under the political rule of denomination---the harlot and her daughters. Look what a generation of denominations raised up, and how few are the righteous! Don't you worry! Stay with the Word.
That's all right. You may be scoffed at, called "holy roller." You might be called any kind of a bad name, but stay right there. It's the Word. The reproach of the Word; the things that they'll say about you.

66 A young fellow---he may be here this morning; he's a friend of mine---Jim Pool, young Jim. His people ... he was asked the other day... Well, he was baptized here. Someone said to him, "If you were going to be baptized in a church, why didn't you get a big church or something?" See? But he saw the light. That was it, see. "More are the children of the unrighteous, than there is of the righteous." All right, how few are they of the righteous.
Look what a little handful there was in the day of Noah, see. Look what it was in the days of Sodom? How few are the righteous. How many children the harlot has! She just brings children any old way, but they're all bastard children. The harlot brings forth the harlot. The dog brings forth the dog. And Christ brings forth the anointed! The Bible brings forth the righteous. So, we have to stand the thought of being a little bunch. What a gracious thing it is.

67 Look at the great Ephesian church. There were only twelve in it. Look what a group we have today---the side of them! There were only eight souls in the days of Noah. There were only five in the days of Lot---no, four---Lot, his wife, and his two daughters; and she turned to a pillar of stone, after she got out, by looking back. Actually three came out in that day. Jesus said, "As it was in those days..." It behooves us to watch and be careful.
How few are the righteous. But as ever the scoffers must reproach, the barren ... stand the reproach of barrenness first. (I just got to hurry. I don't want to hold these kids. Just bear with me a little bit.)

68 Men are always the same as ever. Now, I'm going to say something again, and I want you ... and I don't know whether it's being taped or not, but if it is on tape, I want you to listen at me---you on the tape. Don't you miss it! But study it! Man, now is like he's always been. He's praising God for what He's done, looking forward to what He will do, and ignoring what He has done and is doing. He praises God for what He has done; He looks forward to what He will do; but he ignores what God is doing, and there he misses the whole thing! (I hope they get it.) Ignoring what He is doing. He knows what He has done, and he knows the promise what He will do, but he fails to see what He's doing.
Oh, you Pentecostals, if you're not example of that! You're looking forward for something to happen, and it has already happened right under you, and you don't know it. "How oft would He have hovered you, as a hen does her brood, but you would not." You thought more of your traditions and denominations than you did of His Word and His Spirit.

69 What a reproach to Mary ... (as we are closing). What a reproach to Mary and Joseph for His Word. It's Christmas time. (I was planning on holding just a little bit, but you'll hear much of it on radio, and among the pastors, and so forth.) What a reproach for Mary and Joseph to hold to God's Word of promise. Remember, now, and the scorn, that lifted up eyebrow, when they seen little Mary go by; seen Joseph; "You are marrying a prostitute!" And remember, Brother, adultery was death in those days. "Now you keep her from getting killed. She's to be mother by you." But remember, all the time God was dealing with them; and it was according to the Word, and they didn't know it.
"A virgin shall bear a child." Joseph knew that. Mary knew that, because after the Word was written, there was an angel talking to them, vindicating, or manifesting the very Word that was written, and was going to happen. Don't dream now, think. The Holy Spirit came down to the earth. He never spoke to the whole congregation. He spoke to them.

70 Joseph looked and before the angel would visit him, he said, "Well now, I love her, but I'm a righteous man; I can't marry a woman like that."
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, "Joseph, thou Son of David, don't fear to take unto thee, Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Oh, my, what a comfort!
And Mary on her road to the well---the little virgin about seventeen years old, eighteen, marrying a man that had been married before and had four children---an old man. She loved him, and she didn't know why. And he loved her, and he didn't know why. And here they was going to the well to get some water, and was studying upon the things that she... She was thinking of the Scriptures, no doubt; and then a light flashed before her. When that light flashed, there stood an angel.

71 Wonder how little Mary felt? Did you ever think of that? I wonder if she felt as scared as I did yesterday. "Hail Mary. [Hail means stop, pay attention to what I'm going to tell you.] Blessed art thou amongst the women, for you've found favor with God, and you're going to bear a child---knowing no man, but you're going to have a child; and your cousin Elisabeth, being old too, she has conceived also and is going to bear a child, and these signs will be done."
She said, "How will these be, seeing I know not a man?"
He said, "The Holy Ghost is going to overshadow you. That holy thing that will be born to you will be called the Son of God."
Let the scoffers say what they want to. She knew it! She knew it would be, because God said so.

72 Now, how she must have felt that day of the dedication, or the coming for the circumcision of the baby, when there she was walking up with this little baby in her arms like that, and all the women keeping their distance---all with fine needle work to dedicate their babies and have them circumcised, and nearly all of them pulling a lamb; but she had two turtle doves---cleansing for her own purification. The little baby, wrapped in swaddling cloth, made out of the yoke off the back of an ox's neck. The wrapping on the back of an ox. That was just swaddling cloth in the manger. They had nothing for Him. They were too poor. And here she stood.

73 No doubt all of the women kept their distance from the little virgin. They said, "You see, she's got an illegitimate child." See how God makes things so radical looking. Oh, my! He just pulls the wool right over Satan's eyes. "How filthy! How dirty! Adultery---that's what she is, she is an adulteress."
That didn't stop that beat in little Mary's heart. They kept their distance from Him; they're still doing the same thing. Call Him now a holy roller, or fanatic or something. Mary knew whose baby that was. She just kept on just the same.

74 But, oh, shouldn't they have noticed, when Simeon sitting back in the room---he'd been promised; he went around prophesying---he said, "The Lord appeared to me," and said, "I'll not see death ... (and he was eighty something then) I'm not going to see death before I see His salvation."
"Oh, Simeon, you're old, son. The old fellow is kind of got it in his head. Just let him alone. He's harmless; he won't hurt nobody." But Simeon had the Word of the Lord. He said, "I saw the Spirit of God descend upon me. I stood and looked at Him, and He told me, 'Simeon, you've been a righteous man and you're not going to ... I'm going to make you a testimony out there.'" That's all.
"What are you going to do that for, Lord?"
"That's my business." My opinion is that He can sure pour the coal to them on that day. "You had a witness! Why didn't you listen to it?"

75 There's old blind Anna sitting in the temple praying. The Lord revealed to her "Simeon is right." Amen! She couldn't see daylight from dark, but she could see farther than many people today that has got good eyes. She saw in the Spirit the coming Messiah was at hand the Spirit moving in her heart.
See what a little bitty church there was? Zacharias, Elisabeth, Mary, John, Anna, and Simeon---six out of the millions! Like in the days of Noah; six of them. God dealt with everyone of them. They were all in harmony. They all got together. Amen!

76 Here, old Simeon, here come the little baby in---he'd never heard nothing about it. Here was the baby, and then Simeon sitting in his room, and the Spirit come on him and said, "Move out, Simeon." Here he went walking, not know where he was going. Like Abraham, he was seeking something, he didn't know where it was at, but he kept moving. After while he stopped, and the Holy Spirit must've said to him, "There He is." He reached over in Mary's arms, took up the baby in his arms, looked up and said, "Lord, let thy servant now depart from this life in peace. My eyes are looking at your salvation."
The thing that everybody was making fun of; what the women were shunning---Simeon said, "It's your salvation, Lord." About that time here came an old blind woman, winding her way around, staggering around through the audience; and she came up to Him, and she also prophesied, for she was looking for Him. She told Mary, "A sword will pierce your heart, but it will reveal the thoughts of many hearts." Amen.

77 What was it? Now I guess some of those women said, "See that, see what kind of class it is? There you are, see. That's it. See where it is. That old man, cracked in the head. There he is over there standing before that prostitute girl trying to say a thing like that. There you are! That illegitimate child! Look at that old Anna sits down here, starving herself to death, going on like that. She don't have any fun like we do, but there you are, see. She could belong to all the societies of the country here; she came out of a pretty good family. She could belong to that, but there you see how that bunch gets together, oh, yes." Amen!
Same thing today! Sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus being lifted up by the Holy Spirit! Sure. Yes, sir. (Oh, have we got just a little bit more time? I got to say something). I got another character here, I'm looking at, at that time when the Word was being made manifest---the wise men. Wished I had time, Fred, for you to read that. You got it in your pocket? I guess many of you seen it in the magazine. The thing that the Holy Spirit spoke down yonder at the river thirty-three years ago---they just dug it up December the 9th proving it, that astronomy ... how Jupiter and those stars in their console.

78 They've got an old astronomy calendar ... markings of it they've dug up. It is exactly that time that this console came in and the constellation of these stars and throwed right down towards Babylon, and the wise men brought it down. Remember, they crossed their orbits, low swung, billions of light years apart again, and those Jewish wise men, that were up at Babylon, they saw that console come into that constellation---those stars; three of them moving together and make that one morning star, and they knew that by the Word of God that that was the time (when those stars come together) that the Messiah was to be on earth.
That's the reason they started, "Where is he born, King of the Jews? Where is he? Somewhere. For when those stars come into ... their celestial bodies become into this one great celestial body here, when those three's here move together, Messiah will be on earth in that time. And when they moved into their orbits, those men knew that the Messiah was on earth.

79 They were masters in their field. They were great men. They were masters in their field of religious science. They were watching the religious side of it, and they seen those stars move out yonder (Jupiter and Sardis) and then move into their line. And they said, "We know that Messiah is somewhere; so He must be in Jerusalem, because that's the head-place for the religion of the world ... of the religion of the Messiah. That's their headquarters. That's the denominational headquarters. That's where the great ecclesiastical group sits."
And on camels they went, two years, down across the Tigris River, and through the swamps and jungles, journeying, going to the city---hearts filled with joy. They knew when those stars were hanging in there---and even the astronomers say today if they actually, those stars come into that place again, it would make one star from where they were standing looking, but they had to be standing from that place to see it.
Amen! Amen! It depends on where you're standing. It depends on what you're looking at. Yeah.

80 So they seen it, and they followed it, and they were right in line. No matter where they got, it was right in line with them. It led them, see. That's where you got to get all the Scriptures lined up---everything, then stay in that line with the Scriptures. That's the only way. It will lead you right straight to Him---certainly will.
Now, notice, here they come, crying, "Where is he born King of the Jews?" Into Jerusalem---the star led them right there; right straight to the denominational headquarters; but when they turned aside for it, the star left them. Into the city they went. Up and down the street. (They thought the city would be full of the joy of God.) Up and down the street with joy they went screaming, "Where is he that's born King of the Jews? We saw his star when we were in the east, and we have come to worship him."
Remember, the star they went westward. They were in the east. "Westward leading, still proceeding. Lead us to..." Absolutely, they were... Well, Babylon and India lays east of Palestine---kind of southeast, and they were going westward. "Westward leading (you know the song) still proceeding; guide us to that perfect light."

81 The wise men were coming west (leaving the east, going west) and they seen that star. Now, if they were in the west looking backwards, they didn't see it. When they got there (it guided them right there) then it left them and they thought, "Here it is. The star has left, so here it is. They're in the city. So, oh my," they said, "everybody's just a-singing and happy and the glory of God has lit up everything. So here we are. We know that our... We know that our achievement..." As he watched that console... No one, no master could come up there and pull them stars together, and we know when that star has come into that heavenly body, that's the time the Messiah is on the earth. Messiah is on the earth. And every so many hundred years they pass their console again. And then there's a gift comes to the earth.

82 Notice, the Messiah is on the earth, when that group of stars got together. And they knew He was there, so they went to the headquarters of religion, and began going saying... Up and down the street they went, on these camels, "Where is He? Where is He? Where is he that's born King of the Jews. We saw His star in the east, He's here somewhere. Where is He? Where is He? Where is he?" What a reproach!
They went to the chief priest, he said, might have said, "What's the matter with you fellows? Why you bunch of fanatics." See what a reproach upon their scientific achievement by the power of God! They seen His star, and they were wise men, smart, they were in the field of religious science, and they knew when those stars got there, Messiah was somewhere. And here the place that should've it, knew nothing about it.

83 I imagine the kids standing on the street said, "Ha! Look at there. Ha! That's a bunch of fanatics. Listen at them singing. 'Where is he, born king of the Jews?' They don't know Herod is king down here. They don't know bishop..." Oh, my!
"Where is he that's born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east."
They say, "Come here, all of you wise men, here around here. Come here. Do you all see any star anywhere?"
"No, I never seen anything like that!"
"All you astronomers come here. Did you all see any star anywhere?"
"No."
"No."
"Have you seen anything like any kind of a mysterious sign?"
"No! We don't see nothing like that." No, they don't yet, either. Same thing. They don't see nothing. They can't see it.
"Let's call in the ministers. What about you all?"
"No, we never saw no star."
"Well, what about you guys that keep time out here on the wall? You watch the stars, you know every console there is in the heavens. You know every star. Did you see anything?"
"No! We ain't seen a thing."

84 But it was there! Glory to God! Oh, my! Can't you see it? It's there right now, and they can't see it. It's going on right around them, and they can't see it.
"Nah, we didn't see nothing."
"Oh, I went over there; I didn't see nothing."
Sure you don't. Just too blind. It's not for you to see it. If you're that blind, why sure you won't see it. It is just to those who God will reveal it to. That's the one who sees it. Always been that way. Sure!

85 It was Noah that could see the rain up in the skies, you know, but the rest of them couldn't do it. They didn't see the rain up there, but Noah seen it.
It was Abraham that seen Sarah holding the baby. That's right. Not the scoffers that said, "Father of nations, how many children have you got now?"
How we could come on down through the Bible---the sages and prophets, all the way through. "Faith is ... the evidence of things not seen." They know the Word spoken, and there it is---here's the evidence of it. They see it.

86 Now, notice, oh my, "Our wise men don't see that star. There's nothing to it." Why? Actually, when they were looking and they went in with such a group, the star went out. Same thing today. That's what puts many a light out. That's right. Getting hooked up with such a group as that. They don't even believe it in the first place, and how are we going to have a union of churches? How are we going to walk together except we be agreed? How is the fellowship of this here world wide---the united churches of the world---how are we going to unite together, when we are millions of miles apart? How are we going to do it?
The Evangelicals with us, and this and that and that and all together---yet united together. Such a bunch of corruption! God is getting a wife that's pure, holy, unadulterated, stays with his Word.

87 All right. Jesus' reproach for the Word. (Then we'll stop in just a minute.) Jesus was reproached for the Word. Look here. How could He stand the reproach, when He was the divine, incarnate God? He was God Himself made flesh.
Now, you know the Bible said so: we handled Him; angels saw Him. Just think of that. I believe Timothy puts is something like that, see: "Without contradiction great is the mystery of godliness; for God was manifested in the flesh ... seen of angels..."
Angels were at His birth. How the angels must have looked down and rejoiced, when they looked down over the manger and seen God incarnate! Amen. No wonder they begin to scream, "Today in the city of David is born Christ the Saviour!" Angels rejoiced, and they swung their big wings together, and over the hills of Judea they sang, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men." They seen God's Word as they watched over to see it manifested; and there it was.

88 Now, Satan didn't believe that, you know. He said, "If thou be..."
The angel said, "He is." That's the difference.
"If thou be, do so-and-so. Let us see you do it," but the angel said, "He's there." The wise men with their religious science said, "He's there." Amen.
That's the reason archaeologists and everything today are digging up these things that's been prophesied a few years ago that would come to pass. And here they are digging up ... they never even...

89 There's no history that ever said Pontius Pilate was ever on earth. Did you know that? Some of you school kids tell me: whereabouts in history it said there was Pontius Pilate? And unbelievers scoffs at it and make fun of it. Said, "There never was a Roman Emperor named ... a governor named Pontius Pilate." But about six weeks ago they dug up the cornerstone: "Pontius Pilate, Governor." Oh, my, such nonsense!
They said, "There never was a Rameses in history---Rameses over Egypt." But they dug up a stone, archaeologists ... "Rameses II."
Notice, and they said that those walls never did fall down. Archaeologists were digging around, the first thing you know, they dug up way down in where the walls fell down in Jericho. (You know, when the trumpet sounded.) They said, "That was just a myth, a song somebody sang back there." Yeah! The scoffers says that. "That was just a myth. There never was no such thing as the walls falling, Joshua blasting a trumpet, and running up to the walls and they went down. There never was such a thing." And some great Christian archaeologist just kept digging, because he knew it had to be so. He dug thirty-some-odd feet below where the rest of them were. There were the walls, piled right on top of one another, just as the Word said.

90 They said, "There never was such a thing as David ever playing on his instrument (a string harp), because string music wasn't known till the 15th century." Said, "There never was such a thing." Christian archaeologists dug up down in Egypt, four thousand years ago they had string instruments! Amen. Oh, my!
They said about the Hebrew children making those stones and things like that out of straw, "There wasn't such a thing." Archaeologist went to digging on there. What did they find? (That's science.) What did they find? The walls of the city that the Hebrews built---the first layer of stones was long straws. The second was chopped up in little bitty pieces of stubbles, and the third had no straw in it at all. Oh my.
Nations are breaking,
Israel's awakening;
The signs that the prophets foretold...

91 Yes, sir. It's all moved right up to us, brother, sister. Why is it? In the last few years, never has the movie world ever done what it has done! On the screen comes the story of "The Ten Commandments" by Cecil DeMille. On the screen come the life of Jesus Christ, through "Ben Hur." On the screen comes "The Big Fisherman"---the conversion of Peter. And all these religious plays which the movies has refused, and dirtied, and throwed away, but God in His mighty power blasted forth just the same.

92 Right now, those things that have been said a few years ago... A poor little humble servant (myself) of God, I said, "There is a light that stood and talked to me and told me the things to do." People laughed and said, "He's a little bit off at the head."
There is a picture of it. Science took it. There it's the truth! I said, "The woman is shadowed to death."
They said, "Shadowed, now that's nonsense. He just makes that up in his mind."
There's a picture of it!
God will make the rocks cry out. He's able to do what He wants to.

93 Jesus: the reproach for the Word, the divine Son of God, standing there, Emmanuel---what a reproach---let the unbelieving sinner bind Him, spit in His face, and jerk handfuls of beard out, and dare Him to do anything about it. The reproach for the Word. What? To fulfill the Father's Word. Oh!
But remember, He must stand the reproach of death. God, who cannot die, and the only one that could die to save a sinner, no one else---no second person or third person could do it. God Himself is the only one can do it.
Here He was. He said, "There is no man ascended up but He that descended down; even the Son of man, which now is in heaven." Amen!
They said, "Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness." And they said, "You say that you're the bread of life?"
He said, "Before Abraham was, I am. I'm the bread of life. I am the I am."
They said, "You're not fifty years old and say that you saw Abraham?"
He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." And then let sinners bind Him---the denominational church bind Him. Remember, in the last day this rich Laodicean church, they put Him out, even, of the church.

94 You see where it's at now? Can you see why I'm crying out against that system? Why did Jesus let sinners bind Him? It was to fulfill the Word---bring a reproach to God dying. God had to die. He had to be flesh in order to die. And Jesus knew that. He told them about it. He said, "Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it up again." Not somebody else raise it up---"I'll raise it up." "In three days, I'll bring it right back again. You destroy it, and I'll raise it up." "As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights, so must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth," and they didn't even understand it. See, a reproach for the Word. He was.

95 Now, scoffed unto death, to raise again to eternal life. He first had to be put to death, so He could raise to eternal life and bring every other human being that was in His form to eternal life, that would accept it. See, He become human---become a kinsman redeemer, and had to stand the reproach of all the scoffing and all the making fun of, just like His fellow servants did before Him---like Moses, like Noah, like all the rest of them stood that scoffing---He had to stand the scoffing.
Why? He had the Word, and He was the Word. That's the reason they scoffed Him more than ever. He was divine, and the Word itself. Hallelujah!

96 That's what made Him...
Jesus said, "You hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets, and you're the one that put them in there. They come with the Word of God, and you didn't believe them. You're guilty of every one of them."
At Phoenix, God willing, I hit a word the other day. I'm going to indict this generation for killing Jesus Christ---crucifying Him afresh. I'm going to bring an indictment before that ministerial association, God willing. They're guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ for crucifying Him afresh. Yes, sir. Indict the whole.
Peter indicted them on the day of Pentecost. He said, "You with wicked hands have crucified the prince of life, who God raised up and we are witnesses." He brought an indictment.
I'm going to take the Word of God and indict every denomination there is, and every man on the face of the earth that is guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. God help me to be his attorney at that day. Amen!

97 Yes, oh scoffers made fun of Him. They reproached Him. He stayed right with it. Amen. Oh, watch what He did. He was the Son of God---suffered death in order to put sin to death. He had to do that. That was the only way it could be put to death. And He did this and stood it, because all he rest of them did, because all of them back there had the miniature Word of God, because Jesus said so: "The Word of the Lord came to the prophets." "Which one of them," He said, "that your fathers, your organized religion, didn't stone and put to death? Which one of them received the prophets? Then you build their tomb after they're gone." said, "You're guilty of putting them in there."
Then He gave them the parable about the vineyard let out. The servants come, and they mistreated them; then finally said, "Now we'll kill the son, because he's an heir." Oh, they got angry when they seen that.

98 But He had to stand the reproach, and here He has Himself, bound, led up to death in order to be put to death; to bring back eternal life. Glory to God! Oh, how I love Him! Bring back eternal life to raise up every son of God down through the age, that stood with that Word and took the reproach. That is right.
If He hadn't come, Noah couldn't raise. If He hadn't come, Elijah couldn't come back. If He hadn't come, Noah would never raise.
If He hadn't come ... because He was that predestinated Lamb, that come to take the reproach upon Himself, and die the death for every word of God that had been spoke that these righteous men had stood for. He had to be. No one else could do it---God Himself. And He come and took the place that He might redeem and give eternal life to every son of God that has stood for the same Word, and would suffer the reproach.

99 Every son of God, down through the age, that would stand the reproach... There was no one could redeem him, but by faith he saw that redeemer coming.
Job saw Him. Job stood back there and they said, "Oh, you're a secret sinner. God's just mistreating you because you're a secret sinner."
And he said, "I know my redeemer liveth. At the last days, he'll stand on the earth; though the skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I'll see God.
And his wife said, "Why don't you curse him and die? You look like a miserable wretch."
He said, "You talk like a foolish woman." Amen. There he was. "I know he lives, and he'll stand at the last day."

100 If Jesus hadn't come, Job couldn't have been redeemed, because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He knew His place. He knew His position.
That's the reason when Mary recognized that position that day when she come out there, she said, "If You would have been here, my brother would not have died."
He said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
She said, "Yes, Lord, in the resurrection. He was a good boy."
Jesus said, "But I am that resurrection. Believest thou this?"
She said, "Yea Lord, I believe that You are the Son of God that was to come into the world."
He said, "Where have you buried him?" There you are. She recognized it!

101 That little woman wasn't saying that... She had seven devils cast out of her. She knew the power of God, that could take pride and stress and everything away from her---that could take that selfish high school spirit out of her, and could make her a new creature. He cast seven devils out, them women knew what He was who accepted Him, they knew what He could do for them.
So do they today, too. Just accept it. That's the next thing. There she said that and He ... you know what took place. Oh. All that would suffer for the same Word---He died for their cause. He was the only one that could die to do it, for He was the Word. He was the Word---the Word made manifest. All the others had little dips, but here was the fullness of God. The same He is today. Hebrews 13:8---"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." Listen! (I'm closing. Really, I'm going to do it. Just have to. I'm way past time.)

102 He never wrote one word. Did He? Never wrote a word. Why? He was the Word. He was what? The Word that had been wrote---He was the manifestation of that Word. Glory! Now, I feel good. He was the Word. He didn't have to write nothing He was the Word---written Word made manifest. Glory to God! He's the same today, yesterday, today, and forever! He is the Word. Word made manifest.
You say, "Is that right, Brother Branham?" Watch Jehovah stand back there and blow a streak across those waves back yonder, and make the road for Israel to walk through. Watch Jehovah in flesh say, "Peace be still." When the waves were beating the banks in the storm, and the devil licking on everything like that, He said, "Peace be still," and it obeyed Him---the winds and all. He was Jehovah. Amen!

103 That Jehovah that could stand yonder and sprinkle a few dew drops out there, that would fall to the earth and be made bread to feed a people. He stood and took five biscuits and two fish and fed five thousand. He was the Word. Amen! Amen! He's the Word, and He ever will be the Word. And for me and my house, we'll serve the Word.
O I want to see Him, want to look upon His
face,
There to sing forever of His saving grace;
On the streets of glory, let me lift my voice;
When cares all past, home at last,
ever to rejoice.
Oh, my! Yes. Bear the reproach of the Word. There's a reproach goes with the Word. Stay right with the Word and bear the reproach. Let's pray.

104 Jesus, as the other night, Lord, I cried, "Oh, Jesus, what will You have me do. What can I do, Lord? Seeing these things and knowing the hour that we're living; what can I do, Lord? What can I do?"
I pray for my little church here, Lord. I think of the little birds in the vision. The things that has been, and the other birds which were great things, but there were three decks of them, Lord; but when those angels stepped in, there was no birds left. The little messengers have been wonderful, Lord, but I believe that there's something just fixing to take place. Let it be, Lord. Mold us and make us after Your way. We are the clay; You are the potter.

105 On this Christmas Eve, Lord, we're grateful for the gift of God. For God giving to us, though this be some---as we believe in our hearts---some pagan superstition of a day that they have tried to mold it and make it be like a mass---Christ-mass.
But we are not coming in that way of Santa Claus and Christmas trees and decorations, but we're coming in the name of the Lord Jesus, to worship the God of heaven that was made incarnate, flesh like us, and dwelt among us to redeem us, and suffered the reproach of the name---suffered the reproach of the cross to let a worldly institution put Emmanuel to death, in order that He could bring us to eternal life.
Who are we, Lord? Who are we that we should shun any reproach? God, make us gallant soldiers. I commit these words to You, Father. They might have been broken up---tired and weary as I am, but, Father, reward these people for sitting, listening, and may the power that brought up our Lord, and presented Him to us here for a Saviour in this last days, may it quicken every spirit in here, Lord, to the nearness of the coming of the Lord Jesus. May it be so, Father.

106 Heal the sick and afflicted that's among us. Bind up the broken hearted. Lord, we've went through so much. My heart's got so many scars on it, Lord, from hard battles---I'm an old veteran. Help me, Lord. I need Your help. Maybe all this [Gap in the audio] ... trust it has been, Lord. Help me, O God, and help this church and bless us together.
Bless the little children. I'm thinking of the many today---little, poor little fellows won't receive anything out there, and I pray that You'll be with them and help them. Give them eternal life, Lord. That's the great ... that's the Christmas gift that we want, is the life of Jesus Christ to rule and reign in my heart. That's what I want, Lord.
Bless us together, now. We commit these words to You. Let them fall wherever they will, Lord. Wherever that ever heart's opened, may they bring forth a great time of salvation in Jesus' name. Amen.

107 How many love Him? ... be in such a hurry about anyhow? Oh I love Him! I love Him! Lord, what will Thou have me do?
Don't forget the services tonight. You know what Christmas means, now? Oh, this is my Christmas gift; this is that Word. Lord, if I can just let myself... If I can just get myself out of the way so that Your Word can express itself out through here. That's the greatest thing I know of.
Now I think they've got some things they want to give to the children. Now I'll turn the service back to Brother Neville. God bless you. Brother Neville.