The World is falling apart
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1 Certainly a grand privilege, to be here, to be hearing these fine testimonies from these brothers that's in love with our Lord Jesus. Now I ... still living on the ... what would I say? the inspiration I received from the message, one of them, last evening---'course all of them. But it's inspired me to this brother here, thinking of his trial---like He did ... tried Job; but he was doubled at the end. And, I think it's marvelous to sit around and listen to someone's testimony; then you can compare their life.
2 I preached on that recently at Phoenix---to identify ourselves with Christ, identify ourselves with Him in the Bible. If we lived in that day, what group would we be identified with? Then last night when Brother Crow (I believe that was his name) that brought us this wonderful message of his testimony... We were sitting there a few moments ago comparing each other's life; and both being Baptists, former boxers, and so forth, and our last fights---what taken place. And then ... I certainly enjoyed that. I'm glad they taped it.
3 And now this morning, I know we have a banquet, or a luncheon, here for the ministers in just a little while. And ... what say? [Someone says "All the menfolks."] Menfolks, yes. And then tonight I think the banquet's at...? [Discussion aside] Yes, any man, minister or layman. [Someone says, "The luncheon is not till 12:30."] 12:30. ["Two, two and half, two hours from now."] Gracious person, Brother Shakarian, and his wife.
Sister Williams, I was going to say something, but I won't. Brother Carl's testimony awhile ago was outstanding. It was all right. First time I ever knew that, as long as I knowed you. But it was very fine. I ... learn a lesson by all things, don't we?
4 So then, tonight, I'm to speak on the subject tonight, the Lord willing, "There They Crucified Him."
And now, today, just for a little change of position before we speak on a little subject... I come into your city yesterday for my first time---be my second time speaking (I had a ...) in New Mexico. I had a meeting once down in Carlsbad for a few nights, but I never had the privilege of coming here to this lovely place before. And I like to come in early, and kind of feel around to see the ... what the need of the city is.
Now, we should never come to a city as ministers...
5 Now, businessmen, this is a convention. You are here to talk your businesses, and your woes and blessings, to share them together. And that's very fine. But as a minister of Christ, we come here to find out the spiritual condition. And then, not come here to be heard or seen, but come here to do something to glorify God, to bring the thing to a better understanding of God. And now, I changed my subject this morning.
And now, before we read the Scripture, I wonder if we could stand, just for a way of changing the posture for a few moments, for a word of prayer. And now, before we pray, if there be any here would like to be remembered in the prayer, would you just raise your hands. No matter what it is, He knows what's beneath your hand. And I have both mine up. Let us bow our heads now, as we approach Him.
6 Our heavenly Father, we are a very privileged people to be sitting together today in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, by one Spirit all baptized into this one body; and have the privilege of sitting here together and sharing the blessings of the testimonies of these thy children.
And now, as the hour is growing late, we would not want to enter this most crucial time, for my part of speaking to the people, nervously, or thinking we're ... have to hurry out. But we pray that you'll quieten our minds a few moments, and listen further for your exhortations to us, and your warnings. And I'll wait on you, Father, for these things.
And now, we pray that you'll bless this Businessmen's chapter, these Christian Full Gospel men, that their testimony may still spread far and wide, to the glory and honor of our Lord.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 And now, we are happy to know that there's coming a time when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; that we shall rule and reign on the earth with Him a thousand years. We're looking forward to that time.
Hearing the men speak of their temptations, and how that Satan took our Lord up to the top of the mountain, and in a moment of time showed him all the governments and kingdoms of the world and offered them to him... But He flatly refused them because He knew that someday He was falling heir to them.
And we don't look at things that go on so much temporarily now, but we look to the end of the road, where the rewards are given. Father, we pray this morning that you'll make our hearts solemn before Thee, as we listen; pray that You'll speak to us, Lord, through mortal lips; may we hear you through mortal ears; and then, may we in return obey everything that you command us.
We wait on Thee, now, as we read thy most holy Word, where our foundation of our faith lays in the written word. We ask it in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated.
Matthew 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
8 And now, in the Word I would like for you to turn for a few readings of the Scripture, especially in two places for a few notes that I have written down here, that I'd like to ... like a Sunday school lesson, to comment on for a few moments if you will. Deuteronomy 4 first---Deuteronomy 4, and 10 and 11. I would like to read these verses.
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, and when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
And ye come near and stood under the mount; and the mountain burned with fire in the midst of heaven, and the dark, clouds, and the thickness of darkness.
And then in Hebrews 12:25, we read these words, from Hebrews 12:25.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from [that speaketh from] him that speaketh from heaven.
Deuteronomy 4:10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
Deuteronomy 4:11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.
Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
9 Those are kind of odd words to be reading at a Businessmen's breakfast, but may the Lord bless them to our hearts. And now I would like to take this little subject that I was... This morning ... was on my heart to speak upon a subject "Blood on the Message," and I just bypassed that for some reason, not knowing why. But I want to make a text here this morning of the ... odd one, but title it "The World's Falling Apart." That's an odd text, but I feel led to speak on it. "The World is Falling Apart."
We're now in ... this being what we call Good Friday, or God's Good Friday (I don't know why we call it that, Good Friday), but we're just in the beginning on another series of holidays---holy days that the world sets aside, the Christian world, to celebrate in commemoration great scriptural events that happened in the times past---great things that taken place. And we use them and make a time of celebration for those things which has happened.
If God were here at this Christian world at this time (and what's called the Christian world), I wonder what his attitude would be towards our manner of celebrations that we have, in memorial of these great days and times that has been.
10 And men come together in hopes of finding out something. They want to know, to find a solution or some kind of a system---a time of lifeline to keep our world together.
We gather here this morning for that purpose. Men meet in different circles to find out there's something wrong. We all know there is. And there's something wrong in the world, and we must try to find this out. And men gather in these circles to find out what the solution is. This happened many times in our world, what we call "falling apart."
We're living in the time that when our ... not only our nation, but our whole world is falling apart. There seems to be nothing that has a foundation that can stand.
11 We've tried it in so many different things. We've tried to educate the world to an understanding of one another. And we've had different systems of League of Nations, and U.N.'s, and so forth to try to bring understanding to men. The Christian world has tried to educate the people to an understanding. We've tried to denominate them to an understanding. And it seems like we're right back like it always has happened. The whole systems are falling apart, something wrong.
12 We want to seriously think of this for the next few minutes. Just don't enter this now, just to say, "Well, we've walked over, and we sat down, we had a breakfast, we heard testimonies," and so forth. But let's with all of our hearts get down to this, and think of it.
Remember, it's our life, and there's nothing no more important than our life. There's nothing no more important. No matter how much we gain in the world or how great we become here, but we've got to come to the end of the road, and then that's the telling time. And we must approach it with all the sincerity we know how to do.
13 When the people... In other times when people tried to find some way of survival, and they went to systems and... The only way that they can go to any other system than the way that God has laid down is to get away from his Word. Men in other ages has done this in times past. They all tried to get away, tried to control the world---and make a system of politics and different things to try to control---and hold the world together. And in order to do that, they have to get away from God's plan of doing it, see. God has a way of keeping this thing together. And the only way that man can ever adopt some other way, he has to get away from the original way.
14 You see, before there can be a lie there has to be a truth that that lie comes from---because a lie is the truth perverted. All sin is righteousness perverted. That's... All sin is, is to... See, the devil cannot create anything. He perverts what God has created. There's only one creator, and that's God. A lie is the truth perverted; adultery is the right act perverted; and anything that's wrong is the right that's been perverted.
15 So, therefore, to take any other system of keeping the world together than God's system, it's a perversion.
So, anything perverted has to have an end, because everything that had a beginning has an end. It's the things that did not begin that never dies, never has an end. And there's only one thing that never did begin, and that was God. Therefore, the only way we can ever live eternal is to have God's own life in us, and that's eternal life. And God separated Himself among us, and ... giving his Spirit like He did on Pentecost. It was seen in symbols of fire from the pillar of fire that separated itself amongst the people, to give his own life out to the people. And through this, the mind of Christ should be operating among us.
16 And God is the Word. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." And it's still God. That's right. It is the Word. And when we get away from the Word, then we're away from God.
Jesus said, "If ye abide in me [There's the mystery, there's the secret.] ... if ye abide in me and my word in you, then ask what you will," see. The idea is, first God's Word's got to abide here. You can't take creeds, and isms and so forth, and hammer them into you; and take some dogmas, and mixing it with the Word of God, and then have God to honor it. It's got to be absolutely, purely unadulterated the Word of God and that's all. That's all ... God won't mix with anything perverted. He's absolutely God throughout.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
17 Now, always in all times we've had these things of people who tried to pervert the word of God, and to take other kind of systems. And they find ... after a long time they find just like we see today, this 1963, find the world falling apart. Certainly does. Because it cannot hold, no more than what Daniel said in his vision (interpreted the king's...), that no more than iron and clay will mix together, neither does the Word of God mix with anything else. It just won't do it. It's got to be the Word. That's all.
Daniel 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
18 Now, we find out that politics in the days of the world that Noah lived in had taken over; and the educational program, and the great business world of that day had glamored itself into a place to where they ... the buildings of the pyramids and the sphinx---something that we could not nowise build today... If anybody's ever been in Egypt, and seen the pyramids and so forth, we haven't got nothing now that could ever build one like it. No. But they were farther advanced than we are in education, they were farther advanced in science. And then, they come to find out the world began to fall apart. And God sent them a message, but they refused it. And it was a simple, very simple, message by a very simple farmer. But they refused it and rejected it, and their world fell apart. That's exactly.
Same thing taken place in Sodom, the time of Sodom when immorality was on the move. And they'd built cities and so forth. But come to find out, God sent his system in there, then they refused it, and it fell apart. It always does.
Now the same thing exists today. We're just in the same day as it was. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, and in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."---the whole thing crumbling, and falling apart. It's built upon sand and it's got to wash down. And we find that great time like it was then, so it exists today.
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
19 And in the time of the coming of our Lord Jesus, in the early days when He was born, we find that world in that day falling apart when He was born into the world. We find out that the religious world, as I want to speak on tonight on the crucifixion, around something on that order... We find that the Jews had just so polluted the system that God had given them in his Word until there was no sincerity no more---their sacrifices---though they carried it out letterly. And they made their sacrifices...
When the Jew...
20 . Nothing any sweeter than God accepting the substitute when man had sinned, and God accepted the substitute. Full of grace He was to do such a thing. When the Jew come down the road with his bullock, or his lamb, to go offer it for a sacrifice and he did it from the bottom of his heart, it was a great thing. But after awhile it become a family tradition. They just went down and offered the bullock, and, "Well, it's getting time for the sacrifice, so we'll just go and offer this certain bullock," and it become a tradition.
I'm almost persuaded to believe that that's what's happened to our Christian system: that in our different denominations, and clans that call themselves Christians, we have come to that place to where ... and even to we Pentecostals... (Now remember, medicine goes for the whole family.) And we Pentecostals are getting ourself into that, and we wonder...
21 The whole Pentecostal world today is falling apart. The whole system of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, the whole religious system's falling apart. We see it. We know that's the truth.
Our national political world's falling apart. The whole thing's at the end. As Isaiah said, "It's become full of putrefied sores." It's just the whole body's corrupted. There's something's got to happen (and it's going to be beyond any man-made system or understanding) that will have to bring it back to its right conditions again. I know this is a nasty picture, but it's the truth. We've got to look things just exactly what they are, and there's no need of quoting anything over ... coating it, rather, but just come out and tell the truth about it. Right's right, and wrong is wrong, see, and we have to look at it.
Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
22 And we see the nations today. Our political and national life is rotten to the core. It's all full of things---television corruption, of all kinds of dirty, filthy jokes and gags, and before our young people. And the schools are so corrupt. My! I'm from Arizona. I was at one of the big schools the other day, and see those young ladies and men (boys) out there on that campus wallowing around. I said, "I hope I never have to send one of my children to a place like that, of such corruption." Yet called America.
Some of the worst I've ever seen is behavior of Americans in different parts of the country. We always talking about some other country; we'd better sweep our own doors clean before we can say anything about someone else. And we Pentecostals ought to sweep our doors a little bit too before we go to hollering about the Presbyterian, and Baptist, because our system's just as corrupt and falling apart as theirs are, see. We're just living in that day.
23 And now, we want to remember that in these days that Jesus was born, we find that they had the same sort of a system. They had no sincerity. They just went down and become a Jew, and was circumcised the eighth day. And he actually become a Jew. Well, we've got the same thing today. They take them to the church, and christen the babies. And then, the first thing you know, why, they belong to that church. And you ask them if they're Christian. "Sure, I'm a Christian. I'm an American."
One time in a prayer line I asked a lady one time, "Are you a Christian?"
She said, "Well, I'll give you to understand I burn a candle every night." Now, like that had anything to do with Christianity.
One said, "I'm ... well, I'm a So-and-so."
"I belong to the Presbyterian."
"I'm this..." That still don't mean nothing. That's no more than you can put a brand on a cow. You could put a Hereford brand upon a scavenger---it wouldn't make a bit of difference. That don't change the inside of the person. You are what you are by your birth, and that's in Christ, see. We have ... we've just got these brands, and so forth, that's ... we've got the whole thing in a system and in a mess.
24 And we find it that way in the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus (as I thought, bringing his life---to his birth and his ministry, then tonight his crucifixion). Whole thing's begin to come corrupt. They made the word of God of non-effect by their traditions, so the whole world was falling apart. Every nation was looking for some one or some system that could bring them out of it, that ... to hold them together. They were so corrupted that they knowed they couldn't hold out the way they were going, and they was looking for something to hold them together.
If that isn't the picture of our world today, I don't know the world. It is. It's a picture of our world today. Everything is looking for a system, or something to hold us together. It's a picture of it today. It was looking for some system, or something that would keep it from falling apart. As it was then, so is it now again. It's repeated again.
Matthew 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
25 The religious world then was looking for a promised Messiah. The Jews all would tell you---very staunch believers---"Sure, we've been four thousand years looking for a Messiah, and we believe that he's coming. Certainly, we believe it." The political world of that day were looking for a Messiah, and all the rest of the nations, each one, was looking for the Messiah. And when He did come, they did to Him just like they did at other times.
They was looking for something to hold them together in the days of Noah. And when God sent them a messenger, what happened? They turned it down. And they were looking for it in all ages. That's the way it happens. They just ... God will send it to them, and then they just ... they turn it down. Because why? It doesn't meet their taste, see. They don't want it the way God wants to send it; they want it the way they want it. They've got it all figured out the way it must be, and if it doesn't come that way, then it isn't of God, see. That's the way it's always been.
26 It's the same thing today. It doesn't come in the taste of our theological taste; but it comes in the way of the power, of the demonstration, of the manifestation of God's promise for the age. Exactly. But yet, as it was then, they refuse it. They refused it then; they refuse it today, because it doesn't meet the expectation of the day according to the way that people expect it.
27 God has an expectation. God knows what's going to happen because He's infinite. So there's nothing going wrong. It's all going just exactly right, because He's infinite. And He can foretell the end from the beginning because He's God.
Don't think Satan's putting anything over on Him. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's just all working out to display his attributes, is all. How could the great infinite God who knowed everything, and let everything... It's just the attributes of God being displayed. And you're displaying your life, to one side or the other. And that's the reason our systems come in. And they can accept anything of the way of system. It's just because that they get away from the original created way that God made for them to do it. His way of sending things sometimes don't meet our taste. Wonder today... If God answered our cry for our Messiah that we cry today for, I wonder if we would do the same thing that they did back there?
28 Now we're all looking for something. We know that. Everyone's looking for something. I was listening to this crowd. I listen to the businessmen; I go to the ministers; I go to the different denominations. Everybody's expecting something. The nation, hearing political talks, they're looking for something to come forth. What is it? I hear it in the Christian Businessmen, I hear it in the conventions.
"Oh, the great time a-coming! The great time a-coming!"
You just remember. It'll come in an altogether different way than you think it's coming, see. It won't be that at all, what you're thinking about. It never has been, see.
29 And our political world today, and our religious world is just exactly like it was in the days of the first coming of the Messiah. It's polluted. The whole system is rotten. Our politics could get no worse. And our religion---I don't see how it could get any worse than what it is now. The whole thing is corrupted.
Our political world, man-made systems and fashions, we just ... we want everything just ... everything so we can take it easy, and retire and take life easy. Life wasn't intended to be easy. Life is a struggle. Anything that's got life is a-struggling. Look at the trees, how they struggle. Look at everything that's got life---it's a struggle. And when we try to get some kind of a system that takes it easy, then we're wrong. And we know there's something wrong.
30 I listened, today, of our television and programs, and our
papers, and all these things that's going on. And everybody's telling a joke, trying to get America built upon a bunch of laughter, and some kind of a joke---like Ernie Ford, and all those television stars---to make all... And our movies is so corrupt it just could not be any more corrupt. That's all.
It puts me in mind of a little boy going through a graveyard whistling, trying to make himself think he's not afraid. But that's the reason he's whistling, see. He's afraid. And that's what's the matter. They're trying ... the world today is trying to laugh it off ---America is a joke---and know that our number's up. She's weighed in the balance and found wanting.
If God Almighty doesn't tear this nation to pieces, He'll be obligated to Sodom and Gomorrah to raise her up and apologize for his burning her up. That's right. We are doomed. The whole world is doomed. She's falling apart, and there's no way of saving it. She's done sinned away her day of grace.
31 We talk about revival. We're living on ashes of the revival. It's past long ago. And here we're trying to build some system on top of something. Oh, my! It's corrupt. We must again begin to...
Our religious programs surely becomes a stink in the nostrils of God, as it did in the days of Israel---our Methodist program, our Baptist programs, our Pentecostal programs.
Someone said to me not long ago, "You condemn those Pentecostal people so much, why do you stay with them?" I love them. That's the reason. Love is corrective. If it doesn't...
32 What if Junior stands out here in the street, and he's out there making a mud pie in the middle of the street, where them cars are passing by? You say, "Junior, bless your little heart, honey. You shouldn't be sitting out there. When you get ready, come in." That's not love. You don't love your child. You'd take him out there, and jerk him out of that street, and get you a stick and teach him he shouldn't go out there again, if you really love him.
That's what's the matter with our ministry today. They're ... it's a meal ticket. It's a denominational affair, and they're afraid to handle the gospel the way it should be handled. Until they're... You've got to bring it to truth. There's something wrong, and we know it. We're pulling for systems, instead of the kingdom of God. We know there's something wrong. It's corrupt.
33 I think our Pentecostal days have become a stink. We play the music, and jump up and down in the aisles, and dance, and run up and down; and women with cut hair, and lipstick on their faces, and things like that; and run around here, dance in the Spirit with a (call it) with a dress on that's tight enough to put the skin on the outside. And we expect God to meet us in such a system as that? Never will He do it.
You know, God don't come to your terms; you come to his terms, or you don't come at all.
34 Oh, we talk about people coming in and receiving the Holy Ghost, and things like that, and I ... certainly I appreciate that. I do appreciate it. But looky here. What we've done, friends, we've built our denominations upon some evidence.
Like we take speaking in tongues: I believe in speaking in tongues, sure; but everything speaks in tongues hasn't got the Holy Ghost. I'm a missionary. I've seen witches speak in tongues and interpret, and give the right interpretation to it; and drink blood out of a human skull and call on the devil. That's right. Get back to the Word of God where you belong! Get away from these things. A life is what tells in human beings---the life of Christ.
How can you be of Christ, and hold to these forms and things? See where we've got to? The Pentecostal church, when it started fifty years ago and the Holy Ghost began to fall, and the people received the gifts of speaking in tongues, then you began to take everything into it---denominating this, and that, and the other. And look where you're at today, till the whole thing's rotten! Right. The whole system is corrupt, and she's just falling apart with the rest of the world. Everything has to do it. But we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved.
Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
35 Now, remember our politics has gone out after the world. Our churches has gone out after the world. All is polluted. Our days today, when we used to be... Long time ago when... I can just remember when our old Baptist church down there in the state of Kentucky, when you had them old-fashioned women and men sitting around there with those...
Preacher last night, Brother Crow, talking about those ladies with the bonnets on. And they used to, what they'd call, "get sanctified," or... And they'd get out there and shout, and the hairpins would fall out of their hair when they cried, and walked up and down those aisles, praising God. Why, brother, them people had enough religion to make the Pentecostal day feel ashamed of itself. That's right. That was Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. That's right.
36 Then you call the Kentuckians an illiterate bunch. You let some Kentuckian old-fashioned mother see her girl come out on the street, back there in them mountains, with a little pair of shorts on like you and grandma and the rest of you wear. Let her come in of a morning and her clothes half off of her, twisted up, and her manicure, lipstick, or whatever it is, all over her face---been out with some little Ricky all night long in a hot-rod, running around---come in. She'd blister her ... one of them hickory limbs; she couldn't get up out of the bed for six months. Then you call yourself Pentecostal! Look at the day that we're living in.
And preachers are too scared to say something about it in the pulpit, afraid they'll be put out of their organization. We need a "back to the Word of God," back to ... not some emotion, some talk of back to the Word; but I mean the heart and soul in the individual back to the Word of God. Certainly. What did you do? or why are they afraid to say it? You get to speaking about it, and your organization will oust you out. That's right.
37 I just read a piece that somebody give me here in the paper. It come from Memphis, Tennessee. It's called the "Tony Fontaine Story." If you want to see a burlesque advertisement, look at that in the paper, supposed to be Pentecost. It's sponsored by the Assemblies of God, one of the biggest organization of the Pentecost. Take a look at it (I'll leave it here)--- a bobbed-haired, Jezebel-looking woman, and some Frenchman there. You call that conversion? Why, it's emotion. There's nothing to it towards conversion. A Spirit of God will clean a man or a woman up, and make them different than what they was. That's right. But what've we got? We've got Hollywood moved into Pentecost.
What is it? Because of their educational programs, and things,
38 that's the reason we can't have revival. That's the reason something can't go on. That's the reason we've been going on---because you've got to get back to that Word again, my brother. That's right. Such a pity of a thing like that, under the auspices of a Pentecostal movement. You couldn't say God sponsored a thing like that. Certainly not.
But what is it? It's something that's got glamour. You've seen too much television; you're too much impersonated with the world. That's the reason the whole thing's rotten, and corrupted, and falling apart. Right. It stinks before God. I don't care how much you speak with tongues; how much you shout, and run around through the room; I don't care how much you do this, or how big you grow; how many dignitaries you get among you. That has nothing to do with it. You ought to oust some of that, and get the Holy Ghost among you that will clean you up, and make a real church out of you. There's the thing. That's exactly the truth.
39 What we need today is a prophet of the Lord to rise on the scene, with the Word of God that don't compromise with the things of the world. That's the only hope there is for a life that is to come---somebody'll handle the gospel, not with rubber ecclesiastical gloves on. Believe so much and take away so much---oh, our denominational difference now has weeded us into about nine hundred different organizations. Our deacons are permitted to have two or three wives, and still serve as deacons.
Sometimes a preacher will leave one church and go to another one, because there's more money at one place than there is another ---a bigger crowd at one place, and a better church, and so forth---have pets and puppets and... Oh, my! We want God-called men, rugged from the wilderness yonder, with a message that ... like John the Baptist, that will shake the hide off of some of these so-called religious moves. It's a sin! It grieves the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes in the visions the Lord gives ... well, I won't get onto that now, see. I was asked the other day ... well, I just ... I'll keep... Excuse me.
40 Now, to the message of falling apart. The things that's going on, the things that oughtn't to be foreign to the church, yet it is... Speak to them about it, they don't want to believe it.
When Noah spoke, they didn't believe it; when Moses spoke they didn't believe it; when the prophets spoke they didn't believe it. So they had their own systems built up. Yes, sir. The beautiful virtue (oh, my!) of our motherhood ... the virtue of our Pentecostal women has bowed at the shrine of the goddess Hollywood. And what we used to call "virtue" we call "fashion." It's a disgrace!
41 Someone said to me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, why don't you keep off them women---cutting their hair, and wearing shorts, and things? Why don't you...?" Said, "People regard you as a seer from the Lord. Why don't you tell them how to see visions?"
I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they don't even know their ABC's?" The more you preach, the worse they get. So you see, the whole system is rotten, falling apart. That's all.
42 God will not save the world by an organization, or a system. He'll save it by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Word made manifest. It's the promises of God made manifest. Yes, sir! We've taken our traditions and made the Word of God of non-effect, just like they did in the days when Jesus come. Oh, yes, sir!
God promised to supply our needs, not our wants. We're always wanting something, but we want it in our own way. You say, "Well, I want that. I ... well, Lord, send us this, and send us that." God knows our needs. That's exactly right. He knows our need.
Matthew 15:6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
43 What if your little boy seen you shaving with your straight razor, and he'd say, "Daddy, I want that razor." You know better than to give that child that razor. Well, what if he'd say, "Daddy, I've seen you do it."? Well, that's different. You're an adult; you know how to use the razor. You're an adult. You've accumulated the intelligence to know how to use a razor.
And then a lot of times we see Pentecostal people, see someone speak in tongues or something, do a healing service. And then the whole system becomes corrupt with a bunch of carnal impersonations going out. They see others doing it, but God might not have called you to do such a thing. And what does it do? It brings carnal impersonations which brings reproach upon the very cause that God sent. What does it? Systems. If the Assemblies of God's got a man out doing something and God is with him and proven, and we see it like that, then the other groups has got to have one too.
44 Look at the little form not long ago, when the little David system come out, see. And every church had to have a little David---little girl preachers, and boy preachers, and... What was it? Comparing, comparison---trying to impersonate. That's what got us into the mess that we're in now. That's exactly.
What made you Assemblies of God go back into an organization when that's the very system that God brought you out of? You tried to compare with the Methodist, and the Baptist. What made you Oneness with your new issue, what made you go to an organization---the same thing that He brought you out of? It's the same thing. You just keep doing it over, and over, and over again. Can't you see it's not of God? The whole thing's rotten and wrong. God don't call you by your organizational brand; He calls you by your birth. Certainly. That's what God calls you by.
45 God knows our needs. We've got to accept it the way He has it; not according to our traditions. We just can't receive it that way, because God won't receive it. God won't have nothing to do with it. We see others... You, say, see somebody... "I ... Brother Branham, I see some person that can do this, and some that. Glory to God, Lord." My! If He did, He'll do it. If He calls you that, you won't have to tell anybody about it, it'll show itself. That's exactly right. But we want to be just like the Joneses---just about the way we've got ourself into the system that we're in now.
46 Now. Now we find out in our denominational politics... And we've accepted politics, and let politics lead our ministers---religious politics lead our ministers---instead of the Holy Spirit leading our ministers. That's right. A man see a truth that he believes, he can't go to it. His church'll put him out right now, see. So you see, you're letting man leading instead of God leading, because your dogmas of your creeds, and so forth, keep a man away from it.
How could a Methodist ever come out, and preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit? You Methodist people here, you Methodist ministers, how could you ever do that? How could you Presbyterians ever do it and stay in your church? They'll put you out. You know that. Certainly they will. And you Pentecostals, just as bad. That's exactly. As long as it's a system, it's a system. The whole system's rotten, and get away from the thing. That's exactly what we've got to do before it ever comes back.
47 You might not believe that, but this is taped. Listen at it a few years from today, if there is such, and you'll know whether it is true or not. One day when the evening lights are breaking (it's too late then), you'll say, "Well, that man could have been right." But it's too late then.
48 ... just exactly what Jesus said when He come to the earth. He said God had sent them prophets down through the age, every time that their world system would fall apart, their religious system. Said, "What did you do with him? God sent the prophet, and you put him in a tomb. [It's exactly.] And then about another generation, you wake up and realize that that was a prophet. And then what do you do? Garnish the tomb." What do you do? Make a tradition of his life. That's exactly what Israel had done---had taken the prophet Moses, and had made a tradition of his life.
And that's the way we do---Martin Luther, John Wesley, other men. We're always looking back, see. See those things, and you make a tradition of their life; garnish the tombs of them. And their message is for another day. By the time you wake up, why, that day's done lived by, and we're in another day. The whole system's worked that way since the beginning. Man-made systems, certainly.
Matthew 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
49 Jesus, when He came to the earth, He came and found the church and the world in the same condition it is today. I believe He's coming again. Just exactly. I believe it. There's only one thing can save it, and that's the coming of the Lord. There's nothing can do it. I don't care. We Methodists are not going to do it, or we Pentecostals are not going to do it. God will do it, in the sending of Jesus Christ. I believe that He will come. I ... just according to the Scriptures, He'll come. Yes, sir.
2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
50 The whole thing has become a religious denomination, led by the denomination instead of the Holy Spirit. Our educational systems and our denominations has led us in so many different ways, and taken forms of godliness and denied the power thereof---just exactly what the Scripture said we would do.
The prophet said in II Timothy 3, the time would come when men would be "heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded."
You say, "That's communists."
That's so-called Christians! The Bible said, "having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For this is the sort that go from house to house, and lead silly women led away with divers lusts, never able to learn or come to the knowledge of the truth. But as Jambres and Jannes..." Remember they did exactly ... they were ... they was impersonators.
That thing struck the Pentecostal realms, as it has the rest of them: impersonators. When Moses throwed down the rod, Jambres and Jannes throwed down the rod. When Moses called for things, they called for things. Carnal impersonation! And how are you going to get away from it? That ain't Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian. That's Pentecostal, 'cause they don't even hit the realms at all out there, the others, see.
The prophet said it would happen. How are you going to keep it from happening? The Bible said so. No word of God will ever fail. It's God's word. So we've got it. We see it before us. Wake up, people, before it's too late.
Exodus 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Exodus 8:7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
2 Timothy 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2 Timothy 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
51 Don't you rely upon any system, any sensation, any ism. You get with God, and God alone. Get there till your life is changed, and you become a new creature in Christ. God will take care of the rest of it. If He wants you to do anything, you're on speaking terms with Him, then. He'll tell you.
Don't try to mock and do it like the others. If he saw a light, and the other shook all over, and the other one done something else---don't pay no attention to that.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
52 Twenty-five people held their hands last night to receive the Holy Spirit. I wonder how many... If there's a hunger there, there's a knock at the heart. Every one of you should receive the Holy Spirit right there where you were sitting, when that hunger... God's more willing to give it to you than you are to receive it. You never exhaust God's blessings. You never exhaust God's goodness. You can't do it.
Could you imagine a little fish one-half inch long out in the middle of the sea, saying, "I'd better drink of this water sparingly because I might run out some day."? Could you imagine a mouse under the great garners of Egypt, saying, "I'll eat one grain a day, and allowance myself, because I might run out before the next crop."? Well, that would be ridiculous. And it's more ridiculous to think that you'd ever exhaust the grace of Jesus Christ and his power, and his desire. He's wrote it in the Word. He's promised it to you. And we're here this morning looking the thing in the face.
53 But when you see the blessings of God trying to get to his people, and to see them got it all twisted up in such a way... He can't come into such a mess as that and bring his Word. He won't do it. That's all. The vessel's got to be cleaned out.
When we get amongst Pentecostal people, see bobbed-haired women... Do you know it's not even common for a woman to pray with her hair cut? What happened? Your mother wouldn't have done that at all. What happened? You got some Ricky behind the pulpit; you got some little educated something out of a Bible school that took him farther away from God than he ever could get to God. You stumble over the simplicity of God. That's right. What do you do? When you get a doctor's degree that means you're that much farther from God. When you get a Ph.D., LL.D., or B.A. of Art you're just that much farther from God.
Educational system drives you from God.
54 Education has been the devil's thought. Wisdom of the world has been the devil's thought from the beginning---to Eve and on down through the age. It's tried to substitute simple faith in believing God's Word. If Eve would've only believed God's word instead of trying to get more wisdom... Took her seminary experience there, and she broke down the bars, and she got away from God.
And that's what our theological seminaries and things does. It takes the tradition of the thing and sit behind that.
55 God is simple---so simple He goes over the top of people.
What a day we're living in! We need ... back to God, then ... Huh! Accept? "We think..." Yes. Then God has to accept us in that tradition? He certainly will not do it. He's never done it. God never did. I want some historian to rebuke me, if it's so. Tell me wherever a man sent on earth with a message from God... And then as soon as he did it, he got wrapped up with a bunch of men and made an organization; and that organization went to seed. It never did rise no more. God laid it on the shelf, and it become (as the little minister said last night) numbers; not Spirit!
Did the Presbyterian rise? Did the Catholic rise from the Nicaea Council? The first Pentecostal church was a... Pentecost ... or, I mean the church never began at Rome, to you Catholics. I want somebody to show me where the church began at Rome. The organization began at Rome, what killed the church. But the church began in Jerusalem, not in Nicaea. Certainly.
56 Where did we begin? See, you get... God'll send some man with a message and he'll get wound up with a popularity of different things, and his head puffed up; and he makes an organization. And God puts it right on the shelf, like he did the Catholic church; and there we all sit---which is the mother of the whole thing. And now our system's falling apart.
Oh, what a time we're living in! Reject his message, reject his promises, reject those that's sent with truth. We want God to do the same in our day just exactly like He did then. We call for it, but then we find ourself all politi..., all political, denominational, all polluted with corruption of man-made themes. (I've got a bunch of stuff wrote down here that I oughtn't to read. I believe I'll just let it alone.) Look.
57 Now, get back to the truth of the Word. God lives alone. God wants his people to live alone with Him. They want them tied into anything---any sensations, traditions; He wants children obedient with his Word, that he can place his Word in there. God said ... Jesus said, "If ye abide in me and my word's in you, then ask what you will." That's either the truth, or it isn't the truth. If it is the truth, it will work.
Now you want to know where the secret lies of power, of visions and things? Is back to the Word. It's the Word of God. Jesus was the Word. He was the manifestation of God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and He was the Word. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh."
And the Word wants to be made our flesh. But when we're all wrapped up in all kinds of stuff, and traditions, and permitted to live like the world, and things like that---and then expect God to do that? Why, certainly He won't.
I don't care how many things we impersonate.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
58 It's getting to a place that, brother, something's fixing to happen. I don't want to hurt you; I want to bless you. Listen. One of these days the rapture will come by, and the bride will be gone, and you'll know nothing about it. They won't even know a word about it. Everybody's expecting ... oh, one of these days Jesus will walk out on the skies, and say, "Come on, all you Pentecostals [or you Baptists]," and our traditional thoughts of it. It won't be like that.
My opinion is this: one day when Jesus... It had been prophesied Jesus would come on the earth. And He came, He lived, He died. Nobody knowed nothing about it, hardly---not even one percent of the Jews ever knowed He was on the earth. About one hundredth of the world ever knowed He was there.
59 John the Baptist---from Isaiah, from Malachi... Why, when they prophesied of him, said all the mountains, the high places, will be brought low; all the low places will be brought high; and, oh, how the rams ... the leaves will clap their hands, and the mountains will skip like little rams---all those things. Well, them traditional people had it all figured out some other way. And here come John, and preached exactly like He said, and even the disciples didn't know it.
One day they come to Him. He said "The Son of man's going up to Jerusalem."
They said, "Well, why is it then, that the Scripture says ... the scribes write and tell us that before these things will take place that Elias is going to come?"
He said, "He's already come, and you didn't know it." And then He told them it was John. But said he done just what the scriptures said he would do, and they done to him what the scriptures said, see.
Psalm 114:4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
Matthew 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Matthew 17:10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Matthew 17:12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Mark 9:11 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?
60 And one of these days you're going to wonder... When that rapture comes... Remember, there's about five, eight hundred people missing every day over the earth, that they can't account for. And He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man, wherein eight souls were saved."
One of these days judgment's going to strike the world, strike the nation, strike the church---clear her out for the great millennium that is to come. And then you're going to say, "Well, why did it say that the rapture would first come before these things taken place?"
He'll say, "It's already come, and you didn't know it." Somebody on his road to church, a little lady going somewhere on a visit---they're gone. You don't know when it happened, passed by. It's always been that way. So will it be again.
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
61 Wake up, Pentecostal people. Shake your conscience. Realize the hour you're living in. This is a serious hour. You people, the way that you let your people do and act, and things...!
It used to be it was a shame, oh, it was a disgrace for the Christian to go to a movie. They shouldn't do that at all. The devil put one over on you: he stuck a television right in your house, and brought the movie to you---all kinds of corruption, and everything else, and you permit it.
Look at our schools. Look at our ... out here, little girls on the street stretched out with all kinds of immoral clothes on. And here ... in the city of Chicago every thirty days, every month there's 30,000 abortion cases registered.
Just in one case,
62 how many sins was committed in this city last night? Wasn't it better when the coyote howled down through the desert here, and God looked upon it? when the old Hopi, or Navajo, went through here on his travois? Then look at this filth, and just gaum, and traditions and politics. And it's a bleeding, nasty mess that stinks in God's nose. He'll ... corrupted before Him... He'll blow it to pieces some of these days; and He'll burst forth the earth as she'll renew herself with volcanic eruption.
And there'll come a millennium then, where the righteous will walk out upon the ashes of the wicked, according to Malachi 4.
Malachi 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
63 Now remember, before that happens though, there's something takes place. We get a shaking from a messenger before it takes place. All right.
Now our message for today: Now, notice. We notice that the coming of the Lord Jesus... And when He came, in his day, notice, in his day, when He come.
Now we find out that Rome was looking for a great military genius, a messiah who could come and kick Greece off the earth, and the rest of them. And you know what they had? A gimmick---he had something that he could make all the rest of them be ashamed of themselves. They wanted a military genius. That's what they wanted.
64 What did Israel want? A Messiah. They wanted a Messiah ... a general. They wanted a general come who'd take and kick all the Romans, and stomp them out of the country, and set up the kingdom in Jerusalem. God knowed their needs. What did He give them? A baby. A baby, a Saviour. He give them a Saviour. They thought they were saved, but He give them a Saviour.
And that's the thing it is today. If He'd send anything to us it'd be a Saviour, when we think we are saved. He knowed what they had need of. Today, look at our politics, how it's corrupted. The same...
What if God looked today?
65 Look at Russia. Russia's crying for a messiah. They want somebody, a scientific genius, who can take them to the moon before the United States gets started. Certainly. All the rest of the nations are looking for it. They want a scientific genius that will run them over to the moon; can invent some kind of a bomb that will take off all ... knock off all hydrogen bombs and stop them; and can take their own bombs and rain it on everybody before anybody else gets a start; and then they take the whole world over. That's the kind of messiah that Russia's looking for.
66 Nineteen hundred years ago the true Messiah was crucified. He promised to return again. He promised the Holy Spirit would shine forth his light again in the last days. I wonder if He come, if we would be just like the Jews was in that day. If we're looking ... what kind of a Messiah is the church looking for? The Baptists is looking for something a little greater than Billy Graham, who can take all the Methodists, and Presbyterians, and the Pentecostals, and say, "You all shut up. I'll make one organization out of all of you."
What's the Pentecostals looking for? They're looking for a genius to rise up, that can make them all Assemblies; and the Oneness is looking for a Oneness that can make them all Oneness. The Church of God is looking for one make them all Church of God.
What are you doing? You're organizing Bible schools, and educating them, and sending the ones that God would send farther away from Him than they was in the beginning. I know you don't agree with that, many of you. But anything...
67 My mother used to tell us... When we were kids we was raised so poor---boil meat skins, and get grease to make our cornbread, and every Saturday night we'd have to take a dose of castor oil. We had almost pellagra, of so much eat the same thing ---of poke greens, and so forth.
And Mama... I used to hate that stuff. I do yet today. When I'd go to take it, I'd hold my nose, and I'd say, "Mama, I can't take it. It gags me. It makes me sick."
She'd say, "Anything that don't make you sick won't do you no good."
That's what's the matter with the Pentecostal church today. You don't want to listen to something that'll do you good, that'll make you sick at your theological gastronomicals. But it'll do you good. It'll work you out, and back to the Word of God, and back to the faith that was once delivered to the saints; take away from all this here Bible school, theological seminary, and giving the ministers all kinds of degrees.
God never did hand out a handful of sour apples like that. He wants men to have faith, believe what's already wrote. You don't have to accumulate something else.
68 I know that's hard. I'm not here to baby you, and make you laugh, and make you shout. I'm here to tell you the truth in God. You'll see some day. If you don't believe it now, some day will come when you'll say that was right. True. You got to get back. The whole thing's in this condition. There's nothing left for it to come, but the coming of the Lord Jesus. And He won't come for the Assemblies of God, He won't come for the Baptist; He'll come for each individual. That's right.
69 [Blank spot.] ... and as soon as that light struck that seed, there was life, like that. Look at those theologians standing around there, when they seen Him discerning the thoughts that was in their hearts. They'd seen a lot of carnal impersonations before, and they said, "This man's Beelzebub, a fortune-teller." That was theologians.
Jesus said, "You're of your father, the devil, and his works you do."
But when a little prostitute walked up, down there to the well in Samaria and Jesus said to her, "Go get your husband," she said, "I have none."
Said, "You told the truth. You've had five; and the one you're living with is not yours."
She said, "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. We know when Messiah cometh he'll do these things."
He said, "I'm he that speaks to you."
What was it? That light struck that little predestinated seed, and quickly it come to life. How much different from them theologians, all indoctrinated.
She run into the city, said, "Come see a man that's told me the things I've done. Isn't that the very Messiahic sign that we're to look for?"
And the doctors of divinity stood around, said, "That guy's Beelzebub." See, they couldn't explain it. They had no way to explain it. So they had to answer to their congregation, give them some kind of a radical idea of their own.
Matthew 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mark 3:22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
Luke 11:15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.
John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
John 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
John 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
John 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
70 The same thing has arrived again. And men won't believe, people won't believe, churches won't believe. No wonder. You can't be disappointed in it, because the Bible said they wouldn't do it. But it's you individuals---you that's ordained to life. Look upon the fields now, and see what hour we're living in. Come to life. Let the life that was in Christ come in you, the mind...
You said, "Oh, I think ... I think this ... I..." You ain't got no thought coming. You let the thoughts that was in Christ be in you, and that's the Word. That's right. Think the thoughts that He thought.
71 Now. Now, I wonder today, America (I won't keep you much longer), America, you've been crying the loudest. What do you want? I'm coming home now, from across the fields. What do you want? What do you want to rule over you? You want an educational genius. That's what you want, and you got him. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I want to tell you the truth. You've got him, even if you had to invent a crooked vote machine. You got him.
America's so set on education---not the Bible---on education. The churches are so built upon educational theology, some kind of a man-made system, creeds. And the Pentecostals have drifted right into that same thing---just like driftwood upon the waters going over the dam. Right. You want creeds; you don't want truth.
72 Now notice. What did you do? Everything was educa... You wanted it so well till you got your television out, and put Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kennedy on there, to test their intelligence before you done it. And then... Even is enough good people left in America wouldn't have done that---they know our heritage. We know where we belong to.
And you Democrats! I'm neither Democrat nor Republican; I'm a Christian. But you Democrats that would let some little Ricky come around, and you'd sell your birthrights for your politics, and vote in something that our nation was established to get away from---shame on you! Got the same Ahab and Jezebel!
73 You American women wanted fashion. You've got a ... you don't have to go to Paris now. You got it right here, a real Frenchman to give it to you. You've got your water-head haircuts, and all your fashions and things, that you want to fashion after. You've got exactly what you want! Where is it going to lead you? Right back to Rome---exactly where it's come from.
And you Protestants! You're wanting some big organization to lead over you, run over you, to rule you. You'll get it---the World Council of Churches. How can David DuPlessis, my friend, ever...? on this ecumenical council that he's talking about. And bringing these Pentecostal people into that?
What's the matter with you Pentecostals?---hollering about Dr. Holy Father So-and-so come in!
Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
74 You know the Bible said don't call no man "Father." What's the matter with you? That's the teaching of our Lord. What's the matter? Don't you know your Bible? Don't you know your Lord? The Holy Spirit wouldn't teach you to do a thing like that. Don't you realize that when these Presbyterians, Lutherans, and things try to come in to get that, it's the end-time? They don't get in. The Bible said they didn't.
While they come to get oil the bridegroom come---when they went to get oil. Then what about the rapture, now? See? The Bible said that when the sleeping virgin come to buy oil (How many knows that's the truth?), when the sleeping virgin come to get oil the bride went in. They didn't get it. They come back, and they was cast into outer darkness.
When you hear this rumor about so many Methodists, Presbyterian, Baptist... What's the matter with you? Wake up! It's later than you think. They come back. But they ... may've had an emotion, but they wasn't there. Remember, they were into outer darkness.
Maybe they say, "Well, when is this going to take place?"
Matthew 8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
75 It might already be, one of these mornings, and you wouldn't know why, how. I hope you can read. I hope you can ... got the Spirit of Christ enough to know what I'm talking about---the Holy Spirit reveal it to you. These are taped, and they go around the world.
But you realize, just a few days ago, when them seven angels came down in that vision---many of you knowing it---said "Go to Tucson and wait there for awhile. And you'll hear a blast go off. When it goes, return back." And the seven seals were opened at the Tabernacle the other day. When I seen people coming from ... standing there at three o'clock in the morning to get a place to get into the auditorium, and so forth, seeing the hungry hearts coming from everywhere, thought, "O God, we're bound to be at the end now."
Remember, the sounding of the seventh angel the mysteries of God was finished. And there come an angel from heaven, and swore with his hands raised from heaven (Revelation 10:1-7), that time would be no more. That's exactly right. The hour...
Revelation 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Revelation 10:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
Revelation 10:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Revelation 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Revelation 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
76 What church is He coming to? The church that we're living in ---the Laodicea church age, the last church age, when lukewarm... Just enough to dance around, say, "Yes, I got it. I spoke in tongues. I shouted. Hallelujah! I got it."
And come back, and our churches look like a bunch of Jezebels, looks like a bunch of I don't know what. Corruption!
Remember, your outside expresses your inside. No matter how much your testimony is, your life speaks louder than your words. We're here! We've arrived! Something's fixing to happen. It comes from above. Not from any of these things here; it comes from above. God will send Christ. Amen.
Revelation 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
77 Yeah, we got our genius. Where's he at? Now you're wanting a genius, the church world. I don't mean you individuals here. This is taped. What about it? You're wanting it. You'll get it. Go right into the Council of Churches---the very thing that you've come out from to be what you are. And then your organization's leading you right back into it again---just exactly what you come out of, the thing that God cursed---that pollution, dirt and filth. Why, in that Council of Churches some of them don't even believe in the virgin birth, the coming of Christ, or nothing else. And how can two walk together except they be agreed? There you are.
Well, it's time, I guess, for me to quit.
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
78 But brother and sister, just remember this: we're at the end-time. Education has took the place of salvation. The church denomination has taken the place of the body and bride of Christ. Sit in all that corruption---that's what you want. That's what the people want. That's what's in the American church. That's what's in the Pentecostals. They want somebody not to come tell them the truth---they don't want it. You tell them; they say, "I don't have to listen to such stuff as that," turn their little nose up, and walk out of the building. They won't listen to it.
Why? That's what's in their heart. They express exactly what they are. Which one of the prophets ever come in the old days, which sign did Christ come, whatever messenger ever come from heaven, but what the church rejected? We're here. The world's falling apart, the church is falling apart, the systems are falling apart. Why? Because it's a system outside of God. That's it. We're at the end-time. There's nothing else can be done. Yes, sir! Everything... Remember...
79 Let's just ask this question before we go on: what if Russia got their messiah? What would happen to us, see? Let's remember, Germany got theirs not long ago. We well remember that. They got their messiah, their Hitler, their genius. What if Russia got hers? What would happen?
If there wasn't a God of mercy in heaven I don't know what we would do. All of our hopes would be gone. There's a true church. There's a church that's waiting for the coming of the Lord. God will always grant it, but just those who are ordained. You say, "What good will it do to stand up, if it's this kind of a system?"
There's a predestinated seed. When that light strikes, they'll catch it like that. She'll bloom to blossom right now. Sure. Others will just go right over the top of it. They believe in their system, and that's just the way it's always ... like it was in the days of Noah. They believed the same thing. Those who are predestinated to eternal life, they got it. "No man can come to me," said Jesus, "except my Father draws him. And all the Father hath given me will come."
We just got to scatter the seed, throw the light. Oh, each one of you ought to be a lighthouse.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
1 Corinthians 11:5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
80 You Pentecostals who claim to be so much; you Pentecostals who claim to kiss the cup of the golden rims of the blessings of Christ; you women, that could go out here and permit, and do, and let the ministers of this age tantalize you and tell you it's all right for you to let your kids wear them shorts; and you women---grandmas cutting your hair and ... don't you know the Bible said that a woman ... a woman that cuts her hair, the Bible said her husband has a right to put her away. She's not honorable. It used to be wrong.
Paint? There's only one woman in the Bible ever painted her face, and that was Jezebel. And God fed her to the dogs. So you see what that would be? Common dog meat. So don't... Just keep away from those things. That isn't becoming to Christians.
2 Kings 9:33 And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.
2 Kings 9:34 And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter.
2 Kings 9:35 And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
2 Kings 9:36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:
81 Tell them about it, "Well, I belong to the Assemblies; I belong to the Oneness; I belong to this..." That's right. That's what you belong to. But if you belonged to Christ, it would be different. When the Word of God and the seed of God was in there, it'd bloom forth an example of Christianity. It would bloom forth something that the world would laugh at, and make fun of, like it did the Lord when He come, like it did every prophet that come. They laughed and made fun of them, and throwed them into the tombs.
But there's coming a resurrection. This world ... men can either live for this world, or the world to come---depends on where your thoughts are at. There's where your treasures are also. Let it be on heaven, and the coming of the Lord. Be an example of womanhood, be an example of manhood, be example of Christian. Live the life, do what's right
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
82 People today---even our evangelists---are so money... Everything they have to have, so much money promised, and great big things, and building big institutions, and things like that---just the very thing that Pentecost come out of. And there we are, right back in again. What is it? All glistening and shining. You know, everything's got to shine. Hollywood shines. Right. But the gospel glows.
There's a lot of difference between shining and glowing. Where the church shines with Hollywood fashions, biggest churches, its highest spires, the best dressed crowds, and so forth---it shines with that. The biggest members---the Baptists had in '44, "A million more in '44," under Dr. Billy Graham, and many of those.
83 And I sat at Billy Graham's breakfast here not long ago in our city---the man, the evangelist, a great man of God. I'm praying for him constantly. He's laying down there sick. I have honor for him. He's the type that went down into Sodom yonder, and brought out them Sodomites, every one that could be brought out. But remember, the church elected wasn't in Sodom. There was an angel stayed up there, too, and He showed them a sign---the church elected.
But when he did, standing up there (and I seen him standing there), he said, "What's the matter here?" Said, "I..." Said, "Here's the example." Said, "St. Paul went into a city and he had one convert. He went back a year later. What did he ... happen? He had thirty by that one." Said, "I go into a city, have 30,000 converts in six weeks. I come back a year later, and can't find thirty. What's the matter?" He said, "It's you lazy preachers." Said, "You take your decision cards, and sit with your feet up on the desk somewhere, and call them up on the phone." And he went ahead.
I admired the man for his courage.
84 I hate to see a sissy, some denominational puppet. I like a man, a God-sent man that stands on his convictions, regardless; when he's proven wrong, admit it, and come back and start over again. That's right. And he stood there, and talked like that. And I thought... I sat with Dr. Mordecai Ham to where... He's a personal friend of mine, Baptist brother. And I've knowed him all ... for years, and years, and years, and we've associated together. And he and I were sitting at the table together. I come to his home, we went down together.
We sat there, and I thought, "Oh, my!" How, not to interrupt or say anything about the great evangelist, but I thought, "Billy, which one of the ministers at Antioch---when Paul went into Antioch and got his one convert---which minister there took that convert into his offices, private, and fed him and talked to him? There wasn't any." Why? Paul'd taken him so far beyond the things of the world, oh, till God was rooted and grounded into his heart. That apostle never let that one soul go, till he was really rooted and grounded in Christ.
85 And today what do we do? We bring these little old girls up, and men and women, belong in the churches, and they make a decision (in the "Hour of Decision," and things like that), bring them in, send them right back out to ... like that. And what? They haven't got nowhere anyhow. They had nothing but a little emotional work-up by the Word. It'll actually do that, see. It'll do that. It'll make an emotion. That's what happened to Pentecost. It went under emotion. That's what happened to all of it.
Matthew 13:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
86 Evangelism---it's a net that goes forth. Jesus said, "Cast into the sea." And when it brought forth, it had turtles, terrapins, snakes, frogs, and everything else in it. But remember, they was that from the start. There's fish in there, too. Just our business to seine; God's business to say who's fish, and who's not, see. Why wouldn't them? If they was taken just as far into the kingdom of God, them thirty thousand, as Paul's one was, when he come back he'd have 430,000, see, because their heart would be so on fire.
87 Like the little Brother Crow said last night. I admired his courage. I admired his stand, to stand under his conviction. When the light shines there he stands. You'll never jerk him in any of these systems if he stays the way he is. No. Then going along like that... How I admire a man of that type. Yes, sir. Let anybody say... If I look like a weathervane, I'd rather look like a weathervane for God than some painted-up Mardi Gras for the devil. You got to look for something anyhow. That's exactly right. There you are.
But see, it's the system, things that we're living in and working with today. There you are. The whole thing has become corrupt plumb to the core.
88 Now, we've got our Ricky up there. Now what are you going to do with him? See, they're just flying in like blackbirds. Exactly right. The whole cabinet, the whole thing, everything---millions-of-dollars system---that's what you want. That's what the church wants. That's the reason you come in. It's easy, now, to get into the churches. Oh, my! The Pentecostals, all you have to do is shake a little bit, jump a little bit, or say you got some kind of a testimony.
Anybody can testify.
89 You ought to go with me to India sometime and listen to the Hindus testify. They'd make you ashamed of yourself. That's right. You ought to go back into Africa---the Hottentots---and let them kill an animal, and blood theirself all over, and listen to their testimonies, and sensations, and speaking in tongues (sure), worship an idol sprinkled with blood. O God, how I wish I could make every person here see that. Certainly. The devil impersonates every... Everything that God puts out, he impersonates it. Even to God's truth, he impersonates it. That's exactly true.
Notice. There they are. Well, what does the church want?
90 The nation wants something that they can get... Not a president up there would sit down there in the cabinet, would stop this nonsense, and get this city so dry with ... from bootleggers, they'd have to prime hisself a half hour to get enough moisture to spit. They don't want something like that.
They want some guy in there that's going to give them all the beer they want, and legalize it; and then arrest him if he gets too drunk. And rape, and insane asylums, and everything else, and thousands of wrecks on the road---drunken drivers. And they go out here on the road... And you let a drunken driver go out, and run over somebody, and kill him---he's excused. And to me it's premeditated murder.
Let some guy celebrate, and get out and fire a pistol two or three times in the air, and they'll send him so far back in the jail he'd canker before they got him out. What is it? There you are. There's your systems of the world. There's no justice in it.
This man talking about the United States government... Sure, every government in the world's controlled by the devil, every system, every... Jesus said so.
Satan admitted, "These are all mine. I do with them whatever I want to."
Where are we at then, today? Look where we're standing.
Now what must I say in closing this, friend?
Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
91 You see, the political world's falling apart. We're going right back to Rome here in the United States, just as fast as we can go. The Bible said we would do it (Revelation 13), and there we are. What did it do? They had to have a big bunch of organizations go into Revelation 17, the old mother whore and all of her daughters. There she goes, right back---every denomination right with her. There they are.
They got a pharaoh raised up that knows not Joseph, and here we go---the whole thing. Even our Pentecostal leaders, leading everybody right into that big glamour of Hollywood, and taking the people in with a big swallow of a... Oh, it's a...
God help this nation. God help this people.
Exodus 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
92 Sometimes it would make a fellow feel like getting in the street and screaming. But I know the Bible says that "No man can come except my Father draws him." I know that these things have got to be happening these days.
I see the light, the light of God spread forth. I see the false out yonder, and all the glow---or the glamour and glow together. And what must I do?
Lord Jesus, help me be true till You come. Let me stand, O God. Let me take my stand, and stay here, Lord, just move as You move me.
What can I say to those people who really believe God? I painted an awful picture. I got at least twenty pages here, but it's too late. I've just a little context that I wrote down to a text. What must I say this morning? What must I leave you here? Where are you at?
93 I've condemned your organizations---not condemned you. I condemn the system that's got you into the place you are. I'm not condemning you, my minister brothers. You get the wrong impression of me. I'm trying to help you. What if I seen you on a boat going down the river yonder towards the falls, and I knowed that boat can't shoot those falls? and I'm screaming to you "Get out of there!" It's not because I don't like you; it's because I do love you. That system that you lean on ... go to hell where it come out of.
94 Was talking to an old man the other day. A little boy come into the store, there in Tucson where I went in to buy some Special K for breakfast. And there was a little boy standing buying cigarettes. Said, "Who's these for, your mother?"
Said, "No." Said, "That boy sitting there."
Said, "Is he old enough?"
He said, "Yes."
I said to the grocery man, I said, "He never gets old enough," see.
But you ... the people begin to think that's all right. Smoking's popularity. And the churches are practicing a ... just a ... drinking conservative, just modern drinking. Oh, for goodness sakes! Where do you ... where do you get that stuff? It's out of a system---not from God's Word. He that even gives his neighbor a strong drink... See? Sure it is. It's the ruin and rake of our nation: Hollywood glamour. And there's where we've got to, in such a mess as that. Here we are in that kind of a shape.
Habakkuk 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
95 This old man said to me, he said, "Well," said, "I feel sorry for them." Said, "It's kind of hard for us to quit. Is it hard ... wouldn't it be hard for you to quit?"
I said, "I never started."
He said, "Oh, you don't smoke." Said, "I admire you, fellow." He was about seventy years old.
I said, "Thank you."
He said, "Like whiskey, the same way."
And I said, "I don't drink."
He said, "Well, I admire that." Said, "I think if a man wants to come home and drink a glass of beer," said, "it's all right. But when you take these women, and they're out there on the streets, and carrying on drunk and running around... Their husband gets to work, and then they get the car, and out and gone."
I said, "They oughtn't never let a woman behind a wheel." Boy, if I was there she wouldn't do it, if I had anything to say about it.
96 They say the women's the most safest drivers. I'm an international traveler. Me and my son, crossing this nation, put a book up in the car. And every time a boo-boo was called, pulled on the road, we marked it down "man" or "woman." And out of 300, there were 281 of them caused by women---nineteen of them by men. That's exactly.
Yet she's sitting there, push her hair up, and she'd turn out like this, and make a left slide, and everything else. But, oh, of course the police ain't going to say that. They got them on the police force. What a disgrace!
97 When a woman gets from behind the table in the kitchen, and the house taken care of, her own little ministry (God give her her babies), she's out of the will of God.
Put her in a pulpit, she's out of the will of God. There's no scripture for a woman preacher. I want some man to stand and tell me that, look me in the face. There's no such a thing. That ... Pentecost is the grassroots of that stuff. Never was. Adam was first formed, and then Eve. Adam was not deceived. But yet you do it, and you see where you got yourself? Way out here on a limb that you can't come back on now. But there you go. That's it. That's the world. That's what you want. That's what you ... that's what you got, see.
1 Timothy 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
98 But to those who look for a kingdom whose builder and maker of God, we receive a kingdom. We're not looking for a denomination. We're not look... No, those who love God, we're not looking for some denominational genius. We're not looking for some great, big mathematician can stand up here, and tell us how to make more numbers, and so forth; and go out in the streets and work yourself to death to bring in members. What you got? You're bringing more pigs to the pen. That's all. And what you getting when you get there? Slop. Exactly. God borns them into a kingdom above. That's exactly right.
Hebrews 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
99 Some boy giving Billy Graham (I guess you read it in the "Post") a raking about what he had done (Bob Jones), saying Billy Graham... Bob Jones's has got a lot to holler about, hasn't he? Right. Billy Graham's done more for the kingdom of God in these few years he's been on the field, than Bob Jones could do if he stayed here a million years longer. That's right. But what does he say? "Billy Graham just only gets out and says, well, he ain't got no denomination to take them to." God bless the man for that. Yes, sir.
What do you do? You bring him in, and make him a two-fold child more of hell than he was when you picked him up on the street. The disciples never took them to any denomination. They got them filled with the Holy Spirit, and into the kingdom of God. And there the Holy Spirit taken over. Yes, sir.
Now. But they said he done an indebtment to the church by not taking the ... let them all go into organization. Guess they're all supposed to belong to Bob Jones' college, see. Then they was really out of their line. Now when all these here called ... so-called fundamentalists, and all this stuff there---it's nonsense.
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
100 What are we looking for, friends? What are we? The real church is looking not for a denomination, not looking for a president, not looking for a genius to rise up. But they're looking for a kingdom, and a King to come. What is the kingdom? It's on earth now. It's a spirit---mystical body of Christ. In there they've come out of Presbyterian, Methodists, Pentecostals, and everything. They're in this kingdom. They're born in there. They come in there by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they're in this kingdom. And we're looking for a King to come to this kingdom, that'll set his kingdom up here on the earth. On his throne, the throne of David, He shall rule and reign forever. That's what the church looks for.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
101 And the good thing about it, friends, is think of this: before we get to this kingdom, before this King comes, now we can sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus---lifted up above all the shadows of all the corruption of the world, and all their television programs, and all these other nonsenses they got on the earth today; and all the rotten pollution and systems and everything---be lifted up in heavenly places. And the Holy Spirit, Himself, come upon us and speak out, and call to us our sins, and tell us how to get straightened up---and what we've done in life, and what we're doing. It's the Holy Spirit---Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's the King that shall come to his kingdom some day, and his kingdom is now being established in the hearts of his people here on earth.
Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
102 God bless you.
If I never ... you might not like me after this, see. You might not like me, but some day you're going to realize that that's the truth. Now, God bless you. I ain't going to keep you no longer, but I want you to remember this. We are looking for a kingdom, and we do receive now a kingdom that cannot be moved. We receive something into our hearts that there's not ... no devils in hell can shake it out. There's nothing.
103 This old man over there the other day said, "Well," he said, "I tell you." He said, "Here's what it is, sir." (I told him I was a minister, the reason I didn't smoke and drink, and so forth.) He said, "Well, I admire that." He said, "That's right." Said, "When I was on the police force---everything," said, "but juvenile delinquency. That's all we got today."
I said, "Sir, I don't want to disagree with you. But," I said, "it's not juvenile delinquency. It's parent delinquency. The parents is the delinquents." That's right---letting their kids do like that. They need a... What did you do? You put a "True Story" magazine on your table instead of the Bible; instead of prayer meetings you had to run out somewhere, and do something else. That's what's the matter with the world today. That's what's the matter with our called Christians---dancing, parties, and social drinking, and, oh, everything, see. It's parent delinquency, not child delinquency. The parent is delinquent---that's the one.
Notice.
104 I said, "What happened, sir?" I said, "You standing here, we're two men never met before in life. You're [he said he was seventy-something years old, just doing that on the side] ..." I said, "I'm a minister." And I said, "You represent the civil laws of the land. I represent the moral laws of the land." And I said, "Now, if somebody broke your civil laws, what happened? You put him in jail, didn't you? You sent them right to jail if they broke the civil laws."
He said, "That's right."
I said, "They break these laws, they go to hell." I said, "A just judge who ... God upon his Word... Them cases are based upon the laws of the nation. And when they been found transgressed, then there's nothing but penalty to pay. And any law that hasn't got a penalty to it is not a law. Right." And I said, "To transgress God's law, his Word, is eternal separation from his presence." I said, "Now you see where we're at."
He said, "The Lord bless you. Where do you preach at?"
And I said, "Just anywhere I can get an open door."
There you are, see. Just an old man of that age, see, and just seeing it at that time. Transgress the laws of God, which is his Word, and you're hell-bound. That's all there is to it. Serve God.
Now,
105 we come into this kingdom by Holy Spirit baptism. And when we come in there... Not a make-believe. Some ... now I don't ... now you...
Don't get this in your mind now. I... "Brother Branham don't believe that you speak with tongues." I do believe you speak with tongues. But just look at them that speak with tongues and hasn't got it. Look at the ... look the way they act, and the way they do. You can tell they haven't got it.
Look at the churches today, say, "We're the church." Every one of them, "We're the church." There's only one church, and that's the mystical body of Christ. When you become in there you're baptized in there by the Holy Spirit, and it changes your whole being.
106 Not long ago ... I say this just in regards to something come in my mind. Wife and I last summer... I'd come home off one of the meetings and we went to get groceries. We found a woman wearing a skirt. It was a strange thing in our country. They're all naked. So then, we seen that woman, and she ... we even recognized some of them women to belong, and sing in choirs, in churches there.
And she said, my wife said, "Billy, what makes them women...?" Said, "Why do they do that?" Said, "Our people..." Said, "Wonder why?"
I said, "We're not that. We don't belong to that kingdom."
And she said, "Well..."
I said, "They're not our kind of people."
And she said, "What do you mean?" Said, "Aren't we Americans?"
I said, "Oh, no. No, sir." I said, "I go to Germany, I find a German spirit, a national spirit. I go to Sweden, I find a Swedish spirit. I go to India, I find a national spirit. You come to America, you find Ricky---that kind of a spirit, all know-it-all.
107 Watch them when they come to the other country. It makes you sick to even think you are an American, the way they act. That's right. It's the nastiest acting people---the most impudent, independent, educated idiots. That's right. And all the world knows it.
No wonder we're trying to buy our friendship with our dollars. You don't buy friendship. Now there's a ... they... Our nation is rotten to the roots. That's right. There's no hope for it. It's all gone. There's only one thing to look for: the coming of the Lord. Right.
She said, "Well, aren't we Americans?"
I said, "No. We live here. We live here. There's not..." I said, "Why, you see those people are Americans. They have the American spirit. They do like Hollywood, which governs America---her dressing, her fashion, her goddess, and so forth. That's just exactly what they do." Now, I said, "They are Americans. We are from above. The women in our church, they don't do that. They live holy, clean."
108 You take a woman that wears them kind of clothes, and gets out on the street, I don't care how moral you try to live, at the end of the age you're going to be called an adulteress. If any man looks upon you to lust after you, and you've presented the proposition to him, you're guilty of committing adultery. Jesus said so. You might be as clean to your husband, or boyfriend, as you could be. But if you dress like that, and some sinner looks upon you, he's got to answer for it the day of judgment---and you presented yourself.
Clean up, women! Get back to God. That's ... I don't care what they say about you, go back to God! Women used to be put upon a pedestal. She was the backbone of the nation. And now, where's she at? She brought it upon herself. She's regarded... They don't even take off their hats to talk to them, or nothing else. It's just that condition. Why did they do it? Brought it to theirself.
Where did it start? Some Ricky behind the pulpit with some kind of a seminary experience, a puppet to some organization---instead of a man of God to take that Word, and tear them to pieces with it. That's right. That's what we got in the church.
109 God be merciful!
Let's go to this kingdom. Let's go to where we can find ... and we live after that kingdom. Then your thoughts are holy, your things, or thoughts are above, where your inheritance lives. Let us bow our heads.
Solemnly I ask you this question. Some of you may not even return tonight. This may be my last time I've ever seen you on earth. Jesus may come before night. There may be a destruction before night. It can happen, you know, at any time---of that secret coming of the church.
You say, "Brother Branham, awhile ago and you said the church could go, and we wouldn't know?"
Oh, yes. The Bible says it. No, they won't know nothing about it. It's a secret coming. He comes in a secret, and steals away his church, takes her away. Like a book I read one time, of Romeo and Juliet, see. He comes to get her, nobody know nothing about it.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
110 The world ... say, well, two or three out of this... Say, well, somebody come up missing last night---and way across the country, two or three more. That's what He said would happen.
"Oh, they went out somewhere."
"They ... some girl made a mistake, she ran out."
"Some man, he ran out with somebody else's wife." They've been raptured. They don't know nothing about it. Hundreds of them go every day, and they know nothing about it.
Before that time happens, why don't you get right with God? I've got to meet you at the judgment. I love you. I don't scold the Pentecostal people because... I never come among you to be an indebtment to you. I come because God sent me. I come in the name of the Lord Jesus. Have I ever told you anything wrong? Has any of your leaders ever raised up to try to tell me I was wrong? I've asked them to prove it. They know better than that. All right.
Now you ... many of you've been in the meetings. You know ... I wouldn't have said this this morning, unless I knowed this city needed it. It's altogether give over to everything---filth and gaum. You need Christ.
111 Would you like to receive a real kingdom of God, where your whole being is changed? You're transformed, and you're made a new creature. A whole bloom of life, of eternal life, is in you. The things of the world is dead. I'm not going to ask you to come to any altar. I'm going to ask you for your sincerity. If you really desire, and want me to pray as I close the service, raise up your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham." God bless you. Fine. About ninety percent.
112 Our heavenly Father, as I looked down just before I closed my eyes, Lord, and seen this publication here, this ad in the paper---the story of Tony Fontaine---blonds, gimmicks, dancing upon the platform, music, immoral dressed women, men... As Jesus said, "What did you go out to see, when you went to see John? A man of soft raiments [turned around collars, and so forth]? No." Said, "They're in kings' palaces. Did you go to see a reed shaken with the wind? [Anybody that would want ... an organization offering something a little better than the other, and you'd go to it.]" Not John. He wasn't a reed shaken with wind. He never compromised on anything. Said, "What did you go to see then? A prophet?" Said, "I say to you, more than a prophet."
Matthew 11:7 And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Matthew 11:8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
Matthew 11:9 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
Matthew 11:10 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Luke 7:24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Luke 7:25 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.
Luke 7:26 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
113 O Father God, we realize that there's no hopes left for the church organization. It's gone, Lord. It was against your will in the beginning. There's no hope for the nation. It's gone.
We've done seen this nation's just a perfect pattern of Israel: how when Israel come into their homeland and drove out the occupants, as we come in and drove out the American Indian; and how they had great men in those days---David, Solomon, Joshua. And so did we come in and drive out the natives; and set up our land, our economy upon freedom of religion, when we'd been bound with dogmas and things. We had great men---a Washington, a Lincoln.
But finally, as the years went by, they finally elected in an Ahab that had a painted-up Jezebel who set the fashions of the world. So have we done the very same thing. And now, we see the same thing take place. In that day you had an Elijah to stand, and condemn it. Oh, how they hated him, but he stood. His voice will still be standing at the day of the judgment.
Father, send to us an Elijah. Send to us a voice of the Bible, the voice of God, and a-vindicate it, and prove that you're God, that you do the same yesterday, today, and forever---that the people would know. Without any hesitation they see that it's the truth. And may people... Like the little woman at the well, had been mixed up in all kinds of stuff, but when that light flashed across her little path that she was walking on, she seen something. She was never the same anymore. She came to a fountain that she had never visited before.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
114 Grant, Lord, today, that many today will see that there is a fountain opened, and the Word of God is still in effect to every one that will believe and receive it. Many hands went up, Lord Jesus. They're desperately in need. I believe they meant it. I hardly can think that people who are trying, and has come into this Pentecostal move because that they've come out of these fashions and things, and seen there wasn't nothing to them... And they come right into here to find themselves in the same kind of conglomeration of Hollywood, same kind of an educational program---big shots, as we'd call it on earth, Lord. Oh, how... God, help them, will You, Father?
115 And I believe that they couldn't raise their hand unless there was something there to make them raise their hands. There's a Spirit around them, these men and women---ninety percent of them perhaps, Lord---that they realize that there's something wrong, and they don't want it that way. And now according to science, they could not raise that hand. Gravitation'll hold that hand down.
But they can defy science, because they're human beings and they have a spirit that can command that hand to come up, and it'll come up.
116 God, you so endowed man with ... on free moral agency to make his own decisions.
And now there's a Spirit standing by the side of them that tells them that the very spirit that they've been worshipping around's been wrong, and they want a decision. And the Spirit that's around them---the Holy Spirit---makes them raise their hands and say, "Give me God." Lord, you know their hearts.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will come rushing in like a dam broke forth somewhere, and the rushing stored up; anticipations of the Holy Ghost will set their souls alive with real fire of love of God, burning there for dying humanity. Not for organization, but for dying humanity; not for politics, as they see the organizational world falling apart. They see the political world falling apart, and the U.N. a great big rubber balloon that's pushed around by every wind of political doctrine---shoved one way and another way.
And, O God, they see this council of churches, as they so call it, they see it's moving them right into a trap, Lord, like a spider weaving a web.
117 God, may Pentecost wake up quickly, Lord, while it's time they can wake up. Wake up this little city here, Lord. Wake up these women that are sitting here; wake up these men. Don't let it pass by, Lord, like the Catholic church woke up after St. Patrick; like the Jewish church woke up after Elijah, then garnished his tomb; like the Catholic church woke up after Joan of Arc. They don't know it while it's going on; but after it's gone, then they realize. Like the church woke up after Jesus was crucified. Too late then---they'd done done it.
O God, wake up Pentecost. I love them, Lord. They are the people ... they help feed my children. Lord God, let them know that the message of God don't have to come out of their organizational ranks. You raise what You want to. You're God. Shake their souls this morning, Father, and bring them back to a realization that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and we're now sitting in his presence in heavenly places, being lifted up by the Word.
They're yours, Lord. Do with them as you see fit. I present them to You as trophies of the message, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
118 I love Him. Do you love Him? If our sister will give us a chord, "I love Him, I love Him." Are you angry with me? If you are, come here and shake my hand, and let's pray, see. I've told you the truth, the dying truth of the gospel. Some day you may realize that. Don't let it be too late. Can we stand, just a moment?
I love Him (if you do, then raise
up your hands), I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now, Methodist, reach over to the Baptist; Oneness, reach over to the Trinity; and Church of God, reach over to the Assemblies. Each one of us while we sing this, say with sincerity, "I love you, brother, sister. I'll pray for you. You're my brother and sister." Let's do it again now.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now Assembly of God, come look at this afterward and then repent. Pray for your organization or get out of such a rut as that. The Assembly of God has some real godly men in there. I know them. The Oneness has real godly men among them. That's right. The Church of God has real godly men. The Baptist, the Methodist, they have godly men. But it's the systems that keeps them like that, puppets to the system.
I love Him (Let's raise our hands now to Him we love. I ... all your heart now) I love Him...