And when their eyes were opened, they knew Him

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 ...out of St. Luke's gospel, beginning with the 24th chapter and the 13th verse:
And, behold, two of them went the same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlong.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad?
And ... one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass ... in these days?
And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
And how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.
Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said ... he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even ... as the women had said: but him they saw not.
Then said he unto them, O fools, ... slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them ... all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
And they drew nigh unto the village, where they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
And they said one to the other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us by the way, and while he opened unto us the Scripture?

2 Let us bow our heads now in prayer. Most holy God, we approach Thee in the name of Jesus, thy Son. And we believe that we are in the presence of You now, as by faith we come to Your great altar where His blood is, there speaking for us in our behalf. And we are, indeed, a needy people, Lord. We're needy of Thee, and we're asking for thy grace. And as we see the prophecies fulfilled today, that the church ... of how we have become rich in the things of the world, and think we have need of nothing. And He said we were naked, blind, miserable, and blind, and didn't know it.
And, Father, we ask for grace then, that you'll open our eyes to the understanding of thy Word, that we might understand the hour we're living, that we might prepare ourselves for His appearing, as we truly believe it's at hand.
So now, we would ask that You would give to us tonight the desires of our heart according to Your riches in glory, forgiving our sins, Lord. We pray that You'll not look at our misunderstandings, and our ignorance concerning the things that we should know---that You'll forgive us for that. And remember us as just human beings, Father. We're subject to all kinds of mistakes and troubles. Thou art the infinite, infallible, everlasting God. We pray that You'll be merciful to us and grant unto us the blessings that we ask for, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Be seated.

3 Now we are grateful again tonight for the opportunity to be here in this auditorium, and to have this grand time to fellowship again around the things of God. I'm sorry to have kept you last night, against my promise that I told you we would be out each evening between nine and nine-thirty. And I missed it last evening, and I'm sorry I did that. Now tonight, I'll try to redeem that with you, because I know many of you work, and you have to go to work. And you people ... you women have to get your husbands off to work, and so forth. And many of you work, and it's hard.
And I think that today we've had much preaching. Many fine ministers, able ministers, has brought us the Word---your pastors and evangelists, and so forth, that comes to the city. But I think the main thing that I'm trying to try to bring to you, is the reality of the presence of Christ, that you might see Him, and know that it's Him by His identified promise for the day.

4 Now, last evening we tried to give a little outline. And tonight we've got another little outline, and maybe tomorrow night. Then, the Lord willing, Saturday night ('cause you won't have to get up so early Sunday morning) I want to try to bring the message in a way that it would be more understanding to the pastors, and those who ... to lay it back in the Scriptures.
And then Sunday afternoon we want to have a prayer line, and pray for the sick by laying the hands upon the sick, and praying for them in that manner. We found that successfully, those who cannot reach up by faith and just believe Him and accept it. My way of thinking it, that it would be better if we could just raise up, and accept it.

5 Here... In South Africa, when I was in a meeting there at Durban, where some nearly 200,000 people, I guess, had gathered at the Durban race track, there was, we bring... We only had five people on the platform. And when the fifth person was healed at the platform, and it was asked---the natives out there, where they were just laying...
Oh, my! Well, that's one of the biggest race tracks in the world. It's lots bigger than Churchill Downs at Louisville. And the English all go there for their winter sports of racing. And we had the race track, and it was packed all the way full and all the way across the track, and I was over on the other side in a building. Sidney Smith, the Mayor of Durban, had taken me out there that day to the race course.

6 And I saw, with one congregational prayer, after those natives (some of them didn't know which was right and left hand), and I saw them, after they'd seen and I explained... I had fifteen different interpreters. When you say one sentence, you have to wait till fifteen different men say it, and you know how difficult that was for the tribes. And then, after that was over and explained to them in a little manner of what Jesus was, I said, "Many of you here are tagged as Christians. Still packing a idol in your hand, though." And I asked one...
I said to Mr. Smith, I said, "What's that native packing that idol for? As you said, that was a Christian tag."

7 He said, "It is." Said, "He's a Zulu, and I can speak his language. Just ask him." And so he just did it for my benefit.
So we pulled up close to him, and I called him Thomas. He said just to say anything, 'cause he was kind of a doubter. And I said, "Thomas, are you a Christian?" Yes, he believed in it. And I said, "Well, what you got that idol in your hand for?" Well, it was god, too, and his father packed this idol. And when the lion got after him (he had it sprinkled with blood), and he built up a little fire and to say the prayer the witch doctor told him, and it scared the lion away.
"Well," I said, "I am... (The word "yacta," yacta means a hunter. "Leo, leo yacta," that's hunting lions.) I said, "I'm a lion hunter. And it was not the prayer that scared the lion away; it was the fire. The lion is afraid of fire."
He said, well, he believed "amoyah." Amoyah means it's "an unseen force," like God, or like the wind, see. Amoyah's something... He believed amoyah, but if amoyah failed, this wouldn't, see. Now, that was the strength of Christianity to him.
And I told him, I said, "Now, you see, whatever the missionary told you about Christ is right, see. But," I said, "there is ... see, he never told you all. He tried to tell you that his great powers had ceased when He died back there at the cross, and we don't no more have that. He's mistaken there. He's alive, and right among us, see, just the same as He ever was."

8 And when they seen that proved, just like you did last evening, they estimated 25,000 healed at one time. Think of that! And the next day Mr. Smith called me, and he said, "Brother Branham, go to your window that looks out toward the Indian Ocean in your hotel room." And there come seven great big English vans! Oh, my! We haven't got a truck could hold one third of what they would hold---just piled full of crutches, and carriers, that they had carried their loved ones out of the jungles, piled in there. They was on it the day before. And here they are walking behind these trucks, thousands of them with their hands up, singing "All things are possible. Only believe."
Now, if a heathen, a man that don't know which is right or left hand, a man that's in that condition, can just see that happen one time, and one time read the Scripture and explain it to him---what ought we, who claim to be Spirit-filled people, what ought we to do, see?

9 But the thing of it is, we've been so indoctrinated till everyone gives his own opinion, and well, it's just difference from the people you're meeting.
You know, the "heathen" don't altogether mean that they have to be illiterate. There's educated heathens, you know, and they're the worst of all. That's right. When you go to fool with the... I'll tell you, I've traveled the world, been several times around the world. But you know where the heathenism is worse than ever? USA, right here. Here is the field for the missionary. That's right. Let some of them people come over that don't know right from left hand, and teach these people what God is!
They got so much intellectuals, till they've lost the whole sight of the whole thing. Yes. They try to explain it, and try to work it out, and try to figure it out. The native don't try to figure out nothing. He just simply believes. And that's what you have to do. To get right with God is just believe. You can't figure God out.

10 What if Moses, when he seen that bush not burning up... Now, Moses was a chemist, and Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. But when he saw that bush, it was strange. Why, he never said, "I believe I'll go over. When the fire goes out I'll take the leaves off that bush, and take it down to the laboratory, and find out what it's sprayed with," see, to see why that bush was burning, and it didn't burn up. That would've been the scientific approach. But what did he do? He took off his shoes, and sat down, and talked to it. God talked back to him, see. When you humble yourself...
Humble yourself.

11 What if Martha would've said, when she heard Jesus ... after she sent to come pray for ... Lazarus had been dead four days. What if she'd have went out, said, "I thought we was believing something." She had a right to upbraid him, you know, because He had failed to come when they called. But you see, she had the right approach.
She went to Him and said, "Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. And even now, whatever you ask God, God'll give it to you." Oh, that's it! That's the idea. See, she had the right approach.
Look at that faith, when it struck Jesus. He said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
She said, "Yes, Lord, in the last days, at the general resurrection, He'll rise. He was a good boy."
He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
She said, "Yea, Lord. I believe that you are that Messiah, the Son of God that was to come into the world."
Oh, my! "Where have you buried him?"

12 I was talking to a woman not long ago. I've quoted this---it'll stand it again. It's the people who claim to believe that divine healing is psychic healing, mental healing, believe mind over matter. And they don't believe that Jesus was divine. And they said that He was a good man, but He was a teacher and a philosopher, but He couldn't be divine.
I said, "If He wasn't divine, He was the greatest deceiver the world ever had. That's right. You can't make nothing out of it but being divine."
She said, "If I prove to you by your own Bible that he wasn't divine, will you accept it?"
I said, "You can't prove it by the Bible I know."
She said, "Well, I'll show you."
I said, "All right."
She said, "In St. John, the 11th chapter, said the Bible said, 'When Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus, he wept.'"
I said, "Sure."
She said, "Well how can he weep, being divine?"
I said, "Well, you just fail to see what He was."
"When He went to the grave weeping, He was a man; but when He pulled those shoulders together, and said, 'Lazarus, come forth,' and a man that'd been dead four days come up out of the grave, that was more than a man. That was God in a man."
That's right.

13 He was a man, when He come down off the mountain and was hungry, and looked for food on a tree. He cursed the tree because it had no food.
He was a man when He was hungry; but when He took five biscuits and two fish, and fed five thousand, taking up seven basketfuls, that was more than a man. That was God in a man. And God only represents Himself in man. He chose man.
When He was laying out there on that boat that night, where virtue went out from Him all day, preaching, and people pulling at Him, and Him discerning, and so forth, and the storm upon the sea ... I guess ten thousand devils swore they'd drown Him that night, when He was laying back there asleep on the back of the boat, and flopping around like a bottle-stopper out there on the mighty sea somewhere. He was a man when He was tired, laying there sleeping. That's right. But when He was once aroused, put His foot on the brail of the boat, looked up and said "Peace be still," that was more than a man; that was God in a man.

14 He was a man when He died on the cross crying for mercy. He was a man; but when He broke the seals of death, hell, and the grave, rose up on the third day, He proved He was more than a man. He was God in a man.
No wonder every man that's ever amounted to anything believed that. All poets and everything that's ever amounted to anything believes that. That's right. He was more than a man; He was God. Now, God in His own Son built a body that He lived in, tabernacled, changed His strength.
Just think, Jehovah laying in a manger over a manure pile in a barn, crying like a little baby; those little baby hands, little Jehovah, coming down, [unclear word] Himself in that form.
Look at the Jehovah out playing as a teenage boy. Look at Jehovah building in a carpenter shop, Jehovah hanging on the cross. Then when He rose up, He proved He was Jehovah (that's right), God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. He was more than a philosopher, He was more than a prophet. He was Emmanuel.

15 Now, tonight, we're going to approach a subject here, where we just read the Scriptures, and we're going to take this for a text, "And When Their Eyes Were Opened, They Knew Him." Now, our scene starts off at a beautiful time, or setting. It's about this time of year. It was at Easter. And it was the first fine Easter, and Jesus was back from the dead, in the springtime of Easter, living among the people again. And many who loved Him didn't know it.
And that's the same as it is today. There's many people that love Him that really can't believe that He is with us now. They just can't seem to comprehend that. They just ... many of them in that day who'd walked and talked with Him, could not comprehend that He was back from the dead; though they'd had witnesses and been to the tomb, and so forth, and knew that He was up from the dead. But still they just couldn't believe it. Why? I wonder why?
See, that's quite unusual, see. They ... it's too unusual. And it's usually in the unusual things that God is in. It's the unusual things that makes Him God, see. That's what makes Him what He is, is the things He does so unusual.

16 Now, it was unusual, when Joseph before the birth, when he found Mary---his lovely little sweetheart that he was engaged to to be married---he found her ... she was to be mother without being married. So, she no doubt had told him of the visit of Gabriel, the angel. And Joseph was a just man. He was a good man. And he was ... he wanted to believe her. I could imagine that he loved her with all his heart, seeing that young Hebrew maid, and looked into her eyes.
And when she'd say, "Joseph, dear, the great angel Gabriel visited me, and he said I would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and the holy thing that would be born in me, would be from me, would be called the Son of God."
Now, he wanted to believe that. But there had never been anything happen like that, so it was too unusual. And look, there was a just man, a good man. And the Scripture claiming that it would---a virgin would conceive---and he didn't understand it. See, the Scripture that said that Christ would be born that way---still Joseph couldn't understand it because it was too unusual.

17 Now, in them days they had no prophets. A man was ... they hadn't had prophets for hundreds of years. And so God dealt with him in a dream. A dream is a secondarily way. The right way is always through the Word first. Now, God has a way of proving whether His Word is right or not, or whether any... In the Old Testament Aaron had the twelve stones, the birth stones, on his breastplate here, and they hung it on the post in the temple.
If a prophet prophesied, or a dreamer told a dream, they'd take them down to this, what is called (as the ministers would know it) the Urim Thummim. And so this ... when this dreamer told his dream, or the prophet told his prophecy, and supernatural lights didn't flash over that to make the Urim Thummim, then I don't care how real it sounds, it was wrong. The Urim Thummim had to witness it was right. Well, that's how the Aaronic priesthood was done away with, in the old Urim Thummim.
But God still has a Urim Thummim, and that's the Word. If a prophet prophesies, or a dreamer dreams a dream, and it's contrary to that Word, I don't care how real it sounds, forget it. That's God's Urim Thummim. That's it. And then, it has to answer back to be true. That's God interpreting His own Word.

18 So God had no prophets in the land in that day, so God spoke to Joseph in the secondarily way---showing that if there isn't anything present that should bring it forth, God can work through anything, anything that He's promised. See, He could work a dream. If there was no prophet, then He could work a dream. So, no matter what our little gifts are, God can speak to us in any way He wants to; but it has to be with the Word, see. It has to be according to the Word.
Now, we find out that his dream was according to the Word, because Isaiah said, "A virgin shall conceive." And it was ... his dream was according to the Word, and this was the one that had conceived. And then, when the Spirit of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, appeared to him in this dream and said, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost," well, that settled it then.
He was a just man. He wanted to believe it. He wanted to believe it, but it was so unusual to him. And if a man wants to believe anything, and the truth is before him, God will make some way to vindicate that the truth is the truth. God's obligated to do it, 'cause that's what He's saved him for, is those who are ordained to life.

19 Now, we find that that unusual thing was a thing that they couldn't get. And this resurrection was unusual. They ... and yet if they would have noticed it, it was His promised Word. He had told them. Said, "The Son of man goes up to Jerusalem, and He'll suffer many things of the Gentiles, be delivered into their hands, and be crucified, be buried, and will rise the third day," see. He said also, "As Jonah laid in the belly of the whale three days and nights, so must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth, three days and nights."
David, one of their prophets, prophesied, said, "I'll not leave his soul in hell. Neither will I suffer my Holy One to see corruption," see. And all the prophets spoke of Him.
And it looked like that these disciples that ... looked like they would have recognized it, and should have knowed this. But you see, it was withheld from them---and the promised Word to them, and yet they couldn't recognize it. See, it was fulfilled exactly what He said would happen. What the Old Testament said would happen, it was perfectly fulfilled---and yet they didn't understand it.

20 Notice. As they went now, two of them, Cleopas and his friend, was on the road to Emmaus. And it was Sunday morning. So they was on the road over there, talking, and was going along the road real sad. My, they were really let down, and something looked like it had failed. And God lets things happen like that. He does that purposely, just to test you.
Now, let me get this before you straight, so that you will understand: that every son that comes to God has got to be child-trained. He's got to be tested, every son. If you're never tested, you're not a son. And if you can't stand the chastisement of God, then you're illegitimate, and not a child of God.
You claim God's your father, you say, "Oh, I can't get well." That just shows that God's not your father, see. You would get it.
Now, notice. This testing---God tests every one of His children. All that come to Him must first be tested, tried, proved.

21 Look at Him when He was here on earth. One day He looked around. Great crowds of people was with Him. Oh, when He first started out He was real well-loved. All the churches opened their doors. "This young rabbi, why, there's no doubt but what He was a great prophet raised up among us. He's healing our sick. Why, He comes into these healing services. He does great things." That was fine.
But one day there was too many following Him. See, that was a sign to attract the attention of the people. Now a voice has to follow that sign. That was His doctrine. Notice.
But when the voice came, oh, that was different. My! They crucified Him because He made Himself equal with God. When He was healing the sick, and performing the miracles and discerning the thoughts in their heart, that was wonderful. But when He said, "I and my Father are one," oh, my! That was too much for them. They couldn't take that, see. That was too much. "He makes Himself God." So, "He tries to be equal with God." But He was. He was the Son of God.
And He said, "You call them who the Word came to [your law says that, that the Word came to the prophets], and you call them gods. Then if you could call a prophet god, how can you condemn me when I say I'm the Son of God? Search the Scriptures. They are the one that tells you what I'm supposed to do. And if I don't do according to what the Word says I'm to do, then don't believe me. But if I do the works of my Father [which is the Word], then believe the works that I do." Still they could not do it.

22 So Jesus said, one day... Now watch. He don't explain things. He just says it. Notice. He said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." Could you imagine what a fine intellectual bunch of people ---a bunch of doctors standing out there, and rabbis, well-trained and highly educated people---thought when He said that?
I can imagine the doctor looked over and said... The minister, he looks up, "Huh, huh-uh! See, that brought it out right there."
Now, He never explained that. He never explained it. He didn't have to. He didn't have to explain it.
"Why," they said, "why, He'll make us ... He wants us to be human vampires, drink human blood, and eat human flesh."
He never said how it would be done. He just said, "Except you do it..."
See,

23 and then that outside crowd, thousands said, "Uh-huh. There He is. See, I thought it would come out after awhile." See, they were looking for it to come out. And He seen that it did come out. They were parasites in the first place. So they walked with Him no more.
So He turned around and He had seventy with Him. So He said to that seventy, He said, "What will you say when you see the Son of man ascending up into heaven from whence he came?" Now, He never explained it.
They looked at one another, said, "Well, the Son of man ascending up from where he come from? Well, we know his mother, we know his brothers, his sisters. We seen the manger he was laid in when he was born. We seen the cradle he was rocked in. Why, he come from Nazareth. Coming from up there? This is a hard saying." And they didn't walk with Him no more, see.

24 Now, all the time these disciples stood right there. They didn't know it either, but they believed it. They couldn't explain it. He never explained it; but see, they were ordained to life. They couldn't explain it, but they sat there. So He turns and He said, "I've chose twelve of you, and one is a devil." He said, "Do you want to go also?"
There is where Peter made those memorial words. "Lord, we are persuaded that you have the word of life alone. Where would we go to?" That was it, see. See, He didn't explain it. He said that so that they would turn down, see. Faith don't ask. It don't reason. It searches the Scripture for it. If they'd have searched the Scripture, there it would have been proven who He was. But He shook them off like that, the same things, and never explained it.

25 And in the yards there, even when they put this rag over His
face... And some hit Him and smacked Him, and said, "If you be a prophet, tell us who hit you now, and we'll believe you."
Same thing, same old devil that was up there when He was tempted, when He first started into His ministry. He said, "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be turned to bread."
Same one as them priests and rabbis up there, said, "If you are the Christ, come down off the cross and prove it to us," see.
He could have done it. He knowed who hit Him. But He don't clown for nobody. He was the Word, and He's still the Word---always was the Word, and He remains the Word.
And looked like they could have seen that, but they didn't.

26 They were... Notice. On the road over they were... Once (when you sit here I want you pay close attention) they were talking about Him when He appeared to them.
Now that's the way He comes, is when you're talking about Him. The trouble today, we talk about so many other things besides Him. We always talk about what we got to do in some business deal, or the wash's got to be done, or this kind of detergent you ought to use, when you ought to be giving Him praise and glory. There's, "Where our treasures is, there our heart is also."
They should have recognized Him, but they never. And so is it today. Yet the Scripture said it, see.

27 He revealed to them the Scripture promises concerning Himself for that age. Remember, He began with the beginning. He said, "Oh, fools, and slow of heart... He explained to them the Scriptures. And after the Scriptures had been preached to them, yet they didn't recognize Him. If that isn't a modern congregation, I don't know.
They... The Scriptures explained to them, and still they didn't get it. They was walking around claiming to be His disciples. Still they never recognized Him, after He'd done told them the Scripture for that age, where God allotted it. He said, "Don't you know that Christ should have suffered these things, and entered into his glory, and raised again?" They should have knowed.
He said, "Know ye not all the prophets said about Christ?" And He began back there and explained the whole thing down to them, and laid it out to them, and still they never recognized Him; after laying the Scripture out, just as perfect as it could be---and then walk around it, supposed to be His disciples. "Oh, is that so? Is that so?" And yet He was that Scripture fulfilled, standing there. And still they didn't get it.

28 Now that's just a very good picture of the day we're living. I don't say that bad; I say that for the truth. That's exactly right. They still didn't recognize Him, though His promises that He had made was fulfilled, and He was declaring it to them, and standing right there in the person. And still they never recognized Him. Notice the rebuke to them for not recognizing the Scripture fulfilled, now, when they should've known. They were disciples. They were men who had done great sacrifice. They were men who loved Him. They were men who were trained by Him. And yet, after He was telling them these things, stand in the company, and saying this thing would happen, and here it had happened; and still them standing right with Him after His resurrection, and did not recognize Him.
You say, "Could we do a thing like that?" It could be possible we could do that. That's right. It could certainly be possible. After He'd promised in His Word the thing that He was going to do, and we see it come to pass just as He said, and still we walk over it. That's what they had done. And He had come right around, and told them He was going to be crucified, raise up the third day---began then to tell them all about it.

29 And they was sad, said, "You know, some of the fellows went down to the grave, and some of the women. They said He would raise up from the dead. All this ... rumors got stirred around." Said, "Are you just a stranger around here, you don't know these things?"
He said, "What things?" just like He didn't know nothing about it. See, He said that just to throw them off. And He did that purposely, just to try...
And don't you know He doesn't change His nature? He does the same thing, just to try you and see what you will do. He'll work around some way it'll be thrown before you, just to see what you say about it, your attitude, the way you take ... what you think about it. He does that purposely. Does it yet, because that's His unchanging nature.
He did it in the old times.

30 Remember Elijah? He even had a soldier to smite him, and said, "I was the sentry standing with the ... [to Ahab]. And I let the prisoner get away." He didn't do that. But He did it like that, so He could let Ahab pronounce his own judgment.
He done the same thing in the days of Noah, and He can't change His way. And God comes down in a manner, but always...
You say, "Well, how would I know what was right and wrong?" It's the promised Scripture for that hour. It's the Scripture that's promised. If they would've got out of their tradition, and got away from that tradition that they were in, and read the Scriptures like He told them to do... "Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are that that testifies of me. They tell you who I am."
And they said, "Well, now, rabbi told us this and that. We believe what the church says," see. It ain't what the church says; it's what God says---what God says, not what the denomination says, or that. You believe God. Now, that's where they failed, because they were so traditioned that they failed to recognize Him.

31 Now we find then, He said ... He rebuked them. Watch. "Fools, and slow of heart to understand all the scriptural signs, and things that took place of this age. Fools, slow of heart to understand all that the prophets has said that should take place in this day, all these signs that you see. The Bible said these signs were to take place in this day, and you see them taking place. And then are you foolish enough not to believe it?" And Him talking that straight to them, and yet they didn't recognize it! Talk about blind!
Could we do that? Might be we could, if we don't search the Scriptures to find what hour we're living in, see, what hour, what's... It's maybe later than what we think it is. Yet they claimed to be His disciples. They claimed to believe ... that they had believed every word that He had said, they believed all the Bible. And here was the Messiah, the God of the Bible, standing there in identification, identifying the very written Word. And they were supposed to be believers of that Word. And Him referring back and telling them that, "You remember what was said about this? And what was said about this? And how Jesus must do this, or, how the Christ must do this? And how He..." All these things and yet they didn't understand it. They didn't know...
What was it? They knowed the Word as far as the letter was, but they didn't understand the Word when it was literally interpreted.

32 That's what it is today. Every man's got his own interpretation---when God condemns the whole thing. God does His own interpretating. If God said He'll do a thing, He does it. That's the interpretation thereof. God interprets His own Word. There He was standing there, His own interpreter. Hallelujah! He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does His own interpretation. He doesn't need any seminary or any ministers---me, you, or no one else---to interpret Him. He promised it, and then He turns around and does it. That settles it. That interprets itself.

33 So there He stood, the great and mighty conqueror of every disease, every sickness, death, hell, grave, and rose up again---what they had believed all along, and there He stood. But they couldn't believe it. And he had referred back to Himself all the time. He said to them ... and beginning with Moses and the prophets, He expounded to them all the things that were written concerning Himself. And still they didn't get it. Just looked like that they just couldn't get it, that's all.
Same now. What's the matter today? The reason of it, we're too busy learning our creeds. We're too busy with our denominational programs. We're too busy with soup suppers, and lottery in the church. We're too busy with the ladies' aid society. We're too busy with our TV programs, and all this other nonsense. We're too busy to search the Scriptures to find out whether they're right or not.

34 If you went down to the restaurant, ordered your bowl of soup, and it had a spider in it, you'd sue the restaurant. You wouldn't put it in you for nothing, with a spider in it, 'cause you're afraid it might kill this little body.
But you'll stick anything down that soul---just anything, any kind of creed---and never look into it to see whether it's the right thing or not. "There's a way that seems right to a man." Search the Scriptures. That soul is eternal, you know. So don't ... just watch what you put in there, see, these creeds and all these things. We just got it like a lodge. Just join the lodge and that settles it.
And that's the way people think today. That's the reason they have no time to be studying and meditating, searching things, and trying to find out whether they're right or not. Let the Christ Himself interpret it. And if it comes to pass, what He said, then that's the truth. Look and see if it's for this day,

35 as I referred last night.
Moses couldn't have come with Noah's message. Neither could Jesus come with Moses' message. See, it was so ... it was 'lotted for each hour. Now, we couldn't come with Luther's message, neither with Wesley, neither with the Pentecostal message. We're plumb beyond that.
You say, "Oh, that's something you..." Well, so did the Catholic church think Luther was making it up. So did Wesley think that the ... Lutheran think that Wesley was making it up. So did the Wesleys think that the Pentecostals made it up.

36 But the thing of it is, look back in the Scriptures. It identifies every age.
If the things that He's doing now doesn't identify Him, the promises of God, then leave it alone. But if He does say it'll happen, and it happens, then believe it. It's not man; it's God talking, doing His own interpretation of His Word. "Fools, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have said about the Christ." Yet His disciples couldn't believe the written Word, because they were so busy about ... oh, well, this and that, about...
Yet they claim they believe today that He raised the third day. We speak of it, "Oh, we believe that He raised up the third day, and He's alive forever more." And let Him just do something, just like He promised to do, look what they say. "Well, it's either a bunch of holy rollers, or it's a mental telepathy, or it's some kind of a fortuneteller, or...," just as they did then. See, it's that same spirit.
Now remember, the devil takes his man, but not his spirit. The spirit was upon them men back there, religious teachers.

37 Remember, nobody could put a finger against those Pharisees. They had to live right. They'd be stoned to death if they wasn't. They were fine, fine men, highly educated teachers, scholars. And Jesus said, "You're a bunch of snakes. You do the works of your father." Why? How could a man of God ever make an interpretation to a man of that type? How could He ever say a thing like that? Because that they refused to see the identified Word made manifest.

38 Now, today we find, many times we've said, the Lutherans said, "When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have it. That's all."
The Nazarenes and Pilgrim Holiness, and the Free Methodist said, "No, you got to shout to get it."
The Pentecostal says, "You got to speak in tongues to get it."
All of it's wrong. I've seen witch doctors speak in tongues, and witches. I've seen them jump, and shout, and seen Mohammedans put splinters under their fingers, and scream louder than I ever heard Pentecostals in my life. But yet, believing is right, speaking in tongues is right, and shouting is right, and rejoicing. But that's not it yet.
Them Pharisees, some of them, said, "Well, it's the fruit of the Spirit that's right." Them Pharisees had more fruit of the Spirit, what we call fruit of the Spirit, than they could ... we could ever produce.

39 Who would you say... If I was to put Him on trial now... Say, like some young fellow come into the city, here today, and calls himself a prophet. Let's just put Him on trial for a minute. And now I'm talking to you people against Him. God forgive me for saying such a thing, but just to make a point.
Now, say this young fellow, he's around out here. He calls Himself a prophet. He comes up from Galilee. He does a lot of healing, and things. "But that don't mean anything. Look up there---we got the pool of Bethsaida. The cripples lay there. When that angel comes down and troubles the water, anybody steps in. Why would God want something else besides that?" See, they failed to recognize the Word of that day. The promise was ready to be fulfilled.

40 Now they say, "We're judging by the fruit of the Spirit. Now look. Who was that stood by... Who was it, when you were out running around as young men, he put all of his time to study the Word of Jehovah? Your godly old priest. Who was it, when papa and mama was about to separate, they put their arm around one, and one around the other, and brought them back together? Your godly old priest. Right.
"Who was it? When your father's crops failed, and you didn't have no money, you didn't have nothing to eat, who was it wrote him the check, and gave him the money to tide him over? That godly old priest. Who was it stood by your mother and daddy when you were born, when you first come in this world? That godly old priest. Who was it picked you up in the arms, and circumcised you the eighth day, and offered you a life to God? Godly old priest.

41 "And then, look. There's businessmen here in our city. Jehovah requires a lamb. These businessmen are merchandise men. They sell mercantile, so they don't have graze lands. So the priest made a way that they could clear their soul according to the Word of God. And he built little cages out there in the courts, and he brought the men who sold the lambs in there, and let these men who wants to offer a sin offering for their soul, a requirement of Jehovah...
"When they go up to buy this lamb, then what did this guy do when He got up there? He turned over the money tables, and beat them out of there, trying to keep a man from getting his soul right with God. And what did He say about that godly old priest of yours? They were a bunch of snakes, and of the devil." Talk about fruit of the Spirit: they had Him beat by a long ways.

42 But what is the evidence of a believer? That one will believe the identified Word of the hour. It's always been that way. The people get it scrupled up in all kinds of traditions, and religions, and denominations, and educations, and so forth. But God comes along with His Word, and confirms it for the hour. That's the evidence. Look upon Him and see. He said, "If I don't do the works of my Father, believe me not. Search the Scriptures; in them ye think you've got eternal life. They testify who I am. If I don't do what the Scripture says that I shall do, then don't believe me," see.
And still they didn't know Him, after walking with Him, and here identifying Himself back after the resurrection, and showing that it was Him by the Scriptures.

43 Still, you know today, after that Jesus has raised from the dead, and has appeared to the people in the last days... When they said, years ago---when the Pentecostal group first started---there was no such a thing as that... It's the fastest growing church in the world, the Pentecostal. It's the message they've had now for fifty years. They said it couldn't be done; but it was done anyhow. They said there was no such a thing as the Holy Ghost; the people went on receiving it just the same. God proved that He'd pour out His Spirit. How you going to stop it, when He promised He'd do it?
They said, "Nobody will believe it"; but they did believe it. God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham that'll believe his Word.

44 They went right on, till they become the mightiest church there is in the land.
Our Sunday "Visitor," the Catholic "Visitor," said not long ago that the Pentecostal church is the fastest growing church of all the organizations. Said their church witnessed a million conversions in last year; and the Pentecostals had 1,500,000 last year, and that don't include mine, Roberts, and them other meetings like that. See, it's just those who were brought in as membership. Some of them we don't know where they go to, in these evangelistic meetings. But they were averaging 1,500,000 converts in a year, witness for the Catholic church. See, they said it couldn't be done, and now the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists are seeking for it.
And the Pentecostals are blind enough not to see the hour. Don't you know that's the seventh watch, when the sleeping virgins said, "Come, give us some of your oil?" And when He... They said, "We just got enough for ourself." And while they were trying to buy, the bridegroom come, and they went in. There we are, see.

45 "And fools," could He say again, "slow of heart to believe all the Scriptures says about this day"? To believe that this Laodicea church age, that He's put outside the church, because we're rich, have need of nothing... Why, we're one of the richest organizations in the world, the Pentecostal move. Oh, my! We used to meet down in the alley. But brother, she's out in the front street now---the best churches, and best seminaries. We're building one ... fifty million dollar one right here now, see---and all kinds of great things, rich.

46 But, then you forget the promise. You start towards tradition. And that's the reason, when it comes to identifying Himself, the people's so cold and numb with their education, and philosophy and things, they've turned the commandments of God into a tradition. We stand and speak to them, and it just ... it don't go at all. It returns.
Now, if it come very highly polished, as some great bishop, or somebody bringing something like that, why, they would receive it. But you see, it never did come that way. If some organization would all go for it, it would be fine. But He never did do that. He never did.
If it'd have come with Caiaphas, and Caiaphas had said now, "I am the Messiah. I'm the one that's supposed to come"; now, see, they'd say, "Oh, great holy father. You are the Messiah."
But see, that don't identify the Messiah---his religious rites. That didn't make Him Messiah. It was a sign the Bible said would make Him Messiah.
That's what it is again today---not our denominations, not our creeds; but what "thus saith the Lord" is. Now notice,

47 same now. We get ourself in the same way. Still we believe creeds, denomination, and worldly education, and so forth.
Why, you know, a lot of our churches have begin to accept the idea that before a missionary can go on the field, if ... they have to have a psychic test by a psychiatrist, to see if their IQ is high enough to be a missionary. And that's contrary to the Scripture. The Bible said that Peter was a ignorant and unlearned man. He couldn't even sign his own name. But it pleased God to give him the keys to the kingdom, because he seen the Messiah, and knowed His evidence, and fell at His feet and recognized Him as the Messiah. He believed the Word. "Thou art Peter. I say unto thee, thou art Peter. And upon this rock I'll build my church." Not upon Peter, not upon Jesus, but upon his spiritual revelation of who He was.
The same thing he did Abel. Abel by faith offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain. Both boys offered, both boys prayed, both boys built an altar, both boys worshipped the same God, see. One was accepted and the other one turned down, because by revelation Abel saw it wasn't fruits or apples that brought us out of the garden of Eden. It was blood. And he offered blood, and God received it.

48 Now look at up in Moab, the great organization---same God. There come Balaam, the bishop, out. Built seven altars (just like Israel had down there), put seven clean sacrifices, bullocks, and seven rams, speaking of the coming of Christ. Fundamentally they were both right.
But look down here at this little renegade bunch of folks around---won't even pass through the ground. This prophet was afraid they'd have some kind of revival up there, so they wouldn't let them go through. On the road to the promised land, too, and he wouldn't let his brother Israel pass through. Right.
He ... what Balaam failed to see was that smitten rock, and that brass serpent, the shout of the King in the camp. They failed to see that identification of God among them. Both of them had prophets: Balaam up there; and Moses down here. But Moses was identified with the Word. That's the difference. Both great preachers, but this man was identified with the Word. He wasn't mighty of a nation as that was, but he was identified with the Word and had the evidence of it. Amen! That's a real believing crew. Christ with us, Christ in us! "A little while and the world seeth me no more. Yet ye shall see me, for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world."
Notice.

49 Now remember, quickly---they failed to see it. They didn't understand it, how that it could be. And the promised Word was for their age. He was that promise fulfilled, and yet they failed to see it, a sure sign of a true prophet. Notice what He done.
And they, now notice, they went (quickly)... He said, "You being a stranger, and don't know that Jesus of Nazareth...? A prophet indeed, mighty before God, and people. We believed and knowed He was a prophet."
Watch Him. As soon as they identified Him, He kept asking, "What were these things that went on? What taken place?"
He said, "Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty before God and man. And we believed He would be the one who would bring deliverance to Israel."

50 And as soon as they acknowledged Him as a prophet, watch. Immediately He went to the Word, a real sign of a true prophet. A real prophet goes to the Word always, because the Word of the Lord comes to the prophet, see. He goes to ... and watch what He done.
They had told Him that they believed Him to be a prophet. Now, it's behooving, becoming, a prophet to identify Himself with the Word (amen), ' cause the Word always comes to the prophet.
Old Dr. Davis is sitting here, which... I don't know whether he is or not. I think he's down here in Florida somewhere, they told me. Dr. Davis, if you're here... He's the one who ordained me in the Missionary Baptist Church. We used to argue on the Scripture. And he said that John the Baptist baptized Jesus first, or, Jesus baptized John first because John had never been baptized. And he was preaching baptism and nobody was worthy to baptize him, so Jesus baptized John, he said, when He suffered him.
Well, I couldn't get that straight in my mind how He did it. I couldn't make the Scripture... One day while we was alone, and the angel of the Lord was present, he revealed it to me, see.

51 Now look. Jesus was the Word, John was the prophet. There was two of the greatest on earth: God and His prophet. And the Word was God. And it's always becoming to the Word to come to the prophet. And John was the prophet. And here comes the Word, walking right out in the water to the prophet. The Word come to the prophet in the water. Amen! I feel religious. The Word absolutely comes to the prophet. And here He was the Word in living form, and here was the prophet standing in the water, and the Word come to the prophet.
I can see their eyes as they meet one another. John looked up, and he saw the heavens open, that dove coming down like a fire, wings coming upon Him, a voice coming from it, saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm pleased to dwell."

52 When John looked he saw that light flickering, whatever it was. First, when he was walking to the bank he said, "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." He was so perfectly concerned, real belief. He said, "There's one standing among you whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire."
He knowed he had to come in His day, because he was the forerunner of Him. He said, "There's one among you now, who you don't know. But I'll know him one of these days, when I see that sign identify him." Then Jesus walked up one day. He said, "There's the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."
Jesus walked---the Word---right out to the prophet in the water. John looked up at Him in humility. He said, "I have need to be baptized of thee. Why comest thou unto me?"

53 Watch this now, the Word and the prophet together. See, the prophet will have to know the Word, because the Word is manifested to the prophet. Now here was his prophecy fulfilled. He would introduce the Messiah. And here is the prophet and the Word together, and he said, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and why comest thou to me?"
Jesus looked him right in the face and said, "Suffer that to be so: for thus it is becoming to us [behooving, becoming to us] to fulfill all righteousness."
And when he baptized Him, look what was it? Jesus said, "As a prophet, you know that I am the sacrifice, and the sacrifice has to be washed before it's presented." Amen. Amen. The Word come to the prophet always, and He suffered him.
He said, "That's exactly right. It's becoming to us that we fulfill all righteousness. I am the sacrifice, I must be washed. It's right. You have need to be baptized [Amen!], but, suffer that to be so: for thus it's becoming to you and I that we fulfill all righteousness." Hallelujah!
Men and women, such is becoming to us as Pentecostal people with a message of God, that we fulfill all righteousness. If they'll believe upon Him, it's becoming to us that we fulfill all righteousness.

54 Notice, when a prophet ... then He went straight to the Word when they said, "Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet, mighty indeed before God and the people." Then, if He was a prophet identified, then He went right back and took the very words that they claimed He was. Don't miss this! Took what they called Him to be, took the written Word and identified Himself to be that, and still they didn't get it. They didn't understand it. Yet they called Him a prophet, and here He was a prophet, and He went straight to the Word, and took the Word and identified His own ministry.
And they said, "That was a good sermon, all right. Our hearts burned within us." But that was it. I wonder if we could do that same thing. It's written we will. That's right. So we will.
Notice. Oh, what a sign of a true prophet, always right straight to the Word, though they could not understand it. He was ... His teaching was too great. (My, oh my! Where'd that time go to? About eight minutes to time to dismiss.) Notice. (I can't understand where it happened. Forty-five minutes goes so quick!)

55 Notice. Look here. Though they could not understand, though you may not be able, but please do what they did. They invited Him to come in. They said, "Come in. The day is far spent. Come in." That's it. That's it! It's then, and then only can He make Hisself known, when you invite Him to come in.
You say, "I don't understand. I've heard it explained by the Word how that these things are supposed to happen in this day. But I can't understand it." But yet, invite Him. Say, "Come in, Lord Jesus." Why don't you do that right now, see? "Come in."
How ... notice now. After they said... He acted like He was going to go on by, and leave them. He might act that way to you. But He won't, if you'll invite Him. He said... When going on, like He'd go further, and they said, "The night ... the day is spent. Now you come on, and stay with us."
So He turned around and said, "All right. I'll go in." So He got inside.
Now that's the main thing, though you couldn't understand the Word. It's too deep for some of you, you don't understand it, you're all full of different creeds, and this one said that, and this and that, your poor mind is so you don't know what to think. I'll tell you what you do. Just do like they did. Say, "Come in, Lord, and abide with me, just a... Just come and stay with me now."

56 And when He gets inside He closed the door.
Notice how He did it now. Notice how He made Hisself known to them, after the preached word didn't do it. The preached word and the identified Word, and they claimed Him to be a prophet, and they claimed to be His disciples, and He talked to them all day long, and they still didn't get it by the preached word. No, sir they didn't get it. But once inside, once they got inside, He opened their eyes to who He was. He opened their eyes.
How did he do it? By doing something just like He did before His crucifixion. He opened their eyes, and seen Him perform something that they seen Him do, and He alone does it. He's different from all other men. If you ever once see Him, there's no man could do what He does, see. And they don't do it the way He does it, and He's always did it that way. And He never changes, and Hebrews 13:8 is right. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

57 Once inside, once He got inside of them, then He identified Himself by doing something that He ... like He always done, same as He did to the woman at the well. Notice. There she come up, very arrogant, little old ill-famed woman. Probably the poor kid'd been turned out on the street to live any way. But right down in her heart she had a predestinated seed laying there. And them priests and everything over there, they had a education, a conception [blank spot] to begin with. He said so.
But this little woman, her life was all mired. Right down here was a little bit of light. But way down in there was a seed waiting, see. And as sure as the light would strike a seed that's germitized, it'll live

58 So here she comes up. Maybe she was late with her work. She couldn't come up with the rest of the women anyhow. And she ... maybe a pretty little lady, packed her water pot on her shoulder, and went up there and sort of let it down at the well. And she heard this man say, "Bring me a drink." He went to talking to her, and He said, "Go get your husband and come here."
Now see, now, she knowed that was the sign of the Messiah. She said to Him, "I have no husband."
He said, "That's right. You've had five, and the one you have now is not your husband."
She said, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. We haven't had a prophet for hundreds of years. I perceive that you are a prophet. Now, we know that we're looking for the Christ, the anointed Messiah. And when he comes, that's just exactly what he'll be."
Now look. He said, "I am he that speaks with you."
Right into the city she went. She had no right to do that. According to their laws, a woman of that type---a man wouldn't listen to her. But try to stop her, like the house on fire on a windy day.
And here she went. She said, "Come see a man who told me the things I've done. Isn't this the Messiah?"

59 Now remember, Jesus never repeated it. He never done one time in there. But they said the whole city believed on Him because of the woman's testimony. Think of it! Oh, my! When she knew the promise of what the Messiah would be, and when she seen that promise fulfilled, it opened her eyes, see. They'd been closed with sin. But when that promise... She said, "That's the Messiah. He'll do that when he comes."
He said, "I am he."
Her eyes were opened. She has eternal life because her eyes was opened.
Peter's eyes was opened; Nathanael's, as we talked of it last night. What has it done to our eyes in these days, a promise fulfilled? Has it opened our eyes? When we seen St. John 14:12, Hebrews 13:8, St. John 14:9, have we seen Luke 17:27-28, and all these Scriptures as promised, Malachi 4, all of them fulfilled right here before us? What has it done to our eyes? If it doesn't open them, it'll blind them eternally. It opens some; blinds the others, see. It opens them to it these last days, what He's promised to do this, what He said He would do it, restore back the faith.

60 Oh, Pentecostal people, professors of God's Holy Spirit, may the God of heaven (over) open your eyes from tradition to a living God, of a promise of the Bible, that we claim to believe: what He said we would be---Abraham's royal seed called out in the last days; and Jehovah would come down among the flesh of His people and do exactly like He did at the days of Sodom.
Did you hear the news tonight, how that in this very state, I forget how many hundred teachers, school teachers, were proven to be homosexuals? Tonight's news. Oh, it's rotten to the core, everything! The government---they claim in the government officials, is nearly 40% of them proved homosexuals. My office is piled with letters, mothers crying that their boys living with boys, and...
It's just the day we're living in. Everything ... nations are breaking, Israel's awakening, she's in her homeland, the fig tree's putting forth its buds. Oh, the church is asleep in Laodicea. And Jesus trying to get cooperation, and can't even do it! Yet, with all the things that the Scripture says, the churches snoozes right on away in a bed of worldliness. Oh, church! If you can't understand the Word, just open your heart and see if He don't identify Himself like He did then, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let us bow our heads a moment.

61 Heavenly Father, sometimes maybe ... I don't mean to be rashal with the people. I don't mean to be rough. But, Lord, as the expression of the carpenter, "How can you make the boards stay on unless you clinch the nail?" So, I pray, God, that they'll understand that it's through Christian love that we try to drive this down. It might be the visitation of some people here for the last time that they'll ever be permitted. It might be the last time that we'll ever meet together. This city may never have another revival like it. Yet, sometime they'll be going on having a revival, they claim, and the church is done gone---done sealed away---the doors...
Noah was in the ark, and the door closed behind him seven days before the rain ever come. But nobody could enter the ark. The world went right on, just the same. And some day it might be the same thing. They might wake up to what Jesus said, when the disciples said, "Why does the scribes say Elias must first come?"
Jesus said, "He's already come, and you didn't know it."

62 So could it be in the coming and catching away. One of these days you'll get into the tribulation. You'll say, "I thought the bride was going..." The church going into tribulation? Sure. The church's going into tribulation, but not the bride. Why? This is supposed to be first, and then the Word... Might be she's already gone, and you didn't know it. They'll be going on having church just the same.
God, let the people tonight, though they don't understand the Scriptures---it may be riddle to them---but just let each one say then, "Lord Jesus, You who are present, come in and abide with me. I have need. And I read in the Bible where a woman touched Your garment, and You turned around and told her what her trouble was, and said that her faith saved her.
"And I read in the Bible this verse, that You are now a high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. And You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now come into my heart, Lord, and reveal to me. Though I've walked, and I've loved You, but I really have never seen it done. So I pray God that You'll do it for me tonight."
Grant it to them people, Father, and may our eyes be opened, all over the church; and we'll see that lovely, sweet, resurrected Lord Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Grant it. May our eyes be opened for the kingdom of God's sake. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

63 Now, if I let you out on time I wouldn't have time to call a prayer line up here, although I think you got prayer cards. You don't need to be up here. God's just as great out there as He is anywhere. You believe He's omnipresent? Certainly He is. He's omnipresent because He's omniscient. Now He knows [unclear word] at the end, because ... He being omniscient, He knows all things. So therefore, He's everywhere by being omniscient.
Just like the word "predestinate." It's a bad word. I used to feel it going, and caught myself, 'cause I felt the Spirit move back. Many people don't believe in predestination. Predestination is a bad word. It's really foreknowledge. God knows before who will and who won't. So therefore, He can predestinate by His foreknowledge. That's the reason He knows who will and who won't, see.
You know, He's not willing that any should perish but He knows who will perish. If He wasn't, then He wasn't God. He has to be omnipotent, just the same as omnipresent, see, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite. He's infinite. If He isn't, He isn't God. So He knows all things. Therefore He can tell the end from the beginning, because He is the Word.

64 Now I'm a total stranger. I don't see a person in here I know, unless it's this boy right here. If I know this boy, didn't you used to have a big beard or something, that you wore a long time ago? I can't tell you about it but I think that's who these folks are sitting here in front of me. Outside of that, I don't see a person that I know. I can't see a one out there. I just happened to look at the boy weeping a few minutes ago, wiping his eyes. I thought that looked like that same young fellow I had on a private interview one time. I don't know where he came from. I just recognized his face. I had... And that's the only person that I know in here now. All right.
Now, will you just open your heart like this? How many of you are needy of God? Raise up your hand, say, "I'm needy. I'm needy." I don't care who you are. Just raise up your hand. Now [unclear words].

65 Now, may the God of heaven, who raised up His Son, Jesus Christ, who, by His written Word, I'm trying by a divine gift to identify His presence before these people for their glory, may He send the Holy Spirit upon me; as by this gift I let myself to be ... to identify Jesus Christ in human flesh, as God was identified in human flesh in the days of Sodom, fulfill His Word. May He grant it, in Jesus Christ's name.
Now reverently, everybody. Now just begin to pray in your heart. "Lord Jesus, I'm going to open my heart, and come in. Let me close out all my unbelief on the outside. Then make it known to me, the thing that You did before Your crucifixion. Then I'll know You've raised from the dead."

66 Now, I can't catch every one of you. That's exactly right. But some of you, I don't doubt it, will catch it. And if it caught one... Just like that woman out there---the rest of the people of Sychar didn't have to have it done to them. They believed it. And somehow, just one woman, one man, one boy, one child, whoever it is, could be identified that way. If them people back there, who had never seen it---and we can talk into it---surely we ought to be able... Is that right, brethren? Does that sound sensible to you all? Sure.
It's hard for me, preaching like that, then comes... These two different gifts---one's speaking, the other one's seeing.

67 Now you just believe with all your heart. Don't doubt. Just have faith in God. Let's start looking on this side over here, somewhere. Somebody, just look ... to have to stand out here---all kinds of belief. Don't press at it. See, you jump over the top of it. It's so ... it's like a part of you. Just relax yourself, and say, "Well, sure. That's the Word. I believe it. That little old fellow up there doesn't know me, but I know Jesus has told the truth about the Word. And I believe it." Just do it like that. Say, "I expect to meet Him, and I have need."
I can't heal you, and this don't heal you. But it will help you identify. No wonder you people can be suspicious---you only see just one touch of it here. It tells what will happen, and who will, and whereabouts, and all about it. And never one time ... it's never one time failed in the tens of thousands of times around the world. How many has followed it, and knows it's true? Raise up your hand, see. Well, my! Never. It can't be nothing else but God when that happens, because it's His promise. It never can fail.
Now that don't heal you, 'cause He's already done that. He's just identifying He's here to keep that promise. Now, if He's kept that promise, He'll keep the healing promise. Is that right, brothers? He keeps His healing promise if He keeps that promise. It's more sure like.

68 What if somebody was here in a wheelchair, and I picked them up. It could be a good case of psychology, or a little something could make that person walk. But it can't discern the thoughts from the heart. That's one thing sure---to know what you've done, and who you are, and all about you. That takes God alone, to be perfect each time.
Here. I wish I could explain this. No need me trying to explain it---you can't do it. But now, if I could say this word, something inside of me has changed to another dimension, see. I'm looking right at that pillar of fire that followed Israel through the wilderness. How many have seen a picture of it? Let's see your hands. I'm looking right at it. It's right here---looking right straight at it---amber, kind of a yellowish-looking green, ring around.

69 I see a woman moving up. She's sitting right here, just looking right at me. And she's sitting right down here looking at me. And she's suffering. She's praying for a disease that she has. It's a blood disease. It's a diabetes. That's right. That's right. Both of you. You two women, both sitting right there crippled, have diabetes. Raise your hand, see.
Now. What is that? You were thinking about it, wasn't you, trying to open your heart? Now see, He just come right in, and done just exactly what He done before His crucifixion. Now, you don't know me either, neither one of you know me. If that's right, raise up your hands if you don't know me. All right. You don't know me. Then it had to be Him, 'cause I don't know you. It had to be Him. If you'll just believe it with all your heart, God will make it happen. You have to believe it, though.

70 Here. There's a man that said something to somebody, sitting right here looking at me---kind of heavy-set, wearing a white shirt. We're strangers to one another, sir. Is that right? He's sitting there in that row. No. It's behind you, sir. No, behind you. The man with the white shirt. Just hold your place. You believe me, the man with the white shirt on? If God... That's you, yes. Look around. If God will tell me what's your trouble, do you believe He'll heal it? You got heart trouble. If that's right, raise up your hand. All right. Do you accept your healing?
Now, there's a man right here, raising his hand, somewhere right over here. You. Do you believe me to be God's servant, His prophet? You do? You're also suffering with a heart trouble. You have arthritis also. That's your wife sitting next to you, and she suffers with arthritis, and she also is having dizzy spells. If that's right, raise up your hand. That's right. Do you believe I can tell you who you are? Mr. and Mrs. Jones, you can believe right now and be healed. Believe with all your heart, and your arthritis will leave you. Have faith in God. Don't doubt, just believe.

71 Here sits a man, kind of gray-headed, sitting right here on the end, holds his head over sideways. There's that light standing there. It's for you. [unclear word]. Do you believe me to be God's prophet, and servant? Do you believe that hay fever's going to leave you, you'll be all right? If you do, raise up your hand. I'm a total stranger. That's what you was praying.
Next man, he raised up his hand because he believed, but what ... he hasn't got hay fever, but he's got arthritis. That's right. If that's right, raise your hand, sir. That's right. Do you believe? All you have to do is have faith.
This little lady sitting right here at the end, do you believe, lady? Believe with all your heart? Do you believe that that stomach trouble's going to leave you? You do? Got a burden on your heart, haven't you? That's for your daughter. She isn't here. Do you believe I can tell you where she lives at? She lives in California. She's got a dark shadow over her. She's going to die if something isn't done for her, because she's shadowed with cancer. If that's right, raise up your hand. Do you believe I can tell you who you are, with the help of God? Jesus told Simon who he was. Is that right, Mrs. Ackerman? If that's right, raise up your hand.

72 Next, a little missionary lady sitting there next to you, she's kind of worried about some things too. That's right, praying for a friend, and for yourself. Is that right? You're a missionary. Believe with all your heart. I've never seen you. That's true.
The lady sitting behind you that has the stomach trouble, do you believe that God will make you well of that? You can have that also. Do you believe with all your heart?
See, what is it? It's the identify. Now, the Word said so. Now, here He is, coming into your hearts and revealing Himself, just like He did. Isn't that exactly what He done before His crucifixion? Raise your hands. Then He's risen from the dead. Do you believe it? Now, if you're in His divine presence, keep your eyes open now to recognize that the very God that you're going to stand before at the day of judgment is right here among you now, doing the very thing to identify.
Will you bow your heads a minute?

73 Are you thinking about Him? You'd like Him to be your Saviour? If you are, would you stand up for a word of prayer? You who want Him to be your Saviour, you stand up for a word of prayer. God bless you, sir. God bless you, lady. God bless you. God bless you. Just stand up just a moment, so I can pray for you. Stand up. "I want to accept Him as my Saviour. In the divine presence of His Being now, I want to accept Him as my Saviour." Is there at least a pull? I believe there is.
So, if you'll just stand to your feet, God bless you. God bless you. Do it now. See, don't wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow might be too late. Today He's your Saviour. Tomorrow He might be your judge, see. So now, if He's speaking to your heart, just the same as you open your heart... God bless you, you, that's right. Just keep standing.
If you believe with all your heart, will you accept Him while you're in His presence? Would you do that? Would just accept Him as your Saviour?

74 I wonder. If you'll do that while you put your hand over your heart like this, each one of you, let us pray.
Now you pray your own way. "God be merciful to me, a sinner." And then, when you do that I want you, in a few minutes, to come up here and testify that you've accepted Him as your Saviour. For if you'll... "If you'll witness me before men, him will I witness before my Father and the holy angels. If you're ashamed of me before men, him I'll be ashamed of before my Father and the holy angels."
Now, notice. Remember, He knows your heart. He's proved that. He is the Word. Now, I want you to do that in a few minutes. But I want you now to accept Him, as we pray.

75 Lord Jesus, when that light was moving over and around the people, and visions were breaking forth over the people, all of a sudden it's stopping, and coming back. And you said for me to do this. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And Lord Jesus, this company of people, many of them is believing on You right now, accepting You as their Saviour. They believe.
They know that it's true. They was right here when it happened, and know that You have risen from the dead, and you're still alive; and know that we're going to judgment, to meet you at the judgment seat of Christ. And we want pardon, Lord.
You said, in Your own words---I'll quote it, Father, just so that they'll know---You said, "He that heareth my words [that's exactly what we've been talking tonight] and believeth on him that sent me [they do] hath [present tense] everlasting life and shall never come into the judgment; but have passed from death unto life." Now that's Your Word, Lord, just the same as John 3:16 and all the rest of the Word.
You said, "He that will believe, he that will confess me [He said] before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels. But he that's ashamed of me before men, him will I be ashamed of before my Father and the holy angels."

76 Now, in Your divine presence as You've come tonight, and we're all here, Christian believers, feel the presence of Your great Being, that great august feeling of the deity of God moving around among us. No wonder, Lord, it blinds the eyes of the unbeliever who doesn't believe the Word; and how it opens the eyes of those who will believe.
Now, you've opened the eyes of these people by revealing Yourself to them. Now, Lord, open the hearts of these people and make Your abode with them, Father. They are yours. I give them to You. They're trophies of Your Word. Your Word has called them, and Your Word has identified to them. And now they've identified themselves by standing up to give witness that they want You to forgive their sins. You said, "He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." And heavens and earth will pass away, but Your Word will not fail. They are yours, Lord. They belong to You. In the name of Jesus Christ, I claim every one of them, and Your name shall be praised for it. May they be included in the bride, go in the resurrection.
And if I never get to speak to them upon the earth, or shake their hand, or the privilege of baptizing them in the Christian baptism, may God in that day when it's all over, when we sit down at the wedding supper, may I have the privilege to look across the table, and they'd say, "It happened in Tampa, Florida, that night, Brother Branham, that I stood, and I said, 'Now here He is. See, He's the same.'" Grant it, Lord. Keep them with thy grace. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask it. Amen.
You may be seated.

77 In just a few minutes we're going to call for you to come up here and give identification to your faith.
Now, you who stood to your feet, you that stood up while the prayer was going on, did you witness something another, that you had done the right thing, and you believe that He is the Son of God, and you do now accept Him as your personal Saviour? Raise up your hand, and say, "I do now accept Him." God bless you. Just looks like 100%. "I have now accepted Him as my Saviour." Now, your next step is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. [Brother Branham speaks aside to someone.]
Now, to finish this prayer line. Let's stop ... now, don't keep moving around. See, every time you move, that interrupts the Spirit of God, see. I know that here I am late again. Lay your hands over on each other. Let's lay your hands on one another, and pray for one another. Now, that's it. Each one of you's believers.

78 Oh, don't you feel good? Say amen! Don't you feel like now, that you're right in the presence of God, that sweet humble feeling? May our souls never be so carried away with the world, and things, when that lovely, sweet feeling of our great Messiah, Jesus Christ, is right among us now in the form of the Holy Spirit... The world don't know nothing about it, but we know Him, we see Him, we see Him identify Himself.
Remember, in the days of Abraham that God that was in human flesh, He never did go down there in Sodom. Just two preachers went down there; but not Him. He stayed with the elected, called-out church. That's what this message was doing. Isn't it wonderful that He comes to us today? We empty ourselves, identified as the royal seed of Abraham, proved. With His back turned to the tent, told what Sarah was thinking. Same thing comes right here tonight, and does the same thing in human flesh. Jesus said it would happen in the days when the Son of man was revealed.

79 Now He said this next thing: "These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Now, with your hands together, your hearts together, let's bow our heads, now, and pray for the sick.
Our gracious heavenly Father, we bring to You this waiting audience, and in this divine presence. O God, no wonder those disciples, Cleopas and his friend... It had taken them all day to get over to Emmaus, but in a few moments they were back. They were with the rest of the disciples. They didn't come to argue their religious standpoints, but they come because they had seen Him. They had been ... they had met Him. They had been ... they heard Him preach, and they had seen Him identify Himself, that He was the risen Christ.
You are the Word. The Word has been preached. The Word has been made manifest. The Word discerns the thoughts that's in the heart. It says so. And we are sure as they are, Lord, just as sure as they were. We see the sign of the resurrection, and we know it's the identification of Your revealing Yourself, as Your church and the Word has to be one. Because husband and wife is one, the bride and the Word become one.

80 O God, when we see it among us, how we rejoice in it! And we see the same attributes, the same picture being taken scientifically. The angel of the Lord that brought Israel out of Egypt and took them to the promised land was made flesh, and dwelt among us, ascended up on high. He said, "I come from God, and I go to God."
A few months later here He was on the road to Damascus with Saul, and struck him down. And Saul, seeing that same pillar of fire, said, "Lord, who are you?"
And He said. "I'm Jesus. It's hard for you to kick against the pricks."
O Lord, we see two thousand years later, here He is scientifically proven, and proven by faith in the church, and doing the same things that He did, to identify the Scriptures exactly for this day.
We don't disbelieve anymore, Lord. We believe. Help our unbelief. May our hearts be turned loose. May sickness lose its power. We believers have hands on one another. The prayer of faith is being made right now that You'll save the sick. And God shall raise them up. Satan, turn this audience loose. In the name of Jesus Christ let them go, that they might be free from sickness and diseases for the glory of God.

81 Now, just keep yourself shut in. Just start praying. Pray in your own way. Lay your hands upon one another, and keep your hand... Say, "Lord God" in your way. Now I prayed for you. Now you pray for one another.
Leave your hands on your neighbor there, and say, "Lord, heal this woman, heal this man. I believe it. I'm praying for them. They're praying for me. I believe that You're here right among us." Believe it with all your heart.
Lord God, take each one of them. Just pray right out, and believe it. And may the Lord heal every one of you, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head. Amen.