Thirst
You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net
1 Good evening, friends. It's a privilege to be here tonight. This is my second time to be here in this Grantway Assembly with my dear Brother Mack, and all of this fine staff here, and the joining Christians from different churches. Brother Lee Vayle and... I just met a brother here that ... a bosom friend to Brother F.F. Bosworth, and didn't even know Brother Bosworth had gone on to meet the Lord. I said, "I feel like I met the Elisha that poured water on Elijah's hands when they had..." Been abroad, and didn't know that Brother Bosworth had gone on to meet the Lord, at eighty four years old.
2 Now I want to greet the folks who is on the telephone hookup tonight across the country, all the way from California to New York, and Texas, and up different parts of the nation from Maine to California. So, we got a system of hooking up these telephones that's been a great blessing.
And now we understand through our good friend Brother Pearry Green that they've got a little gadget they can put on your television set. And not only will it be on the telephone, but it will be televised right in your television set, also. And they're seeing about it now.
3 And Sister Mack, I'm glad to see you looking fine, sitting here at the organ tonight. And many of my friends I see, from down at Sierra Vista, and Brother Borders, or Brother Roberson rather, from Indiana, many. I want to say to the folks up at the Tabernacle tonight: look like half of them is down here, and ... from the Tabernacle at Jeffersonville.
And to my friend up there, Brother Kuntz, that you called in about concerning that sick request---I'm praying for it, Brother Kuntz. Just have faith. Don't worry. It'll be all right.
And down into Texas---Brother Blair, if you're listening in tonight, my brother, just remember this: that God, who brought you through the first time, can bring you through the second. And we are believing that God will grant this to you. And don't you take the devil's lie about anything. You just remember that God is God, and there's... And He still remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we love Him, and believe Him and we are praying for you.
All of our friends in California, and to Brother Mercier and them up here in Arizona, many other places, Phoenix, and Brother Williams---and you all are hooked up, up there tonight, all around. We are certainly grateful. And down in Georgia... And we are certainly thankful for every one of you. The Lord bless you.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
4 I have a feeling of real welcome here tonight in this fine church, the Assembly of God here on Grantway, and with Brother Mack, my good friend. God has blessed Brother Mack. I remember one time in Canada, that he was... I was riding back a trail on a horse, way back into the jungles. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me to get off, and pray for Brother Mack. At that time he was in an emergency. And the Lord healed him. And so I'm so thankful for that, and to be assembled here tonight with him to worship the Lord in this fine truth.
A man sitting on the platform behind me said, "Don't guess you know me." Said, "One time you picked me up as a hitch-hiker and..." I don't know, somewhere up in Boston, or somewhere---Detroit---hitch-hiking.
And I said, "Well, I usually try to have a hand-out, if I can, for those who are needy." And so tonight we're all needy. And we pray that God will give us a hand tonight of help, of blessings, and of his grace and mercy.
5 Now I'm kind of prone to speaking a long time. But I'll try not to do that tonight, because the people up in Ohio just called---Mrs. Dauch and the group up there, Brother McKinney and Brother Brown, and all them hooked in through Ohio. We send you greetings also. It's late up in New York, and I suppose it's about eleven or twelve o'clock at this time, in New York. And the churches come and waited till this hour just for the service. We are grateful for those fine friends, around everywhere.
6 Now before we open the Word, let's just speak to the author a moment while we bow our heads.
Dear heavenly Father, we are ... our hearts are overjoyed for the privilege that we have of being alive here tonight and assembled together with your people, the people in whom we believe to live forever. We now possess eternal life, because You gave your only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In his pilgrimage here on the earth, He taught us, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life; and shall not come into the judgment but has passed from death unto life," because we believe on the only begotten Son of God. How we thank You for this great Saviour. And we pray, tonight, that his great presence will so bless us together here, as we read of his Word and speak on it. Let the Holy Spirit take that to each heart throughout the nation, Lord, wherever people are gathered together.
Bless other ministers who are in the pulpit. We pray, Father, that you will bless this Grantway Assembly, its pastor, his wife, his children, the deacons, trustees, and all the board. Father, together may we work for the kingdom of God, while it's enough light to see where we're getting around. For the hour is coming when no man can work. And, Father, while we have this privilege, may we ... may we redeem the time, Lord. May we ... that be granted to us. Heal the sick and the afflicted throughout the land.
May the presence of God be felt in every crack and corner of the nation, tonight.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
7 We realize that judgment is striking. Great faults are falling in, and the nation is shaking, and earthquakes in divers places---great historical things that we've heard of in the days past, of judgment through the Bible---and we see it repeating again today. The prophecy saying, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man." And we see it happening now. Men's hearts failing, perplexity of time, distress between nations: God, we know we're at the end-time. Help us, Lord, to take the message to every crack and corner, to every child that You've ordained to life. Grant it, Lord. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Lord bless the reading now of his Word.
Matthew 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mark 13:8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
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.
Luke 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luke 17:30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luke 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
8 Now many of you like to kind of look into the Bible where a minister is reading, and I want to read tonight a couple, three verses out of the Psalms, Psalm 42, just for a way of having a text. And I've got some scriptures written out here, and I want to refer to them, if I can, as we go along in the next few minutes, to speak on this subject. The Psalm of David... David wrote the Psalms. Now while you're turning, I might say this. Many people say, "Well, is the Psalms inspired?" Certainly, they are. They are ... anything that's ... that's in this Bible is inspired. Whether it's history, whether it's songs---whatever it is---it's inspired. Jesus said, "Have not you read what David said in the Psalms?" And then, I think Psalms, of course, is songs. And if songs are inspired of God, which I believe they are, and prophetic also, I hope I am standing that day when this song comes to pass.
There is going to be a meeting in the air,
In that sweet, sweet by and by;
Going to meet you, and greet you over there
In that home beyond the sky;
Such singing ever heard,
Ever heard by mortal ears,
It'll be glorious, I do declare!
And God's own Son will be the leading One
At that meeting in the air.
Oh, I want to be there at that time.
Luke 20:42 And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
9 Now Psalm 42.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night, [while my] while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
I think David, in the writing of this Psalm, must have been in distress. And it usually takes distress to bring the best out of a man. It really... That's when God gets down to ... when we fast many times, to get ourself in position, to get ourself out of the way. And I think when David got in these places, then he began to meditate on the Lord, begin to think about the things.
Many times God gets us in tight corners where we have to look up. Sometimes we even have to get on our back in the hospital, or a bed somewhere, so we can look up to see where the great blessings of God comes from.
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 42:3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
10 Now, the word I want to speak from tonight, one word out of the Bible, and that is found in the second verse: "thirst," the word "thirst." I was looking in the dictionary. When I was looking up this word, I was thinking about a sermon one time I preached on, "Thirsting after Life." And I took it out of the Psalms, too, when David said, "Thy statutes [I believe] are more precious to me than life." Then I was looking, and thinking about that word, "thirst," so I looked up in the dictionary to see what it means. And here is what Webster says: It's a painful desire, a painful ... when you want something so bad until it becomes painful to you.
Now, it's not an unnatural thing to thirst. Thirst is a natural thing. It's just simply something that God has given us that we could ... to give us a desire for something. Sometimes... God has, also, has given you a control tower, something that sits inside of you that controls these different desires. And this thirst, this control tower that sits in a man's heart, is something that God give him to warn him of the desires that's needful for him.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
11 Now, there is two different kinds of thirst. There is a thirst physically, and there is a thirst also spiritually. I would like to read this, what David said, again. "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God": not some historical, or some something that happened some years ago, or some tale that someone told---but for the living God, a God that's ever-present. And his soul thirsted for that God, not for some historical something.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
12 Now we find God gives the control tower to you, to give to you the things that you need. Now the control tower in you is what directs you. And this thirst runs in on this control tower and tells you what you have need of. Spiritually speaking, the control tower in the body and in the soul also... There's a control tower in the body that tells you the need that's needed in your body. And it's brought to you by thirst. Also there's a control tower in your soul, that tells you the spiritual things that you have need of, something in your spirit. And you, by this, can tell what kind of a life is controlling you. When you can see what your desires are, then you can tell by that what kind of something that's in you that's creating this desire that you have. See, there's a certain thing that you thirst for, and it can tell you in your soul what this desire is, by the nature of the thirst that you have. I hope that you can understand that.
13 There is a control tower of the soul, and one for the body. And each tower is a warning caller for the needs of the other. Each one calls to the need, for what the caller is calling for. It sends out a wave of warning. For instance, the flesh thirsts to satisfy the desires that's in the body; and the spirit desires for the things that's in ... the soul desire is. And many times these war one against the other.
We find there what's a great trouble today, that too many people try to live between those two desires. For one of them desires the things of the earth, the other desires the things of heaven.
14 Like Paul said, describes it in Romans 7:21, "When I would do good, then evil is nigh." When you try---did you ever have that in experience, Christians?---that when you're trying to do something that's worth while, go to make an effort to do something that's good, then you find out that there is the devil on every hand just to upset you. Everything that you'd... And that's one good thing that ... I'd like to say this, that the Christians might know: that when you're ... when you're starting to do something, and there is something always trying to upset you in doing it, do it anyhow. That's the devil there, trying to keep you from doing what's right.
Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
15 Now, many times I meet people that's prone to be a little nervous. When they find out that they're trying to do something, and everything is just blocking it off on both sides, they say, "It might not been the will of the Lord," see. Now don't let the devil lie to you like that. The first thing is find out whether it's the will of God or not. And then if you want to know whether it's the will of God, look into the Bible. There is the thing that sets you straight, is the Word of God. And then if you see it's in the Word of God for you to do it, like for instance, seeking for the baptism of the Holy Ghost...
Many times I run into people ... say, "Well, I sought for the Holy Ghost, and I just couldn't receive it. I don't believe it's for me. Every time I get down, I get sick. And I go to praying... If I fast, I get sick. And if I try to stay all night, or stay up, I get so sleepy I can't get off my feet." Remember, that is the devil, because God intends for you to have the Holy Spirit. It's for whosoever will.
Many times you find, when you're prayed for in a meeting for divine healing, then the next day you find out, no doubt, that the devil will make that twice as bad as it was the day before, see. Remember, that's just Satan trying to get you away from the blessing that God's got for you, see. Don't you listen to that fellow! See, always press right on.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
16 I had an experience with that just recently, on the road to Africa. If I ever had any time that the devil ever did press at me, was to go to Africa this last time. It become one of the finest meetings, and times, that I ever went overseas. I got, I believe, more things accomplished in that little time that I was there, besides my hunting trip, than I ever did at any time.
I had always thought that those churches didn't want me there. And come to find out... I had a letter from someone, that it was ... oh, they didn't want me there, all the association; and found out it was one man, with a letterhead from an organization, that said, "We don't want you." He meant him and his family, see. So then when I got over there, I... See, just "we," that was he and his family. And it wasn't the people at all. So now, it's a great field opened up for us.
Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
17 You see, when Paul said, "When I would do good, then evil is nigh..."
You let a young convert come tonight to the altar somewhere, here in this tabernacle, or out across the nation. And just remember tomorrow. Mother will be more angry than she ever was, dad will be all upset, and all the school kids, and everything just goes wrong, because it's Satan trying to get you to turn around. He's trying to run you off the path. "When I would do good, then evil is always nigh."
Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
18 Now, let us look at the thirst, and let's see whether actually a thirst is a natural thing. I've had people tell me, "Oh, I never did ... I believe it's just for some people to want to be Christians." Oh, no. That's wrong. It's actually a something that's associated with every human being. It certainly is true.
When we come to this country, in the early days, we found the Indians here. And the Indians, though they were heathen at that time (they worshipped the sun or something), as long as they are human there's something in them, a natural thirst, calling out for God somewhere.
19 Back in the jungles just recently, back there 480 miles from the closest civilization, a little small town of about three thousand people of Beira in Mozambique, we found natives that didn't even ... never seen a white person. I found a native girl (she had no clothes on---any of them hardly have clothes on) and she was sitting up in a tree. And I was tracking the lion, and there was... I heard something like a human being screaming, this native girl sitting up there, walleyed, holding a baby. And what she was scared about---that's her only protection, is get up a tree from a lion, leopard, or something, or some animal---and she had seen me, and heard it was a human being. But when she looked and seen a white person... She had never seen one in her life, see, and she was scared to death, see.
But when we find those people, even in that primitive condition back there, they were still worshipping. Before we called a lion in, they poured out some mealy meal (that's what they eat) on a little leaf, and clapped their hands, and called on the spirit of some great something (they didn't know where, like a patron saint or something to a Catholic) to protect them, that they wouldn't be killed during the time of the charge of this lion.
20 See, it's something natural.
It's not an unnatural thing to thirst for God. It's a natural thing. It's just something that you should do. God has made you up like that. And it's no super-human; it's just actually a common human being. It ain't just special for some people. They say, "Well, I've seen some people live such a victorious life, that they're constantly on the housetop. They're praising God. Wish I could feel that way." Well, the reason you're feeling that way, it's the thirst in you. And it's just a natural thing. It's for every person to thirst for God.
21 Now, we'll take some of the natural thirsting first. Let's take, for instance, thirsting for water as David said here, thirsting for the water. Thirsting for water---the body is in need of water. And if you don't supply that thirst, you'll perish. You'll dehydrate, and you won't live. If you can't get water to that thirst, to quench that thirst of the natural body, you will soon perish. You won't live long.
You can live longer without food than you can without water. Because, you can fast for forty days. Jesus did, I suppose without food, but you couldn't do that long without water. You would just simply dry up and die. You must have water. And the thirst that comes on you, why it's to show that the body is in need of something to keep it alive. The body's got to have the water in order to stay alive. You are eighty-something percent of water and petroleum, anyhow, and you've got to take these sources in to keep you alive. As I've said, if you neglect it you'll perish.
The thirst also is an alarm. It's an alarm clock, that thirsting. The soul sets off alarm clock, a little buzzer inside of you, that tells you that death has ... lurking nigh, that if you don't get water pretty soon you've got to die. And it gets louder and louder until, finally, you keep putting it off and you'll die. Because it's alarm clock.
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
22 Like David described it here in the Psalms: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." As the hart panteth after the water brook... I've often thought, as reading of this, of David. David was a woodsman, a hunter, and he hunted deer, of course. And many of... We in this day hunt them. The hart is a deer.
And we find... If you ever seen the dogs, the wild dogs will grab a deer. And usually they got, like the coyote, a fang, and he can grab the deer right above the burr of the ear here, and swing his weight. He cuts the throat of the deer, and the deer doesn't have a chance then.
But sometimes the dog, like in Africa there, the wild dog will grab the deer right in the flanks. If he misses the throat, he'll grab the second time at the flank. And if the deer is strong enough, and quick enough, he can shake the dog off.
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
23 The deer is much faster. The dog stalks him, when he's not looking, and when he is up-wind from him, and he don't know the dog is near. And then when the wild dog grabs him, if he's real quick he can throw it off.
And ... but when the dog comes out of the flank, he has got a whole mouthful of the deer's flesh. Or when he grabs at his neck sometimes, he'll cut close to the jugular vein and miss it. And the deer, shaking him, will pull a whole chunk of meat out of the deer's throat. Then the blood begins to run. And then the dog will come right on the trail of that blood, after the deer. And as the life of the deer begins to dwindle---as the blood which is the life stream to the body, as that begins to dwindle down---the deer gets weaker. And the dog then, or the wolf, is right behind the deer.
Now if that deer can't find water... Now, water has something in it, that when the deer drinks the water it stops the bleeding. But if he don't get water to cool him off, then the blood keeps flowing out faster, because he's running, keeping his heart pumping. But if he can ever get to water, the deer'll live.
24 Now, there's a great lesson there, see, and David saying here, "As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul panteth for Thee, O God." Now that deer knows unless he finds water, he's gone. He just can't live. I've tracked them many times. After being wounded, when he hits a stream of water he'll cross in and get a drink, go up over the hill, come back down, cross, get a drink of water, and go up. You'll never catch up with him, as long as he'll follow that stream. But once when he leaves the stream, and if he can't find another water brook somewhere, you'll catch him right away. And, now, the deer knows that, so he'll stay right with the water, where he can get to it right quick.
Now could you imagine a deer, with his nose up, he's been caught out somewhere, where there is no water.
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
25 And he says, "As the hart thirsts, or panteth [is a thirst], after the water brooks, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God. Unless I can find You, Lord, I'll perish. I can't go, unless I find you." And when a man or woman, boy or girl, gets that kind of a thirst for God, he's going to find something, see.
But when we come at it, just kind of halfway, "Well, I'll kneel down and see what the Lord does..." See, you're not really thirsting yet. It's got to be a thirst between death and life. And then something takes place.
26 The deer also, here, he's... We find that he also has another sense, of smell, that sets off an alarm in him when his enemy is near. He's possessed, this little creature, with a sense to protect himself. And he's got a little alarm in him, a little something that he ... tickles his nose, when the enemy's near. You can get in the wind of the enemy, and he knows that you're there, and he's gone. Sometimes a half a mile away he can smell you and get away. Or the wolf or any danger, he is able to sense it, because that he's made up that way. He's a deer by nature. And that sense in him is just one of the God-given senses to him, to live by.
27 And now I thought, comparing the deer with a man that's thirsting for God... Before the enemy gets there, there's something about a child of God that, when you once are born into the Spirit of God, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there's something about the person that can sense the enemy. You can take a man when he's taking the scripture, and reading the scripture, and try to inject something to that scripture that's contrary to the scripture: a man that's filled with the Holy Ghost can sense that right quick. There's something out of the way. When he gets into a place, and that little certain sense in there, that... It's done to protect your life. You mustn't ... you mustn't never go for anything unless it's exactly the Word of God. You must stay right exactly with that Word. And now ... and we are secured with that sense as long as we're in the Holy Spirit.
28 You can go to reading, like for instance, somebody say ... and I go to read in Mark 16 and say, "And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues, or take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it would not harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."
Now, then you find a person get up there, and say, "Now, that was for the apostolic age." That now, right quick if you have received the Holy Spirit, you've been endowed with that sense---it sets it off, there's something wrong there, see. They try to explain it away. "That's for another day. That ... really, you don't need those things today."
But Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe," see. There's a little something sets off in you, a little buzzer, in knowing that that's wrong. And that's the way of death.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mark 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
29 Because Jesus said if we add one word to this, or take one word from it, our part is taken out of the book of life, see. Not one scripture---we must take it just the way it's written. And God watches over his Word to perform it. And we know it's got to be just right.
So therefore, no matter what a church would say, what anyone else would say, if you're born of the Spirit of God you become part of the Bible. God told Ezekiel (he was a prophet), He said, "Take the scroll, and eat it." Then the prophet and the scroll became part of each other. And that's the believer when he receives the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. And the Spirit of God is the Word of God. "My words are spirit..." In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Hebrews 13:8: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And when you are a part of that Word, oh, then let something come up contrary to that Word, there's a little buzzer sets off right quick, see. It's to warn you that death is in the road. We should never do that.
There is... Also, these thirsts are just natural. They are natural for the Christian. They are natural for the human being.
Ezekiel 3:1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 3:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
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 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
30 There is also a thirst for success. So many people today, how we school for this thirst. We just noticed they started the university up. And we go down there and... People spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the school, and to universities and colleges, and so forth, to get an education to be successful, they call it, in life.
But... Now I have nothing against that. Now that's all right. But to me, you could get all the schooling in the world, and still you haven't found the right success. That's right. Because that will just temporarily make things a little easier for you here, and there's... But when you die, you leave all that behind you. And this entire economy that we have
31 (I was saying it the other day at Phoenix, it stands quoting again), that all this modern civilization, the whole educational program, the whole scientific program, is all contrary to God's Word, and his will.
Civilization is absolutely... There'll never be a civilization, in the world that is to come, like this one. This is a perverted civilization. God had his first civilization upon the earth when He spoke his words, and they come up, every seed of its kind. And in that civilization there was no death, sickness, sorrow. And now we take the things that is in the scientific world, that was put here to hold it together, and pervert it into something; and that brings death. Like the atomic bomb---I don't know the formulas of these things, but ... I might say this wrong. They take uranium to split a molecule, and a molecule breaks into atoms. What does it do then? It just annihilates, almost, just destroys.
Everything that we do...
32 We take medicine, put this formula with this formula, to cure this, and put it into us. And what do we do? We tear down something else. Now, I guess you read last month's "Reader's Digest," that it said that, in this age that we're living in now, that young men and women reach middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old. Think of that! Little girls in menopause at twenty, and twenty-two, and twenty-three years old. Middle age!
You see, what's done it? It's been this hybrid food and stuff we're eating, see. It's the stuff, the food, and the life that we're living. Scientists has brought it to us, and in doing so they're killing you. I was in Africa where I'd see them boys that never had a dose of medicine in their life. They eat meat that had maggots in it. They drank out of a pool that it looked like would kill an ox. And I was shooting a target at two hundred yards, and I couldn't see it with a pair of 7x50 binoculars. And a man my age was standing there telling me where it was hit, with his naked eye. Now, if all this modern culture has done something ... I feel if I had his eyes and his stomach, I would be a pretty good man. Yeah! But there you are.
You see, that's what science, education, civilization... We're destroyed by it. We destroy ourselves. It started in the garden of Eden, and runs on for today. But thirsting for success...
Then we thirst for fellowship. We go ... we want fellowship.
33 It's like a young man and a young woman. Now it's not unnecessary, or not (I mean) unnatural, for a young man and a young woman to love one another. It is a thirst for love. It's their age. And they love one another, and it's not unnatural. That's just a natural thing for them to do that.
Now we find many things in the life that we live, in the natural body, that we thirst for. It's just something sets in us, we want to do it. We absolutely feel that it's necessary, and it is necessary that we do it. We find many women in these days thirst for beauty. Now there isn't a woman... It's a natural thing for a woman to thirst to be pretty. That's her God-given instinct, and her beauty that God give her for her mate. And now we find out that women want to be that way. Why is it? It's just because it's something God gave her. It's not wrong for women to be pretty. They should be.
34 And you know they are the only creature that the female is prettier than the male it's in the human race? Every other animal---take the cow to the bull, the doe deer to the buck, the hen to the rooster, the mother bird to the father bird---always you find the male is big and pretty. But on the human race (showed there's where the perversion come) it turns around. And it's the women, so, is pretty. And they lust to be pretty.
Not like some of these weird creatures we see on the street of this day. No, no! Not that kind of pretty, no! That's the horriblest-looking sight I ever seen in my life. Yes, sir! That is the perversion. That's perverting the true thirst.
35 Now the true thirst that a woman should have, would be to adorn themselves in modest apparel, and to have a Christ-like spirit, I Timothy 2:9. Now that's a way the woman should thirst to be. Now if you want to be pretty, that's the way what makes you pretty, see, is a Christ-like spirit, and adorned in modest apparel.
Oh, my! Some of these people today! Out on the streets you can't tell a man from the woman. And it's the most horrible-looking thing that you'd... I never seen anything like it ... like human beings. It's beyond human ... eyes painted way up like that, and you know, them funny-looking lizard eyes, and all them funny-looking clothes. And, why, it don't even... All so out of form, they don't even look like a human being. And some of them boys out here, with their hair combed down, their sister's rollers in front here, you know---why, it's a complete perversion! That's right!
It's Satan, and Satan is a perverter.
1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
36 When God made everything in the garden of Eden it was lovely. Then Satan come in and perverted. Satan cannot create nothing. There is only one creator: that's God. But Satan perverts the original creation. And now he's got into this I want to speak tonight about: perverting the original creation of thirst.
Now a woman, as I said before, wants to be pretty. There's something in her, that she is feminish. And she wants to be that way. But the way they are on the street today, hair cut like a man, wearing men's clothes; and then men turn around, wearing women's clothes, and a haircut like a woman. See, it's a perversion, the whole thing. Your food's perverted, your life's perverted, your thirst's perverted, your desire's perverted---it's a day of perversion.
37 I was speaking here not long ago on Satan's Eden. God took six thousand years and made a perfect Eden. Satan come over and sprayed them seeds, and deformed them. Now he's got six thousand years, and he's got his own scientific Eden, right back again, on a perversion of the right. And this is the age of hybreeding, hybreeding. They've even got the churches today, till they're hybrid. That's right.
They get in here, they just go to church. It's a lodge, instead of a church. A church is a place where people come together, and worship God in spirit, and in truth. And today it's a lodge. We go there and have a little time to shake hands, and fellowship, and some black coffee in the back of the building, then go home till next week. We've done our religious duty. Now it's a perverted age. And Satan is perverting these thirsts, that God put in you to thirst. Satan is perverting them.
Now if you want to know the right perversion,
38 if you ... the women wants to be pretty, take I Timothy 2:9. That's that adorning themselves in modest apparel, with a Christ-like spirit, meek, subject to their husbands, and so forth. That's the way that you should be adorned, your life you live. He perverts the true nature of God, and the true thirst of God of the body and soul, by lust for sin---sin, a perversion.
Now, we find out a person today, the way they've took that perversion---thirst for God, the thirst for to be pretty, and all these thirsts for water---they've turned that into satisfying that with drinking. The thirst for joy ... everybody wants to have joy. Thirst for fellowship, all these great thirsts that God put into us, that we might thirst after Him. God made you to thirst after Him. And we try to satisfy it with some other kind of a thirst, with some other kind of perversion of the correct thirst. See how it's in the natural? See how it's in the spiritual? We think as long as we join church that satisfies. That's all we have to do. Well, that is absolutely wrong. No, God wants you to thirst for Him. As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul thirsts after thee, O God, see. See?
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
39 Now, if that deer was panting for the water brook, what if somebody come along and (another buddy deer could come along) and say, "Say, I'll tell you what I could do. I know where there is a mud hole down here." Well, the deer wouldn't want that. That wouldn't do him any good.
And there's nothing can satisfy that thirst that's in the human being, until God comes in. He must have it or die. And no persons has a right to try to hush or satisfy that holy thirst that's in him by the things of the world. No, sir! It's ungodly to do so. And if you thirst for God, don't shake hands with the preacher and put your name on the book. If you're thirsting for God, there's only one thing to satisfy it: that's meet God. If you're thirsting for God, that's the only way you can meet Him, is to do that.
40 And then there is a great danger, also, if you don't watch what you're doing in that time. If you're thirsting for God, be sure it's God you find, see. Be sure that it's ... your thirst is satisfied.
But if Satan has been able to pervert you from these natural appetites---and that he'll do if he can---he'll simply make you try to be satisfied. A man get out... What makes a man get drunk is because he's worried and tore up. There is something lacking in him.
41 I was at Mayo's here not long ago. And I was up there on an interview. And then was told, in this, that ... talking about drinking. And I told them that my father drank. Said, "What made him drink?"
I said, "I don't know."
He said, "Is because that there was something that he ... wasn't satisfying him, and he thought he could drink to throw it off his mind."
I caught it right then, see. It was really God was the only thing can satisfy that thirst. God Himself is... The only thing can satisfy that human thirst is to accept God.
42 Now Satan takes these things, as I said, and perverts them. Then, if you're ... if you won't give that thirst the right place in your life, and won't thirst and take the things that God provided to stop that thirst with, to quench it, then Satan will lead you to some of his stagnant cesspools of this world.
You must have it somewhere. If you can't find food, you'd eat from a garbage can, see. And if you couldn't find water and you was dying, you'd drink out of a pool of any kind because you're perishing. But there's no reason for that when you're thirsting for God, because God is a living God---not some historical something. My soul thirsts for Thee, the living God, something that gives living waters, something that satisfies.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
43 There is another nature, natural, just a natural thirst, in that thirst of the soul. You might say, "Brother Branham, is that soul thirst, is that natural?" Yes, that's natural for a soul to thirst, and it's for... God made you this way, that so that you would thirst for Him. He wants you to thirst after Him.
Now, God made you like that. He didn't have to make you like that, but He did do it. And if he hadn't have made you like that, so that you would thirst, there would be an excuse at the judgment bar, say, "I never did thirst for God." But there is no excuse. You do. You'll make it somewhat. You might make it your wife, you might make it your car, you might make it something else, you might go to church and try to satisfy it. And I have nothing against going to church, but that isn't the satisfaction. It's to find God, the living God, the God of heaven into your soul that satisfies that longing and thirsting, that you long for. Now, for He made you so you could thirst for Him, for his fellowship.
Now, there's a genuine thirst for fellowship. Now, we like to meet with one another. We're doing that tonight. We meet here together tonight because we like to fellowship, one with the other. Why do we do that? Because there's something in us, that we want to meet one another. That's just natural. And now, we meet on a common ground here. That is, because we're all thirsting for God, see.
And then we meet here on this regular common grounds here, of fellowship. In the church tonight, here, might be many different denominational views, and so forth. But when it comes to that thirst, we can meet on a common ground: one ground, we all thirst. Some might believe in sprinkling, the other one in baptism, and one in pouring, or so forth. But when it comes to the thirst for God, we come on one mutual ground. And God made us so that we would do that, thirst for Him and for his fellowship.
I don't know anything...
44 When I was a little boy, I remember I was raised in a real poor family. And I remember of many times I would go out with fellows. I couldn't dress, like to go out to a decent place. But I don't know... There's something about people that I liked. I liked to get with them, but I was more or less what is called the black sheep. And when I got saved, and found that something in me that I thirsted for, a friend---somebody that would be a buddy to me, somebody I could trust, somebody you can sit down to and talk your troubles over with... And when I found that real true satisfaction, when I found Jesus Christ, that real true satisfier that takes away all ... quenches all that thirst and gives you something that ... just looks like that there's just nothing to take his place.
45 And now, how Satan tries to pervert this satisfying of the soul, that thirst for the soul. He tries to give you everything to satisfy it. And he's so deceitful in these days of perversion. This is a perverted world. It's a perverted race. It's a perverted people. Everything is perverted. And it has perverted so gradual, until it's become the most deceitful age that we, any human being, ever lived in. It's more deceitful than it ever was. Now, you just ... you just can't imagine of how deceitful the nation's got, even with our own brethren, like American people.
46 I was speaking some time ago... I was in the woods a few weeks ago, and found a cigarette pack laying in the woods. And it said on there, "A thinking man's filter." And I went on down through the woods a little ways, and I come back---kept bearing on my mind, "A thinking man's filter, and a smoking man's taste." Well, I was at the World's Fair couple years ago. Remember, they had that Yul Brynner, and all them over there, when they was making demonstrations with cigarettes; and how they took that smoke and put it across a piece of marble, and took a Q-tip and raked up that nicotine off there, and put it on the back of a rat. In seven days he had so much cancer he couldn't get up on his feet, see---from one cigarette.
And then they showed how that, when that goes into the human lung... Some of them say, "I don't inhale. I just puff it in my mouth.", shows how it gets in the saliva, and goes right down just the same, into the throat, see. And then this man said, "You see so much talk about a filter." He said, "Now, if you have a desire [there is a thirst, you see], a desire to smoke a cigarette, one natural cigarette might satisfy that desire for the time being. But if you've got a filter, it takes four cigarettes to satisfy," said, "because you're only getting about one-fourth of the smoke."
47 And said, "A smoking man's taste, see; you cannot have smoke unless you get tar, and when you got tar you got cancer." So there you are, see. It's just a gimmick.
And I think of a tobacco company that's in this nation, and it lives by this nation. And then, with a gimmick like that to absolutely deceive American citizens---to deceive them! A thinking man's filter? It's only a gimmick to sell more cigarettes. Then I thought of that thing, a thinking man's filter. I thought, "That's a good idea." So there is a thinking man's filter---that's this Bible. A thinking man's filter will take this filter. It'll produce a righteous man's taste, see.
Now, you cannot pull sin through the pages of this Bible. No, it stops it. It filters it out. Now, you can go to church, and just take anything. But you can't come through this Bible, and have sin. It will not do it. It filters out all sin. And it gives a holy man's taste. Because, if the man is thinking that he wants to be holy and be like God, and be a son or a daughter of God, then he wants the right kind of a filter. So he stops all sin on this side of the Bible, and he can only bring the Holy Spirit through the Bible, that wrote the Bible. It's a holy man's taste, to have this thinking man's filter.
48 Now, we find how deceiving it is today. Matthew 24:24, Jesus said in the last days that the two spirits would be so close alike, until they would deceive the very elected if it was possible. How close, how, what a deception of right and wrong we have today, even in our government, in our politics. We haven't even got a man that we could put up as a politician, that will absolutely stand up for what he thinks is right. Where is our Patrick Henrys, and George Washingtons, and Abraham Lincolns of today? Just as our president said there, the way... If they want communism they can have it---whatever the people wants. If that ain't a ... a man that won't speak his conviction. A man that'll stand on a principle, that'll stand on what's ... what ... a principle. Just want to go the way of least resistance...
And that's the way that the people's got in the church. They want to come join church, and they say, "Oh, well, that ... that's it. I've joined church, now." You're trying to satisfy that great holy thirst that God put in you, that control tower trying to turn you to the right thing. And you try to satisfy it with joining a church, quoting a creed, or something like that; when it's nothing but the very presence and filling of God, Himself, in your life that will satisfy that.
Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mark 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
49 He won't be satisfied with a creed. You'll never pull a creed through that Bible. No, there's not even the Apostles' Creed, so-called, will never come through there. Show me in the Bible where... The Apostles' Creed says, "I believe in the holy Roman Catholic church. I believe in the communion of saints," when the Bible said there is one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. You'll never pull that through the Bible.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
50 You'll never pull all these dances, and shorts, and things that the people are doing today, these twists and Watusis, and all these things, through God's Word! You'll never pull this modern trend of civilization through that Bible! It's against it, see.
And you try to satisfy that thirst. But you see, it'll ... this Bible will only satisfy a righteous man or woman's taste---this Holy Spirit that they'd laugh at, and said, "You've gone out of your mind." But that satisfies that longing, that something, that the world knows nothing about.
They have perverted themselves from true baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, unto what? Unto the cesspools---the cesspools of the church, of dogmas and creeds and denominational differences, and so forth. Say, "You a Christian?"
"I'm Methodist."
"I'm Baptist."
"I'm Presbyterian."
That don't mean one thing to God, not one thing. You can't pull them things through God's Bible, here. And you're trying to satisfy that holy thirst that God give you to thirst after Him. Is that right?
51 Now, you know that David said here, "for the living God." Now in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Then there can be no satisfaction until this Word, which is God, becomes alive in you. Then you see God, Himself, fulfilling the promises that He made in the Bible.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
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.
52 Now, we have different interpreters of the Bible. One church interprets it this way, another one interprets it that way, and another one this way. Some don't take but a little bit of it; some take here and there a piece of it. But God's his own interpreter. When He makes a promise and fulfills it, that's the interpretation thereof. If I promised you I'd be here tonight, and here I am---that's the fulfilling of my promise. If I say I'll meet you in the morning, and I'm there---that's my promise. There ain't no need of making any other excuses. I've got to be there. And when God makes a promise, and then comes around and fulfills that promise---that's the interpretation of the promise. I dare anybody to take God at His Word, and see if every word in that Bible isn't the truth. That's right!
That's what that thirst is, in there. You say, "If I would have lived in the days of Jesus, I would have done so-and-so." Why, you're living in His days. What are we doing about it? What are we doing? You say, "Well..." What you done? Perhaps what the Pharisees done. They belonged to church, and denied Jesus Christ.
53 We always say today, people try to say, "We compare, we've got to compare Bible leaf with Bible leaf, scripture with scripture." That isn't the truth. No, it isn't the truth. "This Greek word means this, and this means that." The Greeks themselves, way back in the Nicaea Council, and them writers back in there, they had different forms. One believed this way, this Greek scholar meant this, and the other one said this one meant it this way. And they fussed over it. We don't need interpretation of Greek scholars, or Greek words. To know Him is life, the person Christ, Himself; not comparing.
It's a revelation that God built his church upon. And if we don't build upon that same church... The Bible said, "Abel, by faith... ," and faith is a divine revelation, see. Faith is a divine revelation. All right, this whole thing is built upon the revelation then. And unless this is revealed to you... Jesus said, "I thank Thee, Father, that Thou has hid these things from the wise of this world, and revealed it to babes such as will learn," see. Now, the whole thing is built there. You've got to know the person,
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Matthew 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luke 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Luke 17:34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Luke 17:36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
54 and you cannot satisfy that by joining church. You've got to find the person, God Himself, which is the Word in interpretation of Hisself today: the promises that He made today; the people that He was going to have in this day. The church without spot or wrinkle don't mean a denomination. It means the persons, the individuals, without spot or wrinkle. "Be two in the bed, I'll take one and leave one; two in the field, I'll take one and leave one."
But when God, that holy thirst to be like Him... And then you see that his Word is in you, vindicating itself, that you are God's servant. Whatever God says, you just toe right up to it. Then you're coming through the right process then, to satisfy that holy thirst that's in you.
55 Oh, of course, the people will laugh at you, and say you've lost your mind, you've gone crazy. But remember what they're drinking from, see. Look where they're at. Could you imagine a big artesian well spurting up fine water, and somebody down at one of them holes down there, with dead tadpoles and creeds and everything in it, drinking down there, looking up and making fun of you? Why, he doesn't know what a thirst-quenching stream you're living at. That's exactly right.
We got a living God, not one that died nineteen hundred years ago and stayed in the grave, but one that raised again. Hebrews 13:8 says He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost is the same Holy Ghost that's here now. He is the satisfying portion, because he is the Word. That's right. The Holy Ghost wrote the Word. He interprets the Word. The Bible said in II Peter that the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. Men of old, moved by the Holy Ghost, wrote the Bible. Now, you can't do it. You can't satisfy that holy thirst with nothing less than God, Himself, living in you, in the person of the Holy Spirit. Education, culture, joining churches, reciting creeds, going to belong in a fellowship, all these things are very good. But they absolutely will not stop that holy hush---that holy thirst rather ---won't hush that holy thirst.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
56 I was listening to Billy Graham, the great evangelist, the other night. And I tell you, I pray more for him now than I ever did, when I seen him really rapping it to them, the way they did. He said that bunch of clergymen coming down the road, them collars turned around, going down there where they had no business to go, sticking their nose in something. But they was going down the road clapping their hands and patting their foot. Well, they looked like unholy rollers. Now, you see, but they got something they believe in. They got something, it excites the soul. They got something they was excited about. Some woman went and stuck her head in something down there, and they thought she was a martyr. And she had no business to be into...
Now, we find that these men had something they could clap their hands about. They were happy. They were doing something. Well, if you can do that for a principle that you think is right, here, and then stand in a church, and somebody clap their hands or pat their foot, the deacons would lead them out the door. See, they've turned their people to a filthy cesspool of creed and denomination, instead of feeding them on the blessed, holy Word of God that's delivered by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
57 See, they try to ... they quench their thirst by saying, "I'm doctor so-and-so," or come out of a certain seminary, or a certain school. But that don't mean one thing, not a thing. But you see, they try to satisfy themselves. Say, "Now, God will recognize me, because I am his pastor. God will recognize me because I am holy Father so-and-so, or Bishop so-and-so, or something like that." They're trying to satisfy their thirst there, when you can't do it. "I got a Ph.D., LL.D., I got a Bachelor of Art, I got this..." That's all right, but to me that just means you're that much farther away from God. That's right, that much further away from God, all the time.
You only know God by an experience. You cannot educate this into you; it's born into you. It's something that God gives you. Education has nothing to do with it. One of the greatest men in the Bible couldn't even sign his name: St. Peter. That's exactly right, him and John. The Bible said they were both ignorant and unlearned. But it pleased Jesus to give him the keys to the kingdom, because he was thirsting for God. Amen! Thirsting for God. Fellowship, yes, sir! Oh, my.
Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
58 I think of Isaiah, that young man, oh, a fine young man. He was down there in the temple one day. The great king... And he put his face towards him, and thought he was one of the greatest men, which he was a great man. He was raised up, fine parents, a good mother and dad. But when he went out, his politics was clean, and he made things right with God. And Isaiah looked at him, and thought he was a great man, put him for an example. But don't you never put no man but the man Christ Jesus for your example. All men will fail. After a while he got to a place... He was king, but he tried to take a priest's place, and went into the temple. And he was stricken with leprosy.
Then Isaiah was all worried. So he goes down to the temple, and he began to pray. He thought he'd go down and pray a while. And now, look. That man was a prophet. But down there in the temple was a young man. He was crying out to God one day, and a vision fell before him. And when he did, he seen angels, cherubims with their faces covered with their ... with their wings, and their feet covered, and flying with two wings. And they were going back-and-forth, up-and-down, through the temple crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty."
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isaiah 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
59 And Isaiah, that great thirst that he'd had... He, perhaps, was schooled. He probably had a good education. He had a marvelous conception of what God ought to be. He had heard the priests. He'd been in the temple. He'd been raised to be a believer. But you see, he had never come face-to-face with it before, see. He had a desire to do right. He wanted to be right, but he just had the educational side. He had the theological side of it.
But when he got there in the temple that day, and he seen these cherubims waving these wings back-and-forth, and realized that these angels ministered in the face of God, and them angels didn't even know what sin was. And to stand in the presence of God they had to cover their holy faces, to stand in the presence of God. Then that prophet cried out, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. All of my theology and stuff that I've learned, all of my marvelous conception that I had of God, I am face-to-face with it now." He said, "I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell with people that's unclean lips."
All their teaching of the laws, and things they had done, had never reached that place to where he come into the presence of God; and seen God with his own eyes, and his trail when he was sitting up on high in the heavens. And there he was, face-to-face with reality. And he cried, "I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among unclean people."
Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 6:6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isaiah 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
60 And then it was that the cherubim took the tongs and a coal of fire from the altar, and touched them unclean lips; and turned him from a coward, or from a educated man, a teacher, to a prophet that the word of God could speak through. Sure, while he was in the presence of God it was something different. That thirst that he'd had had reached that place then, till he was filled with it.
Let me tell you, friend, I don't care how many churches you join, how many names you put on, which way you go, and whether you are sprinkled, baptized, or whatever you are. Until you meet that person Jesus Christ, that's the only thing that'll really satisfy. Emotion won't do it. You might jump up-and-down, and shout as long as you want to. Or you might run up-and-down the floor, and you might speak in tongues as much as you want to. And them things are holy, and good. I don't say ... I don't say nothing against that. But until you meet that person, that satisfying portion, that something that takes every fiber in your body, not by emotion, but by a satisfaction...
61 I used to see a little sign said, "If you're thirsty, say 'Parfait.'" There used to be a little drink, when I was a boy, called Parfait. I remember coming down the road from fishing---I had been up to the pond, old stagnant waters---and I was about starved to death. And I seen a sign say, "If you're thirsty, just say 'Parfait.'"
And I started saying, "Parfait, Parfait." I got thirstier all the time. See, I got so I couldn't even spit, after a while, I was so thirsty. Well, you see, that won't do it.
There is nothing will satisfy it. I don't care. You can drink Cokes, you can drink anything you want to, with them sweetened by carbonated waters, and so forth. There is nothing that will satisfy the thirst like a good, cool, cold stream of water. That'll quench that thirst. All these other things are substitutes.
1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
62 And why would we want to take a substitute, when there is a genuine baptism of the Holy Ghost, that satisfies every fiber and longing in the human soul! Then stand right in the face of death. Like the great apostle Paul said, "Oh death, where is your sting? And grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That's the experience, brother! That satisfies that holy hush that ... or that holy thirst that's in you. It satisfies it. You don't have to do anything else about it. Yeah, it cleanses the lips.
And there is also just people who live upon the emotion, upon the... Some people say, "Well, we got a lot of that in our Pentecostal movement." And they'll go in (which is fine), they'll pat their hands, and play the music. Music stops, sh-whew, a bucket of water went over everything, see. Now, we do that ... we got in a habit of doing that. We got ... it's just become one of our customs.
63 Let me tell you something. When you're worshipping God in the spirit and in the truth---when it becomes a custom for you to do it, because you think you ought to do it, because you think if you don't shout or jump up-and-down or dance with the music, your neighbor is going to think you're backslid---you are drinking from a stagnated stream. Right. Until it fills every fiber, until the Holy Spirit itself's bubbling in you... I don't care whether the music's playing, whether they're playing "Nearer my God to Thee," or whatever it is, the Holy Spirit is still ringing the glory bells in your heart! That satisfies! That's God's satisfying portion. Anything less than that, you're done.
You might speak with tongue like men and angels, you might give all your goods to feed the poor, you might prophesy, and you might have knowledge, and understand all the mysteries and all these things---and you still become nothing (I Corinthians, 13). Until that satisfying something that can only quench that thirst... "My soul thirsts for the living God, like the hart panting for the water brook. Unless I can find it, I'll perish." When you get to hungering for God like that, something is going to take place. The Holy Spirit is to lead you to those great fountains of God. Yes, sir!
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
64 Now, there is a good thing to worship in the spirit, that's true. But sometimes you have spirit without truth. St. John 4 said, "We worship God, spirit and truth." And Jesus is the truth. That's exactly right. And He is the Word.
The streams God sent to satisfy you in the natural, Satan has polluted every one of them. He's put the poisoned dope in every one that he could get into. That's right.
He took that great stream of the church. That was God's way. Jesus said "Upon this rock I'll build my church; and the gates of hell can't prevail against it." Now, there is different arguments of that. The Roman people, the Catholic, says He built it upon Peter, see. And if that be so, Peter backslid in shame. So it wasn't, it sure wasn't built upon Peter, Petra, the little rock.
And then, the Protestant says that He built it upon Himself, Jesus Christ. Not to be different, but I differ with them. He never built it on either one. He built it upon the revelation of who He was. He said, "Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonas. Flesh and blood never revealed this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven, has revealed this to you." Not by knowledge---you didn't learn it by books, you didn't learn it by joining church, you didn't learn it in a shout. You didn't... But the Holy Ghost itself has brought the person of Jesus Christ to you. Then, upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it. That holy thirst has been satisfied in the person of Jesus Christ. There you are. That's the thing that we want to look for. Satisfy that thirst with that. All right.
We find that we must...
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
65 Knowledge? Oh, my. Knowledge is a great thing. We fill up, and today we're full of it. But you see, knowledge... As I was saying the other day, speaking on that subject of knowledge... There was a man standing outside, was talking to a friend of mine standing there. Said, "If the man don't believe in education, why is he reading the Bible?"
They... I thought, "Well, if they didn't get what the Lord Jesus said, how are they going to get a dummy like me, what I say?" They couldn't even understand Him, as plain as He was. He said there one day, "Except you eat the body, the blood ... drink the blood and eat the body of the Son of man, you have no life in you." He didn't explain it. He walked on. That's right, see.
"Well," they said, "this man's a cannibal. We're going to eat his body, drink his blood. He's a vampire, see. He wants us to become a vampire," see. Them intellectuals!
But He said, "My sheep hear my voice. It'll come to the elected God had elected by foreknowledge. And no ... to the Father... No man can come to me except the Father draws him. And all the Father has given me, they will come. They'll understand it." Them disciples couldn't understand it, but they believed it, see. That's right. And if you believe it... I can't understand many things, but I believe it anyhow, see. Because God said it was so.
John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
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.
John 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
66 Knowledge---do you know Satan's gospel is knowledge? You know that? He preached it in the garden of Eden to Eve, but she was deceived by his knowledge gospel. Now, and it's polluted the whole human race with it. That's exactly right. They took educational programs, put them in the church. They're all right out there, but not in God's Word. No, sir. You don't know God by education. You don't know God by knowing how ... learning mathematics, and pronouncing big words.
Paul, he was a smart man. But when he come to Christ, and received the Holy Spirit, went to the Corinthians, he said, "I never come to you with enticing words of man's wisdom [though he could have done it]." Said, "I come to you in power and manifestations of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would be in God, not in the wisdom of some man."
Now sometimes we make the church programs. They also call for their pastor. The church goes to vote for their pastor. They say, "Well, this pastor now, he's got two degrees in college. He learned four years of psychology. He took this, that, or the other." And they'll vote that kind of a man in. Why? Instead of a pastor who believes in God's Word being inspired, in being God, that'll preach the Word, regardless of how people feel about it...
1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1 Corinthians 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
67 God told Ezekiel, you know, he said, "Preach that whether they believe it or not. You preach it anyhow." Right. Whether they accept it or not, that ain't it. They didn't accept Jesus, but He went right on preaching, just the same. Instead of a real pastor that will really preach the Word, and believe in God, they try to bring in the intellect---the man who's got the best education. The man who can stand in the pulpit, don't take but just about fifteen minutes, so they can get home right quick, and go do something else. And Ricky can get his hot rod, and start out. And they can go to the twist parties, and everything. It's ... oh, it's just a ... it's nothing else but a hybrid, educational pollution. That's right. That's just exactly what it is. That's right.
But what is it? It satisfies their taste, see. It satisfies a worldly church member's taste. It don't satisfy a saint's taste. He'll take the Word every time. But they say, "Oh, well, now, them people is just a little off at their mind, see. They just don't ... they don't get it. They ... they're trying to live in a day gone by."
Ezekiel 2:7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
68 Isn't it strange? I come out here in the West, and I find out they're all trying to live in a day gone by. They always want some of the old-fashioned cowboy days. And go down in Kentucky, the old-fashioned hillbilly days. They want to act like it, have programs of it. But when it comes to old-fashioned religion, they don't want nothing about it. Old fashioned days? I come down here in the rodeo time. I seen they had a big woman down there, that green stuff under her eyes, and short bobbed hair, a cigarette in her mouth. Why, if they'd have seen that back in the old days, they'd have thought she'd cankered somewhere. They'd have put her in... What if your mother would have walked out, dressed like you and your daughter dress today? What would've taken place? They'd have had her in the insane institution. Sure. She come out without her skirt on.
Well, now remember, it's the same thing today. Man is rottening in their flesh. If they're going through the middle age, between twenty and twenty-five years old, their brain cells are rottening, too. They haven't got... People's got so they haven't got enough understanding. They don't know what decency means. They don't know the difference between right and wrong.
And, oh, their educational program, they...
69 Did you know, education (I can prove it to you) is of the devil? Not to read and write, but I mean putting their education in your church. What does communism lay on? Science, education. That's their god, Satan, see. That's what he introduced to Eve. That's what they're still holding to. Now, it's got over in our churches. Got over in the Baptist, Methodists, and Presbyterian, Pentecostals, and all. Some education, intellectual, some great so-and-so and something like that, that just throws him farther away from God. It's wrong. Yes, sir.
Now, we find out that they... It satisfies their desire. When a ... when a church would vote in something like that, it goes to show what's in that church's mind, what their desire is, what their thirsting is for. They want to say, "Our pastor is wide-minded. He don't mind us mixed-bathing, and he goes with us."
70 A little girl told my Sarah, the other day, her pastor had been to Africa. And when he come back, she stripped off her clothes that night, with a pair of little tights on, and done the Watusi for him to entertain him, because he'd been to Africa. The Watusi is a tribe over there, you know. Boy, I'd like to see one of my girls, in my congregation, try to do something like that! Watusi! See, it goes to show.
And a pastor would sit and look at one of his congregation, a little sixteen or eighteen years old girl out there, stripped off like that, and let her get by with that? That shows that he come out of a cesspool himself! A man of God, do a thing like that! Certainly. That sounds flat, but I realize I'm preaching across the nation, too. But you know this also, brother, sister, let me tell you, that's the truth.
71 A vulture wants dead things. That's right. And that's dead! That's exactly right. Plainly shows, it just plainly shows here, what their head and their control tower, what it's giving them, see, what's in their soul. Their soul longeth for things like that. Their soul longeth for a high, intellectual church, where the people dress real fine, and the pastor takes fifteen minutes or twenty, and if he goes over that, they throw him back on the deacon board. And he mustn't say nothing about sin, he mustn't say anything about wearing shorts, and mustn't say nothing about people doing this, that, or the other. He mustn't mention that at all. If they do, the board'll have him thrown out. See what it is? That's their thinking man's filter.
The Bible said in I John 2:15, "If you love this world system, or the things of this world, it's because that the love of God is not even in you."
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
72 Now, what about all this carrying-on they done today, in the name of the church? Practicing square dancing, in the church---bunco, bingo, parties, teenagers, rock and roll, twists---all these stuff. Look at this Elvis Presley, a devil standing in shoes. Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson, the biggest impediment this nation's ever had. That's right.
They say, "Oh, they're very religious. They sang Christian songs." It oughtn't to... The church oughtn't to even permit a thing like that. Some of these guys go out here, and tonight they're in a roadhouse out here, dancing and playing music, and everything. And the next night they come to the altar, and weep. And the next night they're playing music on the platform. Oh, goodness, gracious! How far can ... how far could filth go, anyhow? Yes, sir. Prove himself first to be a man of God. Not all this stuff, just because he can beat an old guitar, or something.
By your desire, you can tell who is on the throne of your heart. By what you love, that's what tells... You say, "Well, I think them things are all right, Brother Branham." Well, just remember now, in your heart, you know what's there. Yes, sir. By what is feeding your soul, what your soul is thirsting for, and you can see it satisfies that---if it isn't this Word, then there's something wrong. Because the Holy Spirit lives on the Word only, see.
73 I want you to see another great danger, just before we close. If you are not ... if you're not guilty of any of these things that I've mentioned, and... That is, the danger of neglecting a thirst, see. You say, "I have a holy thirst, but ... I'm not guilty, Brother Branham, of just going and joining church, and things like this. But..." See, to neglect a thirst... If you neglect to satisfy a thirst of water, or food, you'll die. And if you neglect that thirst in you for God, you'll spiritually die.
You call for revivals. You wait for your church to have a revival. Well, that ain't ... that ain't the revival for you. The revival ought to begin right in you, when you begin to thirst for God. There might not be another member of the church wanting that revival. If it breaks out in you, it'll break out other places, see.
But see, you neglect that thirst... You neglect to milk the cow, when the cow is ... the udder is full of milk. And if you let that cow stay like that, she'll go dry. That's exactly right. If you neglect to take a drink of water, say, "I just ain't going to drink anymore," you'll die. If you neglect to eat food, you'll die. So if you neglect to give the Holy Spirit the Word of God, you'll die.
74 You Christians, you Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, oneness, twoness, threeness, whatever you are, see---don't care---that don't matter nothing to me. I don't think it does to God, see.
You're an individual. You're a unit. You'll never go to heaven as a church, a denomination. You'll go to heaven as one single person, between you and God. That's all. Don't care what church you belong to. And if you neglect to read the Bible, and to believe the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, to feed upon that, you'll die.
Jesus said, in St. John 4:3, the scripture I got right here, Jesus said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word, not just part of it. We take a little bit here. I call that a "Bible hitchhiker." They say, "Well, I believe this; but now, let's go over here," see. You've got to take it word by word.
Jesus said, "Man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Did you know that?
And you know, we've made the day that we're living in ... we made this day a religious perversion.
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
75 My daughter called me in not long ago, and said to me, "Daddy" (in the next side of the house), she said, "come over here. We're going to have a religious program on." It was a singing, hymn singing. And there was some little Ricky, reading it up there. And if I ever seen a sacrilegious movement, it was that. Them guys up there, and people ... looked more like it was a floor show. Supposed to be an Indian tribe, and they were carrying-on, and jump up and box at one another.
Why, what's went with the sincerity? Where is those old-fashioned hymns we used to sing, and rejoice in the Spirit of God, and tears roll down our cheeks? And now, we try to hold our breath, until we ain't got enough breath in us, till our face turns blue, to try to show that we are some sort of a singer. We've copied that off of Hollywood, and all these programs that we see, through this intellectual hymn singing and training of voice. I like to hear good singing. I like to hear good old-fashioned, heartfelt, Pentecostal singing. But I sure hate to hear that squeaking they call singing today. That's right. I think that's the most ridiculous thing. It's a perversion. That's right.
76 I like to see a man, when he's a man. I hate to see one with his wife's underclothes on, out here, and slipped up along the side, and a roller hanging down here in front, and two cones of hair hanging down, like bangs cut in front. That... I couldn't call that a man. He don't know what side of the race he belongs on, see. That's right. You see, the woman ... look, the woman is trying to cut her ... make her hair like the man. The man is trying to make his hair bangs like the woman. The man is wearing his wife's underneath clothes; she's wearing his overalls, see. Just a perversion, right around.
And that's the same thing it is with nations, with people, with churches, with everything. Oh, God, where's the end of the thing? The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the end of it.
77 So, if you neglect to feed the Holy Spirit the Word of God... Jesus said every word shall be by the Holy Spirit. And listen, now, if you try to feed it the wrong thing, if it's the genuine Holy Spirit in you, it'll know the difference. Now remember, the Word of God is what the Holy Spirit feeds on. It don't feed on enthusiasm; it don't feed on education; it doesn't feed on church going; it doesn't feed on theologies.
There is a lot of difference between an inspired something, and a theological standpoint of it. All those theologians in the days of Jesus, my, they had word by word, page by page, all laid out. The Messiah had to come this way. That's exactly what it was. And they, every one, missed it. You know what Jesus said when He come? Said, "You're of your father, the devil. And his works you'll do." It wasn't revealed to them what the real Word was. See, they missed those little corners, like they're missing, today.
"If you'll belong to this..."
And "Belong to this, you'll be all right." Don't you believe that. You've got to belong to Christ.
And if there's something in you hungering for 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.
78 just remember, when you were in your father's loins, you were with Him then. But your father didn't know you then, and you didn't know your father. And you had to come and be born. God made a way through your mother, for the seedbed. And then it come, and then you become a man, or a woman, whatever it was. Then you recognized your father, and your father could have fellowship with you.
Now, remember, if you've got eternal life, your life was in God at the beginning. And the life... God is the Word. And then when the Word was made flesh, in Jesus Christ, God coming down to dwell in his own body (made Himself the Son of God), when God came down to dwell in that... You were in Him when He was crucified, and you were crucified with Him, and you died with Him, on Calvary. You was buried with Him on the mountain, and you rose with him on Easter morning. And now, you're sitting together in heavenly places in Him. And now, you've got fellowship with Him, see. God, Himself, become one of us. No man has seen the Father at any time. The only begotten of the Son ... Father, has declared Him. That's... God became a man, so He could fellowship you as a man, see. And now, you're flesh, and He's flesh.
God is made flesh among us, in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. And in Him was God. He was God, nothing short of God. He was God. God manifested in the Son, Jesus Christ, which made Him Immanuel, as the prophet said He would be.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
79 Now, see then, you had to be... Before the world was ever formed, your name was put on the Lamb's book of life. And then, what can you eat? The Holy Spirit lives by the Word of God. And now, in Revelation 22:19, the Bible said, "Whosoever shall take one word out of this, or add one word to it, his part will be taken from the book of life." See how deep it is?
You cannot... The Holy Spirit won't live on the things of the world---like a dove bird, and a crow. A crow is a big hypocrite. A crow ... that fellow can go out here, and can eat wheat all day long; and go over there and fly on an old dead carcass, and eat it, too. He can sit in the field, and he can eat with the dove, wheat; and go over and eat on the dead carcass. But, the dove can eat wheat all day long but it can't eat on a dead carcass, because it's a dove. And a dove don't have any gall. One bite out of that dead carcass, it'd kill the dove, see. It has no gall. And that's the way it is---no bitterness.
And that's the way with a real, genuine Christian. They don't want the things of the world. They just eat the Word of God, and that alone---what's clean, the thinking man's filter, see. They come through that, and that alone. The dead things of the world, it stinks to them. Look at the old crow in the days of the antediluvian destruction, flying from body to body, eating them old dead carcasses. He didn't come back to the ark. But the dove could find no rest for her feet, see. She come back to the ark, where she was getting grain. And that's the way we do. We live by the Word of God.
Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
80 In Psalms 42... David must have wrote this Psalm, Psalms 42, when he was a fugitive, when he said, "My soul thirsts after Thee as a hart panteth after the water brook." Look. He cried... David was a fugitive. He had been... He had the anointing oil on him. He knowed he was going to be king. The prophet had anointed him king. Now, notice. And there he was. He had a little bunch of soldiers made up of Gentiles, and so forth. Was up on top of the mountain, where his own beloved city, because of their sin, they were garrisoned all around with the Philistines. And David on that hot day... It must have been, when he wrote this Psalm, "As the hart panteth for the water brook."
Notice, David in this condition, he looked down. He looked at his beloved city, and he remembered when he was a little boy, he used to take the sheep out by this certain pool, there. It was a great water country, and also bread country, down there. Really, "Bethlehem" means the house of God's bread. And then, when David remembered going by there, and drinking that good, cool water; and here he was laying up here now a fugitive, away from his own people. He had no place to go. And his soul must have cried for that good, cool water.
1 Chronicles 11:16 And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem.
1 Chronicles 11:17 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
81 He had some servants there that, my, just the least of his desire was a command. And they, three of them, fought their way through that line of Philistines, fifteen miles, seven miles or something, down and back, cutting their way through, and brought him a drink of that water.
But the soul thirst... His body... He was up there, probably had to drink out of anything he could get ahold of, some old goat skins and things, with some old, hot water in, on that hot day. He thought, "If I could just lay down, and quench this thirst that I have. If I could just go down there, to Bethlehem, and lay down by that spring and drink."
1 Chronicles 11:17 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!
1 Chronicles 11:18 And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD,
82 And when they went down, and got the water and brought it back, his soul thirst was so greater---not for Bethlehem, but from Jerusalem. His soul was so ... he sacrificed the water, said, "I wouldn't even drink it." He poured it out upon the ground. See, his soul was more thirsty for God, than it was to satisfy the quench of a good ... his thirst of his body, with a good, cool water. He poured it upon the ground. See, the house of God, the soul-cooling waters of Jerusalem which is above...
Jesus said in John 6:33, "I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life." Bethlehem, house of God, our church, earthly church of God, the church that's here on earth---we love to go to the church, here on earth. But greater is Jerusalem, which is above, which is God: Jerusalem above, which is God. Greater is that soul's thirst, to be there with Him, than it would to be just to satisfy yourself with joining a church somewhere. See, joining a church don't satisfy that thirst. David proved it here. The water's right from the house of God, see. He poured it out upon the ground, to find favor, to get a good, cool drink from God. Even on that... Greater than the thirst that's in you, is that thirst of the soul, thirst for God.
1 Chronicles 11:18 And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD,
1 Chronicles 11:19 And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
83 Notice, Jerusalem. The word ... Jerusalem is from above, the Bible said, which we're ... is the mother of us all. And Christ is our mother, we realize that. God is our mother, for we're born of Him. The word simply means peace. Jerusalem, shalom, or shalom, which means peace. Jeru-shalom, see, means peace. Greater should be the thirst of any soul for the waters of life, than to say you belong to a church. The thirst of the soul can't be satisfied---the real true thirst. It can be perverted. You can think you're all right when you join church. But that isn't it. That won't satisfy the genuine holy thirst for God. It just simply won't do it. It just ... it's just not there.
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
84 Now, David said, in Psalms 42:7 here, when the "Deep calleth unto the deep at the noise of thy waterspout," the soul's call. Look, I've often used this as an illustration. If there is a fin on a fish's back, it had to be put there for him to swim with. He has a need for that. Now what if he'd say, "I'm going to be a different fish. I'm going to be a smart, educated fish. I just ... I'm going to believe some real theology. I believe I don't have to have that fin." He wouldn't get very far in the water, would he? And that's exactly right.
What if a tree said, "Now, I know there had to be an earth first for me to grow in. That's right. I'm supposed to grow in the earth, but I'm going to be a different tree. I want them just set me out here in the middle of the street, so I can be noticed," see. He wouldn't live very long, see. That's right. When the deep calleth to the deep, it takes more than joining a church. It takes more than shaking hands with the preacher. It takes more than living a good straight life. It takes something to satisfy you. It pours down from God into the soul. The deep calling to the deep at the noise of thy waterspouts, oh, Lord, the deep calling to the deep.
Psalm 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
85 What kind of a thirst could we think was in us tonight? We, as Pentecostal people, where are we getting to? What kind of a thirst is in us? What kind of a thirst is in me? What kind of a thirst is in you? Don't try to hush that holy thirst for God.
Years ago, when they used to have gold out here, in the mountains... I read a story many years ago. It's always stuck with me. It said there was a prospector went out here somewhere, beyond the mountains here, and was prospecting for gold. And he struck a rich claim. And he come back thinking, when he got to the city, what he would be, his troubles was all over. And he tried to say, "Tomorrow I'll get in, and I'll..." Just one day's journey he would be into the city and he would have the gold. And he had big sacks full of it.
86 He had a dog with him---not comparing, now, the dog to the Holy Spirit, but as I'm making an illustration---but this dog... Through the night the prospector laid upon his bed. And he began to think, "Now, tomorrow I'll take all my gold in, and I'll become just what I've always wanted to be. I always wanted to be a rich man. I wanted to own fine things, and so forth." And then this dog begin to bark, and because there was an enemy approaching. And he went out there, and he said, "Shut up!" And so the dog quietened down. And no more than got back to bed, he started like he was going to go to sleep. And the dog started again, just jumping at the chain. And he went to the door again, said, "Shut up! I want you to know that tomorrow, I'm a rich man," see. And that was his great dream.
But the dog started barking again.
87 And finally he got so discouraged, he went and got his shotgun, and shot the dog and killed it. He said, "I don't have no more use for you anyhow. Tomorrow I'm a rich man. I'll become a rich man tomorrow." And he set the gun down in the corner, turned his back over to the door, went to sleep. And the man that'd been following him for days slipped in, and killed him. He wasn't a rich man, see. He stopped that warning buzzer, that was trying to tell him his life was at stake.
88 And brother, sister, you'll never be able to... Don't never try to hush that holy calling in your heart, see, by joining a church, by reciting a creed, by belonging to a certain organization. There's only one thing can satisfy it. That's the person Jesus Christ.
"As the hart panteth for the water brook, so my soul thirsts after Thee, oh God. My soul thirsts for the living God," see. There's something in you that wants to see the moving of God. Your soul thirsts for it. Don't stop anything short of that. Don't let some pastor tell you just have to shake his hand, join the church, or belong to this organization. Don't you kill that holy hush. It's warning you. Some day will come, when you'll come down to the end of the road.
Psalm 42:1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
89 Like a little lady in our city we come from, she told... A little girl went up there to church, and a very fine little girl. And she used to come down the street. She had long hair, you know, and her hair pulled back like a ... slick of a peeled onion nearly. And her face looked ... no make-up on. And this girl used to make fun of her. Said, "If you didn't have that flat-headed preacher you got up there" (speaking of me), said, "you could look like something decent. But you look like something out of an antique shop." And, oh, she just really raked her over the coals, every time she could see her like that. Said, "Our pastor's broad-minded." Said, "He knows them that... Why do you do like that? That don't mean anything---how you dress, or things." It does! God's Bible says it does. We shall live by every word. So this little girl never paid a bit of attention to her, went on. She's a missionary now.
Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
90 So then, this ... this young lady took a social disease, and she died. A friend of mine pumped the embalming fluid in her. When she was dying... He told me, said after she was dead, he kept smelling the fluid. She had a hole eat in her side---social disease. They didn't ... even her parents didn't know what was wrong with her. And she died. But before she died, she taught Sunday school. And all of her little Sunday school group come in. They wanted to see her when she went off to heaven, the angels come and packed her away. And her pastor ... outside smoking a cigarette, walking up and down the hall in the hospital. And they was all going to sing when she was going to die, you know. They knowed she had to die. Doctors said she was dying. So they was all going to see the angels come pack her away.
91 And all at once, when she faced the reality... Now, she was a loyal church member. She was a Sunday school teacher, and a loyal church member of a fine, big, denominational church. But when she was ... started to struggle, death struck her. Her eyes bulged out, and she said, "I'm lost!" She said, "I'm lost! Go get the pastor."
He put his cigarette out and walked in, said, "Here, here, here, here. We'll get the doctor to give you a hypo."
Said, "I don't want no hypo!" Said, "You deceiver of men! I'm dying, and I'm going to hell. And I'm lost, because you failed to tell me the truth. Go get that little Goodhue's girl, and bring her up here to me, real quick. She's right."
Wait till you face the reality, once. Don't you try to stop that holy hush. Don't you blast it away with some modern educational, double-barreled shotgun. You listen to that warning of the Holy Ghost tonight, that's warning you. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." And he is the Word.
Let us bow our heads, just a moment.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
92 I want to quote one more word of the Lord Jesus, while you're thinking about it. Jesus said in Matthew 5, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst." It's even blessed to have that thirst in you.
Have you come to a spot, that your whole system has been so polluted by denominationalisms and little cults, and clans, and things, little church orders (social-like), joining lodges, and so forth---from church to church? Has the devil been able to put that water of pollution, and you're slopping out of it like a hog in a trough, when you don't even know what the real, quenching thirst of God, to see Him a reality by the Holy Spirit living in you and manifesting?
If you're ... if you're that way tonight, if you're still thirsting for God let me tell you,
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
Where sinners plunged beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty stain.
That dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
There may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
Ever since by faith I saw that stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
93 If you've got that thirst tonight, to know more about God, and to come closer to Him, will you just raise up your hand now, while every head's bowed, say, "Pray for me." Oh, God, look at the hands. Out into the land where the broadcast is coming now, from east, north, west, and south---you in them rooms---raise up your hands to the pastors, and whatever is there, that you desire, you, something in you thirsting for God. That holy thirst ... don't satisfy it.
"Oh," you say, "Brother Branham, I shouted once, I danced in the Spirit."
Don't take that, no. Wait till that satisfaction comes, that satisfaction portion of the fullness of the Holy Spirit comes in. Then these joy bells of shouting, and speaking in tongues, and dancing in the Spirit will come. You won't have to do it by the music. You'll do it when you're going down the road in your car. You'll do it when you're sweeping the floor. You'll do it when you're driving nails in a wall, with your carpenter work. Wherever you are, that joy unspeakable and full of glory... Now, let us pray.
1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
94 Dear heavenly Father, long, lengthy, drawed-out, this little message tonight. But dear God, may your Holy Spirit deliver the meaning to every heart. Right in this church tonight, there was just multiplied numbers of hands up, all the way around the halls, and everywhere. We pray, dear God, for them. Oh, may that satisfying portion of God, which is Christ, the hope of glory, the hope of life in you, may it come to each one of them way out across the nation: from California way up in New York, now, where it's early in the morning (they're listening in up there); over in New Hampshire, and down along in Boston, and all the way down in Texas, through Indiana, out into California and around.
Oh, God, look at those hands. Look what's beneath them, Lord---that heart there that's hungering and thirsting.
95 This perverted day, where the devil has blinded people's eyes, just to join churches, and say that's all you need... And they still look at their own self, and see the way they do, and the desire they have to be like the world; when the Bible tells us if we even love the things of the world, the love of God's not even in us.
Just think, Father, how perverted that he can make that real true Word; how that they can say, "Oh, we believe the Bible, but not this. We don't believe this. We believe this was for another age. We believe this is that."
Because some denomination has twisted their minds into that cesspool, when Jesus said, "Whosoever shall take one word out of this, or add one word to it, his part will be taken from the book of life."
Dear God, think of the disappointments there at judgment, when people's lived a good, clean, holy life, went to church just as loyal as they could be---and lost.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
96 Think of those Pharisees, how from little boys they trained in the Word, come up through schools and everything. Holy---had to be, or they'd be stoned to death. And Jesus said, "You are of your father, the devil."
How that Israel went down there (and let this be a warning to the Pentecostals, Lord, across the land), how that Moses, a prophet, came down into Egypt to fulfill the word of God, to bring the evening light to them; how they seen the great miracles of God; how they followed him; crossed the Red Sea; was baptized unto him; went into the wilderness and eat angel's food that fell from heaven---and then refused to take all the Word. When they come back from Kadesh-barnea ... to Kadesh-barnea from the ... from the promised land, and said, "They're like giants. We can't do it," when God said, "I've already give you the land."
Border-line... Jesus said, "They are every one perished." They are dead, lost without God, though they done all these things.
They seen these miracles, enjoyed, danced up and down the seacoast with Miriam, when they beat the tambourine. And only three, out of the two million, went in.
Exodus 15:20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Numbers 13:31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Numbers 13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Deuteronomy 9:23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
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.
97 We realize, Father, that when the sperm, the genes, from the male and female come together, there is only one out of a million that's accepted. One germ from the male finds the fertile egg of the woman, the female. And a million others perish. There's a million ... two million come out of Egypt. Two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the land, one out of a million.
Father, I tremble when I think of that. Think across the world today 500 million Christians, that would be five hundred if you should come tonight. Oh, God, let us remember that every word of God stands a memorial. We must believe it; we must obey it. And when You said, "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
And God, You're still calling tonight. And the promise is as long as You call. And clergymen has twisted the minds of those people, and directed it by an educational, denominational school of theology, to a thing to say, "Oh, you just believe." The devil believes also. But he can't receive the Holy Spirit. Judas Iscariot was a ... done all the rest the disciples did, preach the Gospel. But when it come time for him to get the Holy Ghost, he showed his colors.
God, may the people of the land, tonight, realize that without that experience, they are lost. May it be tonight, that their souls will be satisfied with thy portion, Lord, as we commend them into thy hand. They are yours, Lord. We're only responsible for the Word. I pray that they'll believe with all their heart, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
98 Oh, is He your satisfying portion? Oh, my. You love Him with all your heart? Now, them words are sometimes cutting. But let's just sing in the Spirit, now, see, each one of us, now. Let's shake hands with the brother sitting next to you, sister, and just say, "God bless you, pilgrim," as we sing it again.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now, we shook hands with each other. Now let's just close our eyes, and sing in the Spirit, raise our hands to Him.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Oh, isn't He wonderful?
Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me,
Counsellor, Prince of Peace,
Mighty God is He;
Saving me, keeping me,
From all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer, Praise His name!
Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me,
Counsellor, Prince of peace,
Mighty God is He;
Saving me, keeping me,
From all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer,
Praise His name!
99 Oh, are you enthused about your experience with Christ? Isn't He wonderful? Doesn't He satisfy?
I once was lost, now I'm found,
Free from condemnation,
Jesus gives liberty,
And a full salvation;
Saving me, keeping me,
From all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer, Praise His name!
Oh, wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me,
Counsellor, Prince of Peace,
Mighty God is He;
Saving me, keeping me,
From all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer, Praise His name!
100 Do you believe that's scriptural? The Bible said, "Clap your hands, make a joyful noise unto the Lord." You know, I always wanted to play music. My daughter, Rebekah, is taking piano. My little boy is taking trumpet. But I did learn an instrument of ten strings.
Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus is to me,
Counsellor, Prince of peace,
Mighty God is He;
Saving me, keeping me,
From all sin and shame,
Wonderful is my Redeemer, Praise His name!
Do you love Him?
We'll walk in the light, a beautiful light,
Come where the dewdrops
Of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the light of the world.
We'll walk in the light,
It's such a beautiful light,
It comes where the dewdrops
Of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the light of the world.
Psalm 47:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
Psalm 100:1 A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
101 [Humming.] Worship God with everything you have. [Humming.]
When the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.
Oh, when they crown Him Lord of all,
When they crown Him Lord of all,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When they crown him Lord of all.
When the sun refused to shine,
When the sun refused to shine,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When the sun refused to shine.
Do you love that? Now, I wonder if you got your feet converted. You don't dance anymore out there, for the world, see. Let's pat our feet to the Lord, to the Lord. Is your hands converted---you don't steal anymore? Your lips are converted---you don't lie anymore? Just don't get religion in your head; get it all over you, that's it! It takes the whole man. That's right. Now, let's pat our feet.
When the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.
When the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.
Now, let's just raise our hands.
When the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Oh, Lord, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.
When they crown Him Lord of all,
When they crown Him Lord of all,
Lord, I want to be in that number
When they crown him Lord of all.
102 Don't you love Him?
Then, we'll walk in the light,
(He is the light, you know)
It's a beautiful light,
It comes where the dewdrops
Of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the light of the world.
Do you believe He is the light of the world? Do you? Paul said "When I sing, I'll sing in the Spirit. If I worship, I worship in the Spirit," see. Whatever you do, do it all in the Spirit, that's right. And the Spirit brings the Word to life. Is that right? That's right. Yes, sir.
All ye saints of light proclaim,
Jesus, the light of the world;
Grace and mercy in His name,
Jesus, the light of the world.
Then what'll we do?
We'll walk in the light, beautiful light,
Come where the dewdrops
Of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the light of the world.
1 Corinthians 14:15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
103 Sorry to confuse you players like that, but I just get carried away. I don't know no better than just to worship. That's the way we do it. Yes, sir. I'm thankful for this opportunity, Brother Mack, to come and fellowship with you and your church, here, tonight, all these fine people. And you that raised your hands for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I trust that you'll meet Pastor Mack here, or some of them, and go back in a room here. And just remember, when God spoke the word in the beginning, and said, "Let there be," there had to be. And He said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled," see. It's got to happen. Come to visit your pastor here, and stand by him as he preaches the gospel.
Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
104 Now, let's sing again that good old song, I just love that. We'll walk in the light. Jesus said, "I am the light," and you're in Him, see. How do you get into Him? Joining Him? No. Shaking? No. Baptism of water? No. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, which is the body of Christ. And in that body is nine spiritual gifts, operating through the local body, the local church. That's apostolic if I ever knew of it. That's right. So...
We'll keep in the light,
In the beautiful light,
It comes where the dewdrops
Of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus the light of the world.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
1 Corinthians 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1 Corinthians 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1 Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
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.