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The World Is Falling Apart
63-0412M, The World Is Falling Apart, Western Skies Motel, Albuquerque, NM, 100 min

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L-1 Certainly a grand privilege to be here, to be hearing these fine testimonies from these brothers that's in love with our Lord Jesus. Now, I still living on the--the... What would I say? The inspiration I received from the message, one of them, last evening; course, all of them. But it's inspired me, to this brother here, thinking of his trial; like He did, tried Job, and, but he was double at the end. And I think it's marvelous to set around, listen to someone's testimony, then you can compare their life.
L-2 I preached on that recently at Phoenix, "to identify ourselves with Christ," and identify ourselves with Him in the Bible. If we lived in that day, what group would we be identified with?
L-3 Then, last night, when Brother Crow, I believe that was his name, that brought us this wonderful message of his testimony. We were setting there, a few moments ago, comparing each other's life. And both being Baptist; formal boxers, and so forth, and our last fights, what taken place. And then I certainly enjoyed that. I'm glad they taped it.
L-4 And now, this morning, I know we have a--a banquet or a luncheon here, for the ministers, in just a little while. And--and... [A brother says, "No. It's all the men, this morning."--Ed.] What say? ["All--all the men folks."] Men folks. Yes. And then, tonight, I think that the banquet's at the... ["Ministers, anyone wants to, all the men want to come."] Yeah. Any man, minister or layman. [Brother Demos Shakarian says, "The--the--the luncheon is not till twelve-thirty."] Twelve-thirty. ["So that's two--two hour, two and a half hour, two hours from now. See?"] Gracious person, Brother Shakarian, and his wife.
L-5 Sister Williams, I was going to say something, but I won't. Brother Carl, his testimony, a while ago, was outstanding. So I... First time I ever knew that, as long as I've knowed you, but it was--it was very fine. I--I learn a lesson by all things. Don't we? Right.
L-6 So, then, tonight, I'm to speak on the subject, tonight, if the Lord willing, "There they crucified Him."
L-7 And now, today, just for a little change of position, before we speak on a little subject. I come into your city, yesterday, for my first time, be my second time speaking. I had a... In New Mexico, I had a meeting once down in Carlsbad, for a few nights. But I've never had the privilege of coming here to this lovely place, before. And I--I like to come in early, and kind of feel around and see the... what the need of the city is. Now, we should never come to city, as ministers...
L-8 Now, businessmen, this is a convention. You're here to talk your businesses, and your woes and blessings, to share them together. And that's very fine.
L-9 But as a minister of Christ, we come here to find out the spiritual condition. And then not come here to be heard or seen, but come here to do something to glorify God, to bring the thing to--to a better understanding of God. And now I changed my subject, this morning.
L-10 And now, before we read the Scripture, I wonder if we could stand just for a way of changing the posture for a few moments, for a word of prayer. And now, before we pray, if there be any here would like to be remembered in the prayer, would you just raise your hands. No matter what it is, He knows what's beneath your hand. And I have both mine up.
Let us bow our heads now, as we approach Him.
L-11 Our Heavenly Father, we are a very privileged people to be setting together today in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, by one Spirit, all baptized into this one Body, and have the privilege of setting here together and sharing the blessings of the testimonies of these, Thy children.
L-12 And now, as the hour is growing late, we would not want to enter this most crucial time, for my part of speaking to the people, nervously, or thinking we are have to hurry out. But we pray that You'll quieten our minds, a few moments, and listen further for Your exhortations to us, and Your warnings. And I'll wait on You, Father, for these things.
L-13 And now we pray that You'll bless this businessmen's chapter, these Christian, full Gospel men, that their testimony may still spread far and wide, to the glory and honor of our Lord.
L-14 And now we are happy to know that there is coming a time when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, that we shall rule and reign on the earth with Him, a thousand years. We're looking forward to that time. And hearing the men speak of their temptations, and how that Satan took our Lord up to the top of the mountain, and in a moment of time showed Him all the governments and kingdoms of the world, and offered them to Him, but He flatly refused them, because He knew that someday He was falling heir to them. And we don't look at things that go on so much temporarily now, but we look to the end of the road, where the rewards are given.
L-15 Father, we pray, this morning, that You'll make our hearts solemn before Thee, as we listen. Pray that You'll speak to us, Lord, through mortal lips. May we hear You through mortal ears. And then may we, in return, obey everything that You command us. We wait on Thee now as we read Thy most holy Word, to where our--our foundation of our faith lays in the written Word. We ask it in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
You may be seated.
L-16 And now, in the Word, I would like for you to turn for a few readings of the Scripture, especially in two places, for a few notes that I have written down here, that I'd like to, like a Sunday school lesson, to comment on for a few moments, if you will. Deuteronomy 4, first, Deuteronomy 4:10 and 11. I would like to read these verses.
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, and when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will take them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
And he came near and stood under the mount; and the mountain burned with fire in the midst of heaven, and the dark clouds, and the thickness of darkness. [Deuteronomy 4:10-11]
L-17 And then in Hebrews 12:25. We read these Words from Hebrews 12:25.
See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from... that speaketh from the... him that speaketh from heaven: [Hebrews 12:25]
L-18 Now, those are kind of odd Words to be reading at a--at a businessmen's breakfast, but may the Lord bless Them to our hearts. And now I would like to take this little subject. That I was... This morning, was on my heart to speak upon a subject, "Blood on the Message." And I just bypassed that, for some reason, not knowing why. But I want to make a text here, this morning, of the odd one, but title it: The World Is Falling Apart. That's an odd text, but I--I feel led to speak on it: The World Is Falling Apart.
L-19 We are now in this, being what we call "good Friday," or God's good Friday. I don't know why we call it that, "good Friday." But we're just in the beginning, on another series of--of holidays, holy days that the world sets aside, the Christian world, to--to celebrate in commemoration, great Scriptural events that happened in the times past, great things that taken place. And we use them and make a time of celebration for those things which has happened. If God... If--if God were here at this Christian world at this time, and what's called the Christian world, I wonder what His attitude would be towards our manner of celebration that we have in--in memorial of these great days and times that--that has been.
L-20 And men come together, in hopes of finding out something. They want to know, to find a solution or some kind of a system, a time of lifeline, to keep our world together. We gather here this morning for that purpose.
L-21 Men meet in different circles, to find out there's something wrong. We all know there is. And there's something wrong in the world, and we must try to find this out. And men gather in these circles to find out what the solution is. This happened many times in our world, what we call "falling apart." We're living in the time that when our--our... not only our nation, but our whole world is falling apart. There seems to be nothing that has the foundation, that's, that can stand.
L-22 We tried in so many different things. We've--we've tried to educate the world, to an understanding of one another. We... And we've had different systems of League of Nations, and U.N.'s, and so forth, to try to bring understanding to man. The Christian world has tried to educate the people to an understanding. We tried to denominate them to an understanding. And seems like we're right back, like it always has happened, the whole systems are falling apart, something wrong.
L-23 We want, seriously think of this, for the next few minutes. Just don't enter this now, just to say, "Well, we walked over and we set down. We had a breakfast. We heard testimonies, and so forth." But let's, with all of our hearts, get down to this and think of it.
L-24 Remember, it's our life, and there's nothing no more important than our life. There's nothing no more important, no matter how much we gain in the world, or how great we become here, but we got to come to the end of the road. And then the... That's a telling time, and we must approach it with all the sincerity we know how to do.
L-25 When, the people in other times, when people tried to find some way of survival, and they went to systems. And the only way that they can go to any other system, than the way that God has laid down, is to get away from His Word. Men in other ages has done this, the times past. They all tried to get away, and tried to control the world, and make a system of politics, and different things to try to control and hold the--the world together. And, they, in order to do that, they have to get away from God's plan of doing it. See? They're... God has a way of keeping this thing together. And the only way that men can ever adopt some other way, he has to get away from the original way.
L-26 You see, before there can be a lie, there has to be a truth that that lie comes from, because a lie is the truth perverted. All sin is--is righteousness perverted. That's all sin is, is to... See? The Devil cannot create anything. He perverts what God has created. There's only one Creator, and that's God. A lie is a truth perverted. Adultery is the right act perverted. And anything is, that's wrong, is the right that's been perverted.
L-27 So, therefore, to take any other system of keeping the world together, than God's system, it's a perversion. So anything perverted has to have an end, because everything that had a beginning has an end. It's the things that did not begin, that never dies, never has an end.
L-28 And there's only one thing that never did begin, and that was God. Therefore, the only way we can ever live Eternal is to have God's Own Life in us, and that's Eternal Life. And we... God separated Himself among us, and given His Spirit like He did on Pentecost, and It was seen in symbols of Fire, from the Pillar of Fire that separated Itself amongst the people, to give His Own Life out to the people. And through this, the mind of Christ should be operating among us.
L-29 And God is the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And It's still God, that's right, is the Word. And when we get away from the Word, then we're away from God. Jesus said, "If ye abide in Me..." There's their mystery. There's the secret. "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you, then ask what you will." See? The Idea is first. God's Word has got to abide here. [John 1:1], [John 15:7]
L-30 You can't take creeds and isms, and so forth, and hammer them into you, and take some dogmas and mixing it with the Word of God, and then have God to honor it. It's got to be absolutely, purely, unadulterated, the Word of God, and that's all. That's all. God won't mix with anything perverted. He's absolutely God, throughout.
L-31 Now, always, in all times, we've had these things, of people who--who tried to pervert the Word of God, and to take other kind of systems. And--and they find, after a long time, they find just like we see today, this 1963, find the world falling apart. Certainly does. Because, it cannot hold, no more than what Daniel said in--in his vision, the interpret of the kings, that, no more than iron and clay will mix together, neither does the Word of God mix with anything else. It just won't do it. It's got to be the Word. That's all.
L-32 Now we find out that politics, in the days of--of the world that Noah lived in, had taken over. And the educational program and the great business world of that day had--had glamoured itself into a place to where the--the building of the buildings, of the pyramids and the sphinxes, and something that we could not nowise build today.
L-33 If anybody's ever been in Egypt, and seen the--the pyramids and so forth, we haven't got nothing now that could ever build one like it. No. But they were farther advanced than we are, in education. They were farther advanced in science.
L-34 And then they've come to find out, the world begin to fall apart. And God sent them a message, but they refused it. And it was a simple, very simple message, by a very simple farmer, but they refused it and rejected it. And their world fell apart. Exactly.
L-35 Same thing taken place in Sodom, the time of Sodom, when immorality was on the--the move. And they built cities, and so forth. But, come to find out, God sent His system in there, then they refused it, and it fell apart. Always does.
L-36 Now, the same thing exists today. We're just in the same day as it was. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, and in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the Coming of the Son of man," the whole thing crumbling and falling apart. The... It's built upon sand, and it's got to wash down. And we find that great time like it was then, so it--it exists today. [Luke 17:26]
L-37 And in the time of the coming of our Lord Jesus, in the early days of--of when He was born, we find that world, in that day, falling apart, when He was born into the world. We find out that the religious world... As I want to speak on, tonight, on the crucifixion, around something on that order. They... We find that the Jews had just so polluted the system that God had give them, in His Word, until there was no sincerity no more, their--their--their sacrifices, though they carried it out, letterly. And they made their sacrifices. When the Jew...
L-38 Nothing any sweeter than God accepting a substitute. When, man had sinned, and God accepted the substitute. Full of grace, He was, to do such a thing. When the Jew come down the road, with his bullock or his lamb, to go offer it for a sacrifice, and he did it from the bottom of his heart, was a great thing. But, after while, it become a family tradition. They just went down and offered the bullock, and, "Well, it's getting time for the sacrifice, so we'll just go and offer this certain bullock."
L-39 It become a--a tradition. I'm almost persuaded to believe that that's what's happened to our Christian system. That, in our different denominations and--and clans that call themselves Christians, we have come to that place. To where... And even to we, Pentecostals. Now, remember, medicine goes for the whole family. And we, Pentecostals, are getting ourself into that. And we wondered.
L-40 The whole Pentecostal world today is falling apart. The whole system, of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, the--the whole religious system is falling apart. We see it. We know that's the truth. Our national political world is falling apart. The whole thing is at the end. As Isaiah said, "It's become full of--of putrefied sores." It's, just, the whole body is corrupted.
L-41 There is something has got to happen. And it's going to be beyond any man-made system or understanding, that'll have to bring it back to its right conditions again.
L-42 I know this is a nasty picture, but it's the truth. We've got to look things just exactly what they are, and there no need of quoting anything over, or coating it, rather, but just come out and tell the truth about it. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. See? And we have to look at it.
L-43 And we see the nations today. Our--our political and national life is rotten to the core. It's all full of--of things, or of television corruption, of all kinds of dirty, filthy jokes, and gags, and before our young people.
L-44 And the--the schools are so corrupt! My! I'm from Arizona. I--I was at one of the big schools, other day, and see those young ladies and men, boys, out there on that campus, wallowing around. I said, "I hope I never have to send one of my children to a place like that."
L-45 And of such corruption, yet, called--called America. Some of the worst I've ever seen is behavior of Americans in--in different parts of the country. We always talking about some other country. We better sweep our own doors clean before we can say anything about someone else.
L-46 And we Pentecostals ought to sweep our doors a little bit, too, 'fore we go to hollering about the Presbyterian and Baptist. Because, our system is just as corrupt and falling apart as theirs are. See? We're just living in that day.
L-47 And now we want to remember that, in these days that Jesus was born, we find that they had the same sort of a system. They had no sincerity. They just went down and--and become a Jew, and was circumcised the eighth day. And he actually become a Jew.
L-48 Well, we got the same thing today. They take them to the church and christen the babies. And--and then the first thing, you know, why, they belong to that church. And you ask them if they're a Christian. "Sure, I'm a Christian. I'm an American."
And one time in a prayer line, I asked a lady, one time, "Are you a Christian?"
L-49 She said, "Well, I'll give you to understand, I burn a candle every night." Now, like that had anything to do with Christianity.
L-50 One said, "I'm, well, I'm a--I'm a so-and-so. I belong to the Presbyterian. I'm this." That still don't mean nothing.
L-51 That's no more than you can put a brand on a cow. You could--you could put a Hereford brand upon a scavenger. It won't make a bit of difference. That don't change the inside of the person. You are what you are, by your birth, and that's in Christ. See? We--we just got these brands, and--and so forth. It's, we... We've got the whole thing in a system and in a mess.
L-52 And we find it that way in the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus. As I thought, bring in His life, to His birth and His ministry; then, tonight, His crucifixion. Whole thing begin to come corrupt. They made the Word of God of non-effect, by their traditions, so the whole world was falling apart. Every nation was looking for someone or some system that could bring them out of it, that's, to hold them together. They were so corrupted that they knowed they couldn't hold out the way there were going, and--and they was looking for something to hold them together.
L-53 If that isn't the picture of our world today, I don't know the world. It is. It's the picture of our world today. Everything is looking for a system or--or something to hold us together. It's a picture of it today. It was looking for some system or something that would keep it from falling apart. As it was then, so is it now, again. It's repeated again.
L-54 The religious world then was looking for a promised Messiah. The Jews all would tell you, very staunch believers, "Sure, we been, four thousand years, looking for a Messiah. And we believe that He--He's coming. Certainly, we believe it." The political world of that day were looking for a Messiah. And all the rest the nations, each one, was looking for the Messiah. And when He did come, they did to Him just like they did at other times.
L-55 They was looking for something to hold them together in the days of Noah. And when God sent them a messenger, what happened? They turned it down.
L-56 And they looking for it, all ages. That's the way it happens. They just... God will send it to them. And then they just... They turn it down. Because, why? It doesn't meet their taste. See? They--they don't want it the way God wants to send it. They want it the way they want it. They got it all figured out, the way it must be, and if it doesn't come that way, then, "It isn't of God." See? That's the way it's always been.
L-57 It's the same thing today. It doesn't come in the taste of our theological taste. But It comes in the way of the power of the demonstration of the manifestation of God's promise for the age. Exactly. But, yet, as it was then, they refuse It. They refused It then. They refused It today, because It doesn't meet the expectation of the day according to the way that people expect It.
L-58 God has an expectation. God knows what's going to happen, because He's infinite, so there's nothing going wrong. It's all going just exactly right, because He's infinite. And He can foretell the end from the beginning, because He's God. Don't think Satan is putting anything over on Him. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's just all working out to display His attributes, is all. How could a great infinite God, Who knowed everything, and let everything... It's just the attributes of God being displayed.
And you're displaying your life, to one side or the other.
L-59 And that's the reason our systems come in, and they can accept anything, is of the way of system, is just because that they get away from the original created way that God made for them to do it. His way of--of sending things sometimes don't meet our taste. Wonder, today, if God answered our cry for our Messiah that we cry today for, I wonder if we would do the same thing that they did back there.
L-60 Now, we're all looking for something. We know that, ever. Everyone is looking for something. I was listening, this crowd. I listen to businessmen. I go to the ministers. I go to the different denominations. Everybody is expecting something. The nation, hearing political talks, they're looking for something to come forth. What is it? I hear it in the Christian businessmen. I hear it in the conventions. "Oh, the great time a coming! The great time a coming!" Now, you just remember, it'll come in an altogether different way than you think it's coming. See? It won't be that at all, what you're thinking about. It never has been. See?
L-61 And our political world, today, and our religious world, is just exactly like it was in the days of the first coming of the Messiah. It's polluted. The whole system is rotten. Our politics, it could get no worse. And our religion, I don't see how it could get any worse than what it is now. The whole thing is corrupted; our political world, man-made systems, and--and fashions. We just...
L-62 We want everything just, everything, so we can take it easy, and retire, and take life easy. Life wasn't intended to be easy. Life is a struggle. Anything that's got life is a struggling. Look at the trees, how they struggle. Look at everything that's got life; it's a struggle. And when we try to get some kind of a system that takes it easy, then we're wrong. And we know there's something wrong.
L-63 I listened, today, of our--our television and--and programs, and our papers, and all these things that's going on, and everybody is telling a joke. Trying to get... American is built upon a bunch of laughter, some kind of a joke, like Ernie Ford and all those television stars. To make all... And our movies is so corrupt, it's just could not be any more corrupt. That's all.
L-64 It puts me in the mind of a little boy going through a graveyard, whistling, trying to make hisself think he's not afraid. But that's the reason he's whistling. See? He's afraid. And that's what's the matter. You're trying, the world today, is trying to laugh it off. America is a joke and know that our number is up. She is weighed in the balance and found wanting. If God Almighty doesn't tear this nation to pieces, He'll be--He'll be obligated to Sodom and Gomorrah, to raise her up and apologize for His burning her up. Right. We are doomed. The whole world is doomed. She's falling apart, and there's no way of saving it. She's done sinned away her day of grace.
L-65 We talking about revival? We're living on ashes of the revival. It's past, long ago. And yet we're trying to build some system on top of something. Oh, my! It's corrupt. We must again begin to... They, our religious programs, surely becomes a stink in the nostrils of God, as it did in the days of Israel, our Methodist program, our Baptist programs, our Pentecostal programs.
L-66 Someone said to me, long, not long ago, "You condemned those Pentecostal people so much, why do you stay with them?" I love them. That's the reason. Love is corrective. If it doesn't...
L-67 What if a junior stands out here in the street, and--and he's out there making a mud pile in the middle of the street, where them cars are passing by? You say, "Junior, bless your little heart, honey. You shouldn't be setting out there. When you get ready, come in." That's not love. You don't love your child. And you'd take him out there, and jerk him out of that street. And get you a stick and teach him he shouldn't go out there again, if you really love him.
L-68 And that's what's the matter with our ministry today. They're there. It's a meal ticket. It's a denominational affair, and they're afraid to handle the Gospel the way It should be handled. Until they're there, you've got to bring it to truth. There's something wrong, and we know it. We're pulling for systems instead of the Kingdom of God. And we know there's something wrong. It's corrupt.
L-69 I think our Pentecostal days have become a stink. We play the music, and jump up-and-down in--in the aisles, and dance, and run up-and-down. And women with cut hair, and lipstick on their faces, and things like that. And run around here, dance in the Spirit, with a... call it, with a dress on, that's tight enough to put the skin on the outside. And we expect God to meet us in such a system as that? Never will He do it. You know, God don't come to your terms. You come to His terms or you don't come at all.
L-70 Oh, we talk about people coming in and receiving the Holy Ghost, and things like that. And I've... Certainly, I appreciate that. I do appreciate it. But looky here what we've done, friends. We've built our denominations upon some evidence, like we take speaking in tongues. I believe in speaking in tongues, sure, but everything speaks in tongues hasn't got the Holy Ghost. I'm a missionary. I've seen witches speak in tongues and interpret, and give the right interpretation to it, and drink blood out of a human skull, and call on the Devil. Right. Get back to the Word of God where you belong. Get away from these things. A life is what tells in human being, the Life of Christ. How can you be of Christ and hold to these forms? Then see where we've got to?
L-71 The Pentecostal church, when it started, fifty years ago, and the Holy Ghost begin to fall and the people received the gift of speaking in tongues, then you begin to take everything into it, denominating this, and that, and the other. And look where you're at today, till the whole thing is rotten. That's right. The whole system is corrupt, and she's just falling apart with the rest of the world. Everything has to do it.
"But we receive a Kingdom that cannot be moved."
L-72 Now, remember, our politics has gone out after the world. Our churches has gone out after the world. All is polluted, our days, today.
L-73 When, we used to be, long time ago, when I can just remember, when our old Baptist church down there in the state of Kentucky, when they had them old-fashion women and men setting around there, with those. Preacher, last night, Brother Crow, talking about those ladies with the bonnets on. And--and they used to, what they call, get sanctified. Or, and they'd get out there and shout, and--and the--the hairpins would fall out of their hair when they cried, and--and walked up-and-down those aisles, praising God. Why, brother, them people had enough religion to make the Pentecostal day feel ashamed of itself. And, then, right. That was Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Right.
L-74 And then you call the Kentuckians an--an illiterate bunch. You let some Kentuckian, old-fashion mother, see her girl come out on the street, back there in them mountains, with a little pair of shorts on, like you and grandma and the rest of you wear. Let her come in, of a morning, and her clothes half off of her, twisted up, and her manicure, lipsticks, or whatever it is, all over her face, been out with some little Ricky all night long, in a hot rod, running around, come in. She would blister her, one of them hickory limbs, she couldn't get up out of the bed for six months.
L-75 Then you call yourself Pentecostal? Look at the day that we're living in. And preachers are too scared to say something about it in the pulpit, afraid they'll be put out of their organization. Right. Right. We need a "back to the Word of God." Back to not some emotion, some talk of "back to the Word," but I mean the heart and soul, in the individual, back to the Word of God. Certainly. What did you do? Why they afraid to say it? You get to speaking about it, your organization will oust you out. That's right.
L-76 I just read a piece that somebody give me, here in the paper. It's, it come from Memphis, Tennessee. It's called, The Tony Fontane Story. If you want to see a burlesque advertisement, look at that in the paper, supposed to be Pentecost. It's sponsored by the Assemblies of God, one of the biggest organizations of the Pentecost. Take a look at it. I'll leave it here, a bobbed-haired Jezebel-looking woman and some Frenchman there. You call that conversion? Why, it's emotion. There's nothing to it towards conversion. A--a Spirit of God will clean a man or a woman up, and make them different than what they was. Right. But what have we got? We got Hollywood, moved into Pentecost. What is it? Because of their educational programs, and the thing.
L-77 That's the reason we can't have revival. That's the reason something can't go on. That's the reason we been going on, because you've got to get back to that Word again, my brother. Right.
L-78 Such a pity of a thing like that, under the auspices of a Pentecostal movement. You couldn't say God sponsored a thing like that. Certainly not. But what is it? It's something that's got glamour. You seen too much television. You're too much impersonated with the world. That's the reason the whole thing is rotten, and corrupted, and falling apart. Right. It stinks, before God.
L-79 I don't care how much you speak with tongue, how much you shout and run around through the room. I don't care how much you do this, or how big you grow, how many dignitaries you get among you. That has nothing to do with it. You ought to oust some of that, and get the Holy Ghost among you, that'll clean you up, and make a real church out of you. There is the thing. That's exactly the Truth. We...
L-80 What we need, today, is a prophet of the Lord to rise on the scene, with the Word of God, that don't compromise with the things of the world. [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That's the only hope there is for--for a--a life that is to come, somebody will handle the Gospel; not with rubber ecclesiastical gloves on, believe so much and take away so much. Oh!
L-81 And our denominational difference now has weaved us into about nine hundred different organizations. Our deacons are permitted to have two or three wives, and still serve as deacons. Sometimes a preacher will leave one church and go to another one, because there's more money at one place than there is another. A bigger crowd at one place and a better church, and so forth, have pets and puppets. And, oh, my!
L-82 We want God-called men, rugged, from the wilderness yonder, with a message that like John the Baptist, that'll shake the hide off of some of these so-called religious moves.
L-83 It's a sin. It--it grieves the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, in the visions the Lord gives... Well, I won't get onto that now. See? I was asked the other day... No, I'll just... I'll kee-... Excuse me.
L-84 Now, to the Message of "falling apart." The things that's going on, the things that oughtn't to be--oughtn't to be foreign to the church, yet it is. Speak to them about it, they don't want to believe it. When Noah spoke, they didn't believe it. When Moses spoke, they didn't believe it. When the prophets spoke, they didn't believe it. Certainly. They had their own systems built up. Yes, sir.
L-85 The beautiful virtue, oh, my, of our--of our motherhood, the virtue of our Pentecostal women, has bowed at the shrine of the goddess, Hollywood. And what we used to call "virtue," we call "fashion." It's a disgrace.
L-86 Someone said to me, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, won't you keep off them women, cutting their hair, and wearing shorts, and things? Won't you? Won't you?" Said, "People regard you as a seer from the Lord. Won't you tell them how to see visions?"
L-87 I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they don't even know their ABC's?" And the more you preach, the worse they get. So, you see, the whole system is rotten, falling apart. That's all.
L-88 God will not save the world by an organization or a system. He'll save it by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the Word made manifest. It's the promises of God made manifest. Yes, sir. We taken our traditions and made the Word of God of non-effect, just like they did in the days when Jesus come. Oh, yes, sir!
L-89 God promised to supply our needs, not our wants. We're always wanting something, but we want it in our own way. You say, "Well, I--I want that. I... Yeah. Well, Lord, send us this and send us that." God knows our needs. That's exactly right. He knows our need.
L-90 What if your little boy seen you shaving with--with your straight razor, and he'd say, "Daddy, I want that razor"? You know better than to give that child that razor. Well, what if he'd say, "Daddy, I seen you do it"? Well, that's different. You're an adult. You know how to use the razor. You're an adult. You--you--you accumulated the intelligence, to know how to use the razor.
L-91 And then, lot of times, we see Pentecostal people see someone speak in tongues, or something does a healing service, and then our whole system becomes corrupt with a bunch of carnal impersonations going out. They see others doing it, but God might not have called you to do such a thing. And what does it do? It brings carnal impersonations, which brings reproach upon the very cause that God sent. What does it? Systems.
L-92 If the Assemblies of God has got a man out doing something, and God is with him, and proven, we see it like that, then the other groups has got to have one, too.
L-93 Look at the little form, not long ago, when the "little David" system come out. See? And every church had to have a little David, little girl preachers and boy preachers. And what was it? Comparing, comparison, trying to impersonate. That's what got us into the mess that we're in now. That's exactly.
L-94 What made you Assemblies of God go back into an organization when that was the very system that God brought you out of? You tried to compare with the Methodists and the Baptists. What made you oneness, with your "new issue," what made you go to an organization, the same thing that He brought you out of? The same thing. You just keep doing it, over and over, and over again. Can't you see it's not of God? The whole thing is rotten and wrong. God don't call you by your organizational brand. He calls you by your Birth. Certainly. That's what God calls you by.
L-95 God knows our needs, and we got to accept It the way He has It. Not according to our traditions, we just can't receive it that way, 'cause God won't receive it. God won't have nothing to do with it.
L-96 We--we see others. You say, "See, somebody, I... Brother Branham, I see some person that can do this, and some that. Glory to God, Lord!" My! If He did, He'll do it. If He called you that, you won't have to tell anybody about it. It'll show itself. That's exactly right. But we want to be just like the Joneses, about the way we've got ourself into the system that we're in now.
L-97 Now--now we find out, in our denominational politics, and we've accepted politics, and let politics lead our ministers, religious politics lead our ministers, instead of the Holy Spirit leading our ministers. That's right. A man see a Truth that he believes, he can't go to It, his church put him out right now. See? So, you see, you're letting man lead instead of God leading, because your dogmas of your creeds and so forth, keep a man away from it. How could a Methodist ever come out and--and preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit? You Methodist people here, you Methodist ministers, how could you ever do that? How could you Presbyterians ever do it and stay in your church? They'll put you out. You know that. Certainly, they will. And you, Pentecostal, just as bad. That's exactly. As long as it's a system, it's a system. The whole system is rotten. And get away from the thing, that's exactly what we got to do before it ever comes back.
L-98 You might not believe that, but this is taped. Listen at It, a few years from today, if there is such, and you'll know whether It's true or not. One day when the evening Lights are breaking, is too late then, you'll say, "Well, that man could have been right." But it's too late then.
L-99 Just exactly what Jesus said when He come to the earth. He said God had sent them prophets down through the age, every time that their--their world system would fall apart, their religious system. Said, "What did you do with him? God sent the prophet and you put him in a tomb. Exactly. And then about another generation, you wake up and realize that that was a prophet. And then what do you do? Garnish the tomb." What do you do? Make a tradition of his life. That's exactly what Israel had done, had taken the prophet Moses and had made a tradition of his life. [Matthew 23:29]
L-100 And that's the way we do. Martin Luther, John Wesley, other men. We're always looking back, see, see those things. And you make a tradition of their life, garnish the tombs of them. And their message was for another day. By time you wake up, well, that day's done lived by. We're in another day. The whole systems worked that way, since the beginning, man-made systems. Certainly.
L-101 Jesus, when He came to the earth, He came and found the church and the world in the same condition it is today. I believe He's coming again. Just exactly. I believe it. There's only one thing can save it, and that's the Coming of the Lord. There's nothing can do it. I don't care. We, Methodists, are not going to do it. Or, we, Pentecostals, are not going to do it. God will do it, in the sending of Jesus Christ. I believe that He will come just according to the Scriptures. He will come. Yes, sir.
L-102 The whole thing has become a--a religious denomination, led by the denomination instead of the Holy Spirit. Our educational systems and our denominations has led us in so many different ways, and, "Taken forms of godliness, and denied the Power thereof," just exactly what the Scripture said we would do. The prophet said, in Second Timothy 3, "The time would come when men would be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good, trait'y, heady, high-minded."
You say, "That's communists." [II Timothy 3:3-4]
L-103 That's so-called Christians. The Bible said, "Having a form of godliness and denying the Power thereof, from such turn away. For this is the sort that go from house to house, and lead silly women, led away with divers lusts, never able to learn or come to the knowledge of the Truth. But as Jambres and Jannes..." [II Timothy 3:5-7]
L-104 Remember, they did exactly. They was--they was impersonators. That thing struck the Pentecostal realms as it has the rest of them. Impersonators! When Moses throwed down the rod, Jambres and Jannes throwed down the rod. When Moses called for things, they called for things. Carnal impersonation! And how you going to get away from it? That ain't Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian. That's Pentecostals, 'cause they don't even--they don't even hit the rims, at all, out there, the others. See? The prophet said it would happen. How you going to keep it from happening? The Bible said so. No Word of God will ever fail. It's God's Word, so we got it. We see it before us. Wake up, people, before it's too late. [II Timothy 3:8]
L-105 You rely upon any system, any sensation, any ism? You get with God, and God alone. Get there, till your life is changed and you become a new creature in Christ. God will take care of the rest of it, He wants you do anything. He, you're on speaking terms with Him then, He'll tell you. Don't try to mock It, and do it like the other. If he saw a light, and other one shook all over, and the other one done something else, don't pay no attention to that.
L-106 Twenty-five people held their hands, last night, to receive the Holy Spirit. I wonder how many. If there's a hunger there, there's a knock at the heart. Every one of you should receive the Holy Spirit right there where you were setting, when that hunger. God is more willing to give It to you than you are to receive It. You never exhaust God's blessing. You never exhaust God's goodness. You can't do it.
L-107 Could you imagine a little fish, one-half inch long, out in the middle of the sea, saying, "I better drink of this water sparingly because I might run out someday"? Could you imagine a mouse under the great garners of Egypt, saying, "I'll eat one grain a day, and allow, allowance myself, because I might run out before the next crop"? Well, that would be ridiculous.
L-108 And it's more ridiculous to think that you'd every exhaust the grace of Jesus Christ, and His Power, and His desire. He's wrote it in the Word. He's promised it to you. And we're here, this morning, looking the thing in the face.
L-109 But when you see the blessings of God trying to get to His people, and to see them got it all twisted up in such a way, He can't come into such a mess as that and bring His Word. He won't do it. That's all. The--the vessel has got to be cleaned out. When we get amongst Pentecostal people, see bobbed-haired women! Do you know it's not even common for a woman to pray with her hair cut? What happened? Your mother wouldn't have done that, at all. What happened?
L-110 You got some Ricky behind the pulpit. You got some little educated something out of a Bible school that took him farther away from God than he ever could get to God. You stumble over the simplicity of God. Right. What do you do? When you get a doctor's degree, that means you're that much farther from God. When you get a Ph.D., LL.D., or B.A. of Art, you're just that much farther from God. Educational system drives you from God.
L-111 Education has been the Devil's thought. Wisdom of the world has been the Devil's thought, from the beginning, to Eve. And on down through the age, it tried to substitute simple faith in believing God's Word. If Eve would have only believed God's Word, instead of trying to get more wisdom. Took her seminary experience there, and she broke down the bars, and she get... got away from God. And that's what our theological seminaries and things does. It takes the tradition of the--of the thing that's set behind that.
L-112 God is simple. He's so simple, He goes over the top of people. What a day we're living in! We need back to God, then.
L-113 Huh! Accept, "We think..." Yeah. And God has to accept us in that tradition? He certainly will not do it. He's never done it. God never did. I want some historian to rebuke me if it's so, tell me wherever.
L-114 A man sent on earth with a message from God, and then, as soon as he did it, he got wrapped up with a bunch of men and made an organization. And that organization went to seed. It never did rise no more. God laid it on the shelf. "It become," as the little minister said last night, "numbers, not Spirit." Did the Presbyterian rise? Did the Catholic rise from the Nicaea Council?
L-115 The first pentecostal church was at--was at pentecost. Or, I mean, the Church never begin at Rome, to you Catholics. I want somebody to show me where the Church began at Rome. The organization begin at Rome, what killed the Church. But the Church begin in Jerusalem, not in Nicaea. See? Certainly.
L-116 Where did we begin? See? You get... God will send some man with a message, and he'll get wound up with a popularity of different things, and his head puffed up, and he makes an organization. And God puts it right on the shelf like He did the Catholic church, and there we all set, which is the mother of the whole thing. And now our system is falling apart.
L-117 Oh, what a time we're living in: yeah, reject His Message, reject His promises, reject those that's sent with Truth. We want God to do the same in our days, just exactly like He--He did then. We call for it, but then we find ourself all polluted, all political, denominationals all polluted with corruption of man-made themes. And I got a bunch of stuff wrote down here that I oughtn't to read. I believe I'll just let it alone.
L-118 Look, now, get back to the Truth of the Word. God lives alone. God wants His people to live alone with Him. They won't have tied into anything, any sensations, tradition. He wants children obedient with His Word. He can place His Word in there. God said, Jesus said, "If ye abide in Me, and My Words in you, then ask what you will." That's either the Truth or it isn't the Truth. If it is the Truth, it'll work. [John 15:7]
L-119 Now, you want to know where the secret lies, the power of visions and things? Is back to the Word. It's the Word of God. Jesus was the Word. He was the manifestation of God. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And He was the Word. "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh." [John 1:1, 14]
L-120 And the Word wants to be made our flesh. But when we're all wrapped up in all kinds of stuff, and traditions, and permitted to live like the world, and things like that, then expect God to do that? Why, certainly He won't, I don't care how many things we impersonate.
L-121 It's getting to a place, till, brother, something is fixing to happen. I don't want to hurt you. I want to bless you. Listen. One of these days, the Rapture will come by, and the Bride will be gone, and you'll know nothing about it. They won't even know a Word about it.
L-122 Everybody is accepting, saying, "Oh, one of these days, Jesus will walk out on the skies, and say, 'Come on, all you Pentecostals, or you Baptists,'" and our traditional thoughts of it. It won't be like that.
L-123 My opinion is this. One day when Jesus had... It been prophesied Jesus would come on the earth. And he came, He lived, He died, nobody knowed nothing about it, hardly. Not even one percent of the Jews ever knowed He was on the earth. About one hundredth of the world ever knowed He was there.
L-124 John the Baptist; from Isaiah, from Malachi, why, when they prophesied of him, said, "All the mountains, the high places, will be brought low. All the low places will be brought high. And, oh, how the rams... The--the leaves will clap their hands, and the mountains would skip like little rams," all those things. Well, them traditional people had it all figured out, some other way. And here come John and preached exactly like He said, and even the disciples didn't know it.
L-125 One day they come to Him. He said, "The Son of man is going up to Jerusalem."
L-126 He said, "Well, why is it then, that the Scripture says, the scribes write and tell us, that, 'Before these things will take place, that Elias is going to come'?" [Mark 9:11]
L-127 He said, "He's already come, and you didn't know it." And then He told them it was John. But said, "He done just what the Scripture said he would do, and they done to him what the Scripture said." See?
L-128 One of these days, you're going to wonder, when that Rapture comes. Remember, there's about five, eight hundred people missing every day, over the earth, that they can't account for. And He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man, wherein eight souls were saved."
L-129 One of these days, judgment is going to strike the world, strike the nation, strike the church, clearing her out for the great Millennium that is to come. And then you're going to say, "Well, why did It say that the Rapture first come before these things taken place?"
L-130 He'll say, "It's already come and you didn't know it." Yeah. Somebody on his road to church; the little lady going somewhere on a visit; they're gone. You don't know when it happened. Passed by. It's always been that way. So will it be again.
L-131 Wake up, Pentecostal people. Shake your conscience. Realize the hour you're living in. This is a serious hour. You people, the way that you let your people do and act, and--and things. And used to be, you was ashamed. Oh, it was a disgrace for the Christian to go to a movie. They shouldn't do that, at all. The Devil put one over on you. He stuck a television right in your house, and brought the movie to you, all kinds of corruption, everything else, and you permit it.
L-132 Look at our schools. Look at our... Out here, little girls on the street, stretched out with all kinds of immoral clothes on. And--and here in the city of Chicago, every thirty days, every--every month there's thirty thousand abortion cases registered, just in one case.
L-133 How many sins was committed in this city last night? Wasn't it better when the coyote howled down through the desert here, and God looked upon it, when the old Hopi or Navajo went through here on his trellis? Then look at this filth, and just gaum, and--and traditions and politics. And it's a bleeding, nasty mess that stinks in God's nose. He'll... corrupted, before Him.
L-134 He'll blow it to pieces, some of these days. And He'll burst forth the earth, and she'll renew herself with volcanic eruption. And there'll come a Millennium then, where the righteous will walk out upon the ashes of the wicked, according now, Malachi.
L-135 Before, now, remember, before that happens, though, there's something takes place. We get a shaking from a messenger before it takes place, all right, now, our Message for our day. Now notice.
L-136 We notice, at the coming of the Lord Jesus, and when He came in His day. Notice in His day, when He come.
L-137 Now we find out that Rome was looking for a great military genius, a messiah, who could come and kick Greece off the earth, and the rest of them. And--and he want... They had a gimmick. He had something that he could make all the rest of them be ashamed of themselves. They wanted a military genius. That's what they wanted.
L-138 What did Israel want? A messiah. They want a messiah, a general. They want a general come, who take and kick all the Romans, and stomp them out of the country, and set up the Kingdom in Jerusalem. God knowed their needs. What did He give them? A Baby; a Baby, a Saviour. He give them a Saviour. They thought they were saved, but He give them a Saviour.
L-139 And that's the thing it is today. If He would send anything to us, it'd be a Saviour, when we think we are saved. He knowed what they had need of. Today, look at our politics, how it's corrupted, the same. What if--what if God looked today?
L-140 Look at Russia. Russia is crying for a messiah. They want somebody, a--a scientific genius, who can take them to the moon before the United States gets started. Certainly. All the rest the nations are looking for it. They want a scientific genius that'll run them over to the moon, can invent some kind of a bomb that'll take off all, knock off our hydrogen bombs and stop them; and can take their own bombs and rain it on everybody before anybody else gets a start, and then they take the whole world over. That's the kind of messiah that Russia is looking for.
L-141 Nineteen hundred years ago, the true Messiah was crucified. He promised to return again. He promised the Holy Spirit would shine forth Its Light again, in the last days. I wonder, if He come, if we would be just like the Jews was in that day. If we're looking, what kind of a messiah is the church looking for?
L-142 The Baptist is looking for a--a something a little greater than Billy Graham, who can take all the Methodists, and Presbyterians, and--and the Pentecostals, say, "You all shut up. I'll make one organization out of all of you."
L-143 What's the Pentecostals looking for? They're looking for a genius to rise up, that can make them all Assemblies. And the--and the oneness is looking for a oneness that can make them all oneness. The church of God is looking for one, make them all church of God.
L-144 What are you doing? You're organizing Bible schools and educating them; and sending the ones, that God would send, farther away from Him than they was in the beginning. I know you don't agree with that, many of you. But anything...
L-145 My mother used to tell us. When we were kids, we was raised so poor; boil meat skins and--and get grease, to make our cornbread. And every Saturday night we'd have to--to take a dose of castor oil. We--we, our... We had, almost, pellagra, of so much, eat the same thing, of poke greens, and so forth. And mama... I used to hate that stuff. I do, yet, today, when I go to take it. I'd hold my nose, and I say, "Mama, I can't take it. It gags me. It makes me sick."
L-146 She said, "Anything that don't make you sick won't do you no good."
L-147 That's what's the matter with the Pentecostal church today. You don't want to listen to something that'll--that'll do you good. It'll make you sick at your--your theological gastronomicals, but it'll do you good. It'll work you out, back to the Word of God, and back to the Faith that was once delivered to the saints; and take away from all this here Bible school, theological seminary, and giving ministers all kinds of degrees. God never did hand out a handful of sour apples like that. He wants men to have Faith, believe what's already wrote. You don't have to accumulate something else.
L-148 I know that's hard. I'm not here to baby you, and make you laugh, and make you shout. I'm here to tell you the Truth in God. And you'll see, someday, if you don't believe It now. Someday will come when you'll say, "That was right." True. You got to get back.
L-149 The whole thing is in this condition. There's nothing left for it, to come, but the Coming of the Lord Jesus. And He won't come for the Assemblies of God. He won't come for the Baptist. He'll come for each individual. That's right.
L-150 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] And as soon as that Light struck that Seed, [Brother Branham snaps his finger once.] they was at Life like that.
L-151 Look at those theologians standing around there, when they seen Him discerning the thoughts that was in their heart. They had seen a lot of carnal impersonations, before, and they said, "This Man is Beelzebub, a fortuneteller." That was theologians. [Luke 11:15]
L-152 Jesus said, "You are of your father, the Devil, and his works you do." [John 8:44]
L-153 But when a little prostitute walked up, down there, to the well in Samaria. And Jesus said to her, "Go, get your husband."
She said, "I have none."
L-154 Said, "You've told the truth. You've had five, and the one you're living with is not yours."
L-155 She said, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. We know, when Messiah cometh, He'll do these things."
He said, "I am He, that speaks to you." [John 4:19]
L-156 What was it? That Light struck that little predestinated seed, and quickly it come to Life. How much different from them theologians, all indocumated!
L-157 She run into the city, said, "Come, see a Man has told me the things I've done. Isn't that that very Messiahic sign that we're to look for?"
L-158 And the doctors of divinity stood around, said, "That Guy is Beelzebub." See, they couldn't explain It. They had no way to explain It. So they had to answer to their congregation, give them some kind of a--a radical idea of their own.
L-159 The same thing has arrived again, and men won't believe. People won't believe. Churches won't believe. No wonder. You can't be disappointed in it, because the Bible said they wouldn't do it. But it's you individuals, you that's ordained to Life. Look upon the fields now and see what hour we're living in. Come to Life. Let the Life that was in Christ come in you, the mind.
You said, "Oh, I think. I think this. I..."
L-160 You ain't got no thought coming. You let the thoughts that was in Christ be in you, and that's the Word. That's right. Think the thoughts that He thought.
L-161 Now, now, I wonder, today, America. I won't keep you much longer. America, you been crying the loudest. What do you want? I'm coming home now from across the fields. What do you want? What do you want to rule over you? You want an educational genius, what you want. And you got him. I don't want to hurt your feeling. Want to tell you the Truth. You've got him, even if you had to invent a crooked voting machine. You got him. America, so set on education, not the Bible; on education.
L-162 The churches are so built upon educational theology, some kind of a man-made system, creeds. And the Pentecostals drifted right into that same thing, just like driftwood upon the waters, to going over the dam. Right. You want creed. You don't want a Truth.
L-163 Now notice. What did you do? Everything was edu-... You want it so well, till you got your television out, and put Mr. Nixon and Mr. Kennedy on there, to test their intelligence before you done it. Then, even there's enough good people left in America wouldn't have done that; they know our heritage. We know where we belong to.
L-164 And you Democrats! I'm neither Democrat or Republican. I'm a Christian. But you, Democrats, that would let some little Ricky come around, and you would sell your birthrights for your politics, and vote in something that our nation was established to get away from, shame on you. Got the same Ahab and Jezebel!
L-165 You American women wanted fashion. You've got a... You don't have to go to Paris now. You got it right here, a real Frenchman, to give it to you. You got your water-head haircuts, and all your fashions and things, that you want to fashion after. You got exactly what you want. Where's he going to lead you? Right back to Rome, exactly where it's come from.
L-166 And you Protestants, you're wanting some big organization to lead over you, run over you, to rule you. You'll get it, you, World Council of Churches. How can David duPlessis, my friend, ever, on this ecumenical council that he's talking about, and bringing these Pentecostal people into that? What's the matter with you, Pentecostals, hollering about, "Dr. Holy Father So-and-so come in"? Oh!
L-167 You know the Bible said, "Don't call no man, 'father.'" What's the matter with you? That's the teaching of our Lord. What's the matter? Don't you know your Bible? Don't you know your Lord? The Holy Spirit wouldn't teach you to do a thing like that.
L-168 Don't you realize that when these Presbyterians, Lutherans and things try to come in, to get That, it's the end time? They don't get in. The Bible said they didn't. "While they come to get Oil, the Bridegroom come; when they went to get Oil." Then what about the Rapture now? See? The Bible said, that, "When the sleeping virgin come to buy Oil." How many knows that's the truth? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] "When the sleeping virgin come to get Oil, the Bride went in." They didn't get It. [Matthew 25:8, 10]
L-169 They come back, and they was cast into outer darkness. When you hear this rumor about so many Methodists, Presbyterian, Baptists; matter with you? Wake up. It's later than you think. They come back. But they may had an emotion, but they wasn't There. Remember, they were in the outer darkness.
Maybe say, "When is this going to take place?"
L-170 Said, "It might already be, one of these mornings, and you wouldn't know why, how." I hope you can read. I hope you can, got a Spirit of Christ enough to know what I'm talking about, the Holy Spirit reveal it to you. These are taped, and they go around the world. See? But you realize.
L-171 Just a few days ago, when them seven Angels came down in that vision. Many of you knowing it. Said, "Go to Tucson and wait there for a while, and you'll hear a blast go off. When it goes, return back. And the Seven Seals were opened at the tabernacle, the other day. When I seen people coming, from standing there, three o'clock in the morning, get a place, to get into the auditorium, and so forth. Seeing the hungry hearts coming from everywhere. I thought, "O God, we're bound to be at the end now." Remember, "The sounding of the seventh angel, the mysteries of God was finished." "And there come an Angel from Heaven, and swore with His hands raised from Heaven," Revelation 10:1 to 7, "that time would be no more." Exactly right, the hour. [Revelation 10:7]
L-172 What church is He coming to? The church that we're living in, the Laodicea Church Age, the last church age, when lukewarm, just enough to dance around, say, "Yes, I got It. I spoke in tongues. I shouted. Hallelujah. I got It." And come back in our churches, look like a bunch of Jezebels, looks like a bunch of I don't know what, corruption. Remember, your outside expresses your inside. No matter how much your testimony is, your life speaks louder than your words. Oh!
L-173 We're here. We've arrived. Something is fixing to happen. It comes from Above, not from any of these things here. It comes from Above. God will send Christ. Amen.
L-174 Yeah, we got our genius. Where's he at? Now you're wanting a genius, the church world. I don't mean you individuals here. This is taped. What about it? You're wanting it. You'll get it, go right into the council of churches, the very thing that you come out from, to be what you are. And then your organization is leading you right back into it again, just exactly what you come out of, the thing that God cursed, that pollution, dirt and filth. Why, in that council of churches, some of them don't even believe in the virgin birth, the Coming of Christ, or nothing else. "And how can two walk together except they be agreed?" There you are.
Well, it's time, I guess, for me to quit.
L-175 Brother or sister, just remember this, we're at the end time. Education has took the place of salvation. The church denomination has taken the place of the Body and Bride of Christ. Set in all that corruption, that's what you want. That's what the people want. That's what's in the American church. That's what's in the Pentecostals. They want somebody not to come tell them the Truth. They don't want It. You tell them; they say, "I don't have to listen to such stuff as That," turn their little nose up and walk out of the building. They won't listen to It. Why? That's what's in their heart. They express exactly what they are. Which one of the prophets ever come in the old days? Which time did Christ come? What ever messenger ever come from Heaven but what the church rejected? We're here. The world is falling apart. The church is falling apart. The systems are falling apart. Why? Because it's a system outside of God. That's it. We're--we're at the end time. There's nothing else can be done. Yes, sir. Everything, remember.
L-176 Let's just ask this question before we go on. What if--what if Russia got their messiah? What would happen to us? See? Let's remember, Germany got theirs, not long ago. We well remember that. They got their messiah, their Hitler, their genius. What if Russia got hers, what would happen? If there wasn't a God of mercy in Heaven, I don't know what we would do, and our hopes would be gone.
L-177 There's a true Church. There's a Church that's waiting for the Coming of the Lord. God will always grant it, but just those who are ordained. You say, "What good will it do to stand, if it's this kind of a system?" There's a predestinated Seed. When that Light strikes, they'll catch it like that. [Brother Branham snapped his finger once--Ed.] She'll bloom. They'll blossom, right now. Sure.
L-178 Others will just go right over the top of it. They believe in their system. And that's just the way it's always, like it was in the days of Noah. They believed the same thing. [Luke 17:26]
L-179 Those who were predestinated to Eternal Life, they got It. "No man can come to Me," said Jesus, "except My Father draws him. And all the Father hath given Me will come." We just got to scatter the Seed, throw the Light. Oh, each one of you ought to be a lighthouse. [John 6:44]
L-180 You Pentecostals who claim to be so much! You Pentecostals who claim to kiss the cup of the golden rims of the blessings of Christ! You women that can go out here and permit and do, and let the ministers of this age tantalize you and tell you it's all right for you to let your kids wear them shorts, and you women, grandmas, cutting your hair. And don't you know the Bible said that a woman... A woman that cuts her hair, the Bible said her husband has a right to put her away. "She's unhonorable." It used to be wrong. Paint? There's only one women in the Bible ever painted her face, and that was Jezebel. And God fed her to the dogs. So you see what that would be, common dog meat. So don't--don't... Just keep away from those things. That isn't becoming to Christians. Yeah. [II Corinthians 3:15]
L-181 Tell them about it. "Well, I belong to the Assemblies. I belong to the oneness. I belong to this." That's right. That's what you belong to. But if you belonged to Christ, it would be different.
L-182 When the Word of God and the Seed of God was in there, it'd bloom forth an example of Christianity. It would bloom forth something that the world would laugh at and make fun of, like it did the Lord when He come, like did every prophet that come. They laughed and made fun of them, and throwed them into the tombs. But there's coming a resurrection. This world, men can either live for this world, the world to come. Depends on where your thoughts are at, there's where your treasures are also. Let it be on Heaven and the Coming of the Lord. Be an example of womanhood. Be example of manhood. Be example of Christian. Live the Life. Do what's right.
L-183 People today, even our evangelists, are so monied. Everything, they have to have so much money promised and great big things, and building big institutions and things like that, just the very thing that Pentecost come out of. There we are, right back in again. What is it? All glistening and shining. You know, everything has got to shine. Hollywood shines, right, but the Gospel glows. There's a lot of difference between shining and glowing. Where the--the church shines, which is Hollywood fashions, biggest churches, its highest spire, the best dressed crowds, and so forth, it shines with that, the biggest members. The Baptists had, in '44, "A million more in '44," under Dr. Billy Graham and many of those.
L-184 When I set at Billy Graham's breakfast, here not long ago, in our city. The man, the evangelist, a great man of God! I'm praying for him, constantly. He's laying yonder, sick. I have honor for him. He's the type that went down into Sodom yonder, and brought out them Sodomites, every one that could be brought out.
L-185 But, remember, the Church-Elected wasn't in Sodom. There was an Angel stayed up there, too, and He showed them a sign, the Church-Elected.
L-186 But when he did, standing up there, and I see him standing there, he said, "What's the matter here?" Said, "I..." Said, "Here's the example." Said, "Saint Paul went into a city, and he had one convert. He went back, a year later, what did he, happen? He had thirty with that one." Said, "I go into a city, have thirty thousand converts in six weeks. I come back a year later and can't find thirty. What's the matter?" He said, "It's you lazy preachers." Said, "You take your decision cards, and set with your feet up on the desk somewhere, and call them up on the phone." And went ahead. I admired the man for his courage.
L-187 I hate to see a sissy, some denominational puppet. I--I like a man, a God-sent man that stands on his convictions, regardless. When he's proven wrong, admit it, and come back and start over again. That's right.
L-188 And he stood there and talked like that. And I thought. I was setting with Dr. Mordecai Hamm, to where, he's a personal friend of mine, Baptist brother. And I've knowed him, oh, for years and years and years, and we've associated together. And he and I were setting at the table, together. I come to his home. We went down together. We set there.
L-189 I thought, "Oh, my!" How? Not to interrupt or say anything about the great evangelist. But I thought, "Billy, which one of the ministers at Antioch, when Paul went into Antioch and got his one convert, which minister there took that convert, and into his offices, private, and fed him and talked to him?" There wasn't any. Why? Paul taken him so far beyond the things of the world, oh, till God was rooted and grounded into his heart. That apostle never let that one soul go, till he was really rooted and grounded in Christ.
L-190 And, today, what do we do? We bring these little old girls up, and men and women, belong in the churches, and they make a decision, in the hour of decision, and things like that. Bring them in, and send them right back out, to like that. And what? They haven't got nowhere, anyhow. They had nothing but a little emotional work-up, by the Word. It'll actually do that. See? It'll do that. It'll make an emotion. That's what happened to Pentecost. It went under emotion. What's happened to all of it!
L-191 Evangelism, it's a net that goes forth. Jesus said, "Cast into the sea." And when he brought forth, it had turtles, terrapins, snakes, frogs, and everything else in it. But remember, they was that from the start. There was fish in there, too. Just our business to seine. God's business to say who is fish and who is not. See? Why wouldn't them? If they was taken just as far into the Kingdom of God, them thirty thousand, as Paul's one was, when he come back he'd have four hundred and thirty thousand. See? Because their heart would be so on fire. [Matthew 13:47]
L-192 Like little Brother Crow said last night. I admired his--his--his courage. I admired his stand, to stand under his conviction. When the Light shines, there he stands. You'll never jerk him in any of these systems, if he stays the way he is, and then going on like that. How I admire a man of that type! Yes, sir.
L-193 Let anybody say if I look like a weather vane. I'd rather look like a weather vane, for God, than some painted-up Mardi Gras for the Devil. You got to look, for something, anyhow. That's exactly right. There you are. But, see, it's the system things that we're living in and working with today. There you are. The whole thing has become corrupt, plumb to the core.
L-194 Now we've got our Ricky up there. Now what you going to do with him? See? They're just flying in like--like blackbirds. Exactly right. The whole cabinet, the whole thing, everything, millions-of-dollar system. That's what you want. That's what the church wants. That's the reason you come in. It's so easy now to get into the churches. Oh, my! The Pentecostals, all you have to do is shake a little bit, jump a little bit, or say you got some kind of a testimony. Anybody can testify.
L-195 You ought to go with me to India, sometime, and listen at the Hindu's testify. They'd make you ashamed, yourself. Right. You ought to go back into Africa, the Hottentots, and let them kill an animal and blood theirself all over. Listen to their testimonies, and sensations, and speaking in tongues, sure; worship an idol, sprinkle with blood.
L-196 O God, how I wish I could make every person here see that! Certainly. The Devil impersonates every--every thing that God puts out. He impersonates it. Even to God's Truth, he impersonates It. That's exactly true. Notice. There they are. But what does the church want?
L-197 The nation wants something that they can get, not a president up there, would set down there in the cabinet, would stop this nonsense, and get these cities so dry with... from bootleggers, they have to prime hisself a half hour to get enough moisture to spit. But--but they--they don't want something like that. They want some guy in there is going to give them all the beer they want, and legalize it, then arrest him if he gets too drunk; and--and rape, and insane asylums, and everything else is, and thousands of wrecks on the road, drunken drivers. And they go out here on the road, and you let a drunken driver go out and run over somebody and kill him, he's excused. And, to me, it's premeditated murder.
L-198 Let some guy, out celebrate, and get out and fire a pistol, two or three times, in the air, and they'll send him so far back in the jail he would canker before you got him out. What is it? There you are. There's your systems of the world. There's no justice in it.
L-199 This man, talking about the United States government. Sure, every government in the world is controlled by the Devil, every system. Every... Jesus said so. Satan admitted, "These are all mine. I do with them whatever I want to." Where we at, then, today? Look where we're standing.
Now what must I say, in closing this, friend?
L-200 You see the political world is falling apart. We're going right back to Rome, here in the United States, just as fast as we can go. The Bible said we would do it, Revelations 13. And there we are. What did it do? They had to have a big bunch of organizations, go in the Revelation 17, "The old mother whore and all of her daughters." There she goes right back, every denomination right with her. There they are. They got a pharaoh raise up, that knows not Joseph, and here we go, the whole thing. And even our Pentecostal leaders, leading everybody right into that big glamour of Hollywood, and taking the people in, with a big swallow. Of a... Oh, it's a...
God, help this nation. God, help this people. [Revelation 17:5]
L-201 Sometimes it would make a fellow feel like getting in the street and screaming. But I know the Bible says, that, "No man can come except My Father draws him." I know that these things are got to be happening in these days. I see the Light, the Light of God, spread forth. I see the false out yonder; and all the glow and... or, the glamour and glow, together. And what must I do? [John 8:44]
L-202 Lord Jesus, help me be true till You come. Let me stand, O God. Let me take my stand and stay here, Lord, just move as You move me.
L-203 What can I say to those people who really believe God? I painted an awful picture. I got as least twenty pages here, but it's too late, of just little context that I wrote down to a text. What must I say this morning? What must I leave you? Or, where you at?
L-204 I've condemned your organizations, not condemned you. I condemn the system that's got you into the place you are. I'm not condemning you, my minister brothers. You get the wrong impression of me. I'm trying to help you. What if I seen you on a boat going down the river yonder, towards the falls, and I knowed that boat can't shoot those falls? And I'm screaming to you, "Get out of there!" It's not because I don't like you. It's because I do love you. That system that you're in will go to hell where it come out of.
L-205 Was talking to an old man the other day. A little boy come into a store, there in Tucson where I was. Went in to buy some--some Special K for breakfast. There was a little boy standing there, buying cigarettes. Said, "Who is these for, your mother?"
Said, "No. It's for that boy setting there."
Said, "Is he old enough?"
He said "Yes."
L-206 I said to the grocery man, I said, "He never gets old enough." See? But you...
L-207 The--the people begin think that's all right. Smoking is popularity. And the churches are practicing just drinking conservative, just modern drinking. Oh, for goodness' sakes! What do you... Where do you get that stuff? It's out of a system, not from God's Word. "He that even gives his neighbor a strong drink." See? Sure, it is. It's--it's a ruin, rake of our nation, Hollywood glamour. And there's where we've got to, in such a mess as that. Here we are in that kind of a shape.
L-208 This old man said to me, he said, "Well," said, "I feel sorry for him." Said, "It's kind of hard, from--from... for it, for us to quit. Is it hard? Wouldn't it be hard for you to quit?"
I said, "I never started."
L-209 He said, "Oh, you don't smoke." Said, "I admire you, fellow." He was about seventy years old.
I said, "Thank you."
He said, "Like whiskey, the same way."
And I said, "I don't drink."
L-210 He said, "Well, I admire that." Said, "I think it's a... If a man wants to come home, drink a glass of beer," said, "it's all right. But when they take these women, and they're out there on the streets, and carrying on, drunk, and running around... Her husband gets to work, then they got the car, and out and gone."
L-211 I said, "They oughtn't never let a woman behind a wheel." Boy, if I was there, she wouldn't do it, if I had anything to say about it.
L-212 They say the women is the most safest drivers. I'm an international traveler. Me and my son, crossing this nation, put a book up in the--in the car. And every time a boo-boo was called, pulled on the road, we marked it down, "man" or "woman." And out of three hundred, there were two hundred and eight-one of them caused by women; nineteen of them by men. That's exact. Yet, she's set there and push her hair up. And she turn out like this, and make a left's right, and everything. But, oh, course, the police ain't going to say that. They got them on a police force. What a disgrace!
L-213 When a woman gets from behind the table in the kitchen, in the house, taking care of her own little ministry God give her, her babies, she's out of the will of God.
L-214 Put her in a pulpit, she's out of the will of God. There's no Scripture for a woman preacher. I want some man to stand and tell me that, look me in the face. There's no such a thing. That, Pentecost is the grassroots of that stuff. Never was! Adam was first formed, and then Eve. Adam was not deceived. But, yet, you do it. And you see where you got yourself? Way out here on a limb, that, you can't come back on now. But there you go. That's it. That's the world. That's what you want. That's what you want. That's what you got. See?
L-215 But to those who look for a Kingdom Whose Builder and Maker of God, we receive a Kingdom.
L-216 We're not looking for a denomination. We're not look-... Though, those who love God, we're not looking for some denominational genius. We're not looking for some great big mathematician can stand up here and tell us how to make more numbers, and so forth, and go out in the streets and work yourself to death to bring in members. What you got? You're bringing more pigs to the pen. That's all. And what's it getting when it get there? Slop. Exactly.
God borns them into a Kingdom, Above. That's exactly right.
L-217 Some boy giving Billy Graham, I guess you read it in the Post, a raking, about what he had done. Bob Jones said Billy Graham... Bob Jones has got a lot of holler about, hasn't he? Right. Billy Graham has done more for Kingdom of God in these few years he's been on the field, than Bob Jones could do if he stayed here a million years longer. That's right. But what does he say? "Billy Graham just only gets out and says, well, he ain't got no denomination, take them to them." God bless the man for that. Yes, sir. What do you do? You bring him in, make him a two-fold child more of hell, he was, when you picked him up on the street.
L-218 The disciples never took them to any denomination. They got them filled with the Holy Spirit and into the Kingdom of God. And there the Holy Spirit taken over. Yes, sir.
L-219 Now, but they said he done an indebtiment to the church, by not taking the organ-... let them all go into organization. I guess they all supposed to belong to Bob Jones College. See? Then they was really out of their line. Now, and all these here called, so-called fundamentalists, and all this stuff there. It's nonsense.
L-220 What are we looking for, friends? What are we? The real Church is looking not for a denomination, not looking for a president, not looking for a genius to rise up. But they're looking for a Kingdom and a King to come. What is the Kingdom? It's on earth now. It's a Spirit, mystical Body of Christ. In There, they've come out of Presbyterian, Methodists, Pentecostals, and everything. They're in this Kingdom. They're born in There. They come in There by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they're in this Kingdom. And we're looking for a King to come to this Kingdom, that'll set His Kingdom up here on the earth, on His--on His throne, the throne of David. He shall rule and reign forever. That's what the Church looks for.
L-221 And the good thing about it, friends, is, think of this. Before we get to this Kingdom... Before this King comes, now we can set together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, lifted up above all the shadows of all the corruption of the world, and all their television programs, and all these other nonsenses they got on the earth today, and all their rotten pollution and systems, and everything. Be lifted up in Heavenly places! And the Holy Spirit, Himself, come upon us, and speak out and call to us our sins, and tell us how to get straightened up, and what we've done in life, and what we're doing. It's the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. That's the King that shall come to His Kingdom some day. And His Kingdom is now being established in the hearts of His people here on earth. [Hebrews 13:8]
L-222 God bless you. If I never... You might not like me after this. See? You might not like me, but someday you're going to realize that That's the Truth. Now, God bless you. I ain't going to keep you no longer, but I want you to remember this.
L-223 We are looking for a Kingdom, and we do receive now a Kingdom that cannot be moved. We receive something into our hearts, that there's not no devils in hell can shake it out. There's nothing.
L-224 This old man over there, the other day, said, "Well," he said, "I tell you." He said, "Here's what it is, sir." I told him I was a minister, the reason I didn't smoke and drink, and so forth. He said "Well, I--I admire that." He said, "That's right." Said, "When I was on the police force, everything," said, "was juvenile delinquency. That's all we got today."
L-225 I said, "Sir, I don't want to disagree with you. But," I said, "it's not juvenile delinquency. It's parent delinquency. The parents is the delinquents, that's right, letting their kids do like that." They need a...
L-226 That, you, what did you do? You put a True Story magazine on your table, instead of the Bible. Instead of prayer meetings, you had to run out somewhere and do something else. That's what's the matter with the world today. That's what's the matter with our called Christians; dancing, parties, and social drinking, and, oh, everything. See? It's parent delinquency, not child delinquency. The parent is delinquent. That's the one. Notice.
L-227 I said, "What happened, sir?" I said, "You standing here. We're two men that never met before, in life. You're..." He said he was seventy-something years old, just doing that on the side. I said, "I'm a minister." And I said, "You represent the civil laws of the land. I represent the moral laws of the land." And I said, "Now, if somebody broke your civil laws, what happened? You put them in jail, didn't you? You sent them right to jail if they broke the civil laws."
He said, "That's right."
L-228 I said, "If they break these laws they go to hell." I said, "A just judge who... God, upon His Word... Them cases are based upon the laws of the nation. And when they be found transgressed, then there's nothing but penalty to pay. And any law that hasn't got a penalty to it is not a law. Right." I said, "To trangress God's law, His Word, is the Eternal separation from His Presence." I said, "Now you see where we're at."
He said, "The Lord bless you. Where do you preach at?"
And I said, "Just anywhere I can get an open door."
L-229 There you are. See? Just an old man of that age, see, and just seeing it at that time. Transgress the laws of God, which is His Word, and you're hell bound. That's all there is to it. Serve God now.
L-230 We come into this Kingdom by Holy Spirit baptism. And when we come in There, not a make-believe. Some, I don't...
L-231 Now, you, don't--don't get this in your mind, "Now, Brother Branham don't believe that you speak with tongues."
L-232 I do believe you speak with tongue. But just look at them that speak with tongues, and hasn't got It. Look at the... Look the way they act and the way they do. You can tell they haven't got It. See?
L-233 Look at the churches today, say, "We're the Church." Every one of them, "We're the Church."
L-234 There's only one Church, and that's the mystical Body of Christ. When you become in There, you're baptized in There by the Holy Spirit, and It changes your whole being.
L-235 Not long ago. I'll say this, just in regards to something come in my mind. Wife and I, last summer, I come home, off one the meetings. We went to get groceries. We found a--a women wearing a skirt. It was strange thing in our country. They all naked. So, then, we seen that women. She... And we recognized some of them women to--to belong and sing in choirs in churches there. And she said, my wife said, "Billy, what makes them women..." Said, "Why--why do they do that?" Said, "Our people..." Said, "Wonder why?"
L-236 I said, "We're--we're--we're not that. We don't belong to that kingdom." And she said... "Well," I said, "they're not our kind of people."
L-237 And she said, "What do you mean?" Said, "Aren't we Americans?"
L-238 I said, "Oh, no. No, sir." I said, "I go to Germany, I find a German spirit, a national spirit. I go to Sweden, I find a Swedish spirit. I go to India, I find a national spirit. You come to America, you find Ricky, that kind of a spirit, oh, a know-it-all."
L-239 Watch them when they come to the other country. It makes you sick to even think you are American, the way they act. That's right. It's the nastiest acting people, the most impudent, independent, educated idiots. That's right. And the other world knows it. No wonder, we're trying to buy our friendship with our dollars. You don't buy friendship. Now, there's a way... Our nation is rotten to the roots. That's right. There's no hope for it. It's all gone. There's only one thing to look for, the Coming of the Lord. Yeah.
She said "Well, aren't we Americans?"
L-240 I said, "No. We live here. We live here. There's not..." I said, "Well," I said, "you see, those people are Americans. They have the American spirit. They do like Hollywood, which governs America: her dressing, her fashioning, her goddess, and so forth. That's just exactly what they do. Now," I said, "they are Americans. We are from Above. The women in our church, they don't do that. They live holy, clean."
L-241 You take a woman that wears them kind of clothes, and gets out on the street. I don't care how moral you try to live, at the end of the age, you're going to be called an adulteress. If any man looks upon you, to lust after you, and you presented the proposition to him, you're guilty of committing adultery. Jesus said so. You might be as clean to your husband or boy friend, as you could be. But if you dress like that and some sinner looks upon you, he's got to answer for, at the Day of Judgment, and you presented yourself. [Matthew 5:28]
L-242 Clean up, women. Get back to God. That's... I don't care what they say about you. Go back to God.
L-243 Women used to be put up on a pedestal. She's the backbone of a nation. And now where is she at? She brought it upon herself. She's regarded... They don't even take off their hats, to talk to them, or nothing else. It's just that condition. What'd they do? It brought it to theirself.
L-244 Why did it start? Some Ricky behind the pulpit, with some kind of a seminary experience, a puppet to some organization, instead of a man of God to take that Word and tear them to pieces with It. Right. That's what we got in the church.
L-245 God, be merciful. Let's go to this Kingdom. Let's go to where we can find and we live after that Kingdom, then your--your thoughts are holy. Your things, our thoughts, are Above, where your inheritance lives.
Let us bow our heads.
L-246 Solemnly, I ask you this question. Some of you may not even return tonight. This may be my last time of ever seeing you on earth. Jesus may come before night. There may be a destruction before night. It could happen, you know, at any time, of that secret Coming of the Church.
L-247 You say, "Brother Branham, a while ago, when you said, 'The Church could go and we wouldn't know'?" Oh, yes. The Bible says it. No, they won't know nothing about it. It's a secret Coming. He comes in the secret and steals away His Church. Takes Her away, like a book I read one time, of Romeo and Juliet. See? He comes to get Her, nobody know nothing about it.
L-248 The world will say, well, two or three out of this, say, "Well, somebody come up missing last night." And way across the country, two or three more. That's what He said would happen. "Oh, they went out somewhere. They... Some girl made a mistake. She run out. Some man, he run out, somebody else's wife." They've been Raptured. And they don't know nothing about it. Hundreds of them go every day, and they know nothing about it. See?
L-249 Before that time happens, won't you get right with God? I've got to meet you at the Judgment. I love you. I don't scold the Pentecostal people because... I never come among you to be an indebtiment to you. I come because God sent me. I come in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Have I ever told you anything wrong? Has any of your leaders ever raised up to try to tell me I was wrong? I'd ask them to prove it. They know better than that. All right. Now, you've... Many of you has been in the meetings. And you know that I wouldn't have said this, this morning, lest I knowed this city needed it. It's altogether give over to everything filth and gaum. You need Christ.
L-250 Would you like to receive a real Kingdom of God, where your whole being is changed; you're transformed and you're made a new creature; a whole bloom of Life, of Eternal Life, is in you; the things of the world is dead? I'm not going to ask you to come to any altar. I'm going to ask you for your sincerity. If you really desire, and want me to pray, as I close the service, raise up your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham." God bless you. Fine, about ninety percent.
L-251 Our Heavenly Father, as I looked down just before I closed my eyes, Lord, and seen this publication here, this ad in a paper, "the story of Tony Fontane," blonds, gimmicks, dancing upon the platform, music, immoral-dressed women, men.
L-252 Jesus said, "What did you go out to see when you went to see John; a man of soft raiments, turned-around collars, and so forth? No." Said, "They're in kings' palaces. Did you go to see a--a reed shaken with the wind; anybody that would want an organization offering something a little better than the other, and he'd go to it? Not John. He wasn't a reed shaken with wind. He never compromised on any of your things." Said, "What did you go to see, then, a prophet?" Said, "I say to you, more than a prophet." [Matthew 11:7]
L-253 Our Father, God, we realize that there's no hopes left for the church organization. It's gone, Lord. It was against Your will, in the beginning. There's no hope for the nation. It's gone.
L-254 We done seen, this nation, just a perfect pattern of Israel. How when Israel come into their homeland, and--and drove out the occupants, as we come in and drove out the American Indian. And how they had great men in those days: David, Solomon, Joshua. And so did we come in and drive out the natives, and set up our land, our economy, upon freedom of religion, when we'd been bound by dogmas and things. We had great men, a Washington, a Lincoln. But, finally, as the years went by, they finally elected in a Ahab that had a painted-up Jezebel who set the fashions of the world. So have we done the very same thing. And now we see the same thing take place. In that day, you had an Elijah to stand and condemn it. Oh, how they hated him, but he--he stood. His voice will still be standing at the Day of the Judgment.
L-255 And, Father, send to us an Elijah. Send to us the Voice of the Bible, the Voice of God, and vindicate It. And prove that You are God, that You do the same yesterday, today, and forever, that the people would know. Without any hesitation, they see that it's the Truth. And may people...
L-256 Like the little woman at the well, had been mixed up in all kinds of stuff, but when that Light flashed across her little path that she was walking on, she seen something. She was never the same anymore. She came to a Fountain that she had never visit before.
L-257 Grant, Lord, today, that many today will see that there is a Fountain open, and the Word of God is still in effect to every one that will believe and receive It. Many hands went up, Lord Jesus. They're desperately in need. I believe they meant it. I hardly can think that--that people who are trying, and has come into this Pentecostal move, because that they've come out of these fashions and things, and seen there wasn't nothing to them. And they come right into here, to find themselves in the same kind of conglomeration of--of Hollywood, same kind of an educational program, big shots, as we call it on earth, Lord. Oh, how... God, help them. Will You, Father?
L-258 And I--I believe that they couldn't raise their hand, 'less there was Something there to make them raise their hands. There's a Spirit around them. And these men and women, ninety percent of them, perhaps, Lord, that they realize that there's something wrong, and they--they don't want it that way. And now, according to science, they could not raise that hand; gravitation hold that hand down. But they can defy science, because they're human beings and they have a spirit that can command that hand to come up, and it'll come up.
L-259 And, God, You so endowed men with... on free moral agency, to make his own decisions. And now there's a Spirit standing by the side of them that tells them that the very spirit that they been worshipping around has been wrong, and they want a decision. And the Spirit that's around them, the Holy Spirit, makes them raise their hands and say, "Give me God." Lord, You know their hearts. I pray that the Holy Spirit will come rushing in, like a dam broke forth somewhere, and the rushing stored-up anticipations of the Holy Ghost will set their souls alive with real Fire, of love of God burning there, for dying humanity; not for organization, but for dying humanity; not for politics, as they see the organizational world falling apart. They see the political world falling apart. And the... Their U.N., a great big rubber balloon that's pushed around by every wind of--of political doctrine, shoved one way and another way. And, O God, they see the... this council of churches, as they so-call it. They see it's moving them right into a trap, Lord, like a spider weaving a web.
L-260 God, may Pentecost wake up, quickly, Lord, while it's time they can wake up. Wake up this little city here, Lord. Wake up these women that are setting here. Wake up these men. Don't let it pass by, Lord.
L-261 Like the Catholic church, woke up after Saint Patrick. Like the Jewish church, woke up after Elijah, then garnished his tomb. Like the Catholic church, woke up after Joan of Arc. They don't know it while it's going on. But after it's gone, then they realize. Like the church, woke up after Jesus was crucified. Too late, then. They done done it.
L-262 O God, wake up Pentecost. I love them, Lord. They're the people... They--they help feed my children. Lord God, let them know that the Message of God don't have to come out of their organization or ranks. You raise what You want to. You're God. Shake their souls this morning, Father, and bring them back to a realization that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we're now setting in His Presence, in Heavenly places, being lifted up by the Word. They're Yours, Lord. Do with them as You see fit. I present them to You, as trophies of the Message, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
L-263 I love Him. Do you love Him? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] If our sister would give us a chord, "I love Him. I love Him." Are you angry with me? ["No."] If you are, come here and shake my hand, and let's pray. See? I've told you the Truth, the dying Truth, of the Gospel. Some day you may realize that. Don't let it be too late. Can we stand, just a moment?
I love Him,...
Do you do it? Raise up your hands.
... I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary.
L-264 Now, Methodist reach over to the Baptist, oneness reach over to the trinity, and church of God reach over to the Assemblies. Each one of us, while we sing this, say with sincerity, "I love you, brother, sister. I'll pray for you. You're my brother, sister." Let's do it again now.
I... [Brother Branham speaks to the brethren--Ed.]
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On...
L-265 Now, Assembly of God, come look at This, afterward, and then repent. Pray for your organization, or get out of such a rut as that. The Assembly of God has some real godly men in there. I know them. The oneness has real godly men among them. That's right. The church of God has real godly men. The Baptist, the Methodist, they have godly men. But it's the systems that keeps them like that, puppets to the system.
L-266 "I..." Let's raise our hands now to Him we love. "I..." All your heart now, "I love Him."
All right. Brother Demos.

LWB is dedicated to all who are looking for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ; to you we owe credit for the materials used herein."Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."[Heb 10:25]."So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."[I Cor 3:7]
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