LE PLUS GRAND DON DANS LA BIBLE
E-1 Thank you. You can be
seated if... So glad to see this wonderful crowd of people out this
afternoon. I think it's just about as many as we've had any night.
Usually the Sunday afternoon meetings are not very much, because, well,
people just kind of go out on Sunday afternoon and have a little
quietness to themselves, but it still shows that there's a interest of
people here that love the Lord. So I'm so happy for this.
I was just talking to Brother Carver here, and he was... We was talking
about the--the fine music and singing that I was just enjoying as I
come up and was speaking to my friend, Brother Rasmusson and back
behind the curtain.
E-2 And now, the meetings will
continue on beginning Tuesday night. Brother Carver and his--his
evangelistic party continues right on. And this fine music and singing,
plus preaching, praying for the sick, and so forth, will continue right
on. And I'm sure they've announced it already where it would be,
Brother Carver. And so, you can continue to enjoy these fine blessings.
And just awhile ago before, I had got a letter from a little friend of
mine from Anchorage, Alaska, and he almost beat his letter here. It was
fifteen minutes, his letter was, ahead of Brother Fandler. He's in here
somewhere, has been a very, very good friend of mine from Switzerland.
E-3 And we can certainly
remember his conversion and how the Lord called him out and what he
was. And he was one time a pretty rough fellow. And he thought it was
kind of a hoax or a little make belief. And he got somebody and put
them in a prayer line, that he knowed. And the Holy Spirit not only
told the man who it was, but told him who the little fellow was that
brought him. So that--that fixed him just right. And we've--we've been
great friends ever since.
Ernie, where you at? Would you just stand up, or something, or raise up
your hand, or somewhere. He's in here somewhere, Ernie Fandler. He's
just a little bit bashful. Yes, way up in... Oh, my. Who could see you
way up there? Brother Ernie and his lovely wife, and two lovely little
boys, I've been in their home when they were in Shawano, Wisconsin. And
they're on their road back there again, coming down from Anchorage,
Alaska. And he said he was going to try to get here, but how he drove
that two thousand miles of rock, and road, and mud, I... You ought to
seen his car, by trying to get here to enjoy the service. That's loyal,
isn't it? That's really loyal.
E-4 And now, tonight is to be
the healing service again. And we're expecting Christ to do the
exceeding abundant tonight. And this afternoon was given to an
evangelistic service, and then so I could speak right away, and--and
then we have time to go home, and have your lunch, and to be back
again. Been very busy this morning, the Lord has been dealing
wonderfully with individuals that I have come in contact with this
morning. We'd showed visions and straightened out lives and so forth.
He's wonderful. We all love Him, I'm sure.
And if there happens to be someone here from Calgary, they... We've got
all those invitations and so forth, and they're all appreciated, but
I... And I maybe be before winter sets in that I can get back to
Calgary for a little meeting down there, maybe like--like Wednesday
through Sunday. They said they could get the stampede grounds, but not
after it gets to cold. It's not... I don't believe it's--it's been
heated in the wintertime. So maybe we can get back. I've got to come
over to Idaho this autumn. And maybe from there I might drop up and
spend that weekend with the people at Calgary, have some fellowship
down there.
E-5 It certainly is
appreciated, all the fine cooperation with these ministers here with no
more invitation then they got. Just... Brother Freddie Sothmann, which
I've learned to love as a dear beloved brother, he come over here...
Brother Fred's not a minister, but he loves the Lord with all of his
heart. And I tell you, you couldn't find a finer man than--than Fred
Sothmann. He's just one... He's not in here now, and that's the reason
I can say that. See? And he--he's just one fine man.
I'm--I'm sorry. I--I--I... Didn't Billy take you to the back of the
room? Fred, Billy wants to see you behind the curtain...?... I supposed
to told him that, and I thought he went off the platform. I'm sorry.
Your sins will find you out, won't they? I honestly thought he was back
there. Billy wanted to see him back behind the platform concerning
something about tapes, Leo, something, someone wanted a complete
meeting on a tape or something.
E-6 Now, while he's gone I can
talk. He certainly has been a real brother to me. And he--he come down
and the best he could do, get the ministers and tell them we were
coming. The reason we try to do this, if you have a sponsorship, well
then, that certain denomination that sponsors it, the other
denomination feels they have nothing to do into it. But if you'll just
come...
Here's my motive. I'm planning on, God willing, making one great big
push this next summer in the States, if God willing, and Canada. I'm
ordering a tent to seat somewhere around eight to ten thousand people,
and we want to find out locations that we can put this tent up and not
stay just for four or five days or a week; we want to stay four or five
weeks, teach, so I can have the afternoons, and so forth, and lay the
foundation down real closely.
E-7 And then sometimes when
evil spirit's gone out of a person, many times they don't know that;
they don't know what to do. Well, they don't, and some of them say,
"Oh, I got sicker." Well, you're supposed to get sicker. They don't
know that. When a... Like a growth on the inside of you... Now, we're
not dealing with that growth. The doctor deals with that when he cuts
it out. But what we're dealing with is the life in that growth. That's
the--the life.
Now, for instance, like cancer. Cancer's one of our great killers. Well
now, cancer has a life. And it's another life besides your life. And
it's a growing, spreading. Now, it... The Bible calls it a devil.
Cancer is called by the medical name, which come the word "crab" with
legs and spreading out. But in the real term, it's a devil, and a devil
is a tormentor.
E-8 And he's--he's set in your
body, comes from a--a little cell that has been bruised, or usually,
and the little cell backslides and can sometimes cause your life...
That's a big word for a Baptist to say, a backslider, isn't it? But
just the same, when a cell backslides, it'll interrupt every cell in
your body, if the devil can get into that little cell.
Now, the devil cannot create. He cannot create one thing. He can only
pervert what God has already created. See? Sin is righteousness
perverted. See? Sin is nothing... The devil couldn't even create sin.
He could just pervert righteousness. See? 'Cause there's only one
Creator; that's God. And God alone can create. But the devil takes what
God has created and perverts it. God created you to be sons and
daughters of His. The devil gets into you and perverts you to his way.
And that's what causes the trouble.
E-9 Now, a cancer, when this life has gone out of the cancer, it's dead. But the growth is still there unless there's a miracle performed. Well, that growth's hanging there, no life in it. It's dead. What would a piece of meat that big in your body, in plain old southern way of speaking it, rotten, in your body? Well, then your heart beats, and every time it beats, your blood goes through the heart and purifies the bloodstream; and it picks up the dead substance of this cancer body, and it'll set in a fever. You'll be sicker than ever. And that probably... You'll feel good for the first seventy-two hours, for about seventy-two hours, then a body corrupts.
E-10 Like, if you shot a deer
today or an animal, you'd throwed it on the scales and weighed it and
told the boys, "That deer weighs so-and-so." Be careful, in the morning
it won't way that by many pounds. See?
If someone dies, the undertaker removes false teeth, or artificial eye,
or something, because when it shrinks it'll pop out. But you just let
that body lay there for a few days, then it gets bigger than it ever
was.
Watch a little dog or something, a little animal killed on the street,
how it's bigger it swells up in a few days. Well, that's what taken
place with that cancer that's on the inside of you, growth, tumor. You
just get sicker. And the person said, "Oh, I lost my healing." If
they're not trained to know how to lay hold of faith...
E-11 Now, look, God in the
beginning knowed everything, and when there was nothing, not even light
nor nothing, God just said, "Let there be..." And He held right to His
Word, and His own Word created the heavens and the earth. Just by a
mental conception He had... I... He was going to have it and He just
said, "Let there be..." And His own Word become creation. And the
ground that you set over today is nothing but the Word of God made
manifest. That's right. Anything that God speaks, it's absolutely got
to produce it, just can't keep from it.
Look at Jesus when He come off the mountain. He was hungry, and He
looked on the bush for something to eat, and there was nothing there.
He said, "No man eat from you from here henceforth," and just went on.
Never screamed over it, He just said, "No man eat from you." One of the
apostles heard it. And when they passed by the next day, that tree was
withered. See? He spoke His Word and not one bit of doubt but what it
was going to be that way, and the life went out of the tree. It has to.
God said so.
E-12 That's what I was speaking
on last night in Abraham. When the Word is spoken by God, just lay hold
on it, and it'll create just exactly what it says it'll do. But you
can't do it in doubting, and jumping, and up-and-down. You just got to
hold on to it. Stay with it. God will make it manifest.
And I think if we had about a month to stay in a city of this size, and
let all the ministers, and so forth, and the cooperation, everybody,
all churches, I believe--and have prayer meetings, and let people come
and here the instructions for two or three services before they're even
prayed for, then when they come to the platform, they're ready (See?)
to receive their healing.
And I believe we could have a real revival right here in this city,
because I see just coming in here, just blast right in and blast out,
and to see to tell how the Holy Spirit is taking a hold right here now,
it would mean something.
So this meeting will, as I say, continue on with our Brother Carver
here, after we're gone. I pray that it'll be one of the greatest
meetings he's ever had, because he's been such a real wonderful brother
to cooperate, do everything he can to help the meeting along.
E-13 Now, let us pray. Blessed Lord, as we come into Thy Divine Presence this afternoon with joy in our hearts because we are fully persuaded that Jesus Christ is God's Son and that He raised Him up from the dead according to the Scriptures, and has a vindicated His--His Everlasting Life in our presence this week... We have seen Him in His great master work, alive, just the same as He was before the generations back of two thousand years ago.
E-14 Oh, how our hearts rejoice
to know that the Bible is the truth, and God still loves His people.
And He has visit us in this last days to call from the Gentiles, the
unworthy ones, a Church, a people for His Namesake.
And I pray, Father, that this day that You will, in this hour that's
coming up in this preaching service, that You will just anoint us in
such a wonderful way, that our hearts will be moved deeper, and more
grounded in Your love and faith than we ever was. And may each of us,
as we leave this exhibition grounds this afternoon, have a better
determination in our heart to serve You than ever before in our lives.
E-15 It's getting late. The Son
of man will arrive one of these days, and we must work while we have
light to work in. And help us, Lord, to lay aside every weight and the
sin that does easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race
that's set before us, looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Open the Word to us today. And may the Holy Spirit sanctify the lips
that speaks. And may He take the Word of God and give it to every
hungry heart just as we have need. For we ask it in His Name and for
His glory. Amen.
E-16 There was a little slogan
sometime ago out, "It's later than you think." I have a reel. I should
have brought it. This would be a beautiful place to show it right here
of, "Three Minutes Before Midnight." Did anybody ever see it? I have
that, and I was almost converted over when I seen that, not meaning it
in that way, converted over. It just stirred my soul in such a way.
You know, if you want to know what day of the month it is, look at your
calendar. But if you want to know what day you're living in according
to the time cycles, watch the Jews. That's God's calendar of time.
And the picture starts of where these Jews are coming from down in Iran
and the "Look" magazine carried a big articles of it. Those Jews were
so primitive that they had never even seen a steel pointed plow. They
plowed with old wooden sticks as they did two thousand years ago. And
when those big planes let down and picked up those Jews to bring them
back to Palestine, it fulfilled what the prophets said they'd be--they
would--when they come back, they'd be brought back on the wings of the
eagle.
E-17 And when they was unloading
them there from the ships and from different parts of the world, from
the east and west and north and south, as they were coming, they were
packing their old ones on their back, their elderly mothers, and
grandmothers, and fathers, on an interview stepped up and said, "What
are you returning homeland for, so you could die in a homeland and be
buried?"
They said, "No, we come to see the Messiah."
Don't run over that too lightly. Remember the Jewish people was
declared a nation 1946, on April, May the sixth, on 1946, and the Angel
of the Lord appeared to me on April, on May the seventh, 1946. And the
oldest flag in the world, the six-point star of David, which has been
down for over two thousand years, flies again over Jerusalem. We're at
the end time.
E-18 When those Jews come in,
they'd never heard of such a thing as Jesus. And many of you Norwegian
and Swedish people here, the Filadelfian church of Stockholm, Sweden,
sent down thousands of Bibles, New Testaments, to these little Jews.
And the Jews as they would read this Bible, they said to the ones
standing by, "If this be the Messiah, Jesus is the Messiah, let us see
Him do the sign of the prophet and we'll believe Him." The Jew seeks
signs, the Greeks, wisdom.
What a beautiful setup for the ministry the Lord has given me. I was in
two hundred miles of Palestine recently. And I had my ticket to go on
over; I thought, "This is the hour."
And the Holy Spirit called me from a plane at Cairo, Egypt. I went out
behind the place and prayed and He said, "Don't go now."
E-19 I'd love to see the day
when we get in there and take all those thousands of Jews and say,
"Now, is it true that if He performs the sign of the prophet, the
resurrection, you will accept Him? Go, look yourself out some men then
and bring them in here. Let's see if He's the Messiah, the same
yesterday, today, and forever." And when the Lord would do as He's
doing here, I expect to see tens of thousands of Jews come to Christ at
one time.
And when God turns to the Jew, the Gentile day is finished. That's
correct. We're at the end time. When those Jews get the--get the Holy
Spirit, they will--they will revive the world again, 'cause they're
real on missionaries. And God promised that they still got three and a
half years left yet. And I believe we're at that time. So pray, as we
move on in faith towards Christ.
E-20 The reading of the Word
this afternoon... Reason I was kinda was talking a little, the people
kept coming in the doors and getting their seat. I was waiting till
they get settled. Psalms a 100--63.
O God, Thou art my
God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirst for Thee, my flesh longeth
for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and
thy glory, so as I have seen thee in thy sanctuary.
Because thy
lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.
And I said this afternoon, or for this afternoon, that I wanted to
speak on, "The Greatest Gift In The Bible." And how many in the
audience this afternoon could think of any greater gift that God could
give to man than Eternal Life. There is not one gift that could be
given greater than Life. Life is the--that is the sublime gift. It's
the greatest of all gifts, for where there is life, there is--there is
joy. And God alone has Eternal Life.
E-21 And when we take the setting of the Scriptures this afternoon, David, the prophet and the beloved Psalmist, how he loved to sing; the inspiration come upon him, and he would write the hymns. And I've often thought, Jesus when He was here on earth, He referred to David, "Did not David say in the Psalms..." Well, then the Psalms is also prophetic.
E-22 And I wonder what it will
be when He comes, if this great marvelous song that we sing today of
the redemption stories and of the coming of the Lord... I think of that
song they used to sing and play it on the music, something about,
You've
heard of little Moses in the bulrush,
You've
heard of fearless David and his sling;
You've
heard the story told of dreaming Joseph,
And of
Daniel and the lions we often sing.
And
there are many, many others in the Bible,
And I
long to meet them all, I do declare!
And
God's own Son will be the leading One
At
that meeting in the air.
E-23 Oh, I want to see that in
reality. And I believe that we will see it, and I believe that songs
are wrote under inspiration. And David here being a wanderer in the
woods, and he looked to God through nature. You can only see God... My
first Bible was nature. How oft have I watched the great birds of the
air and the sunsets.
Here not long ago I was up in the mountains. And I was elk hunting. And
it was in the early fall and the--the snow hadn't come deep enough to
run the elk herd down. And I, perhaps, was forty, fifty miles from a
living soul, just alone.
We used to sing a song.
There's
times I'd like to be all alone with Christ my Lord,
I can
tell Him all my troubles all alone.
E-24 And it's good for men to
get out alone, way up in the mountain, not so much to kill the animal,
but just to be alone. And the storms up there come in the fall, and
they... It'll rain awhile, snow awhile, and the sun will shine, kind of
a changing weather that high in the mountains.
And I'd left my pack horse way down the mountain and went to the
timberline. I was walking along there, thinking, watching for the elk
tracks and signs. And all at once I heard a roar, and I looked; there
was a black cloud coming, and I knew then it was coming a storm. I
dropped down a little further in the timber, and I run into a blow
down, so I just got behind some trees until the storm was past.
E-25 And when the great winds
twisted, and the trees moaned and groaned under it, I begin to think,
"What's them trees moaning and groaning and frolicking about?" God
sends the wind for some purpose, and it only pulls the roots loose so
it can have room to dig deeper.
That's the way God does with a revival in His Church. He just shakes us
about to loosen us up so we can grow deeper, get a better hold. So
shaking and moving of the Spirit loosens us up.
And while I was amazed as I was watching even the little flower,
thinking of how it died in the winter, and it would probably be seventy
below zero there. The little bulb was gone; the flower was gone; the
little black seed fell out of it; it perished, and the pulp was gone,
but somewhere in that soil laid a germ of life that all the scientists
in the world could never find it.
But just as soon as that warm spring sun begin to beat on that ground,
that little flower stuck its head up and praised the Lord. And if God
made a way for a flower to live again, how much more has He made a way
for a man to live again.
E-26 I was thinking while I was
standing there of an old Methodist preacher friend of mine. We were
having fellowship around a little dish of ice cream one day at
Henryville, Indiana, and the little agricultural program was on from
Louisville, Kentucky.
And the 4-H club had invented a machine that would put out a grain of
corn just as perfect as one you could grow in the field. And you could
take a handful out of the sack growed in the field, handful out of the
sack that the machine made, and mix them up, you could never tell them
apart again. One would make the same corn flake as the other, the same
corn bread the other, same amount of calcium, moisture, the heart in
the right place in the center of it, the skin on the outside.
E-27 Then this speaker goes on
to say, "The only way that you would ever be able to tell them is to
bury them, and the one the machine made would rot and never be no more.
But the one that God growed in the field had a germ of life in it; it
lived again."
I thought, "What a beautiful story. There's two men setting on the same
seat in the church, both of them deacons, or pastors, or whatever they
may be, or two of the laity, both of them going to church, both
listening at the same message, but one has life and the other does
not." It takes the hand of God to do something for man. If you're
borned again, got the Spirit of God in you, you've got to live again.
No matter how good you are, how religious you are, if that Spirit of
Life is not in you, you'll perish. And there's only one Eternal Life
and God has that.
E-28 And as I watched in my
amazement, standing there, my gun setting against the tree, I looked
over. I heard a little old pine squirrel. I think you have them up here
in Canada, little bitty fellow, just like the Irishman's owl, all fuss
and feathers. Oh, what a noise he was making, like he was going to run
everything out of the woods, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. I
thought, "Well, maybe I excited you, little fellow."
And I looked out across the way, and the sun was coming out from behind
the great crevice in the mountain and was shining against where the
evergreens had caught the water, and the cool breeze behind it that
high had froze it. It was icicles. And it formed a rainbow across the
valley. Then I said, "O God, here You are. You're in the rainbow."
E-29 And then I heard an old
male elk, got lost in the storm, bugle over on the side of the hill.
And there's something about that that just sets my soul afire. And an
old wolf howled on the side of the hill, and its mate answered it in
the bottom.
My mother's a half Indian. And there's just enough about the outside
that I love. I thought, "Oh, how, what a wonderful place to be, hearing
God in the elk herd, hearing God in the wolf call, seeing God in the
flower, God in the wind, God in the trees." God's everywhere. Just look
around. You get Him on the inside here, you can see Him out there.
And I looked at that little old chipmunk or squirrel, and I thought,
"You noisy little fellow, did I excite you?" And I might as well tell
you the rest of the story. I got so enthused, oh, I wouldn't say that:
inspired, until I set my gun against the tree, and around and around
and around that tree I went just as hard as I could go, screaming to
the top of my voice. Why, if somebody would've come up in the woods,
they'd thought they had someone out of the insane institution there.
E-30 But what was it? God was
near. I was praising Him with everything that was in me, for there He
was in the rainbow; there He was whispering through the woods; there He
called to me through that wolf, and He answered over yonder in the elk.
Why, you could not hold your peace in a place like that. So I was more
noisy than the squirrel was. I didn't care. I was worshipping the Lord,
way back up in the very tip of the rocky mountain.
And as I stood there, that little fellow got louder and louder, just a
jumping up-and-down. And I thought, "Oh, I didn't want to excite you,
little fellow." And I kept notice him cocking his little head sideways
and looking down like that. I thought, "Maybe he's not looking at me."
E-31 And while the storm was
going on, he had... The storm had forced a big eagle down in this blow
down. And that's what he was afraid of, was that eagle. The big eagle
jumps up on the log, and took those big velvet eyes and looked at me
and looked at the little squirrel.
I thought, "This is strange. I hear God all out there, then when would
this interrupt me. Why was my sacred worship interrupted? Why did you
do it, Lord, let it happen?" And I begin to notice the big eagle. "Now,
God, could You be in that eagle?"
And I noticed him, he wasn't afraid. God don't like cowards. God give
him two wings. And he had confidence in his God-given gift. He knew
that he could be in that timber 'fore I could grab that gun. But I
wondered why he wasn't afraid. He kept feeling, you know, with his
feathers. You know how they do with their wings, see if they was all in
working order.
I think if the church come together, and--and got their spiritual wings
all working order...
E-32 And he kept watching me.
And after while, he wasn't afraid of me, but he didn't like all that
chatter, chatter. So he made one big jump, and he flopped his wings
about two or three times. He was beyond the timber.
And then it come to pass that I seen what God was trying to show me.
This great big mammoth master of the sky, he just spread forth his big
wings like that; he never flopped one more time. He just knowed how to
set his wings in those wind waves, and he just lifted up, up, up, until
he became just a little spot.
I said, "O God, I'm about to have a spell again. That's right. It isn't
join the Methodist, and then leave them and go to the Baptist and over
to the Nazarene. It's just knowing how to set your faith in the power
of the Holy Spirit and be lifted up. Just ride the waves as it comes
in, on up above the shadow. Give me fellowship with Thee, for in the
light I see the fountain, and the Blood that cleanseth me."
He left that little old earthbound squirrel setting there saying, "Days
of miracles is past. No such a thing as the Holy Ghost. Can't get well
if you had...?..." all these things like that. He just set his wings
and flew away from it. God, give us wings like an eagle. "Days of
miracles is past. No such thing as Divine healing, nothing but
holy-rollers." Chatter, chatter here, and a chatter, chatter there,
just as earthbound as they could be.
E-33 He never paid any
attention, then he got sick and tired of it. I hope this church does
the same thing. Just set your great wings in God's promise; let the
Holy Spirit pack you out of sight of it, till it'll just become like a
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
In nature, God lives in nature. David was a great man of nature. He
studied it. He found God there. He knowed how God could help him kill a
bear, could kill a lion with his slingshot. And that's why he could
write these songs.
But the strange part of the song is this. "Thy lovekindness is better
than life." Did you notice the setting of the Scripture? "Thy
lovekindness is better than life to me, so I will praise Thee. And my
soul thirsts for Thee in a dry land where no water is."
E-34 Then I couldn't understand
what David was talking about. When I first read that, I thought, "What
was the prophet meaning? 'That Your lovekindness is better than life'?"
What could be better than life? Nothing. So I drew this conception.
That there must be two different kinds of life. Life has a compound
meaning. It means more than one thing.
Now, many people think that drinking, smoking, gambling, running
around, dancing, they call that life. But that is perverted life.
That's death. It certainly is. The devil has perverted that life, and
you think it's life, but it's death. That life gets so miserable. What
the people call today life, it gets so miserable until they take a
pistol and blow their brains out. That couldn't be life, what God was
speaking of.
E-35 Many young ladies think if
they can get down in town, get enough money to buy some kind of little
old sexy looking clothes to walk down the street with all prettied up,
and the boys will--will whistle the wolf-whistle at her, or with a cake
of chewing gum in her mouth, and she said, "This is life."...
Sister, you're wrong. It's death. The Bible said, "The woman that
liveth in pleasure is dead while she is alive."
And the man thinks that because he got a raise in his wages, and he can
buy a better car, wear a little better suit, "Boy, I'm living now." If
you haven't got Christ, you're dead. It's perverted life.
E-36 Here sometime ago, I was in
a great city in this wonderful, beautiful, God-given Canada... I don't
have to say this. But I've said it many times. If I was a young man,
I'd want to become a citizen of Canada. It's got more to offer. I like
Canada. All my world travels, there's no prettier spot I ever seen in
my life, than Banff and Jasper. I been to Jungfrau, and Eiger, and
Mauk, and all through the Swiss Alps, and Germany, and all around the
world, but Banff and Jasper has got anything beat the world's got to
offer.
Maybe the Lord will let me live there in the millennium. I hope He
will. Where you all are joying--enjoying now, and I hope we're together
then. Oh, it's beautiful.
E-37 And I was in one of your
great cities, and in one of the great mammoth hotels that some kind
brother had put me up in. And I was going home one night from a
meeting, and I went up to the about the fourth or fifth floor. And
there was a bunch of Americans up there from the States that was having
a certain lodge, that I'll not call the name.
But a lodge, a certain lodge was having their jubilee, or convention
there. Well, I'd noticed some funny actions in the people that
afternoon before going to church. But when I got back that night,
walked out of the elevator on the top floor, oh, they were having one
of the awfullest drunken parties I ever seen. And here come two nice
looking women, perhaps in their twenty-five or early thirties, coming
down the floor with nothing on but their underneath garment. Each had a
bottle of whiskey, and men pulling them from one room to the other.
E-38 I just stooped back into
the shade. And they both had on wedding rings. Now, they call that
clean fun. That's filthy sin. Right. Maybe a husband at home taking
care of the baby, thinking their wife was out somewhere with a nice
crowd of people having a dinner and a little sociable get together, and
it turns out into a drunken bolish. What a horrible thing. What does
God think about that kind of living?
And I watched as some old man, maybe twenty years older than one of the
young women, grabbed her in the wrong place on her body, and jerked her
into the room, and all the carrying on of... I stood there and started
to pray. In a few minutes here they come out, the old man was so drunk
he couldn't even hold the woman. And when they come back out, one of
them stood there and took the rest of what clothes she had on, off, and
took a drink of whiskey and throwed up her foot, and said, "Whoopee.
Boy, this is life."
E-39 I just couldn't stand still
any longer. I rushed out and grabbed the woman by the arm. I said,
"Lady, it's death. It's not life." They dropped whiskey bottles and
away they went. But they thought they were having a good time, but they
were dead.
Now, David said here, "My soul longs for You, like in a dry land where
there's no water." Now, God created a man to have a thirst. Your
makeup, you were made to thirst. God made you that way. You cannot help
it because you thirst. God made you to do it. But God made you to
thirst after Him. That thirst was put in you, not to go to the devil's
places, not to thirst after Hollywood, or fashions of the world; but
that thirst was given you to thirst after God.
E-40 Jesus said, "Blessed are
they that do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
filled." It's a blessing to even thirst. But the devil has tried to
make you think of something else. But the thirst was given you by God.
Listen. How dare you take that blessed holy thirst that God gave you to
thirst after Him and try to satisfy it with the things of the world,
with television programs, with drinking, with big sprees. The devil has
perverted instruments of his own and taken that thirst that God give
you to thirst for Him, and making you thirst after the things of the
world. And every thirst that you have should be for Him. Certainly.
That's life.
E-41 You say, "Now, I know the
Bible better than you do, Brother Branham." You don't have life by
knowing the Bible. You don't have life by joining church. You don't
have life by being baptized. You don't have life by knowing your
catechism. You don't have your life by being a minister. To know Him is
Life, not to know the catechism or your church rules, but to know Him
is Life.
And that thirst that God give you, isn't to be spent on a church
either. The devil if he can't make you go to dances, and drink, and
live immoral, and those things, he's perverted it to make you join
church. And that's still perverted, because joining church doesn't give
you life.
E-42 But the only way you can
have Life is to take that thirst and satisfy it by the drinking at the
Fountain that never runs dry, that beautiful Holy Spirit that rains
from God out of heaven. That's the way you find Life is to know Him;
not know His Book, but to know Him; not to know your church, but to
know Him; not to thirst to satisfy the pastor, but to satisfy the Lord.
That's that holy thirst. That's what it's in you for. And would you
quench that with things of the world. It's death. It's perverted.
Did not the Bible say, "If you love the world or the things of the
world, it's because of the love of God's not even in you."? That great
holy thirst. You can't satisfy it by joining the church. There's no
satisfaction in joining the church. You're trying to sear your
conscience and fill your heart with lust. Come out in the open; confess
your sins, and thirst for God's righteousness. "Because Thy
lovekindness is better to me than life, my lips shall praise Thee."
Think of it.
E-43 David also wrote in, I
believe the 47th Psalm, being a woodsman, he said, "As the hart thirsts
for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." As the hart,
the deer, panteth for the water brook, my soul thirst after Thee.
Now, being acquainted with the outdoors, and in Africa, and in the
jungles, and the eastern countries where this Book the Bible was
written, they have over there great herds of wild dogs, wolves. And
David was acquainted with these animals.
And a little deer, when these wild, savage dogs run into a herd of
deer... They have long fangs, and they... One of their choice spots is
to grab the deer is just behind the ear, sink those fangs in, and then
swing his weight. When he does it, he rips the deer's neck. That's all
of it. The deer goes right down.
E-44 And if the deer, he cannot
catch him in the jugular vein here, as we call it, he's got another
choice place. He grabs him right in the flank. And he will grab it with
his teeth like that, and when he swings his weight, he throws the deer
off his feet. And the dogs cover that deer and rip him to pieces just
in a moment.
Now, many times the deer, when the dog grabs him in the side or up
here, if he gets too tight a hold, well, he will--sometimes the
swinging of the deer will make the chunk of meat pull out. Then the
animal has the meat in its mouth, and if there's no other dogs standing
to cut it off, it can sometime escape. But it's bleeding. The blood's a
pouring from the little fellow.
Now, if any hunter here knows anything about hunting, if a deer can get
to water he can live. If that deer can't get to water, he's dead. And
David knew that. And he said, "As the hart panteth for the water brook,
my soul thirst after Thee."
E-45 Could you imagine, the
hounds has just grabbed and pulled a big chunk out of his side, his
blood's life is running out. The little deer stands sniffing for water,
the hounds are just behind him. He--he's got to find water or he will
die.
David said, "That's the way my soul thirsts for Thee. Oh, I must have
You, Lord, or I'll perish." If you only knew, sinner friend, that the
hounds of hell is right behind you, crippled and wounded by sin, and
you've got to find Christ or perish. When that sort of a desire gets
into a man's heart, he will find Christ, when you get in that shape.
E-46 "As the hart panteth for
the water brook. I must have it. I'm wounded. If I don't have it, I'm
gone." And when you get to a place that you want Christ so bad, you
must have Him or perish, you can't sleep at night; you can't eat;
you've just got to find Him; blessed are you when you hunger and thirst
after righteousness, you'll find Eternal Life.
May God help you this afternoon to have that thirst for that Life, for
there's only one Life that'll last forever; that's Eternal Life, and
given only by knowing Jesus Christ in the forgiveness of your sin. "He
that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath passed
from death unto Life, and shall never come to the judgment." You've
done passed from death to Life. What it means...
E-47 Some years ago I was
talking to a--a Indian guide that had got lost on the desert. His name
was Tim Coy, very well-known guide. And he got lost out on the desert
in the Arizona's, and he couldn't find his way back. And his horse...
If you was ever lost... I've been lost. The nose becomes raw and bleeds
where the sand boiling up. Your tongue becomes so thick you can't
speak, your lips turn upside, inside out and crack all over. Then the
devil shows you a mirage.
That's something... You go down the road and you look like you see
water. When you get there it's not water. That's the way the devil does
to church members and sinners. He tries to show you something pleasant.
E-48 And many times the tourists
that wander off the road and--and get into the desert to pick some
flowers, then all of it looks alike and they can't find their way back.
And before they die, they see those mirages. And they run to it, jump
into it, and thinking they're throwing water on them, but they find
they're only throwing hot sand on their head. And a long time before
death, the great vultures come from the skies and pick their eyeballs
out while they're laying on the desert.
How oft does people, sinners, and church members, and pretenders, when
the devil shows you a mirage where you can be popular, you dress so and
so, and go with the crowd and so forth, the buzzards of hell pick your
eyes out to the Gospel a long time before physical death ever strikes
you. You go to a meeting, say, "I don't believe in that stuff." Why the
buzzards of hell's picked your eyes out. That's your spiritual sight.
E-49 Tim said that he come down.
He was a Christian man, a very renowned Christian man. He said, "I got
off my horse; I prayed and I prayed for water." Said, "I'd lost my way
and I couldn't find nowhere." Said, "After while I come up on a path
where it looked like either buffalo or something had run."
And said, "My old horse, her name was Bess." And said, "She begin to
nicker, and I got up on her, tried to ride again, and she was too weak
to pack me." And said, "I'd walk a little piece following this..."
Said, "I was told that sometimes them paths led to a water hole."
E-50 And said, "I started to
ride her; she was too weak." And said, "Then I was all excited and
trying to get down the path," and said, "The first thing you know, I--I
found myself stumbling and falling. I was too weak. I was gone." Said,
"I climbed back into the saddle again, started."
And said, "Over to my right, there was a little dim trail that led off
to the right." Said, "My old horse Bess tried to take that trail."
Said, "I said, 'Come out of there, Bess. You can't take that trail.
This is the trail. It's wider. It's better. More of them went this a
way. This goes to the water.'" And said, "She started nickering and
trying to go the other way."
E-51 Said, "I had a pair of
wheel spurs on. Before I knew it, I was just cutting her to pieces with
these wheel spurs, trying to make her go down that broad path." And
said, "Then she started; she stumbled and got to her knees." And said,
"I jumped off of her, and I looked at her. She was standing there about
ready to perish, looking down that little trail, and was nickering, and
the blood running out of her sides where I'd cut her with those
spurs..."
Said, "I stood there a little bit, and I thought, 'Oh, what will we do.
We're no better off.'" Said, "I rubbed her on the face, and I said,
'Bess, I have often heard that animals had instinct and maybe the big
wide path don't lead to the spring.'"
E-52 Brother, I'll tell you now,
"Broad is the way that leads to destruction; many there be that go in
thereat: for straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, and dim is
the trail that leads to life, but few that'll find it." Don't go with
the crowd. Go with Christ.
He said, "Bess, you carried me through this desert, and we've been
buddies together. And you've carried me safely this far; I'll trust you
the rest of the way."
Not comparing the Holy Spirit with a horse, but, brother, the blessed
Holy Spirit has kept me all these years; I'll trust Him in the valley
of the shadows of death. I'll just take this great experience I've got
to take me on.
E-53 She started down the trail.
Said he hadn't went five hundred yards until he plunged into a great
stream of water, set there enjoying the blessings of water. Said he
jumped into the water, him and the horse both, throwing water over
their head and screaming to the top of his voice. His life was spared.
Said he took the old horse and washed its nose out and everything; just
it was such a blessing. She had brought him safely to the water.
This trail might seem a little dim, but there's a fountain at the end
of it filled with Blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, where sinners
plunge beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.
Said while he was enjoying this, getting refreshed, him and his horse,
he heard someone speak. And he looked around, and there stood a man
intoxicated. And he looked and there was some smoke come up. He said,
"Who are you?"
And he said, "Come out of the water." And he come out. Took him over to
the camp, they had some venison cooked. And he said, "I'm Tim Coy, the
Indian guide. I've been lost for several days out here, and my horse
just led me to the water."
E-54 He eat the venison, enjoyed it. They were all drunk, four of them. Well, they said, "We thought this was the fourth of July we were celebrating." Said, "We've been over here on the Sanabar Mountains. We struck a claim and we got gold here with us, plenty of it. We're going back to be rich men."
E-55 He said, "Celebrate with
us, Tim. Get the jug, Shorty." And they got the jug of whiskey, pulled
the stopper out, said, "Have a drink, Tim."
He said, "No, I don't drink, sir."
And he said, "Oh, you don't?"
He said, "Sir, I never took a drink in my life. Thank you for the
venison, but I'll be going on." And said, "It's not the fourth of July
anyhow."
And he said, "You mean you never drink?"
He said, "I never drank in my life."
He said, "What do you say, boys? Let's make this Indian guide take his
first drink with us...?..." That's the way. They was having life they
thought.
E-56 So one fellow, little
crooked legged cowboy, picks up a thirty- thirty rifle and jacks a
shell into it, took the jug in his hand; he said, "Tim, if our
venison's good enough to eat, then our whiskey is good enough to
drink." He said, "You either take a drink of whiskey, or take what
poison we got at the end of this thirty-thirty."
Now, they're not kidding. You know how a drunk is. Tim said, "Boys, I
don't want your whiskey, but before you pull the trigger let me tell
you my story."
He said, "I hail from the bluegrass country of Kentucky." Said, "Many
years ago in a little old log house," said, "a little bed laying in the
corner of the house with fence rails made a bed (That's the kind I was
borned on), and shucks for the mattress," said, "as the morning light
creeped across the bare floor of a little cabin, a mother lay dying."
And said, "A little barefooted boy of only five years old toddled
around in the house, the only person there when a godly Christian
mother was going to meet her Maker."
E-57 And said, "My mother called
me to the bed, put her arms around me, and said, 'Tim, God will send
somebody here to you sooner or later. Mother's going home. And I want
you to promise me something, Tim. Your father died with his boots on.
He died a drunkard. And that's the reason we've been in poverty. But
promise me, Tim, as your mother, that you'll never take a drink as long
as you live.'"
And he said, "When the breath left her body, and I pulled my little
baby hands from her clenched hands," said, "sirs, from that time to
this, I've never tasted whiskey. But I've served the Lord with a pure
heart." Said, "Now, if you want to shoot, just go ahead."
E-58 And about that time, a
pistol roared, and when it did, the jug in the hand of the man bursted.
Out of the canyon just behind, stepped a little fellow, well-scarred
and beaten, tears running down his cheeks, both guns sticking out.
He said, "You don't know me, Tim, but I know you." Said, "None of you
know me." Said, "There's a price on my head. I'm an outlaw." Said, "I
followed you all the way from the Sanabar range, and watched you here
with that gold. And I thought when you got drunk enough, instead of
putting a bullet in you, I'd just go down and knock you everyone in the
head and take the gold. I was waiting till you passed out drunk, but,
Tim, I also come from the bluegrass country of Kentucky."
E-59 Said, "I promised a dying
mother the same thing, but I'm sorry I broke the vow." But said, "I'm
sure she heard my pistol as it echoed through the big canyons of
heaven; I signed a pledge. From this hour I'll never take a drink,
Tim." And with the group of outlaws and the prospectors together, Tim
led them to the Fountain of Life.
Brother, men that's ever meant anything has accepted that Fountain of
Life. While we bow our heads just a moment... Sinner friend, you
might've made promises too. You might think you're living good, but the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life through
knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.
E-60 Before we pray, I wonder in
this great audience of massive people in here this afternoon, if you
sinners will just lift up your hands to God and say, "God, by this... I
promised my mother, my daddy, my sister, my wife someday I'd meet them
in glory. I want to raise my hand while you put my name on the Book of
Life in heaven. And I do it by lifting my hand. I want to drink from
that Fountain of Life."
God bless you, sir. God bless you, sister. God bless you, sister back
there. Any other on the main floor here? God bless you over there, sir.
"I raise my hand. I want to come to the Fountain." [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]
There
is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn
from Immanuel's veins,
And
sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose
all their guilty stains.
Lose
all their guilty stains,
Lose... (Come right ahead
now, everyone that desires to come.)... stains;
And
sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lost
all their guilty stains.
Listen on this verse now.
The
dying thief rejoiced to see
That
fountain in his day;
And
there may I, though vile as he,
Wash
all my sins away.
Wash
all my sins away,
Wash
all my sins away;
And
there may I, though vile as he,
Wash
all my sins away.
E-61 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] You believe? I [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...
I am not mistaken, but aren't you associated with that prayer card? You
got it ten years ago here. Actually you never got it. Your wife got it.
I never seen you or the prayer card. But I seen that prayer card over
the top of your head just now.
Now, you've come with that stomach trouble and things to be healed, and
that nervous condition you're suffering with. You've come, now you have
it. You was prayed for, but now, you've come and you've got it now by
obeying Christ; that's what was lacking. That's right.
E-62 Blessed be the Name of the
Lord. Why couldn't I bring that prayer card last night? Because it
wasn't right. There's a prayer card. Ten years ago this week, I was
here, not knowing it. On the seventh day of August, 1947, this prayer
card was given right here in this prayer--this room and was kept until
a few nights ago.
And now the owner of it presented it in the prayer line the other night
to some, the ushers or somebody, it come back to Billy Paul, Billy Paul
give it to me, and as I come here, never knowed the man, never seen him
in my life, there was that prayer card hanging right there.
E-63 All right, brother. You've
got what you ask for now, Christ is your Saviour. When you accepted Him
as Saviour, He healed you also. There you are. Your nervous condition
causing stomach trouble and heartburns and sour in your mouth... That's
right. It's all over now. You're going to be well.
If that ain't grace. Give us a chord, "Amazing Grace," everybody. How
many knows that great song? I want the ministers to come here and stand
by these sinner friends...?... not sinners now; they're not sinners.
They've come confessing. Let the ministers of this city come around
here so they can take them now to their churches. Come on, ministers,
whoever you are, welcome these men and women, boys and girls along here
to your church. All right, all together.
There
is... zing grace! how sweet the sound,
That
saved a wretch like me!
I once
was lost, but now I'm found,
Was
blind, but now I see.
Listen.
'Twas
grace (all
of us) that
taught my heart to fear,
Was
grace my fears relieved;
How
precious did that grace appear
The
hour I first believed!
E-64 Now, let this audience sing
this next verse, all together. Open up your lungs and sing it to God.
Through
many dangers, toils and snares,
I have
already come;
It's
grace that's brought me safe thus far,
It's
grace that'll take me on.
How many Christians here trust that this afternoon, with your hands up?
All right. Good. Let's sing it with your hands up. All right, everybody
together.
Through
many dangers, toils and snares,
I have
already come;
Was
grace that brought me safe thus far,
And
grace will take me home.
Now, shake hands with your neighbor standing by you there, say, "God
bless you, neighbor." The Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians...
E-65 Now, you penitent ones at
the altar, do you actually now accept Christ as your personal Saviour?
Raise up your hand. Every person at the altar accepts Christ as
personal Saviour. Now, I want you to turn, facing the audience and
these ministers here. You at the altar, turn right around this a way
towards the audience. Now, raise your hands to the audience that you
accept Christ as personal Saviour.
Jesus said, "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me
has Everlasting Life." That's the Life I'm talking about. You just now
got It. "You will in no wise come into condemnation; but you've passed
from death unto Life. He that will confess Me before men, him will I
confess before My Father and the holy Angels." That's truth, isn't it?
E-66 Now, ministers and all the
Christians that welcome them into the Body of Christ as fellow citizens
of the Kingdom, raise your hands as a welcome to them. Blessed be the
Name of the Lord. Let us bow our heads now while I pray for these here.
Father, we're so happy today, [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] that through the fruit of
the message, brought sinners to the altar and they accepted You as
their personal Saviour. Now, according to Your Word, their name is on
the Book of Life, and there is nothing can rub it out. "I will in no
wise cast him out. He has Everlasting Life, shall never come to the
judgment or condemnation; but is done passed from death unto Life."
E-67 And they confessed You with
their hands up toward You to these other citizens of the Kingdom in
this great fellowship of Christ, that they too have become this
afternoon pilgrims and strangers to the things of the world. They've
passed from death unto Life. Now, He said, "He that will confess Me
before men, him will I confess before My Father and the holy Angels."
So glad to see You work this miracle here before them just now, to see
that prayer card over that man there. O blessed and eternal God, You
waited for this hour, and this is the hour that he can rejoice. We pray
that if there be any more sick along this line, that You will take all
the diseases out of their bodies. You Who can save their soul, can
certainly heal their bodies. And they're thirsting for it. And I pray
that You'll grant it.
E-68 Bless this church together.
Take them into Thy loving arms and keep them until the day that we all
meet together. And as we set at that great table that evening for the
Lord's Supper, Thou hast said, "I will not no more eat the fruit of the
vine until I eat it, drink it anew with you in My Father's Kingdom."
And on that great day, when that great table is set, and all the
redeemed of all ages are setting across the table from each other,
we'll shake each other's hands. Oh, I want to see millions there, Lord,
that I've led to You, and hear them say, "Brother Branham, I'm so glad
that you come."
Then as we shed a little tear for joy, the King in His beauty will come
out, take His nail-scarred hand and wipe all tears from our eyes, say,
"Don't cry, children; it's all over now. Enter into the joys of the
Lord."
Send them into the harvest field here, Lord. And may they win others.
For we ask it in Christ's Name. Amen.