A Blushing Prophet (56-1125E)
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Now, may the Lord add His blessings to the subject of "A Blushing
Prophet." This morning we were very much took up with a prophet who
wore a secondhanded robe. And we know tonight, since in the Scripture
this morning, that we ourselves wear a secondhanded robe. We… The
robe… And I am so happy that it is a secondhanded robe, for this robe
that we wear now has been reckoned to God as righteousness through
Christ Jesus. And we're not taking the moth-eaten robe of some man's
theology who's been eaten up with moths and crickets and so forth,
saying that the days of miracles is passed, and there's no such a thing
as the–the omni-presence of the Holy Spirit now; but we are wearing a
robe of His righteousness.
E-2 [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]…
not in our own abilities, but in the–the ability of our Lord Jesus.
And when I come down to the Jordan, I want to have on His robe,
trusting in His. And the great shadow of the gate that's set before us
all called death, each time our heart beats we go one beat closer to
that great gap that every man and woman must go through. And when I
come to that gap, along with you believers, I'm so happy to know that
I'm not going there with this in my heart and mind, that I have done
something great. I'm going there confessing and knowing that I'm a
sinner, and knowing this, that I want to wrap myself in the robes of
His righteousness, with this testimony, that I know Him in the power of
His resurrection, that when He calls from the dead, I want to come out.
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Now, our scene and drama is set tonight for our text of another day in
Israel which was about several hundred years past the–the time of
Elijah. Many ups-and-downs had come in the reign of Israel. And now,
we're at the scene tonight…
This morning we were at the scene of where there was a lot of carnal
impersonations: how that the school of prophets were up there training
to be prophets. And how simple they were, till even they couldn't
understand the power of God. They thought the power had lifted Elijah
up and throwed him out on the mountain somewhere. And they sent a
search party to hunt for him, when Elisha knew good and well that God
had taken him to glory. For he was not; God had taken him, and he
escaped death by going home to God on a chariot of fire and horses of
fire. And then we seen that their seminaries and their works of their
own theology didn't work. It taken election and calling of God to make
a prophet of God.
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And now, tonight we find Israel in a backslidden condition. Israel had
its ups-and-downs. It was a very type of the church today. Sometime
they were on the housetops; the next time they were down in the valley.
That's what takes to make us appreciate the good things.
There's what they call the law of contrasts. The black man of Africa
never knowed that he was black, his skin, until he seen David
Livingston. And he said… Then he realized his skin was black, because
Livingston's was white. It's a contrast. You would never how to
appreciate a day if you didn't have a night. You'd never know how to
appreciate the sunshine if you didn't have a cloudy day. You would
never know how to appreciate righteousness unless you had had some
unrighteousness. You'd never know how to appreciate good health unless
you've had some foul health, some bad health. It's only those… And
that's the reason I think that we'll appreciate heaven so much, because
we've lived on earth once.
And I think the law of contrast. The reason that we appreciate the Holy
Spirit so much tonight, is because we lived so long in a church that
told us there was no such a thing. The reason we appreciate It tonight
because we have had the other side. And that's the way God has intended
it to be, because His people has had their ups-and-downs. You never
know how to appreciate a mountain top unless you've been in the valley.
And so you never know how to appreciate good water unless you drink
some bad some time. And then you–you… All the way through it's a law
of contrasts.
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Now, Israel was in one of its backslidden states. And what a thing they
had done. Now, Israel was a chosen, elected, selected people. That God
had chose Israel for one specific purpose, that the blood of Israel
should be the cleanest bloodstream. For out of that lineage was going
to come the Messiah Himself.
All down through the Old Testament God appeared in men. God appeared in
Abraham as a faith believer. God appeared in David as a King. He
appeared in Joseph as righteousness. He appeared in Moses as prophet,
priest, law giver. He appeared down through the ages in the prophets.
He always made Himself known in man, in portion, through prophets,
kings, priest, law giver, so forth.
But in Christ He dwelled in Him the Fullness of the Godhead bodily, and
knowing that this Spirit must finally find a resting place. On Elijah,
He was a man of God's justice; he played it out, the justice of God. In
Moses He was a law giver, that you toe the mark or get out. And in all
these things God represented. But when He came to Christ, He was
perfect. The entire Fullness of the Godhead bodily rested in Christ.
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And God represented Himself once in the Fullness beforehand in the book
of Genesis, in the order of Melchisedec, Who had no father, no mother,
no beginning of days, or ending of years, or ending of life. And He was
a priest, the King of Salem, a priest of God, of the most high God, Who
was without beginning or without ending. He was none other than the
prefigure of the Lord Jesus Christ, 'cause He was the King of Salem
which is the King of Peace which is the King of Jerusalem. And He was
in prefigure, even the patriarch Abraham paid tithes to Him. He was a
prefigure of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
This same Melchisedec met Abraham out on the plains before the
destroying of Sodom and Gomorrah. And–and He met him after Sodom and
Gomorrah when Abraham paid Him a tithings of all the spoils that he'd
taken from the king. All these things is shadows, typed up to Christ.
And now, all the shadows of the Old Testament saints, their ups-and-downs, was a shadow and type and example for us today.
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Now, we find that Israel was not to mix marriage. Their marriage was to
be among one another, not no Israelite to ever marry a Gentile, but was
to keep their bloodstream clean. And even till this day I believe the
Jewish bloodstream is the cleanest blood–bloodstream on the face of
the earth today, is the Jews. They're still looking for that Messiah.
But He's… We know that He is already come, and their eyes were
blinded that we could have a chance of repentance through Christ.
Now, during the time of the reign of Ezra, the children of Israel had
become backslid. They had went out and got the Moabite women. And they
had got the women of the Amorite, the Perizzite, and many of the other
nations, and had not only had married them, but was committing
fornications among them, uncleanliness, and polluting the very
bloodstream which is the life stream.
And what a picture that is today of our churches, the way they're
falling away from the old fashion hewing line that God laid down for
the church, the precepts that we were to live by. The church is
committing fornication with the world. It's got out into the world and
begin to dally in the world.
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Now, this had embarrassed the prophet so much till when he come before
God he blushed in His face. The first one he heard about… And it
seemed the–the moral decay of his people, it hurt him so bad until he
set down and anointed himself, plucked his hair out and his beard out,
and was heavy hearted before the Lord in prayer. Then when the evening
sacrifice was offered, he went into the temple and fell on his knees
and blushed before God for the sins of the people.
Now, he didn't blush for the scarlet streak of the red light district.
He didn't blush for the booze drinkers in the hell holes, although as
bad as it may be. But he blushed because the sin of the elect. And what
we need today is some more prophets with enough God in their hearts to
blush in the Presence of God for the sins of the people who call
themselves the people of God and doing the way they're doing. What a
disgrace we've brought to this place. The morals of our people…
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This is not a easy subject to speak on. I could think of many things
that were easier to speak on. But, brother, if somebody don't stand out
in this sinful, adulternous day that we live in and call the colors,
what's going to happen? Somebody has got to speak the thing. Somebody's
got to place it before the people. Perhaps Ezra didn't want to do it.
But it was in his heart.
And when you see a servant of God get so sincere till he's on his face
with his hands in the air, praying to God, and blushing because the
iniquity of the people, then you're going to see a revival start. A man
cannot lay in the Presence of God, a church cannot stay in the Presence
of God under repentance unless the Holy Spirit comes down and gives
unction and power to start a move of God in there among those people.
Just got to be.
Show me a man. Show me another Calvin, Knox, Finney, Sankey, or any of
those who feels the burden of the people, that'll lay on their face and
cry and pray before God. Send us a John Smith of the Baptist Church
again, who prayed all night for the iniquity of the people until his
eyes would be swelled shut the next morning from weeping, till his wife
would lead him to the table and feed him his breakfast out of a spoon.
Show me a John Wesley again, a firebrand snatched from the fire. I'll
show you a revival.
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What we're doing today, we're patting it on the back. We're calling it
this and that and a revival when there's no revival to it. That's
right. There's a stirring of emotion, called religion, among the
people, but no revival. They had a religious group in that day. They
had a stirs in that day. But they needed a revival.
Why, my dear brother and sister, the morals of this nation has become
so low till it would make a dog ashamed. It would make a hound blush if
it could do so, the immorals of our people. The people, even years ago
the things that we have, that the nation has done, the things that the
people has done, it's all the lack of prayer. The church that used to
didn't believe in picture shows. They wouldn't let their children go to
picture shows. They would shun picture shows. And today, why, they even
have… They have the picture show in their own house. Every house has
a television.
In the place where they used to think it was wrong to drink beer, in a
place where they used to think, John Barleycorn, what a great ornery
fellow he was… Today sixty percent of so called Christians take a
social drink at least once a year. Then they get on a big spree around
Christmas when they have their celebration. Because they have adopted
education to take the place of salvation. It'll never do it. What we
need is a revival.
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We put corn plasters on, take them off, and another corn plaster, and
take it off, and still find the pain is there. What we need today is
not social regeneration; it's not intellectual talks; what we need
today is a old fashion God sent Blood transfusion from heaven. The corn
plasters won't do no good. We are anemia. We need a Blood transfusion.
We need to come back to the old fashion Gospel that calls out for
repentance before God, and not a dry-eyed hand shook profession, but a
God sent, Holy Ghost revival with the possession of the cleansing of
the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ into every human heart. We need a
revival to start in the church and sweep the nation across. We'll die;
we'll perish; we are gone without that type of revival.
I'm so sick and tired of seeing little petty Hollywood revivals, so
called, where people come in and get emotionally stirred up for a
couple hours and–or day or two, or a week or two, and go out and
that's all of it. Brother, you can be worked up by a revival. You can
have emotion. You can have good intentions. All those things are fine.
But we don't need that today. We need a baptism of the Holy Spirit to
change the emotions, and the intellects, and the views, the habits, the
life of the people, and put them back on the right road again. Outside
of a Blood transfusion from Calvary, all of our reformations won't do
any good at all.
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We don't need a U.N. We have a U.N. there and what did they do? God's
Name's never called. They're afraid to call it. It was once asked by
some clergy group, why didn't they have prayer? They said it might
offend somebody else, one of the others who didn't believe in God. Oh,
what we need is a revival. Don't make any difference who it offends, we
got to preach the Gospel and call our colors…?… Right? I wouldn't
give you a dime for any program that left God out of it, whether it's a
U.N. or a big four, whatever it might be. Until this nation wakes up to
the place that we're dying without the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
until individuals wake up to the–to the cause that we're dying… The
reason we're dying, is without the original, the way, the remedy, the
cure that God gave us at Calvary.
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No wonder it makes a man blush. No wonder a real true preacher look
upon his congregation and try to lead them before the throne of God,
and visit their homes and find them smoking cigarettes, telling dirty
jokes to each other, entertaining in the back yard with beer parties,
walking around on the streets, their young women, and middle age, and
so forth, and even grandmother with little shorts on. Mother out on the
street with a baby on one arm, dressed sexy enough to attract the
attention of any bootlegger that walked the street, and calling
themselves Christians? It would make any true man of God blush to bring
such a person in the Presence of God. Right.
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And a lot of them are joining church and getting a better class, has
come to nonsense. And it did in that day and it will this. Bring us
back to God, not with an injection of education, not with an injection
of religious reformation, not in the injection of some kind of manmade
theology, but an old fashion baptism of the Holy Ghost sent down from
God out of heaven in a Pentecostal experience, of burning out the
carnality and replacing in there the jewel that's calling…?… there
of a son and daughter of God. Till we do that, brothers and sisters, we
will still have bobbed hair, makeup on, sexy looking women and men,
drinking, smoking, and calling themselves Christians, because they
don't know no better, and in their heart that very root of carnality
lays there. And we need a church cleaning up from the basement to the
pulpit. Amen. And that's right.
What we need today is some blushing prophets. God… Sometimes people
come into the prayer line to be prayed for, looked like they was going
to a house of ill fame (That's right.), coming to ask God for something
and looking like a Jezebel. What we need today is a house cleaning, and
a heart warming, of prophets of God who will stand in the pulpit and
call the thing out and tell what's right and what's wrong, and preach
the Gospel without compromising until sinners fall on the floor and
weep till God sends the Holy Spirit to clean up their lives. Amen. You
know that's right. That's right.
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I preached here not long ago and said that every woman in this city was
guilty in one way or the other of adultery. They are. The women go
downtown here, and you can't hardly buy a dress unless it's so like
they was poured in. I'm not here to… This is my own church. I have a
right to preach what the Holy Spirit tells me to do. That's right.
Let me tell you; I'm not criticizing you, my sister. But don't the Holy
Spirit teach you different? If It doesn't, I'm afraid you didn't get
the Holy Spirit. That's right. The Holy Spirit's not shouting. The Holy
Spirit's not dancing in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit's not speaking in
tongues. The Holy Spirit is righteousness. God give us a Holy Ghost
revival of God sent righteousness.
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Did you realize that when you dress yourself like that and walk down
the street and man looks at you in the wrong way, that at the
judgment… You may be as pure as a lily before your husband, but at
the judgment you'll be guilty of committing adultery with the guy that
you presented yourself to.
No wonder it would make a person blush. No wonder… What must it do to
God when the Bible said in the beginning that it grieved Him that He
made man. It grieved the heart of God when He looked upon–in the days
before the antediluvian destruction, that He ever made a man.
What happened? The sons of God saw the daughters of men was fair. It
was a perversion. It was a sex mix up. It was that thing that drove the
children of–of God from the garden of Eden. It was that thing that
drove God's judgment to bring peace upon the earth. It was that thing
that caused Him to destroy it. It was that same mixing up between women
and men that caused Sodom and Gomorrah to sink in the bottom of the
Dead Sea. It was told by the prophets. It was told by the Lord Jesus,
that, "As it was in those days, so will it be before the coming of the
Son of God."
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We look today and see that the church has taken its pattern not out of
the Bible, out of Ruth, and out of Naomi, and out of Sarah, and the
ones in the Bible; but they're patterning, even the women of the
church, after Hollywood and the very dregs of the Devil. It's how that
our people who call themselves Christians, go out there and get this
evil man's ways, these records of Elvis Presley, ever what his name is,
one of the most deluded, devil possessed people I've ever heard of in
my life. Arthur Godfrey and such as that… And listen to them kind of
nonsense on your radios and refuse to hear the Gospel sermon preached
and the Bible, God have mercy on you. What kind of a spirit have we got
among us. That is right. No wonder the prophet of God blushed before
the–the Lord. He knew that was unrighteous. And he stood and pleaded
the case, and said to God, "We're unrighteous." And we are, friends.
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And until we can come back to that spot of a Blood transfusion… Quit
trying to put on plasters. Quit trying to put on some salve. The
healing can't come unless the bloodstream's right.
That's the reason that people has got diabetes. If one would ever cut
himself, it probably would never heal. Why? Because the real red blood
cells is eat up. And the whole church has become diabetic. And to every
little cut that comes, instead of walking on, you pick at it. It can't
heal. Selfishness, greed, immorality, everything else that's in the
calendar of God's wrong doing, the church is picking up those habits:
men drinking, smoking, telling dirty jokes; women cutting their hair,
wearing make up, doing all kinds of things, dressing themselves
immorally to face the people. All those things are because it's a lack
of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Amen.
That may seem hard. Sure it's hard, but it's the truth. If we don't
belch forth the judgments of Almighty God, you're going to be caught
one of these days in an atomic explosion here that'll send every soul
out into eternity to meet a God Who'll only recognize the Blood of His
Son, Christ Jesus. I'd like to see you come under the Blood. My advice
to you is to get right with God. My advice to…?…
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Why can't we have faith? Why can't we have greater peace than we do
have? Why can't we get ourself soundly builded? It's because we're
putting on corn plasters, because we're putting on stickers, putting on
pieces of tape. We're trying to cover the thing up instead of saying we
need a transfusion. We're without Blood. We're without Christ. Don't
let yourself be fooled. Don't let the Devil pat you on the shoulder,
saying, "Well, I go to church." The devil does too. That's right. He
sure did.
He come up to God, went to church up in heaven, come before the throne
of God with the sons of God, set down with them, had an audience with
God. He said, "Where you been?"
Said, "Walking to and fro, on down on the earth." That's where he had been.
So the Devil goes to church. The Devil belongs to church. The Devil
acts like a Christian. He's a deceiver. And if he didn't act like a
Christian and act like a church, he wouldn't be a deceiver. No man
could be deceived, only if they–the difference was black and white, if
it's contrary to one another. But he… The Bible said that it'd be so
close that it would deceive the very elect if possible, the spirit in
the last days. Friends, we're there.
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It's time for the prophets of God, oh, brother, for the preachers, if
you would say it, across the nation, to fall on their face. When I know
there's nineteen million Baptist churches, nineteen million Baptists,
rather, in America, thirteen million Methodist, eleven million
Lutherans, ten million Presbyterians, mercy, think of that. And
constantly, the ball games, the amusements… And on Wednesday nights
and sometimes on Sunday nights, stay home to listen to the television
and the radio of old jugs, gags, and jokes they pull from Hollywood,
your soul growing on that kind of stuff, when you ought to have your
Bible out somewhere, laying out before God on your knees a praying for
the sins of the country… And I'm guilty with you.
I have made my mind up. By the help and grace of God, if I–God will
give me strength to do it, I'm determined to press towards the mark of
the high calling in Christ Jesus till death shall set me free. God, be
my Helper to do so. Help me, is my prayer. Seeing the works and seeing
the things that I have seen and you have seen, and lagging behind and
become a spiritual anemia…
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And this tabernacle, which is known throughout the entire world, this
little concrete block place setting on a corner, God has lifted you up
before the nation. That's right.
How I think of what David, one night when he said, "Here I am living in
a house of cedar and the ark of my God dwells in the tent." He said,
"I'll build Him a house."
Nathan the prophet said, "Do all that's in your heart, 'cause God is with you."
That night God appeared to Nathan and said…?… "Go, tell David, 'Who
was you, David? You were… I took you from a sheepcote, from attending
the sheep, and I made you a great name like great men of the nations.'"
Who was in this little tabernacle setting here? A little, old, back
washed, kicked out something setting on the corner of Eighth and Penn
street, till hardly Jeffersonville knew where it was at and the people
would come here… And today, God, by His mercy has picked you up and
made you a great people. Bombay, India, knows where this tabernacle's
setting. Delhi, India, all these other nations, Africa knows where this
place is. India, Germany, England, Finland, Sweden, Europe, Asia, they
all know. Way down in the Islands…?… and down in there, they know
all about it. And God has made us an example to the people. And to
think that after God's doing that and we turn around and dilly dally in
the things of the world and become a very spiritual anemia… How we
ought to be the lighthouse that's set on a hill, a candle that cannot
be hid.
O God, I'm as guilty as the rest of you. What I need… I want–I want
an old fashion God sent repentance and a calling back to God, that when
men and women walk in that door on crutches, they'll walk out without
them. When the blind is led in the door, they'll go out seeing. And
when the deaf comes in deaf, they'll go out hearing. When sinners come
in black and smutty with sin, will go out washed in the Blood of the
Lamb…?… we do it?
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God called Israel and made an example. God called us and made an
example. But we've let down on God, and it blushes us in the Presence
of God to think that the things that He's done for us: how He's lifted
us up from the sheepcote; how He's made us known all over the world;
how He's done the great things for us. And yet we dilly dally and
mingle around, and go out. And we're not seem to be sincere. We don't
have prayer any more. Things just are not going right. And we're trying
to put on little programs, corn plasters to ease the pain. You can't
ease the pain until you get good rich blood in there to heal the thing.
Right.
You cut an old corn out and you'll get yourself with diabetes and
they'll take your foot off. Don't try to dismiss this, and bypass this,
and put a corn plaster on this; but the thing to do is to come straight
out before God and say, "God, I am anemia and I need Your Blood to
cleanse me from all my sins." That's my prayer, trust that it's yours.
Think of these things, friends.
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One of these days it's just as apt to happen before daylight in the
morning as it is to happen fifty years from today. One rocket bomb, one
of those cobalts, or hydrogen bombs could… The whole nation is on an
alert. You seen in the paper the other day where they're requiring the
Pentagon to answer the flying saucer. It wasn't a myth; it wasn't
something you'd imagine; it was real. It was an intelligence. They flew
in battle formation. They could dodge. They could…?… They could
spot; they could tell; it was an intelligence. They know it. The people
laughed. They said, "Flying saucers?" made a fun out of it.
But you know what I'm thinking? Jesus said before He comes there will
be signs in the heaven above. Did you notice before He destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah because of their sex affairs, He sent Angels down to
investigate it. Angels has come to the earth in the last few years.
They've been seen among people, I mean honest Blood washed people who
knows it. They've even stood and had their pictures taken. That's
right. Angelic beings has visit, taking word back to the Father that
sin is heaped till the stars can hardly shine. The moon, the whole
world's a reeling like a drunk man coming in at night. That's right.
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Seeing it among the Christians, among the elect, they've sold their
birthrights out for popularity. The minister has swapped the Gospel for
a social calling. He swapped the old fashion, Blood washed Gospel for a
intellectual with the people, to preach intellect, talk of societies,
and misuse the Gospel. Many of them has went out into the fields of
preaching and used the Gospel for personal gain, to make money. Many of
them has got big farms and cars and things that they never would've
had, personal gain. Not all, I'm thankful that there's still a remnant.
In the days of Ezra, when Ezra begin to weep and to call out and to
rebuke the sin, you know what happened? All the elect that trusted God
gathered around him. What we need today is men and women… Your
preachers would preach in your churches and call sin sin and rebuke it,
the real people of God would gather right up around you and stay with
you. That's right. It's time to call out and say which is which,
separate right from wrong. God, grant it to us that we'll have the
courage to do it. Just think what could happen.
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As I was telling, I believe this morning, or heard someone say it, that
upon one of these watchers that's watching us, I forget what you call
it now, for the bom–or planes to come… Not long ago there was a
program come through somewhere, that they'd called out the big fleets
with their three hundred jet bombers, with atomic bombs and hydrogen
bombs hanging under them.
Not long ago at the big airport in Shreveport, one of the boys was
converted over there in the meetings at Brother Jack's. He said, "We
got atomic bombs hanging right in the hangers."
I said, "Aren't you…" And…
"I mean, in the–in the planes. And we go up and practice with them daily."
I said, "Aren't you afraid?"
Said, "They haven't got the triggers in them. But we're so on the
alert, that within in the space of a minute, sixty seconds, we could
have the triggers in there and gone, and fueled up and ready, till they
could fly to England with them immediately."
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Their great hangers are setting out in the ocean everywhere. And
they're saying to Russia, "Dare you drop one bomb. Just drop one atomic
bomb on the U.N., or somewhere there, and look what happens." What will
it be? There'd be an onslaught go to Russia. And if they would do that
and start dropping those atomic and hydrogen bombs, it would cause a
chain reaction that would burn the earth to a–to a wisp, just melt.
You know it wouldn't disagree with Scripture a bit. "For the earth
shall burn, the heavens too." The atoms of the earth shall burn. We're
living in a dangerous day. We're living in a day when men of the world
are scared to death, the great men. They're–they're afraid who's going
to burst that first bomb. The first bomb that goes off, then the whole
thing goes into a–a rally.
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It ought to be the happiest time in the world for the Christian. Times
are going to change. The old's going to become young. Oh, my. Death's
going to fleet away. Sickness will be no more. No more prayer meetings
for the sick. No more prayer meetings for the lost. But God shall come
and take the elect from the four winds of the earth and shall gather
them under His own wings. And we'll live and reign with Him forever in
His heaven.
Oh, brother, sister, friend of mine, if you're not prepared tonight,
may you be prepared at this hour. I give you an invitation to come to
Christ Jesus tonight and receive. You that's been different, you that
know that you're not where you should be with God, I invite you to the
altar with myself. I invite every one of you to come here, and not only
to setting, but to stay here until God has cleansed your soul from
everything that's unlike Him, until you can go out of here a new
person; not with a corn plaster on, but go out of here with a Blood
transfusion that purifies your blood and gives you new life and new
hope. Go out with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Go out, not shouting,
not dancing, not so much. Them things are all right. They all belong in
the church; they all belong in the Bible. But what I'm talking about is
the Holy Spirit, God's love.
E-28
A young man was talking to me the other day. His mother, a dear woman
(I know the woman, met her once or twice.), and she said, "Oh, honey,"
to her boy, "come here, I want you to look. I have the oil in my
hands." Well, I have too. It's where I've been sweating. Now, said, "I
got oil in my hands" said," what do you think of that?"
And the boy looked at his mother and said, "Mother, I want to ask you
something." She just wanted him to pray–wanted him to pray that she'd
have a closer walk with God. He said, "When the oil come in your hand,
did it take away all your condemnation? Did it give you a sweet
experience with God?"
"Well, no."
Said, "Then I'd leave it alone."
That's it. Oh, the world, the religious world, the Pentecostal people
are looking for fantastics. The world, the educated so called world,
the denominational world, is looking for some great solution that they
can embetter their denomination and get more members into it, a million
more, you know. And the–the nations are looking for some type of a
police force that can bring all the world to their knees and bring
righteousness. Brother, it doesn't come by Pentecostal fantastics.
Neither does it come by Protestant organizations or by Catholic
hierarchy. Neither does it come by Pentagons, or turning new pages. It
comes by a surrendered life to Jesus Christ through the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. Anything short of that, it's wrong.
Let us pray. I'll ask our sister to come to the organ or the piano at this time.
E-29
While we're in prayer, while every person has their head bowed, and
every person in prayer, I wonder at this moment if you would test your
spirit against the Word of God. Are you right? After this service, I'll
do as I told you. I got a mother-in-law laying yonder at the very point
of death I got to see. She's dying.
Other friends that I know of here, that I visit, that's laying at the
point of death, people who set in this church… Oh, brother, sister,
you're coming down there too. You got to come down there. Now, you say,
"Well, I–I know that, Brother Branham, I mean to get that thing fixed
up some of these days." But it may not be some of these days for you.
This may be the only day.
How little did that man know, coming from California going to Michigan
the other day with his little wife up here driving the–the car, him in
the pickup going to their new home. He'd just retired from the Navy.
How well did he know when he started off that morning maybe from a
tourist court, that his wife and baby would be a corpse in a few
minutes. But just above Henryville there, their car collided with a
bus, and the driver made the–the–his vehicle do a jackknife almost,
but it killed the woman and the little girl. I trust that their soul
was right with God.
E-30
A few weeks ago when Brother Wood and I went up here to a airplane that
fell back behind the place here, and watched them pull pieces of eight
men's bodies, when heads and legs and arms was all over the place,
picking up the body and the entrails falling out of the man's body, a
good man, perhaps a famous man from Chicago. When that man got in the
plane that morning, I wonder the night that he went to church, if he
had good intentions. Did the pastor give an altar call? Did he rebuke
sin? And the man had a chance. Or did he go out like an animal? Was the
man in the sight of God a son of God?
Think of those things friends. They are important. They're not only
important; they're the most important thing to you this hour. This is
the time when you'll make up your mind. This is a time when you may
make your decision of this life for your life hereafter. May you do it
while we pray.
E-31
Heavenly Father, as we read in the Bible of what You said about sin and
those who do it and not confess, we realize what it means to die
without knowing God. We know that by experience of others that we have
seen go, those who intended, those who put it off too long, God, those
who had professed and not possessed what they said they had. Those who
had acted like Christians and yet never was a Christian, their life
proved it, and their death made it manifest.
Now, Father, I pray that You'll speak to every heart here tonight. And
myself, Lord, for being dilatory, for many things that I could've done
and did not do, I confess my wrong. I confess the wrongs of this
people. I confess the wrongs of this nation. And I ask You to have
mercy, Lord. I've got three little children there to raise. And we're
living here in a hot spot. And, God, there's no need of running. You
know all about it. God, I want to be right with You. Someday, if the
atomic bomb don't get us, a wreck will. If a wreck don't get us, some
disease will. Something has got to take us.
But we're so happy to know that there is a way of escape. "The Name of
the Lord is a–is a tower, and the righteous run in thereat and are
safe." God, may the sinner friend tonight, boy, girl, man, or woman,
see the open door, the opportunity and run to Christ this hour.
E-32
Now, while we have our heads bowed, is there some here, or (I know
there's some here.) that would like to say with an uplifted hand to
God, "I'm ashamed of my life. And I–I want to confess my wrongs before
God and ask for mercy"? Raise up your hand to God. God bless you. God
bless you. God bless you. There's many of you, many of you. Yes.
There's many of you here too that's pro… God bless you.
Many of you here who have professed Christianity for a long time, and
know that you have failed to toe the line with God; know that you are
doing things right now that you ought not to do and you're going
unconfessing them, just loosely floating along with the tide; looking
at the kind of programs you should not look at; looking at the kind of
magazines and reading the literature that you should not read, that's
not becoming to Christians; listening to the jokes of vile, foul, and
dirt, and smut that you know you shouldn't do, both men and women. You
know places where you could've spoke and did not do it, and you're
guilty maybe of the sin of omission. I wonder if you'd raise your hand
at Christ to have mercy on you and forgive you. Raise your hand. God
bless you, young lady.
E-33
As the woman walks out to come to the altar to confess hers… Raise
your hand to God. God bless you. That's right Mr. That's right. God
bless you. Raise your hand. You know you've done wrong. I wonder if you
have the courage tonight to meet me here at the altar. Let's kneel
around here and say, "God, be merciful to all of us. We're in need of
You." God bless you, lady.
To see these young women coming, weeping, life before them. They're at
the crossroad. They're a victim of circumstances. What… Do you
realize, old men, when we were boys, our boys has got ten times the
temptation that we had? Sister, do you realize that your daughter has
ten times the temptation you had when you was a girl? What will her
daughter have? Look at the things, the pictures the devil's a painting.
Oh, how we need to pray.
Now, we'll go back to you again. Brother, do you realize we don't pray
half as much as our fathers did? Pastor, do you know we don't put as
much time on our knees as the pastors before us did? Women, do you
realize you don't instruct your daughter and pray with her at night
like your mother did you? Then what about it? Who's guilty? We're
guilty. There's no way around it; we're guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty
of not doing the job of God like I should do. I'm confessing it that
I'm wrong. I'm asking God to be merciful to me.
E-34
I look out here and see the opportunities I've missed because of petty
things, little old insufficient things that didn't mean nothing. I'm
ashamed of myself as a Gospel minister before you. I repent before God
and ask God to forgive me and the church to forgive me for being so
dilatory about the work of God. By the grace of God, and by the help of
God, I–I'll not listen to what… Everyone trying to tell you
something to do. They got a program; they got something for you to do.
Nonsense. I know God's program; it's written out here in the Bible. And
I'm ashamed of myself as a minister of the Gospel. One million souls
won, I ought to have ten million souls won. I'm a way behind.
What about you? How many souls you won since you've been to Christ?
Christianity just goes from one to another. How many souls you won
since you've been a Christian? If you're not winning souls, you're
guilty. You're barren; you've brought shame on the church and the
Gospel. How many people you get out for Wednesday night prayer meeting?
If you're not doing it, you ought to be ashamed of yourself before
Christ. You're guilty, and your place is at the altar. I invite you to
come with me for repentance. And will you bow your heads and keep it
bowed a minute while I feel my guilt and would like to repent. Just bow
your head.
E-35
Our heavenly Father, I bow upon this altar and ask forgiveness of my
behavior. I ask forgiveness of the sins of those who are around the
altar. I ask forgiveness for this church, for the body, for the body of
believers nationally and internationally. I ask for mercy for us being
so dilatory concerning the things of the Kingdom. I ask that You'll
pardon us of our sins and take away our–our–our transgressions. And
forgive us for being so stupid of the…?… How we have come short.
How we have taken bodily exercise. How we have done things that we
ought not to have done. How we have sinned before You.
And on this Sunday night meeting, Father, seeing the blushing prophet
of the Bible, we blush tonight. I blush before You because of the sins
of the people. The people, my nation, my people, I feel ashamed of
them, Lord, to see our young ladies walk in the streets and acting the
way they are, to see the prostitution, the young men living in all
kinds of life…?…, staying home from the church, and reading old
magazines they ought not to read, looking at uncensored programs,
listening to Hollywood's dirty jokes, listening to old boogie-woogie
music of the Devil that's hatched out for man that's of ill fame and
got vile conscience, the devil's instruments, to inspire the works of
the devil…?…
E-36
O God, I'm ashamed of myself for not rebuking it in the way that I
should. O God, take away my guilt. I ask You to do it. I ask you to
forgive these people that's here. Forgive us all. Help us to raise from
this altar as new men and women. Help us to go from here as Christians
ought to go. Help us to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth
easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race that's set
before us, looking not to the television, not looking to the things of
the world, but looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, the
Lord Jesus Christ, Who despised the shame of the cross and bore it for
us…?… and took it without debate, that–that He might sanctify the
people with His Blood. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness and make us
as Thy children tonight, and receive us with this prayer of repentance.
And give us, Lord, peace and joy.
E-37
And may on our beds tonight as we lay a thinking of this night's
meeting, May we think of the conditions of the world that the Bible has
revealed to us tonight. May we, as we think of it, our faces blush out
for shame. And may You bring peace and happiness to every heart. We are
repenting, Lord, before Thee on this altar here. God, help me, as I'm
going forth now. By faith, I pray that it's in Your will, that many,
many, many hundreds of people may be won to Thee. And help me have
faith and courage as I move along, not looking to anyone but to Thee,
the Author and Finisher of our faith. God, grant it.
E-38
Forgive every deacon of this church. Forgive the pastor. Forgive the
lay members. Forgive everyone of all of our sins. Forgive us, Lord.
Forgive every stranger in our gates. And may they feel the impact of
the Holy Spirit on our life because we are humble before Thee tonight,
repenting with all of our hearts that You'll receive us and make us a
humble, white, sanctified, humble people for Your servants. Grant this
blessing, Lord, as we offer…?… and bow our head and hearts before
Thee. In the Name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, we ask it. Amen.
E-39
Along the altar tonight, among my brethren that's up here on the altar,
I'm glad to see tonight about as many men as there is women. Usually
it's the women that can easily break their hearts. There's something
about them that can easily be touched because of the feminish.
They're–they're ladies and you can sometimes touch them. But I'm so
glad to see the Holy Spirit can touch men too and bring them to the
altar.
And I wonder how many of you at the altar that's knelt now, that feels
that you've made a consecration to God, that you're going out of here
tonight to live a better life by the grace of God and to do more for
the Kingdom of God and for His cause? Would you raise your hand to
Christ if you're around the altar and say, "I believe that now I've
repented"? May God bless you.
How many of you back there feel that you repented in your seat, and
feel like you want to do better? God bless you. Now, let us stand. You
here at the altar, face around that way if you want. Now, you here at
the altar, raise your hands out there that you desire their prayer that
you may continue on. Will you raise your hands to the ones in the
audience? All right. Now, you raise your hands back here at the altar
here that you…?… desire their prayer too, that we'll–God will help
us to do. May the Lord Jesus bless us.
E-40 Now, don't forget the Sunday night service. Have you a word to say, Brother Neville? [Brother Neville speaks–Ed.]
Tuesday and Wednesday night… Where is that Mission located? Is
that… 1628 West Market, this coming Tuesday and Wednesday nights. And
then on Saturday and Sunday I'll be at Madisonville, Kentucky, at the
auditorium there. Then we go on up into New York.
Now, the reason we're letting out early, I've got a mother-in-law
that's very, very ill, and they're calling for me. Now, let us… You
got a word to say, Brother Neville? Nothing. Let's bow our heads just a
moment. "God Be With You." Slowly now.
