¹
Guess I'm kind of a long-winded preacher. And without education, I–I
guess I don't sound much like a preacher to some people. And I–I don't
even claim to be a preacher; I just kind of a spare tire. But I feel
that I have a message from God, that in my way (that the only way I
have to present It), I'm trying to present It to the world. And if I
didn't stay with that message, I'd be a traitor to God and a hypocrite
to you. A person that will say one thing and believe another, it's
hypocrisy. We must always speak the truth from our heart. That when
people look upon us, even though they disagree with us, we want to be
honorable men and women: that we speak from our heart, that which is
true in our hearts.

²
Last year, or year before last, I had the privilege of speaking a–a
Christian–or pardon me, a Christmas message, here at the Ramada. And I
believe I spoke on the subject, either here or Phoenix, on "Why Little
Bethlehem?" And I believe then it was here last year I spoke on "We
Have Seen His Star In The East And Have Come To Worship Him."
And, you know, we read the Bible, and we wondered, those "Why's?" And
tonight I thought, if you would bear with me awhile, and pray with me,
I would try to give you my Christmas message. God only knows where
we'll be next Christmas, if there is a next Christmas after this. So
being that this might be the last Christmas we set together, until we
sit at another table. And It will not be one of this type, but it'll be
when we eat and drink the communion anew with Him in the Father's
Kingdom at the end of the road. And then let us approach it tonight as
if this was the last Christmas message we'd ever set together in, in
the deepness of sincerity.

⁴
I want to speak tonight on a unusual subject, but sometimes you find
God in the unusual thing. He does things in a unusual way, not the
usual way; it's the unusual way, unusual times, unusual scenes; He's
unusual. And I want this… Lord willing, I want to speak on the
subject of "Why It Had To Be Shepherds."
And now, just before we approach the Word, which I believe that is God,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us."

⁶
And I said, last week, or week before last at Phoenix, "It's proven
that there is subjects of this earth, people, passing through this
building now." Television proves that. It's in another dimension; our
natural eyes and our five senses cannot pick that up. It isn't that
television manufactures anything; it only channels. You cannot make a
move with your finger; you cannot bat your eye; but it's proven to be
recorded forever. I might be standing… Or a man in Australia, would
have a–a television screen here, not only that but the–the man could
speak, move his finger, bat his eye, or even the color of clothing that
he's wearing, would be projected here on the wall; and he in Africa,
Australia, around the world. See, there is a cycle of ether waves. I
cannot explain it, but I know it's there. I don't think anyone could
really explain it. So television can pull this in and make it a reality
by some instruments, that they could reflect it on the wall.

⁷
Now, that same thing was here when Adam was here. Television was here
when–when Elijah set on Mount Carmel. It was here when Martin Luther,
that young priest, throwed the communion on the floor and said, "It's
kosher. And the just shall live by faith." It was here then, but we are
just now finding it. And it's also so, that in our presence tonight is
God, Angels, supernatural beings that's unseen to our natural sense of
sight. But someday it'll be a reality just as television is now, and
just as common. Now, there's why I believe the Word.
Jesus said, "Whosoever shall add one word to this Bible, or take one
Word out of It, his part will be taken out of the Book of Life."

⁹
So let us bow our heads then before we even read It. So solemn… Any
man that's got physical strength could turn back the page, but only God
can reveal It.
And with our heads bowed now towards the dust from whence we were
taken, and someday shall return, I wonder… And in this solemn moment,
as we're approaching Christmas, if there is some here that really feel
unworthy and would like to be remembered in this prayer, would you
(without raising your head) just raise your hands to God and say,
"Remember me, Lord, this Christmas"? God bless you.

¹¹
Most holy and gracious heavenly Father, Almighty God, He that was from
the beginning, before there was a star, or a atom, or a molecule… You
made all things by Jesus Christ Your Son, and hath given us all things
freely in Him. We thank Thee tonight, Lord, for this opportunity that
You have given us to assemble ourselves together to be warned and
taught by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit takes Your Words and
reveals them to us, for Jesus said, "When He the Spirit of Truth is
come, He will remind you of these things that I have said and also show
you things to come."
God, there is not one in our midst, neither is there one upon the
earth, who is worthy to try to interpret Your Word, for it is written
that the Word of God is of no private interpretation. Therefore, Lord,
we pray that the Holy Spirit will give to us tonight, each and every
one, the portion that we need to satisfy that hunger that's in our
heart for a closer walk with Thee. We are unfit, unclean, unworthy. Let
the Child that was born in Bethlehem, that lived the most perfect life,
and was the only perfect Man upon the earth, and gave Hisself a ransom
that He might cleanse us unclean sinners and to bring us into
relationship with the Father, grant tonight that His Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the Word will do that for us.

¹³
Lord God, there is many sick in the land today, in the face of the best
medicine that we ever doctored with, and the best medicine and the best
hospitals. And yet in all of our great scientific discoveries, yet
there is more sickness than the world ever knew, because there's more
sin and unbelief than the world ever knew. Help us tonight, Great
Physician, and heal the sick that's in our midst.
And give us the Spirit, the true Spirit of Christmas. When today that
when pagan ceremonies, Christmas trees worshipped, fiction stories of
a–a man named Santa Claus, and of our Easter rabbits, and the
different fashions that the commercial world has capitalized on, may it
be laid aside, God. Let us enter into Christ the Word, for we asked it
in His Name and for His glory. Amen.

¹⁵
If you will turn with me for a reading in the Holy Writ, St. Luke the
2nd chapter… Can you hear me all right? Is there any transposition in
the microphones? Can you hear me in the back all right? If you can,
raise your hand. Thank you. The 2nd chapter of the Gospel according to
St. Luke:

May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word.

¹⁶
Now, it's a… Why this great event was revealed to shepherds, that
would be kind of an astounding thing for us. I have some Scriptures
written here, and a few notes that I will try to run over, to explain
to you why to the best of my knowledge. And maybe then after this, that
the Lord with His grace tonight will take the why's away from us. But
did… Most all of us, I suppose, at one time or other has wondered why
that this greatest event of all times was revealed to shepherds. Why
was it revealed to shepherds and not to the theologians of that day?
They were the one were trained to hear it? And why did It come and
bypass the rich and come to the poor? Also, why did It bypass the
learned and wise and come to the humble and unlearned? There is a few
questions of why in this.

¹⁷
And another reason I might say, notice, the babe was born in Bethlehem.
Which "Bethlehem" in the Hebrew interpretation, as we had a couple
years ago here, "Bethlehem" means the "house of God's bread." And we
proved in the Scriptures, He could not come any other place. Bethlehem
was founded by Rahab and her–her husband. Rahab was a harlot that a
general courted, from the–the Israelite army, after they had taken
Jericho… And by faith she believed the message of God in her
condition, and she was saved. And from there, when Joshua divided up
the lands of where each one would be…

¹⁸
And there's a great lesson that sometime I hope to be able to bring at
Tucson, of those Hebrew mothers giving birth to those babies. When she
groaned at the birth pain of the baby, she called the name of the baby
and that positionally placed it in the promised land, its tribe. The
great thing, all the Word of God fits right together. If it doesn't fit
together, it's not God's Word that's misfit; it's your thought is
misfitting to the Word. It all fits together.

¹⁹
So then He was the Bread of Life, as we taught last week in Phoenix, or
week before last. And being the Bread of Life, He could come no place
else but the "house of God's bread." And that was the why. Now, here
Jesus is borned in Bethlehem, and in Bethlehem there was synagogues;
great religious leaders lived in Bethlehem. David the great
king-shepherd was born in Bethlehem; his father Jesse was born in
Bethlehem; his grandfather Obed was born in Bethlehem. Also, all the
way back, he came from Bethlehem.
And here, Jesus the Son of David is born in Bethlehem, right under the
shadows of the great cathedrals. Then if those people are trained, and
had been looking for the Messiah for all these years: four thousand
years the Messiah had been prophesied to come. And then if the Messiah
be born in the shadow of the cathedral, why did they have to go plumb
back up into the mountains to a bunch of unlearned, untrained shepherds
to bring the great message, the first message? And commissioned
shepherds, not the wise and trained, but shepherds. It's a strange
thing, isn't it? Well, there's got to be a why somewhere. There is a
why; now there's got to be an answer why. And no man knows the answer
save God. He's the One that knows the answer.

²¹
Now, remember, the Messiah was already in the city, born in the city,
in a stable; right by the great cathedrals where the high priest… and
the great priests, and the theologians, and the wise, and the trained,
all was there waiting for the Messiah. And there He was right in their
midst. But why then did they go to the–out on the hills of Judaea to
unlearned, untrained, uncultured, poorest of all? Looked like the most
unfit person for such a task to reveal the message and send them out to
bring the message.
You know my opinion? It might not amount to very much, but I want to
pass my opinion: I believe it's because of the wisdom of God, that He
knew they wouldn't receive such a message the way It come. It wasn't in
the taste of their learning. It was different. It wasn't what they had
been trained to believe He would be like. It was contrary to their
theological understanding. All their training, all their learning was
bypassed, become naught. I believe it was the wisdom of God that knew
that they wouldn't receive such a message.

²³
So the Messiah was here, and there must be somebody recognize It. And
He knew those who hadn't been mixed up in such stuff as that. He would
be more able to get His message to a unlearned group, than He would be
to a mixed-up group that was so set in their ways that nothing could
turn them, not even the Word of God.
And now, Christian friends, let me ask this question, with all
sincerity and love. I just wonder if He would make the same act
tonight, and send to us in this generation the promised Word that's
promised for this generation, I wonder if our theologians, and
educators, and wise, wouldn't turn the message down just the same as
they did then? Man doesn't change, neither does God's Word change. He's
the unchanging God, He doesn't change.

²⁵
Notice, Angels coming and… Angels coming and giving their message to
men of such low estate, when there were men there much more (earthly
thought of) qualified than these poor, illiterate shepherds. The
shepherd was the most illiterate of anybody; he didn't need to know
nothing but just about his sheep. He didn't need to know mathematics.
He didn't need to know how to–to split an atom. He didn't need no
scholarship. He just had to know his sheep; that's all that he needed
to know. And God, the great Wisdom, and the Fountain and resource of
all wisdom, would choose such a person as that (persons, rather, as
that), and bypass all the well-trained scholars that's trained to know
that. It speaks one thing, that they were trained in the wrong field.
Passing up all the important of the land, there were important people,
great teachers, Caiaphas the high priest, many other great men, all
Israel's mighty learned, all the denominations, and all the boasting
theologians, God bypassed everyone of them. Now, that's God's wisdom.

²⁶
Notice, the highest heavens hastening to honor earth's most humble and
unlearned. The highest of heaven came down to make Hisself known to the
lowest of the earth, bypassing all between to make Hisself known to
common herdsmen; coming to give these common herdsmen the greatest
message of all times. There had been many great messengers. We'd think
of in Noah's day, and the prophets, and–and the great priests, and so
forth, had been in the days gone by, the great learned men, kings,
potentates, monarchs, but here He comes with the greatest of all the
messages. What was the message? "Messiah is here now." See? And to make
that known, He bypassed all the trained to make it known to humble
shepherds.
Think of this: all of the clergymen, all of the churchmen, all of the
teachers, all of the–the theological training, all the money had been
spent, all the churches, and the doctrines, and the denominations was
all bypassed. All the learning that they had spent on all the–all the
missionaries, and all the proselyting, all the membership, and
everything that they had thought they'd done honor to God, yet the key
message of all of it was bypassed from them. Strange, why? See?

²⁸
And notice, not only that, but the most unlikely place for such an
event. The shepherds now, was the one who received the message. And
now, notice where the message was: in the most unlikely place that
anyone would expect it to come. And I wonder, tonight, if we were
looking for the true Message of the Lord Jesus, I wonder if it would be
in a unlikely group, a place that was, that the great, high cultured
world and the church today would think was a bunch of–of, oh,
heretics? I wonder if that wouldn't be where we'd find Him? The most
unlikely place, and to the most unqualified speakers. Shepherds knowed
nothing about speaking, only calling sheep; well, maybe that's why it
come.

²⁹
But there was a promised Word. Notice, it could do that again. It
bypassed all the nobles of the land. It bypassed all the nobles, and
was revealed to the nobody's. All the nobles that were decorated
with–with great doctor's divinity, and–and psychology, and–and
highly educations, and great cathedrals and things, it was all bypassed
and revealed to nobodies. The wisdom, the infinite wisdom of Almighty
God did it to make known to them the greatest message ever was, "The
Messiah is now on earth." What a wisdom, could only come from God Who
knows wisdom. All the wisdom and all of the schooling, and everything
was now laid to waste and bypassed by the great wisdom of God. I keep
repeating that because I want it to go down deep. All laid to waste, it
was of no good. Bypassed it all to let God's wisdom have the right of
way, that God takes the nothings to make the somethings.

³¹
We could stop here and speak of John. We could stop and speak of
Elijah. Nobody knows where Elijah come from. All they know, he just
appeared on the scene. The prophets back through the ages, they were
nobodies. But God took that to, and bypassed the–the ethics of the
church, and the teachings to make–show that He is God. He takes
something that's nothing, to do something with it. He shows His wisdom
and His Godhead by doing so, that He takes the nothings.
When He first made a man, He just took a ball of clay and made a man
out of it, where it was nothing but clay, but He made a man. And God
takes the nothings now to do the somethings with. And as long as we
think we're somethings, then we cannot be used in the hands of God. We
must forsake all we ever knew or learned. (Pardon me.) Like the great
Saint Paul, he said he had to forget all he ever learned that he might
know Christ.

³²
All their schooling, all their teachings and so forth, was working out
to the worst for them. It finally denied Him. The very schooling that
they had had for Him, to believe Him turned around and become His most
critical enemy, and crucified Him.
Do you know that history repeats itself every so often? It's a noted
fact. It could happen again right by the side of us. "Oh," you say, "If
I'd have lived then…" Well, now, if you want to know what you'd have
done then, look at your present state now; and you can see what you'd
have done then, because it certainly is revealing.

³⁴
Trained to believe His Word, and then when His Word was vindicated
before their very eyes, they denied the Word that was made vindication.
When God proved what He would do, and said what He would do, and proved
what He would do, then they turned around and called this Man an evil
spirit, which cursed them all. Think of what taken place. Think of what
caused them; their training caused them not to recognize the very Word
made flesh for their day. The very training that they had in their
schools, with the very best of teachers…
And you say, "Well, we wouldn't do that today." Their teachers were far
supreme to ours today–superior, rather, to our teachers, and they
failed. They didn't have nine hundred and ninety-six different
organizations as we have today. They had about three. And in the three,
follow down to three, and none of the three recognized It. Just goes to
show that what man does is foolishness to God. See?

³⁶ Now, they failed to recognize It. Now… And they'd do the same thing again.
Man…
Intention is good; it always is good. And man never changes his
posture; he never changes his ways much. I'm talking of the men of the
world. Man is always praising God, religious men, for what He done, and
always pointing people to what He's going to do, and then ignoring what
He's doing. See? That's just man; he's made that way; he's always been
that way. And you Bible readers tonight know that that's according to
the Word, right. They always praising God for what He has done, saying
what He will do, and ignoring what He's a-doing. That's just a habit of
man.

³⁸
The reason that they had did this, the teachers, to my opinion now:
they had interpreted the Word, 'cause they all believed in a coming
Messiah. All Israel believed it; they do yet today. But the reason that
they didn't recognize Him, His message wasn't according to their
ecclesiastical fit. They–their–the interpretation that they had of
the Word, the Messiah never manifested Himself in the way that they had
interpreted that He would do it. So, and therefore, they did not
recognize Him because It didn't fit their interpretation. As I have
said before, and say again, "God doesn't need anybody to interpret His
Word. He is His own Interpreter."

³⁹
Now, the Bible says… Let me prove to you now that that is the Truth.
Isaiah the prophet (seven hundred and fifteen years before this
happened), Isaiah the prophet said, "A virgin shall conceive, and shall
bear a child." There's no doubt that everyone in that age thought their
daughter would be that woman, because Isaiah said it. But, you see, it
was seven hundred years later. But when… God didn't need anybody to
interpret His Word, when He'll do it, or how He would do it. He said He
would do it, and He did it.

⁴⁰
God promised that He–over in Isaiah, also, I believe the 28th chapter,
about the 18th verse. And also in Joel 2:28, that in the last days, the
last two thousand years, He'd pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. He
said, "Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see
visions. Your old men shall dream dreams." And the things that He would
do, Isaiah said, "With stammering lips and other tongues will I speak
to this people, and this is the Rest." But they wouldn't hear it. They
wagged their heads and walked by it. He said, "All the tables of God
would become full of vomit, and there would be nothing clean." And if
that isn't a picture of Jerusalem, and the church of that day at the
coming Messiah, it's a picture today the same. It's just repeating
itself.
Now, when God says He'll do a thing, He did it. Regardless of what
anybody else thinks about it, what anybody says, when God speaks of
something, He's duty bound to interpret that Word Himself. And His
vindication of the Word is His own interpretation. Notice, vindicating
His Messiah's message. He promised what the Messiah would do when He
come. And when He came…

⁴²
Even when the wise men in the east had looked down southwestward, from
where they were at in Babylon, and they saw a majestic star… Did you
know there's not a speck of history nowhere, that any observatory
(where they even kept the–the–the time by stars, great men who
studied these stars)… There's not no history says that any of them
seen that star at all. Why? It wasn't given to them; they wasn't
looking for such. But these wise men knowed that there would be a Star
of Jacob rise, and they were looking for It, and It passed from the
time that Jesus was borned in Bethlehem…
Now, I know our Christian traditions, it's just like our churches; it
has things topsy-turvy. You go out here and you see wise men coming to
worship a baby; there's not such a thing in the Scripture. Two years
later they got there, coming down through the plains and across the
Tigris River. They never come to worship an infant, but a young Child
about two years old. Why was it, at the same time, Herod slew all the
children from two years old under, that he might catch the Messiah? You
see, they… God had vindicated by His Word.

⁴⁴
And when these wise man came to Jerusalem… The star led them to the
religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. And as soon as they entered
those gates, that star (the supernatural that had led them) refused to
show them any more. Up and down the streets these fine men, rich men
with fine draped camels, and so forth, up and down the streets saying,
"Where is He that's born King of the Jews. We saw His star in the
east." And that great religious capital, after two years of the
shepherd's message, still didn't have the answer or knowed nothing
about It. The head of all the denominations didn't have the answer.
So it disturbed the Sanhedrin, and they called for the Scribes to come
read. And they read Micah's story, the prophet which said, "Thou
Bethlehem, art thou not the least of all the princes of Judah (the
least), but out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule My people
Israel." And after the Scriptures being read (and still being
vindicated before their eyes), they still didn't accept it, though the
Scripture said so. I doubt very much they would today, if the
Scriptures that's promised for this day would be made manifest. I may
never preach to you again, but I want you to get this. Still they
wouldn't believe.
The great wisdom of the Father makes man's wisdom so foolish that He
belittles the man. He actually comes to the place to where it makes man
feel so ashamed of himself, and he's not big enough to admit that he's
wrong. He still stays with his story, no matter how much the Father
proves that His Word is true and He's doing just what He promised to
do, man thinks his wisdom is so superior to God, if it don't come
according to his wisdom, "Why, It isn't so." That's true in every age,
still does it. See how fitting the whole matter was now?

⁴⁷
What inspiration to those herdsmen, the Angels coming down to speak to
herdsmen, Angels of God coming to speak to a bunch of shepherds.
I wonder if you ever had the privilege of–of talking with a shepherd
or being with one awhile? If you would, I–I don't like to say it
because of my remark I'm fixing to say after while, but the shepherd
stays with the sheep so much until he even laughs like the sheep
bleating, he talks like the sheep, and he smells like the sheep. That's
right. Because he's with the sheep. That's all he knows is his sheep.

⁴⁹
Now, the vindicated Word of Truth. When these shepherds, humble,
uneducated men… What a honor, how fitting it is to a shepherd to
receive a message of a newborn sheep. It could come to nothing else but
a shepherd. That's why He was borned in a stable and not in a house.
Sheep are not borned in a house, or in a pink decorated hospital room.
See? They are borned in the barn, and in the fields.
That's the reason He was led to Calvary. You cannot make a sheep walk
the gangway to the slaughter. Did you know that? In the slaughter
yards, they have a goat that leads the sheep. And when he gets up to
where the killing place is, he jumps out and lets the sheep go on. A
sheep has to be led; he can't lead himself. So therefore, it had to be
the shepherd coming for the his sheep. When they found the God-baby
exactly where the messenger said He would be, and when they found this
message–message of the messenger in the manger exactly where the
Angels said It would be…

⁵¹
Now, I heard people say, "An Angel spoke to me; He said thus and thus."
How ridiculous sometime; and I've heard people say that an Angel spoke
to them, and told them thus and thus which was absolutely contrary to
the Word. Now, how could an Angel do that? It just couldn't be. And if
God told you a certain-certain thing would happen (you say He told you
that), and it doesn't happen, then it wasn't God speaking to you. Just
remember; that's right. God doesn't lie. He's not found in a lie.

⁵²
When they found the baby, what a joy it must have been to them. Because
the Angel that gave them the message, they found it just exactly the
way the Angel said it would be, and just in the place where the Angel
said it would be. What a thing that must have been to them.
In a manger, why? See how at ease these herdsmen was in the stable?
What do you think a theologian would've been in there? He'd have put a
pin over his nose and said, "Get me out of this place." See? He
would've been so out of place, he'd been in misery.
But, you see, it was just at home to the shepherd. God knows where to
send His message. See? Just exactly right. In this state the shepherds
was in then, in their stable with their Lamb, a vindicated message that
they had heard. How beautiful, in the Presence of the Messiah,
vindicated Word of their message. When the shepherds heard that the
Messiah was on earth, and came into His Presence, right in their own
environment, and found the message to be true, was vindicated there,
how that must've made those men feel to find that God had done this
great thing for them.

⁵⁵
Why, scholars would've been so out of place there, under such
circumstances, and they'd have left right quick. Why? The Messengers
coming to common herdsmen. Maybe they could have not even… these…
Some of these herdsmen might not have even been able to have signed
their own name, very doubtful. You know, the herdsmen that Jesus chose
when He was here on earth to herd His sheep, "Lovest thou Me, Peter,
more than these?"…
"Yea, Lord, Thou knowest I love Thee."
"Feed My sheep." And the Bible said that Peter was an ignorant and unlearned man. Still choosing shepherds…

⁵⁸
The church members of those past days, and priests, and well-trained
society in that day would've been so out of place in a stable. Now, I'm
not quite sure that many of you could understand (maybe, you city
people) what a Judaean stable smelled like, what it looked like, as the
animals in that stable, and what it would've been. Why, some of these
classics of today would be so out of place there, they–they wouldn't
even enter the door. But it pleased God by His infinite wisdom to
reveal it to such as would receive it. The scholars, and wise men of
that day would certainly would not have received It. They'd have been
so humiliated to be caught in such a place.
Why, the first place, if they would've went back to their church, and
would've witnessed that they attended such a meeting, and believed a
bunch of uneducated shepherds bringing such a phenomena, they'd have
been excommunicated from their church. They'd have been throwed out of
the society of Bethlehem, if they'd have been caught listening to such
an unlearned bunch of people as these shepherds was. Humiliated, they
certainly would've been. If they'd have been associated with such
common people, and being–accepting such heresies as to believe that
God would bring His message to an uneducated bunch of shepherds, when
they had everything all prepared for it. They would've lost their
affiliation; they'd have had to give in their papers, and would not
have been able to have been recognized among the society of their
groups of that day; because they had associated with such a thing and
not with a better mind.

⁶⁰
"How dare you." the priest would've said. "You come into my sanctuary
here with such a heresy, with such a foolishness, that some unlearned
bushman out there that doesn't–didn't go to–through the primer. And
would believe such a message that a Angel come down and spoke to them.
But what if the man would said, "I saw his message vindicated"?
He'd said, "Let me quickly give you your papers. And get out of this
society." Times change, but people don't. It would've probably happened
again today; they would've been throwed out of their churches.

⁶³
But the shepherds felt completely at ease in that place with God's
Lamb. And any good shepherd does the same thing. When a good shepherd
over the sheep can see the Word of God made plain and vindicated, of
what He promised to do, that shepherd's right at home. I don't care
what anybody else says, there's God promised it, and God did it.
They say, "The days of miracles is past. There's no such a thing as the
baptism of the Spirit. There's no such thing as the baptism of the Holy
Ghost; that was for the apostles."
But let a true shepherd of the Word preach It, in the power of the
resurrection, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever… Peter said on the day of Pentecost, "The promise is unto
you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call." Wherever He calls, the promise and the
same blessing is true. And let a genuine Word-feeding shepherd see that
vindicated, all the theologians in the world can't take it away from
him; because he knows God said so, and it happened. That's all. It's
just God's Word always.

⁶⁶
His Word was made flesh and was dwelling among them, and they knew It
not. He promised the same thing in this day. I wonder if we would
recognize It? The proud and wise had never received such a thing as
that. And they believed if there was such a thing as the Messiah on
earth, It would certainly have to come to their denomination. It would
be their group would receive It, or "It wasn't right." Now, just think
right hard. If it ain't in their group, then… Did you notice then?
God never chose any out of their group, but He chose that who wasn't
connected with any of it. Because one group would said, "You see what
we did?" And they'd do the same today. But God chooses the nobody;
that's the reason He chose the shepherd. The shepherds was completely
at home with the God-lamb in their midst, His Word made flesh among
them. The proud and wise never received It, passed by them.

⁶⁷
And we could say as much for today, or in any age. It was the same
things in the days of Martin Luther. Same thing in the days of John
Wesley. It was the same things in the days of the Pentecostals. But God
stops for no man's organization. He moved the Spirit right on to
vindicate His Word. It would've had to be and come in the class of
their own council or they wouldn't receive it. As they're so headstrong
today, all the churches, that they're going to do such-and-such, and
unite all the churches together. If they're looking for a messenger
now, who can unite all the Protestants, Catholics, and orthodox,
everything together, make one great church…

⁶⁸
Now, brethren, I've had the privilege of preaching to hundreds of
different religions, and there's good men in all of them. But now, you
remember, I am prophesying, "Every organization will have to accept
this, or not be an organization. It's forcing you." Did you read the
Tucson paper today where Catholic priests help ordaining, in the
paper–help ordain, in Missouri, a Protestant clergyman? And who was it
recognizing it? Presbyterian, Baptists, Lutheran, and Assemblies of
God. It's in the Tucson paper today.
Oh, it's shocking. It's not the men in there; it's them ecclesiastical,
governmental heads that twist the thing in there, the system that
throws you into it whether you want to or not. You can no longer be an
organization and escape this wrath that's coming upon the earth, and
you see if that isn't right. I may be gone when it happens; look back
on one of these tapes. Then if it wasn't, I'm a false witness. If it
was, I've told the Truth.

⁷⁰
They would have called It some kind of a working of an evil spirit
against their positive thinking. You hear so much today about positive
thinking: you just put your mind on anything, and think positive on it.
The Devil can do that. There's only one thing that rules over all, and
that's God's Word. If you're thinking contrary to the Word; forget your
thinking. Think on the Word.
"Messiah," they thought, "would not be found in such a place, a mess as that."
Could you imagine a fine, great high priest, or clergyman, all polished
in theology, would come down to a stable full of manure, and accept the
message of a poor, humble shepherd that had no education, and would
come, say "See, I can prove it to you; this is the Baby; this is the
Messenger"?
And you know what them people would've said? "The man is honest; he's
very sincere in what He's saying, but he's absolutely wrong."

⁷⁴
I've seen people live such good lives until people wouldn't believe,
couldn't say nothing about them, but they'd say "He's sincerely wrong.
He just doesn't know what he's talking about. God, He wouldn't do such
a thing as that."
But here they had the evidence. And after the evidence, "Go up there at the stable and see if that Baby isn't laying there."
They'd say, "You've been bewitched by some evil spirit that's caused
you to say such." Yet it was according to the Word of God. And they
were too blind to see it, because their theology had blinded them. What
a tragedy.
"Caught in such a place? In such a mess as this was? In a stable?" When
they had a beautiful place for Him to come, they had everything fixed
for Him to come, and then to think that He would come down (and go) and
not bring their teachers the message, and would give It to a bunch of
unlearned shepherds? And then bring His own Son, and have Him born in
a–a stable, a common livery stable? Well, in a–in a manger of hay?
Why, it couldn't be so." They wouldn't believe It, because It was so
humble.

⁷⁸
And It's so simple, that's how the wise always overlooks It. It's so
simple, it confounds them. They looked for a God way out there, when
He's right here. See? They're looking for something way yonder, when
it's right here with them now: Christ, risen from the dead, the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
All their great things was bypassed. But it sure was the Truth, that
there was the Messiah. We know it today. We believe it today. We accept
it today.
But then if God promised something for this Christmas, promised
something for this day, and proves that it's so, and we still walk away
from it, we're just in the same class them was back there at that day
that bypassed it; because it don't–does not come in our denominational
taste. That's why we're in such a mess this Christmas.

⁸¹
Jesus Christ is not dead; He's alive. He's here today. The Bible said
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said, in St. John
14:12, "He that believeth on Me (not he that makes-believe, he that
says he believes.)… He that believeth on Me, the works that I do
shall he do also. And more than this shall he do, because I go to the
Father." And I've seen Him in my own life do more of the same works
that He did then than is written in the pages of this Bible. And it
goes over the top of the head and the wise today, and revealed to babes
such as will learn; as Jesus prayed for. It is true. He's done more
than He… I've seen in my day, of my thirty-three years of ministry,
I've seen Him do more than I have read of Him doing in the Bible: more
of the same thing.

⁸²
But no matter what He did then, do you think the Sanhedrin believed
Him? "Well," they said, "you're bewitched." But, find out, where they
made their mistake was to find out–in finding out, not what their
creed said, but what the Word said Messiah would do in their day.
There's where we make the mistake today, not searching the Scriptures.
Jesus told them, "Search the Scriptures, in Them you think you have
Eternal Life, and They are They that testify of Me. They tell you Who I
am."

⁸³
Notice, God foreknew they would do this; that's just the why He had to
take it to shepherds. He knew they wouldn't do it; they wouldn't
receive it. Now do you see why it had to be shepherds? Why shepherds?
Theologians wouldn't receive it. Why shepherds again? Would it come
contrary to His Word? No. They were shepherds, they knowed sheep; and
that's what He was borned, a Sheep, a Lamb. Notice, He was the Lamb.
They were–they were the only kind that would accept Him. A shepherd
was the only thing would accept a Lamb. They knowed how to take care of
it, and so is it today when we get the Lamb's Message.

⁸⁴
Now, the striking… The most humblest, uneducated men adoring Emmanuel
in a stable. The most… And there were people out there at the same
days, teaching their theology. Great crowds, drawing everywhere, from
all over the land, they come to sacrifices which Jehovah said was a
stench in His nostrils. And here was humble shepherds in a stable
adoring Emmanuel: God Himself made flesh and laying in a stable. See,
how we with our great learnings, and our head sticking back like we
know something, and God bypasses the whole thing. See? He does what He
promises to do, and He always does that. But think of these lowly
shepherds out there now adoring Emman–Emmanuel in a stable. It's most
striking. Sure is.

⁸⁵
Then out… After they had adored Him, and realized that the message
that they had been preaching was vindicated, there they are–were out
praising God with the most incredible message of an Angel. Now, compare
that with today. Just stop a minute and think. Men out adoring God, and
praising Him for what they had seen, what they heard, what they knew
was the Truth, with the Message that was incredible to the intellectual
mind… It was contrary to all ecclesiastical thinking, and yet it was
the Truth. It's the Truth. They believed it. And now, how foolish can
the wisdom of man be? Then saying that a Angel choir sang to them the
first noel. Could you imagine that? That a shepherd that couldn't write
his name, smelling like a sheep pen, walking down the street,
hollering, "Glory to God in the highest. We know that He's on earth."
The priest said, "That man's out of his mind. Look upon the books and
see if he's a member of our congregation. He certainly embarrasses us
by his unethical teachings. Get him away from us. We will not be
embarrassed amongst the people.
Well, you can be embarrassed amongst the people and glorified in the
sight of God, or take your choice; 'cause, remember, the ecclesiastical
taste of the day don't fit God's Word. There not no nine hundred and
sixty-nine different tastes of it. It's one taste, one Word, one God.
That's all.

⁸⁸
Saying that Angels sang the first noel to them, and also saying that
they got a message from an Angel. An Angel appeared to them give them a
message, and they went and found out that message was truth. And
saying, "Besides that, the Angel sang the first noel to us."
"Could you imagine?" They say, "That poor fellow." They'd never had
anything like that to happen among them, you know, so it was kinda
strange doctrine to them. That's the reason they couldn't find it in
the Scriptures; it wasn't for them to find it. Incredible to the wise,
no such experience had ever happened to them. Unbelievable, but still
it was the Truth. It's the Truth; we know it's the Truth. Think.
Christ's first converts and first congregation was sheepmen, not
clergymen; sheepmen, herders. Why shepherds? Ha.

⁹⁰
Notice. Out praising and glorifying God for what they'd seen and heard,
heard Angels sing for their first time to a human being. Angels had
never sang to a human being before. And look at the choirs, how they
had stood and trained and trained those voices; they'd sing at the
birth of the Messiah; and they were all bypassed. And Angels came down
and sang to common sheepmen, not with clergy clothes on, but with
shepherds' clothes on. And look who got the first message; it's
incredible.
And where it was given, not in the cathedrals, but in the wilderness,
out in the wilderness where the Angel of the Lord came; not in the
church; in the wilderness. He wasn't even welcome in the church. They
thought He was, and they thought they had it, but God proved that it
was wrong. "He's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham."
That's right.

⁹²
The first time Angels ever sang at a celebration, it was in heaven. If
you'll look in Job 38:7 (as I see some of you taking notes), when God
first planned on making His first creation, the earth… Job was a
great, smart man, and he had all kinds of wisdom. He said, "When I go
up to the markets, the young princes, they all bow before me, and just
want a moment of my wisdom." And he couldn't figure out why he had to
be treated the way he was.
And so God asked him, said, "Gird yourself up like a man, because I'm
coming down to talk to you." And when God came down in a whirlwind, He
said, "Job, where were you before I laid the foundations of the earth?
When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for
joy, where were you then, Job?" And he was deflated at that time.
"Where was you?"
See, the first time Angels ever sang at a celebration, was in heaven.
But the first time they ever sang on earth was to shepherds at the
birth of God, Emmanuel on earth; first human beings ever heard an Angel
sing was humble shepherds.

⁹⁵
When we take our painted-faced women, bobbed hair, wearing shorts, and
swing some kind of a church robe around them, and stand them up and
sing like something, and then we think that God has to listen to that?
He's got Angels back yonder who can entertain Him since the–before He
ever made a human being. Uh-huh. Get out, and live, and wear clothes
that's an abomination to God, and how can you expect that to be of God?
You say, "Well, I belong to…"
"Where was you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me where
I fastened them to. Where is the axle that they turn on? Where were you
then?" You think God has to ask us for some of our wisdom. Our wisdom's
only foolish to Him. He does what He says He will do.

⁹⁷
Now, notice. God is fixing to make another creation. He creating mortal
earth, mortal life. Angels sing in heaven. But here He's creating a new
Life, Eternal Life for man, and He's singing to His subjects through
Angels: on the earth, not in heaven. Heaven had Eternal Life. See? And
He sang… They sang to the heavens, when the mortal creation come in;
and here the immortal creation is coming in, and now they're singing to
earthly people: the first time to shepherds. Striking, isn't it?

⁹⁸
He had started a new creation. What was it? A creation of Himself. God
was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's… The Bible said, "In the
beginning of the creation of God…" God was created in human form; in
Jesus Christ, His Son, God dwelt. He built His tabernacle of flesh and
bones, and lived in that tabernacle: God, Emmanuel, "God with us." He
built Himself a house to live in it, so He could reflect His Word to
His subjects through that. You know what God is when you see Christ.

⁹⁹
Remember, there is always singing at the birth of a king. How many
knows that? Of course, you do. Well, now, do you think if this King
would've been born down there, a woman would've come running into the
cathedral somewhere, and said, "Make a bed ready right quick, and get
the doctors, because I'm going to bring Emmanuel to the earth"? A poor
woman out of Nazareth, the lowest city, the–meaner than Tucson or any
of the rest of them, and yet this little woman comes running up there
to the great high priest and said, "I–I'm fixing to give birth to
Emmanuel." They'd have throwed her in jail. They sure would. They
certainly would. Of such a heresy as that to be brought amongst his
people, he wouldn't have stood for it. Neither would he today. But just
the same it's happening, just the same.

¹⁰⁰
Notice, there has to be singing. Kings were… He wouldn't have been
sang to. The people wouldn't have sang to Him, because they didn't
believe Him. And that's the reason… Here it comes, you might as well
get it. That's the reason today that people's ashamed to praise God;
they're ashamed of Christ. The great cathedrals won't receive the
baptism of the Holy Ghost; they're so set in their ecclesiastical way
that they will not receive it. God's going to find somebody that He can
get praise through. "He's able of the stones to rise children to
Abraham," as I quote John again.
Notice, His subjects must sing to Him. And His subjects then was His
Angels, and they sang to His shepherds which was to take His message.

¹⁰²
Who should hear it first? Of course, His subjects. That's who would
hear the King's singing first, would be His subjects. And what was His
subjects? Kinda striking, isn't it, brethren? It wasn't His clergymen.
It wasn't the theologians. That's right. It wasn't the denominational
people. No, it was shepherds. Why? There was a sheep born; that's the
reason. See? His subjects heard it, who God knew would believe. God
sent His message to those who would believe it. He's all wisdom; He
knows where to send His message, who will believe it. The Highest of
heaven sent to the lowest of man upon the earth.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the Kingdom of heaven." Mary, in… If you're putting the Scriptures
down, that's Matthew 5. And if you're putting Scriptures down… That's
what I have written here, is Scriptures.

¹⁰⁴
Mary said, in Luke 1:52, when she was anointed with the Spirit, the
Holy Ghost upon her, she said, "He has exalted them of low degree."
Mary said that, the mother of Jesus, said, "He has exalted those of low
degree."
Luke also said, "The common people heard Him gladly." Not the–the
elite, the–the theologians, the doctors of the law and of divinity;
but the common people heard Him gladly, people of low degree.
Throughout all sacred Scriptures, the message of redemption has been given by shepherds and through sheep.
Now, I have to come to a close, because we're getting time to close.
I'm bypassing many Scriptures just so I can get you to this thought.

¹⁰⁸
Throughout all Scripture, redemption has been represented through
shepherds and sheep. That's right. We all agree to that. Why? It was in
shadow and type. And anything… If I never had seen my hand, and I
looked down here at my hand's shadow, and I see I had five fingers, I
would know that it was reflecting; the negative was reflecting a
positive. And that's why the message always came to–redemption by
sheep, because from the very beginning. And it was through sheep, and
by shepherds, that He revealed Hisself. All was shadows and types.

¹⁰⁹
Now, let us look at the beginning. Adam and Eve, standing there in the
Presence of God to hear His message to them, they had draped about
their loins the skin of sheep. The first message was ever heard, was
given over the top of a dead sheepskin, that God had slew and wrapped
Adam and Eve in it. After they tried to make their own religion of fig
leaves, it wouldn't work. Sheep sacrifice had been instituted for
atonement since the very beginning: sheep sacrifice.
Now, we're going to close this off now, and show you why it had to be shepherds; and why it had to be, He had to be a sheep.

¹¹¹
Now, the prophets of the Old Testament draped themselves in sheepskins
(We know that. Uh-huh.), signifying their faith in His Word of the
coming perfect Lamb. That's why the prophets…
Now, the Word of God does not come to a theologian; there's no…
He–he's the one messes It up. That's right. There's no such a thing as
ever saying… You saying, "Well, this guy's a theologian." That just
puts him farther away from the Word than anything I know of. See? The
Word of the Lord God, the unchanging God, never does change. Anywhere
in the Bible, the Word of God always did come to prophets, not to
theologians or doctors; to prophets. And they always, every time, was
refused and rejected.

¹¹³
Prophets was usually herdsmen also. Prophets draped theirselves in
sheepskins, because they wore the skin of the sheep they were herding.
And the first message to a–a–a condemned generation was over the top
of sheepskins. Prophets, I say again, wore sheepskins draped around
themselves, 'cause they were testifying by that, that they believed
that there was coming a perfect Lamb for that sacrifice. And the Word
of the God came to them over the top of sheepskins. These herdsmen…
Or these prophet's usually were herdsmen. Abraham was a herdsman. Isaac
was a herdsman. Jacob was a herdsman. Moses was a herdsman. David was a
herdsman. All of God's representatives usually were herdsmen.

¹¹⁴
Now, we're going to find out why it come to shepherds. They knew the
sheep is helpless without the shepherd to guide them. They… A sheep
is perfectly helpless; he cannot go by himself. That's the reason God
likened His believing children unto sheep. They've got to be guided.
But watch what's guiding you. Don't get a goat; he'll walk you to the
slaughter-pen. God never give us a goat; He gave us His Son (the Holy
Spirit) to guide us. He is our Guide, not some manmade herdsmen, but a
God-given herdsman who feed the sheep upon sheep food.

¹¹⁵
Now, you take a pig, and you say to this pig, "I'm going to make you a
lamb." And you wash him. And you paint his toenails, and–and so forth,
and give him food like a sheep, give him some kind of a–a diet. And
put him out on the floor or out in the–where the–the sheep herd, in
the alfalfa field or something. And if there's a mud hole anywhere,
that hog will go just as straight to that mud hole as he can go. See?
Why? Is because his nature is still a hog.
And that's the reason that church members today, indulge in the things
of the world (See?) is because their nature hasn't been changed.
They'll eat any kind of a ecclesiastical, theological slop, but the
Word of God they can't stand It. They'll go in and listen to the Word.

¹¹⁷
You know, the biggest hypocrite in the world is an old crow. In the
Bible, there were two let out of the ark. The old crow went out and he
never did return, because he's a vulture, a scavenger. He set on the
bodies of the dead carcasses and filled his belly with the dead
carcass. But when he turned the dove out, the dove could not stand that
stench, so she returned back to father's house and Noah, and beat at
the door until Noah let her in.
Now, a crow can set out here and eat on a dead horse all day, and fly
out there in the field and eat grain with a dove. But a dove cannot fly
over there and eat on the dead horse, and then eat grain; it'd kill
him. See, the dove don't have any gall, and he can't digest it.
And when any dove of God, any Word-eating dove or sheep, a clean beast,
when you go to give them the things of the world, they know their
Master said, "He that loves the world or the things of the world, the
love of God's not even in him." You give him something contrary to that
Word of God, he cannot stand it. But the Devil can take that and the
world too and call it all of God. You can't mix oil and water; it just
won't mix.

¹²⁰
They, all these shepherds, they knew the sheep was helpless without the
shepherd. And they were shepherds, and knew that he must be guided.
What a pity it is to see, today, that they try to feed sheep, slop. But
a sheep won't eat it. No, sir. See, they was trying to feed sheep back
there, slop. And when the Word come, they'd been so used to slop, they
didn't know the Word. And that's what it is today, when the same thing
vindicated and proved that God would do a certain thing; then they so
used to slop, and slop-fed, till you… Well, there isn't no talking to
them; they just won't listen to it; that's all. The dog… Bible said,
"As a dog returns to its vomit, and a hog to its wallow, so do they."
Hear the Word, and go back right to the same old wallow. And say, "Aw, it's fanaticism. Don't believe such a thing as that."

¹²³
God… sheep does the same today, they must trust in the Word diet.
They will not take any other diet. You can't give them an
ecclesiastical diet, the real sheep. No, no. You go tell them, "Well
now look, we'll all be together. Now, Jesus prayed that we all might be
one." You just heard the same thing at Tucson not long ago, a few days
ago, but it's a lie. Jesus never prayed… How did He… How can you
make the Word condemn Itself, backfire on Itself? Then God's no more
than any other man.
Jesus said, "How can two walk together 'less they be agreed?" How you
going to take Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and throw it
all together and be one? You might be one under a man's head, but Jesus
said, "That they might be One even as–as I and You are One." Now, He
wants us all to be one in Him which is the Word. Amen. There it is,
"One with the Father." And the Father is the Son, is the same. And it's
the same Word, the Word manifested, displaying Itself in this day as It
did in any other day, that you might be one.

¹²⁵
Notice, He said, "As the Father sent Me, so send I you." The Father
that sent Him, went in Him to confirm the Word. And the same Jesus that
sends His people, goes in the people that He sends; that's saying, "The
works that I do, shall you do also." Sure, He prayed that we might be
one: one with Him, not one with an organization, not one with a system,
but one with God. For God and His Word is One, and Jesus and God was
One, and you and I and the Word must be one. That's right. We must be
one in agreement with the Word. Not what somebody else says, This is of
no private interpretation. Take It, what It says, and believe It; and
God will vindicate It, and prove that It's right. You think it's just
for disciples only, take His Word for it; go try it once and see.
You'll find out that it will work for you just the same as He promised.
Yes, sir.
They won't eat on slop; they have to have a sheep diet. St. John 10
declares that; "My sheep know My Voice." And if He is the Word, then
what kind of a Voice does He have? "My sheep know My Voice; strangers
they will not follow." See? Jesus said, "A strange voice they would not
follow." So His sheep doesn't follow stranger's voice. They won't
follow them.
Prophets, shepherds, and sheep, all testify of the coming.

¹²⁸ Now, see the unchanging God in His unchanging plans of His Word this day. Now, just think a few minutes: the unchanging Word.
Now look. If–if Moses would've come with Noah's message, it wouldn't
have worked. If John the Baptist would've come with Moses' message it
wouldn't work. If Jesus would've come with Moses' or Noah's message, it
wouldn't work. And Wesley come with Luther's message, it wouldn't have
worked. If the Pentecost come with the Wesley message, it wouldn't have
worked; we just heard that testify. Now, God just keeps moving. Just
watch the Word; you see where we're at.

¹³⁰
Then why should not the shepherd's first announcement… If all these
prophets, all these great men were shepherds, then why should God, the
unchanging One, change His method right here and bring it to
theologians? It was shepherds. The arrival of the perfect Lamb, the
sin-offering, should come to the shepherd.
The shepherd knows his sheep better than anyone else. There's no one
knows a sheep like a shepherd, he's trained to it. Also knew what kind
of food they would eat. They… he knew what the sheep would eat, and
he knows his sheep by what they eat. The… You'd see a sheep go out to
a slop-pen and start eating slop, you'd say, "Get that scavenger away."
See? So God knew where to send them.

¹³²
Now, let us call one of Jehovah's great shepherd prophets, to confirm
that God was in these prophets under the sheepskin. Watch now. We will
call first, Moses. Let's look at him. His ministry will show us Jehovah
in His shepherd prophet. Now, we'll just take maybe one, if we have
time, for about the next ten minutes. We'll take two of them, but maybe
this one will be all right.
Moses; Jehovah displays Himself here in this shepherd prophet. He was
given three gifts to vindicate his ministry and calling to the elders
of Israel and to Pharaoh. Notice this shepherd prophet now. He give
always His prophets the supernatural sign to vindicate that it was God
in them; for there cannot be the Presence of God without supernatural
things happening. Never did Jehovah ever appear without supernatural
following Him. It has to be. So He always a-vindicated Himself that He
was with these prophets by confirming what they were prophesying of, if
it was according to His Word.

¹³⁴
Now, the first–the first sign He gave to the–this prophet shepherd
(look), turned his rod to a serpent. Second, his hand turned to
leprosy. Third, to take water out of the Nile River in Egypt and turn
it to blood. Now, He give him three signs to vindicate to Egypt and
also to Israel that he was God's spoken Word.
Now, remember, Moses called into creation. That's right. Picked up sand
and throwed it up in the air, and said, "Let fleas come," and fleas
came. Said, "Let flies come," and flies come. "Let frogs come," and
frogs come. He brought into creation. Now, a man cannot create, but it
wasn't man to begin with. It was Jehovah in His prophet shepherd. Amen.

¹³⁹
Watch. The third sign He give him was not related to his occupation,
nor either was it related to his person: his third sign. Notice, the
first two signs related to him, hisself and his occupation. And they
was the only two signs that the Bible says that had a voice. The other
sign didn't have a voice. But the two signs that was given from his own
person, and to his people, had voices. But the third sign, now notice,
it was given… The sign, the third sign, was the sign of death: water
turning to blood. If your–if your–if your blood would turn to water,
then you would die. And where there's blood, shed blood, is a sign of
death; so it was to Pharaoh. The third was to turn the Nile water into
blood, was to show–to show his message to Pharaoh that our God is God
over the Nile, over the god of the Nile. He's God over everything, and
He's going to bring death to that nation. That's what the sign of blood
was. Oh, my. Direct sign of death: blood.

¹⁴⁰
But the other two had voices of prophecy. (I–I–I hope you're reading
now between lines, what I'm saying.) But the other two signs had voices
of prophecy to Israel concerning their future. (Now, to you that was up
on the mountain not long ago, when the rock was threw up?)
Now, and going… He was going to change nature to make it work for
them. Watch the pole; watch the serpent; watch the Red Sea, and
whatever that He did now. Look at that shepherd's goad making a way for
them to go. That stick that was in the shepherd's hand, bypassed every
bit of theology and all the things the priests had said, and that
shepherd's rod led them right on down through every impossible thing to
men. When Pharaoh tried to think that the cataracts erupted up in the
mountains and throwed the water, then made it turn into blood, then God
rained fire out of heaven. And He rained hail out of heaven, and
He–and He rained lice upon the earth, and everything.

¹⁴²
What did He do? By that shepherd's staff, not a–a textbook, not a
theologian's idea, but a shepherd's staff. We're coming to it in a
minute; a shepherd's staff, He did it. Not a–a denominational's prayer
book, but a shepherd's staff, shepherd's rod guiding his sheep, making
the way clear as they went towards the promised Word in the land. What
a beautiful thing that is today of the shepherd's staff today, guiding
His sheep to the promised land; bypassing all theology and everything
else of this world, and the things of the world, and the denominations,
everything; opening up the way, and proving His Word to be the Truth;
the shepherd's staff going ahead.

¹⁴³
And notice, that same shepherd's staff that was guiding the sheep…
You believe that? He certainly did guide the sheep; he delivered them
out of Egypt with that staff in his hand. We could say much more about
it. But to hit the highlight, he guided the sheep and sent judgment
upon the rejecting of it. The same staff that become a blessing to one,
become a curse to the others. The same waters of Noah's preaching that
saved him, condemned the world. The same staff that led Israel to the
promised land, condemned those who refused to follow the prophet
shepherd. That's right. Become a stick of judgment…
Nature; notice how God speaks in His nature. If we just had time. I
wrote a note there: God speaking in His nature. We haven't time to
prove it.

¹⁴⁴
But proving later by the brass serpent on the shepherd's sheep-goad
(that he wrapped this snake around, in the wilderness), this speaks of
true atonement coming for sickness and sin.
That staff itself had turned into a serpent before Pharaoh, and the
same Pharaoh tried to mimic by magicians. And so does the modern
Pharaohs of today, and make-believers, carnal impersonators of the
message, try to mimic the same thing without knowing where it's coming
from: and throw it into some denominational something, when it's as
free from it as the air is from being penned up. Sure. But try to
mimic, make a mimic.
But, notice, this same shepherd's staff eat up the other snakes. Where
was them snakes at? They were rods on the floor, and there was only one
rod picked up. "Both heavens and earth will pass away," said Jesus,
"but My Word shall not." Speaks of true atonement coming for sin.

¹⁴⁷
Also Israel's future offered… And then how it spoke of Israel, now in
the future… There they were offered deliverance from bondage of death
by a prophet shepherd. They were brought out of bondage by a prophet
shepherd with a staff. See? It was speaking of Israel's future
Deliverer from death and hell by a Shepherd Prophet that we'll speak of.
Now, to all that… All as we know, Israel did not receive the prophet
shepherd's Word, all of Israel didn't receive it. Now, notice, they was
complaining. "Oh," when he was performing the miracles, "he was a great
fellow," but when it come to His Message, "that was different." All
great signs follows a new message coming. We know that. In the
wilderness they complained, in the wilderness, and died by the
thousands. Frankly, there was only two of them that ever went through
that was saved out of a two and a half million, two out of two and a
half million.
You say, "That… What happened to them?" They're eternally gone.
"All of them, Brother Branham?" Jesus said so.
They said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness, and they drank from the rock."
And He… Jesus said, "And they are, every one, dead." eternally separated (See?) every one.

¹⁵³
Notice they complained about God's provided way, was the reason they
died. (Now, closely, don't miss these last few remarks.) They
complained. What made them die in the wilderness, they complained about
God's provided way, by a one man message, a prophet, a leadership of
one man. Tell me when God ever used a group to lead. You won't find it
in the Bible. One man, they… The Word came to Moses.
Korah; we all know that he–he got hisself together and complained
about God not being just to do a thing like that, to make one man with
the message. He said, "We're all holy. Why can't we have a
denomination? And why can't we have-set up this, and do this, and do
that?"
God told Moses, "Separate yourself from him, I've had enough of it."
And remember, Jude speaks the same thing in the last day. That's right,
"They perished in the gainsaying of Korah." We also know what happened
to Korah and the–and the rest that questioned God's Word and God's
wisdom of that one man leadership: every one of them perished.

¹⁵⁶
Now, we will notice God in the shepherd prophet, showing His future
plans in the next sign voice. Now, watch. We see it there; now let's
watch it in the next sign.
Now, notice, he was sent to his brethren in slavery, under bondage,
with a message of deliverance, with a God-given sign to prove His
claims. Israel went for his message; they believed it, every one of
them, but in the evening time… They went for his miracles, but in the
evening time when they–he gave his message, it was different. All that
did not believe that message, died. That's right. What was the message?
The message was of the coming judgment. At the evening–at the evening
time God went out through the camp of Israel to find if the people had
believed His shepherd prophet's message; and all had not believed it,
perished.

¹⁵⁸
Now notice, we're going to bring it over to the Great Shepherd just in
a few moments. Notice the great Shepherd Prophet's ministry. Of His
miracles, every church opened and would receive Him. They wanted their
sick healed. They wanted to do great things. His popularity was great.
But when the evening time came, one day after He had turned water to
wine, and had fed thousands bread, and had performed miracles, He begin
to set down and talk to them. And He said to them, "I and My Father are
One. Why sayest thou, 'Show us the Father'?"
"Oh, brother. This man making himself equal with God?" That was too
much for their ecclesiastical thinking. But it was the Truth; He was.
See? But when they did, many did not follow Him.
Then He turned around and said, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you have no Life in you."
Now, what do you think a smart, intellectual person would thought? I
imagine the priests that had had Him in the temple was very–was very
ashamed of–of them having Him there. "To think that a man would stand
up and say a thing like that, 'Except you people eat my flesh, and
drink my blood.'" Said, "This is a human vampire (See?) 'Eat my flesh
and drink…' Why, he's a cannibal. You good thinking people will,
you'll get away from such a lunatic as that."
He never explained it, He just said it. He did it to stumble them, to
separate His sheep from goats. He did it to throw them off. And then
nobody wanted to cooperate with Him. They had no cooperation from then
on.

¹⁶³
Notice, at the evening time, God went out through the camps and seen
who had believed. And He did the same thing in the days of the Great
Shepherd. Notice the great Shepherd Prophet's ministry, but notice
this, to believers of His message, but not… This evening message,
they wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't believe that He was God. They
wanted to make Him a nice man. They wanted to make Him a prophet. He
was a nice man, and He was a Prophet, but He was more than that. That's
the common teaching today, that "He's just a good man, He was a
Prophet." He was nothing short of Emmanuel. He was God manifested in
Jesus Christ His Son, making Him and the Father One. That's all He
could be.

¹⁶⁴
Zechariah 14:7 (I might say this.), speaks of the evening Lights and
message again at the end time. Did you notice that? As many as followed
Moses seen the Pillar of Fire that identified him on Mount Sinai. He
had testified of, and spoke of this Pillar of Fire being in a bush and
had told him this message; many of them wouldn't believe it. But as
many as followed him out of Egypt (come up out of the world, and
crossed the sea of separation, and went into the wilderness), saw the
same Pillar of Fire (that he spoke of) vindicating that shepherd
prophet to be the shepherd of the sheep. They saw it, and many of them
still didn't believe it after they saw it.

¹⁶⁵
Notice how again the never-changing God, the great Shepherd Prophet
took them that stayed by Him and with His ministry to Mount Olive; the
great Shepherd Prophet, the One we're speaking of, Jesus. [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.] Seen and heard the Father (the same Pillar of Fire) vindicate Him, that vindicated Moses.
The same God that Moses spoke of, come over Moses and proved by a
Pillar of Fire that He was Jehovah that was leading Moses. God was in
His shepherd prophet.
Here He takes the other Shepherd prophet, the great Prophet, the Real
Sheep, Jesus, and takes the choice of three men, and takes them up on
top of Mount Olives, and there a-vindicated Jesus. And even excommuted
Himself from all other people, said, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye
Him." And when they looked up, they saw no man save Jesus only. That's
right. He was the One. Now, that settles it, as far as I'm concerned.
See?

¹⁶⁸ [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]… The Shekinah [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]…
face. Moses was in the Presence of the Shekinah on Mount Sinai. It
changed his face. When he come down, he had to–to put a veil over his
face, the shepherd prophet Moses; who Jehovah was in in a portion, just
a portion: his face. He had the Word in his mouth.
But notice when the Great Shepherd was in the Presence of the Shekinah.
What did it do? It changed His whole countenance. He wasn't just part
of God; He was all of God. He was Emmanuel.

¹⁷⁰
Why did it have to be shepherds? Look. See, now, God Almighty
patrolleth–portraying Himself, rather, in Moses the shepherd prophet.
Watch how God made Hisself known. (This is my last remark.) See Him
standing anointed in the Presence of the Pillar of Fire. Nobody on the
mountain at all but Moses and Jehovah. Amen. "Amen" means "so be it."
Watch. "Put thy hand in thy bosom." But watch this second sign now with
a voice. "Put thy hand into the bosom." We have no reason to believe
that Moses was left-handed, so he must've put his right hand into his
bosom, 'cause most men are right-handed. He put his right hand… Now,
watch. What a picture we see here, of Jehovah in Moses the shepherd
prophet. Moses representing God, 'cause God was in Moses.

¹⁷²
Watch him put his… "Hand in thy bosom." What a sign. Now, there he
stands, holding his right hand over his heart (standing like this)
where the hidden secrets of redemption had been hid since the
foundation of the world. Here's why shepherds. Jesus is God's right
hand; we all know. Here's Moses portraying Him exactly. He held the
secrets of the Father, and has showed them to us. Notice, watch him
pull from his bosom his right hand smitten with deadly leprosy. Showed
what God would do with His right hand. Notice, the leprosy has no cure.
Notice, again, it wasn't just common leprosy; it was in its last stage:
white as snow. His hand was smitten with a horrible thing. How Moses
must've felt when he pulled his right hand from over his heart, out of
his bosom, and his hand was smitten with leprosy. Leprosy symbolizes
sin, incurable, and especially in its last stage.

¹⁷³
Brethren, that's where the world was when God pulled His Right Hand
from His bosom. The world was smitten with deadly leprosy, and no cure
at all for it. So is it tonight, because they won't receive the remedy.
The remedy was made at Calvary, but people wants to take some manmade
prescription in the stead of God's prescription for sin.
Notice. It never gradually come on, as the course of leprosy does, but
all at once. When he pulled his hand, it was smitten; it was full of
leprosy. Notice what God said, "Now, you won't gradually drift into
sin; but the day you eat thereof, that day you die." That's right, "The
day you eat of it."

¹⁷⁵
Notice, it was the prophet shepherd that smote himself. He took, by the
commandment of God, and put his own hand into his bosom, and pulled it
out smitten with leprosy. The prophet shepherd did it himself. And the
great Prophet Shepherd, Jesus, did it Himself, "I lay My life down; no
man takes it from Me." He was the Great Shepherd, the great Prophet
Shepherd, "No man takes it from Me; I do it of Myself." Notice; it
didn't gradually come, it come in a minute. The Great Shepherd Himself
took our guilt and smote Himself, took our sins and laid it upon
Himself–self. No wonder the poet wrote:

¹⁷⁶
That secret had been in God's bosom all these years, covered by His
right hand, Jesus. The Great Shepherd took upon Himself our guilt for
us. Isaiah 53:6, said, "He was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.
And with His stripes we are healed." The secret of God's healing laid
in the bosom of Jesus Christ, or God, He was on the right of God;
that's the only sheep that held in His bosom the secret. That's the
reason the foreshadows of it had to always be a sheep. The first was a
sheep; the last was a Sheep. That's the reason it had to come to a
shepherd, to know how to take care of his Sheep. You get it? Notice, He
was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the
chastisement of our peace upon Him."

¹⁷⁷
Notice, it came quick; and it left quick, no sooner the right hand was
drawn from the bosom the second time, the deadly disease was gone, when
he drew it the second time. And when the Great Shepherd, the Sheep
prophet, when He said… On Calvary's cross, when He had paid the
penalty of sin for us all, He said, "It's finished." Sin was over; the
penalty was paid; debts were settled. It didn't take a year, or finally
come into it in the days of some other reformer or something; it was
finished right then.

¹⁷⁸
Sin came in a moment by transgression of God's law, by breaking one
Word. Tonight, my brethren, your soul is over hell on a chain. And that
chain is not some theological seminary's teaching; that chain is not
some denomination or some creed that you're living by; that chain is
God's Word. Jesus gave the human race His Word to live by, and Eve only
broke one little link of it. And the–any chain is no stronger than its
weakest link. When you take one Word out… That was the first of the
Book.
Jesus came in the middle the Book, and said, "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God." That was the middle of the Book.
The last of the Book, He said, "Whosoever shall take one Word
(mistranslate one Word), take one Word out of Here, I'll take his part
from the Book of Life." You're passing over hell, hanging on the Word
of God. Don't you let somebody squeeze something into you that's not
THUS SAITH THE LORD.

¹⁷⁹
Oh, I see… Well, they say, "Surely, all we've done. All we've done."
That's what maybe the high priests and them thought in the days of the
Great Shepherd. That's what Eve thought. That's what Satan told her,
"Surely God will not." But He did, 'cause He said He would. And that's
the reason He'll do it again today.
No wonder, as He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, wherein eight
souls were saved by water, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of
man." See, very few, "For strait is the gate, and narrow is the way
that leads to Life, and few there'll be that'll find it. (That's
right.) 'Cause broad is the way that leads to destruction, many will go
in thereat."

¹⁸¹
When the Great Shepherd was smitten, the great Sheep Prophet when He
was smitten back there, He said, "It is finished." And that minute, as
soon as this Shepherd was smitten, it was over. Sin is settled; there
was no more sin. They were clean; the penalty was paid. The believers
whose names were written in the Book of Life, predestinated from the
foundation of the world, it was finished that very minute that Jesus
said it was finished. He, that Great Shepherd, had come for His sheep.
It was finished; God's right hand was pulled from His bosom, smitten.
Then on Easter He returned it (Amen.), raised it up again to His bosom,
and extended it down to you and I in the form of His Word, to redeem us
back to the original garden from which sin took us from. The hidden
secret of His great heart was revealed by a Prophet Shepherd. It was
revealed by a Shepherd, Prophet Shepherd.

¹⁸²
No wonder the mountains jumped and shouted on that day. No wonder the
sun hid its face and screamed for joy. No wonder all nature broke
loose; the wind shook the trees until they shook and shook, and joyed,
and jumped. They'd seen the Prophet Shepherd, on the mountain, redeem
every name on the Book of Life. And they seen that their own nature was
redeemed. They screamed and jumped. And the world went into an
earthquake. And the mountains rent, and the rocks fell out. And the sun
went down. And–and everything taken place. Like any meeting, when the
Shepherd reveals to you that it's finished. There…

¹⁸³
I've seen jumping spells and joy spells, but there was nobody hurt. The
mountains rung out, and they… The sun went down, and everything took
place, but there was nobody hurt. And I've seen meetings where the
power of God was revealed to the people that they were free from the
world and the things of the world, and the joy of the Lord filled the
congregation. They stood, and screamed, and cried, and shouted to the
top of their voice for the glory of God. I never did see anything
disorderly; they was always right in order; because they had recognized
that their name that had been written on the Lamb's Book of Life before
the foundation of the world… The great Prophet Shepherd had brought
them the message, and they were delivered: the Prophet Shepherd. No
matter what the other ecclesiastical realms said about it, they knew
what had happened. Just as them shepherds did back there, they knowed
what took place.

¹⁸⁴
No man has a right to enter the sacred desk to preach the Word until he
has did as Moses did: meet God himself upon grounds where that there's
no theologian can explain it away. Moses was there. No matter how
Israel's messengers said, "Oh, it was a nonsense, you just imagined you
saw this; it's nonsense," you couldn't take it away from him; he
knowed. He was there. He was the one it happened to. And no man by a
theological degree or some doctor's degree has a right behind the
pulpit to claim the message of Jesus Christ, until he's first met God
face to face in the Pillar of Fire. He has no right to call himself a
messenger, 'cause all the theologians in the world couldn't explain
that away from you. It happened to you. You were there; you know about
it. Care what anybody else says, or how much they can say, "the days is
gone, it isn't so," you–it happened to you, and it's according to the
Word.

¹⁸⁵
Yes, that's the reason Moses knew this Voice had spoke to him was a
Word Voice. He knowed that God had told Abraham, "Your seed shall
sojourn for four hundred years, but I will deliver them." And he knowed
the four hundred years was up and he was called to do it.
Men and women, God promised in this last days that He'd pour out His
Spirit upon all flesh. He promised He'd send the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, and He'd call a Bride without spot or wrinkle. He promised to do
it; He'll do it. Don't listen to these hireling shepherds; they'll lead
you astray. The Holy Spirit is the Shepherd to feed you sheep food from
His Word. It always comes by the Shepherd. He is our Shepherd. Listen
to Him; you are the sheep of His fold; if you are, you hear His Voice,
not what somebody else says; you hear what He says. A strange voice,
you know nothing about it.

¹⁸⁷
Oh, my. Listen to the mighty Shepherd Prophet again interpreting and
introducing to them. John, when he stood in the river of Jordan, look
what he said. Was standing there preaching, he said, "The hour is
coming…"
Notice, John was a priest's son. They always followed the–the line of
their father; that's the way we got our names. By whatever they did,
they called them that. And John was supposed to be a priest like his
father.
And, you know, his mother, when she had been–conceived, after the
Angel of the Lord met his father Zacharias, and went home to Elisabeth,
and she was already six months in–to be mother. But she'd had no life
yet, she was scared 'cause the baby hadn't moved. That's subnormal.

¹⁹⁰
And the Holy Ghost, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Mary, and told
her that she was going to have a baby, knowing no man, and told her
about Elisabeth's condition.
She went up the hills of Judaea to tell Elisabeth. And when she met
Elisabeth, she told her that she was going to be a mother. And she
couldn't understand it, knowing no man. But she said, "The Holy Spirit
overshadowed me, and said that this holy Thing that'll be borned of me
will be called the Son of God, and I'll call His Name Jesus." And the
first time that the Name Jesus was ever spoke in a human lip, a little
dead baby in its mother's womb leaped for joy and shouted and jumped in
the womb of a mother, and it never had received life yet.
The Name of Jesus Christ spoke life into a dead baby. What ought it to do in a church that claims to be born again?

¹⁹³
And we set as sour as the bumps on a pickle, and let such things go on,
and afraid to raise and testify your conviction, and condemn all this
nonsense, make Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.
It's Christmas time; get out these Santa Clauses and stuff; away with
that nonsense of commercializing. Wherever you heard about Santa Claus
in the Bible? It's a Roman mythology; there's nothing to it at all;
there is no such a thing. Don't teach your children such nonsense as
that. When one day you'll have to tell him that it was all a lying
story, then you've lied to your child. And it'll hurt your testimony
about Jesus Christ; he'll say, "Maybe it's the same thing." Put Jesus
Christ the great Shepherd Prophet back into the Christmas where it
belongs.

¹⁹⁴
Notice, listen to this prophet John, as he stands there. We all know
that he was a great shepherd prophet. Now, he had a message; the Angel
knowed that he was going to introduce Jesus.
Now, he couldn't go to some seminary. They'd say, "Now, you know that
Doctor So-and-so's just the man to take the place now. You're to
introduce him. And you know that just…" See, he couldn't get mixed up
with men.
At the age of nine years old, we're told, he went into the wilderness
to prepare before God. That's where the shepherds come from. Notice his
message wasn't like a theologian with some great, big swelling words of
some degree. He said, "Oh, you generation of snakes." Telling religious
men, "You bunch of snakes." That's what he'd seen in the wilderness; he
saw the snake. Lowest thing he could find was a snake, and he called
them priests, and clergymen, and theologians of that day a bunch of
snakes. Said, "Who's warned you from the wrath to come? Don't begin to
say, 'We belong to this, and we belong to that,' for I say unto you,
that God's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham." Stones,
what he had seen in the wilderness. "Also, the axe is laid to the root
of the tree." That's what he'd been seeing: snakes, trees, wilderness.
And, see, that was his message. He didn't know the great swelling words
of some great doctor of divinity (could explain it all away); he just
preached exactly the line of nature.

¹⁹⁷ That's what we're showing here: the shepherd's staff, the shepherd, the sheep, the line of nature.
What
did he do? He had a great thing to do; he was the one that would know
the Messiah. He said, "I say, 'He's standing here among you now. And
you don't know Him, because your theology has got you so tied up, you
don't know where you're at.'"
One day Jesus come walking out; he said, "Behold, there comes the Lamb
of God that takes away the sin of the world," the Lamb. (Hallelujah.),
the real Atonement. There comes what every sheep from the garden of
Eden down has shadowed, an ordinary Man walking down to the river.

²⁰⁰ They said, "John, how did you know it? I didn't see one thing different."
"But
I bear record; I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and a
Voice saying, 'This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am pleased to dwell
in.'"
Watch the Dove and the Lamb. See? Yeah. What if it'd been a… What if
it had been something… What if it had been a wolf standing there?
Well, that Lamb could not have went upon–or that Dove… God
symbolized Himself with a dove, the most meekest of all the birds of
the heaven, His Son by a sheep, the most meekest of all the animals on
earth. See, the clean bird of the heavens, not a crow, not a vulture,
but a dove; not a pig, but a lamb. Any other nature wouldn't have
blended together.
And notice when the Dove come upon the Lamb, It led Him. Not the way He
would, but the way the Father would lead Him. That's the way a real
lamb is today. O Christmastime sheep, don't you know that God only
leads by His Word? That's His Staff.

²⁰⁴
Notice nothing would have took place, but John said, "The rest of them
didn't see it, but I bear record; I saw it." Introducing: "Behold, the
Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world."
May I now introduce my Christmas message, and when I'm closing now:
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." It's that same
Lamb. He's just as much the Lamb today as He was then. He's just as
much here as He was there, for His Word is the same. "Wherever two or
three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them." That's
exactly what He said. He never changes, He's God the Word. He never
changes: still giving His sheep, and feeding them by His Shepherd
Prophet, His sheep Food first, not to the theologians, to His sheep.

²⁰⁶
They won't… How can them others eat it. But the wise… Notice this.
But the wise and intellectual, well-trained of the world, still desire
to say there is a Santa Claus. And there's all kinds of fiction and
stuff that they worship, because they won't accept Him the Word;
because in their denominations, it doesn't fit their taste, the
hireling shepherds of the day, the hirelings from creed, that'll want
to unite you under one goat; don't you believe it. They'll lead you to
the slaughter-pens. Hear the Great Shepherd that was born nineteen
hundred years ago this month, sometime out yonder in His message come
the true shepherds that knowed how to take care of sheep.
Noticing, they still desire it. They won't accept it today, just the
same as they didn't then, because it does not have fit their
ecclesiastical taste. They turn that Word around and make It suit their
organization, and they won't preach the Word. They won't. They say,
"Well, that was for the days of apostles. It doesn't mean this." It
means just exactly what It says, It needs nobody to…?… interpret It
for them.

²⁰⁸
Now, let us at this hour bow our heads and hearts towards the dust of
the earth, and hasten real quick to a manger to see and receive the
Light that this Word brings by the Shepherd, the Great Prophet
Shepherd, Jesus Christ the Son of God.
I spoke to you at length. I maybe not fixed my words up like a
clergyman should; I don't try to do that. I try to speak it just as He
gives it to me.
But, do you see why it had to be shepherds? The others was so trained
in another thought till they wouldn't receive it. And today we've got
all kinds of overseers, district men, bishops, priests, cardinals,
popes, everything in the world to try to lead us. But God give us a
Shepherd, and that Shepherd is the Holy Spirit.

²¹⁰
Listen to me now. "When He… (not a thought, 'He' is a personal
pronoun)–when He the Holy Ghost is come (the Spirit of Truth), He will
reveal these things to you that I have said unto you, and will show you
things to come." That's the Great Shepherd, that's the Shepherd Jesus
left. And the Holy Ghost wrote the Bible; the Bible said so, "Men of
old moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote the Word." Now, could the Holy
Spirit pull you to a creed? Could it pru–pull you to something that
this Word doesn't say? Why, it'd be totally impossible. The Holy Spirit
would be a liar if He said that "This is what you should do," and then
turn around and say, "No, it was a mistake, and you do what the church
says do."
Now, if you've been listening to something another's pulled you away
from the real, true Shepherd that'll lead you to the Word, the Holy
Spirit, and you do not have the experience, and do not have the witness
of the Holy Spirit in your life, which without…

²¹²
God is One. God is the only One that has Eternal Life, and He is
Eternal Life. And anything that had a beginning has an end. And if
you're just a member of a church, it had a beginning. But the Word of
God has no beginning, God has no… And when you're borned of God,
you're borned of the Word, then you become a son of God, and your name
was put on the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
And you, the color of hair you have, the color eyes you have, the
statue that you're in, God seen you before the foundation of the world.
And He seen you, a human being, like you are. And though there come a
million years yet, there's nothing can keep you from coming back to
that perfect image that God ordained for you in the beginning, "My
sheep hear My Voice; a stranger they will not follow."

²¹³
And if you haven't accepted that Eternal Life tonight, and you're
looking at a–a–a fiction story of a little baby laying in a–a–a
manger, and a bunch of wise men around, don't you believe such things
as that. And trying to think, "Well, I'll be good. And I'll do this.
And I'll join church. And that's all I need to do." You're lost. If you
haven't got Eternal Life, how can you ever live forever?
You can take a grain of corn; I don't care how perfect it looks, you
can man… Science has manufactured one, that you can cut it open: it's
got the same kind of a moisture, the same kind of heart, the same
materials that the grain that's growed out of the field has, the same
thing. You could put them in the laboratory, and you can't tell one
from the other one: one will make just as good of corn bread as the
other; one will make the same kind of corn flakes. But the only way you
can tell them, is bury them. The one that man made stays there; it rots
and it never comes up. But the one that God made has a germ of life
(See?); it lives again.

²¹⁵
You might imitate a Christian; you might go to a church like a
Christian; you might put your name on the book like a Christian; you
might join a denomination like a Christian; that would be all right;
but unless that Eternal Life is in you that that Good Shepherd gave His
life for, to separate… When God came down at Pentecost, He came down
in a ball of fire like He did on Mount Sinai, like He did to the first
shepherd, Moses. And when He come down, He separated Himself in tongues
of fire that set upon each of them, God separating Himself into His
people. And except you have received that, which Peter said that "It's
to you, and to your children, to them afar off."…

²¹⁶
Friends, don't you listen to any theological myth; you be borned again.
And when you are, the Spirit that's in you is part of God, and
witnesses to every Word of God being the Truth. If you haven't got that
experience, let us now hasten to the manger, the Word. Let's hasten to
the Bible, away from these decorated theological-termed churches, to a
real manger, to God's Word where the Messiah is made known. With our
heads bowed, let us pray.

²¹⁷
Dear God, that's all that I know to say at this time. We are
approaching Christmas, the streets are crowded with men and women, boys
and girls, pushing, shoving, trying to buy a present to return to
someone who would give them likewise. Many people who call themselves
Christians are out on the streets buying cigarettes, liquor for
Christmas presents. God, it looks like they're throwing it right back
in Your face, teaching their children of some fiction, Roman, pagan
theology of a Saint Nicholas, some myth that's easy accepted by the
world, and they turn down the real Christ of Christmas, the real Lamb.
God, I pray tonight, that as we have our heads turned down towards the
dust that You brought us from,… You told Abraham once, the great
prophet shepherd, "Go out, Abraham, and number the sands that are upon
the seashore."
And he returned the word, "They're innumerable; I cannot number them."
Then You said, "Look up towards the heavens and number the stars." And
he knew that that was impossible. And You said to him, "So shall thy
seed be." We look at that message to that shepherd prophet, "from the
dust of the earth to the stars of heaven," that though there be death
in our mortal bodies to take us to the dust, there is a Life that can
raise us to the stars.

²²¹
As You said to Your great prophet Daniel, "And those that know their
God in the last days, shall do exploits. And they that turn many to
righteousness shall outshine the stars forever and forever."
Lord God, great Creator, Who was so willing to come to earth in the
form of Jesus, to let man know what God was… And You were the only
One Who could take the penalty of death; no Angel, no substitute could
do it. You was the One Who placed the penalty, and You alone could
justly take it away. And being Spirit, You could not die. But You were
made flesh so You could die, and become a Lamb that You might take away
the sin of Your Redeemed, that You had to redeem them by Your own Blood.
Oh, the story is so great, Lord, it goes over the head of so many. To
think: "Little Jehovah laying in a manger; He had to live like a baby.
Little Jehovah borned in a stable. Little Jehovah, playing with
children on the street. Little Jehovah, the teenager. Little Jehovah,
the schoolboy. And Jehovah, the mighty." You took all these places. And
then, Jehovah, the Lamb, Jehovah, the Prophet. And You become all of
this that You might suffer the penalty of sin and to give to us Eternal
Life.

²²⁴
Forgive us, O God, we poor, unworthy creatures of this world. We are
humiliated tonight, Lord, when we read what You have done for us, and
so little we have done in return. How You come in the days of great
religious leaders. How You was willing to stand and reflect the Word of
the Father. How You didn't compromise upon their theories. And today it
seems like that there's no one that wants to stand out and call the
Word still the Word, and not compromise. We pray, God, You forgive us
for these things that we have so neglected. And give to us tonight, in
our hearts, as we give unto You as a manger. And we know that every
time that the Crucified Christ is accepted, there is a new birth, there
is a newborn sheep, there is singing in heaven by the Angels. Over one
sinner that repents, the Angels sing again.
We pray, God, that if there be some here tonight that doesn't know You
as the real Gift of God, as a personal Saviour, not just by a mental
conception, but by a new birth (of being born of Your Spirit), may they
receive it just now, Lord, with our heads bowed. And if there should be
one, Lord, that has not done this, may their hearts receive joy now,
and find like the shepherds of old, in the manger of their heart, the
Word, the Messiah; that'll be a-vindicated to them as the Holy Spirit,
the Great Shepherd of the day. We ask this in Jesus' Name.

²²⁶
While we have our heads bowed, and I trust our hearts bowed, would you,
would you, my dear brother, though you be member of church… And I
hope that I haven't hurt you by saying what I have said. I… It's all
right to belong to church; we should do that; but, O brother, just
don't accept that; you must be borned again. That's what the great
Prophet Shepherd said, "You must be borned again." He said that to a
theologian, "You've got to be born again."
And when you're born again, it just isn't because you believe. They say, "You're borned when you believe."
But the Bible said, "The Devil believes also." Now, notice, it's not that; it's an experience.
You say, "Well, I've lived a good life."
So did the apostles, but they wasn't borned again until they received
the Holy Spirit. They wasn't even converted until they had received the
Holy Spirit. You remember the night before the betrayal–or on the
betrayal, just before the betrayal took place? Jesus said to Simon
Peter, "When thou art converted, then strengthen thy brethren." And
Peter had followed Him for three years and a half, and had cast out
devils, and healed the sick, had preached the Gospel, and still
(according to the Word) was not even converted.

²³¹
Now, would you want that kind of a–of a Messenger in your heart
tonight? If–if you really want that… It don't make any difference
what somebody else says; It's true, brother, sister. I know that to be
true. Would you, while every head is bowed and every eye closed, not to
me, I'm just a man, your brother, but to Christ you'd raise your hand,
say, "I believe that. And I really want that Christ into my heart, the
real Christ of Christmas"? Would you raise up your hand now? God bless
you. That's good. God bless you too. God bless you. My, hands
everywhere.
May it happen, brother; may it happen, sister; may it happen, my
friend; be filled with God's Spirit. What difference does it make what
anybody else says? Remember, it's your life. We may not even be on the
earth in the morning; we have no–no assurance of no more life than
what we have breath in our nostrils now. We may never make another
breath, only the grace of God. And what good does it do, no matter how
good you've lived and what… Jesus said, "Except a man be borned
again, he will in no wise enter in."

²³³
Now, I know terminologies of what borned again is, but let's just watch
what happened in the Bible when they were borned again. Peter was a
believer; the apostles were believer; but they wasn't borned again till
after the Holy Ghost fell on them at Pentecost. Now, they were
wondering what happened, and Peter said, with the rest of them, "Ye men
of Israel, be this known unto you; Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of
God among you by signs and miracles and wonders, which God did by Him;
He Who was foreknown, by determinate council you took with wicked hands
and crucified, Who God has raised up and we're His witnesses. He shed
forth this that you do see and hear now; it's according to the
Scriptures."
And then, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said, "Men and brethren, what can we do to be saved?"
Peter said unto them, "Repent."

²³⁶
Now, my Catholic friend setting here, which I know of four or five of
you setting here. I was discussing this with your priest, maybe not
your priest, but one of the Catholic priests, he said, "Jesus gave the
church power to remit sins, 'Whosoever sins you remit, to them they're
remitted; whosoever sins you retain, to them they're retained.'" That's
true. But let's watch how he did it, how the apostles followed out His
order, not according to the way that–that the priest does today.
But what did the first priest, if you want to call him that, Peter,
that had the keys to the Kingdom, how did he say do it? He said,
"Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost, for the promise is to you, and to your children, and to them
that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." And if
God is still calling, the same experience is for you if you'll follow
the same prescription. If this congregation believes that, with your
heads bowed, say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."–Ed.] Then anything short of that is contrary to the Word, and not according to the Shepherd.

²³⁸
Lord Jesus, they're in Your hands now. I pray that each open heart
tonight that hasn't got the Christ, Messiah… And Christ is the Word,
the anointed Word made manifest. And if there's any open hearts here
tonight that doesn't have that Messiah, the real Christmas Gift, the
only real Christmas Gift there is that God gave the world, and declared
it to the world by shepherds, of His Lamb, the Atonement for sin… And
if that heart is open tonight, place in it, Lord, the Messiah Word of
today. We commit them to You in the Name of Jesus Christ, Your Son.
Amen.

²³⁹
Do you love Him? Do you believe Him? "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,
and His righteousness, all other things will be added unto you."
Friends, before we dismiss, I want to say this. Many times I'm so
misunderstood. I have a Message from God, and I must declare that
Message regardless. I know it's misunderstood. If it wasn't, then it
wouldn't be the Message of God; It couldn't be. There's too much
scruples today for it not to be misunderstood. I believe that God has
men in every denomination and organization of the world, and it's not
that I'm against my brethren. I come here to Tucson, three years ago,
and had a meeting with you ministers up at Brother Gilmore's, and it
was asked, did I come here to start a church?
I said, "No, sir. I come here to help you." But I haven't been asked
yet in three years. But just the same, I'm here to help you. I'm here
to join hands with you, not join organizations with you, but join hands
and heart with you over the Word of God to try to preach the Gospel to
every lost soul and every needy person that's under the sound of our
voices.
I offer myself to God, tonight, with all my heart, with all that's in
me. I don't have very much to give; I can't bring frankincense, myrrh,
and gold, 'cause I have none. But all I have in myself, that God give
me this life, I dedicate it to Him afresh tonight, upon the manger of
His Word in my heart, and promise Him to stand with that Word, if He'll
let me live another year, just as faithful as I can stand; preach every
bit of It, and believe every bit of It; so, help me, God. Will you do
the same with me?

²⁴³
Receive us, Lord. We receive Your Christmas Gift, the Messiah, the
anointed Word that vindicates Your Presence with us, Lord, regardless
of creed or denomination. We find, ourselves today, the world falling
apart, and here the great Messiah stands with His hands outstretched:
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, that made the
promises, that in this last days, the church would be so organized till
it would go into Laodicea. And we see it today, Lord.
What can we do, dear God? What can I do? Help me and these other
shepherds, Lord, around the world, shepherds of the Word, to proclaim
it, Lord, in this next year. Help us, Lord, we pray. Give us of Thy
Love and Thy Spirit and Thy Light. We dedicate ourselves tonight to Thy
Word and to Thy call. In Jesus Christ's Name, we receive Your Christmas
Gift, the Word of God made flesh in us. Amen.

²⁴⁵
I love the songs of the church. Paul said in the Bible, "When I sing, I
sing in the Spirit. I preach, I preach in the Spirit. When I…
Whatever I do, I do it all in the Name of Jesus Christ." Now, being
that this has been strenuous on you… And I–I appreciate you. I come
with this message. Sometime it seems like I just hate to say it, but
yet I'm–I'm duty bound, brethren. If I don't do it, I'm a hypocrite.
If I don't do it, I'm a traitor to my own conscience, and my own–own
faith in God's Word. I must do it, not to be different, but to be true
to my calling. And I want to help you; I want to do everything I can.
Now, let's sing one of the great hymns of all times, I love it so well,
"I Love Him." You know, I believe if we'd just all love Him, we would
do what He asked us to do. "How call ye Me, 'Lord,' and do not the
things I command you to do? How do you call Me, 'Lord,' and then not do
what I told you to do?"

²⁴⁷
Would you rather listen to a hireling shepherd that would say "Put your
name on the book, and join; take this communion, say this, and it's all
right," when the Great Shepherd Himself said, "except a man be borned
again he cannot even see the Kingdom of heaven"?
And look at those trained theologians of that day, trained. Holy? Clean
living? We have nothing to compare with it today, the way they lived.
And what did the Great Shepherd call them? Said, "You are of your
father the Devil," because they didn't… They recognized the Word, but
the Word of another day, not the Word of that day.
If they recognized Noah's time, that's all right; that was Noah's time;
but it wouldn't work in Moses' time. And Moses' time wouldn't work in
Christ's time. See? Luther's time won't work in Wesley's time. Wesley's
time won't work in Pentecostal time. And Pentecost has done the same
thing the rest of them did. Now, who has give me help in the days gone
by? Asked you.

²⁵⁰
When a blade of grass comes up, what is it? What… When a blade of
wheat comes up… Jesus said, "Except a corn of wheat falls into the
earth…" What happens when a corn of wheat–or a wheat falls into the
earth? The first thing comes up is a little blade. It's–is not like
the grain that went in. Watch nature. It's not like the grain that went
in, but it's a carrier of the life of the grain. What came…
That infidel that just wrote that famous book, "The Silent God," it
said, "How could there be a God who could open the Red Sea, and stand
through a thousand years of dark ages and see little children eat up
with lions, and people hung on crosses, and murdered in the arenas and
things, and never even opened His mouth?" See, the Word is a
revelation.

²⁵²
That wheat, when that real wheat started at the beginning, it failed
God. And finally there come a Wheat, a real Reflector of God, that
reflected His whole Word insomuch that He was the Word. Then God gave
Him a Bride at Pentecost; but that Bride dropped into the ground
through the dark ages, just like the real wheat did. It dropped in. And
why couldn't it act? Because it was hid beneath the earth; it had to
rot before it could bring forth life.
But there come a little priest one time by the name of Martin Luther,
and he sprang forth the one Word of Truth: "The just shall live by
faith." There come a blade; then another blade followed it, Zwingli,
and then come Calvin and Knox and on down.
First thing you know, it changed its blade; it went into a tassel. Now,
that looked a little bit more like it, but still it wasn't the real
thing that went in the ground; there come Wesley along. Out of Wesley
came the Methodist church, from the Methodist church came the Nazarene,
United Brethren, so forth. What did it do? It fell back again and it
brought forth, look like a real grain of wheat now, Pentecost.

²⁵⁵
Now, watch Jesus, in Matthew 24:24, "In the last days, the two spirits
will be so close together, till it will deceive the very elected, if it
was possible." Now, when that grain of wheat come forth, any wheat
raiser knows that that looked like perfect, the grain of wheat. But you
set down and take it in your hand, open it up. There's no wheat in it;
it's a shuck. But way back in the back, under microscope you can see a
little bitty bud; there comes the grain. And then what is that shuck to
do? It's to protect the grain; the hot sun would kill it; it protects
the grain until the grain is matured. And then when the grain becomes
matured, the shuck pulls away from it. But did you notice, that grain
then that comes forth, has got to be the same kind of grain that went
into the ground.

²⁵⁶
After Luther's revival come a organization. After Wesley's revival come
an organization. After Alexander Smith, John–Alexander Campbell, John
Smith, all the rest of them, come an organization. After Pentecost,
right down like the real thing, but it come an organization. What did
it do? Pulled away.
We've had fifteen years of revival; it's never been known in all
history. And watch, in this fifteen-years revival, it swept around the
world, and not one organization's been built out of it. Where was it?
(It started the latter rain; it died in its–instant, it died.) There's
been no organization follow this. Why? It's the grain itself; there can
be no more. And the shuck now is pulling away, no cooperation, nobody
wants you. Why is it? It has to be that.

²⁵⁸
Why was that church set there? To support it. Where… Who would've
cooperated? What Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Lutheran would have
supported a Divine healing campaign? And now when Truth comes forth,
what happens? Not the shuck; but the Life goes right out from the
shuck, right into the grain, the real true Life. The organization
stands there, dies, just like it has done in every age; it does the
same. You come out of that fifty years ago, and went right back into it
again. But real Life follows the grain, we're at the end time,
brethren.

²⁵⁹
What did it pull away for? So that it would bring the grain in Presence
of the Son to ripen the grain to a golden ripen for the Master. Why has
it pulled away? So it causes heartaches, tears, that they don't lay
before the s-u-n, but the S-o-n to be ripened to the true full Gospel,
to manifest everything that Jesus Christ promised in the Bible, there
is raising up a Body today among the people. And there will be no more
organizations; it goes right out into rich Laodicea. What has the
organization prospered by? Millions of dollars, and millions of souls.
And what was the shepherd come from? To deliver his brethren from
bondage. I–I don't know; God, be with us, help us. Study the Word.
Search the Scriptures. In them we think we have Eternal Life, and they
are they that testify of Truth. See, God 'lotted His Words to each age.
This age always…

²⁶¹
What did Jesus say when He come? He said to them people, "You
hypocrites. You whiten the walls, and build the tombs for the prophets,
and your fathers put them in there. And you are the sons of your
fathers. And the works that they did, you'll do too." It ever remains
the same, my brethren.
But when Jesus comes someday, the Great Shepherd of the sheep from
Pentecost through Luther through all the ages, has accepted the Light
as It come through the carriers (not accepted the carrier, accepted the
Light, see? went out), He'll come to redeem. I'm so glad that I know
He's coming again. Oh, would you be numbered with His group? Would you
be numbered? There's only one way to do it, not by joining a church,
but by being born into Him. "And all the Father has given Me, will come
to Me, and no man can come except My Father calls him." See? That's all
there is to it, accept it. He… That's the only Christmas gift that I
know of, is the gift of God that He gave to the world, His only
begotten Son. And He's the same, yesterday, today, and forever, the
Word. Amen. Believe Him in this day, the fulness of the Bible.

²⁶³
When those seven mysteries… Back through those seven church ages,
there were seven hidden mysteries. I'm writing a book of it. And a
great theologian said to me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham…"
See how Satan will try jerk you off the road? He said, "Brother
Branham, you know what? I believe the Lord will reveal to you what
we're to do next. Is to… It'll be some great secret that's hid in
there under these Seven Seals."
I said, "No, that isn't it, brother."
He said, "It'll be something that's not even written in the Word."
I said, "No. No. You forget, 'Whosoever shall add one word, or take one
Word away.'" See, it's already in there, but the reformers has failed
to see it; they didn't live long enough to see it.
And the ages is over now; we're right here at Laodicea. And remember,
the Laodicea age, He was on the outside of the church, knocking, trying
to get back in: Eve had put her Adam out. God, help us. Let us go
beyond the camp to find Him. Let us suffer without the gates with Him.
Let us go to Him in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection;
for He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

²⁶⁸
Let us sing one hymn before we leave. Will you? "I Love Him." Would you
give us the key, sister? How many knows the old hymn? I… If you ever
been in the meetings, I love it.
Now let's just close our eyes; think of Jehovah. No one was worthy, no
one could do it but Him. And He come down, and become a little baby. He
come a teenager. He become a carpenter, a working man. He become a
Lamb; He become a Sacrifice. He raised triumphantly, Jehovah. And as
Moses pulled his hand from his bosom from over his heart, God pulled
His hand from His bosom (His secret) His Son that was smitten with
disease of sin, incurable; and stuck it back into the bosom again, and
pulled it forth and extend it to you and I: "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, today, and forever." Look at Him now:

²⁷¹ How many knows it had to be a shepherd, say "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."–Ed.]
Must… Why a shepherd? It had to be. Now, while we sing this same
verse over again, reach across the table. There's Methodists, Baptists,
Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, and all, setting in here tonight.
Shake hands, say, "Fellow pilgrim, I'm so glad to be here with you
tonight." Say something to them. Say, "God bless you," as we shake
hands with one another now, as we sing it again now:

Now, let's close our eyes and raise our hands, and sing to Him.

²⁷³
And now, God's without form. So, let's bow our heads and hum it now,
like little children; you're children of God. Don't look at what the
world might think; you're worshipping now, worshipping Christ. Just bow
your heads and hum it. [Brother Branham leads congregation in humming: "I Love Him"–Ed.]
Don't you feel all scoured out like? Just kinda… Something just
rubbed all the doubt and the world away from you? Feel that way? Raise
up your hands, "I just feel all scoured out. I feel different. I feel
like I have been eating from His hands. I have…" Like the brother
here testified, "Food, Shepherd's food, sheep Food." That's the Word.

²⁷⁵
God's sheep feed on His Food, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And this is It,
the Bible. We feed on every Word, not just some of the Words, but every
Word that proceedeth. Oh, don't it make you love Him, to think that now
we have Eternal Life? Not we will be, now we are the sons of God. Not
we will be, now. And setting together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. And the great television, that declares that there is a ether
wave that makes people (the person that travels around the earth) known
by the–by the screen of the television… The great Word of God, and
the Spirit of God taking the Word of God reflects Jesus Christ in
heavenly places to His sheep, that He's the same yesterday, today, and
forever. Isn't He wonderful? Wonderful. God bless you.

²⁷⁶
Now, let us stand just a moment. Have you someone for the benediction?
Now, remember, during Christmas worship the Lord Jesus. Worship Him in
the power of His resurrection. And if I can ever be of favor to you
(you, your pastor, your church, or anything), the night never gets too
dark; the rain never falls too hard.
The other night (There's a lady standing present here.) I was so busy
took up the sick and stuff till… There was a eighty-something year
old woman that had lost her mind, and she had… She was–thought about
having a baby or something; she was out of her mind. And Billy, from
the office, called me, said, "Daddy, can you?"
I said, "I can't right now. There's people… I just can't do it."
He said, "Daddy, can you go to prayer? I'll tell them you're praying."
I said, "Yes." And at that very same moment she came to herself. She
fell asleep, woke up in her normal condition, eat a full, chicken
supper, been normal since. Person was standing here testifying of it a
few moments ago.

²⁸¹
Brother Mack, I seen him here awhile ago, somewhere in the church. He's
here, one of the pastors, local pastor. A very dear brother, and I've
always loved Brother Mack since I was first started in the ministry.
And then I met him…
And I was way up in British Columbia; and just to show you how that God
will work everything right. I was already mounted on a horse, and was
going back into the wilderness where I'd led a whole group of Indians
to God; and they were all converted, and had received Jesus.
And by the prophecy that told the Indian boy that lost his pony two
years ago, told him where he would find it, how far it would be away,
and where the pony would be standing. His mother dying with a heart
attack, she was healed and saved. And this boy, just coming by and
seeing it, and knowing that he… His horse was found exactly the way
that he was told, and everything.

²⁸⁴
Not one Word has the Lord ever spoke… I'll ask any of you, "Has He,
ever hear Him say anything, that He's ever told me to tell you, but
what come to pass just exactly?" If that's right, say "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."–Ed.] See, see? Exactly, never has it failed one time.
And Brother Mack was laying at the point of death, and happened to be
that his wife called Billy, my son's wife, and told–ask where I was
at; that lovely little lady and his wife. And she… And my
daughter-in-law said, "He's way in northern British Columbia on a
hunting trip."
And that morning, somehow, I–I–I just couldn't ride that horse out.
And then Billy said, "I'll believe I'll call home once more." And he
went up to the post to call. And here they come running back, when the
little Indian standing there, the little…?… had the pony, and said,
"Brother Mack is laying at the point of death, and is calling you."

²⁸⁷
And I got off, went over in the woods, and knelt down. I said, "Dear
God, way down, three thousand miles across the country in the sunny
state of Arizona, in Tucson, is my brother, and he's laying at the
point of death. Will you help him?"
Just Something spoke to me, "All is well."
And when I come to Brother Mack the other day to talk to him, and I
asked him, "What hour that it happened?" It was exactly the same hour
we went to pray.
Oh, He… Isn't He wonderful. He's the same yesterday, today, and
forever. I'm so happy to know that I live in the Presence of the King.

²⁹¹
Let us bow our heads now, and a precious little brother is here, a
missionary brother, friend of mine, a member of the Assemblies of God,
a precious little brother here. I call him, "Creeche." He spoke such
nice things. Brother Creech, I call you that. I don't know what to say;
you're my brother and fellow servant in the tribulations of Jesus
Christ in this last day. May God bless you. And I think Brother Tony
said that you was going to dismiss the audience at this time, while we
bow our heads. All right, come.