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Why Little Bethlehem? (63-1214)




 
 


 


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This Message by Brother William Marrion Branham
called Why Little Bethlehem?
was delivered on Saturday, 14th December 1963 at the Ramada Inn in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.
The tape, number 63-1214,
is 1 hour and 48 minutes, and consists of 2 cassettes. This message is available in book format (Volume 9, Number 9).

The text is provided courtesy of Voice of God Recordings, Jeffersonville Indiana
Voice Of God Recordings
P.O. Box 950, Jeffersonville, Indiana 47131 U.S.A.
Phone (812) 256-1177
Fax (812) 256-6187

The tape in RealAudio and MP3 (as linked above) is supplied by
Cloverdale Bibleway.





1
Nice to be here this morning. And now I believe we're going to have a
special, Brother Williams was telling me, by someone from his church.
Yeah, Brother Williams… [A sister sings, "Fill My Cup, Lord."–Ed.]
Wonderful. That's what we're here for this morning, raising up our
cups, "Fill it, Lord." This is the only time that we'll have the
opportunity to ask this. There'll come a time where we'll be on the
other side and then we won't have that opportunity. So while we do have
it, and in our right mind, I think one of the most sensible things that
anyone can do while God has given us the opportunity to do so, is to do
it, get our cups filled now with His love and mercy.

2
There is one who set with us long ago, not too long ago, neither, and
he's passed on. And it's a great sorrow in our hearts for Brother
Williams. It's Brother Williams, our chapter president here, his
father. How old was your father, Brother Williams? Eighty-eight. That'd
be about eighteen years, I guess, apast the–the… No, it'd be, yeah,
eighteen years apast the promised time. A gallant man… It hasn't been
too long ago since, sitting in the meeting, I said to him, and no
disregards to Brother Williams, I said, "You look younger than your
son, Carl." It just goes to show that we're here today and tomorrow
we're not here. We don't know when that time comes, when it is coming,
but we know it's coming. I was thinking, but life is a great thing,
it's–life is an opportunity.

3
We just had a great tragedy of one that come to our church so long from
Chicago, was killed the other day coming home, a mother. She was close,
I guess close to seventy, and she and her husband riding along and up
in Kansas, Missouri, one, a blizzard going through. A man driving, car
out of control, her neck was broke instantly. And we just don't know
when this is coming. When I… They called me to tell me about it, and
I called up all the children around across the nation, telling them.
'Course, being their pastor, like, I was the one to notify them.
Thinking of how quick we can go, and then there set a box of candy
setting before me that she made me about a week ago, and gave to me.
Just to see how quickly we can be snapped out… But if that–if this
life only was where we had our hopes, we'd be a miserable people. Job
said in the 14th chapter, "Oh, that Thou would hide me in the grave and
keep me in the secret place."

4
Have you ever noticed how nature testifies of God? We find the trees,
the leaves go off the trees, and the life in the tree goes down into
the ground like the grave, and stays there until the wrath of the
winter is past, then comes back again, bringing forth new life. It's a
testimony that we live again. The sun rises of a morning, just a little
baby; it's weak; after while it's this time it's in school, high
school; then at noon it's in its strength; then the afternoon it begins
to turn to the other side; then in the evening it gets weak again and
dies. But that's not the end of the sun, it comes up again the next
morning to testify to another generation, that there is a life, death,
burial, and resurrection.
Even nature everywhere speaks of Him. And nature is a great testimony
in another way; that is, that we cannot have this resurrection Life
unless it serves God's purpose. Now, if a seed is planted, and that
seed is germitized, it brings forth a new flower. But if it isn't
germitized, it will not bring forth a new flower, if it doesn't serve
God's purpose. Yet, not just because it's a flower it rises, because it
serves God's purpose. That's the reason the sun rises, is because it
serves God's purpose. And we rise when we serve God's purpose.

6
I believe that Brother Williams served God's purpose in life, a real
father. And I see his darling companion, Mrs. Williams, setting here. A
real husband, that's one of God's purposes. A father, one of God's
purposes… And he was germitized to God by the Holy Spirit, God's main
purpose. So to say that Brother Williams will not rise and be with us
again, we'd have to say there's no–there's no going down of the sap,
there's no rising of the sun. Everything speaks of his resurrection
again, to be with us again, everything. First, the sun, the flowers,
the nature, botany life, everything speaks of it. And then the Word of
God speaks for him. And besides that, the very faith that's in our
heart pulsates that we'll see him again. God rest his soul. Just as a
little salute to him that once set with us, let us stand to our feet
just a moment.

7
Heavenly Father, we have never tried to make a gathering like this a
purpose just to be seen or heard. We have come together each time for
the edification of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and to give testimony to
those who are without Him, that they might find Him. We are… Our
hearts are burdened for those who are left behind from the departing of
our brother, one that set with us not long ago, has many times set
right in this same chapter. But we believe that You let him live out a
good, full round life, and his soul is with You today. Rest him, O God,
until that day when we shall see him again. Bless his son here, his
other children, his darling wife, and those who loved him, and that's
all of us, Father. And may we take notice to this, that we too are
frail and we must go someday, so let us prepare ourselves for that
great hour. And if there should be some here this morning who has not
prepared for this same event, may this be the day that they'll say
"yes" to the Lord Jesus, and also be germitized to Him by the Holy
Spirit. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen. Be seated.

8
Now, we want to announce a–a few announcements. My wife setting back
there this morning, I told her, I said, "Honey, I'm going to be out of
the breakfast…" We had to go downtown, do some things. And I said,
"I'm going to be out at ten o'clock." She looked at me. I said, "If I'm
not out by ten o'clock, I'll buy you three new dresses of your choice."
So I–I know what's going to happen, I owe three dresses right now,
'cause it's twenty till ten now. But I will try to hurry as quick as
possible.

9
We're glad to be here in Jericho with you brethren this morning, and we
invite you, Monday night, up to Jerusalem, at Tucson, to–at the
banquet down there. See, Phoenix is in the valley like Jericho. Tucson,
where I live, is on the mountain, that's–that's Jerusalem. Where you
at, Tony? Why don't somebody say "amen" around here. Here, now I'm in a
trap; Tony didn't even show up. Well, tomorrow–or Monday night, is the
banquet at–at Tucson, and we certainly would be glad if you're around
that way, would drop in and see us. My subject that night, if the Lord
willing, is, "We Have Seen His Star In The East And Have Come To
Worship Him."

10
And now the nineteenth of this month, I–or next–next month, rather,
nineteenth of–of January, I start a revival here, right in this room,
the Ramada Inn here, and the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first.
And then the twenty-second, I believe, starts the… Twenty-third… I
have four nights here in–as a revival. Many of you minister brothers,
we're certainly happy to have you with us this morning, and we
cordially invite you out to bring your people, the ones especially,
that's–that you know here in the city that doesn't know Jesus as their
Saviour. And then, secondarily, to those who are sick and–and believes
that God answers prayer, we aim to pray for the sick during this time
just prior to the great national convention is to be held here
beginning the twenty-second. And I'm sure you want to hear that,
because there's many outstanding speakers come, and I'm sure you'll
have a great time.

11
Now, this morning I have thought about speaking here to this chapter,
which Phoenix has always been a place on my heart. I like Phoenix. I
was here when I was a little boy, out here at Wickenburg just above,
and lived down here at Sixteenth and Henshaw. It was a desert then. But
I see it's right in the metropolitan, and, well, really in the heart of
the city. Goes to show that there's a changing time, changing. But
there's one thing I want to speak on this morning is the unchanging
One, that's God. God, in His program, His Word, It never changes. Times
change, men change, systems change. But God never changes, He ever
remains the same.

12
And I thought, being that we were facing the Christmas time, that we
would–maybe I'd speak on a–a Christmas message. And now, if you have
your Bibles, and like to read, sometimes people do, behind evangelists
or speaker, I want to read from St. Matthew's Gospel the 2nd chapter
for a portion of the Word.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from
the east to Jerusalem,


Saying, Where is he that's born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.


When Herod the king… heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.


And when he had gathered all the chief
priests and the scribes of the people together, he demanded… them
where Christ should be born.


… they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophets,


And thou Bethlehem, of the land of Juda, art
not the least among the princes of Juda: but out of thee shall come a
Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.


13
May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. And now,
with some notes here, and some Scriptures to refer to, I'd like to have
your undivided attention for a little while on the subject of: "Why
Little Bethlehem?"
You know, at Christmas, I think we all… Too many of us, I wouldn't
say all, but too many of us lose the real value of what Christmas is.
As I noticed out here, even the palm trees are decorated; and in the
east it's always the fir tree, or the evergreen. And months, or weeks,
rather, maybe a month or six weeks before Christmas ever begins, it's
always the tinsel and–and the great… They made it a commercial in
the stead of what it really means.

15
I don't believe that Christ was born on the twenty-fifth day of
December. I–I do not believe that at all. It would be impossible for
the things to happen. The hills of Judaea are snowier than, why, snow
is waist-deep in there in the month of–of December up in Judaea. But
we realize in studying history, Christ was probably born in the spring,
along maybe April or May, somewhere like that. But when it was changed
this, they–they brought it… When Christianity was converted into
Romanism, they made the sun god's birthday, which was the solar at the
twenty-fifth, from the twenty-first to the twenty-fifth of December,
the sun setting like, almost hardly changes at all. And then that was
the sun god's birthday, so they changed it to the Son of God.

16
But remember, what–ever what day it might be, we still doesn't take
away the sacredness of what it's supposed to be. Where Satan has robbed
us of this, has made the great commercial, and Santa Claus stole all of
the worship. And it's become a–a day like Easter, like bunny rabbits
and pink ducks. And–and then what's that got to do with Easter? What's
that got to do with the resurrection of Christ?
It's just like the world today, they can… The kids on the street can
tell you more about Davy Crockett than they could about Jesus Christ.
They can tell you more about some outlaw, some criminal of days gone
by, than they can in the Prince of Life that–that was born nineteen
hundred years ago. But that doesn't take the real thing away from we
Christians.

18
You see, always light shines its best in the darkness. The forked
lightning in the black cloudy skies at night, shows there can be light
in darkness. And when the light is shining, you don't see… If the
sun's shining, you don't need the lights too much. But darker, the
smaller the light, greater will shine in the darkness. Darker, the
better, shows itself better. And that's more the less that… We
Christians ought to be testifying to the glory of God giving His Son to
us. This Christmas ought to be an outstanding thing. We Christians
ought… No matter how much it looks, it'll make it shine that much
better. The whole world's got tinsel. We've got Christ, and that's what
we ought to be letting shine in this dark hour that we're now living
in.

19
We think of how God does things in unusual ways, because He is unusual
Himself. God is unusual. He's–He's the Supernatural, the Infinite,
unto we finite. So anything He does is–is so unusual. And God is
so–so great, till He takes the unidentified things of the earth to
identify Himself by it.
We notice here in my subject of "Why Little Bethlehem," that smallest
of all of Judaea, the princes of the other cities of Judaea, why did
God choose to send His Son to that place? That's what we want to talk
on. God taking the things of the world, I believe the Scripture says,
"By the foolishness of preaching, it pleased God…" To take the
unidentified things… What we make great, God calls foolish. What we
put so much glory to, God says it's–it's–it's no good. And what we
think is no good, God glorifies it.

21
Was thinking of just before the birth of our Lord, when all the
prophets, and so forth, had spoke of the forerunner coming, how every
mountain would be brought low and the low places brought high, and the
mountains would skip like little rams, and the leaves would clap their
hands. And it was a–a minister, a prophet by the name of John came
forth out of the wilderness, not from even a theological school,
whiskers all over his face, and a piece of sheepskin, not in a clergy
clothes, coming out and announce, "The Kingdom of God is at hand." And
the people could hardly understand such an outfit as that coming with
no identification of any–any system, anything that he belonged to, any
fellowship card, or any denominational that he was backing him up.
The–the message was too great; he couldn't take men. God schooled him
out in the wilderness. His message was not on some kind of a–a
theological terms. He spoke of serpents, and axes, and trees, and
that's what he was used to, nature, watching it, how it worked. And
that was the–the way he approached, not as a clergyman, but as–as a
man of nature.
And the people could hardly understand him. Didn't even have a pulpit,
and probably wasn't welcome in any, but he preached on the banks of the
Jordan, probably standing in mud up half to his knees. But the people
come out to hear it, those who were honest in heart. They wanted to
hear because it was something different; it had a ring of truth to it.
Today we ought to be at this, at the approaching of the birth of
Christ, our message, it ought to have a ring of truth to it that would
make people thirst to find Him.

24
God took that simple man, without education, not one day in school, and
yet said he was the greatest among all the prophets that ever lived,
because God identifies Himself in unidentified things.
When Jesus chose His disciples, it was. There were many men better
qualified for the job than those disciples; there were clergymen; He
never called one. There were clergymen in them days, great men,
priests, men of education, renowned men, but He never called them. He
took fishermen and tax collectors, and so forth, to–to send His
Message out. He always does that.

26
In the days of Noah He chose a farmer, just a common farmer to announce
the destruction of that age: just a common farmer, not a clergymen,
just a farmer. In the days of Noah He took a–a–or in… Pardon me.
In the days of Moses He took a runaway slave, not a clergyman. And He
let him get out till He was satisfied out in the backside of the
desert, and lose his education, and appeared to him in a burning bush,
and sent him down with a crooked stick in his hand, to take over a
nation that had–that he had r–run from.
See, God takes the simple things to identify Himself through. See,
taking His… It's just His Word. He made the world out of the things
that–that does–has not appeared.

29
A few days ago I was at the Morris Auditorium, one of our great New
York campaigns, and I was hearing a lecture on Einstein speaking of
this galaxy, that said take a hundred and fifty million years of–of
light time to go out to it, and a hundred and fifty million years to
get back. And then, just think, a hundred and fifty million light
years; that'd be three hundred million light years. And then when you
got back here, you'd only been gone fifty years. Think, why, how fast
light travels, a hundred eighty-six thousand miles per minute, and
think of how many billions and trillions of years it would take to go
out there and come back, a hundred and twenty–or three hundred million
light years. And that's just to a galaxy in the constellation that God
just blew from His hands, and He made the aeons of time in light years
beyond that, and there looking down upon that.

30
Then this Russian said that's he was about a hundred and fifty, two
hundred miles, up in the air, and said he never seen no God or angels.
How simple can man get? And then think of all them billions and
trillions of years; and only fifty years from here, what did he do,
broke into eternity.
They say this astronaut that just went up, was up so many hours, went
so many, seventeen times around the world, or whatever it was, they
said it never even… He wasn't one second in his life. He was
traveling with the time. So, you see, you break into eternity. That's
the greatness of God.
Some… Our minds cannot fathom how great He is. And yet when He gets
ready to reveal Himself, He makes it so simple, takes the simple things
to do it, the simplicity of it.

33
David, he seemed to be the–the… All Jesse's seven sons, he was the
last one to be brought before the prophet. Why, even his own folks
could've laughed, they couldn't imagine a little ruddy-looking David, a
little stoop-shouldered, ruddy-looking man to be the man that would be
the king of Israel. He might not have looked like a king to those
people, but he sure must've looked like it to God, 'cause they… He
anointed him King anyhow. See, He took the simple of David's family, or
of Jesse's family, to–to make kings. Something that the world had
turned down, the… He turned or sent him back to take care of the
sheep. He brought forth his–forth his first son, a great strong
stately-looking man, probably could stand erect and look like a king of
Israel, and that's the one they thought would look good with a crown on
his head; that's the one with the–wear the–the kingly garment and
could pack the staff, and whatever must be done to a king. He–he
looked good to the eyes of the people.

34
But the prophet with the anointing oil in his hand, said, "Haven't you
got another one?" And he brought them one by one, until finally he
said, "Haven't you got another one?"
He said, "I've got one, but perhaps he wouldn't be nothing. He's just a
little dried up sort of a fellow; we got him out there herding sheep."
He said, "Go get him." And as soon as he fell in the eyes of the
anointed prophet, he poured the oil upon his hand–head, and run to
meet; he said, "This is the one God chose." See? See, it's not tinsel
always of the world. It's God's choosing.
By grace He chose us, so we're grateful for that this morning. And it
doesn't take those great tinsel things of the world. The humblest can
be a servant of Christ: takes somebody who's willing.

38
God anointed him (See?) takes the little things. Now, why did He take
little Bethlehem? Seemed like there would've been greater places that
the King, great King of kings could been born.
Usually when we fix up an event here on earth, we try to get the
highest, most glittering thing that we can think of; we take it to the
biggest places, and spend the most money, and the most elaborate
things. That's the way we do it.
But God don't do it that way. He takes something that's nothing, so He
can show Himself to be mighty, that He can… If He'd have took a high
priest or a well-trained man in the days when He was calling the
apostles, if He'd have took that instead of an ignorant, unlearned
fisherman who couldn't even write his own name, they could've said,
"Oh, that… See, your education pays off." But God took a man who
couldn't even write his name, that He could take something He could get
in His hand, something that He could make something out of to show that
He's God. When we get to a place that we realize that we're nothing,
then get in God's hands, and He can mold you and make you the way He
wants you to be. But as long as we feel that we're important, then
you'll never get nowhere. You can't even get in the hands of God until
we realize that we're not important.

41
One of my little girls was asking the other day about importancy. I
said… Well, talking about some important man… Why, it was the
President that was just assassinated, and our hearts was grieved over
it. And I said, "Well, he was important man." The papers played it up,
and the television shot it, billions and billions of dollars it cost
the government to broadcast that. Which that's all right; that's their
business. But I said… This little Pentecostal preacher up there in
Carolina, that a man walked in, a drunk with his shotgun, called for
his wife, and shot the man plumb out of the pulpit, then shot his wife,
and shot himself, a little piece in the back of the paper about that
big. Let me tell you, brother, no matter who we are, "You want to know
how important you are," I said to my little girl, "Stick your finger in
a bucket of water and pull it out, and try to find the hole." We're
nothing. There's only One important; that's God. We must remember He's
the One.

42
Looked like that if they wanted to–man had been fixing a place for the
King to be born, there was more greater religious places and historical
places for the King instead of this little Bethlehem, places, for
instance, like Shiloh. Shiloh was where the ark was pitched first, we
know, as we come across where–come across the Jordan to this side in
Palestine, and where the ark was set up for its first worship place. Or
Gilgal; Zion, Zion a great place; Gilgal also, or the proud great
capital of Jerusalem, where the heads of all the organizations gathered
at, their headquarters, looked like they'd have fixed a place up there
at Jerusalem for the great King to be born, if they wanted a place, a
historical place or a grand outstanding place. That's where the
religious headquarters was of their religion to which the King came to.
He came to represent their religion. And He… And when He did, instead
of them fixing Him a place at Jerusalem or one of those great
historical spots, He was born in Bethlehem, the smallest of all the
cities: "Art thou not least among the princes of Judaea? But out of
thee shall come a–a Governor that shall rule My people." And this
great proud Jerusalem and all the other cities was rejected.

44
Or maybe they could took some of the places of refuge, the great place
like Hebron, Kadesh, or Ramoth-gilead, one of those great refuge
cities, because He was to be our Refuge. If we'd try to fix in our own
mind, we might've took, say, "Well, now, if this great King's coming,
which will be our Refuge, He should be born in one of these great
memorial places of a refuge, like Ramoth-Gilead, or Kadesh, or–or one
of those." We would've tried to fix it like that in our minds.
But, you see, God has other ways of doing things. He knows how to do
things right. And now, by the mind of God and the help of God we'll try
to say why that this happened, because everything works just exactly
right in God's great program. And I want you people here at Phoenix,
and around, to–to–to try to get This. That remember, that God knows
what He's doing. See? And He takes simple means to do it by. Because if
He does something by some great outstanding something, then… God
never does do things like that. He never did in all the history of the
Bible. God never did deal, never did in any time take any group of
people to do anything. God takes an individual. You're the one, you,
one person. And God never changes His program. Because His first
program, He must always remain with that program.

46
In the days of Noah He had one man: Noah. The days that He brought
Israel out, He had one man; that was Moses. We know Dathan and many the
others tried to think, well, they had the same authority and so forth.
You know what happened to them. The days of the coming of the Lord, the
days of–of John the Baptist, and the different ones, He has one
individual He works with. And He deals with us today as one individual,
not as a group, one person. It's going to be up to you and I, of how we
stand before God. Because He's dealing with you and I as individuals,
not as a group that we're in, and not as the denomination church we
belong to, but as you and I as individuals.

47
Now, Joshua, in dividing up the land, give this little spot to Judah.
Many of you, I–I got some places here jotted down to where it sets at,
but we're all aware of that, where it sets up in the corner. And it was
just a little place that they give it to… Joshua, in dividing the
land, give that to the tribe of Judah.
And now, when Israel come over the river of Jordan… Now, try to catch
this. When Israel crossed over into the land, the promised land, there
was a Gentile woman that we know as Rahab the harlot. And she asked for
mercy, and she received mercy. She received mercy as long as she stayed
under that scarlet cord. And that's the only way she could have mercy.
It was a sign, a token that was given her.
We have a Token today also, and we're safe as long as we stay under our
scarlet cord, the Blood of Jesus Christ. As an individual, not a group,
an individual, we each must stay under that scarlet cord of the Blood
of Jesus Christ.

50
And then this Rahab, after she was spared, she got all of her people
in; everything that was under the cord was–was saved. Just like when
God in Egypt, when all was under the blood was saved. All was under the
scarlet cord was saved. All under the Blood of Jesus is saved, all out
from under It is lost and is ready for destruction. And we find out
now, in doing this… Then we understand by history that she courted
some general (I don't know his name right now.) in Israel's army. And
she finally married this man. And they settled up here in this–near
this little place, and her son, Salmon, was the one who founded
Bethlehem. See, a Gentile is connected with it to begin with, a
Gentile, Rahab the harlot.

51
Now, we find out that Salmon founded this little city of Bethlehem. And
he begot Boaz. And Boaz was the one who married Ruth, another Gentile.
And we're following this lineage now. Ruth, she got… She was a
Moabite, and she married Boaz, and came into this little city just in
barley season. Oh, if we had the time this morning, till–on that, I'd
owe my wife six dresses afterwards. But how to dwell on that subject…

52
Naomi, representing the orthodox church, was went away on the account
of a famine, went over into the land of Moab, like the scattering of
Israel, all out among the nations. And then as she came back, she
brought back Ruth the Moabite, and she returned just in barley season,
just the gathering in of the first barley. That is, that the Gentile
Church coming to God just at barley season again. What a beautiful
picture there. And then she and Boaz being married, and their famous
son, Obed, was begotten there, and also born. And then his son, great
son, Jesse, came from Obed. There also he begat David his son. The king
David come out.

53
Look at this coming up now. From Rahab the harlot, her son, founding
it. From that come–from that come Boaz, which brought in another
Gentile. And then from Boaz come Jesse. And here Jesse, to Jesse was
born David. And David, right here at this same little Bethlehem, was
anointed by the prophet of God to be the king of Israel. All these
spiritual things hid from the eyes of the world was happening here in
this little city of Bethlehem. See, that's the way God does.

54
Now, I trust that the Holy Spirit will be present now to give you
correct understanding, that God doesn't work out in these big things.
It's by the Spirit. "Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit,"
saith the Lord. See? God working in the Spirit among the people. See,
these great backgrounds, He could only come to this city. That's the
only place He could be born. God following His same line. God always
does that, God follows the–the line of His Word. He cannot go back on
His Word, by no means, and then remain God. He's got to stay with the
Word. He can never leave That.
Today, our traditions and so forth take us from the Word. We have
creeds and things we inject into the Word which pollutes the whole
thing. But God can never leave the line of His Word. His Word is true
always, because He is the Word. God and His Word is the same.

55
Now, we see here how that this little Bethlehem, yet being unnoticed, a
little place not noticed too much to the outside world, and just a
smallest of the cities, nobody paid any attention to it. But yet God
had in His purpose that that's–there's where all these things would
happen. Now, the spiritual mind would pick that up, because the prophet
said here (You see?), the prophet said, "Thou Bethlehem of Judaea, art
thou not the least among the princes? But out of thee shall come a
Governor that shall rule My people Israel." The prophet, the mind of a
prophet found it.
Watch those spiritual, Holy Spirit today leading those things. Don't
make any difference what the world says in all of its tinsel. Watch the
Holy Spirit in the Word; there's where it come.

57
How about when Job died and specified his burial place? Along came
Abraham; Abraham bought the parcel of ground to bury his wife, Sarah.
And Abraham, when he died, wanted to be buried with Sarah. Abraham
begot Isaac. Isaac, when he died, wanted to be buried with Abraham.
Isaac begot Jacob. Jacob died plumb down in Egypt, but he made Joseph
his prophet son swear by him with his hand on his limping hip, that he
would not bury him down in Egypt. Why? Said, "Take me up into the
land," and there let him be buried. And Joseph, when he died down in
Egypt, made mention of the departing of–and Israel going out according
to the prophecy, but said, "Take my bones out of this land." Why? They
knew the firstfruits of the resurrection was coming up from that land,
because Job said, "I know my Redeemer liveth, and at the last days
He'll stand upon the earth; and though the skin worms destroys this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

58
They knew that firstfruits of resurrection was coming out of the
promised land, not Egypt. They were spiritual; they were prophets. And
when Jesus died on–on Good Friday, and raised up on Easter morning,
the following Sunday morning, the Bible said that many of the saints
that slept in the dust of the earth, raised up and come out of the
graves, went into the city, went on into glory with Him. Why? It was
them prophets that knowed exactly where to be buried at the place and
at the time. It was hid from the eyes of the wise. But they knew
what–what; they looked at the Spirit side. The–the firstfruits of the
resurrection was to come out of Palestine, not out of Egypt.
So is it today, friends. So many people hold onto things of the world,
or some great system or something. Bury me in Jesus, for those that are
in Christ will God bring with Him at that resurrection. And I don't
care what the world's got to say, how much they try to tinselize
things. It's in Christ; those that are in Christ that God will bring
with Him. The spiritual mind catches those spiritual things.

60
Here the prophet said, "Little Bethlehem, art thou not the least among
all the princes of Judah? But out of thee shall come this Governor,"
not out of the big self-styled capital, not out of some historical
church grounds, or something, where the Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Pentecostal, or whatmore started. "But out of the least
of these, out of a little insignificant place will I bring forth this
place, My ruler of the people."
But today we want to say, "Our fathers did this, and our fathers did
that." See, God ignores every bit of that. God does what He wants to.
Watch the line of the Spirit; watch the way the–the Scripture reads.
They were ignorant to that. But, you see, the Scripture is what's
right. Always God is right.

62
David was anointed by this great prophet to be king. No doubt that
Samuel, this great prophet, knew these things beforehand. And it was
there that his great promised spiritual seed… For God swore by an
oath, that He would raise up Christ to set on the throne of David. Then
where else could Christ be born? Here's His father born, His
grandfather, His great-grandfather, great-great-great-great-great on
back. See, his people in the line of the Gentiles brought in. And now
the Bible said that in His Name will the Gentiles trust.

63
See, it all has to be brought in so you can see it. We'd like to stay
there for a while and dwell on that, and show you why the Gentiles, but
I'm sure the spiritual mind will catch this right away now; because
being the mothers and not the father. Now, 'cause it–it was a woman,
the Bride. The Gentile will be made up, the Bride, will be made up of
Gentiles. The Gentile, "He'll take a people out of the Gentiles for His
Name's sake." That's His Name. He took a wife (See?) out of the
Gentiles. And that's how it had to be, woman come in, church, and she
was. They were Gentiles, the grandmothers back in the line of the seed,
now, just as Isaac was in the line of the seed otherwise.

64
Now, notice this. We find out then that David had this promise of a
son. Now, we notice how that parallels again with Israel. When
Israel… Or Abraham was promised that his seed, what it would be, that
out of his seed would come this great Saviour, and he'd be father of
the nations. His natural seed, of course, was Isaac, and it failed. But
his spiritual Seed, by the faith that he had, come Christ, which
brought in all of the nations.
Well now, the same thing is paralleled here again. David's natural seed
was Solomon, and it backslid just like the other seed of Abraham did.
It backslid. So did Solomon backslide. He got too many women, and the
first thing you know, they led his heart away from God. And the way he
went and backslid, died that way, backslid. Israel died in the same
way, backslid.

66
But we find out that this spiritual Seed, which was promised by the
natural seed as a lineage of people coming through Abraham, but at
a–the kingship come through the spiritual promise of David. And David
was born in Bethlehem. And he was anointed in Bethlehem. And we find
out then that when his real Royal Seed, heir to his throne was born in
this same city, little Bethlehem… "Thou art least amongst all the
princes of Judah, but out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule
My people."

67
In this little town, little stable, city stable down on the side of the
bluff, was a cave back in the bluff, and out of there came forth
through its little doors, the Prince of Peace, born in a stable, in
a–a little box of–of straw setting somewhere, manure piled up in the
barns, and so forth, but out of there came that great Prince, the Seed
of the woman. Out of there came the Saviour of the world; out of there
came Jehovah Himself in a form of a man, came out of that little humble
stable in Bethlehem. Not in some king's palace, born in royalty; but
there He came from that humble place, to a manure stack down in there,
and was wrapped in swaddling's cloth. As tradition says, it was taken
from the yoke of an ox where they'd been plowing with it.

68
Poor people, Joseph and Mary both real poor, and here they was in this
little stable. How humble God makes Hisself. And then we try to make
ourself something great. Can't you see how God humbles Himself and
takes the things that's not, that He might bring to pass His great
promises. How that little Jehovah laying in a manger, wrapped in
the–the cloth taken off of the back of a yoke, the neck of a yoke
where ox had been, and wrapped the Prince of Peace in it. My. Who are
we then? What do we deserve? If God can humble Hisself like that,
oughtn't we to be able to humble ourself to become His servants, if He
did things like that? Can't we forget our great degraded dignities and
things of this world, and pass from that, and humble ourselves before
Him this Christmas? And be a… Show Him our appreciations of that
birth and that humility, by humbling our ownselves and receiving His
Word. No matter what the tradition says, it's His Word that counts.
That's what He'll take, His Word, and That only.

69
Now, we find out, this little stable, it was there that the first Noel
was ever sang on earth, and it was sang by Angels. Think of it. The
first Noel, not sung up there with Caiaphas, not down at some great
fine church where a wonderful pastor was, but at a stable in Bethlehem,
the least among all of them. But the first Noel was sang by Angelic
Beings in the little city of Bethlehem. See what I mean?
No matter how poor you are, how little or insignificant you–you might
be, God can use you if you'll just let Him do so. God wants you. He
don't want you to… You don't have to belong to some great society,
some great order, some great brotherhood, or whatever it might be; that
don't mean nothing to God. God wants you. And if you're… If you feel
that you're great, get that feeling out of you. You got to get it out.
You say, "Well, well, I have a Ph.D., LL.D." That just takes you that
much farther from God. Forget the thing. Come back to God. Come back to
the humility of the Spirit, and love God and take His Word.

71
"And if ye abide in Me and My Word in you, then ask what you will,
it'll be done for you." God promised that. "If you say to this
mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that
what you said will come to pass, you can have what you said. "He that
believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he also. Even greater than
this shall he do, for I go to My Father." What promises.

72
There's something lacking somewhere. What we try to do is twist it up
and make it some great something up there, put flower and tinsel on it,
and we pollute it just like the nations has done Christmas. That's
right. If we could get the tinsel off of the things, and the–the
humility back in the human heart… If we could bring the humility back
to Christmas of what it ought to be, not a commercial day, not lights
and Santa Clauses, but back to worshipping the God of creation Who come
in a stable and was borned a baby, God made flesh and dwelt among us.
If we could come back to that, get away from the tinsel and the big
things. God don't even deal with it at all.

73
You say, "Well, I belong to the biggest organization." That takes you
that much farther from God. You say, "I do this, that." That just takes
you that much further.
You've got to humble yourself until you see that, until, "If ye abide
in Me and My Words abide in you, then ask what you will." What we try
to do, as soon as God gives us a little shower of blessings, we try to
twist it all up and get dignitaries in there that's going to make great
big names and outdo the other one. This one starts this way and that
way; God leaves the whole thing. What we need today is a fresh pouring
out of the Holy Spirit upon hearts that's humble. We need a real
Christmas, a birthplace. If you could realize that you're nothing but a
stable… God didn't go to Jerusalem, to Shiloh, or Ramoth-Gilead, He
come to a stable that was polluted. When you let God, you become… And
realize in yourself that you're nothing but a stinking stable. But
welcome, open your doors when the–these great big places and inns are
turning Him away, open your doors of the manger of your heart and let
Jehovah come into that, and watch what takes place, for He is the Word.
He said, "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you." He is the Word. Let
Him come into you, and watch what takes place. Then ask what you will,
and it'll be done for you.
Yes, it was there the first Noel was sung by Angels, many years ago. And when He…

76 [Tongue and interpretation are given–Ed.]
Amen. Now, we know the message must be very important, that God wanted
to say that, or He wouldn't have broke in on a message to do something
like that. "Humble yourselves under the hands of God," was the message
of it.
Now, our heavenly Father, we know that Thou art all wisdom and does
everything just right. We pray that You'll grant now that this might be
a–a message to the people, that they truly must humble ourselves, all
of us, and come under the hand of the mighty God. We commit ourselves
to You, Father, that You'll grant this to us. In Jesus' Name, Thy Son.
Amen.

77
Now, to continue on, I was speaking of when the first Noel was sang,
was sang by Angels at little Bethlehem. There's where all these great
man were born. There's where the promise of the King was born. The
promised King came to that. Now, the word… To get quickly now, so I
won't hold you too long. The–the promise, the word was this. The word
"Bethlehem," let's break it down. I skipped over a few notes here in
order to take up the time. Now, Bethlehem. The word "B-e-t-h" means
"house." E-l means "God," in Hebrew. E-l-h-e-m is "Bread." "Bethlehem,"
"the house of God's Bread." That's what the word means.
Words, names, they have meanings. Many people don't believe that, but
that's true. If names don't have some meaning, why did Abram's name
have to be changed to Abraham? Why did Sarai have to be changed to
Sarah? Why did Saul have to be changed to Paul? Why did Simon have to
be changed to Peter? See, all these has meanings; everything has
meanings.

79
And the name "Bethlehem" means "the house of God's Bread." Now, how
fitting that is to Jesus, the Bread of Eternal Life. Christ is the
Bread of Life. We all believe that, don't we? How fitting Bethlehem
there, the bread center of the world, was the bread center of Eternal
Life. That's why the King had to be born there. He said in St. John
6:35, "I am the Bread of Life that come from God out of heaven. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and all dead. But this Bread,
if a man eats this Bread, he shall live forever." Then Jesus is the
Bread of Life, so the Bread of Life had to come at Bethlehem. He is our
Bread of Life for the journey, like Israel. God gave Israel bread out
of the skies for their journey, as they journeyed from where they left
Egypt unto the promised land. Bread, nightly rained down from the sky.
And God gave us the Bread of Life for our journey, come at Bethlehem,
God's house of Bread. See how it had to be? It must be where that name
is called, "Bethlehem," "the house of God's Bread." Then how could He
be born in Jerusalem? How could He be born in Ramoth-Gilead? See, He
come to where His Name was, "house of God's Bread."

80
Oh, notice, Israel received a new fresh bread every night, coming down
from heaven for their journey. Christ is our Life, Bread of Life, and
every day we receive a freshness from Christ, from heaven, the Holy
Spirit coming down upon the believer every day, fresh.
Yesterday's experience, many of us live on yesterday's experience. We
mustn't do that. It's today's experience. That's what's the matter with
our denominations; they're living on the experience of John Wesley,
upon the experience of Dwight Moody, Finney, Sankey, Knox, Calvin, many
of those back there. They're living on that experience. But, remember,
the bread that fell, and they tried to keep it over, it got
contaminated; maggots got in it, little wiggletails. And that's what's
the matter today, contaminated cisterns, living on past bread that's
contaminated.

82
We must have something fresh from Christ, His Word today for this hour.
See? He is our freshness, our Bread that falls every day from heaven
upon the believer. He is our Bethlehem, God's House of Eternal Life
Bread. Christ was born in Bethlehem, and became God's House of Eternal
Life Bread. He is the Bread of Life. He is our Bethlehem. Christ is our
Bethlehem. Natural bread is called the staff of life. We call the
natural bread, like our light bread, and stuff we get, is called the
staff of life. Jesus is God's Life Staff, a–a–a Bread of Life Staff
for Eternal Life. As a staff of life is called bread, Jesus, being the
Bread of Life, is God's Staff of Eternal Life Bread to us. See?

83
We can't go; something must die so we can eat. This morning when you
eat, you eat dead substance. If something doesn't die, then you cannot
live, 'cause you only live by dead substance. If you eat meat, the hog
died. You eat pork, the hog died, of course. And then if you eat beef,
the cow died. You say, "But I eat bread." Then the wheat died. "Why, I
eat greens." The greens died. You only live by dead substance, and
that's the only way you can live.
Then if you can only live natural by dead substance, something had to
die so you can live natural, how much more did Something have to die so
you can live eternally. Christ died that we might live eternally. And
He become the House of God's Eternal Life Bread, that we catch freshly
every hour of the day, coming down from God out of heaven in the form
of the Holy Spirit, feeds our hungry souls as we set together in
heavenly places. He is our Bethlehem.

85
Then all true believing sons of God are born in Bethlehem with Him. If
Christ had to become the Bread of Life, to be born in Bethlehem, which
is Life's Bread House, then every one of true believers in Christ is
born in Christ, they are born in God's Bethlehem. Amen. Then not only
Jesus was born in Bethlehem; I was born in Bethlehem; you were born in
Bethlehem. How did you do it? Right here in Phoenix, Arizona, this
morning in the Ramada, you can be born again in God's Bethlehem, House
of Eternal Bread Life. Eat It and live forever.

86
Why little Bethlehem? That's today, "Why a bunch of little
holy-rollers? Why this, that, or the other?" The people don't know what
it's all about. But the Spirit reveals it. The Word shows It. It's the
manifestation of God's Word. We have Life through Christ and Him alone.
Our organizations, our denominations, our differences only separates us
from God. We have one access to God, and that's through Jesus Christ.
There's not another way that we can come through; and by no priest, no
preacher, no system, or nothing else; only Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He's God's Bread of Life, and we are borned in Him. And if
He is God's Bread of Life, then He is Bethlehem. And being born in
Christ, we are then God–born in Bethlehem, in Christ Jesus, setting
together in heavenly places, eating of Him. Eating of Him, Who is He?
He's the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." And when we can set with one objective, the
Word of God, and feed upon That, we are in God's spiritual Bethlehem,
eating God's spiritual Bread, and our souls punctuating every Word that
He spoke, with an "Amen." We enjoy this heavenly angel Food.

88
When It said, "These signs shall follow them that believe…" The creed
or denomination says, "Oh, It isn't so. But the real man who's born in
Bethlehem, says, "Amen."
"The works that I do shall you do also." The denomination says it's a
bunch of work-up emotion. But the real Bethlehem dweller says, "Amen,"
because he's satisfied that that's angel food.
"If ye abide in Me and My Word's in you, ask what you will, and it'll be done for you." Amen.
Oh, the high and prudent will never see it. We hold so much to our
traditions of our elders, so much that we have to pack cards and
everything else to get in some pulpit. That ain't it. You can get in
God's pulpit by humbling yourself. Come into the House of the Bread of
Life, Jesus Christ, and live forever in His Presence, and lifted up in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, feasting on the Word. That's God's
Bethlehem.

92
How many of us is in It this morning? How many's willing to forget your
traditions? How many's willing to forget your creed that disagrees with
the Word? Why ain't we got a revival? Why haven't we got these things
going on? What's the matter with Pentecost? It organized itself. That's
it. You can't organize Pentecost. You can make an organization. But the
Pentecost is a blessing; it's the power of God. And if it's a genuine
Pentecost, it'll never bypass the Word for a creed. It'll take the
Word. That's right, because it's circumcised from the world and the
things of the world. It sets only on the Word of God, and believes It.
We're in Bethlehem, candidates for the Kingdom of God. We're eating
God's Eternal Life Bread. Born, God's Bread, born in Bethlehem to
become the spiritual Bread of Life, of Eternal Life, in the house of
God. Oh, my. Born in Bethlehem, we are, this morning, when we're born
in Jesus Christ, for He is God's Bethlehem. Jesus is God's House of
Eternal Life Bread.

93
He also is our Water for the journey. Now, we know that He is the
Water. Like Israel in their journey, he… They smote a rock and their
bread come down out of heaven, but a rock was smitten so that they
could drink from it for the sustainings of their life in the journey.
God smote a rock, or had Moses to do it, His prophet smote the rock.
What was it? Open the rock. And if the Rock was Christ… Do you
believe it? All right. Then if the prophet opened the rock so life
could come out, then if it is the Rock today, we need the Holy Spirit
in some man, who'll smite back the Rock (Amen.) and let the Word come
out, because He is the Word.

94
We've bypassed on creeds and drinking stagnated water from cisterns.
What we need today is a opening of the Word that lives, and He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot fail. They can call it
mental telepathy; they–they can say whatever they want to, or
spiritualists, or–or a devil, as long as that Word's flowing free and
producing exactly what It said It would do, It's a Fountain in the
house of David again, back in Bethlehem, where that Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, forever, to His Bethlehem dwellers. Live with
It; live in It, it's Life-journeying Water for us as Israel had.

95
One of great David's great experiences, if you want to read about it in
II Samuel 35:15, beginning, we read out there that David, being born in
Bethlehem, but yet he become a fugitive. Oh, what a sight. The
Philistines were garrisoned at that time in the land, because Saul, the
great man that brought all Israel into sin, had fell away from God and
become an enemy to God, and had–had been garrisoned, the Philistines
were garrisoned around Bethlehem. And David, trying to get back to his
own home, could not do it, was out in the wilderness because he had
become a fugitive to the people, or, there was ousted.

96
What a beautiful picture that is of Christ today, a Fugitive. He is.
Now, you say, "That can't be." Well, if you believe the Bible, it is.
The Bible said, in the Laodicean church age, that Christ was on the
outside of the church, knocking, trying to get back in His own church.
A fugitive is something refused, rejected. And the Word and the Holy
Spirit is rejected. That's right. You can't get in there. If you ever
receive Him, you got to get out of there to get Him. You got to go out
to Him. He can't get in. They're so set on their creeds that they–they
won't let you preach them things; they won't let you believe those
things.
They say, "You believe He's the same?"
"Oh, in a way, He's the same." Now, that's not living in Bethlehem. No,
no. That's drinking at a stagnated cistern, way back, old contaminated
bread that fell several years ago. "What did So-and-so say about it?"
They might've been all right in their day. This is another day. This is
the day of the Lord. This is another church age, not the Philadelphian.
This is the Laodicea. It's a rejected, and Christ has become a Fugitive
in His own church, pushed out. He's foreign.

98
He can come right down and work right among the people, and do the same
things that He did here, saying that He would do it in the last days,
give the same signs and things that He said He would do as it was in
the days of Sodom. We know what He done to the Church there.
We see Billy Graham, as it was. And them messengers went down in the
church denomination, and preaching down in there, and they're calling
them out, telling them to believe the Word and to come out of Sodom.

100
Abraham's group wasn't in Sodom; they was already called out. Watch the
Angel, what He did up there for them for a sign, that they knowed. And
the same thing can be done, and people say, "Oh, well, don't believe
It." Why? Why? Because that they have made Christ a Fugitive to their
organizations; they're so foreign with It, Pentecostal and all
together. Now, that's just exactly the truth. I know that scratches.
But, listen, if anything that don't… If–if it's Truth, it will
scratch. And that's right. It's got to be Truth.

101
Now, now, watch. David, when he was up there, David dreamed of his
mighty victories. He was in a cave, staying back, and way away, about
fifteen miles out of the city. And he come up and noticed that there,
his own beloved city where he had been born, and where he had been
anointed king, and–and so forth there.
The dwellers in Israel in them days was something like it is today in
Germany. They have the little cities. And then they live in the cities
for protection, and then they take their sheep and their stock out in
the country and feed them, and drive them back in, and in the evening
time, put them in the corrals.

103
And David, looking down upon the city, begin to remember the mighty
deeds that God had done by him, the great mighty victories that God had
won by him. How that one day while he had his sheep up there in the
mountains where he was, laying down there by the green pastures, and so
forth, a bear come in, and got one of the little lambs, and took it
out. And he went after it, and he killed the bear. God gave him victory
because he was detailed by his father to take care of those sheep. That
was his–that was his job: take care of the sheep.
O pastor, that's your job. And they eat sheep Food, not almanacs, sheep Food: God's Word. That's right.
And someone come in and got one run out. Someone come in and got one
and took out; he went after it. A lion come in and took one; he went
after it. He wasn't satisfied until he got it.

106
That give him that great victory one day when he seen Israel all backed
up. See, Israel had been hearing all the creeds and everything. They'd
all… They'd all went to church. They'd all been circumcised. They all
went to the priest and got their blessings before they went to battle.
But when it come down to the showdown of the Supernatural, they were
every one cowards, because they seen something was in opposition. And
they didn't have the audacity; they–they didn't have what we would
call today, the–the street word, they didn't have the–the–the "go
get it." There was something lacking. They could not go out there and
face that giant. Why? But they was all blessed by the priest. They had
the holy blessings upon them, and they'd knelt and probably been
anointed with the holy waters, and whatever it was, and there they was
all standing out there. But when the opposition was so great, they
didn't have it. There stood Saul, the general overseer or the bishop,
standing out there, head and shoulders above his army.

107
And he made a challenge, Goliath did, and said, "If I kill him, then
you'll serve us. But if he kills me, then we'll serve you." But the
opposition's too great. He had fourteen-inch fingers; that'd be
twenty-eight inches across his hand. Look what a hand he had. His–his
needle, weavers needle, like his spear he had. And think how big his
head would be, be about like a tub. And there would be a–a helmet a
inch or two thick, of brass, hanging over his head. Look at the armor,
pieces of armor like one of these jalousie windows, where he could
breathe and move himself; that's the way the armors worked. With the
great coat of mail hanging on him, may weighed a hundred pounds, or two
hundred pounds of brass, hanging over his chest. With a–with a needle,
spear in his hand, maybe thirty-five-feet long.
What the enemy can do when he thinks he's got the odds on you, what he
thinks he can do, how he'll make the boast: "The days of miracles is
past. You can't get by with such a thing as that."

109
But there come up a little ruddy-looking fellow that hadn't had no
theological experience, but he had an experience that God still
remained God. God keeps His Word. And here he come up. And Saul said,
"Wait, I'll–I'll give you a bachelor of art."
He put his helmet on him, and it went, sunk him down. He didn't know
nothing about that. Said, "I don't know nothing about them kind of
things." Said, "I don't know. But I know one thing, and are you afraid
to go fight that giant? And you stand here and call yourself the Church
of the living God, and let that uncircumcised unbeliever stand out
there and make such boast as that?" Said, "I'll go fight him." Oh, we
need men like that today, men who's had an experience.

112
What did he do, what did little David of Bethlehem do? He went out
there to fight the giant. And the giant cursed him in the name of his
gods ("gods," plural), cussed him in the name of his giants, or his
gods, and went out there and said, "Today I'll take you by my spear and
I'll hang your carcass up there in the tree and let the birds eat it."
He said, "You meet me as a Philistine, in the name of a Philistine,
with a armor and a spear, but I meet you in the Name of the Lord God of
Israel." What was it? The Word. The Word, "I'll meet you with the
Word." Said, "Today I'll cut your head from your shoulders." That giant
laughed and took after him. And David didn't back up; he took after him
too. There's only one little place, and God directed his rock.

114
David, laying up here as a fugitive, was thinking about that, how that
great victory was. Then he must've got to thinking about the psalms,
how sometimes out there in the mountains he'd lay and meditate on God.
He said he tied His commandments on his–his bedpost and his fingers,
and everywhere he go. "I always got the Lord before me always; I shall
not be moved." He kept God before him. And the great victories he
had… When he'd get so inspired, he was a psalmist, he'd jump up and
take his pen and write down the psalms and sing them. He'd get into the
Spirit, and dance and dance and dance in the Spirit. How he'd get so
carried away in the Spirit, he'd dance in the Spirit by writing these
psalms. And he must've come over the different psalms, "The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures," the 23rd Psalm, "He leadeth me beside still waters; He
restoreth my soul. Oh, He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His
Name's sake. And, yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of
death, I'll fear no evil. Thou art with me."

115
And as he thought on those things, it must've been a hot day, he got
thirsty, hot and sweating. He could look way down in the valley from
the top of the mountains on the east side or the west side, or east
side it is, of the city, when he looked down and seen where the
Philistines all down there, thousands of them garrisoned around. He
seen that old well where he once drank from. Oh, he begin to think of a
morning when he'd take his sheep, go out to–to feed them, he'd pass by
this old well, because it was a great place of water. And then he'd go
there and he would drink water, and drink, let his sheep drink. How at
there, Bethlehem, where he watered his sheep.
That's exactly where God waters His sheep again today, right back at Bethlehem, Its cool fresh Water.

117
He cried out,"If I only had a drink from that well again…" I'm going
to close now, listen close. "If I only had a drink…" Inside of him
cried out, "If I could only drink once more from that well at
Bethlehem…" His desires was a commandment to those who loved him.
Remember, his soul was crying for a drink of that water. And those who
loved him, his least desire was a command. We're told that one–three
of those men got together, great men. One killed eight hundred by
himself. The other one jumped into a pit and killed a lion. One took a
stick and knocked a spear out of an Egyptian's hand, slew him with his
own spear, and stood on a field of lentil like that, and killed three
hundred around him. Great men, they were Gentiles. Watch where they
come from.

118
David here is a type of Christ, Bethlehem, 'cause Christ is David's
Son. Here he's standing there crying for a drink of that water. And his
desire was a command, I said, to those who loved him. Three of those
men pulled their swords and fought fifteen miles of men down to that
city. While others fought keeping… Them were gallant fighting men,
those Philistines, twice their size, some of them. But they were men,
gallant, who could fight. One of them slew, stood alone-handed, and
killed eight hundred men right around him, in one day. They were great
men; they trusted God. They had faith in their leader. And they cut his
way down through, until while some of them cut in there and got a
bucket of water, and they cut their way back through another fifteen
miles of men, and brought that up to David so he could drink it.

119
Here Christ is represented here in this, both King and Warrior, because
He cut His way through. He broke the enemy's lines of death. He broke
the enemy's lines where that we might have Eternal Life, the Waters of
Eternal Life. He come through even to death, and took death upon
Himself, and died the death, and come back that we might have Eternal
Life. He's both King and Warrior. We didn't conquer; it's already
conquered. We never conquered death. He conquered death for us. He's
our David of this day. He conquered death.

120
Bethlehem's Bread and Water… Bethlehem was the center. You historians
know that, that it was the center. It was a great wheat country in
there, from the irrigation and stuff. They could have great wheat
crops. And it's also the best water. It was the bread center and the
water center of Palestine.
And today, no matter how many organizations we got, how many other
so-called brethren, and which way may be, still Christ is the
believer's Bethlehem. He is the place of Bread and Water. Methodists,
that's good for you; that's good for you Baptists, you Pentecostals,
the rest of you. It's all one place; that's Bethlehem, is where Bread
and Water of Life comes from. Yeah.

122
Here He is our Bread, God's Bread and Water for us. He's the center,
the only place that you can come and get It, is from Him. God's House,
in the Person of Jesus Christ, our Bethlehem, Bread and Waters of
Eternal Life. And He is the Word made flesh. Here is the Word, the
Bread and Water of Life. Hebrews 13:8 says He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. That makes Him our Bethlehem, our place of Bread
and Water, the only place of Eternal Life.

123
Notice David, in getting the waters, he never drank it. He said, "God
forbid. This is the blood of these men that jeopardized their lives,"
to go out and to bring him that drink. Watch. He poured it upon the
ground for a drink-offering to God. Amen. Men and brethren, rise your
faith just a minute now. He refused to drink it himself. He poured it
upon the ground for a drink-offering to–to God.
How fitting that is to John 3:16, when God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Jesus, the Prince of Life, come here,
didn't have to die. He conquered death Hisself, and poured His own
Life's Blood out upon the ground (Amen.), as a offering for all our
sin. He's our smitten Rock. Upon the ground, His precious God-given
Blood…

125
I heard someone say the other night in a message, said that they come
to… I believe it was Billy Graham; last night we was watching him as
he said that he went to Israel and he went into Palestine, and he said,
"I come to believe your people," something on that order. And I
certainly admired him as he appeared on that worldly program last
night. Many of you turned the man down for doing that. But looky here,
he got before the whole nation then. And he never took it back; he
stood just exactly on what he believed. And I certainly admire him for
that. And he said, "I went to Israel and I told them, 'I worship one of
your children,' in other words, like this."
I thought, "Billy, that's wonderful. I'd like to see that God-given
power that you have to stand there in the midst of all that Hollywood
glamor and give a testimony by Jesus Christ, but He was not a Jew."
Jesus was God, not a Jew.
You remember, the blood cell comes from the male sex. And He was not no
man, Jew or Gentile; He was God created in flesh. We're not saved by
the blood of a Jew or the blood of a Gentile; we're saved by the Blood
of God. He was God, nothing less. He wasn't Jew nor Gentile. God's
creative Blood in Him, we become… If He was a Jew or a Gentile, we're
all lost. He was God in flesh. That's right.

127
I don't worship a Jew; I worship God when I worship Jesus Christ. I
don't worship some fiction or some kind of a historical something. I
worship Jesus Christ, the Presence of Jesus Christ right now, which is
His Word that's manifested in this age.
God in every age allotted His Word from the beginning, and every time
in which one of those ages passed by, God sends down an anointed
prophet for that age. In the days of Noah, days of all the rest of
them, when He made the promises… I don't care what kind of a
condition the church got into, He always does that, He sends a man
anointed. For the Word of the Lord comes to the prophets. And here he
stood there, each prophet, and was condemned by the organizations of
that day, but he stood on the Word and made the Word live.

129
Jesus was the Fulness of God's Word, for He was the Fulness of the
Godhead bodily, and in Him dwelt the Fulness of God. God lived in Jesus
Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself: not Jew nor
Gentile, but God. There He stood, making Hisself. How fitting… And
God's Own Blood had to shed upon the ground, from the innocent blood of
Abel on down, to redeem us. He didn't take His own life; He didn't hold
His own life; He said, "Father, is it possible this cup should pass
from Me? But, nevertheless, not My will, Thine be done." He give in to
the Word.
Today we can do the same thing. You can either take your creeds, take
your so-and-so, and go wherever you want to with it; but you can say,
"Not my will, but Thine be done." Come back to that Word of God. Take
your tinsel and Christmas and do what with it you want to, but give me
Jesus Christ in my heart. No matter how many of them people laugh at
it, or what of it. Watch–watch its nature; see if it does just like He
did. If it didn't, and it don't compare with this Word, leave it alone;
it's not Christ; 'cause Christ is the Word.
Now, we find how fitting it was, our Rock, smitten, His Blood Life
poured upon the ground, a sin-offering for the sinner. Our Bethlehem,
Water, Bread and Life, offered to cleansing for us unclean sinners.

132
Oh, sinner friend of mine, how can you refuse so foolishly, such an
offering, when God gave His only begotten Son, a sin Offering, that
whosoever believeth in Him, in Him, shall not perish but have Eternal
Life? How do you get into Him? By one Spirit we're all baptized into
one Bethlehem, the Word of God, which is Christ made manifest for this
age.
And every promise that the Bible gives of this age, He's waiting for
some prophet to rise on the scene to manifest that; He promised it
according to Malachi 4. It'll be done. No matter how foolish the people
think, it'll be done anyhow. God said so. He's able of these stones to
we… Our creeds won't receive it; if our churches won't receive it,
God can go back to the stable, He can go anywhere He wants to. But
there'll be somebody stand up for this Word's spoke for this day.
Something has to manifest It. It won't be a group, either; it never
was.

134
Oh, sons, warriors, as I close. I don't want to keep you here too long.
I'm going to close right now, the Lord willing. Five minutes till
eleven, or six minutes, rather. Notice, oh, warrior sons, you men here
that claim to be son. Did you know what David represented? David
represented Christ. He was… Christ was the Son of David. Now, listen,
in closing. Those Gentile warriors, many of them, notice they come from
everywhere, but they knowed that that fugitive was anointed. They knew
David was rejected by his own people, but they knowed the anointing was
on him. They could see it. So they stood right by his side, die or
live. They were gallant men, no matter how much the outside world
didn't believe it.
His own people kicked him out. They didn't want nothing to do with him.
Saul run him out, the head of the denomination kicked him out, and have
nothing to do with it; the council kicked him out, and he become a
fugitive. They had to go to wherever he could. There he was up in the
mountains, but there was a little group of men, of Gentiles and so
forth, made up, that they looked at that man and they knowed he was
coming king.

136
So is it today with real gallant soldiers of faith of that Word, who
knows that Word promises that Jesus Christ will return. We ain't
interested in millions of dollars of this and millions of dollars of
that. I'm interested in the return of Christ Jesus. Oh, warrior sons of
God, what's the matter with you, how do you stand today? When we see
that the Bible predicts that He's a Fugitive today, turned out of His
church, turned out of the organizations… And you know it. No need of
hiding around about it, it's the truth. The Bible said it would be that
way. Come out from them marks of the beast.

137
Look at these men. They pulled their swords. What was it? His desire
was a drink of cool water. David… What a type of today, our David,
Christ; we know He's called a holy-roller. He's cast off to one side, a
fanatic in everything, rejected by the churches. They've got their
creeds and things drawed up in this Christmas like they did at the
first one. We know that, but we know that this Word ever remains true,
and It's got to be fulfilled. And the desire of Christ is for men,
warriors, to stand. Amen.

138
Oh, come stand with me by my side, who stands in a terrible place. I
challenge today. These tapes go over the world. I challenge some men,
some warriors who loves Jesus Christ, that knows that these things has
got to be fulfilled today, brethren, come stand by my side and pull the
Word of God. Forget those dry cisterns and stagnated denominations
you're living in. Pull the fresh Word of God; let's give Jesus a good
drink of fresh Pentecostal Water. That's His desire today, back to
original Pentecost, back to the Word. It's prophesied we'd do so in
Malachi the 4th chapter, "Return the faith of the children back to the
fathers again." Who would stand this morning?

139
Like David, we know that David is coming into power. Jesus Christ is
going to take the world. He inherits the earth. He is going to be King
over the earth. He's rejected today; He's a Fugitive among His people.
'Course, He's a Fugitive to the world, always was. But today He's a
Fugitive to His own church; they reject Him. They love their creeds and
big dignitaries instead of the Word. They won't let Him be manifested.
They won't let Him be preached in His power. They've cut away from It,
just like the Bible said they'd do in Revelations 17. What are they
doing? Going up here today, and all going in this Council of Churches:
Catholicism and Protestantism uniting together, making the mark and the
image of the beast, and Protestants following right for it,
Pentecostals everywhere. Dignitaries going into Rome, from Pentecost,
and coming back, said, "Most spiritual place." And in Texas and
everywhere else, they're opening up and giving understanding of the
stations and so forth, knowing that that's creeds been injected to this
Word.

140
Oh, you're Bethlehem dwellers… Hallelujah. I call for men, warriors
who's not afraid. I don't care if there's eight hundred standing on one
side and ten thousand on the other. I want warriors who will come with
me and cut a hole through this line of unbelieving Philistines, the
World Council has got garrisoned around the Word of God, trying to make
it creeds and feed the people. There's a Well; there's a Fountain open
in the House of David. Bethlehem, our Saviour, cleanses us. Brother,
sin is unbelief in His Word.
Who warrior that can see the millennium coming? What warrior can see
this great Holy Spirit come in the form of Jesus Christ, the literal
body of Christ to take over again, stand with me. Stand by me. Let's
cut a hole through this denominational creed. Let's get in there. He's
crying for a good fresh drink of Pentecostal Water, original Pentecost,
not a bunch of carrying on, screaming, hollering. Yeah, I mean a
genuine Holy Spirit baptism that produces the Life of Jesus Christ back
into the person.

142
Forgive me if I hurt you. No, don't you do it. I'm doing this in the
Name of the Lord Jesus. Come back. Stand, you gallant men who see David
standing yonder, Jesus Christ, a Fugitive from His church, barred out
by their creeds. There's a fresh Fountain hanging yonder. Amen. There's
power to make this Word live again; it's prophesied in this day to come
to pass. God said it would come to pass. It's got to come to pass.
You'll never do it in the army you're in now. You're garrisoned
yourself, Pentecost, right around with the rest of the organizations,
cutting it into a creed.

143
O men of God, where's that Sword? Our Lord desires a fresh drink. I
don't care if it's life or death; let's cut through this thing. It's so
hard standing by yourself. I'm calling for men to stand by me, stay
with the Word. What that Word says, do it just the way the Word said. I
don't care what anything else says; stay It that way, for That's the
only thing that'll cut. Let's get to Bethlehem, the true Water of God.
"If a man abide in Me and I in him, if ye abide in Me and My Word's in
you…" Abiding, not just jumping from place to place, and swapping
your fellowship card from a oneness to a twoness and a threeness, and
back to a Presbyterian, Lutheran. "Ye abide in Me," and He is the Word,
"My Words abide in you. Don't be afraid of eight hundred or eight
million; I'll stand by your side. I desire a drink from that Well
again."

145
God's going to have a people that'll drink from that Well. Hallelujah.
You might think I'm crazy, and maybe I am; then I'm crazy about Jesus
Christ and His Word. If I have to be called a fool, let me be called a
fool for His Word. I've never been against the men in them
organizations; I'm against that system that's barring the Word of God
out. Let's cut, warriors; stand by us. Let's go into that Well; He's
our Bethlehem.
These old cisterns, the World Council of Churches organizing now…
Let's restore the fresh Word of God, not a denomination. Let's not take
a creed; that's old stagnated cisterns that fell forty years ago,
twenty years ago, thirty years ago, or either last year; I want God's
Word that's promised for today. That's the drink He wants me to have:
this Word today. It's a little Bethlehem; it's rejected.

147
It's… I know it's just like you–you think, "Well, if my…" Yes,
that's right; they thought He should be born in Jerusalem. They thought
He should be born where their denomination heads was. But He turned by
all that. He come to the name Bethlehem, for that's what He was.
Hallelujah. He's not coming for Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian or
Pentecostals. He's coming for the Bride, Jesus Christ. That's who He's
coming for. It may seem strange to you, but believe It.

148
See these types? They can come no other way but by the Word. That's the
only place He could be born is by that Bethlehem. That's why it had to
be that little humble place. That's the way it has to be this morning,
has to be the same way by the promised Word. Yes, sir. The Philistine
Council of Churches now organizing, garrisons everywhere around our
Bethlehem. Around this Christmas, they're garrisoned around everywhere;
it's all decorated up with worldly tinsel. "Oh, we'll bring world
peace." Pope Luther, John, or whatever his name is, he'll get together,
and all the great bishops of the church, the United Council of Churches
and the World Council all coming together. How can two walk together
'less they be agreed? Amen.
There's only One you can walk with; that's Jesus Christ. How–how can
you walk with Him? When you agree with Who He is, the Word. Don't you
let that leave you.

150
I don't care about how much tinsel they got, "You got to do this or
we're going to close up your churches; we're…" I don't care what they
close up; that has nothing to do with the Word. Yes, sir. Where you
going? Just exactly what the Word said you was doing, going right back,
all dressed in worldly tinsel, with all kind of worldly promises, but
it's away from the Word a million miles. There it is today, Christmas
again, to keep us from the promise of the Word. But It shall be
fulfilled. God's able of these stones to rise children to Abraham. Aw,
trying to keep the real true Bethlehem dwellers away from Eternal Life;
that's their purpose.

151
Rise, ye sons and warriors; let's cut back to our original Bethlehem.
Remember when David come to his throne. These men stood by him because
he knowed–they knowed he was coming to the throne. They knowed that
David was going to be on the throne, no matter how much he was rejected
out. He was the worst fugitive in the land. And so is the true Word of
God this morning; It's foreign to organizations. Look what they done.
That shows it right before you.
People try to say, "Brother Branham, you're knocking the church." I'm
knocking them systems. The Church is Jesus Christ, not a system.

153
And today look what they done; look what they're doing. And you can see
what they're doing; they're trying to keep the people from That.
They're garrisoning more and more around that Well, to be sure that
nobody will drink from It. But, oh, warriors of God, I believe that
Jesus Christ will come someday in glory. I believe He'll come and set
on the throne of His Father David. Though He be a Fugitive, His Word
this morning rejected by His Own people like David was, the
organizations turned out His Word, they turned out, when God comes and
vindicates His pure Word. Don't tell me. For years, across the country,
and they get farther away from It at all time.

154
I said the other day about Jacqueline Kennedy, how many times I've
rebuked you women for cutting your hair, wearing makeup, you
Pentecostal women cutting your hair, which God said it's you–you–you
make yourself a–a street harlot when you do it. And according to God,
your husband has no right to live with you any longer. A woman that
cuts her hair, dishonors her head, which is her husband. That's
exactly. What do they say about it? And you call me out on it… I get
the letters, "You old crank." All right, they called Elijah the same
thing. They called every Word of God that… Every time the Word is
made, call It…

155 Somebody said the other day, "Why, we believe you to be a prophet."
I
never said that. I don't tell. I ain't no prophet; I'm just God's
servant here trying to tell you the truth. That's all. Let me tell you;
the Word of God stands for that. He said, "The daughters of Zion, the
branch that escaped in that day of all its contamination, it'd be
glorious in the sight of the Lord." Cut through, women; you got your
place to cut through, worldly Hollywood and picture shows, and all this
television stuff that you try to pattern after, dress yourself sexy out
on the street.
And someone said, "Why, the people want you to teach them how to receive the Holy Ghost and how to get…"
Say that you got the Holy Ghost, and then deny the Word? Your own life
proves you haven't got It. See? Now, I'm not angry. I'm just telling
you what's the Truth. Look at yourself and find out. Paul said, "If an
angel from heaven taught anything else, let him be accursed," Galatians
1:8. That's right.

159
What if Jacqueline Kennedy… She did set the pace of women with all
these water-head haircuts and things that they have, all these sexy
dresses, and like motherhood dresses and things. Every woman in the
country wants to wear them, you Pentecostals too. Look, Jacqueline
Kennedy never did hear a message like this. If she would've heard It,
she might've repented long ago. But you Pentecostal women hear It day
in and out, and year in and out, and still you do nothing about it.
Hallelujah. God's going to get tired one of these days. God will get
tired. Well, I know you think I'm crazy. Go ahead; it's all right. They
thought that all down through the ages when the Word… See?

160
Oh, warriors, pull that Sword; let's stand for everything that Sword
stands for. Let's get to that Well where there is a Fountain filled
with Blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins: not a Jew, Immanuel's veins,
God with us, where sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their
guilty stain.
"And there shall come forth a Ruler out of Bethlehem that shall rule
over My people." The Holy Spirit today rules over the people, and the
Holy Spirit is the Word. Is that right? (Now, in closing, reverently.)
He rules the people. No matter what you think; you cope with the Word.
If you don't, the Holy Spirit's not there; you bear record of your own
testimony, no matter what you say. You could jump up and down, speak in
tongues, and run all over the floor, still have bobbed hair and doing
the things you're doing; it testifies against you, that it's not so.

162
Bethlehem dwellers, God bless you, let's go through. Christ wants a
real Church. He wants a Bride. Let's cut our ways through. Get out of
here; get these creeds away, that the real drinkers might come back and
get a drink of real cool Pentecostal Water that once flowed from this
great Well. It's still flowing. Won't you come today and believe that
with all your heart, while we bow our head just a moment.
I got many things here I should speak on. Time won't permit it; it's
eleven o'clock now. I wonder how many warriors in here, you ministers,
Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, Catholic priest, whatever you might
be, you're convinced? I know I'm not a clergyman. I might've come out
of the wilderness, with chopped up this, that, and the other, but This
is the Word. And you believe It's so, and you believe It's the Word;
that's the Bethlehem. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone;
every Word that cometh from the mouth of God." And the Word is here,
the Bible. Man shall live by That, and He is that Word.

164
Oh, warrior, will you pull the Sword of God and say, "I'm through with
these traditions; I'm coming back to the Word; I'm coming back to
truth"? Women, men… Women, ain't you ashamed of yourself the way you
been doing? Are you willing this morning at this Christmas to come back
and reflect the real Jesus Christ?
Now, with your heads bowed and every eye closed, would you raise your
hand, say, "Pray, Brother Branham. Truly I want to do that in my heart.
I am. I believe it"? God bless you. My, ministers, women, everywhere.

166
In Bethlehem, Bethlehem, the place of the Bread and Water of God,
Christ, our glorious Bethlehem… How do we get into Him? I Corinthians
15, "By one Spirit we are an baptized into the mystical Body of Jesus
Christ."
We feed upon His Word, not anything else: sheep Food alone, that Word,
nothing else. You can't put no creed in It; we won't listen to it. No,
sir. You go to say, "Why, it's this way." If the Bible says it's This
way, This is the way we want It. We don't want it seasoned up. We want
it just the way it is.

168
O God, our Father, today there's hungry hearts still left on the earth.
Why little Bethlehem? In my poor unlearned way, Lord, I've tried to let
this little group which loves me… I know they do, Lord. And I love
them. And I love them so much till, Lord, I'm–I'm zealous of them. I
don't want to see them mixed up in these great things, and get cut off
then when it's too late, and see them poor souls yonder in prison, and
know that once had the opportunity.
Lord God, today, no matter what the great Jerusalem's who thinks, and
what the Gilead's and the Ramoth-Gilead and whatevermore, Shiloh's, and
the great worship places, wherever they are. There is a Bethlehem. "Art
thou not least among all of them? But out of thee…" Out from the
Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, the great capital, and the
Ramoth-Gilead's, where Luther fought; and–and the–the Shiloh's, where
maybe Wesley fought; and–and many other places… But, Lord, Lord, You
raised up a Pentecostal group, and if they haven't turned right around
and done the same thing.

170
Jesus of Nazareth, I pray Thee, Lord, to let warriors out of every one
of these creeds back there rise in Your Name, cut through all these
creeds and get back to the true unadulterated Word, laying aside every
weight that does so easily beset them, laying aside every hour that
they're out here foolishly dropping around trying to make members of an
organization. Lord God, let them come back to get converts to Jesus
Christ, not to glorify any organization or any persons, but Jesus
Christ, He alone.
It was David those men fought for. It was David they set their life in
jeopardy for. And them great mighty warriors, without fear, they moved
their way through there, because it was his desire. It was his desire
to have a drink from that well.
Lord God, maybe we don't feel that–just that tug, but look, it's Your
desire that these things be done. As you said to John, "Thus it is
behooving to us, or becoming, that we fulfill all righteousness."
It's becoming to us, as ministers today, to see that this Word is
preached, to see that it's done. It's becoming to us, a man of these
hour that we're living in. Great men in the earth today, O God, they're
out there; let them see it and grab the Sword. No matter what the
opposition is, God be for you, who can be against you? We don't care to
jeopardizing our social living; we don't care to jeopardizing this,
that, or the other; we want to get the Water of Life back.

174
Let us go to Bethlehem, Lord, let every one of them. Let all these
women, that, surely, if they put up their hand, they was ashamed of
themself. Let them realize that these men will be like Mr. Kennedy one
of these days. They'll–they'll–they'll be like the rest of men; they
have to die. These women are dying. I'm dying. We're all burning up
here on earth, and know that just a short time, we've only got a very
few days left. And, God, instead of trying to build big systems, Lord,
let men and women see this morning it's the coming of a King, O God,
the coming of that great King Jesus. And it…
And we realize, God, that every one of those men that pulled that sword
and fought for David when he was a fugitive, when he come into power,
he made them rulers over cities. Every one of them had cities. And You
promised that in the Bible, that we would have cities. O God, as
Gentiles, fell heir through the Gentiles, that we might be partakers of
His holiness and His righteousness. Let us today, Lord, as men,
warriors, take that Word, knowing that, those who stand for Him in this
hour, they'll be rulers over cities. Not as we want to be rulers, but
we want to be servants to You, Lord. O God, we see the vision of this
little minority, this little group, this what's called "fanaticism" in
the… Paul said in his day, "In the way that's called heresy,
crazy…" That's where I want to fight, Lord. Thy Word is Truth. And
Thou art the Word, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

176
O God, anoint us with Thy Word, and bring Thy Word promised of this day
to pass. May we leave this building this morning as shining instruments
of God. May we go with the Sword, It glittering in the air, to cut away
every weight and everything else, till we can get back the people to
Christ, and bring a cool fresh drink to our Lord, instead of all these
old stagnated creeds. Let the people drink from the Fountain, a real,
cool refreshing Pentecostal blessing, that it might bless His heart and
bring Him back among us again. Grant it, Lord. In Jesus' Name, I pray.

177
While we have our heads bowed, if the pianist, or organist, or whatever
it is, will go to the organ, piano, I want us quietly to sing this,
"There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins,
when sinners plunged beneath the flood…" Sinner, what is sinner?
Unbeliever. "Unbelievers plunged." Unbelief in what? The Word. Oh,
those Jews they didn't want to believe that they were unbelievers; they
thought they were saved; but God knowed they needed a Saviour. They was
praying for a warrior, God give them a Baby, a Saviour. He knowed what
they need. That's their Christmas present. That's what you need today;
that's what I need today: a Saviour for my unbelief, a Saviour from
your unbelief. While we sing, let's just pray about it now in our
hearts. And just pray sincerely, please, church.

There is a fountain filled with blood,


Drawn from Immanuel's vein,


And sinners (unbelievers) plunged (not a church member now) beneath the… (That's where church members plunge.)


Lose all their guilty stain.


Lose all their guilty stain,


Lose all their guilty stain;


And sinner…


178
Lord Jesus, I pray now that You'll receive us. I'm putting myself right
here with this group, Lord. Take all my unbelief, Lord, away from me.
Let me die, Lord, as Samson cried, let me die with these Philistines.
Let me do whatever it may be for me to do, but, God, cleanse my soul.
Take all doubt away. If there's anything in this Word that I don't
believe, Lord, and if–if there's not something here that You've
promised, that I can't see my own life being vindicate that Word for
this day, then, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me, Lord.
Give me courage. O Lord, I need courage to cut down this thing, cut
this wall, for I know it's Your desire. You've spoke that it should be
in this day, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the
coming of the Son of man." We see this last move, this last sign that's
been given to the church. That was the last sign of Abraham's natural
seed saw before the fire burnt up the Gentile world. And so is it the
last sign that His royal Seed will see before the fire burns up the
Gentile world. You… Lord, may they see that's just exactly the reason
Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. It's Your Word; It's Your promise.
Bless them now, Father; I give them to You as trophies. And may we
together, Lord, pull the Word today and march forward in Jesus' Name.
Amen.

180
God bless you. Do you love the Lord Jesus? Do you believe that's the
Truth? Raise up your hands if you believe it's the Truth. Thank you,
friends. Look, I am… I guess the tape's off. See, in speaking here,
I'm not just speaking just to you. That tape goes around the world, and
men and women around the world hear that. We go to nation after nation
after nation; they just they set there with little tubes in their ears
and–and speak That right out to hundreds and hundreds of people around
the world.

181
And look, it's not, now, you women; I don't want to hurt your feelings
when I tell you them things. But if your pastor don't tell you that,
there's something wrong with him. He ain't–he ain't got the audacity
to do it. He's hiding behind an organization. Or he's like Lot, setting
down, before the fire fell, he–he just didn't have the real–the real
stuff it take to stand out there. He… The Bible said that the sins of
Sodom vexed his righteous soul daily. His soul knowed better, but he
didn't have the real thing it taken to stand out there and condemn it.
And a pastor that won't tell a woman it's wrong to cut her hair,
there's something wrong with that man, and to wear these clothes.

182
And you men, you men that'll let your women do such things as that,
what's the matter with you? What's the matter with you? Lead your wife
around through town as a–like a public prostitute, and then slap some
man in the mouth if he'd insult her. You're the one needs slapping in
the mouth. That's right, and God will do it someday too. That's right.
We need to get back to this Word.
Not only that, that's just a little, little thing. But how you going to
get the big things if you refuse the little ones? How can you learn
algebra if you don't know abc? If you can't count to ten, how you going
to know your mathematics? You've got to start from the bottom. You're
trying to get at the top; come down here and get started right.
This is the time to do it, now, Christmas. It was the birth of Christ;
let Christ be born in us. What is Christ? Christ is the Word. How many
knows that? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God."

185
Somebody said the other day, said, "Brother Branham, you, people know
that you're a woman-hater." I am not. I'm not. I got genuine love for
my sisters. Some man will turn around, think you look nice with red
eyes and green eyes, and bobbed hair, that man has got a different
opinion than what I'd have. Your… I love that soul that's in you,
that's got to meet God. That's what I'm… My sister for eternity, not
some little sex thing here on earth will…

186
How many ever read the decline or the fall of Rome? Sure. Look at
there, just the same thing we're doing: sex appeal. Youth in the
condition it is, just exactly the way we got now, racial problems. And
youth taking over, and men and sex. Just the way the Roman Empire fell
eighteen hundred years ago, and here it is right back here again
amongst Gentiles. See? The confusion amongst the religions and
things… Oh, what a hour that we're living in.
[A message is given–Ed.] Amen. The Lord God has spoke. I believe that.

188
Now, let us stand. When He speaks, it's time for us to give reverence.
(What say?) By God's grace, and by God's help, I'm more determined than
I ever was, stand by this Word and try my best, by the help of God, to
cut a way down to Bethlehem again, where Bethlehem dwellers can drink
from that Fountain. How many will join with me, with your hands up,
say, "I promise to God I'll do it"? God bless you.
Now, bow your heads just a moment, and I believe some brother here,
Brother Jeffries, come here. He's going to dismiss the audience while
we bow our heads in prayer, if you will. All right, brother.


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