You Must Be Born Again (61-1231M)

 

¹
… New Years Eve morning in the service of the Lord. And Brother
Neville and I was trying to get together, and we were, on speaking,
what we would do. I was trying to get him to get up here and preach
this morning for you all, and let me have it tonight, so it happened to
root off, I have both this morning and tonight to do it. He's a good
salesman. And so before we have the–start the class, I told him we'd
just have a class, like there wasn't too many of us here this morning,
and just to have a class. Before I do this, I'd like to make a little
announcement.

²
I has–we have some people who came here from New York to sojourn with
us. I suppose I never met the people. Brother Neville said he just
spoke about it. Last night I heard that they'd–their trailer caught
fire and destroyed their trailer. I went out to see the people, and
seemed to be lovely, fine Christian people. And they kinda poor people,
like all of us, and Brother Wood and two or three of us was going to
get together and see if we couldn't just buy them another trailer. And
they were very sweet and said they–the insurance that they had been
carrying on it, they'd got in a tight place and they had to drop the
insurance. But, however, the agent had paid the insurance policy, or,
and they got–get their insurance back for their trailer, which will
probably be able to replace the trailer again. They'll know that, I
think, Monday or Tuesday, or something like that, or Tuesday, I believe
it is. And so we want to–to share their sorrow, to do everything that
we can to–to help them, to let them know that we–we are brothers and
sisters in Christ Jesus, and have feelings one for another. And–and I
think that each one would want to feel that way to a little help to
them at this time. It's a little out of ordinary, I think; I never took
an offering in my life, and I–I'm going to let Brother Neville do it.
So… That–that was bumping it off, wasn't it? It's all right. Thank
you, Brother Ben. Just someone, what, just a little something that you
have that you could drop to them, I'm sure it would be appreciated.
Brother Neville, come here. I don't know how to. You just do whatever
you think. [Brother Neville prays and takes the offering–Ed.] Amen.

³
I thought maybe while they were doing that, it would give me a little
opportunity to pick out something to talk about this morning out of
some old texts and things I had write out on a piece of paper. I guess
all preachers do that.
What's these people's name now that they call? Elliott. Is Brother and
Sister Elliott and their son in the building this morning? If they are,
if you would just like to stand up to say, I… to say, as much as
thank you for the–to the people, why, all right. Got a word you want
to say, Brother Elliott or Sister Elliott, in the–to the people? [Brother Elliott expresses their thankfulness–Ed.] God bless you, Brother Elliott. That's very fine. Thank you; God be with you, you and Sister Elliott and your son.

⁴
The people come from New York. I didn't know they were here. They said
I'd had them on a interview, or either prayed with them or something,
sometime. I didn't know them, till I met them yesterday, and found them
to be sweet Christians, very nice people. And they lived up in New
York, up in the Hudson River Valley somewhere, and maybe through a tape
or something they believed the Message and sold out, moved in, just
giving their lives and times over to Christ. And we want you to know
this is our little expression, Brother and Sister Elliott, that we are
sojourners too. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world. We're
seeking a city whose Builder and Maker is God. And when misfortune fell
to you upon these things, of the Devil trying to burn you out and scare
you away, we're with you one hundred percent, to stand behind you in
everything that we can do to help you back to your feet again. Rise in
the Name of the Lord Jesus and go marching on. Don't–don't take down,
no. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth them
out of them all. And so we–we know we look for these things to happen,
but we know that we also look to our Saviour Who is more than a
conqueror, we are, in Him Who has redeemed us.

⁵
Now, today is a kind of a full day, and this morning I was thinking
there, I just thought I'd teach awhile in a Sunday school class. Like,
make it a Sunday school class out of it this morning. And tonight at
seven-thirty, I want to, if it be the will of God, to bring my–my New
Year's message, as last Sunday or Sunday night I brought my Christmas
message. And tonight I'll bring my New Year's message at seven-thirty,
the Lord willing. Brother Neville will have his New Year's message, and
I see Brother Stricker over here, and Brother Collins, and, oh, other
ministers around, and Brother Palmer's up here with us from Georgia,
and–and different ones around. It's ministers, you'll be hearing from
them tonight.

⁶
Then I called Brother Neville yesterday, and on something that struck
my heart, seeing this is New Year's, and is also the first, like the
first Sunday, why not, tonight, instead of having a big rally and
hollering and going on like the rest of the world does, let's take
communion at midnight (See, see?), serve the Lord. Brother Neville
agreed that he thought it would be very appropriate. And tonight, the
Lord willing, I'll be serving communion at twelve o'clock tonight. And
we'll start the New Year, not by hollering and going on, which it's all
right if they want to do that, but let's just make it more sacred and
sincere, and let's approach this year in the way of sincerity to
Christ, giving our all that we've got, and our pledge. Not turn a new
page or something like that, start a new year, we don't believe in that
stuff. You only turn a new page to–to blow it back the next day, so
let's just turn our lives over to Him, and take communion tonight at
midnight. And I believe that's the first time that I ever remember,
since I been a minister, of ever doing it. You remember it, Brother
Neville? But something new for us now, and it's very seldom that New
Year's comes around like this, you know, so just–just struck me, and I
thought it would be striking.

⁷
I suppose then this will be about last time I'll be able to speak with
you all for some time now, I'm entering in the New Year, entering out
into the field on the service of the Lord. I'll be leaving about next
week, or first of the following week to Phoenix, for about fifteen,
sixteen meetings straight, all through the valleys, and up through
Sunny Slopes, and Scottsdale, and all around out through the valleys
there. And then we have the Christian Business Men's Convention that
comes off there, which is a five-day convention at the end of all these
meetings. They have arranged so that I could speak to all the
denominations, every one of their churches throughout the entire
metropolitan area of the Maricopa Valley in Phoenix. And they begin on
the fifteenth. So I'll leave here about ten days early, in order… I
stop probably to see my good friend, Brother Moore, and several of them
going down. Then it'll be snowy across the passes, and so forth, and go
in time. And then I… Many of you people are ministers…

⁸
And Brother Roy Borders, if he's here this morning, he usually keeps in
order the meetings as they call for meetings. And during this Christmas
holidays, well, I usually make an itinerary of where the following
year, but this year somehow I felt not to do that. I feel that I'll go
and have one meeting, and then where He leads me to the next meeting
I'll go from there, and then from the next meeting, wherever it is,
just go as He leads me.

⁹
And looking now for something to take place during this year… And
many visions has been coming to me recently. The other morning a great
one again and all pertaining and looking like a great something fixing
to happen. So I just keep trusting Him. Some of them I don't even
understand. And we don't understand visions; they're more like
symbolically and we don't get them just exactly sometimes, but we know
that they are true, anyhow. So they will come to pass. I write them
down.

¹⁰
And so I believe it's announced also, or which should be, that both the
trustee board and the deacon board is to meet here at the Tabernacle in
a union, joint meeting, seven o'clock tomorrow night. Now, let me
announce that again so if the deacons, wherever they, if they're in the
other room they might hear on the little mike that tomorrow night at
seven o'clock, both pastor–both the pastor, the deacon board and
trustees, I was just told a few moments ago that they were to meet
tomorrow night. And Brother Neville wants to see his deacon board and
talk to them, and the trustees has their regular meeting time, and so
they will meet together tomorrow night.

¹¹
Now, this morning, before we approach the Word, now, oh, let's not be
in no hurry about anything. You got all day today, and tonight and
tomorrow, let's just take our time and–and not rush these things
through. 'Course I know people gets tired or worn out, and, or, wants
to go home, you know, for their–hurry, got their dinner, and their
husband's waiting for it. Why, then, that's–that's all right, just
slip out quietly. And–and–and the rest of you wants to stay, all
right. And we don't… You don't have to work tomorrow now, and so we
just take our time. And that's the reason I thought instead of
preaching just for about three or four hours, I'd take eight or ten
hours on a teaching. You see?

¹²
All those people from Georgia and Alabama made me feel so great the
other night. I believe I was out by the office, and all was gone but
Billy, and he said… Brother West and them, which are very sweet loyal
friends (I don't see them here, but I suppose they're here.) called up
and said, "Well, is Brother Branham going to have the Sunday School,
Sunday morning?" And it freezing in Louisville; the news said they're
blocking the highways in and out, and slick on the roads.
Billy said, "Well, it's a possibility." Said, "He goes down there." Said, "Maybe Brother Neville or him, one…"
Said, "Well, that possibility's good enough; here we come." All the way
from way down in Alabama, and over the slick roads, and I–I'm not
worthy to have friends like that. Now, that's true. I–I am not worthy
to have friends like that. There's something about it that I just hate
to announce the meeting, know that I got people who believe the
Message, and–and come, and–and they love me.

¹⁵
And I–I've always wanted to be loved. When I was a little boy I wasn't
loved by nobody. Nobody had no use for me. I was here in Indiana, born
in Kentucky, so I was a corn-cracker to these kids over here. In the
family, all the boys, nearly, smoked and drank and everything, but me.
And I was a–I was an off-cast in the family, and an off-cast in
school, and at work I was an off-cast, and everywhere I went I was an
off-cast. And then finally when I found Somebody that really loved me,
Jesus, and He said, "I'll give you fathers, and mothers, brothers,
sisters, and friends."

¹⁶
And then the strange thing how that His great wise providence, how He
works things in His–out. Seems like that love has a funny feeling to
it; not a feeling, but a–a reaction. And then I look out among the
people, as He's called me to be His servant, and I look out amongst the
people and see sin creeping in, then I have to just tear in there with
all that's in me (You see?), to tear it out. And that makes it look
hard to the–to my way of looking at it, why, to say those things. But
yet, down at the bottom, true love runs like that (See?), true love.

¹⁷
Now, if your little boy or little girl was playing on the street where
cars are running, and you knew sooner or later they're going to get
hurt… Now, if he says, "Why, papa, I want to be out here." Would you
say, "Bless your little heart, Junior, you just go right ahead and play
in the street"? That's not a real daddy. If you have to jerk that
little fellow up and give him a spanking, scold him, tie him up,
anything else, keep him off that street, he'll get killed. Is that
right? Well, that's the way you have to do with the Gospel. You have to
shake and push, and–and–and try to do everything you can to keep the
people lined up. And I hope everybody understands that that way. I–I'm
just trusting that someday after it's all over and then when the veils
are taken from before our face, we will understand then.

¹⁸
Brother Way, I… That fine Bible that you and Sister Way gave me for a
Christmas present, that's just going to be a good thing to keep my
notes in instead of a book like this, when I get a chance to type it
out. I don't want to write, 'cause I can't make my own writing out, and
how's anybody else going to do it? I told them I had a shorthand all of
my own. And I have to study it myself to see what I've said. And I–I
get it typed out someday. It's a loose-leaf Bible, where you can just
take like here. I got two texts here this morning, two places I want to
read from. And in this Bible that he gave me, you pull it out like
this, and can take one leaf from Genesis, Revelations, anywhere, and
put them both together, and read them right off like that. See? And
then a little place back here in the back with a flyleaf, you can just
go right back to the… to all the Scriptures wrote down on that
message and things. It's wonderful. So I hope that I'll help win many
souls to Christ with it.

¹⁹
God bless each one of you. I want to say again for the nice Christmas
presents that each one give me. The church give me a new suit, oh, how
I appreciate it. And I got two new suits for Christmas. My brother, the
little church down in Macon, Georgia, down there, Brother Palmer, sent
me a new suit. And the Tabernacle give me a new suit, and there's so
many nice things give in, and–and Christmas gifts in the line of
money. Which, the division of income tax tells me that if it's a
Christmas present and wrote "Christmas present" or a "Birthday
present," anything, you can accept it; otherwise that I have to…
It–it goes into the work, which is all right. And I sure thank each
and every one of you, wife and I, and the children, and all of us
express our gratitude to each, every one of you, so nice. We wish we
could go back and give each one of you a present back, but you just
can't do that, you know, you just… My, I–I couldn't do that. I wish
I could, but I–I just couldn't. I'm sure you understand. I know that's
the feeling of my precious brother setting here too. We just feel the
people love us like that; we appreciate them.

²⁰
Now, let's bow our heads now for prayer and get ready for start
the–the message this morning. Into the Presence of the living God we
come now, soberly, and in the fear of Him, we come in the Name of the
Lord Jesus, knowing that we could not come and saying, "Now, Father,
here is William Branham, or, Orman Neville," or whoever we might be, we
would be turned down quickly. But we have the assurance that He said,
"If you ask the Father anything in My Name, it'll be granted." So I
don't guess I could get, using my name, anything from Him. But I know
that when I use His Son's Name, then I get my petition, for it's in Him
that I trust. It's in Him that we live and have our being. And we're
grateful this morning, God, for all that He means to us, and that's our
complete life and being.

²¹
I thank You for this little church, for its pastor, and for the
trustees, and the deacons, all the members. And I'm grateful for the
Holy Spirit that watches over them. May that great Holy Spirit
continually lead them and guide them into the paths that He would have
them go in. Reading in the Testaments, the Old and New, and also in the
Nicaea age, that how that when sickness struck amongst the saints, the
whole church went together; with one heart they called on God, and
their petition was granted. Each one of them as members of the Body of
Christ, fasting and praying, and God heard and answered prayer. Father,
may this little church so–be so bound in the bonds of love to each
other and the Holy Spirit, until it'll become like one of those, that
there will be no friction among us in this coming year. May there be
just such godly love, and everybody walking in the way of Christ, until
many weary pilgrims along the road will come and be saved. May it be
said that when you enter the doors of the little building, that the
Presence of God meets you with a sweet welcome. Take sickness away from
the midst of us, Lord.

²²
And we're grateful that we have hungry hearts to hear Thy Word.
Continue to hunger our hearts for Thee, Lord, as David of old said, "As
the hart panteth for the waterbrook, my soul thirsts after Thee."
Thinking of the little hart, the deer as we would call him today, that
he's been torn by the wild dogs, and he's bleeding. He's losing his
life, and he must find water if he expects to exist. Once he finds
water his life is renewed. May we be that thirsty, Lord, that we must
have Christ if we exist, we must have Christ if we become the Church
that we're asking for. If we live the lives that we are wanting to
live, we must have Christ or we will die.
Now, as we open Thy Word this morning to find consolation and
steppingstones to bring us closer to Him, I pray, Father, that the Holy
Spirit will open the Word to us, that we, Lord, as Thy servants, will
be better equipped to face the new year. For we ask it in the Name of
Jesus Christ. Amen.

²⁴
Now, thinking this morning that, on the basis of being New Year, I
thought it would be good maybe that I would lay aside my New Year's
message until tonight, and go back here in some Sunday school
Scriptures, and take a text to talk on for a while, on one of the most
vital subjects that I know of in the Bible. It's a doctrine that our
Lord preached first, the first doctrine that Jesus preached, and I
suppose it would be good to make it our first year's teaching.

²⁵
Now, is it cool for any of you, raise up your hand, feel a little
chilly? I thought I felt it up here. Doc, wherever you are, kinda turn
the furnace up just a little, because I feel it here moving around. I
know you're bound to out there, some of you people, especially with the
children.

²⁶
Now, let us turn in our Bibles this morning to Ephesians the 4th
chapter of Ephesians, and let's begin reading at the 11th, the 11th
verse of the 4th chapter of Ephesians. And then we're going to turn
then from then–from there, to John 3:1-12, and read two places in the
Scripture. Reading now from the 4th chapter of Ephesians and the 11th
verse, beginning…

²⁷
Now, I read that so that it'd give you something to study on after you
get home. Now, I'll read my text from John 3, a very familiar Scripture.

²⁸
Now, God bless His Word. And I want to take the subject this morning of
Jesus' first doctrine. The first doctrine of Jesus was, "You Must Be
Born Again." That was His first doctrine. Now, in a way of Sunday
school, so that I won't preach and hoarse myself up for tonight, I have
thought in my heart that this is something that it seems puzzling, and
to the people, we hear so much about it all the time, and I thought it
would be good this morning if we just search this subject through,
clear it out. And that's the first beginning, "You Must Be Borned
Again." And it's a very deep one.

²⁹
And we–we find out that there is so many different meanings that
people put to it. Nearly all churches say that you must be born again,
but each one has their–their different interpretations to that, what
it means to be born again. I might go to the Methodist church this
morning; they say, "We believe that you must be born again." How do you
interpret it? I go to the Baptist church, "And we believe you must be
born again." How do you interpret it? And I would go to each church,
and we'd find, if we went to all the nine hundred different
denomination of churches, there'd be nine hundred different
interpretations. So seeing that there is so many different
interpretations, and yet a Bible doctrine, there must be, and is, a
truth somewhere.

³⁰
So now, remember it didn't say, "You ought to be born again," but, "you
must." Now, we, as English speaking people, understand what the word
"must" means, that is, "it's absolutely, you've got to do it." See,
it's a must. Not, "you ought to; you'd be better off if you did, but
"you must be borned again." Oh, if we could just take that word this
morning and break it down, what it means, how that it's totally
impossible… And then if it's that essential and that great, that it's
totally impossible to enter the Kingdom of heaven, or even see It,
until you're born again, and so many different interpretations of that
word "borned again," we ought to seek it out with all of our heart to
find out what it means.

³¹
There's not a person in here that wants to go to torment; there's
nobody. And you don't drive hundreds of miles over icy roads, and spend
your living, your money, just to come to the church here to, well, say,
shake hands with the people (although you love to do that), and to hear
the pastor, myself and other ministers speak the Word (You get that
wherever you are, pastors, ministers, just like we are, servants of
Christ.), but there's something that draws you here, and to this
particular place. Therefore, it's the duty of we as pastors to see that
this flock is fed and fed right, because God Almighty will require your
blood at our hands. At the day of the judgment we'll answer for you. So
seeing this great tremendous responsibility that's placed upon us, and
God has given us people who love us and come to hear us, then we should
spend our time constantly watching for your souls. And when the first
little thing we see raising up that's not right, it's our duty to come
to that person, because we are shepherds watching that sheep. And if I
see that sheep eating on a weed that will kill it, I better drive it
away from that weed, jerk the weed right away from it so it cannot get
to it because it'll kill the sheep.

³²
And there's known in the western countries a weed that an–an animal
can eat; it's called locoweed. I don't know whether anybody ever heard
of it or not, a locoweed. Yes. A horse can eat that, and you just can't
do nothing with him. He just becomes an outlaw. You can't put a saddle
on him, and you can't do nothing with him. It's called locoweed. And
you must keep your–your stock away from that weed. And if it'll cause
a horse to eat something… If a horse, rather, it'll eat something
that throws him into this condition, into this spasm, why, you would be
a very poor cowboy to let your horse eat a weed, locoweed. It shows
that you don't care.
And a real pastor, a real servant of Christ will be a poor example of
Christ to see the sheep eat something that's going to drive him away,
or make him a outlaw before God, a breaker of His Word, a breaker of
His commandments. You shouldn't do that. You should watch that very
closely.

³⁴
So this great doctrine of Jesus that's wrote here before us in the
Bible, "You must be born again…" There is so many different versions
of it, as I have said before, till I thought this morning, for the sake
of many who's been asking me what it meant and how could they become a
real Christian, then I thought maybe that we would just approach the
subject and take it just as clearly as I know how to give it to you.
And it's not in the way of a sermon; it's in the way of teaching Sunday
school, that the people might get the Message. Now, many
interpretations of the born again…

³⁵
And now I'm saying this, and I know it's going on tape, and I want to
say this to the pastors that will perhaps receive this tape. I suppose
maybe just a little different from what the regular church teaches it,
I teach and believe, and believe can sufficiently prove by the
Scripture, that you're borned of the Spirit and then baptized into the
Body by the Holy Spirit.
Now, many of them teach that just to come up and be recognized before
the congregation, and so forth, as a–as a sinner, that you want to
accept Christ as personal Saviour, that that is the new birth. Many
believe that water baptism is the new birth. And some of them believe
that you're–you're borned of the water when you're baptized in the
water. And there's so many different versions of it. Lot of them, many
believe that to recite a creed and believe on a doctrine of a church,
just accept and say, "I believe in the holy church of So-and-so.
And–and I believe God to be the–the Saviour of men, and so forth. And
from this day on, I–I become a member of this church, and fellowship
with the Christians." They believe that that's born again.

³⁷
And although the creed that they recite, I do not believe that we could
criticize it; some of them are pure and holy; some of them are real
Scriptural; but the Scripture is not applied in the right place. And
even applying the Scripture, I believe that the new birth is something
beyond that. Even though how well you might mean it, I believe
something that the new birth is far beyond your good intentions and
your thoughts, minds; it's beyond that.

³⁸
I do not want to say this for–to be sacrilegious, and I do not throw
any slams at any organization of church, but a lot of it reminds me of
a–of a–a Jew, a little… It's a joke. And I do not believe that
jokes should be told at the pulpit; it's no place for a joke. And
therefore, to bring this statement that I've got on my mind, it's not
for a joke, but to show an expression of what I mean. That a Catholic
priest one time went home with a–on Friday, with a new convert to the
Catholic church. And the Catholic convert had baked a ham, and he said,
"Father, I am sorry, as my remembrance comes to me, this is Friday. But
I believe that according to our great doctrine of the church, that one
time I was a Jew, and you sprinkled some holy water on me and turned me
from a Jew to a Catholic. Now, I shall sprinkle a little of that same
water upon this ham and make a fish out of it." Now, that's, saying
that doesn't make it a fish. It's still a ham, no matter how holy the
water might pretend to be.

³⁹
And no matter how much that we try to think we are right in saying a
creed or joining a church, you're still what you were until you're
actually borned again of the Spirit of God. It doesn't change you. Your
creed, joining church, or changing your ideas, or your good intentions,
although as good as it might seem, it's still not right. There's
something's got to happen, the new birth is an experience, something
that takes place. So it is not that that brings the new birth. Now, the
different churches, they'd say, "Well, you accept this or believe that,
and it's all right." But it isn't.

⁴⁰
Now, to begin with, to base back, the reason we have to be born again
is because the Bible teaches us that we were all born in sin, shaped in
iniquity, and come to this world speaking lies. Then that shows us that
our nature, to begin with, is sinful to start with. We're no good to
begin with. So we cannot claim anything by our shrewdness, our
sincerity, or how great we are, how little we are, or–or whatevermore,
we are altogether wrong to begin with. And there is nothing at all that
we can do about it. You cannot… Jesus said, "Who, by taking thought,
can add one stat–one to his statue, one measure to his statue?" You
can take all the thoughts, do all the dreaming of it, read it, study
it, examine it, and everything else, and you can't help yourself one
iota. So that just throws it all out. I'm so glad it does, because if
it laid in the thought of knowing something, smart, we poor illiterate
people would be left out, so we wouldn't have a chance. But God changed
it, or never had it that way in the beginning. The churches always
makes it complicated. God makes it simple. So it's brought down into a
place where all of us can see, all of us can have it. It's for
whosoever will.

⁴¹
Now, now, one man could not save the other. Now, it makes no difference
what anyone tries to say; no man can save another. No matter how smart,
what his office is, let him be a pastor, priest, bishop, cardinal, or a
pope, he cannot have one thing to do with saving any man's life,
because he is a sinner hisself, borned in sin, shaped in iniquity, come
to the world speaking lies. He's a liar to start with, and any word
that he would say would be a lie if it was contrary to God's Word and
God's plan.

⁴²
But God made a plan for man to be saved. And man cannot add anything to
that plan. It's God's plan. And that's the plan that we are–want to
study this morning. What is God's plan? He said, "Let every man's word
be a lie, Mine be the Truth." Therefore, we'd be daresn't to change one
sentence to make it something else. No matter how much our rituals and
so forth reads, we got to forget that. This is God's Word. Just can't
be done no other way. God has a plan; He's made a plan.

⁴³
And, remember, to the first thing, until you're borned again you'll
never understand. Twice He spoke it. "Except a man be born again he
cannot enter the Kingdom. Except a man be born again he cannot even see
the Kingdom." Now, that's punctuated too. The word, in the making all
those words, they tell me that they had to write it out, they, and when
they say, "Verily, verily," that's a punctuation, like a–a–a capital.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." And the word in one place, or many
places, it's translated "absolutely": "Absolutely, absolutely, I say
unto you." Who said that, did a cardinal, priest, pastor, evangelist,
pope? God Himself. Now, there's no excuses. He will in no wise, no wise
at all, cannot in any other way, no matter how great he is, what his
name is, how big he is, or how popular he is, he cannot even understand
the Kingdom of God until he's born again. It's a great subject.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." Watch. Go get the Greek translation;
you'll find: not see with your eyes, you see with your heart. See, you
can't see the Kingdom of God with your eyes, because it's a spiritual
Kingdom. See? In other words, "You'll never be able to understand the
Kingdom of God until you are borned again." It's all an unraveled
mystery. And when you're borned again, the plans of the Kingdom, the
Kingdom itself becomes real to you.

⁴⁴
Like a contractor to build a building, unless he could read a
blueprint, there's no need of him trying to build the building, if he
doesn't understand the blueprint. And then when he understands the
blueprint, then he knows how to build the building. That's–that's the
way it is. That's what happens about building the Kingdom of God.
You've got to understand the Blueprint, and you won't know the
Blueprint until you're born again. And when you're born again and then
deny the Blueprint, what takes place?

⁴⁵
A lovely little girl that's recently… I used to go with her mother
when we were young. And she was a lovely, beautiful woman. Her name is
Huff now; her name was Lee before she was married. When I used to
pastor the Milltown Baptist Church, they belonged to the United
Brethren Church, but, oh, they liked me real well. And she… I used to
go with her. They lived way back up behind Brother Wright's here. To…
And I used to go up to their house, and the little girl was a very
sweet little girl, and she was a little girlfriend to me. And Brother
Lee, a fine man, loyal to the church, the United Brethren view of the
church, and one night he invited me to go home with him and stay all
night. And I said, "Brother Marrion, I'll–I'll be glad to do that."
And so after the service was over, well, the–the girl and I got in the
car and we went on. And I had to open a dozen gates, I believe, going
around the hillside, and up to hit a great big old log house. Well, we
set out in the yard and waited for her mother and father, and younger
sister, to come up. When they come up, we all went in and had a little
lunch that night. The mother got some stuff out and we eat, and–and
the father and I were sleeping together downstairs in a great big
featherbed, and–and a straw tick under it, you know, real good
sleeping. It's better than any of these old Beauty-rest mattresses you
get; I'll tell you that. And so we… The mother and the two girls went
upstairs.

⁴⁶
And that night while we were laying there, Brother Lee had a dream. And
he'd always debated with me about the water baptism in the Name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't believe it. And he was a contractor. So he
said, "Brother Branham, I just dreamed a dream." And he said, "I
dreamed I went up to New Albany. And I was building a man's house, and
he gave me the blueprint. But when I seen a certain way he cut his
windows and fixed a certain place, I said, 'That's not right. It just
can't be right. That's contrary. Now, he… That isn't right.' So I
built it the way I thought was right. And when he come back from
Florida, from his vacation, I had his house almost ready."
"He looks at the house, and he goes, and gets the blueprint, and looks at that, and said, 'Say, you have built my house wrong.'"
"And I said to him, 'No, I haven't built your house wrong.'"
"'What about this such-and-such a place?'"
"Well," he said, "that really don't belong there."
"He said, 'Tear it down. If you expect me to pay you, you'll build it the way the blueprint said.'"
And he said, "What do you think about that, Brother Branham?"
I said, "There is a creek running right down below the house here." And we went to it.
He said, "I don't want any tearing down on that day."
I said, "Get it right now. Put it up according to the Blueprint."

⁵²
How it paid, just recently one of his… Then his girl married a fine
boy, nice man. He's a machinist over here at the boat works, and the
boy'd had his fingers cut off this way, a nice man. And they have a
lovely family, three little girls, and one of them's–all Christians,
and they sing a trio. If we ever have a meeting here, they're coming to
sing for us. And one of the little girls majored in piano music, and
was a teacher of classical music when she was just a child, fifteen,
sixteen years old. And the kids at school got to teasing her about
different things, and being a Christian, and it got on her nerves and
give her a breakdown, and she lost her mind. And they had her in
Louisville, and was going to take her to the insane institution the
following Monday. And they wouldn't… The doctors wouldn't let me see
her. And I went over as a visitor and set on the side of the bed with
the father and mother. And while I was setting there, the Holy Spirit
moved in the–this Our Lady of Peace Sanitarium in Louisville, where
they take the nervous patients, and when there's still a hope for them.
Then if they can't do nothing for them, they send them to Madison,
Indiana. And the girl was going to Madison that week; they–she was
past help. And setting there, a vision came before us, and spoke to the
girl in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And the mother grabbed me by the
knee, reached up and grabbed her husband by the hand, and said, "It's
never wrong."
I said, "Just don't worry; she'll be all right." I left the building quickly.

⁵⁴
That night at nine o'clock, the phone rang, or I believe it was a
little before nine, 'fore I come to the church that night. It was on a
Sunday. And the father, with his heart so thrilled, he said, "I
couldn't go home, holding the good news, Brother Branham." He said,
"The doctor come in and examined my girl. He said, 'What's happened to
her? She can go home tomorrow.'" When mother was laying a corpse a few
weeks ago, there the trio was down there, the little girl just as nice
as she could be, her and her boyfriend, sweetly. Oh, I tell you, the
Blueprint, God's Word is the One to explain the program of how we must
be borned again.

⁵⁵
First, we reckon ourselves sinners and worthy of condemnation. And we
are all born in sin and shaped in iniquity; there's not a sound parcel
of us. Our minds are bad; our soul is corruptible; our constant
thinking is evil, every imaginary thought of a man's mind is evil, a
sinner; and also that our body is weak; our spirit is no good; and
we're just full of corruption. And how could one corruptible thing
bring another good thing out of a corruptible? Let me say this, that in
Job, 14th chapter he said, "Seeing that man is born of a woman, is full
of sorrow and trouble, yet he cometh forth like a flower, he fadeth
away." And on, as the prophet goes on speaking, he said, "Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." You stick your bucket down
into the well and pull out a bucket of water, and it's stagnant, it
stinks; you look in it, and it's muddy, and little worms is in that
water; there's no way at all to put your bucket back and get a clean
bucket. The whole world is contaminated. And the whole soul, mind, and
body of man is contaminated with sin, and born in sin, physically,
shaped in iniquity, and come to the world speaking lies, so that his
own soul is contaminated: nothing good. One cannot redeem the other,
because it's all wrong. And you can't take a bucketful of water here
that's contaminated, and another bucketful that's contaminated and mix
them together; you've got more contamination. There's no purification
to it.

⁵⁶
But God determined to save man. He placed upon Him the iniquity of us
all. The penalty of–of sin, when that you're born in the penalty of
sin, is death. Sin is death. And the penalty was so great that there's
none of us could help the other, so there had to be Someone Who could
pay this penalty.
What if this morning the penalty to leave this room was a hundred
billion dollars? There's none of us could leave, 'cause there's none of
us worth that. But then if one came in who was worth enough to pay for
all of us.
It takes One. We can't do it. It took One Who was worthy. Oh, how I
wish I could stop here for a while, and go back and pick up Ruth and
Naomi, and show that how the kinsman redeemer to redeem the fallen
estate had to be first worthy, had to be a kinsman. Therefore, God, the
Spirit, Jehovah, became Kinfolks to us by taking on a form of flesh. He
became Kinfolks: had to be that. Then He had to be worthy. And He is
the One Who produced that Fountain filled with Blood, drawn from
Immanuel's veins. He was the One Who bore our iniquities.

⁵⁹
A beautiful type I got here in Numbers. I've got my Scriptures wrote
down here. In Numbers, the beautiful type of it is, in there it's…
Oh, it's altogether pretty if you could see it. It's the brass serpent
lifted up in the wilderness. How that Israel, that serpent to them was
a death bite, and there was no remedy. There wasn't a physician among
them who had the remedy or the cure. They had physicians among them,
but not for that bite. Just as I've said, there's no physicians among
us that can cure sin. It's a death bite, and we're all guilty, all
shaped in iniquity. All of us are guilty. But what did God do? They was
guilty then, then death had to be paid, the penalty of death. But God
had Moses to erect a brass serpent, and put it on a pole, that nothing
the people could do, no money they had to pay, nothing at all, no
creeds they had to recite, no churches they had to join, just look and
live… See how simple? Look and live. Don't join a church; no
sensation, you don't have to feel a funny feeling. Just look and live.
That's all. So simple. Not if you can remember all the ten
commandments, you'll live; not if you know all the statutes… Just
look and live. That's all you had to do. And every man looked upon him
lived.

⁶⁰
Jesus, when He was here on earth, He said, talking to Nicodemus here,
He said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up." So must… Why? In the same manner, for the
same thing, the same purpose, to do the same work. Many times this
puzzle people when they see the serpent representing Jesus. The serpent
represented Jesus in this much; did you notice the serpent was dead?
There was no life in it. Jesus died. Like Cain when he slew Abel, Abel
died on the altar with his sacrifice; after Abel offered his sacrifice
and killed his sacrifice for his sin, then he died on the same altar
with his sacrifice. In order to be born again, you have to die on the
altar with your Sacrifice, just as dead as He was. And you're born
again. The serpent had no life in it.

⁶¹
And you say, "Why was it brass?" Brass represents judgment, Divine
judgment. Did you notice in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the altar
was made out of brass, where the sacrifice was burnt? Brass speaks of
judgment. Like Elijah, in his days, he went to look at the skies to see
if any rain was coming after his prayer, and he said, "The sky looks
like brass." What was it? Divine judgment upon a unbelieving people, a
unbelieving nation who had forsaken God. It was Divine judgment,
brassy. And the serpent itself, its form represented sin already
judged, for the serpent was judged in the garden of Eden. And he was
the serpent judged.

⁶²
And when we look at Christ, you see the penalty. The only One, God
Himself made flesh, God coming to the earth, and took on Him the sin of
all of us, and the judgment and wrath of Almighty God was poured out
upon His body, and there it was rivened at the cross. That's the real
judgment. He tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone. Alone He
walked the road. Alone He died with not no help from an Angel, from a
man, from His Church, from His mother, from His brethren, from His
Father. And forsaken by God, man, and nature, He died alone to show us
that even nature itself can't help us in the hour of death. There's no
friend, no priest, no pope, no pastor… It's death. But there was One
Who took it for us.

⁶³
No life in the serpent, it was absolutely crystallized. That was the
penalty. He died until the–the earth got ashamed of itself. He died
till the stars got ashamed. He suffered until the sun wouldn't shine.
He suffered till the moon turned off its light. He suffered till even
the elements of the earth was so black and dark until the midnight so
dark you could feel it. Wasn't nothing, no one's ever suffered like
that or could suffer like that; there's no mortal could go through it.
But He suffered it. God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all and passed
His judgments upon Him, and He tread the winepress of the wrath of God
alone with no help. There was nothing to help Him. God placed the
penalty. Everything was under that penalty and nothing could help Him,
'cause we're all guilty. There's no high priest could've come helped
Him. There was nothing could help Him, no pope, no Angel. Everything
stood back and watched it. That was the greatest moments was ever in
the history of the world. He died until there's not one drop of life
left in Him, become like the brass serpent, just a crystallized
ornament hanging on the cross.

⁶⁴
Now, the approach to this birth, there is approach to it. And to be–to
approach this birth, you have to go through a process, just like
anything that lives. Anything that lives again's got to die first. And
you cannot keep your same spirit. You cannot keep your same habits. You
cannot keep your same thoughts. You got to die. You've got to die like
He died. You got to die on His altar, like Abel did with his lamb. You
got to die with your Lamb. You got to die, die to your own thinking to
be born to His thinking. Let the mind that was in Christ be in you. You
got to think His thoughts.
And now, brother, sister, let me say this as intelligent as I know how
to say it. How can you think His thoughts and deny His Word, and yet
claim you're born again? Just ask yourself that question. How can you
do it? You can't. If you're born again, you got His thoughts. If the
mind of Christ is in you, then you are a new creature. The Bible
teaches that. And if any brother would like to, where you find that
creature, look that word "creature" up in the–the Lexicon, and you'll
find out that the word "creature" there is interpreted or translated,
"a new creation," because you are a one creation, a human being born in
sexual desire here on earth, and now you're a new creation born by
Spirit. Your own thoughts are dead. They're so dead until they're
crystal like the brass serpent, or like He died when the heavens and
earth and everything witnessed He was dead.

⁶⁵
He died till He was so dead that even His Blood and water separated in
His body. His death was so tremendous, till, I say, the–the world had
a nervous breakdown. It shook; it trembled until rocks fell out of the
mountains. What could die like that? No pope dying would do that; no
pastor dying would do that. But when God in flesh died on the cross,
the earth had a nervous breakdown to know that the very spoken Word of
God, rocks and dirt, sticks and clubs and trees hanging in the earth,
and the stars and the moon, His very spoken Word seen their Creator
become flesh and sin poured out upon Him. The wrath of God poured out
upon Him until the moon shut off its light, the sun shut off its light,
the earth had a nervous shake–breakdown, would've bursted to pieces if
it hadn't have been a future for us. Everything…

⁶⁶
And if His elements of the earth, upon looking, seeing what was taking
place, shook them to that condition, what ought it do to me and you?
What ought our souls to do when we look and see what God did for us?
And it was all for you and for me. What ought it to do to us? Continue
in sin? God forbid. But to abstain from sins and die to sin. Don't you
see what sin done to Him? Sin killed Him. And He took the penalty of
sin, that He might bring the righteousness of God to you and me. So
when the righteousness of God comes to us, sin is dead in our mortal
beings. Oh, I hope you see it.

⁶⁷
Yes, to be born again you must go through a process of death;
everything does. You take a grain of corn; if that corn ever expects to
live again, it's got to die first. If a grain of wheat ever expects to
live again, it's totally impossible for… That corn, that wheat, that
flower, that tree, that grass, that vegetable, everything that expects
to live again must die first. Then how you going to escape it? You got
to die first. You got to die. Die how? To yourself, die to everything,
so that you can be born again. You've got to do that. If you don't die,
you can never live again.

⁶⁸
And look, did you know each day something has to die so you can live?
Now, to you Seventh-day Adventists that's in our midst, many people
say, "I wouldn't shoot a squirrel, Brother Branham. I wouldn't kill a
deer, or a rabbit, fish, 'cause I don't believe that we should kill
things." My brother, did you know that the vegetables and things that
you eat is life also? You have to kill it. And the only way that you
can exist in this life, something has to die so you can live by its
dead life. Now, if something has to die so you can live by its mortal
life here on earth to live mortally, did not Something have to die so
that by Its life you could live eternally? Just ask yourself that
question. And that One was Christ, 'cause no other one has immortality.
The Son only has immortality. And He gives Himself to you by just
accepting Him.

⁶⁹
Now, it must die. Now, that don't mean turn a new page now, this new
year. You say, "Brother Branham, I've been coming here for a long time.
I've been a member of the church. This New Year's I'm going to turn a
new page and start new. That don't mean that. Not turn a new page, but
actually die and be born again. See? You've got to feel so guilty when
you stand in His Presence. Whether you go the Methodist way, or the
Baptist way, or whatever way you go, you've got to be so guilty and
feel so guilty till you… It'll kill you. That's right. You–it'll
kill you. Your worldly life will die right there. You've got to reckon
yourself so guilty in the Presence of God until your worldly life dies
right there. The–the sin question's over for you when you're standing
in His Presence. When you look like that, you're sure to live, because
you die. And the only way you can live again is to be–die first so you
can live again.
Now, you see what I'm coming to, don't you (See that?), what the birth
is, the new birth. First, to die, in order to be born again… And if
you still got the things of the world in you, you're not born again.
And how you going to claim to be born again and still with the things
of the world hanging on you? See? How can you do it?

⁷¹
Young Christian the other day, bunch of people… I don't say they're
not. But in looking at some pictures, Christian women, Christian men,
all lovable around one another in bathing suits, in a-swimming. See?
It's just… They said, "That's real love." That's real filth. It's not
love. Love is expressed different from that.

⁷²
Our souls are placed by faith on His brass altar, God's judgment, and
our offering is consumed. Now remember, when Elijah, under those brass
skies, laid the offering of God upon the altar, the offering was
consumed. Baal could not consume his offering. I don't want to say
this, but I must say it. And when you go to a church, and accept their
creeds, and their forms of baptisms, and the offering that you
supposingly yourself to lay upon there, you might get up shivering,
speaking in tongues, running all over the floor, or you might get up
weeping. But if that offering has been received by God, it's consumed;
the world is dead to you. You're gone, for we reckon ourselves dead and
buried. We are dead and our… We are hid in Christ, hid in Christ. And
besides that, then–then after that we're dead, and buried, and hid in
Christ, then we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

⁷³
You see what I mean now? You are dead. Our souls are placed upon His
Divine judgment; that's brass. When our souls is placed upon a altar of
Divine judgment, what was the penalty? Death. And when you lay yourself
upon the altar of God, which is pronounced death upon the sinner, how
can you raise from there, alive in sin, if God accepted the sacrifice?
Is it clear now? You die. You actually are consumed, and you're
petrified. There's no more left to you but just this form that you're
standing in, like the brass serpent, like Christ was when they took Him
dead and cold off the cross. You're dead. 'Cause why? You're on God's
altar of judgment. What is His judgment? When the judge has passed His
sentence. What is the sentence of His penalty? Death. And when you
place your soul upon His altar of judgment, it's death to you. Now, you
get it?

⁷⁴
Oh, you might get up from there and do anything; you might dance in the
Spirit; you might cry like a–like anybody would cry; you might run up
and down the floors; you might join every church; you might do anything
you want to (I'm talking to Pentecostals now), and go right back out
and defile a man's wife, break up a man's home, some of you women.
You'll go right back no matter how much the Word comes to you to do
right and things, you won't recognize It. You'll never let your hair
grow, women, or that. You'll never dress right. You'll still be just
exactly like the world, because you're not dead to the world yet;
you're alive with it.
Some of you men will never quit drinking, smoking. You'll never quit
lusting after foul women immorally dressed, when you see them on the
street, instead of turning your back, walking away. You'll still lust
right on just the same. Because why? You're alive with the world yet.
But when that sacrifice has been received, you're dead. That's right.
You hear what I mean? You understand what I'm talking about?

⁷⁶
Now, your soul is laid upon that altar of God's brass judgment, then
God receives the sac… Now, it shows that you haven't received it yet,
if it does… If–if you're still alive in the world, God's never took
it. Now, you people talking about getting the Holy Ghost and how you
have to wait so long, here you are. Until God receives that sacrifice,
until it's laid on His judgments there, until His judgment has actually
killed your senses… You might say, "Well, I'm going to turn a new
page." That ain't it. "Well, I know I used to smoke; I'm going to quit
smoking." That still isn't it. Until God receives that sacrifice on His
brass altar, His altar of judgment… What is His judgment? Death.
That's the penalty. The soul that sinneth that remains in that, shall
die. I don't care what you done.
Jesus said, "Many will come to Me in that day, and say, 'Lord, haven't
I done this and done that?' He'd say, 'Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity.'" See?

⁷⁹
When that sacrifice is received by the fire, and it goes up like that,
and the smoke goes up, you rise with your sacrifice into the
heavenlies, and you're sealed away from the things of the world then.
Our soul's on His altar.
What are you done then, after you have been died, then what are you to
do? Then you are conceived anew. You are conceived anew. You was first
conceived in iniquity. Now, you're conceived in something new. What is
it? The living Word. Oh, that changes it now, doesn't it? Now, we're
through the struggle, after seeing what you got to do. Now, what
happens? You're conceived anew in the living Word. What is it? The Word
becomes alive in you. You begin to see things different. Where once you
couldn't see that, now you do see it. There's something different now:
makes all the Scriptures come together, makes everything dovetail just
right. Then now–now something's begin to happen. Now, you die to your
own thinking; now you're conceived, because we are washed by the water
of the Word. Is that right?

⁸¹
What do you do with a baby soon as it's born? Wash him. Is that right?
And as soon as a man has died to himself and's born of God, he's washed
by the water of the Word. Amen. If It says, "Jesus' Name," you say
"Jesus' Name"; says, "You must be born again," you say the same thing.
Ever what God says, you're washed by that water of the Word. Amen.
Now, you're ready now for life. You're ready to be–start out now. Now,
you're born anew, born in the family of God with a new parent. Yes,
sir. Your tutors used to be… Now you got tutors that is now; you got
a new Parent. You can't be born without having a parent. So if you're
born in the brotherhood of a church, that's what you got. If you're
born in a creed, there you are. But if you're born in God, conceived in
His Word, you got a new Parent; that's God, ready to make His Word
known among us, with you, speak It through you. Oh, a new Parent, that
Parent is God. He's ready to take His Word now that He's already spoke,
and lay It in you and make It come to life. See? Now, you have your
training now. You're ready–you're ready to go into training now,
child-training. That's the hard part, when you think you ought to do
this, and the Word cuts you around and shows you something else. "Why,
they believe that over…" That don't make any difference what they
believe. Here's what God said. You must be about the Father's business.
Now you're getting born again. Now you're getting right, getting
straightened out. You have a new Parent.

⁸³
So in order if you're born again and got a new Parent, then you got a
new nature. The old nature's dead, and you got a new nature. You once
was going one way; now you're going another way. You once was going in
this a-way, down, now you're going this a-way, up. Your affections are
set on things above: a new affection. You don't love the things of the
world no more; your affection's of God. You don't care what man says,
how they laugh at you and say you're old model, or whatever it is like
that, you don't care, because you're born of above and your affections
are set–set on things above. God's not ashamed of you, and you're not
ashamed of Him. That's right. So you're… Read the 11th chapter of
Hebrews right here. I got it wrote down. Just why people in that day
how they did, how they wandered about in sheepskins in deserts, and
destitute, and everything else, of whom the world's not even worthy of.
See? Read it; it'll be good for you. And you can see there, what people
when their nature's changed, what happens.

⁸⁴
Now, what kind of a nature have you got then, Brother Branham? His
nature. If I had my father's nature, then I'd do the things my father
did. But now that I'm born again, it depends on who my father was. If
you're just born in the church, you got a church father, and you can
call him, "father" if you want to. You call him anything you want to,
because he's your father. But if your Father is God, and you're borned
in the family of God, you seek those things that pertain to God. That's
right. Then you are God's child. Your nature is God's nature. Then when
some, oh, you can hear them, some of them say, "Oh, our church believes
the days of miracles is passed." How could you believe the days of
miracles is passed when the very nature of God's in you, when He is
altogether miracle? His nature's miracle; His habit's miracle; His
whole being is miracle. How can you be anything else but miracle? Your
new birth is miracle. Your new Life is miracle. Even your nature's a
miracle, how you can look back and say, "Them things are dead. This is
right." See? You're a new creature, new creation. Sure.

⁸⁵ [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]
And when the babies was born they was all chickens but one. He was an
eagle. He was an odd little fellow. He was altogether different, but
(You see?), he was borned in another category. The–the–the sperm and
the egg was different; it made a different bird. Certainly. He looked
queer; he acted funny to the rest of them, but he was–he was only
acting natural, because he couldn't do no more, 'cause he–he was a
eagle. His–his nature was eagle, so that's all he could be was an
eagle. But there's a lot of them out in these denominations; they're
actually eagles, but it just don't look right to see them lolling in
the mud and the things of the world. See, that's your business, go get
them.

⁸⁶
One day the old mother eagle come over, and do you think that hen could
ever keep him on the ground any longer? No matter how much she clucked,
how well she said, "Come here, honey. I found something right here,
come." Oh, my. His affections was on things above, and he went to meet
it, no more denominations for him. Can't call him away from It.
And a man that's born of God, you cannot call him back into that rotten
muss of sin anymore. He's dead, and he's born again. He's a new
creature. He's got the nature of the Eagle. He's got to get into the
skies and soar. He's got to get up there where his mother is, his
Parent.
And that's the way a man that believes…?… "Oh, come join our church. Now, that's fanaticism. The–the–day…"

⁸⁹
Now, if that little eagle maybe standing out there and he heard that
mother cry, and he looked around and said, "Where is it?" Here, maybe
she cried something like this to the little eagle, "Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever."
And the mother said, "Days of miracles is passed, cluck, cluck, cluck,
cluck. Days of miracles is passed. No such a thing. That's fanaticism."
Oh, my.
Why, you couldn't hold him no more. I can just hear him say, "Mama, how do I get up there?"
"Just flop your wings, honey. That's all you have to do. You're an eagle. Just walk by faith."
"How is it going to be, mama?"
"I don't know. Just keep walking." Here he comes. His first few flops,
he set down on a fence post. He got that high anyhow. She said, "Just
come on; I'll catch you." That's it.

⁹⁴
A new nature, a new being, a new creation, nature of your Father, and
you believe and love every Word that He said. Every man's word's a lie,
contrary to this Word. This is God's Word. See? The Bible's right. I
don't care what the church says; the Bible's still right to you, 'cause
your nature's been changed. Now, if you've got a–a church father,
you'll believe in that church father. But if you got Father God, you'll
believe in God's Word. If you got a father in the church, you'll
believe that because you're of his nature; that's your father. But if
your Father's God, then you'll believe God's Word. If you're church,
you'll–you'll believe his word; you'll believe the church word; you'll
believe what the church said. But if you're born again, then you'll
believe what God says, 'cause God's your Father, not the world or
church creeds.

⁹⁵
Reminds me. One day they in a–a yard, they said they had a duck was
following some chickens. And the–the duck, you know, was a funny
little fellow to them chickens. He kind of top-heavy, you know, and big
bill, you know. But that, being he was top-heavy, he–had that bill
there for some purpose. And that's the way I guess sometimes the
Christian seems to be a little bit, get a little fanatically, but–but
that's there for a purpose. See? So he… It did look funny as long as
he was running around with the chickens, and he could… Turkeys and
things, they–they–they had the little bitty short bill, and they, and
while the things they did, and they wasn't built like that duck. One
day the mother let him, the bunch of chickens and him out behind. He
was always way in the back, you know, kinda… He didn't even talk like
them. His language was different. They couldn't understand one another.

⁹⁶
That's the way with the Christian when he's born again. See? He come
out of a different egg; that's all. See? Maybe he's got… I believe
there's many of them out here in these denomination churches that's
genuine ducks, but they got a hen leader. That's right. So they just
don't get it. That sounds rude. Don't mean it that way, but I'm trying
to make a point.
One day she let him out a little too far behind the barn. There was
some water running down behind the barn, a spring going out, creek. And
he was going along there wondering what it's all about, you know,
following the hen along. And, why, he didn't even like the diet they
were eating: didn't look right to him. These old things that they do,
it didn't seem right. So after while he happened to catch a breath.
"That smelled just right. Where did that come from?" Oh, that little
breath of heaven, hm. Catch that little breath of something that's
refreshening, a sermon that appeals to you, that strikes down in, you
feel the Word anchor Itself: hm, heavenly sunshine. He thought, "Oh,
there's somehow another that breath that I got fits my nature." He
breathed it again. "It's somewhere. Now, you can't tell me; it's
somewhere. I know there's something somewhere that I belong to," not to
this creed. See? You know what I mean? He smelled water, and his nature
was a duck, so a duck and the water just goes together. That's the way
a believer and God goes together. Directly he got another big whiff of
it; it come more strong. After while the wind begin to blow (Like the
rushing, mighty Wind, you know.); it begin to blow the breeze right off
the water to him. He couldn't stand it no longer. Down over the hill he
went, wobble, wobble, wobble, wobble, just, you know, going,
"Honk-honk, honk-honk, honk-honk," that little bill sticking up in the
air, you know. He smelt water.
The old hen said, "You fanatic, get back here." No good at all; he done smelt water. He was on his road to the water.

⁹⁹
"There is a fountain filled with Blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins,
where sinners plunged beneath the flood and lose all their guilty
stain." A real Christian wants nothing to do with the world. They don't
want to live around here haphazardly and wondering where they're at,
and today they're Methodist, and tomorrow they're Baptist, and
Presbyterian, and Pentecostals, and so forth. Oh, brother, that's
miserable. A real Christian wants to get the freshness of the Spirit,
the freshness of God in his life, something that makes him a new
creation. As soon as he can get the outlet, he'll drive over snowy
grounds or anything else to get to it. Away he'll go, because he's a
duck to begin with. Yeah. Not a creed, no, no, no, no…

¹⁰⁰
And if you still love the things of the world, you're deceived; your
sacrifice hasn't been accepted yet; your nature hasn't been changed.
Now, do you know what it means to be born again? See, your nature's
changed; you become a new creature. You got to die first and then be
born again. I know it's time for me to close, but just give me just a
few minutes. I'll run over these texts real quick. See, see?
If you still love the world, and claim that you are borned again, no
matter what you done… You might've cried; you might've had chills run
through you. Them's all right; I ain't got nothing against that.
Christians cry and have chills run through them. And you say, "Brother
Branham, I spoke in tongues just…" That might be fine, and that might
be just ever so good.

¹⁰¹
I'm looking at a little woman right now that come to me not long ago
with a vision or a dream she had, and I got the interpretation. Still,
it's kind of hard to go tell that little Pentecostal preacher's wife
that she didn't have the Holy Ghost (Uh-huh.), but she didn't. But then
she received It. See? Yeah, it's different. See?
Yeah, it ain't speaking in tongues; it ain't dancing in the Spirit.
There's none of those things you can lay it onto. It's a death and a
birth, a changed nature, a changed disposition. The old things are
dead; new things are new; the world is dead and God's new. God is your
Life, and the world is dead to you. Now, you get it? All right.

¹⁰³
Now, listen. I'm going to have to cut just a little bit here, you know,
get the briars out of the way. Women and men that won't follow God's
Word and His Teaching after they claim to be born again, there's
something wrong.
I'm going to speak with the women just a minute. If a woman that knows
that God's Word condemns bobbed hair, and wearing shorts, wearing
slacks, and dressing immorally, and haven't got the decency enough to
let your hair grow out and put on clothes that look like a Christian,
you're deceived. I don't care what you've been through. You might've
spoke in tongues like pouring peas on a dry cow hide. You might've–you
might've danced in the Spirit till you shook the whole building. That
don't have one thing to do with it. It shows that the love of the world
is still in you, when God condemns that. He said, "It's not…" A woman
should have her hair long. And nature itself teach you that men should
have short hair, because God is over man, and man over woman. And if a
woman cuts off her hair, she dishonors her head, which is her husband.
If a man lets his hair grow, then he dishonors his head, which is
Christ. See?

¹⁰⁴
"And let your women adorn themselves in modest apparel," clean,
ladylike. See? And then without the common decency to do that, you say,
"Glory to God. Hallelujah. I spoke in tongues. Hallelujah. Glory to
God." That shows that spirit in there is wrong. It'll accept the Word
every time if it's the nature of the Word. And the Word is flesh, and
the Word was God, and the Word is God; and the Words is in you, makes
you become a son or a daughter of God, an offspring of Him, believing
His Word.
"I don't believe in that old Name of the Lord Jesus to be baptized in.
Hallelujah. I don't care how much you try to explain it; I believe my
pastor." Go ahead; that's your father. But if God's your Father, you'll
line up with God's Word.
Preacher… "Many will come to Me that day, and say, 'Lord, have not I
cast out devils in Your Name? (Preachers.) Have not I done many mighty
works? (evangelists on the field.)' Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity," illegitimate children… That's right.

¹⁰⁷
If you're borned of God, you're washed in the waters of the Word,
separated from the things of the world, and believe God. You're dead.
You're dead to your own thinking, dead to your own ideas, dead to
everything else but God's Word; It lives in you, working back through
you, proving that it is God's Word. You say, "I'm dead to the world.
I'm dead to the world, Brother Branham." And deny God's Word?
Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Now, we're getting down to what borned again means. See?

¹⁰⁹
Still with tempers, still mean, arrogant, somebody say something about
you, you right up ready to fight, then borned of the Spirit of God? No.
God's Spirit don't do like that. No. God's Spirit is humble, meek,
sweet, long-suffering. That's God. loving, kind, forgiving, that's
God's Spirit. Oh, yes.
But they'll hold to that denomination, and speak in tongues, prophesy,
do all kinds of works. Jesus said they'd do it: "Having a form of
godliness." Hold to the denomination because that's their father; they
was born in that denominational father. But if you're borned of God,
This is your Father; He is the Word, the Word. No matter how many
sensations you have, still a child of Satan until you become dead to
the world and alive in Christ. Listen, quickly now.

¹¹¹
A soul, good or bad, death doesn't change it. I had a lot of Scripture
wrote down here on this one that I wanted to comment on, what a soul
is. What is a soul? It's you. You are a soul, the part inside of you.
And when you die, ever what shape that soul's in, that's the way it
goes. It goes to its destination. You couldn't pull it up no matter how
much you'd do for it; that soul's got to be changed here, born again.
You say, "What about the Holy Ghost, Brother Branham?"
The Holy Ghost baptizes you into the Body, for service, but you believe
unto Eternal Life. "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that
sent Me, has Eternal Life." See? Then you're baptized by the Holy
Spirit into the Body for manifestations of the gifts, and so forth, but
you believe to Eternal Life. He that believeth has Eternal Life. And
when you believe is when you're dead and are born, regenerated, a new
creature. All right.

¹¹³
The soul, now remember, good or bad, death doesn't have one thing to do
with it. Death just takes it to its destination. You hear it? And if
you still got the world and the love of the world in it, it'll die with
you, 'cause the world must die. God's condemned the world; that's the
world order. God has condemned it and it's got to die. And if that
world's in you, you'll die with that world. My, I don't see how it
could be any plainer. See? And if it's good, borned of God, it has to
go to God. If it's of the world, it'll remain to perish with the world.
If it's of God, it'll live with God, educated or not educated. Educated
or illiterate, if the world is still there, it must die. And if the
world is in your soul, and your desire is of the things of the world,
you'll perish with the world. That's clear, isn't it? See? Should be.
You're a part of the dead world. And as the world is dead, you're dead
with the world.

¹¹⁴
But if you're born again, you're alive with Christ, and your affections
is on things above and not on things of the world. But if you are born
again of the Spirit of God, you become a part of God and are eternal
with Him. Then, death cannot touch you when you're born again. You are
eternal. You have changed from a creature of time to a creature of
eternity. You have changed from death unto Life. I'm talking about
eternal. From eternal death to Eternal Life… If you're of the world,
you die here with it. If you love… The Bible said in John "If you
love the world or the things of the world, it's because the love of
God's not even in you." You can't love the world. And Jesus said, "You
can't love God and mammon." "Mammon" is the "world." You can't love the
world and God at the same time. "And he that says he loves Me, and
keeps not My sayings," that's the Bible, "he's a liar, and the Truth's
not even in him." There you are.

¹¹⁵
Oh, Branham Tabernacle, and all you good people, let's take inventory.
This is New Year's. Let's start; let's do something; get the things of
the world out of us. If it's still in there, let's get rid of it. Yes,
sir. All right, people of today… I've got to hurry.

¹¹⁶
People of today take all kinds of spirits. They go up and take a church
spirit; they even take spirits that call themselves God's spirits, born
again, and deny the Word of God being true. Could you imagine the
Spirit of God denying His Own Word? To you Catholic people, Roman
Catholic, I mean, could you actually say that you are borned of the
Spirit of God, and take those dogmas which is contrary to the Bible,
and deny the Word of God, and say that you are–the Spirit of God's in
you, the Spirit that wrote this Bible would deny It? That would be me
telling something and standing up and lying against it: God saying
something, then turn around and lie about it, when the Bible said,
"It's impossible for God to lie, 'cause He's the very Fountain of all
Truth."

¹¹⁷
You Methodists, Baptists, that are baptized in titles of "Father, Son,
Holy Ghost," and know different now? You got your Bible. You that just
take a church joining by shaking a hand, you that take your letter from
one to another, and claim that you're borned again of the Spirit of
God? How can you do it, and then look in the face of God's Word and
call yourself a borned again Christian, when you're dead to the church,
you're dead to the creeds, you're dead to the world, you're dead to
everything else but God, and God is the Word? There you are.
Let's see. They take every kind of a spirit. Oh, they got church spirits; they got all kinds of spirits. Now, listen closely.

¹¹⁸
Prophets… The Word of God comes to the prophet. The Bible said so.
Now, in closing, I've just got couple more comments here or so I want
to pass and then I'm going to cut off.
The Word of the Lord come to the prophets. What come to the prophets? The Word of the church came to the prophets? [Congregation replies, "No"–Ed.] The word of the creed came to the prophet? ["No"–Ed.]
The Word of the Lord. What was it? The prophet revealed the Word of
God. See? That's prophets, real prophets. Now, we got false prophets;
we're getting to them just in a minute. But the true prophet, the true
Word came to the true prophet. It couldn't be nothing else. Now, a
creed didn't come to the prophet; a denomination didn't come to the
prophet. No. But the Word of the Lord came to the prophet, and he
revealed It to the people. The true prophet had the true Word.

¹¹⁹
How do you test a true prophet? When he's got the true Word. Then if it
isn't a true Word, it's got to be a false one. If it says something
different from this Word, and this Word is God's Word, let every
prophet's Word be a lie and God's Word be true. And if that Word is
coming from the prophet, is the Word of God, then he's a true prophet,
because the Word come to the prophets, true prophets. We've always had
false ones. True prophets, the true Word. False prophets, false word,
"our creeds, our denominations; join this; say this; believe this; do
this"…

¹²⁰
But the true Word comes to the true prophet, and he tells you the true
Word. You follow that true Word, and you get a true experience of the
Word, because the Word is made flesh in you, and you become God's son,
and the Word of God is revolving right out of God into you, because you
are of His Nature, His Spirit is in you, and you'll do the works of
God. Hallelujah. The Bible said so. Oh, my.

¹²¹
False prophets bring false words. What do they do? Have false
sensations. False prophets keep enough of the true Word to be false.
They used to didn't do it, but the Bible said… You want to put down
Scripture on that? II Timothy 3. See? The false prophet has enough of
the true Word to make it false, because the Bible said that they'd have
a form of godliness. In order to have a form of godliness, they have to
have some of it as Truth. "A form of godliness, but deny the power
thereof," the power of what? To make you straighten up, be a different,
serve God, not go to dances and things of the world, the Bible
condemns, not cut your hair. Like, false prophets say that, "Don't make
any difference."

¹²²
Someone said not long ago (I believe I quoted it here before, I don't
know.), said, "Why in the world don't you leave them women and men
alone," to me. Said, "Why, then, the people believe you to be a
prophet."
I said, "I am not."
"But the people believe you to be. Why don't you teach them how to receive visions, how to do the works of God like that?"
I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they don't know their
abc's?" See, see? How can you take a child out of kindergarten and give
him a college education today, teach him square root measure? How can
you do it when he don't know what abc means? You know what abc means?
Always Believe Christ. That's right. Don't believe the church; don't
believe their creed; don't believe their doctrine; believe Christ. Why?
"To know Him, to know Him is Life." Is that right? Not know His creed,
not… He ain't got no creeds. Not to even know His Word, not to know
His Word; you got to know Him, know Him as your Saviour in new birth.
Like Jesus said to Nicodemus, "If you can't believe earthly things that
I tell you, how could you believe heavenly things?" How you going to
believe spiritual things that enter into the Spirit, and knowing and
seeing visions and things like that to set a school in order like that,
when they don't even believe earthly things, can't even believe to wear
clothes right, can't even believe to quit their smoking, and quit their
lying, lay their temper aside, and all them things, do all these
things, or quit lusting? How can you teach people to enter into the
Spirit when they got all those things still hanging on them? Yes. Oh,
my.

¹²⁵
False prophets have false words: creeds, denominations, sensations.
"Oh, bless God, only thing you have to do… You want to wear Elijah's
garment? Glory to God. Only thing you have to do is just be blank in
your mind, don't think of a thing, and say, 'Oh, fill me, fill me, fill
me.'" The Devil will sure do it. And then you rely upon that? "Ooh, It
run all over me, Brother Branham. I felt It. Ooh, glory to God,
Hallelujah. Jumping up and down like that, oh, I got It." And live like
you live? "By their fruits you shall know them," (See, see, see?), not
sensations.
"Oh, brother, you want to receive the Holy Ghost, just get down at the
altar and say, 'Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, until you speak in
tongues.'" Uh-huh, go back out and live any kind of a life, lie, steal?
When they tell you about being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ,
"That's fanaticism, my church teaches different," and say that you are
born again, washed by the waters of the Word? Something wrong
somewhere. See?

¹²⁸
You'll believe every Word just the way It's wrote here. We don't
need… And we don't… And the–the Bible said, "It's of no private
interpretation." God interpreted It, and this is the way It is. He…
Word, His Word here… Don't the Bible say in II, I believe, II Peter
there, "The Bible is of no private interpretation." Certainly. No, no
private, it's wrote just the way It means It, right like that. Just
leave It just the way It's wrote here; It'll bring the same results.

¹²⁹
Now, false teachers will bring false births. True prophets will bring
the Word, the birth of the Word, Christ. False prophets will bring
false birth, the birth of churches, the birth of creeds, the birth of
denominations. And here you are, Pentecostal brother, false sent–or
sensations, and tell a man he's got the Holy Ghost 'cause he speaks
with tongues. I've seen devils speak with tongues, pencils lay down and
write in unknown tongues. That don't mean a thing. See, it's got to be
a life: by their fruit you shall know them. "Brother Branham, do you
believe in speaking in tongues?" Yes, sir. "You believe in shouting?"
Yes, sir. To be a Christian, I believe that. I believe God's Word. But
if the life isn't there to back it up…

¹³⁰
Get out there a stuffed shirt, "Glory to God, hallelujah," and then
tell me that that's Christ? Christ was humble, meek, and gentle. Go
into a town, and, my, you have to be just brushed off the shoulders,
you know, and everything has to be just right, not a wrinkle in your
suit, and you have to have the very best or you won't even come at all,
guaranteed so much money, you can't have a meeting. Oh, my. All the
denominations, they have to pat you on the back. There wasn't a one of
them patted Him on the back, for He was the Word. Right.

¹³¹
False keep enough of the true to make a form of godliness. And listen,
now I'm saying something here; I want you to listen. Them kind of false
conceptions (You know what a false conception is?) lead millions of
people to a false birth. False teachers lead the people to believe in a
sensation, "'Cause you jerked all over, you got It. Oh, because you got
a real funny feeling went over you, you–you seen lights in front of
you, and got blind and staggered, that's Elijah's jacket put on you.
That's right, you got It. Oh, you know what you are? You're a
manifested son of God." Where do you find yourself? Defeated. That's
right. "Glory to God, I went one night and I had a dream." Oh, yes,
uh-huh. See? "Oh, I seen this, that…" Yeah, uh-huh. "You–don't you
believe in dreams?" Yes, sir, I certainly do. But if that dream didn't
back up God's Word, then it's wrong. This is the Truth here; stay in
This. Yes, sir. Lead million to false birth, just think…

¹³²
I got a piece of paper I was going to bring with me, where that the
ecumenical father of all the Greek Orthodox and Orthodox churches has
talked with Pope John the 22nd, and he said, "We may not see it in our
generation, but the great brotherhood in the a-merge of both Protestant
and Catholic is coming together."
I thought, "Praise God."
Somebody cut it out of a paper, wrote to me like that. I believe it was
Brother Norman or somebody, said, "Brother Branham, it's later than we
think." Look at today, the minister of war and, oh, so many different
offices and President, and this nation is all Catholic controlled.
Listen.

¹³⁴
You say, "Well, they're Christians." To be Christian is to be like
Christ, have His Spirit. Is that right? Here's a rude, something rude,
but I want to say it. If you called a hog a sheep would it make him a
sheep? Why, if you said, "Piggy, I'm just tired of you being a piggy. I
want a lambie, so I'm going to take you out here, and I'm going to
scrub you all up, and I'm going to wash your teeth, and I'm going to
comb your hair down, and I–I'm going to make you a little lamb. I'm
going to tie a little pink ribbon around your neck and you're going to
be a little lambsie instead of a piggy." You come over and say,
"Lambsie, lambsie, lambsie," he'll still go, "Oink, oink." Turn him
loose in a pigpen, he'll eat all the slop he can get. Right? It isn't
sprinkling him; it isn't putting him in water; it's a death and a
birth. Yes, sir. Say, "I ain't going to feed you nothing but alfalfa;
I'm going to feed you sheep food." Still feed him alfalfa, he's still
pig. That's all. Is that right? Certainly it's right. Why, sure, he's a
pig because his nature's a pig.

¹³⁵
And if you love the world or the things of the world, you're still a
pig. That's right. It takes the power of God to transform that soul.
Die a pig; lay your pig habits on the altar; lay yourself on there, and
let God's sacrifice be–or fire of judgment come down and consume you
as a pig, and rebirth you as a lamb. Then you won't eat no slop; you
couldn't; your gastronomics won't digest it. You're not right. Won't…
It certainly won't make him a–a pig to say–or make him a lamb to say
he's a lamb.

¹³⁶
So a person called a Christian, by some creed or some sensation… You
say, "Glory to God, Brother Branham, I danced in the Spirit all night
that night. I spoke in tongues, oh, my, Brother Branham." I'm talking
to Pentecostals now. "I–I–I danced in the Spirit. Oh, I had
sensations, everything like that. But I tell you right now, don't you
go talking to me about that there Jesus' Name stuff." Come on, piggy.
You're still a pig; that's all.
"My sheep hear My Word." I say, "But, brother, look, find me one place
where they was ever baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy
Ghost, in the Bible."
"I don't care what that does. Hallelujah. I don't want none of that old
Jesus Only stuff." Who said anything about Jesus Only stuff? I'm
talking about Bible. Jesus Only is a group of creeds and a group of
denominations. One can't call the other one something else, 'cause
they're both into it.
But I'm talking about thorough, genuine, one-hundred-percent
Christians, borned again of the Spirit of God, and the dewdrops of
heaven in their life. That's what I'm talking about. If you're a
Methodist and got that, amen. Only thing you have to do is be pointed
to the Word, you'll follow it like the duck going to the water. See?
Just exactly. See? That's right.

¹⁴⁰
People today want shortcuts. They don't want… They–they think you
get it just in a minute, "Glory to God." What is it? What is it they
do? Tonight they're in a–they're out yonder in the… Like some of
these fellows that they got like certain people that I could call
names, but I don't want to do it because this is on tape, but they're
in a nightclub tonight with a guitar, beating it, and tomorrow morning
they're standing in church somewhere beating that same guitar. Filth…
The Bible said in Isaiah the 20th chapter, "All tables are full of
vomit. As a dog goes to its vomit and a hog to its wallow, so do they."
Why? They're still dogs and hogs. That's what makes them return to the
wallow and to the vomit. You're still… They ain't borned again. If
they're borned again, they're new creatures.

¹⁴¹
Do you know what, you got an old crow, he–he… Don't matter how much
you try to… You could paint him just as–just as olive color as a
dove, just as gray as a dove, white, paint him all over, he's still a
crow inside. See? He's still stinky, an old buzzard just the same,
scavenger, eat the dead things of the earth. That's right. But you know
what, a dove don't even have to take a bath. Oh, hallelujah. A dove's
body, because he is a dove, he's got a oil that comes through his
feathers, that just keeps him clean all the time, because it comes from
the inside out. Oh. Why? The buzzard say, "Mine too. I put a little
holy water on them, brother, it fixed it." No, it didn't. For it comes
from the inside out, not from the outside in. It's a birth. "Bless God,
I go to church the same as you do. Hallelujah, my church is as good as
yours. Hallelujah, we're just as…" All right, you buzzard. See,
that's right. See? But a dove is oiled from the inside. There's a–a
certain gland in a dove that's not in no other bird like that, dove or
pigeon. And he oils hisself from the… Outside, he keeps hisself clean
all the time. He don't have to keep hisself clean; there's something
inside of him keeps him clean. Oh, Sister Way, hallelujah. Something
inside of him keeps him clean.

¹⁴²
Say, "I know, I joined church last week. I–I'd sure like to take that
drink with you, but, huh… Umm, that cigar smells so good! Oh, sister,
I know I'm an old model; I have to let my hair grow out now. Ain't it
awful? You know them pretty little dresses I used to wear, and
everybody, 'Whew-whew' (See?) I have to take it off now. You know, I
joined church last week." You miserable wretch, all the holy water in
the world couldn't clean you. But, brother, when you got something
inside of you, It just washes it away all the time. You just stand
still and It washes.

¹⁴⁴
You don't have to tell a sheep, "You've got to manufacture." That's
what's the matter with the Pentecostal people today. That's what's the
matter with all Christiandom. It's trying to manufacture something. A
sheep isn't asked to manufacture wool; he bears wool. You bear the
fruits of the Spirit. You don't say, "Glory to God, I have to get black
in the face; I have to do this; I have to have sensation; I have to
dance in the Spirit, and I got It." No, no, uh-huh. Just get borned
again and it actually takes place itself. You don't have to say, "Shall
I study all night, shall I do this, shall I do that, shall I join this,
and shall I make this creed, shall I do these penances?" No, nope. Just
die, that's all (See?), be borned again, and it comes from the inside,
takes care of the out. See? Sprinkle a little water, and wash them,
just like changing a pig to a lamb, you can't do it. But if on the
inside he's a lamb, then he won't be a pig no more. See? That's rude
remarks; but I'm not educated, I just have to make it.

¹⁴⁵
You know, it's… I was thinking, read in the life of John the Baptist
the other day, what he said, what he called them, "You generation of
vipers." Why? He was raised in the wilderness. See, he knowed what they
was. Stomp your foot and they take for cover. "You generation of
vipers." Also, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree." Tree, vipers,
axes, he talked on what he knowed. That's the way you learn God, by
what you know. You see a pig and a lamb, there's no nothing at all. You
can't make… You might wash that little old pig up and do everything
you want to, he's still a pig. He's got to be reborn before he can be a
lamb.

¹⁴⁶
Shortcuts… Tonight they're out here today, and they're going on (Oh,
my.), and tomorrow they want to preach: Pentecostal people letting them
do that too. Yeah. They want a shortcut to heaven, "Hallelujah, all I
have to do is get down here and just don't think of nothing at all, and
say, 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got on Elijah's garment. I'm going out
tomorrow to cast out devils. Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got It.' Praise
God, here I go." They want the shortcut to heaven, taking as much of
the world as they can take. You can't take any of it. There's no
shortcuts. You come the way of Calvary. You come the way of the brass
altar. You come the way of the brazen serpent. You die. You actually
die, O God, why can't I say it right? You die, literally die to
yourselves, die to the things of the world, and are borned anew. Amen.
No world, the things of the world is dead. There's no shortcuts. See?
They want to come right quick; they don't want to grow. We grow in the
Lord. It takes growth and experience.

¹⁴⁷
People are told out on the west coast now, "Oh, we got the immortal
baptism. We baptize you in water; you turn right back to a young man
right there, a young woman. Yes, sir. You keep getting…" They got
Elijah's garments; they've got manifested sons of God. "Yes, sir,
brother, God's getting manifested sons right now, manifesting, tell
them all about this. Tonight you're a sinner; tomorrow you're
manifested sons of God." Nonsense. Where do you get that in the Word?
Babies are not born men; they're born babies and grow to men.

¹⁴⁸
Listen over here; just let me just quote back just a minute and read
something to you in Ephesians, the 11th verse, 12th, about the 15th, I
believe it is, somewhere along in here. Let's start at the 12th verse.

¹⁴⁹
I remember the first sermon I preached. I got up there, and I–I
thought I did real well, and all of the old ladies set around and they
cried a little bit, you know, and said, "Oh, what a wonderful boy."
The old pastor, Doctor Davis, was an old lawyer. I went down, and he said, "I want to see you down at the house."
I said, "All right." I walked in next day, you know, all swelled out. I said, "How did I do, Doctor Davis?"
Said, "The rottenest I ever heard."
I said, "What?"
He said, "The worst I ever heard."
"Oh," I said, "Brother Davis, everybody was crying."
He said, "Yes, they cry at funerals, cry at births, everything else."
He said, "What it is, Billy, you never quoted one bit of God's Word.
You talked about some mother that had done gone on, or something like
this, and got everybody to crying." Said, "You're not borned again upon
things and sensations of this earth; you're born by the Word." Said,
"Billy, I…"
Oh, he cut the wind right out of me. I'm glad he did. See, see? Not
jumping up and down, hollering, that isn't it. It's the Word that makes
alive. The Word's quickened, not experiences; the Word.

¹⁵⁴
He said, "I remember the first case I tried, Billy." He said, "I beat
on the rail," and he said, "I said, 'Look at this poor woman.'" Oh, he
said, "'Look how she look, and her husband's mistreated her.'" And
said, "I cried a little and picked up my handkerchief, and I acted just
like the rest of the lawyers." Said, "I thought I'd go through the same
emotion." Said, "Judge, your Honor, why don't you give her a divorce.
Look at there. She says her husband beat her back across the back." He
couldn't even see it, under her underneath clothes. "They beat her
across the back." And said, "Why won't you give her…" The old judge
just set there, looked.
Directly the old attorney setting across on the other side had growed
up; he said, "Judge, your Honor, how much more will–of this nonsense
will your court stand?"
Just a lot of carrying on, that's the way too many people do: too much
carrying on without enough Word behind it to back up. Grow up. "Oh, he
danced in the Spirit last night, Brother Branham; he's all right." No,
that don't make him all right to me. No, sir. Got to grow up, be
proved, tested, growing up to Him, seasoned.

¹⁵⁷
I was reading in the histories not long ago. Am I taking too much time?
I was reading in the history of the church. I believe Sister Arnold
back there "amen'd" me the other day on something about the history of
the church, that she had been reading it. I seen where one night there
was a boy in a monastery in the days of Saint Martin, that he said,
"The Lord made me an old prophet out of the Old Testament. See? I am
one of the old prophets." Well, I cannot call the bishop's name there
of this little school, just a little group like this here. I cannot
call his name at this time, but he was trained under Martin. It didn't
sound just right, so the rest of the brethren just let him alone.
Directly he prophesied; he said, "Tonight God's coming down and going
to give me a white robe to set among you, and you'll know that I'm one
of the prophets of the Old Testament." So that night, twelve o'clock,
actually it happened. Voices was heard, people moving around, and the
boy got a robe, they said just as white as it could be. He comes out,
said, "Didn't I tell you?" Said, "Now, all of you take orders from me.
I am the Old Testament prophet."

¹⁵⁸
But the old bishop didn't go for it just right. It wasn't the Word.
Prophets are not made; they're predestinated. And a prophet wouldn't
act like that in the beginning. The fruit of it proved that it wasn't.
See? The fruits proved that it wasn't a prophet. See? So he said,
"We'll spend the rest of the night in fasting, and praying, and singing
of hymns." A day or so passed. After while the old bishop, praying,
said, "Lord, that boy…" That garment, to look at it, they'd never
knowed nothing, seen anything like it. Writers come and looked, and
they never seen anything like it. There it was. Finally, they knowed
one man that was a prophet; that was Martin. They said, "All right, one
thing now you do to prove to us. Scripturally you're wrong. How about
going over to Martin and stand before him and tell him that?" See?
He said, "Oh, I am forbidden to stand before Martin."

¹⁵⁹
He that's got good gold don't dread going to the testing machine
(Uh-huh, that's right.), he that's got the Truth. That's the reason I
make a challenge. Any man come and show me where the baptism in the
Name of Jesus Christ is wrong. Show me this birth that you got to die,
and if you still got the world in you, you're still of the world. Show
me these things. Don't have to worry about it, take it to the testing
machine. Here's the Testing Machine. See, see? That's right.
So they said, "You're going anyhow." And a bunch of the brothers picked
him up, and the robe vanished. See? Wouldn't Pentecostal people eat
that up today? Oh, my. It looked like the real thing, but it wasn't
according to the Word.

¹⁶¹
Martin said Satan appeared to him one time, great golden crown on,
three or four decks of stars in it like that, glistening and beautiful,
great big fellow, nice, handsome, correctly combed and groomed, a great
beautiful robe on, and his shoes on his feet was gold, walked out and
said, "Martin, do you know me?"
Now, people that don't see visions, this might not–this might not–you
might not understand it (See?), but how things come to you in different
spirits, and how deceiving they are. The Bible said they would deceive
the very elected if it was possible. See? The elected, that's those who
are predestinated and born for that purpose. See, see?

¹⁶³
So he come to this elected; he said, "Martin, do you know me? I am
Christ." He said, "Will you recognize me?" Martin hesitated: seemed
strange, he waited a minute. And he said again, he said, "Don't you see
me? I am Christ. Do you recognize me?" He said it three or four times
to him.
Christ said, or Martin said, "Satan, I know you. My Lord is not crowned
yet, but His saints shall crown Him." There's the Word back.
That's where that Roman church got so much dogma, evil spirits coming
in contrary to the Word, and they had to deny the Word to take their
dogma and get away from the Bible. Stay with the Word. That's the
string of Life today. There'll be spirits rise after while that'll
deceive everything nearly. The Bible said so. "As Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses, so will these men of reprobated mind concern the
Truth," perform miracles and do all kinds of signs. But stay with that
Word. The Word of the Lord came to the prophet, and they brought It
forth, and we believe the prophets.
Notice, yes, he said, "I know you, Satan." Said, "My Lord is not a big
man like that. My Lord went away with a rugged old garment on, with
nail scars in His hand, uncrowned, with bloody locks. And when He
returns, He'll come like that, for the Bible said He'll return in the
like manner as He went." And the thing vanished from him. Oh, my.

¹⁶⁷
How he comes in and just makes it so beautiful. "Oh, they spoke in
tongues. They–they–they're the best people you ever seen." Don't you
believe that. Be leery.
I hope the Word's not boring you. Born Christians grow into the statute
of Christ as they live. They're borned again, and their lives begin to
shape like a baby. It takes form and begins to grow. First thing you
know, here they are in the full statute. Amen. There you are. Day after
day, year after year, they stay the same. Now, come back to the Word,
"If ye abide in Me…"

¹⁶⁹
They say, "I got born again, hallelujah, I joined the… I joined this.
I joined. I don't know; last year I believed in Jesus' Name; now I–I
backed it out now; I–I believe this. I did believe you had to be holy,
but I–I… So-and-so said…" Wanderers, tossed about with every wind
of doctrine… See? There you are.
But be borned of the Spirit and grow into the statute of Christ. You
see it, Brother Dauch? Growing into the statute of Christ. Through your
life, proves… Like if you were borned a prophet, you'll remain that.
If you were borned a Christian, you'll remain that. "If ye abide in Me
and My Words abide in You…" This grows you up into the statute of
Christ, not some young lawyer beating, screaming, crying, tell you
this, that, other, make a lot emotions; but somebody who's growed into
the statute of Christ, through the years has seasoned out and proved,
standing at the helm. No other… "On Christ the solid Rock we stand,
all other grounds is sinking sands." Let denominations and creeds come,
go, let isms; keep me humble, Lord, stay right with the Word and move
right on through the stream. She'll guide us to the shore. Full
statue-ment…

¹⁷¹
Now look, if we see how it turns out here, and you can't change after
death… Now, you watch these people that come in, gets all the
sensations and things, run out and tomorrow they're this way. Have you
seen it? Hundreds of them. See? And you see, you–you see what happens.
And now, what if them people died in that state? Death doesn't change
it.
So, O Christians, in closing this Words, let me say this. Let us turn
to Him and His Word with all sincerity. Come humbly like Christians,
and be born again of His Spirit. And when you are born again, you are
vindicated a Christian by the fruits that you bear. You get that,
Sister Peckenpaugh? You are a Christian by your fruits that you bear.
"By their fruits you shall know them." That's a vindication. You might
not know your abc's, but yet you can be a lady, a Christian. You might
be hated of the world (If you do it because something you've done, you
should be.), but if you're hated for His sake, that's different.

¹⁷³
You might not–you might not be a theologian. Look at the blind man
that was born blind. Jesus healed him. He had been born from birth; he
didn't even have eyeballs. And Jesus made him well, healed him. And
when that man came to see, and the Pharisees questioned him, said, "Who
was he?" They couldn't deny that something had been done. Now, the man
was not a theologian. He couldn't argue like preachers would do, little
technique things; he couldn't explain to them. He didn't know the
Testament. He didn't know how the Messiah was to be born and the works
He was to do. The man didn't know it. He wasn't a theologian. But what
did he do? They said, "Give God praise. We are theologians, and we know
He's a sinner."

¹⁷⁴
Now, the men couldn't deny their word, but here's what he did say, in
other words, "If–if He is a sinner and does this, then what's the
matter with you fellows? (See?) What's the matter with you all?" He
said, "Whether He's a sinner or not, I don't know; I can't say that.
But this one thing I do know; wherein I was once blind, I now see."
What was he doing? He was vindicated. That's right. He was being
a-vindicated. Something had happened to him. His being was changed from
darkness to light, from blind to sight.
And a man that's borned of the Spirit of God, that once had a form of
godliness, deny the Word thereof, and the power thereof, and to saying
"The days of miracles is passed…" When he's born again, he might not
be a scholar, he might not be able to explain It, but he believes It.
Like the…

¹⁷⁶
If my colored brethren and sisters here forgive me for saying this… A
good old colored brother down south, they told a little story of him,
said he was packing a Bible and he couldn't even read his name. And he
said, "Mose, why do you pack that Bible?"
Said, "It's the Word of God."
They said, well, said, "Do you believe It?"
He said, "Yes, sir, I sure do believe It." Said, "I believe It from
'civer' to 'civer,' and believe the 'civer' also, because It's got Holy
Bible wrote on It."
Said, "How do you know It's a Holy Bible?" Said, "How do you know It is?"
He said, "I just believes it. That's all." That's all he had to have.
He just believed It. He didn't know why, but he believed It.
They said to him, "Mose, do you, would you do anything that Bible said do?"
"Yes, sir." He said, "If the Bible said so, I'd do it." There you are.
He said, "All right, Mose." He said, "Now, what, if that stone fence
there, if the Lord told you to jump through that stone fence, would
you, how'd you jump through the stone fence?"
He said, "Does the Bible say for Mose to jump through that stone fence?"
He said, "But what if God would speak to you and tell you to jump through the stone fence?"
He said, "If it was God, and He told me to jump, I'd jump."
He said, "How you going to get through that fence without a hole in it?"
He said, "If it was God, He'd have the hole there when Mose got there." And that's right. Right.

¹⁸⁶
You dare to take God's Word and stand there and say It's so. Let this
poor little nervous woman here, thinks she's going to die, and
everything else is wrong with her… See? You're not dying. Say, "How
can I do it, Brother Branham?" Just take His Word and step on It one
time once. Stand on that Word, see what happens. Tell the Devil he's a
liar. You've been in menopause all these years, about fifty-seven years
old. And get away from the thing, it's the Devil. Take God's Word and
say, "By His stripes I am healed," watch what takes place. Then you'll
quit thinking you got heart attacks and everything. You don't have no
heart attacks and all that stuff. It's a lie. You don't have it. Just
believe God's Word. That's right.

¹⁸⁷
When you're borned again, God vindicates you. That's how God vindicates
all of His nature. What? By their fruits. That's the way He vindicates
His ministry. That's right. All of His servants are vindicated the same
way He vindicates nature. How do you know it's a peach tree? 'Cause it
bring peaches. How do you know it's an apple tree? Bearing apples. How
do you know it's a Christian? Christian signs bear from it; Christian
life comes out of it. How do you know he's a teacher? The Word comes
from him. How do you know he's a prophet? The Word comes through him,
bears record, vindication. It proves itself. How does it become that?
When it dies and becomes one. That's right. When we die and become a
new creature in Christ Jesus, it gets us with our calling; we stay with
our calling. The fruits of the Spirit follow us when we are His
servants. When we are borned again, the fruits of Christ's Life follows
us. That's right. How do you know it's a peach tree? It's got peaches.
How do you know he's a Christian? He acts like Christ; he walks like
Christ; he talks like Christ; he lives like Christ, above sin,
victorious. What does he do, say, "See what I done"? Christ didn't do
that. He gave all praise to the Father. That's right. That's how you
know it. By their fruits you shall know them. What must…
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot even understand the Kingdom of God."

¹⁸⁹
So not my New Year's message here at twelve-thirty, or twenty minutes
till one, but my advice is to you, Christian, you who love God: when
you come to God's brass altar of judgment, and you want to be born
again, just lay yourself upon there. Don't expect to pick up again;
you're going to die. That's the end of you. That's all. If you don't do
it, if you don't feel like you can do that, don't, don't try it, it
won't work; deeply, sincerely. With about ten pages more of this lesson
here, or more, Scriptures, I quit.
But lay yourself upon God's brazen altar of God's judgment and become
just as dead to the world as Christ was. See? Come just as dead as the
judged serpent was in the garden of Eden, had done been represented in
the form of a brass serpent: no life at all in it at all; all of its
life was gone. Christ was lifeless; they took Him from the cross and
buried Him in the grave. He was–He was dead. And then He rose for our
justification. And we die with our Lamb on the altar and are raised
again for–in His justification. How do we know? Because His Life that
raised Him from that dead condition, that same Life raises us from our
dead condition of the world into a new creature in Christ Jesus, and
then by the Holy Ghost we're sealed in the Kingdom of God until the day
of our redemption.

¹⁹⁰
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot
understand the Kingdom of God." Don't try to understand It. You'll
never do it. Jesus said you could not. Just accept It; accept It on the
basis of His Word.
Don't walk in blindly now, and say, "O Lord, give me a sensation."
Don't, "Lord, I tell You." No. Just say, "Lord, kill me; take the world
out of me. I–I–I still love the things of the world." I don't mean
the creation, sunsets and beauty, and stuff like that; that ain't what
I'm talking about. I'm thinking about the lust, the filth, the world
order, all these things of the world. Just, they just die, just
automatically die, and you've got no… They've got no more hold on
you. They become stinky to you, "Uh, just don't see how people live in
them." You cry out. More you see of it, the worse you get. Yes, sir.
You can't compromise with it. There's no place to compromise. There's
no place to put yourself in there when there's world in there. You're
dead to them things. And how can you, once being dead to the world,
then associate in the things of it again? Can't do it. So don't do
that. Die to the things of the world.

¹⁹²
The Lord bless you. Be borned again Christians. Be borned again, then
you won't have to say, "It's the hardest thing," you women, "for me to
let my hair grow out." "It's the hardest thing for me to let my temper
go," you men. "Boy, I just have to tell my wife. I get her, boy, and I
shake her and I say, 'I know I'm a Christian, oughtn't to do it, but
you shut-up and you set down.'" Huh-uh, don't do that. See?
You'd like to see a time you could put your arm around her, and say,
"Sweetheart, that isn't becoming to a Christian." That's the way you
want to be, isn't it? You can be that way. See? And when a man slaps
you on one side of the face, you don't have to cut him down with a
pocketknife. See? A man slaps you on one side of the face, say,
"Brother, what reason did you do that for?" See? There you are. That's
Christianity. When somebody says something evil about you, instead of
just trying to make a big show of it, slip off somewhere and say,
"Heavenly Father, the man is a mortal. I pray that You will take that
spirit out of him. Don't let him do that. Pray You save his life."

¹⁹⁴
Don't say, "Lord, I know I oughtn't to say it." Well, you might not say
it with your lips, but mean it in your heart. See? It's your heart's
what counts. See? When you're borned again of the Spirit of God, you
actually love everybody. Now, you don't love their ways and things like
that, don't want to partake of it. No, sir. Stay away from the things
of the world, but you just keep yourself spotless. And the only way you
have to do it, it comes from the inside out, like the dove fixing his
feathers. You see? He don't have to fix them, say, "Now, today I must
wipe all this off," and then like that. No, he's got a oil on the
inside of him because he's a dove, just keeps him clean. See? That's
right.

¹⁹⁵
Won't you do that? Won't you receive Him like that? That's my
persuasion to you on this New Year's eve. I persuade this little
Tabernacle. How I love you, how I love this little group of people. How
I would like to come in sometime, walk down through this building, and
just look. You know what I've always longed to see? A church filled
with the Spirit, that sin could not even be around it. As soon as one
member done something wrong, the Spirit would call it right out. He'd
be afraid to join himself with the Christians before confessing it and
making it right, because he'd be called right out at the meeting when
you get together. You see there? Wouldn't that be lovely? Then the
unclean come in and set down among you, the first thing you know, the
Holy Spirit speaks in such a way that reveals the secrets of their
heart (See?), telling them. Now, if it'll work on one, it will on the
other. See, see? And everybody in prayer, all of you as one unit, one
person, just one person, like we're all members of this body moving
right along, all borned again of the Spirit of God, filled with the
same Spirit, baptized into the same body, wouldn't that be wonderful?
Now, we can have it. God promised it to us. But first, death, burial,
and resurrection with Him.

¹⁹⁶ Let us bow our heads now for prayer. There's some handkerchiefs laying here also.
Holy
God, we realize, Lord, that the sacredness of standing in this spot…
We realize that we are in the House of God. We're in, associating with
the Body of Christ, which is the House of God. The members of the Body
are assembled together. There's one coming from one place, and one
another, gathering together. And today on this Sunday school lesson,
it's been long and drawed out. But, Father, I believe that it's
ordained of You, that it should be this way, that we might understand
what birth and resurrection mean, what it means to be borned again. We
have to… First things first, we have to die in order to be borned
again. You never change Your law. The law of nature still provides. The
law of nature is that any seed must first die in order to be borned
again. And we realize that we too must die in order to be born again.
And so many, Lord, today, I pray You forgive us, so many has depended
upon certain experiences they had, that they claim they're borned
again. But the fruits of their life shows that it–they were brought on
the wrong tree.

¹⁹⁸
That was my reason, Father, as this morning asking if Brother Neville
spoke to me to bring a message, I'd just teach Sunday school. And
therefore, Father, I've done it with–with love and with all my heart,
that the people might know, that–to not rest upon some little
experience they had, but to rest solemnly on their day-by-day life; how
they live in the times when they're in the church, and how they live
when the–the great strain comes on the outside. Do they flee to the
cross for help when trouble arises, or do they walk in their own spirit
and own thoughts? Do they rile back when they're riled upon? That's
this question, Father. And when we see that it's totally impossible for
any of us to save the other, that God has made an appropriated way,
a–a all-sufficient Sacrifice, and It's the only way that we can come,
not by any church, any creed, any denomination, any sensation, but by
the way of Christ… As the first man, the righteous died, he died on
the altar with his lamb. And to this very hour, every other righteous
man has to die on the brazen altar of God with his Lamb Christ Jesus.
Then we are dead with Him and raised anew in a new Life. Grant it,
Lord, that it won't miss any heart in here.

¹⁹⁹
Let us think it over today, Lord, as we return this afternoon again at
seven-thirty to begin here a series of meetings in preaching tonight. I
pray that You'll bless every one of Your servants tonight with mighty
messages, Lord. Grant it. May our souls be filled. These people that's
drove so far to come in, may there–be so filled with the Gospel of the
power of God through this New Year's eve, that they'll go away from
here happy and rejoicing. Grant it, Lord, giving them spiritual Food
for the coming year. Grant it.
Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against
us. And You said, "If you from your heart do not forgive every man his
trespasses, neither does your heavenly Father forgive you." So, Lord,
we forgive everyone. We by faith this morning lay our souls upon the
altar; and burn every bit of the life of the world out of us, Lord. May
the smoke come up from our sacrifice, Lord, and be sweet-smelling odor
in Your nostrils. Grant it, Lord, as we don't lay a burnt lamb, but lay
ourselves up there as sinners to be burned as sinners, and changed into
lambs of a new birth. Grant it, Lord.

²⁰¹
And then lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; the
evil of sickness, the evil of depressed. Heal everyone that's in the
building this morning. Every sick person may be healed today, Lord. I
speak these words in the Name of the Lord Jesus, that the mountains
that lays before the people, may they all be moved today. If it's
sickness, if it's lust, if it's passions, if it's anything of the
world, may it move out of the way, and let the Word of God come in and
be made manifest in their life. Deliver us from evil; for Thine is the
Kingdom, Lord, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Now, shake one another's hand.

²⁰²
I want to thank each one of you for all your kindness this past year.
I'll probably get my message tonight, the Lord willing, at
seven-thirty. I want to thank Charlie and Nellie, and Rodney and his
wife, for their kindness, hunting season as I was down there, and they
treated me as if I was their father or their brother. To all you people
that's been so kind to me, thank you. Brother and Sister Dauch, and
Brother Wright, oh, so–Brother Ben, many, oh, all you people, Brother
Palmer and, you know, all of you from Georgia, all around everywhere,
thank you.
By the way, Margie's father, they called yesterday and said he was
sick. Is–is Margie and Rodney here? They're not? How is the old
fellow? [A brother in the congregation says, "He might be just a little bit better."–Ed.] Let's just, slowly, let's pray.

²⁰⁴
Heavenly Father, a few weeks ago I set on the little country porch way
back up on the road in Kentucky. An aged old daddy set out there with
his overalls on and his faded blue shirt, trembling. Took him by the
hand and seen that he was nearing the end… A little old mother
invited me in to have some biscuits and gravy. Lord, they were only
respecting Your Word. Now, he's just barely here; he's leaving us.
Don't let him die a sinner, Lord. Maybe it's been our–Your servant's,
Lord, fault. That poor old man, knowing nothing but beating out the
clods and making a living for his children, but I found in him a good
gentle spirit. Don't let him die a sinner. His daughter is one of us,
Lord. And how little old Margie, them little shoulders aching, and how
she's ministered to me and trying to make me a bed to sleep in down
there, and a–a breakfast at the table, and her, and Nellie, and
Charlie, and all of them, mother Cox. "And she's crying," they said,
"on the phone. Her daddy is going." That's her daddy.

²⁰⁵
Lord, come to that oxygen tent just now; don't knock on the tent, but
that tent of the door of his heart. Maybe some of us hasn't fulfilled
our duty to go to him, Lord. Some of Your other servants, maybe in his
young days when his mind was alert, maybe it's our fault, Lord, that we
didn't persuade him. Then forgive us, Lord, and take him into Thy
Kingdom. Grant it, Father. We commit him to You now. If it be possible,
or be in Your great plan, if You'll raise him up, Lord, maybe some of
us will have a chance to talk to him yet. However, our plea is for his
soul, Lord, 'cause it's going to take its journey pretty soon, it seems
like, sailing out into the unknown yonder, oh, with no pilot, no one to
guide him through the fog and mist yonder. He'll lose his way, Lord.
May the Pilot that knows the way, come to him this morning, anchor his
little ship against the side of the old ship of Zion. When he takes his
journey, he'll be sure to land in safety. Grant it, Father, we commit
him to You now, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

²⁰⁶

Tonight I'll try to
be a little quicker with the message, not as I was this morning. Now,
slip away. I wish I could take you all up home with me, give you all a
good dinner. I'd sure do it if I could. But I hope that the Lord gives
you a–a real meal, spiritually speaking, in His goodness and mercy,
that you'll see it and grow unto the full statue of Him that you love,
your Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Now, as we leave the building, and stand for prayer, dismissal, we want
to sing our song, and be sure that you obey it, "Take The Name Of Jesus
With You." All right. You're going to dismiss…?… Now, we're going
to make announcement just in a moment, got announcement soon as we sing
our song. All right.

²⁰⁷
Now remember, I believe that Jesus Christ says this to every human
being on His first doctrine, "Except a man be born of the water (That's
the Word, washing of the water by the Word.) and of the Spirit (which
is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit confirming the Word), he cannot see
the Kingdom of heaven." Do you believe that? See? Of the water, washing
of the water by the Word, Word and Truth, He is the Truth. Water and
Spirit, the Spirit coming with the Word to confirm the Word, making God
live in me… See? We cannot understand the Kingdom of heaven till
that's happened. Then when that begins to happen, that we see the Word
in us, born of the Word and of the Spirit, manifesting Itself, leading
me not away from the Word; the Spirit leads me to the Word, and the
Word living in me, making God manifest in your life, you'll never
understand the Kingdom of God and can no wise enter into it. God bless
you. Brother Neville.

You Must Be Born Again (61-1231M)

 

¹
… New Years Eve morning in the service of the Lord. And Brother
Neville and I was trying to get together, and we were, on speaking,
what we would do. I was trying to get him to get up here and preach
this morning for you all, and let me have it tonight, so it happened to
root off, I have both this morning and tonight to do it. He's a good
salesman. And so before we have the–start the class, I told him we'd
just have a class, like there wasn't too many of us here this morning,
and just to have a class. Before I do this, I'd like to make a little
announcement.

²
I has–we have some people who came here from New York to sojourn with
us. I suppose I never met the people. Brother Neville said he just
spoke about it. Last night I heard that they'd–their trailer caught
fire and destroyed their trailer. I went out to see the people, and
seemed to be lovely, fine Christian people. And they kinda poor people,
like all of us, and Brother Wood and two or three of us was going to
get together and see if we couldn't just buy them another trailer. And
they were very sweet and said they–the insurance that they had been
carrying on it, they'd got in a tight place and they had to drop the
insurance. But, however, the agent had paid the insurance policy, or,
and they got–get their insurance back for their trailer, which will
probably be able to replace the trailer again. They'll know that, I
think, Monday or Tuesday, or something like that, or Tuesday, I believe
it is. And so we want to–to share their sorrow, to do everything that
we can to–to help them, to let them know that we–we are brothers and
sisters in Christ Jesus, and have feelings one for another. And–and I
think that each one would want to feel that way to a little help to
them at this time. It's a little out of ordinary, I think; I never took
an offering in my life, and I–I'm going to let Brother Neville do it.
So… That–that was bumping it off, wasn't it? It's all right. Thank
you, Brother Ben. Just someone, what, just a little something that you
have that you could drop to them, I'm sure it would be appreciated.
Brother Neville, come here. I don't know how to. You just do whatever
you think. [Brother Neville prays and takes the offering–Ed.] Amen.

³
I thought maybe while they were doing that, it would give me a little
opportunity to pick out something to talk about this morning out of
some old texts and things I had write out on a piece of paper. I guess
all preachers do that.
What's these people's name now that they call? Elliott. Is Brother and
Sister Elliott and their son in the building this morning? If they are,
if you would just like to stand up to say, I… to say, as much as
thank you for the–to the people, why, all right. Got a word you want
to say, Brother Elliott or Sister Elliott, in the–to the people? [Brother Elliott expresses their thankfulness–Ed.] God bless you, Brother Elliott. That's very fine. Thank you; God be with you, you and Sister Elliott and your son.

⁴
The people come from New York. I didn't know they were here. They said
I'd had them on a interview, or either prayed with them or something,
sometime. I didn't know them, till I met them yesterday, and found them
to be sweet Christians, very nice people. And they lived up in New
York, up in the Hudson River Valley somewhere, and maybe through a tape
or something they believed the Message and sold out, moved in, just
giving their lives and times over to Christ. And we want you to know
this is our little expression, Brother and Sister Elliott, that we are
sojourners too. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world. We're
seeking a city whose Builder and Maker is God. And when misfortune fell
to you upon these things, of the Devil trying to burn you out and scare
you away, we're with you one hundred percent, to stand behind you in
everything that we can do to help you back to your feet again. Rise in
the Name of the Lord Jesus and go marching on. Don't–don't take down,
no. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth them
out of them all. And so we–we know we look for these things to happen,
but we know that we also look to our Saviour Who is more than a
conqueror, we are, in Him Who has redeemed us.

⁵
Now, today is a kind of a full day, and this morning I was thinking
there, I just thought I'd teach awhile in a Sunday school class. Like,
make it a Sunday school class out of it this morning. And tonight at
seven-thirty, I want to, if it be the will of God, to bring my–my New
Year's message, as last Sunday or Sunday night I brought my Christmas
message. And tonight I'll bring my New Year's message at seven-thirty,
the Lord willing. Brother Neville will have his New Year's message, and
I see Brother Stricker over here, and Brother Collins, and, oh, other
ministers around, and Brother Palmer's up here with us from Georgia,
and–and different ones around. It's ministers, you'll be hearing from
them tonight.

⁶
Then I called Brother Neville yesterday, and on something that struck
my heart, seeing this is New Year's, and is also the first, like the
first Sunday, why not, tonight, instead of having a big rally and
hollering and going on like the rest of the world does, let's take
communion at midnight (See, see?), serve the Lord. Brother Neville
agreed that he thought it would be very appropriate. And tonight, the
Lord willing, I'll be serving communion at twelve o'clock tonight. And
we'll start the New Year, not by hollering and going on, which it's all
right if they want to do that, but let's just make it more sacred and
sincere, and let's approach this year in the way of sincerity to
Christ, giving our all that we've got, and our pledge. Not turn a new
page or something like that, start a new year, we don't believe in that
stuff. You only turn a new page to–to blow it back the next day, so
let's just turn our lives over to Him, and take communion tonight at
midnight. And I believe that's the first time that I ever remember,
since I been a minister, of ever doing it. You remember it, Brother
Neville? But something new for us now, and it's very seldom that New
Year's comes around like this, you know, so just–just struck me, and I
thought it would be striking.

⁷
I suppose then this will be about last time I'll be able to speak with
you all for some time now, I'm entering in the New Year, entering out
into the field on the service of the Lord. I'll be leaving about next
week, or first of the following week to Phoenix, for about fifteen,
sixteen meetings straight, all through the valleys, and up through
Sunny Slopes, and Scottsdale, and all around out through the valleys
there. And then we have the Christian Business Men's Convention that
comes off there, which is a five-day convention at the end of all these
meetings. They have arranged so that I could speak to all the
denominations, every one of their churches throughout the entire
metropolitan area of the Maricopa Valley in Phoenix. And they begin on
the fifteenth. So I'll leave here about ten days early, in order… I
stop probably to see my good friend, Brother Moore, and several of them
going down. Then it'll be snowy across the passes, and so forth, and go
in time. And then I… Many of you people are ministers…

⁸
And Brother Roy Borders, if he's here this morning, he usually keeps in
order the meetings as they call for meetings. And during this Christmas
holidays, well, I usually make an itinerary of where the following
year, but this year somehow I felt not to do that. I feel that I'll go
and have one meeting, and then where He leads me to the next meeting
I'll go from there, and then from the next meeting, wherever it is,
just go as He leads me.

⁹
And looking now for something to take place during this year… And
many visions has been coming to me recently. The other morning a great
one again and all pertaining and looking like a great something fixing
to happen. So I just keep trusting Him. Some of them I don't even
understand. And we don't understand visions; they're more like
symbolically and we don't get them just exactly sometimes, but we know
that they are true, anyhow. So they will come to pass. I write them
down.

¹⁰
And so I believe it's announced also, or which should be, that both the
trustee board and the deacon board is to meet here at the Tabernacle in
a union, joint meeting, seven o'clock tomorrow night. Now, let me
announce that again so if the deacons, wherever they, if they're in the
other room they might hear on the little mike that tomorrow night at
seven o'clock, both pastor–both the pastor, the deacon board and
trustees, I was just told a few moments ago that they were to meet
tomorrow night. And Brother Neville wants to see his deacon board and
talk to them, and the trustees has their regular meeting time, and so
they will meet together tomorrow night.

¹¹
Now, this morning, before we approach the Word, now, oh, let's not be
in no hurry about anything. You got all day today, and tonight and
tomorrow, let's just take our time and–and not rush these things
through. 'Course I know people gets tired or worn out, and, or, wants
to go home, you know, for their–hurry, got their dinner, and their
husband's waiting for it. Why, then, that's–that's all right, just
slip out quietly. And–and–and the rest of you wants to stay, all
right. And we don't… You don't have to work tomorrow now, and so we
just take our time. And that's the reason I thought instead of
preaching just for about three or four hours, I'd take eight or ten
hours on a teaching. You see?

¹²
All those people from Georgia and Alabama made me feel so great the
other night. I believe I was out by the office, and all was gone but
Billy, and he said… Brother West and them, which are very sweet loyal
friends (I don't see them here, but I suppose they're here.) called up
and said, "Well, is Brother Branham going to have the Sunday School,
Sunday morning?" And it freezing in Louisville; the news said they're
blocking the highways in and out, and slick on the roads.
Billy said, "Well, it's a possibility." Said, "He goes down there." Said, "Maybe Brother Neville or him, one…"
Said, "Well, that possibility's good enough; here we come." All the way
from way down in Alabama, and over the slick roads, and I–I'm not
worthy to have friends like that. Now, that's true. I–I am not worthy
to have friends like that. There's something about it that I just hate
to announce the meeting, know that I got people who believe the
Message, and–and come, and–and they love me.

¹⁵
And I–I've always wanted to be loved. When I was a little boy I wasn't
loved by nobody. Nobody had no use for me. I was here in Indiana, born
in Kentucky, so I was a corn-cracker to these kids over here. In the
family, all the boys, nearly, smoked and drank and everything, but me.
And I was a–I was an off-cast in the family, and an off-cast in
school, and at work I was an off-cast, and everywhere I went I was an
off-cast. And then finally when I found Somebody that really loved me,
Jesus, and He said, "I'll give you fathers, and mothers, brothers,
sisters, and friends."

¹⁶
And then the strange thing how that His great wise providence, how He
works things in His–out. Seems like that love has a funny feeling to
it; not a feeling, but a–a reaction. And then I look out among the
people, as He's called me to be His servant, and I look out amongst the
people and see sin creeping in, then I have to just tear in there with
all that's in me (You see?), to tear it out. And that makes it look
hard to the–to my way of looking at it, why, to say those things. But
yet, down at the bottom, true love runs like that (See?), true love.

¹⁷
Now, if your little boy or little girl was playing on the street where
cars are running, and you knew sooner or later they're going to get
hurt… Now, if he says, "Why, papa, I want to be out here." Would you
say, "Bless your little heart, Junior, you just go right ahead and play
in the street"? That's not a real daddy. If you have to jerk that
little fellow up and give him a spanking, scold him, tie him up,
anything else, keep him off that street, he'll get killed. Is that
right? Well, that's the way you have to do with the Gospel. You have to
shake and push, and–and–and try to do everything you can to keep the
people lined up. And I hope everybody understands that that way. I–I'm
just trusting that someday after it's all over and then when the veils
are taken from before our face, we will understand then.

¹⁸
Brother Way, I… That fine Bible that you and Sister Way gave me for a
Christmas present, that's just going to be a good thing to keep my
notes in instead of a book like this, when I get a chance to type it
out. I don't want to write, 'cause I can't make my own writing out, and
how's anybody else going to do it? I told them I had a shorthand all of
my own. And I have to study it myself to see what I've said. And I–I
get it typed out someday. It's a loose-leaf Bible, where you can just
take like here. I got two texts here this morning, two places I want to
read from. And in this Bible that he gave me, you pull it out like
this, and can take one leaf from Genesis, Revelations, anywhere, and
put them both together, and read them right off like that. See? And
then a little place back here in the back with a flyleaf, you can just
go right back to the… to all the Scriptures wrote down on that
message and things. It's wonderful. So I hope that I'll help win many
souls to Christ with it.

¹⁹
God bless each one of you. I want to say again for the nice Christmas
presents that each one give me. The church give me a new suit, oh, how
I appreciate it. And I got two new suits for Christmas. My brother, the
little church down in Macon, Georgia, down there, Brother Palmer, sent
me a new suit. And the Tabernacle give me a new suit, and there's so
many nice things give in, and–and Christmas gifts in the line of
money. Which, the division of income tax tells me that if it's a
Christmas present and wrote "Christmas present" or a "Birthday
present," anything, you can accept it; otherwise that I have to…
It–it goes into the work, which is all right. And I sure thank each
and every one of you, wife and I, and the children, and all of us
express our gratitude to each, every one of you, so nice. We wish we
could go back and give each one of you a present back, but you just
can't do that, you know, you just… My, I–I couldn't do that. I wish
I could, but I–I just couldn't. I'm sure you understand. I know that's
the feeling of my precious brother setting here too. We just feel the
people love us like that; we appreciate them.

²⁰
Now, let's bow our heads now for prayer and get ready for start
the–the message this morning. Into the Presence of the living God we
come now, soberly, and in the fear of Him, we come in the Name of the
Lord Jesus, knowing that we could not come and saying, "Now, Father,
here is William Branham, or, Orman Neville," or whoever we might be, we
would be turned down quickly. But we have the assurance that He said,
"If you ask the Father anything in My Name, it'll be granted." So I
don't guess I could get, using my name, anything from Him. But I know
that when I use His Son's Name, then I get my petition, for it's in Him
that I trust. It's in Him that we live and have our being. And we're
grateful this morning, God, for all that He means to us, and that's our
complete life and being.

²¹
I thank You for this little church, for its pastor, and for the
trustees, and the deacons, all the members. And I'm grateful for the
Holy Spirit that watches over them. May that great Holy Spirit
continually lead them and guide them into the paths that He would have
them go in. Reading in the Testaments, the Old and New, and also in the
Nicaea age, that how that when sickness struck amongst the saints, the
whole church went together; with one heart they called on God, and
their petition was granted. Each one of them as members of the Body of
Christ, fasting and praying, and God heard and answered prayer. Father,
may this little church so–be so bound in the bonds of love to each
other and the Holy Spirit, until it'll become like one of those, that
there will be no friction among us in this coming year. May there be
just such godly love, and everybody walking in the way of Christ, until
many weary pilgrims along the road will come and be saved. May it be
said that when you enter the doors of the little building, that the
Presence of God meets you with a sweet welcome. Take sickness away from
the midst of us, Lord.

²²
And we're grateful that we have hungry hearts to hear Thy Word.
Continue to hunger our hearts for Thee, Lord, as David of old said, "As
the hart panteth for the waterbrook, my soul thirsts after Thee."
Thinking of the little hart, the deer as we would call him today, that
he's been torn by the wild dogs, and he's bleeding. He's losing his
life, and he must find water if he expects to exist. Once he finds
water his life is renewed. May we be that thirsty, Lord, that we must
have Christ if we exist, we must have Christ if we become the Church
that we're asking for. If we live the lives that we are wanting to
live, we must have Christ or we will die.
Now, as we open Thy Word this morning to find consolation and
steppingstones to bring us closer to Him, I pray, Father, that the Holy
Spirit will open the Word to us, that we, Lord, as Thy servants, will
be better equipped to face the new year. For we ask it in the Name of
Jesus Christ. Amen.

²⁴
Now, thinking this morning that, on the basis of being New Year, I
thought it would be good maybe that I would lay aside my New Year's
message until tonight, and go back here in some Sunday school
Scriptures, and take a text to talk on for a while, on one of the most
vital subjects that I know of in the Bible. It's a doctrine that our
Lord preached first, the first doctrine that Jesus preached, and I
suppose it would be good to make it our first year's teaching.

²⁵
Now, is it cool for any of you, raise up your hand, feel a little
chilly? I thought I felt it up here. Doc, wherever you are, kinda turn
the furnace up just a little, because I feel it here moving around. I
know you're bound to out there, some of you people, especially with the
children.

²⁶
Now, let us turn in our Bibles this morning to Ephesians the 4th
chapter of Ephesians, and let's begin reading at the 11th, the 11th
verse of the 4th chapter of Ephesians. And then we're going to turn
then from then–from there, to John 3:1-12, and read two places in the
Scripture. Reading now from the 4th chapter of Ephesians and the 11th
verse, beginning…

²⁷
Now, I read that so that it'd give you something to study on after you
get home. Now, I'll read my text from John 3, a very familiar Scripture.

²⁸
Now, God bless His Word. And I want to take the subject this morning of
Jesus' first doctrine. The first doctrine of Jesus was, "You Must Be
Born Again." That was His first doctrine. Now, in a way of Sunday
school, so that I won't preach and hoarse myself up for tonight, I have
thought in my heart that this is something that it seems puzzling, and
to the people, we hear so much about it all the time, and I thought it
would be good this morning if we just search this subject through,
clear it out. And that's the first beginning, "You Must Be Borned
Again." And it's a very deep one.

²⁹
And we–we find out that there is so many different meanings that
people put to it. Nearly all churches say that you must be born again,
but each one has their–their different interpretations to that, what
it means to be born again. I might go to the Methodist church this
morning; they say, "We believe that you must be born again." How do you
interpret it? I go to the Baptist church, "And we believe you must be
born again." How do you interpret it? And I would go to each church,
and we'd find, if we went to all the nine hundred different
denomination of churches, there'd be nine hundred different
interpretations. So seeing that there is so many different
interpretations, and yet a Bible doctrine, there must be, and is, a
truth somewhere.

³⁰
So now, remember it didn't say, "You ought to be born again," but, "you
must." Now, we, as English speaking people, understand what the word
"must" means, that is, "it's absolutely, you've got to do it." See,
it's a must. Not, "you ought to; you'd be better off if you did, but
"you must be borned again." Oh, if we could just take that word this
morning and break it down, what it means, how that it's totally
impossible… And then if it's that essential and that great, that it's
totally impossible to enter the Kingdom of heaven, or even see It,
until you're born again, and so many different interpretations of that
word "borned again," we ought to seek it out with all of our heart to
find out what it means.

³¹
There's not a person in here that wants to go to torment; there's
nobody. And you don't drive hundreds of miles over icy roads, and spend
your living, your money, just to come to the church here to, well, say,
shake hands with the people (although you love to do that), and to hear
the pastor, myself and other ministers speak the Word (You get that
wherever you are, pastors, ministers, just like we are, servants of
Christ.), but there's something that draws you here, and to this
particular place. Therefore, it's the duty of we as pastors to see that
this flock is fed and fed right, because God Almighty will require your
blood at our hands. At the day of the judgment we'll answer for you. So
seeing this great tremendous responsibility that's placed upon us, and
God has given us people who love us and come to hear us, then we should
spend our time constantly watching for your souls. And when the first
little thing we see raising up that's not right, it's our duty to come
to that person, because we are shepherds watching that sheep. And if I
see that sheep eating on a weed that will kill it, I better drive it
away from that weed, jerk the weed right away from it so it cannot get
to it because it'll kill the sheep.

³²
And there's known in the western countries a weed that an–an animal
can eat; it's called locoweed. I don't know whether anybody ever heard
of it or not, a locoweed. Yes. A horse can eat that, and you just can't
do nothing with him. He just becomes an outlaw. You can't put a saddle
on him, and you can't do nothing with him. It's called locoweed. And
you must keep your–your stock away from that weed. And if it'll cause
a horse to eat something… If a horse, rather, it'll eat something
that throws him into this condition, into this spasm, why, you would be
a very poor cowboy to let your horse eat a weed, locoweed. It shows
that you don't care.
And a real pastor, a real servant of Christ will be a poor example of
Christ to see the sheep eat something that's going to drive him away,
or make him a outlaw before God, a breaker of His Word, a breaker of
His commandments. You shouldn't do that. You should watch that very
closely.

³⁴
So this great doctrine of Jesus that's wrote here before us in the
Bible, "You must be born again…" There is so many different versions
of it, as I have said before, till I thought this morning, for the sake
of many who's been asking me what it meant and how could they become a
real Christian, then I thought maybe that we would just approach the
subject and take it just as clearly as I know how to give it to you.
And it's not in the way of a sermon; it's in the way of teaching Sunday
school, that the people might get the Message. Now, many
interpretations of the born again…

³⁵
And now I'm saying this, and I know it's going on tape, and I want to
say this to the pastors that will perhaps receive this tape. I suppose
maybe just a little different from what the regular church teaches it,
I teach and believe, and believe can sufficiently prove by the
Scripture, that you're borned of the Spirit and then baptized into the
Body by the Holy Spirit.
Now, many of them teach that just to come up and be recognized before
the congregation, and so forth, as a–as a sinner, that you want to
accept Christ as personal Saviour, that that is the new birth. Many
believe that water baptism is the new birth. And some of them believe
that you're–you're borned of the water when you're baptized in the
water. And there's so many different versions of it. Lot of them, many
believe that to recite a creed and believe on a doctrine of a church,
just accept and say, "I believe in the holy church of So-and-so.
And–and I believe God to be the–the Saviour of men, and so forth. And
from this day on, I–I become a member of this church, and fellowship
with the Christians." They believe that that's born again.

³⁷
And although the creed that they recite, I do not believe that we could
criticize it; some of them are pure and holy; some of them are real
Scriptural; but the Scripture is not applied in the right place. And
even applying the Scripture, I believe that the new birth is something
beyond that. Even though how well you might mean it, I believe
something that the new birth is far beyond your good intentions and
your thoughts, minds; it's beyond that.

³⁸
I do not want to say this for–to be sacrilegious, and I do not throw
any slams at any organization of church, but a lot of it reminds me of
a–of a–a Jew, a little… It's a joke. And I do not believe that
jokes should be told at the pulpit; it's no place for a joke. And
therefore, to bring this statement that I've got on my mind, it's not
for a joke, but to show an expression of what I mean. That a Catholic
priest one time went home with a–on Friday, with a new convert to the
Catholic church. And the Catholic convert had baked a ham, and he said,
"Father, I am sorry, as my remembrance comes to me, this is Friday. But
I believe that according to our great doctrine of the church, that one
time I was a Jew, and you sprinkled some holy water on me and turned me
from a Jew to a Catholic. Now, I shall sprinkle a little of that same
water upon this ham and make a fish out of it." Now, that's, saying
that doesn't make it a fish. It's still a ham, no matter how holy the
water might pretend to be.

³⁹
And no matter how much that we try to think we are right in saying a
creed or joining a church, you're still what you were until you're
actually borned again of the Spirit of God. It doesn't change you. Your
creed, joining church, or changing your ideas, or your good intentions,
although as good as it might seem, it's still not right. There's
something's got to happen, the new birth is an experience, something
that takes place. So it is not that that brings the new birth. Now, the
different churches, they'd say, "Well, you accept this or believe that,
and it's all right." But it isn't.

⁴⁰
Now, to begin with, to base back, the reason we have to be born again
is because the Bible teaches us that we were all born in sin, shaped in
iniquity, and come to this world speaking lies. Then that shows us that
our nature, to begin with, is sinful to start with. We're no good to
begin with. So we cannot claim anything by our shrewdness, our
sincerity, or how great we are, how little we are, or–or whatevermore,
we are altogether wrong to begin with. And there is nothing at all that
we can do about it. You cannot… Jesus said, "Who, by taking thought,
can add one stat–one to his statue, one measure to his statue?" You
can take all the thoughts, do all the dreaming of it, read it, study
it, examine it, and everything else, and you can't help yourself one
iota. So that just throws it all out. I'm so glad it does, because if
it laid in the thought of knowing something, smart, we poor illiterate
people would be left out, so we wouldn't have a chance. But God changed
it, or never had it that way in the beginning. The churches always
makes it complicated. God makes it simple. So it's brought down into a
place where all of us can see, all of us can have it. It's for
whosoever will.

⁴¹
Now, now, one man could not save the other. Now, it makes no difference
what anyone tries to say; no man can save another. No matter how smart,
what his office is, let him be a pastor, priest, bishop, cardinal, or a
pope, he cannot have one thing to do with saving any man's life,
because he is a sinner hisself, borned in sin, shaped in iniquity, come
to the world speaking lies. He's a liar to start with, and any word
that he would say would be a lie if it was contrary to God's Word and
God's plan.

⁴²
But God made a plan for man to be saved. And man cannot add anything to
that plan. It's God's plan. And that's the plan that we are–want to
study this morning. What is God's plan? He said, "Let every man's word
be a lie, Mine be the Truth." Therefore, we'd be daresn't to change one
sentence to make it something else. No matter how much our rituals and
so forth reads, we got to forget that. This is God's Word. Just can't
be done no other way. God has a plan; He's made a plan.

⁴³
And, remember, to the first thing, until you're borned again you'll
never understand. Twice He spoke it. "Except a man be born again he
cannot enter the Kingdom. Except a man be born again he cannot even see
the Kingdom." Now, that's punctuated too. The word, in the making all
those words, they tell me that they had to write it out, they, and when
they say, "Verily, verily," that's a punctuation, like a–a–a capital.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." And the word in one place, or many
places, it's translated "absolutely": "Absolutely, absolutely, I say
unto you." Who said that, did a cardinal, priest, pastor, evangelist,
pope? God Himself. Now, there's no excuses. He will in no wise, no wise
at all, cannot in any other way, no matter how great he is, what his
name is, how big he is, or how popular he is, he cannot even understand
the Kingdom of God until he's born again. It's a great subject.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." Watch. Go get the Greek translation;
you'll find: not see with your eyes, you see with your heart. See, you
can't see the Kingdom of God with your eyes, because it's a spiritual
Kingdom. See? In other words, "You'll never be able to understand the
Kingdom of God until you are borned again." It's all an unraveled
mystery. And when you're borned again, the plans of the Kingdom, the
Kingdom itself becomes real to you.

⁴⁴
Like a contractor to build a building, unless he could read a
blueprint, there's no need of him trying to build the building, if he
doesn't understand the blueprint. And then when he understands the
blueprint, then he knows how to build the building. That's–that's the
way it is. That's what happens about building the Kingdom of God.
You've got to understand the Blueprint, and you won't know the
Blueprint until you're born again. And when you're born again and then
deny the Blueprint, what takes place?

⁴⁵
A lovely little girl that's recently… I used to go with her mother
when we were young. And she was a lovely, beautiful woman. Her name is
Huff now; her name was Lee before she was married. When I used to
pastor the Milltown Baptist Church, they belonged to the United
Brethren Church, but, oh, they liked me real well. And she… I used to
go with her. They lived way back up behind Brother Wright's here. To…
And I used to go up to their house, and the little girl was a very
sweet little girl, and she was a little girlfriend to me. And Brother
Lee, a fine man, loyal to the church, the United Brethren view of the
church, and one night he invited me to go home with him and stay all
night. And I said, "Brother Marrion, I'll–I'll be glad to do that."
And so after the service was over, well, the–the girl and I got in the
car and we went on. And I had to open a dozen gates, I believe, going
around the hillside, and up to hit a great big old log house. Well, we
set out in the yard and waited for her mother and father, and younger
sister, to come up. When they come up, we all went in and had a little
lunch that night. The mother got some stuff out and we eat, and–and
the father and I were sleeping together downstairs in a great big
featherbed, and–and a straw tick under it, you know, real good
sleeping. It's better than any of these old Beauty-rest mattresses you
get; I'll tell you that. And so we… The mother and the two girls went
upstairs.

⁴⁶
And that night while we were laying there, Brother Lee had a dream. And
he'd always debated with me about the water baptism in the Name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't believe it. And he was a contractor. So he
said, "Brother Branham, I just dreamed a dream." And he said, "I
dreamed I went up to New Albany. And I was building a man's house, and
he gave me the blueprint. But when I seen a certain way he cut his
windows and fixed a certain place, I said, 'That's not right. It just
can't be right. That's contrary. Now, he… That isn't right.' So I
built it the way I thought was right. And when he come back from
Florida, from his vacation, I had his house almost ready."
"He looks at the house, and he goes, and gets the blueprint, and looks at that, and said, 'Say, you have built my house wrong.'"
"And I said to him, 'No, I haven't built your house wrong.'"
"'What about this such-and-such a place?'"
"Well," he said, "that really don't belong there."
"He said, 'Tear it down. If you expect me to pay you, you'll build it the way the blueprint said.'"
And he said, "What do you think about that, Brother Branham?"
I said, "There is a creek running right down below the house here." And we went to it.
He said, "I don't want any tearing down on that day."
I said, "Get it right now. Put it up according to the Blueprint."

⁵²
How it paid, just recently one of his… Then his girl married a fine
boy, nice man. He's a machinist over here at the boat works, and the
boy'd had his fingers cut off this way, a nice man. And they have a
lovely family, three little girls, and one of them's–all Christians,
and they sing a trio. If we ever have a meeting here, they're coming to
sing for us. And one of the little girls majored in piano music, and
was a teacher of classical music when she was just a child, fifteen,
sixteen years old. And the kids at school got to teasing her about
different things, and being a Christian, and it got on her nerves and
give her a breakdown, and she lost her mind. And they had her in
Louisville, and was going to take her to the insane institution the
following Monday. And they wouldn't… The doctors wouldn't let me see
her. And I went over as a visitor and set on the side of the bed with
the father and mother. And while I was setting there, the Holy Spirit
moved in the–this Our Lady of Peace Sanitarium in Louisville, where
they take the nervous patients, and when there's still a hope for them.
Then if they can't do nothing for them, they send them to Madison,
Indiana. And the girl was going to Madison that week; they–she was
past help. And setting there, a vision came before us, and spoke to the
girl in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And the mother grabbed me by the
knee, reached up and grabbed her husband by the hand, and said, "It's
never wrong."
I said, "Just don't worry; she'll be all right." I left the building quickly.

⁵⁴
That night at nine o'clock, the phone rang, or I believe it was a
little before nine, 'fore I come to the church that night. It was on a
Sunday. And the father, with his heart so thrilled, he said, "I
couldn't go home, holding the good news, Brother Branham." He said,
"The doctor come in and examined my girl. He said, 'What's happened to
her? She can go home tomorrow.'" When mother was laying a corpse a few
weeks ago, there the trio was down there, the little girl just as nice
as she could be, her and her boyfriend, sweetly. Oh, I tell you, the
Blueprint, God's Word is the One to explain the program of how we must
be borned again.

⁵⁵
First, we reckon ourselves sinners and worthy of condemnation. And we
are all born in sin and shaped in iniquity; there's not a sound parcel
of us. Our minds are bad; our soul is corruptible; our constant
thinking is evil, every imaginary thought of a man's mind is evil, a
sinner; and also that our body is weak; our spirit is no good; and
we're just full of corruption. And how could one corruptible thing
bring another good thing out of a corruptible? Let me say this, that in
Job, 14th chapter he said, "Seeing that man is born of a woman, is full
of sorrow and trouble, yet he cometh forth like a flower, he fadeth
away." And on, as the prophet goes on speaking, he said, "Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." You stick your bucket down
into the well and pull out a bucket of water, and it's stagnant, it
stinks; you look in it, and it's muddy, and little worms is in that
water; there's no way at all to put your bucket back and get a clean
bucket. The whole world is contaminated. And the whole soul, mind, and
body of man is contaminated with sin, and born in sin, physically,
shaped in iniquity, and come to the world speaking lies, so that his
own soul is contaminated: nothing good. One cannot redeem the other,
because it's all wrong. And you can't take a bucketful of water here
that's contaminated, and another bucketful that's contaminated and mix
them together; you've got more contamination. There's no purification
to it.

⁵⁶
But God determined to save man. He placed upon Him the iniquity of us
all. The penalty of–of sin, when that you're born in the penalty of
sin, is death. Sin is death. And the penalty was so great that there's
none of us could help the other, so there had to be Someone Who could
pay this penalty.
What if this morning the penalty to leave this room was a hundred
billion dollars? There's none of us could leave, 'cause there's none of
us worth that. But then if one came in who was worth enough to pay for
all of us.
It takes One. We can't do it. It took One Who was worthy. Oh, how I
wish I could stop here for a while, and go back and pick up Ruth and
Naomi, and show that how the kinsman redeemer to redeem the fallen
estate had to be first worthy, had to be a kinsman. Therefore, God, the
Spirit, Jehovah, became Kinfolks to us by taking on a form of flesh. He
became Kinfolks: had to be that. Then He had to be worthy. And He is
the One Who produced that Fountain filled with Blood, drawn from
Immanuel's veins. He was the One Who bore our iniquities.

⁵⁹
A beautiful type I got here in Numbers. I've got my Scriptures wrote
down here. In Numbers, the beautiful type of it is, in there it's…
Oh, it's altogether pretty if you could see it. It's the brass serpent
lifted up in the wilderness. How that Israel, that serpent to them was
a death bite, and there was no remedy. There wasn't a physician among
them who had the remedy or the cure. They had physicians among them,
but not for that bite. Just as I've said, there's no physicians among
us that can cure sin. It's a death bite, and we're all guilty, all
shaped in iniquity. All of us are guilty. But what did God do? They was
guilty then, then death had to be paid, the penalty of death. But God
had Moses to erect a brass serpent, and put it on a pole, that nothing
the people could do, no money they had to pay, nothing at all, no
creeds they had to recite, no churches they had to join, just look and
live… See how simple? Look and live. Don't join a church; no
sensation, you don't have to feel a funny feeling. Just look and live.
That's all. So simple. Not if you can remember all the ten
commandments, you'll live; not if you know all the statutes… Just
look and live. That's all you had to do. And every man looked upon him
lived.

⁶⁰
Jesus, when He was here on earth, He said, talking to Nicodemus here,
He said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up." So must… Why? In the same manner, for the
same thing, the same purpose, to do the same work. Many times this
puzzle people when they see the serpent representing Jesus. The serpent
represented Jesus in this much; did you notice the serpent was dead?
There was no life in it. Jesus died. Like Cain when he slew Abel, Abel
died on the altar with his sacrifice; after Abel offered his sacrifice
and killed his sacrifice for his sin, then he died on the same altar
with his sacrifice. In order to be born again, you have to die on the
altar with your Sacrifice, just as dead as He was. And you're born
again. The serpent had no life in it.

⁶¹
And you say, "Why was it brass?" Brass represents judgment, Divine
judgment. Did you notice in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the altar
was made out of brass, where the sacrifice was burnt? Brass speaks of
judgment. Like Elijah, in his days, he went to look at the skies to see
if any rain was coming after his prayer, and he said, "The sky looks
like brass." What was it? Divine judgment upon a unbelieving people, a
unbelieving nation who had forsaken God. It was Divine judgment,
brassy. And the serpent itself, its form represented sin already
judged, for the serpent was judged in the garden of Eden. And he was
the serpent judged.

⁶²
And when we look at Christ, you see the penalty. The only One, God
Himself made flesh, God coming to the earth, and took on Him the sin of
all of us, and the judgment and wrath of Almighty God was poured out
upon His body, and there it was rivened at the cross. That's the real
judgment. He tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone. Alone He
walked the road. Alone He died with not no help from an Angel, from a
man, from His Church, from His mother, from His brethren, from His
Father. And forsaken by God, man, and nature, He died alone to show us
that even nature itself can't help us in the hour of death. There's no
friend, no priest, no pope, no pastor… It's death. But there was One
Who took it for us.

⁶³
No life in the serpent, it was absolutely crystallized. That was the
penalty. He died until the–the earth got ashamed of itself. He died
till the stars got ashamed. He suffered until the sun wouldn't shine.
He suffered till the moon turned off its light. He suffered till even
the elements of the earth was so black and dark until the midnight so
dark you could feel it. Wasn't nothing, no one's ever suffered like
that or could suffer like that; there's no mortal could go through it.
But He suffered it. God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all and passed
His judgments upon Him, and He tread the winepress of the wrath of God
alone with no help. There was nothing to help Him. God placed the
penalty. Everything was under that penalty and nothing could help Him,
'cause we're all guilty. There's no high priest could've come helped
Him. There was nothing could help Him, no pope, no Angel. Everything
stood back and watched it. That was the greatest moments was ever in
the history of the world. He died until there's not one drop of life
left in Him, become like the brass serpent, just a crystallized
ornament hanging on the cross.

⁶⁴
Now, the approach to this birth, there is approach to it. And to be–to
approach this birth, you have to go through a process, just like
anything that lives. Anything that lives again's got to die first. And
you cannot keep your same spirit. You cannot keep your same habits. You
cannot keep your same thoughts. You got to die. You've got to die like
He died. You got to die on His altar, like Abel did with his lamb. You
got to die with your Lamb. You got to die, die to your own thinking to
be born to His thinking. Let the mind that was in Christ be in you. You
got to think His thoughts.
And now, brother, sister, let me say this as intelligent as I know how
to say it. How can you think His thoughts and deny His Word, and yet
claim you're born again? Just ask yourself that question. How can you
do it? You can't. If you're born again, you got His thoughts. If the
mind of Christ is in you, then you are a new creature. The Bible
teaches that. And if any brother would like to, where you find that
creature, look that word "creature" up in the–the Lexicon, and you'll
find out that the word "creature" there is interpreted or translated,
"a new creation," because you are a one creation, a human being born in
sexual desire here on earth, and now you're a new creation born by
Spirit. Your own thoughts are dead. They're so dead until they're
crystal like the brass serpent, or like He died when the heavens and
earth and everything witnessed He was dead.

⁶⁵
He died till He was so dead that even His Blood and water separated in
His body. His death was so tremendous, till, I say, the–the world had
a nervous breakdown. It shook; it trembled until rocks fell out of the
mountains. What could die like that? No pope dying would do that; no
pastor dying would do that. But when God in flesh died on the cross,
the earth had a nervous breakdown to know that the very spoken Word of
God, rocks and dirt, sticks and clubs and trees hanging in the earth,
and the stars and the moon, His very spoken Word seen their Creator
become flesh and sin poured out upon Him. The wrath of God poured out
upon Him until the moon shut off its light, the sun shut off its light,
the earth had a nervous shake–breakdown, would've bursted to pieces if
it hadn't have been a future for us. Everything…

⁶⁶
And if His elements of the earth, upon looking, seeing what was taking
place, shook them to that condition, what ought it do to me and you?
What ought our souls to do when we look and see what God did for us?
And it was all for you and for me. What ought it to do to us? Continue
in sin? God forbid. But to abstain from sins and die to sin. Don't you
see what sin done to Him? Sin killed Him. And He took the penalty of
sin, that He might bring the righteousness of God to you and me. So
when the righteousness of God comes to us, sin is dead in our mortal
beings. Oh, I hope you see it.

⁶⁷
Yes, to be born again you must go through a process of death;
everything does. You take a grain of corn; if that corn ever expects to
live again, it's got to die first. If a grain of wheat ever expects to
live again, it's totally impossible for… That corn, that wheat, that
flower, that tree, that grass, that vegetable, everything that expects
to live again must die first. Then how you going to escape it? You got
to die first. You got to die. Die how? To yourself, die to everything,
so that you can be born again. You've got to do that. If you don't die,
you can never live again.

⁶⁸
And look, did you know each day something has to die so you can live?
Now, to you Seventh-day Adventists that's in our midst, many people
say, "I wouldn't shoot a squirrel, Brother Branham. I wouldn't kill a
deer, or a rabbit, fish, 'cause I don't believe that we should kill
things." My brother, did you know that the vegetables and things that
you eat is life also? You have to kill it. And the only way that you
can exist in this life, something has to die so you can live by its
dead life. Now, if something has to die so you can live by its mortal
life here on earth to live mortally, did not Something have to die so
that by Its life you could live eternally? Just ask yourself that
question. And that One was Christ, 'cause no other one has immortality.
The Son only has immortality. And He gives Himself to you by just
accepting Him.

⁶⁹
Now, it must die. Now, that don't mean turn a new page now, this new
year. You say, "Brother Branham, I've been coming here for a long time.
I've been a member of the church. This New Year's I'm going to turn a
new page and start new. That don't mean that. Not turn a new page, but
actually die and be born again. See? You've got to feel so guilty when
you stand in His Presence. Whether you go the Methodist way, or the
Baptist way, or whatever way you go, you've got to be so guilty and
feel so guilty till you… It'll kill you. That's right. You–it'll
kill you. Your worldly life will die right there. You've got to reckon
yourself so guilty in the Presence of God until your worldly life dies
right there. The–the sin question's over for you when you're standing
in His Presence. When you look like that, you're sure to live, because
you die. And the only way you can live again is to be–die first so you
can live again.
Now, you see what I'm coming to, don't you (See that?), what the birth
is, the new birth. First, to die, in order to be born again… And if
you still got the things of the world in you, you're not born again.
And how you going to claim to be born again and still with the things
of the world hanging on you? See? How can you do it?

⁷¹
Young Christian the other day, bunch of people… I don't say they're
not. But in looking at some pictures, Christian women, Christian men,
all lovable around one another in bathing suits, in a-swimming. See?
It's just… They said, "That's real love." That's real filth. It's not
love. Love is expressed different from that.

⁷²
Our souls are placed by faith on His brass altar, God's judgment, and
our offering is consumed. Now remember, when Elijah, under those brass
skies, laid the offering of God upon the altar, the offering was
consumed. Baal could not consume his offering. I don't want to say
this, but I must say it. And when you go to a church, and accept their
creeds, and their forms of baptisms, and the offering that you
supposingly yourself to lay upon there, you might get up shivering,
speaking in tongues, running all over the floor, or you might get up
weeping. But if that offering has been received by God, it's consumed;
the world is dead to you. You're gone, for we reckon ourselves dead and
buried. We are dead and our… We are hid in Christ, hid in Christ. And
besides that, then–then after that we're dead, and buried, and hid in
Christ, then we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

⁷³
You see what I mean now? You are dead. Our souls are placed upon His
Divine judgment; that's brass. When our souls is placed upon a altar of
Divine judgment, what was the penalty? Death. And when you lay yourself
upon the altar of God, which is pronounced death upon the sinner, how
can you raise from there, alive in sin, if God accepted the sacrifice?
Is it clear now? You die. You actually are consumed, and you're
petrified. There's no more left to you but just this form that you're
standing in, like the brass serpent, like Christ was when they took Him
dead and cold off the cross. You're dead. 'Cause why? You're on God's
altar of judgment. What is His judgment? When the judge has passed His
sentence. What is the sentence of His penalty? Death. And when you
place your soul upon His altar of judgment, it's death to you. Now, you
get it?

⁷⁴
Oh, you might get up from there and do anything; you might dance in the
Spirit; you might cry like a–like anybody would cry; you might run up
and down the floors; you might join every church; you might do anything
you want to (I'm talking to Pentecostals now), and go right back out
and defile a man's wife, break up a man's home, some of you women.
You'll go right back no matter how much the Word comes to you to do
right and things, you won't recognize It. You'll never let your hair
grow, women, or that. You'll never dress right. You'll still be just
exactly like the world, because you're not dead to the world yet;
you're alive with it.
Some of you men will never quit drinking, smoking. You'll never quit
lusting after foul women immorally dressed, when you see them on the
street, instead of turning your back, walking away. You'll still lust
right on just the same. Because why? You're alive with the world yet.
But when that sacrifice has been received, you're dead. That's right.
You hear what I mean? You understand what I'm talking about?

⁷⁶
Now, your soul is laid upon that altar of God's brass judgment, then
God receives the sac… Now, it shows that you haven't received it yet,
if it does… If–if you're still alive in the world, God's never took
it. Now, you people talking about getting the Holy Ghost and how you
have to wait so long, here you are. Until God receives that sacrifice,
until it's laid on His judgments there, until His judgment has actually
killed your senses… You might say, "Well, I'm going to turn a new
page." That ain't it. "Well, I know I used to smoke; I'm going to quit
smoking." That still isn't it. Until God receives that sacrifice on His
brass altar, His altar of judgment… What is His judgment? Death.
That's the penalty. The soul that sinneth that remains in that, shall
die. I don't care what you done.
Jesus said, "Many will come to Me in that day, and say, 'Lord, haven't
I done this and done that?' He'd say, 'Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity.'" See?

⁷⁹
When that sacrifice is received by the fire, and it goes up like that,
and the smoke goes up, you rise with your sacrifice into the
heavenlies, and you're sealed away from the things of the world then.
Our soul's on His altar.
What are you done then, after you have been died, then what are you to
do? Then you are conceived anew. You are conceived anew. You was first
conceived in iniquity. Now, you're conceived in something new. What is
it? The living Word. Oh, that changes it now, doesn't it? Now, we're
through the struggle, after seeing what you got to do. Now, what
happens? You're conceived anew in the living Word. What is it? The Word
becomes alive in you. You begin to see things different. Where once you
couldn't see that, now you do see it. There's something different now:
makes all the Scriptures come together, makes everything dovetail just
right. Then now–now something's begin to happen. Now, you die to your
own thinking; now you're conceived, because we are washed by the water
of the Word. Is that right?

⁸¹
What do you do with a baby soon as it's born? Wash him. Is that right?
And as soon as a man has died to himself and's born of God, he's washed
by the water of the Word. Amen. If It says, "Jesus' Name," you say
"Jesus' Name"; says, "You must be born again," you say the same thing.
Ever what God says, you're washed by that water of the Word. Amen.
Now, you're ready now for life. You're ready to be–start out now. Now,
you're born anew, born in the family of God with a new parent. Yes,
sir. Your tutors used to be… Now you got tutors that is now; you got
a new Parent. You can't be born without having a parent. So if you're
born in the brotherhood of a church, that's what you got. If you're
born in a creed, there you are. But if you're born in God, conceived in
His Word, you got a new Parent; that's God, ready to make His Word
known among us, with you, speak It through you. Oh, a new Parent, that
Parent is God. He's ready to take His Word now that He's already spoke,
and lay It in you and make It come to life. See? Now, you have your
training now. You're ready–you're ready to go into training now,
child-training. That's the hard part, when you think you ought to do
this, and the Word cuts you around and shows you something else. "Why,
they believe that over…" That don't make any difference what they
believe. Here's what God said. You must be about the Father's business.
Now you're getting born again. Now you're getting right, getting
straightened out. You have a new Parent.

⁸³
So in order if you're born again and got a new Parent, then you got a
new nature. The old nature's dead, and you got a new nature. You once
was going one way; now you're going another way. You once was going in
this a-way, down, now you're going this a-way, up. Your affections are
set on things above: a new affection. You don't love the things of the
world no more; your affection's of God. You don't care what man says,
how they laugh at you and say you're old model, or whatever it is like
that, you don't care, because you're born of above and your affections
are set–set on things above. God's not ashamed of you, and you're not
ashamed of Him. That's right. So you're… Read the 11th chapter of
Hebrews right here. I got it wrote down. Just why people in that day
how they did, how they wandered about in sheepskins in deserts, and
destitute, and everything else, of whom the world's not even worthy of.
See? Read it; it'll be good for you. And you can see there, what people
when their nature's changed, what happens.

⁸⁴
Now, what kind of a nature have you got then, Brother Branham? His
nature. If I had my father's nature, then I'd do the things my father
did. But now that I'm born again, it depends on who my father was. If
you're just born in the church, you got a church father, and you can
call him, "father" if you want to. You call him anything you want to,
because he's your father. But if your Father is God, and you're borned
in the family of God, you seek those things that pertain to God. That's
right. Then you are God's child. Your nature is God's nature. Then when
some, oh, you can hear them, some of them say, "Oh, our church believes
the days of miracles is passed." How could you believe the days of
miracles is passed when the very nature of God's in you, when He is
altogether miracle? His nature's miracle; His habit's miracle; His
whole being is miracle. How can you be anything else but miracle? Your
new birth is miracle. Your new Life is miracle. Even your nature's a
miracle, how you can look back and say, "Them things are dead. This is
right." See? You're a new creature, new creation. Sure.

⁸⁵ [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]
And when the babies was born they was all chickens but one. He was an
eagle. He was an odd little fellow. He was altogether different, but
(You see?), he was borned in another category. The–the–the sperm and
the egg was different; it made a different bird. Certainly. He looked
queer; he acted funny to the rest of them, but he was–he was only
acting natural, because he couldn't do no more, 'cause he–he was a
eagle. His–his nature was eagle, so that's all he could be was an
eagle. But there's a lot of them out in these denominations; they're
actually eagles, but it just don't look right to see them lolling in
the mud and the things of the world. See, that's your business, go get
them.

⁸⁶
One day the old mother eagle come over, and do you think that hen could
ever keep him on the ground any longer? No matter how much she clucked,
how well she said, "Come here, honey. I found something right here,
come." Oh, my. His affections was on things above, and he went to meet
it, no more denominations for him. Can't call him away from It.
And a man that's born of God, you cannot call him back into that rotten
muss of sin anymore. He's dead, and he's born again. He's a new
creature. He's got the nature of the Eagle. He's got to get into the
skies and soar. He's got to get up there where his mother is, his
Parent.
And that's the way a man that believes…?… "Oh, come join our church. Now, that's fanaticism. The–the–day…"

⁸⁹
Now, if that little eagle maybe standing out there and he heard that
mother cry, and he looked around and said, "Where is it?" Here, maybe
she cried something like this to the little eagle, "Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever."
And the mother said, "Days of miracles is passed, cluck, cluck, cluck,
cluck. Days of miracles is passed. No such a thing. That's fanaticism."
Oh, my.
Why, you couldn't hold him no more. I can just hear him say, "Mama, how do I get up there?"
"Just flop your wings, honey. That's all you have to do. You're an eagle. Just walk by faith."
"How is it going to be, mama?"
"I don't know. Just keep walking." Here he comes. His first few flops,
he set down on a fence post. He got that high anyhow. She said, "Just
come on; I'll catch you." That's it.

⁹⁴
A new nature, a new being, a new creation, nature of your Father, and
you believe and love every Word that He said. Every man's word's a lie,
contrary to this Word. This is God's Word. See? The Bible's right. I
don't care what the church says; the Bible's still right to you, 'cause
your nature's been changed. Now, if you've got a–a church father,
you'll believe in that church father. But if you got Father God, you'll
believe in God's Word. If you got a father in the church, you'll
believe that because you're of his nature; that's your father. But if
your Father's God, then you'll believe God's Word. If you're church,
you'll–you'll believe his word; you'll believe the church word; you'll
believe what the church said. But if you're born again, then you'll
believe what God says, 'cause God's your Father, not the world or
church creeds.

⁹⁵
Reminds me. One day they in a–a yard, they said they had a duck was
following some chickens. And the–the duck, you know, was a funny
little fellow to them chickens. He kind of top-heavy, you know, and big
bill, you know. But that, being he was top-heavy, he–had that bill
there for some purpose. And that's the way I guess sometimes the
Christian seems to be a little bit, get a little fanatically, but–but
that's there for a purpose. See? So he… It did look funny as long as
he was running around with the chickens, and he could… Turkeys and
things, they–they–they had the little bitty short bill, and they, and
while the things they did, and they wasn't built like that duck. One
day the mother let him, the bunch of chickens and him out behind. He
was always way in the back, you know, kinda… He didn't even talk like
them. His language was different. They couldn't understand one another.

⁹⁶
That's the way with the Christian when he's born again. See? He come
out of a different egg; that's all. See? Maybe he's got… I believe
there's many of them out here in these denomination churches that's
genuine ducks, but they got a hen leader. That's right. So they just
don't get it. That sounds rude. Don't mean it that way, but I'm trying
to make a point.
One day she let him out a little too far behind the barn. There was
some water running down behind the barn, a spring going out, creek. And
he was going along there wondering what it's all about, you know,
following the hen along. And, why, he didn't even like the diet they
were eating: didn't look right to him. These old things that they do,
it didn't seem right. So after while he happened to catch a breath.
"That smelled just right. Where did that come from?" Oh, that little
breath of heaven, hm. Catch that little breath of something that's
refreshening, a sermon that appeals to you, that strikes down in, you
feel the Word anchor Itself: hm, heavenly sunshine. He thought, "Oh,
there's somehow another that breath that I got fits my nature." He
breathed it again. "It's somewhere. Now, you can't tell me; it's
somewhere. I know there's something somewhere that I belong to," not to
this creed. See? You know what I mean? He smelled water, and his nature
was a duck, so a duck and the water just goes together. That's the way
a believer and God goes together. Directly he got another big whiff of
it; it come more strong. After while the wind begin to blow (Like the
rushing, mighty Wind, you know.); it begin to blow the breeze right off
the water to him. He couldn't stand it no longer. Down over the hill he
went, wobble, wobble, wobble, wobble, just, you know, going,
"Honk-honk, honk-honk, honk-honk," that little bill sticking up in the
air, you know. He smelt water.
The old hen said, "You fanatic, get back here." No good at all; he done smelt water. He was on his road to the water.

⁹⁹
"There is a fountain filled with Blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins,
where sinners plunged beneath the flood and lose all their guilty
stain." A real Christian wants nothing to do with the world. They don't
want to live around here haphazardly and wondering where they're at,
and today they're Methodist, and tomorrow they're Baptist, and
Presbyterian, and Pentecostals, and so forth. Oh, brother, that's
miserable. A real Christian wants to get the freshness of the Spirit,
the freshness of God in his life, something that makes him a new
creation. As soon as he can get the outlet, he'll drive over snowy
grounds or anything else to get to it. Away he'll go, because he's a
duck to begin with. Yeah. Not a creed, no, no, no, no…

¹⁰⁰
And if you still love the things of the world, you're deceived; your
sacrifice hasn't been accepted yet; your nature hasn't been changed.
Now, do you know what it means to be born again? See, your nature's
changed; you become a new creature. You got to die first and then be
born again. I know it's time for me to close, but just give me just a
few minutes. I'll run over these texts real quick. See, see?
If you still love the world, and claim that you are borned again, no
matter what you done… You might've cried; you might've had chills run
through you. Them's all right; I ain't got nothing against that.
Christians cry and have chills run through them. And you say, "Brother
Branham, I spoke in tongues just…" That might be fine, and that might
be just ever so good.

¹⁰¹
I'm looking at a little woman right now that come to me not long ago
with a vision or a dream she had, and I got the interpretation. Still,
it's kind of hard to go tell that little Pentecostal preacher's wife
that she didn't have the Holy Ghost (Uh-huh.), but she didn't. But then
she received It. See? Yeah, it's different. See?
Yeah, it ain't speaking in tongues; it ain't dancing in the Spirit.
There's none of those things you can lay it onto. It's a death and a
birth, a changed nature, a changed disposition. The old things are
dead; new things are new; the world is dead and God's new. God is your
Life, and the world is dead to you. Now, you get it? All right.

¹⁰³
Now, listen. I'm going to have to cut just a little bit here, you know,
get the briars out of the way. Women and men that won't follow God's
Word and His Teaching after they claim to be born again, there's
something wrong.
I'm going to speak with the women just a minute. If a woman that knows
that God's Word condemns bobbed hair, and wearing shorts, wearing
slacks, and dressing immorally, and haven't got the decency enough to
let your hair grow out and put on clothes that look like a Christian,
you're deceived. I don't care what you've been through. You might've
spoke in tongues like pouring peas on a dry cow hide. You might've–you
might've danced in the Spirit till you shook the whole building. That
don't have one thing to do with it. It shows that the love of the world
is still in you, when God condemns that. He said, "It's not…" A woman
should have her hair long. And nature itself teach you that men should
have short hair, because God is over man, and man over woman. And if a
woman cuts off her hair, she dishonors her head, which is her husband.
If a man lets his hair grow, then he dishonors his head, which is
Christ. See?

¹⁰⁴
"And let your women adorn themselves in modest apparel," clean,
ladylike. See? And then without the common decency to do that, you say,
"Glory to God. Hallelujah. I spoke in tongues. Hallelujah. Glory to
God." That shows that spirit in there is wrong. It'll accept the Word
every time if it's the nature of the Word. And the Word is flesh, and
the Word was God, and the Word is God; and the Words is in you, makes
you become a son or a daughter of God, an offspring of Him, believing
His Word.
"I don't believe in that old Name of the Lord Jesus to be baptized in.
Hallelujah. I don't care how much you try to explain it; I believe my
pastor." Go ahead; that's your father. But if God's your Father, you'll
line up with God's Word.
Preacher… "Many will come to Me that day, and say, 'Lord, have not I
cast out devils in Your Name? (Preachers.) Have not I done many mighty
works? (evangelists on the field.)' Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity," illegitimate children… That's right.

¹⁰⁷
If you're borned of God, you're washed in the waters of the Word,
separated from the things of the world, and believe God. You're dead.
You're dead to your own thinking, dead to your own ideas, dead to
everything else but God's Word; It lives in you, working back through
you, proving that it is God's Word. You say, "I'm dead to the world.
I'm dead to the world, Brother Branham." And deny God's Word?
Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Now, we're getting down to what borned again means. See?

¹⁰⁹
Still with tempers, still mean, arrogant, somebody say something about
you, you right up ready to fight, then borned of the Spirit of God? No.
God's Spirit don't do like that. No. God's Spirit is humble, meek,
sweet, long-suffering. That's God. loving, kind, forgiving, that's
God's Spirit. Oh, yes.
But they'll hold to that denomination, and speak in tongues, prophesy,
do all kinds of works. Jesus said they'd do it: "Having a form of
godliness." Hold to the denomination because that's their father; they
was born in that denominational father. But if you're borned of God,
This is your Father; He is the Word, the Word. No matter how many
sensations you have, still a child of Satan until you become dead to
the world and alive in Christ. Listen, quickly now.

¹¹¹
A soul, good or bad, death doesn't change it. I had a lot of Scripture
wrote down here on this one that I wanted to comment on, what a soul
is. What is a soul? It's you. You are a soul, the part inside of you.
And when you die, ever what shape that soul's in, that's the way it
goes. It goes to its destination. You couldn't pull it up no matter how
much you'd do for it; that soul's got to be changed here, born again.
You say, "What about the Holy Ghost, Brother Branham?"
The Holy Ghost baptizes you into the Body, for service, but you believe
unto Eternal Life. "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that
sent Me, has Eternal Life." See? Then you're baptized by the Holy
Spirit into the Body for manifestations of the gifts, and so forth, but
you believe to Eternal Life. He that believeth has Eternal Life. And
when you believe is when you're dead and are born, regenerated, a new
creature. All right.

¹¹³
The soul, now remember, good or bad, death doesn't have one thing to do
with it. Death just takes it to its destination. You hear it? And if
you still got the world and the love of the world in it, it'll die with
you, 'cause the world must die. God's condemned the world; that's the
world order. God has condemned it and it's got to die. And if that
world's in you, you'll die with that world. My, I don't see how it
could be any plainer. See? And if it's good, borned of God, it has to
go to God. If it's of the world, it'll remain to perish with the world.
If it's of God, it'll live with God, educated or not educated. Educated
or illiterate, if the world is still there, it must die. And if the
world is in your soul, and your desire is of the things of the world,
you'll perish with the world. That's clear, isn't it? See? Should be.
You're a part of the dead world. And as the world is dead, you're dead
with the world.

¹¹⁴
But if you're born again, you're alive with Christ, and your affections
is on things above and not on things of the world. But if you are born
again of the Spirit of God, you become a part of God and are eternal
with Him. Then, death cannot touch you when you're born again. You are
eternal. You have changed from a creature of time to a creature of
eternity. You have changed from death unto Life. I'm talking about
eternal. From eternal death to Eternal Life… If you're of the world,
you die here with it. If you love… The Bible said in John "If you
love the world or the things of the world, it's because the love of
God's not even in you." You can't love the world. And Jesus said, "You
can't love God and mammon." "Mammon" is the "world." You can't love the
world and God at the same time. "And he that says he loves Me, and
keeps not My sayings," that's the Bible, "he's a liar, and the Truth's
not even in him." There you are.

¹¹⁵
Oh, Branham Tabernacle, and all you good people, let's take inventory.
This is New Year's. Let's start; let's do something; get the things of
the world out of us. If it's still in there, let's get rid of it. Yes,
sir. All right, people of today… I've got to hurry.

¹¹⁶
People of today take all kinds of spirits. They go up and take a church
spirit; they even take spirits that call themselves God's spirits, born
again, and deny the Word of God being true. Could you imagine the
Spirit of God denying His Own Word? To you Catholic people, Roman
Catholic, I mean, could you actually say that you are borned of the
Spirit of God, and take those dogmas which is contrary to the Bible,
and deny the Word of God, and say that you are–the Spirit of God's in
you, the Spirit that wrote this Bible would deny It? That would be me
telling something and standing up and lying against it: God saying
something, then turn around and lie about it, when the Bible said,
"It's impossible for God to lie, 'cause He's the very Fountain of all
Truth."

¹¹⁷
You Methodists, Baptists, that are baptized in titles of "Father, Son,
Holy Ghost," and know different now? You got your Bible. You that just
take a church joining by shaking a hand, you that take your letter from
one to another, and claim that you're borned again of the Spirit of
God? How can you do it, and then look in the face of God's Word and
call yourself a borned again Christian, when you're dead to the church,
you're dead to the creeds, you're dead to the world, you're dead to
everything else but God, and God is the Word? There you are.
Let's see. They take every kind of a spirit. Oh, they got church spirits; they got all kinds of spirits. Now, listen closely.

¹¹⁸
Prophets… The Word of God comes to the prophet. The Bible said so.
Now, in closing, I've just got couple more comments here or so I want
to pass and then I'm going to cut off.
The Word of the Lord come to the prophets. What come to the prophets? The Word of the church came to the prophets? [Congregation replies, "No"–Ed.] The word of the creed came to the prophet? ["No"–Ed.]
The Word of the Lord. What was it? The prophet revealed the Word of
God. See? That's prophets, real prophets. Now, we got false prophets;
we're getting to them just in a minute. But the true prophet, the true
Word came to the true prophet. It couldn't be nothing else. Now, a
creed didn't come to the prophet; a denomination didn't come to the
prophet. No. But the Word of the Lord came to the prophet, and he
revealed It to the people. The true prophet had the true Word.

¹¹⁹
How do you test a true prophet? When he's got the true Word. Then if it
isn't a true Word, it's got to be a false one. If it says something
different from this Word, and this Word is God's Word, let every
prophet's Word be a lie and God's Word be true. And if that Word is
coming from the prophet, is the Word of God, then he's a true prophet,
because the Word come to the prophets, true prophets. We've always had
false ones. True prophets, the true Word. False prophets, false word,
"our creeds, our denominations; join this; say this; believe this; do
this"…

¹²⁰
But the true Word comes to the true prophet, and he tells you the true
Word. You follow that true Word, and you get a true experience of the
Word, because the Word is made flesh in you, and you become God's son,
and the Word of God is revolving right out of God into you, because you
are of His Nature, His Spirit is in you, and you'll do the works of
God. Hallelujah. The Bible said so. Oh, my.

¹²¹
False prophets bring false words. What do they do? Have false
sensations. False prophets keep enough of the true Word to be false.
They used to didn't do it, but the Bible said… You want to put down
Scripture on that? II Timothy 3. See? The false prophet has enough of
the true Word to make it false, because the Bible said that they'd have
a form of godliness. In order to have a form of godliness, they have to
have some of it as Truth. "A form of godliness, but deny the power
thereof," the power of what? To make you straighten up, be a different,
serve God, not go to dances and things of the world, the Bible
condemns, not cut your hair. Like, false prophets say that, "Don't make
any difference."

¹²²
Someone said not long ago (I believe I quoted it here before, I don't
know.), said, "Why in the world don't you leave them women and men
alone," to me. Said, "Why, then, the people believe you to be a
prophet."
I said, "I am not."
"But the people believe you to be. Why don't you teach them how to receive visions, how to do the works of God like that?"
I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they don't know their
abc's?" See, see? How can you take a child out of kindergarten and give
him a college education today, teach him square root measure? How can
you do it when he don't know what abc means? You know what abc means?
Always Believe Christ. That's right. Don't believe the church; don't
believe their creed; don't believe their doctrine; believe Christ. Why?
"To know Him, to know Him is Life." Is that right? Not know His creed,
not… He ain't got no creeds. Not to even know His Word, not to know
His Word; you got to know Him, know Him as your Saviour in new birth.
Like Jesus said to Nicodemus, "If you can't believe earthly things that
I tell you, how could you believe heavenly things?" How you going to
believe spiritual things that enter into the Spirit, and knowing and
seeing visions and things like that to set a school in order like that,
when they don't even believe earthly things, can't even believe to wear
clothes right, can't even believe to quit their smoking, and quit their
lying, lay their temper aside, and all them things, do all these
things, or quit lusting? How can you teach people to enter into the
Spirit when they got all those things still hanging on them? Yes. Oh,
my.

¹²⁵
False prophets have false words: creeds, denominations, sensations.
"Oh, bless God, only thing you have to do… You want to wear Elijah's
garment? Glory to God. Only thing you have to do is just be blank in
your mind, don't think of a thing, and say, 'Oh, fill me, fill me, fill
me.'" The Devil will sure do it. And then you rely upon that? "Ooh, It
run all over me, Brother Branham. I felt It. Ooh, glory to God,
Hallelujah. Jumping up and down like that, oh, I got It." And live like
you live? "By their fruits you shall know them," (See, see, see?), not
sensations.
"Oh, brother, you want to receive the Holy Ghost, just get down at the
altar and say, 'Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, until you speak in
tongues.'" Uh-huh, go back out and live any kind of a life, lie, steal?
When they tell you about being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ,
"That's fanaticism, my church teaches different," and say that you are
born again, washed by the waters of the Word? Something wrong
somewhere. See?

¹²⁸
You'll believe every Word just the way It's wrote here. We don't
need… And we don't… And the–the Bible said, "It's of no private
interpretation." God interpreted It, and this is the way It is. He…
Word, His Word here… Don't the Bible say in II, I believe, II Peter
there, "The Bible is of no private interpretation." Certainly. No, no
private, it's wrote just the way It means It, right like that. Just
leave It just the way It's wrote here; It'll bring the same results.

¹²⁹
Now, false teachers will bring false births. True prophets will bring
the Word, the birth of the Word, Christ. False prophets will bring
false birth, the birth of churches, the birth of creeds, the birth of
denominations. And here you are, Pentecostal brother, false sent–or
sensations, and tell a man he's got the Holy Ghost 'cause he speaks
with tongues. I've seen devils speak with tongues, pencils lay down and
write in unknown tongues. That don't mean a thing. See, it's got to be
a life: by their fruit you shall know them. "Brother Branham, do you
believe in speaking in tongues?" Yes, sir. "You believe in shouting?"
Yes, sir. To be a Christian, I believe that. I believe God's Word. But
if the life isn't there to back it up…

¹³⁰
Get out there a stuffed shirt, "Glory to God, hallelujah," and then
tell me that that's Christ? Christ was humble, meek, and gentle. Go
into a town, and, my, you have to be just brushed off the shoulders,
you know, and everything has to be just right, not a wrinkle in your
suit, and you have to have the very best or you won't even come at all,
guaranteed so much money, you can't have a meeting. Oh, my. All the
denominations, they have to pat you on the back. There wasn't a one of
them patted Him on the back, for He was the Word. Right.

¹³¹
False keep enough of the true to make a form of godliness. And listen,
now I'm saying something here; I want you to listen. Them kind of false
conceptions (You know what a false conception is?) lead millions of
people to a false birth. False teachers lead the people to believe in a
sensation, "'Cause you jerked all over, you got It. Oh, because you got
a real funny feeling went over you, you–you seen lights in front of
you, and got blind and staggered, that's Elijah's jacket put on you.
That's right, you got It. Oh, you know what you are? You're a
manifested son of God." Where do you find yourself? Defeated. That's
right. "Glory to God, I went one night and I had a dream." Oh, yes,
uh-huh. See? "Oh, I seen this, that…" Yeah, uh-huh. "You–don't you
believe in dreams?" Yes, sir, I certainly do. But if that dream didn't
back up God's Word, then it's wrong. This is the Truth here; stay in
This. Yes, sir. Lead million to false birth, just think…

¹³²
I got a piece of paper I was going to bring with me, where that the
ecumenical father of all the Greek Orthodox and Orthodox churches has
talked with Pope John the 22nd, and he said, "We may not see it in our
generation, but the great brotherhood in the a-merge of both Protestant
and Catholic is coming together."
I thought, "Praise God."
Somebody cut it out of a paper, wrote to me like that. I believe it was
Brother Norman or somebody, said, "Brother Branham, it's later than we
think." Look at today, the minister of war and, oh, so many different
offices and President, and this nation is all Catholic controlled.
Listen.

¹³⁴
You say, "Well, they're Christians." To be Christian is to be like
Christ, have His Spirit. Is that right? Here's a rude, something rude,
but I want to say it. If you called a hog a sheep would it make him a
sheep? Why, if you said, "Piggy, I'm just tired of you being a piggy. I
want a lambie, so I'm going to take you out here, and I'm going to
scrub you all up, and I'm going to wash your teeth, and I'm going to
comb your hair down, and I–I'm going to make you a little lamb. I'm
going to tie a little pink ribbon around your neck and you're going to
be a little lambsie instead of a piggy." You come over and say,
"Lambsie, lambsie, lambsie," he'll still go, "Oink, oink." Turn him
loose in a pigpen, he'll eat all the slop he can get. Right? It isn't
sprinkling him; it isn't putting him in water; it's a death and a
birth. Yes, sir. Say, "I ain't going to feed you nothing but alfalfa;
I'm going to feed you sheep food." Still feed him alfalfa, he's still
pig. That's all. Is that right? Certainly it's right. Why, sure, he's a
pig because his nature's a pig.

¹³⁵
And if you love the world or the things of the world, you're still a
pig. That's right. It takes the power of God to transform that soul.
Die a pig; lay your pig habits on the altar; lay yourself on there, and
let God's sacrifice be–or fire of judgment come down and consume you
as a pig, and rebirth you as a lamb. Then you won't eat no slop; you
couldn't; your gastronomics won't digest it. You're not right. Won't…
It certainly won't make him a–a pig to say–or make him a lamb to say
he's a lamb.

¹³⁶
So a person called a Christian, by some creed or some sensation… You
say, "Glory to God, Brother Branham, I danced in the Spirit all night
that night. I spoke in tongues, oh, my, Brother Branham." I'm talking
to Pentecostals now. "I–I–I danced in the Spirit. Oh, I had
sensations, everything like that. But I tell you right now, don't you
go talking to me about that there Jesus' Name stuff." Come on, piggy.
You're still a pig; that's all.
"My sheep hear My Word." I say, "But, brother, look, find me one place
where they was ever baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy
Ghost, in the Bible."
"I don't care what that does. Hallelujah. I don't want none of that old
Jesus Only stuff." Who said anything about Jesus Only stuff? I'm
talking about Bible. Jesus Only is a group of creeds and a group of
denominations. One can't call the other one something else, 'cause
they're both into it.
But I'm talking about thorough, genuine, one-hundred-percent
Christians, borned again of the Spirit of God, and the dewdrops of
heaven in their life. That's what I'm talking about. If you're a
Methodist and got that, amen. Only thing you have to do is be pointed
to the Word, you'll follow it like the duck going to the water. See?
Just exactly. See? That's right.

¹⁴⁰
People today want shortcuts. They don't want… They–they think you
get it just in a minute, "Glory to God." What is it? What is it they
do? Tonight they're in a–they're out yonder in the… Like some of
these fellows that they got like certain people that I could call
names, but I don't want to do it because this is on tape, but they're
in a nightclub tonight with a guitar, beating it, and tomorrow morning
they're standing in church somewhere beating that same guitar. Filth…
The Bible said in Isaiah the 20th chapter, "All tables are full of
vomit. As a dog goes to its vomit and a hog to its wallow, so do they."
Why? They're still dogs and hogs. That's what makes them return to the
wallow and to the vomit. You're still… They ain't borned again. If
they're borned again, they're new creatures.

¹⁴¹
Do you know what, you got an old crow, he–he… Don't matter how much
you try to… You could paint him just as–just as olive color as a
dove, just as gray as a dove, white, paint him all over, he's still a
crow inside. See? He's still stinky, an old buzzard just the same,
scavenger, eat the dead things of the earth. That's right. But you know
what, a dove don't even have to take a bath. Oh, hallelujah. A dove's
body, because he is a dove, he's got a oil that comes through his
feathers, that just keeps him clean all the time, because it comes from
the inside out. Oh. Why? The buzzard say, "Mine too. I put a little
holy water on them, brother, it fixed it." No, it didn't. For it comes
from the inside out, not from the outside in. It's a birth. "Bless God,
I go to church the same as you do. Hallelujah, my church is as good as
yours. Hallelujah, we're just as…" All right, you buzzard. See,
that's right. See? But a dove is oiled from the inside. There's a–a
certain gland in a dove that's not in no other bird like that, dove or
pigeon. And he oils hisself from the… Outside, he keeps hisself clean
all the time. He don't have to keep hisself clean; there's something
inside of him keeps him clean. Oh, Sister Way, hallelujah. Something
inside of him keeps him clean.

¹⁴²
Say, "I know, I joined church last week. I–I'd sure like to take that
drink with you, but, huh… Umm, that cigar smells so good! Oh, sister,
I know I'm an old model; I have to let my hair grow out now. Ain't it
awful? You know them pretty little dresses I used to wear, and
everybody, 'Whew-whew' (See?) I have to take it off now. You know, I
joined church last week." You miserable wretch, all the holy water in
the world couldn't clean you. But, brother, when you got something
inside of you, It just washes it away all the time. You just stand
still and It washes.

¹⁴⁴
You don't have to tell a sheep, "You've got to manufacture." That's
what's the matter with the Pentecostal people today. That's what's the
matter with all Christiandom. It's trying to manufacture something. A
sheep isn't asked to manufacture wool; he bears wool. You bear the
fruits of the Spirit. You don't say, "Glory to God, I have to get black
in the face; I have to do this; I have to have sensation; I have to
dance in the Spirit, and I got It." No, no, uh-huh. Just get borned
again and it actually takes place itself. You don't have to say, "Shall
I study all night, shall I do this, shall I do that, shall I join this,
and shall I make this creed, shall I do these penances?" No, nope. Just
die, that's all (See?), be borned again, and it comes from the inside,
takes care of the out. See? Sprinkle a little water, and wash them,
just like changing a pig to a lamb, you can't do it. But if on the
inside he's a lamb, then he won't be a pig no more. See? That's rude
remarks; but I'm not educated, I just have to make it.

¹⁴⁵
You know, it's… I was thinking, read in the life of John the Baptist
the other day, what he said, what he called them, "You generation of
vipers." Why? He was raised in the wilderness. See, he knowed what they
was. Stomp your foot and they take for cover. "You generation of
vipers." Also, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree." Tree, vipers,
axes, he talked on what he knowed. That's the way you learn God, by
what you know. You see a pig and a lamb, there's no nothing at all. You
can't make… You might wash that little old pig up and do everything
you want to, he's still a pig. He's got to be reborn before he can be a
lamb.

¹⁴⁶
Shortcuts… Tonight they're out here today, and they're going on (Oh,
my.), and tomorrow they want to preach: Pentecostal people letting them
do that too. Yeah. They want a shortcut to heaven, "Hallelujah, all I
have to do is get down here and just don't think of nothing at all, and
say, 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got on Elijah's garment. I'm going out
tomorrow to cast out devils. Hallelujah, hallelujah, I got It.' Praise
God, here I go." They want the shortcut to heaven, taking as much of
the world as they can take. You can't take any of it. There's no
shortcuts. You come the way of Calvary. You come the way of the brass
altar. You come the way of the brazen serpent. You die. You actually
die, O God, why can't I say it right? You die, literally die to
yourselves, die to the things of the world, and are borned anew. Amen.
No world, the things of the world is dead. There's no shortcuts. See?
They want to come right quick; they don't want to grow. We grow in the
Lord. It takes growth and experience.

¹⁴⁷
People are told out on the west coast now, "Oh, we got the immortal
baptism. We baptize you in water; you turn right back to a young man
right there, a young woman. Yes, sir. You keep getting…" They got
Elijah's garments; they've got manifested sons of God. "Yes, sir,
brother, God's getting manifested sons right now, manifesting, tell
them all about this. Tonight you're a sinner; tomorrow you're
manifested sons of God." Nonsense. Where do you get that in the Word?
Babies are not born men; they're born babies and grow to men.

¹⁴⁸
Listen over here; just let me just quote back just a minute and read
something to you in Ephesians, the 11th verse, 12th, about the 15th, I
believe it is, somewhere along in here. Let's start at the 12th verse.

¹⁴⁹
I remember the first sermon I preached. I got up there, and I–I
thought I did real well, and all of the old ladies set around and they
cried a little bit, you know, and said, "Oh, what a wonderful boy."
The old pastor, Doctor Davis, was an old lawyer. I went down, and he said, "I want to see you down at the house."
I said, "All right." I walked in next day, you know, all swelled out. I said, "How did I do, Doctor Davis?"
Said, "The rottenest I ever heard."
I said, "What?"
He said, "The worst I ever heard."
"Oh," I said, "Brother Davis, everybody was crying."
He said, "Yes, they cry at funerals, cry at births, everything else."
He said, "What it is, Billy, you never quoted one bit of God's Word.
You talked about some mother that had done gone on, or something like
this, and got everybody to crying." Said, "You're not borned again upon
things and sensations of this earth; you're born by the Word." Said,
"Billy, I…"
Oh, he cut the wind right out of me. I'm glad he did. See, see? Not
jumping up and down, hollering, that isn't it. It's the Word that makes
alive. The Word's quickened, not experiences; the Word.

¹⁵⁴
He said, "I remember the first case I tried, Billy." He said, "I beat
on the rail," and he said, "I said, 'Look at this poor woman.'" Oh, he
said, "'Look how she look, and her husband's mistreated her.'" And
said, "I cried a little and picked up my handkerchief, and I acted just
like the rest of the lawyers." Said, "I thought I'd go through the same
emotion." Said, "Judge, your Honor, why don't you give her a divorce.
Look at there. She says her husband beat her back across the back." He
couldn't even see it, under her underneath clothes. "They beat her
across the back." And said, "Why won't you give her…" The old judge
just set there, looked.
Directly the old attorney setting across on the other side had growed
up; he said, "Judge, your Honor, how much more will–of this nonsense
will your court stand?"
Just a lot of carrying on, that's the way too many people do: too much
carrying on without enough Word behind it to back up. Grow up. "Oh, he
danced in the Spirit last night, Brother Branham; he's all right." No,
that don't make him all right to me. No, sir. Got to grow up, be
proved, tested, growing up to Him, seasoned.