Wouldn’t I be a hypocrite? What would I have in store? I’ve got a wife and some children in a home, crying on the telephone awhile ago, “Why don’t you come on home?” But there’s other children sick and needy, there’s other men’s wives and husbands need salvation. I can’t do that if I expect to cross the river. See, over there I’ll sit down and rest a little while then. Until then, I’m getting old and I can’t feel like I did when I was first started years ago. But I just go anyhow-just go anyhow, because this is the last opportunity I’ll be able to do it in, in this life. The other life, it won’t require this. Let us stand now in respect of His Word, while we turn to Mark, the 16th chapter. Now I’m going to begin to read from the 9th verse. Listen closely, if you will. This is the closing message. This, today, is the closing message for this part of the campaign here; and it’s ... this that I’m reading is the closing words, the last things that Jesus said to His church before He went away-the last words, right immediately after the resurrection. The 16th chapter of St. Mark, I’m going to begin with the 9th verse. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first unto Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they ... heard that he was alive [Just think of that-when they heard he was alive. Oh my! I hope we can hear the same thing today, and know that He is alive.], heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared [unto the others] in another form unto two of them as they walked, and went into the country. [That was Cleopas and his friend going to Emmaus.] And they went and told it to the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. [Wonder if He’d do the same thing to us now, see.] And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; ... he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat ... the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, ... confirming the word with signs following. Amen. 16 Now my text this afternoon, I’m going to take out of here, “A Court Trial.” Now let us bow our heads. Our gracious heavenly Father, we ask You now to take Your Word, and as we bring up this afternoon this trial of thy Word, we pray that we’ll sense the presence of the resurrected Jesus. May we not be so slothful! And, as You said to those when You talked to them on the road to Emmaus, how that You spoke to them. And You told them that they were ... what was they worried about? What they so sad about? And they said that You must be a stranger. And told Him that Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet indeed... 17 And when they addressed You as a prophet, then it was just no more than behooving that You should go to the Word, being a prophet, for the Word comes to the prophet. Then You turned to them and said, “Fools and slow of heart to believe, not to believe all that the prophets had said concerning Christ: how He must suffer all these things that You have said, and then enter into His glory.” And beginning from the Old Testament, way back at the beginning, He expounded to them what the prophets had said about Himself. Then still they didn’t understand. 18 But once inside the building, the doors closed, then You done something just the way You did it before you were crucified-and then their eyes were opened. You vanished quickly out of their sight. And they ran and told these that ... they sat at dinner, the supper. And upbraided them because of their unbelief when you appeared into the walls; and told them that they should have believed You-and the hardness of their heart. And how these disciples rejoiced because You were made known. Because You did something the same way that You did it before Your crucifixion, they knew that was You, the same yesterday, today, and forever. O God! Please, today do it again. Come into our midst. And You promised these things for the last days, and may our hearts not be so dull with the ... with modern theology and the things of the world that we’ll fail to see You. Open our understanding eyes, for we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Be seated. 19 Now, I trust that the appearing of His vindicated resurrection this week... What little that we have seen, you could at this time and this stage, being your first time, be a little skeptic of it-because the only thing you see is just the minor part. But it’s never one time been wrong, in the tens of thousands times thousands of times. It’s never been wrong. How many here is a witness of that? Raise up your hands. It’s been... Never! No matter what nation, what place. It’s never said anything would happen, but what happened exactly that way. So nothing can be that accurate but God alone, see. Certainly. But ‘course it’s got to look shady. It has to be that way. So did it in His day, and so forth. Even His birth and everything else looked shady. God does that just to test the faith of His people. 20 Now this afternoon I thought it would be no more than right, and after His appearing before us and go through the building and discern the thoughts of the heart... Now I’ve only used three or four little scriptures with you, which God knows that all scriptures join together. There’s not one error in any of it. Not one contradicts the other one. Now, people say it does. I’ve offered a year’s salary to anybody’ll show it to me where the Word contradicts itself. It does not contradict itself. If it does, it’s no good to me. It must be exactly the truth. 21 Now, God is going to judge the world by something. If He judges it by the church, then what church? ‘cause one differs from the other. But He’s going to judge it by Jesus Christ. The Bible said so, and Christ is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” He judged it in the days of Noah, and He judged it in the days of Moses, and He judged it in every day-in His day, and even to this day-by the same promised Word for that age. We either believe it or don’t believe it. But He’s responsible to make His Word right. 22 You know, over in Matthew 12 there, it said that though He did so many things, yet the people could not believe-because Isaiah says: they got hearts, they can’t understand; eyes, they can’t see; ears, they can’t hear. It had to be fulfilled. And so does this have to be fulfilled: “to be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good; having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof”-the power of the God that they have the form of. What a saddening thing. What if that was you? Think of a man or woman that can’t believe that. What if that was you? Just think of it! It’s to be pitied; not to be scorned, but to be pitied. It certainly is the truth. Notice now. Today I’m going to call what we’d call-for a few minutes now before we pray for the sick, and we’re going to try to be out of here within the next forty minutes, if possible-but I want to have just a little trial first. And now the case is, today in this court trial (if you’ll just listen closely, and keep in mind what I’m trying to say, it won’t be long), the case is the Word of God’s promise versus the world. 23 Now, a case cannot be called unless it’s for some cause. You have to present the case. And the case that’s called in this courtroom this afternoon... Now I want you, every one, I charge you to listen to the case. Now the case is the Word of God’s promises versus the world. The case, and the cause for the indictment, is a breach of promise. (Can you hear me all right? Raise up your hands if you’re... Around everywhere now, you can hear?) The indictment is a breach of promise. God made a promise and didn’t stick to it. God’s Word made a promise, so He’s being brought in for a court case-breach of promise. 24 Now, the prosecuting attorney always represents the state, if I understand the courts right. So the prosecuting attorney in this is representing the world, and the prosecuting attorney is Satan. He represents the world because the world belongs to him. And he’s representing the world, and he is their prosecuting attorney. 25 The defendant in this case is Almighty God-the defendant. And now, the defendant always has a defense witness, and the defense witness in this case is the Holy Ghost. And now we’re going to... 26 And the prosecuting attorney also has some witnesses in the case, and I’m going to name them. And one of them is Mr. Unbeliever. The next one is Mr. Skeptic, and the next one is Mr. Impatient. These are the ones that is trying to get judgment against God. Now, we have the ... all the characters called in now, and we’re in court so we’re going to call the court to order. All right. The order is... 27 The court is called to order, and the prosecuting attorney now is going to call his first witness, to give witness. And his first witness to the stand is Mr. Unbeliever, and his complaint is that God’s Word of promise is not altogether true. That’s what his complaint is, the first witness’s. He claims that he is a believer-though he isn’t-but he claims he is. And he claims that he was ‘tending, here some time ago, a Holy Ghost (so-called) meeting where the people were laying hands upon the people, and giving their scriptural rights to do this, reading out of Mark 16, where I just read. “They shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover.” Mr. Unbeliever testifies, and he says that “I had the hands of this (what was called the Holy Ghost-filled) preacher lay his hands upon me, according to Mark 16, the promise that God made. [And the man said he was a believer, and many claimed to be healed.] And he laid his hands upon me, and that’s been two months ago and nothing has happened. Therefore the promise is not true.” All right. We ask Mr. Unbeliever to step down. 28 The prosecuting attorney, Satan, calls his next witness. Next witness stands up is Mr. Skeptic. Now he testifies. He said, “I went to a church... I was sick, and I went to a church that was supposed to have a godly pastor in it that had faith in God’s Word. And he had a little cruse of oil sitting upon his desk, and all of his people that come in there that wanted to be prayed for, he anointed them with oil, reading the promise out of God’s Word in James 5:14. Read the Word and said, ‘If there be any sick among you, let them call the elders of the church. Let them anoint them in oil, and pray over them, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise him up. If he did any sin it shall be forgiven him.’” And now, he said, “I had this pastor, who I’d heard testimonies from others, anoint me with oil, reading the scripture to me out of God’s promise. And that has been over a month ago and I’m still just as sick as I was when he anointed me. Therefore...” That’s his complaint. Let Mr. Skeptic step down. 29 And the prosecuting attorney, Satan, calls his next witness. His next witness is Mr. Impatient. That’s a rascal, see. Excuse that expression, see. He just makes you ... gets you so nervous you don’t know what you’re doing, see-Mr. Impatient. He claims that he... One day while reading the Bible (all these claim to be believers now), and he claims that he was reading the Bible and he come across the passage of Mark 11:22 and 23, where Jesus, Himself, made the promise that, “If you say to this mountain be moved and don’t doubt in your heart, but believe that what you’ve said will come to pass, you can have what you have said.” And again He says, “If you, when you pray believe that you receive what you asked for...” Now, he says, “I have been crippled in my feet, lame in my feet, for some thirty years. And I accepted that promise five years ago and nothing has happened since. I’m still just as crippled as I ever was.” Now, now the pro... Then he steps down. 30 Now the prosecuting attorney has to kind of show the case off. So the prosecuting attorney, which is Satan, says to the public, see, “These people claim to be believers and God is not justified in placing such rashal promises in His Word when He doesn’t back it up. [See, he’s indicting God.] He put these promises in His Word for His believing children. And His believing children stepped up here and testified that they have accepted this claim that He has made in His Word, to be the truth; and they have no results from it at all.” Therefore he’s indicting God-trying to get a case against Him-to say that God has put something in His Word for His believing children, and does not stand behind what He promised. Also he claims that He’s unfair to make such a promise to people, to His believing children, and is not able to back up what He said He would do. Now the prosecuting attorney is showing a hard case here against the defendant. “He’s not able to back it up because we got witnesses here that He does not stand behind the Word that He promised. “Yet,” the prosecuting attorney speaks on, the prosecuting attorney says (which is Satan), “yet God promises that all things are possible to believers. God says that in His Word.” The prosecuting attorney is sealing up his case now, see. He thinks he’s got it because the three witnesses have give witness, and give it to the Scripture and quoted the Scripture right, and everything the way they’ve done it. And now the prosecuting attorney is also sealing them little places that God promises that all things are possible to them that believe. 31 Yet, again, the prosecuting attorney speaks (Satan), and said, “God promises to be alive after He has been crucified. Promises ... He promises He’s alive yet. And also He promises in His scripture, Hebrews 13:8, that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He is unable to support or back up what He promises. [He’s nailing it down real tight so that there’s not a chance to get out of it.] He’s not able to do it. [God cannot keep His Word, in other words.] He claims that He is alive from the dead. He claims also in John 14:12 that ‘He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also.’ He hasn’t been able to support that. “He said also in the Scripture, ‘Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more. Yet ye shall see me, for because I live, you live also.’ Notice, again, He claims that in Mark, the 17th chapter, speaking of the days of Sodom-which we’re now living, like it was in the days of Sodom-that the scene of the world would be in the same position. And if God would come down, being the Word manifested in flesh here on earth, and would be able to do just the same things that God did-which was a man in human form, which was called by Abraham, ‘Elohim’... And Jesus said when the Son of man is being revealed in the last days that He would reveal Himself in the same manner that was taken in the days of Lot-giving the scene. “He also promises that He would be with us, even in us, unto the consummation, or the end of the world. And He also claims that both heavens and earth will fail, but His Word will never fail.” 32 Now I think the prosecuting attorney thinks he has his case pretty well sealed up. He’s got witnesses to prove that this Word is not the truth. Now you are both judge and jury this afternoon. You ... your mind is the jury and your action is the judge. You ... your ... whatever your jury’s verdict is, you’ll act out what your verdict is, see. You’ll have to do that, ‘cause your actions speaks louder than your words, see. That’s right. You can say something, but if you don’t mean it you can’t act it, see. Your actions will go louder than your words. Notice. Now, let the prosecuting attorney step down. He’s give ... had his witnesses and they’ve testified. The prosecuting attorney has placed the Word out here and sealed it, just the way he wants it, for he thinks he’s got the case completely sealed up now. So let the prosecuting attorney and his witnesses step down from the stand. 33 Now we will call the defense witness, the Holy Spirit. You know if there’s a defendant, there has to be a defense witness. So we’ll call the defense witness to defend the defendant-the Holy Spirit. The first thing the Holy Spirit says when He steps up is this: He wants to call the attention of the pros... to the prosecutor-the one that’s trying to try the case that’s indicted-that the prosecutor has misinterpreted the Word to the people, just like he did the first human being, Eve, in the garden of Eden. He’s misinterpreted the Word to the people, and the Holy Spirit, the defense witness, calls the attention to this. 34 Notice. He said that the prosecutor has said that these promises are to believers, and that believers is the only thing that the promise is to; not to unbelievers and skeptics. The defense witness has claims that God distinctly said that it was to believers, and calls the attention that each one that testified in protest against the Word admitted that others claimed to be healed, see. So that throws him out right now, see. But let’s go on with the case a little while. 35 And the defense witness should know whether they are believers or not, because He is the one that quickens the Word. He knows whether they believe or not. Don’t you think so? He should know. He knows whether they’re believers or not, because He’s the only one can put life in the Word. Here would be my body standing here; without a spirit I’d be dead. But it’s only life can quicken this body to move; and it’s only the Holy Spirit that can quicken the Word. He’s the only one that can put it in action. And He ought to know whether they are believers or not. And against their own testimony that they said others claimed to be healed, and others claimed to see these things, but they didn’t... Now I see his witnesses already condemned. 36 Now, He quickens the Word. And again He wants to call the attention of the word of the prosecutor, or the prosecutes that’s in question: He never set any certain time for this healing. He said, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick. God shall raise them up.” He said, “They shall lay hands upon the sick,” and He didn’t say they’d jump up right then and be healed. He said, “They shall recover, if they believe,” see. Misquoting the Word, see. 37 I think we got a good defense witness. Now, there ... He should know whether they believe or not-He could say that. And He certainly does correct the scripture here, because the defense witness always did that. In the Bible terms, the Word always corrects itself. And we find that He said that Satan has misquoted the Word to that unbeliever, and the unbeliever knowed no different. But the one that believed it knowed just exactly what it said and held onto it, see. But their claims was... They couldn’t prove it, but they claimed it themselves, and they was... 38 Like we claim to be saved. They say, “Well, show me how you’re saved.” My life proves I’m saved. The way I act proves whether I’m saved or not. No matter how much I testify, about a year you’ll know (how I live) whether I’m saved or not. Same way it is by healing. If you accept it and believe it, you’re going to act like it. There’s going to be such a change in you, there’s nothing can take it out of your mind-no more than your salvation. It’s God’s Word. You’ve got to accept it on the same basis. By faith you are saved. 39 Jesus said to the woman who touched His garment, He said, “Thy faith has saved thee.” Now, I’m not a scholar by a long ways, but I have looked up a few words. Now that word there comes from the Greek word, “sozo,” which means saved-just like materially saved, or spiritually saved. You’re saved-sozo. He saved her from a premature grave, just the same as He saves you from hell. Sozo, the same Greek word is used. Notice, “Thy faith has (sozo) saved thee from the sickness that you had.” Notice, same word every time. Again, calling the attention now, the prosecutor has misquoted the Word. And God never said that they would jump up right quick as soon as they had hands laid on them; but He said they that believe would recover-that is, if he believes. It’s only to believers. 40 And again, the defense witness wants to call the attention to the court this afternoon that God said that His Word was a seed. The Word is a seed that a sower sowed. If this seed falls in the right kind of soil, that’s got enough fertility in it to make this seed spring to life, quicken it, it’ll live. 41 Now, when a man plants a seed-if you’re a farmer, or know anything about planting any seed-if you plant a seed today (some corn, say, you put it in your garden), and tomorrow morning you’d go out and dig it up and look at it, and say, “Well, there’s no difference in it”; you plant it back, and the next day you go back, look at it, and say, “There’s no difference in it.”-it will never come up. It can’t do it. When you dug it up, you spoiled the picture right there. You’ve got to commit it to the earth. Then it’s up to the earth to do the rest of it. And every time that you look at your symptoms, testify about them, complain about them, God can never heal you. You commit it to God and believe His Word. 42 Sure it’s a miracle. Whether it’s sprouting, whether it’s ... whatever it’s doing, you don’t care. God promised it, and potentially you have your healing when you accept it. It’s in seed form. 43 Or if I asked you for a oak tree and you gave me an acorn, potentially I have an oak tree. And if I asked you for a ear of corn and you gave me a grain of corn, potentially I have a ear of corn. Then I commit it to the ground, and water it, and keep all the weeds away from it that would draw the strength from the ground around it, keep the weeds out, then it will automatically grow-because it’s committed and it’s a germitized seed. Now, if the seed isn’t germitized, it won’t; but if the seed has the germ of life into it, there’s nothing can keep it from growing. 44 Someone said, “What do you think about the resurrection?” Go out here in the winter time, pour a piece of concrete down in your yard, and where’s your thickest of grass next year when the spring comes? At the edge of the walk. See, when that sunshine ... and the world rocks around into position with that sun again, there’s no way at all to hide it. Life finds its way. It winds its way under that concrete and so forth, and comes right out to the end of the walk and sticks its head up in praises to Almighty God. The sun, s-u-n, controls all botany life; and the S-o-n controls all eternal life; for Him, and Him alone, has eternal life. Can’t hide it-there’s bound to be a resurrection! Don’t care where you’re at, you’re coming anyhow. And you’ve got to get healed if you believe it and accept it. It’s the seed that a sower sowed, and it fell into the ground. And if it comes... Some fell on rocks, you know-it didn’t have no root. Some fell on thorns and disappointments, and that choked it out. But some went where there was no weeds, and thorns, and rocks. 45 Now it depends on what you... If you let some unbeliever come to your house, or some unbelieving person tell you, “Why, there’s ... that’s no ... there’s no such a thing as that,” you’re letting weeds come in. You resent that. Say, “God said so-that settles it. I’m healed, because I believe it in my heart.” That faith laying there, all the unbelief taken away from it, it’s got to bring it out. That’s right. 46 Now the defense witness wants to call a few witnesses to the platform. Would we have time to do it? The defense witness wants to call a witness now-his witnesses, as the prosecuting attorney called his witness. The defense witness shall call first the prophet, Noah. Let him witness. “Noah, what do you have to say now this afternoon about it?” He said, “I was ... lived in a scientific age far beyond the scientifics of this age. It had never rained upon the earth. God watered the earth by-the vegetation and so forth-by springs which is beneath the earth. But one day God came to me and told me that it was going to rain water out of the skies. I gave my message. And He told me to build an ark. That I did, and said it was going to rain water out of the skies. And Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic-and all them fellows sitting there-they scoffed at me, and laughed at me, for believing for such a miracle as that, when scientifically proved there is no water up there. 47 “They could shoot the moon, they could shoot the stars, they could do things of that type. They built things then that we can’t build today. So they proved scientifically there wasn’t any rain up there. But,” Noah said, “God told me it was going to rain, and I believed if God said so, He’s able to put water up there. So I pounded away. Mr. Unbelief scoffed at me. Mr. Skeptic doubted me. Mr. Impatient... I pounded away till I built the ark. Every day they come by and said, ‘Well, I guess it’s going to rain today. Ha, ha, ha! [See. Same way, “I thought you was well. I thought you was going to get well.”] Where’s the rain at? You know, after all, prophet Noah-as you supposed to be one-you said that...’” Now remember, them’s not ... that’s people that’s pretending they are believers. Mr. Unbelief, and Mr. Skeptic, and those are. They claim they’re believers. “Well, prophet Noah, we always knowed you was a false prophet ‘cause you’ve got foolish ideas that don’t cope with science. It don’t cope with the modern trend. See, you don’t cope with our pastors. There’s something wrong. We know that you’re not really a prophet, but you said it was going to rain. That was a month ago -no rain yet.” Two years passed. “Hey! Hey, prophet! I thought you said that God said so.” “He did say so.” “Well, two years has passed.” Five years, twenty years, fifty years... The ark’s completed, Noah sitting in the door. There comes Mr. Scoffer, Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic, Mr. Impatient. “Well, now where is the rain?” “God said it was going to rain. He didn’t say when. He said it was going to rain. He didn’t say when; He just said, ‘It’s going to rain. Get an ark-you’ll be safe in it. It’s going to rain.’ He didn’t say when it was going to rain; He said, ‘It’s going to rain.’ And I’ve built the ark.” “Well, it looks to me like, if you’ve built the ark, and you’ve done your part, God will do His part.” “He will, but He didn’t say when He would do it. He just said ‘It’s going to do it. It’s going to rain.’ “ 48 So, we find out, he said then, “Years passed, till 119 years, and just lacking about seven days in being a hundred and twenty years. Mr. Unbelief, Mr. Scoffer, all these others (Mr. Skeptic, rather), and Mr. Impatient, they all made fun of me, and everything, and said I was crazy to believe such a rashal promise as that; that if God did promise me that, He told something that wasn’t true and He wasn’t able to back up what He said. But I believed God and held steady. [There you are.] I believed Him. I held steady. “And you know, one day they come up to laugh at me, and the door was shut. They said, ‘Well, the old fanatic went out there and shut the door, I suppose.’ “Oh, I heard them, but I told them, ‘God shut the door! No doubt that the rain will fall today. That’ll be it’ The first day passed by-there was no rain. Then they really scoffed at me. ‘Telling God shut the door! I don’t believe such stuff as that! Noah shut the door himself, him and his sons!’” See, Scoffer, Unbeliever, Skeptic. 49 All right. It went on for a while. But on May 17th, one morning, it rained, and it absolutely destroyed all those people that was put to a test against the Word of God; and saved those who believed God and made preparations for it. Noah said, “Let me test it.” No, Noah. Step down. Let’s call another witness. We haven’t got time this afternoon. Let’s let the defense witness now call the second witness. He’ll call Abraham. 50 Abraham said, “I was just an ordinary man, a believer. And God spoke to me by His word, and said one day that I’d have a child by Sarah. Sarah was sixty-five and I was seventy-five. I married her when she was about sixteen years old-she was my half-sister. And she was sterile and I was... She was barren and I was sterile. So there was no way for us to have this child. And so we went on for years. But God promised it, and we went down and got all the Birdseye, and the pins and the ... everything; got ready for the baby, made the little booties. And Sarah... And the first month passed by. I said, ‘Sarah [and you remember, she’s about twenty years apast menopause, see]’, and said, ‘Now, Sarah, is there any difference this last ... these last twenty-eight days?’ “‘Nope, no difference.’ Well, I knowed we was going to have the baby anyhow. And we went on and on, year after year, and I still believed God. “Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic, and Mr. Impatient tried their best to get a way ... they tried to tell me I was all wrong. ‘Why, Abraham, you was a successful farmer. You were a fine man. Everybody thought of you; but you went off on the deep end. You’re believing something that can’t be true. It’s unscientific for an old man like you and an old woman like Sarah to have a baby.’ 51 “But I believed God anyhow. It was twenty-five years later. He didn’t tell me when I was going to have that baby, but He said I would have it. And I believed God, and counted anything that was contrary as though it was not.” He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. No matter how many scoffers said, “You’re not. You can’t be. It’s impossible. Get next to yourself. You’re crazy.” He said he grew stronger and stronger all the time. That’s what genuine faith does-it don’t know no doubt. But if you don’t know that, you’ll give up right quick. So, well, Abraham, I think you would ... make a very good witness. “The Word doesn’t say when I was going to have the baby-the first month-but it said we would have the baby.” 52 All right, let’s call another witness right quick-Isaiah, the prophet. Let’s ask him something. “Why,” he said, “the Lord spoke to me one day in prophecy. I was a prophet. Everybody knowed that what I said the Lord honored, and they all believed me as a prophet. And one day there come something rashal, and it said, ‘A virgin shall conceive.’ Well, now that was unusual. [And it’s usually in that unusual thing that God works, see. It’s too strange-like Joseph. He wanted to believe Mary, but it was so unusual, see-too unusual.] So I said... When I made that prophecy everybody believed me. So every young girl got ready (that was unmarried), got ready to have a virgin-born child. Day after day, year after year, it passed on. And then they began to believe that I was a false prophet. But I know it was the same God that had always made these promises, so I stayed right with it. And it was some eight hundred years later before the baby come-but a virgin did conceive. His words come to pass.” Quickly let’s call another witness. Let’s call Moses. “Moses, you were born...” All prophets are predestinated-we know that. Gifts and callings are without repentance. 53 “Jeremiah,” the Bible said, “before you was even conceived in your mother’s womb, I knew you, and sanctified you and ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jesus Christ was the woman’s seed from the garden of Eden. John the Baptist-712 years before he was born, Isaiah saw him. Said, “He’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord.” See, gifts and callings ain’t laying hands on one another; it’s what God does. Born from birth, see-those gifts are right in you when you’re born. 54 Notice. Moses, born to be a prophet, and here he was out in the wilderness, after forty years of getting rid of his education that he had got down from Egypt. And yet, God appeared to him, and spoke in a sign and in a voice-a pillar of fire, and a voice that was very scriptural-and said this: “I’m with you, Moses. You’ll be my mouth.” And Moses said, “I complained. I didn’t think that my mouth was worthy. I ... I stammer a little. I ... my ... my ... my speech is not good. “And God said unto me, ‘Who made the mouth of man? And if you can’t believe that, I know Aaron can speak well, your brother. You be God and let him be your prophet. Let him perform, and you speak the word. And I’ll be in your mouth and speak the word.’ 55 “Now that’s a pretty good setup. So away I went. Everybody laughed at me because I was, right then, eighty years old. I had white beard hanging way down like this. And I had my wife sitting on a mule, and little Gershom on her side. And I was going down to Egypt, and my eyes set towards heaven. And this old crooked stick in my hand, I was going down to take over-a one-man invasion.” And the thing of it was, he did it! That’s right. He did it with a crooked stick, where he couldn’t do it with an army. But God said so-that settles it. “So when I first come before holy father Pharaoh [the pastor, you know], and performed the miracle that God told me to do-a sign with my hand, or with a stick-you know Pastor Pharaoh down there, he didn’t want to cooperate with me to begin with. But when I had to force my way in to get it, you know he kind of made ... tried to make the work of the Lord look shady. He said he had some magicians there could do the same thing, and the carnal impersonators raised up to impersonate. [That’s just exactly what Satan does in every move-carnal impersonator. Somebody sees something done, and somebody try to impersonate it.] 56 “Well, then the carnal impersonators come up and turned those sticks into serpents, just like I did. Pastor Pharaoh said, ‘You see. It’s nothing but a magician-a souped-up magician.’” And we’ve got the same thing here in scientific, so forth. We ... just exactly. We got hospitals and things. Now, of course, I believe that. That ain’t what God said. Now, he said, notice, said, “We ... he tried to make it look shady on my part, but I was positive. I knowed that voice that spoke to me was the written and spoken word of God for this age. So I just held steady, and He just shuffled them all away from me. “He finally brought us to the mountain, where He told me after a long, long time-not that day, but a long time afterward-we finally come to the mountain where He said, for a sign, I would return to this mountain. I held steady.” 57 Let’s just grab another witness right quick before we leave. Let’s pull up Joshua here. Joshua said, “Moses took one out of every tribe, every denomination, and he sent us over to spy out the land. And when we got there at the river and looked across there and seen those Amalekites, the Amorites, Perizzites, and whatmore,” said, “they were giants.” Said, “They ... people screamed out for fear. ‘Well, we can’t do that. If we ever sponsor a meeting like that, our organization will turn us out. We just can’t do it. We can’t have things like that-it’s too shady, see. We just can’t. Why, it’s impossible!’ And when they come back... Yet they had the evidence brought back-grapes from that land.” 58 And the trouble of it is, how can a man, or a church, or a denomination that’s ever tasted of the evidence that He is alive-and then deny when He’s resurrected among us? How can you do it, Pentecost? You spoke with tongues and interpret tongues, as you claim; and then, how could you turn the very promised Word down for this age? Take part of it. You said, “It’s a good land. We have our idea...” It was a good land. It’s proven to be a good land. But that one bunch of grapes wasn’t all of it! All Palestine was full of it. “We believe in speaking in tongues, and all these other miracles, and things, and praying for the sick.” And then when the promise comes up here to something else: “As it was in the days of Sodom...” 59 Malachi 4 said, “Just before the great time when the Gentile world will be burned up, just like Sodom was burned, and then the righteous will walk out upon the wicked, I’ll send to you Elijah, anointed with the Spirit, and he will turn the hearts of the children back to the faith of the fathers.” Return back, always. Each one of the times He comes, that’s what it was. And why can you doubt that when He brings Christ-the promise, the prophets, the Word and everything-and it perfectly identifies it. And then turn back and say, “No, don’t you cooperate with that meeting. If you do, I’ll give you your papers.” If it be my part, they could have their goatskins; my name is written on the Lamb’s book of life with every believer. 60 So they come back, and Joshua said... When they all... (I could stay there a long time, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.) So Joshua said, “I stilled the people.” Said, “I don’t care how great they seem to be, how much opposition, how much fanatically it seems; remember God said when we were in Egypt, ‘I have given you this land.’” [“I give it to you. Now, you just go on in there and sweep it out, and plaster the walls.” And tell you, “Come in, and get you a Morris chair and sit down.” And say, “I’ll have the maids to fix the bed for you.” He don’t do it that way.] 61 You... Joshua was told by God, “Everywhere the soles of your feet steps, that I’ve given you.” Footsteps meant possession-and every promise in the Book is to believers, but you’ve got to make foot prints to it. You got to fight every inch of the way. If you haven’t got no fight in you, then get out of the game. 62 I went in here not long ago-I believe it was in this state-Georgia Tech, or somewhere up there, was having a... I don’t know. I’m wrong, it might have been in the East. I went into a football stadium. I seen a little sign-it always kind of inspired me. Had a sign up over the door where you come out from dressing rooms. In there had a sign, said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight that’s in the dog.” That’s right, too. It ain’t how much DD.D., Ph.D., LL.D., you got; it’s how much of Christ that’s in you. It’s how much faith that’s there. It’s not how much you can explain this, and explain that, and explain this away; it’s how much faith you got in God to believe that He tells the truth. That’s up to you. It depends on what breed you are. If you’re Abraham’s seed you do like Abraham does-call things that were not as though they were. 63 Now, Joshua said, “I stilled the people by telling them, ‘Keep quiet! God said so!’ God said it-that’s true! But you know, they was only two days from there-that’s Kadesh-barnea-they was ... only two days they would have been in the promised land. But,” Joshua said, “it was forty years before we took the land. He didn’t say when we’d take the land, but He said... He let that old generation die off, them unbelievers, and raised up another generation that believed. He didn’t say when they’d take the land, but He said they would take the land, and we took it. [I think he’s a good witness. Don’t you think so? Sure do.] We took the land, after so many years.” Now, it’s getting late. I ... just let me have one more witness. Can we? I got a dozen wrote down here. We could call a hundred or two, but let me just call one more. If you’ll pardon me, may I be that witness? I’d like to take the stand for Him. That was back there; this is here now. I know that would be their testimony, but let me take the witness stand once. 64 Oh, my! I remember down there when I was a little boy. You’ve read my life story. You know the story. I ‘member on the river down there, when I was a young Baptist preacher and was baptizing-near about ten thousand people standing on the bank. And one afternoon, my first great revival-somewhere around a thousand converts-and I was baptizing them out there in the water. The seventeenth person I was leading out into the water, I heard a noise, and I looked around. It was hot. It was on June, 1933, at the foot of Spring Street, at Jeffersonville, Indiana. I was leading them out there, and the banks, all up and down, were just crowded with people. I walked out with this little boy. I’d seen him at the altar. I said, “Son, have you accepted Jesus Christ to be your personal Saviour?” 65 He said, “I have.” His name was Edward Colvin. And I said, “Edward, do you know what I’m doing now?” He said, “I do, Brother Branham.” I said, “I am baptizing you, showing to this audience out here that you’ve accepted Christ as your personal Saviour. When I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ you take on His name. You rise for a new life. And when you leave here you’re to walk a new life. Do you understand that, Edward?” He said, “I do.” I said, “Bow your head.” I said, “Heavenly Father, as this young man has confessed his faith in You, and as I was commissioned just to go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, commissioning them to believe all things which you have taught, I therefore baptize thee, my beloved brother, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 66 And as I laid him into the water, I come up, I heard something going, “wh-o-o-o-sh.” I looked at the crowd, and I heard a voice saying, “Look up!” I thought, “What is that?” Billy, here, his mother-two or three years before we was married-she was standing there. I seen her face white. She had a camera in her hand. 67 “Look up!” I heard it the second time. I was scared. I looked around-the people standing there just looking just dumbfounded. I heard it say again, “Look up!” And when I looked here come that same pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness, thousands of eyes looking at it. Come right down to over where I was standing and said, “As John the Baptist was sent forth to forerun the first coming of Christ, your message shall cover the earth and forerun the second coming of Christ.” That went into the newspaper on the Associated Press. Dr. Lee Vayle, here this afternoon, picked it up plumb in Canada and around. “Local Baptist preacher, while baptizing, a mystic light appears over him.” 68 Right yonder in Dallas, Texas, or Houston, Texas, a few years ago-when people doubted it and hardly knowed what to do-a fine Baptist preacher wanted to debate with Brother Bosworth: there wasn’t no such as divine healing. And when he lost the debate by one hundred percent, he said, “Let me see this divine healer come forth and perform.” I said (I come down. I was in the balcony), I said, “I am not a divine healer, sir.” 69 [blank spot on tape] “... Jesus. Yes or no. You can’t answer it. [Just one question, that was all.] If He’s Jehovah-jireh (He must be; if He isn’t, He isn’t a Saviour, and you can’t separate the names), He’s Jehovah-rapha, the healer, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” That man could not move, but stand there and stuttered. Many of you was there, I guess, to hear it. So the debate was given Mr. Bosworth, and he never even got one point. And when it was... That was by officials of the city that’s not interested in either side-just knowing what the Scriptures said. And then he just kept saying, “Let him come forth.” He didn’t know I was up there. And I was sitting up there with my wife and little Becky. She’s ... graduates this year from high school. I was sitting there. She was just a year old-I was holding her in my arms. 70 And he said, Brother Bosworth said, “I know Brother Branham’s in the meeting. If he wants to come dismiss it, all right. But,” said, I...” And everybody began to look around. And there stood about so many hundreds of people-thousands, about thirty thousand people. We’d been having eight hundred all along, over at the Music House. And this ... the people come in by planes, by trains, and everywhere. And there’s where I knew... All the Pentecostal groups come together then. It’ll take a persecution to run you people together. You’ll never believe it. But when that time comes... See, one thing they believed in common-divine healing-so the oneness, twoness, threeness, fourness, and whatever it was, all come together. There they was. 71 And this man said, “There’s nobody believes divine healing but a bunch of holy rollers.” 72 Raymond Richey raised up and said, “What would you consider holy rollers?” Said, “What would you consider sane people?” He said, “Baptists.” He said, “All right, how many in this building now can show by a doctor’s certificate that Jesus Christ healed you while Brother Branham’s here?” Three hundred stood up. “Now, what about that?” So he just got fighting angry. I thought I’d walk down. I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Go down.” I looked, and here was this light hanging right above where I was at. I walked down there and I said, “If the gift is in question, that’s different. But I’m not a healer; God’s the healer. Now,” I said, “If I testify for God, God’s obligated to testify for me.” 73 Now the Douglas studio with the big cameras setting there, and they said... The minister said, “Take some glossies of that old man. I’m going to skin him, and pull his hide off of him and tack his skin on my study door for a memorial to divine healing.” Could you imagine a Christian saying that about another one? See, look, you’re known by your fruit. So, and he took six glossies. 74 He put his fist up under Brother Bosworth’s nose before they started the debate. He said, “Take it like this,” and he took it. Brother Bosworth just stood there. You know what? When he took that to the studio back there to examine it, there wasn’t one of them. Every one of them was perfectly blocked out. God would not permit that infidel to put his finger under a godly man’s nose like that, have the pictures taken. While I was standing there I said, “If there’s a question about the gift of God for discernment, that’s promised scripture. That can be proved. That can be proved. But,” I said, “as for me being a healer, no, sir. I am not a healer, sir.” He said, “As a man, I respect you. As a minister I don’t think much of you.” I said, “I’ll return the compliment.” And so just went ahead like that. So he said, “I’d like to see you perform. I’d like to see you hypnotize somebody, and let me see them a year from today,” started to turn around. 75 I said, “If I speak for God, God is duty bound to speak for me.” I no more than said that, and here come that whirl again, right down in the audience where it was, there come that pillar of fire down. And that big studio camera now snapped the picture. George J. Lacy, the head of the FBI for fingerprint and document, took it. At midnight that night, when they put it in, it was the only one that had a picture. You ... how many’s got it on your shelves down in your homes? See? Hangs in Washington, DC, in the hall of religious arts-the only supernatural being was ever photographed in all the world’s history. What is it? Watch it! Look at it this week! Look what it’s done! Yesterday, today, and forever the same. If I had ten thousand tongues I could not get through speaking for Him. Yes, sir. 76 My pastor said to me, back there, said, “Boy, you had a dream.” No matter what he had... I remember when I first started out and met you people here in these countries. He told me, said, “The first gift will be that you ... the voice behind this will be, you put your hands upon the sick and don’t say nothing. It will say what it is.” How many remembers that? And I said, “Then it will come to pass...” 77 He said to me that night when He met me at Green’s Mill, and I asked Him about it, and He said, “That’s the way it was in the early days.” Said our Lord, they did it the same way, and this is the hour that this must be fulfilled. 78 I know there’s a lot of fanaticism in the world. I’m not responsible for other men’s testimonies. I only have to answer for mine. I’m on the witness stand in a defense for God and His Word -that I know it’s true. And His Word... When I heard Him tell me that, I would not have believed it if He hadn’t showed me in the Bible that it’s promised for this day. How many remembers I told you it’d come to pass, He said that I’d know the very secret of their heart? Raise up your hand. See? And did it? It’s thirty-three years later. It didn’t happen right then-it come into it like a seed growing. It’s come up like His Word. And today I am a witness that He lives, I’m a witness that He heals. Listen, we haven’t got much time left-just for the prayer line. Remember-I’m going to close the case and just leave it like this-if... You can believe any witnesses you want to, but remember, your mind is your jury. In every case there has to be a jury. And then the way you act hereafter will pronounce your verdict. Now we’re going to do just what the Bible said: lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover-that is, the believers. “These signs shall follow them that believe.” Now. If you believe it... We believe it. Hundreds here could stand, around over the nation... 79 Florence Nightingale, the late Florence Nightingale’s great granddaughter, in London, England, laying... You seen her picture there-nothing but a shadow. Cancer had eat her up. You see her picture on the next page? 80 Look at Congressman Upshaw-in the wheelchair sixty-six years. Stood there in California that night. They’d come in-I was walking to the platform. I was standing there, and they started the prayer line. I said, “I see a colored lady here before me. And she’s got a little baby. There’s a doctor standing that’s operated on that baby, and it paralyzed it. The doctor was thin. He was wearing tortoise-shell glasses. And it paralyzed the baby. Way down on the outside there a typical old Aunt Jemima, weighed about 250 pounds, here she come, knocking ushers every way, pulling that stretcher that her baby was on. Said, “Lawdy mercy, that was my baby.” And the usher said, “You can’t come in the line. You haven’t a prayer card, lady.” I said, “Lady...” She said, “I’s going up there.” They couldn’t hold her-she was too big for them. So she’s pushing right on through the line. She went on up. And when she got there, almost there, I said, “Just a minute, lady. If the Lord God could know what you was out... That’s the baby all right.” I said, “I cannot tell you nothing about it.” I said, “Only thing I know is just pray for the baby, and I’ll do that from right here.” I said, “But I ... only thing I can say is what I see.” She said, “That was about two years ago, sir.” And she said, “My baby, when they removed the tonsils it paralyzed the baby, and,” said, “it’s been paralyzed ever since.” 81 I said, “Well, if your faith could touch Him to bring that down, why don’t you just sit there and pray?” I turned around, and I said, “As I was saying in my message...” I looked, and I seen going down through the street (looked like an alley) a little colored girl-the same one-with a doll on her arm, rocking it as she went along. I said, “Auntie, God has heard your prayer. The baby’s healed.” Up got the baby, and they had to quieten it (it was like a militia), and take that baby down through the crowd like that. Just a few minutes I said, “I see an old man. He’s on a haystack. Now he’s a young boy. He fell and hurt his back.” I said, “They had to bore holes in the floor to keep his cot from vibration off the floor.” A bunch of believers, everybody in one heart and one accord sitting there-hundreds of times hundreds. And I said, “He becomes a great man-a speaker of some sort.” It left me, and I went on, started on. Just then Dr. Ern Baxter found out, way back there in a wheelchair, a group way back in the back. He said, “That was Congressman Upshaw. Did you ever hear of him?” I said, “No, sir.” He said, “Back years ago he run for president.” I said, “I don’t know him, sir.” I said... He said, “If I bring him ... to show?” And I said, “Who is he?” He said, “He’s sitting right there.” 82 So they wheeled him up, his wife did, and he said, “Young man, how’d you ever know me?” He said, “Dr. Roy E. Davis, the one that ordained you in the Missionary Baptist Church, and he was the head speaker for the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said, “he was the one sent me here for you to pray.” Said, “I’ve been prayed for since I was a little boy, but I always believed that God would heal me, ‘cause I took the right stand in the time of prohibition. I was ... when liquor was going to be brought in I was called one of the ‘dry bones.’” He said, “I lost the President of the United States because of my stand.” 83 I said, “That’s a gallant thing, sir.” I said, “May the Lord bless you.” I said, “All right. Bring your first patient here. The first person is to come up.” When I did, something happened to the lady, and I told her about it. And I turned and looked again, and I seen that old congressman with a pin-striped suit on, a red necktie, going down, bowing himself like this to the people-just walking right across the people. I said “Congressman, Jesus Christ has honored you. You’re eighty-six years old now, but God has honored you. It looked like if He was going to heal you, He’d have healed you when you was a boy, and your bones was all brittle and all, you know, flexible and so forth.” I said, “It looked like he’d have healed you then, but He’s healed you now.” He said, “Do you mean I’m healed now?” I said, “Thus saith the Lord.” I said, “If you’ve got a pin-striped suit...” He was wearing a dark suit with a red tie. I said, “You got a pin-striped suit?” He said, “Yes, sir. Just bought one the other day.” I said, “Rise up. Jesus Christ makes you whole.” How many knows it? Testimonies-stood on the (Billy Graham’s meeting) on the White House steps and sang, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” Never went to crutches or wheelchairs again as long as he lived. 84 Jack Moore and I was down there in old Mexico that night where I had to be let down over the wall. A little woman there, a little Mexican Catholic... The night before I had laid hands on an old blind man. He got his sight. This little woman... They said... Billy come to me, said, “Daddy”... I called the man “Mañana” (mañana means “tomorrow”) he was so slow. He was giving out the prayer cards, and Billy went with him to see he didn’t sell one. So he said, “He give out all the prayer cards.” And said, “This little woman’s got a baby that died this morning.” And it was nearly ten o’clock at night, outside in that bullring, there in the ... and the rain just a-pouring down-some kind of a big, open field, like. 85 And he said... And they brought me in to let me down some ladder steps. Brother Jack Moore and them is here now-he was on the platform. Said, “I got three hundred ushers standing there can’t hold that woman.” Said she’d climb up over their shoulders, run between their legs. “And I told her she couldn’t get up here because she didn’t have a prayer card. We ain’t got no more prayer cards.” She didn’t care about that. She wanted to have hands laid on that baby. She’d seen a Catholic man that been blind for twenty or thirty years receive his sight by being prayed for. She... And a rack of old garments (you think this is something!) oh, three times this platform, stacked that high with-just as far as you could see-with old shawls and hats. How they ever knew who it belonged to, I don’t know. But they believed! Simple child faith. 86 So I said, well, I said to Brother Jack-he and I part our hair the same, you know-so I said, “Brother Jack, she wouldn’t know the difference between you and I. You go down there and pray for the baby.” And he said, “All right, Brother Branham.” He started down-Brother Jack, sitting right there. So we was ... he started, I started to preach like this. And I looked, and I seen a little Mexican baby, a little black-faced baby, standing here in front of me, just smiling. Its little gums didn’t have any teeth. I said, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Bring the baby here.” I said, “Lord God, I don’t...” She run up and had a crucifix in her hand, hollering, “Padre” (means father). I said, “Stand up now.” She had a little blue-looking blanket, and a little baby, stiff, dead, laying on it; and just soaking wet, her hair all down. Pretty little lady. Probably her first baby-in her twenties, you know. And just holding ... down like this, and I said, “I’ll pray for the baby.” 87 I laid my hands... They don’t interpret the prayer. I said, “Lord God, I only seen the vision-I don’t know...” And about that time it let out a kick, and began screaming and crying, like that. I said, “Brother Espinoza,” to the chairman of the meeting, I said, “don’t you just take that woman’s testimony. You send a witness to that ... to the doctor.” The doctor signed a witness which appears in the “Voice of Healing.” The baby died with double pneumonia that morning at nine o’clock in his office-pronounced dead, no respiration. It’d been laying in the rain all day dead; and was healed and is alive today, as far as I know, living to the kingdom of God. 88 And I have many things out of Africa, where I’ve seen thirty thousand raw heathens give their lives to Jesus Christ. God keeps His Word. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, as His witness. You are ... your mind is the jury, and your action is your judge. Now bow your heads just a moment.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:51:20 +0000
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