Sermon Texts (Adding Now)
Sermon Texts Beginning With I
Israel At Kadesh-Barnea (53-0328)
| Israel At Kadesh-Barnea (53-0328) |
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1 In the Book of Numbers we turned last evening; we been having four stages, three stages of the journey to take this week, of the pilgrimage of the children of Israel, typing, as we believe in typology, typing the old church with the new: them in the natural, we in the spiritual. The Lord has met with us.
4 Now, tonight we take them into Kadesh-barnea, up to the judgment seat before the brazen altar, or the brazen serpent, rather.
6 You know, there's none of us but, or any minister, but what has got God on his heart, but when he looks at the Scriptures he--he just has a little fear, "Am I going at it in my ownself, or is the Holy Spirit here to lead me?" 8 Just before we have prayer, or before we have prayer over the Word... You know, the Bible said that when John saw it in the Book of Revelations, he said he saw the Book, and It was sealed on the back, front and back side, and no man in heaven, and no man in earth, or no man under the earth was worthy to take the Book nor to even look on It. And then a Lamb that had been slain from the foundation of the world, came and taken It out of the hand of the One that set on the throne. And the elders cried out, "Thou art worthy." Now, may that Lamb tonight come and open up the Word. We can lay back the pages, but it takes the Lamb of God to open up the Word.
9 Shall we bow our heads. Brother Junior, lead us in a word of prayer if you will, while pray that God will open His Word to us, if you will. 10 Turn, to begin with tonight, to Numbers the 13th chapter. We begin there, and then we follow on, just... I'll try not to do as I have been doing, just keeping you a long time, but I--now let you go just as soon as possible. As soon as the Holy Spirit will say it's enough, then we'll go.
11 Tomorrow morning, now remember, Sunday school, nine-thirty. And before, or by ten o'clock we'll be answering the questions. Bring in your questions; bring them in tonight. After the service, give them to some of the elders so I can get them, or some way, for the questions tomorrow. Got a nice number of them. Tomorrow night is Crossing the Jordan.
13 All right, we find then, taking the church back just for a little preview, found out that God promised Abraham that He would save him, give him a unconditional promise, unconditional covenant. He would save him and his Seed; not all of his seed, but his promised seed Isaac. Abraham had eleven sons, you know, but only one of them was the promise, through Isaac. That's the reason Paul said in--in Romans the 9th chapter that all that are Israel are not Israel, but through Isaac shall the Seed be called. Now, then God, through Isaac, representing Christ... 15 Christ is in all the Old Testament, and all the Old Testament. All the... If we had time... Here seven years ago this last week... This last few months we've taken the Book of Exodus from one side to the other, typing everything. Even the waters of separation; the red heifer, it couldn't be a brown one; it had to be a red one, not a spot on it. It had to be burned and then made into the waters of separation, and it's to sprinkle the people after they had sinned and was gone outside the camp. How the hyssop and cedar wood, and all mixed in together, how the wood in the tabernacle, how the brazen altar, the laver, the shewbread, everything pointed to Christ. And in Him we are complete in Jesus Christ.
16 Now, how wonderful our lesson is tonight, how God brought Israel as a type, foreshadowing what would be. 18 That's the reason tonight, studying this exodus of the church, I believe that we're in the exodus again. I believe, Moses being a perfect type of the church organization which failed God, and Joshua the new--new leader, represents the church in their failings of God, and Joshua took Israel across to the promised land. Perfect, if we'll watch it, how that God moved back there in the days. Everything went fine; they thought they were settled down for good; but when the time of the promise drew nigh, there arose up a Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph. Things begin to move different, and it was a time for a deliverance. The people begin to groan and cry, and then God came down to deliver them. How perfect. 19 And then He sent a man; a child was born, a peculiar child, and he was raised a peculiar life, but God had His hand upon him. Moses, how he was hid in the bulrush, born in a time of persecution, just like Christ, borned a proper child just like Christ. And he was borned in this world to be a deliverer just like Christ. And, oh, how he, his work, how he was a law-giver, went up in the mountains and stayed forty days, come back out with the law. And he, his besetting sin was temper; he broke the commandment. Went back up, showing that that priesthood must die, pass away.
20 Just as Jesus went into the wilderness forty days, and when He came out, Jesus, Satan met Him just in His weak spot, like he did Moses. Jesus' weak spot was hunger. He said, "If Thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be turned to bread."
23 For, this is the day, brethren, you'll bear me record, a day of isms. I've been studying Genesis now for two years, of Genesis. That's the beginning, the going forth, the seed chapter. And you notice that all those cults of this day are beginning in Genesis. They had their start back in Genesis, winding up out here in the last day. 26 The greatest thing that I find against the church tonight is fear; everybody's scared to death about something. What are you scared about? If a man's borned again, he should be happy, carefree, just like these fellows singing up here, and the brother testifying back there, just free. There ain't nothing can harm you. Nothing present, nothing future, nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. God has promised.
27 He's called, by election. He set His church in order. Jesus said, "No man can come to Me except the Father draws him." You never come to God because that you wanted to; you come because Christ called you. God called you. "And he that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out. I'll give him Everlasting Life," not just lasting for a week, one revival to another, but Everlasting Eternal Life, "and will raise him up at the last day." Oh, my. If that doesn't take the wind out of Satan's sails, I don't know what does.
29 No man, no man can believe Jesus to be the Christ, in his heart, and will be the same man that he was before. Can't do it. No, sir.
31 I asked someone the other night; I said, "Are you a Christian, brother?"
33 Long time ago, all the Methodist people thought, "Boy, we got It; we can shout." After Lutheran days, they thought 'cause they were shouting they had It. I believe in shouting too, but that's no reason I got It; that's the attribute that I got It. 36 "Though I speak with tongue of men and Angels and have not love, it profit me nothing. Though I have give all my goods to feed the poor, it profit me nothing. Though I have power to move mountains, and so forth, it profit me nothing. Where there is prophecies, it'll fail. And where there's tongues, it'll cease. And where there is knowledge, it'll vanish away. But when perfect love has come into the human heart, all demons in hell will never be able to upset it." That's right.
37 If my wife would--was respect me because she was afraid of me, I wouldn't be--I'd be afraid to leave her. But she loves me. She's got confidence in me because she knows I love her, and she loves me. Now, when I go away, I don't have to say, "Now, Mrs. Branham, I'm going to leave you a rule of orders here that you should do, a group of orders. You shall not look at any other man; you shall not do this, or you... I..." Why, she just... It's automatically. I love her and she loves me, and that just settles it; I just go on. 39 You take a boxcar, they'll start loading it, and loading it, on the track. Many of you people here, I know some of you that loads cars. And they'll go around; they'll call for so much here and so much there. But before that car can be sealed, the inspector has to come along. He looks through and he sees that everything's in there is tight, and everything's ready. It's going to its destination. Well, if there's anything loose, and afraid it'll break, he will say, "Take her out; fix her over again until you get it." And when it's altogether tightened and packed and set down, then he will slam the doors and seal it, and no one can break that seal until it goes to its destination. That right?
40 That's the way it is where it says of Ephesians 4:30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption." Got some loose rattles, God will take it out of you and--and fix it up before you're sealed into the Kingdom. 42 Now, that's good Baptist doctrine to believe God. Brother Tom, you know, I think you come out of a Baptist church, that they said, "Believe God." So did I. It's a good church to be out of. Oh, oh, excuse me, I didn't mean to say that. Now, just a moment; I ain't got nothing against the Baptists; they got a whole lot of good things.
43 But look, brother, I heard them on the radio the other day, a fellow, fine Baptist minister tried to bypass Acts 19. He said, "Apollos didn't know Jesus, so that's the reason they had to be rebaptized again." Oh, no. 45 God gave Abraham the promise, and he believed the promise, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; but He give him the sign of circumcision as a seal of the promise. Hallelujah. You believe God by faith, that you are saved, and accept Him; and, whenever you do, God gives you the Holy Ghost as the Seal of the promise that He promised you. The Holy Ghost is a Gift of God (That's right.) that circumcises the heart, cuts away the surplus flesh, and makes you a new creature in Christ Jesus. Amen. All right. There you are. It's nothing you had to do in yourself; it's a gift of God. And when you believe correctly, God gives It to you. It's by faith. You... Now, faith isn't what It is.
46 Just like I have a quarter, and a loaf of bread costs a quarter. The quarter... [Brother Branham drops a coin--Ed.] (I'll pick it up after while.) The quarter is not the loaf of bread, but the quarter purchases the loaf of bread. It's the prac... it's the... It's what purchases the loaf of bread. (Happened to be, that happened to be a half a penny from Africa, so I guess that's the reason it flipped.) All right. The quarter is not the loaf of bread; the quarter purchases the loaf of bread.
48 Now, God getting ready to deliver. We found out that he was, Moses was taking his own son down, for to deliver the children of Israel, uncircumcised. And Zipporah took a sharp stone, cut the foreskin off her child, and throwed it before him, said, "Thou art a bloody husband to me."
50 Then they went on down, and he done signs and wonders and miracles, And notice. Oh, my, I felt Something strike me. Look how that Jambres and Jannes, them two astrologers, stood there and performed the same kind of miracles that Moses and Aaron did, went right along with them.
54 And watch these magicians. They could bring the lice, but they couldn't take them away. They couldn't heal. They could perform the miracle, but they couldn't perform healing. Healing lays in God alone. And when they called for boils, the Egyptians broke out in boils themselves. 56 Notice. Then God, after fixing Moses, getting him ready, sent out the--the signs, then the last sign we taken last night was death. And we found out, that spiritual death in the church, the last plague now, church drying up, blowing away. That's right. We're living in a horrible time. How that the church, the old-timers that used to really have the victory is losing out, dying time, letting the Blood get off the front of the door. "When I see the Blood I'll pass over you." 57 On up they come into the smitten Rock. Notice when they come to the Rock, they had need. Now, Moses smote the Rock with the rod. That's where we left last night. Smote the Rock with the rod, and the rod was God's judgment rod. And he smote the Rock, and there was a cleft in the left side of the Rock. When the children of Israel got hungry, they went there. And a beehive, a bee had got in there and had made a hive, and they got honey out of the Rock. Everything they had need of was in the Rock. The Rock followed the church, and the Rock was Christ Jesus. When they were thirsty, they drank from the Rock. When they were hungry, they ate from the Rock. Wherever they went, the Rock followed them. And the Rock's still following the church. Christ is the Rock that was in the wilderness. Notice now, then, that same Rock...
58 No wonder when he came into Jerusalem, they said, "Make him hold his peace, make them hold their peace."
61 A woman said to me, here not long ago, she said, "Brother Branham," she said, "Jesus wasn't no more than an ordinary man." Said, "He was a prophet, but you try to make Him God." 66 I said, "Look, woman. He was the God-Man." I said, "When He went down there, crying, while He was crying, He was a Man. But I'll tell you, when He pulled that little frame up there, and said, 'I am the resurrection and Life,' and He spoke to a man that he's been dead four days, his body was rotten, the skin worms was crawling in and out, corruption knew its Master. And a man that had been dead four days, stood on his feet and lived again. That was more than a man speaking. That was God." Yes, sir.
67 He was a Man when He was up there on a mountain that night, come down, looking all around over a tree to find something to eat, a fig tree, trying to. He was hungry. He was hungry when He was a Man. When He was looking on that tree, He was a Man. But when He took five biscuits and two pieces of fishes, and fed five thousand, that was more than God--more than a man; that was God in that Man. Yes, sir.
70 No wonder the poet said, "Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; buried, He carried my sins far away; rising, He justified freely forever; someday He's coming, O glorious day!"
72 Coming on up, that smitten Rock... When they had need of anything, they went to the Rock. Now, after all of that, and the blessings and things, they still murmured.
75 There Israel gathered around in Kadesh. And now, Moses said here, 1st verse, 13th chapter.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I have given unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
Now, God ordained that they should send twelve men over, one out of each tribe, sending them over into the land of Canaan to spy out the land, to see whether it was a good place or not. The spies went forth, one out of every tribe: one out of Dan, Asher, oh, all through until they got the twelve men.
77 Perfect of the church today in our journeying. We're journeying up till I believe that the church is standing today at Kadesh-barnea: judgment. Now, God help me. I hope God will help me to get this, it'll sink in good and deep. 79 And I believe we're on the borderland tonight. I was wondering about all my meetings and things, how I had to cancel them out. I truly believe, before the church can have the rapture, it's got to have rapturing faith. We can't even have faith for Divine healing, let alone rapturing faith. Got to have a faith that'll change and quicken this body, and be taken away. I believe there's a church on its road tonight, a power of the living God, that men will speak the Word here and there, and it'll flash like lightning. And a church is coming out, not a psychologist, not some of this put-on, make-belief; but a real, true, genuine, anointed Holy Ghost, called-out church. Amen.
80 Here they are standing at Kadesh-barnea. They said, "Go over. The land was given to us hundreds of years ago by God, through our father. We are the seed of Abraham. God has led us safely this forty-some-odd miles from Egypt, up to the borderland at Kadesh." They had got up there in a few days, but, remember, because of their unbelief, made them wander for forty years.
82 Now, Kadesh... And there he said, "Now, you go out and spy out." God sent them; Moses never. God sent them over, and said, "Go over and spy out the land, and come back and tell us whether it's a good land or a bad land, or whether we can take it, or what this, that, or the other. You go over and find out."
And they told them, and said, We come into the land wherewith thou sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and it is a fruit--the fruit of it. (Just as God had promised. Now, notice.)Nevertheless the people are strong and dwell in the land--and dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great:... Moreover we saw... children of Anak there.And the Amalekites dwell in the land... and the Hittites,... the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell at the sea,... or the coast of Jordan.
And Caleb,... (Hallelujah.)... Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
I like that. My, just a little farther.
But the man that went up with him said, We be not able to go... against the people; for they are stronger than we.
And they brought up a evil report of the land which they had searched out for the children of Israel, saying, The land,... which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men... great statue.
Listen to that. And it goes on to say that, "We look like grasshoppers up the side of them." That's the report.But Caleb and Joshua said, "We can take it. We are able to do it." Why are they able to do it? God had promised them to do it. I like that courage. 88 Ten of them... Now, the church came. And it's come now to a place to where we've come down through the Luther age, the Methodist age and the Pentecostal age, and on down to a place, and now some of the full Gospel people turned firmly against Divine healing, believe that it wasn't even in the atonement. Well, it's got to a place, friends, where you... It's getting horrible out here. "Old-time religion," they say, "it's something that's passed long ago, can't have it; it's too much. We're living in a modern day; we've got to get modern ideas. We got to have shuffle boards in the church, ping-pong games, and everything to hold our young people." 89 Brother or Sister, if it ever gets to a time that I have to have a card party in the church to hold an audience, I'll quit preaching the Gospel, 'cause It's lost Its power. I tell you, brother, what we need today is the old fashion, simple Gospel, Holy Ghost power preached in Its simplicity, then "If I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto Me." Yes, sir.
90 We... Today they say, "Oh, we can't go back and do those things that the apostles did."
92 Fellow said, "Do you mean to tell me we can get the Holy Ghost like they did a long time ago?" 93 We had a beautiful type last night, when the children of Israel crossed the land, crossed over into the--the pilgrimage, which was a perfect type of our pilgrimage. We come up out of Canaan. I pulled my stake, tents, and left (have you?), leaving the old garlics and hash pots down there, and stink of the world. Pulled up tent, left, crossed over Jordan... Hallelujah. The red sea of the Blood of Jesus Christ drowned every old cigarette, tobacco nast', and filth of the world was drowned, like them taskmasters back there, and they're floating in the sea. Hallelujah. No wonder we shout and dance.
94 Look what Moses done, raised his hand and sang in the Spirit. And Miriam got a tambourine and begin to dance, and jump up-and-down, and praised God. And the daughters of Israel followed her, dancing, and praising God, and shouting. Hallelujah. They crossed over the sea. All the old taskmasters was back dead there in the sea. They looked back and said, "Boy, you'll never bother me no more." Oh, my. Burnt the bridges all over, ready to go now, journeying on.
95 And remember they--God promised to supply their needs. We had it last night. "How they going to supply it?" I don't know. "Well, maybe they'll send over some dough somewhere from a..."
97 Someone said to me one time, said, "Do you believe about that Elijah, that bird story up there?" 102 How it happens, I don't know. God just sends It, and I grab It. I got a handful just a few minutes ago, swallowed It, still tickling me as It goes down. Sure. Don't get excited; I'm not crazy. I've been called that, but I'm not. If I am, just let me alone; I'm happy. All right. Yes, sir, I feel pretty religious right now, oh, sure do. All right.
103 Look at him. Here they are, "How we going to do it?" Now, God rained manna down out of the heaven and fed them, didn't He? He sure did. And they picked it up. We went through it.
105 Did you ever see an old drunk coming home? Boy, he's taking both sides the street, "Hello, stranger." Nothing bothering him.
107 We know what the omer was, kept full, that every priest entering in could eat a mouthful of the original manna.
109 The church comes to Kadesh. What you going to do? Here we are. They say... Now, every individual, you're each one at Kadesh; we come there. 112 Brother, I tell you, it means a whole lot more than run up and shaking hands with the preacher and a few drops of water sprinkled on you. That's right. Brother, it runs a whole lot more than walking up to the altar and taking communion, and walking back, and set down in your seat. It means a selling-out, dying-out, brother, and getting an old fashion, backwoods, sky-blue, sin-killing religion that don't wash you white, but--don't whitewash you, but washes you white (Hallelujah.), cleans you up, burns you out, scours you out, sterilizes you, and make you a new person. Amen. That's old sassafras kind, brother, but, I tell you, It'll stick to your ribs. Get some of it. That's right, It'll hold you through the trials. Amen. I feel like shouting, pretty near. That's pretty big for... Yes, sir. 113 When I think of it, brother, it's secured. God said so. Can we take it? Sure, we can take it. "In the last days I'll pour out My Spirit, and I'll show signs and wonders." Hallelujah. He said He would do it. God promised it. We're at Kadesh; let's go get it. Somebody's been over and brought back some grapes. I know the land's good. That's right. Let's go over and get some of them. That's right.
114 The church begin to murmur and squirmer, and everything. God would've sent the church out years ago, if they had just a-listened to Him. But they started to arguing and fussing, and murmuring around.
116 As I said last night, it puts me in the mind of an undertaker's morgue. Go around there, and it's so cold. You go in, the spiritual thermometer--thermometer says "hundred below zero." 120 Let me tell you, brother, her name might not have been in "Who's Who?" as a lot of them has got it, and they say they have four hundred perfect. But her name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I'd rather have mine There than in all the "Who's Who?" Hallelujah. That tells who's who; there's a name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
121 She walked in and set down like that. The preacher begin to say, "Now, the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth to save the sinner."
125 That's what we got into (That's right.), schools of the prophets. We raise up the teachers; we inject old embalming fluid into them to keep them. They're dead anyhow, and then put embalming fluid in to keep it deader, some of this old theology they teach that the days of miracles is past; there's no such thing as heartfelt religion. 132 School, theology... Oh, my. You know what they've done? In its place of the upper room, they substituted a supper room, boiled up some old rooster and sell it for fifty cents a plate, to try to pay the preacher. Brother, if you paid your tithes and done what God said for you to do, you wouldn't have these old soup suppers and things like that. Amen. (Even the anointing oil jumped off, on that.) Let me tell you something, brother: God wants a church that moves in the Divine will of God, based upon THUS SAITH THE LORD. Yes, sir. They've taken all the tarrying in the upper room out, like that. What they've done for the Holy Ghost, they've substituted theology for It. Somebody go out and say, "Well, we believe this and we believe that." Why do you believe it? That ain't in the Bible, nothing about it.
133 Somebody said, "What do you think of that priest down here the other day, run away with that woman and married her?"
136 One time they had a bunch of them preachers out like that, back in the Old Testament, teaching them a whole lot of things; I'll show you what--what kind of an education they had. They was teaching them all about the theology of that day, the school of the prophets. And they come over to see a real prophet one day. The prophet said to one of them, "Go out and pick you a lap-full of--of some pottage now, we'll put on the big kettle; we're going to have a--a great big cooked up pot of peas out here."
138 That's what's the matter today: there's death in the pot. Some of these old cold seminary, formal, ungodly places going on, trying to teach some theology, they're killing the people, taking them away from Christ. We need the baptism of the Holy Ghost to give Life. Hallelujah. Whew. I feel about twice my size now. But that's the truth, brother...?... you're cooking something. That's right. You're cooking up something, but what you cooking? That's the next thing. A guy that didn't know the difference between green gourds and peas, that's about like some of them. That's the truth. Yes, sir.
139 Old Elijah was a real prophet. He said, "Oh, don't worry about it. Don't get all stirred." Amen. We got a guy here who's got a double portion. Hallelujah. He had been over across the Canaan's land, and been back, got a double portion. Said... They know what to do when trouble come up. Said, "Go, get me a handful of meal." He took the meal and throwed it in the pot. Said, "Now, eat all you want to. It's all right now."
141 I first seen somebody with the Holy Ghost, was an old colored man with a big long overcoat on. They had to help him out, he was so old, like this, and he got up there and begin to preach. A lot of them preachers begin to preach about, oh, what taken place here on earth. He took his text back in Job, "Where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy?" He said, "You think we got some kind of new kind of religion." Said, "Brother, I just got an old-time taste, or a brand-new case of old-time religion." After while the Holy Ghost got ahold of him. Poor old fellow was so stiff, he was standing there; he straightened himself up, kicked his heels together, and said, "Glory. Hallelujah." Said, "You ain't got enough room up here for me to preach," walked off the platform. 143 Like old Buddy Robinson, kept going along, wanted the Holy Ghost. Said, "Glory to God. I wanted the Holy Ghost so bad, I didn't know what to do." He said, "I was dry--plowing one morning with old Alec," his mule. Said, "Alec kept stepping on the corn. I got mad at him, run over there and bit him on the ear as hard as I could. Alec kicked at me." Said, "I went over and set down. And I looked at him; he was standing there." Said, "I bit old Alec as hard as I could." Said, "I looked over at him, said, 'Alec.'" Said, he said, "'Alec, I'm sorry. I won't do that no more.'" Said, "Alec looked around, said, 'You don't get more religion than what you got now, you'd treat me that way again.'" My, my. That's right. He said, "I got down in the corn row, and said, 'Good Lord, give me lots of knowledge in the gable end of my soul. Help me fight the Devil as long as I got a tooth in my mouth, then gum him till I die.'" He said, "'Lord, if You don't give me the Holy Ghost, when You come back to earth You're going to find a pile of bones laying right here." He got It. Amen. That's right.
144 You really get down and mean it before God, God will take you over across there. No matter what the seminary preachers say, we can have the Holy Ghost, 'cause God promised It to us.
147 Let's get over here somewhere and go to preaching somewhere else where you get off of that a little bit. Oh, how marvelous.
149 You know, I--I travel around over the world a lot. And one of the most stickerest, nastiest places to try to lay down, is in the desert. Everything there has got a sticker on it. You know why? Every kind of a little old weed's a cactus. You can't lay down nowhere; it's sticking you. The reason of it is, they ain't got no water. Water makes it soft. Where there's lots of waters, you don't have any thorns and thistles, where there's lots of water.
152 Reminds me of a guy one time that went to set a hen. And the old hen had... He had enough eggs to set all but one. And he didn't have... He thought, "What am I going to do for that one egg?" So he goes out and he finds a duck egg, and he puts it under the old hen.
155 But, you know, that old hen made a mistake one day, just like what the old church did. That's right. She got out one day way up in the barnyard like they had being going and after while the little old duck stuck his head up, and [Brother Branham sniffs--Ed.] he smelt water. It was his nature, you know. Amen. He smelt water. He said, "Honk-honk, honk-honk." Oh, my. He wasn't a chicken nature anyhow; he was a duck nature. So he smelt the water; there was a creek run down there. The old hen hollered, "Cluck-cluck, cluck-cluck, cluck."
157 That's the way it is then when a man's borned into the Kingdom of God. The old church can say, "You get away from them holy-rollers; it's nonsense; it's this, that, the other." 160 And when God's in a heart, it'll call you to an old fashion, Holy Ghost meeting. Glory. That's right, brother; I know it's my nature. Hallelujah. Unless your nature's been changed, you'll still listen to the cluck of the old hen. But when you smell water, if you're a duck, you're a gone gosling, 'cause you're head for the water. Hallelujah.
161 Joshua said, "Aw, we can make it." Joshua said, "We can do it."
163 What do I care what the world says, nothing to me. The very God that raised me up, that saved my soul, and sent me out around here, praying for kings and everything else, across the country. It was this good old fashion Holy Ghost that did it. I've never been ashamed of It. I've said in kings' palaces, "I have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost." Hallelujah. That's right. They're hungry too. They're hungering and thirsting.
165 Now, hurry. What time we got? Say, I'm sorry; I'm late. Excuse me for teaching too long. Oh, I haven't taught yet, have I? But just a minute; I'll get to my lesson after while. No, I was just kidding you; set still. Let's get just a few words here; I got something I want to say.
And the people spake against God, and against Moses,
Where have you brought us out into, from Egypt... into this wilderness?... where there's no water; and--and our souls loatheth this light bread.
After been filled with the good Angel's food and everything, they said, "Oh, we're tired of it. We'd like to have some garlic and some pumpernickel." They wanted the old flesh pots of Egypt.
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and... bit the people; and much people... died.
Therefore... came to Moses, and he said, We have sinned, and we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the fiery serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Make... a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent out of brass, and he put it on a pole, and it came to pass, that if any--if a serpent had bitten a man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
168 Oh, let me get that, that little thing there before we get into tomorrow night's service. The Brass Serpent, as the smitten Rock last night, as we ended up on the smitten Rock; the Brass Serpent was Jesus Christ.
171 Brass, the serpent being made out of brass, meant Divine judgment. Now, the serpent was sin already judged, and the brass meant Divine judgment.
174 Look, Divine judgment again in the days of Elijah, show that that's Divine judgment. Eli... It come a time when there was nothing; the people had got away from God. And Elijah went upon the mountain, and he prayed. He come before the king and said, "Not even dew will fall from heaven till I call for it." And for three years and six months, dew didn't even come on the earth.
177 Now, they put the... Watch, he went up after they had brought the fire out of heaven, and so forth, and had consumed the sacrifice, they looked up to the sky, and it looked like brass. What was it? Divine judgment over all the nation.
179 Now, watch, he lifted up this pole that had the--the serpent on it, made out of brass. And whosoever looked upon that serpent, got healed of their diseases. 183 Next in the road after that, come Balaam the hireling prophet come down to stop Israel. Oh, my. We'll get into that tomorrow night, how that that fellow... And a dumb mule had to speak and rebuke him. A preacher out of the will of God, and his mind on money, go down there, and a mule had to rebuke him down there, a dumb mule. If God can speak through a dumb mule, surely He could through a man. Yes, sir.
184 Notice there, poor old Moses, after all that time. I want to show you what a man is before God. How Korah and all those... Notice when God told Moses, "Step out of the way, Moses; I'm going to destroy the whole bunch of them and make out of you a mighty nation."
187 What an embarrassment it was in a couple hours, to turn back again. The Holy Spirit met him. 'Cause Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and wept bitterly, and said, "Lord, I beseech You to consider me. I've walked before You with a perfect heart." And tears run down his cheeks. And God had already sealed his doom, but prayer changed things. 188 Look what a warrior Moses was. In his last hours he got down there with that horrible temper, and finally glorified himself in the stead of God, and God would not permit him... 'Course, it was all pre-pictured just like the organizations today, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecost, all the rest of them, they're glorifying themselves.
189 A few days ago, one of the biggest churches, just because they couldn't be the only duck in the, puddle, they thumbs down on a meeting like that. I said, "I don't have to have your cooperation. Where the eagles are, the carc--where the carcass is, the eagles will gather." And that was right. Yes, sir. You just tell the Truth; God will take care of the rest of it. 191 And if--if you believe me to be God's prophet, you listen to this. And I say it with inspiration. Not exactly now, but what has come before this, that there will not be one organization represented (of, what I mean, the whole organization) into the Kingdom of God; but God will pull out of every one of them, the cream of the crop, and fill it with the Spirit, and take it up into glory. That's right. 192 The Bible predicts that the last church age is the Laodicean church age, which is a lukewarm. And that's just as far as the church has got today. That's right. They got down to where maybe they can clap their hands a little bit, and make a little noise, and jump and kick the furniture awhile. But when it comes to really living a pure, holy, unadulterated, sanctified life, they're as far away as the night is from the day. That's right. What we need today is an old fashion dying out, brother, where it ain't go back to the altar and get over, and go back to the altar again, go back to the altar. Go over there and stay till you're dead, and then a dead man knows nothing about the world. Hallelujah. Don't want to get started on that again. Look, brother, let me tell you.
193 God, after having His poor old servant, Moses... Someone said to me one time, said, "I tell you, that shows God, if you call Him God." Said, "He let His servant down."
196 And Moses got his temper all up, and run down there, and smote the Rock. It didn't bring water. He smote It again; It brought water. Said, "You rebels, must we fetch you water out of this Rock?" Like that, and brought forth the waters, 'cause God had to listen to that prophet because He'd endued him with that power. And that broke the whole program of God's Bible.
198 Then I see him that morning. Oh, when I think of this picture, my heart almost fails me. I see Moses; he knowed... God said, "Moses, tell them all 'so long,' your congregation; I'm going to call you up a little higher now today."
200 And only if I could stand where Moses stood and view the landscape over! God willing, in the next few months, I want to stand on the mount there and look over where they crossed.
202 If I could stand where Moses stood, on that Rock, looking over into the promised land... He wanted to go in; he looked back to his congregation, waved good-bye at them again, the tears dropping off his long beard. His hour was a-coming. His sleeves, run down over his sleeves here, the pulse begin to come up his sleeve, an old veteran.
205 And just as he got ready to move out of this life, he happened to look, standing by his side, there stood the Rock. Just so He's there, that's all. He stepped over on the Rock. The Angels come, packed him away. 207 Some of these days I've got to come to the end of the road. I'm forty-three years old now, getting pretty well broke up. I've preached twenty years. I've waded through waters, and broke ice, and stood and baptized till I'd freeze, nearly. I've done without, went without, into the jungles and everything else, and diseases and everything lurking. I don't know how long I'll stay. But if I shall live to see longer than this, maybe when I get to be an old man, if Jesus tarries, I'll probably stand with what hair I got hanging down low. All my people takes the palsy when they get old; they shake. When I've fought my way through every battle, all my buddies and things are gone on, and I stand there and hear the dashing of the water coming across there, I'm shaking on my stick, like this, I want to take the old Sword here and stick her back in the sheath of eternity, pull off my helmet and lay it down, raise up my hand (Hallelujah.), and say, "Lord, push out the lifeboat; I'm coming across this morning; I'm coming across the river." He won't let me down then. 208 And while I'm here, while it's light, I'll preach and pray, and beg and sing, and do everything I can for the Kingdom of God. When my soul begins to lift from this body, and I look back down and see my footprints, I want them in the right kind of a place, where "Partings leave behind us footprints on the sands of time."
209 Shall we bow our heads. Teddy, go over to the piano a moment. 211 Thank You, Lord, Thou hast been here tonight. And I think of old prophet Moses; God, bless his gallant soul. As he stood there on the mount looking over in the promised land, we stand tonight looking that way, Lord. The only thing I ask You for myself, is let that Rock be there when I'm going. God, that'll be all right with me. And all that I've ever done in life, Lord, if I can just crawl up and touch Your sacred feet once, pat them with my unworthy hand, that'll repay me a million times. We all know we got to go that road. Some of us may in a few hours. I don't know. Thou knowest.
212 While we're here tonight, Father, and the Holy Spirit is still present (been down blessing Your people), Father, I ask You something. Is there someone here that's unsaved, Lord, that doesn't know You as their personal Saviour, doesn't know how they stand before You? I'm going to ask You, Lord, if You'll just... Not that these people hear me now, but I'm going to ask You if You'll just speak to that heart and give them courage tonight.
215 Now, if there's a man or woman in here, boy or girl, with your head bowed... And don't no one look up, please. People are very timid sometimes, touchy along these matters, but gentlemen and women.
217 Jeffersonville, why do you reject It, when God's vindicated It, sent His Angel took the picture of It? It's known around the world, why would you think It was some kind of a--a make-belief something?
220 After while she got out with some rough company, and she caught a disease and let it run too far. The doctor, a certain doctor of this city, went to examine her; come to find out, she was eat up with venereal disease. She died right after that. They... She was a Sunday school teacher in this big church. They were all out there, and to see her go to heaven. And just about time, her Sunday school class in, her pastor walking out in the hall, smoking a cigarette. And when about time for her to take her flight, the Angels to come get her, she raised up, she said, "Where's there's the pastor?" They went and got him. She said, "You deceiver of men," said, "why did you let me get in this shape? I'm lost." 224 And a good friend of mine works here in the garage right now, was working for an undertaker. They went down to pump the fluid in her body, and he kept pumping; they kept smelling the fluid, and couldn't get her veins filled, and come to pull her clothes down, and looked, and there was a hole eat in her body there as big as your fist, nearly. Venereal disease eat it out. Oh, yes, she was "Going to have a big time. This little old girl was a holy-roller." Don't underestimate anything, friend. 225 Do you know Him tonight? Are you really saved? I'm asking you, in Jesus' Name. If there's a man or woman, boy or girl in here tonight that's not saved, borned again, would you raise your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham." Now, every head bowed. Yes, God bless you, young lady. God bless you, you, you, you, you, you, you. God bless you. God bless you, you, you. Back in the back, yes, God bless you. God bless your sincerity, young man; I see you. Wonderful. Twenty or thirty hands in this little building, unregenerated. The Holy Spirit's been here tonight, talking to you. He's here now. You need Him. Why don't you come? Won't you come up to the altar and kneel down, say, "Lord God, I'm going to receive You as my personal Saviour tonight. I'm going to accept You now, and I'm going to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I want It. I don't care what the world's got to say. I'm going to receive now. You promised me."
226 And, listen, every one of you that held your hand, you been listening in these meeting--these meetings. No one in here could come to Jesus except God draws him. What's doing that? What's making that desire? God is here. God is here.
228 I want the ministers of this building to come, in the building, come here to the altar just a minute, every preacher. Come, young lady. God bless you. Somebody else now. I want the ministers come up here at the top of the platform, if you will.
230 A little crippled girl is making her way. Shame on you healthy people. Are you an alien from God tonight, without God, without Christ, dying in sin and shame? Won't you come? Will you be man or women enough, with common decency enough to rise up and say, "Brother Branham, I'm coming up here; I want to shake your hand and kneel down here at the altar. I want to accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour right now"? Will you come?
232 God bless you, sir. I perceive that you're a sick man too, that you're coming. Aren't you? You suffer with TB, don't you? He's going to heal you here at the altar tonight. You're a stranger to me, but I know what you are and who you are.
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
"Just as I..."
God bless you, little boy. That's wonderful. Won't someone else? Some of you young people back there now, you've put it off for a long time. This is the time. This is the hour.
... soul from one dark blot,
237 Someone help mother back there with that baby, someone please. She wants to come to the altar; her husband's up here. Some of you help the baby, or hold the baby, let the mother come. God bless you. Come on, mother. That's right. They'll take care of your little one. Come, make a real mother for Jesus Christ and your children.
239 The Angel of the Lord is standing right here at this platform. If you believe me to be His prophet, obey and do what I tell you now, see if It isn't right.
To rid my soul of one dark blot,To Thee, whose Blood... (God bless you, boy.)... cleanse each spot,O Lamb of... (God bless you, mother.)... I come! I come!
Does any of the rest of you want to come? The Holy Spirit's telling me there's several more people than that. Be honest with God, won't you? What you going to lose to walk up here at the altar and pray a little? You're going to pray somewhere. If you don't pray here, you're going to pray in hell. The rich man lifted up his eyes. Now, if you believe, if you believe God's Word, and believe that I tell the truth, if God's vindicated it true, there's men and women in here ought to be at this altar right now. The Holy Spirit's speaking, saying so. Come. God bless you, sister, you're just one of them. Come on. God bless you. Come now, wherever you are. Young or old, come.
241 Let's stand. All you people in your seats, stand while we sing one verse of this now. Come on now, reach around; let's make our way to the altar. You belong to church, you say. That ain't enough. "Except a man be born again, he will no wise enter the Kingdom." Come on now.
Just as... (everyone)... I...
Won't you come out? Won't you come down the aisle here now? Come here and meet me at the altar...?... Jesus...?... you who just want to pray a prayer...?... [Brother Branham continues to call people to the altar, the words not all understandable--Ed.]...?... God bless you...?... one more.
Just as (God...?...)That as Thy Blood was shed...?...... as I am...?...... of God, I come! I come!Just as I am, and waiting not,
To rid my soul (How many?) of one dark blot,To thee whose Blood can cleanse each spot,O Lamb of God, I...
How many in here say, "Brother Branham...?... I want you to pray for me. Raise your hand now while we sing it again. Go right ahead. Raise your hand, say, "Brother Branham, pray for me." God bless you, sister...?... The Holy Spirit come...?... I saw...?... your...?... called of Holy Spirit...?... altar call...
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