| Look (63-0428) |
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E-1 Brother...?... And Good morning, friends. I am very happy to be here in Phoenix again this morning, enjoying this fine time of fellowship. Wish I could just set in a long time listening to these pretty songs, and to see young Jimmy really get into that song. Mmm. There's nothing put on about that boy, is there? E-2 Brother Dyson, I haven't had the privilege of meeting him yet, but he is going to continue this service on through next week, beginning tonight, here at the church. And I'm... I sure hope that there's a great success here in this revival. I only wish I could set back here somewhere and just soak in the good things of God as our--our brother preaches. I hear he's a missionary's son from Jerusalem. And so I'm sure you're going to enjoy this ministry this week of our brother. If it's all possible, attend, hear him, back him up. And those who cannot come, and you're away from home, out-of-town, can't get back, do as I'm going to do, pray for him, and pray for the success of the service.
E-3 I remember the first time in Phoenix. It was this church, only it was in a different place. It was a--the church, but a different roof that we worshipped under, and the great fellowship that we had with Brother Outlaw... I have a record that was made during that meeting and it's always... When I kind of get feeling a little down, I go play this record, and it's about scratched out. And perhaps, maybe, the man that made it is here this morning, little red flexible record. And then, 'course, I have many of the late records of this young choir here, which was little babies then, singing. We get much out of it. E-4 You know God heals by music. Did you know that? Uh-huh. God heals by music. God heals by love. See? God heals by medicine. God heals by prayer. God has many ways of healing. It depends on what type that you need. Sometimes a little love stretched out will just cure an old sore, an old place that's been a grudge or something. It'll heal it right over, just a little love, a little care. Sometimes when you feel all down, and, as we call it, a street expression, down in the dumps (See?) just put on one of those tapes, that music or a record, and go to playing it. The first thing you know you're patting your foot, or your hand, and it's all over then. You're right up and ready to go again.
E-5 Now, these six-hour messages, that's not the evangelistic type, that's when I'm home and--and just kind of... Everybody knows how to take me there, just kind of long-winded. And a lot of people can say more in five minutes (You see?), than I can say in those six hours. So, depends on what you're saying.
E-6 So I--I think at this time, if this sister that's got this little one to bring up, will bring it up... And we--we believe in this being a doctrine of the Bible. And trying to follow the Scripture and the pattern that the Lord Jesus left us just as close as we know how, is to follow through the way He did it. And we don't find any place in the Bible where He baptized them or even commissioned them to be baptized. He--He just said, "They brought little children unto Him that He might bless them." And He laid His hands upon them and said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God.'"
E-7 What's the little fellow's name? [Woman says, "It's a little girl, Rebekah."--Ed.] Rebekah. Last name? [Hammer] Hammer. This is Brother and Sister Hammer. God bless you. This your only one? Fourth girl. She ought to be an evangelist. Philip had four daughters, you know, and they were all prophetesses. You may not be. But I trust that God will give you four prophetesses out of these daughters anyway, Brother Hammer. Very sweet. She's yawning now. You should see it.
E-8 Our heavenly Father, we bring to You this morning this little lump of love that's been placed in this home by Your great hand. How the mother these months has packed it beneath her heart, longing to see what it would look like when it arrived. And here it is this morning, this sweet lovely little girl, and she gives it a Bible name, and now comes to the altar of God, she and her husband, to dedicate it, to give it back to the God that gave it to them. Bless their home, Father, we pray. Bless their family, bless this little Rebekah.
E-9 God bless you. May the Lord grant that the little baby will live, be a fine woman and a great servant of Christ for tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow. God bless both of you, so nice.
E-10 Now, let's turn in the Scriptures. To you who like to read the Scripture, let's turn to the book of Hebrews the 9th chapter for some words. Let's begin with the 24th verse of the 9th chapter.
For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Nor yet that he should offer himself oft, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others;
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many; and unto them that look for him... to appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word. Let us bow our heads now for prayer.
E-11 Almighty God, Who is the beginning of all things, Who made the worlds by Jesus Christ, we come in Thy Presence in this building this morning as a gathering of Thy people, to first offer ourselves to You for service, to give thanks for what we have already received of Thy hand, praying that You'll bless the reading of this Word. May the Holy Spirit continue to make the Word real to us as we look to the Author of the Word, for we ask it in His Name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
E-12 Now, we are going to try this morning to take just four letters in a word, "Look," for a subject, and to deal with it a little while as the Lord will lead us to do. I have a few notes written here and some Scripture that we might refer to as we go along. Look, l-double o-k, look, the word, really, when... It's used oft, "but, look..." When you hear the word it's usually somebody trying to get you to see what they are looking at. They say to you, "Look."
E-13 Now, everybody is looking today. Everybody is looking for something, and looking for something to happen. We know that the world is constantly watching the skies, the radar and the screens that we have up around the world. Every nation for its own defense has--has got a magic eye like, looking to--to find something to appear into this screen like an atomic missile or something. Then they've got something there to go back to the one that sent it this way. Everything is looking.
E-14 The church, just church, is looking for more members. But the Bride is looking for the coming of her Lord. We're all looking. E-15 In order to do it, you've got to see something before you can tell somebody else to look at what you're seeing. Noah had an experience of this. And he... by faith he saw the coming of a flood, a great rain that was going to cover the earth and take all the--wash off the earth, the rededication again to God, the filth of the world that the people had got in, that conglomeration that they were in in that day. And it had to all be washed off to start again.
E-16 I just finished a series of services on the last seven seals, and finding that in this sixth seal that there is a great interruption in--in nature. The moon, the stars, the earth belches forth. The church is purged; Israel is purged; and everything is purged under that seventh seal so that the millennium can start in. There has to be a cleansing first.
E-17 I have a tape, or a... Well, it's a movie, film, that was filmed in Jerusalem where we were asking the Jews, when they were returning back from Iran and many places a few years ago, about five years ago, packing their loved ones on their back and bringing them off the ships and out of airplanes, and so forth, coming back, asked them the question, "Are you returning to the homeland to die?"
E-18 Now, Noah knew by the Word of God that there was coming a flood. By faith he saw it. He knew that it was going to be, because God's Word promised it. Now, Noah himself, by faith, saw what God's Word said. But the world could not see it, because it could not be scientifically proven that there were water up in the sky. But Noah knew it was there, because God said so. E-19 It's a great day that we're living in. And we are... Everybody's looking for something. You might be looking today to the time you get home to eat your dinner. There might be a picnic this afternoon that you're taking your family to. There might be something another next week that you're looking for, a neighbor to come, or some friend. But everybody's looking for something. And as a group of believers today, assembled together, we want to fix our thoughts, our principles and things, upon the coming of the Lord, looking for Christ, Who shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those that believe and are looking for Him to come.
E-20 God here the--by the writer, is inviting us to--to view this and to look at it. We... The writer says here that, "We look for Christ the second time, to see Him as He is." And now, we know that the Word is Christ. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And Hebrews 13:8 said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, it's the Word that we look to then, for It is the--the expression of what God is. And when God came in Christ He was the expression of what God was. And whatever He was He ever remains, because He's eternal and cannot change.
E-21 Many people, when you speak of church they have a funny idea. The world, when they pass by the church (I mean the body of Christ gathered together.), they think of our women with some great, long, stringy hair, with black dresses and everything. And they think of the men with long fingers, dressed in black clothes and always condemning them. To a good sense of the word, that's true, because the church is a peculiar people, a called-out people. E-22 Now, God could've chose to preach the Gospel by the sun, by the moon, by the stars, by the wind, or by nature. But He chose man to preach the Gospel. And that's where the Voice of God will come from. And you can judge the voice according to the word it expresses. Then you can see what kind of a voice that you're look--listening to. If it's contrary to the Word, don't listen to it. But if it is the Word, then God's duty bound to back that Word up and vindicate It and make It Truth, because He promised to do it.
E-23 So we are living in a great day, these words of Christ expressed. When He came into the world He was the Word Himself. He didn't have to write no books. He never wrote a book. Why? He was the Word. He didn't have to write about anything, because He was what the others had wrote about. He was the Word; therefore, He didn't write anything with His own hand. He was the Word Itself. And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, so He still remains the Word.
E-24 Would not it be a glorious thing this morning, my brethren and sisters, if the church of the living God could stand and say, "Who can accuse me of sin?" Every gift that God promised in the Bible and everything He promised would be done, it's operating right among us today. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Who can... Then we... The denominational thoughts would move plumb out of existence when we can see God speaking for Himself.
E-25 My boy, Billy, the other day give me a camera. And he showed me a--an object. He said, "Daddy, take that picture out there." Well, it's a little 35mm Petra. And I took up the little camera and looked at the object. There was about three of them objects standing out there, a Saguaro cactus. I could see one stalk, two stalks, three stalks. And I took it down again and looked, there was only one stalk. I put it back again; it looked like there was three stalks. E-26 Looking through the same camera, a man can see something, but his own intelligence tells him there's only one stalk out there. See? But that's the way the Holy Spirit does. If we'll just let It have Its way, It'll take the Word Itself and bring It into focus to where we'll see what we're looking at then. And then you'll find out, maybe, if people that are trying to show you something are not so wrong after all (You see?), if you'll just let the range finder start, the Word Itself begin to show the Word in manifestation. Amen. It'll--it'll do it if you'll just let it. See? But you've got to use the range finder to get your--your... If it hit the zero mark once, it'll hit it again. E-27 I--I love to--to shoot, and--and the targets. And here not long ago I was squirrel hunting down in Kentucky and there was... I had a little model 75 rifle. It sounds... I hope it don't sound sacrilegious to you to say this in a sermon, but I--I will tell you. I'm trying to make a point. And this little rifle, I trained it in. And I've dealt and fooled with guns since a little kid. I--I love them. And I--I had this little model 75 till I could just every time hit a squirrel's eye at fifty yards with it. And I had a paper from the range down there, signed up, that driving nine bullets through the same hole at fifty yards on a rainy, windy day. And I got it signed up and notarized. And that was the Lord helping me, of course, to do that. That's unusual.
E-28 And I started to shoot the squirrel and I find out I hit him somewhere else besides in the eye and I got nervous. I tried again on paper and it wouldn't hit the target. It would hit within a, oh, quarter of an inch, or a half-inch, or something at fifty yards. But I knowed it would do better than that. I done everything to the gun that I knowed how to do and nothing seemed to--to fix it up right.
E-29 Now, that was the Winchester Company that made the gun: said a inch at twenty-five yards, and I drove nine straight holes at fifty yards. Now, here's my thought. My wife said, "Now look, Bill," she said, "if that company who made the rifle will just say that, and it won't do no better than that, then who are you to say that..."
E-30 And I set down there when the other brethren was shooting at squirrels. Anywhere they wanted to hit them was all right, mid-center, back, or anywhere. I set under a tree and was crying; I said, "God, I am so nervous I can't hold myself together. Why did You make me a little nervous fellow like this?" And just... I realize where I am standing here, with the Bible before me. And a voice just as plain as you would hear mine, said, "You were made thus for a purpose." E-31 No matter what the churches says and the people who claims to be, I--I know it'll do it, because... And there's what I want to look at, that Word to see that it's exactly in focus, to see the same vision they saw. And it'll do the same job that it did for them. It'll heal the sick; It'll raise the dead; It'll cast out devils. It'll bring forth a glorious church who's willing to seal their testimony with their own blood, if it comes necessary to do that, because it depends on what you're looking at.
E-32 Now if I had looked to what the Winchester Company said, which is supposed to be the one that--that made the gun, then I'd have listened to them. But I knowed different. Now, if I look to the church, and they say, "Oh, them days is gone, and there's no such a thing as that, and..." See? You see where you'd be? It'd be plumb off the target. See? E-33 We must focus our lives. Not what somebody else says, but focus our lives to Him, and He is the Word. See? If we get our lives lined with the Word, then the Word and our life becomes the same. He said, "If ye abide in Me, and My Word in you, then ask what you will; it'll be granted to you. Verily I say unto you, If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that that what you have said will come to pass; you can have what you have said (Oh, my.), not what I said, what you said." You can have, because you and He become the same, because the mind that was in Christ is in you. And the mind that was in Christ was to fulfill the Father's Word, which He was the Word. There you are. Then you and the Word are focused in together. You become a living unit of God. How great.
E-34 There was a time when man's sins... When man sinned before God he crossed a great chasm. As a writer said here, that "He appeared on the last days for salvation to those that look for it."
E-35 Now, when Jesus came He wasn't just a man. He wasn't just the third person of the trinity. He--He was God. He was God Himself. He--He was Emmanuel. And we're taught in the Bible that we're saved by the Blood of God. When God Himself became one of us He--He changed His--His--His--what He was. He changed His tent. He came down, condescending from glory and became man. Therefore, born without sex He created Himself a body that He lived in Himself, Emmanuel, God represented with us, the Word made flesh among us, and lived with us to redeem many sons back to God through the shedding of this Blood. E-36 Now, there was a time, as I have remarked, that a woman when she got a stain on a white piece of goods, she--there was no way of getting it off. I remember when my mother used to put black coffee on grease to try to take a stain off of something. And I remember a time she used to take the old turpentine bottle and try to wash out the stain, coal oil and so forth, to remove the stain from a garment. Well, it--it just wouldn't move it good. There was still a trace of it. That in symbol I'd like to take as the blood of goats and sheep and so forth. E-37 But now they have manufactured a stuff called bleach. And that bleach, Clorox or whatever it is, it's a bleach that's been manufactured. And what, this morning, if I had a tub full of that bleach setting here and a--a little eye dropper with black ink in it? Let's study it a minute. What is that black ink? Much of it is water. But the color? Where did the color come from? The color had to start. We know it's a creation. So if it started with a creation, it had to come from a Creator before it can be a creation.
E-38 I don't know what these words mean. I couldn't break it down. But you excuse the words that I'm going to use, but to make a point. Well, let's say... Well, when it drops, this drop of ink... Now, it was for a purpose. That color become that color for a purpose. That one drop of ink can sign your death warrant, can send you to the electric chair. Or that one drop of ink can pardon you from your sins. It was sent here for a purpose. We got to use it for the right thing. E-39 Look out the window at that palm tree. What is it? It's volcanic ash with a life in it. Look across the street from it and you see a eucalyptus. What is it? Volcanic ash with life in it, a different kind. Look, you see a rose. What is it? Volcanic ash with life in it. Where did the color come from? Just think of that. Well, Who colored that flower? There's two flowers of the same species; one's yellow and the other one's red. Both of them come from a little seed. And what--where'd the coloring come from? Part of it's green, part white, part red, part yellow, where did the coloring come from? Same sun shined on the same place. Something has to determine it. It's a natural substance, so it had to have a creation somewhere. E-40 Now look, then what does it do? It goes plumb back to the beginning to a Creator. Then if sin put a stain on a human being, and Moses, by offering a sheep, could take the--the Voice of God... "I'll put My Words in your mouth." And he walked out there with the Word of God and said, "Let there be flies," and there wasn't a fly nowhere... In less than five minutes, maybe, an old green fly begin to buzz around. In another ten minutes there was maybe two pound per square yard. What was it? The Word of God in the mouth of His prophet. The Word of God is creating. But it's got to come from the right resource. E-41 And then if God could take that man, and bridge a way across there by the blood of sheeps and goat, and could make the Word of God creative by the mouth of a man, how much more... not only, but the creative--or the power of the sacrifice of a bull or a goat, but the Blood of Jesus Christ, that when sin is confessed and drops into that bleach of God, the own... God's own creative way of taking away the stain so far that it's put in the Sea of Forgetfulness to be remembered no more. When a man confesses his sins and gets right with God, and God drops the sin of this confession, into the Blood of His own Blood and forgives that sin, and--and replaces in that man the original Spirit that should been there, His own Spirit, making him a son of God, how much more ought the creative power of God to be in the church. See? It breaks down every wall of sin, it breaks down...
E-42 See, people today try to say those words was back for another age. It is if you're still out from under that Blood. But if you're under that Blood the power of God by His Word remains the same. It's got to be the same. If He could do that by the blood of sheep and animals, what about the Blood of Jesus Christ? E-43 Then the church would be moving on without friction, without hurt, without harm, without--without doubts, without scruples, without friction. It would be moving in the power of the Word of God manifesting every Divine blessing that God promised to it, if it'd just do that. We must do our lives, and then see Him and see Him only, not some bishop, some great man, or something we take pattern by, but we look to Jesus Christ. Not some organization, not some pope, or--or some archbishop of Canterbury, or some other divine man that we call on earth, but we must look to Jesus Christ. He is the Word, and the only... E-44 Abraham, when he was asked to sojourn in a strange land and look for the promise, he never doubted the promise. The Christian looks at the unseen. Remember, you are endowed with five senses. One of them is sight. But I'll prove to you your sight don't see everything. Here, this morning, right in this room right now, there's living representations of creatures in this room. There's living voices in this room. If you do not, then go turn on the television and see if there isn't people plumb across the nation that's being represented right here in this room this morning. Their figures and their beings is passing through this room. Is that true? Why? Only way you'll ever know it, is a transmitter to pick it up and transmit it into reality. E-45 And the only way that the church will ever know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is get into that transmitter, the Blood, that transmits our sins away from us and brings us across that chasm into the Presence of God, being sons of God which He represents Himself in. Oh, what a great thing. If we'd look to that this morning we'd forget the differences of the things that's in the world today, and the things that other people looking for, and the great numbers and so forth. We're looking to Jesus Christ, Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. E-46 Now remember, the whole Christian armor is supernatural. If you are a Christian and you say, "Seeing is believing." You can never be a Christian if you believe that. "For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." You cannot be a Christian and have to see the thing. The whole armor of God is supernatural. Love, joy, peace, faith, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness and the Holy Ghost is all unseen. And the Christian doesn't look to what he sees with his eyes; he looks to what he sees with his faith. And his faith can only be based upon one thing. That's the Word. Amen. Now, I feel like a shouting Baptist. Yes, sir. See?
E-47 When you get to that Word, that's the living thing. That's the Word. When your mind and eyes can be single to that Word, and focus that in till you see exactly what God's a-doing, what a wonderful thing. Abraham saw it. See? He did not look to any of the misunderstandings of the promise. What if he would've looked and said, "Here I'm seventy-five years old, and such-and-such a voice spoke to me and said I'm to have a baby by my wife. She's sixty-five years old, about fifteen, twenty, years past menopause." What would he have done? E-48 That's what every genuine believer has to do: separate yourself from these doubters and unbelievers and walk with Christ. It--it's life to you. And Abraham did such a thing. And twenty-five years later we find him still believing the same promise. Why? He had focused his--his mind to the will of God, by the Word of God, and believed it. If we can focus ourself to the plan of God, to what God wants for us and what God promised us, and let everything else alone. No matter how long it is, just keep believing. Romans 4, here we find Romans 4:14; It said, "And he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief." He didn't let unbelief contaminate him at all. He looked to one thing. That was the Voice that spoke to him.
E-49 That's what the church ought to do today. Look to the one thing, the Voice, the Word of God that speaks to us. Churches and peoples can speak any way, but look to the voice. What are we looking at? He looked to the voice that spoke to him. He called everything contrary to that voice as though it wasn't. And yet materially, it was as far out of focus with the world as Noah's time was. It was just as far out of focus. E-50 That's what the church should do. That's what each member of the church should do. But focus out of you all doubt. Look only to that Word. It promised it. God said so. It's got to be that way. The Bible said, "Against hope, he believed in hope. And he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong, giving praise to God." Each day he got stronger because the miracle would be greater.
E-51 Sometimes we can't wait from one night to the other. Sometimes we can't wait from one revival to the other. We have to go out and entangle with the things of the world. How we ought to be ashamed of ourself. Before we come here to confess and get into that Blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin, we should focus ourself down to see that one true living God standing there Who made the promise that heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word cannot fail. Stay right there upon that. Then you're not tossed about with winds of doctrine, carried about from place to place, from pillar to post. But you know where you stand because you've been zeroed in with God. You see your own life hitting that target just like those apostles did. You live the way they did. You were baptized the way they were. You see the same results that they seen. You see it operating in you. You're zeroed. I don't care what the company says and what the denominations say. You're zeroed, because you know that you're hitting the target. Amen.
E-52 Just like David's little rock in the sling, it went straight to its destination. So will your prayers go straight to its destination, 'cause it's offered in the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses you. There's not a sin or a spot on you nowhere. That's right. There can't be. As long as that--that Clorox is between me and God, how's He going to see my sin? How can He do it? If I make a sin, it's not willfully. "He that sins willfully after he receives the knowledge of the truth..." But you've no willful sin. Yet you do sin. But you don't do it willfully, because in your heart you--you don't mean to do those things. But when you do it willfully, it's different. Then I think you wasn't there at the first place.
E-53 It was blood that brings forth a child. It was only blood alone. The blood comes from the male sex. The male--blood comes from the man. The woman, she produces the egg, the filler, but the man is the hemoglobin. It's there comes the germ. And in the germ is where--is where the life lays. And the life comes not by confession in--of some church, or some creed, or some document, but the life comes when you're, been borned again by the Blood of Jesus Christ. The germ, the... "The works that I do shall you do also. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." E-54 Now, we find out Moses, we find out later on, he--he built... He saw Israel. Moses, a great prophet, he looked out the windows. He was raised in Pharaoh's courts. And he looked out the window and he saw a bunch of mud daubers. It was nothing but half-dressed people with lashes of whips upon their back, no way at all to ever be delivered. But Moses knew the Word of God. And he looked upon them as a promised people. He looked upon them as a people that had a promise. No matter how much the world that day looked down upon them as a bunch of mud daubers, or slaves, he looked upon them as a people having a promise. E-55 Pharaoh looked upon them out of the same window, but he seen slaves. Moses seen the victory. Why? He had focused himself. Though being a prince, though heir to the throne of Egypt, he focused himself away from the lust of the world. He focused himself away from the beauty and power that he had within his own potentials to receive. He focused that out until he seen a blessed people down there by the promise of God. He focused in because he knowed that God promised Abraham that He would visit His people. And he knew that he was raised up for that purpose and he focused it all out.
E-56 Pharaoh did not have this potential. He was offered it, but refused it. And when he refused it then he couldn't focus. No man, after he's turned down the Word of God, can ever focus hisself into it, because you refused the Word that brings you into relationship with Christ. That's right. So...
E-57 Then when the faith that's in you focus you to this Word, you're focused away from all denominations and creeds and everything. You're focused right straight on the Word of God. You're zeroed in. The only thing it needs is a little touch off. Amen. That prayer flies straight in the Presence of God, because there's nothing to stop it. Yes, that's what does it. When you're zeroed in with God, focused in, by then you're looking at the target.
E-58 The church, as good as... It's got its place. We don't deny that. But it's got--all got its place. It'll fire, but it won't hit the target. Only them who look for Christ the second time, that's the zero. It depends on what you're looking at. Yes. E-59 Then how could a man say he's filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Spirit say a certain way to do something in the Bible, and this man comes around and says, "Oh, well, that's fanaticism." Could the Holy Spirit be--the real Holy Spirit deny Its own Word? No, it has to stay with the Word because It's God. See? What are you looking at? What are you seeing? We must see Jesus. And the only way we see Jesus, see the Word. This is the--the natural symbol of the Spirit. Do you know what I mean? It is the letter that the Spirit quickens. See? That is the letter that--and the Spirit quickens this letter and makes it a reality.
E-60 Yeah, Moses looked by faith. And the man today who sees God's program does the same thing: looks by faith. E-61 If men come out there just as an idol to look upon that serpent, they received nothing. But when the true believer come out there and looked upon that serpent with the spiritual revealed truth... That serpent itself, being it was in the form of a serpent, it represented sin already judged. They seen sin, their unbelief, already under judgment from the serpent from the garden of Eden. And the serpent was made out of brass, which means Divine judgment. See? The altar was made out of brass, brazen altar, which the sacrifice was offered upon: brass, Divine judgment. E-62 The great prophet Elijah, when he looked up to the skies in the days of his ministry, the three-and-a-half years, and there was no--no water at all, he said, "The skies looked like brass." What was it? Divine judgment upon a disbelieving nation of the message of God, that their faith was so dim could not see it in that day. I wonder today if we see all the hydrogens and oxygens and the bombs and the things that we have created, wonder if we don't see a nation, a time, looks like brass. It's Divine judgment. E-63 We have become so--so profound in our intellects. We have educated our children till we got a bunch of Rickys. And we've got... what we got... Even our churches and things, and our boys going to seminaries, getting out here, and go down there and learn some Ph.D. and L.L.D. Let me tell you something. Every time he gets one, he goes farther and farther from God. God is so simple. The reason that man can't find God, he don't get simple enough.
E-64 Someone said, "Brother Branham, how do you see visions?" It's not me. See? You got--you got to get yourself out of the picture. God made a promise. God's got to stay with that promise. But you've got to be simple enough to get out of your own way. Someone said, "This would be a great man if he had a L.L.D. out of our college." If he does, he just goes another gap from God. E-65 The way to know God is get simple. The way up is down. Which way is the north or south pole? You're standing in space. See? The way up is down. "He that humbles himself shall be exalted; he that exalts himself shall be abased." See? We must humble ourselves, not try to know too much. Just know one thing. Focus everything else out of the way and look unto Christ. If you don't know how to write your name, that don't have one thing to do with it. Just focus your heart to Christ and His will, and watch what happens. Yes, certainly.
E-66 Now, many come there and seen, said, "There's a great serpent. People goes out there and gets healed by looking at the serpent. Maybe we'd better take the family and go over." You hear such things today. "There's a great healer coming to town and he--they're--we'll all go over and get healed." Now, when you think that way, you've certainly got your camera out of focus. Yes, sir. Focus it down to Jesus and Him only. Look to Him and you'll see what God's purpose is. E-67 And today Jesus said in St. John 3:14, "As Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." If you can look upon Him, not as a church man, not as a prophet, not as just a good man, not as a third person of a trinity, or something. If you can look upon Him as being Emmanuel Himself Who came down and give His Life and was lifted up that "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have Eternal Life." If you can focus your camera till you see that, and know that it cost the life of God Himself... E-68 When He made His Life here He didn't have to give it up. He laid it down freely. He was God; He didn't have to die. But He did it freely, gave His own Life that He might bring sons to Him, that His work might continue on. "The works that I do..." John 14:12. "The works that I do you'll do also." If the things could to be done like that, and you can see Him and see Him only, then you'll get your camera in focus (See?) to a place to where God can use you. Certainly.
E-69 Now, if you just look up there and say, "I got a little crucifix hanging in my car. I got one at my home, a cross." That's all right. But that ain't what it is. That's not what He's talking about. You've got to see that God knows that you are a sinner, and that you have confessed your sins and God put your iniquity upon Him, upon Hisself, and become a man. He crossed His strain and come down from being God to be man that He might die in your stead, to give Hisself for you. And you confessed your sin. And not a manufactured Clorox, but a--a power of God that was made Blood that He might take away your sinful blood (by sexual desire), and make you a free man and woman of God. There you are.
E-70 Be per--be persistent, like the little Syrophenician woman. No matter how many disappointments she had as she come down, she still had focused herself on that that was God. And she come to Him and got what she asked for, because she had her focus right. She had it, no matter how many puffs of wind come, and saying, "The days of miracles is passed. Your husband will leave you." That didn't bother her a bit. That bullet went straight to its point. Amen. We can focus on...
E-71 Look at the sheep-gate. There was people. God's always had a way for man to look for salvation. That brass serpent, the people had to look at it. That's right. And at the sheep-gate, they had to look at it. Them people set there... Let's think it was a hospital. There were many sick and afflicted. There was thousands, multitudes laid there. It was like a hospital today. Tender hands of their loved ones waited on them, just exactly like they would in a hospital today. They were waiting. Their eyes were watching that water. There was five porches where the sheep-gate was. It's at--it's outside of Jerusalem. And there... or the gate...
E-72 At the sheep-gate they watched for the supernatural moving. God's always moved through His people through supernatural vindication of His promise. He promised He would do it. When they seen that promise begin to move in a supernatural, they jumped right into it and took it.
E-73 Jesus went and found one person in the entire church. You say, "Does God heal all?" No, sir. And the Pentecostal brethren, let me drop this to you. You're looking for a time to come that when there's going to be men rise upon the earth, and go out in hospitals, and deliver them, and say the whole hospital move out. Don't you never be deceived like that. You believe me; you believe that's a lie. It never was done. When Jesus...
E-74 We go in today and find a man of God, led by the Spirit of God, sees a vision, goes does something like that and they say, "Why here's Jones, sets on the corner. Let me see you healers heal him."
E-75 Now, if them said, "Oh well, we'll go up there and see what the rest of them does. We'll see if that looks supernatural." They never got nothing. But it's that man that had to press up, not set at the back, but in the front, that man who waited for the altar call, that man who waited to see something supernatural.
E-76 Not join church, shake hands, and a million more in '44, or a new church, a new building, a new something. It was a new life that come by a supernatural move that they were looking for it to happen. They knowed every certain season, then come down and they waited.
E-77 Our denominations has spread itself till it's went way out. And now, we're fighting and trying to get more and bigger churches, and higher classes, and better educated preachers, and things. And what have we got? We've got away from the very thing that God told us to look at. What are you looking at? Look and live. That's what we must do if we expect to live.
E-78 I've had them to come to the meetings, say, "Brother Branham, I didn't know you was a holy-roller. Because I noticed all that group screaming, and crying, and going on while you were speaking, hollering 'Amen' and so forth. Why, that's nothing but emotion." It might be to you who don't believe. But to we who have tasted of the good things of God, we who know what the Holy Ghost is...
E-79 The people today, no matter how try--much they try to say it's fanaticism, the people go right ahead believing it. They can't explain it. They don't know what it is. They don't know. They got an idea of what it is. Like Benjamin Franklin with a kite in his hand, he said, "I got it! I got it! I got it!" He knowed he had something.
E-80 Then just somehow or another you seem to know the will of God. Some supernatural way, there's a moving something in you says, "Go over here and do that. Go down here and do that." See, there's something in you always hits the target just exactly the way it's supposed to be. Oh, how wonderful. E-81 Them people might've laughed, but that didn't stop them. They waited just the same. The people might say, "Our church, our brethren, they're--they're cooling off of the message..." and so forth. It ain't cooled off. We're watching for the moving of the water. I'm watching to see something happen. I'm here in Tucson now. Why? I don't know. The water moved me down here. I'm watching to see something happen. It's going to happen. I told you when I come here the other day something'd happen, there'd be a thunder, or a blast go off. Them seven seals come forth. Get the tapes and find out whether it's right or not. See? Oh, we wait for the moving of the water.
E-82 We seen something, setting back on the cross side of that desert north of Tucson, just what I told you here before it happened. I was picking those little goat-headers off of there, and just then it went off and it shook the whole mountain. Rocks rolled down and things like that. And the Holy Spirit turned, said, "Return to your home immediately, for the Seven Seals is going to be opened." Get the tapes and find out. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD, told before it happened and everything. Find out if it's truth or not. When I'm gone on, that still lives on.
E-83 Elijah, he... One day when he was looking for something to come to bring help to the people, he looked, and he looked, till the old man, eighty-something years old, was too tired to climb the mountain, after been fasting and praying. But God told him if they'd repent something would happen. What was he looking? He sent his servant up and said, "Go up and look. Look. Something's going to happen."
E-84 Then Elijah goes back... Or I mean Gehazi. And he looks and looks and looks. And Elijah, that little bald head, setting there in the sun, and his whiskers and his beard, white beard, and them little bony looking arms across his bony knees, he said, "Lord God," as he begin to pray. E-85 That's the same thing today. Although the church has got itself all scrupled up, it's in all kinds of conditions, it's broke off in isms and formalities and everything, but I've got to stay with it. We must stay there. We got to stay there because we love it. There's something in us compulsing us. The pulsations from our heart says, "Stay with it." Because there's going to be a resurrection one day, and God will take from that. Amen. Yes. Wonderful Lord Jesus. All right. E-86 We find Elijah kept looking until he seen just the size of a man's hand. Now, unbelief would've caught that right quick. "If that's the best you can do... (See?) If that's all you can do, well, take it back." But what was it? He was looking for the supernatural. Oh, he knowed only the hand of God could do it. And when he saw that hand, J-e-s-u-s, he had f-a-i-t-h. Yes. And when he saw it, he said, "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." What was it? He accepted the first move.
E-87 Oh, unbeliever this morning, you who have been all scrupled up in your water baptisms and everything else, let the Spirit of God open your eyes and show you just a little something. Then you start from there. "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." You who believe creeds instead of the Word, come back to the Word. Just see the first little move. Faith accepted it. "There's what I'm looking for."
E-88 Watch Elijah. When he accepted it, you know his life must've been renewed. He outrun Ahab's chariot. He run before the chariot when he couldn't even climb the hill. He run before those swift horses. "Get the rain barrels out. I hear the sound of abundance of rain." The first little move... Glory. The first little move at the pool of Bethesda, they rushed to get to it. Amen. E-89 O God, I wish that every sick person here this morning that feels this Holy Spirit in our presence now, could realize that that's the evidence of a prayer that you prayed has been answered in the Presence of God. Every man who wants the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if you'd feel that little grand feeling, saying that, "I believe that's the truth..." If you'd take that, "That's the evidence of my answered prayer," raise up your hands and say, "God, I receive it now," something would take place. Depends on... God throws the signs all around us and we still move right on, just out of the way of it. Yes. Oh, my. Elijah knowed it was an answer of prayer.
E-90 Jonah refused to see anything was contrary. He was down in the belly of the whale in the bottom of the sea. But he said, "That won't hide me." He said, "Once more I look towards Your holy temple." What was he looking at? He actually couldn't see the temple. But he seen the promise made by the temple. E-91 He refused to see anything that would make him doubt. If the devil says for you and say, "Now, wait a minute, maybe tonight you might be a little bit better, when the revival starts." Might be fair, that might be good, but don't wait till the revival starts. Be--become part of the revival right now. God wants to start it in you. God wants to start it in the church. The Holy Spirit will take the messenger then and send forth the message. God will vindicate that message, great signs and wonders. See? Refuse to see anything that would make you doubt. Jonah did. And God delivered him out of the belly of the whale. Certainly. Yes, sir.
E-92 Job, when even all of his friends had turned him down, everything was wrong, Job kept looking towards the sky. Some of them said, "You're a secret sinner. You--you--you're looking... Job, what are you looking up that way for? Because you've done sinned, God's done proved what He's done to you. You're a secret sinner, Job."
E-93 Look. Job stood and looked; he seen his flesh all corruption. He seen blood over him; he seen boils over him. His wife come. His church members left him and accused him of being a secret sinner. His wife come and said, "You look miserable. Why don't you curse God and die the death?"
E-94 Watch. The first He's called Redeemer; the next He's God. "I know my Redeemer liveth, the last days He'll stand on the earth. Though that the skin worms destroys this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, my eyes shall behold, and not another." When he was dying, and his body rottening, and while he was in the flesh, he looked till he seen the resurrection (Hallelujah.), and knowed that he was included in it because he was keeping God's Word. Look and live, my brother. Amen. He seen what God's purpose was and he did it. E-95 Oh, my. Looks what's promised in the last days. In closing now, let me say this just before we close. Look what's promised in the last days. Look what He's already done in these last days: He's poured out the Holy Ghost upon His people, brought back the original Pentecost again, brought back the original baptism of the Holy Ghost, brought back the original water baptism, brought back everything back to its original. Come right on down, and brought back the original evidence of Christ by showing us visions and prophecies that never fail one time. Move right on down, everything just exactly the same to show that it's beyond human mind. They could not do that. It's God.
E-96 Watch that great Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel. Anybody, any Bible scholar knows that that was the Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ. Hebrews said, Hebrews the 11th chapter said that Moses forsook Egypt, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater treasures than that of Egypt. See? What was it? Christ in the wilderness.
E-98 They said, "You make yourself God. You make yourself..." Said, "Why, we know you're crazy now." "Mad" means "crazy." "We know you're crazy. You're a man not over fifty years old, and here you say you saw Abraham? We know you're mad. You're out of your mind. You're a religious fanatic."
E-98 A few days after the resurrection Saul of Tarsus was on his road down to Damascus to persecute the Pentecostals. And when he's on his road down there, there was a great light moved down, put his eyes out. He couldn't... None of the rest of them could see that Light, but he could. It was so vivid to him till it blinded his eyes, said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"
E-99 The Gospel Truth of the vindication of the Word, this baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, these things that we teach are absolutely the truth, for are they vindicated. Amen. Whew. I feel religious, yes. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is here. 'Cause around the world He's proved it back and forth, and never failing one time. Amen.
E-100 Look, it depends on what you're looking at. Look what's been done, the Pillar of Fire, the Holy Ghost, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, let us look. Let us believe. Let us understand that we're in the last days; we're in the last hours; and we're in the last minutes of the last hour.
E-101 We see Israel in her homeland with her ensign lifted up, the six-point star of David. She's got her own money, her own nation, her own army. She's got everything. She's--she's Israel. What is it? She's there, ready for the purging that God will take that hundred and forty-four thousand from it. E-102 Like a book I read of Romeo and Juliet one time, how he come with a ladder and got his bride out among them. That's what... Jesus will come someday and looking for that one's not looking to his creeds, but looking to Christ, waiting for Him to come, with his heart centered. They come blood relation like Isaac and Rebekah, own blood relation. That's what we have to come, blood relation to Christ through the sacrifice, when our sins are omitted by the Blood of Jesus, not by what some church says, what somebody else says, but what the Blood has done and proved that it's done, by the Word, working through the same thing, carrying out the same ministry He had. Amen.
E-103 What are you looking to, church? Oh, these last days. Oh, He's been right among His people and we've forgot it. He's set right among us and we didn't know it. The Holy Spirit's here this morning, and maybe many'll go away and forget it. Maybe many sick will forget to believe and anchor their faith right where it should be now. The true... Truly the pool is troubled. The waters are whirling backwards from the natural, showing the supernatural. The Holy Spirit's here taking a normal bunch of people, intelligent, setting here well-dressed, well-educated, looking, and the Holy Spirit fall upon them and something whirls them around, they holler, "Glory to God. Hallelujah." What's the matter? The troubling of the water. Amen. E-104 The Holy Spirit fall among us... I was setting there awhile ago with Brother Outlaw, pointing people to Him, here with diseases and things, and it can be done right now, showing the different things that's happening in lives and things. What is it? It's the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. What are we waiting for? The troubling of the waters? It's already troubled. The Angel will leave pretty soon, and all virtue's gone. And then there's no salvation left. You'll be left into outer darkness.
E-105 Story I heard a few days ago... In closing I might say this. There's a boy who'd done a murder. He done something wrong. Well, I was called on a case the other day, you know, over here in Texas. I got a little certificate from them the other day, "Saving a life," it said. Went over there for that little Irish--that man that'd taken the picture of the Angel of the Lord, Who... That night over there at Houston had criticized me and said everything in the world about me, throwed his arms around me and hugged me, said, "Just think, Brother Branham, the very man that I said was practicing hypnosis has come to save my son from the electric chair." That's right. I talked there before them all. And what did the governor do? Pardoned it. Oh, my, when he was dying four or five days afterwards. Right. Why? I'm interested in life: life.
E-106 One day a mother's boy had killed a man. He was laying there ready to die. And so the little mother stood by the governor's door. And they asked in. And finally one of the guards said, "Governor, that mother of that boy's out here. Wants you... She wants to see you."
E-107 The man had built up a complex, just about like the church has done today. "You'll either preach it the way I like it, or you won't hear it at all. I won't pay no attention when..." He set there. Man after man had come to him, tried to talk to him. He'd built himself till he wasn't going to hear no more.
E-108 He'd looked at so many things, he was afraid to look at this man. He kept his head turned. That's the way people do today at the altar call. They keep their head turned. They don't want to hear it. They turn their head from God Who's telling them, "That's the truth." A little wee voice like a touch...
E-109 When he walked out the boy looked around kind of arrogant, as he walked down through the hall. And when he did one of the guards stepped out and said, "Governor, did you do any good?"
E-110 Oh, there's more than a governor here this morning. Jesus Christ is here. And that little cell called man or woman, He's here to give pardon. Don't, don't turn Him away. Don't do it. Find your purpose that God brought you here in life. We're in a tremendous hour, friends. You know that. As the old song said...
Nations are breaking (Look what time it is.),Israel's awakening,The signs that the Bible foretold;The Gentile days numbered,With horrors encumbered;Return, O dispersed, to your own.The day of redemption is near,Men's hearts are failing for fear;Be filled with the Spirit,Your lamps trimmed and clear. (What?)Look up! Your redemption is near. (That's right.)False prophets are lying,God's truth they're denying,That Jesus the Christ is our God; (That's right.)This generation spurns God's revelation,But we walk where the apostles have trod.The day of redemption is near,Men's hearts are failing for fear;Be filled with the Spirit,Your lamps trimmed and clear.Look up! Your redemption is near.
E-111 That's right. Look up, brother, get away from all this dogma of the world. Look up; look to Christ. Look to Jesus. As the song says,
Look and live my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in His Word, Hallelujah.
It's only that we look and live.
What are you looking at this morning?
Look and live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
For it's recorded in His Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
You believe that? Let's sing it together. You know it?
Look and live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
Now let's sing it together now.
... live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
E-112 What are you looking at? To them that look for Jesus a second time He will come in glory unto salvation, to take us out of this sinful world, out of this sin and stuff we're in. You believe that? Look and live. The only thing you can do is look. Take the Word. As the serpent on a pole represented the living Word that would be made flesh, so does the Word today represent the Presence of the Holy Spirit when we see it vindicated among us. He's in our little cell this morning. Won't you listen to Him while we bow our heads? (Continue on, brother.)
Look and live, my brother, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
[Brother Branham begins humming--Ed.] Look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
E-113 While you have your heads bowed, look to Jesus now, brother, the Word. If you've never repented, repent. If you've never been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, be baptized. You've got a promise of God that you'll receive the Holy Ghost. That's what the original church started with. And the way it started... God is the infinite. He cannot change His program. That's the way it has to ever remain. The church was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost by repentance, baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ and a promise to receive the Holy Ghost. "These signs shall follow them that believe..."
Look and live, my brothers, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
Now it's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
E-114 Now it's recorded here in the Word. We're in the last days. There's nothing put up about this. There's nothing bogus, no hoax. It's the Word being made manifest. It's the Word telling the truth. You've been--you've been to the meetings; you've been in the meetings before and you know that it's the truth. Now, we have a lot of impersonators, we know that. But don't look at them. There's a mixed multitude went with Moses. But remember, there were some true Israelites there that went to the promised land. See?
E-115 The same in this group, brother. There's real genuine Spirit-filled men and women, real real. You can't put a finger on their life. Won't you look and live this morning? Look away from the impersonators. Look away from the--the ones that would be fanatics. Look away from all of that and look to the real Jesus. We're recorded in His Word. Hallelujah. To those that look for Him the second time He will appear.
Oh, look and live, my brothers, live;Look to Jesus now and live. (Somebody else?)... recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
Look and live, my brother, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
What's the matter with women this morning? All men? Seldom you see that. This is a hour of sincerity. All right.
Look and live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live.
It's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and...
E-116 I just feel there should be somebody else. Come on. These--these four men standing here, there's more than that here. Come on. You want to live? Remember, God writes it down. They asked, "How must... What must we do to be saved?" And it was told them. Now, He cannot change that, and never was it changed down through the Bible ages.
E-117 What are you looking at? Did you stop in this hideous hectic day that we're living in? What are you looking for? God's placed everything. The troubling of the water, that first little move, people jumped in. The sign of the hand in the sky, Elijah said, "That cloud the size of a man's hand like a vapor..." What was it? He kept believing. "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." That cloud become two clouds. Two clouds become a hill. A hill become a mountain. A mountain become another mountain. The first thing you know the whole skies were thundering. Rain was falling. What was it? He accepted what God sent.
Look and live, my brothers, live;
Oh, look to Jesus now and live.
Oh, it's recorded in the Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that we look and live.
E-118 Let's bow our heads. Wonder if you brethren here, some of you minister brothers, you walk right down, some of you brethren, lay hands on these brethren with me down here if you will, brothers. E-119 Lord Jesus, upon the confession | ||||||