Sermon Texts (Adding Now)
Sermon Texts Beginning With L
Look Away To Jesus (63-1229E)
| Look Away To Jesus (63-1229E) |
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1-1 Amen. Thank you, George, Becky, and Sister Ungren, that fine song. That's true. All is changed when Jesus comes. He just shuts out the darkness and scatters the light. And we're thankful for that. 1-4 And now, there's a few things I would like to make mention of right here. That is, that I--I would like to ask the church, the first thing, something that I have--have done, and I--I want to ask if I can change that tonight. We're not... I don't make New Year's vows; and then I'm... We've got to go home tomorrow, so we won't be here for New Years to, but we'll be remembering you. I believe there'll be a meeting here New Years' night. Yeah, that's right, a watch service, as they always have on New Years' night. We would like to stay, but we just can't get back in time to--to get the kiddies in school. And my wife's got to wash up their clothes. (You know how it is.) 1-5 So I want to thank each one of you for your fine things that you did for us through Christmas. And you women who went up there and put food in the house, and things for us, that when we got there, there was--stuff was already cooked and ready to eat. I certainly thank you for that. May God ever bless you and the church, for their little ticket that I could go over here and--and get some clothes, if I wanted them, for a suit. They give me a suit each year. And some kind friends of mine just got me a suit; so I think, if it's all right, I need some other things like shirts and undershirts and things. I'd like to take the money up in that if it's all right with the church. I need that better than I--worse than I do a suit right at the time. 2-1 And now, this young fellow that just sang for us, Brother George Smith, from down in Tucson, we've been going up to their church up there, The New Testament Baptist church. His father is a missionary. I think he has about seven churches down in Old Mexico. And they're certainly some fine people there. And his father and mother, and all of them are fine people, and George is a very fine young man. I was just sorry that he didn't give us a word of testimony before he set down, of the saving grace of Christ in his life.
2-2 And now, the--the messages... I promised here not long ago, that the messages (before I went out in the meetings) I'd come here and tape them first and then go out. That was because of getting the tapes to the people, then I'd come here and tape a message and then go out and preach it. That'd give the people a chance to--to--the tape makers to make the tape and take it with us as we went.
2-4 And now, I have--want to be grateful to God for that testimony of Brother Blair. Happened to be that Brother and Sister Blair are setting right here tonight, setting right here before us, the one that had the little boy. I remember when the Lord told me when he was... Brother Blair all tore up, weeping. His little boy got crushed in the face like this of a turned-over car, and he was very bad. But while I was praying, I saw the little fellow all right. And Brother Blair, of course, asked me, said, "Brother Branham, is this a THUS SAITH THE LORD?" 3-2 Now, now, I suppose the next time I get to see you, maybe up in spring a little bit, and by that time maybe we'll know whether we are going to hold the meetings or not here at Jeffersonville, during the time that I should've been in Norway and in the Scandinavian countries. 3-3 Now, just before we take a text, 'cause we have got a prayer line coming up, and many are standing in the rooms, and around the walls, and so forth; and I know you--it's very hard on you. And I stood a many time myself and I passed by awhile ago, bringing the wife down, I noticed the people around the doors; and I thought, "Who says the Gospel still isn't the most attractive thing that there is in the world?" Sure is. It--it attracts those who are interested in it. Those who are not interested, of course they don't--it won't be. But Jesus, if I... said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me." How true that is. 3-4 And when I get here, there's just so much to say, and I have to kind of jot down what I'm going to say here for a while, or I... There's so much to say, you just forget what you're going to say.
3-5 Now, I understand that Brother Ungren's father was baptized this morning in the Name of Jesus Christ. And if Sister Ungren and them are here, I'm sure that's a great thing to them, because that's been their constant prayer for many years. And Brother Ungren, wherever you are, God richly bless you, my brother. And if that isn't correct, God make me answer for it at the day of the judgment. See? I know it's correct. I--I take the blame for that. That is exactly right, because it is the Truth.
4-2 A fellow said to me the other day. I said, "Well, if the Lord Jesus..." That's His Name.
5-1 Now... So we are grateful for the Gospel Light. And so now, Jesus said, when He was here on earth, "I... What I hear, that I speak." And now, I'm going to say just for the next about ten minutes, or fifteen, just before I take my text, and a very short text, and then we'll have the prayer line. 5-4 Someone was playing one of the tapes the other day, just because it made somebody angry, they shot at them through the window and a woman--wounded. So perhaps someday I'll seal my testimony. But when that time comes, then I'm ready to go. Until my time comes, there's nothing going to hurt me until that time. See?
5-5 Now, we believe in the same Gospel, just the way the Bible is written. It is zeroed. And--and if the gun is exactly zeroed and in tune, if it strikes the target the first time, it'll strike it the second time and every time. 5-7 As I've said, "If I had the spirit of--of Beethoven in me, I would write songs. If--if I... If Beethoven lived in me, I'd be Beethoven. See? If Shakespeare lived in me, I'd be Shakespeare. I--I'd write poems, and--and plays, and so forth, if Shakespeare lived in me. And if Christ lives in me, the works of Christ you'll do. It's got to be. And what is Christ? The Word. He said, "If ye abide in Me, My Word in you, then ask what you will, it'll be done," because the Word there, just needs the Light; and the Light makes it live.
6-1 So now, I am going to say something to you now, that I haven't said all along. And that is, the thing that we have looked forward to for so long, or at least many years, four or five years or maybe longer, the third pull has now been vindicated, and I'm sure you all know what it is.
6-3 Now, I must continue in evangelism, just as I was commissioned first; I must continue on. Therefore, you've had the Word, and you know what to look for, how to stand. I must continue on in evangelism. And friends of mine, keep still and just keep moving on, for the hour is approaching swiftly (See?), that when something is going to be done.
6-5 It is so sacred that I mustn't not say much about it, as He told me in the beginning. Said, "This, say nothing of it." You remember that years ago? It speaks for Itself. See? But to... I've tried to explain the others, and I made a mistake. This will be the thing that, to my opinion (I don't say the Lord tells me this.)--this will be the thing that will start the rapturing faith for the going away. See, see? Now, and that... I must lay quiet for just a little while.
7-2 There's coming a time upon--in this nation, to where this nation is going to exercise all the power that the beast had before (which was pagan Rome, when it become papal Rome. See?) that this nation will do that. Revelations 13 plainly explains it. The lamb came up out of the earth. The other beast came up out of water, thickness and multitudes of people. This lamb came up where there was no people.
7-4 And now, on persons like ourselves, we're going to be cut out of all that altogether. That's exactly, because they won't be able to do it. It's tightening; and then when that time comes, and the press comes to a place to where you're pressed out, then watch (what I am fixing to tell you in a few minutes) watch the third pull then. It'll be absolutely to the total lost, but it--it will be for the Bride and the church.
8-1 Now, there's been some great things take place along the road. This morning I was having interviews in the room here, and a young fellow by the name of Autry; he's probably still in here tonight. He's from San Antonio, Texas. He come and asked when we were going to Dallas (come in from California), if we could stop in one night at their tabernacle, just for one night; and they're looking it up in the next day or two, to see if we could do that. And he was telling me about--I'd never been to San Antonio since that first meeting. 8-3 And I said, "What are you?" And he was a merchant in the city. And what they said in the... Now, I was always... Before I learned better, I was a little skeptic of speaking in tongues. I thought a lot of it was flesh, and it might be; but when this was said, that interpretation was exactly what the Angel of The Lord said down on the river eleven years before that. "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, you're sent to forerun the second." See? And there it was. When that Angel, that Light, that's been thoroughly identified both by the church, by the Word, by science, and everything has identified it, that Light for Its first time to appear in public, standing right over where I was, at about two o'clock in the afternoon at the foot of the bridge, right there--right down here at the foot of Spring Street in the water. Now, that's been many, many years ago. And exactly what It said has come to pass to the dot.
9-1 This brother here was telling me this morning he married a girl out of the church here, Sister Noid's daughter. Now, I don't know, I guess the young man... Are you here, Brother Autry? I don't know; he was from San Antonio. I don't know whether he's here or not. He was here this morning. And he was telling me, I believe it was his grandfather, during that meeting had been an epileptic all of his life, and was brought there. 9-4 Is Margie Morgan in the building? Sister Margie Morgan, a lady that was eaten up with cancer; a nurse. How many remembers Sister Morgan? If she's here, she can't get in. She was nursing. You see? On the cancer list in Louisville, the woman's been dead for about sixteen or seventeen years: on the cancer list in Louisville. When Jim Tom Robinson, the attorney (Christian attorney) heard about it, he went to the Baptist Hospital to check and see if it was right, 'cause his father was on the Board (trustee at the Baptist Hospital); and they looked up the case, and the woman was supposed to have been dead years ago, and she's nursing here at Jeffersonville, in a hospital. When she stood right here, when they had to hold her up, not even in her own mind, but it was THUS SAITH THE LORD, and she's living. 10-1 She went to nursing in Louisville and a fellow down here, Schimpf's Candy place... Is Mr. Schimpf here tonight? I'd like for him to tell it if he's here: Sonny Schimpf; great healthy man. Many times when I used to... I hate to say this, but it's the truth. Pop used to give me a dime, if I worked all week, and I'd come to town and park my bicycle around at Brother Mike Eagan's place (one of the trustees here) with Jimmy Pool (I think his son is here tonight.)--Jim, and I, and Earnest Fisher; and we would go downtown, and go to the picture show and--for a nickel. And we used to see the old still pictures. We was little kids and wanted to--about eight, ten years old; they had that William S. Hart (Many of you guys don't remember him.) the old actor (still pictures) and I couldn't read; I just had to watch what was going on. And it would have to spell it all out, and I couldn't make it, but I watched what he was doing; and I'd have an extra nickel. How many remembers getting a penny ice cream cone? All right, I could get three ice cream cones and two pennies worth of red hots. I couldn't hold the ice cream cones, so I'd eat them, and get me two pennies worth of red hots, and it'd be almost a half of a pound of them things, and Schimpf's made them, and I'd go in there, and set back, and watch William S. Hart.
10-2 And this young fellow (a little older than I) stricken down with a disease that five noted specialists of Louisville passed him by, weighing about forty-five pounds, and was dying... Miss Morgan was nursing him, and he was in such a condition. He had so many things: his lungs was gone; his throat was gone; his little arms was just about that big around, and he was laying there dying. And Miss Morgan was hired to come on the job, so she said to him, "I was once the cancer patient," and begin to tell him.
11-2 Long... I knowed he got well, but long had I forgotten that; and wife and I was going down to buy some candy when we got here at Christmas, and how I don't know, that we ever thought of Schimpf's; 'cause we usually go over here to some of these drug stores and pick it up, but we stopped in front of Schimpf's. 11-6 I haven't got much time now to say something else, but I--I--I want to make this statement. How many remembers about the squirrels? All right. That was a puzzling Scripture in my Life that I--I never could understand. That, and there was another one that puzzled me. That's when Moses could tell God a better way than God knowed how to do anything. When Moses said, "The people will say 'Your God was able to bring you out, but not able to keep you.'" And Moses threw himself in the breach, and later I found out that Moses, that was Christ in Moses standing for the people. See? So then on this Scripture (that I never would preach on it), "If you say to this mountain 'Be moved'"... And you know the story, so I'll bypass that.
12-1 Now, little did I know what that was leading to. And I think that Brother Wood and Brother Fred, and them are here in the building which was present when that happened, or right after it happened there. Brother Rodney and Brother Charlie from down in Kentucky, Sister Wood's brother, and them, was present when it happened down in Kentucky which was the second time it happened: just simply speaking into existence things that wasn't (See?), speaking all the time, and backing up the Scriptures encouraging. 12-3 Just when Abraham needed a ram, God provided that ram. And He provided the squirrels. He could speak a squirrel into existence, because He's creator, just the same as He could speak the ram. Abraham never asked for it. He was just simply going on to do it, but it showed that Jehovah Jireh was there. When I said that, a humble little woman, for the first time this ever happened (the third pull) upon a human being was a little humble woman that making about two hundred dollars a year for a living; all she got out of her little farm (her husband dead, two children that had turned kinda wild) and come and donated twenty dollars of that to the building of this tabernacle. And Meda had give me some money that morning for groceries (twenty dollars), and I was going to give it back to her that day, while I was down there, so she wouldn't have to pay it, but she wouldn't take it. And when... She was setting back in the corner, and when I said, "Only thing I know that He's still Jehovah Jireh," and little Hattie said the right word.
13-1 She said, "That is nothing but the Truth." And when she said that (Brother Banks Wood here, is one that was present) that room felt like it was coming apart. And the Holy Spirit said (the same voice that spoke about the squirrels) said, "Give her what she ask for."
13-4 And she looked around and said, "What shall I say, Brother Branham?" I said, "Say what your desire is. Think of your greatest desire, and say it." (And her boys was even snickering and laughing.) And she said, "The greatest desire I have is the salvation of my two sons."
13-6 The fourth time it happened (I just explained it the last time I was here) was up on the mountain where that storm raging... How many heard it? Oh, all of you. Alll right. Where the storm raging, and God being my Judge standing here, going down the mountain with David Wood (He's here somewhere I guess.) that made me a sandwich, and it was quite a one. I think he was trying to get even with me for the one I made his daddy a few years ago. He had bologna and--and meat and everything mixed together; I put it in my shirt, and it rained and got just a big wad of dough. And I was coming down the mountain; it was so stormy. I couldn't even see my hand before me, hardly. And I know just one thing, you're turned around 'cause that wind's just whirling. 14-1 Brother Mann, a Methodist preacher from New Albany. Is he, Brother Mann in tonight? I don't know whether he is or not. Brother Banks Wood, are you here Brother Banks? He's in the recording room. All right, and--and David Wood, and Brother Evans was there, I believe. Is that right, Brother Evans? Brother Evans standing against the wall, was there. And how they broadcast for days, two days before that a mighty blizzard was sweeping the land. 14-2 Brother Tom Simpson is here tonight. When coming down out of Canada, they asked him to bypass there, 'cause he couldn't get through; a blizzard was coming. Brother Tom, are you here? Where are you? Here he's setting right here. And there the clouds come up, and I said, "Brethren..." Everybody rushed out; there was nobody back there out of a hundred and something men back there, there was nobody back there but our little group and the cowboy, the rider.
14-3 And we was going to stay. I called Sister Evans and had her call the wife, and tell her to tell Tony if I didn't get out to get somebody else to hold the breakfast for the Business Men. And up on the mountain that--that day... I said, "Now, when the first little rain starts or anything, take for the camp." I said, "Within ten or fifteen minutes you can't see your hand before you in those blizzards; and it'll dump twenty foot of snow in a little bit over the mountain.
14-5 After waiting for a while; eating that sandwich that David give me, and went back up there and set down. And while I was setting there (and that wind twisting and blowing, the tree tops leaning way over, the sleet and snow a flying like that) a Voice said, "I am the God of creation." 15-1 And I said, "Storm, you cease; and sun, you shine normally for four days till we're out of here." And I no more than said it until the sleet, snow, and everything stopped; in a moment or two the hot sun was shining on my back. I seen the winds blowing like this; come back from the north coming down... I mean from the east coming, coming from the east, it was, coming from the west. The winds changed and come back this way, and the clouds like a mystic thing lifting up into the air, and the sun was shining in a few minutes. 15-2 Then the Lord Jesus spoke to me a little later on about my wife down there as you know. About where I went up there... I've never been home on an anniversary yet. We've been married twenty-two years. The first anniversary (the first, our wedding) why, I took her on a hunting trip, 'cause I couldn't afford to take the hunting trip and--and go on a honeymoon too, so I--I kind of put it together. So then, I've been hunting ever since. And I felt's the way I treated her.
15-3 Now, that was the fourth time it happened. Now, here's something I--I want to say. And I must tell exactly, the truth. About sixteen years ago I was in California with Brother John Sharritt, and I was having a meeting, and Meda and I and Brother Sharritt and Sister Sharritt and them was staying in a hotel, and a man named Paul Malicki (who stood right here in this tabernacle many times; he's a wealthy Armenian), and his wife had given birth to a child up at Fresno, California, where they lived; and was--come down, brought his wife down, and called me at the hotel, and said, "Can I bring my wife up, Brother Branham?" 16-1 Like little Jimmy Pool here, his little baby, the other day he come in with that heart attack, they thought it was an asthmatic attack, and I put my hand on him. I said, "Watch him for a couple of days. He's got measles; it's coming through. It's the fever." I met him last night. He said. "He's broke out all over in measles." See?
16-2 Now, I was talking to Sister Malicki with a hand. She said, "That's a amazing thing to watch that, Brother Branham." She said, "Does that work on every hand?"
16-4 Becky was two years old, (my daughter that just played awhile ago) she was two years old. Two more years, Sarah came on the scene. And when... She was a cesarean, and I asked Dr. Dillman (our doctor down in--in Corydon) to... "When you have her open, look at that left ovary." And he did; he said, "There's nothing wrong that I saw." I put my hand; it was still there. 16-7 Years had passed; we never noticed it. And I say this, not because she's setting there, because I say it when she's not there. You know that. I don't believe there could be a better wife in the world than my wife, and I hope she always remains that way. And I want to be a loyal husband, and I hope that every young man in this building, when he gets married, gets a wife like my wife. I don't know how long we'll live that way, but I hope the rest of our days on the earth. We've been very happy together.
17-1 God was the one who told me to marry her, at the same time (her not knowing) I was trying not to marry her. Not because I didn't love her, but because I didn't think I was able to make a living for her, and she was a fine woman; I just didn't deserve that. And she went out to pray and opened up the Bible, and He just... She said, "Lord, I've never done this before, but give me a Scripture that'll help me. If I've got to forget him, I've got to forget it." Opened the Bible... And she went out in a little shed and prayed, and when she opened the Bible up: Malachi 4, "Behold I send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the..." But that was--that was twenty something years ago, knowing nothing about the ministry of this day.
17-3 One day I come in, and she's had to raise these children by herself, me gone in the ministry. Not many women would put up with that. You know that... It'd be hard and then... I come in and she said something or the other. We got Joseph back there, and he's a--he sure is a boy. And he helped put some of the gray hair in his mother's head, as well as I did. So he was really all boy, and he'd done something real bad, and I said to her... She said to me, "Bill, give him a licking." 17-4 "Well, I thought that is all right. Poor little fellow didn't mean that." I just went on out to wash my car. And when I got out there, the Holy Spirit didn't like it. He said, "Go tell her..." I believe it's II Chronicles, 22nd chapter. I didn't--I--I thought at first, I just imagined that. I just kept on washing, and It said it again, "Go tell her to read this." And I went in and got the Bible, and read it. It was where Mo--or Miriam the prophetess made fun of her brother Moses for marrying an Ethiopian girl, and God didn't like it. He said, "It'd be better that her father spit in her face, than--than to--to have done that."
17-5 So Miriam broke out with leprosy all over. And so Aaron come, told his sister, said--or come told his brother, said, "She's dying with leprosy." And so Moses ran in to intercede for her at the altar; and when he did, the Pillar of Fire come down: God. He said, "Go call her and Aaron and bring them here." And Aaron was in it too. So He said, "Call them to come here."
18-2 Well when I seen that, I run in, and she was in the other room. I knocked on the door (She'd shut herself up.), and I told her I wanted to speak to her. I went in there and talked to her, tried to tell her what it was. I said, "Sweetheart, you know how I love you, but God didn't like that. You oughtn't to have said that." Immediately after that, she took a trouble in her side. 18-5 He sent her up to a female specialist. He didn't want her on his hands. So he must have told him about my ministry, 'cause he, the female specialist said, "It'll have to come out." So he said... We told him we was going to--to Tucson. He said, "Well, I've got a specialist there, a dear friend of mine." He used to live in Tucson. He said, "I'm going to send you to him." So he wrote a note and sent it to him and said, "Mrs. Branham is a nice lady," and went on like that. Said... Sent him the diagram of how big the tumor was, and so forth (It'd turned tumor then.), and said how big it was, and said, "I know..." You know, he knowed... I think he calls me a Divine Healer. That's all he knew how to put it. But said, "I have agreed that--that it could come out--it should--if it has to be taken out, take it out." But it was testing our faith.
19-1 Constantly we prayed, and the more we prayed, the bigger the tumor growed, till it got to a place till it was sticking out on her side. We kept it quiet (A few of the people here knew it.) trying to see what would happen. On and on it went.
19-3 I thought, "Oh God, if they cut it out, that'll keep us from going home at Christmas, and I done told the people I'd be there." And I said, "What a time... Oh, my." I thought, "Tell him if he's going to operate, 'Let it go a little longer till after Christmas.'" Then I got to thinking: It might be malignant, and back over here, you know, that's a bad thing: run back into the kidneys, and if goes malignant, it'll kill you. So then, I thought, "What can I do?"
20-1 So I went on, and the next morning before I left I was going to get Billy and Loyce (They're both setting present.) and always... We got an old stool there that Brother Palmer covered for us here not long ago, and we always get around that stool and pray whatever we're... Old ottoman like you know, footstool, whenever we get around there and pray when I go on a meeting; we ask God to help us.
20-3 So as I got down to pray, I said, "Lord, I miss them this morning around here." I said, "I pray that You'll help them and bless them, and may we come back to this place again. And now... I said, "They're out there because that You sent me there in a vision, and You fulfilled it; now, I'm wanting to wait to see what You're going to tell me to do next." I said, "I pray for... be merciful to her." And I said, "Help me in the meeting down there." Then I kept... I said Lord, "Don't let it be malignant. And let that doctor wait till after the first of the year to take it out. I--I just hate to see her..." I said, "Lord, she didn't mean what she did that morning. She didn't mean that." I said, "Lord, not one time has she ever said one word about me going in the meetings, staying months, or whatever it was; not one time has she ever opened her mouth about it. She's always sent my clothes to the cleaners and washed my shirts, and had everything ready to go in the meeting. And then, she wonders how she can serve God." You women, as you serve your husband, you serve God, of course.
20-4 Just then I heard something in the room. I looked up, and a voice said, "Stand up." Said, "Now, whatever you say, that's the way it'll be."
21-3 He said, "Wait a minute." With the drawed diagrams and all the pictures and everything else, he couldn't find one trace of it. He examined her over and over. He said, "I might not be able to explain it, but, Mrs. Branham, that tumor isn't there." And she's never had one symptom of it since.
21-7 Now, let us bow our heads for a word of prayer. Lord Jesus, I have seen it upon other people, but when it come to my own precious wife, it was in my home then, Lord. I looked at it with my own eyes, felt it with my own hands, and I... Fif--sixteen years before that it was also, Lord, known and revealed by You. When anything is spoken, it must be done. You were showing me, Lord, then that my confidence in what You done for the people, and would let me know, so I could help them. You brought it to pass in my own home. That was the first pull. And now the third pull confirmed the first pull.
22-2 Now, Father, I pray that You'll help me; and in this third pull, may, O Lord, as You have been speaking for the last couple of years about it, showing it on marking on mountains, and so forth, and bringing it on up. Now, I was watching to see what it was until it was completely confirmed. Now, I pray, Father, that You'll help me to be more reverent with this than it was before. And may You get glory, as right over this same pulpit, where the first was said, the second, and now the third. And what You have said has come to pass; exactly what You said. We believe You, Lord God.
22-4 You are God, and there is none other beside You. And we love You, because that You have--You have let us become Your servant. May we serve You with reverence and honor all the days of our life. Grant it, Lord. May I be able, and my family, and all these people be able to be shining lights, salty salt, that will create a thirst in others to love this Jesus that has done so much for us.
22-6 Would you... Have I got time to--just for... if I'll hurry real quick on a--some text here; I want you to read now (or mark down, or whatever you wish to do). The first one is found in the Book of Numbers 21:5-19. And we want to--to read this:
"And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread... (Angel's food)And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.Therefore the LORD... Therefore the people came to Moses, and said,... (Confession. Watch.)... We have sinned, (See? That's the first thing for healing, confession first. "We have sinned.")... for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall become--come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
23-1 Now, also, I wish to read a Scripture out of Zechariah the 12th chapter, the 10th verse.
And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Now, for a text, I'm going to take this: "Look Away To Jesus," look away from the world to Jesus. Moses made the serpent, and here the prophet later was speaking of it, what would happen, looking away to--to Jesus...The Bible said in Isaiah 45:22; we find that God said, "Look unto Me, all the ends of the earth." And now, when the earth has come to its end or the system of the earth has come to its end, let the people look unto Him.
24-2 Now, you might say, "We have heard this generation after generation. We've heard this for a long time." Well, that is true. And it's been preached for a long time. Many ministers have took this same text: thousands of them. But here is the thing I want to ask you tonight for these next few minutes. But when you look... The question is--is: What do you see when you look? What do you see when you do look? That only depends on what you're looking for. See?
24-4 I have seen people come into the meetings in this last day, could only be able to set in the meeting for just about one or two minutes. That's all they could stand. See? They couldn't stand it.
24-6 Brother Lee and I did everything we could, and give the ministerial association a breakfast free, just to come down and speak to them. Brother Lee Vayle, of course, is a scholar and a Doctor of Divinity. He really earned his degree. And so I tried to get him to speak before these Lutherans, Presbyterians, and so forth; but he said, "No, they're looking to you to do it."
24-8 The reason of it is this: Some come to a meeting when they hear of an evangelist... The way he dresses has something to do with the people. If he doesn't wear the right kind of clothes, some of them... I heard a psychologist say the other day (Dr. Narramore), a fine man, Christian man, his program's on KAIR there all the time; he said, "The way to tell that a man was losing his mind is when he didn't dress according to his disposition." (You know, to how he has to appear before the public.) That was a sign that he was losing his mind.
25-2 But that's just (See?) how that the ideas of men, it does... How about if this man, I wonder what the doctor'd think of this: when a prophet in the Bible was commanded to strip off his clothes and walk naked before the people? He really would been crazy, wouldn't he now? But God told him to do it. 25-4 Oh, how far people can get from really the Word of God. They just get so educated, till they educate themselves away from God. When a man talks about he has got an education, I know that is just how far he is from God. See? A doctor's degree... Not saying this against Doctor Vayle, 'cause he isn't that type. But usually, when a man gets a doctors degree; that just means to me he's that much farther from God (See?), unless he can hold himself to the Word and to God. 25-5 Now, we find out that some come to hear the way you speak. When they come to look, you talk about Divine healing and the Lord. If a man isn't typical, an educated genius, the people just can't stand to hear him use words as "his" and "hain't," and--and words like that. They just... They don't... They think that that's way away from God. And when Jesus spoke such simple language, until today, it's got the professors confused, for they try to interpret it according to the scholarships, and the language of that day, and it was street language. Therefore... Why, there's so much difference even here in our United States. I called from Florida to New York and had to get a woman at--over here to--at St. Louis to translate between this southern girl and the northern girl. That's how much difference there was. See? Certainly.
26-1 Now, the thing of it is, that people look for those things: speeches instead of the Word. The Word being manifested is the evidence that It's right (See?), the Word being manifested. They'll never look at that. You've got to have an intellectual conception to know... Go to the seminary and learn how to bow, how to stand in one place, and all. Oh, that would choke a minister to death that was really filled with the Holy Spirit. See? Now, that's intellectual. 26-3 And another time--another thing, they form their own opinions of what He ought to be (See?), their own idea, instead of taking what the Word said. That's the way, when they look and even see Jesus Himself, they fail to recognize Him. They did it on the day of Pentecost. They did it when He was in flesh. They did it when He was in the manger. They did it when He was on the streets of Jerusalem. They did it when He was on the cross, and He was the fulfillment of that Word, and yet they had the Messiah coming down on a corridor out of heaven, and everything else, and was wrong, because it was the intellectual conception; and they failed to see Him: and looking right at Him.
26-4 So is it today. What do you see when you look? Some look to see, when they look at Him, they look to see some great intellectual church founder, somebody who can really produce a creed that will cause all the people to fall for this creed, something another; that's what they look when they see.
27-1 So many of you, that claim to have the Holy Ghost, look and see the second person of a trinity, when it's not even mentioned in the Bible. There's no such thing. The word "trinity" is not even in the lids of the Bible. But yet when you look at Jesus, you regard Him as the third person, or the second person of a trinity. And that's the reason you don't get nowhere. You know what he said? "I am God, and there's none other besides Me."
27-3 Here not long ago, I had a pair of field glasses. I was trying to watch some antelope, or an antelope over in the field, and my son was trying to show me. He's quite a bit younger. So he said, "Take those glasses, daddy, there stands an antelope right out there." 27-5 But it depends on what you are looking at. What do you see when you do look? Remember, you can only see Him as you look at Him through the Word. You can't look at Him through a textbook. You can't look at Him through a creed. You'll see two or three gods, and everything else in them creeds. But look at Him through the Word, and you'll see that He is Emmanuel: God made flesh among us. He said, "I'm God and besides Me, there's none other." He's God.
27-6 Isaiah looked one time (the prophet) and when he seen Jesus (My subject is: "Looking To Jesus--Look Away To Jesus.") when Isaiah looked away from the world to see Him, he said, "I see a Counselor, a Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father." That's what Isaiah looked away and saw.
28-1 Nebuchadnezzar throwed three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, that believed in God and stood on His Word. If they had to die for It, they was going to stand anyhow, just a little thing of bowing their knee some other way. But when he looked away and saw Jesus, He was the Fourth Man that was in the fiery furnace, and it kept all the heat off of His obedient servants. That's what Nebuchadnezzar saw.
28-3 John the Baptist looked away one day and when he did he saw a Dove, and a Voice saying, "This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm pleased to dwell in." That's what he saw. Then he saw Jesus and God being the same Person, 'cause the Spirit come down from heaven like a Dove saying. "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am pleased to dwell." That's what he saw. Notice, He identifies Himself in that way.
28-7 Israel looked at the brass serpent that Moses made and saw the suffering of Christ for the judgment for the sick, for we know that the serpent spoke of the atonement. Jesus was that Atonement. "As Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up," for the same purpose. See? Why? They had sinned and had got sick. That was for the taking away their sins and for their sickness, and that's what Jesus was wounded for our transgressions; with His stripes we were healed. Take Divine healing away from Christ, you cut half the atonement in two. See?
29-3 The disciples looked to Him when they were in a troubled sea, and they saw the only Help that could help them, coming.
29-5 The hungry looked to Him and found sustaining food for life. That was natural. The hungry spiritual can look to Him and find out He's the Bread of Life.
30-2 And when Peter walked up into His Presence Jesus said, "Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas." He knew right then, when he looked the first time on Jesus, that there was the fulfillment of what the Word of God said He'd be. Amen.
30-4 Nathanael, as soon as he come into the Presence of Jesus, a little bit in doubt... We find out that Philip had went and told him, "Come, see Who we found."
30-6 The woman at the well, she got a look one time, and what did she see? She expressed it in the city. She said, "Come, see a Man Who told me the things I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah?" When she took her first look at Jesus Christ, she saw the Messiah.
31-1 Depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for the fulfillment of the promise of today, you'll see it; but if you're looking for some intellectual, or something that they've always looked for, some great founder, some historian, some other person, something else, you'll fail to see It. But when you look at Him through the Word, the Word declares Who He is. 31-4 How would you go hunt for a pumpkin, and you'd never seen one and never heard of one? How would you go find a watermelon, if you never knowed there was such a thing, and how it looked? Why you could find a tub, and think it was a watermelon. You could find something else. You could find a block and think it was a watermelon. But you've got to know what you're looking for. And the only way that you'll ever know what you're going to--what you're looking for, if you're looking for Jesus you'll look to the Word, for He is the Word. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... they are they that testify of Me." Search the Scriptures. You claim you're are the believers of the prophets, but you are of your father the devil. Your fathers who claim when God sent the prophets to them, he put them in the grave." They--they killed the prophets, everyone that come. Jesus said, "Which one of them your fathers didn't stone? And the works of your father you'll do." Amen. Righteous men, holy men, a man that you couldn't put a finger on, and yet He called them serpents and devils. See? What are you looking for? If you're looking for some pious person... Some people think that because the Holy Spirit would work through you, you'd have to be some long pious fellow walked around and not even... That's not the Holy Spirit. God don't deal through angels like that, or supposed to be; God deals through men. The Bible said, "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are." But you couldn't be with him till you seen Jesus. 32-1 Peter and John at the gate called Beautiful, and when they pulled them up there about healing that man, they perceived that they were ignorant, unlearned, but they also perceived that they had been with Jesus (Yeah.), because His Life was reflecting through them.
32-2 Now, depends on what you're looking for. The woman had read the Bible. She knowed there was a coming Messiah, and she knowed what that Messiah would do. And as soon as Jesus said to her, "Bring Me a drink."...
32-3 Minister, something or other... I seen a man come to eat today where I went to eat, and that fellow come in; he--he had enough crosses and things on him... It's a good thing sometimes those fellows have that. I think you ought to live a life. You don't have to have a lot of clergy clothes to prove what you are. Sometimes they drink, and carry on so much, and smoke cigarettes, and everything, they have to wear clergy clothes to even know whether they're a minister or not. That's right. I tell you the clergy clothes for a man to wear is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That'll identify you as being with Jesus.
32-5 Now, we find out that this woman, when she saw this mysterious sign, that He could tell her what she had done that was wrong, or what was on her heart, she knew right then that was the Messiah. So when she looked at Jesus, she saw the Messiah: the Messiah.
33-1 But you know what? Many of them same ages that I have spoke of never seen that thing. Many of them didn't see it. Same today.
33-3 Why, the poor old fellow, they felt sorry for him, passed him by. "He--he'll be declared insane soon. He's lost his mind." But he had the Word of the Lord. He was building away on it, and God was showing evidence that the flood was coming. It was a sign to them.
33-5 The rich man looked and seen exactly Who He was (see?), but he refused to follow him because he loved the things of the world too much to follow Jesus. How many rich men will listen to this tape of that type. Don't have to be always rich in money; no, you can be rich in lust, rich in pleasures of this life.
34-2 He chose his denomination, he could live by it. Jesus was a fanatic to his denomination, so he had to either take what Jesus said, or either he had to take... Why didn't he go to his priest and say, "What can I do to have Eternal Life?" He knowed the priest knowed nothing about it. So he came to Jesus and said, "What can I do?"
34-4 Pilate looked one time when they brought Him. He'd never seen Him before: His hands tied, blood running out of His back, a crown of thorns on His head. Pilate looked and was convinced; because a horse come galloping down the street, and a rider jumped off, and run over, and said, "Here the wife has sent you a letter."
35-2 Yes, sir, he was convinced that that was more than a man. He was thoroughly convinced that it was more than a man. Certainly he was. But what? His politics and popularity was too great. He turned Him down. His popularity was too great. The politics, his position in life was too great to accept this Fanatic. 35-4 The Roman Soldier at the cross looked on Jesus. After the earth had had a nervous prostration--shook to till rocks run out of the mountain; and the sun went down in the middle of the day and turned dark, the stars didn't come out to give its light. And the earth burst forth with rocks and an earthquake, and the zig-zag lightning swept the skies, and rent the temple veil from the top to the bottom. And the people running and screaming, they didn't know what had taken place. That Roman soldier that helped nail Him there, had punched the sword through His heart, then he looked, but it was too late. He looked and believed, but it was too late for him to believe. What he had done had sealed his doom. He'd run the spear through the Saviour's heart. It was too late.
35-5 I wonder how many Romans today has done the same thing, and will do that same thing. You might look someday, but it might look too late.
36-2 Luther looked away from the Catholic denomination. What did he see? A Pillar of Fire. He saw an independent church. Wesley looked away from the Anglican denomination. He saw the same thing. The Pentecost looked away from all the denominations. What did it become? A great mighty people. 36-8 One day I took a look; I saw the Word made flesh. I saw the Alpha and Omega. I never seen any three, four, or five; I saw One. I saw Him as my Saviour. I saw Him, the Word. I saw Him, the Light. I saw Him, the Mighty God. I seen God in Him. I saw the Pillar of Fire. I saw in Him exactly what the Bible said He was. I saw that He was the Alpha and Omega, that He was the Pillar of Fire, He was the same yesterday, today, and forever. I saw that the Pillar of Fire said to John, "His never failing Presence..." (as he said in John's... over there) "His never failing Presence will never leave you."
37-1 Brother, my opinion tonight--sing that song:
"Look and live, my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live;
For it is recorded in His Word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live."
Look. What do you see? Do you see deliverance? Do you see what He is? Look to the Word and see what He was, then you look to the same Word and see He's the same today as He was then. He is the antetype of the brass serpent in the wilderness. For the same cause,--sin and sickness.
37-3 Judas took a look one day, and when he looked... After he'd took a real look at Him, he'd only been looking at the treasury before that, the pot of money they had. But one day when he looked and seen Jesus, you know what he seen? He seen he was guilty. He seen that he wasn't fit to live, and he hung hisself.
37-5 "Whose back in there?" "Barabbas, he's ready to die; he's a thief; he's no good; he's a robber; he's a murderer; he's going to die."
38-1 I wonder if we all tonight could look and see what Barabbas saw, Someone taking our place? He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes I was healed. You were healed. Wonder if we, the guilty ones, who should be sick, can see in Him our deliverance? You who should go to hell; see in Him in your freedom, your pass to heaven. Wonder if you can see what Barabbas saw on that day?
38-4 What He was when He walked in Galilee, is the same thing He is tonight in Jeffersonville, the same thing He is at the Branham Tabernacle.
38-5 Lord Jesus, is my prayer, let me look away from the cares of life. Lord, I--I know we are just a common people, uneducated. We have not much of this world's goods, but we love You, Lord. And I speak for this people. They would not set in a place like this and squeeze and mash around in the crowds, and set burning up in the--the heat, or freezing in the cold, and stand and bringing their children, and them sick and the afflicted, coming around, if they come here to see anything else besides You.
39-1 Now, Father, You have told us that a little while and the world would not see You no more. No matter how much they look, they'll never see It. But You said, "Ye shall see Me (the true believer) because I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world." You've promised us, if we look we would see. And I pray tonight that You'll fulfill that Scripture to us again tonight, that we might look and see Jesus making Himself known to us in the same way that He always had: fulfilling His Word.
39-3 How could we see that first thing take place? How could the second take place? How could the third take place? How could we stand here months before it happened, and tell what would take place in Tucson, that would open up the Seven Seals, and bring back the mystery, and reveal the hidden things of God that's been hid since the beginning of time; and to see it both testified, witnessed, scientifically proven.
39-5 Every time we look, we see Him, see Him when the birds sing, see Him when the sun rises, or when it sets, hear Him in the songs, watch Him in His people, see Him a-vindicating His Word. Oh, Lord, You're our God. Early will we call upon Thee. Thou art our merciful Father. Forgive us of our wrongs.
40-1 And if I'm laying a foundation that another shall stand upon, grant, Lord, that soon it'll happen, that the Word might be fulfilled. Our hearts' desire is to see Your Word fulfilled. We love You. We believe You. And in the midst of an unbelieving, doubting people, a generation of--of--of what we got today, Lord God, we still believe that Your Word will never fail. We believe that heavens and earth will pass away, but It shall never fail. We stand gallantly for that. 40-4 I know it is hot, and I want to try to pray for the sick, now; and if you'll just give me about fifteen, twenty minutes... I don't know how many cards they got give out, but we're just going to start, pray for the sick. Now, Billy told me that he give out what was it? A hun... What's the--what? All right. Well, let's start... He said he give from 1 to a 100. How many has prayer cards here, raise up your hands, prayer cards? Why it's quite a number. We'll try to get to everything that we possibly can, if we can. Now, we can't have discernment on all them, you know, so we'll just pray. And everybody... How many here doesn't have a prayer card and yet you're sick, raise up your hand. Many.
40-5 Now, look. What is it? Now, I know, we may be a--a teeny bit late off of schedule, about fifteen minutes. But I want to say this one thing. It might be the difference between here, spending eternity in heaven or hell. See? Look; be reverent; watch a minute; listen at the Word, and see if He still remains Christ. Now, every person here probably knows me, and many of you that I don't know, because I don't get here long enough to know you. And many of you are out-of-town. How many out-of-town people? Raise your hands. See? 41-1 Now, remember. Now, I am just your brother. I sure you understand that. I am a man; He is God. But God only can work, and always has worked and only worked through men. Now, look tonight, not to me, or to any other person, but look to Jesus Christ. Now, look tonight at the Scripture, what It promised. How many of... I can just give all kinds of Scriptures, but how many will just believe Hebrews 13:8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday? And how many believe John 14:12? "The works that I do shall you also." How many believes that He promised that the very things that He did in the way of discerning of thoughts in the heart would return again in the last days just before His coming? We all know it. All right. Oh, how many more, hundreds and hundreds of Scriptures; but we know it.
41-2 Now, look. Don't look to see a minister; don't look to see a pastor; look to see Jesus. Don't see the man; see Jesus. When you look, see Him. If I could help you, I would do it; but I can't. I can't help you; I'm just your brother, but He's your Lord. Look to Him and believe. 41-2a Number 1, number 2, has prayer card 2, raise your hands, quickly as you can. Number 2? Where is it? I don't see it. Where? I'm sorry. I--I can't... Right over here, lady. Number 3, will you stand up or something? That's right. Number 3, number 4? Prayer card number 4, would you raise your hand? Where is it? I don't see it. Prayer card number 4? What say? Number 4, number 5, who has number 5, would you raise your hand? I don't see it. Number 5, number 6, number 6. Quickly, right quick. Number 6? All right, 7, you... 7? All right, that's right. 8, 8, real quick now. | ||||||