^E-1 Morning friends. Certainly happy to be here this morning on this beautiful winter morning, the sun shining bright, our hearts happy. As I was setting in there with the reverend Mr. Beeler, while he was making the recording, the Holy Spirit falling over the building, and the people rejoicing, His children happy... We're thankful to be alive and among those who can come out today in the services.
Now, we are grateful for each and every one of you. And if the ushers back there, if someone come in they got some seats around here, they can set backward on the altar and another part of the bench here in the front, to--to the--it's--people come in a little later.

^E-2 Now, this next week we start for the year's tour now, another world tour. Beginning next... the twelfth, that's this coming Wednesday in Chicago at the Philadelphian Church then, and campaign. And then, I suppose, from there we... This morning... From beginning on a third of February, we begin then at Lubbock, Texas, in the--the Cotton Bowl auditorium there, in Lubbock, Texas. Then from there to Phoenix, and then to the stock exhibit between Los Angeles and South Gate in--in California. And then, if the Lord willing, we are going to go to Honolulu from there.
Now, I certainly appreciate all the people that prays, if they'll just ask the Lord each day a little prayer for my--my health. I... You hardly will ever know this side of eternity how much I depend on you a praying for me when I'm out.
I was thankful to hear Brother Tommy this morning in his testimony, of how that God having His arms open always willing to receive you. No matter what you've done, He's still with His arms out to receive every a penitent soul that will come to Him. Regardless of what you've done, or how great the sin is, He's always willing to forgive. God bless you, my young brother.

^E-3 Now, I was noticing the results from last Sunday's meeting. The people that was prayed for, we have a--little interviews privately to get the people... I tell you, you see, friends, the reason we don't have healing services here... You understand, we don't have any adequate room to take care of the people. That's the way it is, it's never announced healing services at the tabernacle here, although we pray for the sick each time that I'm here. And auditoriums are hard to find and so forth. And you strangers that's of different parts of the country coming in, there's not too many full gospel people right in the community, or however, or in the vicinities here, but they... Not all that--that sponsor the meetings, or cooperate in the meetings, rather, are full gospel people, because there's many of them which are different churches.
We do not try to represent any certain church organization, only we try by God's help to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, and--and free to all, everybody.

^E-4 I just for one, noticing at... Last Sunday in the room there was a colored brother who's just recently been saved a few months ago and his beloved wife, and she was a cripple on a support. And he was hideously ruptured. And while speaking with him in private terms in the deacon's office, with a private interview that he had called ahead and got the arrangements made... Each Sunday we have so many we can get each Sunday. I...
Feeling, while setting there in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, why, a lady had just went out that was on crutches, that had let... went out walking without them. And this man very definitely, believing the Lord Jesus, why, was prayed for with a great hideous rupture... And I told him, I said, "Now, that rupture will start from this very moment going back to its place." I said, "Now, as it--as it goes back, then you watch it as it moves back, which will give you more faith.
See, faith's got to be based upon something, not just mythical thought. It's got to have something basically to stand on, faith does. And that's the reason we believe that the Word of God teaches Divine healing, deliverance to the soul, deliverance to the body. And we base it upon God's eternal Word.

^E-5 And I said to the brother, "Now, that you might know that I have told you the truth..." For seeing before me in the vision, I said, "You take, when you go home, and tighten around that rupture, a string, and measure it, and then cut that string off. And don't touch it anymore till next Sunday. And before you come up, take that... take another string and rap around that, and bring me the difference that shrunk in the strings.
He said, "I'll do it."
Well, here's the string, about an inch and a half cut off of it, like that. Here sets the man, the man... Just so that you could see that what has happened. Now, something has taken place. I have never in my life seen any times that God ever said anything, or told it by vision, or a revelation, but what it was exactly the way God said it would be (See?), just exactly.
His wife, last Sunday coming, was walking on support of a crutch, or stick, cane. And I noticed her today, she was in there. She couldn't walk, or she... I told her that the Lord would make her well. She had a--a limb that was stiffened. And I see her walking up, she had took her cane to her shoulder in there, and here she is today.

^E-6 [A woman speaks in the congregation--Ed.] And there--there's another lady that, another one of them, from down... that was... She was in such a fix with so many diseases last Sunday and crippled up, and she lives way down somewhere around Georgetown, is it, lady, or somewhere down in there? Georgetown, Indiana. She said, "But, Brother Branham, I'm old."
I said, "But Abraham was too, lot older than you, and he was asked to believe something that was impossible." And she accepted it, and there she is. And here's the other lady, setting right behind the lady I was talking about, right behind her husband here, the colored lady setting right here, and the other lady back there. Her strains for evidences, the crutch is gone for evidences. Jesus Christ lives and reigns for the supreme evidence that He rose from the dead and is with us this day. How we thank Him from the depths of our heart, that He still lives; He is not dead. He rose from the dead and living amongst mortals today, ever willing, able to do the exceedingly abundantly above all that we could do or think. We praise Him with all of our heart, for His loyal goodness to us.

^E-7 Now, see if there... Is there some more benches in there? All right, they got some more, if we could just bring out here, and set them on the platform if you wish to.
Now, for the Sunday school lesson, we'll... Its been my lot, teaching just a little on the Sunday school lessons, and we're going to, if God willing, to try to finish up a subject that we started a few days ago here in the--the church, a few Sundays ago.
And now, Brother Junior, perhaps maybe they'd bring... Wonder they'd rather set up here on the platform and just let some of the ladies... and bring it right back here perhaps and make it a... better than what it would be take it up to the front.
And as soon as the Sunday school class is relieved in that room, there'll be some more seats... some more seats ready.
Now, if someone that's--maybe someone affiliated with the church here, it's a little, maybe embarrassing or something for strangers to come up... But if someone's affiliated with the church would come and get those seats, which will probably give someone else a seat as he come in.

^E-8 Now, today we are studying in God's blessed Word. If you remember, the last message was in the book of Hebrews. Marvelous to study the Word of God, It gives us Eternal Life. Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have Eternal Life, and They are They which testify of Me." And how lovely to know that He has blessed us, to give us the living Word. God is in His Word.
Now, all of you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews the 7th chapter. And we'll try not to take too much time this morning, but just a little exaltation of Christ by the Word, that we might let you see what He is, and why we're here today, why Christianity is what it is by speaking of the Word. And faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, the Word.
Now, we are able to take the pages and turn them back like this, but there's only One that's able to open the Word, that's Christ, for they seen Him in the vision as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When John looked and there was no one in heaven was worthy to open the Book, or could, or to loose the seal thereof, he seen a Lamb that as though it had been slain from the foundation of the world, Who came and taken the Book out of the right hand of Him that set upon the throne, and opened the Book, and loosed the seals. Now, He's the Author of the Book, and shall we speak to Him just a moment before we turn into the Book.

^E-9 Our kind heavenly Father, with great hearts of deep love we come today to offer our tribute of praise and thanksgiving unto Thy glorious Name, being so mindful of us, as while we were yet sinners Christ died in our stead, the Innocent for the guilty, bearing upon Himself the sins of us all, taking them away, and paid the supreme price, satisfied God, and rose again for our justification, setting at His right hand today, ever living to make intercessions upon our confessions.
Oh, how we thank Thee for this solid hope that we have. When all around us is giving away, even mortal life itself, our hearts are set on that eternal, blessful hope. Many here are needy this morning, Father, for their spirit's sake, for their soul. We pray that You'll save the unsaved. Grant it, Lord. Give a closer walk for those who are indifferent towards Thee.

^E-10 And we pray that You'll heal all that's sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by our Lord Himself, "These things that I do shall you also." And then He said that we must go into all the world and preach the Gospel, lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
And to see here in this little building this morning many peoples who were on crutches a few days ago, walking today with out them, normally, lifted up and held up by the undergirding of the everlasting arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. Walking, those who were dying with cancer are here well, Your servants the doctors giving statement they can't find it no more, it's gone. We thank Thee for these things.
Forgive us of our shortcomings, and fill our hearts with love. Speak to us through Thy Word now, for we ask it in His Name. Amen.

^E-11 Just a little preview to get the sentiments of our Scripture lesson this morning, if... We're been talking about the assurance of the hope that's in us, very beautifully given here in the Hebrew letter.
After reading of how God dealt with His people Israel in the days gone by, then we see that the promise was extended to us, it gives us a great assurance as we see that all those things that happened back in those days were examples of what God is doing for us today, to His believing children.
And now, just a little preview of the previous Sunday's lesson on the 6th chapter of Hebrews, we'll begin about the 12th or 13th verse here.

^E-12 I'm sure the class can remember of how that we taken that into see what God had done, how He had promised Abraham, that He would give him this covenant and make it with him and his seed forever after. And God swore by an oath. And anyone swearing by an oath, swears by someone greater than they are. So God had no one greater than Himself to swear by, so He swore by Himself that He would keep this covenant with Abraham. Then how firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord.

^E-13 If we'll approach this subject today, real sensibly, calmly, and never be excited... Faith never gets excited. Faith never rushes itself. Faith knows what it's talking about. You never seen our Master excited about anything, standing by the grave of a dead man, He was just as calm as He was when He set on the mount and looked over Jerusalem. Standing on a troubled--on a ship in a troubled seas, and the waves, tossed about, He was so completely rested in God, until it never even paid any attention to it enough to wake up. Always undisturbed, faith is.

^E-14 Now, we find here that the reason that we could be undisturbed, because it was given to our father Abraham and to his children. And God Who gave the promise, swore by an oath that He would confirm it and keep it. And that He has done. And we find the children of Abraham are not Jews outwardly, which was the tribe of... out of the lineage of Abraham, but through Abraham come Isaac, through Isaac come Christ, through Christ blessed the world. For it said, "Unto and to his seed (which was Christ)..." And through there, that all the tribes of the earth was to be brought into this covenant.

^E-15 And the Covenant was given to Abraham unconditionally, not, "Abraham, if you'll do something, I'll do this, but I have already done it." See? It isn't what we do, it's what He has done for us. Nothing that we could do to merit anything. Who could we, the unrighteous ones, ever do anything to merit something before the great Jehovah God and His great, supreme holiness? See?

^E-16 We... Only thing we can do is accept and be grateful for what He has already done for us. Oh, that's so simple isn't it. And I'm positive that many times in people's thinking, that they try to make Divine healing and so forth, some great outreaching something, way away, "If I could only reach it."
Could you imagine Jesus saying, "Now, let Me check My faith, and see if I've got enough faith to do this, see if I'll have to fast awhile to see if I'll have enough faith to do this." He was perfectly unconscious of the faith that He had. He just spoke it and knew that it would be so.

^E-17 Just like you come from your homes today, you probably want to return to your home, told your wife or your loved ones, "I'll be back sometime right after noon." How do you know you are? You don't try to wonder, "Have I got faith enough to go home? Have I got faith enough to drive my car? You just unconsciously turn your key on, drive on away and go home. See? It's a unconscious faith that does it. That's the way it is: in Christ we just unconsciously just say, "That's His word; that just settles it; there's no more to it." and go on. That's how we get well.

^E-18 Now, God swearing by Himself, no greater. We'll hurry up and get down, for our subject today is on Melchisedec, Melchisedec the Great Prince and King. Now, the 14th verse says:

^E-19 Hannah, when she was at the temple, and she was praying, and Eli came out and thought she was drunk, and she said, "I am not drunk, but I am praying that God will take away my reproach."
He said, "The Lord God grant unto thee thy--thy request."
Now, God could've placed little Samuel right in Hannah's arms. All of us knows that. He's a Creator of all things, just speaks it into existence. He could've put it right in Hannah's arms, but instead of doing that, it was the regular procedure of nine months before the little baby come along. He could've done it instantly, but He didn't do it instantly, He just give her the promise, and she inherited the promise.

^E-20 When God told Moses when he started out to go into the promised land, "All that promise," He said, "I give Abraham years ago, it's all walled up with Philistines and all kinds of great people over there, warriors of... He said, "Now, it's all yours."
There was the Amorites, the Havites, and the Personites, and all those over there: Havites, Jubenites, Philistines, everything in Palestine. Now, God said, "I have give it to you. It's yours. Now go and possess it."
Oh, I hope you see it, people. It's something that I want to get to you to put your faith where it belong. Many peoples I find they can... they've got faith if they only knowed how to put it to work.

^E-21 When Benjamin Franklin first found electricity, he said, "I got it! I got it!" but he didn't know what he had. Along come Thomas Edison and said, "It'll work for us." And he didn't care how long it took. He tried ten thousand wires, but yet he found a wire that would finally carry the electronic--or the electricity into the wire. He knowed it was a power and that power would work in our benefit.

^E-22 And now, we found salvation that will save us from sin, that will take the vilest woman or man, drunkard, prostitute, and make them a child of God. Well, that same faith, that same power that will lift up a fallen man or woman with that, it'll work for us in many different ways. It will heal our bodies, if you can just find the right approach. You've got to find how to do it. Like if I had a--a farm over on this hill full of good corn, and it's just about dead on account of water. And I got an artesian well on this side of the hill. Well, I can't make that artesian well throw the water down here and up this side of the hill to water it, but I've got to survey that land and find out how that water will take it's own current and course and come around and water that crop. It'll do it if I'll just let it run in it's own channel.
And that's the same thing the Holy Spirit is in God's promise. If we'll just let It run It's way and not us get in the way, not us throw our doubts there, "cause this didn't and that didn't," just let God's Holy Spirit working in you rest upon the promise, it'll do just exactly what God said it would.

^E-23 Abraham was an old man, a hundred years old, when God appeared to him in the Name of Almighty God. The "Almighty" there comes from the Hebrew word of the "El Shaddai" which means the bosom or breast of a woman. Now, he was old; his strength was gone. But El Shaddai is the Almighty, the strength Giver. And all Abraham had to do to obtain this promise was lay right on that promise, other words, like the baby to it's mother, and nurse from the mother, strength for the baby.
And we do the same thing when we come to God and see His promise. We just lay right to Him and draw from His Word the strength of God, given in its course, not taking our own mind; just believing it. "After He had endured, he obtained the promise." Oh, I just love that!

^E-24 Now, the same thing works for salvation; same does it work for Divine healing. How God in His great love and infinite mercy give it to us. Now:

^E-25 And God swore to Abraham that He would keep this covenant with him and with his seed forever. God swore by Himself that He would do it. And in doing so, under the old law, when you made an oath under the old law, you killed a animal, cut it in two. And then, the two men on which the oath was taken by, stood between the animal, and they wrote out on a piece of paper a certain contract. And that piece of paper was torn apart and given to one and the other man, and they took a oath over this dead animal that if they broke that covenant between them, let them be as this dead animal.
So God, having no other to swear by, He swore by Himself, and He took the oath over the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, foreseeing it in a shadow. And in the covenant when He took Christ to Calvary, He tore His body and soul apart. And He lifted up His body to set on His right hand and sent back the Holy Spirit to be in the Christian, to do the same thing here in the church that He did in Christ when He was here on earth, and proving by that, that He will raise us up in the last days to set with Him and be with Him in His kingdom.

^E-26 And today, to see the same Holy Spirit that was upon Jesus Christ, working in the church, confirming everything that God said, what a marvelous hope it builds up in us to think that we are His children, and blessed of His Presence, and now He's here with us as a infallible proof that He is the Lord God Who made the promise to Abraham. Now, listen to the 17th verse:

^E-27 What a marvelous promise! Two immutable things: God cannot lie and be God. Now, if God has made a promise in His Bible here... We believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God. And if God has made a promise in this Bible, we have this consolation and know that it's impossible for God to lie. Therefore, when we see He promised it in the Bible, we believe it soul, body, and spirit. It's impossible for Him to lie.
Now, if there's any fault, it's in us, not in God; for God is obligated to His Word, for He's sworn by His Word. Oh, my. I'm sure when we get to seeing it in that light, things begin to shape up and heap up different than what they used to be.
Healing of the body doesn't become a fiction, it becomes a reality. The baptism of the Holy Spirit doesn't become any emotional, worked-up substance. It becomes a reality of the indwelling Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ to change the life.

^E-28 A few nights ago in a prayer meeting a man said to me, "The Holy Ghost wasn't given only to the ten--the twelve on the day of Pentecost."
I said, "Well then, what about the hundred and twenty was there at the same time that received it? How about on down at the house of Cornelius when the Gentiles received it? Thirty-three years later when Paul asked the, the Baptists if they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed, and he laid his hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost... Setting the church at Corinth in order, he also set in the church apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, gifts of healing, and all those marvelous gifts, years and years beyond Pentecost."

^E-29 Well then, it's today, to every believer: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. (How far? All the world. How many? All the people.) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In My Name they shall cast out devils and heal the sick..." and so forth. There you are.
It's God's promise that He swore He would do it. No matter how much rises up to try to counterfeit or impersonate it, how many things raise up to try to contradict it or take it down, it'll go on and on and on forever, for God has swore by Himself that He would keep it.

^E-30 If I fail to preach it and lay down, God will raise somebody in my place to go on with it. If you fail to believe it, there'll be somebody step into your place to believe it instead of you. For God has sworn He'd do it.
Oh, what a consolation that gives us. And the beauty part about it, my Christian friends, is to think that now we have the evidence of it. We have it here in blessing. We have it in power. We have it in miracles. We have it in signs. We have it in a picture. We have it in every way, that God has promised it even more than He promised to give it to us. And it's infallible, the Truth: the Truth, not of man, not the truth of some teacher or philosopher, but it's the Truth of Almighty God.
And what a hope it gives us. No wonder we can sing:

^E-31 Whether it's popularity, whether it's our church, whether it's our friends, our associates, whoever it may be, whether it's our doctor, whether it's our priest, who... it's our preacher, all other grounds is sinking sand: Christ alone!
And every man that's ever amounted to anything in this great battlefield of strife, has been men and women who stood alone on them convictions. When everything else failed and fell around them they still stood.
Abraham Lincoln, of old, was convinced that he was right. He stood alone on his convictions, but he proved it and sealed his testimony with his own blood.
Jesus Christ stood alone in His day as an example to every man upon his convictions of God's eternal Truth, that will take his stand positionally and stand, will stand alone, but not alone, with God, the invisible Companion Who follows us through life's journey down through the shadows, of the valleys of shadows of death and into eternity, He will still go with us and be God.

^E-32 Then what is our hopes built on this morning? 'Cause God swore that He would do it to Abraham, swore not only to Abraham, but every one of his seed.
Who is the seed? Is the... You who have had the invitation to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of Abraham? Certainly there's people who isn't called. But to every one of you here this morning that's had the call, why are you here at church this morning? Something told you to come. You know it wasn't the enemy to try to get you to do wrong, try to get you to do wrong to come to church. You couldn't do that. When you come to church you're doing right.
And Jesus said in His own Word that, "no man can come to Me except My Father draws him. And all that comes I'll give them everlasting life and raise him up at the last days." Think of it. That every person that comes on the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ is promised Eternal Life and the resurrection in the last days. Father, Jehovah God, Who swore by an oath that He would do and send His Son and confirmed the Word... And He swore He would do it (given in a type to Abraham), fulfilled it in Jesus Christ, raised Him up.

^E-33 There you are. Our justification... Every time you hear the clods drop upon a casket, saying, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, earth to earth..." our faith looks away into another land yonder to where there's an empty tomb and some glorious day He Who promised to come, will come. And as sure as Jesus rose from the dead, we'll rise with Him in the resurrection. What a beautiful hope we have.

^E-34 Now, right on down quickly, our time will get away from us before we know it. Now, I believe it's the 19th verse:

^E-35 You know a ship sometime... Servicemen and so forth know it, and you who been on the sea... When really the waves gets to dashing too hard for the boat, they anchor it. And it's got a line that lets down that holds it. It may flip it around this a way and around that way, but that anchor holds it. The anchor... They cannot see land anywhere, but they drop the anchor beyond the veil, which is the water. And that anchor goes down into the bottom of the sea pot... top of some big mountain somewhere, and drags till it catches on that mountain, holds into that crevasse there, and all the sea can't move it no more. It's anchored out of sight.
And every person that has received Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, been borned again with the Holy Spirit, you've dropped anchor. If you're sick and your hope is built on Christ, you've dropped your anchor. The doctor may say this, that, or other, but as sure as your faith looks yonder, the waves, sick spells, fever, may rise, and everything like that, but your anchor holds within the veil.

^E-36 Somewhere out yonder in the mystic land say, "What have you got your hopes built on? The doctor said it's gone. The medicine says it can't do nothing. The surgery has failed." But my hopes is not built in that. We have our hope within the veil. What veil? Through the shedding of His Blood that tore His Spirit from His body. And in between that veil there, the anchor has caught a hold of something.
I seen a ship one time when it was tossed out there, and I thought, "What's holding that ship in that same spot?" I couldn't understand, setting out there in the sea. And I noticed the waves had carried around this way and back around this way, but it didn't move from that place. I could not see nothing. But there was a little wire rope that run down from the bow of that ship onto an anchor that had caught onto something beneath my--where I could not see, beyond the water, and it was a holding there. And I said, "Praise be to God. Yes. One day I found an anchor."

^E-37 I read down here, it said, "Whosoever will, let him come..." I cast that anchor beyond something I couldn't see; something caught a hold. And when the battles are raging, the anchor holds within the veil. When if the devils rise, and troubles arise, and all around me gives away, our anchor holds within the veil. "Where's it at?" I don't know, but it's beyond the veil, somewhere yonder anchored into the Rock of Ages. Our anchor is steadfast, unmovable; it holds in, within the veil. "Which hope we have as a anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." Sure and steadfast! Oh, if we only had a little more time to get what assurance means. "Surance," something that you know in your assurance... What's assurance? God swore by oath He'd do it. That's the assurance.

^E-38 Here some time ago a man come to me and he said, "Billy, I want to sell you an insurance policy." Now, I... Insurance is all right. I don't have any myself. I guess I went to extremes with it.
A--a company beat my poor old dad, one time, out of a lot, and 'cause he was too illiterate to read the policy. And a Philadelphian lawyer couldn't read one straight anyhow. So he said... He sold him this policy, and he paid for it for my brother and I for twenty years. Come to... said it'd be worth five hundred dollars at the end of the time. And through the depression and things, the poor old fellow working... At the end of it they told us they'd read the policy wrong; it was worth seven dollars and fifty cents. So it kind of bittered me.

^E-39 Now, they're not all like that. There's insurance agents setting right here now. Many times people has come and said, "Billy, I want to sell you insurance." Now, I guess it's perfectly all right.
I said, "Look, I have insurance."
And he said, "What kind of insurance do you have?" Said, "What policy do you hold?"
I said, "Eternal life."
He said, "Eternal Life?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
Said, "Who sells them policies?"
I said, "The Lord Jesus."
He said, "Do you have insurance?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
Said, "What kind is it? Really, what is it, Billy?"
I said, "It's insurance."
He said, "What..."
I said, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine."
He put his arms around me (a boyhood chum); we was standing right across the street here. He said, "Billy, that'll not put you in the graveyard up here."
I said, "I know; but it'll get me out. I'm not worried about getting in there. It'll take me out." That's right.
I could think of my insurance policy when I was sick, but it did me no good. But my insurance of Jesus... I had a anchor, steadfast, the assurance that God swore by Himself He'd keep every word He promised.

^E-40 When Mayo said, "There's not a hope for you." Not a hope for me to live, that regurgitation that would finally kill me... But my anchor held within the veil. "Well, what do you see?" I don't know what I see. There's something that I know. That's what it is: you know it! It's not by works, it's by faith. We believe it.
What kind of assurance did Abraham have from the doctor, the medical association of Ur, or anywhere else, when he was a hundred years old and Sarah, ninety, they was going to have a baby? But his anchor held within the veil, for God give Him the promise and he rested upon it, and called things which was not as though they were, because knowing that God was able (Here it is!), God was able to perform that what He had promised. He made the world; He made me; He made everything; He made you; He made all, everything by His Word. And His Word will do just what It said He will--it'll do.

^E-41 Now, oh how... what hope, which hope we have, assurance of the hope, within the veil. (We'll have to hurry now, because we got a big prayer line coming.)
Notice, "Whether..." Oh, my, I... looky, everyone now, 20th verse. Just look at this: "Where the forerunner is for us entered in, entered, even Jesus..." The Forerunner of what? The Forerunner of our salvation, physically and spiritually: "For He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed." The Forerunner of our salvation has already entered in. The assurance... already "entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec."
Now, we're coming to where we want to get this text right quick now, and get into it.

^E-42 All these great promises, we bottleneck it down till one thing: that Jesus, our Forerunner, Who was the Seed of Abraham, through the Holy Spirit has called us to this blessed hope that we now have, a anchor to the soul, steadfast and sure, anchored within the veil. This Jesus, being made a Forerunner, Who was in the order of Melchisedec...
Now, this great Man, Melchisedec, we want to speak on Him for the next few minutes. Hurrying up next ten or fifteen minutes and then for the prayer line... Build your faith now. Don't let the devil rob you of anything. You're here this morning in this little building where Almighty God will come into this humble abode here. He said... Looks pretty bad, but He come to a manger. He will come to any humble heart that'll open up, say, "Yes, Lord Jesus, I believe it. I might not even understand it, but I believe it anyhow."

^E-43 This blessed hope we have, Christ the Forerunner has already come. You know what a "forerunner" is? "Something that runs before or goes ahead of." Christ, being the Forerunner, then, of our salvation, came to the earth, and to be an Example of a church, that the church was to finish His works, or continue His works after He had completed His sacrifice on Calvary. You see it?
Notice, then He was born in humility (Right?) in a manger. He was made fun of as you'd be, or anyone else who serves Him. But while on earth, He Who had no respect of person: He loved all; He--He healed all; He blessed all; He did good wherever He went. He gave His life as a sacrifice, died, buried, rose, ascended up, as a Forerunner to us. And the very Spirit that was upon Him has come back to be with the church to lead and guide it.

^E-44 Speaking: "A little while and the world seeth Me no more. Yet ye shall see Me, for I ("I," is a personal pronoun), I will be with you, even in you to the end of the world." As directing our minds to His great, supreme sacrifice as a Forerunner of our blessed hope we have within the veil, now. Then by faith we believe it. Our anchor goes out there and the points set in the Word of God, sticks within the veil and our prayer line through here holds us steadfast to the promise, not wavering about, tossed about with every wind of doctrine, but steadfast, unmovable. "Always abounding in the grace of the Lord, for as much as you know your works are not in vain, in the Lord..." What a hope.

^E-45 Now, this Melchisedec, just speaking of him here, right out... Paul speaking to the Hebrews of the Old Testament of a type...
Let's turn back to Genesis, the 14th chapter, and read just a little bit before we go on Who this Melchisedec was. We read in the 14th chapter of Genesis and the 14th verse, beginning... Abraham, you know, had been called out of Chaldea, the land of Ur, the city of Ur, rather, the land of Chaldea. And God told him, "Separate yourself from your people and come apart." Let me put emphasis on that. (Oh, if we had more time on this today. It's so limited.) "Separate yourself from your people and come apart and I'll bless you." See?

^E-46 And in order to obtain this same promise that Abraham had, you have to separate yourself from all worldly contacts, all the things of the world. Your sinful desires, your lust, passions of the world, and all these things, separate yourself from the thing. Come apart into a strange land, a land that you've never been in before, to walk, not by sight, but by faith. For Abraham had nothing; no one has crossed this river Euphrates and sojourned into this land. But Abraham, by faith, forsook his own and went forward, separating himself, as the Blood of Jesus Christ today by the Holy Spirit separates us from the things of the world to walk in a new life. Criticized, made fun of, called holy-roller, misunderstood, but our anchor holds.

^E-47 Hebrews 11 said they wandered about in sheepskin and goatskins, was destitute, and places... for they believed that they were seeking for a city whose Builder and Maker was God. Something within them told them there was a land, a city, whose Builder and Maker was God. And they sought that, not knowing where they were going.
That's the way with every pilgrim today. He's seeking something that he can't put his hands on, but he sees the evidence of it coming all around him. What made me do this? What made this crippled woman walk? What made that crippled woman walk? What makes this rupture go off the man? What made that cancer leave the woman? What made those deaf ears come open the other night here? Eighty-two years old... What did it? It's supernatural attributes, that's a anchor, that city, whose Builder and Maker is God that we look for, yet can't see where it's at... But there's something that anchors up yonder, the anchor, within the veil. Our hopes are steadfast, unmovable.

^E-48 And Abraham left the land, sojourned, called himself a stranger and a pilgrim. And look, Abraham as all mortals, not an immortal man, not a man that can't make a mistake, but constantly made mistakes. But no matter how many mistakes he made, his anchor still held, for he had the promise. So he took with him Sarah. He took Lot. He took his daddy. And as long as they was with him, God could not bless him.
The old man finally died; they buried him. They went on up a little farther, and Lot backslid, and you know what happened there. And then he separated himself from him. Then God appeared to him again, said, "Now, Abraham, look all over the ground; it's all yours." When he made the right choice...

^E-49 That's it. Separate yourself from everything. I'll have to say this: look (I hope it finds its resting place, 'cause I never thought it, premeditation... ), maybe that's the reason some of us are not getting along so well; we're holding on to things that we ought to let go. It's separation: a little doubt, a little wonder, a little skeptic, "Wonder if it's right? Could this be? Could that be? How could it be?" Cut loose this morning. Hebrews 12:1 said,

^E-50 Notice, Abraham here, then he got in trouble. Lot went down to Sodom and Gomorrah; you know the story. (We'll have to hurry, press. We can't get to it.) The 14th verse... And first thing you know, all the gentile kings come down there, come into Sodom, and declared war, and took Lot and... (Abraham's nephew), and took him on, and Lot's wife and the children and all the rest of them and left the country. And one of the kings of Sodom when he started to run, he went into the slime flats out there and fell dead. (Slime is what they made their bricks and mortar and built their cities out of. Just for a little pre-reading of this, you can read it when you get home, but because of the time being limited, we'll have to hurry.)

^E-51 In the 14th verse: "And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive..." Brother, I like that... his brother... And look what Lot had done to him. But yet there was some kind of a tie that binds. If the brother has backslid, like the young man said awhile ago, the young minister here, that he had backslid and gone away, yet somehow, the Holy Spirit still calls for that person. When he's in trouble He's right there with him.
Abraham's brother was taken captive, and he armed his trained servants, and bore them on his--born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, and he and his servants, by night... smote them, and pursued them to Hobah, and then on the left to Damascus.

^E-52 Abraham taken all of his servants and the armed men... Just think of the men that had been a pauper when he left the land down there in Chaldea of Ur. Had three hundred and eighteen armed men as servants. See?... (Say, "God don't bless you?") Three hundred and eighteen... You say, "Well, the--is that right?" That's what the Scripture said. He had enough servants to fight an army. And he overcome. Notice.

^E-53 After all these gentile kings had come in and took away his brother, Abraham took his servants, pursued after them and went down and got them, and returned with them, and slaughtered the kings, and brought them back.
And notice, the king of Sodom come out. The king of Gomorrah was killed. But the king of Sodom came out, and brought him forth, and said, "Here are all the goods that--that you have taken, that these people took away; I'll give them to you." (Later on in this chapter we find Abraham said, "I won't take one of the threads of a shoelatch, that you might say he made Abraham rich.) But the thought we want to get to is right here.

^E-54 Notice now, after Abraham... The spiritual picture here... Abraham... his brother, that had gone astray... A picture of the true church or the true believer of God, that's blessed of God and has the promise of God, has the covenant of God, and has faith in the covenant...
Now, think. If you'll count here, there's around ten or fifteen kings went out there, and probably... How many servants did they have? But Abraham counted what he had that was faithful, borned in his own house. Oh, my. The faithful, borned in his own house... It was his servants who he had circumcised that was included in the same promise that he was. And he went after his backslidden brother, and pursued with a little handful of men, of three hundred and eighteen men, after the kings, and overcome them, and took them, and slew them and brought back all that was lost.

^E-55 Perfect picture of Christ and the church, the Holy Spirit leading the faithful that's borned in the same house of the Holy Ghost where Christ was born, pursuing after the wayward and backslidden and slaying every evil thing that's overcome them. Amen. Overcoming sin, laying aside all the weight... Speaking to the people about their lusts and the things they're doing. Cut it off. Their sicknesses and all, preaching to them the Gospel and bringing it back into full fellowship with God.

^E-56 Notice. And when he returned, Melchisedec met him. Who was this Melchisedec? And notice the first thing, now, Melchisedec did not offer him any money. Melchisedec only offered him bread and wine. Melchisedec was a priest of the most high. The king of Jerusalem. It was then called Salem. (Here's a Crudens. I thought if it would be questioned afterwards, I could prove it, that Jerusalem was first Salem: J-e-r-u-s-l-e-m. See? Salem, Je-ru-salem. See?) It was first called H-i-r-u-m, Hi-ru-salem. That's right. Which once was in Gentile possession... Oh, I hope you get this now.
Jerusalem was first in Gentile possession, and the King of Jerusalem, or Salem (which was meaning, "the King of Peace, the King of righteousness, "), met Abraham as he returned and give him the communion, bread and wine, thousands of years, or hundreds of years before bread and wine was ever an ordinances in the church. And he was the King of Jerusalem. Amen.

^E-57 Who was this great man? Back to our text now: 7th verse, the 7th chapter:

^E-58 If He had no father, He had no mother, He had no beginning of days or ending of life, Melchisedec still exists. Is that right? Made on the order... Having no father, no mother, but was made like unto the son of God, abides a priest continually... He can't... He had no beginning. He has no end. He had no father; He had no mother, yet He was a man. And He came from Salem: peace. He was the King of peace. He was the King of righteousness. He was not only a King, but He was a Prince: and He is the Prince of peace. He's the Rose of Sharon. He's the Lily of the valley, the Morning Star, the Alpha, Omega; He that was, which is, and shall come, both Root and Offspring of David. He was before David, in David, and after David. Who was this Priest? None other than the incarnated Lord Jesus Christ.
In His magnificent power He was the same One a little later on, after he met Abraham, and gave him, as being a covenant people, the communion... Then now, through that same covenant, we take... And He was in a shadow, that Melchisedec, when He become a Man of flesh, would be cut into part, and the communion would be given the furtherance of His broken body, as we take today.

^E-59 There that Melchisedec met Abraham. And Abraham paid tithes to Him. Amen. Abraham, the greatest man on the face of the earth, paid tithes to Melchisedec, the King of peace, the King of Salem, the King of righteousness. And He was a Prince, and He was... He was a Prince; He was a King, and He was the Servant of the Most High, which Jesus was.
And when Abraham, a few years later, not long after that, when Lot had backslid, and Sodom had been burned, and Abraham was left alone with Sarah, out on the barren grounds when their--their cattle was all dying from starvation, it looked like God had failed him. But he had strong faith to believe. And one day setting in the door of his tent, under the big oak... (It still stands in a memorial today as a charred over hulk.) And there, Abraham setting in the door of his tent, seeing Melchisedec coming to him, three Men walking...

^E-60 Now, I just imagine Abraham said, "I seen Him before." And He comes up, and he said, "Let me... just come by, my Lord. And let me fetch a little water for Your feet." Somehow, way down, that covenant man, down in his heart, knew that that was Somebody more than a man.
He said, "We're strangers." Said, "We've come from a foreign country." (Their clothes were dusty. Yes, they was: all the way from glory.) And so they walked up there and said to Abraham... They brought them a little stuff and washed... And Abraham begin to look at them. He slipped back in the tent and said, "Sarah, stand here just a minute." Out to the herd he went and got the fattest calf he could find, and killed it, and brought it back, and gave this Man some meat and bread and milk and butter... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

^E-61 Now, when Melchisedec, the King of Salem, the Priest of the Most High, the King of peace, which was none other than the forepart of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He met Abraham, He fed Abraham the communion and blessed him. And here He... Abraham meets Him on His journey to Sodom and feeds Him meat and bread. Oh, don't you see the connection between the man... He promised... Our bread and water is sure and God will do it just as certain as we're setting here. And every Divine promise He has made, He's obligated to do it.
And when the two Angels went on towards Sodom, Abraham stood there and he looked around with the Man. He said, "If I'll find so many and so many," as he kept saying down to ten... And when He left, then the Angel or the Man that was standing by him disappeared and vanished by the sacrifice. And Abraham said, "I've talked face to face with Almighty God." Melchisedec.

^E-62 And Christ in the foreground... How friends, this morning, if we could take this veil here, that's before our eyes (as flesh has blinded us), and rip that veil back like this, and just look beyond the curtain of time, to wonder what it would be... I used to sing a little song:

^E-63 We could have more time. I wish we did, on this great subject. Maybe, someday, after the--this journey's over, as I go across the nations now to the foreign lands and around, preaching the Gospel, let me leave this thought with you: My beloved children, my brothers and co-workers in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, be not weary. Take new courage this morning. Lift up your head. Lift up the feeble knees and hands that once hung down. Look unto the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has give us these promises.
This thing that I have tried to preach to you through revelations, that was given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ. While I am yet ignorant and uneducated, illiterate, yet Almighty God has placed it before the world, for it's infallible.

^E-64 Setting here, this morning, is those who were crippled and afflicted last week, and this week are normal and well. There are those who were deaf standing here a few nights ago, are standing here now, hearing just as good as the rest of them.
What is it? It's God's unconditional covenant that He made with Abraham and his seed. He promised He'd do it; so therefore, let us believe it this morning with all of our heart. As a people, some of us setting here, old, and some of us getting gray, some of us... Before we meet again, there may be some of us pass beyond the veil. But whatever you do, whatever life produces (if it produces sickness, if it produces anything in the world), keep your anchor within the veil. Keep looking to the Author and Finisher, yonder, the Lord Jesus Christ. Call those things which seem to be, as though they were.

^E-65 There's three elements that a man follows. First it's humanistic. Second is Divine revelation. Third is the vision that's THUS SAITH THE LORD.
Many times we are down in here and never climb into this. If you're not down in there, cast your hopes through that veil up here to THUS SAITH THE LORD. Though you don't see the vision, though the revelation doesn't come, though when you're prayed for you say, "I just wished I could believe," that doesn't make any difference. Cast your anchor down there and call it so anyhow.

^E-66 Abraham couldn't see. He said, "How can it be?"
Mary couldn't understand how could she have a baby, not knowing no man. He said, "But the Holy Ghost will overshadow you. He will bring it to pass."
She said, "Behold, the handsmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me." How was it going to be done? She didn't know, but she cast her anchor beyond the veil and went forth testifying she was going to have a baby, before she felt life or anything. She called those things which were not as though they were.

^E-67 Abraham, when he was seventy-five years old, God give him the promise (and Sarah sixty-five years old), gave the promise. And twenty-five years elapsed before it ever come to pass, but Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving praise unto God, and calling those symptoms and things which was, as though they were not, and testified only what God said was true, because he had the promise.

^E-68 God be merciful. Oh, my. Does your faith set still this morning? When the troubled winds are blowing, the nights are dark, and the winds and lightnings are flashing, does your anchor hold? Build your hopes this morning, on nothing less than Jesus Blood with righteousness. I know it's a hard--it seems hard, but take it one time, and take God at His Word, and see what a blessed hope it is to just march forward in faith.
In this great faith battle, as I've tried to fight it, I've come--some awful obstacles, been over some rough roads. It shows on me: I have. But it's been the most blessed thing I... I wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world. And here's my greatest victories, the greatest pleasures I have, is when I come up against something I can't see over, around it, or under it; I just keep walking towards it, believing this: that God will make a way when I get there. I've never come this year... this far... any at... all this distance I have come, I have trusted Him. He has never failed me.

^E-69 When we rally there with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those who were heirs of the promise, looking forward to us not to fail, for without us they cannot be made perfect... And how they're depending on us this morning. Let's not fail. Keep your anchor in Christ.
If you're a sinner, you don't have to come to the altar. It's customary to do so, but if you're--don't want to come and not room for you to come, say, "Lord, I cast all the worldly things aside right now. I lay myself before You, bare and naked as I am, and am a shame and disgrace, but I cast my anchor on You, and I believe in You. Nothing I can do but what You've done for me.

^E-70 If you're sick, the doctor says there's no way at all for you to ever be well, there's nothing can be done, just look in this...?... this little group of people this morning (when this is a--a little handful, not even a dot of the thousands that's been healed in the last few weeks), around the world. Great campaigns, the world's in a roar with Divine healing campaigns, men of faith, going out, daring to take God at His Word. The Gentile days are ending. This is a sign. Look at it. Don't wait too long.
They waited too long to recognize Elijah. And the disciples even said, "Why did the scribes say, 'Elijah must first come'?" He said, "He's already come and you didn't know him."
Said, "Who was it?"
Said, "John the Baptist."
"Well," they said, "Sure, that was him."

^E-71 Jesus came and they didn't know it. After the Roman had crucified Him, when it was too late then to do anything, he said, "Truly that was the Son of God." Though He was a malefactor, though He was... He was spit upon, though He was made fun of and persecuted, yet God a vindicated Him with signs and wonders. Today, let's not wait too long. This is the ending of the Gentile dispensation. We're ending.

^E-72 Our Father, we thank Thee this morning for this blessed hope. Oh, some glorious day when You stand upon the earth again, it'll be said, "Was not it written in the songs, 'Your redemption draweth near.'" When You was here the first time, You said, "Was it written by David in the songs, these certain things?" And when we think of that song, "There is going to be a meeting in the air," where all the prophets and the redeemed and little David and Moses and all the patriarchs will be present there, then we'll say, "Was it written, in the song that we would see this and the redeemed of the ages shall rejoice together."
Father, forgive every wayward man or woman, boy or girl, this morning. May this be a new day in their life: the time that by faith they accept the Lord Jesus as personal Saviour and be sealed into the Kingdom of the--God by the Holy Spirit.

^E-73 Take these few hurried-up words, Father, and sink them down in the hearts of the people just as they have need.
Just in a few moments now, the people will be coming by here to be healed. There'll be those here, Lord, who are blind, afflicted, and crippled, and sick, and all kinds of diseases upon them. Satan done this evil thing, Father. Them poor people, Lord, they wouldn't come here if they didn't believe they could be healed. You said we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and our testimony. And here, lays strings here on the platform, crutches and things has been piled up and hauled away from here, and wheelchairs, and cots packed out, and beds. And men and women's walked from here Lord, from all kinds of diseases and afflictions that Satan has put upon them. Not because it's a place, but it's because their faith met Your requirement right here.

^E-74 I pray, God, that every sick person in here, that their faith will be sufficient this morning, now, to remember that great Melchisedec, back yonder, Who had no beginning of days; He never had a father nor mother; He never had any end of life; it still lives today, then was incarnated: called Jesus Christ, became flesh, died, went back to it again. He's still the King of peace, the King of righteousness, promising us these great eternal things who He's... has been swore by God to Abraham that He would keep the covenant, the promise, to him and his seed forever. Help us today to walk forward to this platform now with undying faith.
Some of them here, Lord, are bound with unclean habits, old filthy habits of the flesh. God, as the Bible said, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. God, may they flash it aside this morning and look to Jesus Who cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Grant it, Father. And when we leave today, may we go with a heart full of love and rejoicing. Bless this little church. Bless our dear Brother Neville, Lord, as he pastors and labors daily and nightly here, trying to make a--a place for the people to come and worship to see the Lord Jesus in His manifestation of love and power.

^E-75 Bless tonight's service, Lord. Bring a great blessing to us. And Father, we pray now that You'll get glory out of all things and someday when all of life is over, the last sermon's been preached, the Bible's closed, the taps has been sounded, arms has been stacked, and the battle smoke's drying away, the sun sets, then, Father, receive us into Thy kingdom. May we come like old battle-scarred veterans, grant it, Lord, so we can receive a new body where we'll never be sick no more or have a heartache or sorrow. But let us be faithful in all these things while we're here on earth now, to believe and call those things which are not, that's contrary to God's Word, as though they were. For we ask it in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.