¹ Let us remain standing now for a moment while we have prayer. Let's bow our heads.
Lord, we are happy this morning to be back in the house of God in another service. And we pray God that You will correct us this morning of all of our errors. Show us the paths that You have ordained that we should walk, and give us of Thy grace and love, that we might follow those paths and instructions with all of our heart, that we might be found that day in Christ, blameless, for we believe, Lord, that His appearing is soon.
We see all the signs that He said would take place just ere His coming now being fulfilled. And with joy we look for that moment. As Abraham of old looked for the promised son, and seeing those last signs of God come down on the earth, then he knew that it wouldn't be long until the son would arrive. And now, we see it repeat again. Jesus told us that when these things begin to come to pass to lift up our heads, that our--our redemption was drawing nigh: perplexity of the time, distress between nations, earthquakes in divers places, the sea roaring, men's heart failing for fear.
And we realize that we're in that hour when the nations don't know what to do, another war coming up, looks like. What a horrible thing that would be. The earth pulling apart, scientists saying that something terrible is near... We see the Bible speaking of this. Then, Lord, help us today to stand in this house of correction and take orders from our God to go forward in this hour of darkness to shine Light, for it may be our last opportunity to do so. For we ask this in Jesus' Name and for His sake. Amen. (Be seated.)

⁴ I certainly deem this a grand privilege to be here in the Tabernacle this morning. And sorry that we don't have seating room around for you. And the place is packed out, and standing everywhere outside... You people outside now, you can hear this on your radio, I forget... [Brother Neville tells Brother Branham which frequency it can be heard on--Ed.]... 55 to 57. You people outside and out in the parking lots and on the streets, can hear this on your radio between 55 and 57 on your radio dial.
So we tried... I was coming back, rather, to--here to try to have about a ten day meeting to speak on the subject of the Seven Last Vials; for in between those Vials is the Trumpets. And I was telling you in the--when I was going to preach on the Seven Trumpets, that I would bring them in with the Vials and the Plagues. And I thought it'd be a good time; I just returned from Africa; and--and the children hadn't had their vacation. My little boy Joseph, had--had kinda went a little--need a little few weeks of study on his reading. He passed all right, but he wasn't up to par, so we kept him in Tucson so--while I was in Africa, and went on his reading and catch up on it with some day school. And then we come back. And I thought, while the kiddies was having their vacation, I'd have a little meeting here with the people and preach these subjects. But when we got here, we found that we could not get the school auditorium.

⁶ And I knew the Tabernacle wasn't sufficient to seat the people and make them comfortable the way they should be when they--when I have this message; therefore, we had to--to make a different arrangement. And instead of having the--the ten nights that we were planning on having, well, I made it just two services a Sunday: this Sunday, next Sunday, and the following Sunday, two services, so that... And we never advertised it. And then, if anyone who heard some way that the meetings was going to begin on the twenty-eighth at the school auditorium, if God permitted, well, if you have any friends and got any reservations in the motels, I--I'd cancel it (See?), because it--that they--we can't get the convenience to have it; they can't get the--school auditorium.

⁷ And now, I want to speak on just evangelistic services on Sunday morning. And Sunday night I want to have prayer for the sick. And we are trusting that God will meet with you people who are sick. I don't know how Billy's going to take care of you, I suppose, give out prayer cards, or how ever ways to control the congregation. But we will do all we can to pray for every person in these next three weeks that we intend to have services, if it be the will of the Lord.
And then, many times there's personal interviews, somebody just wants to see you a minute on something or something like that. And we're going to... How many here wants a personal interview, let's see your hands. Wow. Who doesn't?
So then, we are... It's kinda going to be hard to get them, so write out your request and send them--put them in with Billy, and I can get them from there. And now, he'll announce about, I guess, prayer cards, whenever they're to be given out.

¹⁰ How many of our ministering brethren is there here this morning? We haven't had a chance to... I don't guess... Have you recognized any of them? How many ministers are here this morning? Would you just raise your hands, or stand up. Let's see how many ministers are in the congregation this morning. Well, fine. Thank the Lord for these men. Wish we had time to recognize every one of them, but I'm sure you see them and we--God knows them in their service; and we pray that God will bless them richly. No doubt many of them's closed their services to be here: Brother Junior Jackson, and I guess, Brother Don Ruddell. And this broadcast is coming into their churches. And in--also up in New York and other places across the nation this is by a private telephone into each church this morning.

¹¹ I'm glad to see Brother Richard Blair setting here. I just read a letter of a great thing that God did among the people there. The other day, as I understand (I may be wrong, Brother Blair; if I am, correct me.), he was working, helping a man wire a trailer or something, I believe it was. (I read the letter.) And they reversed something; and however, it run the current into a water where a--a little boy was (one of the--the men that the trailer belonged to, his little boy, just a little lad), and it killed the little boy. And his stomach swollen and... We know electrical shock, that's--when they die that's what happens. The little eyes set; his teeth went together.
It alarmed the brethren so bad. Brother Blair said he thought he could get ahold of me somewhere to pray for it, but remembered that it was that "Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in their midst." And the father skinned his fingers trying to get his fingers in the little boy's mouth to break it open. And they knelt down and started pray over the little boy, and he come back to life again, and he...?...

¹³ Was that true, Brother Blair? One of our loyal brothers here... Oh, the little boy's here. Well, thank the Lord. That's fine. We'd like for you to stand up, sonny boy. Now, we thank the dear Lord for this. Is that the father of the little boy? Are you the father? That's right. And here's Brother Richard Blair. Our God is able to do anything. Yes, sir. He promised it. We are living in the Divine Presence of the great, glorious, heavenly Father. And all things that we--are possible if we can just believe it.
You see what that does, what it paid off for that man's life to believe that? Saved his little boy. Now, God had His loyal servants there to--Brother Blair and them--to pray for the little boy when he was in that condition. Yes, when anything happens, remember, you are children of the living God. "Wherever two or more are gathered in My Name, there I am." And again it's written: "He's a very present Help in time of trouble." And if there ever was trouble, that little boy laying there dead on the ground from a shock of electricity that went through him... So we're thanking God this morning with all of our hearts for these--for these things that He has done for us.
God bless these faithful men too. In a time of emergency that's the time to look to God; and look to Him and be on friendship with Him before the emergency arrives. We know this: If we have favor with God, we can ask Him anything, like you would any other friend; and He's a very present Help in time of trouble.

¹⁶ I just met on the street yesterday Brother John Martin's sister. I was... Someone had stopped me down on the street and someone went by and waved their hand. Coming back home, you know, you see the people everywhere stopping and shaking hands and so forth. And this lady, I remember they called me recently where someone hit her in the back in--in a car, and bursted her spine and all up-and-down. She was to be paralyzed the rest of her life. She's setting in the meeting this morning enjoying the Presence of God. I was just talking with her in the room; I want to pray with her again, and she was... She's here somewhere. I guess she couldn't get back in. But here. Sure, she's setting right here by us. That's right. Would you stand up just a minute, sister, that people might... Here's the lady the doctor said a few days ago would never walk, a busted spine and everything from a wreck--wreck; and there she stands, whole. You know the Bible said, "And they could say nothing against it, 'cause the man was standing in the midst of them." That's right. Here's the little boy brought back from the dead, and here's a woman with the bursted spine, standing in the midst of us. It's just been done. So He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. How happy we should be to be a-living now in His Presence and know that He's this very present Help in time of trouble.
Glad to see Brother Vayle, Brother Martin, so many in this morning. And the Lord bless you brethren richly.

¹⁷ Now, it's a... I know it's not too cool in here with all this crowd, but yet, when I left Tucson the other day, it was about a hundred and four or five; and almost midnight it was ninety-three, and so this feels pretty good to me. And at Parker they said was a hundred and forty Friday before we left. And you can imagine how hot that is. 'Course that's in the desert.
And now, these next three Sundays... Today, the fifteenth, I believe, is that right, or sixteenth? Fifteenth, isn't it? [Someone answers, "The eighteenth"--Ed.] Eighteenth. And the twenty-eighth and the--August the first. Is that right? [Someone answers, giving correct dates--Ed.] August... The twenty-fifth--the eighteenth, twenty-fifth--and first, there'll be services at the Tabernacle. Don't, you know, get too much of it out, 'cause (You see?), we can't get what's in--what's here now inside, you know, and it just gets worse. Just come back if you can.

¹⁹ And--and then I'm here to get the trustees together. I'm kinda getting put out of all this turning me down on place to hold a meeting when I'm feeling led to do it. So I think I'm going to ask them if we just can't get our tent and--and put it up and just stay there, and, you know, get out here in the ball park or out on a farm and move it from place to place just as the Lord will lead. And I feel that that's what He's going to do. You know there's a vision concerning that. And I think that maybe the reason this happens... Now, you know, a lot of times we think it's horrible because certain things happen, but you know, that might be God (See?) driving into these things. When He said it, He'll do it.

²⁰ A few nights ago many of you--just in about a month before going over to Africa... Many of you perhaps has the tape (of you people that get the tapes) on "Choosing a Bride," was preached in California. The last few minutes of that tape, I don't remember of ever being there. But the Spirit of the Lord came in such a way. I'd been condemning them the way they were living and doing, and after the Gospel had been preached and declared before them so much. And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit spoke out and said, "Capernaum (See?), the city that calls yourself by the name of the angels (That's Los Angeles.), thou art exalted into heaven, but be brought down to hell." See? And then after that it was over, why, I was outside. And Brother Mosley and Billy was with me, and they said, went back and looked, and the whole floor was just laying full of people, ministers sobbing.

²¹ And I went and got the Scripture; I said, "There's something about that in the Bible." And it was Jesus rebuking Capernaum, all those coastal cities that He had visit. Why He said, "Capernaum, thou art exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell." He said, "For if the works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah that's been done in you, it'd been standing today." And at that time Sodom and Gomorrah was in the bottom of the sea. And just after that, maybe a hundred years or something after Jesus' prophecy, Capernaum, the only coastal city that He'd visit, a earthquake sunk it in the sea. You know, that was a direct answer to California, to Los Angeles.

²² And then at Tucson the other day, just as I got back, a great earthquake had happened out there. And the scientists was on the television drawing it out. It was in the papers, that the earth the other day split from the Aleutian Islands--or from Alaska around the Aleutian Islands, about two hundred miles out into the sea, come back in at San Diego, went around Los Angeles, and come out at San Diego. And it pulled loose several inches. Houses has toppled down. Motels has went in. And the scientist on this panel was--was asked, said, "Well, that could fall in someday?"
He said, "Could? It will." And he used a scientific names of how the lava has... That's what's caused these earthquakes all along around San Diego and down in there; it's been that hollow place. And now, all of it's begin to break in like sand falling in. And now, it's just a crust and it's pulled loose several inches. They could take radar and stuff, and follow that crack, and mark out, see where it was at. And it pulled loose several inches more, maybe two or three inches the--the other day again, right after that prophecy was given.
And the ones that was interviewing the scientist said, "Well, it probably won't be in our age."
He said, "It could be in five minutes or in five years, but it's going to fall in."

²⁵ Mrs. Simpson, I don't think she's with us today; or... I see Brother Fred setting here, but I don't know where Mrs. Simpson is. She went and got a prophecy that I made about 1935 or something like that, and said: "The time would come (It's written in a book somewhere.) that the sea would weep it's way into the desert." Look what'll take place. If that thousands of square miles falls down into the lava of the earth and slides in, there'll be millions die at one time. And that'll cause such a tidal wave... Remember, plumb up into the Salton Sea is a hundred or two hundred feet lower than the sea level. That water will probably come almost to Tucson with that tidal wave coming across there. And the sea shall weep its way into the desert.

²⁷ And now, in St. Mark the 7th chapter and the 7th verse, to bring a text to this subject that was just read in I Chronicles 13. To make a text for this I want Mark 7:7:

³⁰ But one great thing again about God, He's not left us, now, without knowing what's the Truth and how to do it. He wouldn't be just to punish us for doing something that we didn't know how it was going to be done, and then let us stumble into something. He's not that kind of a God. He's a God that speaks a Word and expects His children to believe It. And therefore, He knows what's best, and when to do it, and how to do it. We have our ideas of it, but He knows.
And then, if He set up a system that what He was going to do and didn't tell us what was going to happen and how it was going to happen, then we stumbling at it would be--would be justified in--in our stumbling, or trying to do something; each one would be justified. But there's only one way and that is His Word.

³² And another thing, David here, we see that in his heart he wanted to do something that was good. He had no bad motive or no bad objective, but the house--or the ark of the Lord was away from the--the people; and he wanted to bring the ark of God back to its place, so the people would consult God about the things that they wanted.
Instead of--of just letting it go, we... What if Brother Blair and the father of this little boy said, "Well, it's too bad, child's just got hurt, killed. I guess, just something that happened"? but they went quickly to God.
What if the little lady and her husband, a minister of the Gospel, a few nights ago or days, when that little lady had that bursted spine that just stood up... The doctor said, "She'll be paralyzed all of her life." What if the husband--she had said, "Well, honey, we'll just console ourselves to that." But quickly they done something about it; they went to God. And how many things in the Bible could we refer to of how when people get in trouble, get to God.

³⁵ Well then, in them days they had only one meeting place where they could meet God, and that was at the ark under the blood. That's the only meeting place yet: under the Blood. The mercy seat was sprinkled to give mercy to the worshipper or the asker when he come to ask the petition of God. And God had a special routine, the way you had to go to--about that, and He wouldn't accept anything else. He wouldn't accept any other provision, just the way He fixed it.
Recently I just preached on a message (Many of you know about it.), that only one provided place that God meets the worshipper, the place that He said, "I'll put My Name." If we can find a church that He put His Name in, then we got the place. He said, "I will not bless you in all the gates, just the gates that I put My Name in. I'll put it in one place, and you've got to meet Me there; and that's the only place I'll meet you." And we found out through there where He put His Name. And that's the only place that He meets the worshipper; and His Name was Jesus Christ. God's Name is Jesus Christ.

³⁷ Jesus said, "I come in My Father's Name." Every son comes in his father's name. And He came in the Name of the Father. And there's not another Name under heaven given among men, whether it's called Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, whatever it might be done; there's only one meeting place that God meets man, and that's when he's in Jesus Christ: only place. And all these old things back here under the Old Testament type that. I want you to clearly understand it. Now, it's a Sunday school lesson. And I've got some Scriptures and notes written down here. And I thought that this would help you to understand, as all the old things happen for examples to us.

³⁸ Now, we find that God had a way of doing things, but David, just being blessed of God like he had to become king, he just thought that he would just do something for God anyhow. And he never went about it in the right way.
We notice, God reveals His Word in His own predestinated season. Now, how could Martin Luther have knowed about the Message today? How could the Presbyterians... How could Martin--or the Catholic church know Martin Luther's message? How could John Wesley have knowed Luther's message? How could Wesley have knowed the Pentecostal message? Or how could the Pentecostals know this Message? See? He reveals It in His seasons, because It is a Seed; and as It grows and matures He reveals Himself.

⁴⁰ Like the heat of the sun to open up. When it's tender and
young, bring it out of the ground, the seed, then give it its leaves in another stage of the sun. The hot sun will kill it if it's the ripening seed or ripening time. So He regulates the sun and regulates nature to meet His Word. He regulates the church, the predestinated, the Bride, to meet the season that they are living in.
Even nature itself tells us today, as we see the nations breaking, the earth sinking in; the handwriting's on the wall. We see the church and the states it's in. We see the Bride and the state she's in. And we know by nature that the church is getting ready to leave. What a glorious time. It's a time that all the prophets longed to see this hour.

⁴² Now, He reveals His Word only in Its season. Martin Luther read the same Bible we did. Wesley read the same Bible Martin Luther did. Pentecostals read the same Bible we read. Jesus read the same Bible that the Pharisees read, but they had... Trying to keep the corn in a early stage when it was ripening, they failed to see their hour.
Now, David has done the same thing here. God reveals this Word in the season and to whom He chooses to reveal It to. God chooses who He reveals It to. He chose that before the foundation of the world. All of His doings were foreknown by Him, hidden from man; He just reveals them as He will. It is His chosen season, His chosen person. And He never did choose a party or sect; it's a chosen person. How He does it...

⁴⁴ Who is it that will dare to correct Him and say, "Now, Lord, You made a mistake by putting this man in the ministry. This man doesn't believe like we believe." Who's going to tell God He's wrong in it? It would take somebody that's a little more of a delinquent than I am to tell Him that. He knows what He's doing. He knows who to choose and who not to choose, what to do and when to do it. No matter how much we think that a certain person is qualified to do a certain job, God knows who's qualified for the time and the season, or the time and the right time to do it.
And the real, true Christian, the real, true believer in God, waits upon the Lord for these things. Wait on your ministry. If you feel a call, be sure that it's God. Be sure that it's right. Be sure that it's timely of what you're saying. The Bible said, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with the wings like an eagle. They shall run and not be weary. If they walk, they'll not faint."

⁴⁶ Notice David, king of Israel, just anointed. Samuel poured the oil upon him, and he was chosen of God to be king of Israel. And David got this revelation to bring the ark of the Lord up to the city of David. Now, there's nothing wrong, but you see, David went at it wrong.
Now, it looks like if a man like that would get a revelation, a great man like God's chosen king (The greatest king that ever lived on earth outside of Christ, I guess, was David, 'cause Christ is a Son of David.)... Now, the greatest man, freshly anointed, coming from the very Presence of God, got a revelation to do something for God and wanted to do it for God, but the revelation was wrong. Now, that's a great thing. It'll deal with our subject: "Trying To Do God a Service Without Being Called To Do It."

⁴⁸ Notice, David got the revelation. And notice, it was not the prophet Nathanael that got the revelation; it was David the king that got the revelation. Neither was Nathanael consulted about it. He never asked Nathanael. But did you see here in I Chronicles, he consulted captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. He never consulted Nathanael. He consulted the people, and he consulted also the priests and the theologians of that day, the scribes and the theologians. David consulted first, said, "If it--this be of God, let us go down and bring the ark of the covenant of our God up into the city, and let us consult God before we do things."

⁴⁹ They said in the days of Saul they left off consulting God by the--the--the ark, the Urim--Urim Thummim; they left off doing that. And David said, "Now, let's get back to God, all of us. Let's get back to the right thing. Let's go down and get the ark and bring it here (bring the Presence of God, in other words, into the city). Let's hold a revival. Let's bring the people back." But he got the revelation, which seemed to be good, but it wasn't the will of God.
Instead of asking the source that he should've asked, he consulted his captains, because he'd just become king, and he followed that line of thinking, that his chief captains and his great men...
Then he went into the church nominal and asked if they could have the revival: the priests, the scribes, the captains of thousands, the captains of hundreds, and he consulted them, "Was this the will of the Lord?" And they said it was. But, you see, he failed to ask the main resource that God always deals through (See?); he failed to get it.

⁵² Now, his intention was good. His motive was good. His objective was good, and--to bring a revival in the city, bring the people back to God. But he never consulted the way God told him to do it. See?
Even all the people agreed and the priests and--that the king was right. They needed the ark back in the city. Now, they needed the Presence of God. They needed the revival. But God had not promised to reveal His Word in Its season to the peoples. He never promised to reveal It to the king in the season. God doesn't change a bit. He didn't promise to do that.

⁵⁴ No matter how sincere, and what good motives, and what good objectives, and how people want those things, and see the need of it, there is a will of God to be carried out in these things. That's what I want to drive down tight. For I want to make this so that you have to see it if--if the Spirit of God dwells in you. And that's the reason I'm lingering so long here. Not taking you people's time on the telephone and on the hookup, but I--I want you to see it. If you run out of time, then get the tape. That there...
No matter how much it's needed, how much everybody agrees that it's needed, how much that that is the truth, there's yet one thing to find out: Is that the will of God?
Now, God never promised that He'd reveal His secrets to his kings, He'd reveal His secrets to His people.

⁵⁶ Something like the time of Micaiah, the son of Imlah, as we leave, not the text, but another time to bring this in and make it true to you, real to you, so you won't miss it...
There was in the days of Micaiah... He was a poor man, and he also come from a poor family. But Ahab, king of Israel, as a nation being under God, he had set aside a school and had brought up selected, handpicked prophets, and had four hundred of them in a school. And they were great men. They wasn't just false prophets. They were Hebrew prophets, genuine men. And they consulted the Lord by these men. And they did prophesy. But, you see, when the real showdown came, they were every one out of God's Word and will.

⁵⁸ For Jehoshaphat came down from Jerusalem to meet the--the king Ahab, and they put on their garments, and set out in the--in the gateways, and brought the prophets up before them. First Ahab said, "We got a place up here at Ramoth-gilead that actually belongs to us." Now, that's THUS SAITH THE LORD; Joshua divided it for the people and give that to them, but the Philistines had taken it over. And said, "Here our children need bread, and we ain't got enough land to raise the bread on; and our enemy, the Philistine, feed their children, the heathens, off of the very ground that Jehovah God gave us." That's very straight. And said, "Here we, the people of God, set here with our children needy; and our enemy feeds their children on the ground that God called us out of Egypt and give it to us." That would raise a theologian, wouldn't it? He said, "Shall we go up and take our grounds that God gave to us?"
Jehoshaphat said, "Yes, I'll help you. We are brothers. You're in Judah, and I'm in--I'm in Jerusalem (or--or was it vice versa? I believe... No, that's right, I think that Jehoshaphat...). However, Jehoshaphat was a good man, a king, a righteous man who loved the Lord. Ahab was a lukewarm believer. So they brought them down, and Jehoshaphat said, "Listen, let us consult the Lord first. We ought to find out about this." (See, if David would've done what Jehoshaphat did...) He said, "Shouldn't we do this?"
And quickly, being an Israelite, Ahab said, "Certainly. I've got four hundred Hebrews like we are, Hebrew prophets of our own organization. And I'll consult them. They are prophets."

⁶⁰ Now, you see, this... You say, "That stumbles me, Brother Branham. A prophet?" Oh, yeah. There was one in the time of Jeremiah who said they'd only be down there two years. The Lord told Jeremiah, seventy. Put a yoke around his neck, and the prophet broke it, Hananiah. But you know what happened to him. Oh, yeah. You got to stay with the Word.
So these prophets came up, and prophesied, and said, "Go on up; the Lord is with you."
And one of them, I believe it... I forget his name now, the chief, Zedekiah, I believe, said--he put two iron horns and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, by this (Now, that man was sincere.) you'll push your enemy plumb back into their lands and take what belongs to God; it's give to you." I don't believe he was a hypocrite. I believe he was a good man. I believe all them prophets were.

⁶² You say, "Prophets?" Yeah. Remember, the very man that consented to kill Jesus Christ prophesied, because it was his office. He was high priest that year, and being that he had that office and held that office, the Spirit of God came to him. And that didn't mean he was saved or anything about it. And he prophesied (Caiaphas), because it was his office that did it.
And these prophets, being prophets of office prophets, prophesied, and the Spirit of God came on them, men with gifts of the Spirit.

⁶⁴ I realize I'm talking to ninety-nine percent Pentecostals, but men... Many times a man, God can deal with them, give them a gift, and the people will squeeze in on those people. If they're not perfectly called and sent of God, he'll cause that man or woman to say something that isn't His will, because the people constrains them to do it.
How I had to catch our own little pastor here on it. Out here in the woods one morning about three o'clock in the morning, said, "Go tell Brother Neville." I come to you, didn't I, Brother Neville?
Everybody, "Brother Neville, prophesy over me. Tell me this or that." See? You'd have him saying things then that wouldn't come to pass. They that wait to find out what the Lord wants to do... See?

⁶⁷ So these men looked upon it in the natural sense, "It belongs to us." But you see, they didn't find the Word and will of God.
Then Micaiah come down, and he had a vision. And he examined first. You notice? Said, "Wait. Give me tonight. Let me find out, and tomorrow maybe I can answer you." He wasn't right quick, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," like in agreeing with the other prophets; he said, "I'll only speak what God says." And the next day we find out God told him what would happen. And it was absolutely contrary to the others. The whole school, it was contrary. And even one of them walked up and smacked him in the face for it. But see, he waited. Then when he did that, he compared his prophecy, his vision, with the written Word, and it was right with the Word.

⁶⁹ When somebody says they got a revelation to baptize people in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that's contrary to the Word. None of the rest of them ever did. When they say that, "Oh, we're going to stand..." and this, that, and the other, and so forth, that's contrary to the Word. When they say they don't believe in serpent's seed, that's contrary to the Word. All these other things, that's contrary to the Word. It must be with the Word and at the season.

⁷¹ Now, if David would've only done that. The ark was coming, but not at that time. There was no place for it.
Notice. Now, when they went down to get the ark, all the dignitaries said, "That's the thing to do, David. Glory to God. We need a revival." And that was real Pentecost today: Baptists, Presbyterian. "David, you're our king. You all... Captain So-and-so, and Major So-and-so, and General So-and-so will be at your meeting. Why, they say that's just the thing to do, David. You got the whole country with you." That's what's the matter today. I don't want the country. I want God, if there's nobody else stands.
David had all the captains. He had cooperation with the military forces. He had cooperation with all the denominations, with all the theologians, with all--everybody agreeing with him. So did Ahab, and others in the Scripture; but he didn't have God, because he was out of the will of God. I hope we get this.

⁷³ Notice. They done every religious thing they could. They must--probably put out advertisements and everything: "Great revival, the ark is going to be brought back. We're going to have a revival. We're going to do this."
Notice, he sent singers. He sent people with harps, with trumpets, and they done ever religious thing that they knowed how to do; and still God was not in it. Somewhat see it repeating again, don't we?
They took all the singers. They took the harp players, the trumpet blowers, the women, the men, whoever it was that sang; they took them all down there, and they went through every religious motion. I don't want to say this, but I got to say it: so is these denominations today, Pentecostal and all, is going through every religious motion of singing and shouting.
Notice, David shouted with all of his might, and he screamed, and he jumped, and he went through every religious motion that there could be; and still God was not in it. And his motive, and his objective, and everything was right; but he went the wrong way with it. See? He done all the religious movements: shouted, sang, had special singers, special shouters, everything else. They danced in the spirit. They done everything that was religious.

⁷⁷ It's something like our great crusades of our time. They wanted to win the world to Christ. There is no such a thing. Great, landslide revivals, great things happening, if they could only realize, that day's passed. She's doomed. But they're building crusades, organizations, and everything; but the results is just about like it was in David's time; it didn't work.
We go and have a revival. Our great--some of our great evangelists today, they say they have thirty thousand converts in six week's time; and a year from there go back, they can't find thirty. There's something wrong. What it is, it's just the same thing David done. Great dignitaries, great men, great preachers, greater schools, great authority, but still they're consulting an old denomination instead of looking in the face of God's Word and see when the season's on. You can't raise certain foods but just certain times a year.

⁷⁹ Now, let us see what happened. Although their--their religious emotion and stuff was great, their intentions was great, their crusade was great, their singing was great, their dancing was great, their shouting was great, their music was great; and they had the ark. What good's the ark without God? It's just a wooden box, couple tables of stone. That's like taking communion, being baptized. What good does it do to be baptized if you're not first repented? What good does--take communion and become a hypocrite, if you don't live the life and believe the rest of God's Word? Take part of It and not the rest of It, it shows there's something wrong.

⁸⁰ Now, when all this happens... Let us now see what happens when God and His age and His time is not considered, just the people's idea.
Many people has said to me, "Why don't you come over here and hold a meeting? Well, we call for you. Sign this, that, or the other." Wait. You might want it, but what does God say about it? Many people has said to me... I've had a invitation, I've had interviews, personal interviews and things, waited for a year. Wait. How will I know what to say until God tells me what to say? See? Got to wait. That's the reason I said, "Write that out; let me see what He said." See? Wait. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Is that right?

⁸² Notice, they consulted only the priest of that day, the theologians, the denominations. And notice, by doing that, consulting the priests and consulting the congregation, consulting the people, they did it wrong.
Notice. The Ark was the Word. We know that's right, 'cause the ark is Christ, and Christ is the Word. See? The Ark or the Word was not put in it's first, ordained, original ordained position. Oh, don't fail to get this, church. Everything was perfect, and everything looked good, like a great revival was coming; but because they failed to consult the right person about it... They consulted the priest, consulted the dignitaries, consulted the theologians, consulted the singers, and got everything together with one accord, and a great organization of the military, and also the--the--the forces of the nation; everything was at harmony for a great meeting; but they failed to consult God. So had Ahab; so had others. What a moment.

⁸⁴ Now, don't miss this. They failed to get it, because they hadn't consulted. And by doing that (Watch.), by going to the priest, by going to the theologians, and by going to the military forces, and not even considering their God-sent messenger of the hour, Nathan, they did it wrong. They went and picked up the ark and put it upon a new cart, put it upon a new cart (or a new denomination's going to start up) and not upon the God-given, ordained way to pack it. It was supposed to be packed on the shoulders of the Levites. But you see, when you start wrong, you'll keep on going wrong.

⁸⁵ If a bullet is supposed to be directed to a target, and you jerk the barrel one thousandths off here to begin with, at a hundred yards you're four or five inches off. You start wrong. Oh, God, help us to know this thing has started wrong, this great crusades of the hour, and the so called.
God is not consulted about it. Priests and religious men is consulted; organizations is consulted. "Well, will you have such-and-such? I believe if we could get everybody together..." Don't get everybody together. Just get God's Word about it.

⁸⁷ Then we find that when they do that, what do they do? They continually to go right on with their same old religious program which is out of the Word of God and the will of God. That thing died years ago, them old dried up things of years ago.
It had dried up in days of the Lord Jesus. They didn't know it. He said, "If you'd have knowed Moses, you'd have knowed Me, for Moses said I was coming."
Said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness."
Said, "They're all dead," Blind, He called them: Pharisees, religious leaders. "Except you believe that I am He, you'll die in your sins." But they didn't do it. They was so set in their ways. They had to have it their way.

⁹⁰ That's the way David did. He had it in his way, so he just said, "You know what I'll do? We're moving." He had a revelation. "We're moving now, so we'll do a new way. The days of miracles is passed, so we'll just make us another organization. We'll build a new cart and show them a new thing that's started." What a false prophecy. You've got to go back the way God said do it.
They put it upon the shoulders of the Levite, and that was over the heart. The Ark, the Word, is not to be packed upon a new denomination, upon the theories of some man, but in the heart. The Word of God is not to be handled by denominations; It's to be handled by the heart of a man where God can come in there and reveal Himself. And if He reveals it according to the Word, it's God. If it isn't, it's not. And then, the Word of that season...
Sure, a Pharisee could say, "Who told us that we can't do this and do that? Moses give us these orders." But Moses also said...
Satan said, "Why it is written, he'll give his..."
"And it's also written," said Jesus. The season, the time... "If you'd have knowed Moses... You have one accuse you: Moses. If you'd have knowed Moses, you'd have knowed Me," He said, "for Moses wrote of Me: 'The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet among you of your brethren; Him shall you hear.'" If they'd knowed Moses they'd have knowed Him.

⁹³ Now, close, listen. Don't miss this now. See, first thing when they consulted the priest, consulted the dignitaries, consulted the military, consulted all the congregation, the neighborhood to get together for this great meeting to come, they failed to do it right. They didn't consult God, and by doing so, not going back and see what time it was...
Oh, brother, listen. What time are we living in? What's the age? What's the hour that we're in? It's not time for these things that they're talking about. That's passed. Judgment is on hand now. You can see it breaking. You remember the rock up on the mountain? Judgment hour. You remember the revelation or the vision of the Bride? Just keep Her in step. Don't let Her get out of step.

⁹⁵ Notice, upon the shoulders of the priest... And David and all the priests that really ought to have knowed better, but what was it? The priests should've knowed better. The Scribes, theologians should've knowed better, because the Word said not to do that.
And today when they want to say, "Oh, Jesus Christ isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever; that's mental telepathy; that's this, that, or the other," they fail to see the promised Word. "Oh, that was a day gone by."
David said, "Oh, well, now wait a minute. Upon the shoulders of--of the priests, that was back when Moses come out. Sure, we, we'll put it on a new cart today. I got a revelation of it.
The priest said, "Amen, David." See?
Influenced by their new ecumenical council that they should all be together and do this this way and that way, that's what caused the priests to stumble. They never consulted the right person. They didn't do it right; therefore, they got in trouble. Yeah.

⁹⁸ I'm afraid in a lot of things today... When a great teacher, one of Pentecostal's greatest stood before the religious group the other night in Chicago... I was supposed to have that meeting with the Business Men, but I thought I'd be in Africa that time; but just got back the day before it started. And they chose a great Pentecostal intellectual, and he got up and told them that this ecumenical move was a thing of God, and said that all of them's coming back; even the Catholic church is going to come back to its original condition, all speaking in tongues for the evidence and so forth. And not knowing that's a trap of the devil.
And a man that I didn't know... Sometimes you plant seed. You don't know what's going to happen. But the president of the Full Gospel Business Men, as soon as the great speaker set down, he said, "I am prone not to say things against our speakers, but that ain't the way Brother Branham said would happen. But he said that would lead to the mark of the beast."
He said, "But Brother Branham don't know what he's talking about.
Said, "We are--believe he does." See?

¹⁰⁰ And in Chicago they said how many here would like for me to come up and give my version of it? They begin screaming and shouting. See, you're planting seeds. You don't know what's going to happen. Just keep laying out the Seed. When that hour comes some of them's...
Like Thomas, he was about the last one to see the Lord, but he had to see Him to believe Him. See? When they see it happen, oh, Thomas come in, but he was a little late.
Now, when they see the things that's predicted and saying THUS SAITH THE LORD happens, then they say, "Give us some of your oil." See?

¹⁰³ But now, notice influence. Sometimes great guys get together. You hear them say great So-and-so and great So-and-so, our great... Don't never do that. There's no great ones among us. There's only one great One, and that's God. We are brothers, sisters. I don't care if you're a pastor of a church that's got five people in it, that don't make you little; that makes you a brother (See?), if you're true to God's Word. I don't care what, how, you don't get little. God don't have little children and big children. He just has children, and they're all the same.
Notice, God Himself come from the ivory palaces of glory to become one of us. Now, who's the big one? Took... Not come down here to take the form of a priest, but a servant and wash the very clay that He created, the feet of His apostles in the... Now, who's great?

¹⁰⁵ But influenced, these men were. They didn't understand. They thought something new was going to happen (No.), something that God didn't say was going to happen. They went at it the wrong way. That's what all this enthusiasm when the--started back yonder a long time ago, each denomination had to have a Divine healer; each denomination had to have this, that, or the other. Each denomination had to have a little David. Each one had to have this, that, or the other. See what happened? It done the same thing it did here: Same thing. Influence...
The Word for the season, the time that they were living in was ignored.
Notice, the Levite's shoulders was the original provided way of God to do these things. Pack that ark on the Levite's shoulders. Anything outside of that was contrary. What He said, that's what He meant. God cannot change. That's the reason, stay with His Word.
I've got Scri--a--I Chronicles 15:15, if you want to put that down.

¹⁰⁸ Notice, now notice, there in following God... Now, I want you to--to kinda jot this in your mind. To keep God's commandments, to do anything right for God, to do--do God a service correctly, there is five musts (See?), to do God service correctly.
Now, David was doing God a service. He was doing everything he knowed to do, except leaving off God. See? He was doing something that was right, something good for the people, something good for the church.
But there's five musts; I want you to remember these. No matter how sincere a man may be in doing it, doing God a service, this--these five must be there:
First, it must be His time to do it.
What if a--if a... Moses would come, said, "We'll build an ark and float up the Nile like Noah did"? Noah's time was all right for an ark, but not his time.
What if Jesus would come, said, "Now, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just go up on the mount like Moses did and get a new declaration of laws"? See? Uh, uh. He was that law. See? You must be in His time. It must be in His season. You got that now?
Must be in His time, it must be in His season, time and season, and it must be according to His Word that has been spoken. It must...

¹¹⁴ I don't care how well you say this ought to be, and that ought to be, or this ought to be; it's got to be according to His Word, according to His time and His season; and it must be given according to the person He has chosen to do it by.
I don't care how much dignitaries. There's king David just as great as any of them. He was king over the nation. But He had a way of doing it, and He had told them how He would do it. But they failed to do it.
It must be according to His Word, according to His time, according to the--His program; and it must be by the person He has chose to give it and to do it.

¹¹⁷ Moses tried to run from it. "Take somebody else." But God chose Moses to do it. Many of them... Paul tried to get out of it, many others. But it's got to be by the one He chooses to do it. And it must come first to His prophets. The Word of God must come to His prophets: Amos 3:7, "The Lord God will do nothing until first He reveals it to His servant the prophet." Four.
And the prophet must be a-vindicated by the Word of God. There's your five musts. It's got to be that way: His time; His season (when He said it would be); and the man that He chose, and it must come to the prophet; and the prophet must be a vindicated prophet. We find out many of them in the Bible it come to the prophets and it wasn't a-vindicated. Our Prophet is Jesus Christ.

¹²⁰ So now, notice. See, God had not revealed the thing to them by His provided way of doing it. They had accepted David's way. They had accepted the priest's way. They had accepted the scribes' way, the theologian's, but not God's way.
Nathanael was--he was a prophet of that day. Later on Nathanael told them how to do it. But see, they done it without consulting Nathanael. Not a word says that Nathanael was consulted. All of the influence, the great thing going on... And, my, I think of that song:

¹²¹ Now, God revealed the thing to them by David, and by the ministers, and by the people, and by the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, but not by Nathanael who had THUS SAITH THE LORD. And the Lord said He would do nothing until He showed that prophet of the age first what to do. See what they did? They went straight out of the Word of God, went and put the ark upon a new cart. See? So they went about to do it apart from God's commandment in God's provided way... And that's what's happened today, friends. That's why we've had so many great crusades and so forth and no results. More infidelity, more sin, more... I tell you; this nation is gone, not only this nation, but other nations. This nation like England of another age has been the prostitute of all the rest the nations.

¹²² Way down in Mozambique, four hundred and eighty miles from civilization, in the jungle, beatnik kids listen to Elvis Presley, jerking their heads and bouncing up-and-down like that all night long with stay--and little sets like that'd pull for a thousand miles plumb over in Rhodesia to get Elvis Presley. And yet they say, "He's very religious, him, and Pat Boone and them." Why, it's the Judas of the hour, and don't know it. And that's the bad part. They believe they're--they're right. Didn't Jesus say to this Laodicean church age, "Thou art naked, miserable, wretched, blind, and don't know it"? Don't know it.
Well, the Pentecostal kids down in Africa and around say, "Why, Elvis Presley, he sings the prettiest you ever heard." No doubt but what David did too; no doubt but what the singers did, but it caused death to strike the camp. See where they're--where we're at today, friends?

¹²⁴ The Levite's shoulders was God's original way to do it, and they had put it on a new cart. Now, it'll never work. They didn't consult the right way. See? So they got out about it and went about it in the wrong way, and that's what's happened today.
When men, no matter how sincere, try to do Him a service outside of His provided way of revealing it, they always mess it up. God sets it in His way. Man, no matter how sincere you try to do it outside of that, you--you'll mess it up.

¹²⁶ Something like Balaam was in Balaam's day. God told Balaam, that prophet... He was a prophet, the prophet Balaam. He was a prophet, and the Word come to him exactly, said, "Don't go down there. That's My selected; that's My choice."
And Balaam got with the dignitaries, the military men, preachers, and influence men; and said, "Well, I--I tell you, the king will..." See, just pattern with David, pattern with today, just take everything in a type, and you'll see it. You see it say, "Amen." [Congregation replies, "Amen."--Ed.] See, see? Just like it is now...
But the--the--the clergymen said, the--the--the--the priests said, the scribes said, the theologians said, "This is the way it's supposed to be done." But it wasn't. And it proved it wasn't.

¹²⁸ And God told Balaam--that he was the prophet first--He told him, "Don't go down."
But the influence of these other men caused him to do it contrary to what God said do it, and it become a curse instead of revival. Oh, sure, he got down there and taught the people, saying, "Now, look. Wait. You know what?" Said, "We are--we are Moabites. You remember, Lot's daughter is our queen. She is our origination. We're all of one blood. We're all... All of us denominations are the same." Don't you mix with that thing. Stay away from there. See? So he said, "We're all the same. Why, your peoples is like my people. We can intermarry one among another, so we can have a real ecumenical council. See? All of us can get together and come back to the original thing again." And God cursed the thing. That sin never was forgiven Israel. It stayed with them the rest of their days. And it never was forgiven. They perished in the wilderness with it (That's right.), because they didn't take God's provided way by His a-vindicated way of doing it.
Notice, this thing that they did caused Israel to die the death in the wilderness, and Jesus said, "They're every one perished and gone." Watch who it was stood with Moses back there, Joshua and Caleb and the--and the program.

¹³¹ Notice again, here's David, what he done. And when he did, what did it do? It caused death to strike a sincere person. And I guess we're still hooked up, and I want you to hear across the land. This thing that David done without consulting Nathanael and getting the Word of the Lord for it, it caused death to strike sincere people. Yeah, there he put his hand forth, which had been living in the presence of the ark, it come out of his--his house. And the ox stumbled, and the ark was falling.
They'd already done one thing wrong, two things wrong. First, they never consulted Nathanael. The next thing they did, they went down there by not consulting the Word of God which the--Samuel was the Word in that day. And they never consulted the Word of the Lord, then when they did, they went contrary to the Word of God. And here this good man, that had been caretaker; he was a bishop, thought, "Well here, I don't want God to be let down." So he put his hand on the ark, where he wasn't a Levite, and he died. Three things...

¹³³ Now, think real hard and watch what the denominations has done today. See? They've turned It down, called It false doctrine. See? Look where they're at. They'll get their ecumenical council all right. They called it mental telepathy, when God Himself vindicating It to be the Truth and proving it's the Truth. "Oh, they're just a little bunch of nitwits up there," they say; "don't know what they're talking about." That's right; we don't. But we just say His Words, and He knows what He's talking about. See? I can't explain It, nobody else can, but He--He--He proves It.
Now, notice. A many a sincere believer today that comes to Christ, wants to come with all of his heart, is killed spiritually the same way. Many sincere men go to the Catholic church and wants to become a Christian, go to the Methodist, the Baptist, Church of Christ, and even the Pentecostals (See?), and wants to become a Christian, put his hand on it, join up with them.

¹³⁵ And when David saw this thing happen, it woke him up. Don't wake up too late out there, brother. He seen that death had hit. Show me the results. Why has this so-called revival getting people back in the churches done to the nation to the--to the body of believers? It's nothing but made new organizations and denominations all the way along, more members and so forth. Is the nation better?
They said they was going to... America, "God bless America,
it's--it's a nation, it's a Christian country." It's a million miles from being a Christian country. I don't even pray for it. How can I pray for it, and it won't repent under the mighty powers of God demonstrated before it, and denying, and closing the doors to it, and walking away? I commit it to God. And she's going further away, and now she's going to sink. Just watch what happens.

¹³⁷ Many sincere persons go join an organization, or a group, or a cult of some sort, and there they die spiritually. You can't tell them nothing. They get that stuff drilled into them: "Why, these bishops said this, and this said this; this said this." You show them right here in the Word of God where it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, "But our pastor..." I don't care what your pastor says, don't care what I say, or anybody else says. If it's contrary to God's vindicated Word, the hour, the time, the Message, and so forth, forget it. Stay away from it. And I've got to stand before every one of you in the day of judgment, and you know that. And little would I say that, knowing I'm an old man now. I'll... It ain't that I know something, but He knows. I just follow what He says.

¹³⁸ Look today at the big crusades that we've had across the land; it's proven that it's been in vain. And didn't Jesus say here now, Luke 7:7, "In vain do they worship Me (In vain did David bring the ark up. In vain did Ahab train them prophets. In vain did Balaam take that money.), teaching for doctrine the commandments of men"? It's the commandments of God that counts. No matter how sincere...
"Them people are really sincere." You hear that so much. "They are so sincere." Well that don't mean nothing. Jehovah Witness, Seventh Day Adventist, and all those cults get out here on the street and do things that one of us wouldn't do. Catholics stand on the corner and beg and so forth, those orders of it like that, and worth billions time billions times billions of dollars, still beg for it: sincere, no doubt. Churches go and--and preach and so forth, and ministers stand in the pulpit and do everything they can to get new members into their church; but it's a new ark. There's only one Ark to follow; that's the Word of God. Anything contrary to that Ark, stay away from it; it's on a new cart and not on the shoulders of God. That's right. Stay away from the thing, don't have nothing to do with it.

¹⁴⁰ Our big crusades, billions and millions has made confessions. And I doubt whether there'd be a hundred of them of all of it. See? Doesn't do a thing. Then look at the Word promise.
You'll think that that's failed, and we know it's failed. Some of our greatest of--of revivalists in that land today say that's it's utterly failed. The church knows it's failed. Everybody knows it's failed. Well, why is it? Why did it fail? It's for a good purpose; it was to bring people in the Presence of God, great crusades. And millions of people spent their money and put in great crusades, and churches all went together, great auditoriums, and great things, and great things taken place; why did it fail? Is because they never knowed the hour they were living. No wonder Jesus stood and in His heart He wept; tears run down His cheeks, and He said, "Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem, how oft would I have hovered you as a hen would her brood. You stoned every prophet I sent to you. But you would not. But now your hour has come."

¹⁴² Can't you feel the Holy Spirit screaming out from you? "Oh, United States and the world, how oft I would've gathered you, but you would not. Now, your hour has come. Your god of pleasure, your god of filth, your Sodom and Gomorrah god, that's come among you..." Even our little kids, beatle haircuts and bangs across their faces, little perverts starting out. Our women is gone, beyond redemption. Our men has become big sissies, walking around with little short pants on and acting like a girl, and hair hanging down their necks, and... We're Sodomites, and the fire and the wrath of God waits for us.
You know how He'll kill, how He'll destroy it? The way He always did. When a prostitute did anything wrong, she was stoned to death. They picked up stones to kill the woman that was a prostitute. That's how He'll kill the church. The Bible said He'll rain hailstones out of the heavens, will weigh a hundred pounds apiece, and He'll stone them. Who's going to stop Him? What science is going to say it can't be done? He'll do it the same as He made a ark and floated Noah to safety; He'll do it again for His church. And by His own laws and His own way, He'll stone that prostitute who's committed adultery with the kings and captains of hundreds and thousands. He'll stone her to death by His own laws that He set in order. Who's going to tell Him He can't make a hailstone?

¹⁴⁴ Ask someone who knows how a rain drop starts, and makes a circle, and goes back through a torrible picks up more and more and more till it gets to a certain weight, and then it falls down. He, God, Who gravitation could not even hold Him on the earth and He lifted up into heaven, God, Who made gravitation, can also make a torrible big enough to swing a stone till it'll weigh a hundred pounds. He said He would do it, and He'll do it. Who's going to tell Him not to do it? He'll do it, because He said He would.

¹⁴⁵ We're in the last days. We're standing near the judgment. Why? They're trying to eat old manna that fell back yonder fifty years ago, the Pentecostal church. The Holiness church is trying to--over two hundred years ago, the Lutherans about three hundred or more years ago, many hundreds of years ago. They're trying to eat old manna. Oh, brother, that stuff is stagnated. It's contaminated. It'll... It's got--it's got (I always said) wiggletails in it, maggots. It'll kill you to eat it.
Find out if David or if any of the rest of them would only consulted the Bread of that hour. If the priests, and prophets, and preachers, and theologians, and schools, and denominations would've only consulted the hour, but now it won't do them no good. It done moved out. It won't help a bit. She's gone now. She's crossed that line about five years ago between repentance, judgment, and mercy.

¹⁴⁷ Notice, what is then? What can be done? What is to be done? Let's consult the prophet, the Bible, where we cannot add to or take from It. If we do, God takes us from the Book of Life. The Bible said in Malachi 4 what would happen today, Revelations 10, how the Seven Seals would be open and reveal all these mysteries that's been hid through these reformers. He said how it would be done. It's in the Bible, THUS SAITH THE LORD. God has completely, perfectly identified that and a-vindicated It to be the truth by signs, wonders in the heavens and the skies, and everything else for thirty-three years. You think they'll listen to it? No, they're dead. They've put their hand into something that's killed the whole thing. No, it won't--it won't, never no more.

¹⁴⁸ It was when this thing happened that David saw. Oh, God, send us a David that can see where he's standing, that can look out and see God made a promise what--how He was going to do it today. God said it right here in His Word how He'd do it.
God told Micaiah; Micaiah examined his vision before four hundred dignified prophets. He examined his vision to see if it was right. He looked back to what the prophet said before him to see what happened. He looked back, and he saw that Elijah standing there, said, "Ahab, the dogs will lick your blood too." Now, he seen then that that vision was just exactly according to the Word of God, so he pronounced it; and he was right. That's right. No matter what the rest of them said, he stayed right with that Word.

¹⁵⁰ Now, let's look at the vision we have today. Is it building churches? Is it new things? Is it great things that's going to happen, or is it judgment? Look back and see the promise of today, see what season we're living in.
You say, "Well, bless God, brother, I'm sincere. I join church. I got my bachelors of art. I done this." That's all right. That's fine; nothing against it. So had David; so had the priests of that day; so had the theologians; but it was contrary to the Word.
God said how He would do it today, how He would restore all things, what He would do again. He promised to restore. That's exactly right. In Joel 2:28 He promised He would restore: "I will restore, saith the Lord, all the years that the cankerworm's eat." They got a... See, that's the same worm. It's in a different stage of life. And when Catholicism started eating, then Lutheran, Methodists, and Pentecostals, and all down, He said, "I will restore everything back to a church exactly like that one was at the first place."

¹⁵³ Watch the vision the other night. Exactly the same Bride come this side come this side. After that prostitutes passed with their gowns on, their no things just this a-way, and dancing by rock-and-roll, and calling themselves the church. You say, "Well, we don't do that." That's the way God sees you. It ain't what you see your own self; it's the way God sees you. No man sees hisself wrong. It's when you look in the mirror of God's Word, It tells you whether you're wrong or not. If David would've done that, he'd seen he was wrong. If Ahab would've done that, or them prophets would've done that, they'd seen themselves wrong.
A vindicated prophet said Ahab will die and the dogs will lick his blood. And his prophecy was exactly with it. Then he knowed he was right. Even Jehoshaphat should've seen that and knowed it. When Micaiah saw the vision, he wasn't much with the--with the people in them days, but he had THUS SAITH THE LORD. He was right.

¹⁵⁵ Notice, we're bringing this thing now in this day when we see the great hour that we're coming. Notice what David was trying to do too. I had a little note here on that. He was trying to bring the ark to the city of David, his own denomination.
Look back yonder when the Lord first spoke down here on the river: "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming..." Brother, the Assemblies couldn't stand for that, neither could the United, all of them. They had to have one somewhere. Ah, they all had to do it. See? Just exactly. All of them had to bring it to their own house.
Wanted to bring it to the city of David. Why? There was no place ready for it. And that's the reason you can't bring the Message to a denomination. The Word, the Ark, Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all of His identification, you can't bring It to your organization. They'll never believe It, because there's no room for It. Don't the Bible say He was outside the church of the Laodicean age trying to get in? There was no place in the city of David, no matter how loyal it was, and how great it was, and--and so forth. It still wasn't the place; it was going to be at Jerusalem. That's where it went later when the prophet told them what to do with it. See? So David had to bring it to his own city. No place ready for it.

¹⁵⁸ Christ is our Ark, and they won't receive It. Christ is the Word. They won't receive It. They want their creed, their denomination, a new ark, or--or--or a new carrier. They want the denomination to carry it, a new ark.
Remember, Christ our Ark. You believe Christ is the Word? That's the Ark then. Is that right? All right. Christ cannot be carried to His correct position by any denominational cart. He deals with one person and not with a group. He never did deal with a group; one person. When He said He'd not... If He did, He's contrary to His Word, Amos 3:7. And you can't make It lie. No, sir. It's true.
But see, they tried... The Ark cannot be carried by an organization; there's too many heads in it. See? It cannot be done. He promised He'd not do it, and He won't do it. He--He said, when He promised--when He promised to do it some other way, that's the reason He promised He wouldn't do it. (Don't think them thoughts. I can feel it. See?)

¹⁶⁰ So He--He promised He would do it a certain way, and anything contrary to that He won't do it. See? But by His original way according to what He said in Amos 3:7, that's the way He'll do it. And that must be a-vindicated and proved to be right. Now, you know what He promised today, then He's doing it today. That's just what He said He'd do: He'd open those Seven Seals, and what all He'd do; reveal the mysteries back there, how these baptisms and all things had been all messed up. And here it is in His very Presence. Science proves it. The heavens has declared it. Man's standing, looking right at it and seeing happen. And not one thing has He said but what He made true. There you are. Just so that you would see where we're at today.

¹⁶¹ How, any man that has his spirits knows--has God's Spirit upon him, knows this is the truth; because God's Spirit won't speak contrary to the Word. Oh no, It'll be right with the Word. You say, "I got the Holy Ghost. I shouted; I spoke in tongues. I danced in the Spirit." That don't mean one thing to God. See? David did the same--practically the same thing back there. They sang with all of his might, and he shouted with all of his might; all the rest of them did, and they're walking right into death. That's right. That don't have anything to do with it; it's the Word that counts, the Word of the Lord. They that wait upon the Lord. Yes, sir.

¹⁶² See, they that have God's Spirit in them look at the promise for the day, and watch, and wait until they see it, and then they say, "That's it." God reveals it to them.
Like Nathanael... Philip went and found Nathanael, and Nathanael said, "Now, wait a minute I know that's promised, but let me see It." And when he saw It, he said, "That's It."
The woman said, "Now, I know, I've heard all kinds of theologians. I've done this and that. And I've read the Bible myself, and I know that we're--there's a Messiah coming that will do these things, so you must be His prophet."
He said, "I'm He."
She said, "Come on, see a Man, this is It." She waited until she seen that Messiah identified by the Word of God. Then she said, "That's what we've waited on four hundred years. We haven't had a prophet or nothing. Here He is, and He Himself says that He is He. Now... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] Come out and see a Man who told me the things I've done." But the priests wanted to kill Him, and they finally done it. See? But they can't kill His Spirit today. That's right. No, they can't kill His... It was here to bring us in, so we're thankful.

¹⁶⁵ Notice how great God is, how great His works are, how He can never fail. Now, God has a provided and original way to do things, and He'll never do it contrary to that.
Now, He promised in the last days that what He would do. And He sent them--us a Message, and this Message would have the same identification as Elijah had, as Elisha had, as John the Baptist had. And It would turn the hearts of the people, not to the denomination, but back to the original, apostolic fathers, back to the Word. And how these things have been a-vindicated. How that in the sounding of the last angel, Revelations 10: In the days of the seventh angel these mysteries that's all been... Why did the Methodists do this, and the Baptists, and the Church of Christ, and the Jehovah Witness, all do that? Them mysteries will be revealed in the last days when the seven angels--seventh angel's Message, when he, not when he starts out doing this, but when he begins to sound his Message. See? Not the years in preparation, but the--when he begins to sound the Message, these mysteries then will be revealed. And here they are, not knowing them, and you people are a witness of that. And then in that great observatory--so that the world will be in doubt--they're still wondering what happened.

¹⁶⁷ In Tucson them big observatories took the picture of it up there, still wondering what happened. What is it? They still put in the paper, "Does anybody know anything about? What, how it could've happen?" There's no fog up there; there's no air, there's no moisture, thirty miles high in the air. Oh, my. "There shall be signs in the heaven above. And when these things take place, earthquakes in divers places, then shall appear the sign in the heavens of the Son of man." That day (Luke) the Son of man will reveal Himself again, and be revealed Hisself. And the world will look like Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, my, brethren, don't be ignorant of spiritual things. See? Search the Scripture for in Them you think--you have Eternal life, and They are They that testify of the Word. They are They that testify of the Truth, the things that God is doing in this hour.

¹⁶⁸ And now, watch. They that have the Spirit of God wait for these things. And when they see those things, they believe those things. Jesus said, "No man can come to Me except My Father draws him, and all that the Father has given Me (He is the Word.), they will come to Me--they will come to Me."
I've been pretty rough this morning. See? They wait on the Lord, waiting; and when they do, and they see that promise of today being vindicated, it renews their faith in His Word, 'cause He promised to do it, and here He is doing it. Then there's no doubt. God speaks; His Word first speaks, and then the Spirit that's a-bringing It does the thing that the Word said It would do.
Oh, we have lots of impersonations. We'll still have lot of them, men of sincere heart trying to do things this way and that way, but watch what happened. People will put their hands, and then--then die. See?

¹⁷⁰ Notice, no man's scheme of denomination will ever work. Making members for their own self-made denominational ark... God never did have a denomination. He never will have a denomination. And it's a manmade thing.
And I wonder today if all of our drawing in and great crusades and revivals, if we haven't been filling up the Methodist ark, the Baptist ark, the Presbyterian ark. What about the Ark of Christ, the Word? And if the Bride is to be the Word, then She's got--and to be of Christ, part of the Bridegroom, She's got to be the Word, the Word not for His day, the Word of this day that He promised would be this day, that He sent His Word forth to mold His Bride and make Her. Hope we see it. Don't get some idea of your own now, and don't take somebody else's idea. Take the vindicated Word here, the Bible. It says...

¹⁷¹ God has promised in His Word how He would choose His Bride in this last day. Did you know that? He promised it, how He would do it, and that by His original plan of choosing Christ, of choosing the time, choosing the season how he... He can't miss it on His Bride, because She's part of that Word. He can't choose it by a denomination when He didn't choose Christ by a denomination. Did Christ come to a denomination? Did He come by a denomination? No. They rejected Him. Well, that's what the denomination done then; then when He chooses a Bride, can He come any other way? How did He bring Christ here? By the Word of the prophets. Is that right? How will He bring His Bride here? By the Word of the prophets. How did He identify Him when He come? By a man with the spirit of Elijah upon him coming out of the wilderness. How will He identify His Bride? He promised in Malachi 4 the same thing before He destroyed the earth like it was in the days of Sodom.

¹⁷² Remember, Sodom burned. Is that right? Well, this world is to burn. Jesus said so. And it'll be the time that--like Luke the 17th chapter and the 30th verse said: In the days it'll be like Sodom and Gomorrah, then the Son of man would be revealed. And then what would happen? According to Malachi He will burn the earth again, and the righteous in the millennium will walk out upon the ashes of the wicked. Is that right? See? So we're right at the end time. We're setting here at the door now waiting for Him to come.

¹⁷³ Notice, God promised in His Word that He would choose His Bride by His original way He chose His--the Bridegroom. He foretold it by the prophets and sent a prophet to identify. The prophet said, setting on the banks of Jordan, "Behold..."
They said, "You're the Messiah, aren't you?"
He said, "No, I'm not the Messiah."
"You must be the Messiah."
"But I'm not Him, but He's standing among you. And His shoes, I'm not worthy to loosen. When He comes, makes Hisself known..." And today He's standing among us in the Person of the Holy Ghost, manifesting Hisself more and more, coming into His church, making Hisself known; because Him and the Bride, and the Groom, will be the Same, making Hisself known. And one day you'll see that the One that you feeled in your heart and see His identification, will become personalized before you. Then you and He are One. You've united by the Word, and the Word was in the beginning will go back to the beginning which is God. "And that day you'll know that I'm in the Father, the Father in Me, I in you, and you in Me." Hallelujah. We're here. Hallelujah. I'm so glad to see Him personifying Himself right among us and see what He promised for the Word, not what somebody's emotions, singing, and jumping, and dancing, but by His Word (Amen.) He's making Himself known.

¹⁷⁵ Look when they brought--and they built the temple and brought the ark into it, God went in there with a Pillar of Fire. Amen. It was David jumping and screaming. It was all the singers and the priests a-carrying on when they was out of the will of God. But when God identified the ark in His place and position, before they could get the ark in there, here come the Pillar of Fire leading the way, right down over the cherubims wings and right in behind the holiest of holies, His resting place, the Pillar of Fire. And the glory of God was in there till the see--they couldn't see how to minister. Amen. It'll close the eyes of every theologian when He comes for His Bride. She'll be taken up in the--in the middle of the night, as it was, to them. They won't even see Her go. Oh, praise be to God.

¹⁷⁶ Notice. God promised that He would bring His Bride out, what He would do: There would be a seed; there'd be a Light in the evening time, how He would do all these things, just exactly, and by the way that He original planned it in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And it isn't through denominations. It isn't through our system we're using today. We're just causing death. Put... People are--put their hands with it and die from it. See?

¹⁷⁷ The Word, the evening Message must carry evening results. The evening Message must sow evening seeds, not morning seed, evening seed. Is that right? The midday scene--its seeds back there was denomination, and it died, perished. But evening-time Message will show evening-time Light, will show evening-time results. The evening-time Message... Jesus' time, midday message showed midday results. The beginning message showed the beginning result: made creation. He made His Son in His own image in the midday. In the evening time He makes a Bride for it. See? What by? His Word. How did He form the earth? How did He speak it into existence? By His Word. Who was His Son? The Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled..." How will He take His Bride? By the Word, not by a new cart, not by some theologian's idea, but according to His Word He'll identify Her. Don't put one thing to It or take one thing from It now. Leave It the way It is. See?

¹⁷⁸ The evening time, He promised He'd reveal--open those Seven Seals and show what them churches had missed back there. Revelations 10, and Malachi 4, Luke 17:30, He said He would do it, so let's not mix it up. Let's keep it right like that.
Let me in closing... It's about, pretty near fifteen minutes until twelve; let me close in saying this: Friends, listen in the Name of the Lord Jesus, these things are too plain for you not to believe it. It's too plain for you not to see it. Surely you can see that. Surely the world could see it. But just your... Now, don't be influenced by these new fandangles and things they got today. I don't care how good a men they are, how sincere they are; if they don't speak according to the law and the prophets, the Bible said there's no Life in them. See?

¹⁸⁰ David thought he was right; he was sincere. Them priests thought they were right; they were sincere. But they just failed to consult the Lord about it. And how could they done it? Maybe they said, "We prayed through." But that wasn't God's way of doing it. He promised that He would do nothing until first He revealed it to His servants the prophets. And there stood Nathanael right among them, and never consulted him at all.

¹⁸¹ Now, read in the next few chapters of Chronicles there, and you'll find out when David set in the house and said, "Is it right (Nathanael was setting with him) that I should have--live in the cedar and--and the ark of God under the tents out here." And Nathanael found from the Lord what to tell him to do.
And he'd done done wrong, so God said, "Tell My servant David, I love him. I made him a name like great men in the earth, but I can't let him do it (See?); he's done failed Me. (See?) I can't let him do it. I'll bring a man along: his son shall raise the everlasting house of God." And that was David of course. Which Solomon typed it, but then he failed. Every man's got to fail. Every human being's got to fail. God is the only One that can't fail. He can't fail. That's one thing God cannot do, is fail. And God is the Word. And the Word... No matter how it looks like it's going to come this other way, it'll come just exactly the way the Word said.

¹⁸³ Now, remember, you've got to follow the season, the time. See? And what season you're in, what time, and make that a-vindicated to see that it's exactly the Truth.
Now, take all these musts, all the Word, all the types, and the things, and look where you're setting. Think of the hour we're living in. Looky yonder that nearly one tenth of the earth is ready to fall in. Science says that. They're looking on the clock. A few years ago they said, "It's only three minutes now till midnight." Might be a minute; might be a half a minute now.
They said, "It won't happen in our generation."
"It could happen in five minutes." And notice, the next thing he said, "Five years." I never said that now, he said that, the scientist. They're swarming away from California like flies. See? Well, the day that Lot went out of Sodom, the same day it rained fire down upon the earth. One of these days God's going to take our Message, and we're going to leave here. Something's going to happen sure enough then, when the church is gone, His Body, His Bride.

¹⁸⁶ Now, I want to read you a Scripture, and I want you to read It with me. I want you to turn to Deuteronomy 4 in closing. I think enough probably has been said that you'll understand. Deuteronomy 4, I'm going to read two places in here. And to this church, and to the tapes--people on tapes, and people on the hookups across other parts of the nation, I want you to listen to this real close and don't you fail. This is a thing that I... Deuteronomy the 4th chapter, I'm going to begin at the 1st verse. Going to read the 1st verse, then I'm going to read the 25th and the 26th verse. You can read it all when you get home, but just save time so we can get out on time, 'cause I've got to come back again tonight, the Lord willing. Listen to this prophet speak. He had been in the Presence of God. He knowed what he was talking about. Listen.

¹⁸⁷ This was Moses speaking to Israel after he had been a-vindicated by God by a Pillar of Fire and knowed he was proven to be God's servant to lead them out. And before they went into the land, before they entered, Moses said, "Now, the words that I have spoken to you, I call heaven and earth to witness against you. If you add one thing to it or take one word from it, you'll not stay in the land where the Lord God gives you." So say I in the Name of Jesus Christ. Don't you add one thing. Don't take--put your own ideas in. You just say what is said on those tapes. You just do exactly what the Lord God has commanded to do. Don't add to It.

¹⁸⁸ He has ever, keeps His promise to us. Every promise that He has made He's kept it. Has He told you what would happen, and did it happen? I bring heavens and earth before you today in a challenge, has God ever said anything that He has not fulfilled and done exactly what He said He would do for us? Hasn't He done it just the way He said He would do it? That's exactly. So will He continue to do it. Just don't add to It. Don't take from It. Just believe It and walk humble before the Lord your God, for we're nearing the going into the land. Then you won't return. You won't return to this type of a life again. You'll return as an immortal being. You'll turn when sin is done away with, when Satan is bound. And for a thousand years you'll live upon this earth that the Lord thy God has given thee. "For the meek shall inherit the earth. Blessed is he that doeth all of His commandments, that He might have the right to enter into the city; for without are sorcerers, liars, whoremongers, and dogs; they shall not enter therein." They're only for the redeemed and to those who walk in His commandments.

¹⁸⁹ Don't take some new thing. They're flying everywhere, and there'll be more than that come. But don't take these new things. The Lord your God has declared to you what is Truth. The Lord your God has vindicated what is Truth by His Word and by His Spirit. "Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit." And the Spirit... God seeks those who worship Him in the Spirit and Truth. "Thy Word is Truth." And He's thoroughly a-vindicated that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's showed the evening seeds to you. He's revealed it to you in the Word. He's proven it to you by His Spirit.

¹⁹⁰ Don't never start or try an organization. Don't try to build upon anything else, but stay humble before the Lord your God, for it looks like the gates may open into the promised land soon. Then let us go in with the true singing and rejoicing, when the Bride and Groom takes its place at the throne.
Live humble; live loving. Love one another. Don't never get nothing among you. If you see something coming up in your heart against somebody, get it out of there right then. Don't let... And Satan will do his best to get among you. See? Don't you let that happen. Some slicked-tongued fellow might come along and try to take you away from it. You think they could talk Moses out of the Presence of God where he'd stood there and seen it? No, sir. No, we don't take from It or add to It. Just keep It the way the Lord said. We don't want no denomination; we don't want no organizations. We don't want no malice; we don't want no strife. We want God; and He is the Word. Now, let's bow our head.

¹⁹² O God, I look around with spiritual eye; I try to see what's taking place. I see Your Word, the way It's been vindicated, the way It's been proven. All the way from thirty-three years ago down here on the river, what You said, and here it is thirty-three years later, and You are doing just what You said. And You done just what You said. Lord, far be it from us trying to make It any littler or try to make It any bigger. Just keep It the way You've made It. Just walk humble and follow You.
These are they, Lord, that You have given to the ministry besides all those who sleep across the nation, around the world. The cemeteries here holds many of those waiting, blessed saints. But it's as it said, we which are alive and remain shall not hinder those that are asleep. The trumpet will sound, the dead shall rise first; then we be caught up with them. When the glory of God will be upon the earth, it'll hide the church away from the world. It won't even see It when It goes.

¹⁹⁴ Father God, keep these in Your hands. They're Yours. I pray, God, that we'll always walk humble before You. We don't know how long. We don't desire to know how long; it's not our business. That's Your business. It's not our wills to know when You will come; it's our will, Lord, to keep humble till You do come, and walk with You. It's our desire for You to just let Yourself be known once in a while, Father, among us, that we can see that we're still walking with You.
Forgive us of our past sins. Guide us and protect us from every snare of the devil for the future. Lead us and guide us, O God our Father. Forgive our sins and help us to be Your children. We're a poor class of people. We're an outcast by the societies of this world, by the denominations of the churches. We see the end, and we thank Thee for spiritual eyesight into Thy Word to see the end time. For all these things must come to that great stoning from heaven. Help us, Lord, not to be here at that day, but to be gone into Your Presence, fly away into Your bosom.

¹⁹⁶ Heal the sick and the afflicted, Lord. We pray that tonight You'll give us such a great service; may there not be a feeble person in our midst because of Your Presence, Lord. May our hearts continually be set on Thee. And we know, Lord, that money, property, things of the world have no meanings, just so temporal. All of them must go. Our jobs, our places, our friends, everything must go. No matter how rich, how poor, how popular or unpopular that we are, it all must go. But there's only one thing that our being here is centered around, and that's Jesus Christ. So God, let us lay aside everything that's secondarily and hold to Him; and He is the Word (Grant it, Lord.), the vindicated Word of the hour.
The vindicated Word of the days of Moses was Jesus. The vindicated Word of the day of Isaiah, Elijah, John, all, was Jesus. And the vindicated Word today is Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Help us, Lord, to believe that, see that, and walk in it. We--we ask in Jesus' Name.

¹⁹⁸ With our heads bowed, I wonder if there's some in here that has never truly made that one great, all sufficient... You believe it, but just to believe it is not enough. I believe that my wife was a good girl. I knowed her father, her mother. I knowed her for years and years. She walked a straight life. I believe she was a good woman, but that didn't make her mine. She never become mine until she--I accepted her, she accepted me. Now, Jesus wants to accept you. Won't you accept Him and become part of His Word? If you haven't done that, with your heads bowed and your hearts bowed, I trust...

¹⁹⁹ There's no room for an altar call here. I'm not too much on them anyhow. I believe God visits you right where you are. Would you raise your hands, say, "Brother Branham, remember me in prayer. I want to do that." God bless you. I... God bless you. My, hands everywhere. "I want to be like that." God bless you, brother, and bless you, brother, all of you around. "I want to be that." God bless... "I truly want to be that." I--I see it... Well now, look, friend, there may be a little something... If you're not that, then there's something you've centered around besides that. You're so close to it, you're looking at it. You see it. You've seen it for years moving up. You see it coming matured now. If that means everything to us and nothing else is going to last but That, why not just turn your head from that thing you've been looking at and center yourself on Him, which is Center of all life, all hereafter is Him. Won't you do it while we pray together?

²⁰⁰ Dear God, there's hands of men, women, boys, girls, even ministers, got their hands up. They--they wanted to--to say that they wanted to become centered right around the Lord Jesus, and yet looks like they can't do it; there's something pul