An Absolute

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Let us just remain standing for a few moments. And I'm sure in an audience of this size there's many requests, people who are sick and needy. So let's just bow our heads just a moment for a word of prayer. Here's many requests laying here also, and handkerchiefs.

2 Our heavenly Father, we are coming now in the name of the Lord Jesus, knowing this, that You promised that You would hear and would answer our prayers. And I ask You to be merciful to us, to forgive our sins. We're taught in the Scripture that You forgive all of our sins and heal all of our diseases. And we pray, heavenly Father, that this will be done this afternoon now, because we're asking it in the name of the Lord Jesus upon these handkerchiefs and requests.
We're taught in the Scriptures how that from the body of Paul was taken handkerchiefs and aprons, and evil spirits went out of the people and they were healed. Now You're the same Jesus today, and we stand in number asking that You'll grant these things. There's no doubt many requests in the building today of so many people that are needy in this hour. Meet their needs, Lord, both physically and spiritually, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, brother.

3 We used to sing a little song years ago, "A Little Talk with Jesus Makes it Right." [Unclear word] Now, I believe Brother Williams just got through saying there's a breakfast in the morning. And now, I don't believe I've ever heard where next year it's going to be at. Right ... right here again? Right back here again. Well, that's ... the same place? The same place. That's very fine, yes, that's very...
Men ought to worship at Jerusalem. That's Tucson, not down here, see. Now, you're down under the hill---Jericho is down under the hill from Jerusalem, you know. So that's Jerusalem down there, see. [Laughter and comments] Did you hear that?
So men ought to worship God everywhere, Jesus said, you know. Not at Jerusalem, neither here or in this mountain, but worship Him in Spirit and in truth. That's the main thing---in Spirit and in truth.

4 Now, I ... usually when I speak I'm just so slow. I was admiring Brother Velmer Gardner the other night---could come up here and put more in fifteen minutes than I can put in three hours. My!
I don't know whether I ever told you this or not. When I was a kid my daddy was a rider, you know. And he used to ride horses and break them---followed rodeo, shooting, trick shots. And I thought, you know, when I got to be about 12 years old I ought to take after my dad. So when they'd plow the old horse out there in Indiana, you know, until he got so tired he couldn't move hardly, I'd get my dad, when he made the rounds with the plow, you know, way out the back of the field. And I'd get down there where they had an old watering trough made out of a log. How many ever seen one of them watering troughs? Man, look at the Kentuckians that's in here!

5 So, oh, I used to have a big time. Go down and put the horsehair in the water, you know, watch it turn. What we called a horsehair snake is them little... You know, touch it and it'd move, and the bees...
I'd get my little brothers and all, sit them along down there; and get the old plow horse, you know, and jerk the harness off of him right quick; and get Dad's saddle, a handful of cockleburs, and put them under the saddle and pull down the cinch. I'd jump up on that poor horse, old and tired. He couldn't get his feet off the ground, and he'd just bawl, you know. And I'd throw that hat around. My! I thought I was a rider. And I thought you all needed me out here out in Arizona to break your horses, you know.
So, about seventeen, eighteen years old I run off---got out here around where they was having a rodeo. Well, I thought, "Man, if I can just get in that rodeo, I'll ride the horses for them. I'll have some money made."

6 So, I remember the first rider came out. He was riding what was called ... I believe they called it The Kansas Outlaw. He was a great big horse---big black fellow about seventeen hands high. He was a real heavy, strong horse. And I thought, "Well, if that fellow can ride him, so can I." And this noted rider got out there.
And I was sitting around on the corral, you know, with ... the pen, where all the disfigured cowboys, you know. I wasn't quite disfigured like they was, but I thought I was as good a rider. So they ... I'd rode that old plow horse, and why couldn't I ride that one? So when he come out of the chute... Man! That horse could put all four feet in a wash pan! He done a sunfish and a twirl around there a few times; and the saddle went one way and the rider another; and the pick-ups got the horse, and the ambulance got the rider. I knew that wasn't that old plow horse I used to ride.
Caller came down through, he said, "I'll give any man," said, "fifty dollars [that was a lot of money then], fifty dollars who can ride him"---so many seconds on him. And I was just shaky. He come up to me and said, "Are you a rider?"
I said, "No, sir!"

7 When I first got saved, and was ordained in the Missionary Baptist Church, I used to pack the Bible around, you know. And I wanted somebody to ask me if I was a preacher, you know. But every time somebody'd say, "You a preacher?", I'd say, "Sure."
One day I was over at St. Louis. I'd just met our Baptist brother, and I was over at St. Louis. And I heard a fellow named Robert Daugherty. Many of you might know him. And he was in a tent meeting. He was a Pentecostal brother. My! That man preached till he was blue in the face, and he just preached till he just sank down. You could hear him catch his breath two blocks away (without a microphone, too), and just catch his breath and come back up preaching.
Since then, somebody say, "Are you a preacher?", I say, "No, I just pray for the sick." My old slow Baptist ways don't think of it that fast. Just bear with me, though. And you notice the Scripture said to bear with the weak, so that's me. So I'm thankful that you all have tried to do that this week, and have done a real good job. Ten o'clock at night when I was supposed to be home and in bed, and keeping you out...

8 But really this afternoon I'm going to try to hurry and get right out. I've got a lot of driving to do yet this afternoon in order to get back here in the morning. And so ... I appreciate you though. And if I do not get a chance to say this at any other time, I thank you very much, each one---all you ministers and you Christian businessmen. Such a ... really a pleasure for you to invite me, and let me come here and put in my little plug with you brethren. Brother Shakarian, Brother Williams, and all of you men, I'm certainly grateful.
And ... why didn't you say "Amen" awhile ago, Tony, when I talked about Tucson? I didn't even hear him. That's the best hunter in Arizona when I'm in Indiana, see. That's after I go to Indiana. See his picture in the paper the other day? We have to change that, Tony. So now, remember, tomorrow night the banquet with Brother Oral Roberts.

9 And now, before we approach the Word... I was going to speak this afternoon on "The Countdown." And I thought that I'd get in here, you'd still be sitting here at seven o'clock---oh, about what science has been able to do; and then what God's been able to do, you see. And so, we're living in a different age than we used to live, both physically and spiritually. So we're grateful for our achievements in the spiritual realms, the same as the science is in their material realms, scientific realms.
Now let us, if you don't mind, again... You know, you might sing too much. I don't hardly see how you could if you sing like Brother Outlaw's choir awhile ago, when I was standing there listening at it. They going up, up, up, up. And, but ... and again, you might eat too much, you might drink too much, you might work too much. But I don't think you can pray too much. The Bible said, "I would that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands." So let's bow our heads again, just a moment.

10 Heavenly Father, we love to talk to You. And I think of men ---how I love to know that they're in the city, just to shake their hand and talk to them. We all have those feelings. And how much more greater is it for the privilege of speaking to You, our Lord and our Saviour!
And our hearts beat to be in the presence of each other. And then how much more is it when we know we're in your divine presence. And we know You're here, because You said wherever ---if it's all over the world, or around the world, or wherever it may be---"Where two or more are gathered in my name I'll be there in their midst." And we know that that scripture cannot fail, that promise is divine. It came from the lips of the Saviour. And therefore, maybe we are ... our conscience and our ... the sin of our unbelief has separated us so far away that we might not be able to recognize You being here; but You're here just the same, for You keep your promise.
And now, You said if they will ask anything as touching one thing and it shall be given them. Father, the greatest thing that I could think of just at this time and for this audience is, feed us, Lord, on the spiritual manna that comes from God out of heaven. Grant it, Lord. Feed us on your Word. Thy Word is truth. And "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
And as we read it may the Holy Spirit take it to each heart, and divide it among us today just as we have need, for we ask it in Jesus' name, thy Son. Amen.

11 Now as... Many times, as I've said, ministers and people, we listen to each other speak and we take down scriptural texts that some other minister has spoke on, or someone. And I'm constantly doing that, going down the road. I have a little sheet of paper, a little book, laying along by my side. And a scripture will come upon my mind, I jot that down. And the first thing you know... Now you're all guilty of that, aren't we? We do that. And then, after awhile the Holy Spirit will quicken that to us. And we get another thought, and then I'll just have to drive off the side of the road, and jot down some things.
And that's the way then, when I come to time to speak, I'll go back through those things and I'll go to thinking of it, and running some Scripture reference, and then put them Scripture reference down. And then, when I turn to it I remember what the Scripture says, and then I speak from there. We mostly all do that way.

12 Now, I'm going to read just about a verse out of the book of Philippians again. I was reading from Philippians the other night, over ... the Wednesday night, over with Brother Shores at the Assembly of God, when I spoke on the subject of "Identified with Him." And now I want to read in the 1st chapter of Philippians for this afternoon, about the 20th verse. And now let's listen prayerfully as we read.
According to my earnest expectations and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that which is boldness all boldness ... always, so now also Christ shall be manifested in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
I was thinking of this, and thought I would use a little familiar thought---just a word. You say, "Brother Branham, a word for this, probably a thousand people sitting here? Just a word?" Well, if it's the right kind of word, see... And I want to try, if the Holy Spirit who inspires us, to build a little ... get a little context around my text. I want to call it "An Absolute."

13 An absolute.
Now, I was looking in the dictionary to find out... When I was looking at the word "identified," I come into this word "absolute." And the "absolute" according to Webster's Dictionary, it says it's perfect in itself; unlimited in power; primarily an ultimate. An absolute. It's used many times. It's the last word. It's the amen.
You hear people say, "Absolutely that's it." That's the last thing. It's unlimited, see. That takes from here on. There's nothing else in its way. It's the supreme. It's an ultimate, and an ultimate is when ... primarily an ultimate, because you've reached the end. It's the amen. That's all.

14 Now any... And tied to every great achievement has been an absolute. To every person, and every thing that's been did, or done rather, there has been an absolute connected with it. There's got to be something, for it's the final tying-post. And man cannot, by no means, achieve anything until there comes somewhere where they recognize that there is an absolute.
One time in a doctor's office I was speaking to a doctor, and he said, "Well, I tell you, Billy," he said, "it's true that I believe that a man could appropriate enough faith that he could go out of here and touch this tree and be healed."
I said, "But, doctor, how could a man ever appropriate enough faith to touch a tree and be healed? See, because there is no background to that. There's no place you can tie to it because it's not Scripturally a foundation. But you've got to have something you can tie to, to know that 'this is it.' That's the ... many little things might lead up to it, but that is the last word, last thing. That's why I've always believed in the Word."

15 And I know... It may be a little testimony that comes on my heart just now might not be very appropriate, but I hope that it won't offend. And my wife sitting there, and, oh, many here know that that's true. There was a ... I used to go with a young lady that was at the ... from the Baptist church at Milltown, Indiana, that I used to pastor. And the young lady had been in the meetings and seen what God did. And ... oh, we were just friends, just good friends, and later we were both... She married a fine young man, and then later I was married, and we haven't seen each other for years.
Her father was a very personal friend of mine. His name was Lee, Marrion Lee. And I remember one night, a scripture... He couldn't get it fixed up. He said, "Brother Branham, I'm not doubting you, but," said, "you know, I've always been taught this." He was a Nazarene. And he said, "I've been taught this, and I just can't understand it." And he was a carpenter.

16 I went home with him one night, and he said, "I tell you. While Norma and them goes upstairs," said, "let's just have a bite to eat. We got some cornbread and buttermilk [That's really good]." And so we... (I could treat it justice right now. I haven't been eating for about three weeks here. Just a little now and then, so that I could be at the best for my Lord.)
And now, we got a big glass of cold buttermilk out of the spring house, and a big piece of cold cornbread, and we sat down and crumbled this cornbread up in there, and was eating. And he said, "Billy, I just don't get that what you're talking about."
So ... we went to bed. And along about ... long late in the night... We talked till about one o'clock, and I went to sleep on him. And he woke up, and he said, "I dreamed that I was building a building up in New Albany, and the man left me the blueprint. He went to Florida. And he had ... on this blueprint he had a bay window, and I said, 'That man don't want that bay window out there.' So I just left it off."
And said, "When the man come back, he said, 'I will not pay you for this building until you tear it down and rebuild it according to this blueprint.' "
I said, "There's a creek right down here. It isn't very far. So... You don't want to go tearing something down at the end of the road---you might not have time."
He said, "Is it all right with my pajamas on?"
I said, "With mine, too. Let's go." So we went down.

17 So, his daughter got real, real famous, and his grandchildren, on singing. And they were United Brethren. His daughter married a United Brethren minister, or minister's son. And this boy---fine fellow---he was a machinist up at the boat works. And the little girl was trying to live for Christ. It got too much pressure on them.
They were very genius kiddies. One of them at seventeen years old was teaching music. She'd majored, and she was a very smart girl. And so this little fellow couldn't stand the pressure of being teased, and they'd tell her she was old-fashioned, and so forth. And after awhile the kid had a breakdown.
They'd taken her to what they call Our Lady of Peace, a Catholic institution in Louisville, for shock treatment, and they gave her... Of course, that's a shot in the dark. If there's a doctor here I hope I don't offend you by that, but sometimes it makes them worse than ever. And so, give her a shock treatment, and it made the child worse. So they sent her home. Few weeks they had to bring her back again, and she was really in a terrific shape then. So they kept her, and tried to doctor her up over there for quite a while, and she got worse.

18 And so three days from then they were going to take her to Madison. That's the insane institution where they're... They put them in a padded cell from then. So, the mother said, "We're not defeated." And she said, "We'll see if we can get Brother Branham to come over and pray for her, if he's at home."
So they called up, and it happened to be I was at home. So he came up to see me. Said, "Brother Branham, will you go over and pray for her?"
I said, "Sure."
So he called the doctor. The doctor said, "Who is this coming?" So he told him it was me, and he said, "Well, I'll tell you. Wait." Said, "We'll... You call me back this afternoon."
Well, he called, and on till until one o'clock in the morning. And his wife kept saying, "He's not in." The next morning he called. "He's not in." And the third day they was going to send the child away. So ... I hate to say this but I have a way of knowing---the doctor was just dodging the issue, see. So then, the father was real nervous, and I had to leave the following day---to leave out. That day was all we had.
So the mother and father and the other two sisters come up crying, said, "He's just dodging."
I said, "Sure he is. But I tell you what. Don't say I'm a minister. Just let me go over as a friend, just going with you."

19 So we went in the institution. You know, they lock the doors behind you, and take you up on the elevator, and then lock the elevator. So this Sister was taking us up, and we got into the room, and sat down on the side of the bed. And there that real pretty little lady (about 16-something), sitting there, completely gone. She was just staring. You could wave your hands and she wouldn't even notice it.
And I said to her, "Ruthie, do you remember me?" I said, "I'm Brother Branham." I said, "You used to call me Budder Bill." I said, "I presented you to Christ on the Cradle Roll. Don't you remember me?" She'd just stand and look. Oh, a beautiful girl. And the three of them was a trio---three sisters. And I tried to get her attention and I couldn't do it. She was staring. She was just gone.

20 And I sat there. And I ... they didn't have no post on the bed in them places, you know, because keep from getting hurt. And I sat across the foot of the bed, the mother sat the other side of the little bed, this little single bed in this little room. And the girl was sitting on a little, like a little seat built in the wall. And the Sister was standing up, and the father was standing by the girl. And the mother was standing there and the tears running down from her cheeks.
She said, "You see, Billy? What can we do?"
I said, "Well, listen, Norma. Christ still is Christ," see.
She said, "This in our last chance." Said, "If they take her up there you know what's going to happen." Said, "We'll never see her, I guess, again. And if we do, you know how they ... the treatment they get there."
And I said, "Well, Norma, let's not be excited." I said, "We'll just wait a few minutes." And then no more than said that, there stood the girl before me in a vision, normally well, smiling. And she was looking towards a young man. And I looked at the young man; I looked back; the vision left me. I said, "Norma, does she have a boyfriend, kind of tall and dark hair?"
"Yes."
And I said, "Doesn't he do something with them in singing?"
Said, "Yes, that's right."
I said, "Don't you worry. I have 'thus saith the Lord.' She's coming out of it."
Norma threw her hands and caught me by the knee, looked up to her husband, and said, "Honey, it's never wrong." Said, "It's never wrong."

21 The girl never changed a bit. I said, "All right, Norma. You know that I wouldn't have told you that now unless I'd seen it, and God can't lie," see. I went on out of the hospital and got in my own car. They stayed.
And about two hours from then, the phone was just ringing when I come up from Mr. Woods' down below. And it was her father. He was on the phone.
He said, "Brother Branham, I got something to tell you." He said, "You hadn't been gone twenty minutes until she come to herself normally. And she's been examined by the whole staff of doctors. We're taking her home in the morning." And now, she sings at the Tabernacle now. Now there's men and women here from Jeffersonville there that knows that story's true. If you're in here this afternoon, raise up your hands. How many knows that story? Yes, see, all around, know that it's true---absolutely true.
Now what was it? That little lady used that vision as an absolute, an ultimate. See, you've got ... in everything you've got to have somewhere you could tie down to. And I've always used the Word of God, because there's no other tie-post that I know of as great as that, because "Both heavens and earth will pass away," said Jesus, "but my word shall never fail." What a tie-post!

22 Now, Paul had a Christ-centered life. He ... that was... Christ was Paul's absolute. He'd been a great teacher, Paul had. He was taught under Gamaliel. And a great teacher he was, of his, under the denomination of his Pharisee background. And he was taught, schooled, and he had a great background, I think, when he received the Holy Ghost and went down into Egypt for three years. I think that must have been where he got taking the Scripture and comparing it with the revelation that he had had, to see if it was right. And you know the great famous book of Hebrews. None other could've wrote it but Paul, because he knowed how those types and anti-types... What a beautiful lesson!
And now, Paul had met Jesus one day, met Him face to face on the Damascus Road when he was going down to persecute the Christians---a great brawler giving out great threats and doing things against the church of God, making havoc of it, even persecuting it unto death. And one day on the road down...

23 The reason he had this Christ-centered life is because he personally, now laying aside his teaching, he personally met Christ. And that's the only way that you're ever going to know Him is to meet Him, see---now, to know Him, is. Not ... even know his Word, as good as it may be; yet you've got to know Him. To know Him is life. And Paul had not had this experience yet. And he said one place here, "The life that I now live..." Showed that he'd lived a different life one time. His life had been changed. And when your life is changed it makes you do things you ordinarily would not do. And it makes you say things you wouldn't ordinarily say.
A man that's got a Christ-centered life... Why, Paul stood right in the midst of the people (those Jews, and so forth). He... Wasn't one speck of fear about him. He knowed who he had believed. And he had a life that... He would by no means have did it, if he hadn't have found something that was genuinely ... and it anchored him.

24 I think any Christian should be that way, every believer. You should never ... I think especially ministers should never try to enter the pulpit until they have met God upon those sacred sands where there's no philosopher can explain it away. You met God, and you know it, and there's nothing can ever hide it away from you.
Now we have times that we have great scholarship, and nothing against that. That's all right. But... All that goes good. But you personally have got to meet God, to a place that no one can twist any scriptures. You were there. You're the one that met Him. You had the experience of it. You know Him, see.
I think every minister especially, and every believer, should take this place, this position---to first meet Christ personally. And it makes you do things that, as I said, that you ordinarily would not do. It makes you say things that you ordinarily would not say. Yet it is something that you're centered to, or tied to. It's something that you know, like Paul, that you met something that was different than you ever seen in your life.
See,

25 it's just like a ship, see. A ship has an absolute, and that ship's absolute is the anchor. Now, when that ship is in a tossing waters---where easily it could be throwed against a rock, or bursted up, or hit ground where the water's not deep enough---the great swells coming up will flash the ship, turn it over. It's got to have deep enough water to float it, or the waves will turn it over. And a ship with the anchor---that great, mighty ... tons of metal that it drops out, of steel---and it goes down, down, until it hits the top of the bed of the ocean, somewhere in a top of a mountain.
And that great anchor pulls, as the waves rock the ship, till it strikes its great big spears into a rock. And there the ship has an absolute. It's anchored. Waves might toss it about, but still that ship can stand just perfectly still where it's anchored, because it's an absolute to it.

26 And if Christ is your absolute you are tied to Him in that manner---no matter what anybody says, how hard the persecution gets, how bad the storm seems to be, how it looks impossible for it to happen. If something has happened to you that Christ becomes your absolute, or any promise in the Bible becomes your absolute, if you're sick and you're praying for healing, and something becomes till that ... strikes that promise in the Bible, "I've got it!", there's nothing going to wave you from it.

27 You remember the story a few minutes ago of the little lady? That vision was her absolute. She knowed it had never failed, so it was her absolute. If she could get God to speak back and say "It's over," no matter what the doctor said, it was a absolute. It was absolutely anchored down.
And a man or a woman just in philosophy, or church joining, or something like that, you're not anchored yet. You take your letter from one church to the other, from one place to another. But if you'd just take the real absolute (Christ), anchor yourself in that, it don't make any difference what comes or goes, you're still anchored.

28 And what the Christian needs today in this atomic age, and this time of uncertainty, you need something besides just an experience of joining church. You need an anchor, an absolute that you know ---because churches will fail, and people will fail, but Christ cannot fail. He's the absolute to the believer. And if Christ is your absolute you're tied to Him. And if He is your absolute, and you're tied to Him, then you're tied to the Word. Now, now this tells whether we got the right absolute or not, see.
If you can read in that Scripture something that Christ has ordained, or commissioned us to do, and because of some twisting around (if someone would tell you that was for the disciples or someone else), and then you don't hold on to that, then Christ is not your absolute. That person who led you out of the way is your absolute. But if that Word, Christ, still holds, see, then He is your absolute. We mustn't let anything stir us out of the way of the Word.

29 See, some of them today... It's going to get more than ever, and as the days go by, that we're going to see people with this (as Jesus said), " form of godliness,"---and just a form it's coming into. We've had it in the Methodists, and Baptists, and so forth, for years, and now it's creeped over into the Pentecostals. And little...
When God gave a man the Holy Spirit He set him with his face towards Calvary, and the Word before him. Now little roots will rise up from off that highway, come in and wrap around and around that tree, and you think it's very innocent. But the first thing you know, it's got such a hold on you until it pulls you the wrong way---makes you lean the wrong way. And so has philosophies and things entered among us until it's begun to pull us towards the world. You take the sharp two-edged sword of God and cut free from everything and stay right on that Word, because that is the ultimate. That's the absolute to every believer.

30 And if a man or woman is filled with the Holy Spirit, your heart within you will punctuate every promise of God with an "Amen!" Right. Now, when someone tells you, "The days of miracles is past. There is no such a thing as divine healing. The baptism of the Holy Ghost was for another age," and then you turn over in the Bible and read where Peter said at the day of Pentecost (when they were all pricked in their heart and they said to him, "Men and brethren what shall we ... what can we do to be saved?")...
Now if church-joining would've been what he said, he'd say, "You must find the body and join the church." Well, you see, there was ... wasn't such a thing in that day. So he give them the exact prescription of what it takes. He told them what they must do, and how far it would be. He said, "Repent, every one of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

31 Then, how far is it?
Jesus said in Mark 16, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. These signs shall follow them that believe," see. How far? All the world, to every creature, the gospel is. "And these signs shall follow every one that believes; In my name they shall cast out devils; speak with new tongues; or take up serpents or drink deadly things, it would not harm them. Lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Now, you see, you must get that absolute, that something that's real, that identifies you with Christ and his Word. Yes, the Word is Christ, and you must be sure that you can say "Amen" to that Word, or your absolute is wrong. You've got it built upon some creed.
You say, "Oh, I believe Christ, but I don't believe that stuff. I believe Christ, but I don't believe this." Then your absolute's wrong. Your absolute is in some creed, and not in Christ---because Christ is the Word.
He is also like the North Star. He is, to a man that's lost.

32 Now, I hunt worldwide, and I've been in the wilderness. And sometimes, one of the best... If you can look up and you know the direction of the North Star, it guides you out. And a man at sea, and when he's lost, if he can only find the North Star he can direct himself, then, the way he's going. Now, that's when he's lost, he looks for the North Star.
Now, other stars shift. But that North Star sits right in the center of the earth. No matter where the earth's turning, that North Star remains the same. It points towards the north. It's the only true star, I understand, that we have---is that extremely north star. Now. It gives you your direction.

33 And that's what Christ is to you. If you want to go to heaven, if you want to be saved, if you want to be filled with the Spirit, if you want to be Christ-like, Christ is your North Star. If you're lost, don't try to take a creed. He is your North Star. He is your way. He is your direction.

34 Then, if you take Him as your North Star, then that absolutely places the Holy Spirit your compass. Amen!
The Holy Spirit is your compass, and the compass will only point to the North Star. And if you've got the baptism of the Holy Ghost, it can only point to Christ, and Christ is the Word. That's the way to find your way back, see. You can't look up here and say "This is shining. This star shines here."---and after awhile it's somewhere else, see. You've got to get somewhere where it's absolutely established.
Now, Christ being the North Star, and the compass always points that way, and if you are really saved... Really, the only way you can be saved is through Christ. And the Holy Spirit, being your compass, will guide you right straight to the Word. See what I mean? Now that's wonderful. And the Word and Christ is one. Both of them are the same, self-same. "In the beginning [St. John 1] was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." If He is your North Star, then He becomes your absolute.

35 This a long way getting around to what I want to say. But you'll understand it, maybe, what I'm trying to get to you. There must be an absolute in your life. You've got to have it somewhere, and every one of you has got one. You can't go on without one. You've got to have an absolute.
There was a time that when a woman, her word---about table manners---that was a absolute in America. I think her name was Emily Post, if I'm not mistaken. And whatever she said about table manners... If she said you should eat with your ... eat your peas with a knife, that was it. That was it. And why? And if she said to eat the chicken you just picked it up in your hands and eat it, no matter how anybody looked at you, you were exactly in line, see---because that was the absolute. She was the absolute of table manners. That's right. Whatever that woman said, that was it.

36 There was a time when Germany ... when Adolf Hitler was an absolute in Germany. No matter what anybody said, Hitler was the last word. What Hitler said, it had to be done. That was his way of doing it. And no matter how many of the rest of them thought anything about it, Hitler was the last word. He was the absolute.
There was a time when Mussolini was Rome's absolute. There was a time when Pharaoh was a absolute of Egypt. Whatever Pharaoh said, had to be done. But you see all those was the wrong kind of real absolutes. They failed, every one of them.
Standing in Egypt not long ago, I was thinking about the time that Pharaohs sat on their thrones. And you know you have to dig down twenty feet in the ground to find where their thrones was, see. Oh, what an absolute that would be! It's perished and gone. And the people that relied upon that kind of a absolute, they're perished with it and gone on. Why? It was man-made, and anything that's man-made will perish with man. But there is an absolute that cannot perish. That's the eternal Word of God. It can never perish. You must stay with it.

37 Now. Now, we realize that we got an absolute here. We go out here and have a trial. And you get in trouble out here and you have a trial here in the city, they can take it up through other courts and so forth. It might finally come to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court's decision is the absolute. That's the end of trials. That's all the farther you can go. That's the last court, is the Supreme Court---and that's an absolute.
Now, sometimes we don't agree with them, and ... or don't like their decisions; but just the same it's the absolute, because the nation is tied to it, see. What the Supreme Court says... No matter if I said they're wrong, that don't make it wrong. In this nation they're right. Whatever their decision is, it's right. An absolute, we have to have it. If there wasn't somewhere, a trial would never end. But there's got to be somewhere that that trial meets its end---and that is in Supreme Court. Anyone knows that. It's finished when it goes through Supreme Court. They make a decision, that settles it. That's all. There's nowhere else you can go because that's their highest court. There's a ... have to have an absolute---have to have an absolute in court.

38 We have to have an absolute at a ball game. Do you know that? A ball game can't operate right without an absolute, and that's the umpire. Now, sometimes we don't like his decisions, but he's the absolute anyhow. If ... no matter if we want to say, and others say, that it was a strike, or it was a ball, and he says it's a strike, that's what it is. Don't argue with him. He's there. He's a absolute in that ball game, because if he said "Strike!" you can fuss, you can throw your hat out there and protest it, but it's a strike anyhow. Amen!
Now let's think just a minute. What if there was no umpire in the game? What kind of a fuss would it be? It would all be chaos. You couldn't play the game without having an absolute in it.
Games has got to have an absolute. And if games has to have an absolute, what about life? It has to have a resting place, and every mortal here this afternoon has got your absolute somewhere ---your ultimate that's the last word. Notice. There'd be fusses and everything at this ball game, and you'd all end up in chaos.

39 You know, a red light is an absolute to traffic. What if the red light don't work? What if the red light's out when you get there? One say, "I got here first," and the other one say, "I'm in a hurry to go to work." Talk about a traffic jam!
That's about what's got the matter with our churches and things. It's such a jam, the red light must be out somewhere. Oh, fusses and argue---why, you'd never get it over. There must be a something there to say, "You go, and you wait," and so forth, or we'd be all messed up.
Well, now, in our beliefs, in our six hundred and something different denominations (yeah, I think it's nine hundred now of different organizations), there's got to be an absolute somewhere. If the Catholic's right, the Protestant's wrong; if the Methodist is right, the Baptist's wrong; if the Pentecost is right, then the rest of them's wrong. And there's got to be something somewhere. And how are you going to base it, if you don't take God's absolute? That's Christ.

40 And Jesus said in John 14:12, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." It's an absolute fact that Christ promised that. That's his word. We've got to believe that.
Said, "He [in St. John the 5th chapter, the 24th verse], He that heareth my words [my words] and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into the judgment but has passed from death unto life." That's absolute. That's it. Now, not him that maketh-believe, but he that believeth, see.
Now, we've got to have an absolute, and He is that absolute, and He and his Word are the same. We can't separate them.

41 Yes,
if the red light was out we'd have a traffic jam. Oh, my! A bad one too. There must be an absolute. And it's ... you know, it's got so today, though, the trouble of it is, is what's gotten this great big traffic jam we've got into. It's kind of a rude way to express it, but yet you know what I'm trying to say.
Notice. The reason we've got into there is because that every one of us make our own absolute, see. We have our own absolute. Each church has its absolute. Each group has its own absolute, and they say ... each one of them said, "We are the truth, the way. We got it all. You ain't got nothing to do with it. You're in a minority. We're the greatest group." And people do that (that's ... you oughtn't to do that),

42 until it's almost like it was in the days of Judges, where every man does in his own sight what's right, see. He thinks, in his own sight, he does.
But you can't do that. There's too many different ways, see; and there's really only one way---and Christ is that way. And Christ and his Word is the same thing. Now, see, you've got to have something that we can come to and say, "This is it," and it can be proven that it's ... that's what it is.
See, in the days of the judges the reason every man done in his own sight what he thought was right, is because in them days the Word of God was precious. They didn't have it. And the prophets, there was none. There was no prophets in them days to stand to the Word and direct Israel. So the Word wasn't coming, so every man did what was right in his own sight.

43 And that's about where we've gotten to again today, brethren. See, every man in his own sight. Say, "Well, I'll ... if I want to take the golden rule, if I want to do this, or some religion, I believe my religion is do so-and-so." And you find that. Everybody finds that. They think, "Well, I go to Sunday school on Sunday morning. I'm as good as anybody else."
Well, that's good. You could still go to Sunday school and be good. That's all right. But if you haven't got something a little more than going to Sunday school... Someone said, "I keep the ten commandments." One keeps the sabbath day, the other one does something else, and ... till we just got a place till everybody thinks, well, they just do what they think is right. But that don't make it right. Not by a long ways it doesn't. We're going to find that out in a few minutes, see---that it doesn't make it right.
God's got a way. The Bible said, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death." And there's nobody wants to die. That's separation. We don't want to separate from God. And we don't want ... we want to live. Life is the greatest treasure that man can have. And now, we've got to find what is life. And He said "My word is life." That's the life that you should have---the Word living in you.

44 Now watch.
I seen this in my early conversion, when I was just a boy. I seen that, and I knew that I needed an absolute. So I read the Word of God, and I seen that this Word was Christ. And I wanted that for my absolute. So I took Him at his word, and I heard Him say in there, "If ye abide in me, my words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it will be given unto you." Now, what a promise!
Now, where are we today, brethren? Where are we? "If ye abide in me, and my words in you, then you can ask what you will and it will be done for you." Now, that's Christ's own word. But what... The Word has to abide in you. "If ye abide in me [in Christ] and my word in you..." Then how do we get into Christ? By baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Then, that's one part. But then, "If ye abide in me and then my words abide in you, then you can ask what you will." But you have to have both Christ and Word, and you really can't have one without the other. That's right, because it's the self-same thing. You can't have the Father without having the Son. You can't have the Son without having the Holy Ghost. It's the self-same Spirit.
So then, you see, you can't, you can't do it any other way than to take God's provided absolute for our lives. Now, I'm tied to him by his Word. He's my absolute, and I've found that it's great and precious to live by Him.

45 Now, many churches... Just let me talk of an absolute. To the Catholic church the pope is their absolute. No matter what comes, what goes, what somebody else says, what the Bible says, that don't mean a thing. I had a discussion not long ago with a priest. He came over to ask me about... I baptized a young girl, and she had married a Catholic boy and was turning Catholic. And he asked me how I baptized her and I told him. And we got to talking about it.
And he said, "You know, the Catholic church used to baptize by immersing like that."
And I said, "When?"
And he said, "Back in the Bible time."
And I said, "Do you mean to say that you believe that the early Christians, like Peter, James, and John, and them, was Catholics?"
He said, "They were."
I said, "Then I'm more of a Catholic than you are." I said, "I'm an old-fashioned Catholic, see; not one that takes this new trend of the thing that they do today, and call it religion."
"Well," he said, "you see, God gave his power over to Peter, and that's the church. And God is in his church."
I said, "There's no scripture in the Bible to say that. There's no promise that says it. The Bible said God is in the Word." Right. God is in the Word. The Word is true. And I seen there in the Bible where it said that whosoever shall add one word to it or take one word from it, same will be taken (his part) out of the book of life. Now I knowed that was a absolute, that that Word could not change, so I accepted that. And I said, "Now, Lord, let me hide it in my heart that I'll keep it, and be reverent with it. And whatever it is, I'll walk and You guide me." And it's been my absolute.

46 Now, to the Protestant church many times... In a diocese a bishop's word, though it be contrary to the Word of God, it becomes the absolute to that bunch of Christians. No matter what the Word says, if the bishop says so, that settles it. The archbishop of Canterbury---no matter what the English people that go to this Anglican church, no matter what they'd think---if the archbishop says a certain thing, that's it.
"My," you say, "that's too bad." But you know ... now, wait a minute. We can come right down home to Pentecost if you'd like to. You sure can. But I'm just hoping you're hitting the sidelines, and see what I mean, see.
You say, "Here's a brother filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord is moving with him." Well, go ask the presbyter if we can ... first, if we can have him. What kind of a card does he pack? You see, that's the absolute, then, to that church. That's right. We might say "Amen" about the Catholics, and about the Presbyterian, and so forth. But what about it when it comes home, see? We got a false absolute.

47 There's nothing higher in the Bible in the church than the elder of that church. It's a sovereign church, and the Holy Spirit works in any way He wants to. He dwells among his people. But we have another absolute---some general overseer somewhere---that tells us what we can do. And if it doesn't just cope with what they think, or something like that, then that's out---that's not of God. Oh, my! What a horrible thing it is. What a twist we got into.
No wonder we're out here crying for revival. And the sky is full of Pentecostal power, and we can't get to it. That's right. It's because we've rejected God's absolute! Right! The revelation of Christ---"Upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it." It's an absolute. And the Word of God is his absolute. "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you. And upon this rock I'll build my church." A real absolute.

48 But you see, we take something else for an absolute. If our denomination speaks against the Word, then you take the denomination's word for it. You shouldn't do it. I'm trying to make myself clear on my convictions, and I'm ... in the closing of this meeting I'm trying to tell you the reason that I've acted and said the things I did---because long ago I'd taken Christ for my absolute.
The first church I joined was a Baptist church, and I love those brethren. They were fine. But when it come to the place that I was to do something that was contrary to this Scripture, God's Word was first because I was tied to that Word. Right. Nothing against ... when Dr. Davis come to me and wanted me to do a certain thing there that absolutely was unscriptural, and I took it to him, he said, "That was for another age, not for this one."
I said, "I am tied to the Word. 'Let every man's word be a lie and mine be the truth.'" That was my absolute, and that's been thirty years ago, or better, and I'm still on that same Word. And there I want to live and die, that being my absolute. Upon that condition I accept Christ.

49 And now, it's not because that it's you want to be different; not because ... because this week I've said some very stinging things. And if I did that just to be different then I need to go to the absolute. I need a repentance at the altar. But how could you call me to repent, and I've told you the truth? That's right. And God's backed it up and showed it was the truth by the Word, and the Word living, see. That's exactly true.
Now, that's the reason I have said, and do the things that I do. It might be contrary to our different organizations and systems. It's not because I want to take sides with one, or take sides with the other one; because I sold out to one thing.

50 When I got saved, or Christ begin to dealing in my heart, I went down to the Catholic church, because my people are Irish and Catholic. And I noticed the way he said that, it didn't sound right. And I'd go from place to place. And finally...
He said "God is in his church." Well, if God's in his church, which church is that? Here's ... well, they say, "It's our church." Well, which one of the Catholic churches? You remember they're all broke up too. Yes, sir. All different: some marry, and some don't; and some Greek and some Orthodox, and well, there's just different kind---Roman; some accepts the pope, and some doesn't. And see, they're broke up also. Which one of those churches, then, is right? Where can you place any faith? If you're a Catholic and believe the church, then which church is it? Which one of your Catholic churches is it?
If you're Protestant, you say, "Well, which one of them is right? Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, which is right?"

51 God is right. His Word is right. Others are not right. If it's... that's right as long as they stay with the Word. But when you leave the Word, then you leave God, because God's watching over his Word to vindicate it. He's got to make it real. He's got to make it act. That's why you people are hungering for a revival. It's time for these things to be here. If you ever believed me to know what I was talking about, you accept that.
The hour is here now. But the trouble of it is, we've got so many absolutes we don't know where we're tied to. Amen! Now I feel religious. Right! I wanted to get that out of my system. Right.
We've got so many ties---one pulling this way, and one that way, and one against the other---how do the people know what to do? And the pressure of the Holy Spirit coming down, trying to find a place to move Himself into, that He can work word by word, word by word...

52 Now you Pentecostal people believed when the gifts began to restore to the church of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and speaking with tongues, and you stayed right with that. You believed that. Now that's all right. But why did you stop there? Why did you stop there?
When Israel was on the journey to the promised land... And when they stopped in the wilderness, they stayed there for forty years---and just a day's journey out of the ... every promise, the whole complete promised land. And the Pentecostal people, when they crossed over, dancing and shouting like Miriam and them when they hit the wilderness, they done the same thing that Moses did ... or not ... Israel did. They wanted a law. Grace had already provided everything. They wanted something so they could have doctors, and Ph.D's, and LL.D's; and they got it. And they journeyed there until every one of them died. Right.

53 And God took two men and sent them over---Caleb and Joshua. Why, there was only about forty miles of journey was all they had to walk. Why, they was just a day or two away from it. But they waited back here forty years, till He got all that stuff out of them, till all them people died out.
Well, it's just about time for a change now. We started organizing, doing the very same thing that we come out of, and brought it right back, and making this a tie-post, and this an absolute. And if they don't believe it just exactly this way, bless God, they're not even in it at all. So what have you done? Sat still and made members.
What does the members know? Turn into the Word of God, and they see something happen that's exactly the Word of God, why, they don't know which way to turn. They go and ask some bishop, or some presbyter, "What's this?" and "What's that?"
Why, it puts me in mind of a bunch of incubator chickens. I always felt sorry for an incubator chicken. He'd "chirp, chirp," and he ain't got no mammy to go to. He was turned out by a machine. That's the way a lot of these preachers in this day ... turned out by a big machine, hollering about God and don't know what even the thing is.

54 ... he was absolutely... He was tied to God, and God was the Word, and God proved it by him. But there we are today, see. We got too many absolutes, and not the right absolute, see. There's only one way, and that's Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way...," and Jesus and the Word is the same thing.
And now God has prophesied in this last days of what comes to pass. He promised these things in the last days. Jesus promised them, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."---all the scriptures that He promised for the last days. And we're living right in that time.
And God, the Holy Spirit, is moving upon the people. And the only thing you want to do is dance in the Spirit, and speak in tongues. That's all you know about. That's all the seed's been planted. What we need is a full gospel planted in a full heart with a full power of bringing a full absolute. What's the matter?

55 Did you ever think what Israel done in the wilderness there? They married wives, they raised children, and crops, so forth, kissed the babies, and buried the dead, and married the young. God blessed them, and they prospered. But they were still out of the promised land. And that's the way Pentecost is today. Forty years ago you wouldn't have thought you ... your mother and father would've had a spasm if they'd thought you'd've got in this kind of condition. Certainly.
Them old timers had tied to that absolute, and held on to that Word regardless of what it was. There was no denomination, presbyters, district men, or bishops going to tell them anything about it. They walked in the Spirit, and went out and done miracles and performed things. They had Azusa Street meetings going everywhere---brush arbor meetings. And you can't even get a man on the street corner anymore to testify hardly, see. What have we got? Same thing Israel had.

56 Now there rose up a fellow there at the end-time and begin to point after forty years. There was a whole land full of blessings over there, and the whole ... because the hour had arrived that God was going to take them over.
The hour's arrived now that He wants to get a church ready. I'm going to say this with a prophetic voice, I trust. I'm not saying "in the name of the Lord," but I believe this is true. The rapture ... you'll be talking about the rapture when the rapture's been gone a long time. You'll be saying, "Bless God, the rapture's coming," and it's done past.
Didn't Jesus say about John...? "Why does the scribes say that John first, or, how did he say that Elias must come?"
He said, "He's already come and you didn't know it. But you done just exactly what you said you'd do."
One day there will come a judgment upon earth. And the first thing you know, you're going to find people here looking for the rapture, and they done been gone a long time ago---it'll be such in the minority. He said, "As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. As it was in the days of Lot..."

57 We think this great big bunch of cannon fodder here, atomic ash, is going. It'll only go if it's got the life of Christ in it, because God will raise it up. That's right. There'll be a rapture, you think. Two or three people here, and one over here, and somewhere else somebody come up missing---thought they run away from home. Better be careful---they might be gone. Looking for a rapture, and it already passed.
Now that isn't contrary to the Word. No, it isn't. He come like a thief in the night, see. They'd be gone before you know it. God places his great power out in the church. It don't take a great big group in; it takes a minority. "Fear not, little flock. It's your Father's good will..."---you that's holding to the absolute (that's right), with the confirmation of God working in it.

58 So you see, we're living in a terrific time, and that's what that pressure is upon the church. You want to see something, you want to see something. But now, how can God ever watch over his Word to vindicate it, and the person disbelieving that Word and won't receive it in their heart? How can the sun shine upon a seed and bring it to life when it hasn't got any life in it? It's got to be a germitized seed. So a creed is germitized to make more members; but the Word is germitized to make saints, make believers. Right. God works to perform his Word. He watches over it to vindicate it. Yes, sir.

59 Now, certainly the Catholic church takes their anchor---their North Star---for their achievements. And it's what the pope says is an infallibility to the Roman end of the Catholic church. The Protestants---a bishop, some creed: "That's against our creed." And some of them is against the different things---their denominational beliefs, and so forth.
You know, I feel like Paul said here. I'm looking at a scripture in Acts 20 and 24. He said, "None of these things move me [Amen! Why? For he was anchored. He had an absolute.] since I met Him on the road to Damascus." If I could talk to Paul... "He turned me around, started me back in the right way. I was off the Word; He put me back on the Word." Yes, sir.

60 Listen, I feel that way too. I feel that any man that's born of the Spirit of God, that loves God and loves his Word, God has a purpose in that.
God had a purpose in turning Paul around. Did not He say, "I'm going to show in him" his glory? God had a purpose when He saved me. I'm determined to do his will---not add to it or take away from it. Revelation 22:19 said "whosoever shall do it will be ... his part taken from the book of life." I'm determined to never add one thing of my own opinion to that Word. I'm determined to read it just the way it is, and ask God that I'll open in my heart and receive it. "Work it through me, Lord, that others might see. May it become salty and something real that others might see." Yes, sir.

61 Now, if He is our absolute there can be no other absolute. You can't have... Say, "Well, my church is my absolute. My creed is my absolute." If Christ is your absolute, you believe Christ's Word. There's no other way to do it.
You know, I think about the time that He saved me. I'll tell you why I stand the way I do. Not to be different---I made myself clear on that. I hope I have. But I ... when Christ saved me there were millions of people groping in sin. When He saved me He had a purpose in doing it. He had a purpose in saving me. He just seen an ignoramus like me, and somehow or another... When there was plenty of smart men, more able men, men that could do it---me here with not even hardly a 7th grade education---when there was men who's studied in school and got degrees, and doctors of divinity and philosophy, and so forth...
But when Christ saved me He had a purpose in doing it, or He'd've never saved me. Listen, brethren, I love you and you know that. But I'm determined in my heart that I'll never back on that Word. I'll stay right there. That's my absolute I've been tied to all these years. He had a purpose in doing it. That's right. And I aim to see that purpose through, to stay with that Word---not to be different, not to be mean, but to be honest and sincere with God. That's right.

62 Now. You know Christ's death had an absolute to it. Everybody was afraid of death, even the great prophet Job. Many of the people were afraid of death, a fear. And man always feared it. But when Christ come and took death upon Him, He become an absolute to those who feared death. In Hebrews 2:14-15, He took the form of man to die like a man, to pay the penalty. But on Easter He came forth with the keys of death and hell. He had conquered it. He come, He said, "Fear not. I am he that was dead and alive forevermore." And our absolute is on Him. That's right---in Him. And He was the perfect word of God. He was so perfect till when He spoke his word, it created. It stopped the winds, and it made biscuits, and cooked fish, just by his word. See, there was no hindrance, He was so perfect. He said the Word and He were one.

63 He was... God's love (in John 3:16) produced a body, not born after sex under the fall, but was born by a creative power of God that God, Himself, lived in this body and projected his word out. And God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, making an absolute for any believer. And He went to his grave with a load of sin upon Him, and paid the penalty; and rose up on Easter morning with the keys of death and hell. It's an absolute to any man that fears death.
Let me say this: I don't know how many more messages I have to preach before I go. If you're a real believer in God, and been born again, don't be scared of death. It's the best thing could happen to you, almost. Paul said, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Certainly. It's ... don't never fear death. II Thessalonians, we're caught up with our loved ones to meet Him in the air. What a promise!
What an absolute that it is, to believe in Christ, to have my heart say "Amen" to every word in his Book. What He says, I believe it too. That I know: that the Holy Spirit is my compass, because it guides me to his absolute, see, his North Star, to Him---the North Star. He's my absolute, my sun, my post, my North Star. Oh, my!
He's so much different from others I see. Always there's something pulling, some string you got to pull. But in this here you pull nothing. The only thing, it's brought down on you. It's the absolute. Christ is our absolute.

64 Look how much different his Word is. That Word has been from old. The New and Old Testament coincides with one another like a dovetail piece of board coming together. There's nothing out of order. Many men wrote that Book, that sixty-six books of the Bible. They wrote it in a space of hundreds and hundreds of years apart, one not knowing the other. And what happened? You can't make one word contradict the other one. Right. That's the reason...
I've heard people say the Bible contradicts itself. I'll preach across this United States for a year straight, and let the ministers take up offerings, and give them every bit to you, if you'll show me where God's Word contradicts itself. Right. I've made that offer for years. Nobody's took it up yet, because it does not contradict it. It's your own little peanut brain, that you're trying to make it say something that it doesn't say. Right. No, God's Word doesn't contradict itself. He is, it's...

65 Now, denominations will contradict one another. They're like these other stars, you see. They'll float around every time like the world. They turn in the world, and around the world. And the world turning gets them all out of whack.
But it never turns away from God's North Star, his Word, where the compass points to it. It's always the same Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's the absolute. That's the place.
You could look at this here. Today it's here, and tomorrow it believes something else, and the next day it's over somewhere else. That's the way. It's wishy-washy in and out, out and out, and in and in, and so forth.
But you put your heart right on God's Word, and heavens and earth will pass away; but that never shall pass away. That's the absolute. That's the solid foundation. That's the ... that's my compass, my sail, that's my guide, that's my life---is upon that absolute of God's Word. I'm tied there eternally with Him. Amen. Others can do what they want to---that's up to them. But for me, it's this absolute. I want that for my absolute. Might shift and turn, and so forth---but not his Word. It'll always remain the same. He ever remains true to his Word. Now make Him your absolute.

66 In the times of my trouble back there, when I lost my family and my life almost was taken from me... My little girl died---me praying for her---and after I'd been on the streets day and night preaching, and praying, and trying to do what was right. You've heard my life story. Many of you read it. And my, it come to a place that I seen my wife die right in my ... me holding her hand. And I ... my little baby took sick a few hours after that. And I got down there and prayed with all that was in me, and looked like a black sheet let down and refused to answer my prayer.
Then Satan come to me and said, "You see, you're only about twenty years old, and here you ... what all you've done, and you've neglected yourself, and you've done all these things. You've forfeited all your young life, about ... when you should've been out having a big time like the rest of the young folks. And here you've stood on the street corner crying, and praying. You went all night at a time in the hospitals, hour after hour. And when it comes to your own blood and flesh, He refuses to hear you."
That was one time I was tempted, but I happened to remember back. I got an absolute. "Though he slay me yet, I'll trust him." I don't care what comes, or goes.

67 The state senator of Indiana, Sam Isler, he come to ... used to come to the Tabernacle. He's deceased now, about two years---fine man. And he used to ... he was coming down the road. I was going up to pray up at the grave where wife and baby were laying. It was right after the '37 flood. I had on a pair of boots, and I was walking up the road crying. And little Billy, my son, was just about to die too. And the doctors had done said there's not hardly anything more to do for him. And he had some kind of a dysentery you couldn't stop, an infection.

68 And I was crying, praying, and I thought... Well, I was still holding on to God. I was going up the road crying. I thought I'd go up and listen. I used to sit up there of a evening by the grave, and I'd hear an old dove come down there and go to singing. I'd hear the pines blowing the winds through ... the winds through the pines, rather, and it sounded like they'd say,
There's a land beyond the river,
They call the sweet forever,
We only reach this shore by faith's
decree;
One by one we gain the portal,
There to dwell with the immortal,
Some day they'll ring the golden
bells for you and me.
I'd stand there and cry, and look up, and I'd say to the wife and baby, I'd say, "I know that you're not laying here. This is just where I planted the remains that I held in my arms. But somewhere beyond the river, you're there."

69 So, but see ... I was going up to that place one day to sit up at the grave, had on a pair of boots, walking along. An old car come up behind me and stopped, and it was Mr. Isler, the state senator. He jumped out of the car, pulled around, come back and put his arms around me. He said, "Billy, I sure feel sorry."
I said, "That's all right, Brother Isler."
And he said, "I oughtn't to have stopped." He seen I was weeping.
I said, "That's all right, Mr. Isler."
And he said, "I'm going to ask you something, son."
I said, "All right, go ahead and ask me."
He said, "I've seen you stand there in that pulpit till I thought you'd die." Said, "I've seen you fast till you'd be so peaked I'd feel sorry for you," and said, "in and out, and in and out, day and night." He said, "And then your wife and baby in there... See, you look at them things." He said, "What does Christ mean to you now?"
I said, "Thou the stream of all my comfort, more than life to me, whom have I on earth beside Thee, or whom in heaven but Thee?" See, I'd found that absolute, that something that held me when the storm was on.

70 Someone said to me, said, "Billy, did you keep your religion during the time of your trouble?"
I said, "No, it kept me," see. That's what it was. I was tied to Him in the hours when my strength was gone, and there was nothing I could do. My anchor held within the veil of his Word yonder, where... Sometimes I don't understand it. Sometimes I think, "What makes me do the things I do?" There's something with inside me pulsating me. I can't keep from doing it, brother.
I come to Phoenix the other day with a determination I'd never strike again at any organization. The first thing you know, a vision struck before me the first night, and I seen myself turned towards the desert. Something turned me around and showed me a great big, old, cold church, said, "Stay there, before you go there." Oh, my! There's something I can't keep from doing. It's an absolute that's on the inside of me. It's more than my life to me. Yes. I can no more change it than I could change the color of my eyes. I couldn't do it. Now by his grace I'm tied to Him, the one that said---like He did in the days of Moses---"I AM."

71 Moses, you know he had an absolute. When he was down there, he had all the theology a man could have. And he tried hard. He was a military man. He looked out the windows, and by faith (Listen! Now remember!), by faith Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He had faith in what he was doing. He absolutely believed it. He knowed that he was raised up for that purpose. But he failed---he went out to raise sheep. And he failed.
But one day back on the backside of the desert he come to an absolute. He come to a place where he met something that was real. There was a bush on fire. He didn't want to take the leaves and go down to the laboratory to see the reason they didn't burn. He just sat down by it.
"Take off your shoes, Moses."
"I'll go down and ask my pastor what about this." He didn't have time to do that. He must take off his shoes. And when he heard in there...
There was the word of the living God that was in that bush. "I AM THAT I AM. I remember my promise that I made with Abraham. I remember my covenant, and I'm come down to deliver them."

72 Now, then he had an absolute. He was tied to that as long as he lived, and it took him to heaven. He was tied to that absolute. No matter what any of the theologians said, he didn't need anybody to explain it to him. He knowed it. He had met God, and the voice... That big pillar of fire that led him through the wilderness and plumb on to the promised land, that pillar of fire in there had a voice in it. And that voice was the voice of God that vindicated the Word. Amen! I hope you're not asleep now.
Notice. That pillar of fire spoke the word and vindicated it to make it show... He quoted the scripture, "I am the God that made the promise to Abraham. I'm the one. That's what's the matter with Israel. That's what's the matter down there. I remember my promise, and I've come down to see that it's done."

73 God only uses man to work with. He doesn't use organization, He doesn't use machinery. He could have done it, but He chose a man. That's right. He could've chose the stars, the wind, or anything, to preach the gospel; but He chose man. He does not change Himself. He's always the same. He chose blood for salvation. Education or nothing else will ever take its place. Blood is God's appropriate way for salvation. That's true.
And now, I want you to notice He can't change. When He talked to Moses, He said, "Moses, I'm sending you down there. But before you go, I want to prove to you that I am God." Said, "What you got in your hand there?"
Said, "A stick."
Said, "Throw it down." And it turned into a serpent. He picked it up again and it come back a stick.
Oh, when Moses come to the place where the impersonators raised up, trying to impersonate, when he threw his rod down and said, "Here, Pharaoh, I'll show you what God told me to do. I'll throw this rod down and watch it turn to a serpent,"---and it did.
Pharaoh said, "I've got them guys, too. My denomination can produce that." So they come over, and got some impersonators.
What did Moses do? He stood right there. Why? He'd met God; he knowed that was God. He'd done his part; it's God's time to move then. He stayed right there.

74 The Bible said the same thing will repeat in the last days; for as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses... It's true, see. But he stood there. Then he saw the hand of God come down, and that snake gobbled up the rest of them. Did you ever notice what become of them sticks? They were in the belly of this one stick. Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness with that same stick with all them snakes inside of it, I guess. Why?
You know why? When Moses met this burning bush, you know ... and that burning bush proved to be God, that light, that pillar of fire that proved to be God... And I believe that God come in Moses because... Watch Him in his creative power. Moses shined then with the fire. You know where I'm going now, don't you? Certainly. Like Pentecost.

75 Notice Moses had the fire. The fire was in Moses, because whatever Moses said, it wasn't Moses, it was God speaking. And he performed his sign because the pillar of fire left the bush, and come on Moses. Amen! Oh, brother, do you see what I mean? That same Jesus that went up, come back again on the day of Pentecost in the form of the Holy Ghost and fire. It should be upon the people doing the same thing He did, because He said it would do it. Where are we at? See what I mean? Moses, the fire was in Moses. It left the bush, come on Moses.
We try to put the fire in the furnace. That's about all we got. What we need is Holy Spirit fire, that same pillar of fire that led Israel. Sure.
Oh, you say, "Now, Brother Branham, I'd be careful about that."

76 Now wait a minute. When Paul, the great theologian that had plenty of experience... But on the road to Damascus and he was stricken down. He looked up and there was that pillar of fire. He knowed that was God. He'd seen it vindicated in the Bible it was God, and he called Him "Lord." Said, "Lord, who are you? What can I do?"
He said, "I'm Jesus."
That settled it. Paul had an absolute. He knowed that the God of the Old Testament was Jesus Christ of the New. There he was anchored, and nothing should move him. Sure. He had the vindication. Why? The same pillar of fire that led his people out of Egypt into Israel, into Palestine, that same pillar of fire was standing there claiming to be Jesus Christ. Then he knowed where he was at. Then he was ready. Soon as he got healed and filled with the Holy Ghost, he was ready to go. See,

77 but he had an absolute. It stayed with him before Agrippa, and all the great men of them days, and women.
He stood there pleading for the Word. Why? He knowed that the Word was God. Who wrote the book of Hebrews? Paul, sure. He was inspired to do it. But why? That pillar of fire that met him was in him. That's the reason he could write.
That's the reason Moses wrote the first four books of the Bible, because that pillar of fire... How would he ever know how creation started? How would he ever know about the others? Because that same pillar of fire that was in him, that was on the bush, come off the bush and was on him. And it was vindicated, and proved that it was. Korah and them wanted to start an organization against it, but it didn't work. It failed.
Moses had that absolute.

78 Paul had the same absolute, the same pillar of fire, the same Holy Spirit, the same God. Not the "I was," or "I will be"; the "I AM" (present tense, always).
Joshua had an absolute. That's when he met the chief captain ---the host of Israel's chief captain---and He told him to march around the walls. They was all fortified in with... Oh, man! You talk about hard to get in! Hard to have a revival in there, because no one would let him in. They was all closed up on him. But he met the chief captain. He told him what to do---just put on full armor of God, and keep marching. Amen. The walls will fall down.
And when the people shouted, and the trumpets sounded, that was his absolute. He went right in for his campaign then, right into Jericho. Sure. He had an absolute---the Word of ... from the chief captain.

79 John, when he was a young man, and he knowed he had to train... He was going to have to introduce the Messiah. He was the one ... he never knowed who He was. He was somewhere. And John knowed that he couldn't just take a seminary experience. He had to have an absolute. He had to have something to be absolutely the truth.
Now, brethren, I want to ask you something. Ministers---not to be different, not to be mean, but to be honest---don't you think this is a day, in all this chaos that we're living in, we got to be sure about this thing? There's too many differences.

80 And John knew he had to be absolutely sure, so he never went to his father's school. There's nothing said he went back to learn to be a priest. But he went to the wilderness, and was in the wilderness until his calling forth. Then he come around, and the crowds was standing there. He was so sure that the Messiah was in his day, because he was the one that was ordained to introduce this Messiah, because Malachi 3 said so. "I'll send my messenger before my face. He'll prepare the way."
John knew where he was standing. No matter how many priests would say, "You mean to tell ... time ... we got up here ... the daily sacrifice will be done away?"
He said, "There'll come a time when the Lamb of God will come that'll take away the sacrifice."---standing in mud with whiskers over his face, that you'd run away from your house today.
There it was. See, God's not in class and glamour as we try to put Him in, and we Pentecostal people... God is in humility.
There He was standing, watching. And he was introducing. He said ... he was so sure that He was there, he said, "There's one standing among you, who you don't even know." Oh, my! What a rebuke. "There's one among you right now, who you don't know."

81 I wonder if it'd sound sacrilegious if I mimic him for a minute. Maybe I better not.
One among you that you don't know. You claim you know Him, but you don't. Golgotha, they killed the very God that they claimed they were serving---they didn't know Him.
John said, "There's one among you, and you don't know Him." And one day he looked out there, and he absolutely seen a dove coming down from heaven, and a voice. Nobody else saw it; nobody else heard it. But he saw it, and it was an absolute---not Professor Jones, or somebody else. It was "Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on, he is the one that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire." That's the divine vindication of God---making it so. It was an absolute. There was no question in John's mind. There it was, just exactly what God said would take place. There it was. So that dove upon that ordinary man was John's absolute. He knew it was the truth.

82 Now, I'm going to close by saying these few words. Don't you think we need an absolute? Don't you think we need something that's real? Sure. We need something that ... something that you can say, "This is it," put your hands to it. "This is it." We can see ... how we going to do it? Everybody says, "This is it, this is it." But that's got to be scriptural, an absolute.
Let me just give you a little personal thing before I close. Brother, sister, when I'd taken my choice to whether I wanted to remain with the Baptist church, or whether... It's just as good as any of them to me---just a bunch of men, put together, which is all right.
But when it come to a time they had to tell me that I had to compromise with the Word, now that ... I ain't made out of that. No, see. The Word is first, see. "Well," they said, "if you don't do that, you can no longer belong to the Baptist church."
I said, "I don't ... it isn't the Baptist church that saved me. It was Jesus Christ that saved me. He is my ultimate. He's my stand, He's my absolute, He's my tie-post. There I stand."

83 Now, if I've got the wrong thing, then God'll never confirm it. But if you have got the right thing, God is obligated to confirm it. There you are. And that's the proof of it. If it's right, God's obligated to prove it's right. If it's wrong, He'll have nothing to do with it.
So, I remember after my first revival I was down on the river baptizing. And I took the seventeenth person out. My wife a little girl, standing on the bank, at that time... I had never been married to my first wife (that's dead), and there she was on the bank. And they was all standing there, hundreds and hundreds of people---yes, four or five thousand, maybe more, up and down the river bank---a real hot afternoon in June.

84 And I walked out in the water, and I took a candidate (about the seventeenth person) to baptize him. I had around five hundred after my revival to be baptized. And I walked out in the water with this person. I started to raise my hand. I said, "Heavenly Father," as I...
And about that time something shook me. I thought "Where is it?" I looked around. Everybody had their heads bowed, as far as I could see. Way back up on the banks, there was, oh, cars and people piled all over the walls, and things. I looked again, and I heard a voice say, "Look up." And I was afraid to look up. I was just a kid. We got the picture of it. I said, "Father, ..." Something said, "Look up." I put my hand down.
This young fellow I was to baptize looked at me in the face. He said, "Well, Brother Bill?"
I said, "Did you hear that?"
He said, "No."
I said, "Heavenly Father..."
He said, "Look up!"
I looked up like this, and coming down from the skies come a pillar of light whirling around, a voice coming from it roaring, coming down, said, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Jesus Christ, so are you sent..." O God! I watched that light. I'd seen it since a little boy.
I tried to tell people. They said "You're out of your mind."

85 But the scientific research, the late George J. Lacy, when he examined... When they took the picture of it, there it was just the same. It showed in the picture. Scientific proof proves that it's right. To me, it's never told me one thing but is exactly on this Scripture.
When I seen that fire and heard it, and seen everybody screaming, fainting, and falling, looking there, and pointing to that light... The paper, the Louisville paper, packed a great article, and it went on Associated Press, all through Canada and everywhere. "Mystic light appears over a local Baptist minister while baptizing." "Mystic"---hard to understand. How many times have they took it? Practically every person in here, I guess, got it in your home. It's down there in Washington, DC, copyrighted, as the only supernatural being was ever photographed, scientifically photographed.

86 What was it? That same light, that same voice spoke and said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." It's the same voice to me. It's the same pillar of fire was back yonder, because it's doing the same works. Jesus said, "I come from God and I go to God. A little while and the world sees me no more." He came... He said, when He was here on earth at the feast, He said, "I AM THE I AM."
You say, "Well, you're not over fifty years old, but you said ... you say you saw Abraham?"
He said, "Before Abraham was I AM."
There He was. What was it? That light, that fire, that God, that Spirit. God is a burning fire. He is a light. And there it was in ... manifested in Jesus Christ. It returned when Jesus rose up from the grave. But on the day He met Paul, coming down to Damascus, He'd turned back to God again, for He said, "I'm Jesus, who you persecute." Brethren! Don't be asleep. Don't you see that that same God's among us right now, proving Himself that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever? That's my absolute.

87 He's never told me one thing...
If He told me one thing that was contrary to this Scripture, I've never had nobody to stand before me yet and dispute it. Fellow said he was going to one time, and he didn't do it. He didn't show up. He had better sense than I thought he did. He knows better than to do that. You know the fellow that raised up one time in a meeting to do it was paralyzed, and they packed him out. I've never had to worry a thing, because I believe my absolute is the Word of God that's made manifest. Upon this I'll put my soul and body.
Why? He's never told me one thing but what was absolutely scriptural. He's never said one thing to me before any of you... I'll take any of you to charge. Has He ever told you anything in the name of the Lord but what come to pass? That's exactly. What is it? It's "Upon this rock," upon this Word... That's the one where I get the revelation. It's from Him who reveals it. I'm uneducated. I don't try to study, I don't try to know it. I just do as He tells me. Then when He shows me to look here, there it is. I didn't even see it, and here it is---and it manifests itself. That's my absolute. It's kept me down through these years. Brethren, it's helped me when I had no other way to be helped.

88 I want to die by it.
When I come to the time to die, I hope---like Moses---that I see that Rock standing there. And I want to step on it and have some pallbearers to pack me away. Until then I'm going to live true to that Word, so help me God, because that's my absolute---with malice towards none, with love and grace towards all. If that isn't right, God could strike me dead standing here in this pulpit. I have malice against nobody; I love everybody. And don't you know ... did you ever read I John 4:17, that you have to have correction like that to make genuine love at the time of judgment? It's not to be different. It's love. Love is strict, and love chastens.

89 A man who would let his wife go out and run around all night with some drunk, come in next morning, and say, "Yes, dearie, I hope you had a nice time," you're a poor excuse of a man. Any man'd let his wife get out there and wear shorts, and these little old bathing suits (bikinis, or ever what it is) and lay out amongst these people, I got little hopes of you even being a man. That's right.
Man's not measured by how much his biceps are, how bigger muscles he is; he's measured by his character. That's exactly right. And character comes from the Word of God, and that alone. And any preacher that claims to be a preacher, and deny that Word, there's little character of God there to me. Amen! May be some hopes if he'll listen awhile. Yeah. Now, I don't want to get critical with you. I love you, and I mean that. But that's my absolute, brethren---this Word, "thus saith the Lord." You know that's true.

90 I'm looking around for Brother Carlson to see if he was still sitting here. I guess he's gone. Yes. He was talking here awhile ago. He was right there in Chicago when that bunch of the Greater Chicago Ministerial Association... Why, two or three days they was going to pull me in there, and comb me over the coals, yeah, on some things that I was teaching about this, and about these things.
And three nights before it happened the Holy Spirit woke me up and said, "Go over there and stand by that window." I went and there was a lightning flashing. He said, "They've got a trap set for you, but don't fail to go. I'll be with you." I took Brother Carlson, Brother Tommy Hicks (All of you know him. We got the tape of it right here.), and I... They wanted me to go the next morning to eat breakfast with them. We went down to the Town and Country, and we sat down there. And I thought I'd just comb Tommy. He's a good friend of mine, precious brother.
And I said, "Tommy, I got to meet them ministers." I said, "You're a Doctor of Divinity. My little old ignorant way of talking," I said, "I couldn't meet them fellows. Won't you do that for me? I've done a many favor of you."
He said, "Oh, I couldn't do it, Brother Branham."

91 Brother Carlson and them looked at one another, and I said, "You think you're hiding that from me? I know why you won't do it." I said, "Listen. It's because that Association's got something that they're going to question me on." And they both looked like they could drop through the floor.
And when they did, I said, "Certainly it is. But let me tell you, Brother Hank..." (He's sitting here somewhere now. He's right around here. And so, he's sitting right here.) I said... (Brother Hank---you let him testify.) And so... (We just got through talking about it awhile ago.) And there I said, "Brother Hank, listen. You got that hotel room rented, haven't you? But thus saith the Lord, they're going to turn you down."
He said, "Brother Branham, I got my deposit."
"I don't care what you got up. You're not going to get it. We're going into a place that's got a green room in it. This is a brown. And Dr. Meade's going to sit down here (and so-and-so, and just exactly where they'd be sitting)." And I said, "I don't want you to try to pull any punches for me. Just introduce me to the audience and let me do the rest."
He said...

92 And that morning when he come up there, every man sitting just exactly... They'd canceled the place out, and he had to get the Town and Country place out there, to get the place---a brown room, just exactly. There sat Dr. Meade, and all the rest of them just in place. And I looked over to him, and Brother Tommy Hicks looked at me.
He said, "Brother Branham, I feel like fainting."
And he said... I said, "Don't worry."
And so, Brother Carlson got up and said, "Now, I know a lot of you men is going to disagree with Brother Branham, and things like that, but," said, "there's one thing---he's not afraid to stand here." And said, "Now I just turn it over to him."
And I said, "Now each one of you here, here's what you got against me." And I called over four or five different things. I said, "I want some man to take his Bible and come here and stand by my side and disprove it. Certainly. And if you can't do it, then stay off of my back." Right. Yes, sir! Yes, sir.

93 Standing yonder in Bombay, India, on the same thing, when a blind man standing there... And them Magis, and everything else, sitting out there, and they ... the holy men, and the Mohammedans and Buddhists, and everything... I'd done seen the vision this man was going to get his sight. I said, "Let one of you people out there come up here and give him his sight. I was entertained today by seventeen different religions, and every one of you denying Jesus Christ." I said, "If your religion's so great, come give this man his sight."
What would you say? He was a sun-worshipper. Like the Holy Spirit...; but they thought it was telepathy, see, and I was reading their mind. And I said, "Why, surely the God of creation... If a man wants to do right, surely that the God of creation will bring him back into his right state." I wouldn't've said that for nothing if I hadn't seen that happen in a vision; but I knowed then. See, you don't want to take something you imagine. You want to be dead sure that you're right. Then you don't care what comes or goes. He's standing there with you, and so what difference does it make? There you know what happened. The blind man received his sight.

94 About two or three months ago I was standing in the room, and I heard a voice speaking in the corner. I tried to wake my wife to look at it there. There was ... the morning before that was a hideous thing standing there at the bed, accusing me, after He'd told me... I'd seen a big mamba running (that's a African snake), and it was trying to kill people. And I ... was after my brother. And I screamed out, "Oh, God! What can I do?"
He said, "You've been given power to bind him. Be of a good courage."
I spoke to him, and his tail went up in the air, and whirled around, and (just like this pitcher handle here), and choked himself to death. Blue smoke flew out of him.
The next morning when I woke up, and I was laying there, and I said, "I'd better get up and take the children to school," and looked over. There was this hideous looking thing---looked like it was Alley Oop in the funny paper---great big horns sticking out of it. He was going ... sounded like a hen cackling, or singing, like they're going from the barn. I looked at it and I said, "Meda, Meda, honey," and she didn't wake up. I thought, "That'd scare her to death," and I waited there just a minute, and standing, watch.

95 People talk about devils, and don't even know what they are sometimes. That's right. But you run headlong into them every day, maybe. But you will.
Notice. After awhile he was accusing me, said, "You have no power with God. You're just a bluff. You have no power."
I said, "Satan, you're an offense to me. Get out of my way in the name of Jesus Christ," and he left. I laid there a little bit in the bed, started to raise up. I felt a real sweet feeling come over me. I thought, "I wonder if the Holy Spirit now is close." And over in the corner... So help me (here's my Bible over my heart), the sweetest voice I ever heard in my life said, "Don't fear to go anywhere, and don't fear to do anything. For the never-failing presence of Jesus Christ is with you wherever you go."

96 That settled it with me! Let them rage! I got an absolute. My anchor holds yonder, because it's the Word of the living God. Amen.
You believe Him? Let us bow our heads just a moment. If you haven't got that absolute now, get it. If you'd like to have that absolute, that assurance in your heart of the Holy Spirit, raise your hand, say, "I want something that will punctuate the word of God, and I can see the Word of God made manifest. God bless you. It's all over the building. Thank you.
I'm only telling you the truth, friend. Don't let it pass by you. I'm not claiming... I'm nothing. I'm your brother. Don't you pay any attention to a messenger; you watch the message. Don't watch the messenger. God'll take it away from you. He'll share his glory with nobody. Right. Don't you watch the messenger; watch the message. If a man ran in here---he might be black, yellow, brown, ragged---if he's got a check for you for a bank draft for a million dollars, you wouldn't care what color he was or how he was dressed. It's the message he has for you.
Now, don't look at my grammar and the things... You just remember I'm telling you about Jesus Christ, who's here now. You believe Him with all your heart. Don't you fail to believe Him.

97 I'm watching now to see what He's going to tell me. Just keep your heads bowed and start praying. Just have faith. Don't doubt.
Now heavenly Father, it's all in your hands. I pray, heavenly Father, just now, that men and women in here might realize that this is not an easy thing to do---being a mortal and living among men, living with people. I pray, heavenly Father, that they will understand this and know that thy servant is trying to speak of you. And I've found that you keep your Word, Lord. I've found that it's true. I find that You and your Word are the self-same.
And You've carried me safely this far, Father, and if that angel who the people have seen and seen his light... It's in a pillar of a fire. Lord, with all my heart I believe it's our Lord Jesus. I believe it's his Spirit, the Holy Spirit that we all worship and believe in.
God, may we not fail to recognize it now, and may we understand and come back. And may the church clean itself up. May every denomination... Father, I don't pray that You'll break up those denominations. But I pray that the Holy Spirit will get into those denominations, and they will be ... they see things different, and that they may all become one, a brotherhood. Grant it.

98 I thank You for their fine cooperation, Lord.
If it hadn't been You in this, there'd been nobody let me come in. But You, You gave me favor with these ministers, and I pray that You'll bless them, Lord. I pray for them especially, for every one.
I pray for Brother Williams. Lord, give him the desire of his heart. Oh, I pray that you'll help him---him and Sister Williams and their desires; Brother Shakarian, Sister Shakarian, all these executives here of this great group of laity, that you've called out in this last days to pack a message to unite brethren together. Lord, may they never become a denomination. May they stay free from all those things, and put their arms out and take in all brothers that's born of the Spirit. Grant it.
Bless all the groups. Bless the oneness and the ... all the different little groups, Lord, that's got their different ideas---the Trinitarians, and the ones that believes that God is two, and God is three, and God is ... oh, ever what they believe, God. Let them know that there's one true God, Jesus Christ is his Son. Grant it, Lord, that they'll be able to understand these things, that we don't have no four or five gods. We have one God in three offices---the same God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May the revelation dawn upon them today, Lord.

99 May this fussing quit going on, and may men and women be able to associate together, and be one in Christ. For the hour is too late now for these arguments, and little things. I believe you ... and I believe, Father, all that You predestinated to come to life will hear your voice and come. "My sheep will hear my voice." And I believe that You'll grant it, Lord. Bless them now.
There's many hands in here---maybe two hundred hands up in the air---that wanted to receive You as their Saviour, and wanted to receive You as their absolute, something that they could place their faith on, that their very heart would punctuate every word and make it be manifest. Grant it, Father. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask it.

100 Now, while you're here together and in this little group, I want you to be praying a minute. I've never done this, but I feel led to do it. Just keep in prayer. And how many of you people in here that know me, and you're sick or have need for yourself, or somebody, raise up your hands that you know me, and know that I know you? Raise up your hands everywhere. See, it just looks like all around. Now you put your hands down.
Now, the ones that you know that you don't know me, and I don't know you, raise up your hands. Still, everywhere. No way to differentiate them apart.

101 Now, I want you to pray, pray sincerely. Don't doubt now, just pray. And let's let the Holy Spirit... Now, if I've spoke these things... Now you know good and well it's totally impossible for me to know who you are, what you are, or whatever about it, what's wrong with you. Well, what happens?
Did not Jesus promise this same thing in the last day? Did not He say there, when He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom," when God was manifested in flesh...? That man come there---just a man, eating flesh of a cow, or a calf, drinking milk and bread---and He said, "Where is Sarah?"
Said, "She's in the tent behind you," and He told what He was going to do.
He said, "I'm going to visit you." Abraham called Him "Elohim," Lord God. And He said... Sarah laughed to herself, and He said, "Why did Sarah laugh?", with his back turned to the tent.
Jesus said, "As it was..."

102 You see, there was the church natural---the church natural, which was Lot and his group. They had a modern Billy Graham go down there, and so forth, and an Oral Roberts and them, calling them out. They did a miracle as so much to smite blind and preach the gospel.
And there was the Sodomites. There's always three groups of people. The Sodomites, you see what they did.
But the elected, the Pentecostal, so-called---that was Abraham, that had ... already out of Egypt, already out of Sodom, sitting up in the lands, in the poor lands. See what kind of a message they got?

103 Now watch today. When was there ever a time, tell me when a time ever went out to Sodom. Remember, that was Abraham--- A-b-e-r-h-a-m, A-b-r-a-h-a-m rather. When was there ever a messenger ever went to the local denominational churches with a man ending his name in h-a-m? G-r-a-h-a-m. What about to the Pentecostal group? It's never been known in history. I come through it just recently, checking names.
You say, "Names don't mean nothing."
Why did Saul, then, have his name changed to Paul? Why did Simon to Peter? Why did Jacob to Israel? Certainly it is.

104 Have faith in God. Don't overlook the thing that's ... God's trying to give you.
Now pray. Say, "Lord Jesus, have mercy." If I'm not mistaken (while you have your heads bowed, I'm looking over here), I think that's Sister Carl Williams sitting over here to my right. Is that right, Mrs. Williams. I ... over here, Sister Carl Williams? It looked like her sitting over there to my right. I wasn't sure. Did I make it clear? I guess it wasn't. I'm trying to see somebody that I know. Look around, I see Brother and Sister Dauch sitting here, but they're from the church.

105 Is that Mrs. Outlaw over here to my left? That's who I thought you all were, standing there. Mrs. Outlaw, I know you. You're someone I know. I want to ask you something. You look right straight to me. Do you believe me to be God's servant? Do you believe that these things I teach is the truth? Now Mrs. Outlaw, I haven't spoke to you as I know of, for over a year since I was here before. No, I believe I waved at you the other day in the restaurant. Look here to me.
But you have a burden on your heart, not so much for yourself, but for somebody else. That's a young woman. It's your daughter-in-law. Do you believe that God is able to tell me what's the matter with that daughter-in-law? She's got kind of a sinus trouble, and also she's got a nervous ... real, real nervous. All right. Don't worry. It's going to leave her. She felt it, right then, sitting here. It's going to leave her. Just have faith.
You believe?

106 Here's a lady sitting right down in front of me here, total stranger. But can't you see that light hanging over her? She's suffering with a weakness in her body. She's not from here; she's from California. I'm a total stranger to the woman, but she knows I'm speaking to her now. You see that light hanging over her? I don't know her, never seen her. But her name is Mrs. Elliott. If you believe with all your heart, you go home, be made well. You believe it? All right. Now, if I'm a stranger and everything, wave your hand to ... like that, see. Raise up your hand, and believe with all your heart, say... That's all right. Have faith.
Here's a lady sitting right in front of her. Right by the side must be her husband. She's sitting there also, and she has a trouble with her muscles. They got spasms in it. That is right. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Darwich, if you believe with all your heart... You believe? There you are. I don't know you, never knowed your name, or nothing about it. But that's true, isn't it? And you were sitting there saying, "Lord, let it be me," see. If that's right, wave your hand back and forth like this. Wave your hand if that's right.

107 There you are. I never seen her in my life. Heavenly Father knows those things are true. That's right.
What is it? It's Jesus Christ. What's it doing? It's exactly what He said it would do in the last days. Now, if that's right and God performing it, showing that it's right, then the Word I'm preaching is right, because it's the same God keeping his Word. Believe on the Lord. Turn from your lukewarm ways. Get away from these things that's dragging you out like Hollywood, these things that's dragging you like the rest of the churches. Return to God, and get an absolute that'll hold the anchor of your heart.
How many would like to have that experience with Christ? Stand up on your feet right here in his presence, where you know He's here. God bless you. God bless you. Now, that's fine. Now that is wonderful. Oh, my! I don't know what to say.
If every one of you here will accept that message, that Jesus Christ is right here with us... "A little while and the world [unbelievers] won't see me no more. Yet ye shall see me. I'll be with you, even in you. The works that I do shall you also."---Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Is that right? Well, you see Him working, exactly what He promised.

108 Now He's here. The only thing you have to do is just ... don't ... just lay yourself down and say, "Lord Jesus, I now purpose in my heart from this hour on I'm yours, and You're mine. And I want this experience in my heart that I can speak your Word, your Word will live; and what I ask of You it would be done."
Do you want it? Then let's just raise up our hands to God, and pray, every one of us now, everybody. And then I want you to raise one hand up, and put a hand on somebody next to you. Right. That's right. Businessmen, God ever bless you, be with you.

An Absolute

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, Brother Hutchkins. Good evening to Houston. I certainly deem this a great privilege of being here again tonight in Houston. It's been many years since I've had the privilege of being here, and I've been sitting, listening tonight to each of these speakers. And the other day when I had arrangements made for something else, another place, and I knew that those children were facing death, I thought if something would happen to those children I would never forgive myself of not coming here to give my opinion; and doing all that I could to help this mother and father, and ... of these children, and to do all that I could for the saving of their lives.

2 And Houston is a memorial place to me. It holds many great memories that I have cherished ever since I first made my visit here many years ago, over here to the Herald of Faith---Brother Kidson ---and then down here to the auditorium, when I was here with Brother Raymond Richey and the ministers of the city.

3 And then, of course, Mr. Ires, Mr. Kipperman, the night that the camera proved that I wasn't telling anything that was wrong, it was truth. And when the mechanical eye of the camera caught the vision of the ... or not the vision, the reality, the Christ that we preach and so love was with us---that He promised to be with us. And the camera took his picture.
Many times I've said, in times past, that I see that light all the time, but sometimes people would be a little skeptic of it---which you could believe they could be that way. But that night it proved it. That was the first time it was ever taken. Since then it's been taken several times: in Germany just recently coming down when the anointing was, and when it went back again. And those things are not to magnify some human being, but it's to vindicate the presence of Jesus Christ among his people. And we believe that that same Lord Jesus is here tonight to help us in this case.
And I believe that He's more interested in us than we could be. And I am certainly in sympathy with the parents of these children, and shoulder-to-shoulder with every man and woman that's trying to deliver them from the jaws of death.

4 And now I understand that this is not a revival meeting, but it's just a series of prayer meetings being held for these souls that's laying in the shadows of death. And so I'm late and I will not speak very long, but I would like to draw a text, or a context rather, from a text that I would like to read in two places in the Scripture. And you who have the Bibles if you would turn with me for just a moment to the book of Philippians, the 1st chapter, and the 20th verse of the 1st chapter of Philippians.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but ... with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be ... life, or death.

5 And then also in the book of Acts, the 2nd chapter and the 30th verse. I might read the 25th through the 30th.
For David spake concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption.

6 Let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer. Our heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee for mercy. And that's truly, Lord, why we are here tonight, is to ask mercy. We would not ask this if we did not have faith to believe that it would be granted to us. Man has flown across the country, and prayers are going up everywhere to Thee that the lives of these that we are earnestly interceding for tonight may be spared. Lord, we would ask for strength for the mothers and fathers of these young people.
And as we understand that this young man has turned his life to Thee, and wants to serve Thee, and as we heard one of the speakers say, that he wanted to become a minister of the gospel, I pray God that you'll grant this opportunity to the young fellow. Forgive us of our sins, cleanse our hearts from evil thoughts, and whatever would be in our way that would hinder our prayer from being answered for these people. As we have read thy Word, we know both heavens and earth will pass away but thy Word shall not fail.
We pray that you'll add to us by the Holy Spirit the context that would take ... that would be your divine will in this case now, as we've heard the attorney and many speaking. And we pray that we will find just what to do next; what is our next step to do? Lord, we're here to do it. Make it known to us, Lord, through thy Word. For we ask it in the name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

7 Reading these few verses, and I realize the occasion is great, because it's concern I would think... When I heard and got that mother's telegram... What if that was my son sitting in that row or my daughter? And I ... we want to put everything that we can to it. Then some might say, "Well, that was just a very small portion of the Word that you read, Brother Branham." Well, that may be true, too. But you see it isn't the size of the amount of words; it's what it means. It's just what it is---it's the promise of God. And I want to draw from this night, from this text tonight, or a text from this, "A Absolute."

8 Now I've chosen this text awhile ago sitting in my motel room, because I think that now we need something positive, some absolute that we can hold on to and know that it's true. Crucial hour like this we must have something that we are positive that's right, something that we can hold to, to know whether ... how the case is going.
Now according to Webster, a absolute in itself is unlimited in power and primarily is an ultimate. And an ultimate is an "amen." It's the absolute as what... That's the end. That's everything. Now every great achievement that's ever been in the world, has been tied to some sort of an absolute. You cannot do anything unless there's something that you can hold to.

9 When a young man is going to get married to a young woman, he must know the character of this young woman. Or the young woman must know the character of the young man, something that she can hold to. Will this man be a just man? Will he make me the right type of husband? Will this woman give to me in life what I expect out of her, loyalty and so forth? And then it's got to be somewhere that they can base their vows upon, knowing that there is something that will hold. And that's the reason we bring them to the church, and to the Word of God, to get this absolute tied.

10 Now Paul here, as we see, he had an absolute that he held to all his life after his conversion: that was a Christ-centered life. And what a place to have an absolute, a Christ-centered life! It was a different life than what he had lived at one time. For he said, "The life that I now live," which was a different from what he had lived.

11 And there come a time that Paul had this experience that brought him to this decision. For Paul was a great mighty man amongst the Jews and a great theologian, but he wasn't too sure of his standing.
But one day on the road down to Damascus a light, pillar of fire, came down from heaven. And Paul, being a Jew, was acquainted that this light, pillar of fire, had been the thing that had ... the God that had led his people out of Egypt. They had followed this pillar of fire. So being a Jew he said to Him quickly, "Lord, who art Thou?" He knew Him as Lord, but "Who art Thou?"
And the voice came back from the pillar of fire, "I am Jesus, and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks." From that time on, Paul knew that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was Jesus of the New. And he had something that he could hold to, and that's how he could write that great book of Hebrews.

12 Now if you ... if in your life you have an absolute, you do things ordinarily you would not do, especially if you have a God-centered life. A God-centered life makes a person do things that ordinarily they would not do---very odd, peculiar. Why is a Christian life so odd and peculiar? It's because that they are looking to God's Word, which is almost foreign to the world today.
Now, we have churches, and we have organizations, and we have religion---oh, much of it around the world. In my seven times around, since I was here with you at Houston, I've accumulated much knowledge on the gods and the religions of this world. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an absolute connected with Christ.
Then it makes you a odd person; you do odd things. Your thinking is altogether different than the thinking you once did, because you have found something that you've anchored a faith in: someone that created the heavens and the earth that ... his very Word itself is creative; a God who spoke the world into existence and there's nothing too hard for Him. So it makes you creative yourself because you take his Word. And a word is a thought expressed.

13 Now, Paul had got into that state to where that he had not a theological experience altogether, but he had a personal witness. He had met God and knew that he was called of God and nobody had to tell him anything about it. He was absolutely sure that God still remained God. If the world could just do that, and if this group tonight sitting here could just remember that God is still God... He's just as able to answer in this case as He is in a case of divine healing or anything else. He's still God. And if we can build our hopes ... not only our hopes, but our positive thought upon what He says, and we know that it is the truth...

14 And people act funny. They seem to just forget about the negative side because they have found an absolute---because it's the Word of God. Jesus said, "Heavens and earth will pass away but my word shall never fail." So if we've got the Word of promise, then there's no failing to it. It cannot fail. So I'm believing that that's what the prayer meetings here... The religious people of Houston are interested in human lives. And that's what we are gathered here for, is to call on a power that's beyond all man-made laws and powers, something who can change the hearts of man like He did Pharaoh in Egypt. And He's God. And we must stop now looking at the negative side and go to looking at the positive side.

15 And before you can have faith, you've got to have something to have faith in. And what more can you trust faith in than you can in the Word of the living God, what's created the powers of the Almighty? What more could we put our hopes in? Therefore it makes you look different, act different. You are looking for God to fulfill his promise.
And when difficulties arise like we have now, it is an anchor. It's something that holds you, something that you're tied to. It's a promise that we have been tied to the Word of God. It's just like the anchor is the absolute to the ship in the time of storm. The ship can be sailing the sea. The anchor is out in the front, it's ... it rests... You people here in Houston, so close to the sea, see the ships come in.

16 And why carry this excess weight of this great mighty anchor?
But you see when the storms come, the raging storms that rips up the sea, and could throw the vessel into the bank somewhere, and crash it, or turn it over in the shallow waters... It gets out into the deep water and lets down this great huge anchor, that's so fixed that it'll drag on the bottom of the sea until it hooks into the top of some unseen mountain. Then let those storms rage if they want to; it's got an absolute. The anchor holds somewhere yonder, but it's tight. And as the ship and the waves whip around the ship, it's got an absolute because it's tied. And that's the way that a man is when he's tied to Christ and to his Word, and believes it. There's an absolute there, something that holds him.

17 An absolute is like the North Star when you're lost. When you've lost your direction and you want to find your way back, the North Star is an absolute. Now there's other stars, but they turn with the world. As the world turns around them, it turns away from them. And you know, the same morning star is the evening star, also, because the world's just turned around. But there's one star that does not move, and it's centered right in the middle of the earth. And therefore, it's a sure star. If you know the North Star you can always find your way around. But, oh, when a man's lost, and he doesn't know just which way to go!

18 Now I know a star. Oh, it's more than a North Star! And to be tied and see his presence, no matter how you're lost or where you are, you can find your way back by his guidance. That's his Word. It's the way out of all troubles, it's the way to peace, it's the way to success. It's the way to life itself is to follow this star---the Lord Jesus. And now if you are tied to that star, the Holy Spirit is the compass that'll only point to the star. The Holy...

19 A compass, it is magnetized to that North Pole. And the only way---no matter how much jungle you're in, or how deep the thickets are around you, or how foggy it is at sea---that compass hand, you can turn it any way you want to, and it'll swing right back and point to the North Star.
And when we're in trouble and trusting Christ, there's one thing sure: the Holy Spirit will point us to the Word that will guide us to the North Star, and to deliverance of everything we have need of. He is our absolute. To the man that's lost in the wilderness, the compass is the thing that guides him to the outward. When we're in trouble, there's only one thing---it's just as sure as the North Star. As long as the world stands in its position and turns around, the North Star will remain in its place.

20 And as long as there is an eternity, Christ will ever be the Saviour, and the way out of every problem, every difference, every trial, everything. And therefore, when we're tied to Him we don't get flusterated and all worked up like the world does. And oh, what will we do about this? What will we do about that? We seem as if we're not even anchored. But a man who's anchored his soul into Christ Jesus, his trust there---knowing that when he asks the Father anything in his name Jesus said, "I'll do it." That settles it.
That settles it. It's the amen, it's the absolute, it's the ultimate. When Jesus said, "Ask the Father anything in my name, I'll grant it." Now that's an ultimate; that's it. "Whatever you have need of, when you pray, believe that you receive it ... you shall have it." That settles it. That's all of it, see, if we're really anchored and believe it and we've made Him our absolute. Because He does... He is the absolute that takes us from all fear. There's no fear when you're really tied to the rock of ages.

21 There's no fear to the sailor---how hard the ship's being buffeted by the waves---as long as that anchor's holding in the top of the mountain yonder. Well, sure. He knows the ship's going to stay up. It isn't going against some rocks somewhere. It isn't going to get in some shallow water and be turned over, because it's got the absolute anchored in the top of some mountain. And when a man can pray the prayer of faith and anchor his soul yonder in the Word of God---where all heavens and earth will pass away, but that Word cannot---there is no fear. Let them come, say whatever they want to. Our faith is in God, God alone. We believe it.

22 There was a time that when the table manners of this nation rested upon the word of a woman. I believe her name was called Emily Post. Now, she was the absolute to table manners. If Emily Post said, "Take and eat your beans with your knife," that was it. That was it, because she was the absolute for table manners. If she said, "Drink your coffee out of your saucer and sup it as you did," no matter how sloppy it'd sound, it was still the absolute. Everybody bowed to it because they taken her to be the absolute of table manners. We've got to have an absolute no matter what we're doing. If we're ever going to achieve anything, we've got to have an absolute.

23 There was a time when Hitler's word was an absolute in Germany. No matter what anybody else said, Hitler's word was an absolute. If he said, "They die"; they die. If he said. "They live"; they live. And if he said, "We go to war," "We do not go to war," whatever we do---his word was an absolute.
There was a time that when Italy had an absolute that was the word of their dictator, Mussolini. What he said do... They said his chauffeur drove up one minute early to get him; he shot him. Why? He said, "I don't want you here one minute early; I want you here on the dot, exactly time." See, his word was absolute. All Italy bowed to it.

24 There was a time when Pharaoh in Egypt was an absolute. But you see... But all these decisions that they made were man-made decisions, and they all fell. Why? Because they were not in accordance with human ... wasn't in accordance with God's Word for human life. I want that, I hope, to anchor. If we expect to save human life, we've got to come in accordance with God's Word and God's plan for human life. And the only way you're going to find this is to find it in his Word and believe it.
Now so them Pharaohs... I was in Egypt not long ago and I think they had to dig twenty feet down in the ground to find the place where Pharaoh was seated as a king of the earth. And great Herods and so forth passing down along the line, we see where their kingdoms has fallen and gone on. But there is one kingdom that's above all kingdoms. It's so high into the heavens till it'll never pass away. There sits a king that when He makes his decision on anything and we believe that decision, that is an absolute. It's going to be that way regardless of what anyone else says about it---it's always.

25 Now, our Supreme Court, it is an absolute---the end of all the trials. Now we have to have it. Sometimes we might not agree with its decision, like they didn't agree with Hitler's and so forth, but yet we've got to have this absolute. And the absolute of the nation and trials is the Supreme Court. Our local courts can try anything and pronounce this, but the Supreme Court rules over all. We must have it. As a nation we must have its decision, because a nation is tied to this absolute of the Supreme Court. All right. Everything must have an absolute.

26 Did you know a common ball game has to have an absolute? What is the absolute of a ball game? An umpire. What if there is no umpire? See, an umpire... No matter where you're standing, what position you look at, and you say, "It was a ball," and he said, "It was a strike,"---that's what it was. It was a strike. Why? Because his word, no matter what the bleachers said, what somebody else said, it's a strike because he called it a strike, and he's the umpire. Now what if there was no umpire? There'd be such a fuss and everything in chaos till you couldn't have the ball game. Therefore, you've got to have a absolute to have a ball game. It must be that way.

27 Now there must be an absolute in a traffic light; a traffic light is an absolute rather, to traffic. What if there was no traffic light? What if the traffic light was out and you run down the street? And one fellow was coming this a-way and he said, "Now, I was here first. I've got to get through there." And said, "I'm late for work." Talk about a traffic jam! You'd really have it. But see the traffic light settles... It's the absolute. If the light is green---go. If it's red---stop. If there is no such a thing as a traffic light, then we would have traffic jams.

28 And that's what's the matter in the Christian faith today; we've got too many traffic jams. Everybody making their own absolute, when we've got one absolute and that's the Word of the living God that settles it forever, no matter what anyone else says. It's almost gotten to a place like it was in the days of Judges. Everybody has their own absolute, but it all fails, like the Pharaohs and so forth. But God's absolute is his Word. He gives it, and "Heavens and earth will pass away but it shall never pass away." I like that.
Now we haven't got much time, so just ... let's look for a few moments to a few people that did come into crisis, and times where death was at hand, like we're standing tonight, and they took an absolute. Let's interview some of them.

29 Let's go back to an old story that's familiar to all of us. In the days when sin had heaped into the world till God got sick and tired of it, and the world was going to be destroyed, and God gave Noah an absolute---that was his Word. And no matter... That absolute was of the saving of the people. Noah knew that the world was going to die. And God gave him the absolute, and that was his Word, now, to save his people from death. Now what was the absolute to save people from death in Noah's time? Was the Word of God that was the absolute, no matter what anybody else said, what science said.
"There's no rain up there. We can shoot the moon with our instruments; there's no rain there. How's rain going to come down?"
If God said that there would be rain fall, God can put rain in the skies if He said so.
Noah went right about his business, relaxed, and preparing an ark for the saving of the people. For there was an absolute given to the people that they would be saved if they took God's provided way for this absolute.

30 So after ... sometimes when we've accepted the absolute... I would like to say this because of the parents of these children of what I want to tell you just in a moment.
Now if the ... sometimes when we have accepted it, we are put to trial to see if we really believe it. We ... God usually does that, and God works... He cannot change his program because his Word is Himself. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us ... the same yesterday, today, and forever." So it's always God.

31 When He's called upon a scene to act and the decision that He makes, He has to ever remain with that decision. He cannot change it, because He's infinite. Now I can change my decision, you can, because we're finite. Therefore, we make mistakes. But God cannot change his decision, because He's infinite and his decision is perfect always. He cannot say, "I was wrong here, and I'll change my decision," because that would show God could change, and God cannot change. Neither can his Word change. He's the same always.

32 So God gave Noah a trial after accepting his absolute. Noah went into the ark; God shut the door behind him. No doubt they said, "Now in the morning there'll be black clouds, and there'll be thunder and lightning, and the rains will fall."
But you know, the next day the sun come up just as bright as it ever did. I imagine the borderline believers, that said, "We'll go up. The old man could have been right about that. So maybe science was wrong---that there could be some rain up there."
But remember, it had never rained. But then the second day the sun was just as bright as it always was; third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and even to the seventh day.
But Noah had climbed up in the upper room so he could watch the skies. And on that seventh morning, when there come a time when people had refused God's absolute way of salvation, of saving of the lives of the people, the rains began to fall and the sewers filled up. And the boat began to rise, and it took Noah and them to safety. Sure, because they were trusting in God's word, the absolute, God's Word of promise. No matter how bad it seems like and how dark it gets---still believe your absolute.

33 Moses, why his ... he'd tried to save the life of those poor Hebrews; and they were almost as bad off, or just as bad off, as these two children are that we're trying to save tonight. They were slaves and they killed them just at random, whenever they wanted to. And Moses felt in his heart that that wasn't the will of God. So he tried to do it through education, he tried to do it through his own efforts. And he found out that he miserably failed. He did something himself that wasn't right, because he took another man's life. And that was not right. Then he went into the wilderness and was there for forty years.
But one day he was herding sheep on the backside of the desert and there was a light in a bush. And when Moses got near this light, the voice of God spoke to him out of this pillar of fire laying back in this bush, and said, "Moses, Moses."
And he said, "Here am I, Lord."
And He said, "Take off your shoes, for the ground that you stand on is holy. I have heard the groans of my people. I've heard their prayer meetings. I've remembered that I made them a promise." My, if that oughtn't to set the hearts of Christian believers' afire tonight! "I am God. I remembered I promised it." How scriptural that voice was! And He said, "Moses, I'm sending you down there to deliver them."
And Moses,

34 'course as I've said at the beginning, when you take that absolute of God, it makes you do things that ... well, sometimes ridiculous in the sight of the people. Could you imagine a man that had run from the Egyptians? The next morning after seeing this absolute... This word of God spoke to him positive-witness. Because it was the Word, the promise was there. And a vindication of the great God of creation how he performed a miracle in the presence of Moses and showed that He was a God of creation.

35 And Moses the next morning took his wife and set her on a mule with a kid on her hip, and eighty years old, whiskers hanging to his waistline, his bald head shining, with a crooked stick in his hand, going down towards Egypt, shouting as hard as he could go.
"Where you going, Moses?"
"I'm going down to Egypt to take over."
"Take over?"---a one-man invasion!
Why? He had an absolute. He had something---he had the Word of God he could stand on. A man of eighty years old with a mule, and a stick in his hand. That's all he had, like a one-man invasion to Russia today. But he went down and took over because he had an absolute. He had talked to God. He had heard the voice of God. And the thing of it was, he did it. Right. Why? That was with him all the days of his life---it was an absolute.

36 No man has a right to climb into the pulpit to preach the gospel unless himself has treaded on those sacred sands, where no agnostic or unbeliever can ever explain away the supernatural of God. Jesus would not let his disciples preach. No matter how well they knowed Him, they must go to the city of Jerusalem and wait till they was endued with power from on high. They must have that experience.

37 Moses, knowing that he was a prophet, knowed he'd been raised up for this purpose. But without that personal contact, that absolute, something that proved to him that when he went down there he was going to have deliverance for these people... He was never the same. He went down there because he had the absolute and he did just exactly what God told him to do. There was no fear in his heart when he throwed down the serpents, or, the rods and they turned to a serpent. And the carnal impersonators come up with their type of ministry and throwed down ... and done the same thing Moses had done---just exactly what God told him to do. There's nothing for him to do but stand still and see the glory of God. Then we find out that God taken his serpent and eat up the rest of them. That's the way it's done. He was positive that the God that could tell him to do this, could take care of him in the bad situation.

38 Can't we tonight, upon the basis of that young man giving his heart to Christ, stand upon this absolute, that God can make the impossible to be possible? He can change the hearts of judges. Why do we skip so frantically about other things? Let's take God first. Bring it back to the promise. God promised it, that He would do it.
So remember, Moses was always a different person because he took God's word and believed it. And he had a promise vindicated to him. How many could we call? We don't have time.

39 In writing notes today, I was writing here of Daniel, how that it was... What it was, it was a capital punishment for him to pray to any other God. But he had been in connection with God and he knowed that God was able to take care of him.
The Hebrew children, they'd be throwed into a fiery furnace and would be burned with heat seven times hotter than the furnace had ever been het. That ... Hebrew children believed God. They said, "Our God is able to deliver us from this furnace." Why? They had had an absolute: they had the Word of God. And the God that could deliver them Hebrew children from the death cell of a fiery furnace, how much more can He deliver this little Jewish boy out here that's laying yonder in a death cell? How much more is He...? He's still the same Jehovah God that He always was.
We, like apostle Paul, can realize that same God lives today---yesterday, today, and forever the same. Then Christians can hold to God's unchanging hand and change the whole situation. Prayer changes things. That's what we want to do.

40 How can we say about Joshua? How's he going to cross the Jordan? Seems like God was a strange military man, right in the month of April when the waters was up like that. But He said to Joshua, "Take the ark and go forward." That's all he had to do, and God moved back the Jordan and made dry grounds, and they walked across and was delivered. How it was... No wonder Joshua said, "For me and my house, we'll serve the Lord."
How David, that great patriarch... How we'd like to speak about him. We haven't time. But, in many times, as we heard someone speaking a few moments ago about David and his sin. But when all of it was forgiven, when he was going to battle---we call it in the world, "The chips were down."---and the opposition was great, and David laid there under the tree and sweated it out until he heard the sound going through the mulberry bushes, then it was different. David rose and went on, because he had an absolute, that he knew that was God going on before him.
Can't we pray a prayer of faith that'll send God on to that parole board down there? Sure we can. We believe that we can if we hold to that absolute.

41 How Abraham called things that were not as though they were because he had an absolute promise from God that God was going to give him his ... give him a child by Sarah. And when she was a hundred years old (or he was, and she was ninety), he still didn't stagger at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong, giving praise to God. And we claim to be Abraham's children, when Abraham...
When we've had the Bible wrote since the days of Abraham, and all the witnesses that we've had behind: that Jehovah keeps his Word; that Christ is the Son of God, He's a mediator between man and God, and there's no other mediator besides Him; and promising "If you ask the Father anything in my name, it'll be granted..." And we claim to be the children of Abraham, when Abraham called things that were as though they were not, because he believed God. Absolutely. I believe it with all my heart.
Paul was ... Christ-centered life was his absolute; it tied him.

42 Christ was the absolute of the resurrection, as we read here. He said, "God swore by an oath to David that He would not leave his soul in hell." A oath is the end of all strife. And He swore that He would not leave his soul in hell but would raise Him up; and therefore, He trusted God and was crucified, died, rose again, and ascended into heaven because He believed God.
How much more, as He setting the example, can we take the absolute if Christ could take it upon that one promise there? How much more can we take it with thousands of promises? And with the blood of Jesus Christ there to cleanse our way and bring us across that great chasm of sin that separated us of unbelief from God and bring us right into his presence to talk to Him, how much more could it be?
Yes, we've got to have an absolute.

43 I'm thinking of one right now, as in closing, would be George Washington. When America was young and we were fighting for life, the life of this great nation that we have, George Washington was a Christian. He was a believer. And down at Valley Forge, I'm told that the American soldiers only had ... about one-third of them had on shoes, and the winter was cold and the zero weather, and the river frozen and gorging over, and the British on the other side, and the life of this little nation was at hand.
What did he do? He was a Christian. He goes out in the nighttime and kneels down in the snow and prays until he was wet with snow water up around his waistline. And he stayed there and prayed until he got the absolute, the answer from God, that God was going to give him the victory. And the next day at Valley Forge was nothing to him. He crossed the Delaware, pushed through the ice with half-dressed soldiers---half-froze and their bare feet on the ground in the snow. And he took it when three rifle bullets went through his coat. Why? He was trusting in the absolute of an answered prayer. Amen. The very backgrounds of our nation based upon such a thing.

44 What's the matter with people today who claim to be Christians? Why are we disturbed in an hour like this? Let's not be disturbed; let's be soldiers. Yes, sir. He prayed until he got that answer. Then no clouded river, no bare-feet soldiers, regardless of the circumstance, they could take it because God had said so. A bullet couldn't even kill him from an enemy's rifle. Certainly. Why? He'd had a prayer meeting; he got the answer.

45 How well it was one night when apostle Peter was in the jail and they were going to kill him the next morning. He was going to die under capital punishment, as this little Jew is going to do now. But what did they do? They did the same thing that we here in Houston are trying to do: they formed a prayer meeting at John Mark's house. While they were praying, the angel of the Lord went to the prison and opened up the prison bars, and opened the gates and beyond that, and led Peter out, and come right down to the prayer meeting. I believe tonight that that same God lives. If He isn't the same God then there's something wrong. Certainly. What was it done? by prayer meeting, by faithful Christians who believed, and believed that God would deliver their brother from capital punishment. Them were Christians who stayed all night, laid upon their faces and cried out and prayed.

46 As I heard one of the ministers a while ago saying he was going to cry out all night long... The trouble of it is, today people let down. They get tired, sleepy. They can't even sit through a ten-minute service hardly. It ... it's something wrong. If you love God, well, we should be busy. It should be our hopes, our desires, it should be everything that's in us should be in the love of Christ. Amen. We sit so slothful. We sit so unconcerned when the world's dying under our feet. That's right. Men's lives going out without God, and we sit so unconcerned about it. As long as we belong to the church, that's all we think that makes a difference.

47 I was talking about the coming of Christ a few weeks ago in a certain church. And afterwards there was someone met me in the back of the church and said, "Brother Branham, you scare people to death."
I said, "Why'd I do that? "
He said, "Well, you talking about the coming of Christ. I don't want to hear such things as that. I got a little boy here I got to raise. I got a girl in school."
"Why," I said, "the coming of Christ is the most glorious thing I can think of." Certainly.
See, the Bible said, "...all those who love his appearing." Oh my, for a day that when this old mortal will take on immortality, and this pesthouse that I live in will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and a body like his own glorious body! It should be the heart's desire of the church. It should be every man and woman on fire, preaching in the streets and everywhere else, trying to get souls saved. Certainly.

48 I'm wondering if we've really tied to that absolute that we claim to. Are we looking at the right morning star? If we're just trusting in our church and our denomination, our affiliation... As the world changes, it changes with that, round and around. But there's one star that never changes, there's one thing that can never change---that's God. God cannot change, his Word cannot change, his Bible cannot change. And if a man is borned of the Spirit of God with Christ in him, it punctuates every promise with an "amen." That is right. Certainly.

49 Oh sure, a prayer meeting is what we need. We must be Christians. All Christians must use this same absolute, the Word of God. God's Word is the Christian's stay. Jesus said in his Word, "If ye abide in me, my words abide in you, then you can ask what you will and it'll be done for you." Think of it. What more of an absolute would you want? What could you trust more in than something like that?---"If ye abide in me, my words abide in you, then ask what you will."
Then ask for God to work upon the heart of that judge or that parole board, and get that little fellow out of that death cell. If we ask it with faith, believing, in these prayer meetings, we'll get it. That's ... I just believe God like that.

50 My faith that I have in God, that's why I'm here tonight. That's why I canceled out something else and got in here. And I got to drive hundreds of miles tonight back to Tucson, Arizona, because I come to put my faith with yours. That's a man, it's a soul laying yonder, it's someone in need. And we Christians have got to wake up to a reality to real genuine faith. Tie it to the Word of God and plead that promise. Yes, sir. Oh, my! "If ye abide in me and my word in you, ask what you want," and then again, "If the people that's called by my name shall assemble themselves together and pray, then I'll hear from heaven." Prayer meeting, that's it.

51 I believe in talking to attorneys and talking to lawyers, or judges, or parole boards, or whatevermore. That's all right. But, brother, if your hope isn't tied to something than just the carnal man of mind, mind of man rather, you'll sure be sadly disappointed. But if you can tie your faith into such a place that you know, and stay there and pray until God answers back, and you know you've got it in your heart, something's going to happen.
I've seen the dead raised from the funeral home, I've seen the blind eyes come open, the deaf ears unstopped. I've seen cancer-ridden cases of sycomas, cancer, leprosy, healed by the power of the almighty God because they had faith to believe that that God who made the promise would be able to keep his promise. That's real genuine faith like Abraham had.

52 Tie to there, stay there and pray. Not just get down and "God, deliver the poor little fellow and send him home." We'd all like that. But let's stay there until something happens. Oh, when something happens, then that assurance could fall amongst this little handful of people sitting in this auditorium here tonight, could fall among us right here; enough faith and power of God, if we could pray through till we strike that home-line, till that absolute comes down---that same pillar of fire that was taken here in Houston by Ted Kipperman, a camera twelve years ago.
He's here tonight, just as great as He was then, to deliver that boy if we'll just believe it, because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. I believe it with all my heart. That's why I'm here to offer my prayer with you all that God will spare their life. Then if you could pray through until you've got an answer back, got the assurance back---like Washington had, like John Mark had, like Daniel had, like Moses had---till you've got an absolute, something that you know that you can anchor to... "Then upon this absolute I'll build my church," ... and all the courts in the land cannot resist that. That's right.
Upon that ...

53 the very God that could take a little hook-nosed Jew like Paul, angry and going down there to put all the Christians to death under capital punishment, and could change him and make him a lovely Christian, that same God lives tonight---can change law to grace anytime that He takes a notion to do it. Hallelujah! Going to call me a holy roller anyhow, so I might as well get started into it right now. I believe that God. Amen! Yes, sir.

54 Then Mark 11:22, when He had prayed through He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, have faith in God. I say unto you if you say to this mountain, be moved..." When that absolute has come to you, when you're anointed with that Spirit that comes beyond all scientific control out yonder... Before there was an atom or a molecule, that one that spoke everything into existence... And when your soul is anchored to that, there's nothing can stop it. That's right. "Say to this mountain be moved and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you've said will come to pass, you can have what you've said." If that ain't an absolute to hold to! Certainly it is. That's right, an absolute.

55 Now a nation has a absolute, your home life has absolute, everywhere. If it's ever going to achieve anything, it's got to have an absolute. We appreciate this attorney, we appreciate all the other men, this fine chaplain here from California (and what a marvelous message!) and our brother who tried to take the money and everything, to try to help this poor woman and with her children to deliver them. That's all fine, and we appreciate that, and I'm for it.
But there's one thing beyond that, friends, when we're closing this meeting tonight. We must tie it to an absolute---a prayer meeting before God that'll send the deliverance from the same Jehovah God---just as much God tonight as He was then. Hallelujah! Do you believe it? Let's stand up to our feet then, and tonight form a prayer meeting in here until an absolute takes place. Raise up our hands before God, pray till you strike home---until an absolute falls into your heart.

56 Lord God, send your Holy Spirit down and send ... and free those children yonder, Lord. They're sitting in the regions of the shadows of death. Something's fixing to happen, Lord, and we pray that these prayer meetings will strike fire. I believe You, Lord. I'm accepting it. I believe that you'll deliver those children. Grant it, Almighty God. We, your church, ask it through Jesus Christ. Amen.

An Absolute

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Doesn't that just do something to you? It certainly does. Let us bow, now, in prayer. Lord, as it's been expressed to us in this lovely hymn, "How Great Thou Art." And we think this morning what would we do, if it wasn't for You? And then when we think that You are so great, and then your love constrained You to be so mindful of us--then my soul can scarcely take it in. It's true.
I pray that You'll bless us today now, as we further go into the service, that You would break to us the bread of life, which is the revelation of Christ. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

2 Brother Ungren is a constant comer to the Tabernacle, and he lives in Memphis, Tennessee. He, and his mother, his wife, and the whole family comes to the Tabernacle. And very seldom I get to hear him, because it's always so busy. But this morning I was determined to hear him sing this song. He sings another one of my favorites, "Down From His Glory." And them are my favorite songs.
And I had the grand privilege of meeting his father this morning, the first time I've ever had that privilege--a fine man. And Brother Ungren ... his father will never go as long as his son lives (Morris) ' cause they certainly look alike.
And his wife, Brother Morris Ungren's mother, has just lived these last fifteen years by the grace of God. She certainly has been a great inspiration to me, to see that going through the dark hours that she has, and yet holding onto God's unchanging hand. It expresses to us the genuineness of Christianity, and the faith of those that believe it. So I'm very happy for that this morning.

3 We just had a wedding downstairs. Two of my children got married and ... my children from the Tabernacle--our little Billy Simpson and the little Meyers girl. They had been sweethearts for some time. Cheryl, yes. They were ... they also are relative here (or the little Cheryl Meyers is) to Brother Ungren and them. So we are happy for them. I see they've taken their place after getting married--go right back in the auditorium of the church, and sit down to listen to the service.
Those children have always had a deep place in my heart because they're so respective to the Word. They just love the Word. I don't think that ... that I call them my children, I don't think they're any better than other children. But they just look to me, and I look to God for them.

4 Little Billy wanted to get married, and then he was afraid he was going to have to go to the Army. And there was two or three of them in that same condition. And those boys come over to me, and said, "Brother Branham, we don't want to be shirkers, or anything, but we would like for you to ask God." And they give me the basis that they would like to stay away from the Army if they could. Not because they didn't want to defend the country in anything they could do, but the thing was, that if they went they was going to get among the wrong type of people out there, in those (I don't know what you call it), PX's, or ever what you call it. And then to get out there where those half-nude women carrying on--that's no place for a Christian boy. And so, God granted their request. And now little Billy comes this morning to be married to this fine little Cheryl. So we're happy for them. And we wish them the very best in God's kingdom for them.

5 And now, this has been a grand time for us. We got a nice Sunday school class here this morning, a packed-out church. So we are very happy. And many times ministers... It encourages us to see the people come and hear you, 'cause you see, you don't like to speak to empty pews, because there... We'd speak just the same if there was one person here; but yet, it feels good when you think "If this one misses it, the other one will get it," you see. And it makes it different, makes it glorious.

6 And now, just in the interviews just now, this is so we can run into them this fast... I met Brother Boutliere when I come out, and I hadn't seen him since being here. I said, "Where you been?"
He said, "Getting turkey dinner ready for them." And so, I was telling him I had lost some... He said, "You..."
I said, "You haven't changed a bit."
He said, "Neither have you."
I said, "That's really diplomacy," I said. But you know, I have. I've went from 170 to 145. So I sure have changed. My suits all too little, or, too big for me. And someone just got me one the other day so I could wear it down here--one that didn't hang off on the shoulders, and the waistline lap over. But I'm trying to do my very best for Jesus Christ while I have a chance to do it. And your fine attendance...

7 I was telling them in the room just now, I seen the great Holy Spirit remove a cancer from a woman's body right in there. She's a woman from Texas.
And a lady sat there--that, I never seen a person more nervous, a minister's wife--just a few moments ago. And the Lord showed me a vision of her sitting there, and I seen her... She called at New York, and she wanted to slip up here. She had just one five minutes. Then seen her husband suffering with an ulcer. And what caused the ulcer was his interest in his wife. Almighty God quietened that woman sitting there. She is sitting looking at me now. So, and also, I want to tell you, brother, your ulcer is finished, see. You're going to be well now, and return into the work of the Lord.
Now, when you see something that the Lord does, you just can't fill up on it. You just want to keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.

8 And now, last night we had a great prayer service. And that's good. That's fine, laying hands upon the sick. That's a good thing. That's all it takes, sometimes. And then there is some that there is something back there that they can't catch, and you've got to get that person to find out what that is, see. There is something that's hindering them, something laying in the way. And one little shadow will vibrate it away.
Now, the little lady in there a few moments ago, she was so nervous, so upset. Poor little fellow, she couldn't even get her breath. She was just [Brother Branham inhales and exhales, gasping for breath.], and just carrying on, see.

9 Now, the thing you have to do here is ... just a little inside, see. It's catching her spirit, see. And then, you are projecting to her your very thought, see, and you change her thinking, see. Then when it does that, then you can center her on Christ, and from there she can go on.
But you've got to change her way of thinking, see. She can't change it herself. She'd just run in a whirl. And you've got to pick that up. Now there is a little something that give you some... Don't try to study it. Don't do it. Just believe it, and go on.

10 How could that little baby laying down there in that mother's arms--had been dead since nine o'clock that morning--and just way in the night, that night... Where was that little spirit? You have to go find that spirit, and bring it back. And then when you see it, on coming back, then you can rise in the name of the Lord and call it, see. Then it'll happen. But till you do that, you're just wasting your breath, see.
It's nothing so mysterious. It's finding God. You're getting yourself out of the way, and letting the Holy Spirit use you to whatever He wants to do. That's it.
The main thing of any gift is getting your own ideas away, and let Christ... Then whatever it said... If you want to know whether it's Christ or not... Just a sensation, leave it alone. But... If it's just an emotion, leave that alone. But if it's written in the Word, then it's God. Always judge everything that any spirit tells you by the Word. The Word--don't never get away from that Word. If you do, you're lost.

11 Now, 'fore we stay till noontime, just talking like that, let's just turn over in the Bible, and read some scriptures here. And then we're going to... I love God's Word. I know we all do. Now, didn't have... I was going to preach this morning, or talk--teach the Sunday school--on the hidden mysteries of God, since the foundation of the world, being revealed in Jesus Christ. And I didn't get a chance to run it all out. I forgot about the wedding coming. So, I ... maybe get that the next time coming by.

12 Now, I'm going to read some out of three places in the Bible. The first I want to read from Philippians 1 ... the 1st chapter of Philippians beginning with the 19th verse, and reading also through the 22nd:
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be manifested in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I ... choose I wot not.

13 Now, over in the book of Romans, and we want to begin at the 8th chapter of Romans and the 35th verse, to build on what I want to take for a text:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, ... persecution, ... famine, or nakedness, ... peril, ... sword?
As it is written, For my sake we are killed all ... day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come,
Neither or height, ... depth, or any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

14 In Acts 2, and the 30th verse:
Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had swore with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; ...
Now this is much scripture, kind of going around from one place to another in the Bible. But we know that if this much scripture has been read, we're going to find something in there that's going to to help us. May God help us now, as I would like to take this subject this morning, as the word of "Absolute"--an absolute.

15 Now we... When I was looking this text up, I went to the dictionary. I thought, what... Somebody keeps saying, "That's absolute the truth. Absolute, that is it."
I thought "What is that word? What does it mean--absolute?" And I went to the dictionary to find out what it meant.
Webster says, "It is perfect in itself, unlimited in its power, primarily an ultimate," see. Unlimited in its power, perfect in itself, and it really is an ultimate--the word "absolute." And I'd like to say this and trust that you'll catch these words, 'cause I'm not a trained clergyman in the ... how to ... and the psychological way to bring a fascinating something that would hold the people. I ... the only thing I do is try to do the best that I can--on account of the friends that Christ has give me--and I want them to see what my thought is about Christ.

16 Now, every great achievement is tied to an absolute. You cannot run life without having an absolute. You can't make an achievement, without it being an absolute. For it is the final tie-post, it's the hitch-rack at the end of the journey. It's a place where you are tied to something.
In the day that we're living in now, and everything is so breaking up--so fragile and carried away--I think that this message would be a very appropriate thing, especially to Christians, when they are going through their deep waters now. The Christian church is passing through the deepest water it's had for the last two thousand years, because we are coming to a spot to where there is something presented to Christianity, something they have to make a decision on.
And I think that the Christian church ought to have something that they know that they are tied to, instead of just floating about like a leaf upon the water, the wind--as the Bible said, "carried about by every wind of doctrine." The winds come and blow the little leaf this way; and then another wind comes--the north wind, the south wind, the east wind, the west wind. You'll never get anywhere. You're not stabled. The Christian life should be a stabled life. It should be something that's ... a principle that you are tied to that is more than life itself.

17 And you must have something that you're tied to. Some people are tied to their business. Some are tied to their families. Some are tied to a creed. Some are tied to the Army post. We have different things that we are tied to.
But I think, as a Christian, we ought to be tied where we know is right, because... You might be tied to your family; and your wife could leave you. You might be tied to the Army; and you might get killed. And you might be tied to any different things; and it's got an end. But there has got to be a final tie-post. There has got to be somewhere that man has got to tie for his eternal destination, because... If you're going to trust it in your work, when your work is finished it's done. When your family's taken, it's over.

18 But there is only one thing that I think is the final tie-post.
And I believe that Paul had a tie-post in his life here. And I'd like to side in, if we'd call it that way, and speak on that tie-post. He said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Now, Christ was Paul's absolute. It was his tie-post. It was his ...it was the end of all arguments. It was ... Christ was his tie-post.

19 Paul didn't always have that tie-post. He used to be tied to the group of the Pharisees. And he had to be trained, and educated, so that they would accept him and let him tie himself to their post.
But one day, he was on the road down to Damascus. And he met Jesus face-to-face. And from there, he cut loose from his Phariseeic tie-post and re-tied himself again. That Jesus, who he knowed was crucified, died and rose again. Paul knew it, because he met the person. That changed him, right there. He was never the same, from then on. He never just met a book, he never just met a creed; he met the person, Jesus Christ.
"Who are You, Lord?"
He said, "I am Jesus."
Let's think of that conversion for a few moments. I believe Paul was a sincere man. Being this is Sunday school, we want to teach it like a Sunday school. Paul, I believe, was a deep, sincere man. And there was nothing about him that was any different from anyone else.

20 All those prophets were men just like we are. The Bible said so, St. James 5: "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are." He had his ups and downs, his ins and outs. And he prayed earnestly it might not rain.
And Paul was the same kind of a man, like we are. He had his flusterations, his doubt. And he was an honest man. He was going to one of the finest sect of religions that there was in the world. And he was becoming a teacher of that sect, taught under a great teacher, Gamaliel, which was one of the most ... greatest teachers they had of the day. His parents seen to it--seen that there was something in Paul's life--and worked hard to send him away to school, that he might be taught in all the laws of God. And with a deep sincerity, he believed every word of it.

21 And he had heard of this kind of a lower class of people, and how there had been a prophet (so-called by his group), that had raised up in Galilee that was supposed to perform miracles and heal the sick. But his sect that he belonged to would not accept this man of being a prophet, this Jesus of Nazareth, because He had not identified Himself with them. So Paul couldn't go it, because his own sect of people didn't believe in it. And they had warned him against such.
And Paul, being honest, thought, "If this thing is not of God, and my church says it's not of God, then there is only one thing to do: is get rid of it." Said get it out of the way, because it's a ... it would be a hindrance. It would be a growth, a malignancy, against his sect of believing. So he purposed in his heart that he would go out and cut this malignancy (as he called it, or his church called it) away from his fine Phariseeic group.

22 One day, with letters in his pocket from the high priest to arrest all those people that were in that condition (because that would have been the charge that Paul was set to), he was on his road down to a city called Damascus. They had them quietened down, around Jerusalem. So ... he had stoned Stephen, and Paul had him stoned--give witness, and held the coat. Now he'd go down here, and do the same thing, and get rid of this great hindrance.
But about ... it must have been about noon time, around eleven, twelve o'clock, he was stricken down. And when he did, he looked up, and there was a light standing before him, and a voice coming out of this light saying, "Saul, Saul [a question], why are you persecuting me?"
Now Paul knew, or Saul rather, knew that his people had been following that same light since they'd come up out of Egypt. And did you ever see the Lamsa translation of the Bible? The old Hebrew sign of God is a triangle light, more or less something like that--that the three attributes of God in one Godhead. And this triangled light--the three-in-one being one God--was a sign to the Hebrews of God, light.

23 And then when Moses met Him in the bush, then He said, "I AM," which remains the same three: yesterday, today, and forever, still the same God. And Moses met Him in the burning bush. He was a light. And when He led the children of Israel out of the wilderness, He was the angel of the covenant that Moses by faith saw, and forsook Egypt--esteeming the reproach of Christ greater treasures than that of Egypt. By faith Moses saw that that was Christ, the anointing. And the anointing was upon no certain man, but it was in a form of a pillar of fire, see.
And then that same anointing came down at His baptism, and went into Christ, and dwelt in Him. John knew it was Him. He said, "Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit--that led them out of Egypt into the wilderness, and out of the wilderness into the promised land--upon whom thou shall see this triangle form of God coming down, and remaining on, He is the one that'll baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire."

24 Now, Paul hadn't been privileged of seeing this yet. But just to make it true to you, the Jews were so forbidden to bow before an idol or anything like that. Now, when he saw this great light he knew that that was the Lord. "Lord" means ownership, control of. He would have not called just anything "Lord," that staunch Hebrew, when he knew that that was spirit. But notice, he knowed that that same pillar of fire had been the one that had led his people. And then he comes back and said, "Lord, who are You? Who are You? I want to know who You are. You met Moses in the name of I AM."
But I'll stop there with this thought just a minute.

25 Jesus, when He was on earth, anointed with that that they saw, notice, He said, "I come from God [the Spirit, the light, the pillar of fire] and I return to God." And He was made flesh in order to die for our sins.
Then after his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, after He ascended up... On the forty days He ascended up. And on the fiftieth day He returned back, in the form of a pillar of fire among the people, and separated Himself like tongues of fire and sat upon each of them. And then they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
See, God separating Himself. God, first, in a great pillar of fire; God manifested in a human body; now, God separating Himself among his people--the pillar of fire breaking up, and sitting upon each of them, like forked licks of blazes, cloven tongues, sat upon them. Forks of fire, cloven tongues like fire, sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with that, and began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

26 Now you see, we are not a divided people. We've got to be in unity because each one of us holding a part of God. And we must come together. And then the pillar of fire is manifested in the wholeness, in the fullness of it. When his church sits together in heavenly places, then the fullness of the power of God is in his church. Each one of us holding spiritual gifts and spiritual offices, coming together, brings that pillar of fire back again.
And Paul recognized that being the Lord. And he said, "Lord, who are You, if I'm persecuting You?"
He said, "I am Jesus: and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks." And Paul was commanded to rise, and go down in the street called Straight. And there was a prophet there who came up, by the name of Ananias, who saw a vision and baptized him. And he was ... went down into Arabia for three years to study the Scriptures, to see about what this pillar of fire was that appeared to him.

27 Now, we find that Paul the rest of his life had that for a tie-post. He had met God face-to-face, and was commissioned by God. What a tie-post! What an absolute! That was the end of all arguments. That was the end of everything for Paul. All strife, everything was gone.
I don't care what the Pharisees said, the Sadducees said, or anybody else. He met God, vindicated by the Word--that settled it! That was the rest of his life, because he had seen God manifested, and it had been proven to him that it was God by the Word, and by the shape and form that He was in, and by an audible voice that spoke to him exactly what it was.
Now, that was a great thing. No wonder he could say before the ... Agrippa: "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He was tied to it. There was something real, something that he knowed, something that nobody could take away from him.

28 Now, today, if we're trusting only in education, or a mechanical way of education to explain the Bible, then we've only got it from a mental conception. But no man has a right behind this pulpit to preach the gospel, unless he has come face-to-face with it.
Like Moses, on the backside of the desert. No matter how well he was educated, whatever had taken place, his fears and flusterations left, because he stood on a sacred ground with God that nobody could take it away from him.

29 And every man or woman that has an experience with God, has met this same pillar of fire upon the sacred grounds of your heart, there is no theologian, no devil, no nothing... Paul said, "Nothing present, nothing future, death, sickness, sorrow, can separate us from that love of God that's in Christ Jesus." It's a tie-post. You know something happened.
No matter how much science raises up, and says "this, that, or the other," you are tied. You and God become one. He is in you, and you are in Him. "At that day you'll know that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, I in you, and you in me." You are tied to Him.

30 And Paul had a Christ-centered life. It was a different life than he once had. He once had an educational conception; but now he has got a Christ-centered life, an absolute.
No matter how much Agrippa could say, "You've gone crazy, Paul. You lost your mind. You studied too much," he said, "I am not mad."
And then he got onto Agrippa in such a way till he said, "Thou almost persuadest me to be a Christian."
He said, "I wish you were, only besides ... as I am, but these bonds."
It makes you do things, when you get a Christ-centered life like Paul had, ordinarily you wouldn't do. Now, look. Ordinarily that man, trained in all of the scriptures and things, ordinarily he would have followed that line he was trained in. But when he become ... and made Christ his absolute, his ultimate, then there was a different life. He did different. He done things crazy to what he once was trained to do.
And it'll do the same thing...

31 If the church would get away from that council of churches, and come back and make God's Word their ultimate, make God's Word their tie-post, that would do it. But they are tying to a man-made achievement; and it's bound to fall, for the Bible said they would do it.
But there is going to be a bride, that's been elected since the foundation of the world, that's going to be tied to that tie-post.

32 I can see eternity break, come down into time--since Eden. And when it did, there come a line of blood all the way up unto Calvary, and from Calvary, tied with this line, and goes on to the tie-post, Jesus. And some day when He comes to claim his own, every one that's tied to that ultimate will be raised up into eternity. Why? They have been in eternity all the time.
They were predestinated in eternity. They are part of God. They were in his thinking at the beginning. And when that big rope is pulled--the line of blood, that token I was speaking of--when it comes up from the earth, every one that was included in that blood will be dropped right up into eternity again. But the only way it'll be will be tied to that absolute, Jesus Christ, its absolute--not an achievement of man, but God raised Him up from the dead.
And He is a absolute. And we know He's alive, because here He is with us in the power of his resurrection, doing the same thing He did when He was here on earth.

33 I'm tied to that ultimate. That's the end of all strife. I'm tied to it. That's my life. I was a sinner. When Christ saved me, I met something. And since that came into me, it's been different, and I'm tied to it. Everything that I am is tied right there. And then God separating his life and let me live in Him, and Him in me--then we're tied.
It don't make any difference what others want to believe. To the individual, you are tied to that. That's your ultimate. That's the last word. And then if He is the Word, then this must be the last word. This must settle it. Whatever that says, that's that scarlet thread. That is Christ. And anything contrary to that, I know nothing about it.
That's what we want to know--is what this Word says. For I am tied to Christ, and Christ is the Word. You get it now? And the portion of his Word that's allotted for this day, his Holy Spirit is here to manifest that portion of Word,

34 just like it was back there at his birth--Isaiah 9:6.
All down through the Scriptures, everything was spoke of Him, it was fulfilled. Over in the book of Luke, we (say), we see it that. And He was the end ... He was the end of the prophecy, too, of Him. He fulfilled that. The history, the songs--everything in the Old Testament that spoke of Him--it was fulfilled right there. That become the ultimate. That become the tie-post of the Word of God for that age.
And the real borned-again people of this age that's filled with the Holy Ghost, is the tie-post of this scripture that's got to be fulfilled in these last days. They are the ultimate. It's God's ultimate, because it's his Word, and the Word is Christ, the tie-post.
There is no way to get away from it, something that holds you.

35 As I said, it makes you do things that you ordinarily wouldn't do. It made Paul do things he ordinarily wouldn't do. It made Moses do things ordinarily he wouldn't do. It makes every man and woman do things they wouldn't do ordinarily.
It's something that you are centered to. It's something that's your stabilizer. It's like the ... it's the anchor to the ship. The ship is tied to the anchor, in the time of a storm. And if Christ is your absolute, you are tied to Him in time of trouble. The ship, if you let it rock, it'll break against the rocks. But what they do, they drop the anchor. The anchor drags until it snags into the rock foundation, and the ship is tied to the anchor. It's the absolute for the ship.

36 And a borned-again Christian is tied to Christ, and the Bible is the anchor. It's the thing we're tied to. Let the organizations, let the different things, let the science, let the educators say anything they want. As long as that Word says it, and promised it, we are tied to that. There is something won't let us move from it. That's right. A real borned Christian'll stay with that Word. If it says a certain thing to do, and a way to do it, that's the way we must do it. No matter what anybody else says, that's what God said. We are tied to that--a Christ-centered life.
Christ, again, is like the North Star.

37 You know the world turns around, and the stars... Really, the one you see as the evening star is also the morning star. The world just turns around to it. But it shifts away from those stars--all but the North Star. Now you can't set your compass upon the evening star and get anywhere, 'cause the next morning what? You're... The evening star in the west, and the next morning you're in the east. See, you can't do it. But you can set it on the North Star (Amen), hold her dead center, you'll come out.

38 And that's what a Christ-centered life is. When you're lost, He is your North Star. Then if He is the North Star, the Holy Spirit is your compass. And the compass will only point to the North Star. It won't point to a creed, or a denomination. It won't point to a sensation, or whatever it is. It'll hold steady to the North Star. He is your North Star.
When you're lost, you might shift with denominations, and things like that. But the compass (the Holy Spirit) will point you right straight to the Word, which is Christ, and holds you steady. Tie to that.

39 What if there was no North Star? How would a man ever find his way on a foggy sea? What if there was no Holy Spirit to direct you to the Word of God, to manifest it, and prove it? What would we do in this hour? The Holy Spirit points only to the Word. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word [not part of the word, but every word, all of it, every word] that proceeds out of the mouth of God." That's what a man lives by. He's your absolute in your life. He also is your North Star.
You know, we have to have something another, to settle the end of strife.

40 You know, there was a time that when table manners rested upon what a woman said. I believe her name was Emily Post. I may be wrong on that. I think that's right--Emily Post. I don't care if Emily Post said pick up your knife and eat the beans with it, that was manners. Why? She was the absolute of table manners. That's right. If she said eat them with your hands, you eat them with your hands. Why? This nation made her the absolute to table manners. Yes, sir.
There was a time when Germany had an absolute, and that was Hitler. It was an absolute. I don't care what anybody else said, when Hitler said do it, you do it. You'd better. He was the last word, Hitler was.
There was a time when Rome had an absolute, and that was Mussolini, the dictator. A man drove up one minute early for him. He shot him in his car, and jerked him out. Said, "I never said a minute early. I said be here on time." An absolute! Whatever he said, they had to do it. It had turn... He said he would make the whole world turn by his word. It turns by the Word of God.

41 There was a time when Egypt had an absolute. It was Pharaoh. I went down to Egypt one time, just to see those places. And you have to dig down twenty feet to find the thrones that they sat on--the emperor of Rome--when I was in Rome, and down in Egypt. See, it all turned back to historical dust, because it was the wrong kind of absolute. That's right. It was wrong; it failed. It was man-made absolutes. And every man-made absolute, and every man-made achievement, must go to dust. They must go to dust. It's the wrong kind so it fails.

42 Just think of our nation. When we get in trouble, if somebody does something, and they try it here in, maybe, in a small court of the city (some police court), then it goes on, on. And finally it comes to the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court is the nation's absolute. That settles it. Now, in Canada, our friends from Canada can go from Canada to the Queen. But in the United States, it's the Supreme Court that's the absolute.
Sometimes we don't like their decisions; but we have to listen to it anyhow. Yes, sir. We don't agree with it, we don't like the decision sometimes, but it's the absolute of this nation. The nation is tied to it. It's the end of all arguments. When that Supreme Court says you're guilty, you are guilty. We have to have it. If we don't, we don't have a nation. What if we didn't have anything like that? Certainly. There is an absolute to everything.

43 There is an absolute in a ball game--that's the umpire, right. And if he says it's a strike, that's what it is. Don't care what you say, what I think (the way I saw it, the way you saw it), it's what he said. It's an absolute. If he says strike, you have to agree with it, 'cause that's the way it's going to be wrote up--strike. What if there was no umpire? Now, who would be right?
One said, "It was a strike."
The other one said, "It was not no strike. It was a ball. It was a..." Why, you'd have chaos. You wouldn't know what to do.

44 There's got to be somewhere that somebody's word is final. Amen! I feel real good right now. Glory, hallelujah! There's got to be something that's final. I'm so glad of that. Oh, there's somebody who can say it's sin, or it's not sin. I'm so glad of that. I'm glad for an absolute. No arguing, no need of arguing. The umpire said "Strike," that's what it is. Mark it up in your mind it's a strike, and go on.
When God says anything, that's the way it is! No need of arguing about it. That's what it is. He said so. That's the Christian's absolute--that is, if he is a Christian. God said, "Do it this way." That's the way it's got to be done. No arguing.
"Well," say, "it wasn't..."
Nothing about it. God said so. That settles it. That's the absolute to the real believer.

45 What if there wasn't something like that? Where would we be? Would the Methodist be right? Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or what would be right? See? We'd have ... that's the reason that you'd have chaos. And that's the reason... They've turned loose of that absolute. That's the reason they're straying with these other stars.
But there is an absolute. There has to be an absolute. There must be an absolute, and there is an absolute. That's the Word. And what others say, it doesn't matter. Yes, sir.
Now, if we didn't have an umpire in a ball game, everybody would be pulling one another's hair, and fussing and fighting, see. That's the reason we need an absolute in Christianity--stop this pulling hair, and fussing and fighting. The Word said it, and that settles it. Don't take to it, or take away from it--just leave it the way it is.

46 You know, there is an absolute to the traffic. That's the stop light, the traffic signal. What if some morning it don't work. Oh, my! Did you ever get in one of them? I have. No doubt any driver has. What if that stop light isn't working? Then everybody's fussing.
They drive up there, and one say, "I was here first."
And they say, "Let me tell you something. I got to get to work."
Oh, my! Them women swinging pocketbooks, and men fighting with fists, and... You talk about a chaos!
There has to be an absolute. Something says, "This is right," and that's it. When that light said "Stop," it means stop. When it says "Go," it means go. If it isn't, you're in trouble.

47 And that's the way it is in Christian life. There is a stopping place; and there is a going place. God's Word is that absolute. That's Christ. Yes, sir.
If you ... if the traffic signals are not on, then we got a traffic jam. And I think that's what we've got up there in the religious Pentagon today: a traffic jam of make-believers, unbelievers, and everything jammed together. You just got a traffic jam. Why? They don't have no absolute.
One say, "Well, we're the absolute."
The other one say, "We're the absolute."
God is the absolute. He said, "Let every absolute otherwise than mine be a lie. Mine is the truth." So there is the absolute to Christianity. That's the end of all arguments. The Bible said so. That makes it right. Yes, sir!
There must be an absolute in everything.

48 Some ... just like the churches today. Most of the churches has their own absolute. Each one has his own--something like the days of the judges. Every man done the way he thought was right. But that ain't right. See, that's when God's Word in prophets wasn't in existence. The Word is the absolute. They had their own absolute.
Each one says they are the truth and the way. "We are the truth and the way." But Jesus said He was the truth, and the way--the truth, the way, and the light. Is that right? Well, then, He is the Word. So there is the absolute. And the denominational absolutes--nothing to it. It's wrong. Let it go.

49 Now, man does right in his own sight; but God has got a way for him to do it. See, when God and his Word and his prophets were missing, every man done just as he wanted to do, and that's what's been in this day. Each one says, "I belong to this."
"Are you a Christian?"
"I'm Presbyterian."
"Are you a Christian, I asked you?"
One girl said, "I give you to understand I burn a candle every night."
Another man said... In the prayer line, I asked him if he was a Christian. Said, "I'm an American. How dare you?" Like that's got anything to do with it, see.
They're tied to a nation. The other one is tied to an organization, dogmas. But a Christian means "Christ-like," and only way you can be Christ-like is for Christ, the Word, to be in you. That's the ultimate. Yes. I seen this before I was converted, and I'm glad God got ahold of me before the church did.
So I knew when I...

50 A fine Baptist minister, Brother Naylor (he's in Glory today), he come down. He talked to me. And, oh, there was many people that talked to me when I was trying to find God. The Seventh-day Adventist preacher wanted me to join up with them, and so forth. But I seen that if I was going to be a Christian, I couldn't say, now, "I am a Seventh-day Adventist." Now, that's all right. "I'm a Baptist." It's all right, see, but I had to have something a little more sure than that.
I couldn't trust, because each one was wavering. I thought, "There is somebody, somewhere. You have to have something that's true, somewhere."

51 So, I needed an absolute, so I took one--God's Word. So, I read in the Word that He is the Word (St. John 1), and "Upon this absolute I'll build my church." That's right. So I took Him at his word.
Revelation 22:19 said, "Whosoever shall take one word out of this, or add one word to it..." That's the absolute. That's the end of all strife. This is the absolute. "Whoever takes anything from it, or adds anything to it," God said, "I'll just take his part out of the book of life." So that had to be the absolute.
And Jesus said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. Then I knowed this "every word" had to be. Said, "Precept upon precept, and line upon line..." That's the way it has to come, just as it's written. Then He said, "If ye abide in me [He is the Word], my words abiding in you, you can ask what you will."
I knowed then, if Christianity was the Word of God, and He was the Word, and by accepting the Word the Word lived through Him; then I knowed "if ye abide in me, and my word in you, ask what you will." And if you are in the Word, and part of the Word, you'll only ask what the Word tells you to ask. Know the day you're living then, and ask accordingly.
So, therefore, back to the subject, makes... Talking, now, this personally, but I'm tied. I am tied to Jesus Christ, to Him, by his Word. He is my absolute. I found that all these denominations and things had their absolute. Each one, they have their own absolute.

52 The Catholic: when that pope says something, that's it. That's the absolute of the Catholic church. I don't care what the priest says, what the bishop says, what the cardinal says. When the pope says it, that's it. That's the absolute. Correctly.
In the Methodist church, and many of the Protestant denominations, what the bishop says, that's the absolute. That's all. What the creed says, that's the absolute.
In the Pentecostals, it's what the general overseer says--whether you can have this person for a revival, or not. That's the absolute. You disagree with his word, you're kicked out of the organization. See, the Word ain't considered at all. See, you get these absolutes, each one having his own absolute.

53 But you know, I don't say this sacrilegiously; I say it for truth. I feel like that way Paul did, when he said in Acts 20:24, "None of these things move me. I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
I'm not bothered by these absolutes, whether it's the pope, bishop, or a general overseer, or a counselor, or a system, or whatever it is. None of these things move me. I don't care if they say "Well, we won't co..." That don't make a bit of difference. I'm determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, his Word made manifest among us. I'm tied to that. That's my anchor. I've anchored in that, since I...
Paul said, "Since I met Him on the road, I've turned around. He straightened me out."
My! How He straightened me out. What a straightening He had to do on me. But since He straightened me out, I got tied to it. I seen the Word was truth. Everything contrary to it was wrong.

54 You know what? He had a purpose in saving me. He had a purpose in saving you. And I am determined, by his will, to do his will. The reason He done it... I don't know why He done it.
Not add to it, or take from it ... as I said, Revelation 22:19 said, "Don't do it." If He's our absolute, it cannot be otherwise. There is no way for it to be otherwise. He's got to be the absolute, the last word.
You know, there were millions in sin when I got saved. He had a purpose in saving me. I'm the oddball amongst the brethren many times--believes in predestination, seed of the serpent, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and all these other things that seems to be... And the visions, and the power of Christ returned back, and condemning organizations, and things--I'm the oddball.
But He had a reason to save me, a purpose for doing it. He saved me, when there was millions of others in sin. But He saved me for some reason. There were educated men, there were smart men, there were theologians, there were bishops, and doctors, and so forth, in the field when He saved me. But He saved me for some reason.

55 And I see the Word is the absolute, and I'm tied to it; and determined I'll know nothing else but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. He had a reason for it, and I'm determined to hold that reason.
No matter what anybody else says, I don't disfellowship them or discredit them. But I know what I'm tied to. He wanted me like this. He had me like this. I was made like that for a purpose. I had to be made up of all these qualities, and so forth, and all these no-accounts, so He could dig it out of me, put something in there: that was his Word. And I'm determined I'll know nothing else but Christ.

56 Christ's death was an absolute. It was an absolute. It was the end of all fear to them that was a-scared of death. His death is an absolute, then. People fear death. Even Job feared death. But when he saw the vision... He knew everything was gone, his family, his children. Even his wife had turned against him, because his stench of his boils. He sat out of his house, on an ash heap scraping his boils. And his wife even said, "Why don't you curse God and die the death?"
He said, "Thou speakest like a foolish woman," see.
Then when Elihu talked to him... Some of these days I want to break that name down for you, "Elihu," and show you it was Christ. When he had this condition, and everything was gone against him, then he saw the vision of the just One. He wanted to find a man who could stand in the breach for him--put his hands on a sinful man and a holy God, and stand in the way. And God let him see it four thousand years away.
It was his absolute. He raised up and shook Hisself. Hallelujah! When a man is scared of dying, raise up and shake yourself. Look into the Word, and see what the vision of God is.

57 He seen that vision. He said, "I know my redeemer liveth. And at the last days He'll stand upon this earth, and I am tying myself to it. Though the skin worms destroys this body; yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself. I'm tied to it," he said. He saw it. It was a promise of God.
He looked through the laws of nature. As I was telling you about the continuity of the law of nature, the continuity of the Word, the continuity of God's action, everything is continuity. He had asked in Job 14, he said, "There is hope in a tree if it dies, the flower if it dies, and so forth. But said, "Man layeth down and giveth up the ghost. He wasteth away. His sons come to honor him, he perceive it not. Oh," then he said, "if Thou will hide me in the grave, hide me away and keep me in the secret place, till thy wrath be past." He was scared of death.
But when he foresaw ... being a prophet, saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he screamed out, "My redeemer liveth." Watch. He called Him "redeemer." Watch. "I know my redeemer liveth, and at the last days he shall stand upon the earth. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God." God and the redeemer was the same thing, God and man made one. "I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. My eyes will behold and not another [Amen!], not nobody else but that redeemer-God."
That's who my eyes behold. He's an absolute. He's the absolute. He takes all fears out of death. He takes all fears...

58 In Hebrews, the 2nd chapter, the 14th and 15th verse, watch. He took the form of man to die like one, for all. He took the form of man (this redeemer), come down and was made man so He could die, the one man for all men. Oh, how did He do it? What did God become a man for? To pay the penalty of man.
But on Easter morning, He came forth with the keys of death, hell, and the grave. Amen. God, who could die on a cross, and the graves couldn't hold Him. Nothing ... hell couldn't hold Him. Nothing could hold Him. He rose. He had the keys. He rose a conqueror, because He conquered both death, hell, grave. When He was on earth He conquered sickness. He conquered everything. He conquered superstitions. He conquered everything there was to be conquered, and come out with death, hell, and the grave, the keys jingling at his side. And ascended on high, and gave gifts to man, and come back on the day of Pentecost and handed them over to Peter, to the church. Amen!
He is our absolute. All fears of death... Because He lives, we live also.

59 Romans 8:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We find out... I believe that's Romans 5. We find out ... and He is our justification. God raised Him up on the third day to justify our faith, that we believe it. And He raised Him up to justify our faith.
What did He do then? He sent Him back, the justifier, because our faith believes it. The Holy Spirit, Christ, come into it for our justification, because we have raised from death unto life. And now we are sons and daughters of God, sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus--justified us by his resurrection. That give us justification to know... With the earnest of our salvation within us now, the very life of Christ pulsating in us, and how then could we deny the Word (which He is the Word) that gives us this assurance? The Holy Spirit is there.
What is it? It's still that North Star. The ... Christ is that North Star, and the Holy Spirit is that justification that points the believer right straight to the North Star.

60 The Holy Ghost will always point to the Word. If it points to a creed or denomination, it is not the Holy Ghost. He couldn't do that--point away from his Word, when He died to confirm that Word, and make that Word a positive. Amen!
He died so He could come Himself into that Word. He is the quickening life that makes that Word live again. That was his purpose of dying, that He could still project Himself through his church, and make every word through every age act just exactly the way it's supposed to act.

61 He is the dynamics of the mechanics, the mechanics of the Church. What is it? Apostles, prophets, teachers, so forth. And He is the dynamics that works that, and it's worked by a certain dynamic, which is called like... He is the fire that fires off the gas. He is the fire that's in the combustion chamber--that when the gas (the Word) is poured over that combustion chamber, He is the one that sets her afire. He is the one that confirms it. He is the power of the resurrection. He is God. He is the fire, that's what He is.

62 "Without controversy," said I Timothy 3:16, "great is the mystery of godliness: for God was manifested in the flesh, seen of angels, received up into glory." He was God come to take the sinner's place. Yes, sir. And when He... God raised Him up on the third day, was for our justification. Therefore exalted at the right hand of the majesty on high, He is an intercessor to make intercessions upon our ... for our weaknesses as we confess it to Him, and die out to ourself--placing his Word back in us, the promise. And our faith makes that Word live, because Christ is in us, the quickener to the Word.

63 How I wish the church could see that! All arguments and strife would be over. That would be the Supreme Court. That's the North Star. Hallelujah! That's the end of all strife. That's the end of all questions. That's the end of everything. God said so--that's the absolute. Tie yourself to it.
Paul said, "There is nothing present, nothing future, death, sickness, nakedness, peril, nothing can separate us from that." We've tied to an absolute. Said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Nothing else holds but that there. That's the absolute.

64 He is our absolute, because we have the assurance of the resurrection because He is raised in us. How do we know? He lives. He does exactly, here, what He did when He was here on earth. He's the same pillar of fire we got the picture of there. He's the same one in the church. He's here today, and in this body He performs and acts exactly like He did then.
If the life of a watermelon vine is put in a pumpkin, it'll never bear another pumpkin. It can't, 'cause it'll be a watermelon--for the life in it is watermelon. And "If my ... ye abide in me, and my words in you, you ask what you will." You'll have watermelons. Amen.
The absolute. I know it's truth. I've tied my soul into that, and I know it's the truth. It's God's Word. He's our absolute.

65 II Thessalonians, the 2nd chapter, we read that we'll be caught up with our loved ones to meet Him in the air. Oh, how my heart pulsates to every word in his Book. Amen. God said we'll be caught up in the air to meet our loved ones. "Amen," said the Word down in my heart, for the Word is in there.
I've hid thy word in my heart, Lord, that I sin not against You. I bind them upon my fingers, upon my bedpost. Thou art always before me. I shall not be moved. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for You are my absolute. I'll go down through there, and You'll pull me out. I go into the deep waters of my ship, You're my anchor. Amen!
You're behind the veil there. You're the one who will steer me through the storm. You're the one who will be there, my anchor in glory. When I come down to the shadows of the valley, the shadows of death, when I come down to the Jordan, when I have to cross over, He is my absolute. I'm tied to the resurrected One on the other side. He will pull me through the dangerous waters. I'll fear no evil for Thou art with me. Amen! Let the storms rage. Life, death, whatever there is, nothing will separate me. I'm tied to that post.
That post holds. It holds within the veil. It anchored. It anchored against God yonder. It anchored against my heart. The Holy Spirit is what stirs me to that promise. "I am [not I will be, I was, I someday will be], I am the resurrection and life," saith God. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

66 Let death do whatever it wants to. It'll never bother me, because I am persuaded. I am persuaded that even a sickness that might take me, or a bullet from a gun some day might take me (I don't know what it'll be), what difference does it make to me? For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Oh, my!), because I'm determined. I know Him, sitting yonder across the river of death, where He'll pull me into his presence some day, justified by his righteousness that I have accepted of his death upon the cross--God made flesh among us, still flesh in us, still Spirit in our flesh! Amen.
He's my absolute. He's my all. Anything outside of that... Nothing in my arms I bring. I know nothing else besides Christ, and Him crucified. Don't want to hear nothing else but Christ, and Him crucified. My heart says "Amen" to every one of his promises. That's why I know his Holy Spirit is the compass that guides me to the Word.

67 Never has one of them visions ever said anything to me but what was right in that Word. Oh, that's where I got my assurance, brother. That night when He told me about that ... I've watched those visions. And I'll call your attention. Has that vision ever said anything that was contrary to the Word? Never a time has it ever been wrong. Why? It's God. That's my tie-post.
And I know one morning in a vision I seen my loved ones across the river yonder. It's there! I'm bound for that promised land. I got to meet there some day. Yes, indeed. He is my absolute. He is my sun. He is my life. He's my tie-post, my North Star. He's all that I could ever think to be. He is that to me. He's my life.

68 Denominations? To me, not hurting your feelings--I don't want to do that--but the Word is like a two-edged sword. It can't push without cutting, see, especially when it's cutting in darkness. Notice, denominations are like other stars. They shift with the turning of the world--that's right, every way the world goes. They let their women cut their hair, wear shorts, and everything else. It just shifts with Hollywood, and everything else.
But, oh, brother, that still remains the truth! That unmovable Word of the living God is still the truth. It's my absolute. What it says is the truth.
Let the denomination shift anywhere they want to. They want to discredit the name of Jesus Christ with a title, that's up to them. But to me, there is not another name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved. To me that's the foundation Word. There is where the cornerstone is. I don't want to shift with no denomination.

69 I've got my compass here within me. The Holy Spirit points me right straight to the absolute. "For both heavens and earth will pass away, but my Word shall never pass away." And I've hid it in my heart, and the Holy Ghost pointed me right to it. I'm determined to know nothing else. That's my absolute. Just let it be like that--that's the way I want it. Oh, my!
Now brother, sister, make your absolute in Him. Yes, sir.

70 In the time of trouble I had here not long ago--lost wife, children, everything--somebody said to me, said, "Did you keep your religion?"
I said, "No, it kept me," see.
See, I had an absolute to know that someday I'll see them again. Amen. I couldn't have made it if I wouldn't have had that absolute. It made the difference to me, where I was tied--because I knowed that I'd see them again.
Now, by grace I am tied to Him that said, "I AM" --not "I was"; "I AM." Ever-present, omniscient, omni-... omnipotent, infinite--that He is. Not "I was"; "I AM." He is still the resurrection. He is still the North Star. He is still everything to me.

71 Moses had an absolute. When he met that burning bush, that was an absolute to him. When Joshua, when Joshua... Oh, you know, sometimes when you take an absolute, an absolute will lead you to a paradox. That's right. Yes. A paradox is something that's real, but can't be explained. It's a paradox. When Joshua standing there and seen he had need...
God had commissioned him to go over there and take that land--whip out all them people, and put Israel in the land. And one day the armies got routed, and out in the country. And the first thing you know... He knowed he had them whipped, as long as he got them busted up. So when he did, the sun was going down. And Joshua was tied to an absolute--the Word of God, the Creator. He was tied to a job he had to do. Amen.

72 Sometimes it ain't pleasant to have to do it. You have to hurt feelings, cut, and chop. But it's an absolute.
He had a need. He said, "Stand there, sun. You stand still yonder. Moon, you hang right there." And for twenty-four hours she stood still. Oh, talk about a paradox! But he was tied to an absolute, with a commission. Yes, indeed. God had commissioned him.
John was sure he would see the dove when it come upon Him. When I seen that pillar of fire, like Paul on the road down to Damascus, I knowed that was God's absolute. There was coming ... a revival was going to sweep the land. I knowed it would forerun the second coming of Jesus Christ. And I believe it yet today. It's my absolute, though it was a paradox. Sure it was a paradox, for a pillar of fire to hang up there in the sky, and papers, and everything, taking the picture of it.

73 It was a paradox, the other day, on March the 15th (or May the 15th, I believe ... no, March the 15th this last year), when three or four months beforehand "Sirs, What Time Is It?" said we'd go out there, and seven angels would meet and come back, and the book of the seven seals would be opened. And standing right there with Brother Fred Sothmann (that just said "Amen" there), standing there by him, why, I told them there would be a noise that would shake the country. And I said, "It'll be there. It's thus saith the Lord." It's on tapes, tapes, tapes from Phoenix, all the way around. It's "Thus saith the Lord."

74 One day, standing there picking the cockleburs off (or the little bullheaders), off of my legs like it was, there that seven angels broke through from the sky, and shook the place till rocks weighing fifty or sixty pound rolled down the hillside. There stood seven angels standing there, commissioned to go back, and to bring these messages. And said one by one they would meet and tell what happened. And it did exactly that way. And when they ascended up on high like that, went thirty miles high in the air. And on the same day they took the picture of it, science did, and went around the world. It's a paradox, but it was an absolute. It tied me tighter into Jesus Christ, winding my life into Him. I know it seemed strange. It always does.
It was a paradox for Paul to meet Jesus on the road to Damascus. It's a paradox when God changes a black sinner's heart, and washes it white in his own blood. It's a paradox, certainly. Do you believe in paradox? And that paradox, if it's according to the Word of God, it can be your absolute. Paul's conversion was a paradox, and become his absolute.

75 Remember here sometime ago, I was sitting with an old druggist, and we were talking in a little place. He said, "Brother Branham, I want to ask you something." And he was a Baptist, himself. He said, "Do you believe in a paradox?"
I said, "Sure. Certainly do."
Said, "I wouldn't tell this to nobody else but you." Said, "But I know you believe this." He said, "During the time of the depression," said, "they had to have an order from the county to get medicine for the sick." And said, "One day, I was sitting back here in the drugstore." Said, "My son was waiting on the customers."
And said, "I seen a woman come in." Said, "She was ... you could see she was going to be a mother right away." And said, "The little thing could hardly stand up--and her husband, poorly dressed both of them. And she leaned against the side of the counter.
"And he went over and asked my son, he said, 'I've got a prescription, here, from the doctor.' He said, 'Would you fill it for me, and let me take my wife on home?' He said, 'I tried to let her stand in that line. Just look down the street there,' he said. 'It'll be four, five hours.' And said, 'She is not able to stand now. You can see.'

76 "And the young fellow said, 'Sir, I can't do that.' He said, 'I'll have to have that order first.' Said, ' 'Cause I can't do that. It's just against the rules.' And said..."
His daddy said he was sitting back there listening, see, what the boy said. And he said, "Just a minute, son, what is that?" And said he walked up there. And the old man, a real Christian, a real sainted old man, he said, "What is it, my good brother?"
And he said, "Sir," he said, "My wife, she is just ready to to deliver." He said, "I am ... I got the order from the doctor, here, some medicine. She must have it right now." And said, "I took her down to stand in the room there," and said, "I ... look at this line." Said, "I doubt whether I'd get in this afternoon." Said, "I just wonder if you could fill this for me?" Said, "I'll stand down there. I'll get the money for you--the order that the county pays for it."
"Why," he said, "certainly, sir. I'll get it for you." And he just laid the order down, went back.
He said his boy went on and started waiting on somebody else. Said, "The little lady watched out two, or three times. She was just standing there, and perspiration on her face. Knew she was very sick, and the brother standing there with his arms around her, you know, saying 'Just hold up, honey, now just a little longer.' Said, 'The good druggist is going to get us some medicine.'"

77 He said, "I fixed up the medicine as quick as I could, and filled my prescription." And said, "When I started to hand it in her hand," he said, "Brother Branham, I looked, and I was putting it in a nail-scarred hand." He said, "I seen the thorns on his brow." He said, "I shut my eyes, and I looked back." He said, "I realized right then, insomuch as I had done 'unto the least of these my little ones,' it was done unto Him." Said, "Do you believe that?"
I said, "With all my heart, Doctor. I believe every word of it."
What is it? He said, "Since then, Christ has been more to me, because doing that for that woman." Said, "It was a paradox. There is no doubt but what ordinary people wouldn't believe that, but," said, "I thought, just tell it to you because I know you've had them experiences."
I said, "Yes, sir. That's right." I said,

78 "I remember when St. Martin, reading of him." When he was just a boy, he was called of God. His people were pagans, and his father was a ... was kind of a, oh, I don't know ... I think a military man. And it was right for their boys to follow them.
He said one day going through the city there (I forget where it was now, and I think he was a Frenchman) and he said that he was going through the gap. There was an old man laying there, freezing to death --very cold weather--and people passed by, wouldn't give him nothing. And said he stood. And people was absolutely professing to be believers, and would go through--let the old man lay there. And he was begging for something to wrap him in. Said he was freezing to death.

79 And St. Martin goes over there (before his conversion, now), took his own coat, being a soldier, and cut it half in two. And wrapped the old bum up in it like that, put the other around him. People laughed at him, said, "A funny-looking soldier, with a half-a-coat on." See, it makes you do things strange. There was something in him, that he believed that there was a God.
That night, after he had retired and slept a little while, woke up. Somebody woke him up. He looked. Standing there by his bed ... and there stood Jesus, wrapped in that other piece of coat. That was the beginning of St. Martin. What was it? He had an absolute, that God's Word is true. "What you do to these my little ones, you do it unto me." Brother, I'm tied to that absolute. And I know that each one of you...

80 Instead of having an altar call this morning, I think I'd like to have a consecration call. Let's consecrate ourselves to this absolute. Do you believe the Word is God's absolute? Do you believe He's the same today, that He ever was?
There is ministers in here. Wouldn't you like to consecrate your lives? Just ... let's take an absolute. What do we want today? What do we want with a fellowship card, or a credential? We want Jesus Christ. We're not tied to a fellowship card. We are tied to the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do you believe that? Let's just raise to our feet, now, and consecrate our lives over. I want mine also.
I'm tying myself afresh. I'm checking my knot's tied, I'm checking my absolute. Lord, if there is anything in me besides thy Word, take it out. I know nothing else but You. I want to know nothing else but You.
Now, each one in your own way...

81 I've been talking to you through the week. I've told you the truth. God has confirmed the truth. He's made it over, and over, and over again. You know what the absolute is. Now, to you and I together, all you women, all you men, boys, girls, whatever you are... Let's, all you choir, all you people up here, everywhere, together, down in the basement, up in the balcony, around the walls, back in the wing, wherever we are--let's take Jesus our absolute! For we've got to come to the valleys of the shadow of death. I know nothing else but Him. He is my absolute because He's raised in my life, and I know He's real.

82 Let's just raise up our hands, now, and pray. Let's make our consecration service.
Lord Jesus, your Word is from old. It's the beginning, and the end. I now, with this congregation, consecrate myself anew over this pulpit today. I ask for this church, the Life Tabernacle, for a consecration. Settle all the differences, let it all be gone, bygones be bygones. Ministers of the gospel who is worried, and thought something would take place, O God, we tie ourself this morning to Jesus Christ, the Word, and determine to know nothing else but Christ and Him crucified.
O North Star, O Holy Spirit, O compass of God, come now into every heart. And we consecrate ourselves to You. Through Jesus Christ's name. Glory to God! Amen! All right, brother.