Abraham and his Seed after him

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 To the Almighty God be thanks and praise forevermore. To this fine group of ministers that has worked in this campaign, I want to express my thanks to them for one of the finest bunch of men that I ever worked with in my life. For the nice little organist here and the pianist, to all you dear people, the ushers (one hundred percent, some of the finest people), to this school for letting us have the place for the worship, and to all that has been done---I just don't know how to express myself in gratitude for this meeting.
I'm praying that the results from this will never die, but will live on and on. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to meet with these men and be at their churches, and so forth. They were just quoting to me a few moments ago of young people coming to Christ this morning, the power of God in their meetings. I trust that'll never die but will continue on forever until Jesus comes. Many of you fine friends that I have met since I've been here, your memories will linger on in my heart. Cooperation ... hard bitter preaching sometimes I have to do.
I'm not a ... I don't claim to be what we call a preacher. I'm ... you know that already. But I claim that just knowing the Lord as my saviour, so enthused with trying to do that which He has ordained to be done, and through this He has given me the opportunity, by a gift, to express to the people that... Where I don't have the education to do it, maybe the works will express that I am his servant, and you are my brother and sister, and that will do the vindication of it. Maybe that'll let you know that I love you, God loves you, and together we hope to spend an endless eternity together in a land beyond the river somewhere on.

2 Next week, next Sunday, beginning a week from this Sunday---as I made the little rude expression---I'm going to begin in your suburbs now, next ... a week from this coming Sunday. That's Chicago, see, up here, suburbs of this city. I don't know just where it's at. Is Mr. (I can never quote an Italian name) Bottazzi...? What? Bottazzi. Has he announced where those services will be held in Chicago? It's already been announced from the platform. I don't even know myself where they're at. And so we'll find out some way. I'll get there and call Brother Carlson, or somebody, and find out where I'm supposed to be. And so we're expecting great things in Chicago next week.
We would be happy for you to be our guests there in Chicago, or any other meeting that we could ever be at.

3 Now one time I had said, "The nights would never get too dark, or the rain would never fall too hard but what I would come to you to help you in anything that I could pertaining to the kingdom of God, or any other thing that I could help you." If I had a little money, if you needed it, it'd be yours. That's right. I'd do that.
Anyone who knows my life and my family, it's the same way. My poor old father has gone on today. He didn't live the right life on earth. He had one bad habit---drinking. But if he met a man on the street, a perfect stranger and the man was hungry, and he had one biscuit, he'd break it in two with him. We believe in helping those who are needy, and help them.

4 I wish I could say I'd come to you any time. I'd like to say that, but I can't---there's too many. Just this little meeting here, which is just a little small group of people; and I think the world over, millions, see, I couldn't justly say that. But I'll do this, friend. I'll do everything I can. If you want me to pray over a handkerchief like this here, send it to you... If you don't need it now and you want it anyhow, you send and get it. There's no charges on nothing. We don't charge for anything.
There's no charges for services, even to our books. Them's not my books. They belong to different people that wrote those books. I buy them at 40% less. And I've given my book agents and them the say-so at the door, if a man, woman, boy, or girl comes in, wants one of them books and haven't got the money to pay for it, give it to him anyhow. And we always lose on the books. There's no way of making even ends break.
And the picture of the angel of the Lord, that doesn't belong to me. That belongs to the Douglas Studios, and it's copyrighted and could not be reproduced because you'd be breaking the rights of the copyright. So they're not ours, and we just bring them along because we think it would help somebody. And buying them books at 40% less---and maybe lose 10 or 15% of them before they get to you---then you've got to pay for these boys to sell these. The church gives them so much a week. And by the way, it isn't mine; the Tabernacle takes care of that.

5 And everything that we do is free of charge.
Now, I'm not trying to get your address. I don't ... as I say, I've got... Well, my secretary---he does my work---I don't know whether... Are you here, Jim, today? I don't know whether he got over or not. His father-in-law is here, I think, and his mother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Sothmann. They're here. His wife answers the phone, Brother Jim does the typing. Brother Leo Mercier does the field work. He was here just a moment ago. His associate here... These boys work for the Branham Tabernacle, which I'm associated with, which is an independent, sovereign church chartered at Jeffersonville, in Clarke County.
And it's a non-profit foundation, and the money that comes into the church, and so forth, goes into the foreign fields to sponsor poor people who doesn't have the money to send for me to come over there. But yet they need me real bad, and I take that money as soon as they get enough built up, and go over to the foreign fields to preach to those this same gospel that you have the privilege of seeing. And therefore... I know, as a steward of his money, I'm going to have to answer for it at the day of the judgment. And I take it myself, as long as I'm young enough to go and can go. I want to go to be sure that I preach and bring them the message that you've donated for them to hear. The credit all be yours at that day. I'm just a servant to pack the message.

6 I suppose, as the boys ... one said a while ago they've taken a love offering for me. That wasn't necessary. I didn't come for that. I've been preaching thirty-one years. I pastored a Baptist tabernacle for seventeen years. Go look at the books. I never... Ask anybody across the nation, anywhere. I never took an offering in all my life. I never, in all my life.
One time, while pastoring the Tabernacle, we as poor people, we run a little short of money. We all know what that is, don't you? We just had some debts we had to meet, wife and I. Billy was quite small then. And I said, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take up an offering tonight." That's the closest I ever come doing it. And an old brother that's in glory today, Brother Wisehart... We didn't have an offering plate. They used to put it in the papers in the city, "The church which has no offering plate."

7 I worked, labored, whatever I could do to make a living. And the church... Not because they wouldn't support me. I could work, why not work? Other men worked. Paul worked, why not me? And the reason... The tremendous strain on the work, from place to place, or I'd still... I'd rather come right here and take a rock and hammer, and go out here on the street and work all day, come in, preach to you at night. That'd be my desire if I could do it. That's before God and my Bible.
But we had to get a little money. I needed about $5. And I'd made a promise, and a debt owing. I just didn't have it and we couldn't get it. So I said, "I'm going to take up an offering tonight."
My lovely little wife, if there's any credit goes to the Branham family, let it go to her. She's the one who's stood between me and the public; and all the things that's been done, let her have the credit. She said to me, "Billy, I'm going to go over and watch you do that."

8 I got up that night. She was sitting back. I said, "Friends, I've been pastoring here, I guess, about twelve years." I said, "I've never took an offering. I'm just a little bit in need tonight. I really need about $5." I said, "Now, we're going to pass the hat around. If you got a nickel or two, you could put it tonight." The congregation ... as much as sitting on this floor right here. I said, "If you've only got a nickel or a dime, you'd like to help me to it, I'd appreciate it very much." We didn't have no offering plate. I said, "Brother Wisehart, would you get my hat?"

9 I happened to look down there, and a little old woman... She's in glory today. Her name is Mrs. Weber. She had one of these little aprons on that's got a pocket underneath the apron. Did you women ever see one of them? I guess your mothers wore them years ago. She got down there and got a hold of one of these little pocketbooks that's got a snap on top of it, you know. It was during some hard times, now. That's been about twenty-five years ago. She unsnapped that little pocketbook, begin to feel around over them nickels. I couldn't have took it. I just couldn't do it, that's all there was to it.
I looked down there. I thought, "Oh, mercy. Oh," I said, "I was just teasing you. I was going to see what you would say. I was just going on with you." Brother Wisehart had my hat in his hand. "Oh," I said, "Brother Wisehart, hang my hat up. I was just teasing the church."

10 And so I went over home, and I thought, "Well..." I went down to the ten-cent store and got a ten-cent can of paint. There was an old man, has gone on to glory now (Brother Gene, you remember him well), old Brother Ryan. He used to have long hair and a long beard. He rode this bicycle down there and he gave it to me. It backslid on him. No, that ain't good for a Baptist to say, is it? Let's just say it wore out. It just wore out. And, now, I'm a Baptist. I'm a Pentecostal Baptist, you see---a Baptist that's got the Holy Ghost.
So I said... Went over and got this old bicycle, and went down and got me a can of paint to paint it up to make it look pretty good, sandpapered it off, and set it out front and sold it for $5. Never had to take up an offering after all. So that's the closest I ever come to it.

11 Thank you, my friends, for what was in the offering. It'll go to the treasury and from that will go to the foreign fields to bring this message to the heathens, and those people who don't have one meal, maybe, once a week to eat on. That's where it'll go. And may the God of heaven return it to you a hundredfold, and put golden bricks in that home of yours beyond the skies, is my prayer.
Write to me any time, now, that you wish. Call me on the phone. Many times ... I'm not around Jeff very much. My address: Jeffersonville, Indiana, Post Office Box 325. If you can't think of the 325, just put Jeffersonville. And if you want to call me, my number is Butler 21519. If you can't get it at that number, then call Butler 23826. Can't get it at that, call Butler 36771. Can't get that, call ... better stop at that. But, anyhow, the main number to call to get me, Butler 21519. That's 1519 at the office, and they could tell you about where I could be located. Any hour of the night, or anything I could do: to pray for you by the phone, send you a prayer cloth, or anything. Absolutely free. There's nothing, see. Be glad to do it.

12 And now I suppose... There's been things happening in my last three meetings that startled me. This morning I sat with my son for nearly an hour and I said, "Billy, what's wrong?" Last night it come forth again. I'm leaving the field. What's the matter? Am I going home? Is my work finished? Is this type of ministry done? Am I going to the foreign fields? I don't know that it's any of those things, but something's fixing to happen. I don't know what it is.
So if it is to a field beyond the river yonder, over to the heathen, wherever it might be, I feel that America has had its message. And if it is, I want to ask you a favor. Until we meet again at the great river yonder at the end of the road, will you pray for me? Thank you. When the witch doctor is challenging me to a debate, when the demons of all sorts in the foreign fields ... if I should be called, as they usually do, I'll remember over around Bloomington, Illinois, and its round-about cities, I got a bunch of people on a Sunday afternoon who raised their hands, "I'll be praying for you." And when I have to walk out on the floor to meet it, I'll know that I'm covered by the blood and your prayers.

13 Can we bow our heads now for a word of prayer? Gracious Father, we're giving thanks to Thee from the depths of our souls for all that we have heard from You. We have read from your Word and seen You make manifest to us this week. We thank You for this fine people, for these fine ministers, for their fine churches, for this great college, for this auditorium, for all that has been done and said, for the ushers, for the musicians, for the singers, just everything, Father. If I miss out any, bless them, Father.
You have seen every little move, every little gracious move. You have seen the mother, the daddy, put in a portion of their living to support this meeting. They did it because that You were speaking to them. We could not give it back to them, and would not, because that we'd rob them from the blessing that lays just beyond. For one day, we read in the Bible, that where Jesus was watching the rich put a lot of money in the offering. But a poor widow came by and put in about three pennies. Lord, I guess if I'd have been standing there I'd have run out and grabbed her hands, say, "Don't do that, sister. We got enough in here." But You were standing there and You didn't stop her. For You knew what laid just ahead. You knew that You'd return it to her a hundredfold.
So, Father, I know that your great eye watched every move that we've made. We pray that whatever we have done, the feeble efforts that we had, that it's been pleasing in your sight.

14 I realize, Father, that I'm speaking this afternoon to men and women I'll perhaps never see again in this life. Many aged are sitting here, and many sick. Some day I hope to meet them there at the river when they're transformed from this life, as young men and women, washed in the blood of the Lamb, with bodies that'll never have another healing service, or never will there be another sinner weeping around the altar. I pray that You'll bless them.
Bless these ministers, these shepherds of yours, that in the midst of criticism, when, Father, because of their true stand on the Word... My name's not too good among them, but they wasn't ashamed, they called me anyhow. O God, bless their ministry. May they realize that these things are only to bring the church back to its right standing; only to shake us back, Lord, to where the Holy Spirit can build upon a real true foundation, upon really born-again men and women. Father, not because I don't love their organizations, denominations; it's because I see the systems are letting the people get too loose. Help us, God. You know my heart, how I love them.

15 I pray that You'll bless us together, as we turn to your Word now for the final reading, the closing of this revival, may... Or not this revival, Lord; this eight days of efforts. But may the revival never close. May it go on and on. May it live till the results will still be here when Jesus comes. But I pray that You'll do something this afternoon that'll cap it all off, that'll cause the people to hear the Word in such a way that the Holy Spirit will plant the seed deep in their heart.
My heart still goes to that poor little girl I met there at the door a few minutes ago, sitting twisted up in that wheel chair; how that You sprung down and told her how she become that way, what she was when she was a little girl, and told her the reason that she's not well, walking around right now. God, may that never leave that child's heart. She typed a letter of invitation to me. I pray God that that child will be healed. Grant it. May it never leave her little heart and know that that was not me standing there; that was the Holy Spirit speaking through this servant of yours, telling her exactly what was truth---what she was, what she is, and what she can be. May it never leave her, Lord.
Bless all who are sick and afflicted this afternoon; and as your servants stand and we pray for the sick, may they all be healed. May the lost be saved and God receive glory, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

16 Pray for Brother Roberts, Billy Graham, Tommy Osborn, Tommy Hicks, great men of God out in the field today. Pray for them, won't you do it? You pray for those brothers. They're fighting a hard battle. My heart bleeds for them. Pray that they'll stay true to the gospel. And when it's all over, we'll all gather together as one big family.
Have we any more of the books left from the Business Men's ... about the vision? They're all gone. Anybody here that never got a copy, raise your hand. Never got a copy. A few. I suppose if you would just write to the Christian Businessmen's Voice, Los Angeles, they probably have a few thousand of them left. They'd be glad to send you one free. I suppose if there'd be a charge it'd only be a dime or something, I don't know---just something for the printing cost.

17 It's got the vision and I want you to read it.
And before this open Bible, before my God... I should know what visions mean. That wasn't a vision; I was there, I seen it. I don't want to ... I hate to say that, because someone thinks you're trying to impersonate the great Saint Paul. I'm not saying that for that. I'm just saying that I know that somewhere just beyond here there's a land we live again. How could I ever...? I have said, when coming back, "Let me do all that I can."
I can't ... I'm not responsible for what others say; I have to answer for my own saying. I don't know what... You might say, "I've heard people say that." I hope that every bit of it was true. I hope that every bit was true. Brother, sister, before God this was true. It was true.
I was just as I am now, only a young man again, standing somewhere looking at people that were ... from old to turn young, and there was no sickness, no sorrow, no death. They were different. And yet He told me it was greater than that yet to come. That would be good enough for me for all time.

18 I'd thought this afternoon... Excuse me, I don't want to be a baby, but when you meet people and then know you have to leave them, and maybe... You know, old people like this, if I come back a year from now I'll probably never see you again, and it just does something to me.
But let's try to get now over to Genesis, the twenty-second chapter. And I want to read just a part of the fourteenth verse, or quote it to you.
And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
Genesis 14:22 ... or, Genesis 22:14. Pardon me. Now, I just want to ... give close, your close attention as I just teach this. And I'll be quickly. I've got three hundred miles in this blizzard to drive this afternoon to meet an obligation tomorrow.

19 So now ... but I want you to be sure to try to catch it, to cap off what I've said this week of the coming of the Lord being at hand.
And now, if you've got a pencil and paper, I have about twenty scriptures written out here, if you would just like to refer to them as we read along. And jot down little notes, because I truly think that this is the most timely thing that the Holy Spirit has ever let me speak on. And I trust that in doing this that you'll understand that I can only speak it; the Holy Spirit will have to interpret it.

20 Now, I've spoke this twice already, and this is the third time approaching this same message because it's so timely. And I'm titling this...
And if you miss it, it'll be on tape. If you got a tape recorder, why, the boys will send you the tapes. And now, just write to them. I guess you know their address, and so forth. If you don't, why, just write to me there and it'll be brought over in their box. And they are a foundation of their own. They're the Audio Mission at Jeffersonville, and two fine boys, Mr. Mercier and Mr. Goad.
And I guess you've heard their story, how they become associates of mine. Was because they come there to try to expose me, formed themselves a little FBI. They were coming there, and didn't think that them visions were true. And come there investigating around, acting like they were ministers, and the Holy Spirit uncovered their life right before them. So they have become my associates. One of them a Catholic, a French Catholic, Mr. Mercier, just here. His conversion ... was a bartender. Mr. Goad sitting here, I believe, formerly was a... People from the Methodist church, wasn't your people? Backslidden Nazarenes.

21 Was you ... worked in an office somewhere, didn't you, Brother Goad? In Gary, Indiana. A bartender, and an office boy. A backslidden Nazarene, and a Roman ... and a French Canadian Catholic, together, to expose me.
And if I'm doing anything wrong, I want to be exposed. I want to be right now. This is the time to make it right. Not after I get over there, though; let's get it right now. I've found them to be real gentlemen, honest, real boys. When they asked me if they could make tapes... They have to have something to live by. Mr. Mercier is married now. Mr. Goad's in the making, if there's any young ladies that... If his face isn't red now! (Gene, I just did that so it would be a change from ... get myself so I could get back to this text.) I'll witness he's a fine man. He's my buddy, a real brother.

22 And now, I'm going to title this: "Abraham and His Seed After Him." And I want to climax at Genesis 22:14, and Jehovah-jireh. Now, we know that God has seven compound redemptive names. We all are acquainted with that. Jehovah-jireh means the Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice. Jehovah-rapha is Jehovah, the Lord our healer. Jehovah-manasseh, our banner, our buckler, our shield, our ... so forth, on. Seven compound redemptive names belongs to Jehovah. And his first name is Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice.

23 Now, listen close, and if you have to ... just make yourself. And if somebody's whispering next to you, say, "Would you just be quiet just a moment, please, till I get this?" Then they'll do it, they'll be nice.
Now we're going to start back, go back in the back (after we've got here where I want to bring this sermon to the climax), let's go back to Genesis, the twelfth chapter. If you want to write these places down, Genesis, the twelfth chapter. And now we're going to talk about Abraham. Now remember that Abraham ... the promise was made to Abraham. We're all acquainted with that. Is that right, my clergymen brethren? The promise was Abraham, to him.
And Abraham was not a Jew. Abraham was a Gentile. He'd come down from the tower, from Babylon, with his father, and he dwelt in the land of Shinar there, the valleys, and dwelt in the city of Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans dwelt in that land, and he was in the city of Ur, and perhaps a farmer.
And he was seventy-five years old before God called him. He had married his half-sister and her name was Sarai. His name was Abram. And they were just two ordinary people. And one day God called Abraham, and made a covenant with Abraham (now watch) and his seed after him.

24 Now, I'm going to put up two books here and call these books, see, to Abraham, and his seed after him. Now what He did for Abraham, He done for his seed after him. All that understands that clearly now, say, "Amen." To Abraham and his seed after him.
Now if we'll notice in Genesis 12, that God called Abraham by election. Not because Abraham had done anything to deserve it, no more... He might have been an idolater, I don't know. In Babylon they worshipped roots and... If you ever read Hislop's Two Babylons, the ancient history, you would find out that Babylon, founded by Nimrod, it was just perfectly idolatry, that's all. And he was...
We find Babylon in the first of the Bible, in the middle of the Bible, and in the last of the Bible. And it was an organization system. Babylon was a leading city that made all the other little cities pay tribute to it, see. Kind of like a headquarters somewhere, and where orders went out and all the rest of them had to pay into that one place. And Abraham had come down from there with his father.

25 Now, God called him by election.
Now, brethren, my precious, darling brethren, if I happen to get out of order in the scriptural doctrine will you just forgive me for it, and know it's my ignorance? Will you do it? And my theological brethren out there, if you feel that my doctrine is wrong, will you just forget it, see? Just...
Now many of you people are writing me letters and saying, "Brother Branham, should we do this and do that?"
I always say, "Ask your pastor," see, because... I'll do anything I can answering you on the great fundamental evangelical doctrines of the Bible, but when it comes to about "Should we do this and do that?" I always refer to your pastor, because we might, each man... There isn't two here but what would disagree with one another on little technical things---whether we should comb our hair on the right side or left side (and mine, I have no trouble with that) so... But you know what I mean. We have those things. So I always just say to every congregation, "Ask your pastor those things. If he has led you far enough to be saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, can't you trust him the rest of the way through?" If God honored him for that...
But on bringing this timely thought to the people this afternoon, I'm going to have to use just a little bit of doctrine that might beset, and something like that. But if you don't think it's right, just lay it aside and go on. If the pastor teaches anything a little different, forget what I said about it, see, because I'm trying to come to a point. I hope that's all right. I hope that's made clear.

26 But, you see, Abraham, not being nothing himself, he was called by election. Then if Abraham was called by election, then his seed after him has to be called by election. That's right. Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except my Father draws him first. And all that the Father hath given me will come to me." That's the reason you just preach the gospel in its plainness, yet the elected sheep of God will hear that and catch it right quick. And they'll believe that baptism of the Holy Ghost---where others will walk away and make fun of it---because they were elected to hear it. That's all, see. So you see now why that the church itself is an elected, pre-elected, by God.
Now let me take the word out of I Thessalonians, the first chapter there, where it said "predestinated." Now that's not a good word to use before people because predestinated is a... It would be better if we used it like this, that it was by foreknowledge. God by his foreknowledge could predestinate to his own glory. See,

27 He didn't say, "Now, I'm going to choose you; and I'm going to send you to hell. And I'm going to choose you; and send you to hell." That wasn't God's idea. He wanted all of us to come to heaven, but being God He foreknew who would come and who would not come.
Now that clears up Romans 9, 8 and 9 there, where it said that the election of God might stand sure, that before either boy was born (talking of Esau and Jacob), God said, "I love Jacob and hate Esau." See, his foreknowledge let Him know that Esau was nothing but just a little shyster anyhow, and that Jacob had recompense to that birthright. So, see, his foreknowledge lets Him know. If He didn't know the end from the beginning, then He wasn't God, see. And the Bible said that we, the church...

28 Now I want you to remember there is three classes of people. Three classes of people in the world. Always has been, and will be to the end. Now let's say that together. Three classes of people: unbelievers, make believers, and believers. Keep that in mind, three classes of people. Now, the class that was elected before the foundation of the world and were called in Christ before the foundation of the world...
How many knows that Christ was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world? Well, how was He slain? In God's great program He knowed that He would project a Son and that Son would be the saviour of his people. Is that right? So when God speaks a thing it's already finished. Oh, brother. (Where's that little sister that I had ... the vision was over, a few minutes ago, sitting right here in a wheel chair? If you can see that, sister dear, it would be over for you.)

29 When God speaks anything, when God makes a statement, it is for... As long as He says so, it's perfect, it's got to come to pass. It just has to.
And then when his Word comes into us, no matter what we do, what we look like, what we think of, it's got to come to pass, see. So God don't run his business... If He saved us here, know He's going to lose us after while, He's a poor business man. And so therefore all that He foreknew He has ... what? Called. All that He has called, He has justified. All that He has justified, He has already glorified.
Now there's going to be a church meet Him there without spot or wrinkle. "Brother Branham, are you in it?" I hope so, but we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. And when you see your life not coping up with God's Word, no matter what church you belong to, you know you're out of order, see.
And if you just do your religion because you know it's something that you're supposed to do, you're just playing the part of a hypocrite. If it isn't from your heart that you love God, then you're wrong to start with, see. You love. It's love that controls the whole thing.

30 Now watch. Abraham was called by election. Nothing Abraham did. And now notice, the covenant in Genesis 12, see, the whole covenant was given to Abraham ... the whole covenant is completely grace, see. Not "Abraham, if you'll do a certain thing, I'll do a certain thing." It wasn't, "If you'll do this, I'll do this."
God makes a covenant with a man, and man always breaks his covenant. He told Adam, "If you'll not eat from that tree, you'll live." But Adam ate from it. And He told them ... the covenant that He made with them, the Mosaic covenant in the wilderness there, they broke it.

31 Every time that God makes a covenant with man, man breaks it.
But this time God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed unconditionally. Now do you understand? Not, "Abraham, if you will do this, I will do this." But, "Abraham, I have already done it. I've already... You'll come to me ... you're already saved. You'll come to me in a ripe old age." He's already done it.
And now it isn't, "Today if you will do a certain thing, if you will do this, if you do that..." It's already finished. Not, "If you'll go away and learn a good education, if you'll know all this, that, or the other, I'll heal you. I'll save you if you'll get a Bachelor of Arts."
"I have already done it. It's finished. I just want you to reach out here and get it, that's all." Do you see what I mean?
Only thing that Abraham had to do was abide in his covenant. He didn't have to do nothing for the covenant; God done made that with him. He just had to stay put. Hallelujah! Now I'm beginning to get religious. See,

32 when we know this, that the only thing we have to do to inherit any of God's promises is to stay put on God's Word, let nothing shake you from it. Now, notice. He perfectly typed Abraham and his seed after him, and I'm going to follow the junctions of Abraham's life, and then follow the junctions of Abraham's seed, and see if God kept his Word letter by letter.
Now, Abraham ... we know that there's only one way that we can be saved, and that is being in the covenant with Abraham, because it was made to Abraham. But the Bible said we being in Christ, we being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed and are heirs with Abraham. Is that right? Now, Christ is the royal seed of Abraham. Out of Abraham come Isaac, out of Isaac come Jacob, out of Jacob come Joseph, out of Joseph ... so forth on down. David, David on, on, So-and-so, till finally the royal seed was born, which was Christ. And in Christ made Abraham the father of all nations.
And the Abrahamic covenant is confirmed to the people un... or, given to the people unconditionally.

33 Now, you read now in the twelfth chapter, he made the covenant with Abraham unconditionally. He called Abraham.
I've heard people say, "I sought God, and I sought God, and I sought God." You're mistaken. God sought you, and sought you, and sought you. It wasn't you seeking God; it was God seeking you.
Why, the very beginning proved it. It ought to have been Adam hollering, "Father, Father, where are you? I've sinned, I've sinned, Father."
But it was God saying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?" See. So it's always...
Could you go out and tell a pig that he's wrong because he's eating slop? Would he believe it? No, sir. He'd tell you tend to his own business. And that's the way with the sinner. You can't tell him nothing. He won't listen to you. He won't even sit in church five minutes to listen at you. He's a pig to begin with. He's a scavenger, a vulture. That's his nature, see. So you can't tell him nothing, because that's just what he is. He's a vulture, he can't feed on good things.

34 Now, notice, then when you get that, what God said to Abraham... He called Abraham. And if you ever was called, it wasn't you doing the seeking, it was God sought you. And by God's grace He saved you. Not because you did something, not because that you're worthy of it, but because God's grace to you did it. Everybody understand that, say, "Amen." Now we're getting started.
Now what was it? When God took a man and called him first, what was that? Justification. Abraham in regards of hearing the voice of God speak to him, believed on the Lord God. Is that right? Therefore he was justified by faith by believing on the Lord God. Is that what we are? Seed of Abraham? Romans 5:1: "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1.

35 Now, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, or allowed to his account for righteousness.
How do you do? You say "Well, I'm the Joneses. I live in a certain..." That don't have one thing to do with it. God called you and you accept the call. And by your faith by accepting Christ, the royal seed of Abraham which called you, then you're justified by faith. Is that right? That's the only way I know it. That's the scripture as far as I know.
I know I was a sinner, rank. God stopped me in the middle of my sin and knocked at my heart's door. And I turned and looked back, said, "Who is it?"
He said, "I'm your Lord."
I said, "Then, Lord, let me come."
I never stopped and said, "Hey, Lord, hey, where you at? I want to talk to you a while," see. No, you don't do that. It's God stops you.

36 So now it's by grace that God called you---not what you did, what you could do, what you will do. If you're the seed of Abraham, God spoke to you by his amazing grace, just like He did Abraham in the twelfth chapter of Genesis.
Now, and then notice as soon as Abraham believed God by justification, believing on the Lord for justified, immediately God called Abraham to total separation from all unbelief. Is that the way He did unto you? "Separate yourself from your kindred, from all your associates, come out of the pool rooms, come out of the dance halls, come away from the things of the world." God calls for a total separation to Abraham's seed, because that's what He called Abraham. Are you patterning it?
This instrument is Abraham; this instrument represents his seed after him; and the covenant was made to both Abraham and his seed after him. And as Abraham was called by grace, by election, so was his seed called by grace and election. See? They heard the voice of God and believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Heard the voice of God in a barroom, ever where it was at, and believed God. And Abraham was commanded to abstain and to separate himself from the things of the world, and so is the seed of Abraham---separate themselves from the things of the world. Justification by faith. We could stay on that the rest of the afternoon but we got to hurry.

37 Now, as we find out, Abraham never fully obeyed. Now that's the way of a lot of us people. As soon as we go make a confession, we think, "Well, now we've joined church, and we're going to be pretty good people. We're neighbors. It won't hurt to smoke a little, or, oh, if I just keep my card party that won't hurt anything." But, remember, God never did bless Abraham until he fully obeyed. And God will not bless his seed until he fully obeys---separating himself from the things of the world.
"Come out from among them, be ye separate," saith the Lord. "I will receive you. Touch not their unclean things. If you abide in me and my Word in you, ask what you will and it'll be done to you," see.

38 Now, you see, you've got to come out from the world.
But what did Abraham do? Oh, he had his nephew along, Lot---a church member, lukewarm. And his daddy---the old man was a fly in the ointment as long as he stuck around. And he took some of the things along.
And that's just the way we try to do. We try to pull into the churches, into our organization, the things of the world. Now, my Methodist brethren, I love you. My Baptist brethren, I love you, the same as I love my Pentecostal brethren, or whatever it is. But, you see, we're trying to pull the things of the world and carry it right along with us like Abraham did. I'm not unchristianizing you by your organization. I'm only telling you you're not fully obeying God till you separate yourselves.

39 Now, when you still run to picture shows to see every kind of an old picture; when you stay at home and let your meetings out early of a night so they can see some uncensored television program; so that you can go down in your basement (and some of you protestant churches doing that) and having bunco games and things in the basement; soup suppers, little friendly dances, and what's called the YMCA teaching rock-and-roll... And listen, you, my Methodist brethren, when about six weeks ago my mother---she's a Methodist too---when she called me down to the house, and here in Indiana they was having a rock-and-roll dance in the Methodist church on television. Covered up the orders of the things, like that, and they asked... Even the sponsor, the television man, said, "Don't you think this ought ... the people'll criticize you?
Says, "Too long has the Methodist church forgot the beautiful art of rock-and-roll."
If John Wesley knew that, he'd turn in his grave! Too much have you went to the things of the world. You know what, you Methodists?

40 I talked to Jack Schuller. That's one of the finest men you got. You got millions of fine men in Methodist church, people. Some of the best. I'm looking in the face of two Methodist ministers right now that's bosom friends of mine. There isn't better men stands in shoe leather, as I know of. That's right. But you're forgetting, you're not separating yourself.
John Wesley was one who started preaching sanctification and separate yourself from the things of the world. And you Methodist women wearing shorts, makeup on your face, and don't you know what your founder said about such stuff as that?
But you got a weak pulpit and a big building. That's what's the matter with you. And don't you just look over and laugh at the Baptist. Baptist, you're the same, and Pentecostal you're the same. Now we just have to make it right, now, that's all.

41 Now, what a pity it is. Don't you know that if you're the seed of Abraham you got to separate yourself from the things of the world, because it was made to Abraham and his seed after him. And Abraham never did come into the blessing...
No wonder, on this grounds here, yonder at Wheaton College, down at Asbury, over at the Moody (where we're going next, in Chicago, to Moody), why don't they have revivals like we used to? You're not separating yourself, children of Abraham. How will God ever deal in a place like that when He can't even get you to live morally? That's right. He can never have a revival based upon such stuff as that.
Now, you say, "Brother Branham, you get angry at us." Let the Lord be my judge, see.

42 If somebody don't tell you, if something doesn't take place, you're going to wind up down on the little end of the spool. Now, come out of such a thing! You, you who are...
What about the Methodist church, you Methodist people? When they used to go down the road ... and you Methodists here, when you first come, Asbury and those were here, and you had the old fashioned meeting, when people fell on the floor with the Holy Ghost, laying there, kicking, and screaming, and throwing their hands up, and you dashed water in their faces and things like that to bring them to. O God! Methodists, what happened to that experience? Where's it at today? What happened? Something went wrong. You see, you're drifting, over on the ... getting out of the way from the seed of Abraham.

43 Now watch God. The next thing ... now, that was justification (to hurry up). Now what did God do now in Genesis 12? He saved Abraham by election, and Abraham was justified by faith believing on God's Word. Is that right? Baptists, is that the way you got it? Methodists, is that the way you got it? Pilgrim Holiness, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, is that the way you got it? Sure, exactly right. Now watch the stage of the journey. On they went.
To make it quick now, I want you to go with me, the next place now, to Genesis 15. A lot of things in there we could take a week, and week after week on, but just to bring these stages to you to show you what he did. In the fifteenth chapter, Abraham begin to wonder, "How will I ever know these things?" Then God confirmed the covenant to him. He give him a confirmation of the covenant in Genesis the fifteenth chapter. We find that out. When he completely separated himself---Lot went down into Sodom, and the old man died, and Abraham separated himself and got alone---then God begin to speak to him.

44 Baptists, do that. Methodists, do that. Pentecostals, do that. Separate yourself from the things of the world and see if God don't go to talking to you. Separate yourself from the things of this life and find out if God don't talk to you.
But when he completely did it, he said, "Seeing that you made me a promise of a son and I go childless, and my only heir is this Eliezer of Damascus," said, "how is it going to be done?" Now, listen close, all of you. Now, there Abraham in Genesis 1 was justified by faith; now here comes in your John Wesley doctrine. Here comes in your sanctification, or your confirmation of the covenant.

45 Remember, Abraham took a she goat, a heifer, and ... three animals---a goat, a sheep, a heifer of three years old---them three being the confirmation (three, as I told you again to hold). Three years old. And he killed them and split them apart. Is that right?
Then he took a turtle dove and a pigeon, which represents divine healing. Never separated them. You notice that? The Bible said (when you're reading this back now after I'm gone) he never separated the pigeon and the dove. Because why? There was a change in the covenant from Christ to the ... from the lamb until the Lamb of God, but divine healing has always been based upon your faith. He never separated the dove and the bird. He laid them down there; but he did split the three-year sacrifices.

46 Now, what was it? The shedding of the blood. The first one of Abraham's seed in the church age. Do you believe the church age started after Pentecost? Do you believe that first round there of Jews and so forth... ? Then do you believe the first reformation of the called-out church for the rapture was Luther's group? It sure was. He preached, "The just shall live by faith." He refused the communion of being the literal body of Christ and throwed it on the floor---that young priest, Martin Luther---and preached, "The just shall live by faith." Is that right? John Wesley preached sanctification, the second definite work of grace. Is that right? Separating himself from the things of the world.

47 Now, He dealt with Abraham under justification. Then Abraham's seed was Martin Luther, under justification. Now He comes to Abraham to the confirming of the covenant and also He's coming over here to Abraham's seed in the confirming of the covenant for a coming back to the blood, the killing of the sacrifice. Oh, do you see it? Say "Amen" if you do. Listen, then he comes back to the sacrifice. Watch. Let me take just a minute how the sacrifice was confirmed. And we'll hurry---now notice, quickly.
How do we do when we confirm a covenant? I'd say to... This brother here, stand up just a minute. You're a pastor, have a church? You'll say... Do you have a church? All right, say... You got a church? All right, stand up just a minute. You have a church. You say, "Brother Branham, let's go out and have a little lunch together."
"All right."
"Will you come to my church and hold a revival?"

48 "Let's see. Oh, I tell you what we'll do, we'll [certain-certain thing]."
"Yeah, I'll do that."
"Shake, boy, that's it. Be right there."
Is that it? That's the way we confirm our covenant. Is that right? By a handshake. Eat a little something, shake a hand, we'll agree. That's our pledge to one another, our right hand. "Put 'er there, we'll do it." That's a covenant in the United States.
Well, you know how they do it in Japan? They go out and have a little bite to eat, and when they come back and they're going to confirm their covenant, they get a little cruse of salt and they stand and throw salt on one another. Salt is a contact, a savor, you see which means that they ... that's how they confirm their covenant.

49 But did you know how they did it in the Orient in the days of Abraham? (I hope that I don't tear up nothing valuable---this little letter here which has got a handkerchief in it---but I want to use something.) They taken those sacrifices and killed the sacrifice. (Now, you understand how it was the three sacrifices, was this time, meaning the three races, three generations, and so forth. Now we ... three church ages, and so forth, or the last, or the calling of the church.) And then they kill this sacrifice. They come together, and upon the parchment, which was the lamb's skin, they wrote, "I will agree to do so-and-so-and-so with you."
"Yes, we'll do that." All right.
"Will you meet this obligation?"
"I will. I'll meet it."
"All right. Will you do such-and-such?"
"Yeah, I will. I'll meet it."

50 "All right."
They kill the sacrifice. They stand right in between these sacrifices, raise their hands to God and take a vow: if they break this covenant, let their body be like this dead body laying here. Then they take this and tear it apart. One takes one piece and one takes the other piece. Now, there's not a way in the world of ever dovetailing that back together again. It has to be the same thing when we come together. I'm packing my part of it; he's packing his.
Now what did God do? He was going to tell him what He was going to do, how He was going to do it through a sacrifice; how He was going to make him a father of nations (and yet hadn't give him that name yet), but He was going to make him a father of nations. And he killed the sacrifice, speaking to him in this.
Now watch. What did Abraham see? The first thing after he killed the sacrifice he kept the birds off of it until the sun went down. When the sun went down, what happened? A deep sleep fell upon Abraham. Is that right? Genesis 15. A deep sleep upon Abraham. What's that? Death, to every human being. All Abraham's seed.

51 What happened next after the deep sleep? Then a black horror come before him. Then from that come a smoking furnace where every sinner goes to hell.
But after that went a little white light, and this little light went between the sacrifice. Said, "You see what I'm going to do, Abraham? A little light---God is the light. And He went between this sacrifice, these dead pieces of body here. What was He doing? Making the covenant. Who did He swear by? Himself. He couldn't swear by anybody greater. You always swear by somebody greater than you. So there was nobody, the Bible said, that He could swear by because He's the greatest, and He swore by Himself. What? He'll keep the covenant with Abraham and his seed! Hallelujah. "I swear by Myself that I'll never vary one word from my covenant with you or your seed after you."
What about that, sister? What about that? "I'll keep my Word." He swore by Himself. The Bible said He did! "I'll keep my covenant. I'll swear to you, Abraham, I'll do it. Legalist brethren, I don't mean to pinch hard, but I just want to tell you one thing here just a minute. Look here, look what He done. How did He do it? What was He speaking of? Surely you're spiritual enough to catch it.
What did He do? Christ was that royal seed of Abraham that was promised. Is that right? What did He do with Him? He took Him to Calvary. He lived on earth. He proved He was the Messiah by signs and wonders, knowing the secrets of the heart, perceiving their thoughts, proving that He was the Messiah that was to come. Have we taught that this week? Has the Bible said so? God's Word said so? He proved He was the Messiah.
What did He do with Him? He took Him to Calvary and He tore Him apart, raised up his body on the third day, for his part, and set it on his right hand; and sent the same Spirit that was upon Christ down on his church (Hallelujah!) to do the same work and same thing that He did.

52 Where's your covenant, your piece of goods? When that real genuine church of Jesus Christ comes to meet at the resurrection, that same Spirit that was in Christ will have to dovetail with that same covenant. I don't care what kind of affair with the Methodist, Baptist, Pentecost, or whatever, you've got, if the Spirit of Christ isn't in you then you're not Abraham's seed, and you're not in the covenant, because that's where He wrote the covenant. Amen. If you differ with it, read your Bible.
Then the Spirit, the Spirit upon Christ is on the church. "A little while and the world will see me no more; yet you'll see me, for I [I is a personal pronoun], I'll be with you, even in you, and the works that I do shall you do also. I'll be there until the end of the world. These signs shall follow them that believe."

53 Shame on you unbelieving Methodists, you unbelieving Baptists, you unbelieving Pentecostals, who claim to be the seed of Abraham and then dispute his Word, say the days of miracles is past. God swore by an oath He'd keep that seed alive through every nation, through every generation. The seed of Abraham. Amen. By the blood He confirmed it in the fifteenth chapter.
Now, let's go a little farther. What did he do? Justification then by faith, by believing. Justification to his seed (Is that right?) through Martin Luther. Sanctification by the blood. Is that right? Sanctification to his church, by John Wesley. Now what?
Abraham's a hundred years old.

54 (Turn to the next page in your Bible, seventeenth chapter, see if God keeps his Word.) Abraham's an old man. He's a hundred years old, lacking one year. He was ninety and nine. And the Lord appeared to him in the name of El Shaddai, the bosom. Excuse me, young ladies, my sisters. El comes from the word "a strong one." Shad means "breast," Shaddai means "breasted." God. He said, "I am Almighty God." Now if you got a Scofield Bible, or if you got a Thompson Chain, or if you get the Emphatic Diaglott or any commentary, you notice that that word broke down, when he called Him that, he called Him El ... appeared to him in the name of El Shaddai. What a wonderful message to an old man that had been believing that promise now for twenty-four years. And the Bible said he got stronger all the time.
"How you feeling, Sarah?"
"No different."
"Glory to God, we'll have it." Fifteen years passed.
"How you going to feel, Sarah?"
"Well, I'm just not a bit different."

55 Listen, I'm going to really be plain, and you listen. See, she had stopped as being a mother, or being a woman---you know, the twenty-eight days, from the time she was a little girl. It ceases about forty, forty-five years old. And when God called her she was thirty ... twenty years past that. Now look where she's at. She's seventy-five years old. Yes, she's more than that, she's eighty-one years old. But look, instead of Abraham getting weaker... Are you ready? Instead of Abraham getting weaker when he seen it didn't happen, the Bible said he got stronger. Amen.
And here it's got to happen in a moment, or we say, "See, I told you there ain't no such thing as divine healing. Ha, I lost my healing." You're a poor excuse for Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed believes just like Abraham did. No matter how long, what anything says, it's so anyhow. God said so. Abraham and his seed after him.

56 "Well, I tell you Brother Branham, I'm not worthy of healing." I've just got through telling you it's nothing you done; it's what He done. You keep thinking you're unworthy. Here, what if an old mare back in the Bible times would give birth to a little colt? Or say you had a mule and this mule was born, and both ears was flopped down, his tail stuck straight up, his eyes was crossed, his knees was bowed together. Well, if he could look in a glass and think, he'd say, "Woe is me, they'll never feed me. They'll just knock me in the head when they come out and see me."
But what if his mother was well instructed in the law? She'd say, "Wait a minute, honey, wait a minute. I know you're a horrible-looking creature. You're no good, but you're going to live because there is a law of God that says you are born under a birthright---you're my first."
O God!

57 Why do you want to be a Presbyterian? Why don't you go back and be a Pentecostal, like it was at the first, the birthright? You'd be a Pentecostal Presbyterian. You'd be a Pentecostal Methodist. Go back to the first church, the way it started.
Say you were born under a birthright. I tell you, if you were born under a birthright you know what's going to happen? What's going to take place? In the morning when they come out to the pasture to see you, you know what they're going to do? They are not going to knock you in the head, because you're going to live. But they're going to have to reach over and get a lamb without a blemish on it. Amen. And they'll take that lamb that don't even have a blemish on it and that lamb will have to die in your stead. The priest will never see you. Amen.

58 Do you see it? Don't look at yourself; look at your sacrifice. God don't look at you; He looks at your sacrifice, which is Christ. Don't look at yourself. I'm not worthy, you're not worthy, nobody's worthy; but He is the one. I'm not counting on what I done, what I am, or I'd never make it. But I'm looking to what He done. There's where I'm trusting, what He done. He's my sacrifice. I'm not worthy of healing. No, sir. Lord, I ought to have died, or I oughtn't to even been born. But I live, I got eternal life, I'm going to heaven. Why? Because He done it for me.
He took my place. I was knock-kneed, cross-eyed, and every kind of a condition, but He took my place. Spiritually speaking, I was all twisted up and all messed up, but He took my place, so He makes me a perfect son of God, a perfect daughter of God. His sacrifice did it; not mine. I had nothing to do with it. I was born all out of shape anyhow. But I don't trust in what I done; I trust in what He done. What He was, that's what it was.

59 Now, what did He say to Abraham? "You're an old man, a hundred years old, Abraham, you're ninety and nine. But I am El Shaddai, I am the breasted one." Now we're on the ... we passed the first junction, justification, justification, sanctification, sanctification. Now remember that was things that God promised and did to Abraham, but here He said, "I am the breasted God. Now you're old, Abraham. You're a hundred years old, but to me you're no more than a baby. So, I give you a promise, and I am the breasted God. I am the strong one. Lean upon my bosom now and nurse from me my strength into your weak body." Getting him ready for the miracle.
That's what He done to the Pentecostals after the Wesley age. He let the Pentecostals nurse his own strength, his own Holy Spirit as a baptism, back into their weak bodies to give them faith for the rapture, to give them faith for miracles. "I'm El Shaddai." What He did to Abraham and to his seed after him, watch. Believing, confirmation, blood covenant; now injecting Himself, his strength, into his people.

60 What does the word sanctify mean? you good Methodists. Sanctification. "Do you believe it, Brother Branham?" I certainly do. It's God's Word. Do you believe John Wesley? Absolutely. He was the angel of the covenant of his age, the Philadelphian age. Luther was the one of Sardis back there. That's exactly right. And we've got one coming which is going to be a prophet. He'll be the Elijah. Exactly.
"Oh," you say, "He spoke of John there." No, no, that's Malachi 3, "I send my messenger before me." But remember, the Elijah was to come, the world was going to be burnt with fervent heat before the coming of that great day of the Lord; and it didn't burn when John came. Read the Bible, brother, see. Watch what He'll do.
Watch Him how He did that last part of Malachi 4. "And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children." Is that right? "And [conjunction] the hearts of the children to the fathers."
See that dual coming of Elijah?

61 Now I know these guys stand up today and say, "I'm Elijah, I'm Elijah." Oh, that's nonsense.
Watch, notice what happens. The hearts of the what? The children, the hearts of the fathers to the children. John's first coming, he turned the hearts of the old orthodox fathers to this young message, the children. But in the second coming, he's to take the hearts of the children, now, and turn them back to the faith of the Pentecostal fathers at the beginning, trying to restore it back.

62 He'll be a woman hater, a wilderness lover, he won't belong to any organization. Don't think to say within yourself, "We have Abraham to our father." Neither did John, neither did Elijah. "God's able of these stones to rise children unto Abraham."
Not going to come, say, "I'm Methodist, Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Pentecostal." He'll lay the root of the tree ... the axe to the root of the tree. He'll appear on the scene one of these days. Just watch him. They'll hate him. But after his message, then judgment will strike the earth. He'll get away somewhere, so the judgments can strike.
The little woman in there, you remember, and she had a husband, a man, head. It died when the confederation of churches took it in. When Elijah come out he was sent to her, and she was glad to receive the prophet's message then. So he sustained her by the help of God.

63 Now watch Abraham drawing, nourishing in, all the strength of God. What? Bringing in strength to get ready to have this child at a hundred years old. Not only is He the breasted one, He's the satisfier. The little baby, when it's sick, and real sick, the mother takes it up to her breast, and it begins to nurse her strength into the sick baby, and while it's getting well, it's satisfied.
So is the real man that's got a hold of God and nursing in the Holy Spirit, knowing that he's satisfied, that God's going to make every word come to pass. He's Abraham's seed. That's the real true seed of Abraham. I don't care what anybody else says, he says, "If God said so, that settles it. I say 'Amen' to it." And he's satisfied it's going to happen. You ain't bluffing him around.
The doctor might stand and say, "Let me take your pulse, you're dying."
"I'm not."

64 "Oh, you're just all upset. You better go on back to your work because you haven't ... there ain't no such thing as that Holy Ghost."
"You don't know what you're talking about. I've had a hold of El Shaddai. Amen! I know where I'm standing!" Every devil could stand and throw fire in his face, he still wouldn't doubt it. He'd go right into the fiery furnace like the Hebrew children. Why? He's a seed of Abraham.
No matter how long it takes. He's been prayed for, anointed with oil, or whatever way he went through, he accepted somehow, faith give him, that he believes he's going to be healed. He's going to be healed, that's all there is to it. He believes he's going in the rapture, nothing can stop him. He believes the Holy Ghost is in him, because he sees the literal signs of the Holy Ghost. You just might as well quit talking to him. You can teach him all the theology in the world and he wouldn't do it ... he wouldn't believe you because he knows what the Bible says. He knows that he's got a hold of something that's real.
That's ... when God gave...

65 Now you see what He done to Abraham? Justification; justification to his church, his seed. Sanctification; through Wesley, that great messenger, sanctification too. Pentecost through there; Pentecost through here, see. Pentecost, nursing, bringing him... How many understands that when He was El Shaddai that He gave his own strength into Abraham. He never done nothing but made him promises, promises, but here He's emptying Himself out into Abraham literally. How many knows that? That was the Holy Ghost.
Justification is what you believe. Sanctification is what the blood did for you. You're sanctified by believing. But when you're filled with the Holy Ghost, it is the person of the Holy Ghost Himself. Oh! The person! Not imagination, not some kind of psychology, but the person of the Holy Ghost. And you, my Christian Science brother, and you that don't believe that the Holy Ghost is a person, He is a personal pronoun. The Bible said, "When He, the Holy Ghost is come, He'll testify of me." He is a person, not a thought. He nursed, not from the articles and from the promises, but he had now the literal life of God flowing into him. That's what the Pentecostal age done.
Now, what did he become then? A son. Amen. Now, in the Old Testament, we know (now we just got about fifteen more minutes),

66 we know in the Old Testament what happened. In the Old Testament there was such a thing as a son being born in a home... Now be sure you get this. Are you hearing it? Say, "Amen." I know you think I'm crazy this afternoon, or maybe all the time, but I want you to get it. Now watch what He did. When a man was born or a child born into a family, he was born a son. Is that right? But he had no inheritance yet. He had to be tutored. Is that right? Now when you receive the Holy Ghost... There's where the Pentecost made a great mistake. Said, "Glory to God, we got it, that's all there is to it." No, no. No, no, no, no. No.
In the Bible when a baby was born on a man's farm, he went around and hired the best tutor he could find. I'll tell you a beautiful display of it is the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew, the Mount Transfiguration, if you want to put that down and read it, how God did his own son just exactly like... God don't ... He has to keep his own laws. He can't defile his own laws, or break his own laws. He can't be God and just and do it, and He has to keep them to be just and holy and righteous. Notice what He did now.

67 The baby, when it was born, the father was busy about things so he hired the best tutor he could hire to raise the child. And then the tutor brought the word to the father how the child was progressing. Is that right, brethren? We know in Galatians there and different places where the Scripture speaks of it. And it was called placing of a son. Now listen just for a few more minutes. Now, what if the tutor come up...?
Now, remember, the father found ... if he loved that boy he give him the best tutor he could find. Do you believe that? That was his son. Now he didn't want to buy ... get a tutor there wanted to put a straw in his hat and tell him a lie about the child. He wanted to know exactly what was going on with that child, so he hired a real good tutor.
And the tutor would come up. Now if the boy was progressing and doing fine, how the tutor must have felt. Walk up and say, "Fine." But what if that tutor was just ... what if that boy was just a renegade, wouldn't pay no attention, wouldn't do nothing about the father? How the tutor must've felt to come up and say, "Yes, sir. Uh, he's not doing too good. No, sir, I'm sorry, but he's not doing too good."

68 Now, you lukewarm church member, I'm going to pour it on you good. What do you think when God put his child here, the church, what kind of tutor did God get for him? A bishop? Huh? A pope? Who did He send to raise his child? The Holy Ghost! Bishop will pull punches and want a straw in his hat to be archbishop, and all kind of state seers, and all these other kind of things; but the Holy Ghost will bring the true message before the Father. Yes, sir.
So how do you think the Holy Ghost must feel when He comes up before the Father saying, "Your Pentecostal women cut their hair, Father. They're wearing makeup like the rest of them are. They don't go to prayer meeting no more. Your sons won't preach against it."
"What's the matter? What's the matter?"
"Oh, they've went to big building programs."
"And they don't realize that I said I'm going to prepare a place for you?"
"Yeah, they've become earth-bound. Yeah, they want to have the biggest organization. No, they won't tell the women that, they won't tell the men that. They're afraid to because they're good paying on the plate." How He must blush, the Holy Spirit, walk away from God. Shame on us! How He must do it.
How can he ever give that son anything? You know what happens to that son? He's always a son. Sure, yes, sir. But he has no inheritance.

69 Paul said, "Lest I preach the gospel and be a castaway myself." He never comes into inheritance. That boy's always a son, but he's just a renegade son.
But what if the tutor walks up and says, "Hey, you know what? That boy of yours is a [excuse the expression, I hope it ain't sacrilegious to you] ... he's a chip off the old block. You know what? He's just exactly like you. He does just exactly the same thing you did. I tell you, when he sees anything wrong, he stands right there and calls it out. You can put confidence in him."
How the father can say, "Yeah, that's my son. That's my son. [I'm still on Abraham's seed now. I ain't left that. I'm staying with that.] That's my son." You know what the father does after that boy becomes proved to be a boy?
"Well," say, "the Bible says this, but of course now the state presbyter will put me out if I preach that. If I tell them to receive the Holy Ghost, say, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh.' They don't believe in that."
But I believe in sanc..."

70 "Oh, no, no, no, no."
Divine healing, "We, we, I tell you what we'll do. We'll just draw up a bunch and we'll put all this here healing stuff out and all this commotion." Huh!
But the Bible still teaches it, brother. That's still God's Word. If you're Abraham's seed, you'll stand by it regardless. Nothing will stop you. That's right. Whether it's a Methodist bishop, or a Baptist overseer, or a Presbyterian father, or Catholic priest, or pope, or whatever it might be. Nothing is going to stop you if you're a real seed of Abraham. Right. Stay there, yes, sir. You're not drawing your resource from some man-made system; you're drawing it from above, from El Shaddai. Hallelujah! That's right. Preach it anyhow. Regardless of who it hurts, you preach it anyhow. Father said, "That's just the way I wrote my Word. That's the way I want it to be preached." That's right.

71 You know what happens? Then you know what takes place? They have a ceremony for that son. They take that son out and put him on a special garment. You know that's right. Put him in a public place and perform the ceremony of adoption and place that son. From that time that son's name is just as good on the check as his father's is. Is that right?
Now God did the same with his Son. He took Peter, James and John, went up on top of the mountain and when He done something [unclear word] He called three from heaven, Moses, Elijah, and Christ. And He give three witnesses. And when they said, "Let's build three tabernacles here. We'll have a denomination called 'The Prophets.' We'll have one called for the law, and the Adventists." Before Peter got through speaking...
When the supernatural was done, he was all excited, he wanted to make a denomination. That's where you Latter Rain brethren made your mistake, that's where you Assemblies of God made your mistake, that's where you Oneness made your mistake, that's where you Church of God of Prophecy and all you made your mistake. You saw the supernatural done, you wanted to draw a little ring around it and say, "This is us." Why don't you leave it alone? If it's not of God, it'll come to naught. And if it is God, how can you uproot it? It'll stand forever.

72 Move on, keep your eye on Calvary. Keep drawing from El Shaddai. Right. Stay with it.
Make issues and separate yourself. That's what the devil said, "Well, I can quit fighting now, they turned their guns on one another. As long as they're fighting like that, I'm all right." See, he'll just lay back and take a nap. But let them once get that thing out of their heart and get back here where they belong, watch what takes place then. Let that great army stand by the millions. Yes, sir. Watch what'll take place then.
Let the Methodist drop their banners. Let the Pentecostals drop their banners. Let them both take a hold of the Holy Ghost and say, "Here we stand." You'll see a revival that'll shake this nation from top to bottom. You'll see a revival like you never...
You think they'll do it? No, sir, they won't do it. The Bible says they won't.

73 Billy Grahams across the country... And he said over in Louisville, when I was at his breakfast, he said, "Paul went into a city, and had one convert. Come back in another year and he had thirty or forty out of that one." Said, "I go and have thirty thousand, come back and can't find thirty." The only thing it is, you have them make a dry-eyed confession, Billy, and you don't take them far enough into the kingdom of God, that's what's the matter. Exactly. But he's playing his part. Just a minute we'll get to that, if you'll just bear with me a minute.
Notice, He placed his son, the same thing He done with Abraham. He called Abraham out. Now listen, now I want you to put on your spiritual understanding and keep quiet just a moment. He called Abraham out then at the end of this seventeenth chapter, the eighteenth chapter, rather, He called him out and made a placing to him.

74 He said, "Abram, your name is no longer Abram but your name is Abraham. You're not S-a-r-r-i, you're S-a-r-a-h from now on, "princess." What did He do? Placing his son.
What is God's name? Elohim. Is that right? Elohim, is that who He is? Lord God Elohim, preserver of heavens and earth? And what did He do to Abraham? He give Abraham part of his name. From Abram to Abraham (Elohim) because He too was a father. Amen. Placed him positionally, give him the name. Abraham, from Abram to Abraham. Elo, ham, Elohim, h-e...i-m; h-a-m. Abraham.

75 I want you to notice that was just before the destruction, now, and before the promise was fulfilled. Watch just a moment now.
After He made him that, placed his name now, positionally placed him. Called him through justification (Do you believe that?), his seed through justification; sanctification through the blood, through his seed; filling with Himself, pouring Himself into his El Shaddai, the Holy Spirit; now placing him and giving him a part of his name. Elohim, a small Elohim.
And man was born to be a god. Now say that's wrong. Jesus said, "Doesn't it say in your own laws you're gods? And why do you condemn me then if your own laws says you're gods." He was given a domain, the domain was the earth. The whole earth's groaning, waiting now for the manifestation of the sons of God. If I'm a Branham, I'm a Branham, I'm part of a Branham. And if a man is a son of God, he's made in the image of God, and given the domain here on earth to rule this earth like God ruled it. And the second Adam proved it. Amen. He stopped nature: "Peace, be still." Amen. Cursed the fig tree. Certainly He was a man; yet He was God. He was a manifested Son of God.
And that's what we're to be one of these days. We're just coming to it through justification, the seeds of Abraham coming up.

76 Now, notice what He did to Abraham. Give him that name.
Now, immediately, about three or four days later, Abraham had separated himself from Lot. Now listen real close now. Are you ready? Say "Amen." Now, have you followed it close? Say "Amen." Do you see where He's done ... everything that He did to Abraham, He's done to his seed? Say "Amen." Christ. Now, we're coming down now to the next thing. Now, watch those, three classes.
Now, what does the word church mean? "Called out." Called out. Israel was the people of God till they was called out of Egypt; then they was called church of God, see. Called out. The very word... Go get your dictionary and find out if it isn't "called out."

77 Now what was Abraham? Called out and separated. He was the elected church. Like it represents the church today. Please don't miss this. Please, in Christ's name, don't miss it. Listen close. Abraham was out here in a weary, tired land, poor, no water for the cattle.
But what did Lot do? He was a Christian too. He was a believer. So he went down into Sodom and become the mayor of the city. Is that right? That's your denomination, your lukewarm, so-called Christian. Down there the sins vexed... Oh, to see, drunkards ... it vexes their hearts. Sure, it vexed their hearts.
Now there was the Sodomites, the unbeliever. There was Lot right there with them in his lukewarm condition. But here's Abraham. Oh, my. So the time is drawing near to the end now, and watch close.
One day while Abraham was sitting under his oak, he saw three men come walking up, dust on their clothes. And Abraham run out, and he said, "My Lord, will you come in? For this cause you've come." Something within Abraham's heart made him believe that something was there about that man.

78 Well, they come in. Now, not "My lords," three of them. He said, "My Lord." Lot, the old backslider, said, "My lords." But Abraham seen three of them and said, "My Lord." Elohim. See if the Bible doesn't say that. He knowed where he was at. He was Abraham's true seed.
"My lord, come in, sit down. I'll fetch you a little water. You can wash your feet. And I'll give you a morsel of bread. Then you can be on your road." He sat down, and I guess got the old fly bush. (How many of you know what a fly bush was? Man, how many times I've used it!) So he run out in the herd and got a little fat calf and killed it, and come, said, "Sarah [way back over there in the tent], I want you to knead some bread that's sifted."
Did you ever see a sifter? We used to have an old round sifter. And Mom had a wedge in it, where the corn meal would get wet and stick, she'd rub it through, because we had to make every bit count, you know. And you'd rub it through.
Said, "Knead some and put it upon the hearth." They didn't have a bread pan. They just took the hearth there, the big rock laying out before the fireplace, and cooked this bread right quick.

79 Said, "I have a little feeling that there's somebody strange out there." Looked out there. They were just ordinary men, sitting out there under the shade tree, resting. And they cooked and got the calf ready, and got the lamb chops all fixed up, and got the corn cakes ready, and got some butter, and then got some milk from the cow. And he went out there and sat down, and they ate.
And Abraham called that man Elohim. God---eating the meat of a calf, drinking the milk from the cow, and eating corn bread and butter. Now if you want to argue about it, you just ... Abraham talked to Him. He called Him Elohim, the Lord God Almighty. What was it? Showing what the seed's going to get. They watched Him. God... Some minister said to me one time, when I spoke down here a few days ago, He said, "Reverend Branham, you're too intelligent a person to say that that was God."
I said, "Then I'm intelligent enough to know the Bible said it was."
And he said, "Do you mean that God was there with clothes on and it dusty, almighty Jehovah?"
I said, "Abraham called Him Elohim."
Said, "Who do you think the other two was?"
I said, "Two angels."
He said, "But how...?"
I said, "As soon as He ate that, He vanished." I said, "Why, you don't know who our God is."

80 I was combing my two or three hairs I got left, you know, the other day. My wife said to me, said, "Billy, you're almost bald-headed."
I said, "Haven't lost a one."
She said, "Pray tell me where they are."
I said, "All right, sweetheart, I will. Tell me where they was before I got them. They were a substance. And wherever they was before I got them, they're there waiting for me to come to them." Hallelujah! This body may not be a spoonful of dust. That's what it was to begin with, when the volcanic was erupting back there, and my body laid there. The same God that brought me and fed me can raise me up again. It's somewhere. Right. I said, "We're made out of sixteen elements of the earth---petroleum, cosmic light, and calcium, potash.
God just said, "I've heard about the sins down in Sodom. I'm going to go down. I have to walk around there and look around, and [Brother Branham blows---"whew"] stepped into it and said ... Got another handful of calcium, said, "Come here, Gabriel. [Whew] Come here, Michael, let's go down." Here they come, walked down. "I'm going to show them what's going to happen in the last days to the seed of Abraham anyhow." Now listen, don't you miss this.

81 So then He comes down close, sits down, and they begin to talk. And after eating, you know, two of them went down into Sodom to preach to the lukewarm church. Did you know that? They had a revival down there. And isn't it strange, that in this last day...?
Now, one of them stayed back and talked to the church elected---Abraham and his elected group. How many understands that now? Say "Amen." And others went down and talked to Lot to get him out of Sodom, because he was a righteous man. All that understands that say "Amen." The Bible teaches us that Abraham represented the church elected, like the seed of Abraham, see. Believing Abraham separated himself, believing God, separated himself from the world, come through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, then a placing of the gifts. Son's in the body, now he's waiting. See how far we've come along?

82 Now here the angel comes down in human flesh. God, Elohim. Does it say "Elohim," capital L-o-r-d, there? Read Genesis 18, see if it isn't. Elohim came down in human flesh, eat like a man, drank milk like a man, eat the flesh of a calf like a man, eat butter and cornbread like a man. Now if you want to argue, then argue with Him. Notice what happened. And there was one stayed back to Abraham, and the other went down to preach to the lukewarm church---a modern Billy Graham.
Did you notice how strange in this last days how ... A-b-r-a-h-a-m, the one the covenant was made with; and a man in his covenant preaching to the lukewarm church, G-r-a-h-a-m. Did you ever think how strange that was? Not Billy Sunday, see. G-r-a-h-a-m, the messenger to the lukewarm church, the called-out of Sodom. And one stayed back with Abraham.

83 Watch what the one done that went down and preached. What did he do? He screamed "Come out!" What did he do? Not many miracles. Wasn't very much done, only he blinded their eyes. And preaching the gospel blinds the eyes of the unbeliever. What was it? He blinded their eyes so they couldn't find the door. That's what's the matter now. They don't know the door. The door is Jesus, the living Holy Ghost in the church. Amen. Preached all right, but it blinded them from that door. "Days of miracles is past, but He's still God," and so forth. "Get out of here because He's going to burn it up." That's right.
Watch that one that stayed back with Abraham. He give the sign back there too. O God!

84 Women in them days are not like they are today. Every time somebody comes up, some man, they have to get on their shorts, and out cutting the grass, you know---tend the husband's business, and everything. They stayed back in the tent where they belong. If they'd take all the women out of these offices around here, with husbands and [unclear words] put them where they belong; and take these women police off the street, a disgrace to this ... stain on the flag, and put them back, men would have work.
The angel sat down and begin to talk to Abraham. Said, "I guess you know why I came down." Now watch. He didn't say, "Abram"; He said, "Abraham." Well, just a few days before that he was Abram. "Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah," S-a-r-a-h. See if that's right. Just about two days before that he'd been given that name. How did He know his name was Abraham, and how did He know that his wife's name was Sarah? See, she hadn't run out and got in her husband's business, so ... see. Abraham.
Now, listen. The Bible---I'm quoting the Bible---said, "She is in the tent behind you." Is that right?
Now, watch.

85 "Abraham, I am going to visit you according to my promise." Who was it? Who was it? No wonder Abraham called Him Elohim. "I'm going to make my promise fulfilled."
And Sarah (excuse me, young ladies), Sarah, back in the tent, a lovely woman, but she said, "Me, an old woman, near a hundred years old and my lord [her husband] a hundred too, and I have pleasure with him again?" You understand what I mean, don't you? As husband and wife it had ceased to be, see. Said, "Have pleasure as a young woman again with my husband out there," when that may have been twenty years past before, such family relationships, see. "Me, an old woman, have pleasure with my husband, and him an old man too?" she said.

86 And this angel, Elohim in flesh, looked at Abraham, said, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying within herself these things could not be?"
See what kind of sign the elected church got? See what kind of a sign Billy Graham's been giving? See what it is here in the elected church? It's God in your flesh manifesting. And didn't Jesus say, "As it was in the days of Sodom so shall it be at the coming of the son of man?" Do you see it now?
Now we're past justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, the placing of the gifts of sons in the church; now it's God manifesting Himself with that sign. And I ask any Bible reader to show me one more sign he done after that.
Now, now let's go just a little piece farther. He said, "She's in the tent behind you." Now, look, God would have condemned that woman right there for disbelieving that angel. Do you believe that? But He couldn't do it. And the way some of you Pentecostals---us Pentecostals---are acting, we'd have been kicked out a long time ago, but God can't do it. Why? If He'd have kicked out Sarah... She was a part of Abraham, so she was heirs with him, so He'd have to kick Abraham out too. So He couldn't do it, on account of his wife, without the husband.
So that's the way. It's because of Christ He can't kick us out. We're his sons and daughters. Our unbelief doesn't mean nothing. The real true seed of Abraham will shine anyhow. There it was. Listen close now.
And the angel said, "I'm going to visit you. According to the time of life this thing will happen." And Abraham went with Him, and He vanished and went away. Out into the dark somewhere he went. Turned back to God again.

87 Have we seen justification? We've seen sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, coming into the body of God? Have we seen the placing of gifts in the church? Now have we seen the manifestation of God, the last sign?
Now watch. Immediately God did something to Sarah and Abraham. Now you're not going to believe this, but it's so anyhow. You see what... When you want to read the Bible, you don't read it just like reading the newspaper. "They had an explosion the other day down..." I don't know whether it's true or not. They tell us so many things that's wrong, you just can't pay no attention to it. But when you read the Bible, it's a love letter to the church. The Bible said Jesus thanked God for hiding it from the eyes of the wise and prudent and revealed it to babes such as would learn.

88 When I go overseas, my sweet little wife will write me a letter. "Dear Billy, I'm sitting here tonight with the children. We have just put them to bed. Little Joseph cried a little tonight for you before he went to bed." I know what she's writing, but I love her so much I can read between the lines. I know what she's talking about. That's the way you have to read God's Word---between the lines. If you love Him, He just reveals it to you. You just start there, and you just, "Well, here it is." Well, say, "Here it is, sure."

89 Now, look. You know what He done to Sarah and Abraham? Now listen real quiet. He changed them back to a young man and woman. Now I'll just prove He did it. Now listen close. The first thing, you know, immediately Abraham and Sarah left that land and went down to Gerar. Is that right? Measure it on the map. Quite a long ways for an old man, little grandma with a little bonnet on her head, you know.
Now you say, "Oh, they just lived longer." The Bible says they were well stricken in age and past the time of living a human life.
Little grandma, here she goes. They go down there. And when they got down there, there was a young king down there named Abimelech was looking for a sweetheart. And all them beautiful Philistine girls around there, when he seen grandma coming, he said, "That's the one for me." He fell in love with her, said, "You're fair to look upon." Shame on him. Little grandma could not even live with her own husband, hadn't for years, and made fun of the angel even saying she'd do it.
He made her a young woman. She was beautiful and fair.

90 Now look, let me tell you something. He would have had to... He done something to her. Now what if He just made her fertile? What if He just ... if He did that... They didn't smoke cigarettes in them days, and have to raise their babies on bottles, see. They didn't have it. They had to raise them on the breast. The milk veins had dried up. A woman a hundred years old go in labor? She'd die in a minute. Certainly she would. He had to give her a new heart. He had to give her milk veins. He had to fertilize her womb. He had to...
Look what He had to do to Abraham, his body as good as dead. He just changed him back, because He's showing what He's going to do to the seed of Abraham, see.

91 Notice, he went down there, and so Abimelech fell in love with her. How many knows that's right? And took her for his wife. And he was going to come near her, because she was a beautiful girl. And that night that real good, legalistic brother was laying out there, you know, said his prayers, and took his bath, and stuck his toes up. Tomorrow he was going to marry this beautiful Hebrew girl, boy! (Just only a hundred years old, see.), and, oh, just how pretty she was. (And her young husband sitting out there.)
And that night the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "You're just as good as a dead man." Right. (I want to ask you something, whether you're all right for your healing this evening or not.)

92 "Why," he said, "Lord, You know the integrity of my heart." Said, "That woman told me that that was her brother."
Said, "That's the man's wife." (Listen! Here's the part.) Said, "Her husband is my prophet, and I don't care how much you pray, I'll never hear you. Go let him pray for you, and I'll heal you." Sitting out there lying, and a man that would say that against his wife to save his own neck!
Are you worthy of that? See? What am I trying to do? Show you that it's God's grace that makes you worthy. You're no good, I'm no good, but He's the one that's good. Look to Him, if He's the one that did it. If it hadn't been for God's grace... Abraham sat there and lied. Was he lying? Did he do it? He said, "That's my sister." A little white lie, or a big black one.
And she said, "That's my brother." And that was wrong. But he was telling her in a round-about-way to save his neck.

93 And then He said, "Go out there and let him pray for you." And Abraham prayed for him and he spared his life. And what next? They had the child.
I want you to notice, in closing... I must say this. I can't get to the rest of it. It's too late and I have the prayer line. I want to say this. What did He do to Abraham? Justification, when he believed. Is that right? Say "Amen." Sanctification by the blood. Is that right? Abraham and his seed. Give him strength from his own body. Same thing when He give him the Holy Ghost. Strength from his own being. Is that right? Placed him as sons in the body with gifts. Is that right? And now, manifesting Himself as Jehovah, witnessed by Jesus Christ, to know the secrets of the heart, just like Jesus said.

94 Remember, when Jesus was here on earth He proved to the Jews He was Messiah by that sign. Is that right? He proved it to the Samaritans. They were looking for a Messiah. Is that right? But no place to the Gentiles. They wasn't looking for no Messiah. We're looking for a Messiah, aren't we? So now He's proving it to us now.
And look, what did He do? He had to change Abraham and Sarah's body. Was ... the next thing after that sign was shown---that He knowed the secret of their hearts---He changed ... the next thing was the change of the body in order to receive the promised son. And that's the next thing in line now, is the rapture of the church---the changing. "We which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep; for the trumpet of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."

95 And look. What if He just turned them back to a young man and woman like they was at the first time? They couldn't have had the baby anyhow, because they had lived together when they was young man and woman. He had to change their body in a different way in order to get the son. Is that right? Their body had to be changed in another way to receive the son. And we can not, if we would go back to be young men and women, we still can't meet the Son, because we're going to meet Him in the air. We've got to have a changed body to meet Him in the air in the rapture.
That's the next thing to the children of Abraham. The trumpet shall sound the next thing. The real children of Abraham shall be changed, this body made light, and we'll go right up. If we go back to be young men and women, we'd still be earth bound. If Abraham and Sarah went back to be a young man and woman, they couldn't have had the baby, because they were still sterile. But He changed them in order to receive the promised son.
And as He did with Abraham, watch how He done everything down through Abraham, everything through Abraham's seed. And here they are right here today waiting for the rapture at once. Immediately after that come the change, then the son.

96 Are we looking for the Son? What kind of a son are we looking for? The Son of God, rising with healing in his wings. Hallelujah! Abraham and his seed after him.
Now do you understand? You see why I'm so enthused? I've got about ten or twelve more scriptures here I should get to, but we haven't got time. I want you to have your church tonight. I should have been on the road home twenty, thirty minutes ago. But do you see what I mean?
What He done to Abraham, He did to his seed. Is that right? What was the seed? The nation. When ... it wasn't just the people. God deals with Israel as... Here sits a man sitting right here that come to me the other day, and he said, "I'm trying to get to be a missionary to the Jews."

97 I said, "Forget it." These little straggling Jews are not the Jews that God talks about. God deals with Jews not as individuals but a nation. Israel's ready to receive the Spirit when Elijah and Moses appears to them after the rapture of the church. The next thing is the fig tree putting forth its bud. That's truly, so they're coming to their homeland. But Israel will be received as a nation. We're as individuals Abraham's seed. So now, that was the Holy Spirit. You just mark it, you young folks, in your book, and see how ... if that's right or not, see.
But now, the Gentile church is finished. There is Billy G-r-a-h-a-m in Sodom, pulling out them Sodomites just as hard as he can. The angel of the Lord, here amongst the elected church that's been called out, called holy roller, like Abraham, crazy. "Why don't you come on down and associate yourself and have fun with the rest of us? We're living here on the luxury," and things like that." There's a true seed of Abraham that don't touch the world or the things of the world.
What is that? What's the message going?

98 A man met me the other night and said, "Brother Branham, if you'll just compromise." A great man of a Full Gospel church, said, "We'll take and furnish an airplane if you'll join our organization, and we'll take you with this gift to every major city in the world and blast this thing forth, if you'll just compromise a little bit upon what you're teaching."
I said, "You, with a doctor's degree, ask a servant of God to compromise on the Word of God. I can't think of such a thing as that, man." I said, "No, sir, there's no compromise in me at all." I said, "I believe God's Word teaches the coming of the Son of God, I believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I believe in the signs and wonders following the believer. That's exactly what God said, that's what I stand by, that's what I believe." And I know that it's true.
And we've come through Martin Luther's justification, like Abraham did. We've come through Wesley's sanctification. We've come through the Pentecostal age, and now we have seen the placing of the gifts into the church. And now what are we seeing next? God manifest Himself in flesh, discerning the very thoughts of the heart, exactly what Jesus said would come to pass. And the next thing is the change of the body to receive the promised Son.

99 Let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, I don't know nothing else to say at this hour. Surely the people can understand, Lord. We're at the end time. Science says that three or four years ago we were two minutes until midnight---or three minutes. I believe that the great hand of God reached out and stopped time. The pyramid cap is just about to be set on top. The church is being honed down. It's seeing its last sign. Lord, let the people wake up to realize they're looking for something way out yonder in the future, and it's happening right under their nose and they don't realize it. If the devil can make them believe that, Lord, he's got them whipped.
Let them realize, Lord, that this Holy Spirit that we're enjoying, and have been for all these years, is You. It's Christ, the covenant that God made with the human race, that we could be sons and daughters of his Spirit, dwell in us and we'd do the same thing. Who was that Elohim down there? Why, it was You, Jesus, the anointed One that anointed a body of flesh to show that in the last day You'd make Yourself manifested in human flesh. And we see You do it every day and night. This has been going on now for the first time for two thousand years, and here we are.
We've come through Luther's age, like You took Abraham; through Wesley's age, like You did Abraham; through the Pentecostal age. It organized itself and denominated and set back up on the shelf, church moving right on, right on. Little isms trying to come up, but every plant that my Father hasn't planted will be rooted up, dies right out.

100 But here we are now, to see God dwelling among us, showing Himself. We're waiting for the rapture, the change, till we can see the Son of God coming in glory one of these days. He'll never touch his feet on the earth, but we'll be changed and caught up to meet Him in the air. As You changed Sarah and Abraham and made them in condition so they could see and receive the promised son that they'd waited on, God, I pray that You'll change our mortal bodies one of these days. Like the vision or translation or whatever it was the other night, we'll be caught up one of these days, changed.
Lord, I believe it with all that's in my heart. The old will become young, the power of God will... One of these days we'll be sitting in a meeting---some out in the field, some grinding at the mill---and all of a sudden there'll be a scream from heaven, "Behold, the Bridegroom's coming."
Then standing there with our hands in the air, and know that we're sons of God and joint heirs with Abraham through Jesus Christ, the royal seed; know that the same signs that was done there to Abraham, we see it done today; and promised by Jesus Christ: as it was at Sodom, so shall it be.
Before Sodom was burned... The world will be burned again, and before the burning the second time, the same thing will appear again.

101 And we see a Billy Graham down in Sodom preaching the gospel to that intellectual group, trying to call them out. Mrs. Lot, with all of her parties and her loved ones, didn't want to leave; and we see the modern women, with shorts and paint and hair cuts, like the Sodomites, dressing themselves like prostitutes, sexy, so that men can look upon them---and then be guilty for committing adultery with that man. Though they be pure in their bodies, but whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already. Committed it with her---she'll answer for it. We see Mrs. Lot doing the same thing.
God, how we could stay with this till in the morning, and tomorrow night, and the next morning, on and on. How that son came and how he was sacrificed, how that ram was on top of the mountain. Not a vision, but a ram that God had Abraham to kill instead of his own son, and blood run out of it. Blood don't run out of a vision. It was a ram. Jehovah-jireh.

102 God, You're able this afternoon to provide Yourself a sacrifice. You're able to provide Yourself a church. You're able to provide ministers that'll rise up and preach the truth regardless of what organizations and denominations, and bishops and popes, and so forth, says. You're Jehovah-jireh.
I love You, Lord, I love You. And I commit this audience to You. I commit my precious brothers here who believe this same gospel. God, I pray that You'll make them mighty men of God, O God, that'll lay to the hewing line the gospel, not compromising with anything, regardless of what it costs them. I pray that You'll do to this wonderful people in here this afternoon the same thing.

103 Now, Lord, I have preached the Word as clear as I know it. I've showed them by types in a child-like form that anyone could understand.
Now, Lord God, creator of heavens and earth, Elohim, you're still Elohim. I pray that You'll bring your Spirit in among us this afternoon and that your great power will come and show us the very visible sign that You showed Abraham and Sarah before that hour comes. Grant it, Lord. This church, when I leave this afternoon, O eternal and blessed One, that they might know that You are Jehovah-jireh. Grant it, Lord. Grant it, I pray in Jesus' name.
[Someone speaks in tongues, a man interprets. "...that God. I say unto thee today, I know thee, yea, for I have preordained thee, yea, I have elected thee, I have called thee. Wilt thou not come? I say unto thee, thine heart is known by me. Yea, look [unclear words] I say, come up with me. Yea, come up with me and I will be unto thee thy God. Yea, as I was to Abraham, will I not be unto thee? I say unto thee this day that I am God."]
The Holy Spirit's saying that message that as He was there with Abraham and his seed, He's here with Abraham's seed today. Be reverent before Almighty God. I'll ask you if you'll raise your head. I ask you to be reverent.

104 I have called today that we're going to pray for the sick, to bring the sick up here and I do not want to leave this impression upon these people here that because that I'm here, I'm the one to pray for the sick. [Brother Branham prays for the sick. This portion of tape is very difficult to print because it contains many breaks.]

Abraham and his Seed after him

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 I am so glad to be here in Chicago again in this great fellowship with the Full Gospel Christian Businessmen and the fellowship of the people; and to have with me helping me one of my great associates and brother, Tommy Hicks. And we're under the great expectations this week for the Lord to do great things for us.
And I hear that there's been meetings preceding this meeting, and it looks like that there's been some great things accomplished, and we are expecting a greater as we go on towards the end-time. Now, we're to be here through next Sunday afternoon. I believe that is right.
When Brother Carlson just made the statement that these ministries, what they have to go through to make them ministries---how true! And Brother Joseph, standing by me, he said, "Well," he said, "if you're not a soldier, you're not shot at." So I thought that was pretty well placed. That is right.

2 And as the battles rage, why, you become a real target.
So there's only one thing to do: put on the whole armor of faith, stand true to God, and march forward. That's all. God's army does not retreat; it goes on. Many of them drop off to the side, and start this, that, or the other; but the army of God marches forward. We're going right on and on.
Now this week... I sent Billy over about three o'clock or two-thirty, and he said he stayed around till three, and he found two people wanted a prayer card. Said that was all. So they give out we'd be praying for the sick.
Now, if perhaps ... Brother Hicks has got a great ministry of praying for the sick. He's probably already did that.

3 And along through the week, now, I'll have Billy over here around about six o'clock every afternoon, or something like that, to give out the prayer cards, if anybody... When we get some people that wants to be prayed for, Brother Hicks and I and the other brethren will be here to pray for the sick all through the week. And we're expecting God to answer our prayer.
And all these years now---about fifteen years on the field around the world---I have never healed anybody in all my life, but I've sure had some marvelous answers to prayer. God has healed the sick, lame, blind, and afflicted, till it's really been, to me, a thrilling, full-packed life to me. If I should be called this afternoon, I'd be thankful to God for letting me know one thing---Jesus Christ as my Saviour, to know that He lives now, and He is not dead but is risen and alive forevermore.

4 And now this afternoon before we approach the Word... And then I want to make this statement, if you'll excuse me just a moment for stopping. I want to try to make my messages this week a little shorter than usual. I've got a name of preaching anywhere from one to ten hours, or something like that, but I'll try to make it about thirty-five, forty, minutes this week, the Lord willing, so people... Most of the people, I know---I think---are all the way from the south side. (I think that's right. Down that way? South side.) And so, you can get back in time to be back for the following service. Now before we approach the Word, let us approach the author by prayer while we bow our heads.

5 Our heavenly Father, we are grateful to Thee for the privilege of assembling together on this rainy afternoon in the name of the Lord Jesus, once more this side of his coming; believing that some day we'll assemble our last time until that great general assembly will be called in heaven.
May our names be written plain and clear, washed in the blood of the Lamb, that we can answer at the roll call at the wedding supper. That's why we're here today, Father, is to prepare our hearts for that great event.
We pray that You forgive us of our shortcomings, our mistakes, the things that we have did and said that was not right. Just remember us, Father, that we are human and subject to all kinds of mistakes. And if we didn't have thy promise of thy grace we would all be lost.
But it's through thy grace that we stand today as soldiers, believing by faith that God has saved us from a life of sin and from a eternal punishment in the world hereafter.

6 We ask now that You'll remember all of our efforts. You know why they're put forth. You know why we're here. You know why I answered Brother Carlson that night on the phone, "Yes, I feel led."
Now, Father, the rest is in your hands. Do with us as you see fit, for we present ourselves to Thee with thy Word, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Over in the book of Coloss... Galatians, rather, for a text this afternoon, I want to take the subject from the third chapter of Galatians and the twenty-ninth verse.
For if ye be in Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

7 And now I'm approaching this subject this afternoon the third time that I've, in the last two months, that I have preached on this subject. Because I did this, is because ... thinking that if we did not have a healing service I could dedicate a little more time to this, because to my opinion it's one of the great outstanding messages for this hour that we're living in.
First, I would just like to ask this question. "How many are here that are Christians, born again Christians? Raise your hands. All over the building, everywhere. I believe it's one hundred percent, everywhere---born again Christians.
The custodian, would... ? You know, I'm not one of these spotlight preachers, and I would... If you'd turn those big lights out, if we can do it, I'd appreciate it very much. I don't like what they call limelights, and different kind of lights. I just like the Holy Spirit light, about the only one that I can think of. And these others kind of upset me a little.

8 And so, now this afternoon you have your Bibles, and maybe a pencil and paper. I would like for you to write these down and study them after the services is over and in the coming week. Now, I believe we're allotted here till about ... what time? Till six o'clock. That'll let me get one third of it finished, and so then, a little later maybe we can go into it a little better. Now. (Thank you, sir. That's very, very fine. Now you look better.)
I want to take this subject, or draw from this subject, the context I hope to be this: Abraham and his seed after him. Now I would like to make... (I believe these are speakers on each side here.) And I want you to be sure to keep these in mind. And I'm going to...
I got two pages of Scriptures written out here that I would like to refer to---these Scriptures to you---because that I truly believe with all my heart that we're living just in the afternoon of time of the evening lights going out, and the coming of Christ is at hand. And I believe substantially and biblically I can prove that by the Scriptures beyond any shadow of doubt, that we're at the end-time.

9 Now whether I can satisfy you with it or not, I do not know. But to me, it certainly satisfies me.
And being not efficient in education, therefore, I approach the Scriptures from the standpoint of a type; and more like a typologist who ... type what has been, what will be, because we know that the Scriptures each have a compound meaning that...
Like in Matthew 3 it said, "Out of Egypt I've called my son." Now if you run that reference back you'll find out that it meant Jacob, his son, and also Jesus, his Son. So in typing we see where the Old Testament types the new, and all these different shadows and types.
Like the moon and the sun is a type of Christ and the church. And as the sun goes down, the moon gives light in the absence of the sun; just like as the Son left the earth to go into glory to the Father, then the moon, the church, gives the light. And how the moon gets its light is reflecting the sunlight to the earth, for a lesser light.
And all these things, they may seem more like a baby form for great theologians, but I don't believe I'm talking to too many of those. And if I am, then you excuse my illiterate way of trying to present it. But I would ask that you'd search it thoroughly before you rudely disagree with it.

10 Now, to Abraham and his seed. I'm going to take on this side over here to be Abraham; take on this side, like this speaker, his seed after him. Now, this speaker here represents Abraham, and this speaker represents his seed after him. Now the Bible said over here in Galatians 3:29, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Now we all will agree that the promise was given to Abraham, and we've often wondered... And I have approached this text in another angle than what I'm intending to this afternoon. I've approached it in the way of faith for the church, the believers, and so forth, to build faith on healing. But being this afternoon they didn't ... no one for the cards, then I thought it'd give me time to explain this while we had a chance.
Now, Abraham...

11 I want the congregation to say it with me---all the class, I'll call you, to say it with me. On this side is Abraham, Abraham and his seed after him. Now the promise was made to Abraham and (conjunction; it ties the sentence), Abraham and his seed after him. Then the Scripture said, "If ye be in Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed." Is that right?
Now, how do we get in Christ? The subject starts on this: how do we become Christ's? It's when we are become Christians. How do we become Christians? When we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, then our life is governed by the life of Christ which is in us.

12 Now, like if a vine brought forth ... a grape vine, it brings forth grapes, and a watermelon vine brings forth a watermelon. Then if Christ be in you, then the life that Christ lived and the works that Christ did, you'll do also. He said so in St. John 14:7, or 8, I believe it is. It said, "The works that I do shall you do also. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he also; and more than this shall he do, for I go to the Father." Now, the promise made to Christ ... or to Abraham and his seed; and we being in Christ are Abraham's seed.
Now how do we get into Christ? Do we get into Christ by profession? No. Do we get into Christ by joining church? No. Do we get into Christ by water baptism? No. How do we get into Christ? I Corinthians, the twelfth chapter, said that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, which is the body of Christ. By one Spirit we're all baptized into one body and become members of this body.

13 Now, we remember that by this Holy Spirit we are brought into the body of Christ, then free from the judgments of God. We cannot come into judgment after you are in Christ, because Christ took the judgment for you. He stood in the place.
Just like Adam. In the beginning, Adam was not deceived, and II Timothy tells us so. Said, "Adam was not deceived, but Eve, being deceived, was in the transgression." Now, Adam was not deceived. He knowed exactly what he was doing; but Eve was deceived. She thought she was doing what was right.
Satan give her about ninety-five percent pure gospel, and the other five percent was enough to throw that off. So we've got to be not just part gospel; we've got to be full gospel. We've got to have the entire Word, for the antichrist is a part gospel preacher. We know that. And his works are part gospel.

14 Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 that antichrist in the last days would be so close like the real Christ till it would deceive the very elected if it was possible.
I heard our Brother Billy Graham say a few days ago in a message that the antichrist had already deceived the elected---but that isn't so, Brother Billy. I'm not disagreeing with a great evangelist like that, but they cannot. "... if it was possible." But it's not possible, because the church was elected to eternal salvation, and there's nothing can separate them. They're Christ's and that's it. They're in the body of Christ and nothing can separate them. And that's part of the subject this afternoon.
Now we're going to approach, and find out what Abraham was, and then what his seed would be after him. Now, I'd like to say this now in regards... The first church, that Christian church that was established, was established in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Every theologian will have to agree with that. Every theologian takes their church back to that time.
The Catholic church ... and it's true the Catholic church began on the day of Pentecost. Exactly right.

15 But on down about two hundred years after, or three hundred years later, they got away from that and become into an organization. And then they organized the great universal church---which "catholic" means universal.
And from that they began to have a apostolic succession, and bring up another man to take Peter's place; and "popes" they begin to call them after bishops, and on and on. And they actually began at Pentecost (that's right), because all Christendom began at Pentecost.
Now the thing that I wonder---if we all believe that we began back there, then why are not we doing as they did back there? Why haven't we got the blessings of God upon the church as they had then? Let us be Catholic or whatever we are, why haven't we got the same Spirit moving and doing the same works that they did back there?
It's because we get a little something or other, and settle down on it and make a doctrine out of it, and a period, and organize it, and let it go like that. Then we say, "Here we are." God moves right off and leaves us. That's just what He did to Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal, and on and on. He's done the same thing, and He'll continue to do it when you draw a line and say that, "Well, we're going to group ourselves together and separate ourselves from the rest of them."
The Bible said they'd do that in the last days, seemingly not having the faith. And that's right. We want the faith that was once...

16 Now we begin there, and know that that was the beginning of the church, and that mainly in the beginning was all Jews. After the Jewish people evangelized, then it went into the Romans, and to the Greeks and so forth, and started. But the reformation come, back in the early fifteen-hundreds, and there began ... the Christian church began to organize itself or get itself together. And we're living in the last church age now, the Laodicean, according to Scripture.
Now that's ... Abraham, this is his seed after him. Now turn, if you wish, to the Genesis 12 and we begin where God called Abraham. Now the first thing I want you to know that when God in Genesis 12 called Abraham, it was by election. It wasn't because Abraham was good. It wasn't because Abraham deserved it. It was because that God chose Abraham. Not Abraham choosing God; it was God choosing Abraham.
And that's the way He calls his seed too. Not what you want to be---"not him that willeth or him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy." Is that Scriptural? Certainly. It's not what you want to be. It's what God has chose you to be, Abraham and his seed after him. Not seeds, now; seed after him. Now, the promised seed.

17 Now we find out that when God called Abraham it was by election.
I've heard people many times say, "I sought God. I sought God." No, I differ with you. You never did seek God. God sought you first. You never seek after God; it's God seeking after you. It's you that will not surrender to God.
It's just like what if you could tell the hog in the hog pen that he shouldn't eat slop. If he could speak he'd tell you, "Why, you tend to your own business," see. Until his nature's changed, then he'll always remain a hog. You'll always remain what you ... a sinner because you're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. And you're a sinner by birth.
And look what Adam did. As soon as he become a sinner he never tried to seek God. It was God seeking Adam. He really represented the human race right there when he hid himself behind some fig leaves that he made himself. Like most people do today---"I belong to the church, and I've got my fig leaf apron on." But it was God seeking after Adam, and not Adam seeking after God.

18 It should've been Adam, screaming, "Father, Father, where art thou?"
Instead, it was God saying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?"
And that's the same thing today. So there's just not one bit of goodness about us that we could say we had anything to do with our salvation. It was God calling us by election.
Now, I want you to keep in mind of three. All times there's three classes of people on earth. They came from three races of people. They came from Ham, Shem, and Japheth. We notice Peter on the day of Pentecost when Jesus had give him the keys to open the gospel to the Jews, then to the Samaritans, and then to the Gentiles. That finished it. According to Scripture all the races of the earth come from those three boys.

19 And now there's three classes of people. Always is, in every congregation, made up everywhere, wherever you find them. That's believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. You find those three classes of people in probably every church there is in the world---is make-believers, and unbelievers, and believers.
Now Abraham ... called by grace. Now, God didn't say... And notice, God, when He called Abraham, He didn't say, "Abraham, if you will do a certain thing, I will do a certain thing." He said, "Abraham, I have already done it." Not what you did, what I did; what God did.
He said, "Now (when he made a covenant with Adam), if you'll not touch that tree you'll live forever." Adam broke it. Moses and them, "If you'll keep the commandments, I'll do so-and-so. If you break the commandments, I'll do so-and-so." When God makes a covenant with man, man breaks his covenant with God. But so that the elected, the church, the elected people, the called-out, separated, group of people would be sure to be saved, God called them by his grace.
Not that God'd say, "I choose you; and condemn you." Never. But if He's infinite... How many believes He's infinite? Well, then, He knowed from the beginning what the end would be. That's what the Scripture says. He's omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and infinite.

20 Now, if He's infinite, by his foreknowledge He knew who would come to Him and who would not come to Him. He knew who would be saved and who would not be saved. That would certainly clear up Romans 8 and 9 for you, if there's any question about God, whether He calls his children by election or not. For there Paul, speaking of Esau and Jacob, before either child was born, not even knowing what was right or wrong, God said, "I love Jacob and hate Esau," before either child had a way to even make a choice. But God knew from the beginning what Esau was. He knowed what Jacob was.
And God knowed in the beginning what you were, and what you are not. So therefore we cannot be nothing but what... If we cannot be like somebody else, let's just be what God made us. That's all we can do. Anything other than that would be hypocrisy. We'd be a hypocrite. So we do not want to be that. It'd be better to be an infidel than to be a hypocrite. Let's be just what we are.
And all these things has to operate together to make the great wheels of God go on. And not one thing is going wrong. I'll guarantee you that. Everything... You think the devil could ever conquer God? My! Certainly not. He cannot. God ... everything's making it work together for the good to them that love Him. He's just making everything pull right in exactly right. Only thing He has trouble with is jerk us back in line where we ought to be. That's where God has his trouble.

21 Now He called Jacob ... not ... called Abraham (pardon me) by election and by grace and give him eternal life, and told him He'd come to him in an old age. He didn't have to do one thing about it. Only thing, it was by grace. And that's exactly the way the church is called today; is, "By grace are you saved through faith." And we know that's right. God calls the church by his grace.
If it wasn't, today, for the grace of God, you'd be out here in the rain watching the ball game somewhere. You'd be out here on the highways running around. You'd be in a barroom somewhere, be out with some man's wife or some woman's husband. You'd be out in the world. But it's by the calling and grace of God that He's changed your minds and made you new creatures in Christ Jesus. And our soul looks up to Him today with expectations of his coming.

22 Therefore over in Colossians we find (Colossians 3) it says don't lie to one another, and all these things that you used to do. Lay them things aside. No malice, no strife, and everything; and love one another. For our lives ... we are dead. Our life is hid in God through Christ, and sealed there by the Holy Ghost. And when Christ, which is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with Him. Oh, what does it do to a man or woman that has that hope living in them today? to see that we're in the last days, and know that our life... Christ, when He appears, we'll appear alive with Him. Amen. We have the earnest of it now by the Holy Spirit.
God called Abraham. And notice, when God called Abraham, He called him to separate himself from all the rest of the unbelief. No matter how religious they was, how pious they was, how nice they was, He called for a complete separation. And God, when He calls a man, He calls him to complete separation, if he is a seed of Abraham---to separate yourself from the things of the world, from this modern life.

23 Oh, the ministers today are having such a time to get their people out to prayer meeting on Wednesday night. They love television programs, and they love amusement. Sunday, they don't want to come to church on Sunday many of them. They tell me, the ministers, that the church pews are empty, emptying out, because that people are beginning to go... The world offers so much class, and so much fancy and tinsel upon the things of the world, and the people fall for that. Now that shows that at the beginning they had nothing to start with, for if you love God you can't ... you couldn't wire you away from church. They couldn't chain you away from it. They can't hide a believer from God in his heart.
Oh, he might be all deceived. Now there's many people that actually think that they are right. But if you'll just stop and watch their life you'd see the Spirit of God isn't in there. If it doesn't cope with this Bible, then there's something wrong with the experience that you have. So you must come back and line up with the Word to see if the life of God is in you.
If you love the world better than you love prayer meeting, if you'd rather watch a television program than to pray, there's something wrong with you. If you'd rather take a Sunday afternoon ride instead of going to church, there's something wrong with you somewhere, because "Where your heart is, there your treasures are also," said the Lord Jesus.
Your heart is built into it. You are a part of it. You become a part of Christ; because you're built into the structure of Christ because you're the bride of Christ, if you love Him.

24 Now, God called him by election, give him the covenant, and in Genesis, the twelfth chapter---now, we want to remember that---and called a total separation from all the things of the world. Now Abraham did not obey God. Now I'm going to call that...
Now if I speak one word here this afternoon that's against anybody's belief, well, now, you just don't get up and go out, because that shows your raising, see. But just let me say this: I believe if a man is a Catholic and he's depending on the Catholic church for salvation, he's lost. I believe if a man belongs to the Catholic church and is depending on Jesus Christ for salvation, he's saved.
If he's a Baptist, or a Pentecostal, and depending on the church for salvation, he's lost. If he's depending on Jesus Christ he's saved---because by faith are you saved through grace, see. It's your personal faith in Christ is what saves you. And no church can save you, no organization can save you, no group of people can save you. It's Christ and Him alone that you're saved. And so you must keep that in mind. So, now, if I strike a denomination this afternoon, or something that you belong to, please just sit quiet a little bit till I make this point for the people, if you will.

25 Now we find out that justification... God called Abraham by justification, and by grace He called him. By election he was elected. By grace he was called, and given the covenant with him. Before Abraham had one word to say, whether it was right or wrong, whether he would or would not, God called him. Is that right? Now you read the first ... the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the first ... about the first ten or fifteen verses, and you'll catch it. All right, now.

26 And then we notice that in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, now, that's what ... God did something else to Abraham. Now how did we call ... how did He call Abraham? By faith. Called him by grace, saved him by grace, justified him by grace. Is that right? How did He call the church, Abraham's seed? By faith---by grace, justification by grace, by faith. Just as He did Abraham, so did He the seed of Abraham after him. All that believe that, say, "Amen." Sure. There's justification.
Now what church would represent justification? In the first reformation was Martin Luther, who came forth preaching justification by faith. All of us know that---that young German priest that throwed the communion on the altar, and said that it was not the blood of Jesus Christ or the kosher bread, that he knowed it was just the bread and wine. So he throwed it on the altar and said it represented the body of Christ.
And that's the difference that separates Catholic from Protestant. One said ... the Catholic says it is the body of Christ, and the other said it represents the body of Christ.

27 Now, Luther said, "The just shall live by faith," and that's exactly the first calling of the seed of Abraham---after the hundreds of years of Dark Ages---to make up the church that'll go in the rapture.
Now, bear with it a minute. Now, how did He call Abraham? Genesis 12, now---by faith, justification by faith. He called the seed of Abraham ... the next, which was by faith, by justification.
Now, Abraham did not fully obey God. Until he fully obeyed God, God never did confirm the covenant to him. Now in the fifteenth chapter we find out that He confirmed the covenant to Abraham. How did He do it?

28 Notice. He told Abraham in the fifteenth chapter... You'll notice this, that He told him to take a heifer of three years old, a goat and sheep three years old and split them apart and offer them to Him. And Abraham taken these three animals of three years---as I told you, the three separations, the three like the trinity, and so forth, the three. Now we see that he cut these open and separated them.
Then he put two---a turtledove and a young pigeon---in there. He never divided them birds, because from the Old Testament to the New Testament the blood for the sacrifice was changed. But turtledove and pigeon represented healing, for we know that was the cleansing of leprosy and so forth, for healing. And healing has always been based upon your faith in God. Then if I say...
You say healing wasn't included in the New Testament, in the new atonement. Well, if the old atonement had healing in it, isn't this a better one? How could you say then it isn't? But it's all based the same.

29 Like Brother Aegery, or some of these brethren not long ago, the Lutheran brethren who told me they knowed a witch that healed the people. I said, "No, you never. You never seen no witch heal a person."
Yet I've been in Africa and seen them go before the witch doctor and get healed. In Alsace Lorraine, France, there's a place there, down at ... there by the ... I think it's the Seine River it is, where the church of Notre Dame... There's a dead woman buried there, this great big place, where they go there and rub it to keep plagues off the city, this rock above this dead woman. Why, certainly. And things happen.
Sure. It's the approach. The people think they're approaching God through that idol. People think they're approaching God through the witch doctor. And many times people on the fields today here in America, men say, "Just come. Oh, I got healing." That's wrong. The good, sound gospel teachers don't teach it like that. They teach that it is in the atonement, Christ heals you; and they're here just as men of God, in faith to believe and pray for you. But when you hear somebody say, "I can heal you. I got healing. I've done this," that is wrong. Christ did that for you when He died at Calvary for you. That's the blessing that belongs to you. It's your...

30 And these people are approaching these idols, and images, and witch doctors, and fortune-tellers, and all those different things like that. They get healed because they believe that through there they're approaching God. And divine healing is based upon faith---if you believe it.
Now that's the reason the turtledove and pigeon wasn't separated. I told you some day I could get to that and I thought, having as much time as I have this afternoon, I would try to get to it for you. That's the reason it was not ... they wasn't separated. But the others was separated, cut in two.

31 Now what was God doing? To kill these animals it taken blood. In order for the sacrifice, for the cleansing of sin, there has to be a blood offering. God based that in Genesis. When man tried to build himself an organization, or some kind of a fig leaf, apron and get around it, God refused to look at him.
And God, when God once makes a statement, when God once says anything, when God ever once called on the scene to make a decision, that decision He makes has to stand for eternity, because his Word is perfect. He cannot go back and say, "I was mistaken yesterday. I know more about it today." How can He be infinite and make a statement and then have to go back on it? How that gives us confidence in the one we're talking about---God. He cannot fail.

32 If God was ever called to heal a sick man and He healed him on the basis of his faith, if another man comes on the same grounds, He's got to meet that same condition or He did wrong when He healed the first man. Certainly. If He saved a man on the basis of faith, then how're we going to get in then upon church joining, and sprinkling, and baptisms, and so forth?
It's by faith, by grace, by the power of God, by something that you ... something that you met God's requirement, and He called you, and changed your life before you even could do anything about it. Why, there's nothing in you. You're a sinner to begin with, and there's nothing there to change. So God by his grace foreknew you and called you to his ministry, and to his wedding supper.
See, it's nothing you can do about it at all---God's grace altogether. God did it by grace. "He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me..." Not make-believeth, but "believeth on him that sent me hath [present tense] everlasting life and shall not come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto life." Amen.

33 How're we going to get around that?
There's so much make-believe---going on sensations, and different things like that. But within your heart you believe it. When something's happened to you, it's God did it, and God's the only one that can do it. So God, by grace and election, put that in your heart to believe it. It wasn't there to begin with, and you had no way of putting it there. God placed it there, and you answered the call.
Now notice. In Genesis, the fifteenth chapter, when He taught Abraham the separation, when Abraham was ready to separate himself from unbelieving Lot, the lukewarm church member... When Lot went down into Sodom and become the mayor of the city, and built him a nice church down there---something, whatever he did---then God met Abraham; and they offered a blood sacrifice for separation and confirmed the covenant to Abraham. Amen.

34 Why, without the shedding of blood there's no separation from sin. It's through the shed blood.
Now, notice what taken place. He took the animals and cut them apart. Abraham watched until the sun went down. And there was a deep sleep fell upon Abraham. And when he noticed the deep sleep come, that meant death. It's due to all of us. We're all coming there to that great, eternal sleep.
Now we notice immediately after that, he looked before him and a great horror of blackness and a smoking furnace. What is it? Hell. Down through the valley of the shadow of death every man goes into hell. That's where he belongs at.
And then just beyond that went a little white light that went in between each one of those cuts of flesh, Abraham having the covenant confirmed to him by the Lord God; that how He was going to take Abraham and make him a father of nations, how He was going to save Abraham and his seed. He was making a confirmation of the covenant by the shed blood of the clean offered animals.

35 Now, how do we make a covenant? Say, for instance, Brother Carlson, here. Stand up just a minute, Brother Carlson. If I was going to say ... Brother Carlson say, "Brother Branham, will you come to Miami at the meeting?"
I'd say, "Well, let's think it over, Brother Carlson." I'd say, "Well, I believe so. All right, I'll come, Brother Carlson. Shake." See? That's a covenant. We'll be there. That's right. That's got it. See, we'll make the covenant, like that. That's the way we make a covenant.
You know in Japan, how they make a covenant? They go out... We go out and eat usually. The Japanese get a little cruse of salt and throw a little salt on one another. That's how they make the covenant with each other, because salt is a contact, it's a savor, you see. So they throw salt on one another, making a covenant.
But in the days of Abraham, you know how they made a covenant back in the eastern Oriental countries then? They killed a beast, and they stood between these dead pieces of beast. They wrote on the parchment, or the lamb skin, whatever it was, and made this Jewish writing, the covenant, whatever it was.
And then over this dead beast's body they took an oath, that if they broke this covenant let them be cut into pieces like this dead beast was.

36 Then they took the skin and tore it apart, and one kept one piece, and one kept the other piece. And then when this covenant was brought back, or when the covenant was brought to its fullness, then these two pieces had to be dovetailed together, and made that skin and them letters meet, letter by letter.
That's the way the covenant was confirmed to Abraham that... He was showing him there what He was going to do in the times to come through the royal seed that he had promised him, yet him without any children. He had promised him the son, that he was going to have it. He was seventy-five years old, and Sarah was sixty-five when the promise was made, and it was twenty-five years later before the promise was ever fulfilled. But God kept his promise with him because Abraham kept faith in God.

37 Now, all along, instead of getting weaker, Abraham got stronger, the Bible says. He was stronger, giving praise to God. He knowed it was going to happen. No matter how long it lingers, it's going to happen. Going to happen.
Like people today, they say, oh, the Bible says they say, "There is no difference from the time our fathers fell asleep."
"Oh, I've heard that coming of the Lord since I was a little kid. My mother said she heard her mother talk about it. There's no such a thing."
You see, then they go out and eat, drink, and be merry. See that? They go out and start off, because why? There's never been any confirmation of it in their heart yet.
But when God once confirms that in your heart, instead of... If you're a real true seed of Abraham, instead of getting weaker as you see the days go by, you get stronger all the time. You say, "Well, if grandmother didn't see it, and mother didn't see it, if I don't see it, I'll be looking for it; and if I don't, my children will see it. We're ... I'm believing it. I'll fall asleep in the first [second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh] watch [either, church age ... the first church age or to the last church age, those watches], which are watches. If I fall asleep in each one of them no matter where it is, I'll awake in Him that morning. So I'm going to be ready, believing that He's coming in this age."

38 Now, but when you get slothful and say, "Well, I've heard that stuff," and go on, see, it's not Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed doesn't take back. They're not up and down, and in and out, and backslid one day and go to church the next day, and then come back. They stay put. Where there is Christ in there, they stand. There's nothing can shake them.
Why, Jesus said, "Upon this rock I'll build my church. The gates of hell can't prevail against it." God's done made the covenant with Abraham and his seed after him, and that church will be there without spot or wrinkle. You can just depend on that.
So, you see, this piece of goods, or cloth (it was in them days not cloth, but a skin) was tore apart, one man taken one piece, the other man taking the other piece. And then when this covenant was brought to its fullness, then they'd come back together. And there's no way to impersonate it because these two pieces had to be just exactly the same in the skin. And also in the writing they had to dovetail, letter by letter.

39 Now, that's exactly what God did by the royal seed of Abraham.
Now, I know Isaac was the seed of Abraham potentially, was the natural seed of Abraham---but not the real seed of Abraham. The real seed of Abraham was Christ, the royal seed. Isaac only was a substitutionary until Christ came, which was the seed of Abraham. Now, and then the real seed of Abraham believes the promise, just like Abraham did, because it's to Abraham and his seed after him.
Now, watch what God did to the royal seed to make the covenant confirmed. He took Christ, which was the seed of Abraham. On Calvary He tore Him apart. He took the Spirit off of Him and put his body in the grave and his soul in hell; and raised Him up on the third day, and raised up his body and brought it up into glory; and there sent the Spirit back down, and kept the body on his right hand side. Sent the Spirit back down to live in the church, to make a church just so much with the life of Christ that in the resurrection the two will come together---bride and bridegroom.
The church and Christ will be exactly alike, with the same kind of ministry, same kind of power, same kind of Spirit. He raised up the body of Jesus Christ and sat it on his right side, his right hand, and poured down the Spirit upon the church on the day of Pentecost. That's how God proved his covenant with his church.

40 And Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." And we see that that's God's way. He confirmed his covenant with his church (Amen!) by a blood offering through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now He sanctified that church then, cleansed it, separated it. And when separation comes, it means to be set aside. Actually the word "sanctify" is a Greek word, compound, which means sanctified, cleansed, and set aside for service. Now the altar sanctified the vessel, and then they set it aside for service.
So, who was the next messenger on earth that preached justification? Luther, to the seed. What was the next message? Wesley. Methodists preached sanctification, second definite work of grace. We find all of us know that. We're aware of that. Now, look. What He did to Abraham by justification, He did to his seed. What He did to Abraham through sanctification (separation)... When He did, He did the same thing. When the church separates itself from all the things of the world, then God applies the blood to it.

41 Now, then when He does that, then you don't want no more smoking, drinking, no more of this running around, carrying on. You're a separated people. That's right. God separates you as a peculiar people. Lot of make-beliefs going on in all these things, but yet the real true church... I'm talking about the real seed of Abraham, the one that really is the seed.
Now, notice, the next thing He did then. After doing that, we find out... Now, did He call Abraham by grace? Say, "Amen." Did He call his church by grace? Amen. Did He sanctify Abraham's works by a blood offering? Amen. Did He do the same thing back there through Wesley? Amen.
Now, in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, turn to the first verse. God appears to Abraham in the name of Almighty God, which the Hebrew word means El Shaddai. "El" means breast ... or, "El" means strong one and "Shad" means breast (like a woman's breast), and "Shaddai" is breasted. "Abraham, you're ninety-nine years old [Think of that!], and you have come through justification, you've come through sanctification, and now I'm appearing to you as a strong, breasted God." Amen.

42 Now, in other words, "Abraham, your life is dead. As far as that's concerned, the life of your body is dead. The deadness of Sarah's womb, it's just, it wasn't... She was sterile to begin with, and now look how old she is now." She's ... if he's ninety-nine, she's eighty-nine.
"And so, now, look how old you are, and look how old Sarah is. But I am the strong one who gives myself out to you. Lay upon my bosom and nurse yourself, my own life into you. By taking my life into you I'll give you strength for the coming son, for the coming one."

43 That's the thing He done to the church, after they come through justification, sanctification. When did He do to the church? All of those was orders that were done through faith and grace. But on the Pentecostal move God called his sanctified people to his breast to nurse from Him the life that was in God in them. There is a baptism of the Holy Ghost for the church, just like He did to Abraham.
There's the elect Pentecostal group that they call fanatics today. I mean the elected group. There they are just as He called ... justification, sanctification, and filled Abraham with his own strength. He called the church through justification, sanctification, and filled the church with his own strength, his Spirit into the church; and give the church the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
And that was the next great move that struck the earth. We know that. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and the Pentecostal move, that's been the move--- justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost. Just the same as He did to Abraham, He's did it to his seed after him. Do you get it now?
Now mark down the fourth and fifth verse in that same chapter there, in the seventeenth. Now I want you to notice what God did here. See, God cannot defile his own laws. He has to keep his own laws. So God cannot disobey his own laws. He cannot annul his own law, in order to be God.

44 Now, if we notice in the Old Testament there was ... when a child was born in a family, that child was, say, a boy. He was a heir, of course. But before that child was fully a heir of all the things that his father had, before he came into power he was first put under a tutor. And this tutor raised this son. Now we ... all the clergy knows that. He was put under a tutor. And this tutor was a man that... The father searched out to find the very best man he could find, because that's his son, that's what's going to fall heir to him afterwards.
So then, he hunts a good tutor. Not a tutor that'll say ... well, tell a lie, and say, "Oh, your church is just doing fine. Your little son's just doing fine," when he isn't. He's a little rascal. That's too much the trouble today, with too many of our bishops, and so forth, and all of our man-made tutors. "Your church is doing all right." But it's a lie; it's not. Having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof---something wrong, somewhere.

45 So, when the father got the very best tutor he could find, the best raiser... Now how that tutor must've blushed when he walked up in front of the father and say, "Oh, your son..."
"How is my son doing?" The father was busy, and had a great kingdom, and many ... like many places and tenants and business to take care of.
Now, how that tutor must've felt to've walked up (knowed he was hired by the father), to walk up and say, "Oh, your son... Oh, he's horrible. I just can't make him listen to a thing. He's going to have his own hard-headed way. Most hard-headedest kid I ever seen in my life. He's just... He won't listen. I've got your book of laws here. I lay them right down to him, but he knows what he's going to do. His old man might've run it one way, but he's going to run it another way."
How that tutor must've blushed when he had to come and tell the father that. How the father must've felt about it, too! And how the Father must feel today.
I hope this don't hurt---just enough to make you get straightened out, for my hour is soon at hand.

46 Notice. But this must be said: how that the Holy Spirit was made tutor over the house of God! Not some dominating bishop, not some overpowering organization, not some of these man-made theories. The child of God is to listen to the Holy Spirit, the writing of the Word, the real child of God, the real son of Abraham.
Now here's where the separating time comes. Notice, "Oh," you say, "we're Pentecostal." You settled at that. But you just got started then, see.
Now how he must have felt! How the Holy Spirit must feel today to go before God the Father! I want you to tell me, on the day of Pentecost did God ordain a Roman priest to be father? Tutor? Did He ordain a Methodist bishop? Pentecostal presbyter? No, sir. He sent the Holy Ghost down to be the ruler of the church. Exactly right. What happened to it?

47 Jesus, catching John up, He said there he'd not die. Some of them said He said it, but He didn't do it. Said, "What will happen to this man after the resurrection?"
"What business is it of yours if he stays till I come?"
But instead of doing that, being that they said it, He just raised him up and showed him on over till He did come, at the end of the church age. So he thought up...
Remember, Jesus said in the second church age, Smyrna, there was deeds of the Nicolaitanes. And what was the deeds in the second church become a doctrine in the third church age.
Now that word is not used nowhere else in the Bible. I looked it up to find out what it was. "Nico" means to conquer. "Laity" means the laity: conquer the laity. Make a holy man---somebody that's holier than thou art. Just go out and get somebody, and he'll be some half-god or something like that, to set up... And you do what you please, and he'll forgive the sins. And there you go, conquer the laity. Take the Holy Spirit away from the church out there, and put it all on the platform. That was not God's way of doing it!
No man on the platform's got a right to say he's the only one that's got the Holy Ghost, and he's the only one that's got a say so in it. The Holy Spirit is to the whole entire body of Christ. I see that where tongues, interpretations, gifts, manifestations of the Holy Spirit... But we conquered it, sure.

48 The very thing that we come out of, Pentecost went right back into it again, just as hard as they could go.
The very thing that you used to call old formal Baptist and Methodist, it ain't formal Baptist; it's formal Pentecostals now. You've done the same thing that your fathers come out of. You turned right back around and done the same thing---bottled it up. Made one church over here, and another over here, and fighting one another. And if this person don't come to your church, you'll have no cooperation with it.

49 Oh, you poor backslidden, hypocritical, so-called Christians! Shame on you! Your hour is at hand. God will punish you for that, as certain as I be his servant standing here---separating the laity, and making differences between brethren. God have mercy! Nothing against the Pentecostals; it's that system. Nothing against the Catholic; it's the system of Catholicism. Nothing against the Methodist; it's that system. Nothing against the Lutheran; it's the system.
Justification by Luther was right. But when they systemized it by organizing it, they did wrong. And Wesley... Luther never organized it; ones after him did. Wesley never organized it; ones after him did. And it wasn't the Pentecostal fathers that come out of that corruption. It's you bunch after them did---exactly what you done. That's where we're at today.
If the Pentecostal church would stand two hundred years from now, the ground that it's gained in the world in these past thirty years or forty, it would be worse off than the Catholic doctrine today. The Catholic started at Pentecost, too. What did it? Twisting up. Now, but the true seed remains right.

50 Notice.
What if that tutor that's taking care of the child back there under the Old Testament... ? Oh, if that child was just like the father, my! Everything the father said, "Yes. That's it. Amen. It's true. We'll do it that way." How that tutor must have walked up before the father and said, "Your son is a wonderful boy. Just the things that you do, that's exactly the way he does it, too.
"I don't care how ... you got some bosses and superintendents out there, but, oh my! They don't bother him. He stands right exactly like you do." Amen!
How the father must say, "That's my son. I'm proud of him. Yes, sir! He's my son. Some day I'll show the world that he's my son." All right. He don't pay no attention to the straw bosses. He stays right with what the father said.

51 And how the Holy Spirit today must feel when He goes before the Father, and says, "Why, you know what? Your women's wearing make-up. They're bobbing their hair. Your men, your children has organized their churches just as tight as the rest of them, and they won't co-operate with one another," and all of these things. How He must feel, how God must feel about his church! How ... it must be a disgrace.
"Why," He said, "I thought I told them to stay out of Sodom."
"But they went right back in it, Father---just like Lot, for a few nickels and a better place to worship in a bigger building, and finer chairs, and a better dressed preacher, one like this that can say, 'Amen' real well, and been off and got PhD, LLD, behind his name. And they can tell the rest of them all about this."

52 God don't care a nickel's worth about that. He wants a man that's filled with power and the Holy Ghost, that'll stand and tell the truth, regardless if it shucks the hide off of us. That's right.
But where do we find it? Everybody's got a meal ticket and a Cadillac. Something's wrong somewhere. Something's wrong somewhere. That's the reason the church is rocking today the way it is, because it's off the foundation.
What happened when that son then became in the Old Testament? I'd like to stay there a little while. I'll get back to it later.
But now, what if that son then was a good boy, stayed exactly like the father ordained it to be. If the Bible said one thing, he stayed right with it. Whatever the Bible said, he stays right with it. Regardless of what it is, no matter what the rest of them believe, all the straw bosses, he stays with the main boss. He stayed with what God said. God said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and mine be the truth." I don't care what comes, or what goes. Stay right with that.
And we know the Bible predicts that the Pentecostal age will become lukewarm, spewed out of God's mouth. We know that. That's what the Bible said. Exactly right. Now we've got to face it. It's here, now.

53 But now, if this son is a good son, then one day we have what we call in the Scripture, the Old Testament, a placing of a son; or it's called sometimes, the law of adoption. Now this same son that was born into the family, and he never... His name's no good on the check. We'll call it like that. His name's no good out there yet. He's never had the law of adoption done to him yet.
But when it comes to the time for the law of adoption, then the father takes his son out into a public place, and sets him up on a place, and dresses him in a certain robe, and performs what's known as the placing of a son, or the law of adoption.
And now, when this son is adopted into his own family, from then on this son is given power. He's gifted. Then his name's just as good as Father's is on the check because he's the boss. He's over the strawbosses. God gives him things that none of the strawbosses know nothing about, because he's a son. That's right.

54 And that's exactly what God did to his own Son after He'd proved Him in everything.
And the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew He'd taken him up on the mount, and overshadowed Him there with a cloud of glory. And his raiment shined like the sun in its heat, or in its strength. And when He did, He heard a voice coming from heaven---Peter, James, and John---said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him."
What did He do? Placed the law, his own law of adoption upon his Son, placed his Son ahead of Himself. No matter whether it's Moses ... "I talked to Moses. There's the law. There's the prophets. But this is my Son." The law of adoption. Oh! Sabbath keepers, and legalists, what's the matter with you? "There's my Son. Hear ye Him." It's true.
That's exactly what God did to Abraham, his son before that, after Abraham had been justified by faith. We believe that, don't we?---Abraham's seed justified by faith. All right.

55 The next thing was then, what did he do? The next thing was sanctification by the blood, sanctification by the blood to the seed. Next thing was nursing God's own strength into him, taking God's own strength into the church. What He did to Abraham, He did to his seed after him. Everybody understand that? All right.
Now notice. Then He said to Abraham, notice this fourth and fifth verse: "Abraham, my covenant now is with you." Amen. What a condition that ought to have been! What a word of encouragement to an old man a hundred years old---right at a hundred, ninety-nine---and telling him that He was El Shaddai.
"Now I've give you the strength. Now I'm going to place you with Me. Now I'm the Father of all creation. My name is Elohim." Anyone knows that the word Elohim means the all-sufficient one, the great self-existing one, Elohim.

56 "Now my name is Elohim, and your name is Abram. And you'll not no longer be called Abram, but you shall be called Abraham."
Now's when we're going to get down to some real stiff teaching. Abraham. Watch. From Elohim to Abraham. He give him part of his own name, when He placed him. Notice, Abraham and his seed...
Now when God got the Pentecostal church raised, He began to place them, and giving them gifts and so forth, and placing them into the kingdom. But everybody wanted to have the same gift, and oh, my! There we went. So... That don't stop God's seed, just the ... or Abraham's seed. It goes on just the same.

57 Notice, Elohim, Abraham---give him part of his own name, because, why? "I have made you the father of nations. A father. I have made you a father of many nations, and I'll put part of my name with your name." Oh, how I could squeeze something right here now. Give him part of that name, Abraham. And changed Sarah's name because she was a part of Abraham.
Now notice. The very next thing we find done here is in the eighteenth chapter, the next chapter, that God appears to Abraham as he sat under the oak. Now watch as he ... you see where he's placed his son: justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, giving of gifts. Now when He appeared to him just before He burned Sodom...

58 I'm not prone to looking at television because I'm against them uncensored programs. But last night in the place where I was staying, I picked up a book after I got in real late, and looked on the little ... reading the book there and said "Television Guide." And I happened to notice there there was a place where they was going to show these atomic missiles, or something or other, from the Pentagon.
So I went up to this radio, or television, to turn it on to watch this missile, see---this atomic affair, or saucer, as they call it, ever what it is. Been a lot of criticism, and a lot of pro and con. But now, I just watched just a minute. Every man ... you've got a right to your opinion. I have to mine. Let me express mine.
Now, before that Sodom was burned, just before... How many seen that program? I guess there's many of you did. All right. It's not just something made up. It was from the government. And they've been on this work, and on this research for years, and they knowed that it absolutely is the truth. It's true. That's nothing new. If they'd just only read this Scriptures, they'd know right where they were at. They don't have to be worried about that. But now let's place that right on this message now just a minute.

59 Now when Abraham, after he had been justified, sanctified, received the Holy Spirit, received like that, and had placed a son... This son proved that he was, because he had the Spirit of God in him. He did the same works; what his word was, was just exactly like the Word of God.
We can never build a church upon nine hundred and something different organizations, and every one different from the other one. No, sir. No, we cannot. Now notice. But when this son---Abraham's son, seed---is made manifest, then the Spirit of God in that manifested seed will do the same works that Jesus did, because the same works of the royal seed will be in the seed of Abraham. Notice, placing the son, making him just like the son, his church.

60 Now as we move on, Abraham sitting under the oak one day, he looked up and he saw three men coming to him. Now place this down now in your memory. He saw three men. They were dust covered perhaps, and come from a distance. Abraham looked at them, and he recognized there was something godly about the men. They didn't have their collars turned around perhaps, and high turbans on, or neither were they called bishops, or... But he looked at them. They were just ordinary men, clothed and just like the rest of the men are dressed.

61 And Abraham run out to him, and said, "My Lord, will you come in, and sit down under the tree? And I'll fetch a little water, and wash your feet, and give you a morsel of bread. And then you go on your way."
Abraham knew... Now Abraham's seed, now remember. Listen! It was just Abraham that recognized that. Did you know...? I talked to a Jew the other day that believes ... always believed there's one God; and he wanted to believe there's three of them. So he said, "You know, that meant Father, Son, and Holy Ghost there." Oh, mercy! How far can a man get away from God!
"Abraham never said, "My lords." He said, "My Lord---capital L-o-r-d." But Lot, the backslider down there, said, "My lords," when he saw two of them come up. L-o-r-d-s.

62 But the man who was separated knowed. When he seen Him, he said, "My Lord, Elohim, come by and sit down here." And he walked up to him.
And he run in and told Sarah, "Knead some bread right quick of some meal. We want some cakes. And go out and get a fatted calf." And they killed the calf, and got things fixed up; brought it out, and He sat there and eat it.
Two of them went on down to Sodom to preach to Lot, down there in Sodom and to bring that lukewarm church out.
Now notice, the three classes. Now there was Lot, and Sodom, and Abraham, was the three classes of people on earth at that day. Now, please listen close. That's the same way it sits today with the seed of Abraham. See, there was Sodom, the Sodomites, the world, sinners. There was the organized lukewarm church sitting down there, Lot, the sins of the people vexing his righteous soul. That's exactly what the Bible says.
There you are---many righteous, good people down in there, which'll be called out. But I'm not speaking of that right now. Now, they sent a man down there to deliver them people, and he went down and preached to them

63 (watch), to the church that was in Sodom, in the world.
Now sometime this week we're going to take the mark of the beast, and the seal of God, and watch how that started right in Eden, and come right out where Cain went out from the presence of God to get his wife; how Seth stayed in the presence of God and got his wife; how the churches---different ways---went out with the organizations, going out with the organizations (the system) and got themselves a church, a bride; and when the real true church stayed with God. Perfectly.
Now here's what taken place. When these men went down there... And isn't it strange how He changed the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham? and the messenger went down there to preach to these people to bring them out?
And in this last day the messenger that's sent to those Sodomites, and to call them people out of those places down there, is called G-r-a-h-a-m. Not B-i-l-l-i-e S-u-n-d-a-y, Sunday; but G-r-a-h-a-m, a messenger. Show me one ecclesiastical messenger stands in his place today. There's not nowhere on the earth to the Christian church like Billy Graham. What's he doing? Screaming, "Come out of that thing! Separate yourself!" with the word of justification to call them out and separate them.

64 What did he do? His message blinded their eyes to the door. That's what it did today. The message blinds their eyes. They got so much organization in them, they can't see the door. And Christ is that door. That's right. Oh, they say, "Well, I'm Methodist. Well, look here, Mr. Graham. I'm Presbyterian. I'm Lutheran. I'm..." They don't see the door, and the message has blinded their eyes. Don't you see the miracle of God? See the Lot group? Way over there in Sodom.

65 Now, watch. To this one that stayed back behind, to the elected church---one. He said... Now look. Just a few days before that, Abram's name had been changed to Abraham. Now He never said, "Abram, where is thy wife S-a-r-r-a." He said, "Abraham, where is your wife S-a-r-a-h?" How did He know that if He was a stranger? Now watch. He's talking to the elected seed, now, of Abraham.
Now, He's talking to Abraham. And as He did to Abraham, He's got to do to the seed after him. We've found it everything perfectly up till this time. "Abraham [the revelation], where is your wife, Sarah?"
Said, "She's in the tent behind You." Now remember, behind you.

66 He said, "I'm going to visit you. [I, that personal pronoun involved, see.] I'm going to visit you. [That's how He knowed his name was... He's the one changed his name.] Abraham, I'm going to visit you according to the time of life with Sarah. I'm going to send this child just exactly like I said I would do. I'm going to do it."
And when Sarah heard that... Now, my sisters in here, you young women, excuse this, please. But Sarah laughed. You know why she laughed? She said, "Me? An old woman would have pleasure again with my lord, him old also?"

67 Now as husband and wife, as family relationship, had ceased for many years. They was a hundred years old. She said, "Me, again a young woman, could live with my husband there? And we'd have pleasure together like young married people?" And it tickled her. And she said, "Me, an old woman, live with my husband out there again, when we haven't had that type of life maybe for fifteen-twenty years, see. How could that be?"
Then the angel, with his back turned, said, "Why did Sarah laugh?"
Jesus referred to it, and said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man; so shall it be to the seed of Abraham."

68 Can you see where Lot sits? Can you see where the message is? Can you see the message that's gone to the elected church? The power of God back amongst the people, God dwelling in human flesh of his own church, performing those same signs! And they call it mind reading, mental telepathy, fortune-telling. No wonder they're doomed. No wonder guided missiles, as they call it, in the air, and they know nothing about it.
I'll give you my explanation of it. It's angels that's come down like they did there at Sodom. You know, I believe we had a picture of one on the back ... on a picture here somewhere. It'll be in the meeting next couple days. It's got the same spirit. It does the same things. That same spirit in the church will perform the same things Jesus did.

69 And we watch.
And on the Pentagon, when they get around there, and could see those missiles gathering in around them like that... Not something made up, some fiction; it's actually the truth. Here it is on radar. Here it is on a camera, taking it. And they're so fast till they would just disappear.
Einstein proved before he died, if two missiles was coming fast enough, or two men coming down the road in an automobile could be coming fast enough, they could pass right through each other without even disturbing each other, coming so fast. But it'd take billions of miles per second to do it, but they would.
Look at Jesus. We can't understand it. Well, Jesus was come into the room through a stone wall, the doors being shut, and stood there after He had his glorified body, and eat flesh. Hallelujah! Glory! You talk about space age, the church is fixing to take one, fast. Bragging about their planes going so fast... We got a man in the sputnik. Oh, my! What difference does that make to the church of the living God? Goodness!

70 He said, "When these things come to pass, lift up your heads. There'll be signs in the heavens above, and in earth below. The sea will roar, and earthquakes in divers places. That's the time to begin to look up. Your redemption is coming near."
You see the signs of Sodom, the organization, where it's took the church out yonder in a mystic ... oh, a self-righteous, legalistic way. But that man and woman who's waiting on the promise of God has the sign working among them, as the true living God discerning the very thoughts of the heart. It's the Word. Jesus was the Word.

71 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. St. John 1. Is that right?
Hebrews, the fourth chapter, said the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, discerning even the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And when the Word---when God's Word (not half of it, part of it, mixed up with some man-made creed)... " Ye abide in me and my Word in you, ask what you will, and it'll be done." But when the true Word becomes manifested in you, it's a discerner of the thoughts of the heart; and men call it mind reading, mental telepathy.
No wonder they called Jesus Beelzebub. He said, "I forgive you. But when the Holy Ghost is come and does it, one word against it will never be forgiven."

72 Then you see why we got our name on a missile hanging out yonder somewhere. You see where judgment stands. Notice. Sure, we're doomed.
There's the Billy Graham group down there preaching to that Lot, "Come out of Sodom. Get out of Sodom. Get out of Sodom." Maybe the boy don't know it, for all I know. Or the man---I think he's about thirty-seven years old, or forty. No, about forty-four or something ... forty-five, I don't know how... Billy said... Well, he's getting up somewhere in his forties. But anyhow how ... the man maybe don't realize what it is, see. There he is. He's the messenger of the day to that church, not realizing. Be had to be called like that. How everything...
You say, "How did that name have to do with it?" Why did He change Jacob's name? Why did he change all the rest of the names when they come to Him?

73 "Your name is called Simon. Hereafter you'll be called Peter." "You was Saul, but you'll be called Paul from now on." How about all these names if they don't mean something?
Well, you say that's numerology. The devil's got one, that's right. And God's got one. Everything the devil's got he's patterned it off of God. Exactly right.
He changed his name. After Jesus overcome He received a new name Himself. Every overcomer. The church, when it has completely overcome, the revelation of it begins to be real to them. Why was he called that? Why is he the messenger today that when the man...?
Just like it was in Eden, he destroyed himself by his own knowledge. And today he's doing the same thing, destroying himself with his own knowledge. Watch now, just a few minutes before we close. We got ... really got thirty minutes, but we won't have to take it. Look. I want to ask you something. Now, he went down and preached, them angels did. This other one stayed behind, messenger.

74 Some minister asked me one time, "Brother Branham, did you say that was God?"
That was God. Abraham called him Elohim. If you want to argue with Abraham, the Bible, that's all right. But he said it was Elohim stood there, and He eat flesh, with ordinary clothes on. Eat flesh, drink the milk of the cow, eat bread, and vanished out of Abraham's sight. He was Elohim. Proving what? When Jesus referred to that, Elohim would come back into the seed of Abraham at the last days.
And as it was in the days of Sodom, to the elected church so shall it be. Oh, my!

75 And to the church in Sodom, so shall it be. Now we see where they're standing, don't we? We see the names, everything, placed just exactly, just perfectly where we're sitting. What did he do then?
Immediately after that, as I've took this many times (I believe I preached on it one time for you), he changed Abraham and Sarah's body, and put them back to a young man and woman. Now, we know that that is the truth. Now remember.
Now let me prove it to you right here, so that you ... if you get any thoughts that they were ... in them days they just lived longer. The Bible said here that they were both well stricken in age. Well stricken. Then why did Sarah say that "... if could have pleasure with my lord."? And Abraham, the Bible said that his body was as good as dead. The seed in his body was as good as dead. And forty-five years after Isaac was born, he had seven more children. Answer that, will you?

76 Why did Abimelech fall in love, then, with Sarah, when she was an old woman? Said, "Me---an old woman, well stricken in age, me, old like I am now---could ever have pleasure again?" And when she took a three hundred mile journey, and went down and seen a young king, he fell in love with her. The most beautiful thing he ever seen. He changed her body. Why? He had to change her body in order to receive the promised son. And that's the next thing in order---the changing of the body, the rapture.
Now what if he'd have just took Abraham, said, "Now, Abraham, I'm just going to turn you back to a young man, going to turn Sarah back to a young woman. And now, you all just go ahead and have the son.
They wouldn't have done it, because they lived together when they was young, and they didn't have the son. They did not have any son, and they had lived together all these years. If He had just changed them back... There had to be a different kind of change. Oh, glory!

77 What? She couldn't have went in labor with a heart a hundred years old. The milk veins was dried up in her body. Her womb was unfertile. Oh, I know it seems strange. I know it does. It seems strange. What if a little baby before it's born, when it's in its mother's womb, could say, "Oh, woe is me! They tell me I'm going to be born in a few days. What'll I do? They tell me in the big world there's sunshine, people, walking around. Oooh! How will I get a living? I'd rather be right here in the womb. Oh, that big space! What will I do? Woe is me.
But if he could only think of what it was! If he could... After you're once out on this side, and then look back, you'd never want to go to the womb again.

78 And that's like we are now, thinking about what's that going to be? What's the other world, where we can pass from glory... ? Why, when they can take a scope, and see 120,000,000 years of light space... That ain't one-sixteenth of an inch in eternity. Hallelujah! Glory! But Jesus come from heaven to earth in a thought. Glory! And the church will be the same way. Pass ... right with such speed! Glory to God!
You say how can it be done? How do I know now? The only thing I know is inches and yards, and miles; days and weeks, and hours and minutes. That's the way we figure. We're in the womb of the earth. But wait till we're born once on the other side. Glory! Wait till this change comes. Yes. Then space to come, like from the glory here in one split half instant ---such speed, pass right through the wall, and don't even know it's there. There you are. These earthly things will be so simple then. Oh, my! There won't be nothing to it. Watch.

79 When Abraham's body was changed, Sarah's body was changed, like it never had been changed before. Now, we all know that when Jesus comes we'll be caught up in a rapture, and we know our bodies will have to be changed first. And it won't have to be just go back to young men and women, but it will have to be changed because Abraham and Sarah's body had to be changed in a way that they could receive the promised son.
That's Abraham. His body had to be changed to receive the promised son, after being justified, sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit, called by election, manifested God of glory in the midst of him. And then his body was changed in order to receive the promised son.

80 Well, the church has come through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, gifts manifested to us, and now what? The Spirit of God moving in the church, doing the same works that Jesus did before He left as a promise. And what's the next thing? The change.
The next thing happened to Abraham was a changed body. He had to have it, or he'd never got the son. And the next thing happens to the church is the rapture. We'll have to be changed, and caught up in the air to meet Him. We can't meet Him on earth. We've got to go in the air to meet Him. It's the coming Son, the promised Son. Amen! We've looked for Him now for hundreds of years. He will come some day.
But the next thing for the church is to be changed. We've had every sign---justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, placing of a son, manifestation of the Spirit. Now what? The changing of the body for the rapture.

81 Oh, my! How the church ought to be waving its hands in glory, thanking God, thanking God.
Any minute the change could come, for the Bible said it'd be universal. Jesus said there'd be two in the mill grinding, "I'll take one, and leave one. Two in the field; I'll take one, and leave one." Two in the bed showed it'd be on both sides of the earth. Was night on one side, be day on the other. "I'll take one, and leave one." The rapture will be universal, and their bodies will be changed.
Our bodies will have to be changed. We just can't turn back to young men and women. We've got to have a different kind of a body, so we can be caught up in the air to receive the promised Son. That's what the church is waiting for now, the true church. Every manifestation, what He did to Abraham He has done to his seed after him, leaving one thing out. That's the rapture of the church.

82 And "When you see these things begin to come to pass," Jesus said, "raise up your head. Look up. Your redemption's drawing nigh." When Jesus referred to it, and said, "As it was in Sodom..." When you see a modern Billy Graham go down into Sodom; when you see the signs begin to appear before the elected church, and the rest of it fighting against it, watch---the time of the rapture is at hand. The fig tree putting forth its buds over yonder---that generation will not pass away till all be fulfilled, which is way into that generation since the Jews have been returning to their homeland. We're at the end time.
Nations are breaking, Israel's awakening,
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile days numbered, with horrors
encumbered;
Return, O dispersed, to your own.

83 Come go with us to Miami, when a man that stood with his hands yonder in Greenland to turn atomic bombs loose that would destroy half the earth, shook, and become a Christian. We'll be speaking. When he saw a missile in a screen, and they thought it was Russia starting... We're ready, too.
Other nations are ready, also---Castro used down yonder just as a puppet, playing up so Russia can get in there close enough they can throw their atomic missiles and things. Here it is, right under our nose. And the gifts of God, the manifestation of God amongst his people, doing the same things that Jesus Christ did, has swept the world across now, see. She's ready.
Now the next thing is the change, to be caught up in the air to meet Him, the change to those who are looking for the promised son. Are you looking for Him this afternoon, waiting? Oh, I'll be watching and waiting that sight to behold. He's coming again. "The Gentile days numbered with horrors encumbered."

84 Why, this earth will blow to pieces one of these days. It could happen before morning. There's only one thing---that's almighty God---could keep us from being blowed to pieces in another hour from now.
Russia's so far ahead of us in science. And as that news commentator said the other night, it's not Russia doing that. Neither is it our scientists. It's the Germans is what's done it. In the war we took some, and they took some, and there you are.
They've got a man now that stands up in a little gadget ... sputnik of a thing up there on the earth, why, they might have hundreds of those. What if they just come over to the United States, and say, "Surrender, or go to ashes."? What would the Pentagon do? Surrender, of course. What would happen? In would come the Russians---out of your homes. You know what would happen.

85 If they don't, what happens? Ashes come. When could that happen? In another hour from now.
But remember, before that happens... Here's where you disagree. But before that happens, Jesus comes for the church.
Before one speck of fire fell on Sodom, Lot had to come out. Before one drop of rain fell, Abraham had to be in ... I mean, Noah had to be in the ark. And as it was in the days of Abra... days of Noah, and in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.
Before anything takes place, the church takes its rapture. Amen. They're in Christ, already judged. And one of these mornings there'll be a disappearing, or one of these nights there'll be a disappearing. And the church will be changed, and caught up to meet Jesus in the air.
And woe unto this bunch then. They'll gnaw their tongues for pain when the atomic sweeps into the nation, burns eyes out, and runs like water down. Tongues are gnawed for pain, and screaming; just one bomb bursting after another. You'll remember how much it was mental telepathy, how much it was a bunch of holy rollers, or fanatics.
Remember, God knows what He's doing. Yes, sir.

86 The next thing waiting is for that elected and called-out seed of Abraham, who's recognized the manifestation of God among his people, and standing waiting. That'll be the one will be caught up to meet Him in the air.
Let us bow our heads just a moment. If there is those here today who does not know Him as personal saviour, that you have not been filled with the Holy Spirit, that the revelation of God has never struck your life; and you've just joined church and lived a good straight life...
Do you know that those Hebrews back there, those priests, they lived a perfect life. No one could put a finger on their life. They were holy, sanctified men, and Jesus said, "You are of your father, the devil."

87 What is sin? It's unbelief. Unbelief in what? The Word of God. Now that's the Word of God to Abraham, and his seed after him.
If you haven't been known to God as his son, being born again, filled with his Spirit, you've never drawed from El Shaddai, the bosom of God, why don't you come right here and stand here. Let's have prayer with you while minister brothers are around to pray.
Will you rise now? I believe the hour of all this persuading is just over. If you haven't received Christ and been filled with the Spirit, come. One poor soul walks to the altar, and that a Jew. Next an Ethiopian. God, be merciful! How can you hear the Word of God and then sit still, friends? Don't you see that...?
Science said about five years ago it's three minutes till midnight.

88 Do you know what God did? He reached ... it's past time. He reached out with his hand and stopped it. He's holding time in his hand, for the church to make itself ready. There's a few more members yet to come in of the body of Christ. Maybe one of them's here today. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm led here, is to try to persuade you.
I'm not saying, "Now, don't be Catholic. Don't be Methodist." I ain't saying what for you to belong to. You can belong to all of them, or none of them. But I want you to be filled with his Spirit. If you're not, you're... Just remember, I'll meet you at that day, and these words will be a witness against you. It's all on God's tape recording, and with his great picture camera. And you sitting, and walking away and leaving it, you'll see your own self at that day in the mirror of God. Will you come?
Have Thine own way.....!
Thou art the potter; I am the clay.
(Just forget everything now.
Come on. I'm the clay)
Mold me and make me after Thy will.
While I am waiting......

89 Are you yielded? Let thy will be done, Lord. Take all the churchanity out of me. Take all the starch and denomination out of me, Lord. Let me be a real Christian.
....... Lord! Have Thine own way
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with thy Spirit Till all shall see
Christ only, always, Living in me!
Have Thine ... (God bless you, lady.
Come right ahead, sister.)
Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter (all you Catholic,
Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist,
Pentecostals);
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am yielded, waiting and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord!

90 Now while the people are moving down, still coming... As long as people are coming, we're going to hold it. I don't think we have too much more time in this world to make these kind of calls.
Now just remember, I speak in the name of the Lord. The hour is coming when you'll scream for a meeting like this. You won't be so anxious to get up and go out. It'll be too late then. You'll go out all right, out into an eternity without God, without...
You call me a prophet. I never call myself that. You do. And where did the Word of the Lord come to? What does the word "prophet" mean? A divine revelator of the divine written Word. Then you have your own interpretation, and take it above the real Word. Signs and wonders prove whether it's right or not.
God told them how to tell it. If what they say comes to pass, then it's right. If it isn't, it isn't. Now you be your own judge. You'd better flee to God, Pentecostal, while you got a chance to. Don't you just take some idea that "I spoke with tongues, and that means all of it." That's just as far as Methodist shouting, Lutheran shaking hands. You'd better come to God.
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

91 Now remember. After this message this afternoon, I am free from all men's blood. The meeting has been give out in Chicago. I've told you "thus saith the Lord." I've proved it to you by the Scriptures that we're at the end now. I'm not guilty of any man's blood from henceforth.
I wonder how many Christians out there would walk up to the altar, and pray with these people around, standing around the altar and pray. Any of you Christians that's filled with the Holy Spirit would like to come up here and pray with these people?
.... me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, Yielded and still.

92 Abraham and his seed after him, Abraham and his seed. Let me tell you something. Just a few days ago I was in California in a great denominational church, Pentecostal denomination. A few people came to the altar, four or five, after preaching a hard message. And then four or five sinners run up to the altar, falling over one another. I had to beg and persuade people to come pray with them.
I did that for a purpose this afternoon, see who would come up. And amongst about three hundred people, look what come to pray. Why, the Kentucky Baptist down there in the mountains, where I was born, would make the Pentecostals feel ashamed of themselves. Let one soul reach up to come towards the altar, they'll be the whole church right around him trying to... So thankful to God that one soul has come in. And then we are Abraham's seed. We've lost all the zeal we ever had. See what I mean? O God.

93 Let's bow our heads. To you people at the altar here, I want you to surrender a life to Him now. Remember, I'm going to meet you at that morning. I'm going to give an account for this message this afternoon. I've been in Chicago since the beginning of my ministry. As it is ending now... I cannot be a prophet and an evangelist at the same time. One ministry will take its place soon.
And time after time, how I've been here in Chicago, stood hour after hour, heart to heart with you. Have you ever heard me tell you anything in the name of the Lord but what was truth? If it is, I ask you to come correct it. No, sir. It's not known. Then I tell you in the name of the Lord, under such a condition, if you come up here today, God led you up.
This is the hour of your deliverance if you'll believe it with all your heart. I want you just humbly just confess everything that you have did that's wrong before God. Say, "God, I'm sorry of it. And now I'm here wanting You to give me the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Grant it."

94 While we close the service with you around the altar here praying, I'm going to ask the congregation all to stand in prayer, your hands on one another around the altar here, you people with these.
Our heavenly Father, we bring to You this afternoon the fruits, or the gleaning. The land has been harvested long ago, and we're gleaning, as Ruth. How well our evangelist brethren know these things. Our brother, Tommy Hicks here, and Brother Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham, how that they know that we're just gleaning in America to see if we can find a stalk here or there.
We know the end is at hand,

95 Father God. These who've come... Thou hast said in thy Word, "He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." And also that "No man can come except my Father draws him first. And all that comes to me I'll give him everlasting life, and raise him up at the last day." That's your promise, Lord. And as your servant, and the fruits of this message I give to You these seekers at the altar. I give them to You, Lord, as your servant in prayer, and with all these other servants of yours who are standing here who are witnesses of your resurrection, witnesses of the power of God.
And we're standing here, deeply, Lord, sincerely from our heart, believing that You are the Son of God; believe that You are coming. And all these fearful sights that we are seeing and hearing... The nations are shaking, and see Israel going to her homeland. The nations are troubled, seeing mystic sights over Washington, fearful things upon the earth, perplexity of a time, and distress between the nations. Distress, such a distress! They're all so nervous they don't know what to do, each one with atomic and hydrogen weapons hid back, secret, just waiting for the other one to make a move.

96 Some day a mistake ... too much Vodka will be drank, or something. Then a missile will fly into a screen. Then here it goes! God, You promised us, and I'm believing You... Noah stood in the ark door and preached to a dying people. And today the real born again men of God stands in the door of Jesus Christ, and shows the people the way out. Not a church, not an organization, but the door, Christ.
May these people come to the door, right now knocking at the door. We know there'll be a welcome hand reach out, and say, "Come ye blessed of my Father. Enter into the joys that's been prepared for you since the foundation of the world"; because no man can come but those who He foreknew. And they've come this afternoon. And I give them to You as your servant, and as your people. Grant it, Lord, to each one of them, in the name of Jesus Christ.

97 While each person in here, you people that's around the altar, by faith... By faith. You don't have to feel one thing. But in your heart... Now, how'd you come up here? God, back there in the audience, drawed you up here. Jesus said, "No man can come to me except my Father draws him. And he that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, has eternal life." And there's only one form of eternal life. That's the Holy Spirit. Now, if you will believe with all your heart that God will give you the Holy Spirit, raise up your hands, and say, "Thank you, Lord. I've come here now to receive it." All you out in the audience that believe with them, raise up your hands, and say, "Lord, we stand ready for the Holy Spirit." Brother Tommy Hicks, I want you to come and offer prayer now over them right here. Yes, sir.