Remembering the Lord

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, Brother Neville. So glad to be here, Brother Neville, and the opportunity to sit in these heavenly places again, in Christ Jesus. And numbers never did bother me, it always excites me. You know, I'm more at home when I'm with a small number, 'cause that's what I think the church is. Yeah, I have a Scripture for that, says, "Fear not, little flock, it's your Father's good will to give you the kingdom." And I would ... that's the little flock I want to be numbered with at that day, the one that He said, "Not to fear."

2 And we're very happy for the privilege of coming down tonight.
And I didn't come with the intention of speaking. Just a few moments ago there was someone who had come to the door, and while I was just at study, getting some context ready for some text that I want to use now right away in the oncoming meetings of Phoenix and Tucson, and through there. And I was just getting really fed up in the Spirit, you know, the good things of God, about an ultimate, and a subject on "Ultimate." And my wife come and she told me that there was someone that come to see me, and I didn't get it just right, then afterwards, why, said, "Are you going to be down at the church tonight?"
And I said, "I think so." And I went on trying to keep in the spirit of what I was doing. And she come back and said it was a sick man was coming to be prayed for. I said, "Well, then, I'll go down to church, anyhow, see, if it's pray for the sick." I always, that's... You know, those things are ... we should get to them as quick as possible when people are sick and needy. Ever who's been sick knows how to appreciate what it means to be healed by God's great healing power. And such a wonderful thing it is, what a privilege.

3 Now, next coming Sunday, if the Lord is willing, Brother Neville and none of them has anything special, I thought next Sunday morning I'd bring my Christmas message to the people, because letting them... Some of them come from far away, you know, and like Georgia and different places, and that'll let them get back in time to do their Christmas shopping and things.
And Billy just come out and told me, said my sister, Delores, next Sunday evening just before service, has some kind of a little gifts for the kids and a little program here they're going to, you know, a little Christmas play that they want to put on before the services start. And I said, "Well, that'll be in the Sunday evening won't it?"
Said, "Yes."
I said, "That won't interfere a bit, then."

4 Now, see, next Tuesday is Christmas eve, then if ... or next Tuesday, a week, is Christmas. So that would press the people, you see, and then have to go back home on Christmas eve, and on Monday, so I thought that I ... yeah, two weeks. That's right, two weeks is right. So I thought maybe I'd come tonight and let the people know, if the Lord is willing, and Brother Neville has nothing special. That, I usually like to give my Christmas message to the church, and my Easter message, and whatever the Lord puts upon my heart to give. And next Sunday, the Lord willing, next Sunday morning I give...

5 And the reason I take it of a morning instead of an evening, where the people that comes from far away, they have the afternoon to travel so they can get home, you see. And I would rather have it at night, I think the evening is much better. I like the evening service, when the sun goes down, something another. It was God in the garden of Eden, to Adam, would come up in the cool of the evening and talk to Adam. See, and I like the evening service. But, in the way the circumstances are here, that it would be better that I had it of a morning, and so the people can get away.
And I'm grateful that the Tabernacle is being extended out here into the next place out past us here, having some more room added to it. After all the stewing and fussing, finally we got it anyhow. You know, old Brother Bosworth used to have a sense of humor, said, "The baby that cries the loudest gets the most attention." So that's kind of a whole lot, you know, and so I think it pays us to cry a little bit once in a while, don't you think so?

6 So, and I want to commend Brother Anthony and his associates here for that lovely music. I just walked in and heard that. And, you know, them instruments is trumpets. I've wanted one of my children, at least one of them, to play a trumpet, and them blowing instruments.
Becky started on the piano, but she's at that little teen-age something, you know, that's ... she wants to give it up now. And she started... The teacher said they'd have to start on popular music. Not ... I don't mean ... you know what I mean, overtures, and so forth, of classic music, in order to get the religious music to it. When she gets up to her high grades in that, then she thinks, "Well, I'll just quit." And kids are a problem. And, anyhow, it has to be a calling of God, to begin with. I believe her sister, Sarah, back there is going to beat her, anyhow, never had a lesson. So then the calling of God is better when it's gifted like that.
But I like a trumpet. I remember when they dedicated this tabernacle there at the corner, the trumpets rang for a half a day out here, "Down at the cross where my Saviour died, down there for pardon from sin I cried, there to my heart was the blood applied," when I was dropping in my context into the cornerstone.

7 And I remember one night at Trinity Methodist Church, when old Dr. Morrison... Many of you people that's lived back in my days remember Dr. Morrison, an old sainted man. Asbury lost one of the greatest men since Asbury, when they lost Dr. Morrison, to his age, a godly old man. And I always loved to hear him preach. And I went over to hear him over at the Trinity Methodist Church there. And that night, two boys stepped out in the little balcony just as wife and I were walking up, and they were holding their trumpets in the air like that, and those instruments there, and they played that, "Down at the cross where my Saviour died!" That big cross up on top, revolving around. I just stood on the street and lifted up my hands, and just begin to praising God right out. I couldn't help it.
There's some kind of an emotion within a born again Christian, when it pulsates, there's something has to happen, that's all there is to it. Oh, there's nothing like an old-time Christian experience! Wouldn't take nothing for it, my experience, wouldn't swap it for no riches of the world, or the whole world and all the solar system and all, for what Jesus has taught me of Himself.

8 There's a certain man that's sits with us, every time I look back my heart jumps. It's a man I seen taking communion the other night, walks on a crutch. Did anybody ever tell you, you look like Oral Roberts? I tell you, every time I... How many... You've seen Oral Roberts, nearly all of you. If he don't look like Oral Roberts! I just happened to look back. And I think he's a little bigger man than Oral is. But just to look the way he combs his hair, and his forehead and his features, and always kind of a dignified-looking person, sitting like Oral. And so I always think, "Brother Oral?" Looks just something like him.
Brother Oral's starting some kind of a Bible school out there now, I believe, or something. I heard about it the other day. What? University. Yes. Brother Carl Williams is one of his ultimates on it, of some sort, I don't know just what it is now.

9 Now, now remember, Sunday, the Lord willing, we'll start, I have the Easter ... or the Christmas message. And then I'm grateful about the tabernacle being started. And then I hope that this will be not only an addition to number, but it will be the addition to grace that God will grant our church, our movement, or, not movement, but our congregation that we have assembled together. We love it.
And I'd just like to say this. I'm not going to take much time. But, I have many things I ought to say, but it would take too much time. But I'd like to say this, it's something that I cannot say. There's things (everyone understands) that you know, and it's in the name of the Lord, yet you cannot say it. You've got to keep it to yourself, see. But a certain event that's moving up, and has been for some time, that's fixing to take place, that I have been alarmed at watching the Holy Spirit move among the people to that spot, and them knowing not one earthly thing, see, but see the Holy Spirit moving to that. I'll reveal it, the Lord willing, some convenient time. Now, remember, that shows God among them.

10 As someone, I believe, brother, yes, said awhile ago, Brother Neville said that, "God, not accounting or disorder among us, or misbehaving in his sight." That the seer that went to look upon Israel, and could see it with the natural eye, how unorderly it was, how that they had did wrong and they should be cursed. But what the bishop failed to see was that smitten rock and that brass serpent, see, making atonement. So, you see, when Balaam looked upon Israel, he saw a reason to curse them, see. But when God looked upon them, He saw the atonement. He said, "You're like a unicorn." Amen. "Who will put anything in your way? How godly, how righteous are thy tents!" That's the way God saw them, see. Not the way man saw them, not the way the great dignitaries saw them; but the way He saw them.
And, O God, let that be my portion! Let that be my portion, for I have nothing within myself that I could claim. "Nothing in my hands I bring, just simply to thy cross I cling." See, that's all we have.

11 Well, this is prayer meeting night, or not prayer meeting night, but this is kind of an evangelistic group here. We like to place the Word. And maybe I'd like to speak to you tonight for a few minutes. Many of you that would like to turn in the Scripture ... Well, do you know, the strange thing, that opened just exactly to it, to the text that I was going to read. Yes, sir. Strange. That was I Corinthians, the 11th chapter, and some notes that I had wrote down here, somewhere in here, that I was thinking of, if I can find it just now, on 1 Corinthians, the 11th chapter. Right here it is, right here. Yes, sir.
Now, before we approach the Word, let's approach the author, see, who is the Word, that we might ask for mercy and for His blessings while we study Him who is the Word. Let us pray.

12 O Lord God, full of grace and mercy, who has been willing through the age, after man had sinned and put that great chasm between him and Thee, one that he could not cross back by himself. He was absolutely, totally lost, without a way back. But the God full of all grace, was willing to take a substitute in his place, and brought him back. That has thrilled the hearts of all that's ever known of Thee, Lord, how that in thy great love and grace You took a substitute! And as we have just got through expressing it, Lord, it's on that substitute that we rely on tonight, that One who died instead of us sinners, that righteous One who has taken upon Him, our unrighteousness. It is in Him that we trust.
Now we solemnly come to His Word, with bowed hearts and heads, in reverence and in respect and in gratefulness. And asking that You will send to us tonight, grace, by the Holy Spirit, and will give us the bread of life that we need to sustain us. You know exactly what we have need of, and we know that Thou hast promised that if we would ask we shall receive

13 We would remember tonight, Lord, all those that we know that's sick and needy, that the grace of God will be given to them in great abundance. And, Father, we pray for those who have fallen away, that this coming-on holiday will bring a remembrance to their heart, that from where they once was, and have fallen to the outward space of your fellowship. God, we pray that they'll return, grant it, Lord, return to the congregation, to the assembly of the firstborn. Return back to where there is grace and mercy, and love and kindness, and healing of our souls, our minds and our bodies. Grant it, Lord. Bless the word tonight. Strengthen us all, and give us of Thy blessings, as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

14 Now, for just a few moments I'd like to call your attentions to I Corinthians, the 11th chapter, 23rd, 24th, and 25th verse.
For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
And when he had gave thank, he brake it, and said, Take, and eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
If I should call this just a little text that I'd like to refer to, would be this: "Remembering The Lord." It sounds like a night that ... or a message that should've been preached on last Sunday, in the Lord's supper. But I want to approach it just in a little different angle for a few minutes, while we collect our thinkings together, and in worship of the Lord.

15 We could, of course, begin with the Lord's table, because that is a good place where we all remember. Remembering the Lord at His table, which, really, the text refers to that. But, that's ... Paul said that we are to take the cup and to drink the blood, and to eat the kosher bread, in remembrance, to remember what He did for us. And as you do it, you don't want to make it just a common, everyday thing; you want to really come, remembering the Lord, see. Remember that it was his grace and his mercy, and that alone, that gives you the only hope that you have. No matter what you would ever do, there is nothing, nowhere, that can anyways come near what Christ did for you.

16 I have had a sad experience this week, and yet a glorious one, I could call it, I buried a brother that once sat with us here. And many of you know the occasion. It was our gracious Brother Rogers, Busty Rogers, as we called him, Everett. And Brother Banks Wood here, and Brother Sothmann, we went together to the funeral service.
And I took a ride in the snow, out to the old place where I had first buried him, about twenty-five years ago. That time when I buried him, it was in muddy water, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we passed over the old familiar bridge there at Totten's Ford, I was speaking to my brethren, and said, "One day when a certain denominational minister had had a big tent there, he said, 'That little radic' down there at the Baptist church, that's baptizing the people in the name of Jesus Christ.' He said, 'If any person that even was baptized in such a way, would not even be welcome under my tent.'"
And at that time there happened to be some sitting there that had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and that was Brother George Wright and his family. They just... Only thing they could do was not go back.

17 So that day at the ford, oh, he just left his meeting and had come down to kind of watch on, and his congregation was standing there. And I got up to the place. And there had been a rain up the hills up there, and the muddy fields had washed in, its little tributaries had got the Blue River very muddy. I walked out into the water, around waist deep. And one of the trustees, or deacons, rather, handed me the Bible, and I read where Peter said on the day of Pentecost, "Repent, every one of you, and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

18 It was that day that Georgie Carter was laying there trying to raise her hands, only weighing about sixty-something pounds, been nine years and eight months in the bed, without moving. And her people, the church that she belonged to, had said, if anybody even come to my meeting, they'd be excommunicated from their fellowship at the church. And so it was that same evening that she was instantly healed. And then she wanted to be baptized like the little Nale girl that was up there; that I had saw a vision, and you know the story, her hands and legs drawed up; and went in the vision and the power of the Spirit, laid hands upon her, there she come out and was healed. And so she had belonged to the same... Well, it was a Methodist church. The Methodist minister, Brother Smith, was the one standing on the bank with his congregation.
And I started to baptizing in the Bible, Christian baptism. And about the time I had baptized five or six people, all of a sudden the lines and file broke up, there on the hill. Here come that Methodist bunch right down with their good clothes on, to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And one by one, ladies in their pretty silk and summer garments, walking out through that mud, wiping their face with tears, and lipstick washing off, coming out to make confession and to be baptized.

19 And along with that bunch, a strong, wide-shouldered, kind of a GI haircut, wide face, sturdy-looking man walked out there with his pretty, blue serge suit on. He said, "I, too, have made my decision." That was Busty Rogers, without anybody telling him anything. There I buried him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon his confession.
And last week I placed him under the sod at Milltown. And I spoke on the sermon of: "The Perfectness Of The Resurrection." Being a missionary, and seeing the different gods and the philosophers; and that's all any of it is, outside of Christianity it's only a philosophy how that they believe this, that, or the other. But the great creator who made the creation! There has to be a creator if there is a creation. And if there is a creation, it was made by a creator. And any man's work reflects himself. He's a good carpenter, he does good work, he builds. And if he's a good mechanic, he does good work. Your work only reflects you. And God's creation reflects God. And God made everything for a purpose. And everything that serves God's purpose, when it dies, it has a resurrection. Tell me one thing.

20 And I brought in many things, like the flowers and the trees.
And how the sun comes up of a morning, a little baby born, it's weak, its rays is. About ten o'clock, it's a teen-ager. And at twelve o'clock she's shining in her strength, in the beauty of woman or manhood. And about two o'clock in the afternoon, it's getting about like me. And then about five o'clock in the afternoon, it's getting like grandfather, she's laying down. And finally her rays cools off from the earth, and she dies. Is that the end of it? She served God's purpose. She raised up the botany life as she come across the earth. All the plants that would've been dead the year before, she raised it up. Is that the end of her when she serves God's purpose? She rises again the next morning, with a new life! Every tree does the same, everything else, everything, moon, stars, solar system, everything promises.
And if a man serves God's purpose, there is a resurrection just as sure as anything. Only thing it has to do, is, God's just waiting on time, just like He is now.

21 The great leaves that just falled off the tree, fallen off, rather. Where the red, green, blue, brown, all different colors across the great breast of the earth, where God's nature laid dead beneath it, God just planted out His bouquet. But He knows when He plants the bouquet, there's a resurrection in spring! The world has to just to come around its orbit until it gets back right with the sun again, and it will rise in funeral flowers.
Never say, "This is the end," no more than the leaves, brown on the tree, says it's the end. Only thing it has to do, is for the time cycle of God to float around, until the time of the coming of the Son of God. And every living creature that ever died in Christ will come forth again. In His presence, remembering Him. Oh, when I come to the end of my road, I want to die in His presence, remembering Him, that He is the resurrection and life. He is that One.

22 Then as we come to the table of the Lord. The table of the Lord, as I have explained it here before, is not... We believe what we call "the communion" is the taking of the bread. We place the wrong... We place the right thing in the wrong place. It isn't the bread that matters, it isn't the wine that matters, that's the kosher bread and the wine. But the thing that is, is communion means "to talk to," and, in talking to Him, remembering Him. I think it's the most blessed time of the services, see. Every hour of our life ought to be a communion.

23 A communion with the Lord is like an oasis in a desert. It's like the spring underneath the pond, that where the traveler coming by, stops and drinks the water till he quenches his thirst. That's remembering the Lord. Coming by the order of His table, where the passing pilgrim that's sojourning here on earth with us, together, that we can come by His table, and there drink of His blessings and of His grace and of His Word, in fellowship around His Word, until our thirsty souls are satisfied. And then we leave the place of worship, refreshed, satisfied; going out to meet the desert's problems again, the problems of life's desert. Yes, an oasis in the desert, refreshing ourselves, making ourselves when we're thirsty.

24 It should be with every worshipper. It satis... It is with every true worshipper, that they long to get together. There's something about the fellowship that's divine, it's ordered of God, and it's holy, sacred. And the righteous are thirsting for it.
As David said, that his soul thirsted after God, like the hart did the waterbrook. The little wounded deer that the hounds has jerked plugs from its side, and it's jerked away from it. And it stands, panting and watching. Where, smelling with its sense that God give it, it can smell water for miles. And it holds its little head in the air while it's bleeding it's life out. And it knows, if it can ever get to that spring, that it can live. No one's going to catch him then. He can ever get to water, he'll fool every dog you could put after him, for he knows he's found the life-giving resource.

25 And when the church gets to that place, where that Christ means so much to us that we thirst to get in His presence and with each other, it's a life-giving resource. No devil can ever overtake you. Even death itself is defeated there. Oh, what a hope! What a place! Refresh ourself. And, in doing so, remembering Christ was the One who made it possble for us. He was the One who did these things for us, we must remember Him. For, remember, once we was aliens and without God, Gentiles, carried away with dumb idols. But, remember, Christ died not for the Jew, but for every creature of Adam's fallen race, Christ died.

26 As we come to remember Him at His spring of communion, it ought to remind us of back in the time like Israel was in their journeying. And they come, yet in the very line of duty, on their road from Egypt to their deliverance, to the promised land, and, in the very act of duty, got without water. And it was dry in every looked, place, every ... under every hill where there should be springs, there was none. And they were perishing in the desert. And then there appeared the rock, that Moses smote this rock and from it came abundance of water. Every thirsty man, every thirsty woman, child, or even every thirsty beast, could drink abundance of water.

27 As John 3:16, the golden text of the Bible, said, "As God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (Believeth, commune, remembers Him) shall not perish, but will have eternal life." Remembering Christ was our rock that was smitten, to save a perishing world, a perishing Gentile, a perishing Jew, a perishing world. Christ gave forth His life in abundance, that everybody that hungered and thirsts, said the prophet, "Lo, come ye to the fountain, buy of me milk and honey without price." Come because it's the communion, come in remembrance of the Lord.

28 I can think of the remembrance of the Lord again at a place of refreshment, in the well called Beerlahairoi, which means in the Hebrew tongue, "The well of Him that liveth and seeth me." Hagar, misunderstood, yet in the line of duty. Misunderstood, misjudged, and was cast out, with no place to go, with a perishing child, and the water was spent in the bottle. And the little fellow was crying. And only a mother's heart would know what it meant to hear that cry for water, as his little tongue swelling, and his lips parched, and her baby weakening every minute. Cast out, right in the line of duty, no place to go. She had done without herself, till she squeezed the last drop over his little parching lips. And then the bottle was dry, and she laid it down and started on. And the little fellow screaming for water, and he got weaker and weaker; and her only child.

29 No doubt but what her innocent heart would cry, "O God, what have I done? What have I done?" And she couldn't stand to see the child die in her arms, so she laid him under a bush. And she went about a bow shot, probably a hundred yards or more, and seen a little tree, and she knelt down and there she begin to weep, for she wondered, "Why?" If she did what was right, why should this thing come upon her? Many times we think that of our sickness and afflictions, see, but maybe it's all done to show grace and mercy. And while she thought, she'd heard the little faint cries as they finally faded out, for water.
She heard a voice speak and said, "Why weepest thou? What are you weeping for?"
And she looked up, and she saw the well bubbling up. What a spring of refreshment! Beerlahairoi, I may have that pronounced wrong. B, double e, r-l-a-h-a-i-r-o-i, which means, "The well of Him that liveth and seeth me! Him that can't die! Melchisedec! El Shaddai! Him that liveth and seeth me, knowing my needs, He's remembered me. And there He remembered me as I remembered Him, and I know that He liveth and He has sprung up here in the desert, this well."

30 Oh, could we apply that in an hour's message right now, of this day now, when the desert of the churches, the denominationals, and the social gospel preachers and the fashions of the world has creeped in, and has denominated and broke up.
And then to think that there stands again tonight, at the well of Him that liveth and seeth me. That's what remembering Christ should mean to the worshipper. Yes. Oh, she was misunderstood and was cast out. Jesus said, when He was here on the earth, "I am the living waters, I am the waters of life."

31 And I want to draw another little thought here that comes to my mind. When Jesus was on trial, and for nothing else but mockery's sake, He was sent from Pilate to Herod. Now, Pilate didn't have to do that, and you know, as he tried to wash his hand of it. But once on your hands, you got to make your decision. You can't push it on somebody else. It's you, as an individual. But He was sent to Herod, just to make a mock of, because He had quite a name of being a miracle-worker and so forth, and He was an outcast from the church. So Pilate himself, he thought he'd just send Him over to Herod, and maybe it would kind of straighten up the old grudge they'd had, one against the other.

32 And so Jesus was taken across the streets and down through the places till He met the higher court, Herod. And when He met Herod, Herod was presented with his only opportunity! How foolish can a man be? If Herod would have only knew that standing before him was the fulfillment of every Hebrew prophet of the long ... and the thirst of the world, which stood before him, the fulfillment of every sage and prophet that had ever spoke. The opportunity to have satisfied his sinful heart with grace and mercy. What a foolish man he was!
And yet not as much foolish as a man today that's presented with the same thing 'cause we've had two thousand more years of His teaching, of His mercy. But what a foolish thing that Herod did when He stood before Him and never asked Him for grace and mercy, never asked for pardoning of sin. He never knew that standing... I don't think the man realized that standing before him was such a person. Let's let that soak for a minute. Because the man had not such a social name of great social standing, of different organizations and clubs, and so forth, that He was associated with. He didn't have a name like that.

33 But he did have, among the people that knowed the Bible and knowed the promise. May I go a little stronger? Them that were predestinated unto eternal life, they recognized it the moment He stood there.
But Herod hadn't learned this, he never knew it. What a sad thing. All that the prophets had spoke of for four thousand years, the fulfillment of the cry of the world stood before him. There in his presence stood all the fulfillment. And as I might say this again, we'd think he was a foolish man 'cause he made a foolish decision, for you notice, he never asked him for mercy. He asked Him to entertain him. "Oh, I have heard that you are a miracle-worker." He asked for entertainment instead of mercy.
That's what the world, today is expressing back the very decision of Herod, when they see the miracle-working Christ doing the same thing today that He did then, and the only thing they're requiring, "Let me see you do such-and-such." You say Herod will have a bad place to stand? The men of this day will have a worse place to stand! Herod had four thousand years of experience, the prophets and sages. We've got six thousand, with a super teaching to what they had then. Certainly. What a thing, so is it today, same thing!

34 What was the matter? Herod never give it a serious thought. He never stopped to consider.
And that's the way with the people of today. They see this great something, it's got them startled, but they don't stop long enough. They're trying to listen to some rabbi or some theologian who explains it all away. And yet, how when I think of Jeffersonville, how oft would I have hovered you as a hen would her brood, but you would not. How oft would I have gathered you? How oft would I have made this the garden spot where all nations would have flown into, but you would not.
Now, see what will Herod have to remember in that day? His grand opportunity, he turned it down. And yonder somewhere in the regions of the lost, tonight, he's remembering what he did about it. It's too late now.

35 Don't let that be to us. This is our visitation time. Let's remember Christ, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13:8. Don't wait till some regions yonder, in the damned, in that dimension where you cannot go in the presence of God, and your time is up on earth, in a nightmare of horror you'll remember you had your opportunity and turned it away. Let the young people take notice to this. Let all take notice to it.
Herod never give it a serious thought. His only occasion, he only asked to be entertained, and that Jesus might do some kind of a trick, take a rabbit out of the hat, or, you know, or something. He thought He might be, in otherwise, he regarded Him as like a magician. "We've heard that you can do pranks. Let me see you do your prank now."

36 And may I say this with reverence. But how many times has so-called ministers of this day, have said, "If there be a Holy Ghost, if you believe that the Holy Ghost is just like it was in the beginning, let me see you take old So-and-so over here, or this man over here, this woman over here. I'll go get them. Let me see you perform it."
Do they realize that that's the same spirit (no, they don't) that said to Jesus, "If thou be the Son of God, make these stones bread. If thou be the Son of God, tell us who hit you on the head. If you're a prophet, tell us who hit you," with a rag around His face. Hit Him on the head, and then pass the stick one to another, and said, "Tell us, if you are a prophet. Tell us who hit you, we'll believe you then. Tell us, if you are the Son of God. We're honest in our hearts. If you're the Son of God, come down off the cross and we'll believe You're the Son of God."

37 I wonder if many people today, both men, women, young and old, are not standing in that same spot. And you're going to remember, some day, that you were in His presence, at His fountain; and wanted to see a prank, or wanted to see a trick or something another, "That'd make me believe it. Let me have a shiver over my back, and let me do this or that, I'll believe it." See, some sensation. It's plain idolatry!

38 You know, Jesus said in one case, He asked a question. I'd like to ask the church tonight, this. Jesus said, "Why? Why? Why do you call me your 'Lord,' and do not the things that I commanded you to do? Why could you call me 'Lord,' and keep not my Word? Why can you call me 'Lord,' and deny the things that I have commanded you to preach and teach?" What is it? What does it? It's because that some denominational tradition stands between them and the Word. And anything that stands between you and God, is an idol, it takes the place of God. Why call you "Lord"? Lord means "ownership," Lord owns the property. And if God owns me, if I am His, and He turned me around one day when I was on the wrong road, and called me for a purpose, what am I to do but to fulfill His desire, like He did Paul. How can I do anything else than to keep His Word? "Why do you call me 'Lord'?"

39 I want to call another fellow here, see about him. What about Judas, what he has to remember Him by? We're talking about remembering the Lord. Judas tonight, and oh, until he's no more, will have to remember that he sold his birthrights. He sold Jesus for personal gain. We ridicule Judas. We say he was a filthy, bad guy, he's not fit for no place or no society, he isn't fit for heaven. Why? He sold his Lord, after he had the opportunity even to be a disciple, to be an apostle, the highest calling in the Bible, higher than a prophet. He had the opportunity to be an apostle, and sold that right for personal gain. And now he has to remember that. That's how he remembers Jesus: personal gain.
I wonder how many of them tonight yet stand in the pulpit, yet wear the robe of the choir, sit in the seat of the deacon, or take the place of the treasurer, trustee, or whatever it might be, his position in church, or the minister at the pulpit, and still selling his opportunity, for personal praise, "Doctor, Bishop So-and-so," for personal praise, personal gain.

40 A man said to me once, "I believe that's the truth. But if I preached that, I'd be begging there in the street."
Do you remember the rich man and Lazarus, what their last and their eternal stage stood at? Though one was a beggar, and the other one was a rich man, but the picture changed one day and both of them could remember. So, people tonight holler about Judas that sold Him for personal gain, and so many do the same thing today, sell Him for personal gain.
The priests of them days will also remember they sold their chance of Him, their chance to become His servant, to become His disciple, to become a convert to Him. They sold it for green poison jealousy. They were jealous of His doctrine. Why, when He was yet twelve years old, He could stump them any way; and not recognize it, that that was Messiah. They could not do the things that He did. And they were afraid that they would lose their prestige before the higher up-and-up people, and they sold their opportunity. And they're just as guilty as Herod was.

41 And the church member of today is the same. If they trusted in their denomination and so forth, them days, and was afraid of their prestige, they'd be put out of the synagogues, what was it then? It was idolatry! Worshipping an idol creed or an idol church religion, instead of accepting the living Word which was manifested before them.
And they saw the Word of God. The Bible said, "We have seen Him and handled Him." Human beings laid hands upon the literal, living, manifested Word of the living God; and let traditions and creeds stand between them, washing pots and pans, such a filthy thing stand between them and the living God. Yes.
What was it? They were prejudiced. They were prejudice against His clean, clear-cut gospel Scripture that He was teaching, the Father's Word. They were jealous of Him. They were prejudice of Him. And as long as they have a remembrance, which, still in hell they'll remember, that's the way they'll be remembering. That's the way they'll have to remember Him.
You say, "Oh, that was the Pharisees."

42 There's a little lady that used to come to this church. Oh, I suppose maybe many of you know her, she lives down the street here a ways. She had fallen away. And every time I see her, she runs to me, puts her hands in mine, "Brother Bill, pray for me. I'm backslid." Her husband is a... No, I think they live right up the street here. I've seen her in the Spirit, seen the Spirit of God on her, and her dancing, rejoicing, and so forth. And she had fallen away. And she was laying recently in the hospital out here, dying, they thought. And she sent for me to come pray for her.
She and her husband was awfully good to my wife, when my wife, a little ragged, dirty-faced girl, and they would buy her a little dress or something now and then, to help her to go to school. No matter how little it is, you can't do one thing for God 'less He remembers it. "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these my little ones, you've done it unto me." And like bread upon the water, it will return.

43 There laid this poor, little backslidden woman, crying, holding my hand. And I said, "Well, sister, I'll have prayer for you."
And laying next bed to her was a woman laying there with her hands crossed, looking at me. And her young son sitting by her side, of about twenty, a modern Ricky-looking.
So, not no disregard if somebody's name should be Ricky, but I mean that's a ... you never heard of a name like that in days gone by. Elvis and Ricky, and it's just a name of the age, you see. If you got a child named that, call it its middle name, or give it one.

44 Then when she sitting there like that, looked over, and I started to bow my head, and I seen her looking real... She said, "Wait a minute! Pull that curtain!"
I said, "I was only going to offer prayer for the lady. Aren't you a believer?"
She said, "I'll tell you now, we are Methodists, and we want you to pull that curtain!"
"Yes, ma'am," and I pulled the curtain.
See, the same thing. The same thing today, so prejudiced! How did she know what kind of a minister I was? I had never seen the woman. But she probably had heard somebody say that I believed in the healing of the sick, and she had been taught against it. She had nothing to do with it, she washed her hands of it. She was afraid it would fall on her. Don't worry, it won't, no more than Pilate could wash it off of his hands.

45 Now, that isn't saying anything disgracefully about Methodist people; that was just one woman, see, it might have just been her attitude. I don't think all the Methodist people would be like that, 'cause I've prayed for many of them. They've called me to pray for them, and signs and wonders has been done among them. It never is the people in them churches; it's the system that they're under, that's what does it. But she was one of them kind. What was it? Pure green-eyed poison, devil-possessed jealousy.
I could say something. At a certain meeting that was here in the city one time, and they asked why they didn't call me to it. But I'll just pass that because I'm at home. But, however, no reason, it's just jealousy, it's creed, it's idolatry. How that we would like to throw our arms to everyone, but when you're shunned... Jesus wanted to do it. Remember, some day you've got to remember that. You've got to remember it.

46 Just reminds me of a testimony that was made recently. A minister, was on an elevator going up, over here at the Heyburn building. And there were three men standing with this minister on the elevator, and they didn't know this man was a minister, I suppose not. And as they went up, they all stopped at the eighth floor. And one man looked around to the minister, and said, "You know what? This is just about as close to heaven as we'll ever get."
"Well," the minister said, "I suppose you're right. I guess that you are right, for as long as we are trusting in our own merits, this is as close as we'll ever be." That's right. As long as you're trusting in what you do, you're remembering what you done. And I'm sure that most of us know we didn't do nothing, we're not deserving of anything. Said, "I suppose if we're trusting in our own merits, this is as far as we'll ever get." Well, if we're trusting, that's as far as we'll get.

47 But, oh, I'd like to say something. If I can forget what I was, and remember what He is, if I can remember Jesus, if I can remember Him at the cross, if I can remember what He done for me, and I can remember the hour that He washed away my sins, and give me the Holy Spirit to guide me, then I'm lifted above everything that holds this earth. I'm lifted above every earthly thing, into heavenly places in Christ Jesus, where I can fellowship with Him. There in His presence, forgetting what I ever was, forgetting all my sins and everything, because they're in the sea of forgetfulness. Forgetting all my past, forgetting everything, and remember that He made me His own, by His own death. He took my place.
And I that had not a right to go nowhere but to hell, He took my place and lifted me from hell. He went there for me. And He lifted me up by His grace abundance, until now we are sons and daughters of God, and we sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ever rejoicing and remembering Him who brought us safe thus far. And with pulsating faith in our souls, pressing us, and by grace He'll take me on.

48 And by eyes of faith I see his Scripture fulfilled, "All that He foreknew, He has called; all that He called, He has justified; and all that He has justified, He has glorified." Therefore with this in thought, I stand in the congregation of the people, where the Spirit of God is, and are lifted up to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Looking for the hour when this vile figure of human life that's got a mortal heartbeat, and which has to stop some day, when it'll be changed and given a heart of the Spirit that will beat throughout all ceaseless time beyond that, without sickness, without sorrow, without old age or anything.

49 Remember Jesus. When the barrel gets empty at the house, and there's no more flour, remember Jesus. When the doctor says there's no more chance, remember Jesus. When the devil is tempting you; as we sing our dismissing song, "When temptations around us gather, breathe that holy name in prayer."
Remembering Jesus, remembering that He will come again. The same Jesus that was taken away from us will return again in like manner as we have seen Him go into heaven. Remember, He will return for those of His own.
Let us pray, and with our heads bowed. And with this little broke-up message still in your heart, would you like for Him to remember you now? If you would, just raise your hands, and some special thing, "Lord, remember me." As the poet said, "Remember me when tears are falling down."

50 Our most holy Father, we have immensely enjoyed the presence of the Holy Spirit, as He has shown to us the Word of life, as we remember the pit from which we were hewn and have now been taken from that pit and molded into God's children, by the grace of Jesus Christ. I remember Him, when a doctor looked in my face and said, "It's just a few more minutes," I remember Jesus. I remember Jesus, when I was at the altar crying for mercy and my soul was burdened down, I remember the load that left me. Jesus took my burden.
A few months ago, sitting on the bench, looking down the scope of a gun barrel, to shoot a target, and Satan must have thought, "This is my opportunity now." And when the gun exploded, and the barrel and stock, and the gun action went every way, and the fire flew all around me, and I tried to raise to my feet, and the blood spurting, I remember it was Jesus. When the doctor, when he looked and seen no harm done, he said, "The only thing I know, that the Lord must have been sitting there too, protecting His servant, he should have been blown to pieces by such an explosion." O God, how we all remember those things!

51 We come to the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins. Bless us, Lord, together tonight. You know the objective and the motive behind every heart that raised a hand. You know the desire and the need. And as Your servant, Lord, I come with them, and up out of this tabernacle now, by faith, we go beyond the clouds and the moon, and the stars and the Milky White Way, and now we arrive in the presence of God. And stretched across in front of me is a golden altar, on there lays the sacrifice that we remember, Jesus, that said, "Just ask the Father anything in my name, I'll grant it." Let our faith fail not, Lord, but let us remember that we receive what we ask for, if we believe it, as we remember Jesus died to secure it for us and to make it sure.

52 Lord, we see that You're increasing our building. It was You that did this for us, that give us this extension of the church. And we know that it was You, Lord, who gave us the church in the beginning. We pray that You'd bless these efforts.
Lord, we pray for our pastor, Brother Neville, Your humble and gracious, faithful servant. Is willing to minister in any capacity, no matter if it's in the back seat or if it's to clean up the church. Wherever You need Him, there he wants to be instrumental, to serve You wherever You call. We pray, God, that You bless him.
God, this great trial that I've just come through, and these trustees who stood by me, and this church who prayed for me, and finally the victory came. O God, I pray for them. I remember them, too, Lord, and I'm sure You do.

53 We remember the blessings that You have been to us. And we remember Your Word, that You would never leave us nor forsake us. Old age will have nothing to do with it, You'll still remember us, when the world shall be no more and time shall fade into eternity. It is written something like this, "Could a mother forget her suckling babe? I can never forget you. You're engraved upon the palms of my hands," the nails that engraved our name. We know that You remember us, Lord.
And may You always be in our fondest memories, as our Saviour, our healer, our King, our lover, our life our sunshine, our all-in-all, that inexhaustible fountain of God's grace and love to we fallen human beings of Adam's family. Grant it, Lord, as we commit ourselves to Thee now, going from the Tabernacle tonight, remembering Jesus. Amen.

54 Do you remember Him? Do you love Him? Now I think, in our little broken message, we might say this. Paul said, "Whatever we do, we do in the Spirit." In all things we should remember Him. Let's not make a decision until we remember Him; let's do nothing, 'cause it'll be rashal. If the enemy smites one side of the cheek, let's remember what He did before we smite back. Let's remember His action. If there is a decision to be made, let's wait, remember what kind of a decision we think He would make, then let that be our decision. If we get hasty, let's remember He never was in a hurry, see. If we get over anxious, remember He dwells in eternity, time means nothing to Him. It's the motive and objective of our heart. Let's remember Him.

55 And let's remember Him now as we sing this song in the Spirit of His presence, "I Love Him." If you dwell in love, you dwell in God, for God is love. They that dwell in God dwell in love, see. And love has no hatred. Love is not jealous. Love is not puffed up. Love doth not misbehave itself. Love is always gentle, sweet, forgiving, kind. No matter how bitter the others is, love remains itself. Love is the ultimate of grace. Love is God's ultimative for us. After all other gifts and things has vanished, our prophecy, our tongues, our interpretations, all that we've ever done, or whatmore, when love comes in, it's the ultimate. It's above all, 'cause all other fails. It's the Supreme Court's decision. It's the tie post. It's the North Star that keeps the seaman level. It's the compass that guides us. Love is the ultimate. Let's remember it as we sing, "I Love Him."
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first ... (Now remember,
He loved me and gave His Son)
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.

56 Now while our sister chords this song for us [Brother Branham hums], let's just in sweetness of fellowship, while we're sitting together in heavenly places in Christ, now take all everything from your heart. And remember, God's Word says so. I am His servant. He's here. Then let's just shake hands with somebody, and say, "God bless you, brother." If you've got an enemy, rise up and go to him, see, "God bless you, brother," as we sing the chorus again and shake hands with one another. Won't you do it now, real sweetly in the Spirit.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
With our hands up now.
I love Him, I love Him
Because ... (Remember Jesus!)
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.

57 Now let's bow our heads and hum it. [Brother Branham begins humming.] Remembering Jesus! [Continues humming.]
Now as our sister chords, sweetly and softly, I'm going to ask our good brother... Brother Neville, you got a word you want to say? I'm going to ask Brother Collins back there, our loyal, little brother here, one of the associates, if he would dismiss us in prayer. While we bow our heads, Brother Collins.

Remembering the Lord

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Lord bless you, brother. Happy to be in tonight in the South Side Assemblies of God to worship with you people, enjoying this fine fellowship that you are no doubt constantly enjoying. Just being a little tired... We was down last night at Tucson for the banquet down there, and we certainly had a wonderful time. The Lord blessed us, and I've been living on the good part of it all day long.
So now, I met ... heard someone last night. I never knew Brother Carl Williams's son. I was today just bragging on that certain young man. I got up and was talking about the young people's rally, and I told my daughter, I said, "Now, you want to make it your business to get in there."
She said, "I don't know nobody in there." I said, "You'll know somebody, or everybody will know you. Just go on in anyhow." And I'm praying that she receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost during this rally up there.
I said, "That fine young man standing there, his face shining with the glory of God..." And I was repeating it to Billy.
He just stood and looked at me. He said, "Daddy, don't you know who that was? That was Brother Carl Williams's son."
Well, that ... I know you've come from good stock. That's right.
So glad to be in Phoenix tonight.

2 Well, if there ain't Brother Pat Tyler! Where in the world did you come from, brother? I suppose hitch-hiked from New York here. That's just about the way it goes. Remember seeing Brother Gene, Brother Leo here tonight, Brother Ed Daulton, many of my friends around here, and Brother Ed Hooper. And my, up here tonight I've got a good view of everybody, and can look around fine.

3 Well, I'm getting a little bit tired. Been going quite hard, so we're ... long hours. And my wife said, "Say, I notice you begin to talk in your second voice."
I said, "I had to call on it this time." Sometimes when I talk I go down and talk deep in my throat. Then that part gets sore and wore out. I come up to the top part, and talk from there out. We just have to learn all kind of things when we're just working for the Lord, don't we, when we wear out? And my, I hope all these are ministers back here. If it is, my, we're right in good keeping tonight---such a fine bunch of men sitting together.
Well, that reminds me of the promise that we're sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, where his blood cleanses us from all sin.

4 Now, I'm going to try truly to let you out early tonight, remembering now that tomorrow night we're over to Brother Shores (is that his name?), Brother Shores at 11th and Garfield. That's another Assembly of God out there---Assembly of God there, and ... the First Assembly of God.
And then I'm just going to listen to these other guys for awhile now, until next Sunday morning, I suppose. Over to the convention I'm ... we're going to have a wonderful time. I just feel that we are---going to have a good time.

5 And my purpose being here is kind of, oh, kind of pinch-hitting, you know, going around helping every place; and a little fellowship with the brethren, and have a night here and there, to let ... get acquainted. And maybe a little revival spirit begin to strike the people, and then make that lead up, what we can, into there, and then the great climax. And I think Brother Oral Roberts is the person this time to bring the climax at the banquet next Monday night. And I know we're expecting a great time, and all through the rest of the week.
So you pray for us now, and go out in the streets, in the hedges and highways---and ask them? No, compel them. Compel them, compel them to come in. For this would be a wonderful time for Phoenix to get its great visitation that you... And I know that God is willing when we are ready---when we are ready. Let's ... that's why these revivals are, is to try to meet conditions and get prayed up, and get ready for this thing to happen.

6 Now just before we approach the Word, let's speak to the author, as we bow our heads in prayer. Now with our heads and hearts bowed to God, I'm sure in an audience of this size there is bound to be many requests. And if you have one, and like to be remembered to God, just raise up your hand, and behind that say, "Lord, remember me."

7 Our heavenly Father, you know what is behind each of these hands. You know what's flashed on their mind, and Thou art more than able to answer each request. And we pray that You will grant it, Lord.
We ask that your favor will smile upon us tonight in the way of the pouring-out of the Holy Ghost upon us. And remembering, Lord, that tomorrow night in the First Assembly of God that You'll pour out your blessings again upon us, and then over at the Ramada---the finishing up of the week---oh, God, may there be literally hundreds saved. Grant it, Lord.
May there be such a pouring-out of the Spirit till the newspapers cannot hold their peace any longer, but they'll have to publish to the public what is being done. Grant it, Lord. Just make yourself known to your people, Lord. May their humble hearts reach out by faith, and believe that we will receive these things that we're asking for.

8 Then we would pray, Lord, for the ones who would like to be here tonight and cannot get here. They're sick and afflicted, and in such conditions that they couldn't get here. We pray for them, Lord. May the Holy Spirit visit each and every one.
Bless these brethren who've come for such a long ways across the icy fields, and many still on the road coming. Protect them, Lord. Bring them in safely.
Now, bless this Assembly, this fine pastor, his congregation, his trustees, deacons, and all that they stand for, Lord. We pray that You'll be with them, and help them. Now we pray that You'll give us thy Word. We can only read it, Lord, and read the text. Thou has to furnish the context, and we're looking to Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

9 In the book of I Corinthians, the 11th chapter... If someone ... you know, you usually like to read, or mark down a place, say, "I..." Maybe someone would find something behind it that they could maybe improve on what's been said. Or ministers, and sometimes the laity, takes it and reads it over, and listens to what's been said. Many times I do that---mark down a text. So if you wish to read behind us tonight, turn to I Corinthians, the 11th chapter, and we'll begin reading at the 23rd verse:
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night ... which he was betrayed took bread:
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This is the cup of the new testament in my blood: this do you, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
And now for a text, I'd like to take from there, "Remembering the Lord." Now, of course, any ... we all know... In our church we read this at the communion service each night, and it is a great text to read, or a great scripture, at that time and it applies there. But I just wanted those words "in remembrance of me."

10 Now, communion has many times been the great dispute down through the ages between Protestant and Catholic. They say the Catholic takes this communion, and they take it in hopes that they have did something to merit some good thing, that their sins will be forgiven by doing it. The Protestant takes it as ... in remembrance that Christ has already forgive them, and they take it in rejoicing that they're already forgiven.
Paul goes on to say in here that ... how to come to the Lord's table. If there is anything wrong, make it right before we get there. "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." And now we are very, very much to be in prayer when we take communion.

11 But I've wondered many times, if that word we use it just right, "communion." Now "commune" means to talk to, see, to commune with. And I wonder if really when we meet together like this in heavenly places if that isn't communion, that we are communing with God, talking to Him. And then if we just sit still and let Him answer us back... Many things, and one of the horrible things that I do, I try to do all the talking, and not sit still long enough for Him to answer me back. We do that so many times in prayer.
I think if we would get off of our heart what's in it and express ourselves to the Lord Jesus, and then just kneel, and just be still awhile, and just see what He would say back to us, see. And sometimes I've did that, and my whole opinion was changed, you see. I'd go ask Him something, "Now, Lord, these people really ... they got a ... something... I believe they want me over there." And I'd just start praying, and first thing you know... I'm just satisfied that that's the Lord's will. But after I pray, if I just linger a little while, see, then it's changed altogether sometimes---sent somewhere else.
Just commune with the Lord. Oh, what glorious fellowship, just to get down, and talk, and commune, and wait for Him to talk back!

12 And to think of what a great person that is you're talking to! The creator Himself---and communing with Him who put your life in this volcanic ash that you're living in.
And then some day you'll have to leave there, and then it's in his hands where it goes from there on. And you have the privilege, now, to make your choice which way that soul goes when it leaves. And what a wonderful thing to commune with Him upon the basis of his promises---then hear Him commune back to you, and say, "It's all well." My! That really expresses it right. We don't have to look to any creed; we don't have to look to any dogmas; only thing we have to do is just know that He witnesses back his Word, that it's settled, and that's all of it. Then the burden rolls away.
I've thought of coming to this table, that we'd call it tonight, now that I've got it expressed that it's just as much communion here as it would be taking what we call the Lord's supper.

13 You know them Eastern people back there has got that thing all mixed up, and I can't get them straightened out on it. And all up in the North, they take me to ... when I go to supper, and they say it's dinner... They say it's breakfast, and lunch, and dinner. Now, where does my supper come in at? I'm trying to find out. And they say, "Oh, that's all."
I said, "It wasn't ... we didn't take the Lord's dinner. He called it the supper---the Lord's supper." And I feel like I've missed a meal, if you start calling it that way.
But now when we come together in this way, there God comes down. And the communion table is actually break ... broken bodies ... the body of the Lord that we separate among us. Now that is the literal body of the bread that we break, representing the body of Christ.

14 Did you notice on the day of Pentecost, what a great thing we have there? That God, who led the children of Israel through the wilderness, He ... that great pillar of fire... And on the day of Pentecost, this great fire fell, and then divided itself among his people. Oh, to think how that He wants us to sit together in heavenly places, and each one enjoying that warmth of the fire of the Holy Spirit. Cloven tongues sat upon them like fire, licks of fire, God dividing Himself amongst the church. Oh, isn't that ... just set our hearts to burning. That's when we can come together in heavenly places.

15 Now, we know that his table, where the people sit together and commune with Him, is like an oasis in a desert---an oasis in the desert where there's a great spring, where weary travelers come and sit around this oasis in the desert, and refresh themselves---and then remembering how it got there.
And that's the way it is in the church, that this table of communion where all the blessings of God---the full gospel, everything that God has for his church---is brought out, laid out among us. And it's like an oasis in this hot, burning, sinful desert that we're traveling through.
And then when we come in, and talk of (or read) the menu, and then we see that He turns back around, and He's not fresh out of this, or fresh out of that, or this struck off; but He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's got everything on the menu, ready to give it out. That's the good part. Then we can just look over the menu, and just take the whole thing. I just like to ... I like the complete course, don't you? I just like to take it.

16 And while we are enjoying these blessings, each one feeling his presence and saying "Amen! Praise God! Hallelujah," so forth, in that we can remember the one that brought it to us, and made it possible: the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Remember Him. I think that's what, many times, that... Maybe we enjoy so many blessings that we forget just where they come from.
One time I was amazed. Went to ... with a bunch of Christians of a certain church, and they sat down to eat, and never returned thanks to God for their food. Well, I thought it was kind of strange. And I went to another house, and they still ... they just went ahead and eat. And I questioned it, and they said, "Oh, well. That's just ... God just provides that anyhow," see.
I said, "It reminds me of a hog under a apple tree, you know. The apples will fall off, and beat him on the head all day long, and he'll never look up to see where they're coming from." And that's ... you know, we ... I think it pays us to stop and look up, see where these things are coming from. Oh! How glorious it is to remember our Lord, remember what all He did for us, and remember that there was no one else could make this possible.
There is nothing could make it possible but our Lord. And He so freely did it when there was no worthy person, there was no prophet, there was no sage, no potentate, no monarch, no king. No one could do it but the Lord Jesus, Himself, and He so willingly did it for us. Let's just remember he's done it for his children down through the ages.

17 Now, let's just talk a few moments on something that somebody would have to remember. I'd imagine way over in glory tonight there's a man by the name of Noah, and he certainly has a lot to remember the Lord for. For in the time that when God was going to destroy all the wickedness off of the face the earth, God remembered Noah. And Noah remembers how he escaped the wrath of God by God's mercy---how that the great waters started flowing down the streets, and the winds howled, and the rocks moved from the mountains. And what a terrible storm! Houses blew away, and the fountains broke up; and God had Noah inside the ark. Now, if that ain't a wonderful place to remember Him by! Yes, to be inside the ark safely secured, in the presence of God, to live with Him.

18 Then we could call another group of people (or at least I'd say three), and they were called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego---how that they had took their stand for God, remembering that He keeps his promise. And how, that in this great hour because of their stand, even their own brethren, many of them, had turned off into the world; but they were going to stand regardless. And they took a stand for God.
And when the furnace was het seven times hotter than it ever was het before, and they was pushed into this furnace, and they can certainly remember that fourth man that was in there with them, that kept all the heat and the death away from them. There's something about that fourth man. Like to talk about him awhile (yes, sir), how that He was the only one could make that possible.
There was no other person could do it but that fourth man. And He was the one that provided life in the jaws of death. Amen! And He kept the fire blazes back, and preserved them. And oh! as long as there can be a memory---and it'll never fade out---so they can remember that great day down in Babylon.

19 There was another man down at Babylon can remember also, and that was Daniel, when he had purposed in his heart that he wasn't going to defile himself with the things of the world. That's a good stand to take.
That's where we people ought to take a ... kind of buckle up the armor a little tighter. That's it. We're not going defile ourselves with the things of the world. No matter what the other church does, ourselves, we're going to buckle it on. We're going to stay right with that Word.
No matter what comes or goes, we're not defiling ourselves. If the rest of them want to do it, go ahead and do it. If them women want to cut their hair, let them cut it; we're not. That's right. If they want to wear manicure, let them go (or ever what that stuff is, paint), let them go ahead and do it. We're not going to do it. If the rest of them says they can smoke cigarettes, and get by---well, let them go ahead. But we're not going to do it, that's all.
The rest of them can go home, dismiss Sunday school early for a television program, or Wednesday night omit the whole service for a certain program. No matter what they do, we're going to serve the Lord.

20 We're going to take the place like Joshua, "For me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord." We remember what He did to bring this blessing to us, and we cherish it so much that we cannot defile it in any way. It's a treasure of eternal life that we have, and we by no means want to defile ourselves with the things of the world, not at all.
And Daniel purposed in his heart the same thing, though he become a citizen there---but not by his choice, because he was an alien. And every born-again Christian is an alien just as soon as he's born again, because he's heavenly bound. His possession lays in heaven.

21 And here some time ago the wife and I (about two years ago) was... Brother Mercier and them will get a little kick out of this, as to say. We was over to the shopping center. And in our city it's ... oh, there's many religious people so-called. But we seen a woman that had on a skirt, and it was the strangest thing, because none of the rest of them seemed to have on one. And so, we know many of them that sing in choirs and everything and the... And so we, my wife said to me, she said, "Well, why?"
And I said, "Well, you see, they're not of our citizenship."
She said, "What?"
I said, "No, they're not of our..."
Said, "They're Americans, aren't they?"
I said, "Sure, they're Americans. That may be true enough."
And I find in traveling in missions, in missionary and around the world... I go into Germany, there is a national spirit called... It's a German spirit. It's the spirit of the nation. I go up in Switzerland, I find out... Just brothers, almost speaking the same language, but there's another spirit, see. And it's a different spirit in Switzerland. Then I come over to Finland, it's altogether a different spirit. Then I come to America. There's a spirit of America. That's right.
"Well," you say, "aren't we..."
She said, "Aren't we American citizens? Why is it that our people are so-and-so?"
And I said, "Well, you see, honey, you see, each nation lives off ... on the spirit of the nation. That's the national spirit."
She said, "Well then, wouldn't we be living on the American spirit?"
I said, "Oh, no." I said, "We are born again. We live on a heavenly spirit, where holiness, righteousness..." And we're not Americans, as far as that goes, because America is just a earthly nation. But when a man of Germany, or Switzerland, or wherever he may be, when he becomes born of heaven, he takes on a heavenly spirit. And his nature and his make-up look for things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Amen! Oh, how we ought to remember that, that He died that we might be able to be fortified from this thing, inoculated. That's right.

22 A good healthy plant ... you don't need to spray a good healthy plant. The bugs won't get on it anyhow. That's right. No bugs will bother a healthy plant. It's that hothouse type that has to be sprayed all the time---some kind of a hybrid affair. And that's the way it is today. We have to spray and baby the church too much. It ought to be a rugged individual of Christ, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, and born of the Spirit of God. And all the worldly bugs scatter; they don't even fool around anyhow. That's awful rude, but I hope it got home. Kind of a rude expression, but you know what I'm talking about.

23 Oh, how Daniel and ... purposing that in his heart. He can well remember the payoff. And someday we'll remember the payoff too. So when he come to remember that in the hour of distress God sent an angel in the lion's den and closed the mouth of the lions that they could not bother him---what a memory to think about! He was throwed into a lion's den because he had purposed in his heart to serve God, and he could remember that... How did it go? Something like this: "God has sent his angel. He seen the innocence of my heart." Oh, there you are, the innocence of your heart. God could see that in Daniel, and his purpose to do what was right, and he sent his angel and had kept the lions from bothering him at all. What a memory! We could go on and on with that.

24 Let's just remember another person right away, here, or group of people---that's Israel: when Israel had put their place, or theirselves in position to take the stand for God; and there was coming a death angel one night that was going to take the firstborn of every house; and how that Israel was even commanded to remember that the blood was on the doorpost. That was the thing that held back the wrath of God, and kept their ... them alive, was the blood on the door. It was a memorial. And it's always ... is still a memorial, the blood on the doorpost and on the lintel. What a memorial night that was! And it was to be rehearsed down through the ages that was to come, that God ... that that night made a difference between the righteous and the unrighteous.

25 Oh, I don't know whether it be night or not, but there's coming a day when God's going to show the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous, and it'll be a memorial to us to know that the blood is certainly upon the lintel and the doorpost. And wherever you look (or your understanding---you look with your eyes; and see with your heart. That's right.), you'll remember you're looking through the blood of the Lord Jesus, the way He would look through it. What a time!
They were ...

26 Israel had another thing they could always remember: that when they took their step upon what they'd heard Moses say, that great vindicated prophet with the word of God, and when they took their stand to march, because they seen God vindicate that the message that he was bringing was the truth, and it was according to the Scriptures, and God was with him; and he had met this one who had no name, called the I AM... He had really met Him, because they'd seen Him working with Moses.
And then, they had another great memorial, that when they started on the march there went a pillar of fire before them to lead the way. What a memory they could think of! A memorial thing that they didn't need no compass. Amen. What did I say? They didn't need no compass. They had the light of God to lead them.

27 What a memorial it was to the wise men, how they needed no compass, and a star led them. What a memorial it is to us today to have a Holy Ghost to lead us---not some creed, or some fashion, or something, to lead us, or some man-made something; but the Holy Spirit comes in with the tie-post of the Word, and confirms his Word and proves that it is the truth. What a memorial to our hearts to know that the living God still lives! Oh, remembering Him, what He did, led them all the way to the promised land by this way.

28 Elijah had a great thing to remember God by, when he had done his duty, exactly what God told him to do---to command the rain, and not even dew to fall until he'd call for it---went up and sat down by the brook Cherith in there. He stayed there for all this time. How he could remember that... How was he going to get food through these years? But God served him with the ravens---a God of heaven. No question. Where did the ravens get the food? We don't know, can't tell. The only thing that he just knowed ... he just committed himself to God's word, what He promised him, and God took care of the rest of it.
That's all we have to do. Brethren, that's all we need. It's just take Him at his word. "How's He going to do it?" I don't know. But you see, we try to inject our own ideas, and there's where we mess up.
What if he'd have said, "This other brook down the hill would be just as good, because it's got more water in it"? Huh-uh. No.

29 What if Abraham would have thought that he ought to take Sodom. It never would have happened right. Abraham took the way the Lord led him, his one promise he had to hold to.
Elijah could remember when he had done all he could do. He'd rebuked all the women of that day that tried to fashion after the first lady, the president's wife, and all those things that he had rebuked, and they called him an old ... I guess just an old, simple sort of a fellow, and he went... But done exactly what God told him to do.
And then it come to a showdown where he said, "Let's see which of these things are right. Now you call the prophets of Balaam up here. And you call his prophets, and let me call on the Lord." Oh, what a showdown, when he knowed his Word had promised it.

30 What can we say today as Christians in the front of Buddhism, Mohammedanism, or anything else? "Let's see who's God." Some time ago down there in India, where we was at the meeting, and there there'd been many people (four or five) come to the platform. And there was no way of estimating how many people were there. And I'd prayed for a little leper. He had no arms, and his ears was eat off, and little stubs. And he was trying to hug me, and I hugged him, and prayed with him. The Lord told me what was wrong with him, and about his life.
And I could see the Rajahs and those setting out there. They said, "That's telepathy," you see. You could tell it, the way they was thinking---what they were ... what they were going to put back to me.
And that day I'd been entertained in the temple of the Jains, where there was about seventeen different religions in there---and every one of them against Christianity---and "There was nothing to Christianity." But that night God changed the program. We got to reading off the menu, by his spring.
So the Holy Spirit began revealing, and after a bit an Indian came by and he was blind. Now, I said, "The man is blind. We can all see that. But he's a married man. He has two sons." I said, "I'll spell their name. I can't pronounce it." And that was just exactly right.
Now I could ...

31 then what they call holy men, and all of them out there, and them Mohammedan priests sitting out there... So they knew then ... they thought I was reading their mind, a telepathy. And so, I happened to look back, and this blind man---just a vision above---was standing there looking at me. Oh, my! You know, God's servant, the Holy Spirit, had already brought what the menu wrote. I knowed it was ready to be served.
And I said, "Now, they was telling me today that the Mohammedan religion is the greatest in the world, and the Buddhas, and all." I said, "Now I want some of you priests out there---the Buddha priests, the Mohammedan priests---come give this man his sight." Sure. Now if you see so great... "This man is a worshipper of the sun, and we all know (we who believe that he was wrong) he worshipped the creation, instead of the creator." And I said, "He was wrong, and we know that. But," I said, "surely the God that's the creator (and the man is willing to come and serve that creator), surely He's ready to manifest Himself."

32 Now I want to say something. I wouldn't have said that by no means if I hadn't have seen that vision. I knowed better than that. You see, that's what we don't want, to go presuming. "Presume" means you're advancing without authority. That's why we want to watch when you say it's "thus saith the Lord"---not just an impression; but something you know definitely, positive, the Lord has said it. And I felt very consoled with seeing the vision, knowing it had never failed.
And I said, "Now the ... if this man is wrong... Now the Mohammedans say he was wrong, and then they'd make him a Mohammedan. Then Buddha would say he was wrong, and the Sikhs and the Jains, and whatmore, they'd all say he's wrong. But surely there's a right somewhere." Oh, my. Oh, what a glorious thing!
Then I said, "Now the one that will give him his sight, he promised he would serve that God. He went blind from looking at the sun because it was the sun-god, see. And he thought that paid his way in heaven. Now we could remember Christ, that he suffered not to put our eyes out, but to give us sight."
So then, and if...

33 I said, "Now, the one that will come and produce this, I'll follow that clan." I said, "I'll serve the one that gives him back his sight." And that was the quietest group I ever heard. Nobody said... Now I said, "Well, there is a Mohammedan priest out there. Why don't you come give him his sight?" I said, "Why? Is because you can't. And neither can I. But the God of heaven has raised up his son, Jesus Christ, who has showed me a vision just now that the man's going to receive his sight. If it isn't so, then I'm a false witness of this Christ. And if he does, then I am a true witness of Him, and you have to ... you should repent. Or you must, if you ... or you'll perish in the clans that you're in now." What a time!
And I said, "Now, if that's false, then you should put me on a plane and send me back to the United States, and never let me in here again."

34 Oh, but when our God came on the scene! The man, as soon as I prayed for him, he could see as good as I could. He run, and grabbed the mayor of the city around the neck and begin to hug him. And why, we was about four hours. I didn't have shoes, no pockets in my coat, and the militia couldn't hold them back. It was a stampede. And you should see what...
But what was it? The same God, the same God that could call fire, bring fire down to take away his sacrifice, can bring his Holy Spirit to confirm his Word that it's the truth---as long as you are sure that is the truth.

35 Now, Elijah was positive that was the truth. He had heard the voice of God and there was no question to him. And there's no question in your heart, tonight, that God still gives the Holy Ghost like He did on the day of Pentecost, it'll happen. If there's no question that He keeps his Word and heals the sick, it's got to happen. But you've got to be positive of it. You've got to really see it by the real eyes of faith, then accept it, and stand right there. And he had a lot to remember God for, when he was... Now he has a lot to remember, what he did in them days.

36 The immoral woman that Jesus found up at Sychar up there, that... She was a Samaritan, which was rather an off-cast people that really believed God. They was about half-Jew and half-Gentile, and they were a race ... they believed in God. And this little immoral woman---and her condition very marred by sin---and one day perhaps had got discouraged with all their traditions of the elders, of pots and kettles, and washings and so forth.
She went out one day to the same old Jacob's well up there, and she was going to let down her bucket to get some water. And she changed springs. Oh, how she can remember that there was one sitting there that said in Him was living water. What a thrill it was to her, when that living well revealed her sins, and told her where she was wrong, and described what she had did to her. And it put a message in her heart that set her on fire with the glory of God---into the city and to the men.

37 Now you know, that really isn't legal in that country for a woman to go through the streets, and especially a woman marked with immorality. But I'm telling you, when she'd got cleansed and a drink of that fresh water, you try to stop her! It was like trying to put a fire out of a house on fire, and it real dry, and a high wind in dry weather, that was really blowing that blaze.
And you couldn't stop her, because she had found something that was real. Her sins was revealed. And when her sins and wrong was revealed, she can remember tonight in glory, she can remember that there was a spring for her. There was a place where all the creeds and the churches had turned her down; but yet she found a oasis. She found a place where there was somebody who cared. What a rejoicing!
And how we can rejoice with her, we who was bound down with creeds that pulled us away from God, and we found the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. There we lost all of our starchy condition, and we drank from the fountain and refreshed. We remember the one who paid the price that we could have his Spirit upon us---Jesus Christ, the Son of God. What a memory to remember it by!

38 I imagine tonight that Hagar could have something to think about too, when she had been put out, misunderstood. Now there's many of us here can think about Hagar, as she ... her being misunderstood. Who walks the right life with God, who takes the straight and narrow way, but what knows what to be misunderstood means? I'm misunderstood. Every person---all you brethren that try to live right, and you sisters---you're misunderstood. Your neighbors think you're some old model, and they try to throw off on you. "Why don't you attend these societies, and why don't you have these card parties, when things...?" And you shun those things. You're misunderstood.

39 So was Hagar misunderstood, and she had her child, little Ishmael, that was the fruit of her womb from a legal marriage to her husband, Abraham. And she was a slave girl. And she'd been given by her mistress, Sarah, to Abraham to wife, which polygamy was legal in them days. And she lawfully had married the man, because she'd been given to him. She had bore the child, just what their hopes was. There was nothing the woman had done out of the way; and yet misunderstood by her mistress and put out into the wilderness to die. What a place to be! And the water was spent from the bottle, and little Ishmael's throat was beginning to dry. He was crying for water, and got worse.
And only a mother's heart could hear that baby cry of the little parched lips in the desert somewhere, of her only child, and feeling his little body drying out, and he's dying. No water; just rocks and sand, as you would look out here in the deserts of Phoenix. Not a place. Misunderstood---what a time!

40 There she was, a slave girl to begin with, and had tried to act in the right way that she was supposed to act. And here she's got the baby in her arms, and it dying. And she was so sad. She laid it under a little bush, and went about a bowshot, and she knelt down to pray. And there appeared a well (oh, my!), the well of Him that liveth and seeth me. Still stands today. It was put there some way.
That well still stands as a memorial. I haven't got education enough to pronounce it, but I tried. A while ago when I was writing some little notes, and I tried to pronounce it, I couldn't do it. But you know what it is. I call it one thing, then another. I said, "I better not say that. It'll just show my ignorance worse."

41 But one thing I want to say. I know where there is another well that was put down on the day of Pentecost. It's just as open tonight as it was the time when it was opened back there. And the waters is just as fresh to every man or woman that wants to take the right road with God's word, and walk with Him.
I come to this well, remembering Jesus who made it possible that me---an alien, a drunkard's son---could come up to that well and be pardoned of my sins, and drink of eternal life. Oh, how Hagar must have felt when she seen that well. It saved the life of her and her child. She sure can remember that oasis, all the days of her life, and all through time that she can remember.

42 We could go on and on with characters. But let's just think this: don't miss seeing your well, now. Don't miss seeing the spot of refreshment that brings life. Jesus was sent from Herod to ... from Pilate to Herod for mockery. What he missed! What was the matter with Pilate? And then when Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, and then how foolish Herod was, when he'd heard of Him and he'd heard of his ministry.
And Pilate being a Jew ... or Herod ... I believe it was Herod was a Jew, and standing there before him... And there he was standing in the presence of all the prophets had prophesied about, from Eden out. Standing in the presence, and he never asked pardoning of his sin. He never ... wonder if he even thought, he took a second thought, of what ... who he was standing before. He never probably knew whose presence he was standing in.
Oh, you say, "That was ... that was a horri... that was the most foolish thing!" It was. It was the most foolish thing that the man ever done.
Well, we think of how bad off he was.

43 But wait a minute. We have men today do the same thing, stand by the same fountain, and still make the same mistake that he did. All the prophets for four thousand years had pointed to Him. But it's because He didn't come in the way of their creeds said He would come, they cast him out. There it is, exactly right. It's exactly right (yes, sir). It's still cast Him out. They don't want nothing to do with it, unless it comes according to their book, you know, the way that their textbook reads it, you see. It has to come that way.
Oh, all the prophets through four thousand years had spoke of Him, and here He stood before him, and he never said a thing about ask for pardoning. There he is in the presence, and the fulfillment of all of the words of the Hebrew prophets, standing right before him---and he never asked for pardon. He just stood there. Oh, that was a terrible thing.

44 But we do the same today, only we stand by Him after six thousand years. We make a greater mistake than Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and the priests of that day, because we got two thousand more years of record added. And we still make that same mistake. Just, I just ... I suppose that Herod never even give it a serious thought.
Now, I just wonder how serious we think about this. How serious do you try to consider this Word? What does that Word mean to you? Do you know that is God in print form? But we ride right over it for some sort of a creed, and say, "Days of miracles is past. Dr. Jones said so-and-so, and so that settles it." And yet, this Bible---laying in every book store pretty near, Bible stands, churches---and ministers, and so forth, standing there, and read over the top of it; and ignore it because of creed---try to place it back in some other age.

45 As I've made the remark two or three times since being in Phoenix, it struck me so, men are that way. They always praise God for what He has done, and looking forward what He will do, and ignoring what He's doing right now. They do it. They fail to see it.
Now, perhaps Herod could have praised God for what ... He'd brought the children out of the wilderness and so forth. And they said, "Some day He'll send a Messiah. Glory to God we'll see Him then." And here He was, standing right before them, and they never knew Him.
"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. But as many as did receive him, to him ... gave them the power to become sons of God." I like that. Yes, sir.

46 They're in his presence.
I suppose he never took a serious thought about it, and many today do the same thing---don't take it seriously. They don't take a serious thought. They think, "Now here. I go to church, and I'm just as good as you are."
Now you just don't want to take that attitude. You could be as good as me, and be no good at all, see. But you want to make ... not make any man your example. You want to make God your example, Jesus Christ, and you want to take his Word. And if you don't...

47 Now, remember. The Bible said, over in the book of Revelations, this is a complete revelation of Jesus Christ. "Whoever takes one word out of it, or puts one word to it, his part will be taken out of the book of life." So that is the revelation.
"God in sundry times and divers manners [Hebrews 1] spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but this last days through his son, Christ Jesus"; and Christ revealing Himself, making Himself known, taking his Word, and just making it grow.

48 Standing the other day talking (I believe it was Brother Carl Williams), there was a palm tree. I believe it was Brother Carl, or someone. And I said, "Isn't that a beautiful tree?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "What is it? Volcanic ash. That's all it is, dust of the earth with a life in it. And that life was a certain kind of life made it a palm tree."
Over here stands another. It's a different kind of a tree. It's a fig tree. What is it? Volcanic ash from the earth with the fig tree life in it. Well, look at us. What are we? The same as that tree, volcanic ash; but with a human life in it. And that human life is of the earth, and must go back to the earth. But there is a life that comes from above, that a man lives by that life. It's eternal life. How foolish. Could not we seriously consider that, friends?

49 Now it isn't an emotion. It isn't keeping a lot of creeds. It's an experience, it's a birth. First you have to experience a death before you can witness a birth. Like ... line that right---experience death, and then witness a birth. Any seed has to do the same thing. And this seed is God. And when it's placed into your heart it brings forth the birth of a son of God.
And that's the way Jesus was when He was on earth. He said, "Who can condemn me of sin? Who can accuse me, rather, of sin?" Sin is unbelief. "If you can't believe me, believe the works. Search the Scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life; they are the ones that testify of me. They're the ones that tells who I am. And if I don't meet that qualification---just exactly what the Scripture said, the Father said I would be when I come---if I don't meet that, then I've done wrong."

50 Oh, if we Christians, if we ministers, if we men, women, (Pentecostals and the rest of us), if we can't take what God said his church should be, if we can't measure up to the stature that He said, then we can be condemned of sin of unbelief.
We try to say that the days of miracles is past, and all these other things, and so-and-so, and so-and-so---then we can be accused of unbelief. For there's only one sin, and that's unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already," see. You don't even get to first base if you don't believe.
"He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and the rewarder of those that diligently seek him." So what if a church... That's what God wants. That's what God will have: a bunch of people that can say "What has Jesus Christ promised? What has been promised in this last days that hasn't been manifested through us?" Amen! Then we can sit down and remember Him, remembering Him when we come together.

51 If there's anything we're lacking, let's do it. If there's anything lacking with us, let's get back to that. Let's remember what He required. Not what we think we ought to have, but what He said we've got to have, see. We've got to have it that way---the way that He said it.
But wonder if we just ... we say, "Well, I belong to this and I..." Wonder if you give it a serious thought, to know that that don't mean a thing to God. That don't mean nothing.
Herod probably said, "Well, now wait just a minute here. You know who I am?", see. He never thought seriously. And we ought to think seriously.
You know what he did? When Christ was placed before him for the first time (that all the prophets, sages and down through the ages had spoke of this one coming), and there He stood right before him, you know his ... the... On the occasion that God placed Christ before Herod, he only asked for entertainment.

52 I wonder, brethren ... let's think seriously now. We Pentecostal people, I wonder if we receive the Holy Ghost just for entertainment? Wandering around, instead of over in the promised land possessing all things. I wonder if there isn't something we haven't thought seriously enough about. You must think seriously.
If Pilate would have did that, he would have released Him. If Herod would have did that, he would have released Him. But he didn't think seriously his first occasion. And then what did he do? He asked for some tricks.
Oh, they... That's what it is today. They want to make Christianity a trick, some little gimmick that you got in your hand. And listen, Pentecostal people. Be deeply sincere in these things. When you speak with tongues, and give the interpretation, you be sure that that's the interpretation, see. Don't have a gimmick. Why do you want a gimmick, when God's got the real thing for you? See. Why accept a substitute when the skies are full of the real, see? We must be sincere. You mustn't try to just kind of ignore it and pass it over. We mustn't do that. We mustn't ask for tricks;

53 we must ask for service. Amen.
"Lord, if I'm to be the doormat, make me the best doormat You ever had. Whatever I am to be, let me be." Not, "Make me ... if I can't be a Billy Graham, or an Oral Roberts, why, I ain't going to be at all," see. Why, you're just as much thought of as Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, if you got to ... if you're the doormat, if you're ... got... If God needs a doormat, He wants a good doormat, that's all, see. It doesn't matter. But we go along presuming that we're supposed to be this or that. Don't do that. Just ask for service, whatever it is. Whatever it is, let God choose your service. And then when He gives you service, remember that it is Jesus that directed you here. You were born for that purpose. Be a good servant to Him, wherever it is. Yes.

54 Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, and do not the things that I tell you to do?" We ought to study the Scripture. We ought to find out what God's program and plan is. He said, "You call me Lord." Said, "But why do you call me Lord, when you don't do the things that I command you to do?" See? Yes.
"Lord" is ownership. The landlord owns the land. And the people today, they'll gladly accept Jesus for a Saviour. They don't want to go to hell. They'll accept Him as a Saviour. But when it comes to Lord, oh, no, see.
"Lord" is you to be his property. If He wants a floor mat, He makes you a floor mat. And you're just as happy a floor mat, as you'd be a morning star, see. You want ... we want ... we don't want to have him Lord. We want a Saviour, but we don't want Lord. Then when He comes Lord, and He speaks to you about certain things of the Word, "Well, I don't know about that now, you see. We just ... I just can't imagine me doing that."
You ladies here, you say, "I get tired at you." Well, no, you won't.

55 I'll be like the fellow said one time. He went to preach a revival. He said he preached on repentance; the third night, repentance; fourth night, repentance. He preached a full week on repentance.
And the pastor of the church, and some of them got back and told him, said, "Brother, we really admire your sermon. But haven't you got another one?"
He said, "Oh, yes, sir." Said, "I got another one. But let them all repent. Then I'll preach on something else."
So let the church get started on its ABC's. Then we'll go to algebra then---how to be prophets, and get gifts, and so forth like that. But let's first learn this first step first. Learn to walk before you can run, you know. So, if you're weary with the footwork, what are you going to do? All right.

56 But we want to remember our Lord. That's what you got to remember, that it's Him you're serving. You don't get these gifts just to have a lot of fun out of them. That's right. After all, there's many that talk about gifts but I'm sure from the way they act, they don't know what it is.
The gift ... gifts of God, and things, are not something that's just played with. The gifts of God are gracious, and they're weari... they're wearisome. Didn't Ja... In the presence of God it's not shouting. The presence of... That's just God's blessings He pours upon you, see. But the presence of God is a troublesome thing. I don't want you to forget to get that tape, if you can, "Sirs, What Time Is It?" And remember that.

57 Jacob, when he laid on that pillow of rock one night, and the Lord appeared to him in a vision, and he saw angels descending and ascending... When he got up he said, "This is a dreadful place, none other than the house of God." Dreadful place.
When Isaiah the prophet had prophesied for many years under Uzziah, and when Uzziah was taken away from him because he tried to usurp the part of a priest, and he was stricken with leprosy, and died... And Isaiah probably was forty years old, fifty, and he'd been a prophet ever since a baby, because prophets are born. Gifts and callings are without repentance.
And there he was, a prophet of the Lord, down in there praying one day, and confessing his sins down at the altar. And all of a sudden he came into the presence of God, and seen God sitting in the heavens, and his train. He saw seraphims with their holy faces shaded with wings, and their feet covered with wings, and flying with wings, crying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty."
And Isaiah remembered then that his little journey wasn't very much. What did he cry? He knowed, his gift, he hadn't acted right with it. He was far away. He said, "Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among people with unclean lips." And then the angel, see... It's a dreadful thing. He said, "Woe is me."

58 It's not the thing of blessing, and shouting and screaming. That's good. Now, remember, I'm not condemning that. But I'm telling you that's not what I'm talking about. It's the power and the presence of God, which brings such a holy fear, until you're paralyzed in his presence. You'll always remember. You remember it. And Isaiah remembered as long as he lived. I imagine when the saws was cutting through his body, he still remembered those angels crying, "Holy, holy, Lord God." Certainly.
Jacob in his last hours could remember those angels ascending and descending, and it was such a dreadful thing to him. It's not what people think it is. It's something different. What we need to do is come into his presence remembering Him; that He's brought us here not for frolic, but for service---brought us in here to work for Him. He had something to remember.

59 What about Judas Iscariot? He's got something to remember, too. Judas has got something he's remembering tonight. Certainly is. And he'll always remember it. Certainly. Why? He sold the Lord Jesus for personal gain.
I wonder tonight, if there isn't many doing that same thing today, selling your birthrights for personal gain, when you should be on fire for Christ. When you should be doing something for Him, working for Him or something, you go join somewhere where you can live any way you want to, and still claim to be a Christian.
That's what the world is looking for tonight. The world, I said; not the believer. The believer is looking for every straight road he can walk in to get right.
But the unbeliever is wanting somewhere where he can go and just maintain his profession of a Christian, and then just live anyway he wants to. That's what this nation wanted for a president, and that's what they got. That's right. That's what the church wants. That's what they got. Yes, sir! That's what you get.

60 But the believer wants to get everything shaved off of him. He wants to lay aside every sin, and the weight that so easily beset him, that he might run with patience the race that's set before him ---looking to the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ. Yeah, remembering Him, as we lay aside every weight. Women letting their hair grow; men quit being Ricky, and come on into church and do what's right.
And all this other kind of stuff, and pastors with deacons on their board married three or four times, and all these things---compromising, because they pay heavy on the plate and all. Have to knuck down to some organization because they tell you this is it, and the Bible says something different. Lay aside every weight!
Remember Jesus. He become very unpopular.

61 The young rabbi was one of the greatest men in the world in the day when He was healing the sick; and doing everything well, and making people healed and giving the sight to the blind; showing the people, and manifesting God through them by the thought of their own mind. He could speak to them. He was a great rabbi.
But one day He sat down and begin to tell them the gospel truth. He wasn't popular from then on. No, he never. The first thing you know, all the group walked away. And then the seventy said, "This is a hard saying. Who can understand it?" And they walked away.
And then He stood and asked the disciples, "Will you go also?"
They said, "Where would we go, Lord? You alone ... we've sold out. We're ready, no matter what it is. We're ready to go." Let's remember Him like that.
Remember, He was our example. He done everything, condemned every Pharisee, condemned everything of the world, went through the world without a spot on Him. He was a lamb examined by God. He said, "This is my beloved Son. I'm well pleased in him." He lived such a life.
And then He took all the sin of the world---my sin, and your sin, and laid it upon Him. And then even the perspiration coming from his sacred brow like drops of blood, spatting on there. Not because that He was guilty; but it was my guilt, doing that---and your guilt.
And if He can do that for you and I, how could we stand up under some dogmas, and nonsense of the world, and the things of this modern day? We ought to remember our Lord.
Remember what He paid for this price of salvation. Never be ashamed of it. "Be ready to give any man account for the hope that rests within you." We should do that, brethren.

62 We're getting in the last hours now. The sun is setting. Civilization has come from the East, and now it's on the West Coast. It can go no further. The barrier is there, and all the sin of the world is heaping up, and rolling up in shameful waves of Hollywood---is bounced plumb back into the church. And what a time it is. We ought to remember that, brethren.
Remember our Lord. What would He do if he stood here today? He'd hold to that Word. In the midst of every temptation, He'd stay to that Word. He did it. He was your example.
When Satan come to Him, and said, "Turn these stones into bread," he said, "It's written," constantly with the Father's Word. We must remember, and do the same thing. He was our example. Yes, sir!

63 Those priests of that day will have a lot to remember, too. They're remembering it tonight in the world of the lost. You say, "Brother Branham, would you call those priests, holy priests, that they were godly men...?"
Now, wait a minute. They made themselves godly. They had a false holiness, a false piety that wasn't really belonged of God. Jesus plainly told them, "You are of your father, the devil. And his works you'll do." And He told them what they were. And they have a lot to remember too, because when they seen that genuine manifestation of the Messiah, proving that He was Messiah, they deliberately turned it down, and said it was a evil spirit doing that. Said it was Beelzebub.
And Jesus pronounced that that was blasphemy. "Whosoever would speak a word against the Holy Spirit would never be forgiven." They've got a lot to remember. Let's not take their place, brethren. Let our lot not be like theirs.
But if I have to be, let me be like Nathanael saying, "Thou art the Son of God. You are the King of Israel." Let me stand as one of those. Let me stand ... let you women stand as the woman at the well, how she stands tonight. She's got a lot to remember, as we spoke of. She found a fountain.

64 And now those priests, they'll have ... why did they do it? Because of pure green jealousy. That's the only way. They was zealous of their creed, they were zealous of their traditions. Their elders had set up a tradition which was contrary to the Word, and they were zealous of that tradition.
Brethren, let's you and I not have to answer for that, zealous of any tradition. Let's remember Jesus, what He was. Stay with what He said. By just pure green jealousy they did these things. Oh, what a thing! Yes, sir. They...
The rich man's got a lot to remember, too. He was presented with the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ, but he loved the praises of men more than the praises of God. And remember, the Bible plainly says that he remembered it after he was dead and in hell. And the message come back to him, "Remember in your lifetime, you had the opportunity."
And Phoenix, you've got the opportunity. The world's got the opportunity. Don't let it cross your path and you fail to see it, like Herod and many of them did.

65 Now they showed that those priests actually knew who He was, because Nicodemus expressed it when he come. He was one of the chief of the Pharisees. He said, "Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher comes from God, because no man could do those things except God was with him." See, they knew it. But see, they got to remember that. They knew better, but didn't do it. Let your creed hold you down from the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because they tell you there's no such a thing!

66 Here a few months ago, I was out to the hospital to pray for a woman in our city in Indiana. And there was a little lady laying there, wanted to get right with God. She'd been ... she was a backslider. She once come to my church; she went back out. And of course, seven devils entered worse than they ever was. And there she's laying in a hospital, dying.
She said, "Brother Branham, I don't want to die like this."
And I said, "All right, sister. You don't have to if you still got a desire in your heart to serve God. He's never left you. You left Him, but He never left you. Now you can, if you can."
And she said, "Now I want to, Brother Branham."
I said, "All right. We'll pray."
There was another lady laying there, with her lips down looking at me with a ... like she could run through me, and ... her and her son. She was lying on the bed, going to an operation the day before.
And I said ... and I seen her there, and her son looking over at me. And I said, "Do you mind if we have a word of prayer?"
She said, "Pull that curtain!"
I said, "Well, I ... are you a believer?"
She said, "I said, 'pull that curtain.'"
I said, "I just asked you..."
She said, "I'll give you to understand we're Methodist."
I said, "Well, that certainly expresses it then." See, what was it? She didn't want to see some other person---that poor, backslidden woman---come back to God. Now, if she'd have been a Methodist, it'd been different. You see, didn't remember Jesus there, you see. She just remembered her creed. Just remembered... All right. Oh, what a horrible thing it will be in that day of the judgment.

67 A few weeks ago I was riding on an elevator in Louisville. I was going up for an examination, a physical examination, to a doctor friend of mine to get a pass, so I... I want to go overseas with Brother Roland and ... right away. And so I thought I'd take my physical while I had a chance. And I went up... There was some men with us going up on the floor. We went way up about eight floors in Louisville, and at a building ... and so, the Hayburn building. And when I was up about as high as we could get, to stop, these...
One of these fellows was drinking a little, I think. He looked around, said, "Well, boys, I guess this is as high as we'll ever get." Said, "We better get off."
I never said nothing. He didn't know I was a preacher. So I just waited to get off, and I said, "Just a minute. That remark you made..." I said, "If we're trusting in our own merits, this is as high as we'll ever get. But," I said, "if we'll trust in Jesus..." Remember Him. Amen.
We can go higher, when we pass, as a Brother Outlaw singer said the other night, Jupiter, Venus, Neptune, Mars, the Milky White Way, and go on, and on and on---there's no difference---beyond every solar system into the heavens of heaven. I'm glad for that. Just remember that He went on and above such things as that. Yes. If we're trusting in our merits we're certainly lost; but if we trust in his merits, we're saved.

68 Oh, we can remember Jesus in his grace, that he lifted us up and promised it, that even now---right now... We don't have to be earthbound. See, we're not earthbound now; we're heaven-bound. We're already dead. Our lives are hid in Him, through Christ, and we're raised with Him, not... We're not dead with Him; we're raised with Him and we're sitting in heavenly places, remembering Him---sitting in heavenly places.
"When, Brother Branham?"
Right now! Yes! We won't be raised with Him; we're already raised with Him. This is the first fruits of our resurrection, passed from death unto life and alive forevermore, sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, already raised with Him from the dead. Yes. What a glorious thing it is to be sitting in heavenly places with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Yes, sir.
We can remember Him now, and all of his promises that He made us while we're sitting right here now.

69 I was looking at that clock back there, and I thought "My, I'm doing real well. I'm getting done here now, seven o'clock." I had about three more pages of notes, and I pushed them back under here when I looked down at my watch and I seen it wasn't seven o'clock. So I thought, "I'm doing real well." Where have I been? Have I been lost all this time? I know I felt awful good, but I didn't know I felt that good. But I kept looking at that clock, and I thought there's something wrong, somewhere.
Well, that's what's going to happen one of these days, friends. Time is going to stop. And we're going to take our skyride into eternity, where there's no more time. Won't it be wonderful?

70 But while we're sitting here now, where time means nothing to us, we're already lifted up into heavenly places.
What can we remember? We can remember every promise that He made us. "If ye abide in me and my words in you, you can ask what you will." Is that right? I can remember St. John 5:24, "He that heareth my words and believeth [not make-believeth, now], but believeth on him that sent me, hath [that's present tense] everlasting life, and shall not come into the condemnation of judgment, but pass from death unto life." And we're living right now in Christ Jesus, sitting in the heavenlies. That's what He promised.
We can remember ... we can remember how He told ... made Himself known as the Messiah amongst the people. The believers saw it. And we remember in St. John 14:12 that He said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." We can remember He promised that.
We can remember He promised in the last days that the Holy Spirit would be manifested in human flesh, just exactly like He did at Sodom before it was burned. We remember Jesus made that promise. I remember it. He said so. Jesus said so. I believe it just as much as if I was sitting right there and He told me about it---because it's right here, and that's the way I believe that Word. I remember He said so. That's all. "...the works that I do shall he do also."

71 I remember I was reading in the Scripture the other night, where Jesus said, when... "I have many things to reveal to you, tell you. But you ... I can't do it now. But when the Holy Ghost is come [you see] he will bring these things back to your remembrance, and then he'll show you things that's going to come." I remember that the Holy Spirit spoke and said, "The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the ... sunder and the marrow of the bone, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart."

72 I remember that Jesus passed through a crowd one day and a little woman touched his garment, and went out there and sat down. And I remember---stood up, or wherever she was---and Jesus turned and said, "Who touched me?" when Peter thought He'd went out of his mind.
He said, why, rebuked Him and said, "Well, everybody's touching you."
He said, "But I perceive I got weak, virtue has gone." He looked all around and He found the little woman, told her her blood issue ... her faith had saved her.
I remember that the Bible teaches in Hebrews that He is now a high priest (oh!) that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. That's right. I remember the Bible said in Hebrews 13:8---I'm remembering Jesus---He made... In Hebrews 13:8 He said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Oh, how we can remember Him. Yes, sir! Oh, how we ... "Yet a little while and the world sees me no more; yet ye shall see me [the church, the believer] for I'll be with you, even in you to the end of the world." That's right. "I will never leave you." Oh, it's not just something that happens today, and gone tomorrow. It's eternal. "I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you." Oh, my! That would make us scream, shout, cry.

73 We want to consider this seriously. Remember Jesus, not just in a haphazard way. He promised this. And if that isn't no good, then the Bible's no good. And then what are we sitting here for? What are we even living for? What are you trying for? What's your efforts for? What are you sweating it out for? If it's any right at all, it's either every bit right or none of it right. Remember, it wasn't you, or I, or your pastors that made the promise. It was Jesus made these promises. I remember He said it.

74 I remember He said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." How far? All the world, yeah. Two-thirds don't know nothing about Christ yet. "...all the world, to every creature. These signs shall follow them that believe." I remember He said that, and if I can remember that, how can I accept something, then, that says that that day is gone? I remember He said "... to all the world, every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe." How can I put myself with a group of people that deny that Word, when God was watching over his Word to vindicate it? How could I hook myself up with unbelievers?

75 O God, let me remember Jesus. Let me remember the stand that He took. Let me remember that He is my Saviour. Let me remember that I'm dead, I'm no more. I've been dead thirty-three years. This is Christ that lives within me. And if I look out and see Him doing things uncommonly, unseemingly, then I know that I never died. William Branham's still alive. You're still alive. As long as you're disobeying his commandments, then you're still alive. But when you're obeying his commandments, "If you love me, keep my sayings..."

76 How wonderful to think that He promised this. "Yet a little while, and the world won't see me no more. The world won't see me; but yet you'll see me." Oh. "Wherever two or three are assembled together, I'll be in their midst." I remember that. Do you remember that, brethren? "And the works that I do, they'll do it also." What kind of works did He do? There you are, see.
"Oh, well, of course now, Brother Branham, that was for another day. It's not that."
I remember that's what He said. I don't remember what you said. That's all gone, see, but I remember what He said.
"He that will come after me will deny himself," deny his own thoughts, deny his own thinking. You could deny your father, your mother, your wife, your children. But there's something so real that you can't deny that. It keeps you. And He's here. Now let's just remember every promise that He made, as we bow our heads.

77 Our heavenly Father, there was many requests just a few moments ago. Uplifted hands come up from all over the building. But Father, thou art the living God, and I pray Thee, Lord Jesus, to bless these people. May your Holy Spirit dwell upon them, give to them eternal life, give to them what they have need of. Let us remember You made the promise. You are the one that is responsible for this promise. Let us remember, no matter what any one else says, You are the one. You are the one that we're looking to to fulfill your promise.
You're the one said that "He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." I remember You said that, Lord. And then You said those who did believe in You... Now, You said if we believe we have eternal life. And You said those that did believe in You, the works that You did they would do also.
Now, Father, we know that you're God, and we know that there is none other but You, and we believe You, and we're trusting You now, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now with your heads bowed,

78 how many in this building that knows that you're not remembering your Lord in the way that you should remember Him, and at the end of this little chopped-up message you're willing to raise your hands and say, "God, make yourself so real to me 'till I remember You upon my... Your commandments will be on my bedpost. 'I put the Lord always before me,' as David said. Lord, give me more of You that I can remember You."? Put up your hand, say, "Pray for me, Brother." That's almost unanimously everywhere. "Lord Jesus, be merciful to me."

79 Now, is there those here tonight who has never confessed Him as your Lord, and now you might stand before Him? And we've told you just a few moments ago that He promised that "Where two or three are assembled I'll be in their midst." Now, He promised that. Then He's got to be here, and you never accepted Him as your Lord.
Will you do that rashal thing that Herod did? Will you give that commitment that Pilate did, and brush Him off on somebody else? "My mother, she was a Christian." "My Daddy got enough religion for all of us." Would you do that? "My wife is a religious woman."

80 What about you? Will you raise your hands and say, "God, remember me. I'm a sinner, and I want to be right with You. I'll raise my hand." How many hands in here that's that way? Is there ... you mean there's not a sinner in the building?
God bless you, lady. God bless you, lady, here. There you are. I thought there was something pulling wrong here. I ... you understand that Jesus said He was here, and He knows your thoughts, you see, in your heart. Thank you for your sincerity. Really, there's more that should raise their hand,

81 but I...
Would you raise your hand, then, say, "Brother Branham, I'm just playing the part of hypocrisy. I go to church. But when it really comes to being born again, I just joined church. I really don't know Christ. I still love the world as much as I ever did. I just, oh, I enjoy going and listening at a message, or something. But when it really comes to taking time and loving to go out and spend them hours in prayer with Him, and commune with Him, remembering Him, I don't do that. I don't even have the desire to do it. I know, then, Brother Branham, I can't be right and have that kind of a feeling. So I'm raising my hand to God. Be merciful to me." Raise your hand. Be honest with it. That's right.
God bless you, that's right. Lord bless you. Amen.

82 We'll just wait and see if the Holy Spirit will reveal something else. God bless you, sir. God bless you, here. I'm just wanting Him to search your heart. That's what He's here for. All right. God bless you, little lady. That's very fine.
Just as you think of it, take it seriously now. "Oh, Brother Branham, I got to hurry home." Listen, you're going to hurry out of this life one day, too. Think of it now. This is the hour, this is the time. Say, "Well, I tell you. Our pastor, he's a brilliant man ---very educated. I'd rather hear it from..." It don't make any difference who brings the message. It's not the messenger; it's the message you hear, see. No matter what type of a man would walk in the door there, and give you a message that you inherited a million dollars, you'd accept the money. Accept your pardon.
With your heads bowed now, and your eyes closed, I'm going to ask you something real sincerely now, and I want you to tell me the truth. Women---you, wearing short hair---how many really feel that you should have long hair? Raise your hand. God bless you. That's good. I know you did. There's hopes for you. But when you're so seared that you can't do it, you don't even feel condemned, see, then there's something happened to you, because the Word said you should.

83 How many of you women wear shorts, and them clothes, or smoke cigarettes---and you men, too---that know that you're doing wrong, and say, "I don't want to do that, Brother Branham. I really love God, but I... That thing just holds on to me, and I know it's a evil thing. I'm going to raise my hand, and ask ... and raising my hand, I'm asking God to move it from me."? Raise your hand, be honest. God bless you. That's right. That's sincerity, that's honest. God will give us a healing meeting in a minute on that sincerity, if we can believe that. Have faith in God.

84 Heavenly Father, You've seen the hands. You know the conditions of the people. You know what's ... all's in their hearts, Lord. I pray that You give forgiveness to every one of them.
And now, give to them the desire of their heart. Move their heartaches. Do that, Lord, which they have need of knowing. I pray that You'll grant it to them. Through the name of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, we ask it for God's glory. I commit them to Thee, Father God, that You will perform your work in them through Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

85 Now, as you raise your head, how many feel lots different about it? Just raise your hands, say, "I feel lots different." Now how many knows that He promised, that He's the Lord heals all of our diseases? Do you believe that?
Would you ... how many of you believe that He promised this, that "A little while and the world won't see me no more, yet you'll see me."? You believe that? Do you believe it's possible then, if Hebrews 13:8 here said, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever," you believe it's possible that we could see God? How would we see Him in the manifestation of his Spirit, his living being? Would you believe that? (I'm going to ask my brother not to pray on this back there; I want him to pray for me. Let the audience this time... We're coming on to the meeting in a few days where we're ... maybe catch that.)

86 I want this audience in one control. I want to take these spirits under my control, in the name of Jesus Christ for his glory, that his Spirit might operate and prove to you that He still lives. I take his Word here. It said (that is St. John, St. John the 14th chapter, and 12th verse), said, "He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he also." Do you believe that? Then every one of you people out there that's sick, or needy, or have need of something, you pray. Just touch, remember, the hem of his garment. He's the high priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Does the Bible say that, brethren?

87 And then, how would He act if He was the high priest? The same way He did when He was here, because He is the same high priest. How would He do it? When his body is a sacrifice on the throne of God, how could He do it? He sent his Spirit back---the Holy Ghost---and "He will take the things that's mine and show them to you."
Now, if you want to see if God...

88 The reason I base this upon this, knowing this, I know that the message I preach to the people is the truth. I believe that with all my heart, though it cuts off here, a little bit that way---not to be mean, not to be different---but to be honest. And therefore, I know He said that if He would take the things that was of God... And this was to make you to know it.
If He'd take the things that is of Christ, and will show it to you, and show you things to come, and do the very works that He did, that's the Holy Spirit. It's got to be. Pray now, and you touch his garment. I'll yield myself to Him, and see what He will say to you. Just pray. Is there some here that's never been in the meeting before? Would you raise your hand? Yes, there's plenty.
Remember, Jesus Christ never at one time ever claimed to heal people. He said, "It's not me that doeth the works: it's my Father." And in St. John, the 5th chapter, the 19th verse, when He passed through the pool of Bethesda---and there laid great multitudes, of numbers of people, maybe thousands, laying there, lame, blind, halt, twisted---He went to a man that had a ... maybe a prostate trouble, or might've had a tubercular. It was retarded---he'd had it for thirty-eight years.
And He told him to "take up your bed and go into the house." The man could walk. He said, "When I'm coming down, somebody else..." And there was men there way worse than he was.

89 But Jesus knew that he was there, and knew that he was in that condition.
When he was questioned, He said, "Verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in himself. But what he sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise." That's his same position today. No prophet, no one has ever been able to do anything outside of the sovereignty of God's will---that's right---what God wills.
I don't know. I want, if... That's the reason that... I know a bunch of these ministers sitting here. There's not too many out there that I know. If I should see Him over someone, I would try to, if it, being willing ... I'd tell the people that I knew them.
You pray, and see if He's still the high priest that can be touched. That would put Him right here before us, and you'd see that He's here. Is that right? Say "amen." It'd certainly make Him here. Just have faith.

90 Here's a little lady sitting right here with her head up in the air, praying just as hard as she can. She's wearing a green coat, sitting right there. She's praying for a condition that's in her head, that she ... that bothers her. Is that right, lady? Raise up your hand, if that's so. If I'm a stranger to you, wave your hand back and forth. It's left you now.
Say, will you do me a favor while you're there? That light switched right over on the lady sitting next to you, there. She's praying, also. I want to ask you something. You said, "Remember me, Lord." All right, He has. You suffer with a sinus condition. If that's right, raise up your hand, and wave your hand. All right. There you are.

91 Do you believe? Now, "a little while and the world won't see me no more." Ask those women. You see them. Ask them if I know them.
Here sits a young man, sitting here praying for his father. I never knowed you, don't know who you are, know nothing about you. But you're praying for your father. He's not here; he's across a great water somewhere. He's suffering with stomach trouble. He's in Puerto Rico. That's "thus saith the Lord." That's right. Do you believe? See what I mean?
Here's a lady sitting here looking interested, in a red hat. Mrs. Aldridge, yes. She's suffering with heart trouble. Do you believe that God will heal you? All right. Will you do me a favor? There's a lady sitting next of you by the name Mrs. Cook. Mrs. Cook has got trouble with her legs. That's right, Mrs. Cook, raise up your hand. If I'm a total stranger, raise up your hand. All right. Have faith in God.
Lay your hand on the woman next to her. She's Miss Russell. She's suffering with lung trouble. Raise up your hand, Miss Russell, and believe it with all your heart, if I'm a stranger to you.

92 What about the next... Only thing you have to have is faith. The lady next to her suffering with stomach trouble too, and her name is Mrs. Dillman. If you'll believe with all your heart, you can be... Mrs. Harmon, sitting next to her, has just come from the hospital. She's had a operation for a rectal trouble. You believe, Mrs. Harmon? If you do, believe with all your heart, and you can go home and be made well.
How many believes now? "A little while and the world will see me no more." What am I trying to say? Remember Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I'll be with you, even in you to the end of the world. The works that I do shall you also." Remembering Jesus promised these things, Jesus brings them to pass.

93 Now, also remember that Jesus promised that "He that believeth on me has everlasting life." You that raised your hand a while ago, after this healing service will you come up here now, and stand here for prayer? He promised to give eternal life the same as He promised healing.
Now, did you know He promised this also? "These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay hands on the sick they shall recover." Do you believe that? Now lay your hands on one another, then. See, He's here. I can't heal you; He's already done it. Now, put your hands on somebody, and pray for somebody, right next to you there. Amen.

94 Now, bow your heads and pray just like you do in your church.
Pray, "Lord God, heal this person. This person's praying for me," and just ask God to heal and make well. Believe it with all your heart.
Lord, I believe, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. His Word can't fail. Remember He promised, "A little while, and the world won't see me." They don't see Him at the dog race tonight. They don't see Him in the picture show. They don't see Him in these formal churches. But you see Him. He's here. Remember, He promised it, and He's here to answer your prayer, and give you the desire of your heart.
Lay your hands on one another, and pray. Lord Jesus, I come remembering that You said "in my name they shall cast out devils, and I cast every spirit of unbelief away from this audience, away from these people, for the glory of God."