Respects

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 ... until just awhile ago when I left the hospital, and I kind of left it in the hands of the Lord, that if ... knowing I was a little hoarse, because I've got a cold. But I thought if Mother was well enough that I could come, why, I would be down again to get to visit with you; because when I see someone like Mama laying there and knowing that these other mothers and daddys here that's... We all got to come to that place, you see, and thinking of how grateful I am that she is ready to go.

2 And then, and another thing I want to express to the church. I believe I seen Sister Wilson back there, and then there's Sister and Brother Sothmann here somewhere, perhaps, in the building, and several of you here that's been offering your assistance to sit up with Mama in the night, and things like that, that's mighty loyal. And I appreciate all that you all have done. Truly, the family is wore out, you know; we're staying every night. And just now most of them work, so it's Meda and I, or Delores, and she's got children in school. And it just kind of makes it hard, just divide it between a couple of us that way, and you just get wore out. You just hardly can go, and you can't tell day from night, hardly. Especially when you've got up to about the age that Meda and I are, you know, it don't take very many nights to wear you out when you get a little age on you.

3 So, I used to think I could just stay it day and night. I'd come from California in my old T-model Ford, and I'd get a little sleepy on the road, take me about four or five days, maybe seven days, to make it. And I'd ride along, day and night. And I'd get a little tired, throw my blanket under the car, drive out on the prairie, sleep a couple hours and go on. I've changed a lot since then, Brother Neville. I just realize that I'm just past twenty-five years old, see.

4 And so it's a privilege to be here at the house of the Lord tonight. And this morning I had a little ... few notes here that I wanted to ... that the Lord had given me. And I thought maybe that this morning, if I got a chance, I would speak on it before I had the prayer for the sick. But being that we were late in the questions this morning, I thought maybe if Mama was better, then maybe it would be a sign that I was to come down again tonight, maybe, and would speak a little while tonight if it didn't interrupt Brother Neville's program somewhere.

5 And standing in the room I just had a marvelous testimony given to me about a Christian sister that's with us tonight. She was in the prayer line this morning, and she prayed, standing for somebody else. And in her room, a darkened room, there's The Lord's Supper, the Lord's last supper. And it's so the sun cannot strike the room in any position. And while ... at three o'clock this afternoon, this halo of light that was seen here when we got through preaching on the church ages, only in more like a color of rainbow, like, came right over the head of the Lord Jesus. Well, she watched it a few moments. And she went and told her sister (the way I understand the story), and they come and marvelled at it for a long time, an hour or something. And then they called in a neighbor minister, which was Brother Stricker over here, to see the phenomenon of it. And they sat and watched it, on till five or something like that. And the minister was asked to pray, and he felt that he just couldn't pray, or something.

6 In a little bit, somebody gave a message, and they had been giving their interpretation of what it meant, and the message came back, through the speaking in the message, and said that they had misinterpreted, they hadn't give it right. I think that's right, isn't it, Sister Bruce? They hadn't give it right. Said that what the sign was, was to show to them like appreciation of them that they had believed the message that's going forth here from the Tabernacle, like that. And said they were going to see greater things than this take place, that they would see even angels ascending ... descending and ascending.

7 So we are living in the last days, and we are near the end time. This sounds ... may sound terrible to some people but to the Christians, I'm glad that we're here. I'm glad that we're at the end.
I said that once in a meeting, and a person talking to me said, "What do you mean? You mean you'd be glad to see the end of the world come?"
I said, "Oh, yes, sir!" I said, "Sure!"
Said, "Well, that don't sound sensible, anybody would want the end of the world to come."
I said, "At the end of the world, the time, Jesus comes, and that's who I want to see." And I said, "The Bible said that all those who love His appearing..." See?
And it is a pleasure to know that these old things here of life is going to cease one of these days, and we're going to see Him.

8 Some time ago, it was said down in the ... oh, many years back, when they had slavery, and there was an old colored man who used to have old church singings, country singings. They'd get together and they'd ... a minister among the slaves would preach, you know, and they'd have meetings. And one night there was an old fellow over there got saved. And when he got saved, he knowed he was free then. So he began to tell the other slaves the next morning on the plantation, he said, "I'm free."
So his boss come over and pulled him in. He said, "Now, looky here, Sam." Said, "What's this I hear you're telling amongst the slaves, that you're free?"
He said, "Yes, boss." Said, "That's true." Said, "At a meeting last night, I was set free from the law of sin and death." That's it. That's it.

9 "The law of sin and death, I was set free from it." You were once bound there, you see, but now you're free from that, see. As I said this morning, death only abides in sin. Sin and death is the same, see. But when you're away from sin, you're away from death; but while you're in sin, you're in death, see. And therefore, when you are free from the law of sin and death, you're a new creature in Christ Jesus, and then you're free.
And his boss said to him, said, "Sam, do you really mean that?"
He said, "Yes, sir." And said, "The Lord called me last night to talk to my people, and speak to them, that they can be free from the law of sin and death. Though we're slaves, yet we can be free from the law of sin and death."
He said, "Sam, do you really mean that?"
He said, "Boss, I don't know what you're going to do with me after I say this, but I's telling you, I's a free man." He said, "I'm free from the law of sin and death."
And he said, "Sam, I'm a Christian too, you know. And because that God has made you free from sin and death, and you're a Christian, and you feel you want to tell your brethren about it, I'm going down this morning and set you free, and sign the proclamation. And you can be a free man, not bound by anybody, to preach the gospel to your brethren."

10 He said the old fellow preached for many, many years. One time then, after ... as all of us do, we come down to the end of our road. And when we come to the end of our ... his road, when he did, he came down, and he laid unconscious, they said, for maybe, oh, several hours. And many of his white brethren come in to visit him. And there happened to be a group of them in the building when he woke up, come to himself. He looked around, he said, "Do you mean I's not over there yet?"
And they said, "Sam, you've been asleep."
He said, "No." He said, "I wasn't asleep." Said, "I was over on the other side."
"Why," they said, the minister brethren said, "Sam, tell us what you saw on the other side."
Said, "Well," he said, "I walked into a great pearly white gate." And said, "When I walked in there," said, "I seen the throne, and I seen Him." And said, "Up come an angel. He said, 'Are you Sam?' "
He said, "I am."
Said, "Sam," said, "here is a robe and a crown." Said, "You've won this, Sam, by the great works that you done on earth."
He said, "Don't talk to me about a robe and crown for a reward."
He said, "What would you like for a reward?"
Said, "Just let me look at Him for a thousand years."

11 I think we all feel that way, don't you? I don't want no robes and crowns and palaces; I'd just like to look at Him. I'd just like to just look at Him, and just ... you know. Wouldn't you just like... ? I'd like to hold your hand while I'm doing it, Brother Neville. We could do it together, say, "Think of it, Brother Neville, how we stayed in the Tabernacle, in the hot and cold, and things. But look here what we're looking at, the Son of the living God." Wouldn't that be wonderful, just to look and see His features?

12 Two times in my life, now three times, I have seen Him in vision. He looked the same each time. But there's not an artist in the world could ever paint His picture. They might paint something that might look like Him. But He looked like, to me, He would be a man ... if He'd speak, the world would come to an end; and yet so sweet and lovely that there's just no... There's just too many characteristics there that an artist brush could ever catch. And I sure want to see Him someday in person.

13 And I've often thought I'd like to have heard Him when He raised out those precious hands and said, "Come unto me." See that tired, weary look on Him, when He was tired and weary from His journey, said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly." I'd like to have heard Him say that. I wasn't there in that day. I wasn't standing with Peter, James, and John. But I hope I'm standing by them in the day when I can hear Him say, "It was well done, my good and faithful servant, now enter into the joys of the Lord."

14 And to think that the very ones who wrote this Bible---Paul, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the apostles, and those precious brethren---wherever they are now, wherever they are now, the very God that dealt with them to foresee things and write it, and so forth, and give them the gifts of the Bible---the prophecy and speaking with tongues, and signs and wonders, and so forth---them same men, wherever they are now, we're going to be with them. The same God with the same things. It isn't a "guess so" anymore; we know it now, see, because He's really present and we know that it's so. So should we not be the happiest people on earth? What more would we long?

15 I was talking this afternoon to an aged man---about, I think he said he was eighty-eight or eighty-nine years old---that just recently become a Christian. I baptized him in the name of Jesus Christ, when he didn't have on nothing but his regular Sunday suit. I took him here in the water. I think Brother Wood let him have a pair of trousers or something, and we baptized him here in the water. And he told me, when he was a boy (he's rather a wealthy man now) ... when he was a boy, he said how he worked for thirty dollars a month. He never did get married or anything till he was an old man. And he said how he longed ... the time that when he would get old he wouldn't have to beg and lay on the street; how he took the little nickels and things that he saved, and put them to work, and they really went to work and accumulated and made... And now there he is now, at eighty-something years old (eighty-eight or eighty-nine, I think he said, right close to ninety) still walking along, sat right here in the church this morning. And then he's fixed enough till he won't have to worry. If he lives another hundred years, he wouldn't have to worry when it comes to finances and so forth like that. Good hearted, good brother, does everything for Christians and things that he knows how to do.
And then I said, "And above all of that, my precious brother, when you were yet eighty-eight or eighty-seven years old, God, in His mercy, reached down and give you eternal life to a heavenly home." What could you want any more to round out a life? Yes, sir.

16 And of all of the wealth that we could've accumulated, all the things that we could've done on earth, no matter what they are, what the man has done, you have to die and leave every bit of it.
Covet not this world's vain riches,
That so rapidly decay,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
They will never pass away!
That's right. "Hold To God's Unchanging Hand." I love that song. We used to sing that here at the Tabernacle so much.
Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand.

17 There lays my old mother out there tonight. If I had a hundred million dollars, I'd give every penny of it to talk to her an hour. I would. Sure. And what if she had a hundred million dollars, what good would it do her now? Nothing, see. Them things she has---she leaves no earthly treasures---but she leaves this: she knows the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. That's the main thing.

18 In the face of this, let's all take inventory of ourselves tonight. Let us just think before we go to prayer, "How is my standing tonight with God?" Let's check up in our hearts and find out. "Lord, if I have wounded any soul today, if I have caused one foot to go astray, whatever I've done or said that's been wrong, O God, forgive me for it," see.
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Saviour divine;
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my guilt away,
And let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!
While life's dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be Thou my guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow's fears away,
Nor let me ever stray
From Thee aside.

19 Keep me in the path, Lord. Keep me in the center of thy will. Young or old. We don't know how old you might be, and yet you might be eighty years old, and if you live till morning, you'll outlive a many sixteen-year-old boy and girl. There'll be a many sixteen-year-old boy and girl go to meet God before daylight in the morning. That's right. So age has nothing to do with it. The thing of it is, are you ready to meet Him? That's the main thing.
Let's think on these things now while we pray, as we bow our heads.

20 O gracious and holy and reverent Father of life, we come into thy presence, the almighty God, to give thanks from the bottom of our heart, that we have the privilege of sitting here tonight. Walking up and down that hospital awhile ago, and looking in there, with people who were unconscious, some of them bleeding and crying, and others out of their head and strapped in bed, O God, I pray that every one of them is ready, Father, that they would be ready to meet You if they happen to go out of this life. And to think, Lord, that that could be us, each one of us here, if it wasn't for your grace. But You have let us live to come together again tonight to make preparations. Those things are passing through our hearts and minds now, Lord. And while You're searching the reins of our heart, if there be any unclean thing about us, Lord, take it away, Father. God, consecrate our souls to Thee.
We thank Thee for all that Thou has done and for what we believe that You will do. And for that light appearing today down there in Sister Bruce's home, I thank You for that, Lord. It would give them strength.

21 And now, Lord, I pray that You'll grant tonight that our souls may continually to be refreshed in your presence here in this tabernacle. We thank You, Father, for this tabernacle. We thank You for its pastor here, our Brother Neville, a man of humility, a man of integrity, a man that's full of God's love for Christ and for His church. I pray that You'll bless him and his lovely little companion and his children. And, Lord, may they long dwell among us here on the earth. Grant it. Keep sickness from their door, and keep them healthy. Keep sickness from all of our doors, Lord; keep us healthy so we can serve You.

22 And now we lay our souls upon the altar, for searching now, as I open my eyes in a few moments to read your Word, if it be your will, and it falls my lot tonight to try to break the bread of life to the people. Now, Lord, help me to say something that would help some poor weary soul here tonight. Help it that it might be also words of correction, that we might know how to behave ourself, what we should do and how we should live in this present world, if we expect to make heaven our home. Grant it, Lord. And heal the sickness. If there's any among us, Lord, that's sick, we pray that You'll heal it. Strengthen those who are weary. We pray for them.
We pray for not only this church, but for other churches throughout the entire world where prayer is being made, and supplications, before God, and the many tens of thousands of hungry-hearted saints crying, "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" Oh, surely You'll hear our cry, Lord, someday and will come.
If it's our lot to fall asleep before that come ... coming is, we know that the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We'll come forth and we'll stand in your presence someday. We thank Thee for this, and we wait for that time. And now prepare our hearts, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

23 Now, I don't expect to talk very long tonight, maybe thirty minutes, or forty, upon a little subject here, that I would like to first read a Scripture found in the book of Psalms. Psalms 105, and reading down to the fifteenth verse, inclusive. While I read this Psalm, I want you to listen real close to the reading of the Word, because God's Word will never fail.
O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.
Now just think of that!
... give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of ... his wondrous works.
Glory ye in his holy name: let the hearts of them that rejoice that seek the LORD.
Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
Remember his marvelous works that he has done; his wonders, and his judgments of his mouth;
O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.
He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth.
He has remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;
And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant:
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:
When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
When they went forth from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another...
He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sake;
Saying, Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

24 I want to take a subject from there of "Respects." Reading here, David crying out to the Lord, respect is what we owe to God. And that's one thing that I would like, to drill this to the heart of every person here tonight, that in all things that we see going on, we must give respects to it. See, we must respect it. And David said that when they were very few men of Israel, perhaps Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who he was speaking of, very few men, that He rebuked nations and kings for them. God rebuked the nations and kings, saying, "Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm."

25 Over in Ecclesiastes, the twelfth chapter and the thirteenth verse, it's written like this, see.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the full duty of man.
The conclusion of the whole matter is to fear God. And you cannot have respects until you have fear. You've got to have fear of God. Solomon said also, in the Proverbs, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Now, that don't mean that you're afraid of Him, but that means that you are giving Him respects and reverence. And when you respect God, you fear God. You fear that you might displease Him in some way, you fear lest you would do something wrong. You wouldn't want to...

26 I fear my mother. I fear my wife. I fear my church. I fear all of God's servants, unless I should put a stumbling block somewhere in their way. I fear the people. I fear the people of the city, unless I should do something wrong that would cause them to think that I wasn't a Christian.
See, you've got ... before you can have respects, you've got to have fear. And God demands it. He demands respects. God does, He demands it. And fear brings it. And we know that fear brings respects.

27 Now, you take for instance, a man, he's a farmer or maybe he's a shop worker, and nobody pays any attention to him. But let him get a job on the police force and come down the street, and as a policeman with his badge and uniform on (where, maybe someone wouldn't speak to him the day before), " Hello, there, John! How are you?" See? Why is it? It's kind of an awe, or a fear, or a respect, because of it. Maybe he gets elected to be the mayor of the city, or maybe...

28 Who would President Kennedy tonight be, if he wasn't President Kennedy? What if he was just the same man he is, but yet he was a worker that worked at Colgates down here for forty dollars a week? See? He'd come through the city here and nobody would pay much attention to him, only his own associates. But, being he's the president of the United States, he deserves a respect, you see.

29 And because that God is God, He deserves a respect. That's right. And we've got to respect Him, and give a fear to Him, and that brings respect. God has demanded that for Himself and for all His servants. God demands respects for His servants. His servants, how we know that they are His servants, because He vindicates these servants by His Word. He takes these servants and makes them servants of God, and proves that they are servants by making His Word work through them servants. Then as you respect that servant, you respect God. So when I respect you and you respect me, and we respect each other, then we're respecting God.

30 Did not Jesus say, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these, my little ones, you have done it unto me. And it would be better for you that a millstone was hanged at your neck and you were drowned in the depths of the sea, than to offend one of them. For I say unto you, behold, their angels always beholds my Father's face which is in heaven." Now, we know that they are, that we being children of God, that we are a part of God. And God demands this respects. And then God shows who His children are. He shows it by wonders and signs, and that it's being done.

31 Now, we're going to start now and call into question some of these people. Now, if I was going to say, for one, to start with, I think of ... let's take Noah, for a moment. Now, Noah had a revelation from God, yet it was contrary to anything that science would prove to be true. But yet he had spoke to God, and God had spoke to him. And he went about preparing an ark, where the scoffers and mockers, as the Bible said that they would be in the last days like they was in them days, that ... those scoffers scoffed at Noah. Why, they thought that he was out of his head because he was building an ark. But God brought judgment upon them scoffers. Because they would not listen to the messenger of God and come into that ark under his preaching, then God sent His divine judgments on the earth. First He made a preparation for all who would receive it to escape it. And then if they did not escape it, there's only one thing left. If they won't take God's preparation of escape, then there's only one thing left---that's divine judgment.

32 You can only do two things---it lays either mercy or judgment. You have to accept one or the other. There's where we stand tonight. We either take God's mercy or we stand His judgments. There's just no way of getting around it. God always makes a way of escape for those who desire to escape. Then what's left over has to stand the judgment. Not because that God wants them to, but because they have chosen that way themselves. See, they make their own choice. There's where we stand tonight, friends, the same thing. We can either take God's way of escape, or we can stand His judgments, either one we want to do. Aren't you happy tonight that you have took the way of escape? because all that refuse the way of escape will have to come under judgment.

33 Then there is another man I'd like to speak of. That was a great mighty prophet by the name of Moses. The people (Israel) should have understood according to the Scripture that God was going to deliver them, and was going to bring them out of Egypt. But as soon as God got His man ready and sent him down into Egypt, they had no respects for him. They turned him out, and said, "Will you slay us as you did the Egyptian?" which caused them to stay in bondage an extra forty years. They stayed in bondage because they refused to respect the deliverer that come to deliver them. That put them back in bondage again. Not because God wanted them to stay (the time was exactly right), but they stayed forty years over because they refused to accept God's provided way of escape.
How I believe that that's what's the matter tonight. Same thing, see.

34 That they refused the way out, and God was determined, and had told Abraham and them in His covenant (as we read David singing of it tonight), He had promised them that He was going to do a certain thing, so God's going to keep His promise. He was going to bring them out anyhow, but perhaps nearly another generation died off. The old generation that laughed at Moses, and so forth, and would not accept the message, that generation (forty years) died off, and Moses come into another generation. See what I mean? If they don't accept it, then God will let that generation die out and He'll bring in another generation to do it. So, they had refused it. And then we find out, this next generation that come up, when Moses went down there to vindicate himself...

35 You know, Moses was scared to go down again. Moses was eighty years old now, and he had been gone forty years. And when he talked to God at the burning bush, he said, "Who will I tell them that sent me?" God had no name. He said, "Who will I tell them that sent me?" Said, "When I say, 'The God of your fathers appeared to me,' they'll say, 'Who is the God of our fathers?' Well, what will I tell them?"
He said, "You tell them that 'I AM THAT I AM.' You tell them that 'I AM THAT I AM.'" And he said, "What is that in your hand, Moses?"
He said, "A stick." And he threw it down and it turned into a serpent. And he put his hand in his bosom, it turned to leprosy; and went back, and healed.
He said, "Go down, and take these signs and perform them before the people, and it'll be an a-vindication. They'll know by these signs that I sent you for deliverance." Oh, brother! God always does that. God always gives supernatural signs, see.

36 And now when he came down and called the people, and done his signs before them, all Israel believed, every one of them. And they went right straight to the palace for deliverance. And then the Pharaoh decided he would not give them deliverance, and God turned judgment loose on Pharaoh. And we know what happened in Egypt.
Strange, after they had seen all those signs happen, and then they come to the Red Sea, and found out that the very God that had performed all those signs ... here at the Red Sea doubted God the very first thing, that He was able to make a way of escape.

37 Now, there's where we make our mistake. When a little sickness strikes us, when a little disaster, or a little trouble strikes somewhere in the way, then we go to falling away. A young convert, somebody will make fun of him, say, "Well, you ain't nothing but a holy roller."
"Well, I hate to be called a holy roller." You see? See, there you are, you get that doubt.
That's the time to stand there! That's the time to respect the messenger. That's the time to give glory to God.

38 And Moses said, "I've done these already, ten miracles before you. God's give you ten miracles, and then you're afraid at the sea? Certainly. How much more will it take for you to believe?" He walked back, and took his rod and held it before the sea, and the storms came down and blowed it across the other side, and they went across. And as soon as they got over there, immediately begin to complain they had no bread. See, just same thing. Then God rained bread out of the heavens for them. Then they complained they had no water. There was just one complaint after another. And I notice...

39 You say, "Well, maybe they were the unconverted type." Well, maybe they were. There was a mixed multitude went with them, true.
But I want to bring another thing into your remembrance. If God sent the messenger, and vindicated by the signs that he was the messenger sent from God, then it's up to them to obey this messenger. Exactly. They must obey the messenger and have respects to that messenger. Look at Joshua and Caleb, they stayed right by his side. Yes, sir. Whatever Moses was in, they was in it, too. Whether Moses was right or wrong, they stayed right with him, anyhow, see, because they knowed that was God's messenger.

40 And there one day we find out that even Miriam, a prophetess, and Aaron, the high priest, made fun of Moses' wife because she was an Ethiopian, and thought, "Wasn't there enough women of our own group to marry, instead of going down there and marrying that woman?" That wasn't Moses' choice; that was God's choice for Moses. And when they made fun of it, that angered God in such a way until He struck Miriam, the prophetess, full of leprosy, Moses' own sister. What about that? Her, a prophetess, but what was she doing? She was making fun and an irreverence to God's messenger, the messenger of the covenant of that day. And she was irreverent. And also Aaron, the high priest, the very mouthpiece of Moses, right, he was with her.
And Aaron then, when he saw his sister struck with leprosy, he went in and told Moses, "Would you let your own sister die?"
And Moses went into the tabernacle and fell before the Lord, and began to weep and call out for God, mercy for his sister. And the Spirit of the Lord came down, and said, "Call Aaron and Miriam to stand here before me." Oh, my!
God demands respects! God sends His message, you listen to it and you reverence it. Don't care if they call it a bunch of holy rollers, or whatever they call it; let the world do what they want to, but you give respects!

41 So, there stood Miriam. God said, "Call Miriam and call Moses ... or, call Aaron here, your brother and sister, to stand before me."
And when they come in before God, God said, "Don't you fear God?" Said that to the high priest and to Miriam, the prophetess. Said, "If there be any, a man among you, who's spiritual or a prophet, I the Lord will make myself known to him. I'll speak to him in visions and reveal myself in dreams to him, and so forth, if he's spiritual or a prophet." But said, "My servant Moses, I speak lip to ear with him." Said, "Don't you fear God?" In other words, "You talk about Moses, you're talking about Me. If you can't respect Moses, you don't respect Me." Said, "Haven't I proved among you that he's my servant? And you have no reverence for him at all."
What ... that would be a lesson for the people of this day. No respects, no honor!
Now, He said, "Because you didn't do that, that's the reason you got leprosy. That's the reason these things has went," said, "because you ought to have knowed that this was my servant. You do know it, so when you say something against him, you're saying it against Me."

42 So Moses prayed for her life to be spared, and God did spare her life. She didn't live very long afterwards. She died, but she did get cleansed of her leprosy. And was out of the camp for seven days, you know, for a purification, getting herself cleaned again from her leprosy. God healed her.
But what He was trying to get to them was this, "You've got to respect what I do."
And if that was the attitude of God in that day, and God can't change, God wants us to respect what He's doing. He demands it. Said, "You either respect that or something else is going to happen."

43 A man told me the other day, he said I... Poor man, sweeps up over here in the market for a living. He's had a breakdown, in very bad shape. He's Lutheran by faith, and they had had communion. He's unable to walk to the church, so he took a cab. Said it cost him eighty cents to go down and eighty cents to come back. His neighbor, very ungodly, seen him praying the Lord's prayer one morning, and laughed at him, made fun of him. He said to this neighbor, he said to this man, he said, "Where'd you go in a cab this morning?"
Said, "It was communion. I went down to the church."
He said, "What is communion?"
Said, "When we take the bread and the wine."
He said, "I had mine, too, this morning at the table, with a slice of light bread and a pint of whiskey," see.

44 I know of three boys one time that mocked communion in the church, know of them. And they went up in the hotel room and got some ham sandwiches and a bottle of whiskey, and had their communion up there, making fun of the communion they had in a Pentecostal church. Less than three months from then, all three was ... one of them was dead, and two was in the insane institution.
You can't disrespect God! You've got to respect God. If you don't believe it, just keep still, keep away from it. Or, either do that, or come reverently and respect it. Don't make fun of people in the Spirit. Don't talk about people that's worshipping in the Spirit of God. Let them alone.

45 I was standing right there on the corner preaching some years ago, as a boy preacher. And there was a woman came by. She was Catholic by faith, but I knowed her. Her husband was Catholic; she was nothing. And a very pretty woman, nice-looking, about twenty years old, twenty-two. I knew her as a girl here in the city. And she came by and stood there, and she said, "I wouldn't let my pet cow have the religion that William Branham's got."
And the next night, before I could get to her, she was dying in the hospital, and don't know yet what killed her. She was dying out there in the hospital, and her husband came to get me. He said... He was a Catholic. And he come, he said, "Come quickly and say a prayer for my wife. She's been calling for you all evening. She's dying."

46 Well, I said, "I will go." And I got in the car and left the meeting, and started to the hospital. And I run up on the steps, I met the nurse, and she said, "She's already dead."
And he said, "Come say a prayer for her, anyhow."
I said, "She's dead."
Said, "Say a prayer anyhow."
"It won't do any good now."
Said, "Well, come look at her."
And I went down. She had that reddish black ... I believe they call it auburn hair. Very pretty woman, few freckles across her face here, with great big brown eyes. "And that woman," that nurse said, "Billy, she died in such agony until she screamed out your name as loud as she could, and said, 'Tell him to forgive me,' till the freckles stood out on her face like warts." And those big eyes had set way out and her eyelids had half closed over them. Of course, you know what happens when a person dies, their ... both kidney and bowels move, and she was there just steaming all over. And died in such agony because ... not because she disrespected me, but she disrespected the gospel that I was preaching, and God was working signs and wonders.

47 Sometime ago in New Albany, while I was standing there talking to a sinner, leading him to Christ, a big old rough-handed man in a garage, a man was a friend of mine... His son-in-law run the garage next door. I was standing there preaching---at a dinner hour, eating a sandwich---and talking to him about God. Through the daytime I'd find somewhere where I could go at dinner time and try to win a soul to Christ. He said, "Mr. Branham," he said... I was just a boy preacher, myself. He said, "Mr. Branham," said, "my mother had that kind of religion, that heartfelt religion." And the tears was running down his cheeks.
I said, "How long has she been gone?"
Said "Years. She always prayed for me."
I said, "The God that heard her prayers is trying to answer them right now for her."
And this man walked in there, he said, "Hello." He was drunk. Said, "Hey, Billy, listen." Said, "Anytime you want to come over to my garage," said, "you come, but," said, "don't bring that old holy-roller religion of yours over there."
I turned and looked at him, I said, "Anywhere Christ is not welcome, I'll not be."
And so he turned around and said, "Aw, get next to yourself, boy."
And I just heard in my heart a voice say, "You reap what you sow. It would be better for you that a millstone was hanged at your neck, and drowned in the depths of the sea." And his own son-in-law, that very same afternoon, run over him with a two-ton Chevrolet truck loaded down, and mashed him down in the ground.
See, you've got to respect God. You've got to do... God demands respects. And He demands it.
And so Miriam ought to knowed better. So ought Aaron to knowed better, than ... knowing this, that Moses was led by the Spirit of God to do what he was going to do.

48 Baptist minister wrote me a letter a couple days ago, from up here. Oh, if he didn't rake me over the coals! He said, "A guy that's as lazy as you are! A ministry that would be equal to Elijah, the prophet's," he said, "and then to see you sitting around home, doing nothing!"
So Billy is acting as secretary at the time, he wrote him a letter back. And then he thought, "Well, I believe I'll just answer him," he said. But he thought he better let me read it before he answered it. But it had a lot of diplomacy in it. He said, "Now, this is not my dad, this is me." Said, "You just said that Daddy had a ministry like that of Elijah." And said, "You said he sat down on a creek bank somewhere with a fishing pole in his hand, or up in the mountains with a rifle in his hand." Said, "What will you say about Elijah when he sat three years by the side of the brook?" Said, "Don't you know that they're led by the Spirit of God to do what they're doing?" See, everybody wants to run it their own way. But man must be led by the Spirit of God, and we must give it respects. That's all.

49 Here the other day, a precious soul, here in the city, seen another brother. He said, "Where's Bill at?"
He said, "He's gone up in Canada."
He said, "I guess going hunting?"
He said, "Yes, he's going hunting."
Said, "Aw, nonsense to such stuff."
All right, that man ... not knowing that I was under the power of the Holy Spirit, by a vision of 'Thus saith the Lord,' to go. What will you do at the day of the judgment? What good would it do me to go to the bedside of that man and pray for him? The first place, he doesn't believe me. And people, they come around and say these things, like I don't know that they don't believe it. Though they pat you on the back and call you "brother," yet you know they don't believe it, see. They don't believe it. And you can have... Not one thing you can do for them. They'll call for you to come pray, but it doesn't do any good. Because, you see, they disrespect it. You've got to believe it. Watch those who really believe, and watch what happens. See, you've got to respect it.

50 Jezebel, in the days of Elijah, how she disrespected Elijah! How she... Elijah was actually her pastor. Sure. Oh, she wouldn't receive that. Goodness, no! She was an atheist, or an infidel, or idol-worshipper, and she had her own pagan priests. But yet Elijah was her pastor. God sent him there to be pastor. He was pastor whether... If he did bawl her out and tell her all of her sins, yet he was her pastor. She wouldn't receive it at all, and she disrespected him. She hated him! Sure, she did. And what happened to her? God let the dogs eat her in the street. That's right. Because what? She disrespected the message that Elijah was preaching.

51 God demands respects. You've got to have it. You ever get anything from God, you're going to respect God. And you must do it from your heart, the bottom of your heart. You must do it.
But she disrespected God as she disrespected His prophet. Now, she knowed Elijah was a prophet. They didn't have anything in Israel could keep up with Elijah. Why, his visions and everything was perfect before God. But he condemned them. Mercy, yes! He'd get on every denomination, everything else. And everything that's called sin he condemned it, from the least to the greatest, king and all. He didn't pull any punches for none of them. But they had to know he was a prophet. They just couldn't keep from knowing that. Yes, sir.
Even Ahab tried to accuse him for the drought. And he did pray God to send the drought. Yes, he did. And he said, "I have power and I'll close the heavens; it'll not even rain or dew won't fall till I call for it."

52 Could you imagine that little Jezebel with that painted-up face, stomping up and down that floor, "That old hypocrite! That old hypocrite, causing all these little children out here to suffer," and all like that. Elijah was trying to bring them back to God, trying to win a nation back to God, see. And looked like she could tell the people, "And you mean to tell me you'd believe on a man like that, that would close the lands up like this, and not even rain or dew? And all of his hypocrisy or his witchcraft out there [whatever she wanted to call it], and he's nothing but just a witch or a soothsayer, or something. He's closed the heavens and it won't rain, making all these people suffer. And you say then that's the will of God?"
It was the will of God!

53 No matter what, see, you must look at what... You must respect God regardless of what He does. He knows what He's doing. It did look bad. Children suffering, people suffering, cattle dying, sheep dying, no water nowhere. The nights was hot and sultry, the sun was as bright as brass in the skies through the daytime, for three years and six months. And Elijah sitting up on the mountain, said, "Not even dew will fall till I call for it." That's right. Oh, how they hated him!

54 And when Ahab found him, he said, "You're the one that's troubling Israel, are you?"
Old Elijah looked back in his face, said, "Nay, not me, but you're the one that's troubling Israel." That's right. See, even Ahab didn't have respects for him. And you know what Elijah told Ahab, said, "Because you shed the innocent blood of Naboth, so the dogs will lick your blood, too, in the street." And they did! Because they disrespected God's messenger. That's exactly right. They disrespected it.
Now, Miriam disrespected it. Aaron disrespected it.
No matter who you are, Christian or not Christian, you've got to still bring respects to God, and respect what He's doing, or suffer the consequence. It's either receive it or go into judgment, either one you want to.

55 How I could stand with testimony, for hour after hour, of what I've seen in my lifetime, what I've seen in the other countries and other parts of the nations, and so forth---the things that's taken place. But to omit that, just so that you'll get the idea of what I'm trying to say to you, you must respect it. I've seen young people sit in the meeting, and snicker and laugh in a meeting, and less than twenty-four hours, be crushed into the streets. I've seen young people sit in a meeting, in one year when I was in a place, and next, maybe within six months, go back to the same place, and practically every one of them was gone, or laying stricken somewhere with diseases and things. That's right. You have to respect it.

56 I remember a certain young girl one night, Tennessee, when I was going out the door (preaching in a big Baptist church), was going out the door. And I felt led that night to call her to come to Christ. Well, she laughed in my face when I called her to come to Christ. She happened to be one of the deacon's daughters. And standing at the door that night, she waited for me. When I come out, she said, "I want you to know something right now, don't you never embarrass me like that again."
I said, "God was calling you."
She said, "Nonsense! I'm young," said, "I got plenty of time for that." Said, "My daddy's got enough religion for all of us at home."
I said, "Not enough for you, sister. Every one has to have their own religion."
She said, "If I want anybody to talk to me about that, I'll get somebody that's got some sense, not somebody like you."
I said, "Go, say what you wish to. It don't bother me, but someday you'll regret it."

57 Not long after that, passed through the same city. Here she come down the street with her underskirts hanging down, slopping with a cigarette in her hand, and offered me a drink of whiskey. Same thing! And here's her testimony. She said, "You remember the night you called there?" Said, "That was the truth." She said, "The Spirit of God was testifying to me that night, trying to get me to come." And said, "Since then I could see my mother's soul fry in hell like a pancake, and laugh at it." That's what happens, see.
You've got to respect God. That's all. You've got to do it, brother. That's all. Jezebel disrespected it.

58 And remember another time, there was some irreverent children. They had been raised up in a home...
Elijah, after his days, of course, the people hated him because he called that famine in the land. There was some people had taught their children that "Elijah, a man like that, been translated and taken into heaven? He'd got killed somewhere, and they just buried him and hid him." They didn't believe it.
So Elisha took his place. Now he was the messenger of the day now, after Elijah had been taken up. So he passed down through a certain city, and the children, little children of that city, run out, making fun of him, said, "Say, you old baldhead, why didn't you go up like Elijah did?" See, they didn't believe Elijah went up. There it is. It wasn't the disrespecting the man; it was disrespecting his message. He was the successor to Elisha ... to Elijah. He had the anointing, the spirit of Elijah was upon him. He went right up there and done the very same things that Elijah did. Hallelujah!
Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Yes. "These signs shall follow them that believe."
They disrespected it. And they disrespected Elisha because he believed in Elijah, because the Spirit was upon him. And he turned around and smote the Jordan with his mantle, and opened up the Jordan, went up and done the same kind of miracles that Elijah did. And even all the preachers up there at the school of the prophets said, "The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha," noised abroad in the country.

59 And the people, I bet they laughed to one another, say, "Hey, hey, look, look there. That's a bunch of holy rollers, fanatics, saying that man went to heaven without dying, horses come down. We didn't see any." Certainly they didn't. Certainly not, they didn't. "We didn't see any horses. We didn't hear any chariots anywhere. Nonsense! The old fellow died and they buried him, and then they're trying to make a lot of to do over it."
Just like they'd say today, the same thing!
Like they said about Jesus, they said, "Why, they come and stole His body at nighttime." They even paid soldiers to testify that. But He raised from the dead!
And Elijah was took up in a chariot of fire, with horses of fire.

60 And when this young prophet walked along there, going down through the city... And he had lost his hair, as a young man. He was going down, so these little children run behind him, said, "Hey, why didn't you go up with Elijah?" Said, "You old baldhead, you!" See? And they was giving disrespect. And what did Elisha do? He turned, in the power of the Spirit, and cursed those children. What happened? Two she-bears come from the woods and killed forty-two of them. Right. Disrespects, irreverent. You can't do that. You've got to respect God.

61 If any of them kids had said now, if their father and mother had said, "Now, look, children, they say that Elijah was taken up. Now, we don't know about that, but, anyhow, I don't know whether it's so or not, but I tell you, the best thing to do is just don't say nothing about it. Just go ahead. When he passes... We hear he's coming down through the city today, going to have a street meeting up there. If he does, if you children on the road to school today, meet him, just say, 'How do you do, reverend? How do you do, sir?' or something like that. Speak to him."
But instead of that, no doubt they had been told at home... Oh, they heard Papa and Mama sit at the table and laughing at one another, saying, "What do you know! They said that old holy roller was taken up. Did you ever believe anything like that? And they say this little old baldheaded fellow (just as baldheaded as a pumpkin up there, he ain't over about thirty-five years old), and here he's coming down through there today, going to hold a street meeting. Expect us to believe such nonsense as that. Why, he isn't nothing but a little ... just a mockery. That's all it is. Because, he won't come to our church, you see. Just like Elijah was, he won't come to our churches. He'll probably ... some kind of a witchcraft, hoodoo, hoax that he's got, like Elijah." They didn't believe him. So, the little children was taught that at home.

62 If they'd been taught reverence and respect, they'd have walked out there before that prophet of God and asked for prayer for themselves.
But they had been taught to snicker and laugh, and to make fun. About like the children of today, too many of them today would make fun at a street meeting. They'd make fun at the preaching of the gospel.
So, Elijah cursed them, in the name of the Lord. Not because of the children, but because of the irreverent parents that had brought the children up that way to disrespect God. Two she-bears come out and killed forty-two of them. Now, that's irreverence. God demands respect! When they disrespected His prophet, they disrespected Him. No matter if they didn't believe, they ought to have kept their mouth shut, stay away from it. But, no, they had to put in their nickel's worth. They had to say something that they ought not have said. And what happened to them?

63 Let's take some people who did respect it. Let's take the Shunammite woman, to the same prophet, Elijah. She was actually not an Israelite. She was from Shunem, but she believed in God. And she seen this man pass through the town, heard him speak, she seen the signs that he done.
It's told in history---I don't know whether it's true or not---that one day a bunch of wild dogs was trying to catch a little girl. Now, this isn't Scripture, it's just a story that I read. And said the Shunammite woman was standing on the corner, and she saw that these dogs was going to kill this little girl. And this holy man was passing through town, and he raised up his staff to God, and cried out for mercy for them little children like that, and the dogs turned and went away from them. Whether it was so or not, sounds like it could be, I don't know.

64 But, anyhow, this woman said ... when ... the Bible... When she perceived that this was a holy man, she perceived something had happened. She seen what he was, and perceived that he was a holy man from God. And, instead of disrespecting him like Jezebel did, she respected him. She said to her husband, "We are well able to do this. I pray thee, let's build him a little house out here somewhere. Let's give him a little place, for he's weary. I've watched him. He's getting old, and I notice his gray hair as it hung down in his beard, his little old staff, his little skinny arms as he walked along, the little flabby arms, like that. And here he come walking along, packing a little cruse of oil on his side, with a piece of sheepskin wrapped around him, in the hot sun, his body looked scorched and red. And I pray thee, let's make him a little station, to stop here. Let's get the contractor and come out here and build him a little place, and put him up, because I perceive that his spirit, by his spirit, he's a holy man. He's a man of God." Oh, oh, what a difference!

65 Now, her husband agreed. He might have said, "Darling, I have noticed that man, too. I've listened at him, I've watched him, I've seen his works. I know he's a holy man of God. So we'll just do that." So they called the contractor and built him a nice little place, and put him a little bed there to rest, so he could lay down and rest. Fixed him a place to wash his feet, got some water and things, and fixed it in there.
And when the prophet came by, of course, that blessed his soul to see that something had been done for him. He said to Gehazi, "Go call her, and ask her what could I do for her. Could I speak to the king, to the chief captain?"
She said, "I dwell among my people, and there's nothing I have need of."
But Gehazi said, "She has no children. And her husband is well stricken in age. He's old. They have no children."
Then I'd imagine, Elijah laying there on this little bed that she had blessed him by making, had his feet all washed, and his beard's all washed out, and things, laying there, no doubt but what he seen the vision of the Lord, because they always did that. So he said, "Go, call her, and tell her to stand here before me." Oh, my! "Go, call her, because she has respected God. Go, tell her to come here."
When she stood in the door, he said, "Thus saith the Lord. About this time next year, you'll bear a baby." And about that time next year, she had the baby.

66 Then Satan... When he got to be about twelve years old, his father had him out in the field one day, and Satan said, "I'll get rid of that child," so he just give him a sunstroke. And he died in his mother's arms.
Did that discourage her? No, sir. She said, "Saddle a mule, and go forward, don't stop. Go up to Mount Carmel, to the mountain, because he just passed through here the other day." Oh, oh, oh, my! There you are. That's respect. That's respect.
And her husband said, "You're going to the man of God." Said, "It's neither new moon or sabbath, he won't be up there in his..."
She said, "All will be well, just saddle the mule and let me go on." And so away they went.

67 And they got up into the mountain. And when old Elijah looked out of the cave, and he come out there and looked at him, said, "This looks like that Shunammite woman coming." Said, "She must be grieved." He said, "Go meet her." And said, "She's grieved in her heart, and God's never told me nothing about it."
See, God don't have to tell you everything, see, so He don't even tell His prophets everything. He just does what He wants to do, He's God.

68 Now, Elijah said, "God..." What if Elijah said this, "Why didn't You tell me why she's coming? Why didn't You tell me all about it?" He'd have never seen a thing. But it was all right with Elijah, whatever it was.
And what if she would have come up and said ... she'd say, "You said you was a servant of God? You hypocrite! I do believe you ain't nothing but a holy roller"? It'd never've happened, see. God tries us sometimes, see what we'll do.

69 So, instead of that, she run right up to his feet and worshipped, like she was to God. And she said ... and she revealed to him what was the matter. And Elijah said, "Take my staff and go lay it on the child."
And when he did, the woman said, "As the Lord God liveth, and your soul never dies [oh, my], thou servant of God, I'll not leave you. I'm going to stay here till God sends the vision." Old Elijah stayed there a little while longer, girded up his loins, and took his staff and here he went.
He went into the room where that baby was laying, a dead baby. Walked up and down the floor, like that, a few times. Because of a reverent woman, a woman that respected him, a man that respected him, and believed him to be a man of God, he walked back and forth up and down the floor until God answered. Amen. Then he laid hisself upon the baby and it sneezed seven times, and picked it up and give it to the mother. Walked on out, back up to the cave he went. Because she respected the man of God! Amen. God demands respect.

70 What about Martha? She was always thinking about fixing Jesus a good dinner. Mary wanted to hear the Word of God, so she just sat around and listened at Him. She didn't care whether the pillow cases was changed, or whether the curtains was dusted, or whether they had anything to eat or not, she just wanted to hear what Jesus was going to say. But Martha always wanted to cook Him a good dinner, and be sure that the chair was made soft and it was set just right, and everything was cleaned up like that. But she wanted to do something for Jesus in her way; and Mary wanted to do it in her way. But one day when Lazarus come... Many people talk against Martha, said she ought to've been more interested. Oh, no, just a moment. See, there come a time for Martha to show hers. And then when Jesus... When Lazarus died, her brother, she sent for Him to come pray for him. He did not come. He ignored the call. He went on somewhere else. She sent again. He still ignored the call.

71 But when finally He come, seemed like now that she could have walked out to Him and said, "Why didn't you come? Why didn't you come when I called you? My brother was laying there, sick. We've left our church, we left our organization, we done everything to follow your message because we did believe that you were a man of God. But how could a man of God... ? And we two orphaned ... three orphaned children here, three orphaned people, and our livelihood was making tapestries for that temple. We was members there, our mother and father was members there. But because that you hoaxed us into a thing, to believing this what you're trying to teach, saying that you're a son of God and a prophet sent from God, and these things... How can we ever believe you, a man that wouldn't even listen to me when I called for You? When I was in need and had need of you, you ignored my message and went on. And I sent again, and you still ignored it. Why did you do a thing like that?" If she'd have done that, the story would have been different tonight.

72 What did she do? She run right straight to where He was, fell down at His feet and said, "Lord, if thou would have been here, my brother would not have died." Oh, there you are. What was she doing? She was respecting. She was in the presence of God, and she respected Him. She called Him her Lord. "Lord, if thou would have been here." (Not, "I sent for you!" That was all forgotten.) " Now you're here, see. If you would have been here, my brother would not have died."
He said, "Thy brother shall rise again."
"Oh," she said, "yes, Lord, I know he'll raise again in the last day."
And He said, "But I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
"I believe, Lord, that thou art the Son of God that was to come into the world. And even now, Lord..." Oh! "Even now!" Not, "Lord, you ought to have done this and you ought to have done that! But, "Even now, whatever you ask God, God will give it to you." That's it.

73 What if we could say that to someone tonight, "Oh, my brother, I believe that what you ask God, God gives it to you."? The same results would come.
But no matter how much He was, if He was... And we know He was the Son of God. If she had disrespected it, it would've never worked. That was from her heart. She said, "Even now, Lord, whatever you ask God, God would give it to you." That's it. That's it. From her heart, she believed it. If He would have took a hunting trip or a fishing trip, that wouldn't have made no difference to her.

74 No, if Elijah had went on a hunting trip or went somewhere, it'd made no difference to the Shunammite woman. She still believed him to be a man of God. Sure. No matter what he did, he was still the man of God to her, because she had seen God moving in his life.
And to Martha, no matter what taken place, she had seen what God did for him. She said, "Even now, Lord, whatever you ask God, God will give it to you." Ah, there you are.
He said, "Thy brother shall rise again." And so He said, "Where have you buried him?" And they went down to the grave. And He called Lazarus from the grave, after being dead for four days. Why? Because Lazarus' sister respected what He was.

75 If you can't respect the man, respect the office he holds in God. That's exactly right, see, respect him. If a minister comes up, your pastor, always respect him. I've heard congregations talk about their pastor, just talk about him, run him down, ridicule him. How is that pastor ever going to do anything for you? He can't do it. You don't re... I don't say this church, but I mean churches I have seen, that if... You've got to love your pastor. You've got to know that he's a human being, but yet God has made him His pastor. The Holy Ghost has made him overseer, then you've got to respect him in that manner. And no matter what the pastor's done, if you respect him in your heart, as God's servant, God will respect you for doing it.
"He that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me," Jesus said. "He that don't receive me, can't receive him." See, they said God was their Father; He said, "Your father's the devil."
So, you see, you've got to respect it and believe it, believe that He is. Yes, Martha believed it.

76 And that's one little thing I hit on this morning, that Syrophenician woman that time when she come up. Look how she was turned down, bitterly. There He was, a Jew; she was a Gentile. And she run up to Him. She didn't know how to approach Him, but she had a need, and she knowed that He was that Son of God. She believed it. If God would answer his prayer for others, He'd answer prayer for her. And she knowed what He said was the Word of God. If it was the Word of God for the Jews, it was the Word of God for the Gentiles, too, whatever He said. And Jesus give her a trial. She said, "Lord, have mercy!" Now watch. No, she said, "Thou Son of David," because she had heard the Jews saying, "Thou Son of David." Now, He wasn't Son of David to her, see. She said "Thou Son of David!" That would have been the way a Jew would have approached it. Because she had heard the rest of them, she tried to come like they did, because she was trying to find respects. She was trying to show her respect. And she wasn't just making out; Jesus would've knowed if it was. No, He'd have knowed it.

77 So as she come up, she said, "Thou Son of David, have mercy upon my daughter, because she's variously vexed with a devil."
He turned and looked at her, and said, "It's not meet for me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs." Whew! Wasn't that one? That was one! Not only turned her down on her request, but called her a dog. That's right. And a dog is one of the lowest names the Bible has, you know. So He said, "Not meet for me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs."
She said, "That's truth, Lord." Lord, then she got it. He was no Son of David to her, but He was Lord. Said, "True, Lord. That's right, but the children eat the scraps under the..." Or, I mean, "... the dogs eat the scraps under the master's table." That got it. That was it. That was the respect.
Jesus turned to her, said, "Great is your faith. Now go home, you're going to find your daughter just as you have believed." That's it. Why? It was her approach.

78 What if she'd have turned around and said... He turned around, said, "It's not meet for me to take..." In other words, "It's not proper."
Say a Catholic come up and say, "Oh, Brother Branham, I know God hears your prayers for these people here. Will you pray for me?"
And I'd say, "Well, it's not right for me to take these children's time up here. I'm here to pray for these Pentecostals, not for you bunch of Catholics," see. What would she have said? Oh, man, I imagine she'd have stomped out of here like everything, see.
But she turned and she said, "That's true, Lord. That's true, Lord. But we're willing, the dogs are willing to eat the scraps under the master's table."
See, that caught Him right quick. He turned and said, "Great is your faith." And then we find another case. See, it was her approach, her respects. She was respecting God as she respected Him.

79 So we find one time there was a Roman, and he was a great man, and he loved the Jews. And he had a servant that was sick. Hisself, he didn't feel worthy to go ask Jesus.
See, you always want to feel a lot littler than what you are. Don't never be big in your own sight, see. Now, if you're big, let somebody else say it about you, see.
But now when you, this woman ... or this man, rather, he said he was a Roman centurion and he had a sick servant, so he sent to get this sick servant healed. And Jesus said, "I'll come heal him."

80 So on his road the Roman seen Him coming. I imagine he said, "Oh, my, here comes that holy one. Here comes that holy one. Well, I'm a no-account Gentile. I'm a Roman centurion. I'm a general ... or, an officer. I'm really not a Jew, I have no right for that holy man to come." See the respect? See? "I don't have the right to have that holy servant of God come to my house."
Saw Him come to the door, and he called Him, said, "Lord, I'm not worthy that You'd come under my roof." Probably had a palace of a home, a centurion. Said, "I'm not worthy that You'd come under my roof. And I didn't think myself worthy to even come to You, so I sent some of your own blessed people, the Jews. But I have a servant here that's very sick." And he said, "I'm a man under authority." Said, "I say to this soldier, 'You go,' and he goes. I say to this one, 'You come,' and he comes."

81 What did he say there? "I know that You have all power. You can say to this disease, 'Go,' and it goes. And you can say to this one, 'Come,' and it would come." See, he recognized. And as he had authority over these soldiers, so Jesus had authority over all sickness and diseases. "Only thing you have to do, Lord, is just speak the word." That's it! "Just speak the word, my servant will live."
Jesus stopped, turned around to them Jews, said, "I haven't found faith like that over in Israel."
He said, "It's all right with your servant." Amen. Why? Because he respected it. He respected Jesus Christ who was the God of heaven.

82 Now, I guess it's getting late. I just want to say one more thing. Is this: all those great respects, and so forth, but today, somehow, it's different. God can do something today, and people will laugh at it. I believe that we'd have been different today, about forty years ago when the Holy Ghost first begin to fall, but what'd the people do? Locked up the preachers, called them holy rollers. Went out on the... Wouldn't even feed them in the cities, and everything like that; and they broke corn on the railroad tracks, to live by. What did they do? They had another forty years, the church has, suffering, went through everything. Two wars in that much time, see, it's killed off thousands of them---when she had probably done been gone home.

83 Now, what would have taken place, when God began to pour out the Holy Ghost upon the church in the last days, what would have happened twenty-five years ago when He began to send down His signs and wonders and miracles, what would have taken place if the people would have all rallied over it? What did they do? They said, "It's hoodoo, it's hypnotism, he's a mental telepathist, he's this, that, or the other." What if all the nation would have went together and said, "Blessed be the name of the Lord"? What if the Methodists, and Baptists, and Presbyterians, and all, would have joined hands together and said, "Thank God, here's what we've looked for. The Holy Ghost is being poured out. Why, here's men who sees visions, here's prophets among us, here is all these great gifts here, speakers with tongues, here's divine healers, here's everything is being poured out upon us. Thanks be to God! It come through a humble little bunch called Pentecostals. Let's all go back to the Bible again. Let's go back, brethren, break up our organizations, and all be one brother"? The great churches all together would have come together, what would have happened? Brother, there wouldn't even had need of a hospital in the land today. That's right. No, there'd have been such powerful great gifts and wonders working amongst the people, there'd've been such a respect, and perhaps the church would done been gone home and the millennium would've been on.

84 But, no, they disrespected it. They called them holy rollers. The newspapers waited to say every slandering, dirty thing they could, and put every dirty slang to it they could do it, and things like that, and churches hee-hawed and laughed at it, and made fun of them, and turned them away and tried to keep them out of the cities, and everything else, with disrespect. Now, I could say a lot about that, but it's getting late.

85 Let me come to the Branham Tabernacle, please. Now God's begin to pour out gifts upon us. We see it. Now, what is the gift of God today? Is the Holy Spirit, it's the Holy Ghost that's in us. We've got to respect that. We've got to respect it on every person it comes upon. We've got to give ... to God's divine gifts. When He sends those gifts, no matter how real they are, it'll never help us until we get to a place till we can respect it. Somebody can give a prophecy; if you don't believe in that prophecy, it'll never do you any good. You've got to have reverence and you've got to respect it. You've got to believe that it comes from God.
Believe it till it's proved wrong. Then when it's proved wrong, then you have a right to disbelieve it. Then don't associate with it no more. But as long as it's being proven out to be the truth, then believe it.

86 Like old Samuel said that day when they wanted a king. He said, "I want to ask you one thing. Have I ever taken any of your money from you? Have I ever asked you for a living? Or have I ever told you anything in the name of the Lord but what come to pass?" He said, "You don't need no king, and your king will do you no good." And he told them, he brought them the question, said, "Have I ever told you anything as 'Thus saith the Lord' but what happened?"
Now, then the people disrespected Samuel. "Oh, we know, Samuel. That's right, we can't say that you never told us anything but what was right, but, still we want to do it this way." See? You mustn't do that. You must do it God's way.

87 When we receive the Holy Ghost, it's not shaking hands with the pastor. Receiving the Holy Ghost is receiving Christ into you, because He is God's messenger of the day. The Holy Ghost is God's messenger, and we must respect Him. When He comes, don't say, "Hee! Hee! Hee! Look at that woman shouting there, and crying, tears running down her cheeks. Look at that man there, shaking his hands and trembling and crying. You know what that is? That's a bunch of worked-up emotion." You're blaspheming the Holy Ghost. You've got to respect that.

88 Remember, here sometime ago I was in Oregon, about ... been about twelve years ago. And two little Catholic reporter girls come down. Not because they were Catholic, nothing ... no more that, because I've had just as many Protestants, and more Protestants than I have Catholics, to make fun of me. And so these girls come down to give a report. So as soon as they got in there, I caught the spirit soon as they come in, and I said, "All right, now what criticism you got up your sleeve now?" And this girl pulled out a cigarette and started, and I said, "Just don't light that while you're in my cabin. Just leave it alone."

89 So sat there a little bit, and she looked at me as if she could run through me like that, and she began to talk some. She said, "Well, I want to ask you some questions."
I said, "Say on."
She said, "How come that you are connected up with this bunch of holy rollers up here?" Said, "Are you one of them?"
I said, "I'm one of them."
And she said, "Well, do you mean to tell me there'd be anything godly about that?"
I said, "Not ... you as a Catholic wouldn't believe it."
She said, "How do you know I'm a Catholic?"
I said, "I know you're a Catholic. I'll tell you what your name is, see, and who you are." That took her off her feet.
She said, "Well, you mean to tell me that that kind of a people they say will live here on earth and be in heaven?" She said, "I wouldn't want to be in heaven with such people as that."
I said, "You don't have to worry very much. As long as you think that way, you won't be there, anyhow, see." I said, "You won't have any worry about that."

90 I just stood, looked her right in the face. And a couple of the brethren was sitting in the building. I said, "I'm not being irritable. I just want to let you know where you're standing, see." And I said, "You're going to write ... want to come down here to find out some stuff, and you would never write what I told you. You'll make it your own story. You go ahead and do that, but I want to tell you one thing. You write anything scandal you want to, and," I said, "before you die, my voice will call back into your ears. If it doesn't, then you know I'm a false prophet." I said, "Now, you just write whatever you want to, it's up to you. I give you liberty to go write what you want to. But before you die, you'll hear my voice screaming in your ears. It'll do you no good." I said, "Now you go ahead and write what you want to."

91 She stood there a little bit. She said, "Well, what do you think about that idiotic bunch up there, screaming and carrying on last night?"
I said, "They're all Christians."
"Christian?"
I said, "Sure, they're Christians." I said, "They're Christians, filled with the Holy Ghost."
She said, "That's not no Holy Ghost."
I said, "What would you call the Holy Ghost?"---see what she had to say about it. I said, "I'd like to tell you something."
She said, "Well, I wouldn't want to associate myself with a bunch like that."
I said, "I don't think there's much danger," I said, "of you ever associating yourself like that." I said, "Because, if you ever associated with God or with any of the saints, you'd associate like that."
She said, "The Bible saints?"
I said, "Yes." I said, "Your 'blessed virgin Mary,' you call her, who is your goddess," I said, "before God would ever let her come to heaven, she had to go up to the day of Pentecost and receive the Holy Ghost, and staggered under the power of God like a drunk woman."
She said, "That is a lie."

92 I said, "Hold your peace just a minute." I turned over here to the Book, and I said, "Look here," turned over. I said, "Here it is right here in the Book." She turned her head. I said, "You haven't even got the audacity to read God's Word." See? I said, "Sure." See, disrespectful. I said, "Now you can take your pack of cigarettes off the table there, and go when you're ready." But I said, "I want you to know one thing. You write whatever you want to, but remember the last words I say: 'In the name of the Lord, you'll remember it before you die.'" She never wrote nothing. That's right. She just let it go.
What is it? Disrespects, trying to make fun, doing something they don't know what they're doing. Right.

93 But here in the Tabernacle, we want you all to know these things here. When God begins to pour out the Holy Spirit upon people, sometimes I know I've seen people get in the flesh when they were under the anointing of the Spirit. I've seen them go to extremes with things, but don't you say nothing about it. You respect it, bow your head. You might not understand it, neither would I, but I want to respect it, anyhow. Now, we must have respects to God. And when God pours out the Holy Spirit, I just say, "Thank You, heavenly Father. You are doing something for that poor precious soul that wants to come to your home like I do someday."

94 And I see men ... like here one time a brother that's in the ministry said that I talked about him. And we went and got all the tapes and sent to him. It was Brother A. A. Allen. And he said that I made fun of him talking about blood coming out of your hand and calling that the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost. And I believe it was blood and oil coming out of his hands and forehead, and things. He said that was ... that I made fun of that and told him that it was of the devil. I sent back, I wrote him a letter. I said, "Brother Allen..." He wrote a piece and you read it, "Dear Brother Branham." See, and so then put out tracts all across the country. Instead of coming and see me about it, he did that.

95 But now here's what I said. I said, "I'll take all six nights at Phoenix, and send you my tapes and show you." Which Leo and them did, and sent the tapes to them. I said, "Only one time your name was called. The people put up on my desk, and said, 'Brother Branham, Brother Allen has just been in the town and told us that the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost was bleeding in the hands and bleeding in the face, and oil running out of your hands. That was the initial evidence.'"
I said, "I disagree with Brother Allen upon that being the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost, because there was nowhere in the Bible where they ever bled at the hands, and oil come out of their face and hands, to prove they had the Holy Ghost." I said, "The Holy Ghost was the power of God in their lives. And Jesus said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe,' see. 'In my name they shall cast out devils,' and so forth." But I said, "Here's one thing I would say about Brother Allen: he's a great man of God. And if I could preach as good as Brother Allen could, I'd never have a healing service---I'd just preach the gospel."
Then, see, after he done put that paper out and everything, that I did that, just on what somebody else said. But even I disagreed with the brother upon his theory, I certainly wouldn't want to blaspheme the brother.

96 Then standing right up here in Minnesota, that night in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and there was in the great cathedral, temple, with Gordon Peterson. And this guy that wrote that book against A. A. Allen, and said everything about him that could be said. And said, "He even had the audacity to write that book of Biting Devils, about that woman, showed prints on her hands where a devil bit her, and things like that." Now I certainly ... I don't know whether that could be true or not, because the devil is a spirit, you see; but this woman claimed a big hairy devil come and bit her all over the hands and over her face, and everything like that. And he said, "A. A. Allen wrote that book." And the man that wrote the book wrote a nice article about me, and here he was sitting right there in the meeting that night. When Brother Peterson and them come told me, there he sat, and was bragging on me, and downing A. A. Allen.

97 I thought, "Here's the time I can take up for Brother Allen."
So I walked out there, and I said, "I was reading here the article in the paper today that this certain man that's in the city [knowing he was sitting right out there]..." I said, "He said here that A. A. Allen..." and all the criticism. I said, "Although I appreciate the man saying the compliment about me that he did," I said, "that I wasn't out for money and things like that, and held the cleanest meetings of any of them, and so forth, the nice things he said," I said, "I appreciate that. But if that man that wrote this article here in the paper never checked his notes any closer than to say A. A. Allen wrote this "Biting Of Devils," A. A. Allen never wrote that book. I know the man that wrote it." I said, "He never wrote the book at all. And if the man never checked up on his article any closer than that, I doubt that the rest that he's ever said about Brother Allen is the truth." Taking up for Brother Allen. And I said, "Besides, if Brother Allen would be wrong, I'd rather be found at the judgment bar taking my stand with Brother Allen in the wrong, when he's trying to win souls to Christ, than to be criticizing what the man's trying to do." Amen. That's right. Yes, sir.

98 Ever who calls on the name of Jesus Christ, I'm with him whether he's Protestant, Catholic, or whatever he is. I might disagree with him upon theology, but I want to respect him as a servant of Christ and as my brother, see. No matter what he does, we've got to give respects to the Holy Spirit. Exactly right. Yes, sir. And when we get to doing that, then God will go to pouring His blessings among us. Just us little group right here---about fifty or sixty, or maybe seventy-five people sitting in here tonight---if we would just, all together, bind ourselves together and give godly respects to God and to the Holy Spirit, and what He's doing in this day, and respect every gift and every office that He sends into our midst, God will just continue to pour out His Spirit upon us and we'll grow in numbers and multiply. Don't you believe that? Sure. We've got to have respects unto God.

99 Let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer. Before we go to prayer, I'd like to know if there's anybody in here would like to say, "Brother Branham, I want you to pray for me, that I'll have great respects for God, that I'll always be able to keep my mouth shut against God's things, no matter what they are, and may God place in my heart to respect every divine gift He sends into the church." Will you just raise your hands, and say, "Pray for me." God bless you. Nearly every hand in the church, and I had mine up, too.
God, help me to be a servant of yours. Help me to respect my brothers, help me to respect my sisters. And every spirit of God that comes into the meeting, whether it be speaking with tongues, whether it be interpretation of tongues, whether it be prophecy, whether it be gifts of discernment, whatever it is, I say, "O Lord Jesus, send them, send them, O Lord. I am thankful to You."

100 Now, heavenly Father, we know that Thou art a great and terrible God. We know that thy wrath is terrible. When once Thou hast thy temper up, why, it's a terrible thing. The wrath of God can destroy the world in a second. But when You look down upon the blood of the Lord Jesus, then your wrath is turned away. Oh, hide me over in the Rock of Ages! Lord God, keep my soul covered with the blood of the Lord Jesus. Not only mine, Lord, but those that are in here, too, tonight. We love You, Lord. And every gift that You have given us, though they may call us anything they want to do, Lord, that still will not ... don't want that to have one thing to do with it. We still respect You, the great One, the great Holy Spirit. We love You, Father.

101 We thank You for a gift of healing among us. We thank You for the gift of prophecy among us. We thank You for the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation. And, O God, we pray that You'll continue to send gifts among us, gifts of the great Holy Spirit. Above all things, Lord, we're ... greatest appreciation we have in our heart is for that great all-sufficient gift of Jesus Christ. We thank You for His grace and His mercy, who makes all these other minor things eligible to us by His vicarious suffering and bleeding at Calvary. He sanctifies the common people that hears Him gladly.
And, Lord, we're so glad that You come to common people. In the Bible, in the book of St. Luke, we read that the common people heard Him gladly. Today they say, "Oh, that's just a common bunch." But, Lord, that's the bunch that heard You when You were here in flesh. The common people heard You gladly. The haughty, the rich, and many of those would not hear You. The kings, the potentates, the priests of the day, would not hear You. But the common people gladly received You.

102 And Father, tonight, we are common people, and we gladly receive You. We are glad, like they were when they come back rejoicing, and thinking it was a wonderful thing, and happy because they could bear the reproach of His name, when they reproached them and called them everything. And they were so happy, because it was a privilege for them to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Father, God, we join ourselves with them disciples of that day, and say, "Happy are we."
I stand tonight like St. Paul of old, when he stood before Agrippa, and he said, "In the way that's called heresy, crazy, that's the way I worship the God of our fathers."
And when Agrippa said, "Paul, too much learning has made thee mad."
He said, "I am not mad, Agrippa."
And then he finally got into a place till he said, "Thou almost persuadest me to be a Christian."
He said, "I would that you were as I, even without these chains and bonds."

103 O God, what love that Paul had! He said he would become accursed, that his people might be saved. O Father, God, give us love for one another like that. Give us that undying love, that decency, that respect for one another, to be Christian enough to look over each other's mistakes, to look over---because a man has been blessed of God, and he might make a mistake. O Father, let us not look at that mistake, knowing that that's a precious brother that maybe Satan did trap him into something. But if he did, we pray, Lord, that You'll help he or she out of that place, that we'll have love in our hearts to go after the lost sheep and bring them back to the fold. Grant it, Lord. Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. Grant it, Lord. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

104 [Brother Neville gives a message of prophecy. "Yea, I say unto thee this night, My people, that I have called thine attention upon this special occasion to understand the things which I say unto thee this night concerning My ministry. Yea, I say this night, thou has well done that thou has heard My voice and heeded My servant as he has spoke unto thee. For this night again I have vindicated the office of his ministry. Yea, even My servant and My prophet that I have brought into thy presence, lo, these two times this day, I say, let thine heart this night melt within thee because I am revealing in this night service and through this day I am again revealing unto thee the office of My prophet in this day. Yea, I say, hear him in these things which he has brought to thee this night for, lo, I will reward thee with many things that shall come into thy house. And, yea, I will care for thee as a tender father careth for his children. And, lo, My servant this night, yea, I have again lifted thee up in the eyes of these people who have looked unto thee. And I say, my servant, yea, I have been with thee and, yea, I will continue to be with thee, and upon thee am I bestowing the things that follow the office of thy prophet. Yea, I say that I shall bless thee in many things and in many places. I say tonight, I confirm at this time again in the hearts of the people that, yea, this is the time that we should settle these issues that thou should see, my people. Open thine eyes and receive it this night, for I say that I am amongst thee to bless thee exceedingly, though I thin the ranks daily because some have not believed. Hear me this night and turn thy heart toward Me and toward the office of My prophet." Thus saith the Lord.]
Amen. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father. Praise Thee, O holy One. How glorious art Thou, Father! How we thank Thee, Lord! What comfort it is to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and hear Him speak through human lips to us, confirming that He still remains God, and in our midst. We thank Thee for this, Father. Continue with us, Lord. Bear with us, that we might be thy people. Through Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen.

105 Isn't it wonderful to be a Christian? Isn't it wonderful to know God and to know His presence? To think that today now, how He has did this even to the second time. Today He spoke to the sister here, come in in that light, as He did, and spoke to them because they had believed the message. He's glorious, isn't He? Don't you love Him? How many love Him with all your heart, with all your soul? He is wonderful. Now let's stand up to our feet, as we sing that good old song we all like.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me;
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Oh, isn't He wonderful? Wonderful! Now, remember the service Wednesday night. And then, if the Lord willing, I'll be here next Sunday again, the Lord willing. Pray for us through the week. As we bow our heads now in prayer, I'm going to ask Brother Neville, our pastor, if he'll come up for the last words that he'll give you.