Why?

Good evening, friends. It's really a grand privilege to be here tonight; and one thing, to be back in Arkansas, and another thing, to be on the campground. I believe this is my first camp meeting that I have attended for a long time. And I had the invitation to come and to begin with you. And I've heard, since I just come in, you've been having a wonderful time here at this meeting. I'm so thankful for that.

And I ... coming up along the road a few moments ago with my son, and we were talking about years ago when I first come down here to Arkansas—was first of my meetings. When I first started off, it was in Arkansas—in the evangelistic type of the meetings, anyhow. And since then been seven times around the world. And now, I'm back in Arkansas. Like bad money, always returns. I have ... everywhere I've been, I suppose, in United States, I've asked, “Any people here from Arkansas?” I've always had friends from Arkansas, pretty near everywhere. And I've always said some of the truest hearts, I believe, that ever beat was under them old blue shirts down here in Arkansas. Real fine people. I love you.

And I'm grateful to God for the opportunity to be back tonight in Arkansas, be here with you (and so, I think we got three nights yet left in the convention), and to have the opportunity to come in and express my love to Jesus Christ, and have fellowship with you people and our fine bunch of brethren here, who many of them I don't know. I just looked around, and seen one that I do know—Brother Jack Moore. I just happened to ... and Sister Moore. I happened to recognize them then. And we're certainly happy to be in.

Now, I know, all day long, you must get tired—you know, physically tired. We never get enough of ... get tired praising, and blessing God for his goodness. How wonderful He is! And ... but all day long, and then when nighttime comes, then here I come in. And I am kind of one of those ministers that's been given the idea of speaking a long time. But, I don't think we'll do it now, because of this squeeze in the convention. You've heard great speakers, no doubt, all through the day, and through the convention. And then, to stand up here on the platform before all these fine speakers that ... I feel pretty small to stand here.

One of the ministers I just shook hands with told me this was their first services to have in this ... tabernacle, I would call it. I don't know just exactly what—temple, or whatever it is. And we're certainly thankful again for the opportunity to come into a new church, something that's erected to the praise and honor of God. How wonderful!

And we are ... just moved back—or not moved back, just come back—from the ... for the school vacation for the children. We live in Tucson, Arizona, now. And it's been awfully hot out there. But we find it's a little bit hotter here at home than it was out there, because of the tremendous humidity. And it kind of puts us down, after getting kind of used to the air there.

We got in home, and had the first service last Sunday. And we seen the Lord Jesus continue in his great work of love, and power among the people. And the same gospel that I preached to you fifteen years ago here in Arkansas, I still believe the same thing. Just don't change it. It's Christ.

Sunday there was something taking place at the church. I just happened to look around and see the gentlemen on which the miracle was performed.

You know, there's ... we all love to brag on the Lord Jesus. We love to. I had a woman one time to tell me, she said that's the only fault she could find with me: I brag too much about Jesus.

I said, “I'm sure to go to heaven, if that's all the faults I have —bragging on Jesus.”

And so, she just didn't think He was divine. She tried to say He was just a man, philosopher, a prophet, or something on that order; but I said He was God. And so He is.

And she said, “I can prove to you that he wasn't God.”

And I said, “Oh, I don't think you can do that.”

She said, “I can prove to you he was only human.”

I said, “I'll admit He was human. But, He was both human and divine.”

She said, “He couldn't be divine.”

And I said, “Oh, He was divine, and He is divine.”

She said, “Oh, he couldn't be. I'll prove it by your own Bible.”

I said, “All right.”

And she said, “On—St. John, the 11th chapter—on the road down to the grave of Lazarus, the Bible said Jesus wept.”

I said, “Well, what's that got to do with it?”

She said, “Well, if he weeps, it proves he's not divine.”

I said, “Lady, your argument's thinner than the broth made out of the shadow of a chicken that starved to death.” I said, “You know better than that.” I said, “He was human as He went to the grave of Lazarus, crying. That's right. But when He straightened his little shoulders up, and said, 'Lazarus, come forth,' and a man that'd been dead for four days stood on his feet and lived again, that was more than a man.” I still believe Him to be that.

Sunday, while speaking, I was asking the people to turn around in the Tabernacle, and shake hands with each other. And there's a dear friend.... I've just learned to love him. He just come into the church, he and his wife. His wife's a registered nurse. And he, himself, is an Englishman; she's a Norwegian. How that ever happened, I don't know. But, however, they're both fine people. And this brother has had a little something wrong, kind of, in his heart—and a very fine Christian man, and an intellectual man, too. He does secular work for accountants, and so forth.

And he turned around. And when he did, a heart attack struck him, and he pitched over on the floor, dead. And his wife being a nurse, she grabbed him quickly, and grabbed his pulse over his heart. He was gone. And I looked at his face—real dark. His eyes was turned back—not just closed his eyes, but eyes pushed out in front. And he was....

I come over the platform, try to get the audience quietened. Many people was trying to help the sister, of course, in that condition with her husband. Someone had laid something over his head, or under his head rather.

And I took a hold of his (heart), his pulse at his arm—and no more pulse than there is on that piece of wood.

And then I knelt down, and prayed: “Lord Jesus, I pray Thee give back our Brother Way his life.”

And his heart beat four or five times, and it started off beating regular again. And he come back up again. And he was trying to talk; he couldn't talk. He was ... the blood stops, you know, when the heart stops. And it was quite some time before his blood got circulating just right. And I heard him call my name. And then I got back on the platform.

Brother Way, I wonder if you could just stand up so the people could see who the man was. That's the man, dropped dead Sunday morning. Sister Way, his wife, a nurse, who was standing there to take his pulse, you see.

So, I ... that sounds very strange maybe, to people who wouldn't believe these things. But I have seen the Lord Jesus raise the dead, many times. And that's not new to us. So, we wouldn't ... I think it's fine to brag on Jesus. But I think it ought to be some truth what you're bragging about. So, we've seen Him....

I've seen Him in the last fifteen years, many infallible cases, raise up the dead,

especially one in Mexico, where Brother Moore and I was standing in Mexico City. A little baby died one morning at nine o'clock, with pneumonia, in a doctor's office. And, little woman, we couldn't get her to the.... Well, the man had give out all the prayer cards. And we just had to number them as they would come up. There was no more prayer cards. And this little Spanish sister (about, I guess, twenty-five years old) had a little dead baby. It was raining, and she had it under a blanket.

And the night before that there'd been a blind man that was, oh, probably as old as my father would be, probably seventy years old. Was blind, and he received his sight when I was praying for him.

And that night.... Platform practically was wide as this is across here, with this rick of ... oh, way high, two or three feet, with just shawls and hats and old garments that they'd laid up there.

And this little woman was trying to get up there. And Billy Paul, my son, came and said, “Dad, I've got pretty near three hundred ushers there, and all three hundred can't hold that little woman.” She had a dead baby under her little blue blanket.

I said, “Well....” I said to Brother Jack Moore, “Go down.”

Brother Jack Moore and I have a lot of things in common. I don't want to say we look alike, because he's such a handsome man. But one thing about Brother Moore, we both part our hair the same way. We have a lot of things in common. I thought she'd never know me. They had to let me down, on some ropes, I think, to get in. So I sent him down to pray for the little baby. I thought, “Well, they won't ... she'll never know the difference.”

And so, I was ... started to speak again, when Brother Espinoza (many of you brethren know him from the West Coast) was doing the interpreting. It's just out there by the bull ring in Mexico City.

And I looked out over the audience, and I seen a vision of a little Mexican baby, sitting, smiling at me.

So I said, “Bring the little lady here.”

So, laid hands upon the little dead, stiff, cold form. Its feet began to kick, and it began to scream, and there he was, alive.

And I sent a runner (Espinoza did), to check with the doctor, to get a statement before we could write it out. The doctor wrote an affidavit that that baby died that morning in his office about nine o'clock. And this was about ten-thirty that night. And the baby's living today, enjoying good health to the honor and glory of God.

So, seeing many things take place, we wouldn't have to say about our Brother Way there, but truth is truth. And God doesn't do those things just to.... He wants it to be known, and people to know that He loves them. And by the grace of God, Brother Way sits among us tonight, living. We're thankful for that.

I thought, being on the campground, coming in here, I don't want to interrupt the great times. Billy was telling me, this afternoon, said, “You talk about real old-fashioned Pentecost,” said, “you wait till you get up there.” Said, “They sing like they've had the experience for fifty years.”

I said, “I guess some of them has, for fifty years.”

And I just love to get into a meeting like that. I believe every one of us do, where we just get right into it. Like, I used to tell a little story about fishing up in northern New Hampshire. I was fishing for trout. And way up the head of the mountain, I had a little tent setting up there. A little “A” tent, little pup tent from the government. And I found a place where there's many trout—was back under a bush. And there was moosewillow there. And every time I tried to whip my fly, why, it would catch in the willow. So that morning I got up, went up there early, and I thought, “I'll cut them willows down.” I just ... if I killed a fish, then I would eat it. Otherwise, I would turn it loose, if I had all we ... all I could take care of. I was up there by myself.

And while I was gone that morning, on my road back, an old sow bear and two little cubs got in my tent. And you talk about wrecking things, they really wrecked it right! And they'd tore everything up. And I thought.... When I come back, I heard a noise. And I looked around some little bushes I was coming around. The old mother bear, and all of them, was just having them a time, raking through everything. And she saw me, and she run off and cooed to her cubs. One of the cubs come, and the other one didn't come.

Little bitty fellow. Spring—he was just so high. He was sitting, like this. And I thought, “Well, what's the little fellow so interested in.”

And I got around and looked.

I said to him, “Get out of there! Get out of there!”

And he just sat there. I thought ... I watched the old mother, because you know if you fool with her cubs, she would scratch you, you know. So, I watched. There was a tree pretty close, you know. I had an old rusty pistol laying over there in the tent—probably broke up then. Anyhow, I wouldn't want to shoot the old mother and leave two orphans in the woods. So, I kept watching this tree, getting around to see what the little fellow was so fascinated.... And, you know....

I like pancakes. I ... we're all Southerners, aren't we? Flapjacks is what they are down here, you know. And I really love them. And I know ... not much Methodist about me. I really like to pour on the molasses. I really baptize them right, pour it all over them. So, I don't like just a little bitty sprinkle, like you get in these places here, in a little thing. I like to get where you really pour it on, you know, and get them mixed good and heavy.

I had me a half-a-gallon bucket full of good old sorghum.

This little bear had got the top off, and he was really enjoying my molasses. And I kept watching him around the corner. He'd take his little paw, and stick down in this bucket, you know. And he didn't know how to get the molasses out, so, he'd just stick his paw down in my molasses, then rig up and lick when it come by.

I'll tell you, when I finally got around and got his attention, he looked at me; he couldn't see me. He was molasses from the top of his head to ... all the way down. His little belly just as full of molasses, and his eyes ... he couldn't even open his eyes to look at me, you know, trying.... I thought, “That's right. There's no condemnation to them that's eating.”

Puts me in mind of a good old Pentecostal meeting, when we get our arms down in that honey jar about that deep, you know—that Pentecostal honey. You know, the strange thing about it: after he got his tummy full, and my bucket sopped out, he went over to his mammy and little brother. And the mammy licked him.

You know, I hope we get so much on us here that when we go home, those who didn't come will lick off of us. All right, see. Tell them about what great things the Lord did down here in Hot Springs. The Lord bless you.

And now, I believe they told me that they didn't get it in time, or something another, to announce to give out some prayer cards to pray for the sick—some numbers on cards, to call them and pray for them. And I like that, 'cause give me one night to kind of get acquainted. And so, tomorrow night, I think, they're going to give out their prayer cards sometime in the afternoon. Is that ... you've already...? At six o'clock? Six o'clock tomorrow evening.

Now, I thought, tonight, we'd take just a little portion of the Scripture here and read it, and see if we could find what the Lord would have to tell us. Now just before we open the Book, let's speak to the Author of the Book, as we bow our heads.

Before we pray (and your heads bowed), all the cares now, and the frolic of the day, and little sense of humors we've had—let's just push it aside now, because we're approaching the King. Is there any special request you'd like to be remembered? Just, would you raise your hand, and say, “Lord....” Right down in your heart, just hold your request.

Our heavenly Father, we deem this such a privilege, God Almighty, to come into the congregation of the Lord, to fellowship together, testifying, telling of the great things that You've done, and places that we have been. And it just reminds me of Acts 4 in the Bible, when they returned and was speaking of what the Lord had done. And they all prayed and the place was shook where they were assembled together.

God, we're not so anxious, tonight, to see the building shook, but we would like for You to shake us, Lord. Shake our understanding. Shake our being, our emotions, our hearts of understanding, that we might leave here tonight more determined than ever to serve You; that we might feel the presence of a new, fresh, Pentecost of the Holy Spirit, pouring out upon us afresh, and anew.

Like, down in these woods and hills in Arkansas fifty years ago when the forefathers come through here, horses and wagons, preaching this gospel, dear Lord, may we—the bearers of this great, worthy cause, that You've sent through here—may we not be ashamed of this great thing; but may we walk in the footsteps of those who went before us, Lord, packing the banner of the Lord Jesus.

May others, who have not yet accepted this great plan of salvation that God laid down for us in the Scripture ... foretold all the way down through the Old Testament, and today, we're enjoying it. May there be a great shaking among us, Lord, and a renewing of faith, and a renewing of efforts.

I thank You for this convention for this bunch of people who's still holding on, Lord, in this hour of trials, come upon the earth to try those who are professing to be Christians. May we be found at the end worthy to enter into the joys of the Lord, that's been prepared for the redeemed since the foundation of the world.

Bless thy Word.

Lord, remember every hand that went up. You know the objective. You know the motive. You know the request behind that hand. I pray, God, that You'll grant it to each one. May every man that ... or woman, boy, or girl that put up a hand, that wanted more salvation or a closer walk, or to know You as their Saviour—may they never leave this ground till that request is answered.

To those who are sick, needy, we pray, God, there'll be such a wave of healing cross this place that there'll not be a feeble person that comes on this ground will leave in the way that they come on. You, who can raise a man up from the dead and present him here before us, to show that You're the same God that stood there by the grave of Lazarus, called him out from among the dead.... God, to let them know that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever, here stands one among us tonight, just a few days ago was called back from the land beyond the shadow of man's knowing in this life.

How we thank Thee for this. Bless us together now, as we study your Word. For truly, thy Word is truth. Thou and thy Word are one. It cannot be separated. So, we ask your blessings upon us, Father, as we wait upon You to speak to us tonight through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Now, if you will, I'd like to turn to scriptures, and so forth.

I kind of laid down on the bed and went to sleep. First thing you know, Billy come up and said, “Let's go.”

Said, “You mean it's church time?”

I had to pull out a little bunch of scriptures I'd used before, to speak on tonight. And I thought maybe it'd be he give out some cards and be praying for the sick, and so forth. I've noticed, since I've come in here, two people laying on cots, perhaps come to be prayed for tonight. Now....

And Billy come back, said, “I just didn't get any time, Daddy, to talk about it.” Said, “We'll try it tomorrow night.”

I said, “All right. If you get the brethren, give some cards out.”

So now, I want you to turn with me, to the book of II Kings, and the 1st chapter. And then, also, I want you to turn in there to Jeremiah, the 8th chapter, and 22nd verse. Let's read just a portion of this scripture.

Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

And Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.

But the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah the Tishbite, Rise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?

Now therefore thus saith the Lord God, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou has gone up, but thou shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

And then. in the book of Jeremiah, the 8th chapter, and the 22nd verse.

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is ... the health of the daughter of my people not recovered?

I want to speak, if we'd call it, on the subject “Why?” It's a question. And God's asking this question. And God is eternal. We know He is. He's everlasting. He never had a beginning, or He could never have an end. Eternity never started; it never ends 'cause it's eternal. And God cannot change his mind, nor his way. That's why that we, as people who ... will not accept creeds if it's contrary to the Word, because we believe that God and his Word is the same. We believe that. The Bible says, in St. John the 1st chapter, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Therefore, when God says anything, He cannot tomorrow, or any other time, ever take it back. When God's ever called on the scene to make a decision.... And his one decision is eternal. It can never be changed.

And God was called to make a decision for the human race in the garden of Eden, when the first sin was committed. Could He ever be able to redeem his lost child back into fellowship with Him again? And He fixed one program. It's never changed: by the way of the blood. And follow the Scriptures—it never did alter, or change. And it never can, because it's God's decision—by the blood.

Although, we tried to alter it. We tried to educate it. We tried to denominate it. We tried to do everything there is in man's law to try to change that, like Adam did by fig leaves, and so forth. But it still ever remains. The blood is the only place of fellowship.

Therefore together, tonight, we can stand, not as one denomination.... May be many of us together, but we can't stand here to represent one denomination. We have to stand here in this fellowship under the blood of Jesus Christ. We can all be brethren, sisters.

God makes a way for a man, and then man refuses to walk in that way. Then, God's got a right to ask, “Why didn't you do it?” That's what He did then, and that's what He does now. And that's what He'll ask at the judgment. They ask “Why?”

Now, our Scripture reading started off just immediately after the death of Ahab; a bad king, a borderline believer, a man who knowed what was right to do, and yet did not have the courage to step out and do what he knowed was right to do.

I just think, if this world isn't contaminated today with Ahabs, this Christendom that we live in! It's contaminated with Ahabs, with men who really know that it's right to give your life, and be ... to God and be filled with the Spirit, and to follow the teachings of this Bible—and yet without the courage to stand and do it.

It reminds me again, of another situation like that, in Sodom.

The Bible said the sins of Sodom vexed the righteous soul of Lot daily, and how that the man's soul was righteous. And he looked out upon the sins of the land, and he knowed that ... what was wrong, that they were doing wrong—but yet, without the courage to stand for his convictions.

No wonder the whole world has become a Sodom and Gomorrah. And how that the Lots today, across the nation and around the world, standing in churches—who is convinced that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the power is just as real today as it ever was—without the courage to stand in the pulpit, and to denounce sin, because of some barrier that would excommunicate them from the fellowship that they have joined into.

It still comes back to the blood of Jesus Christ, the only remedy. Why? Why?

Ahaziah was a son of Ahab, had been brought up in the kind of a home that was a lukewarm home. It wasn't altogether Christian. His mother was a heathen. And his father married out of fellowship, married a woman that was not a believer. and that always makes a bad home for any kid to be raised in, that when unbelief and faith tries to mix together.

And now, if the father would have been a real strong man in his faith, the child might have had a better opportunity. But he didn't. He didn't have ... he knew that there was God. He knew that there was a Jehovah; and then his mother's gods, and so forth. He was all confused. Then at the death of his father, this boy in this condition, kind of a mixed up, one way and another....

And if that ain't a picture of the lands today. One in the family is this way, and one another; and one going this way, and one going that way. No wonder we're producing so much juvenile delinquency, and all other kinds of stuff, under the name of Christianity. It's because there's no unity. There's no real call out and stand for God.

Now, we find that this fellow, falling heir to his father's throne.... One day, up in the top of his balcony somewhere, walking around, he fell through the lattice. Might have been over-intoxicated, and fell through the lattice, down, probably, on the bottom floor. Struck a bench, or something, and broke a few ribs, or bruised him up. And the sickness must have started an infection somewhere, or the bruise, and caused him to have fever. And he was pretty sick.

'Course, them days they didn't have the remedies that they have now. Perhaps the doctors came and done what they could for the fellow. But they didn't have the sufficiency. They knowed his ... only thing that he could do would be to go to a higher power than what the doctors could produce in their terminology of medicine. And he thought he would go then, and he sent to his mother.

What a lesson that ought to be to mothers. A kid will usually listen to his mama.

And, he (went to) sent to his mother's god, Baal-zebub, over to Ekron where the statue was, his monument. Said, “Go consult the priest over there, and let them consult this statue of Baal-zebub, whether I will recover of this sickness that I have or not.”

But, you know, that man ruling.... Could you imagine a people, who was supposed to be a God-fearing people, would let such a man rule over them? It's because of the lukewarm condition. It was the condition that the church had got into that put such a person in power, or permitted it. I don't think times has changed very much. They still seem to be a whole lot the same way. And let this man rule, have the say-so over the country, that would consult some statue of some pagan idea, about his condition.

And then, you know, that behind all of it, no matter how much it seems that God has turned his face from the people, He does that sometimes to see what kind of an attitude you take. Every son that cometh to God's got to be tried and chastened.

And then, there's a little spot in a man, or woman, when they're borned of the spirit of God, that's eternal. And you'll get into a place, sometime, that where everything that's human about you.... In reasonings, the devil can reason it away from you. But when it all breaks away, then if that eternal life isn't there you'll fall also, because you can reason yourself away from God.

But, a man that claims to be a Christian has no right in the pulpit, or has no right as a office, or a leader anywhere, until first he's climbed them steps into a place to where he's borned of the Spirit of God, filled with the Holy Ghost in such a way that nobody can explain it away from him.

God, when He sent Moses down to Egypt to deliver the people, first He took him on the backside of the desert, and took all the theology he had in him out, in forty years—and then appeared to him. He knowed more about God in five minutes in the presence of that burning bush than he knowed in the forty years of learning that he got.

That's what the church needs tonight, is to know a burning bush experience, where slick-tongued people.... Where ... the Scripture says that the two spirits in the last days will be so close that it would deceive the very elected, if possible.

A man ought to first get on that sacred ground with God where all the theologians, all the doctors of divinity, all the reasonings, all the atheists, nothing else can ever explain that away from him. He was there when God come, and he knows what took place. You can't reason it out of him. He was there when it happened. That's the kind of men we need today in the government, in the church, and anywhere else. In the times like this, for leadership we need a man that's filled with the Holy Ghost.

That's what the church needs today. Not a theologian, but a Spirit-filled, borned-again man, full of the Holy Ghost. I tell you, if we had more of that, the church would look a little different than it does in the present time. Things would be different if we just had more men filled with God's Spirit; not going after traditions of the elders, and so forth.

Now, we find that this fellow sent up there to get this information from the god of Ekron, Baal-zebub. But all the time, God knew he was doing it. So, He had a prophet down there by the name of Elijah. So He spoke to Elijah, and said, “Go up there to a certain road, and stand in that way. Messengers are coming up.” You see, you cannot hide nothing from God, see, no matter what you're doing.

How little did that fellow know that God was speaking to Elijah way down there in the wilderness somewhere, in a little mud hut somewhere; and could tell him to go stand on the corner of the road up there and speak to these fellows; and tell them to get back down to him, and tell him “Thus saith the Lord,” he's not coming off of that bed.

And He said, “Ask him, why did you do it? What makes you do it? Is it because that there is no God in Israel? Is it because he doesn't have a prophet? Is that the reason you did it? Well, you knowed what's happened. You know the Scriptures. You've got them in your own palace. The priests are around there. No doubt you've read them since a boy. And why did you do such a silly thing as that?”

I wonder tonight, if Christ would come on the scene, or over the nation today, and bring this nation to judgment, if that same question wouldn't have been asked. Why is it? Is it.... Why is it we're doing these things? Why are we fussing in the government whether we should read the Bible in public? And why is it we're reading all this nonsense? Did not our forefathers set this constitution in order? Did not this nation be borned upon the principles of the Bible? Aren't we here for freedom of religion, to act in God the way we feel fit to act, the way that we're convinced is truth?

But, you see, we have done something like they did then. We're just letting everything, politics swallow us up, instead of respecting our faith in our God and men who stood for truth. And we're letting our politics run over that, and voting in such stuff that's polluting this nation.

And, why, we're coming to a judgment. God'll rise on the scene some day, with a mighty prophet, speak in this generation, and tell people, and they'll see that it's God speaking. But they won't repent. It'll be just like it was then.

He said, “Is there no God in Israel? Is it because there is no God?”

Same as Jeremiah said, “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” Then if.... They could not answer that, 'cause there was.

They said then, “Why? Why did you do it? Why is the daughter of my people not healed?”

Now, we wonder that tonight. Why? Is there no Bible? Is there no God? Is there no difference? If God is going to bring the people to judgment, He's got to have something to judge them by. There's got to be some standard. If He's going to judge them by the Catholic church.... Then if they judge them by the Roman church, the Greek church is lost, the other Catholic churches are lost. If He judges by the Greek, the Roman's lost. If He judges by the Lutheran, the Methodist is lost. If He judges by the Methodist, the Lutheran's lost. He can't judge it by a church. There's too many different organizations of it.

But God will judge the world, He said, by Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Word, and the Word is God. And He'll judge them by this Bible. That is God's standard. We must measure up to what the Bible says.

And we wonder why we got so much confusion, so many organizations, so much differences separating brotherhood, and everything. It's because there is no balm in Gilead? Is it because there is no physician there? I wonder if God would ask us that question.

Now, it wasn't exactly they didn't have a physician. They did. God was the physician. And it wasn't because there wasn't a God in Israel. There was a God. And they had a prophet to consult, to find out what these things are. But it was the king's own stubborn will. That's exactly!

And that's what's the matter in the nation today. It's the people's own stubborn will. Not because we don't have the same God that crossed the Red Sea with his people, that fed them forty years in the wilderness. It's not because we don't have the same God that we had in the beginning. It's the people's own stubborn way. They don't want to bow down. They don't want to have anything to do with the holiness and purity of living the Bible way of living. They'd rather belong to church, and put their name on a book, and live like the rest of the world, than to bow down to the promises and the commandments of Almighty God.

That's what's the matter. That's the reason things are going the way they are. People get away from the Word. You'll never be able to get straightened out till you get back onto the right path.

You built this building. You put that corner down here somewhere, you'll never get the building built. You've got to be laid on the foundation. And the foundation is the Bible—doctrine of the apostles, and prophets, and so forth, of the Bible.

The king's own stubborn way—he just didn't want to stand down there. It wasn't very popular. God's real true way of living has never been popular. It never will be popular, “for the preaching of the gospel is foolishness to them that perish.” Paul said, “I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ: for it's the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.”

Now, we find out here, that the king was stubborn.

Just something like today, a patient will lay right on.... What if a patient went to a doctor and laid down on his steps, and he had some kind of a fever that was going to kill him. And the doctor come to the door and said, “Say, I've got the medicine in here.”

He said, “Aw, I just ain't....”

“Come on in. I'll give you the injection, the inoculation.”

“I don't want your medicine.”

And say, “Now sir, I can help you if you'll just come on in.”

“Well, I'm not coming in.” And the man laid there on the doctor's steps and died, died on the doctor's steps because he won't accept the inoculations for typhoid fever, ever what it is that he had. He won't accept the inoculation for it, and the man dies right on the doctor's doorstep.

Now the man.... You can't blame the doctor. If he has the medicine that will cure the disease, and the doctor's willing to give it, and it's been provided, and it's.... The man sat ... come as close as the doctor's doorstep, and sit down there and die. You can't blame the doctor. You can't blame the medicine. It's the man that's be to blame, dying on the doctor's doorstep with a disease that there is a medicine to be cured, can cure it, on the inside.

Well, that's just a parable.

But, you know, God has the medicine inside of his kingdom that will cure every sin disease there is in the world. And the people sit right on the church doorsteps. Not only that, but they sit right in the pew, and die, and are lost, and go to hell because they refuse to accept the doctor's medicine. Amen! That's right. They absolutely refuse to take the doctor's medicine. Therefore they die with the fevers.

And the people sit in the church, and hear the messages of God, and believe them, and won't accept it. They wouldn't say, “Well now, I don't believe that's right.” Some of them'll come, say they agree with it. And say, “Yeah, I believe it's right.” But you won't do it, see. You'll die—dying in the pews of the church because they won't accept the remedy. They won't. See, what it does, it takes a little bit of the ... of popularity out of the people. It kind of beats them up a little bit.

They're afraid of that new birth.

You know, any birth is a mess. I don't care what it is. If it's in a pig pen, or a pink decorated hospital, it's a mess. And so is the new birth. It'll make you do things that you didn't think you would do. It'll straighten you up. But before you can ever get right, you have to come through that mess. That's right. Amen.

Before a seed can ever be borned, it has to die and rot. And that's what's the matter with people today. They don't want to die, and rot out to the world so they can be borned again of the Holy Ghost. They're afraid of that new birth. They're afraid it makes them do things that they don't want to do. It takes the popularity out of them. It takes the starch out of them.

Oh, I'll tell you, I'm glad that there is an inoculation tonight that'll take it out of you, brother—that'll take the world out. It'll make people, brotherhood, associate together regardless of denominational differences. It'll make a pair of overalls put our arms around a tuxedo suit, and holler, “Brother, I'm glad to see you.” Amen. Sure. But you're ... they're afraid of that inoculation. Oh, my!

It's dangerous to refuse the doctor's medicine, you know. If you're going to him, and it's afraid of the ... if you refuse the medicine, it's dangerous. You may die. But that ... you just die physically from not taking the doctor's medicine. But how much more dangerous is it to refuse God's inoculation from sin.

Here, sometime ago, I had a little sick spell. Someone said to me, said, “Oh, Billy,” said, “did you keep your religion during your sickness?” Said, “You know, you believe in divine healing. Did you keep your religion?”

I said, “No. It kept me.” That's right. Not the idea of me keeping it; it keeps me.

When the blood of Jesus Christ was shed on Calvary, God made a preparation. When man first sinned he left hisself a great chasm that he crossed, leaving himself no way back. God, rich in mercy, accepted a substitute, and that was the blood of a lamb or a bullock. And that substitute lasted for years.

Moses stood under the inspiration of God when sin was not even divorced; it was just simply covered by the blood of bulls and goats. And he had the glory of God upon him until he could speak flies into existence, he could speak frogs into existence, because a word is a thought expressed. And God brought his thoughts to Moses, and Moses spoke them in words. And when the Word spoke, the whole world was framed by the Word of God.

There used to be a time when, that ... get ... school, get some black ink on my shirt. Mama used to take my shirt off, and say, “Hand it to me quick, honey.” And she put some coal oil on it. And all it done was just scattered it, made a great big ring spot where she put the coal oil in the ink. That's all she knowed about. That's the best she had.

But it's different today. They've manufactured a stuff called bleach. And you.... It's a chemical that whenever that ink drops back into that Clorox (or bleach, whatever it is), when it strikes that, you cannot find that black no more at all. What happens to it? Drop a drop of black ink in a tub of bleach. Why, you don't have nothing. You can't find any fumes.

If I was a chemist.... These words may not be just exactly true to science, but I'd say, “What is it? It's a H2O, water for one thing. Then there's a chemical in it, made it black.” There's only one original color, and that's white. All other colors are perversions from that.

And now, say.... And then, if you'd break it up from there, maybe you'd say, “Well, it turned into an acid when it hit the bleach. It turned to an acid.” All right then, where did the acid go? The acid went back.... Now, it's coloring we're talking about in this, the color.

Say it went back to molecules. Well, say, molecules 4 x 6 + 9 makes molecule H. If it come out 4 + 6 + 8, what would it come out? Pink, instead of black. Then it went back from there to atoms. Then from atoms + 1 + B2 + 3 made 4, which, put it with molecule H means what? Then you come back to black again.

And then, when you go beyond that, you might go to electrons. Where do you go to from there? You have to go back. Because it is a creation, it had to come from a creator. He had to make it. Therefore, it went all the way back to its creator. That coloring that was in that ink, it can never return again.

Now, God, seeing that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, He never manufactured, but He created a chemical in the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. That sin, once confessed to the world, you don't even bridge that chasm; you take the chasm completely away. And God don't even know that you ever sinned. That's right. He said He put them in the sea of forgetfulness, to remember them no more at all against you. Then men and women stands in the presence of God as sons and daughters of God, the very nature of their God in their hearts.

Where is the church today? What's happened to the church, when we can see that the blood of Jesus Christ so remitted sins till God don't even remember we sinned? Then, “Whatever you ask in my name, that I'll do.”

What's the matter? It's because somebody's been indocumating these Scriptures for the people. This is the only thing that I can figure's been done, because God's remedy is still the same. Now, it's dangerous to refuse the doctor's inoculation. How much more, God.

Now, how does man ever find medicine anyhow, to work on a human being. Do you know what chemists does, or scientists? They take a disease, and find out what kind of a germ is in it. Then they get some kind of poison antidote, and so forth—enough poison not to kill you, and enough antidote to keep it from doing it. And they inject it first into a guinea pig. They give the guinea pig the disease that you've got. Then, they put the medicine in the guinea pig. And if the guinea pig survives it, then they give it to you. So that's quite a thing, you know. Give it to the guinea pig and see if he can take it; and if the guinea pig don't die, then they give it to you. Now, not all people are made like guinea pigs, you know. So it kills some, and helps the other.

But there's one thing about this inoculation that Jesus Christ gives, it helps everybody. It's not a remedy, it's a cure.

We hear people say, today, number one killer is heart disease. I differ with them, not to be different. I just differ, because I know it's wrong. Number one killer is sin disease. That's right. Not heart disease; it's sin disease.

You know, some people say, “Well, now, Brother Branham, I believe you've stretched the blanket there a little bit. Now, let me ask you something. A man has to sin. I just have to sin a little bit every day.” That's because you've never been inoculated, that's all. You've never tried God's remedy. That's right. If you'd do that, then you wouldn't do it.

Say, “I just have to smoke. Something just makes me smoke.” Try the inoculation one time, and find out whether it works or not.

You say, “I just can't keep from doing this. I....” Well, you just take God's toxine one time, and see how it does to you.

A woman said to me, not long ago.... I was getting on to her about wearing these little old scandal clothes.

And she said, “Now, Brother Branham, let me tell you, you have no right to say that. We got a right to wear shorts if we want to.”

I said, “I guess that's right. But if you was a Christian, you wouldn't want to wear them.”

She said, “Now wait, Brother Branham.” She said, “You know they don't make any other kind of clothes but just those sexy clothes, and so forth like that.”

I said, “They still got bolt goods, and make sewing machines. There's no excuse.”

That's right. It's because they don't want to take the inoculation of the purity of the Holy Spirit—old-fashioned, God-saved, camp meeting holiness. Amen!

Used to be wrong to do those things. It's still wrong. Right. But what's the matter, there's something happened. It used to be that people'd act like that, they were even excommunicated from society. Now, they can't be brought into society until they do do it. And so, you see, it depends on.... Where your heart is, there your treasures are also, or where your treasures are your heart is also. You must remember, that if you love the Lord with all your heart, you'll live clean and pure.

Last night, I went over to the supermarket.... Here, some time ago, we seen a strange thing—a woman with a dress on. It was a strange thing in our country. And Meda said to me, she said, “Bill, I know that some of them women sing in choirs down here in churches.” She said, “I know them.” And she said, “Now, why? What makes them...?”

And I said, “Well, you see, honey,” I said, “being a missionary, as myself,” I said, “we are of a different country.”

She said, “What?”

I said, “We are of a different country, a different nation.”

She said, “Aren't we Americans?”

I said, “We live here, but this is not our home. We are pilgrims. We're seeking a city, whose builder and maker is God.”

I went into Finland; I seen the way they acted in Finland. I went down into Germany; I seen the way they had the German spirit. I went down into Switzerland; they had the Switzerland spirit. I come to America; they got American spirit.

She said, “Then, what about us?”

I said, “We're born from above—heavenly, where purity and holiness and righteousness and honesty ... yes.” I said, “Therefore, those who profess that look not upon the things of the world. But we plainly state by our lives, in the way we live, that we have a God, we have a kingdom, we have a place that we're going. And this is not our home.” Amen!

My, I like that. I begin to feel pretty religious right now.

Yes, sir. I believe in this old-time, Holy Ghost salvation. Oh, brother, sister, it does something to you. The same God lived one time, still lives today. His same doctrine of holiness just lives tonight, the same as it ever lived. Just the same thing. Yes, sir. Notice, the people has got away from the doctrine of it, that's all. Yes.

Now, yes sir.

Our number one.... Heart disease doesn't.... The main thing that kills the people today, it's number one sin disease. And sin is unbelief. Unbelief in what? The Bible. That's right. Yes, it's the number one sin disease that kills the people today—both spiritually ... and that'll make them ... kill them physically, of course. 'Cause they all ... they can prove that men that hold grudges, and women who fuss, and stew, and fight, and argue—they die. It'll cause cancer, fungus, everything else. It'll set in ulcers....

See, you were made to be happy and free. You were made to live like children before your Father, and know that He makes every day, everything, work right for you, each day. Yes, sir.

The people's just afraid of this new birth, that's all. They're afraid to come to it, because it'll straighten them up. It'll make you quit playing bingo, quit playing these slot machines. It'll make you quit staying home on Wednesday night from prayer meeting to watch “We Love Suzy,” and all those other crazy things that Hollywood's got, and them dirty jokes that's cracked over there. And it'll make you let your hair grow out long. It'll make you act like a lady. It'll make a man quit smoking cigarettes and being in church as deacons. It'll make the people quit lying, stealing. It'll do something for you. It'll clean you up, and give you a salvation that there's nothing in the world can explain it away from you, 'cause you know you were there when it happened. Yes, sir.

Now, as I said a while ago, when God ... when man finds medicine, the thing that they do, they search for this remedy. Then, they find this disease. Then they inject it into a guinea pig, and see if the guinea pig survives it.

Now, when God was going to bring down this inoculation that I'm speaking of tonight, this balm of Gilead, he didn't find a guinea pig; He come Himself. That's right. Only way He could do it was come in the form of his Son, and was made flesh, and dwelt among us in order to take the sting of death. He come to die the only way He could die. He couldn't die as a spirit, as a man. So, He was ... formed a body called Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And God dwelt in this body, and making Himself Emmanuel on earth, to take away the sin of man. That was that chemistry that was in that blood.

Somebody said He was a Jew. He was not a Jew. Some of them said He was a Gentile. He was not a Gentile. He was nothing less than God. The Bible said that we're saved by the blood of God. The blood comes from the male sex. We know that. The hemoglobin is out of the male. The female is only the egg. Right.

Like I said, like springtime, these old mother birds are building nests out here, and laying eggs. Some of them will lay a nest full of eggs that'll never hatch, too. Why, she could lay a nest full of eggs, and she could set on them, and just be so loyal. She could turn them eggs each day and stay there, away from food, until she gets so poor she couldn't hardly fly off the nest. No matter how much she babies them, and how much she pets them, and how loyal she is to them, they'll never hatch. Why? She hasn't been with the mate, and they're not fertile. Therefore, they'll just lay there and rot.

That's what's the matter with a lot of our conferences. That's what's the matter with our camp meetings, many of them today, and our conferences. What do we get? A bunch of pets and sissified preachers of all.... Why, it's a disgrace. They come in there because they got a little prestige, or a little education, push them up above something.

I'd ... my ... only thing we need today is a.... We got a nest full of rotten eggs.

What we need is a good old nest-cleaning time, all the way—to push it out until we get men and women that's filled with the Holy Ghost, that's been with the mate Jesus Christ, and been filled with the Spirit that He was baptized with. Right. Then we got life in the camp. Yes, sir. Toxine—they're afraid of it.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, when He was born.... Some of them said, “Well, now, He was the egg of Mary.” He wasn't. If Mary had to get that egg down through the tube into the womb, there had to be a sensation. So, you see what you put God doing. He was neither ... no part of it.

God, the creator, overshadowed the virgin Mary, and created the cells within her womb, and brought forth a man which was Emmanuel. God, Himself, made flesh, with no help from anybody.

He's the creator who made the first man. Amen! Oh, my! There He is. There He stands. Yes, sir. And then, He did that so He could take the inoculation.

Any real good scientist, good doctor, that finds the disease.... Some of them will go over to a prison camp, and get some man to try it out that's going to have life in prison. If he survives the inoculation while ... then the poison don't kill him, he can go free, if he's ready to take the inoculation. Prisoners wait for that. Oh, that's a doctor that's afraid of his medicine.

But, you know, God wasn't afraid of his own medicine. [blank spot] be in a manger.

A Man, standing on the banks of the Jordan.... When the inoculation fell down there, He seen it like a dove coming down from heaven, and He was inoculated. And a voice said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I'm pleased to dwell in.” Amen! God in man—that's inoculated. God in man!

The world watched Him. Every temptation, He stood it. When they spit in his face, pulled the beard out, spit on Him, it stood the temptation. In the hours of trial, it stood the temptation. It held. The inoculation He received at Jordan, it held. It held in the times of popularity.

What's the matter with a lot of churches today, God'll bless them, they get started. That's what's hurting our Pentecostal people. They ought to be back like our grandfathers was, with a tin can or a tambourine, down on the corner somewhere, beating the tambourine. It would have been ... than so many of these big morgues that we're building today, trying to fashion after the other people. What we need is a good old-fashioned outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and cleaning up through the entire group of the Pentecostal church. That's right.

Now, the thing of it was that when the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus, at the day of his baptism, He was inoculated. We've watched Him in the hour of trial, when the devil tried to give Him all the kingdoms of the world. What did He do? He stayed right with the Word. Amen!

What I'm wondering, today, that many brethren out on the field since this last day revival.... Why is it, when you get a few nickels or a change of clothes, you're too big to go somewhere? Too.... Oh, something another, you have to have something bigger than the other one. It's become a regular rat race. It's a shame. God wants man that'll humble himself, and get down on his face, somebody He can speak to. But it's become such a rat race, everybody trying to get something bigger than the other fellow. See, they can't stand that pressure of the temptation of Satan.

But our Lord stood the temptation. The inoculation held. When the time come where there was a debate on the Scripture, He stayed exactly with the Word. Satan said, “It's written.”

He said, “It's also written....” Glory. God in man. What He had ... He had something with Him to back up every word He said. He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, then don't believe me. But if you can't believe me, believe the works that He does through me.” Amen.

There you are.

What we need is men and women like that today, that can shut the mouth of the world by the signs of the Holy Ghost. We need a camp meeting like that. We need a turning upside down, and shaking out a lot of the world and things (out of the church) that's come in in these last days: money, scattering out through the country, and big things that's got the people's minds on big things instead of on God. Compromising—compromising with the Scripture.

Any brother who's started out on that way, but to get popular in some organization compromised on what he believes—that blood doesn't run in a genuine Holy Ghost-born man! All the devils in hell can't upset him on that Word. He'll stand on that regardless of what.... Amen.

Paul said, “There's nothing present or future can come, or anything can separate us from the love of God.” When that real genuine birth of the Holy Spirit comes into a man, he's a son of God. There's no chasm between him and God. He's his son, in his presence. Amen! I like that. I know that's true.

All right.

We find out that in the hour of temptation for worldly fame, the inoculation held. In the time of being called holy roller, or made fun of ... put a rag around his face and his eyes, hit Him on the head with a stick, said, “Now if you're a prophet, tell us who hit you,” them Roman soldiers. They seen Him discerning the thoughts of the people. They'd stand out....

And if He was standing here tonight, He look could down and tell that women what was wrong with her, and what was this, and that. That's the way He did it. That's the way He still does it, because He doesn't change. Amen!

Ain't you glad that the living God ... that a man could fall out of the roof, and the life go out of him, and a man standing there with God in him could lay Hisself over that man, and he lived again? That same God lives tonight! Amen. He's the unchangeable God.

The church needs an inoculation. That's right.

As David DuPlessis once said, God don't have no grandchildren. That's right. Where Pentecostal brethren have becoming.... The children come in the church, and just say, “Well, we're Pentecostals because Papa was.” If Papa was a Pentecostal, and got the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you'll have to get it the same way Papa did. He don't have grandchildren; He just has sons and daughters. Not grandsons and granddaughters; just sons and daughters. It's true.

So you've got to do the same thing they did on the day of Pentecost. You've got to have the same experience. You've got to have the same thing that they had.

God don't never change his program. He never changes his way. He just does the same thing all the time. The way He lays down his program, it must toe to that each time. It's got to be the same thing. And if you'll do the same thing, the same results will come. Amen. That's right.

Now, we find out, it held in time of temptation. It held when everything was going wrong. It held when all of his friends forsook Him. He still held. The inoculation held. Then the devil thought, “I've got Him now.” He started up Calvary, the blood streaming out of his body, his garment wrapped around Him, one big splash of blood.

The devil must have said, “I've got him now. That can't be God. No, no. That can't be Him if he let them soldiers spit in his face, if he let them jerk handfuls of beard out of his face, if he let them challenge him to see a vision and he didn't do it. And now, here he goes up the hill, packing that cross. I'll have him in a few minutes.”

That bee of death come down, circling around to sting Him, you know, like any bee has a stinger in it.

But, you know, God had prepared a flesh that time. It was the flesh of God. When that stinger once anchored in that son of God, into Emmanuel, when he pulled hisself out, he had no stinger left. He took the sting right out of death. Where is thy sting, death? Where is thy sting, grave? Where is thy victory? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He could sting Elijah and die. He could sting Elijah, and remain his stinger. But, you know, if a bee ever stings deep enough, he can't sting no more. He pulls his stinger out. So, there was no human flesh that he could anchor in. Oh, oh, my! No one that he could anchor in.

But when he put it in Emmanuel that time, he lost his stinger. Thanks be to God. Yes, sir. He failed on that one. Yes, sir.

They found out the toxine vaccine held. They said, “If you be the Son of God, come down off the cross.” The high priest, the big dignitary of the church said, “Tell us plainly now, if you're the Son of God, come down off the cross and save yourself,” and so forth. “Let us see if you're the Son of God.” He never opened his mouth and said a word.

Now, we find out that He died. He really died. He died until the sun and moon said He died. All nature said He died. The earthquake ... it had a nervous chill run over it. And when they seen the very God that created the earth was hanging on top of the earth, with Emmanuel's blood dropping upon the ground.... No wonder He died. He died till everything said He was dead.

And then, we go to find out before He died, He said, “You destroy this temple, and I'll raise it up again on the third day. You'll never be able to keep it down. Destroy it, and I'll bring it back up on the third day.” They put a guard around to find out if the inoculation was going to hold. They'd seen it held through temptation of sin. It held through poverty, it held through riches, it held through all kinds of temptations. It still held. And now, it's in death. What's it going to do now?

But on Easter morning (Oh, my!), just before that Son rose up, that inoculation took a hold. And when it did, death broke its barriers, the grave opened up, and He rose again on the third day, and ascended on high. Shows that that inoculation is the inoculation of eternal life. You can't destroy it. Even the belly of hell can't hold it, the grave can't hold it, death can't hold it. Nothing can hold it; it'll rise again.

Jesus Christ said, “All the Father's given me will come to me, and I'll raise it up again at the last days.” Hallelujah!

A man or a woman's been inoculated with this cannot stay in the grave. No grave can hold the righteous. No hell can keep it, no grave, no nothing else. Jesus Christ promised to raise it up again. Amen! Oh, I'm so glad of that, that inoculation.

You know, on Easter morning, it proved.

And you know what it was? It was such a great thing till 120 people wanted to get inoculated. Now, if He can keep through temptation, there was 120 people who knew Him real well, they wanted that inoculation.

So, right then, He had to go up to the laboratory, and fix the serum. So He said, “You go up there to the city of Jerusalem till they get all the formula fixed up. And I'm going to send it down to you.”

So they went up to wait. How the Christian church should be.... What kind of inoculation would it take? What would be the inoculation? How would they do? What would take place? Should they all go away to the seminary and learn to have the Ph.D. and LL.D? Should some priest come up the road with a kosher in his hand, and lick out, and take the communion, and that's it?

But there came a sound from heaven. The inoculation was on its road, like a rushing mighty wind; and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Cloven tongues sat upon them like fire, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit give them utterance.

If you've ever seen the old temple, the picture of it, there's a little side door that went out, went up along the stair steps, went up in the upper room. They closed the doors and went in, because they was afraid.

But I'm telling you, when they got inoculated, like a fresh baby calf, they couldn't hold him. No, sir. Out of that room he come. Out into the streets he went. He was inoculated. Death, burial, persecution, laughed at, made fun of—made no difference to him. He was inoculated. Amen! Oh, my.

Listen at Peter standing up there. They began to ask, “Is there any more balm in Gilead? Is there any more balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”

Oh, yeah. We got plenty of balm in Gilead. We got plenty of physicians. That day Dr. Simon Peter, he was the physician. He said, “I'm going to write you a prescription. And I'm going to tell you. And this is an eternal prescription, because it's going to be for you, and for your children, and for them that's far off. Frankly, it's for every one that'll call upon the Lord thy God ... shall call upon. I'm going to give it to him.”

Now what can we do to get inoculated? There's where she lays. What can we do to be inoculated? He said, “I'll write the prescription.” He said, “Repent every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this prescription is to you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Oh, my.

You know what? When a doctor finds a remedy for a disease and he writes out a prescription, and some quack druggist gets a hold of it and goes to adding a little of this and taking a little this out of it, he'll either kill the patient, or do something to it. The prescription doesn't even have any ... enough medicine in it to do any good. If it don't, it's so weak it won't help the patient.

That's what the matter with a lot of these seminary druggists today. They take the prescription out, and add something else and fill it. And you've got a bunch of dying world today.

This prescription still remains the same.

When the Samaritans received it, they get inoculated, they had the same thing. When the Gentiles received it, they got the same prescription.

Paul met a bunch, in Acts 19, who had part of the prescription, not all. He said, “That won't work. You're going to kill the whole thing.” So, he wrote it over for them, told them how to do it, and they got it the same way.

And that's what's the matter today. There's plenty of balm in Gilead and we got plenty of physicians; but the people are afraid of the prescription. Glory! Praise be to God. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no power of the Holy Spirit?

Now, is there...? This inoculation works on all. It did on the Jews. It did on the Samaritans. It did on the Gentiles. It does on everybody the same way.

I'm a missionary. I go over into the lands where the people there don't even know which is right and left hand. And they stand there. Do you know what they do when they receive the Holy Ghost? Same thing you do. Same thing.

Oh, what is it? “It's for you and for your children and to them that's far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This same prescription works, the same thing. And the church will do the same thing it did at the beginning. Exactly right.

Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. And by being inoculated by that life that was in the vine, the church that went out inoculated, they wrote a book of Acts behind it. Now, we got some substitutes. We got some grafted fruits. It lives off the life of the tree, but it won't bear the fruits. That's right.

I was standing with a friend of mine, John Sharrit, over in Phoenix here, not long ago. He had a tree there, a orange tree, that had about five or six different kinds of fruit on it.

I said, “I've never seen a thing like that.”

He said, “They're grafted.”

I said, “What kind of a tree?”

He said, “Orange.”

I said, “Well, there's lemons, and there's limes, and there's tangerines, and tangelos, and grapefruit—many different kinds.” I said, “And all them raised off that same tree.”

He said, “Yes. It's all citrus fruit.”

I said, “Well, now, that's a strange thing.” I said, “Now this year after all that fruit goes off, next year it'll bring forth oranges.”

He said, “Oh, no. No.” Said, “It'll bring forth the kind that the limb is.”

And I said, “Then that tree turned from a ... you mean from a orange tree to what...?”

He said, “No, no, no. If it ever puts forth another limb, it'll bring forth an orange.”

I said, “I see.” Amen.

Brother, we got such things as church denominations injected into this, and living off of it, calling themselves Christians. But if the real life of that tree ever puts forth another branch of its own, it'll be another book of Acts behind it. For He's the same yesterday, today, and forever—what the world and their treasure, they don't know nothing about.

The people reading this Bible, if you read it from a denominational standpoint, you'll not get much from it. But if you'll just look to what it says, and then obey what the prescription says—read it, obey it—it'll make a different person.

I just come from India, here not long ago. I heard of a woman over here. She was poverty-stricken. Her son had went to India to be a doctor. And he got over there, and he got away from his medical practice and got into another ... I believe it was electrical engineer or something. And this woman got poverty-stricken. She just didn't have nothing. And so, charity was trying to come and take care of her. And so they investigated. When they investigated, they found out that the woman had one support, and that was the son that was a very wealthy man in India.

And he said, “Well, why don't your son support you?”

Said, “Oh, I just couldn't ask him.” Said, “I'm his mother.” Said, “I'd just rather take charity than to ask my son.”

Said, “Don't you never hear from him?”

Said, “Oh, I hear from him at least once or twice a month.” Said, “He writes some of the most sweetest letters that you ever read.”

Said, “But looked like if he loved his mother enough, and he had plenty of money, he'd be trying to take care of her instead of her having to go to charity.”

Said, “Well, perhaps if he knew I was this way,” said, “he would take care of me. But,” said, “you know, he doesn't know it. And I just feel embarrassed to tell my son like that.”

And said, “And he still writes you sweet letters?”

Said, “Oh, some of the sweetest letters. And,” said, “he sends me the prettiest pictures you ever seen.”

Said, “The prettiest pictures?” Said, “Let's see some of them.”

She went to her Bible, and she pulled them out. You know what they was? Bank drafts. India puts pictures on their bank drafts, you see—pretty pictures. She had thousands of dollars converted from India money into American money. What was it? In the lids of her Bible, she had treasures that she thought was just pictures. But come to find out, it was real value to her.

And brother, when you try to read of a painted fire of Pentecost, and somebody tries to tell you that the Holy Spirit isn't the same today as it was then; somebody tries to tell you the days of miracles is past, that Jesus Christ isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever; that they try to tell you....

Don't you believe it. Them's not pictures. God Almighty sent that message to you. That's right. “It's for you and to your children, to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” God is still God. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's right here, tonight, to save the lost, to heal the sick, to fill with the Holy Spirit those who desire to be filled. You believe that, don't you? Yes, sir.

If you believe it, then, you see, that's God's promises in this Word here. You can get right in there, and find every promise. The promise is unto you. Peter said, “The promise is unto you and to your children, and to them that's far off.” Don't be afraid to cash that. That's a bank draft on heaven. That's right. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and forever.

What if He stood here tonight and seen that woman laying there sick? She looks like she was very sick, cripple, probably paralytic, or something. Two women ... a woman, and a colored man and a colored woman trying to work with a little baby. What do you think He'd do if He stood and looked at them two patients there, as the healer? Do you think He could heal them? He's already done it, see. When He died at Calvary He done it.

Do you believe that, patient? Do you believe that's right? You there, with a ... little colored lady there with the baby, do you believe Jesus Christ, when He died at Calvary, He purchased the healing of your child?

You on the cot there—if you're ... you look very sick. You're paralyzed, whatever. Do you believe Jesus Christ died at Calvary to save you from your sickness? Do you believe that? Do you believe that what I've said tonight, that it's true? Do you believe that prescription's true? You do?

Now, if He stood here tonight, and you asked Him, “Will You heal my child?”, do you know what He'd say?

“I've already done that,” see. “You just believe it,” see.

And if you'd say, “Sir, I'm crippled, can't walk [or whatever it is], I can't walk.”

“I'm dying,” or something.

“Will You save me?” He'd say, “I've already done it,” see.

Now how would you know it was his voice? Because He would do something like He did then. He might be able to tell you something about yourself—tell you what you were, or what was wrong with you, or something like that—like He did in the Bible time. That would show that He was the same. But for healing, you'd have to accept it yourself. “He was wounded for our transgressions, with his stripes we were healed.” Do you believe that?

Do you believe He could tell me tonight what's your trouble, or something about you, laying there? Will you accept and believe me to be his prophet? You will?

What about you, the lady there next to her, with your hand on your baby? Do you believe that? Well, how many will believe it?

Now, heavenly Father, this is your servant. I'm just responsible for preaching your Word. Now, I know this is unusual, but I pray that You'll grant it tonight, that the people might know that this is truth.

All right, look this way. Your baby has some kind of a bone disease. That's right. It's got a big swelling in the leg. Is that right? Keep your hand on her, repeat and say, “Lord Jesus, heal my baby. I'll serve you all my life.” If you've never took this inoculation, believe it with all your heart. And put a string around that baby's leg tonight, and measure it. And then bring the string back tomorrow, where you cut it off—how much the swelling went down—tomorrow night. Will you do that?

You, laying there on that.... Do you believe me to be his servant? I've never seen you in my life. But you're laying there shadowed with death. And there's a dark shadow over the woman. She's suffering, dying with cancer. That's exactly right. Do you believe that God will make you well? Could you believe it? Then why do you lay there till you die? The doctor can't heal that. Rise up in the name of Jesus Christ, and take up your bed, and go home.

Do you believe? All that wants to believe, accept your healing. Stand upon your feet and praise God. Let's say, “Praise the Lord!” everybody. Do you believe? Raise your hands now to God. Do you believe? Is there no balm in Gilead? The power of God can do that. Let's raise on our feet, everybody now. Stand up to your feet, everybody, and accept Jesus Christ.