Doing God A Service Without Being God's Will"

Doing God A Service Without Being God's Will" William Branham

There is no one, no one denomination can claim us, a real Christian, because we belong to God. I't is possible to do God a service without it being God's Will. Now, that sounds strange, but we've got to channel ourselves into God's provided channel and God's way of doing it. No matter how much we think it's right; it's got to be according to the Word of the Lord or it's in vain. Cain worshipped, but it wasn't according to the Word of the Lord. The Pharisees worshipped, but not according to the Word of the Lord.

David, he wanted to do the Lord a service, and he was right in what he said. He said, "Is it right for the ark of the Lord to be down there? Let's bring it up here," in the days of the king, the other king that he succeeded. He said, "It's not right. They never consulted the Lord by the ark, but we must do it." Now, that's correct, what they should done. He said, "We should go get the ark, and we can consult the Lord." And that's right; it was down in the other country. Said, "We got to bring it up here. Get it up here and put it in our house here, and worship the Lord."

Now, notice. He went in the wrong channel to do it. He consulted the captains of fifties and hundreds and thousands. They all was consulted, every one. Seeing it was the will of the Lord, looked like that it was the--the Word of the Lord.

The Word of the Lord, sometimes you have to put it in Its right place or it's not the Will of the Lord. See, see? Now, let that soak deep and you'll get a--a general conception of what I'm trying to say.

No matter how religious it sounds, and how much people appreciate it is still a wase of time. Elvis Presley can sing religious songs, he's still a devil. And I'm no judge, but by their fruits you know them. See? He's a Pentecostal, but that don't make a bit of difference. See? Your fruits bear record of what you are. No matter if the Spirit comes upon him, he could speak in tongues, he could shout, he could heal the sick; and Jesus said, "Many of them will come to me in that day, and say, 'Lord, haven't I done this and that?' And I'll say, 'Depart from Me, you that work iniquity, I never even knew you.'" See?

We've got to be real, genuine Christians, and the only way we can do that is confront it with this question here of Eternal Life. There's only one form of Eternal Life, and that comes from God. And He foreordained every creature that would ever have it. Just as you were the gene in your father, you was a gene in God, one of His attributes to begin with, or you'll never be There. You come forth in the bedding ground of your mother; your father didn't know you; you were in his loins. And when you come forth in the bedding ground of the mother, then you become a human being and are made in the image of your father, now you can fellowship with him. And the same thing by God, if you got Eternal Life.

The life that you come in, the natural life, physical life, that was by your father. And the only way you can come borned again is the only way, is it has to be from your heavenly Father, His attributes. "All the Father has given Me will come to Me." See? We are Christians because our name was placed on the Lamb's Book of Life before there was even a foundation of the world. That's exactly right. You're a gene, a spiritual gene out of your heavenly Father, a part of God's Word. That be so, as I've said, then you was with Jesus when He was here because He was the Word: you suffered with Him, died with Him, buried with Him, and rose with Him, and now setting in heavenly places in Him.

David thought everything was fine, and he consulted all these people, and they every one begin to dance and shout and scream. They had all their religious motions that there was, but still it wasn't God's will to go down and bring the Word of God back to the house of God. But, you see, God always in all ages works through one way. His first decision is His only decision, because He's perfect in His decision. He never does nothing except He first reveals it to His servants the prophets. That's exactly.
That's why this. The church age that we live in, there's no church, no Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostals, or anything else, can ever put this church into the Bride. It'll have to be the answering of Malachi 4, for God to send a prophet to be revealed to, 'cause that's the only way. Our churches denominate and throw the thing into a mess and huddle, just like they've always been, and God always sends the prophet.

And there was Nathan standing in the land, a vindicated prophet before God, and he wasn't even consulted.
And they went down there and caused the life of a honest man, and so forth, and took the ark. Instead of putting it on the shoulders of the Levites to pack it, they put it on a cart to pack it. Altogether messed up the...

You see, if you don't go according to the--the will of God, and the way that God has give us to go, they always get it messed up and take it off in some organization, denomination, some message, and there you go. See? It's always been done that way.

The church can't give you Eternal Life, not your neighbor, not your pastor, not your priest, not your creed; only Jesus Christ Himself can give you Eternal Life. See?
No--no matter how good you are, what you quit doing, what you start doing; you've got to accept the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when you do that, He is the Word, and then your life fits right in the Word and it manifests itself to this age that you're living in.

Noah had to do that for the Word to be manifested in his age. Now, what if Moses come along and said, "We know what Noah done; we'll take Noah's word. We'll do it just the way Noah did it. We'll build a--a ark and float down the Nile River, and go out of Egypt"? Why, it wouldn't have worked. See, that was another age.

Jesus couldn't have come with Moses' message; Luther couldn't come with the Catholic message; the Wesley couldn't come with the Luther's message; the Pentecost couldn't come with the Wesley age message. And the Bride can't be formed in the Pentecostal denomination; it just can't do it. And that's exactly right. She's done organized and went out here, and there she sets, just like the rest of them. It's a shuck, just like the life comes up through the... See?

That writer, as I spoke the other night, that writer that wrote this book... And not 'cause he criticized me so bad, said I was "A devil, if there was such a thing." So he said he didn't believe in God. He said, "A God that could fold His arms and set up and watch them martyrs through the early ages, and claim to have power to open the Red Sea, and let them women and children be tore to pieces by lions and so forth, and then said He was a loving God..." Said, "There's no such a creature." See, the fellow, without inspiration of the Word, fails to see It.

The first corn of wheat, the Bridegroom, had to fall into the earth in order to rise again. So did the first Bride that was born at Pentecost had to go through that Dark Ages like any other seed, be buried. They had to die. They must do it. But it started sprouting again in Luther in the first reformation. It didn't look like the seed that went in, but it was the Light of that day. The...?... stalk then went on into the tassel, Wesley. And from the tassel it went into Pentecost, the shuck.
When you see into the wheat, when it comes forth, the corn of wheat, a man that's raised wheat, you go out and see that wheat form in there, it looks just exactly like the grain. But if you'll take a tweezer and set down and take that wheat and open it up, there's no grain there at all. It's just a shuck. And then what? It's--it's formed there to hold the grain. See? And then, the first thing you know, the life left the--the--the stalk to go into the tassel, left the tassel go into the shuck; it leaves the shuck and goes into the wheat: three stages (See?) of it. And then forms the Wheat outside of the three stages: Luther, Wesley, Pentecost. Just exactly. See, no doubt... You can't interrupt nature.

Now, look, every three years after a message has went forth sent from God, they organize. This has been twenty years, and there's no organization. It won't. See? Now, the shuck has to pull away, give the Wheat a chance to lay before the Son to ripen on the Message, coming right back into the church again, forming the Body of Jesus Christ just like the first original One that went into the ground. Now, to see the--the Eternal Life.

The Life, sure the---the stalk back here carried the Life. Certainly, it did. But, you see, when it become the stalk and it was finished, the organization, the Life went right on into Wesley; come right out, went... And watch each one of them. Why, a big blade don't look like the grain. But when the little pollen comes, like the--on the--the shuck--or on the stalk, the pollen of the tassel, it looks a whole lot like the grain. But when it comes down to that shuck, it's almost there.

Didn't Jesus say in the last days (Matthew 24:24) the two would be so close it would deceive the very genes, predestinated, the Elected One, if it was possible? Almost like the real thing (See?), so in the last days... Now, you see, it's wheat time now. It's getting harvest time. This is not Luther's age; this is not Pentecost age; this is the Bride age.

As Moses called a nation out of a nation, Christ today is calling a church out of a church, the same thing in type, taking them to the glorious eternal promised land.

Now, to refuse that Person that's doing the calling, Christ, no matter if you're Pentecostal, Methodist, Luther, whatever you are, you got to... This age... Nothing against them, not at all, but in this age now you've got to accept like they did in that age the Person of Christ which is the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwell among us, the same yesterday, today, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8) See? You must accept that Person of Eternal Life.

Now, what Life Luther had, was justification. Wesley had sanctification, added to it. The Pentecost had the restoration of the gifts coming back in it, added to it. But now it's completing in the body (You see?), the three phases of it, and out of that... Then when the resurrection comes, the Life that lived in them Lutherans, that's went out, the Life that lived in the Methodists and went out, the Life that went into Pentecostals, will all be raptured out of the ground in the Body of the Bride to be taken in before Jesus Christ. Glory to God. Oh, it's exciting. It's the truth.

We've turned a corner. We're looking towards heaven, watching for the coming of the cap on the pyramid, as we would say, His coming back. The church must be resurrected soon, and we must get ready. And the only way you can, is not say, "Why, I belong to the Assemblies. I belong to the Oneness, Twoness," or whatever it is, all them there, "I belong to the Church of God," that don't mean a thing. "Our fathers shouted and danced." That's just perfectly all right; that was their day. But today you're confronted not with the organization that they made, but with the Life that's going on, which is Jesus Christ.

This young fellow had done the same thing. Moses wrote those commandments. But, you see, the same God that wrote the commandments by His prophet, was the same thing that prophesied the day would come, "I'll raise up a Prophet likened unto me. And it'll come to pass that all that don't hear Him will be cut off"; back in the denominational shucks and tassels. They must go on to Life. And today, don't say, "I'm Pentecost. I belong to this, I belong to that." That don't mean nothing. You've got to accept the Person Christ, Eternal Life. Confronts every one of us. Don't forget that.
There are the leaders (You see?), that had such a hold on him, the people to talk, "Well, we belong to this, and we belong to that," and had such a hold on him. But what a fatal thing to reject the leadership of Eternal Life.

Now, that Life is present tonight. That's right. The Holy Spirit is here, which is Christ in Spirit form; His Spirit, the anointing is here. "A little while, and the world seeth me no more; yet ye will see me: for I'll be with you, even in you, to the consummation, to the end of the world."
Jesus alone can lead you to that Eternal Life. There's no church, no denomination, no preacher, no priest, no nothing else can lead you to It; you must be led by Him, the only One that can lead you.

Could you imagine Him leading you out of His Word, which that's Him? And if He is the Word, and you're a part of Him, won't you be a part of the Word? The Word that God wants to pour the waters of salvation upon today to identify Him today, like the apostles identified Him, like Luther, like Wesley, like in the people in them days identified Him... This is another age. It's the Word. The Word said these things that we're seeing taking place now, it's predicted to take place in this hour. So accept Jesus Christ and let Him lead you to Eternal Life.

Though he had achieved, this young fellow... He had achieved all good things. In school, been fine. As a good boy, no doubt he'd been good. As a real father... In listening to his daddy in business, he had been a good--a good boy, good to his parents. He'd been loyal to his priest. He'd been loyal to his church. He had been loyal to the commandments of God. But he lost the greatest thing, and the rest of them didn't mean very much to him when he turned down the leadership of Eternal Life, Jesus Christ.
Notice. This leadership confronts every one of us today, the same thing as it did that young man, we--no matter how religious we are. You may be Catholic, you may be Baptist, Methodist, or you may be Pentecostals, or whatever you are, this same thing confronts you tonight: Eternal Life, that's acceptance of Jesus Christ. We're given this opportunity.

Sometime in life we have to confront the thing just like this young man did, because you are a mortal being and you're giving the--you're given the opportunity of choice. You have a choice. God made it so you can choose. If He put Adam and Eve on free moral agency so they could choose, and then they made the wrong choice... And, see, He can do no more to you than He did to them, He's got to put you the same thing so you can choose or reject. You have a choice. Let's look at some of them:
You have a choice, as a young man, whether you're going to have an education or not. You have that choice. You can want to be just not have it; you can just refuse it.
You have a choice of your conduct. I'm going to hurt just a little bit here. See? You can go out and let your hair grow down and be a beatle or some of these ignoramuses.
Or you women, you can look like a--a decent human being or you can be one of these weird creatures that we have out there, them blued eyes, and water-head haircuts and things; they're completely against the Word of God, which is absolutely contrary; not even offer--couldn't offer a prayer to be accepted. That's truth. That's exactly right. That's what the Bible said.
But what's happened to you, church? You've seen so much television, so much things of the world, it's so easy for your old Adam nature to drift into that to act like the rest of them.

May I repeat this again. In the kosher, in the offering of the--the--the atonement in the days of Moses, when Moses brought the children out, there was to be seven days that there was to be no leaven among the people. Anyone knows that. In Exodus, "No leaven shall be found in your camp at all seven days." That seven days represented the full seven church ages. See?
"No leaven." Now, what is that? No creed, no world. Jesus said, "If you'd love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you." See? And we're trying to mix that; you can't do it. You've got to come to one thing to believe: you're either going to believe God, you're going to believe your church, you're going to believe the world, you're... You cannot mix it together. And you can't hold to them old things that the other church before you did. You've got to take the Message of the hour.

He said, "What was left over, don't let it stay till morning, to come into this other age, burn it with fire; be destroyed." That the age that you're living in, the Message of this age, It's got to be brought out of the Scriptures and vindicated and proved by God that it's God doing so. Then you either receive That or reject It. That's Eternal Life, leadership of the Holy Spirit, leading His church.
We could stay on that a long time; but let's move, just keep moving along.

The choice of your conduct, you could... You can't mix it now. You're either for God or against God, and the outward expressions shows exactly what's on the inside. See? The cocklebur, many of you think, "I got the baptism of the Holy Ghost; I'm going to heaven." That don't mean one thing that you're going to heaven. No, sir. You can have the baptism of the Holy Ghost every hour in your life and still be lost and go to hell. The Bible says so. See? It's exactly right.

Look here, you are a outside person. You have five senses that contacts that outside body. God gave you five senses; not to contact Him, your earthly home: see, taste, feel, smell, and hear.
Then you have a spirit on the inside of that, and it has five outlets: conscience, and love, and so forth. Five outlets that you contact the spirit world with that, but with your spirit.
Your physical contacts the physical. Your spiritual contacts the spiritual. But inside of that you've got a soul, and that soul is that gene that come from God.

And like a baby formed in its mother's womb, when the baby comes into the--to the mother's womb, by the little germ, it crawls into the egg. It doesn't form one cell a human, the next a dog, and the next a cat, and the next a horse. It's all human cells because it's building off of an original human cell.
And when a man has been borned again by the Word of God, predestinated to Eternal Life, called the Elected, it'll be Word of God on top of Word, Word on Word. Not a denominational creed and then a Word, and a creed; and it won't work. You can't have that leaven in It. Only one Eternal Life, Jesus Christ the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us."

Friends, you feed my children. You send me across the mission fields to the world to bring the Message. I got to be sincere with you. What I'm looking at, maybe you don't see. That's what I'm here, to try to tell you. It's not because I don't love people; it's because I do love people. Corrective... When I see the slipping of the church, going off saying, "Well, we did this and we did that," and look around over the church and see their... It just won't work.
Then look here in the Bible and see it's got to be that way at the end, that lukewarm Laodicean church age, putting Jesus out (the Word). He never called... He ain't going to call no church. He said, "As many as I love, I rebuke. I chasten them." Taking the Word and pound It on, and telling you're wrong in it. That's the reason I love you. "If you'll open the door and let Me in, I'll come in and sup with you," not a church, He's done put out of that.

She's headed for the Ecumenical Council. That's where she's gone, right back into Rome where she come from. And that's exactly. I've got that wrote on paper from twenty-five years ago, or thirty-three years ago, and there it is. Not only that, it's wrote in the Bible from a vision. She's gone back. There's no way of saving it; it's gone. It's going to be that way.
God's calling individuals. "I stand at the door and knock. If any man, any person..." One individual out of a thousand, it might be one out of a million.
As I said a few nights ago. When Israel come up out of Egypt, there were just two million people come, and just two million; just one--just two people went in, one out of a million. Did you know that? Caleb and Joshua.
And Jesus, when He was on earth. They said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness. We're keeping the traditions. And we're doing this. We know where we're standing."
He said, "I know your fathers eat manna in the wilderness, and they're every one eternally separated. They're dead.

When the sperm comes from the male or female, there's a million eggs comes; there's a million germs come. And out of all them little germs of the kind... If it's--if it's from the male cow, or the man, or whatever it is, there's just millions of germs, a million germs working. In there there's only one of those germs that's ordained to life, for there's one egg over there fertile to meet it. That's right. Only one egg it'll meet. Just like this body here setting here, and the germ comes from God. See? And watch that little germ come up among all these other germs, and wiggle around them, right on past them, go over here and find that fertile egg and--and crawl right into it; and the rest of them die.
What if it was that way with the church today, one out of a million? See where it would be? "Strait is the gate and narrow is the Way, and few there'll be that'll find It; 'cause broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there'll be that go in thereat." Is that truth, Brother Branham? I don't know, but I'm just quoting Scripture. See?

Now, you're ordained to Life. You see It if you're ordained to see It. If you're not ordained to see It, you won't see It. Said, "They have eyes but they can't see, ears and can't hear." How thankful you should be, church. How you should straighten yourself up from these things. How you should be on fire for God. That your eyes beholds what you see, your ears hears the things you see. Leadership. Why did you come here tonight to hear a message like This? I'm branded across the world by the churches as a fanatic. Why did you come? The Holy Spirit led you here (See, see?) to listen. Circumcise, cut away your things of the world, accept the leadership of Jesus Christ, or you'll perish as sure as the world.

You have a choice of conduct. How you conduct yourself, that's up to you.
You have a choice of wife. You go out and take your wife. You want to take a wife, you want to take one that's complementary to your--to what you want, you plan your future home to be. Could you imagine a man, a Christian man, going out and taking one of these modern Rickettas for a wife? See? Could you imagine? What's the man thinking about? What kind of a home is he going to have if he takes a striptease, a burlesque off of the street out here, a street prostitute. "Oh," you say, "now, wait a minute." How does she dress herself? See, see? Wear shorts and things, she's a street prostitute. "Oh," you say, "now, Brother Branham..." Oh, them little old tight skirts, look like you're poured into: street prostitute.

Jesus said, "And whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her in his heart." Then he's got to answer for that. And what'd she do? She presented herself. Who's guilty? Think of it.
You say, "They don't make any other clothes." They got goods and sewing machines (See?), no excuse. Huh-uh. That's exactly.
Now, I don't want to hurt you. And this is not a joke; this is THUS SAITH THE LORD from the Scriptures. It's exactly true, friend. I'm an old man; I haven't got much longer to stay; but I've got to tell you the Truth. If this is my last message, it's the Truth. See? Don't, sister. Don't, brother.

And you fellows that's hanging onto a--a creed, and knowing the Word of God being vindicated right before you. The baptism of the Holy Ghost and these realities that we have today, and then because of your creed, turn away from it? How can you be a son of God and deny the Word of God that's predicted for this last days that we're living in? How can you do it? How can the Bible call this...
As I said last night about a--a king one time, down in the south when they had... The colored down there was sold for slaves. Why, they was no more than just a--a used car market; you get a bill of sales on them. And I was alarmed, at a little place... I read one day where a--a broker come along to buy some, and he said, "Well, now, I'd like..." They was sad; you'd have to whip them, make them work because they was away from home. They're sold slaves. And they in a foreign country they knowed nothing about, and they'd never be back home again, and they were sad. You had to whip them, make them work. But this broker come by a certain plantation.

One young fellow there with his chest out, and his chin up, you didn't have to whip him. He was right up, and he kept the morals of the rest of them up.
The broker said, "I'll buy him."
He said, "He's not for sale. No, sir. You ain't going to buy him, because he's not for sale."
He said, "Well, what makes him so much different?" Said, "Is he the boss over the rest of them?"
Said, "No."
Said, "Do you feed him different?"
Said, "No. Yeah, he's a slave; he eats out there in the galley with the rest of them."
Said, "What makes him so much difference?"
He said, "I wondered myself, till I found out. Over in Africa (where they come from, where the Boers bought them, and brought them over here and sold them for slaves), over there his father is a king of the tribe. And yet, an alien, away from home, he knows he's the son of a king. So he conducts himself that way."

What a rebuke to Christianity. We're supposed to represent God and Eternal Life. There's only one form of Eternal Life, and that's God. He alone has Eternal Life. And we are products of His, because we're genes of His Spirit. Then we should conduct ourself, women and men, like the Bible said for us to do, not Jezebels of the street, and Rickies of the organization; but Christian gentlemen, sons and daughters of God, borned of the Spirit of God, manifesting the Light in our days and scattering It. That's exactly right.

How far we've drifted from it. Why? The same thing this boy did here. He rejected and refused Eternal Life, because It would cost him his social standing; it cost him his--his--his luxury of money; it'd cost him his fellowship in the church; it cost him a lot of things. He knowed what It was going to cost him; he was a sensible boy; and he felt that he couldn't pay the price. Yet he thought, "I'll just trust my religion and go on." But down in his heart he knowed there was something about Jesus Christ was different from them priests of that day.

And any Message that's come in, a genuine, born Message of God is different from the old trend. When a Divine healing went forth, not long ago, did you notice how the impersonators followed it? See? And every one of them went right in them organizations, staying there. Does anyone know that there had to be a Message follow that? Why, God don't entertain us. He attracts our attention with something, and when He attracts our attention, then He's got His Message.
Look when He was first come on the earth, and started His ministry, "O young Rabbi, we want you over here in our church. We can... Come on down here." The young prophet. "Oh, we want you over here. Come here."
But one day He stood up and said, "I and My Father are One."
"Oh, my. He makes hisself God."
"Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no Life in you."
"He's a vampire. Well, we have nothing to do with that."
Them apostles set right there; thousands left Him, but those apostles were ordained to Life. He said so. They couldn't explain It; they believed It. They stayed right with It because said, "No man could do these works."
Even the priests knowed that. Nicodemus said, "We know (the Sanhedrin council) that no man could do these works except it be from God." See?
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, said, "Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you, God was with Him."
Look in the Scriptures, what the Scriptures said would do. Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, in Them you think you have Eternal Life. They are what testifies of Me. If you would've knowed Moses, you'd know Me, for Moses wrote that I would come in the form that I would come in." He come as the Son of man.

He comes in three names, as God, three (like Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), same God, it's three attributes.
Now, also, justification, sanctification, Luther, Martin, and--and the--and the Pentecostal; same thing, three attributes, three stages, three church ages, same thing... Water, blood, and spirit, always as you go along, the three elements that takes you back into the body. Like it brings you from your natural birth, types your spiritual birth. The baby's born, the first thing's water, next blood, and then life. That's the way you come into the Kingdom of God, the same way. See? That's the way the church comes in, the same way, same thing. Now, notice on these three things, God has formed His--forming His body.

Now, we find that in here, that you have a right in your choice. You choose the girl you want to marry; she accepts you, all right.
Then another thing, you have a choice of whether you want to live or whether you don't want to live. You choose now between Life and death. You can live.
That boy had that choice. He was success in everything else, a religious man, but he knowed that when that... He spoke it of hisself, "I've observed all these commandments since I was a youth," but he knowed he didn't have Eternal Life. See? And he had a choice to accept It or to refuse It, and he turned It down. That was the most fatal mistake he could ever made. The rest of It wouldn't amounted. It don't, it doesn't amount, unless you take that choice.

Now, let us follow him at his choosing, and see where it led him to. Now, see where he chose. Now, look, he was a--he was a rich man; he was a businessman; he was a ruler; and he was a religious man. All that.
Today we'd say, "Boy, he's a genuine Methodist, or Baptist, or a Pentecostal. He--he's a real fellow, real nice boy. Fine." Nothing you could say about him; friendly, nice, sociable, and everything, no immorals about him. He didn't probably smoke, drink, or run around to shows and dances, and whatever we'd call it today, as we'd class a Christian. But that ain't Eternal Life yet. That ain't what we're talking about. He might have been loyal to his church, in which he probably was. But, you see, and what did it lead him to? Great popularity. Let's say, if he was a preacher, he could've been--got a better church. He could've been the state presbyter or a bishop. See? It leads you to popularity, and it led him to riches and to fame.

It might do the same thing today, if you have a great talent to sing. I thought of that young man awhile ago that sang that song here; how he give that to the Devil, and now he get it back... And how different between him and Elvis Presley and some of these, Pat Boone, and a group like that, Ernie Ford, them guys, great singers, and take their talents, that God-given talents, and use it to inspire the--the works of the Devil. That's right. Some great singer selling their God-given talents for fame in this world to become somebody. How could you become any more of a "body" than you could, to be a somebody, than to be a son of God?

I don't care if you own the whole city, the whole world, and you haven't accepted the leadership of Eternal Life by the Holy Spirit Christ, how you going to... Who are you anyhow? You're a dead mortal, dead in sin and trespasses. Religious as you want to be; as faithful as you want to be to the church; preacher, if you want to be in the pulpit; but to turn down, you die.

He was a great success. He was a great success here in this life. Certainly. We find him where we notice... Then we find this fellow, that he went... We follow him a little bit, and we see he got a great successful. And we follow him through the Bible. We notice that he--he... We find him a rich man. He's got such great big places; he was entertaining the judge and the mayor of the city, or whatmore. He's up on top of his roof, and he has great banquets; and plenty of waitresses, and women, girls, and everything else, around him. And there's a beggar laying at the gate named Lazarus. He sweeps the crumbs off to him. We know the story. The next thing, he goes on successful, just like the churches today are getting.

A businessman setting here, telling me right here in California, that the church has to tell the labor union what to do. See, it's coming church and state again. It's right on you. You see, you're right in there, and you take the mark of the beast not knowing it.

I was at the World Fair, with Yul Bryan or them--Brynner, and them up there, when he giving all that test. And how he put one cigarette and drawed the--across a marble and took the... Wiped up the nicotine and put it on a rat's back, a white rat, and in seven days he was so full of cancer he couldn't walk. And they said, "You know, they say a filter," said, "it's a gimmick, sells more cigarettes."
It takes so much nicotine to satisfy that devil. That's right. And when you take a filtered cigarette, it takes about four cigarettes to take the place of one. It's a gimmick to sell you more cigarettes. You cannot have smoke unless you got tar; and tar, you've got cancer. See how it is? And the blind Americans, looking for a rabbit to come out of a hat somewhere, they fall for it. You can't have it; it's death. I don't care which way you go, it's death any way you go. "A thinking man's filter," a thinking man wouldn't smoke at all (That's right.), if he's got any thoughts at all.

Well, I thought that just can comply to the churches. See? I think, has God got a filter? Yes. And every church has got a filter. That's right. They filter ones that comes in, and they let a lot of death in too.
How could you ever draw a denomination through God's Filter? How could you do it? How could you draw a bobbed-hair woman through that Filter? Tell me? How could you ever draw a woman that wears slacks through There, when it's an abomination for her to put on a garment pertains to a man? See, God's filter would catch her out there; It wouldn't let her come in. But the church has got their own filters. So I say that there is a thinking man's Filter; that's God's Word; and It suits a holy man's taste. That's right. A holy man; not a church man, but a holy man's taste, because It's pure, holiness, unadulterated Word of God. There is a thinking man's Filter. And church member, I advise you to use That one.
Because it brings in the world, and one lump of it is death. One lump leavens, or one little leaven leavens the whole lump. "Whosoever shall take one Word out of This, or add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life."

At the Garden of Eden, what caused death, and all this sorrow, every heartache, every little dying baby, every rattle in the throat, every ambulance screaming, every hospital, every graveyard? Was because Eve doubted one Word, not all of It, it just perverted It. Now, God said, "Man," there, "he was to keep every Word of God." Now, that's the first of the Bible.
In the middle of the Bible, Jesus come, and He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," not just part of Them, every one.
In the last of the Bible, Revelation 22, Jesus give the testimony of Himself. The Revelation of His--of the Bible is Jesus Christ. And He said, "Whosoever shall take one Word out of here, or add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life."
Now, you go through that thinking man's Filter, you'll have a holy man's taste when you come out of there. Right. You'll have a saintly taste.

Sister, you that wear those clothes, think of it. You're going to... You say, "I'm virtuous to my husband." "I'm virtuous to my boyfriend," "I'm a virtuous girl." But what about that sinner that looked at you? When he answers for adultery, who did it? See? You'll be guilty. See, written in the Word, so it's the... See? Oh, be a thinking woman. Be a thinking...
You say, "It might..." Well, what if it does happen to be that way? He said so, and one Word can't fail. See?

The great man told me not long ago, called me into his room, said, "I'm going to lay hands on you, Brother Branham. You're ruining your ministry, preaching such things."
I said, "Any ministry that the Word of God will ruin, ought to be ruined." See?
He said, "I'll lay hands on you." Said, "You was sent to pray for the sick."
I said, "Do you believe those things, brother?"
He said, "No. But it's not our business."
I said, "Whose business is it then?" See?
"Oh," he said, "that's the pastor's business."
I said, "Look at the congregation." Uh-huh. See? That's right. See?
Every year I pass through preaching these things, and I think, "Surely they get It," next year I come back, there's more than ever. See? That's right. It goes to show that many are called but few are chosen.

The leadership is the Holy Spirit, friend. It leads you and guides you into all Truth, when He the Holy Ghost is come. Now, think of that. Take the thinking man's Filter, that's the Bible, not your creed, not your church; you'll be lost. Take the thinking man's Filter.
That's where that boy didn't think. He took the church filter. He become popular, a great man, but in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.
Now, you take the thinking man's Filter, Jesus Christ, the Word, and you'll desire a holy person's taste, because It'll satisfy that. If you got the Holy Spirit in you, This satisfies it.
If the Holy Spirit isn't there, you say, "Oh, well, I don't think that means any difference." Look what you've done right there, same thing Eve done. You're right back in the same place.

Now, let's go a little farther. Now, let's take--leave that man there, that didn't use the thinking man's Filter. He refused to accept the leadership of Jesus Christ and Eternal Life.
Now, let us take another rich, young businessman, a ruler with the same opportunity that this man had. And accept It, he accepted the leadership of Christ. Now, there's two of them in the Bible that we're going to talk about. That one we see that refused it, now let's take this man: another rich, young businessman, and a ruler. And he accepted the Leadership.

The Scriptures tell us about this fellow, if you want to mark it down, in Hebrews 11:23 to 29: Moses, by faith, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer the afflictions of God, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater treasures than all the treasures of Egypt.
See, he accepted Eternal Life. Moses esteemed the--the--the reproach of Christ greater treasures than all the treasures the world had. Moses esteemed That the greatest. Now, this rich man didn't.

And Moses was a rich, young ruler to become a Pharaoh. He was Pharaoh's son, and was heir to the throne. And he looked out to the impossible, a bunch of mud-daubers, a bunch of slaves. But by faith he saw the promise of God through the Word, "That his people would sojourn in a strange land for four hundred years, but would be brought out by a mighty hand." And he esteemed That (Hallelujah.) greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt, for he forsook Egypt not knowing where he was going. He was led by Christ. He forsook.
And he had his foot on the throne, and he could been--been the next Pharaoh in Egypt. But he esteemed the reproach of Christ, the reproach to be called that odd one, be called that fanatic, to take his place with the mud-daubers and the fanatics; because he seen that the hour, that the Scripture was promised to be fulfilled was there then.
And oh, church, wake up. Can't you see the same thing tonight? The hour that's been promised is on us. Esteem the reproach of Jesus Christ greater riches than all the fellowship of anything; if it's father and mother, church, anything else, follow the leadership of the Spirit.

Let us follow this Christ for a few--or this Moses for a little while, that, I did that. Let's watch his life. The first thing, when he had accepted to take the reproach of Christ and forsake his education, forsake all of his wisdom... He was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And all of his popularity, his throne, his scepter, his kingship, his crown, everything he had, he rejected it.
And this other fellow wanted it, and refused Christ; and this man refused that, and accepted Christ. And quickly what happened? He had to separate himself.
"Hallelujah," that word, it means "Praise our God." It's too bad that we're forgetting it.

He rejected the thrones and the popularity. He could've had young girls by the--wives by the hundreds, and he could've had scepters under... Egypt ruled the world. The world laid right at his feet, and he was heir to every bit of it. But by looking in the Scripture and seeing the day he was living in, and knowed that Something in him, that predestinated Seed of God went to work.
I don't care how popular you could be, or how this you could be; you could be a presbyter; you could be a pastor; you could be a this, that, or the other; but if that Word of Eternal Life by God's Word has been foreordained into you, and you see the thing at hand, it goes to work, moving out like that. Start coming out. Begin to get It.
And he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, because he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater treasures than all the riches of Egypt or the world. He esteemed That. Watch what he done; he followed it. Up, quickly he was ousted from his people, the people that once loved him.

It might cost you everything you got. It might cost you your home; it might cost you your friendship; it might cost you your stitch-and-sew party; it might cost you your place at the Kiwanis. It might... I don't know what it'll cost you, but it'll cost everything that's worldly or pertains to the world. You'll have to separate yourself from everything that's worldly. You'll have to do it.
Moses laid everything aside and went into the desert with a stick in his hand. Amen. Days after days passed. And wonder if he thought he made a mistake? No.
Many times people start out, and they say, "Oh, I'll do it. Glory to God, I see It." And let somebody laugh at you and make fun of you, "Probably I was wrong."
He said, "They that cannot stand chastisement are bastard children and not the children of God." See, they're worked up on the emotion.
See, these seed that I talked about awhile ago, that soul wasn't there to start with. It was anointed with the Spirit, and he done all kinds. Oh, you--they... And when your spirit's anointed, you can... It's a real, genuine Holy Ghost, and you could still be a devil.

"Oh," you say, "Brother Branham..."
False prophets. The Bible said, "In the last days there'd be false prophets." Jesus said, "There shall rise false christs," Not "false Jesuses," now, nobody stands still for that; but "false christs." "Christ" means "the anointed ones." Falsely anointed; they are anointed, but they are false at the bottom of it, and do great signs and wonders, speak in tongues, dance in the Spirit, preach the Gospel.
Judas Iscariot did it. Simeon... Or no, I beg your... Caiaphas prophesied. Balaam, the hypocrite... Sure, done all the signs, everything, all the religious moves.

But, you see, you put a cocklebur seed and a wheat seed in the same bed and pour the water down upon them and anoint them, they'll both rejoice. They'll both grow by it, the same water. "The sun shines on the just and the unjust, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but by their fruits you shall know them." How can you keep from lining up with the Word? Amen. See what I mean? "The water falls on the just and the unjust," anoint it.
Jesus said, "They will come to Me in that day, say, 'Lord. Lord. Have not I cast out devils? Have not I done prophesied? Have not I done great things in Your Name?'" He'll say, "You workers of iniquity, depart from Me; I don't even know you. Go into eternal hell that's been prepared for the Devil and his angels." You see? What a Word. Falsely, worship in vain, striving in vain. Why do you do that when you don't have to do it? Why take a substitute when the heavens are full of genuine? See? You don't have to do that.

Now, we find Moses anointed, nothing could turn him back. His own brothers turned him down; that didn't stop him. He went right on into the wilderness. And one day out there, he met God face to face, with a Pillar of Fire hanging in a bush. Said, "Moses, take off your shoes, your ground you're standing on is Holy. For I have heard the cries of My people, and I have heard of their groanings, and I remember My promise of the Word. And I'm coming down, I'm going to send you down there to take them out." Certainly. He met God face to face, he talked with Him. He was commissioned by God.

God come right back, that same Pillar of Fire, and vindicated that prophet standing out there on the mountain, to prove that it was, when he took his hands and performed all kinds of miracles and things. Oh, they had the impersonators. Oh, sure. There was Jambres and Jannes stood right there and done the same thing they did. But who was the original? See? Where did it start from? Did it come from the Word? Was it the hour?
And do you know that same thing's promised again in the last days? "As Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses, so will these men of reprobate mind concerning the Truth." See, in the last days... And do the same thing, impersonate everything, right on in the same gully, hog going to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit.

And you Pentecostals that come out of them organizations years ago and cursed them, your fathers and mothers; and you turned right back around and done the same thing that they did, and now just the same wallow and vomit. See? If it made the church vomit it out in the early Pentecostal age, it'll make It vomit it out again today. See? It has to be though; it's... The shuck has to come. The tassel can't be the only one; the shuck has to come (See?) the carrier. Now, we're living in the last days, watch the things that's promised for the hour.

Watch this Moses that was confirmed. Know. When he got out there, some of his own brethren turned against him, wanted to make an organization. They said, "You act like you're the only holy man among us." "The whole congregation's holy," said Korah, Dathan. "Let's choose out man and do something."
Moses, he... I felt sorry for him. He went down and said, "Lord..." Fell down before the altar and said, "Lord..."
God said, "Separate yourself from them. I've had enough of it." Just opened up the earth and swallowed them up...?... up. See, he knowed his commission.

God don't deal with organizations. He don't deal with groups. He deals with individuals (That's right.), always, not in groups; individuals, one person. In the last days, He said, "I stand at the door and knock, and if any man (not any group)--any man will hear My Voice, I'll--and hear Me, I'll come in to him and sup." See, "If any man can hear."
How can--how could this microphone now produce my voice out there unless it was made thus? I could scream against that board, with all my might, and it wouldn't do nothing. Because this is ordained, and made, created, a microphone. And if the Word of God is in you from foreordination of God, in you, "My sheep hear My Voice. They know My holler. A stranger they won't follow." See? It's got to be that first. "All that the Father has given Me, they will come," every one of them. See?

Now, he goes on, at the life's end here. He only passed... Notice when he come to the end of the road.
And we're closing now because it's getting late, twenty-five minutes till ten. Notice. Now, at home that's early. About two or three o'clock we begin to say, "Say, it's getting a little bit late." See, see? But now, I've preached a many a-night, all night long.
Paul preached this same Gospel in his day, and a young man fell off of a--a wall and killed himself. And Paul, with that same anointing and that same Gospel, laid his body upon him; he come to life again. They were interested. The church was being formed. Something was taking place. Notice what taken place here.
Moses, when he come down...

This rich man, when he come down, the young ruler we talked about, all religious, and belonged to church and everything, fine, educated, a fine businessman, and everything, when he come to the end of the road, he begin to scream, "There's nowhere to step." Where's his leadership? He had been led by his church, which is dead. He had been led by the dead world, and there wasn't nothing for him to step into but what the world had prepared for it: hell.
But here comes Moses, a faithful servant who esteemed the reproach of Christ greater treasures than all the riches of Egypt. He come to the end of the road, an old man, a hundred and twenty years old; walked up on the mountain, and he knowed that death laid before him, and he looked over into the promised land. And he looked, laying there by his side, there was his Leader, the Rock. He stepped upon the Rock, and the Angels of God packed him away into the glory of--of glory of God, into the bosoms of God. Why? Eight hundred years later, he was still being led by his Leader.

We find him over on Mount Transfiguration, standing there with Elijah, talking to Jesus before He went to the cross. Eight hundred years after death, that he... The One, he esteemed the reproach of his ministry greater treasures than all the popularity of the world and all the money of the world, his Leader was still leading him. Oh, my. He was led. His Leader, He led through the death, the shadows of death. He was led to the grave. Hundreds of years later, there he stood again because as his youth, he had chosen the leadership of the Holy Spirit. His name will be great when there is no more Egypt or treasures. When the pyramids are dust, and when the Egypt is no more Egypt, Moses will be immortal among men because he accepted the leadership of Christ instead of going the way his church went.

There's others that did the same thing. Look at Enoch. He walked with God for five hundred years, and then he had a testimony that he pleased God. God had verified it, and said, "There's no need of you dying, just come on up home this afternoon." And he went up.
And Elijah. After bawling out bobbed-haired women and everything, as he did in his day, Jezebels with the paint on them, after he got so full of it, and--and had done all he could, and all them priests making fun of him, and everything else, he walked down at the river one day. And just across the river was the horses hitched to a bush over there, a chariot of fire and horses of fire. He stepped right on, and threw his robe off to the next prophet to follow him, and went up into heaven. He accepted the leadership of Eternal Life, 'cause it was Christ that was in Elijah. Oh, yes, sir.
What was it? "Follow Me." Now, you must choose your leader. You've got to choose it, friend. Look in God's looking Glass, the Bible, and see where you're at tonight.

A little story. A little kid, one time, lived out in the country. He never seen a mirror, and he came into the city to see his mother's sister. And she had a home... And the old fashion homes used to have a mirror on the door; I don't know whether you remember that or not. But this little boy, he'd never seen a mirror. So he's playing around the house, and he looked in the... "Huh?" He looked at that little boy. And he waved, and the little boy waved. And he pulled his ear, and the little boy pulled his ear, and on like that. He kept walking up, close, and he turned around and said, "Mama, that's me." That's me.

What do you look like? What are you following? What have we done? You must choose your leader. Choose today. You choose Life or death. Your choice will determine your eternal destination, what you choose. Remember, Jesus said, "Follow Me." And you're invited tonight to do so. And to follow Him to Eternal Life you must come on His terms (That's right.), the Word, not upon the creed, not upon the public opinion, not upon what anybody else thinks about It, but on what God said about It.
You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I know a woman just as good as she can be; she does this. I know a man that went through this."

I can't help what they done. God's Word, and He said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be the Truth." You've got to come on His terms, come on His conditions, the Word. You cannot come through creed; you cannot come through denomination; you cannot mix It like that. There's only one thing you can do: accept It on His terms, that you're willing to die to yourself and all your thoughts, and follow Him. "Get rid of all the things of the world, and follow Me."

I know that's a stern, cutting Message, brother. But I didn't come here and choose a--a message to the people just to try to make them sing, shout, holler. I been in heathen meetings where they done the same thing. I'm interested in your life. I'm a servant of God that's got to answer to God someday, and the ministry that the Lord has given me has vindicated itself thousands of times before you.
Remember, Jesus said, "Follow Me. Follow Me. Get rid of what you've got, and follow Me." And that's the only way to have Eternal Life. That's the only remedy He give this man, was the only remedy He give this businessman; it's the only remedy He gives anybody. His choice, He makes His decision; it's perfect every time. And we must follow Him, is the only way to have Eternal Life. So the leadership of God is follow the vindicated Word of the hour by the Holy Ghost.