Abraham

1 Good evening friends. I am happy to be here again tonight. Just a little tired. I have just closed several great services before I left the U.S.A. So I'm going to take a little rest when I get home, if the Lord willing. But we are certainly thankful to be here in Switzerland among you fine people.

I believe of everywhere I've ever traveled, I have never seen nicer people than I've met in Switzerland. That is true. I mean that. I didn't have to say it, but I mean it from my heart. But we trust that the Lord will bless you mightily, and I hope I will be just as much blessing to you as you have been to me. And maybe sometime in the future, if God willing, I could come back again, maybe, and be with you longer. Just two more nights of the service, and then I have to go I suppose.

2 And that's usually the way it goes, just when you get acquainted with people, then you've got to say good bye. But I'm hoping someday where there'll--or we will all speak one language, we will never be old, no sickness, no death. We will meet again, and then I want an appointment with each one of you for a thousand years. We will have plenty of time then. This is the day; we must work while it is day. Night cometh when no man work.

Now, there's many letters here, and we are thankful that you have that faith in God. And now, that someone might misunderstand but this--these are not that we have anything we put on these letters, it's just obeying the Word of God. I have thousands of testimonies at home of people that's been healed this a way. God honored His Word.

3 Now, we're going to pray for them, and I pray that God will bless everyone. Could--would you bow your heads with me, and pray with me? God will hear your prayer, too.

4 Our heavenly Father...?... and as we are praying over these handkerchiefs, let Thy spirit come upon us. We realize that there's nothing in us as man, just obeying Your Word. There was no virtue in the serpent on the pole. Neither was there any virtue in the pole it hung on. But to they who looked they lived, for it was obedience to God's Word. O God, Creator of heavens and earth, may it be likewise with these, when these are brought to the sick, may every one of them be healed. If we Your servants have found grace in Your sight, let this be so, Father. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

5 We have just been holding a little too late at night, I understand. Last evening someone was telling me of our party, that many people had to catch a train at nine-thirty. I'm sorry that I held you late. I don't mean to do that, I--but I just run over time. Forgive me, please.

In Genesis 22, beginning with the 7th verse, we read this Scripture:

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham said, My son, God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Now, the 24th verse.

And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord you shall see it.

6 Shall we bow our heads again? Almighty God, Creator of heavens and earth, Giver of all good spiritual gifts, Author of Eternal Life, send Thy blessings upon Thy Word. Circumcise the lips that speak, and the hearts that hear, and may the seed of God fall into the hearts tonight, and many believe on the Lord Jesus, and be healed of their sickness. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Now, you watch for me that I won't be too long. Watch the time for me. I just said to the managers back there to watch the time for me.

7 We want to speak tonight again about Abraham. And I just love those old Bible characters, because all the Old Testament was a shadow of the New Testament. All things you see back there pointed to the cross, and all since then points back to the cross. So in the cross, all the plan of salvation and healing was finished there for believers.

Now, last night we left Abraham where he had made the--seen the confirmation of the covenant. How we find that God had give him a promise, and Abraham believed it, though He never give it to him just then, but He gave him the promise. So if you've got the promise, you've got it anyhow.

8 If I ask... (Do you have acorn trees here? Acorn trees here?) [Brother Branham speaks to the interpreter--Ed.] If you ask me for an acorn tree, and I give you an acorn, you've already got an acorn tree in a seed form. And that's what we try to preach the Word from the Bible, for that is the Promise of God in seed form.

Jesus said that the Word of God is Seed that a sower sowed. And any--any Divine promise of God will be received into your heart, no--no unbelief mixed with it, it'll produce just what it promised, for it's God's promise. Just hold on to it like Abraham did, and He will make it real to you.

9 Now, to you people that are along here, setting in these chairs and stretchers, God loves you. No matter what is wrong with you, God, if--if He's Almighty God, He can do all things, and if He cannot do all things, then He is not Almighty God. I would not stand here and speak to you, unless I knew what I was speaking of. I...

You notice, now every night there's someone raises from the stretcher or wheelchair, paralyzed, or something wrong with them. They go out well, the deaf hear, blind see, and signs of the living God. See, God is still alive. God never leaves the earth. Sometimes He takes His man, but never His Spirit. He took Elijah, and His spirit came upon Elijah. Several hundred years later, it came up on John the Baptist, and predicted to come again in the last days. God promised it.

10 Now, the devil, he takes his man, and it--the--the spirit remains here on someone else. Jesus said to the Pharisees, because they did not believe Him. He--they--He would not teach their doctrine. He said "You are of the devil, your father." Said, "Which one of your fathers has not persecuted the prophet?" See, the spirit remains here, and the--the person goes on. Then the resurrection is the judgment.

Now, Abraham was the first to go out in a strange country and--and sojourn just on the promise of God. But he separated himself from all his associates of the world, and walked alone with God to be a friend.

11 Last night we found out how that God confirmed the covenant, and we find the beautiful picture there of what He did at showing Calvary, where He was going to offer His own Son. Then we find Him appearing to Abraham again, and tell him He was the Breasted One, so that Abraham could be like a baby to Him, and just nurse from Him, strength, because Abraham was old. He was already a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety. That was fifty years or forty years past menopause. He married her when she was a little girl, and he was just a young man. And they had lived together as husband and wife all of these years. Then when menopause ceased, then forty years passed, and they were still believing God's promise. That--that's wonderful.

12 That's the kind of faith that we all want. Do not argue about it. It's... The Bible is not to be argued. It... The Bible is to be preached and lived. Jesus said, "If I do not the works of My Father, then believe Me not. But if I do the works of My Father, then believe the Word." And today, if we don't live the Christian life, well then, would--people can say we're not Christians. But if Christ is in you, He lives His Life in you.

13 As Paul said, "It's no more me, but Christ that liveth in me." And if Christ lives in a man, He... Christ lives His Life like He did when He was here on earth, for He said so. He said, "A little while and the world won't see Me no more, but you shall see Me. For I will be with you to the end of the world. And the things that I do, so shall you do." And He's raised from the dead, and He's here now in the same power that He had when He was here on earth, doing the same thing, saving the same kind of people, healing the same kind of sick, showing the same kind of visions.

14 And over in the New Testament, and the--when the church was first inaugurated, Peter said in his sermon to the church, that God said, "In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions." God has promised, the things that Jesus did would be done again in the last days. And we're living in that day.

Jesus did not claim to be a great Healer. He gave all praise to God. And He said, "I can do nothing in Myself." when He was questioned why He didn't heal all the sick people.

15 When He went out to the pool of Bethesda, there laid thousands of people, lame, twisted, and halt, and blind. He walked among them, till He found a man laying on a pallet. He made him well and left the rest of them. That's Saint John 5. And in the 19th verse, He is being questioned. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself. But what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise."

Christ had perfect faith in God. For Jesus is just the body, and God was in Him. The Bible says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.

16 Now, Abraham, as he received the promise, he journeyed on, after he--God confirmed the promise to him. So we find him now in about the 18th chapter of Genesis, after Lot had separated himself; Lot went out into the Sodom and Gomorrah, a very beautiful type of lukewarm believers today that love the world and the things of the world. The Bible said, "If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you."

So Lot went down with the backsliders. But Abraham stayed out where God placed him, for he knew that God promised to him that he was going to heir the whole thing.

17 So the--the lands were poor. The herd probably was very thin. One day while Abraham was setting under the oak, he lifted up his eyes, and standing in front of him, stood three Men. And One of them was Almighty God Himself. I wonder why that God appeared in that form with dust over Him. Abraham invited Him in, and he went and killed a calf, cooked the meat, got some butter and some milk, and Sarah went and got some cake, and set them down before Them. And Almighty God eat food like a man.

Do you imagine what God did there. He just reached out and got a handful of atoms, and some petroleum, (petroleum, you know, oils and stuff) [Brother Branham speaks to the interpreter--Ed.], and got the--the cosmic light, what the human body's made up of, and put it together, and lived in it. It was a preview what He was--what He was going to be anyhow. For He was manifested in the flesh in Christ Jesus.

18 Oh, He's wonderful. Some glorious day these bodies of ours are going back where they come from. But if our spirit is right with God, at the resurrection everybody will come back again.

The other day I--I was combing my hair, and my wife said, "Billy, you're losing most of your hair."

I said, "But, honey, I haven't lost a one of them."

She said, "Where are they at?"

I said, "Where was--where were they before I got them? They're there now waiting for me in the resurrection." Amen. They was one time they wasn't. Then there was a time they were. Now, there is a time they are not. But according to the Bible, there'll be a time when they'll be again.

19 I met a doctor the other day. I said, "Doctor, is it true every time we eat, we build blood--blood cells in our body that makes us grow?"

He said, "That is true."

I said, "I ask you a question. I'm eating the same kind of food now that I eat when I was sixteen. When I was sixteen, I eat the food, I grew, got stronger, bigger. And now, I eat the same food, perhaps better and more of it, and I'm getting older and weaker all the time." I said, "Explain that." It's not scientific.

If this glass has got water in it, and you pour more in it, it just keeps filling up, filling up. But why is it, it gets to a certain spot, and you keep pouring water in it, and it keeps going down? Because God has said. That's why. God has a way. Just like that flower, it started up; it come to its maturity, then it starts wilting away, but it comes back again.

20 Now, when God told Abraham when He met him there in a body, he had to wash the dust off of His feet. The Bible said that was God... And He turned His back to the tent; He said, "Abraham, where is Sarah?"

Said, "She's in the tent."

He said, "And according to life, as it is with women, I will visit you." And Sarah heard it. And when Sarah heard it, she laughed in her heart, not out loud. The Bible said that He had His back turned to the tent where Sarah was, and He looked at Abraham, said, "Why did Sarah laugh?"

See what I mean? God knows all things. He knows what you are. He knows what's wrong with you. That always been a sign of God...?... see, foresee, foretell. Look at the woman at the well, when Jesus told her she had five husbands. Why--why she said, "I know when Messiah cometh He will do these things," but she thought He was a prophet, but He told her He was the Son of God. And He's the same today. That was the Son of God back there with Abraham, exhibited in a body. Oh, I hope you see that.

21 Now notice, then God told that, that would be the next month then. And the next month it was with Sarah as it is with women, after it had ceased forty years. I want you to notice another little thing here. I know, my brethren, you're going to criticize this, but I want you just to be quiet for a moment, and look this over after you get home. Watch what God done to Abraham there, when He give him the promise.

Now, we all know that something had to happen to Sarah. She was nearly a hundred years old. Now, when you read the Bible, if the only experience you got come out of some school or some seminary, you lack something.

22 Listen, first you've got to be borned again of the Spirit of God. If you're not, you'll never understand the Word of God. God has said so. God said, "I have hid this Bible from the wise and prudent, and will reveal it to babes such as will believe." If you want to get anything from God, just be a baby. Open up the Bible. Fall in love with Jesus.

23 Now, when my wife writes me a letter, well, I read it. And she starts off, "Dear Billy, I am setting here tonight. I am thinking much about you." That's what she's saying on the paper, but I can tell what's between the lines, what she's reading.

The Bible, you must read between the lines, because God has hid It from those who just read the word alone. I am quoting Scripture that He has hid It from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and will reveal It to babes such as will learn. All that's ever read that in the Bible say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Then it's the baby that'll humble himself, not be puffed up, but be humble, and say, "Lord, I believe It."

24 A friend of mine, John Sproul, he came over to France for a little visit. I believe it was Alsace Lorraine. And he walked into a garden, and there was a statue of Jesus...