22-0523P_PERFECT STRENGHT BY PERFECT WEAKNESS PT-4_(THE PEOPLE CHOSEN BY GOD TO BUILD HIS KINGDOM)
2Co 12:6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
2Co 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
2Co 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
1Co 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1Co 2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1Co 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1Co 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1Co 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
1Co 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
1Co 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1Co 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
89 Listen to him.
And I was with you in... (greatness? In what?)...
weakness, and in fear, and... much trembling.
Could you imagine a man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a
teacher of the teachers, a man that was trained from childhood for the ministry
to be a eloquent man that was smart and brilliant, to come before a class of
people like the Corinthians and say, "I was with you in weakness, and in
fear, and much trembling"... A
man who turned the world upside down, the greatest missionary that's ever been
known, confessed that he come in weakness, not as a trained scholar, but in the
weakness and fear, lest he'd step off the path somewhere, in much trembling,
because he could not trust in his own ability.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
90 The reason he was fearing, not because he was scared of
anything; but he was scared he would displease God in some way, that he'd get
his own ability mixed up into it; something that he'd learned, that he'd...
He was telling them that, "I didn't come to you with these
excellency of speech; I come to you in fear that I would come that way; but I
come to you knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified."
And I come to you in fear, and weakness, and in much
trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with the
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and...
power:
Listen to this man who was a warrior had stripped hisself.
Amen. If there's anything that our schools needs today, if it's anything our
churches needs today, is a stripping of themselves, of your own thoughts and
your own abilities. Strip yourselves before God
unless you would try to do something within yourselves.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
92 I hope you--that gets down deep to us, both
here and the tape world too, that you realize that you've got to become
nothing: not a know-it-all, not a great somebody, but a nobody. You be--got to
come dust. You've got to get to a place that you know that you're nothing.
And don't never rise above it, for as soon as you rise above it, you rise
above God. You've got to keep yourself in the dust and on the road to
Damascus. You've got to keep yourself off your high horses. And that's for
everywhere, here and in the tape world.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
93 "My speech," he said,
"doesn't... in the enticing words of men and man's wisdom, but in the
demonstration of the Spirit of power."
Now, watch. "What for, Paul? Why'd you do this?"
... power... That your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God.
Oh, what a preacher, this great man who... He sought God, and
he said, "God, I am weak, and I--I don't know what to do. I just pray You,
God, to strengthen me, take my infirmities away from me, and these things, so I
can be stronger."
God spoke back to him, said, "Paul, My strength is made
perfect in your weakness."
Then Paul said, "When I am weak then I am strong."
Yes, he said, "Then will... I will glory in my infirmities of my
weaknesses and so forth. I'm thanking God that I got all of it out of me. And
when I get everything out of me, then God can come in. But as long as I got
some of myself there, then God can't get in."
There, that's it; we--we smother Him out. We drive Him away
with our... From the poorest of us to the richest of us, from the least to the
greatest, we keep God out of our lives because of our ownselves.
"THE GREATEST ENEMY I GOT IS WILLIAM BRANHAM." PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
99 I've often said, "The greatest
enemy I got is William Branham." He's the one that gets in God's way. He's the one that
gets lazy. He's the one that gets to a place sometimes where he thinks he
can do something about it, and when he does, that shoves God right out of the
picture. But when I can get rid of that guy, when I can get to a place that he's
out of the way, then God can come over and do things that William Branham knows
nothing about.
That's when God can use you. That's when He can use any of
you. He can use anybody when we get out of the way. But as long as we got
ourselves in the way, then we cannot. All right.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
101 Now, we find out, this great fellow, Paul,
he was a--he was a prince amongst the preachers. He was respected by every
denomination. That man could've went to a city and had a meeting anywhere.
Because why? He had credentials. Why, he was so great, and so determined to
smash out all the people that was weak, until he got power from the high
priest, the high--highest authority, to bind every one of them Christians.
Political power from his church to bind all of them... Oh, he was strong. He
could bind the Christians and throw them into jail because they wouldn't agree
with him upon his theological doctrine, upon the doctrines of the Pharisees and
Sadducees. He was binding the Christians.
HE BECOME BOUND HIMSELF TO LOSE WHAT HE HAD POWER TO BIND
WITH.
But notice him; he had to become bound himself so he could
lose it, he could lose his strength and authority. He become bound himself to
lose what he had power to bind with. He had to lose what he was in order to be
bound.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
103 God passes the nobles. He passed the
priests. He passed those who were arrogant and He chose Paul, this great man,
and made him fall in the dust of the earth and do things that he--like those
others was doing. He made them act in the--made him act the same way that those
he was arresting. He bound Paul by the Spirit of God to get him loose from
the power that he had to bind Christians with. Tell me God don't know what
He's doing? He took away his strength in order to
lose his--his hold.
***HE HAD TO LOSE HIS
STRENGTH AND BECOME WEAK AND NOTHING IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE STRENGTH OF GOD
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
104 How many ministers could God use this
morning if they'd only let God bind them with His Word and with His power, and
loose them from the strength of them denominations and organizations. How
many sincere people in this city this morning, that goes to these great organization
churches, how many could He fill with the Holy
Ghost, and set this country afire with the Gospel and the power, if they'd only
take and loose themselves from the power that they have and be bound by His
Spirit to be as Paul was, a love slave to God.
God took Paul and made a slave out of him, bound him
to Himself and sent him to the Gentiles which he hated. But, you see, he had to be loosed
from his ecclesiastical power, to be bound to the power of God. He had to lose his
strength and become weak and nothing in order to receive the strength of God, to be bound to God, to do what God would tell him to do.
That's what we have to do today. That's what I need. That's what every man needs, is
a loss of himself, loss of his ability, loss of what he is, that he might have
a complete yielding to the Holy Spirit. The housewife needs
that. The schoolboy needs that. We take... even our little children.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
107 A certain little boy that I'm thinking of,
yesterday afternoon or day before yesterday, or one day, he went in and got his
oldest sister to write out his lesson right quick, and come out and told the
little boys, said, "Whew! Them problems was easy." See, they're taught
almost to cheat.
How much better would be... Those people are pillars in a
church. How much better it would be for dad, of a morning at breakfast time,
say, "John's going to have his examination today. O God, be with John.
Help John. He asked me in the bedroom this morning and saying, 'Dad, pray for
me today; I've got to stand my examination. Pray for me.'"
I'd rather my boy would get a--a good, decent "F"
on his card, to flunk, than I would to know he got a straight "A" and
cheat over it. Yes, sir. What we need is to lose ourself, wholly depend
upon the power of God.
* GOD CAN MAKE STRENGTH OUT
OF WEAKNESS. PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
110 Now, bound... God passes the nobles and
gets the weakness. God
passes those who thinks they're something to take somebody that don't know
nothing to order to work His purpose in their life. That's what
we get.
God said to Paul,
"My strength is perfect in your weakness. My--My strength becomes more
perfect as you become more weaker. More you can yield to Me the better I can use you. The more you can forget about your education, the
more you can forget about your denomination, the more you can forget about your
stuff and yield yourself to Me, the more I can use you. 'Cause
you become weak, I'll--I'll make My own purpose strong."
God
can make strength out of weakness. That's the reason He always does it. When He chose His disciples...
*BUT HE CHOSE TO MAKE CHRIST
THE EXAMPLE OF US, FOR US, AND HE BROUGHT HIM IN HUMILITY.
113 Who would think of the humility of His
own Son when He was born in a manger, in a manured barn, in the cow stall, and
was wrapped in swaddlings cloth? See, He could've come through a palace, He could've come down
the corridors of heaven, and all--a full Angel salute. But
He chose to make Christ the Example of us, for us, and He brought Him in
humility.
He never
trained Him in the schools of this world, but He trained Him by His Own power
to--so He could completely yield Himself, not to the
thoughts of man or the strength of the world, but yield Himself to the power of
God.
*GOD'S SOLDIERS, RATHER,
HEROES …..OUT OF WEAKNESSES WAS MADE STRONG.
115 That's what's us today; we yield ourself
today in our great denominations and realms. We yield ourself over to the
denomination, what it's got to say, what they say about it. But that is contrary
to God's will. We've
got to yield ourself to the Spirit of God and go where the Spirit says go. That's
right.
God's Hebrews that we... Or God's soldiers, rather, heroes (We just read in the
Book of Hebrews the 11th chapter and the 34th verse.) out of weaknesses was made strong. They
had to get weak before they could get strong. Out of their weaknesses they were made strong. You
that's putting the Scriptures down, out there, Hebrews 11:34. All right.
***OUT OF WEAKNESS AND HUMILITY GOD CHOOSES THE PEOPLE TO BUILD
HIS KINGDOM OUT OF… GOD TAKES
THAT PERSON AND BEGINS TO MOLD HIMSELF INTO THAT PERSON:
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
118 Here's something to console us. Here's something that
encourages. Out of weakness and humility God chooses the people to build
His Kingdom out of. If we
ever get to heaven, if we ever stand in the Presence of God with His Church,
we'll stand in a bunch of people that's been weak and rejected and cast out by
the world, and know-it-nothings.
Isn't it strange that God likened us to sheep? A sheep is the most helpless
thing there is. There's nothing so insufficient of defense than the
sheep. A rabbit can run; a squirrel can get in a tree;
a dog can bite; a lion can tear; a horse can kick; a bird
can fly; but a sheep stands helpless.
That's the way God wants us. Realize that we
are totally insufficient, then God takes that person and begins to mold Himself
into that person:
make his hands do what God would have hands to do, make his lips speak what
God's lips would speak; because they're not his; they're God's. He
begins to build a character, begins to take this weakness and to make His
Ownself.
*BUT GOD'S SIDE WAS WEAK AND HUMBLE. THAT'S HOW GOD USED THEM. PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
121 He brings us here in the earth. But then
we are educated; we're smart. Did you ever notice the lines, the lineages?
When we take, for instance, like in Abel, from Abel come Seth; Seth's lineage come right down, on down
to Noah's time, all of them were just humble farmers. But Cain's children become smart, shrewd,
educated, great men, builders, professional men. But God's side
was weak and humble. That's how God used them. That's
God's opportunity. That's God's way of getting to us, is when we're weak. We get something then.
This encourages, of course, 'cause God's whole Kingdom is
built out of these kind of people. Then when you get to that
kind of a way then you--you can--you're in His Kingdom.
THE CASE IS WE'RE TOO
STRONG…THE THING OF IT IS WE'RE TOO STRONG-HEADED.
The case is, with us,
that, not that we are too weak, the case is we're too strong.
We're--we're--we're just too strong. That's all. The thing of it is
we're too strong-headed. That's right. We're too strong in our head. We
know too much. God wants to get that out of us. That's right. We're too strong;
we're too strong to yield to Him. We got... We--we yield to ourselves. We got
to think, "Well now, here, I--I got sense enough to know."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
124 I was amazed a few nights ago when mama was
sick, out at the hospital. I went to... There was a little lady next door... If
that little lady's here, you forgive me, sister. She's a little Kentucky girl
from down there, and we was--and that was her mother-in-law. And I was
a-talking to her that night, wife and I, there along about one o'clock in the
morning. And her husband had laid down on the floor and went to sleep; she
said, "Get out of here. You're no good to your mammy anyhow." And run
him out, her husband, out of the room, 'cause he was laying right straight
across the door where the nurses, nobody could get in; just snoring away on the
floor. So she got him up and run him out.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
125 And she got to talking there. I got to
talking to her about the Lord, and so forth. And she said, "Well,"
she said, "all I ever know was a gooseneck hoe in a tobacco patch, early
of a morning, cutting out the weeds and suckering tobacco, and so forth like
that." Said, "But I tell you," said, "pappy sent us, every
one, to school." And said, "We still ain't got no sense."
I thought, "Well, maybe that's the reason."
See, you--you got to keep the things of the world from you.
Now, I'm not supporting ignorance, not--not that, but I'm trying to think when
you get to a place where you think that you just--you just know so much till
nobody else knows anything about it... Your knowledge is all right as long as
it don't--as it don't interfere with the promises of God.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
127 We're
controlled by five senses, and those five senses: see, taste, feel, smell, and
hear is very fine until they interrupt the sense of faith. Then when they come
against faith... And how do you know which one's right? Because faith will
always agree with the Word. And then if--if your faith is contrary to the Word,
or you think it is, then you haven't got faith. You've got a make-belief.
You've got a boast in your senses of some scholarship that you've learned
about, or something. But when you get away from that and depend completely upon
faith, and faith can only be built upon the Word of God: correct faith.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
128 A doctor once said to me, said, "I
believe, Billy, if them people--if you'd tell them to go out there and touch
that post, that tree, and they believed that they'd get well, they'd get well
just the same."
I said, "No, sir. It cannot, doctor, because of this one
thing (See?); them people knows that that's just a post. They know there's no
virtue nor no strength in that post."
But any man that's mentally balanced would know that that is
the Word of the living God, that I can base my faith upon that and know It's
THUS SAITH THE LORD. And if anything is contrary to That, then I don't believe
my senses. No, sir, just leave it alone. Go by your other sense, the sense of
faith.
*ALL RIGHT, GOD TAKES THOSE PEOPLE TO DO... WHEN THEY ARE NOBODIES,
THEY'LL YIELD TO HIM.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
131 All right, God takes those people to do... When they are
nobodies, they'll yield to Him.
D. L. Moody of Chicago, he was of Boston; he was a shoe
cobbler; a little, bitty fellow, insufficient, didn't depend upon himself. Now,
you take these great schools that they got, the Moody School up there, if
Dwight Moody could raise up again and see that school, the first thing Dwight
Moody would do is get rid of that school.
If Martin Luther could raise up, the first thing he'd do is
get rid of the Lutheran organization. John Wesley would do the same. Them men
never founded those organizations; it was the men that followed them that did
it.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
134 Paul never organized no church, because he
said himself, "After my departing, many of your own crowds will raise up
among you, speaking perverse things." It was after Paul's death, and a
hundred or two years after that, that they formed the Catholic church, the
first organization. Men raised up. It was after Moody's death that they had the
Moody School; after Wesley's death that they formed the Wesley church; after
Luther's death that they formed the Lutheran church. God sends heroes; and they
build...
No wonder Jesus said, "You--you whited walls." He
said, "You--you garnish the prophets tombs, and you're the one that put
them in there." That's right.
These great men raised up; then they'd build a memorial to
them. I think, just like David, "Served God well in his own
generation." So that's the way to do it. Let the organizations and things
afterwards keep away from you.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
138 Moody, little old shoe cobbler, he was
weak. He was an example of weakness. The first thing it says that Moody did...
He had no education at all, and his grammar was so poor it was horrible. A man
come to him once time and said, "Mr. Moody," said, "your
grammar's the poorest I ever heard in my life."
He said, "I'm
winning souls with my ignorance, what do you do with your education?" I
think that was a good answer. Sure was.
And now, you become a member of that School, you'll certainly
have to be a polished scholar. That's right. [A brother says, "Just
reversed it."--Ed.] Now, yeah, they reversed it is right, go right back
the other way.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
141 That's what people do. When I said in the
beginning of my message... Instead of
Christians humbling themselves and emptying themselves to find more of the room
of God, they try to build themselves up in a homemade knowledge, or some
technical school knowledge, or something, that drives them farther away from
God than they was when they started.
That's what I'm thinking about these artificial altar calls.
You bring him in, and next time it's ten times harder to get him back again.
Let him set and listen until God does something for him. And then let him come
and confess it, rise, calling upon the Name of the Lord. That's right.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
143 Notice Moody, weak in education,
weak in speech, he whined through his nose. I was just reading his history the
other day, "Whined through his nose, nasal condition." Physically
little, baldheaded fellow, whiskers hanging down his...?..., and a little,
bitty, short fellow, physically, he was a physical wreck. So he had nothing but
weakness continually. But God used him to shake the world in his day.
One time there was a reporter went to his meeting (I was
reading), and reporters, to make a report on what kind of a man was this (a
great man, a great fellow).
Where's that little switch that you turn the tapes off with?
This it? I'll just have to hold that then.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
146 A--a great man, Moody was. He was a fine
man. And so he could attract the attention of people, hold them spellbound. So
there was a reporter went to Mr. Moody and said--went to the meeting to make a
report on what kind of great buildup...
As the reporter just went and reported on another great
evangelist, recently, said, "That man is eloquent. He is a Doctor of
Divinity. He uses the best grammar I ever heard. He holds the people in his
psychology. He can hold the people spellbound."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
148 "Dwight Moody," when the
reporter went, said, "I don't see what's in him
that's attractive to anybody." Said, "The first thing,
he's ugly as he can be. The next thing, he's a physical wreck. The next
thing," he said, "he is... He has no education. His grammar's the
poorest I ever heard." And said, "He's got a whine and a wheeze when
he's preaching." And said, "I don't see nothing in Dwight Moody would
attract the attention of anybody."
Mr. Moody was brought the article. He read it, kind of
chuckled to himself, said, "Certainly not; it's God." Sure. People
don't come to see Dwight Moody; they come to see God.
The people ain't caring how much you testify; they want
some reality there in your life that proves that God's got ahold of you. Let
you be Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, whatever you may be, they want to see
God. That's right. Man of... Great men, men who are weak and realize their
weakness...
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
151 Look at Moses, the young intellectual man.
Oh, he was a scholar. He was so trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians till
he could teach the Hebrews. He could teach the Egyptians. He could teach
anybody, because Moses was a great man, smart fellow. Oh, he was powerful man.
In Cecil DeMille's conception of it, when--when he had the--
"The Ten Commandments" played, and he had this man come that was... I
forget the man's name that played the part of Moses in there, some actor, but a
great big man with great arms and strength. And Moses was perhaps that sort of
a man.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
153 We know he was strong and well trained,
so he took upon himself, seeing the need of the day... Oh, may God let this
sink home. Seeing the need of the day, Moses with his intellectual powers and
his ability that he had to do it with... He was a smart man. He was the coming
Pharaoh. He had psychology. He had--he had power. He had physical strength. He
had--he had everything. So he said, "I'm well equipped. I know all of it.
And if there's a man in the land that's able to do it, I am. So I'm the man of
the hour, so I'll step out." And he went out to accomplish a work that was
right and in the will of God, and he offered his natural abilities. And God
refused it. He couldn't use one thing Moses had.
He couldn't use it then, nor He--neither can He use it
now. God cannot use our natural abilities. We've got to get ourselves and our
abilities out of the way and surrender to the will and power of God.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
155 Say, "Well, brother, I can
preach." He can't use that as long as you can preach. "That's all right.
I can do this. I can do that." You can't do nothing. Well, then God can't
use it. But if you'll yield yourself to God and let Him do it...
You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I know. I'm a
teacher." Well, as long as you're the teacher, why, He won't get very far.
But the Holy Spirit is our Teacher. Sure It is. God sent
the Holy Spirit to be Tutor over the Church.
Some people go to school for years and years and years. What
do they do? Read articles out of the "Upper Room," and so... (Oh,
that's good.) You take the "National Sunday School Lesson." I have
nothing against that. That's Words of God, and things, but it's put together
with intellectuals. It's got to come by the power and the resurrection of
Christ, and you cannot depend on your natural abilities.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
158 So Moses, this young, fine strong giant,
intellectual man, he set out to do a good work; but God simply, absolutely
could not use it. He could not use his natural abilities.
And we cannot... It isn't today, that we
cannot... God cannot use our natural abilities.
But there's one thing Moses had that I admire; he had sense
enough to know that he was licked. We haven't. That's all. "We'll make a
new denomination. We'll get somebody else with a healing gift or
something," the Pentecostals. You see? See? We--we just don't know enough
to realize that we're licked. The Pentecostal church, the Assemblies of God,
the United, the rest of them seem like they haven't got the ability to know
that they're licked. Hallelujah. Oh, I wish I could make this stick. They are
licked. The church organization is licked, just the same as this United States
is licked, trembling and fearing, and bombs hanging yonder for them; they know
they've danced away and gaited their life to hell. And they're licked. The
Spirit's went out of them. You'd have to comb trees to get young men to the
army; they seen what happened in the other one. We're licked. The church is
licked. They know that.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
161 Moses realized it, and he knowed enough
then... God took him back in the back in the wilderness to learn
him some human weaknesses. He took him back to learn him what it was all about.
So well did he learn. Oh, my, did he ever get a lesson. God must've had a time
with him back there. You know, Moses had a temper; and God give him the wife by
name of Zipporah; she had one too. So I imagine everything wasn't so pleasing
back on the backside of the desert for a while when both of their tempers got
out of control at the same time.
I suppose his intellectual conception of how psychology ought
to control a person didn't do much good, because when he was on his road down
to Egypt, I see Zipporah still had a temper. She cut the foreskin of her son
off and throwed it before Moses, said, "You're a bloody husband to
me."
God was so angry with him He looked for him in the end, if He
could've found him He'd have slayed him. I guess there was a little things God
had to teach him back there (See?) that he was a human. All of his wisdom of Egypt, all of his powers of intellectual, God
could not use a one of them.
*GOD BY THE HUMAN
WEAKNESSES POURS HIMSELF INTO YOU, THEN HE USES HIMSELF.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
164 You come, say, "Now, Lord, I've been
schooled for forty years now. I'm--I'm an intellectual student. I can quote
that Bible with my eyes closed." God can't use a bit of that. See? No.
"Oh, I belong to the biggest church there is in the
country. I--I'm the... I'm this, Lord. Oh, I'm a Pentecostal. I... Glory to
God. I just received the Holy Ghost the other night. Hallelujah. You're going
to make me to do so-and-so." God can't use a bit of that. No.
Whenever you get licked and realize you're licked, and then come on back and
humble yourself. Get weak, find out you're human. And there's none of your
intellectuals can do to... Human weaknesses will never be used of God; God by the
human weaknesses pours Himself into you, then He uses Himself. You just become
an instrument. Certainly. You've got to get yourself out of the way.
*DID YOU EVER STUDY IN
THE FIRST PART OF EXODUS, THE SEVEN WEAKNESSES?
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
167 Moses,
oh, he learned, he learned human weaknesses real good. He learned it so well,
till when God called him, he had seven weaknesses that he could argue against
God's call. Did you ever study in
the first part of Exodus, the seven weaknesses? I--I got them wrote out
here; I want you to listen to them:
The first weakness he had was the lack of a message.
Second weakness he had was the lack of authority.
The third weakness he had was a lack of eloquence.
The fourth was adaption.
The fifth one was success.
And the sixth one was exception.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
168 Now, you compare yours with his and see
if you can come up with that, see if you can get as weak as he was. "Lord,
I--I ain't no good. I can't speak. I--I--I slew an Egyptian. I can't go back.
Oh, everything. They won't receive me. I got no message. I got... I can't
speak. And I'm--I'm slow in speech." And see how he was? He was nothing.
Brother, he'd been cured. Yeah, God could use him then
after he was cured. See?
Yeah, that's...
He can use us after we get cured to find that "My Ph.D.
and LL.D. and double L.D.," or whatever it might be, "all my degrees
is nothing." God can't use them.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
170 "Well, I'm Assembly of God. I'm a
Oneness. I'm a Baptist. I'm a Presbyterian." God can't use a bit of that.
Quicker you get away from it, well, the better off you--you'll--you'll yield
yourself to God.
Like the prophet was, said, "I'm a man of unclean lips
and among unclean people." And the Angel went and got a--a tongs, and went
up to the altar, and got a coal of fire, and touched his lips. Then he cried
out, "Lord, here am I; send me." Yeah, after he'd realized that he...
Yet being a prophet, he had unclean lips.
Soon as we can realize that we are--we are nothing, that
you're nothing, you're dust of the earth. God cannot use you. Yes, your
experi... All your weaknesses wouldn't match Moses. He had six different
weaknesses here, and he'd learned human weakness.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
173 Now, look at the difference between that
Moses meeting God, and Moses looking upon the...?... like today. Said,
"Say, we need so-and-so. We need a revival in the land. I'll tell you what
I'm going to do; I'm going back and study till I get my Bachelor of Art.
Uh-huh. I'm going back and study till I can get ordained as a LL.D.. I'm going
to study literature. I'm going to do all this; then I'll go out and I'll be the
man of the hour. I'll smother all these guys down that started off out here.
(Oh, brother.) I'll get me a three-million-dollar building. I'll get me a dozen
Cadillacs. And..." Oh, brother. You might--you might as well not start,
'cause you're licked to begin with. You see? But the trouble of it is, they
don't know it.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
174 They think you have to have curly hair and
wear tuxedo suits and say "aaaaamen" so beautiful, and all like this,
and be a prince. That's a woman's puppet. God wants men, godly men, men that
can shake.
But today we want Hollywood. We want something that--that's
desirable to the eye. We want something that can speak so intellectually that
he can let us sleep for five minutes while he--on Sunday morning.
God wants separators who will send her forth like a blaze of
lightning, condemn sin to the roots (That's right.), dig it out.
But we are... We want our intellectual pastors. Most the
people wants a whispering pastor, somebody say, "Yes, dearie."
God wants thunderbolts. Yes, sir. Pat them on the back, and
them short hair, and makeup on, and everything else, and wearing clothes that
they was poured into, and all like that, and don't say a word about it...
A great man called me on into his office here (or not his
office), his field office, here a little--not long ago, said, "I want to
lay hands on you that you'll stop that."
I said, "Don't you do it. Don't you do it. No,
sir."
When you stop that, you stop the Message. You stop God when
you do that. Yes, sir. We don't want none of that.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
181 Did God feel sorry for Moses with all of
his weaknesses, said, "Poor little Moses, some--something sure has
happened to you; you fell from your degree. Oh, my. Here, yeah, you was a great
man, an intellectual, and there wasn't nothing going to stop you. Brother, you
had all your Ph.D.'s and LL.D.'s, and everything else, and now here you come
confessing that you are nothing, you can't do a thing. You're--you're just so
weak." No. God wasn't sorry for him. God never took pity on him. God had
him cured then of all that stuff. He wasn't sorry for him.
But we find out, if you're putting it down, Exodus 4:14,
"The anger of God was kindled against him." God wasn't sorry for him
'cause he was weak.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
183 You say, "O Lord, I just feel so bad.
I don't believe I could do it." God don't feel sorry for you: feels like
kicking you around a little bit. See, see? Sure. God don't feel sorry for you;
He--He gets angry with you. You're just getting in shape then to where He can
use you. Yeah.
Moses getting cured up, God could use him. He had the cure;
he was away from human abilities then. He didn't have nothing he could rely
upon then, 'cause he--he was ready then for the service.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
185 God said, "Forty years out here I've
had you and Zipporah fussing and carrying around out here in this wilderness,
whether you could find out there's human weakness or not, where you're standing
up there as a big prince, 'Hello, Doctor Moses. Good morning, Reverend, Sir.
Yes, sir. Moses, you're the coming prince. All... We all think of you.' Now,
you're out here in the desert with a bunch of sheep and a high-tempered
wife." See? That fixed him up. Yes, sir. Moses in an awful shape, and He
said, "Now, I can use you, when you realize that you're nothing. Now, come
on up here by this burning bush; I want to send you down yonder." Oh, my.
God, give us some more of that kind; give us some more
weaklings. That's what we need: some weaklings. Sure.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
187 It was Jacob. You know, Jacob thought he
was a great guy once, you know; he could just cheat and get by with anything.
Went and put some poplar sticks in where his father-in-law's sheep and cattle
when they were pregnant, and turned them into speckled sheep, and so forth like
that when they went to the water to drink. And the first thing you know, Jacob
become a great man. Sure. He was a... "He really was called Jacob, no
mistake," Esau said, "he was 'supplanter' all right." So he was
a cheater. He was coming along fine, gaining, had great herds, and wives, and
sheeps, and cattles, and oxens, and--and everything, he had everything.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
188 But one night (oh, my.) when he got down to
a little brook one time, was going to cross over, he come to a place that a
Angel got ahold of him. Brother, old Jacob held on all night. He sure did hold
on a long time. But when he surrendered himself, when he got weak and couldn't
hold on no longer...
O God, let the church get like that, get to--the church get
to a place where it can't hold on any longer with its natural abilities, but
has to give over to God... Let the Methodist be ashamed of themselves that they
are Methodists. Let the Baptists and let the Pentecostal be ashamed of
themselves, and stop holding on, and yield to the Spirit.
It was then that Jacob become a prince of God. The Bible said
he become a prince, and his name was changed. See? And--and, remember, he was a
great strong man on this side, intellectually powerful; but on the other side
he was a limping prince, weak and wore down, but had power before God.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
191 Yeah, you might... Your organization might
be broke plumb to pieces. Your prestige in the neighborhood, you may be an old
fashion crow from then on in the neighborhood. That might be right. But I'll
tell you; you have power with God. I'd rather be like that. I'll take that way
any time.
The disciples come back and rejoiced because they were happy
that they were counted worthy to bear the reproach of the cause and of Jesus.
Sure. They'll call you holy-roller.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
193 Get out of that place one time; let it get
broke up. Turn loose from your, "Well, say, I'm a Methodist," or
"Presbyterian" or "I'm Assemblies," "I'm Oneness, I'm
just as good as you are." All right. Just get out of that one time, give
a-way. Get all...
Let the Angel get ahold of you one time, the Angel of the
Lord that'll bring you the Truth of the Message. Let him get ahold of you one
time, you'll humble right down to the baptism in Jesus' Name; you'll humble
right down to all the rest of it. Yes, you will. You'll sure do it. Yeah,
you--you'll just forget all these intellectuals.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
195 A few days ago, one of the sweetest friends
that I got, a fine person said to me, leaving the room after I'd been on a
interview, left the room, said, "Brother Branham..." And this person
has been one of my financial supports in the meeting out there. Come to a place
where I didn't know how I was going to make the thing go, just trusting God;
this person would write it off, yes, just a fine person. And this person took a
trip, and come from a great city, here a few nights ago, and stood in the room
and said to me when leaving, said, "Brother Branham," said, "I
just want to say one thing." Said, "There isn't a person but what
loves you that I know of."
I said, "I'm so happy for that."
Said, "Brother Branham, there's just one thing, one
thing wrong."
I said, "What's that, sister?"
Said, "Well, the one thing is this, Brother Branham,
that if you would just compromise on a little of that doctrine you have,"
said, "every organization would receive you."
And I seen right then, I thought... I said, "What
doctrine, sister?"
And said, "Oh, that baptism in Jesus' Name."
"Oh?" I said, "But, sister, you couldn't
expect me to compromise on the Word of God and still be a servant of God."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
200 And said, "Well, here, there's a bunch
of ministers that I'm here to represent out of this big city." Said,
"If you'll tell them that the Angel of the Lord that gives you these
visions told you to baptize in Jesus' Name, then they're willing to accept
It."
"Well," I said, "their experience is weaker
than dishwater." I said, "I don't care what any angel would say, if
it ain't according to the Word, I don't believe it." I said, "If that
angel told me something different from That, I wouldn't believe the
angel." Right. God's Word's first above all angels and everything else. A
true Angel... I said, "If he didn't tell me That, I wouldn't listen to
him." Yes.
The lady didn't know what to do. She said, "I never
heard of such. I never knew about it." See, there you are. So I give the
little lady some Scripture. And she said, "I'm going right straight back
home and study the New Testament. I've never studied it." See? There you
are. Oh, my. Oh, my. That's where you get. Oh, my.
Quit trying to hold on. Turn loose. That's what you want to
do: turn loose. Jacob, when he turned loose he was all right, he become a
prince and had power with God.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
204 It was little David with his Saul's
ecclesiastical jacket on, that went out to--to--to fight Goliath. And when
David started out there to fight Goliath with all this big armor on, he looked
around, and he looked back; he looked like the rest of them, so he said,
"There's something wrong here."
As long as you're like the world and compromising with the
world, and doing the same thing that the world is, there's something wrong.
David said, "This looks too fortified. I've got a
Doctor's Degree; I got a Ph.D. See, I belong to a great organization, how could
I ever go fight with all this stuff? I don't know nothing about it. I don't
know nothing about it." David said, "Take the stuff off of me."
That's right. "If I'm going to fight for God, I don't want to look like
this bunch of cowards standing here all armored up and pierced up. I can't have
a meeting..."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
207 Many meeting, many men, many ministers that
come to me and confess that they believe that Name of Jesus Christ is right to
be baptized in, but say "Our organization would put us out." You poor
excuse, take Saul's armor off.
Give me the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. God, send
me with a slingshot, no matter what it is (how little), beat the enemy down. That's
true. Send me, but don't let me dress up like the rest of them with L.L.,
Ph.D., Doctors, and all that kind of stuff.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
209 David said, "The thing don't look
right." He said, "I don't know nothing about that." He said,
"The only thing that I know, that I have--that I... Back on the backside
of the desert I was tending my father's sheep." And said, "A lion
come in and grabbed the little lamb and run out with it, and I knowed that was
my father's lamb, and, oh, I--I--I'm... I wasn't equipped, but I just took my
slingshot and went after him." Said, "I slew him and brought the lamb
back." Oh, my. Them standing there, a spear in their hand, couldn't have
done it.
That's what's the matter today. God's got a lot of sheep
that's gone astray; the organizations and things has stole them out, brought
them out into psychology. God give us Davids with the Word of God and the power
of God to direct it when we go to meet these intellectual giants (Right.) with
all the Ph., LL.D.'s, Q.U.S.T.'s, or whatever it might be. Give me the Word of
God and the power of the Holy Ghost, and I'll tell you, we can slay every giant
on the field. Right. We need men that can...
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
211 Why, David was the poorest excuse there was
on the field to go fight the giant. He... Why, he--he was nothing but a boy.
And the Bible said he was ruddy, a little old scrawny-looking fellow, probably
stoop-shouldered, piece of sheepskin wrapped around him. He didn't have none of
these big intellectual degrees and well trained. He knowed nothing about a
sword. He knowed nothing about all this training that Saul...
Saul was the best they could've had, Bishop Saul. Certainly,
he was head and shoulders above the rest of the army. Why, he was--he was the
one ought to have went and fought him, but he was scared.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
213 And today we know we need a revival. We
know we need a stirring amongst the people. It'll not take a Doctor of
Divinity. It'll take a weaks (Hallelujah.) that'll take the Word of God in the
power of the resurrection of Christ and slay this thing. It'll bring Christ to
the country in the--let them see that He still can open the eyes of the blind,
heal the sick, raise the dead, and He's God, Conqueror. Amen. We need a David,
untrained in the theological schools; we need a man who knows nothing about
that, some little plow boy or something, some little guy with his stoop
shoulders, not much to look at, will come walking down the road with the power
of God.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
214 Mother was dying. She said, "Billy,
I've trusted and believed you. You've been my spiritual strength; you've guided
me to God."
I said, "Mama, when I was a boy... Our background,
'course, Irish, we kind of lean a little Catholic." I said, "The church
said that--that they--they was a body of people; they had it all; everything
they did was all right. I couldn't believe that, because the Lutherans said,
'We're a body of people; we got it all.' The Baptists said, 'We're the body; we
got it all.' There's too many; there's about nine hundred different
organizations." I said, "Mama, I couldn't put no trust in that. Which
one of them is right?"
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
216 Come to find out, I say this humbly and
sweetly, but I believe none of them's right. That's right. I go back to the
Word of God, I seen what It done back there. (And then, God, let us all go back
there.) And with the weakness of no support of organization, no support of
denominations, no support of the ecclesiastical setup, but in simplicity and
the power of the Holy Spirit that fell on Pentecost, with the same message that
Peter had on the day of Pentecost, "Repent, every one of you, and be
baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins"...
You won't be harnessed up like a bunch of these theologians with your collar
turned around and a Bachelor of Arts degrees, but, brother, you'll have
something in your hand. And long as the Spirit of God will get into that Word,
It'll conquer and bring back them lost sheep that's gone astray. Amen. Confess
our weaknesses. Throw off your Doctor of Divinity. Throw off your know-it-all,
your membership. Strip yourself before God, spiritually speaking, and call
yourself unworthy. Then God can go to using you. Just don't say it from your
mouth, bring it from your heart.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
218 Jacob... David, they had to strip themself.
He was the weakest amongst the whole crowd. Think of the, maybe, ten thousand
or a hundred thousand soldiers on the hill, all of them trained, every one of
them with a Ph.D., every one of them with spears; they were soldiers. Each one
of them was Corporal So-and-so, Private So-and-so (even to Privates), General
So-and-so, Lieutenant So-and-so. "Great four-star General Saul, Bishop,
yes, your Honor, Sir." Every one of them standing there, trained men.
And the enemy standing on the hill, said, "You bunch of
cowards."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
221 And up in the camp come a little,
stoop-shouldered (O God.), little ruddy-looking fellow, little slingshot over
his back, with a raisin pie in his hand for his brother. And that giant come
out and made a cry once too often, said, "You mean to tell me that you
bunch of trained scholars here will stand there and let that uncircumcised
Philistine defy the Word of the living God?" Amen. Said, "Are you
afraid of him?"
Saul said, "If you want to go, come here.
I'll--I'll--I'll send you to school for twenty years now, and I'll get you a--a
Ph.D. I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll just give you my degree."
He said, "Take the thing away." Oh, my. "I
want nothing to do with it." He wanted to trust in God. He said, "I
know what God did for me with this, and I'm ready to trust God in the face of
anything with it." Amen. That's the experience of the Christian.
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
224 Even Saul, when he had to get rid of his
armor, he took off the ecclesiastical armor; he did like David did. But when
Saul come to the end of the road, he said, "I've fought a good
fight." That was the last enemy to conquer. "I've fought a good
fight; I've finished my course; I've kept the faith. Henceforth there's laid up
for me a crown, that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that
day." Said, "Not only me, but all them who love His appearing."
O death said, "But I'll get you in a few minutes."
And the grave said, "I'll mold you out yonder."
He said, "O death, where is your sting? Grave, where is
your victory? I know I'm laying here in this Roman dungeon, bound in chains, my
wrists and hands, and I--I got thirty-nine stripes across my back. I'm here
with tears scalding my eyes until I can't see no more. I can't see with my
natural eye, but I can see a crown of righteousness laid up yonder. My ankles
are wore out. I've fell off so much from the old molded bread they throwed in
here, and the rats has run over me, and spiders and things, till I'm
weak." But he could stand in the face of death and say, "Where is
your sting? Grave, where is your victory?" with chains shaking on his
hands. Hallelujah. That's what we need. "Grave, where is your
victory?"
The grave said, "I'll rot you, Paul."
He said, "But thanks be to God, I've already got the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
PERFECT.STRENGTH.BY.PERFECT.WEAKNESS_ JEFF.IN
V-8 N-1 SUNDAY_ 61-1119
228 When he was weak, his--his ecclesiastical,
his... All of his ritual had been dissolved from him. All of his ordination
papers had been took away from him. He didn't belong to the Assemblies no more,
or the--any of them. See, he didn't belong to any of them no more. He'd spoke
so much against them till them bishops was... Said, "You mean to tell me a
man serving twenty years in Roman prison up there and can tell us not to let
our women preach? Huh. Don't tell us that." Said, "We know better.
Who is that guy up there anyhow, tell us to do this, that, or the other?"
Said, "We know what we're doing."
"Yeah," Paul said, "there's men rising right
up among you will start an organization pretty soon, rise up and will pull away
from the faith like that, not having the Spirit of God." Said, "They've
already went out from among us 'cause they wasn't of us."
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Catholic church, from the Catholic to the Lutheran, and on down to the last,
Assemblies of God, same thing, doing the same thing. All along, same thing.
But, oh, to a man or woman that's weak enough, that realizes
your weakness, that'll let God use you. (I'll just keep on talking; I guess
I've talk too long.)
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Now, what was it? Now, he was... David was the most unlearned one in the
bunch. He had no schooling of fighting; he knowed nothing about it. So he had
no schooling for none of this battle was set before him, but he recognized that
there was a God. And he took the weakest thing; they had spears, armors, bows,
and everything else, and David had a little slingshot with a rock in it. But,
see, he knowed what he could trust in. He confessed his weakness, but his faith
in God. He said, "I don't want no shield over me to knock nothing off. I
don't want to come up there, say, 'Now, will you brothers cooperate with me? I
belong to the Assemblies; I belong to the Presbyterian; I'm a Methodist; I'm a
Baptist; will you brethren cooperate with me?' I don't want none of that stuff.
'Here, I'll show you in my pocket, I got my degree. I just got my Bachelor of
Art. I'm from the University of So-and-so; I--I was schooled up there. I got
so. Oh, I can speak. I'm this, that.'" He didn't want none of that stuff.
All he
wanted, he said, "I got my trust in God and here I go." That's it.
And the giant went down. That's right.
That's what
we need today, brother. We need, today, men like David, not university experiences.
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It was little Micaiah, little Micaiah, the son of Imlah, poor, rejected,
cast out of all the denominations because of his true stand for God. But there
come a man of God one time, down, by the name of Jehoshaphat, and said in
there, "I want to know the true Word of God."
Saul said,
"I got four hundred of the best you ever knowed." Said, "They've
all got their degrees; they've all trained up here in school." Said,
"Why, they're the best preachers you ever heard." Said, "I'll
bring them right out and we'll consult the Lord for you."
But then he
come out there and he looked around, Jehoshaphat said, "Yeah, I hear this
one say that, and I hear that one say it," but said, "have you got
another one? Haven't you got another one?"
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God was going to get a message to this true heart. There's only one of
them standing there, but God's got a man for that one. Amen. If there's only
one true heart, somewhere God's got a man for him. Jehoshaphat was a real man,
God-fearing king, and he had sense enough to know that their messages was
wrong. He knowed it was contrary to the Word. Amen (O Brother Neville.)
Jehoshaphat knowed that.
He said,
"Well, I--I've went down the whole record, the chart here in this
seminary. I've got every one of them out here." Said, "Well, looky
here, this one's got... Well, look at the degrees he's got. Look at this one
here," says, "look--look at the degrees that he's got. Look at
Zedekiah here; he's the head of all of it. Why, he's a bishop; he's over all of
us. Surely you'll take his word."
Jehoshaphat
said, "Yeah," said, "I--I--I..."
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"Yeah, well, look, look, all the rest of them agree with him.
They're all one great unit. And you can't say they're not Hebrews. You can't
say they're not prophets; here's the degree proves they are."
Jehoshaphat
said, "Yeah, I--I--I know, Ahab." Said, "That--that's all right,
but..."
Said,
"What are you... How you going to ask me for any more? There's my whole
school. There's every organization together."
"But
haven't you got one that don't belong to that group? Isn't there one
somewhere?"
"Well,
what would he be? He'd be an uneducated illiterate. Well, what would you want
with a guy like that?"
"But--but
I'm just asking you. Haven't you got one, somewhere?"
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"Oh," he said, "yeah, there is such a one." (There,
O thank God for that.) Uh-huh. "There is such a one," but said,
"I hate him. And all the rest of them hate him too." Said, "We
kicked... They kicked him out of that organization, every one of them."
Said, "He come down here to have a meeting; we run him out of town. Yes,
sir. Won't have nothing to do with him. Well," said, "he's a
weakling, and he come from a very poor family. His grammar's awful." (Uh-huh,
like Moody, you know) "Yeah, his grammar's awful." And said,
"Really, for a theologian, he's the poorest I ever heard. I never heard
anything like him. Oh, he just simply demolishes their ritual. Why, their
Apostles' Creed is tore to pieces by him. I never heard of such a thing. Oh, he
just tears it up, and they hate him, and I hate him; everybody hates him."
"Oh,"
Jehoshaphat said, "don't let the king say so, but I'd like to hear
him." He know what Elijah would say. He knowed what...
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God bypassed all the great, strong, intellectual preachers, and put his
Message in a little guy that claimed he knowed nothing. But what did he do?
They give
him a test, and said, "Now, you say the same thing they did."
He said,
"I'll say what God puts in my mouth; that's all." He said, "If
you want to become strong... Now, remember you're just... you're--you're kind
of out of order here, boy. Remember, you're kicked out of that organization.
They might reconsider your fellowship if you just agree with them in this time
of crisis like this. We're all fixing to have a great campaign," said,
"if you'll just agree with me."
Said,
"I'll say nothing but what God has said." Amen. Compromise, could you
expect a man of God to compromise on the Word of God? No, sir. Don't lay in
them.
Said,
"But you're a weakling. You're out of a poor family. Why, you know what,
they might..."
"I
don't care what they do."
"Well,
they'll take you from country to country in an airplane. They'd do anything
(See?) if you'd--you just..."
"No,
no. I'll only say what God puts in my mouth."
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God bypassed all that bunch (Yes, sir, His true stand did it.), bypassed
the four hundred and give him THUS SAITH THE LORD.
Then did
they believe It? No, sir. They said, "That's not THUS SAITH THE LORD; our
seminary don't teach such things as that. Why, here's our bishop has done said
the word; he wrote the ritual. We all got together; we made our schools. God's
with us. Which way went God from us when It went to you?"
He said,
"You'll see, sometime." Uh-huh, that's right.
What was he?
He was weak, but he was the strongest one among them. Why? Because he had the
Word of the Lord. Oh, brother, what difference does it make about the--anything
else as long as you got THUS SAITH THE LORD?
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"Say, Brother Branham, if you'll compromise on the Name of Jesus
for baptism, well, we'll have a great meeting in Chicago or these places like
this." Huh. You think he'd do that? I don't care where you get together,
what you do, brother, stay with THUS SAITH THE LORD.
I want some
of them to come tell me where that's wrong. Show me in the Word of God where
that's wrong. Yeah. They won't tackle that. No, sir. But it's THUS SAITH THE
LORD. Stay with it, if every one of them kicks you. I don't care how weak you
become, "Then I become strong." When they kick me out, God will take
me in. Uh-huh, yeah. God... They kick you out, God will take you in.
Remember,
it's the off-scours that God always picks up, the nobodies. Then He makes them
somebodies for Him. May not know it in this life, but it will be in the one
that's coming (See?); that's the one.
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And gave him THUS SAITH THE LORD, for why? He stayed with the Word. He
had the right message. God give him a vision. The rest of them didn't have no
vision. See? He had a vision. Why? Because he stayed with the Word. There's
where we seen signs and wonders. Because... The others are making out like It,
but he stayed with the Word. Now, let's hurry.
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Elijah, is when his church turned him out and left him for the modern
world. I imagine Elijah had really combed them over the coals. Don't you
imagine so? You know what Elijah was. I imagine in his early ministry, he stood
up there and said, "Why, you women trying to be like the First Lady, Miss
Jezebel. You modern women, being like the First Lady of the land, dressing like
her, acting like her. You preachers..." Oh, my, how he combed them, and
they all just kept falling away till there was nobody.
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He had to get to the end of his road then. Nobody would cooperate with
him no more. None of the churches would cooperate with him. All of his church
left him, went back to the world (same as it is now... That's right.), went on
back to the world. Just a very few was hanging on, one here and one there,
coming from way across the country where you had to go to see him and so forth.
He was in pretty bad shape; he come to the end of his knowledge and said,
"Lord, I stood on Your Word; I told the truth. And all of them's gone
away; there's nobody left here. I ain't got anybody--anybody to preach
to." Amen. "Yes, I stood on Your Word, Lord, and now look where I'm
at now, not none of them will receive me. I go into town, they say, 'Here comes
that old crank. Yeah, yeah, here's that old crank coming to town; now he'll
start carrying--carrying on about this here modern living and
everything.'"
"Don't
have him. Pastor, don't you cooperate with that guy. No, sir."
Pastor,
"Now, that old fanatic's in town again. (See?) That Elijah out there, the
old baldheaded fellow, don't you pay any attention to that old fellow. Look at
him; he don't even dress like a clergyman with his priestly robes on like mine
(his hat, you know; and stand up in front, and collar around, you know)."
Said, "He don't..." Said, "He--he--they... He--he's a different
sort. He--he's a odd-like guy."
And I
imagine some of the great guys said, "You know what? He--he's a neurotic.
Uh-huh, yes; he--he's a neurotic, living out there in the wilderness, staying
out in the woods most of his time, coming in with a piece of sheepskin wrapped
around him. Oh, my. And then condemning them women... Mm, mm, I never seen such
a thing. Don't... Don't--don't--don't you have anything to do with him, at all.
Don't cooperate."
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Well, the ministerial association had gathered together, you know, said,
"Don't--don't you all have anything to... Turn him loose; he'll
finally--he'll come to the end of his wits. Let him bawl his own brains out.
That's all, let him alone."
But old
Elijah, walking right true with God, stayed right with the Word. They'd have a
little meeting down there, and he'd look across the audience and say, "All
you Jezebels..."
"Oh,
the very audacity. I'll never go hear that man again. No, sir, I'll have none."
That didn't
stop him, he stayed right there just the same. When he lost his church, when he
lost his... All the denominations turned against him; it was then when he got
weak; he said, "I'm the only one left; they're seeking to kill me."
Said, "They'd shoot me if they'd get by with it." Uh-huh. See?
"But I... They're seeking my life. And I'm the only one left, Lord, what
can I do?"
It was then
when he got weak (yet standing true, confessing his weakness and everything),
that God said, "Come up on the mountain; I'm going to give you a new
message. I'm going to send you a new message now. I've already told you go
condemn these things, now I'm going to send you back with something to prove
that it was right." Said, "You done a good job, Elijah. You told them
about the First Lady, and all that, and how they done. You condemned Ahab, and
all of his modern stuff, and all the modern churches, and we told them
preachers where they belonged. You was an example. You stood there without any
help, any organization, anything behind you, but you stayed with My Word. Now
I'm going to give you something. Go down there and tell that hypocrite, 'THUS
SAITH THE LORD. There'll not even be dew fall from heaven till I call for
it.'" My, my. Took him up on the mountain top to show him something.
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Oh, I can see him that morning, coming, walking down that Samaritan
road. He wasn't very much to look at, surely, that bald head a-shining to the
sun, gray hairs and whiskers hanging around his face, piece of sheepskin. The
Bible said he was "hairy," hairs all over him, I imagine he was a
mess to look at; that little old stick in his hand, with them little old eyes
looking right towards the skies, walking down the road... And you... he... I
guess he acted like a sixteen-year-old when he was about eighty. Here he was
coming, walking down the road, right straight to Samaria. Brother, he'd done
made strong then in his weakness, "My strength is sufficient. Don't worry
about the organizations, Elijah. Don't worry about them; My strength's all you
need."
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I remember standing by a great temple one time, and I said, "Lord,
I'd hate for them to come to my--my office."
He said,
"I am your Portion. (See?) I am your Portion."
"In--in
weakness then I--I'm... My strength is strong. My perfect Will can be done
(Paul, or Elijah, whoever you are) when you get out of the way." See?
"In your weakness, then I'm made strong. I'm the One. I'm the Strong One
that comes in and fills up."
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I can see him walking right down that Samaritan road, them little old
eyes looking like that, boy, kind of a half smile on his face. Brother, he
walked right up in the presence of Ahab. He never stammered; he never
stuttered. No, no. Beating under that little old skinny chest was a heart with
the Holy Ghost living in there. Yes, indeed. Come walking down that road,
walked right up in front of Ahab, and said, "Not even dew will fall till I
call for it." Stomped his feet and, turned around, back up in the
wilderness he went.
Said,
"That was a good job, Elijah. Come up here; I've commanded all the crows
to feed you now, and the--and set down up here awhile." Oh, my.
When he was
weak, then he become strong. Yes, sir. He shook the heavens that it wouldn't
rain. That's when he got strong, when he lost his church, lost everything he
had, everything else. But he stayed with God's Word; then he had power to shut
the heavens.
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When Jacob lost all of his strength, then God give him power to become a
prince. See? When Paul lost his education and all of his theology, God made him
a missionary to the Gentiles. When Moses lost all of his ability and become
weak, God made him powerful and sent him to Egypt in the power of the Spirit,
at eighty years old, whiskers hanging down, his wife on a mule and a young'n
setting on her hip, and a stick in his hand, went down and conquered Egypt.
Yeah. See? Not with an army behind him, like he wanted to go, but in the power
of the Spirit. Amen. When you're weak then you're strong.
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Just walking down that road, he didn't stutter, he didn't stumble, he
didn't nothing, walked right up in the presence of Ahab, and said, "I've
got the Word of the Lord."
He said,
"You're the one that troubles Israel."
He said,
"You're the one that's troubling Israel." Yes, sir. Oh, brother. Yes,
sir. "Bring out them intellectual priests you got up here, and let's see
who's God." There you are. "Climb up on Mount Carmel; let the God that
answered at Pentecost answer back again. Let's see if God still is the same
God, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." He come off the
mountain; he had a Message. Yes. He got real weak before, though, he lost
everything before he did it. He had to get weak 'fore he could get strong.
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It's the simplicity of the Gospel that staggers the people. They try to
make it a great intellectual something another, when it's the simpleness. But
God takes the very tool of humility and weakness and simplicity to work His
works with. That's only a tool in God's hand.
John the
Baptist, his message, the forerunner of Christ, so simple it went over top the
heads of the people. Listen just a minute. (I hope I'm not holding you too
long, you standing around the walls. See?) Look. John, when... All the prophets
gave witness of the coming of the Messiah. One of them said that the mountains
would skip like little rams. Others said, "The leaves would clap their
hands." One said, "All the low places will be made high, and the high
places will be made low." Oh, my. What a day.
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Pro 16:3 Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 16:5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
Pro 16:6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
Pro 16:7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Pro 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
Pro 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Pro 16:10 A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.
Pro 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
