<TITLE>09. Par 26-28</TITLE>L-26 He comes to a house of his friend. That's a good sign, he got converted; he wanted to tell his friend about it. A man and a woman, or boy or girl, that ever really gets converted; it's the first place in life is, all they can think about is Jesus Christ. That's what I'm wondering about, the condition of the church today, to see that we're paralyzed those things. We ought to be on fire, enthused, burning up, first thing of a morning and the last thing at night, and all through the day. In my heart, on my mind, all day long.
But the thing of it, we do our religion every once in a while when a evangelist comes to town, and we go to church. And maybe on Sunday morning, if there's not a good television show on, well, we'll go to Sunday school, and... You see, it's not in our hearts no more; the fire's gone out. And anyone knows, in the old temple of Rome, Avesta, when the fire went out, the people went home. I think it's time to go home when the fire goes off the altar of God; it's time to close up the church and go back and start new again.

L-27 And notice, this man was so thrilled, till around the mountain he went. I can see him knock on the door. [Brother Branham knocks on the pulpit--Ed.] And the wife come to the door, and he said, "Is Nathanael here?"
"Oh," she said, "We're glad to see you, Philip. He just took a little stroll out into the garden."
And out through the garden he went, and he heard something over in the bushes a going on. He slipped up real easy, and there was his friend Nathanael praying, "Oh, Jehovah, come and be merciful to us and send to us a deliverer." I can see Philip standing there, as a Christian gentleman of course; he wouldn't interrupt him praying, a biting his fingernails, and saying, "Oh, why don't he hurry up? Just can't wait to tell him of something."
That's the way the church ought to be; that's the way the Church ought to be, just waiting for the opportunity. But today we shirk back, "That's the preachers job." It's your job. It's everybody's job.

L-28 And he waited. After while Nathanael said, "Amen." Got up and begin to dust off his clothes. And he turned around and said, "Philip, I'm glad to see you."
He didn't say, "Hello, Nathanael." He said, "Come, see Who we found." There you are: no time for greeting; it's "Come, see Who I found." The trouble of it is, we have to have a social party and ministerial association to get together and... Oh, my, the message is, "Come, see Who we found." And I can see Nathanael, as he looks at him rather startling. "Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph," said, "Come, see."
I can see Nathanael now, a staunch Hebrew, out of the Presbyterian church, or the--some church of that day, you know. He said, "Now, just a minute Nathanael, I know you to be a just man, you must have went off on the deep end, son." Anybody that finds Christ, they think they went on the deep end. "You must have hit the deep end, son. What's the matter with you? You mean to tell me that this Galilean Fellow that's you're talking about, from Nazareth? Well, if the Messiah would come, He would come down to Caiaphas, our high priest, and He would say, 'Caiaphas, I am the Son of God; I am the Logos; I'm--I'm the Christ.' And then the high priest would call in all the other priest and said, 'He who we looked for is here now.' That's the way it would be."


<A HREF="P10">Next Page</A>