<TITLE>18. Par 140-144</TITLE>L-140 If God had that against this church, He's got it against that one too. "Because you left your first love, I've got it against you. I have something against you; that's My complaint. You once had a great time, but you let the world begin to creep in, and you got to acting a little formal. You still holding My Name, and you're still doing the things that's right, and you got a lot of patience and so forth, and you labor, and you're like a mule, you just labor and work." My, my, my.
See, you've left grace and faith and power to swap it for labor and works. "Well, I tell you, Brother Branham, I--I help every widow woman I can." Well, that's a good thing; I commend you for that. But where's that first love you once had? See? Where's that joy you used to have? As David once cried, "O Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation." Where is them all night prayer meetings and tears on your cheeks? My, goodness, the Bible's even dusty and got cobwebs on It. You read old love stories, and news things, and things that oughtn't to even be allowed to be published and put out for a--a trash can, and we Pentecostal people pick them up and just loft over them like a bunch of flies on a garbage can. That's right.
Oh, mercy. What we need is: Back to our first love. Back to Pentecost. I'd better get away from there. All right. But you understand, "Leaving that first love..."

L-142 The 4th verse, 5th verse now, a warning, the 5th verse, a warning: "Remember and repent." See?
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,... (Where did you come from? From Pentecost you fell down to where you are now, backsliding.)... and repent, and do thy first works;... (go back to Pentecost again)... or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove the candlestick out of h-i-s... (See who it is, don't you?)... his place, except thou repent.
Other words, if you got a God-filled pastor, filled with the Holy Ghost, and you try to hold him under your finger, say, "Well, if he says anything about us having a robed choir, if he says anything about us wearing makeup, we'll just excommunicate him." Don't you worry; God will do it before you get a chance to. He'll go out and preach to stones on the street before he'd compromise with that kind of stuff. You got a pastor that really tells you the truth, you ought to honor God and stay in the Spirit, and worship God, realizing that you're going to be lost if you don't. See?

L-144 But people live today like they was going--this is the only thing there was, "live here on earth, that's all." You don't realize you got a soul that's going to leave here and go somewhere. And you seal your destination right here, the way you live and the way you do: out holding grudges, and mean, and everything, and then run to church. Oh, mercy. Whew. Shame on you.
You bring a reproach up--upon the cause of Christ. Isn't that right? Don't we do it? The bootleggers ain't hurting the church. It isn't that. It isn't the prostitute that's hurting the church. It's the people who profess to be Christians that's hurting the church. We know what the bootlegger is, know what the prostitute is. When our sisters dress like a prostitute, that's different; that's what hurts the church. When the men drinks like the bootlegger, well, then, that's what hurts the church. They're professing to be a Christian and then do that. The people look for you that name... "Let him that even names the Name of Jesus Christ depart from sin." See? Get away from it.
Oh, we're so short, brethren. Me, you, all of us, we're--we're short of what Christ wants us to be. And right here in this day it's time to lay aside every sin that's easily beset us, and run with patience the race that's set before us. Preachers, that's right, brethren...?... That's exactly right.


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