<TITLE>16. Par 143-150</TITLE>L-143 "No. No. No," you say, "but we have... Brother Branham, I defy that. We got great meetings. Look what Billy Graham's had across the country." Oh, sure, a big regime, hired evangelists, paid song leaders.
Yeah, they hire the evangelists. "Well, how much will you give me if I come hold that revival? Well, if you can't produce so-many thousand dollars, I won't come at all. That's right. And who you going to let lead the singing? Well, you go and hire so-and-so, he's a great soloist. You hire him to... He'll draw half my crowd he will hisself."
Paid soloists, paid evangelists, why, it comes to a place that soul-saving is a business. Soul-saving's not a business of the church; it's the power of the Holy Ghost in the church. Soul-saving is God's; you don't buy it with money. No, sir. No... All of it is, is works, works, works, paid evangelists, paid song leaders, paid choirs, everything else. God don't want that; it's all works. God don't want works; He wants the Holy Spirit working in you. That's right.

L-146 17th verse says.
Because thou sayest, I am rich,... increased in goods, and have need for nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,... (Oh.)... knowest not that thou art wretched,... miserable,... poor,... blind, and naked: (Um, um.)
They thought they were rich, this Pentecostal in this last age churches. They thought... And outwardly they were. Yes, sir. They are rich. Just think of the church, used to be a few years ago stood out on the corner, cast about from place to place, had a hard time. But now they got some of the biggest buildings there is.

L-148 You see where the Assemblies of God out here, that used to have their place in an ordinary wooden building, something like this here, and now they're putting up a six-million-dollar building, and they say Jesus is coming right away. Your works prove that you don't believe that. Hypocrisy, building million-dollar buildings and things like that and saying, "Jesus is coming right away." And poor missionaries on the field without shoes on their feet, real God-fearing missionaries, no shoes on their feet, and live off of two rations of rice a week; eat two times a week to pack the Gospel through jungles and things like that, to take it to their brethren. And we building six-million-dollar buildings, and the church with big, stained glass windows, and everything else, and putting it on that. Oh, you even got so much money till sometimes they got loan associations right in their churches. That's right.
Doctor in there to examine their evangelists or their missionaries... When somebody wants to go to the field, they give him a doctor's examination to see if he--or psychiatrist, to see if he's--oh, if he's mentally got his IQ's right. You see? The Holy Ghost examines that; you don't need a psychiatrist.

L-150 "But we're rich and have need of nothing." Oh, sure. You got plenty of money. Outwardly, plenty rich, have large buildings, stained glass windows...
And eloquent preachers. Oh, my. My, I'll tell you; they're really eloquent. They can stand and talk all night and say nothing. See? When they come up... I mean about things they oughtn't to say. You see? Stand up, and some of this stuff, and talk about a little so-and-so and this so-and-so. And you know how it is. Paid singers... That's right. All right. But come into the pulpit, eloquent preachers. If they aren't dressed in a tuxedo suit with a collar turned around, and some kind of a frock-tailed coat on, why, their congregation feels real embarrassed.


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