Broken Cisterns
JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
1 Let us pray. Lord, now we believe. We believe on the Son of God, and, through this, we accept Eternal Life through Him. Now we have gathered again, this afternoon, or this evening, for another service, trusting You for the Message and for what You will tell us tonight. We believe Thee, Lord, and we wait upon Thee. And You said, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like a eagle." And we pray, God, that You will give us that mounting-up Power, tonight, as we wait on Thee.
2 We thank Thee for these people, and for what they mean to You and what they mean to me. I thank You for it, Father. They are Your jewels. And I pray, God, that tonight, that You will manifest Yourself in the way, to them, that they have need of. If there is sick here, may they be healed. If there is a doubt in someone's mind; clear it up, Lord. And just give us of Thy Presence and Thy blessings, because we need them, Lord. You are our all-sufficiency. And, without You, we cannot do nothing.
3 We pray that You'll receive our thanksgiving for all that You have done. In the Name of Jesus Christ we look forward to Your blessings. Amen.
You may be seated.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
4 And, well, it's just a--a bit cooler this Sunday night, in here, than it was last Sunday night. We're very grateful to our brothers who worked so faithfully in getting this in. I know two or three of them. Brother Mike Egan, as I see back there, and I... Brother Mike, and Brother Sothmann, Brother (I believe) Roy Roberson, and Brother Woods, and all of them, they were down here just sweating it out, trying to get it in so we could have this Message now, or today. So, we're grateful.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
5 Now, next Sunday morning, the Lord willing, I want to have a healing service, prayers for the sick. And we'll designate it to a healing service, if the Lord willing.
6 I noticed, this morning, there is a bunch of handkerchiefs here. I prayed for them. And I, while you were praying and singing, I prayed for the handkerchiefs; and then there is more here tonight. So, we--we believe that God heals the sick. So many great testimonies of healing among us, and across the world, and we're grateful for this.
7 And I thought, next Sunday, being I have to be away for a little bit, and we have been holding so much just to the teaching and of the Message, that I thought it would be a good thing if we had a--a healing service, prayed for the sick. And we trust that God will give us a great time.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
8 Now, many of you have to drive many miles tonight. So I was talking to groups over at the--the Blue Boar Cafeteria, today, where I was having dinner. Many fine people, I got to shake their hands and talk with them, people I never met before, that comes here to the church. And I am grateful for such friends, and I want to thank each and every one of you. Some of them have picked blackberries, and brought us. And one brought us a bucket of syrup, or molasses, I believe it was, and--and just things. You don't know what that means. And of a morning, I come up and go out of the house, sometime there...
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
9 Other morning there was some brother there that was real bad off, had no clothes and things, wanted me to go get him some clothes. I started out, and I almost stumbled over a bucket of blackberries setting there. I said, "Did you bring these blackberries?"
10 And he said, "No, never had nothing to do with it. I been here 'fore daylight, and they was setting here then." And it was my good Brother Ruddell had brought them to me. And, so, those things I certainly appreciate.
11 Billy Paul just made mention to me, a few moments ago, that among this congregation tonight, they had took up an offering, that for me. I--I thank you for that. I didn't want you to do that. I--I just appreciate your efforts, and so forth, but that wasn't necessary. And, but, the Lord bless you. You know, you know, the Bible said, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these, you have did it unto Me."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
12 Now, I have been kind of speaking to you, on the Message, very straight. And I... Some people might be under the impression that--that I think that Jesus is going to come in the morning or tonight. I do. Now, I don't say that He will. And, again, He may not come for next week, and it might be next year, it might be ten years. I don't know when He is coming. But, there is one thing I want to... always you bear in mind, you be ready every minute or hour. See? That, if He doesn't come today, He might be here tomorrow. So just keep that in your mind, that He is coming.
13 And I don't know what time is going to be my last hour on this earth, neither does any of us. And there is none of us know when He is coming. He doesn't even know, Himself, by His Own Words; He said, "The Father, only, knows when He will come; not even the Son knows when He will come." It's when God sends Him to us again. But we're looking for His Coming. And if He doesn't come in my generation, He might come in the next; if He doesn't come in that one, He'll come in the next. But, for myself, I can't see hardly any time left. I just... To me, it could happen at any minute. Now, that don't mean... That doesn't mean, now, that you'll see the heavens change and every... That's not the Coming I'm speaking of. I'm talking of the Rapture.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
14 See, He makes three Comings. He come in three Sons, Names. He come in a trinity; Father, Son, Holy Ghost. See, all of it the same Christ, the same God, all the time. Now, we know He come to bring three works of grace; justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost. Everything, in God, is completed in three's.
15 And so He come, first, to redeem His Bride. He comes, second, as a Rapture, to take away His Bride. He comes, third, with His Bride, King and Queen; after, that's when many people are expecting the Coming.
But when He comes this time, hardly none but those who are ready will know when He comes. There'll just be an absence of people. They won't know what happened to them. They'll just be caught away, in a moment, and that they just come up missing. "Changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye." So just be ready for that. It'd be horrible some morning to miss a loved one, no one can find them. Wouldn't it be too bad to know it's done past and you missed it? So just keep before God.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
16 Now, next week, the Lord willing, next Monday, from week from this Monday, if God willing, I'm taking the family back out to Arizona where they go to school, then I--I'm coming back.
17 Now, I don't go out there... I haven't any services to be out there in. I'm hardly ever in Arizona. I'm gone somewhere else. I take the wife out there, next Monday. I'm coming back here again. I'll leave from here to British Columbia. I come back to Colorado. I'll be in Arizona again sometime near Christmas, just for a few minutes, long enough... maybe two or three days, get the family together, be back here through Christmas holidays, the Lord willing, have a service through new year's week here.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
18 So then I'm here, practically, more. I'm here ten times more than out there, because we don't have any church or any services out there, nothing we have out there, so, in a way of church service. That's one bad thing about it. I have no place to send the children that will hear these Message, like your children gets to hear it here, and--and so that's one defect we have. But they're all healthier. It's a dry, hot, dry climate, but all the children seem to be healthier. I'm not there long enough to know whether it's healthy or not healthy. I, I'm on the move, and I--I--I guess I was just born a rambler.
19 My wife calls me... I know she is here, so I'll get this after church, you all know. What is that called, shifting winds, or restless winds, or whatever--whatever, you know, shifting sands? Or, I'm always on the move, in other words. And I been married now, twenty-two years, and I sometimes I think I'm a stranger around the house, because I have to be going.
But I'm looking for the time that when we'll be settled down in the home Land someday. But now the battle is on, so let's be in prayer.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
20 Don't forget, next Sunday morning, the Lord willing, bring in your sick and the afflicted. Come early, get your place, and probably there is a group to be prayed for. We'll have to give out prayer cards. If there isn't enough, we won't give out prayer cards, just enough to form a little line like two or three dozen, or something. But we--we'll probably give out prayer cards, so we'll probably do it about an hour before the regular service, which I think takes up... It'll be eight, eight or eight-thirty, they'll give out the prayer cards; open the church, give the prayer cards next Sunday morning. And then be sure to be here for your... Bring your loved ones, put them in there. It'll be nice and cool in the church, if they're sick, and we'll do everything we can to pray for them.
21 Thank you, again, for the love offering.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
22 And now we're going to read some of God's Word, tonight, and be ready for this event of His Presence again to bring us His Word. Now, we know we can read a text, but God has to reveal the context. See? We can take a text, but God has to reveal the context. And while you're turning now in the Book of Jeremiah, the 2nd chapter.
23 I want to say that I'm glad to have, with us, Brother Lee Vayle, a precious brother in the Lord. And I think here, the brother here, I can't think of his name, Brother Willard Crase. And I seen the brothers from Arkansas, Brother John and them, from around Poplar Bluff, and Brother Blair. And, oh, Brother Jackson, and Brother Ruddell, and so many that I--I just can't... Wish I could call everybody's name, but I just can't do it, and you understand. Brother Ben Bryant, I see him setting here; he is usually my amen corner while I'm... Everybody knows Ben by his voice. Uh-huh.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
24 We, setting in California one time, I was preaching a Message for the Baptist people up in the valley. They had a big tent there, and a lot of kind of aristocratical Baptists. I could never hear an "amen" from anywhere; you know, afraid some of the women break the paint on their face. And then, first thing you know, I seen a pair of feet about like that, go up in the air, and two big hands, and a black hair shaking there, hollering, "Amen," screaming like that. And I looked down, I said, "Ben, where did you come from?" He was really getting the "amen."
25 I see his wife looking him over, a little bit. Well, he's a-losing a little of that black hair, but that's all right, you know. Don't get worried about that. I did, mine, a long time ago.
So, now, don't forget to pray.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
26 Now while we get to the sincere side of the service, remember, if we read this Word, then God will bless His Word. "It will not return to Him void, but It will accomplish that which It's purposed for." And I know, in reading the Word, I'll always be right. When I read the Word, God will honor His Word.
27 Now let us stand in respect to His Word. Jeremiah, the 2nd chapter, the 12th and 13th verses of Jeremiah 2.
Be astonished, O... heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can not... can hold no water.
Let us bow our heads now.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
28 Dear God, Thy Word has been read. And we pray that You will honor that Word and give to us tonight the parable or the parallel of It; as we look to days gone by, Israel, as examples, as the Bible teaches us that we can see what You did to them when they obeyed the Word, see what You did to them when they disobeyed the Word, and learn what we must do. So, we pray that You will speak to us tonight in a very special way, that we might know how to conduct ourselves in this day, that we learned this morning that we're living in. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
May be seated.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
29 I want to speak tonight on the subject, for just a--a short time on: Broken Cisterns.
30 Israel had done two great evils. God said they had turned from Him, the Fountain of Life, and had hewed themselves cisterns to drink out of. Now, that's something.
31 The reason I thought of this text was because that it would run parallel to what I was saying this morning, of the hour that we're living, and the Cause that we are struggling for.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
32 And we look at Israel as example, that, what God was, He always has to remain the same. And there is only one thing that God ever did honor, that was, His way that He provided for the people. And when they got out of that way, then God was dishonored, and God made the people suffer for getting away from what He had told them to do, no matter what it was.
He even give them a law, "Touch not, handle not, taste not." Just not because of the evil of doing it, but the evil of disobeying what He said do. And there's always cannot be a law without a punishment for law. Because, if there's no punishment, then, law is not much to it unless it has a penalty. The law!
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
33 Now, we find, what they did in that day seems to parallel what we are doing today, what the church people are doing.
34 Now we see a strange thing here. It might be strange to some people, when He said, "You have, they have, hewn to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns." Now, maybe some of you don't know what a cistern is. How many knows what a cistern is? Well, most all of you. If you was ever raised on a farm, you know what a cistern is. I remember I've drank enough bugs from one, to--to know what a--a cistern was.
Preached out in the country where, in a brush arbor, where you'd have a big pitcherful of cistern water setting there, out of the--the rain, you know, and it kind of got a little old. And--and then the bugs, at nighttime, would get into it. And so I know what cistern water is.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
35 A--a cistern is a--a place, a thing that's dug in the ground, to take the place of a well. Where people doesn't have a well, then they get a--a cistern. In other words, a cistern is a man-made tank or a man-made well in the ground, that man dig out, to catch the water, to--to use it. Some of them use it for washwater, and some use it for drinking water, and different way, maybe. All the water sometime, that we used to get, was on a cistern. Used to have an old thing you had to wind, around, around, around, around, to get the water up; had little buckets on it, to pump the water out of the cistern.
36 Well, we notice one thing about a cistern that's different from a well. Now, a cistern will get empty. The--the--the cistern cannot fill itself. It is--is... It's not reliable. You can't rely upon a cistern. It has to rely and depend upon the rains that fall in the summer or in the winter, whatever it is to... Usually, in the wintertime when the snow and rain comes, then it runs the water off into the cistern. And if it doesn't get that water, then you--you don't have any water. It's all--it's all... dries up. And it can't refill itself. The old cistern cannot refill itself. It gets its filling from the--the rains that falls.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
37 And I want you to notice another thing about a cistern. Usually, you find, or the way it was at our place, the cistern... Usually the barn is about twice the size of the house, and they usually run the water off the barn, to the cistern. I remember that old cistern well out there, when he had... when the--the drain pipes rushing it in, too, off the barn. It fills from the barn.
So then the water is carried from the roof of the barn; where, all the animals stepping around through the stable yard, and all the filth of the barnyard settles on top the barn, in dry times. And then the water comes and washes it all down off the roof, into a trough that's man-made, then into a man-made spout, then into a man-made cistern. And if you haven't got a mess, I don't know what you got, when you got a cistern. Yes, sir! It's all man-made, and just as dirty as it can be.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
38 You know, we used to call... We had a filter rag on one. Did you ever know what that was? Had to put a filter rag on it, to catch all the bugs and things that come off the top of the--the barn, and all around the place, and poured out from one place to another, into the cistern. And we used to put a--a filter rag on it, to catch all the--the scum and stuff that we could. Course, that wouldn't catch the real dirt, it just caught the big missiles that come down and fell into it. The bug might fall in it, but the juice of the bug went on with the water. So, you--you really had a mess when you had an old dirty cistern.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
39 In a few days, you let that water stand there, and it becomes stagnated. You let the water stand in a cistern, it become stagnated. And it gets full of--of frogs, and lizards, and snakes. And we used to call it "wiggle-tails," little bitty... I don't know whether... They're not a parasite, they're a... I cannot, I don't know what you'd call them. But some little thing gets in the water, that--that we called it wiggle-tails. You know what it is. How many knows what I'm talking about? Oh, why, sure, all you country folks know. Gets it all full of stagnation, and then these lovers of stagnation comes with it. It just actually comes, because it's stagnated. And because it's stagnated, it draws the animal there that likes stagnated things.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
40 And that's a whole lot like our churches today. I think that we have left... One of the great sins that the church has done today, just like Israel then, it left Him, the Fountain of living Water, and has hewed themselves out man-made cisterns. And it become a habitation of everything that loves that kind of water. Lizards, frogs, and all kinds of unclean germs, live in it, because it's a man-made tank. And in this tank these things stay, a perfect example of our denominationals today.
41 "Now," you say, "Brother Branham, why do you strike at those people so hard?"
It ought to be struck at. It's got to be struck at. Flee it, because it will finally form the mark of the beast. Remember, that is the Truth! It will be the mark of the beast. Denomination will lead right to it. It's on its road right there now, to force, by a power.
42 Look in the old Roman empire. That's exactly what led them to that mark of an apostasy. You found out that no man could buy or sell without the mark of the beast. He had to have it.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
43 There is only two classes of people will be on the earth; those with the Seal of God, and those with the mark of the beast. Only two classes, so you'll have to have one or the other. It'll be an apostasy, a--a mark of--of religion, apostate religion.
44 And it's going to have a image unto the beast. As we study, we find out that Rome was, is, and always will be, the mar-... or, the beast. Exactly. There is no way to get it anything else. Rome!
45 And what did Rome do? Was converted from pagan Rome unto papal Rome, and organized a system, a universal system, that forced everybody to that one religion or be put to death.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
46 And it's a strange thing that this United States appears on the scene, and it's like a lamb. And a lamb has two small horns, civil and ecclesiastical rights. And after a while, when that was a lamb, we found out that it spoke then like a dragon and exercised all the power the dragon had before it. And the Bible tells us that they said, "Let us make a image unto the beast." An image is something like something else. And we can see it right now that, in its apostate condition, the church is forming the World Council of Churches, which is the image to the power of Rome; and will force upon the people the same thing that pagan Rome did... or papal Rome did. So, there is no other way, no other thing. But that is the Truth.
47 And that's why I'm striking it in my age, in my time, because it's got to be struck at. The call come in, to, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins!"
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
48 Now, I'm liking that to these dirty, filthy cisterns. "He is the Fountain of Life. He is the living Waters." And man leave That, and dig for themselves cisterns which can only catch the filth. That's the only thing it can catch. And that's what denominationalism does; it catches everything that comes along and wants to join. They're willing to take it in if it's got some money or can dress in a certain way. No matter who they are, where they come from, they take them, anyhow.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
49 Now we find, again, that, this mark of the beast that was formed here. America, is, number thirteen. It was born with thirteen colonies. It had a flag that had thirteen stars, thirteen stripes. And it even appears in Revelations the 13th chapter. And America has always been a woman, represented on our coins. Even the Indian head, on a penny, is a woman's profile. We know that, know the history of it. Everything, the Liberty Bell, and everything else, the liberty... Statue of Liberty is, everything, a woman. A woman; number thirteen. See? Now, it's--it's beautiful to see those things.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
50 And now I have predicted by revelation from God, or a vision in 1933, that seven things would happen before the end time. And that, one of them, that, "Mussolini," who was then becoming dictator, "he would become dictator. And, also, he would make an invasion and go down to Ethiopia, and would take Ethiopia. And the Spirit, It said, 'He shall fall at his step.'"
51 I wonder if there is any of the old-timers still left in the tabernacle, remember me saying that in the Redman's Hall down here when we preached, many, many years ago. Is there one in the building, tonight, that's left from down there at the old Redman's Hall when I preached that, when they had the N.R.A. out, way back in time of Roosevelt's first term? I guess there is not a one in here. Is there one? Yeah, yeah, one, there is one. Yes, Mrs. Wilson, I remember her. My wife, setting in the back. Two left, out of the old generation of those in that day.
That, when they said this N.R.A. was the mark of the beast, I said, "Nothing to it; not at all. The mark of the beast don't come here. It comes out of Rome. And it can't be the mark of the beast."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
52 And now remember that these things was said. Said, "Adolph Hitler would come to a mysterious end. And he would declare war on the United States. And they would build a great--a--a great concrete thing, that they'd even live in it. And right there the Americans would take a horrible beating, at this." And it was the Siegfried line, eleven years before it was ever started to be built. And then said, "But he would come to an end; and the States would win the war."
53 And then said, that, "There is three ism's; Nazism, fascism, and communism." And I said, "They'll all wind up in communism. Russia will take it all, in communism."
54 And I said, "Then science is going to be so great, man is going to get so smart, till he'll invent so many things until he's going to make an automobile that looks like an egg, that'll have like a glass top on it, and it'd be controlled by some other power than a steering wheel." And they've got the car.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
55 And I said, "Then the morals of our women is going to fall in such a degraded things, till they're going to be a disgrace to all nations. They're going to wear man's clothes. They're going to keep taking off their clothes till actually they come down like they got their underneath clothes on, that's all. And, finally, they'll come to wearing just a fig leaf."
And if you notice, in last month's Life magazine, they had the woman with the fig leaves on. And that's the new evening frock, or gown, what they wear of the evening; transparent, can see through it, only the fig leaves just hides a certain spot of her body; with strapless, or strap, unstrapped bathing suits, the top of it, exposed body. And how that those things has happened!
56 Then I said, "I seen a woman stand in the United States, like a great queen or something. And she was beautiful to look at, but wicked in her heart. And she made the nation step, go at her step."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
57 Then I said, "Finally, He told me to look back East again. And, when I did, I seen, looked like, as it was, the world had exploded. And as far as I could see, was nothing but sticks, and--and smoldering rocks had been blowed up out of the earth."
And these were to happen before the end of the world. And five of the seven has already happened, in thirty-three years. There we are, back to the end time!
58 And I spoke against that denominational system right then. And I still believe, tonight, that it's a cesspool, that it's a place where the filth run into it. I can't believe that God would ever take such a thing in His Church, because it's got to be born of the Spirit of God and then cleansed before it can be called His. The mystical Body of Christ, we are baptized into It by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
59 Yes, this cistern system is certainly a perfect example of denomination. A wise man ought to look, and never to go into it, for God has proved through the ages that He's against it and never did work with it. Any group... Any time a man raised up with a message, like Luther, Wesley, or so forth, and Smith, and Calvin, and them; when they started the organization, God laid the thing on the shelf and never did visit it again in a revival.
60 Look through history. There has never been a time that God ever took a denomination, made a revival out of it, nowhere. Then, through history and by the Bible, proves that it's a filthy thing in the sight of God, so I don't want nothing to do with it. And that's why I'm against. I'm trying to get the people out of it.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
61 We are invited, like in Israel, so is it now, to look to Israel for examples. They, as long as they stayed with that Fountain, they were all right. But when they got to hewing themselves cisterns, man-made systems, then God left them flat. He'll do us the same. "They have forsook Him, the Fountain of living Water." That was the complaints that God had against them. "To make something that they could say, 'You see what we have done!'"
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
62 Now, when in the time of the--the travel of Moses; when God, by grace, had given them a prophet, had given them a Pillar of Fire to go before them, had vindicated It by signs and wonders. Grace had provided all these things. Israel still wanted, saw law. They refused grace, to take law.
That's exactly what the people does today. They refuse the Word, to take a denominational system, because in that they can do what they want to and get by with it. But you can't do it in Christ! You've got to come clean and clear, in order to be in Christ.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
63 Leaving the artesian well, for a man-made system or cistern, could you imagine someone doing that? Could you imagine the mental conditions of a person that could drink at a fresh artesian well, and would leave that for a man-made cistern with frogs, and lizards, and wiggle-tails, and everything else in it?
It don't seem even sensibly to be right, but that's just exactly what the people has done. They've left the Word, the true Fountain of God's source and Power, to drink out of cisterns, and make themselves cisterns. Same as they did then, they have done it now. They say...
He said, "They've left Me." Here He said, here in Jeremiah 2:14, or 13, rather. He said, "They have left Me, the Fountain of living Water."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
64 Now, we see what a cistern is. We see what it catches. We see how it's made. It's a man-made thing that comes off of a dirty roof. The water that falls down, hits on a dirty roof, and it only washes the roof off, puts it down through a man-made trough, through a man-made spout, into a man-made tank. And all the filth gathers in there, and the--the germs, and the lizards, and frogs, and things of the land, like that. And, notice, they are the unclean animal; wiggle-tails, stagnated. A wiggle-tail can't live in clear water. If it does, it'd kill him. He's got to be in the stagnation.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
65 And that's the way it is with a lot of these parasites today. You can't live in the fresh water of the Holy Spirit. That's the reason they're so firmly against the Word, and say, "It contradicts Itself. There is nothing to It." Is because they have to have some kind of a stagnated pool to wiggle in. Right.
That's the same way it is with frogs, and with lizards, and with tadpoles, and such as that. They've got to get around the swamp or the stagnated pool, to live, for it's their nature to live there. And you can't change the animal till you change its nature.
And you cannot make a man see the Word of God till his nature has been changed; and when his nature is changed from what he is, to a son of God, and the Holy Spirit comes into him. The Holy Spirit wrote the Word of God!
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
66 Today I was talking with my good friend, Doctor Lee Vayle, who is present now. And he's quite a theologian, and so we usually have some--have some pretty good discussions on the Scripture. Very smart.
And he asked me one time what I thought about the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost, "Was it speaking in tongues?" It's been many years ago.
I said, "No; can't see that."
He said, "Neither do I," said, "though I've been taught that." He said, "What would you think would be an evidence?"
67 I said, "The most perfect evidence I can think of is love." And so we got to talking on that.
And then I thought that sounded pretty good so I just held that, "If a man has got love."
But one day the Lord, in a vision, straightened me out. And He said, that, "The evidence of the Spirit was those who could receive the Word," neither love, nor speaking in tongues, but it's receiving the Word.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
68 And then Doctor Vayle was saying to me, that, "That is Scriptural," he said, "because, in John 14, Jesus said, 'When He the Holy Ghost is come upon you, He will reveal these things to you, that I've taught you, and will show you things to come.'"
So there is the genuine evidence of the Holy Ghost! He has never told me anything wrong yet. That, "It is the evidence of the Holy Ghost, is he who can believe the Word." You can receive It.
Cause, Jesus never said, "When the Holy Ghost is come, you'll speak with tongues." He never said, the Holy Ghost come, you'd do any of those things. But He said, "He will take these things of Mine and show them to you, and will show you things that is to come." So there is the genuine evidence of the Holy Ghost, according to Jesus Himself.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
69 So all these sensations and things that people have and still live on, you can see why they do it. See, it becomes a denomination, or a stagnated pool, and there'll never be a denomination made upon the imp-... the perfect Word of God. It can't do it, because you can't nominate or denominate God. No, sir!
70 The reason it is, you get a bunch of man who can believe the Word, let them start an organization. The first thing you know, in a year's time there's a bunch of Rickies in there that you couldn't do nothing with. They got a hold, and you can't do nothing about it. It's not God's system. It isn't, so we know that that thing is out. It becomes a cistern, and becomes a place where each one will compromise on this, that, or the other, to get members in there, or let people come in.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
71 We find out, this system started one time, back in the Israelites days, when they was digging these cisterns. And there was a man and a bunch of Pharisees who had dug some cisterns. And they had a man named Herod, and he was a proclamator, governor of the state.
And he come down to hear a man that didn't fool with their denominations. He was a prophet. And no prophet ever had anything to do with a denomination, but hated it. This prophet begin to say, "Don't you begin to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham to our father,' because I tell you that God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham."
72 And they brought out a dignitary to hear him. And this dignitary had took his brother's wife away from him, and married her. And what did that man walk out to his face and say? They thought he would compromise, and say, "Now, sir, you, you have you a nice seat over here. And you ought to... I'm so glad you're here to hear me today."
John just walked right up in his face, and said, "It's not lawful for you to have her." The very first thing he said, he bawled him out for his sin.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
73 See, denominations make stagnant pools where man can live with women, and them women can carry on, and cut their hair, and wear shorts, and anything else, and call themselves Christians.
But a genuine Fountain, hallelujah, of the Power of God, it can't stay there, because It pushes it out. "I am the Fountain of living Waters. They left Me, to dig themselves some cisterns."
74 Now, a fountain of living water, we find out, what is a fountain of living water? We find out what the cistern is, now what is a fountain of living water? It's an artesian well.
"An artesian well, what's that, Brother Branham?"
It's a well that it's always comes from beneath and pushes its water out. It's flowing all the time. It is self-supporting. Always fresh and clean, an artesian well, a fountain of living water. It's not dead and stagnated. It's living, it's constantly changing, bringing up something new all the time, moving on, coming from its resources. It draws its resources from--from its bed, which is a... still a fountain of living waters spraying up. Self-cleansing; it's clean, pure, clean water. It's self-supporting; you don't have to wait for the rains to fill its tank up. It's always a bubbling up, gives its water free. You don't have to pump it, wind it, twist it, or join it. It's just a fountain of living waters.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
75 You know, you take these old cisterns, you have to crank it and crank it and crank it, and pump and everything, to get a little of that stagnated water out. Huh!
But a Fountain of living Water gives It out, free, without pumping, joining, anything else. Oh, I'm glad for that Fountain! Yes, sir!
76 It needs no strainer on It, to take the parasites out. For, It's coming so deep down, there in the Rock, until there's no parasites there.
It don't have to have a educational rag hanging on It, that's right, some worldly-made system of man-made denominational wisdom; to tell you, before a psychiatrist, whether you're able to preach or not. It don't have one of those filthy rags hanging on It. It'd push it right off as soon as you put it on there. You can't do it. That well is bubbling up, all the time. You'd put one of them rags on it, it'd throw it plumb out on the one side or the other. It don't have no time for a denominational rag on it.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
77 It don't need no filter, no strainer, no pumping, no jerking, no nothing else. It's just there, bubbling up. It don't have to depend on local rains to fill it up. Rains are "revivals," where that Fountain... That's at that Fountain of Life. "Where the Carcass is, the eagles will gather." You don't have to pump up a revival; you don't have to pump up nothing. Only thing you have to do is just come to the Fountain. It's always full of good, fresh water, and there is no end to It. It just keeps on bubbling.
78 You don't have to go to the cistern, and say, "Well, if it rains and washes off the barn, we'll have something to drink." See? My, my! Not this. That artesian well is spurting forth good, cold water all the time. You can depend on it. You don't have to say, "Well, I'll go over to this old cistern. We used to drink out of it, but it hasn't rained in a long time. I tell you, it may be dry."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
79 That's the way some of these man-made systems are. You can go in, if you got a big something going on, a big cabal of selling something, or--or some kind of a something going on, a big parties and things going on, bunco games, and parties in the basement, and everything, you might find a full house.
But where you go to where that Fountain is bubbling up, always, the people are there getting a good, cold drink of water. You can depend on It! Say, "They haven't had a revival for ten years." If you live by that Fountain, She's always got a revival going on.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
80 Like the little Welshman said. Or, one time when they had the Welsh revival going on, there was some dignitaries from the States. Some of these great Doctors of Divinity went over to Wales, to find out where and what all this was about. So they had on their turned-around collars, and their plug hats, and they was walking down the street.
And here come a little cop along, whirling his little old billy club in his hand, a whistling, "Down at the cross where my Saviour died, down there for cleansing from sin I cried; there to my heart was the Blood applied, glory to His Name," walking down the street.
So they said, "This seems to be a religious man. We'll go ask him."
And they said, "Mister!"
Said, "Yes, sir?"
He said, "We are here from the United States. We're a delegation. We come over here to investigate the Welsh revival, so-called. We are Doctors of Divinity, and we're here to look it over." He said, "We want to know where the revival is, and where it's held."
He said, "Sir, you have arrived. I am the Welsh revival." Amen! "The Welsh revival is in me. Here is where it's at."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
81 That's the way it is when you live by that Fountain of living Waters. It's living all the time, bubbling over and over, and over and over. There is no end to It. Not, "Go see if some water, if we had a rain here not long ago," that's not it. It's that Fountain of living Water. As I say, It gives Its Water free.
82 You don't have to put rags on It, to find out; some educational rags, 'fore you can send him out to preach, and see if he spells his words right, speaks them right, if he uses his nouns and pronouns, and so forth, and adjectives. Many of them don't even know what they are, but he's living at the Fountain just the same, see, the same.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
83 It don't have to depend on the local rains, to fill it up, or the local revivals, for it. It don't have to do that, for its Power and its purity is within itself. That's where the Word is, Its Own Power! When a man can receive It in his heart, It's got Its purity. It's got Its power. It's right in the Word Itself, springs forth the Life.
84 Israel would get away from It, they would get in trouble. Every time they got away from It, they got in trouble.
The same as we do now. When the revival gets away from That, then it's no good. It digs itself some wells, and, or some stagnated cisterns, and there it goes.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
85 But He always helped them. The murmuring at the Red Sea, then when they murmured... Yet, in all that, He had promised, made them a promise. He should have turned them back right there, the way we would look at it; but He had promised to take them over there.
What did He do? Them children of Israel, He furnished them the Pillar of Fire and everything, for a vindication, their prophet. And they led them out there to the sea. And, always, there is trouble against It. And here come the Pharaoh and his army. And you know what God did? He just opened up that red, stagnated cistern.
The Dead Sea is the deadest thing in the world. It's really dead. It's stagnated. Nothing can live in it.
And He opened it up and set them free, on the other side. He took them to where they wouldn't have to be bound by such a thing as that.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
86 In the wilderness, they found that the tanks could not be depended on; they were dry. Found out, they go from one water hole to another. When they was in the wilderness, they was starving to death, for a drink of water. And they would go to this tank over here, a pond; it was dried up. They went to another place; it was dried up. They just couldn't think they was ever going to get a drink.
And then on the most unlikely place in all the desert, they found the water. It was in a rock. It was in a rock. The most unlikely place that a man would find any water, would be in a dry rock in the middle of a desert. But, you see, God does things like that. In the most unlikely place, in the most unusual way. That's what we've always had.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
87 They think you have to have a big denominationals, together, and let them all come together and have a great big milling around, and so forth, and get thousands to co-operate, and all like this, to have a revival.
Sometime God takes the little old guy don't even know his ABC's, and right amongst a bunch of illiterate people that hardly knows their right hand from the left, He can raise up a revival that'll shake the world. He did in the time of John. He done it in the time of the prophets. None of them, as we know of, was ever educated, but God could get a hold of them and do something with them.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
88 In this Rock came forth the waters. He was the Rock. And He commanded this Rock, and must be smote. And He gave abundance of pure, fresh, clean water to everybody that would drink. He saved all who would drink from It. A perfect parallel with John 3:16.
... God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,... whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but would have everlasting life,
89 God smote that Rock, on Calvary. Our judgment was upon Him, that from Him might come the Spirit of Life that would give you and me Eternal Life. That's a perfect parable of It, there in this wilderness.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
90 They never had to pull, dig, pump, or anything; just partake of His provided way, freely. When, they didn't have to dig it out of a pond. They didn't have to pull it up with a bucket. They didn't have to have no windle to get it with. They just had to partake of it.
And that's all there is now. You don't have to join nothing. You don't have to get down at the altar and work up something, pumping it. You don't have to say a word over and over and over, till you get a confusion of language. The only thing you have to do is just partake of Him, freely, God's provided way. No pumping, no pushing, no nothing; just take of It, freely. Nothing you have to do; just partake of It. That is, just believe It. That's all I can say to it.
They never had to do anything for it. Never had to dig for it. They never had to get down and cry all night, for it. They just partook of it; it was smitten and ready. That's right.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
91 I'm looking at a man now, setting in the back of the room here. I remember telling him that, on an old barn stall one day, by a manger.
And he said, "But I'm no good."
92 I said, "I know you're not." And I said, "I'm not, either." But I said, "You're looking at what you are. And quit looking at what you are, and look what He is."
He said, "If I could just get rid of these cigarettes, Brother Branham, I--I--I would be a Christian."
93 I said, "Don't get rid of them. You're trying to get good and then come to Him. He never come to save good man; He come to save bad man that knowed they were bad."
He said, "Well..."
I said, "Listen, you don't want to go to hell, do you?"
He said, "No."
94 I said, "Well, you don't have to. He died that you might not have to go."
He said, "What do I have to do?"
I said, "Nothing. It's just that simple."
He said, "But if I can ever..."
95 I said, "There you go, back to that cigarette again. Quit thinking about that cigarette. Just remember, think about Him, what He did, what He is; not what you are. You're no good; and you never was, and never will be. But, what He is, He's the One!" And I said, "Now, the only one thing you have to do; if He took your place down there, you just willingly accept what He did. Only thing you have to do is just accept it."
"Why," he said, "that's simple. I'll do that."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
96 I said, "Here is the creek." See? I brought him up here and baptized him in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Some of his people are setting here, and I--I know they felt funny at me for doing that, but I knowed what I was doing. I seen in the man something that was genuine. I could see it there, and I took him and baptized him in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
And, when we did that, it wasn't long after that till I was went down to his son's house. We seen a--a vision of a tree being broke at a certain place, and the man fell, almost broke his back. Took him in the hospital. And that night the Lord revealed, to me, that was the end of cigarettes.
So the next day he wanted some cigarettes. I said, "I'll buy him a carton and take it to him. You just watch and see, his cigarette days are done." He's never smoked one since, and never wanted one since. God!
97 See, the first thing you've got to do is to come to that Fountain. You've got to come to that Water, realize it's nothing that you can do. It's what He done for you. You don't have to dig; you don't have to pump out; you don't have to quit this; you don't have to quit that. The only thing you have to do is get there and drink. That's all. If you're thirsty; drink!
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
98 Now, He was the Rock. God smote Him for us, and He gave forth abundance of pure, clean water. He does yet, today, to everyone that will believe. This is His grace, of course, to His people, us.
99 There is something like there, like the people of today, ready to receive what they can get, but don't want to give any service in return. Israel was ready to--to drink from the rock now, but they didn't want to give God His service that was due Him.
100 And He's always giving us a service. You know, we can't even breathe without Him. We can't breathe without God's service. That's how dependent we are on Him. And, yet, it almost breaks us in two if we try to do, have to do something for Him. He asks us to do something, go see somebody, go pray for somebody, go help somebody, it's almost breaks us up, to do it. But we don't want to do anything to Him for service.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
101 His complaint was, "They have forsaken Me, the Word; and have accepted a broken cistern, instead. Accept... They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Life, the Fountain of Water of Life; and they desire and would rather drink from a stagnated cistern." Could you imagine that?
102 Could you imagine a person now, that, here is an artesian well just putting out that fine, limestone water, right out of the heart of the rocks, down there in the sand beds, and so forth, just as cold and good as it could be; and would rather drink out of a cistern over there, that had washed off the top of the barn, and the sheds, and all of the out-buildings around the place? And put it right into that cistern there, where the seepage of the water drains right back into, from the barn, the stables and stalls, and everything draining right back into the cistern, and then we want to acce-... would drink out of that before going to that artesian well? There would be something mentally wrong with the person. That's right.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
103 And when a man or a woman will take a denomination on their stand, that'll permit bobbed hair, wearing shorts, makeup, all this other kind of stuff, and some little kind of a--a program, and all this carrying on, and can go to the bowling alleys, and--and all that nonsense out there, and can put up with that; and like that better than they do the old-fashion Word of God that cuts down and hews out, and makes ladies out of women, and takes and makes them dress right and act right, takes cigarettes and tobaccos, and swearing and cursing, and lying and stealing, away from you, and all the world away from you, and give you Something that is a perfect satisfaction. Why do a man or a woman go to such a thing as that for comfort? How can you get comfort out of that?
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
104 How could you get a fresh drink out of a stagnated cistern? Why would a person... If a person goes to a stagnated cistern to get a drink, when there's an artesian well open, you would say, "There is something wrong with that man's mind."
And if a woman or a man goes to such a place to find comfort, there is something spiritually wrong with that person. They don't want the Word. It shows that their nature is still a frog, or a tadpole, or something, that's right, something of that nature that likes that stagnated pool, because them kind of things won't live in a fresh-Water pool. They can't do it; it's fresh Water. They can't do it.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
105 Now, the complain was, "They left It." And today they've done the same thing.
Now look at the woman at the well. Well, she come up to Jacob's cistern, and she had been getting water there all the time, at Jacob's cistern. But Jacob's cistern, denomination, we would call it, 'cause he dug three of them; and this one he had dug. Now, she had a great story. She said, "Now, our father dug this well, Jacob. He drank out of it, and his cattle drank out of it, and everything. Isn't that good enough?"
106 He said, "But the water that you draw from there, you thirst again, have to come back here to get it. But," said, "the Water that I give you is a Fountain, a Geyser spurting up from the inside, and you don't come here to get It. It's right with you."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
107 Notice. But when she discovered that a Scriptural Fountain had spoken to her, by a Scriptural sign that she had been looking for, she left that Jacob's denominational system and never went back to it again, because she had found the real Rock. See? She run into the city. She was through with sin. She was no more a foul woman. She said, "Come, see Who I have found, a Man Who told me the things that I've done. Isn't This the very Christ?" She... That cistern might have been all right; it had served its purpose. Now she was at the true Fountain. The cistern had been all right until the true Fountain was open. But when the true Fountain come along, the cistern lost its strength. She found there's a better place to drink.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
108 And there is a better place. There's a better place, and that's in Christ. In Saint John 7:37 and 38, Jesus said, at the last of the feast of the tabernacles, "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink."
They were all rejoicing. They had a little spurt of water coming out from under the altar, and--and there they was all drinking from this, in celebration, of the--of the feast. And said, "Our fathers drank from the spiritual rock in the wilderness." See, they had hewed themself a cistern, some stagnated water they pumped down from somewhere, and spurting it up under the temple there. And they would all get around this water and drink, and say, "Years ago, our fathers drank in the wilderness."
Jesus said, "I am that Rock that was in the wilderness."
Said, "We eat manna from Heaven, and God rained it down."
109 Said, "I am that Manna." He, that Fountain, was standing among them. That Bread of Life was standing among them.
And still they did not want It. They'd rather have their cistern; because, man had made this, and God had sent That. That's exactly the difference. Dug themselves cisterns!
110 He said, "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink." He is that Fountain.
And as the Scripture has said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living Water." Oh, He is that artesian well! "Out of his belly, or innermost being, shall flow rivers of living Water."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
111 He is that Rock that was in... That was Hagar's Rock, in the time of trouble; when her baby was about to die, when she had been put out of the camp, and was out there with little Ishmael. Her water, in her cistern that she was packing with her, had give out. And she laid little Ishmael down; and walked over, a bow shot, and cried, and, oh, because she didn't want to see the baby die. And all at once, the Angel of the Lord spoke, and she found Beer-... Beersheba, the--the well there that was flowing, and still flowing to this day. He was Hagar's Beer-Beersheba, Rock out there in the wilderness.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
112 It was standing here in the Fountain filled with Blood, that day, standing there in the temple. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... time of storm. In Zechariah the 13th chapter, He was that Fountain opened in the house of David, for cleansing, and for (sin) cleansing of sin. He was that Fountain. And in the Psalms 36:9, He was David's Fountain of Life. He is still that Fountain in the house of David.
And He is the poet's, in his heart there. Poet said:
There is a Fountain filled with Blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
When sinners plunge beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
He is that Fountain of Life, Fountain of Water. He is the Word of God.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
113 People of these last days has forsook Him, the true Word, Water of Life; and has hewed themself out denominational cisterns; and, again, hewed, dug!
114 And now we find out, they have had broken cisterns. And then this cistern is filled with unbelieving germs, unbelieving boasting, educational programs, and so forth, which is contrary to God's promises. They are doubters of the Word.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
115 Now, these cisterns that they've got, the Bible said, were "broken." Broken cistern is a "leaking" cistern, and it's seeping out. What's it doing? It's seeping out into a religious cesspool called the World Council of Churches. And that's where the broken cistern is leading them to, all because they have forsook Him, and have... the Fountain of living Water; and made these cisterns.
116 Digging out big seminary systems of learning, education, and so forth. That's the kind of cisterns they're digging today, that a man has to have a Ph.D., or an LL.D., or a Bachelor of Art, or something, before he can even go preach. Cisterns that has been filled with man-made theology. They take them into these great big schools of learning, and in there they inject into them their own man-made theology, and they send them out with that. What a day that we're living in, man-made cisterns! No trouble the... No wonder the thing has become a--a stink, oh, my, it's because that the people drink from that.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
117 And when the people want joy today, what do they do? The people, instead of accepting the joy of the Lord, they turn to sin, for joy. People who go to church and claim to be servants of Christ, when they get real nervous they'll light up a cigarette. And when they--when they want to--to have some fun, they stick on their immoral clothes and go out and cut the grass when the man is going by, to get them to whistle at them. They do everything to be popular. They want to look like the movie stars. That's their joy.
When, Jesus said, "I am their sufficiency."
The reason that they go to that, because they don't want to drink from that Fountain. They have turned It down. They don't want to drink from It. They join themselves to some kind of a man-made system, some kind of a cistern that's full of all kind of stagnated things, that they can go like that.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
118 Yesterday, we had the kids up on the river. I believe it was Saturday morning. We went down; Billy had been fishing in the boat. And we took the kiddies up, my little grandson and them, my daughter, and my little son, and we went up the river to--to take a boat ride. You couldn't even take a boat ride on the river, for the filthy, dirty, scummy people out there on the river, half naked and carrying on. A boat drove up beside of us, a bunch of little twelve-, fourteen-year-old boys, each one with a beer can in their hand, and a cigarette. They call that "having fun." Oh, my! How long can this world last, with such a system as that?
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
119 Then to free themselves from the thoughts that when they die they'll go to hell, the thing they do, they go and join one of these man-made cisterns. So that same type of people belongs in that cistern. It's nothing but a bunch of unclean, filthied wiggle-tails of the world. And they associate themselves to that because, as my old mother used to say, "Birds of a feather flock together." They won't come to the Fountain and be cleaned up from that life of sin. They want to live out there, and still hold a testimony that they are Christians. Why? They have turned from Him, the true Fountain of joy, Life, perfect Life and satisfaction. That's the reason they did it, because that they want to join up. They have some kind of people there that believe in that stuff.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
120 Here not long ago, Brother Fred and I, and Brother Tom, a bunch of us went to a noted Baptist church in the city of Tucson, to see if we couldn't find a little something that would give us maybe a little fresh feeling. And the minister said something another about the people in Egypt, when they left they was eating garlic and so forth, they wanted to go back again and eat that. Said, "That's something like people of today."
And, we, everybody said, "Amen!" I never seen such a bunch! The whole church lost the sight of the preacher and looked back to see who it was that said "amen." Liked to scared them to death. They didn't know what it was.
When, David said, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Praise Him upon harps! Praise Him with the psaltery! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And praise ye the Lord!" God rejoices in His people. Let them of the learned, say, "Amen," when anything is said right.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
121 Why not turn from this system and cisterns of the world, to the faithful system of God, which is the artesian well, Jesus Christ? Why don't you turn to Him, where God is our abundant supply of joy, our abundant supply in praises, our abundant supply in satisfaction? The calmness of my nerves comes from God.
When I'm tore up, I find my satisfaction in Christ, not in a cigarette, not in the things of the world, not in joining some creed; but in finding Him, the promised Word that He said, "If I go away, I'll come again to receive you." I find my joy in that. He is my Joy.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
122 They say today, by joining these things and by making this World Council of Churches, that they're going to make a better place to live in. To my honest opinion, they're going to make a better place to sin in. That's just... The whole thing is sin, anyhow; not to live in, but to die in. Make its place to sin in--sin in, instead of live in.
123 Any other thing, outside of Jesus Christ and His Word of Life, is a broken cistern. Anything that tries to substitute It; anything that you try to do to bring you peace, anything that you try to do to bring you comfort, any kind of a joy that you receive from anything else, as a substitute for This, it's a broken cistern full of filth. He gives perfect satisfaction.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
124 I remember here, couple summers ago, I stepped out the back door. There was a young snicklefritz out there that said to me, said, "You know, the reason you're always talking about women like that, wearing those shorts and things," he said, "because you're an old man." Said, "That's the reason it is."
I said, "Look here. How old are you?"
Said, "Twenty-seven."
125 I said, "When I was many years younger than you, I preached the same thing."
I found a Fountain of satisfaction. He is my portion. Amen! As long as He supplies that, that's the beauty. That's--that's my... That's my art, is looking at Him, watching His hand work and see what He is doing. There is no other fount I know!
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
There is a Fountain filled with Blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
Where sinners plunge beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty stain.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
126 I'm telling you, no other fount I know but that Fountain. It cleansed me when I was dirty. It keeps me cleansed, because I want to live right at It, drink this fresh Water that's fills my soul with joy.
I can be so ever so down, and feel that I can't hardly go no... another round, can't go nowhere else; then I can kneel down and put my finger on a promise, and say, "Lord God, Thou art my strength. Thou art my satisfaction. Thou art my all-in-all." I can begin to feel Something bubbling up from inside of me there. I come out of it.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
127 As I have past fifty years old, I'd wake up of a morning, you know how it is, you can't hardly get that one foot out of the bed. My, you can't hardly do it; and somebody at the door, knocking, or Billy telling me there's an emergency, somewhere I've got to go. And I think, "How can I do it?" Try to put one foot out.
I think, "Thou art the Fountain filled with my strength. Amen! My strength and my help cometh from the Lord. Thou are my artesian well! Thou art my youth! 'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with the wings like an eagle; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.' Lord God, this is my duty, to go. I'm called to the post of duty." And the first thing you know, Something begins to gurgle up inside of me.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
128 The other day, over in a little place, I was having a meeting over here in Topeka, Kansas; there was a boy, a young preacher, one of my first sponsors. Brother Roy, setting here, remembers the place. In this, in this great place there, there was a--a... This minister had got under a roof or a place, the sidewall mashed him down beneath that. The little fellow was going to die. His liver was bursted. His spleen was knocked out of place. Tons fell on him.
129 I sat at the breakfast, talking to the wife. I said, "Wife, you know, if Jesus was here, you know what He'd do?" I said, "When he sponsored me, 'I believe that Word,' he was sponsoring Christ." And I said, "That's a trick of the devil." I said, "If Jesus was here, He'd go lay His holy hands upon him. That boy would get well. I don't care if his liver is bursted. He would get well, because Jesus would walk in there knowing exactly Who He was. He knowed His calling, the Scriptures was right, vindicating in Him that He knowed Who He was, and not a... not no shadow of doubt. He'd lay His hands upon him, and say, 'Son, be well,' walk out of there." And I said, "There isn't enough devils in hell to kill that boy, then." I said, "He would get well." But I said, "You see, honey, He was Jesus, the holy hands of God."
I said, "I'm a sinner. I was born sexual birth. My father and mother were both sinners, and I'm just a no-good nothing."
And I said, "But you know what? If the Lord would give me a vision and send me down there, then that would be different." I said, "I'd go down and lay my hands on him, he'd come out of that bed if He give me a vision."
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
130 Then I got to thinking, "After all, if it was the vision, what was it? It was the same dirty hands on him, uh-huh, same man praying for him, same dirty hands."
Then I begin to think, "I am His representative. Then, God doesn't see me. That Blood of that righteous One lays up there upon the altar; it makes intercessions for me. He is my sufficiency. He is my prayer. He is my Life." I said, "The only thing that'd make me put my hands on him, with faith, because I had faith in the vision. And without the vision, the same faith would do the same thing; so I can reckon myself nothing, but reckon Him my all-in-all. He is my Life. He is my Commissioner. No denomination sent me; He sent me. Hallelujah! I go in His Name. I'll lay hands upon him." Walked down there and laid hands on that boy, and that night he was in the meeting, solid well. Amen!
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
131 Oh, yes, He is that Fountain. "No other fount I know. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus!" I'm a stinker, I'm a renegade, every one of us are, but before God we are perfect. Je-... "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." How can you be? Because a perfect One represents us there. That Fountain is there every day, fresh. Not some stagnated something, but fresh every day, that washes away all my sins. He is that Fountain.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
132 Now in closing, I might say this. Anything different from This is broken cisterns, and will finally leak out what you put in it; if you're putting all your hopes, all your time, and everything, in one of those stagnated cisterns. Jesus said they were broken cisterns. God said, "They're broken, and they'll leak out everwhat you put in them." You can't go any farther with them, 'cause they'll leak out. For He is the only way to the Truth, to the Life, and to Eternal joy, and Eternal peace. He is the only One and the only way to That. Oh, my!
133 The inexhaustible Fountain of Life is Jesus Christ. Why? And Who is He? The Word, the same; the Word, the Life, the Fountain, "the same yesterday, today, and forever." The true believer, It's his supreme joy, his supreme Life. And his supreme satisfaction is in Christ. No pumping, no pulling, no joining, no bailing; just believing and resting. That's what He is to the believing.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
134 Like father Abraham; he never pulled, he never fretted, he never worried. He had the Word. He layed upon El Shaddai's breast. When Abraham was a hundred years old, God appeared to him, and said, "I am the Almighty." The Hebrew word is El Shaddai, means, "the Breasted-One." "And you are old, and your strength is gone, but just lay upon My bosom and nurse your strength from this Fountain." Amen! What did he nurse himself to? A new body. He had the baby, by Sarah. And, fifty years later, had seven children by another woman.
135 Oh, El Shaddai! The Old Testament shows what He did, the New Testament tells what He'll do. Amen! In the Old Testament...
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
136 Now the air is off, so I'll hurry and quit here now, just in a minute.
I'd like to say this before I close. I had a good example of this one time. I was patrolling. And many people here... Down around Georgetown, down there in Milltown, there used to be, way back in the hills, a fountain. It was an artesian well. It throwed out about a--a four- or five-foot stream of water, just gushed out all the time, and a great big fountain around there. And right around it was a lot of this here pennyroyal, you know, and stuff growing there, that mint-like. And, oh, I used to just thirst to get there, oh, my, to get to that fountain. And I'd lay down by this thing and just drink and drink, and set down and drink, wait.
And year after year I'd still come to this same fountain. It never did cease, winter or summer. They couldn't freeze it. You can't freeze an artesian well. Oh, no! Oh, no! I don't care how--how cold it gets, it ain't going to freeze that. You'll freeze a cistern; just a little frost will do that. See?
But anything that's moving, got Life in it, it's a moving around. And you can't freeze the artesian Well out. No matter how depressed the spirit is around the place, this Well is always a living. Live at that Well.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
137 And I noticed there, I went by and I'd drink at it, and, oh, my, just the fresh water! You never had to worry, "Wonder, if I get there, wonder if it quit running?" It's been running...
138 An old farmer told me, said, "My grandfather drink out of it." And said, "It never has diminished or nothing. It's still the same well, gushing right out into Blue River there."
139 I thought, "Oh, my, what a fine place to water!" I'd walk about a mile out of the way, to get to that place, because it was such a real place to drink at. Oh, how good that water was! Oh, my!
I'd--I'd get out there in that desert, Arizona now, I still think about it, "That wonderful well down there, if I could just lay down to that!"
As David said one time, "Oh, if I could once more drink from that well!" If he would just get there!
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
140 And I set down one day, and I had a little funny thing that happened to me. And I said, "What makes you so happy all the time? I wish I could be happy like that. Why, I never seen you sad, since I been coming here. There's not one sad thing about you." I said, "You're always full of joy. You're jumping and bubbling and carrying on. Winter or summer, cold or hot, whatever it is, you're always full of joy. What makes you...? What, what is it? Because I drink out of you?"
"Nope."
I say, "Well, maybe the rabbits drink out of you, and you like it so well."
"Nope."
I said, "Well, what makes you bubbling over like that? What makes you so happy? What makes you always full of joy?" Said, "Is it because that--that the birds drink from you?"
"No."
"Cause I drink from you?"
"No."
I said, "Well, what makes you so full of joy?"
141 And if that well could speak back to me, he would say this. "Brother Branham, not because you drink; I appreciate that, and because I can furnish for the birds. I furnish for anybody that wants to drink. Only thing you have to do is come here and drink. But, what makes me happy, it ain't me bubbling, it's something inside, pushing me. It's something bubbling me."
142 And that's the way it is with a Spirit-filled life. As Jesus said, He was in... See, He give you wells of water springing up unto everlasting Life, an artesian, overflowing gusher that's constantly flowing. Whether the rest of the church is up or down, you're still at that Well.
Why would you take an old denominational system and cistern, full of parasites and everything else, and drink around on that stagnated stuff, when you're invited to a Fountain, an artesian Well?
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
143 I think how it just pushed, and juggled, and--and gurgled, and laughed, and joyed, and jumped, and froliced. Cold, rainy; hot, dry, when all the rest of the country was drying up, it was bubbling just like it always did. Cause it was deep, rooted, way down in the rocks it come forth.
144 Oh, let me live by that Gusher! Take all your man-made systems you want to, all your old stagnated wells, but let me come to... or stagnated cisterns. But, let me come to this Fountain, let me come there where He is just full. He is my Joy. He is my Light. He is my--He is my Strength. He is my Water. He is my Life. He is my Healer. He is my Saviour. He is my King. Everything that I have need of is found in Him. Why would I want to go to anything else?
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
145 Brother, sister, won't you come to this Fountain tonight? Won't you, if you're not ever been there, won't you receive It tonight while we bow our heads?
146 Broken cisterns, leaking, seeping, the world seeping into it, filth from the barns and of other days. Why not this Well, that that stuff cannot stay in, this great Fountain filled with Blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins? Why don't you receive that tonight? May God help us tonight, in this dry, thirsty land. As the prophet said, "He is the Rock in a weary land." He is that Fountain. Won't you come to Him tonight, in your hearts, while we pray?
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
147 Dear Heavenly Father, there is no other Fountain, as the music is playing, "No other fount I know; nothing but the Blood of Jesus." I was born there, I've been raised there; I want to live there, and die there, and rise again there, in His Presence. Always, Lord, let me be in His Presence, for there's no other I know. No creed, no love; no love but Christ, no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no anything else, no joy outside of Him. Take Him from me, O God, I don't care how much of the world I owned, it--it would still be dead, I'd wander around with my hands up over my head. Take Him from me, I'll be gone, Lord. But let Him be in me, then December is as pleasant as May, then there is no hot places and there's no dry places, even death itself has no victory. Let us have Him, Father. Give Him, in abundance, to every believer here tonight, as they've waited in this room.
148 Many of them has got to drive along the road tonight, as they go to their homes, and may this be their thinking, "I'm living at that Fountain. I'm living there, freshly drinking, hour by hour."
149 And if they haven't received that, as yet, may they receive Him now, so they can take the Fountain right with them. "I'll go with you; I'll be with you to the end of the world." Grant these things, Father.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
150 And now while we have our heads bowed, is there someone in here, tonight, or how many would say, "Lord, take me to that Fountain just now. I've never come here just to hear; I come here to find out Something. I come here to find You, Lord. I have a need of You tonight. Come to my heart right now. Will you do it, Lord?" God bless you. The Lord bless each one.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
151 Father, You seen the hands, even up and around the wall, and in the other rooms, outside. You--You seen them, Father. I--I pray that You'll supply everything they have need of. Maybe they been drinking at some old cistern, Lord, just some half-way stopover where some man hewed out a cistern, it's become contaminated with all kinds of strange doctrines, denying the Word. I pray, God, that tonight they'll come to Him Who is that Fountain, that Fountain of Life. Grant it, Father. I commit them to Thee now in Jesus' Name.
152 And You told me, "If you ask anything in My Name, it'll be done." Now, I wouldn't ask this, Lord, if I didn't think it would be done. I'd be--I'd be just saying it in a ritual routine. But I pray for them, with sincerity. I pray for them, believing that You will grant what You promised.
153 And now I take them away from that cistern tonight. I take them away from the place they had been drinking, where they're not satisfied; to this Fountain. I do it in Jesus Christ's Name.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
155 They are Yours, Lord. Let them drink from You, the living Water, the Fountain of living Water. In Jesus' Name, I ask it. Amen. Grant it, Lord.
Oh, precious is that flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
O Jesus, heal these, Lord! Grant it, Lord, through Jesus' Name. I pray, God, that You...?... Thou knowest all things.
No other fount I know,
Oh, nothing but the Blood of...
154 Think of it, no other fount I know! I don't know nothing else but Him. I don't desire to know nothing else but Him. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus! Oh!
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Oh, nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
156 While we sing that again, let's shake hands with one another. Do you love one another? Is there anybody in here got anything against somebody else? If there is, go make it right. Will you? Let's not leave here like that. See? If you got an ought against anybody, you go make it right, right now. Right now is your opportunity to go over, say, "Brother, sister, I said something about you, I thought something. I didn't mean to do that. Forgive me." See, that's the way to do it. Let's have the Fountain right among us, all the time. See?
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
Oh, no other fount I know,
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
157 Oh, isn't He wonderful? No other fountain! We won't contaminate ourselves with other things. We have separated, left the world behind. We don't want no more of Egypt's garlics and broken cisterns. We are in the journey with the Lord Jesus, that smitten Rock, amen, eating Manna from Above, and drinking; eating angels' Food, and drinking from the Rock. Amen!
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
Now let us bow our heads.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
158 Praying that God will so richly bless each of you, that His grace and mercy will be with you through the coming week. And if anything should happen, that one of you may slip beyond the veil now, just remember that it's only a few hours of sleep and rest until we meet. Remember, that, "They which are alive and remain shall not hinder those which are sleeping, for the Trump of God, that last Trumpet..." The sixth one has just sounded. And that last Trumpet, like the last Seal, will be the Coming of the Lord. "It shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Just resting till that time.
159 And if you should get hurt, remember:
Take the Name of Jesus with you,
As a shield from every snare;
And when temptations around you gather,
Just breathe that holy Name in prayer. (Devils will flee.)
160 Just remember, we hope to meet you here next Sunday morning. Bring in the sick and afflicted. I'll be praying for you. You pray for me now. Will you do it? Say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] I'll pray for you, that God will bless.
... Name in prayer.
Precious Name, precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
At the Name of Jesus bowing,
Falling prostrate at His feet,
King of kings in Heaven we'll crown Him,
When our journey is complete.
Precious Name, precious Name, (isn't it sweet and precious?)
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;
Precious Name, precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.
BROKEN.CISTERNS_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-13 SUNDAY_ 64-0726E
161 It's always so hard to leave you. Although I know that you're burning up, but there is just something about... Let's, one more verse of something, will you do it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Will you do it? Blest Be The Tie That Binds, sister. How many knows the old song? We used to sing it, years ago.
162 And I was thinking, tonight, "two hands, out of the hundreds, that's left," when we used to sing that song around the tabernacle, and join one another's hand. Blest Be The Tie That Binds. I've buried a lot of them, right up here in the cemetery. They're waiting. I'll see them again. I see them, once in a while, in a vision, when I look beyond the veil. They're there.
Let's bow our heads now as we sing.
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship...
Is like to that Above.
When we...
Now reach over and get a hold of somebody's hand.
... asunder part,
Now bow your head.
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.
163 With our heads bowed. I turn the service to the pastor now, and dismiss in...