Brother Branham starts the service by reading Isaiah 6:1-8, and then gives us some background on what we just read. He talks about King Uzziah, and how he was a shepherd boy with godly parents. The influence of his parents molded him into a good person and also a good king. Uzziah’s father is Amaziah, and if you want to do a little background reading, he can be found in II Kings 14 and 15, I Chronicles 3:12, and II Chronicles 25. Uzziah is found mainly in II Chronicles 26.
Brother Branham gives both parents and young people alike a good lesson on our influences. Here are a few highlights from the sermon, “Influences.”
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
I--I think today, our great problem, of what we believe to be juvenile delinquency, is a parent delinquent, a home delinquent. Our--our people got away from the things that they--they should have stayed with. The church got lukewarm or cold, and the--the children got out into the world.
That's the way sin is. Don't trifle with it. Don't see how close you can get to it. See how far you can stay away from it. See? Don't take no chance. If you're going to take a chance... I don't want no chance.
It isn't how close you can come, and how well you think you are fortified, stay just as far away from sin as you can stay. Just get just as far away as you can. Say, "Well, I can do this. There is no harm in doing this." Well, if there is a question in your mind, don't you do it at all. Anywhere there's a question, stay away from it. Then, you see, then you're absolutely living by faith, if there's no question. If there's a question, then leave it, don't go around it at all.
What you read, what you do, molds your character. It--it tells what you are.
I think if we had people today, our churches who claim to be Christians, if they would abstain from the things of the world and live that kind of a life, it would influence the younger Christians to do so.
What you're influencing, will make you have to answer for many souls that you've turned aside, away from Christ, in that Day of the Judgment.
And especially you people who are claiming to be Christians, separate yourself from the things of the world. Have nothing to do with the world. Shun it, for some person is watching you. Somebody is watching you. And you're going to not only send yourself there, but going to take them to the bad place, and you are going to have to answer for your influence.
Today there is no reverence. Oh, what little there is, it's just very little. What? You see people laugh at what's called Christianity. What's going to happen to that man? When God sends something to the earth, and they see it being operated just exactly with the Word, and then man talk about it, and make fun of it? You know what the Bible said? Jesus said, "It's blasphemy, of the Holy Ghost, and will never be forgiven."
"Oh," they say, "That's of the devil."
Be careful what you say, brother, sister. Be careful what you say, sinner. There is no forgiveness for it. Jesus said, "To speak a word against It, would never be forgiven in this world or the world to come."
God can do without us, but we can't do without Him.
Being conscious of how little you are. The way up is down. "He that humbles himself shall be exalted; he that exalts himself shall be abased."
Humble yourself, see how little you can be; not what you know, what you don't know. Let yourself get humble before God.
That's the way we should be: reverent to God's Word, humble, and in action for God.
And I say THUS SAITH THE LORD: the God, that America claims to serve, will destroy her. You take that for whatever you wish.