Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed #06
God Proving Himself#3886
Shall we pray.
Heavenly Father, we’re glad we’re able to sing now that You’re here, knowing that we’re in the presence of the living God, personally, not just by the union of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and claiming back to God the redeeming, the rebirth, but Lord, by the living reality.
The Scriptures said, “The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with the Message,” with the provision and the program, into effect the raising the dead, summoning a living Bride to the Wedding Supper.
We know that is true, Father. We know that we have the genuine mechanics to bring about the dynamics, and we’re grateful for that. Knowing that, Lord, the conduit, of the Holy Spirit is that Word, and it’s got to be the right word. It’s got to be the Word that You gave by inspiration; otherwise It could never come to pass.
So we have this consolation, Lord, to know what the prophet meant when he said when you receive the Word of the Lord, you become the living Word of God in your flesh.
We believe that’s true for this hour. And we know it’s a matter of following in It, believing in It. As Paul said, that we would believe it unless we’re reprobate. And we don’t consider ourselves that, but by faith, Lord, we believe we’re the Elect of God.
Help us therefore to be in good conscience toward you, Lord, by revelation and by our actions, by fruit, by any manifestation possible, to show that we do believe, Lord, and we are part of that Kingdom.
Not in ourselves, Lord, but wholly through Your power within us and You exercising it, oh God, according to Your own desires. We as obedient dear children, we are as bond-slaves to Christ.
We ask these mercies in Jesus name, Amen.
You may be seated.
Now, the message we’re into is Christ is the Revealed in His Own Word. And this I believe this is number 7[6].
Last Wednesday we had come to the portion of the message where Brother Branham was showing us that the world religious Christian church today was refusing to come out and to go in to God’s Promised Land, which of course would be to come into the Millennium, even as Israel rebelled at Kadesh Barnea and did not go into Canaan’s land.
And taking the example further, we see this generation’s refusing Christ coming to the Gentiles, in the form of the Holy Spirit according to both Matthew 12 and Matthew chapter 4, and doing in the form of the Holy Spirit what he did when He was here in the flesh amongst the Jews.
And of course they’re doing even as the Jews did, which was to turn down God in physical form.
The church today is turning down, most definitely, and there are those amongst us who claim to be this Message are doing the same thing and are making a loud claim of it… to turn down the Presence, the literal Presence or the literal coming of God in the form of the Holy Spirit, the Capstone.
We have nothing to do with other men’s faith, we just have our own faith here. And we believe as the prophet said that his ministry was to declare that He is here. And it can not be the same tired old message, what people believe.
If it is then of course the prophet is wrong, and he did not have a genuine true healing ministry, because he said a genuine true healing ministry was predicated upon God bringing the fresh manna, the revealed Word.
Otherwise, why would He do something to attract our attention just to bring us to the same, what he termed as the same old tired message, which is true?
Now we go back then with this in mind to page 41 and the last paragraph, and speaking of the Canaan experience where they refused to go in:
[41-5] Just like all [the] other spies did that went over and looked at Canaan. They come over there and said, “Oh, we look like grasshoppers in the sight of them. We can’t take them.
Now, when you’re using an example such as that as an illustration, you have to then liken it to what is going on here.
Now what is going on at this time where we have our problem of the entering to the land? Well, it’s very simple. It has to do with the greatest battle ever fought, which is in the mind.
And the great thing is to… the hard thing is to give up your traditions and your understanding of Scripture so that you may completely supersede what you have know by what you are now about to know. And this is not strange if it’s a new Message, because that’s what happened to the Apostle Paul, and that’s what has to happen to everybody.
And you notice that even the apostles had a job in breaking every link from their former church existence. You’ll notice that Peter was overcome not just before Christ was crucified, when he denied the Lord three times in a row, but he was also overcome at the time that James and other men came down, and they insisted that people be circumcised.
And you understand that Peter fell for that. And he fell for other things which were in the Jewish tradition. And Paul had to rebuke him because Paul had the Revelation as nobody else did. Now I know that’s hard for people to understand.
They say, “Well look, they’re all apostles. What’s the business of Paul coming in here and getting more than they got? Look, they were with him, they ate with him they slept with him they asked him personal questions. If anybody knew, Peter should know.”
Oh, that’s true, but it didn’t work that way. Now if you want to talk to God about it, be my guest. And you come back and tell me what He told you.
And He’ll tell you what I’m telling you now, because I’m telling you what the prophet said, right? Okay. So that’s exactly how it is. And Paul had the revelation as Peter never did.
Other… you notice, Paul never, ever went back. The only place that Paul got into a hotbox was his own… not pride, but his tremendous zeal to stand there as an example of Almighty God.
And he told the Corinthian church, the only place you were inferior was I refused to take tithe from you and live by it when that was my right. He didn’t stop preaching It. He wasn’t afraid to lay it on the line.
He just said in no way will I take anything, because I want to stand here apart from everybody. And that wasn’t really a hotbox that you can put down and make him blame-worthy, it was simply an admission of what had taken place, and he had to do it that way because he had to be entirely separate form everything and everybody until he was put in the position of a jail, or somebody had to do something.
And then at the White Throne there’d be people mightily blessed, and even to the Judgment Seat till down the road now, mightily blessed because they’d come and done something for him because they’d literally done it unto Christ. So you see Paul was the one who had the Revelation.
And it’s very difficult for people to get rid of those veils that are upon their minds, because they are so inured to it, and they’re so used to it, it’s so much a part of them, and they regard it as part of the spiritual existence, which at this point have become nothing but bondages. They’d become veils that darken your insight toward Christ and you don’t see Him.
[41-5] “We can’t take them.”
Now notice also… I like the terminology.
They said, “We can’t take them.” And now, you’ll notice that God was giving Canaan’s land, [Palestine] to Israel. “Come in and take it, I am giving it to you.” And so they put their hands behind their backs, and they said, “We’re terribly consecrated-people, hallelujah. Oh we were consecrated to God, we are the Elect; and we know the land is ours.” [Now, you know what I’m doing right now, I’m mimicking what is going on today with Christians,] “Oh, we’re consecrated to God.”
Consecration means to come out with your hands open, to get from God. Now you’re consecrated this morning or you desecrated or de-consecrated. Now it’s up to you. You can answer your own questions.
Now that’s mostly for people on the outside hearing tapes, don’t worry. Because I don’t believe you’d be here this morning if your hands weren’t open. And I could preach with any liberty if your hands weren’t open. Oh I wouldn’t say that because that wouldn’t be really true, a gift is a gift.
But he said, “Look, you won’t take it.” See? That’s the criminal aspect of this through all ages, is that God is always provided as He provided even for Cain, and Cain would not take it. And he was duty-bound in his own thinking then to destroy anything and anybody connected with the taking.
Why do you think the Roman Catholic church killed all the Protestants? Oh come on, be honest! Why? Because it’s a free gift. Didn’t have to come by a church, came by God. Now you got the same thing with the Protestants. And don’t tell me you haven’t because I’ve been all through this since I was a kid preacher.
From age twenty-two on I’ve been through it and seen what the church is doing, what they’re going to do. And if you think there’s not something down the road, you’re pretty naïve. And you better start building your fences, getting your guard up for it.
And that’s a spiritual exercise, it’s not a physical, although there’s some physical things involved which some day we’ll talk about it.
Now:
[41-5] …we can’t take them. The Amalekites, and all these–what they’re going to do to us.”
Yeah. People are afraid what the organization might do, preachers especially.
We’ll hit them in a minute down here, Brother Branham does. But people are afraid. They’re so afraid of the traditions of the past and a little bit of power that was exhibited in Pentecost. They’re afraid to break Pentecostal ties.
And somebody even sent a letter in the mail not too long ago. Someone begging for money, one of these signs and wonders boys that can’t produce any signs and wonders. If they can’t produce from God enough money to take care of themselves, you better not believe anything else they got produced.
So they come on the scene and they’re supposed to be… And they say, “Well look, we need help.” And people get jittery. Why would you want to send help? Let God direct your giving. Let God tell you what to do, not be drawn away.
But so many people are so fearful. This is not the time to be fearful; this is the time to be guided. If you have any fear, have fear that you’re not stepping in step with the Message of the hour, you’re not being guided by God as you should be guided by God.
All right:
[41-5] …and Caleb and Joshua, being thoroughbreds (Amen!) by the Word of God,
Notice, thoroughbreds by the Word of God, not spirit, now. Not spirit. That’s what’s been wrong for years. Every… some people come to church like this, and they want to judge the church by the spirit and they say “you guys haven’t got a thing.” Why don’t you judge the church by the Word?
Anybody can get the anointing on them. You can be a rascal, an absolute prostitute not to religion, but physical prostitute, come in here… Look it, I’ve been through Pentecost for many, many years. I know what I’m talking about.
Come on, married six, seven times. A woman, every time she wanted another man she backslid conveniently, got remarried. Speak in tongues like a house on fire, prophesy, everything else. Could have been phony as a three dollar bill, but who knew it?
You say, “That’s a great church, we got that going.” Judge by the Word, because that’s what God is going to judge by. We’re superior to God? Oh, we like to think we’re superior to God. We’re not superior to God, we’re very greatly inferior.
And the only thing we really have even as sheep gone astray, that’s a good point to have right there, but there’s no superiority. What it is, the Word of God comes in and brings us up to where He wants it to be.
[41-5] [And they knew God. They knew] God said, “I give you that land.” They said, “We’re more than able to take it.” It depends on where you’re born from. If you’re born of the Word of God, [That’s from above] God’s Word has the preeminence in His Church. That’s what He died for.
That’s exactly true. They say, “I think He died for sin.” No, he didn’t. That is true, but he died for the Word, that’s why they crucified him; because the Word.
They said, “We’re not after you for any miracles you did, it’s because you won’t shut your big fat stupid mouth. Now if you just do all these nice things as we tell you, and we’ll be your spokesman, and we’ll pat you on the head. You won’t have one bit of trouble, son. But the minute you disagree with us, believe me, we’ve got a double-edged axe here, and we’ll get your head off.”
Now you look at organization right today, and if that’s not the truth I don’t know what I’m talking about. See, they’ll like that. They’ll like anything. But Jesus couldn’t keep his mouth closed because God… why, he was the mouth-piece of God. He wasn’t just the heart of God.
You know, people like the heart of God, don’t they? They don’t even know what’s in His heart—it’s the Word. And they sure don’t like the mouth of God, because He’ll give the Word.
They want to think they’re the heart of God, or manifesting the heart of God with their insipid love, which is… Look it, I’m for any kind of love, you know that, as long as it’s nice and sweet.
But come on, there’s only one love that God even has any use for, looks at, and that’s this that comes out of the Word. Because even those that visited those in jail didn’t even know what they were doing and it was for the sake of the Word, because those people were the Word.
They were the Word, the attributes of Almighty God. I hope you’re catching the points. Sometimes they are a bit abstruse but I hope not.
[41-5] That’s what He died for. That’s His purpose, that He might be able to achieve to have His preeminence working in His Church. Let the Word…
In other words, how then can Christ have any preeminence in a church that’s not in the Word; that’s not founded in the Word? Whose mainsprings are not in the Word?
See that’s how you can tell whether it’s truly the Spirit of God in the true people of God. It’s got to be a unity with that Word, a oneness. There’s no other way. Now:
[41-5] …That’s His purpose, that He might be able to achieve to have His preeminence working in His Church. Let the Word of God shine forth first, no matter what anything else looks like.
Now you see what happened with Brother Branham’s own church. They turned down the Word for the gifts. And they turned down the operation of the gifts according to the Word. And so therefore it’s axiomatic—categorically correct, there’s no way you can get around it, that they will miss what’s in the Word, the life of It. You can’t have it. See?
I don’t care if the intellectuals says this, that or anything else. That has nothing to do with it. God’s Word said so, and we’re more than able to take it.
So it tells you right here, every sheep has a confidence if he is a sheep. He’s passed the stage of wondering about it, there’s no wonderment. Like Brother Branham said, the apostles came to the place when Jesus said, “Were you going to leave me also?”
They said, “Well no, live die sink or swim.” Now I know there was some vacillating in there, but when they came to the end of their road, there was no vacillating.
Peter that was caught in his little vacillation there for a tiny bit, carried away by those Judaizers, when it came for him to die he said “I’ll be crucified upside-down, I’m not worthy to be crucified like Christ.” So he had a stamina that vindicated the Seed within him.
Now Brother Branham said:
[41-5] “If I preached that in my church,” a minister told me,
That’s what he’s preaching here in this message, this end time revelation, and not just end time revelation but Christ Revealed in His Own Word, and Christ the Mystery of God Revealed, these sermons:
[41-5] …he said, “I’d be preaching to four posts in the church.”
Now, what is this minister’s fear? This minister’s fear is he’ll lose his congregation. Well, is his congregation going to save him? Did his congregation save him? Why is he preaching his congregation in the first place? Why…
What’s another fear? The fear is he’ll lose his pension and lose his money. Well now, that’s quite legitimate because money is a very good thing. And I’ve been without it for so long to know that money isn’t everything, but everything is money. And you still get by. You get by on peanuts until the Lord is ready to feed you cashews.
After cashews come pecans, after pecans comes T-bone steak at $3.95 a pound, although if you have shelled pecans they’re worth more than that. Of course, they’re more nourishment. So you get to the place where you can have orders of something else and so on down the road.
But these preachers are scared, you see. They don’t understand. There’s a fear there. They don’t know that God will take care of them.
[41-5] I said, “I’d preach to that.” That’s right. God’s Word said so. [Brother Branham said, I’m fearless in preaching my Message. He said:] We can do it. God said do it. Amen.
In other words, Brother Branham knows what Christ knew, that God can raise up children out of stones. If God’s got a message, there’s got to be sheep to bring it to. So therefore, a true five-fold ministry will not have any worry, there’s going to be something out there to minister to.
It’s like a friend of mine, Brother Don Van Hauser, had great respect for Brother Branham. He’s down there in Macon, Georgia, north and up the hill from Brother Jack Palmer.
And he was telling me that when he went to Moody Bible Institute, there was a girl there that believed in the sovereignty of God, predestination, to such an extent that some of the Moody-ites were put out with her.
And they said, “Well, if you believe that God is going to save souls anyway, why do you go to Africa?”
She said, “Because… I’m going there because I know God’s going to save souls, there’s sheep there.” See, she knew what she was talking about.
Now, she was wrong in being a missionary there, unless she went with her husband. Perhaps she did; I don’t know. But her answer was Scripturally correct. If there’s predestination, that’s the key to the whole thing.
Otherwise you wouldn’t know if anybody’s going to get saved. It’s a hit-and-miss journey. And God doesn’t send us on hit-and-miss journeys, unless you are not sent by God, of course. All right:
[42-2] Oh, here they excuse themselves for this. See? [Now here’s where we left off at.] That’s why they’re blind to the Message of the end time, this last days when God is proving Himself.
Now you see, these people in here, both the congregation and the pastors and so on, the authorities, the five-fold or whatever you want to call them. They can not agree that there is such a thing as a revelation, and if there was, they’re not willing to embrace it.
Now, let’s look at what he is saying here:
[42-2] Oh, here they excuse themselves for this. See?
That the excuse was I wouldn’t have a congregation, I wouldn’t have money, and the people say well, I believe this and I believe that.
[42-2] That’s why they’re blind to the Message of the end time, [these] last days when God is proving Himself.
Now, where did God prove Himself? This is where we go to see the Scripture that Brother Branham is using in this message. All right, that’s Hebrews, and it’s the 3rd chapter. This is where they’re going to go out. Okay, we’ll start at verse 1.
(01) Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our [confession,] Christ Jesus;
(02) Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
(03) For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
(04) For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
(05) And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
(06) But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
In other words if you have a genuine true faith, which is what you will have according to Peter if you are born again, you will have no trouble here, but if you don’t have a genuine inspired gift of faith, that’s what Peter said, add to your faith virtue. And that’s born into you by the Holy Ghost.
As Paul said, “All men do not have the faith.” If you don’t have that, there’s no way you’ll have this. If you do have that, there no way you won’t have this, because you see, it’s a gift. You’re given what you need.
(07) Wherefore [as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,… [Now here is what you got to watch.]
People say, “Well I don’t think you can hear His voice anymore, His voice was already given.” Well, the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a Shout, with the Voice of the Archangel.
What are you going to do about that? Well, we conveniently let that go. We simply don’t have an answer for it and we’re happy with what we got, so therefore we don’t look anymore.
After all, why should I look for three things if I’ve got two and I can be happy with two things as much as with three as far as I’m concerned, because I’m not sure about that third thing. I’ll put it away entirely.
I’d like to hear a mechanic say that. Or a baker. Or the moment your wife tells you that. Or you come home and the wife scolds you because you got the third thing which you needed and she says, “Well, two will do.”
You can see where people are so wrong in their thinking here, see? What they do, they clam up when it comes to these things here. They won’t look at it.
Now I’m going to tell you the truth but if you don’t believe what I’m saying, you don’t even read your own hearts. Because how often have you picked up these sermons and read this book and quickly blipped it? You blipped it.
You know why? Because you are scared of it. You’re wondering what it is, you can’t quite fathom it. It gives you the heebie-jeebies. Little nervousness. You read any book that makes you a bit nervous, you want to just [Brother Vayle makes a swishing noise.]
But if you’ve got a sound mind and you know it’s part of your job, it’s part here, you look at it and you say, “What about it?” That doesn’t mean you’re going to get every answer, but you are not afraid to look at it.
Now you see, that’s what happens. The whole thing is based upon fear. Ever since the fall it’s been fear. He’s not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of courage and a sound mind.
(07) Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,… [Now that’s just like water on a duck’s back.]
(08) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
Well you say, “It’s not that way, because, see, I’m going to get it explained down here.” You only get the illustration, that’s all you’re getting. And the illustration condemns you.
What are you listening to? “Well you see, I’m listening to Jesus, because once He spoke by prophets, but now that He’s spoken by him, it’s all over.” Is that a fact? It says in Hebrews 12 somebody’s going to talk again.
And It says in Revelation 10, “Somebody’s going to talk again.” And it says, “Somebody’s going to open the Book, because that Book that was sealed in Revelation 10 is open in Revelation 22,” and it says, “Seal not the Book.”
Who’s going to talk? Who’s going to tell us something? Who’s going to get it? Where are we going to look for it? Well that’s the truth and you know it’s the truth.
Now we wouldn’t know it’s the truth unless somebody told us. So we’re not smart, we’re just saying what we’re supposed to say, we’re making the same confession that’s with this Word here. We’re saying the same thing. Now:
(08) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,) in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
(09) When your fathers [tested] me, put me to the [test] proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Now over here, notice, in these last days when God is proving Himself the people didn’t ask for any proof.
The people were merrily going on their way, wretched, miserable, blind and naked, thinking they were rich, increased in goods and didn’t lack a thing, and they had it made and millions now living will never die. Hogwash! A lie from Hell.
Eight souls were saved out of five billion people, and there’s five billion people now. How many make the Rapture? God knows I don’t know. Oh, there’ll be a multitude of the dead out of the ground, I’m talking about living.
You can see how dulled their sensibilities are. Oh how they prophesy trains will be going down the road with—railroad with hundreds of passengers and perhaps the engineer or the conductor missing and the train go in the ditch; and no trains are on the track anymore.
Airplanes that taken or now that’s the thought the pilot or two… show me how many pilots are born-again. Show many evangelists or preachers are born again. The whole thing is an attempt to guild and gold-plate their doctrines which are fallacious.
(09) When [they] tempted me, proved me… [All right:]
(10) Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and [they] said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
(11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Now listen. That’s way back there when Israel didn’t have too much. That’s when they didn’t have too much in the sense of much going on amongst them for four hundred years. But they knew the prophets.
They knew Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They understood that four hundred year promise. They knew they were to go in. And when deliverance came they all but turned it down, because they didn’t know the way of Almighty God.
Now He’s talking about Israel at that time, and looking forward now to this time, that we’re in here, because there’s an entering in. God Himself came on the scene back there in the time of Moses. And He showed them who He was and they put Him to a test.
And that’s what Israel did when Jesus came, they said, “Give us a sign that you’re the son of God.”
And he said, “Now look, I’m giving you a sign, and that’s the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man; which is the Prophet, this one here, the Lamb of God, that takes the sin of the world, yea, he will be killed, and according to Scripture he will be in the grave, but within three days he will come forth.”
And they said, “No, we want to tell you what sign to give us.”
Now the Church of Christ came to Brother Branham and they said, posted a reward of one thousand dollars, and said, “if anyone could prove a genuine healing or a genuine miracle, we’ll give them a thousand dollars.”
Well in those days a thousand bucks was would have bought what, ten thousand today I guess, the way things are going. So he came after a person was healed, absolutely proven, miracle right before doctors and everybody else, a hundred people, he said, “I come to get my one thousand dollars.”
Well they said, “What do you mean?”
Well he said, “Well, we have an attested, genuine miracle here.”
“Well what do you mean? There’s no such thing”
Oh he said, “But there is. We’ve got the proof. We’ve got the doctor, respectable people, we got the whole thing laid out here. So I come to get the money.”
Well they said, “We got it. We can’t do that because the money’s in Texas.”
Well he said, “Send for it.”
Well they said, “It’s not quite that simple. You see, we have to have this thing brought before the elders.”
Well he said, “Get the elders.”
So they came and they said, “Well you see, Mr. Branham, it’s this way. We don’t want something like that. We would cut the little girl’s hand and then watch you do it.”
They’re the bunch that said they speak where the Bible speaks and said only the apostles received the Holy Ghost when there was a hundred and twenty in the upper room, five thousand another time and three thousand another time and God knows how many another time, what about the Gentiles?
Yes, I admit these people speak where the Bible speaks, but they don’t speak what the Bible speaks. Oh they can tell you the chapter and the verse, there’s no doubt about it, but they have no understanding what lies there.
Now I’m not running down the church of Christ, they just happen to stand for the whole thing; it’s one of them, see?
Now, keep reading here. But It says:
(11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
(12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
What’s that evil heart of unbelief, departing the Living God? Let’s find out again. We read Mark… I beg your pardon, Acts 13:40.
And it says:
(40) Beware therefore…
After he preached at Pentecostal. I mean, Paul preaching his great message on salvation through Jesus Christ. And he said… 39th verse.
(39) And by him [Jesus] all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
(40) Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; [It’s in the Bible. Do you believe this, just what’s in the Bible? Let me read it to you.]
(41) Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it [or thoroughly explain it] unto you.
A man will do a work, it is supernatural, and stand right there and tell you all about it, and you’ll say, “Hogwash! I can’t buy that. Why, my church wouldn’t stand that. That’s a lot of nonsense. Why that’s ESP, that’s spiritism, that’s hypnosis, that’s… Why, who knows what that is. See, our church doesn’t go for it. I’ve been taught not to.”
Well you said you believe the Bible. What have you been taught out of your Bible? See? What’s been going on from your Bible? Even the Pentecostal would do better than that, except you know one thing? They wouldn’t believe the explanation. They wouldn’t believe the explanation, see?
They didn’t over here, either, “An evil heart in departing from the living God.” Now notice, It says here that if God speaks and something is done to prove it is God, and you leave it, you’ve departed from the living God. Which it says up here:
(06) But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
And here’s going to test whether you got it or not, if this should come at your time. See? Whether you going to go in or not.
(13) But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. [Exhort what?]
We told many years ago. Like the Pentecostal preacher told you about the other day, he said, “now let’s understand. We and our fathers came out of the other groups, the churches. We came because there was new light. We want to walk in the light. Now let us understand this: if new light comes, we should also accept it.”
When the light came they turned it down flat.
Okay, now how much light did they have? You say, “that man preached for forty years.” I don’t care if he preached a hundred and forty years, what’s that got to do with it? Are you telling God something now?
Are you trying to tell the Bible something? Say hey, Bible, hey God that wrote the Bible, just a minute here. I got something to talk to you about. Where are you anyway? Where are you, I want to talk to you. You can’t take that person there and turn him down.”
Forty years? They wandered forty years in the wilderness and they were turned down. A serious thing we’re looking at here, if this is the Truth. If God does these peculiar things we say He does.
Notice, He said, “I was angry. I swore in my wrath.” This is not White Throne now, this is retributive, instant justice; destruction.
Now that time… it took a period of time, but once He said that, they all began dropping off like flies until only two people over twenty years of age and all the old warriors were dead, they couldn’t go in.
So you had a mixed multitude, you had some real believers, you had some unbelievers and you had some foolish virgin in there. And they weren’t make believers, you maybe had a fourth group in there too.
(14) For we are made [companions] of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;
Well what’s the beginning of the confidence? He was the Logos. In other words, He was the actual materialization of the invisible God performing the Word declared of Him.
Now, if you’re going to hold that confidence, you got to understand Hebrews 13:8, He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He will always perform in that same manner, what He performed through the ages.
And that of course is God manifesting Himself through the living Word of a prophet. That’s why Christ was the great prophet.
(15) While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
(16) For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
(17) But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? [Now what was the sin? Unbelief.]
(18) And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
(19) So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
(01) Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Now what he’s saying right here is don’t any of you feel at any time that you have come short of this promise. In other words, someone might say, “well look, I look at my life, I look at this, I look at that.”
All you got to do is look at the promise. There’s nothing to you falling short. That has nothing to do with it. It has to do only are you a believer of that which God has set forth in that hour.
And if you are a believer of that, that is where you stand. Then what comes out of that will not necessarily be too great a criterion, but it will manifest and show that this is what you believe in this hour, or that hour which you are into.
(02) For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
(03) For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Now, let’s just stop and think a minute here. We’ll go back to Malachi, shall we? That might be very good to do so. This is another time we’re just going to wander around with the Word, maybe get one page done, maybe no pages done.
I’m not worried about it. I always figure I can do it eight sermons, I do it in twenty. But so, some people are born slow.
Okay, let’s look at,
(01) For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
(02) But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [Alright, verse 5.]
(05) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
(06) And he shall turn… the heart of the children [back] to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth [utterly] with a curse.
Now there you see the wrath of God. And we see the wrath of God. Every single time there is to be an entering in, there is a cleansing, there is a purging.
And this is what we are seeing here. At this end time of an entering in to the Millennium, there has got to be a purging, and it is strange that everybody literally realizes that is that they’re doctrinally correct even a little, they know that the great Tribulation, it follows… rather, precedes the Millennium.
So there is a purging as Brother Branham said. The church is purged, Israel is purged, and the world is purged, the earth is purged, then Christ will come on back. So, they did not enter into rest and so the wrath of God came upon them, which is true.
Now, in Hebrews 12, beginning at 22, It says here:
(22) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, [that’s Mount Zion] the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of [messengers, or angels,] [Now It tells you where your status is, where you are coming to. We’re a part of it.]
(23) To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
(24) And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. [Now It says:]
(25) See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.
Now you’re coming to this place right here. You’re coming to the place where Mount Zion is in sight, because the Wedding Supper is New Jerusalem, believe it or not. Because all the saints are going to be there. They’re only waiting for the 144,000, that’s all.
And before we come down they’ll be there. And of course, New Jerusalem does not come down to earth in the physical temple form until the end of the Millennium, but we are New Jerusalem.
(22) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
(23) To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, [now notice:] and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
(24) And to Jesus the mediator…
Now you got God who is Judge, and you got Jesus the Mediator. Now you come right to that place of understanding and differentiation. Of course, Jesus is the body. Okay:
(25) See that [you] refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, [in other words] much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him [and It says] that speaketh from heaven:
But I got news for you, ‘that speaketh’ in there of course is in italics, and it doesn’t necessarily speaking from heaven, but is designated the One that is from heaven is speaking.
(26) Whose voice then [when He’s on earth] shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. [Now that’s the end of it.]
(27) And this word, [This promise, this statement here] Yet once more, signifieth [he explains it now] the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Well that’s going to get you right down to original. Anything that’s been put in there is going to be going.
Now It says:
(28) Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
(29) For our God is a consuming fire.
Now absolutely this is the picture of Judgment. The wrath of God coming upon earth, spoken of by Malachi, spoken of by Zechariah, spoken about by the book of Revelations, spoken of throughout Scriptures continuously; 2 Thessalonians the same thing.
It’s right in there. The whole position is taken. This is at the end time. And there is a Voice that’s going to speak to us.
Now, God proved Himself. You want to go to 2 Thessalonians again? We might as well do that, just take our time.
(07) And to you who are troubled rest with us, [There’s Ruth resting, relaxed. When are you going to relax?] when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven… [Now, that’s not the mediator this particular time. There’s compound meaning in many Scriptures. This is the One,] [the Pillar of Fire] …shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, [messengers]
(08) In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God,
Vengeance is not necessarily attribute of wrath, it’s also judging, it’s also vindicating. In other words, there’s going to be a separating. A distinct understanding and definition.
(08) …that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: [And what’s going to happen to them?]
(09) Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the [face] of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; [Now notice:]
(10) When he shall [have] come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Now he tells you there’s going to be absolutely a phenomenal Heavenly visitation of angels, of which Christ is already pre-figured in the gospel of that hour. And there’s going to be a differentiation, a showdown between the two groups of people.
And one is going to have wrath pronounced upon them, and one is going to have rest pronounced upon them. There’s going to be what you call a judgment. An avenging does not simply mean you’re going to punish somebody, it means also you can vindicate him.
So therefore there is a vindication of one and the pronouncement of judgment or revenge and anger upon the other.
As when in the hour the woman, the widow came and she said, “I must be avenged of my enemy because he’s got my property. I got to have something judged and if you don’t do something, I’m going to pester you day and night until you do something.”
And the judge… the unjust judge said, well, he said, “I don’t have any use for this old gal, and really she just bugs me to death. But I know she’s got that little wedge in there and so she’ll keep coming day and night and there’s nothing I can do about her. The law says I got to let her in. So what I’ll do, I’ll just have to get the case before me.”
So he pulled the case out of the records and she was legitimately one who was entitled to the land, she hadn’t got it back in the year of Jubilee, and she said, “I want what’s mine.”
The judge didn’t care two bits whether she got it back or not. Like he’d already been paid off by the other guy. I don’t know, maybe yes, maybe no.
But you see, he didn’t want to go to the Word and find out what was for her, didn’t want to look up the records. So she forced him to look up the records. And he found in the records and she was supposed to have that land and she got it.
Now you see what I’m trying to show you something here. It doesn’t matter two bits what anybody says, if it’s in the Word, you’re going to get it.
All you got to do is to know you’re the one that should get that, see? And if you know by the fact that you’re hearing an end time Word here, because that’s what this is all about, because it goes on to say:
(11) Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling,…
What calling? This part down here, of the entering into this rest at this particular time, when this comes into being. God counts you worthy of this calling. See, no matter what happens, it’s God counting you; you’re part of It.
(11) …and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
(12) That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, [That’s part of Ephesians, see? The inheritance.] and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the [our] Lord Jesus Christ.
Doesn’t say our God which is the Lord Jesus Christ, it tells you flat, one is the body there, one is the Holy Spirit. You can’t get rid of either one of Them. You got to place them.
(01) Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming [Presence] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Now watch the gathering, the gathering is coming at that time. Now what’s going to happen that’s phony at that time in contradistinction to the real at that time?
(02) That [you don’t be] shaken in mind, [you’re going to have the mind of Christ for the first time] or be troubled, [see?] neither [Now watch what could do this:] by spirit, [or] by word, [or] by letter… [See?]
Now you know what spirit is It? What word is it? What letters? In other words, what manuscripts, what’s written down? What’s preserved on tapes, or any way that God preserves it?
Now somebody comes along and tries to add to it. How many men do you know have sent you letters and said, “Well, Brother Branham’s gone and now we’re taking over?” Well, the waste basket takes over.
I’ve had… My, if I had a shredding machine and could sell that stuff for junk, I wouldn’t make too much money but you know how it is. You’d at least give it to the kids for their school programs. But this is what you are looking at, see? They don’t believe that. All right, now watch.
[42-2] …they’re blind to the Message of the end time, [these] last days when God is proving Himself.
When God did what He wanted to do in His own way, to inspire the faith of the sheep, to bring them out, to take them in, in His own way.
[42-2] They try to class it as some kind of a spiritist, or some (Oh, what would I call it?), some mental, an illusion or something on that order. See, they–they try to make it something that it isn’t, just like they did when He was here–when Jesus was here.
They called Him Beelzebub, a fortuneteller. [You know, the Pentecostals have called him that, even they should know better. Don’t they know the devil can’t heal? ] when they know that He could stand there and look upon the people and discern the very thoughts that’s in their heart. The Bible said so.
Now that was a special gift of the prophet, discernment, starting with Samuel. Now watch, Acts 3. Now remember, Samuel did not bring the Word of Lord as per Scripture. He brought the Word of the Lord per as predictive and indicative.
Now, It says, the middle of the 19th verse in,
(19) …when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; [That’s anything which is visible of God.]
(20) And he shall send Jesus Christ, which [before was] preached unto you: [Or proclaimed in advance.]
Now It tells you right there something is going to happen that indicates Jesus is got to meet us in the air and bring us back to earth. Now, this Jesus that was proclaimed in advance, in other words, it’s already let out.
Something is going to happen as a sign to the Second Coming. What is the sign of the Second Coming? Appearing. Okay.
(21) Whom the heaven must receive [retain] until the times of restitution of all things,… [or restoration.]
Now it says He’s going to come but there’s got to be some restoration gone on first. So out of the sign here comes the announcement, the Appearing, prefacing the coming and there’s a Message, because It says restoration. And you know it’s a Message because it says:
(21) …which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. [Now you’ve already got the manifestation here, now you are getting the explanation. Now watch what that explanation partly is:]
(22) For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
(23) And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Now It tells you right there and that’s utterly destroyed. That did not happen after Christ was on earth and after Pentecost. Now you can say what you want, so it can’t refer to that. It did not happen there. It didn’t happen there. Many people did not believe on Him, absolutely.
They escaped out, later did believe, but of course, you better know here and understand this for sure, that God the righteous Judge will never destroy the righteous with the wicked, not even one. So it couldn’t happen that anyone would be destroyed that could believe or could hear.
(23) And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. [That’s utterly destroyed, like it says in Malachi. Before it was not utter, now utter at the end time. Now watch:]
(24) Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel…
Now notice, he skips right from a Word-giver to a prophet who does not give any Word, but stands right there with the Word and is able to explain and do anything to vindicate that Word that has been written.
And that’s exactly where the gift of discernment came from. And Brother Branham always quoted Samuel, “have I ever taken any money from you? Have I ever told you wrong? Have I ever told you one thing that didn’t come to pass?” Who is he talking about? Samuel.
So there you see the placing. And it tells you in this very hour what is going to happen and what is happening, see?
Now:
[42-2] “The Word of God is quicker and sharper than a two-edged sword and can discern the very thoughts of the mind.” [Now, watch in here, It says] When they know that He could stand there and look upon the people and discern the very thoughts that’s in their heart.
The Bible said so. Well, does not Hebrews the 4th chapter says, “The Word of God is quicker and sharper than a two-edged sword and can discern the very thoughts of the mind”? [The intents of the heart, and so on.]
Now what are they doing? They say, “no I don’t want that,” that’s what they’re doing, they’re putting him out.
[42-2] And He was that Word. And when that Word is [preeminent] in the man, the same thing takes place again, [Now watch:]… when that Word [What’s up here. The Word of God is quicker and sharper. When that takes place in a man,]… takes place again, for It is the Word. Amen… [Not the man. I can’t] see how you can stumble over this from now on. There it’s so perfectly plain. See? All right.
Now listen: Logos in the prophet. God was in the prophet. Logos in the prophets. The Logos in the prophet manifested the printed page which is made of the words of former prophets in whom was the same Logos when that Word came forth inspired by the Logos in them.
So what I’m showing you, everything is from Logos in a form of a Being, and that is a person. Now I know many people cannot absorb that, because they think it is too great an honor bestowed upon any man that he would know that he is a prophet of God.
Well, I disagree with that, because that is merely an office. The major premise is are you born again? Then if you’re born again, that’s what is right. And from there on, whatever God uses you for, that’s His business.
But how could a born again person try to butt into the business of God? See, there’s where you get your hierarchy again and there’s where you get organization, trying to tell God. It is very…
Listen, it is not easy to be simple minded and humble. It is very easy to be proud and complex. But I’m sorry, God does not deal with the proud and complex and the high and the mighty, He deals with little children, and we’ll know about them little later on.
[42-3] That’s why they’re blind, see?…
In other words, he’s telling you it shows they are blind because they can’t see what God is doing, and God’s laid it out here what He’s going to do, how He’s done it before, and He’s going to do it again.
And then when they see it, they won’t take it. See, even the psalmist said, Moses knew the ways of God but all the people saw was the acts.
And I’ve got no ax to grind with men like Tommy Osborn. I think he’s one of the greatest men in shoe leather.
But I can’t understand that he’s full of the Holy Ghost and knows these things, how that there’s something to speak to him and him take it, when the voice said concerning Brother Branham, “That’s how the Bible did it; that’s what it’s all about, so you do it.” That’s not what it was all about—that’s peripheral! See? That’s why they’re blind.
[42-3] …same as it was in the days Christ was on earth. Oh, my. They stagger the same way. They said, “He’s Beelzebub.”
And when they can’t explain It and can’t perform It, the thing to do is sneer at It and then knock It. Now I’ve had a lot of taste of that myself. The big sneer on the Presence. Why one fellow that’s supposed to know the Greek because he is Greek, why he said, “Jehovah Witnesses taught that.”
I beat him to the punch. The minute I preached it I said “Jehovah Witnesses taught this.” What, it was after, after what? I preached it in 1966, but in 1977 I made it definitive. So after, after eight years they’re finally beginning to see something? Where’ve they been? Well somebody else decries the same fact.
They say, “All right then, Brother Branham preached oneness. That must got to make him wrong then. He preached sovereigness, that’s got to make him wrong.”
And they say they understand this Message, there’s no more understanding then nothing.
I’m not trying to defend myself, who needs it? I’m fine and happy here. I just pass on to you so that you don’t get picked up by some something. Look all around us.
There’s so many gullible people as to be alarming. They believe anything. Pitiful. Stay with this. That’s why we take the prophet’s word here, word by word. Listen:
[42-3] They seen He could do it, so they said, “He’s just a.. [Big Sneer]. He was born an illegitimate child, and kind of a odd fellow.
William Branham? Well, Kentucky hillbilly. Oh he had a great ministry, we don’t deny that. No, we don’t deny it. But you see, he got puffed up like all the rest did.
And of course, God de-puffed him by killing him in a car accident. Oh, they got it all in fine print. So nice. And the whole bunch together couldn’t approximate his little finger.
[42-3] He’s just got possessed with some devil. He’s a–he’s a Samaritan [from] over there, and he’s got a devil in him. That’s how he does that.”
See, they recognize the power, and they got to brand it.
[42-3] Jesus said, “I’ll forgive you for that.” See, calling the Word of God, the works of God an evil spirit, He said, “I forgive you for that, but someday [now watch this carefully:] the Holy Ghost will come, and one word against It will never be forgiven, neither in this world or the world that is to come (or that great day); it will not be forgiven.” So you see, that’s written plain in the Scripture; so when people come to that day,
Now you might have thought that great day was the White Throne judgment. Let’s get back to where he’s talking about, to that day:
[43-1] no matter how intellectual, [What’s the earmark for today? Intellectualism.] how big a denomination [Never were bigger] they belong to, it’s condemned; they have to be. They’ve blasphemed the Holy Ghost, calling it holy-roller and something another that has an untasty name or something like that. And God’s Church had to bear it all the time.
In other words, this is the reaping, the harvest of what was sown and multiplied through Seven Church Ages. It’s coming up now. It started with the Apostle Paul, and they hated that Word which came out of the Old Testament. Right. Because that is what they had.
They will hate this Word under the Seals, which is in the Testament—New Testament and Old, but hasn’t been uncovered. Now notice how it comes to this day. And this is my own thinking on this subject, of course.
How did it get to where they blasphemed the Holy Ghost in this hour? Well, I’ll tell you. It was the Wesleyans, whether they be Nazarenes, Methodists, you name it, I care less.
Pilgrim Holiness, I don’t know what they are. I don’t suppose they’re part of that group. But that was the big proliferation, Missionary Alliance, the whole bunch. They came under Wesley.
Now, under the Wesleyans, gifted Pentecostals were marked of the devil, so that when actually tongues were spoken of in Nyack and peculiar lights were seen, of which some people say were flames of fire.
I have the least idea because I wasn’t there and if I was there I wouldn’t know anyway, they instantly branded it of the devil and therefore blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
And the Missionary Alliance died. And no matter what they try to do, Dr. Tozer died and he could nothing with them. The great Paris Reidhead went to the church of the late Dr Simpson and what could he do? They can do nothing because dead is dead.
It’s exactly what Brother Branham saw in the vision of the Nazarene Church symbolized as a woman who was a corpse, and the minister making love to her.
Now no matter how much virility those preachers may think that they have and their organization has, they have brought forth death. And they’ll continue to bring forth death, and if we organize we will bring forth death, and don’t you believe for one minute we won’t.
So this set the atmosphere for blaspheming any and all manifestation. So when discernment came on the scene it was branded as ESP, mental telepathy, hypnosis, call it what you want, especially of the devil.
[43-2] Even Paul before Agrippa said, “In the way that’s called heresy [that’s crazy], that’s the way I worship the God of our Father.” And today people say, “It’s a denomination.”
In other words they put everything back into a denomination. And Brother Branham said no, that’s not it at all that you put your trust in.
It’s Jesus Christ, the new birth… [Now notice he says:] It’s Jesus Christ, the new birth revealed in you that He has the preeminence’s, that He might express His Words.
Now he calls Jesus Christ and the rebirth synonymous, which they are, because it is the Spirit of God. And remember it also says till Christ be formed in you, showing that you start with an embryo, as it was, and you begin to grow up in Christ yourself.
And today people say so-and-so. All right.
[43-2] …that He might express His Words. It’s Jesus Christ, the new birth revealed in you that He has the preeminence’s, that He might express His Words. [Not works, words.]
Now, the major expressive element of this hour is under a spirit, the same as all ages are under four spirits. Number one spirit was the lion, number two spirit was the lamb, the calf, number three was the face of a man, and number four is the eagle.
And each age expressed what was that spirit. Now, if we are under the eagle of inspiration, which is Revealed Word, here is where we are going to stand whether you like it or not.
Now you may want to go back under the lion, I’m sorry, that’s over. You may want to go back under the calf, that is over. That was dominate as the lion, the lion is now subdominant, but he’s still there. The calf is now subdominant but it is still there.
The man… the man is there, but he is subdominant, which means that God is not raiding the institutions of the mental and going to little homes where the little children have been born crippled in their mind, and taking the insane and the mentally crippled, and doing something with them. No dice. No way.
So therefore He is using human minds that are intelligent, that are able to apprehend and to comprehend, that can be channels for the mechanics of the Word. So the main spirit is you’re under inspiration of a Revealed Word. And this will be the dynamism of the age.
So therefore the Word restored at this hour under the inspiration of a prophet, the eagle, does not have to bring forth gifts. And It does not have to bring forth fruit. It doesn’t have to bring forth character.
It doesn’t have to bring forth prayer life. That’s already there. That’s in the sub-dominant, the recessive. The dominant is the Word, because all of these other things are there. But without This, that which is there won’t work.
Now I know many people get worried, and they hear these preachers come by, and they want to get you all worked up, that you’re not like a whirling dervish, running around, winning souls and all. If you’re winning souls with dead manna, you’re only feeding a corpse.
Now I want to tell you something. You might not know this and I didn’t know it until the other day. We got a juicing machine at home and I think Norma knows quit a bit about them, and Jim knows quite a bit about them, and Bill knows quite a bit about them.
They’re called Norwalk Presses. They’re called what, a ‘titrater’. And they rip up the food so terribly, terribly small, they break the cell down. Then they put them in a real hard press. And when they get all the juice out, which is all the life, that’s not good for carrot cake.
I’m going to tell you something. A goat won’t eat it. Goats got more brains than so-called sheep. You getting my point? Or are you still back in denomination?
You got something, bless God, you brought with you. You got your old garment, but you got a new patch. Hallelujah. Nothing but a Methodist and a Baptist, a Lutheran, a Nazarene and a Roman Catholic speaks in tongues; you just threw a patch on it.
Now I’m going to tell you. Years ago when they had tubes in tires—they still got some now—that patch was a tricky thing. And you could patch a tire, and under pressure the patch would blow off. Yeah. Even with these tubeless tires you got to be pretty careful or the air will all come out. Yes. That’s the truth there, see? Now.
He says here:
[43-2] And anything that He’s promised in this last day, He can bring it to pass through His Body as He’s working. [Of course He is got to come to the body, what else would He come to?] Amen. It’s just exactly the Word of God made manifest.
Now is he telling you this is going to be multiple? It’s not going to be multiple as we will find out later. Now watch:
[43-4] Notice. All right, same as in the days of Christ… God holds the key to this revelation of Christ Himself. You believe that? [Well, you know that’s true.] Schools of theology can never find it.
Jesus said so (if you want to read it now) in St. Matthew 11:25 and 27. “I thank Thee, O Father God of heavens [he’s got written, it’s not perfect with the Scripture] and earth, that Thou hast hid this from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and revealed it to babes such as would learn.”
Now you notice that the qualification of babe is that it will learn. In other words, he hasn’t already got a store of knowledge from somebody else, or through experience and putting the two together he knows something. He’s a clean sponge.
Now let me tell you something. The blood of Jesus Christ can purge your conscience. That’s why the Blood is so effective today. That’s why we’ll hear a statement, we won’t get to it today, there’s no way I can find it for you, even read it to you, about the Blood in the last day here. That’s right.
So where is the Blood being applied today, if at all? Or is the Blood? You can talk all you want about Mercy Seat on or off. I’m not interested. I’m interested in one thing. Has my conscience, has my mind been cleared by the blood? Thoroughly forgiven and washed all the veils away from my mind? The traditions, the dogmas, the creeds?
Remember, he that offends in one point of the law is guilty of all. He that adds one Word or takes one Word is not blameless, but he’s blamed. So we got to stand on This.
Little children or babes, such as will learn. That’s what a disciple is, he is a learner. You say, “I’m a disciple of Christ.” Are you really? And don’t know how God operates? Don’t know a prophet when you see one?
Don’t know truth when it stands out? What kind of learner? Well I don’t say you are not a learner, but you are not a learner of Christ. As Paul says, such you’ve not learned of Christ.
Always Paul prefaced everything with the Word. So therefore, get a man back to the Word, he now has a chance to get somewhere. When the churches put the Word outside, the church has no chance unless God does something to give them a chance.
Can’t you see that puts the Word together; destroy utterly unless. But there’s an unless. There’s an except, e-x-c-e-p-t. And that e-x-c-e-p-t is no good unless you a-c-c-e-p-t. And you can’t unless you’re e-l-e-c-t. You’ll never get it.
I won’t spell predestination, because I might fall down on that one. Oh I can spell it all right. But you’re getting my thought. See? All right. Now, here’s the point. You’ve hid this from the eyes of the wise and prudent and such as would learn.
Such as would learn how? “Oh Brother Vayle, I’ve got the Holy Ghost, I can read this Scripture. I don’t need a prophet, I don’t need a teacher, I don’t need this, I don’t need that.”
Well you’re a liar. That’s all. You’re just plumb lying. The truth is not in you, it’s never going to be in you until you recognize God’s ordained channels, which is a Messenger in every age and in two ages a prophet, the Alpha and Omega ages, one and seven. See?
Then you got a five-fold ministry to bring to perfection. You can’t learn apart from those. See, everybody’s bound into God’s cast.
We got all these democratic liberals in the church. We don’t have enough conservatives. You better be a square when it comes to God. The liberal’s soul shall prosper if he is liberal and giving and helping and doing nice things, but the liberal mind will never prosper.
Your mind has got to be hide bound. Hide bound as was the ark of the covenant in the gopher skin and the goat skins and the sheep skin—whatever they had hanging there. You’d better be hide bound. The temple, they had rock. You better be rock bound.
Inside they had gold. You better be gold bound. We’re coming now to a place where there’s little or no deterioration. And I’m going to tell you, that temple did not deteriorate, what happened was they left it. Then it went to rack and ruin. Then they pulled it down.
We’re looking at God’s Word here. God’s Word can do the same thing when men leave it. Deteriorates. Why? Because it’s no longer God’s Word. You add one word, it’s no longer God’s Word. Satan added one word; it was no longer God’s Word. Take away one word, it’s no longer God’s Word.
Look:
[43-4] I don’t care… [he said…] Look at them scholars of that day, those Jews, very fine men, [You couldn’t say they weren’t fine men.] their organization of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, and whatever they might be (See?), [They were all in there] all of their great organizations that Jesus said, “You’re blind; you lead the blind; well did Isaiah speak of you…
In other words well did Isaiah put it. What did he mean? He said Isaiah’s words were perfectly on the truth. Look at them, coming to pass right in your own lives. But they didn’t believe that. Nobody believes things like that.
[43-4] ‘You have ears and can’t hear, and eyes that you can’t see.’ ‘Cause Isaiah said this in the Spirit, therefore the God of heaven has blinded your eyes. [Well God was obligated to do what God said He would do.] You’re doing like Eve did: accepting the intellectual side and know nothing of the Spirit of God. [How about that?]
Therefore, won’t they all fall in the ditch, both the leader and the blind too?” The leader will fall with the blind, ’cause he’s blind also. The leader fall–is blind leading the blind. They both fall in the ditch. And God alone holds this key.
Now what are the blind leaders doing today? They have built the image to the beast and will be part of it, don’t even know they’ve done it.
Dr. Bell went down to the big conference, Billy Graham’s father-in-law, used to be one of the chief editors of ‘Christian Life’ magazine. He categorically stated that the Pentecostals were part of the ecumenical move, the World Council of Churches.
They categorically denied it and demanded a retraction and an apology, and they never got it from Dr. Bell. He evidently knew something. Brother Branham came right behind and said they’ve already joined the harlot.
People that dig the ditch fall into it. As one man once said to me many years ago, and he was dead against organization and then turned to it. He said, “I don’t believe in it because, look, as soon as you build a cart somebody’s got to drive it.” He died in organization. Nice brother, I hate to have that happen to him.
Now listen, God alone holds the key:
[44-1] He expressed the same thing in a previous Scripture the–awhile ago when I read it, when He said, “Who does man say I the Son of man am?” And Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
He said, “Blessed art thou Simon, the son of Jonas. Flesh and blood never revealed this to you. My Father which is in heaven [did]… Upon this revelation here alone, I’ll build My Church. The gates of hell will never prevail against it.” See?
In other words, that which opens itself to you will never take you. No way can you enter into hell if you have a revelation. This takes away the fear and gives the rest. People say, “Well, everybody’s always said that. Our church, our church.”
When did they have vindication? See? Now lots of things can come after vindication. Always will. That’s when your false teachers come, your false prophets, but you’ve got a real one first.
[44-2] Now, you see? So therefore, there’s no school, no theologian, no teachings of the Bible, among any school that knows anything about it.
He’s telling you right here. Knows anything about what? This revelation that brings preeminence to Christ, through a Bride, is absolutely unknown to man. And that it’s now bring given to men. They have no idea. And that is going to take us back to Eden. They have no idea. Nobody teaches this.
As I told you time after time, when I was young and I’d go to all the libraries, and I still do the odd time, go to Bible stores, and I pick up these, what do you call them, these… not just the dictionaries but the commentaries.
And I always turn to places like Ephesians 1:17-23, and I find what they’ve got to say, and they say nothing except the lie. They put it all in the past.
They have no idea that God in the form of the Holy Spirit and the Pillar of Fire, comes with the prophet in the end time to bring the revelation, which will bring on the power of the Resurrection which will take us in the Rapture. There you are. Revelation, preeminence, back to Eden.
No idea. They can’t find it. And I talk to a friend of mine, and he’s a grad of Moody Bible, very brilliant boy, very brilliant pianist, organist, artist, beautiful preacher, student of the first degree. And I began telling him by phone one night all of these things I teach you concerning Ephesians. And right away he said he had a witness that appeared. He said many things I couldn’t believe.
He said, “I know this is right, instinctually by the Holy Ghost.” That doesn’t mean anything, of course, when it comes right down to fine print. But what—I said, “You tell me, did you ever see what I’m telling you tonight in a book of theology? Any doctor?”
He said, “No.” And he is more educated than I am.
Brother Ungren, he’s the guy with the big degrees, ask him if he’s ever seen it. He’ll take you back to Peter’s. Not too many people even know about Dr. Peters and these men that wrote.
I had a man tell me one time that Peter’s understood the Fifth Seal as Brother Branham declared it. I’ve done some checking on it. There’s nothing there as far as I can find that anybody had that revelation outside of this hour.
Now, so therefore:
[44-2] They cannot know [anything] about it. It’s impossible for them to know anything about it. [Why? Because it doesn’t come any other way except by Holy Ghost revelation, and that by a prophet.] God has hidden [it from] the senses of knowing it from the very elected teachers and everything else. It’s a personal, individual affair with the person that Christ is revealed to them.
Now watch this carefully, because right away you’re beginning to think, “Well, this is for anybody. We’re going to put this in a group.” Are you? Okay.
[44-2] And if you say, “He has been revealed to me,” and then the Life that Christ produced here in the Bible (that same Life was in Him) does not produce Itself in you, then you got the wrong revelation.
Now who’s going to stand up now and raise the dead? Which of you is going to stand up now and give me a miracle? Which of you’ll stand up and give me discernment. Which of you will stand up and tell me some things down the road, and tell me it’s Thus Saith The Lord? Go ahead.
Now you see, you got to understand what Brother Branham is saying, because it’s very easy to turn and say well who is he talking to? He’s talking to you about himself, about the Word of God, how God operates, what It’s all about.
Now, though a man declare it unto you, absolutely explain it, they’ll say, “Ah! Who does he think he is?” Well, who do you thing you are? I’ll tell you who I think I am… well, I won’t degrade your ears. Hogwash is the closest we’ll ever come to it.
Not the closest, it’s the prettiest thing you could say. As I told you, I never had any decent sense, mine has been all ugly, horrendous, stupid, junky stuff. Get a good sin, bump over a bank or something. Have something good to write home about.
We’ve all stood in the place I’m trying to tell you about. We have disbelieved God and been far away, away from the Word. But as long as we can confess that and come to the Word, that’s all we need, brother/sister.
That’s all you need to produce. The rest is self-producing. The other is self-destructive.
[44-3] If I put a life of a pumpkin into the life of a pear tree, it would bear pumpkins. [That’s true.] “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Now hold it. That’s not fruit in the accepted sense of love and beauty and grace and mercy and niceness-niceness and all those things. Bearing and forbearing, that’s not it at all. That has to do with Matthew 7, which has to do with the Word.
For many will come in that day and say, “Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and cast out devils.” He said, “I never even knew you.” You can bring fruit, you can bring manifestation, bring anything. But you got to bring the Word.
You got to have a part of Logos in you, the life of Logos, the Logos that wrote this Book, the Book that came back to Logos in manifestation so you all become one.
That’s where you get the beauty of we’re all in Christ before the foundation, the original Logos. See? All one. I and my Father are one.
Now you got to say that on sure grounds of faith and understanding. You can’t say it because you think you’re somebody, you’ve done something. You got to say it because God did it and you accept it. By their fruits you’ll know them. Okay, Anointed Ones at the End Time, Brother Branham spoken on that.
[44-3] It’s exactly right. And if the first–or first you put a tree (a grape vine), and it put out a bunch of grapes (the first shoot it put out brought grapes), the next one brought out lemons, the next one brought out pears, the next one brought out apples, there’s some kind of a grafted affair in there that’s bearing its own life.
Now that’s your denominations:
[44-4] Every denomination will bear a life of itself.
It sure will. All right, now listen. What’s this life going to do at the end time?
The same one who said I’ve got power to lay it down, I’ve got power to raise it again; he was talking about that which was intrinsic within himself in that life.
Then that same life at this hour has power to not die, but in the midst of death come to life, and so coming to life, renew a body completely. Because that’s at the end time. Now let’s see it done.
Now watch. If the first word wrong took it away from that, then the last word right in restoration brings it back. See that’s why you go to a judge, you stole some money and the judge says, “Well can you restore this money?” “Well, I really will work, I’m able to work and produce money. I will pay.”
He said, “Okay, stay out of jail and pay the debt.”
Now your debt is paid off, you’re free. The judge will say, “well I’ll tell you, that guy was crooked but I really appreciate him because you see, he did the right thing. And now he’s done the right thing, you watch how he goes.” So he’s a better man having been tested then the man that wasn’t tested.
So all right, you’ve been off the Word now you’re back to the Word, what does that allow you? To put your hand forth to the Tree of Life. Now there’s two elements in there.
The element is not just Truth, the element is time. So now you got to have Truth and time. Now this is the time you got to have the Truth, and if this is the Truth you got to have the time, which I’m telling you simply this: it’s time to stretch forth the hand.
The hand stretching time is going on now, or this is not the restored Truth. But if it is the restored Truth, now it’s time.
In other words, take again, lest he take of the Tree of Life. Caleb and Joshua took and entered in. That’s all they had to do was to take, there was a promise. This is the promise of that hour.
So therefore we know we have it because God proved Himself. God identified Himself. God proved Himself. God revealed Himself, and He had a man on the scene to explain it. And it’s in danger and the danger is over because it’s already taken place. The world turned it down. Let me read it again for you.
How’s the tape? Just about out? Well, we’re going to close pretty quick because look, time’s gone on.
(39) And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. [In other words this is a period of grace now]
(40) Beware therefore, [in this period of grace] lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
(41) Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
Now he is talking to a people who are living that this work is yet to come. And a work was already done that they turned down, and now it’s a warning. So therefore we have all this warning by the Bible the Word of God and the prophet bringing everything to or attention and saying, “This is it. Now watch, don’t lose it.”
Don’t lose what? Don’t lose Who came on the scene in Appearing. What He did to attract your attention. How He justified Himself to being the One that He is, and how He had a prophet there to explain it. And not only that, to bring the Word. So now you’re right back.
You say, “It doesn’t feel like it.” Who says it’s supposed to? I believe Abraham’s joint the morning before he and his wife were turned back to youth, I believe his joints creaked worse that night than any other night. Why wouldn’t they?
The older I get the more my back bothers me, the more my knee and this and that bother me, and you’re going to find the same thing unless you treated yourself so good and so lucky. Then you could be hit by a car and there went your luck. There went your good health.
You know, let’s face it. The only thing that isn’t certain today is death. Sickness and pain and tax and everything else is certain, but death is not certain. There’ll be some sitting here that’s going to miss it.
So praise the Lord. Otherwise I sure don’t know what I’m doing preaching here. Can’t be for everybody outside. Ridiculous. Got to have some fruit around here. We, certainly we got to have fruit—we got to be fruit.
Now listen, it says here the denominations are bearing their own kind of fruit. Absolutely.
[44-4] Every denomination will bear a life of itself. But if that original vine ever puts out another shoot, it’ll bear grapes like it did the first time.
And if the Life–the Life of Jesus Christ ever puts out another body of believers, it’ll bear the fruit that the first one did; they’ll write a Book of Acts behind it, ’cause it’ll be the same Life.
See, what I mean? You just can’t get away from it. It’s the Life of Christ in you, been injected in you by the Holy Spirit Itself, living Its Life through you. Blind leaders of the blind…
Now look-it, is he saying hey, nobody has any acts in their life? Nobody has any gifts? Nobody believes miracles? Well, the world is full of them. Nobody’s got any fruit? The world’s full of it. There’s no problem there. It said:
And if the Life–the Life of Jesus Christ ever puts out another body of believers, it’ll bear the fruit that the first one did;
All right, what’s the first… what’s the fruit that they did? They bore witness to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that great One. What is the reality of this hour? The appearing to the Gentiles. That’s why we haven’t got an evangelist among us anymore.
They try to preach what Paul preached, Christ, and Him crucified. That is over. That was done. That’s established. That’s there! Make no mistake about it. That’s never been repealed.
But it’s now Christ appearing in the form of a Pillar of Fire. The same One now who was here in a human body, doing the works that he did when he was here in flesh.
The prophet of Malachi, Elijah, on the scene. That’s the Message—the end time evangelism. The gospel to the Kingdom. The King is here, in the form of the Holy Spirit. And you can’t crown a spirit.
But the churches have no trouble crowning their preachers, their bishops, their cardinals and their popes and you name it. You got no trouble at all putting…
Look at these picture shows you see now these days. And I must admit I do like some because I can hear the good Russian singing. I think that singing is fantastic, so I see those Russians come in with their crowns on and their big, big miters. And they look—their big goo-gahs.
Now I don’t have any use for that. I like the singing voices and I admit it. The deep basses, the rich deep basses. I’m looking at pictures there and I say ah, they’ve crowned themselves. Acting as though they are Christ. They force people to crown them, because they can’t really crown themselves. They’re obnoxious but they’re trying to fool the people.
I’m going to tell you, we’re going to crown Christ. Sure, He’s right around the… You can’t crown a spirit. But when that Spirit that’s in the midst of us becomes incarnate to us, we’ll crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords. The crowning is down the road, not very far. See?
That’s sub-dominant, in the Rapture it becomes dominant. The body at this time is… becomes an intercessor, an mediator, that is not really subdominant, that’s what He’s supposed to be.
But it’s subdominant to the Head, which is God, because the head of Christ is God. But when God steps in, that’s completely dominant. I and my Father are completely one. Beautiful, see? Always understand the roles and all, see?
[44-4] And if the Life–the Life of Jesus Christ ever puts out another body of believers,
They’ll have the element of the lion, they’ll have the element of the calf, they’ll have the element of the face of man but driven, inspired, by the eagle. That’s why we say it, “You in this message.”
Oh, a man went from here to Europe and he got poor little François confused on that. Well, he doesn’t—he bristles, you see, in the message, because he’s not in the message. That’s why he bristles. He doesn’t believe Brother Branham.
Brother Branham made mistakes, according to him. Oh he’s great on the Logos and the Rhema, you know. He could say it back and forth. Oh he… this guy from Chicago, Olsen. Might as well put it out flat. But what nonsense that man, going around the country and people want him in the pulpit and people listen.
Make the prophet wrong and then say, “I believe the Message.” Don’t you know that’s what the devil did to Eve? Didn’t he say, “Well hasn’t God said?” Oh, she said, “yeah, yeah, God said, God said this, yeah.” “Oh yeah, but surely.”
Well do you believe Brother Branham’s a prophet? “Why, sure, but you know he made mistakes.” Then who needs him if he made mistakes? Fap! I want to make my own mistakes.
Well, if I’m going to get drunk, let me get drunk myself. Don’t drink my beer. I don’t like beer anyway, don’t drink my good cognac—orange flavored. My Kahlua with the rich chocolate, rich coffee.
You say, “what do I know about booze?” I can read labels. I can also taste the stuff the odd times. Eat a bit of dessert—can’t eat desserts anymore, let you know. I’ll just tell you flat. I don’t need a prophet to follow him in his mistakes. Fap! Make my own mistakes. Who needs his?
That’s what I’m telling you, hypocrisy. Unmitigated hypocrisy. What’s in a man’s heart to do that? I’ll tell you what it is. You love your wife but you’re going down the street adultering, making adultery to the woman across the street. Sure, you’re a nice noble man. You’re a dog and you know it.
You need Christ in your life. That’s what you need. You need to understand this Message once and for all. There’s where the power lies. See? Get the truth of God in there. There’s only one conduit, and that’s the unmitigated truth, not some hashed-up junk.
You think God’s going to put His truth through a conduit that’s not His Word? Or put His Spirit through it? He’s not going to do that, anybody knows that. You’ll watch.
There’s a Bride that’s writing another Book of Acts. That’s why the Book of Acts doesn’t have a name into it, they say. There was—finished, we’re going to finish it up. You can’t write another day of Pentecostal in that particular sense, but in the particular sense you can.
That life, that same life is now manifested to us. That life, now he said… He said here now:
[44-4] …it’ll be the same Life. See, what I mean? You just can’t get away from it. It’s the Life of Christ in you, been injected in you by the Holy Spirit Itself, [That’s right. The great Holy Spirit’s the Injector, He gives you part of Himself.] living Its Life through you. Blind leaders of the blind…
See? That’s how he puts it. Pentecost could never receive a prophet. It is too bad.
[45-1] Notice, God holds this key [and this key] alone.
Now he is going to have a Church that’s fully aware of everything, and she will have within her… watch—she’ll have an understanding of the gifts, of the fruit, of prayer, of all these things, and they will be manifest.
I could not believe for one minute that I could teach a Church and believe that this Word of God and believe that this church would bring forth error in its understanding of the Word of God, and it would indulge in explicit errors that it knows that it’s in this life, without doing something about it.
In other words, the repetitive conduct of some people absolutely are not in accordance with what the Spirit of God is. And I’m not going to stand up here for one minute, “Well, you believe this—you got it.”
They said the same thing back in the days of Brother Branham’s living. That bunch that came out of Canada, and a bunch around them. And they’re living their lives of immorality and everything that should not been living. And so Banks Wood rebuked them.
They said, “oh we know the prophet.”
That’s the same thing you might say today in the preaching of this Word here, “Well I know the Word, I believe It.”
What does that mean? It means nothing unless the Holy Ghost said It. That’s what Brother Branham preached, The Token. Right down the line. We believe, but have we received?
Is that the end of it? Thank you. [Brother Vayle referring to the tape]
That’s as far as we’re going to go. I knew we wouldn’t get very far. I’m sorry about that. Come back Wednesday, we’ll just read 15-20 pages without comment.
I don’t even guarantee that, do I now? You’re not dealing with a nice fellow up here, but… and that’s… I’m sorry about that. See, I’ve tried to change myself instead of having the Lord change me, that’s why I haven’t any results.
Well, now, at this time we have a very privileged…
[End of tape recording]