Covenants #14

Shall we pray.

O great Jehovah God, we realize that when You were there in Egypt, the Israelites didn’t really comprehend and therefore also did not apprehend the reality of Your Presence and what it meant, it was just a man there representing You, and the people couldn’t take it. And we know also the same occurred in the days of Your flesh, in Jesus Christ, and now again in this time Lord, it’s the same thing, Your Presence, and people don’t believe it, and people don’t understand it, and they don’t know that all things are possible, that as it was in the days of Abraham, to bring forth that one in flesh, the promised child in flesh.

But we believe that tonight, Lord, as much as we know how we believe it Lord, and we stand on it as much as we can Lord, according to our faith, what has been released in our hearts, we pray tonight Lord that it shall increase and grow and grow until the reality becomes such as is in the very elect seed, not just elect, but the very elect Lord, and there be those standing here will walk out into eternity. This we believe Lord, that immortality is the promise of the hour, having already seen the Son of man again revealed in flesh. So now in our studies tonight, Lord, whatever good can come, we pray You’ll feed our souls and help us in this final hour, in Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now we’re I believe in number 13 in Covenants, I think pretty well that’s what we’re looking at. If it’s not 13, it’s 14, or somewhere in that area, because I was just looking at my notes the other day, and I saw number 10, I think it said October 22, if that’s the case, we’re in 12 and 13 or 14, whatever we’re at now, we’re up there in a certain area.

Now in this special covering tonight of the Covenants, I want to talk about the Ark of the Covenant, and I’m not a typologist, I just don’t know that I would believe everything that everybody writes about the various Old Testament form of worship, so I sort of struggle along in my own way.

And I look at those things that Brother Branham said, and I see maybe if there is an illustration or something we can gather from it that’s pertinent to this very hour.

Now, the Ark of the Covenant, that which sat in the tabernacle in the wilderness, is spoken of definitely in Hebrews 9:4. However to get a proper background of what Paul is saying there, we have to really read chapters 8 and 9 in their entirety, and then as we read about the Ark and the tabernacle that housed it as Paul speaks in those two chapters, then we have to go back in our minds and recall what was said in detail in Exodus 25 to 30.

And remember there that God called for the assembling of all the materials that would go into the Ark and the tabernacle, and the accouterment thereof, and also He gave the people through Moses instructions as to exactly what would be built in a specified form and order and from what materials and how they’d all finally be placed together in order to institute a proper worship.

So when you’re dealing with the Ark of the Covenant, you have to deal with the whole picture, and in there you will see many things that are types, looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His particular ministry, and also to us who have a part in the worship.

Now, when all this was completed as delegated and delineated in Exodus 25 to 30, an actual worship was engaged by the people in God, it then became a nation or a kingdom of a covenanting God with a predestinated covenanting people. Now that’s what you saw at that particular time.

And this what you saw in there was according to the scholars, and Brother Branham was right with them, was typing and foreshadowing in part what was ultimately to be the new heaven and the new earth wherein God and His Christ and His people would live as stated in Hebrews 12:18-24, which we will read before we go back to chapters 8 and 9.

And it says now, and remember this is the setting where the revelation of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, and its furnishings, and its order of service detailed to the very garments of every person that was involved in the priesthood, right on down the line, nothing was left out, and what we’re going to read is the setting of what this all came from.

Now you haven’t come to that, you are approaching something else by faith that at this point you cannot touch.

What happened today? The frizzy-haired, bob-haired, slack-wearing, short-skirt wearing, apostate female roué, they couldn’t stand the Word either. It killed them to hear the Word of truth, predestination, women preachers, and the rest. They couldn’t stand to hear the Word.

Notice where he couched it. He couched it back there when all this was given, and threw them right up into where they’re going, so you can see this has to be a tremendous type of what we’re actually looking forward to.

And we’re looking right here then at this wonderful nation that’s going to come into existence where we are priests and kings unto Almighty God, and righteousness shall reign supreme.

Now that’s what you’re coming to. So we go back and look at what Paul said in chapters 8 and 9.

Now you’ll notice that, that man did all this work here, even the instruction of God, and then also… well I’ll just leave that later, if I can remember it, as we get down the road.

Now that’s what he did, every single thing, every step, there wasn’t one… Actually when you read those chapters in Exodus and in Leviticus, you can get mighty bored. I mean it is terribly minute in detail, and you can just, you know, sort of snore over it.

I’m glad we’re out of it and into the new, but it’s… every Word of God has a reason and purpose, and you’re seeing here that there was something already in heaven that was thought, that was printed, that was right out there in manifested form that they were going to take, put it down here on earth, made by man’s hands at God’s direction, which would type what God wanted for Himself and the people.

All right. Verse 6,

Now you can actually take Israel and Judah, if you want to, Israel went into solid plum apostasy, but Judah kept her bearings in a matter of degree, and you could be looking at the world church and the Bride in this respect, that the world church is a complete mess, and the Bride in her, not knowing the truth, is messed up with her until she comes out.

Now remember Judah was promised that they would never lack a king, and that’s where British Israel gets all wound up to think they can prove all these points; we don’t fool with it. We never did lack a king; she always had a King behind the veil. See?

All right. Now he said here,

Now you see, the point is this, this little verse 12 here, should not be placed where it is. See up here, up here putting… verse 12 actually is where He is doing this in their hearts so that there isn’t any more unrighteousness and there isn’t any more iniquity.

Hebrews 9:1-28

Now all right, here in chapter nine, Paul describes the tabernacle and its furnishings and their divine order of service as seen by a man coming upon this place of worship, and the people worshipping God. So one could easily assume, from what Paul says here, mentioning the tabernacle, and the courts, and the two holy places, one of which was the holiest, that according to common reasoning, it would seem that the first thing constructed would be the tabernacle, then the furniture moved in.

Now that would be human reasoning, and that’s the way we would do it. But you don’t find that to be so. Because it is evident, by reading Exodus 25, that in the mind and purpose of God in dealing with His predestinated children, according to His Abrahamic covenant, His first thought and written and spoken Word was about the Ark for the Covenant. Now you will notice that I said Ark for the Covenant. Though the Bible calls it the Ark of the Covenant.

Now what did I say for? Because an ark actually means ‘a chest’ or ‘a box’. It is a container for something. And the container that was made by them at the instigation of Almighty God, the first thing made, was for the testament that was to be placed therein, the testament placed therein above anything else that might be placed in there.

But spiritually speaking, the Ark representing Christ, and since Christ and the Word are one in reality, it would not then be the Ark for the Covenant, although the Ark was for the Covenant, it would be the Ark of the Covenant, as the Bible says, “You are of God, little children.” You see what I’m saying?

So therefore, we are looking at the basic precept of God, which was revealed in a Word, which would become flesh. See? Now you get the picture? We’re using Christ as typing the Ark, or as the Ark as typing Christ. And what was it? It was that Covenant that lay in that Ark. And that Ark was of the Covenant and the Covenant was not of the Ark, and yet it was. It was the Ark of the Covenant. See? That’s what we are looking for.

Also as the Scripture said, “A body has thou prepared me,” making it even more than an Ark for or an Ark of, but even more scripturally, not to change the Scripture, but to get the meaning, we could call it the Covenant Ark. The Covenant Ark. For Messiah was specifically a Covenant Person to the elect.

As John in speaking of Him says, “The Word was made flesh.” And also according to the Davidic covenant, Messiah would come from the line of David, be born in the tribe of Judah, in the city of Jerusalem, and called ‘The Ruler of My People’. See, that One Who descended from David, as ‘The Ruler of My People’, would be the anointed One of Almighty God of which the Ark spoke.

Even as it says over here in Matthew 3, we’re going to only look at verses 16 and 17.

And you’ll notice Brother Branham put this with another verse of Scripture, you cannot find this in the gospels, “In whom I am pleased to dwell.” He used the combination of Scripture, which is of course absolutely right

Notice also what it says over here in a great prophecy given through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Now we’re talking of the Ark of the Covenant; we are looking at the body; we are looking at the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay let’s go over here now to the Book of Malachi. Remember Brother Branham said, “Only a man.” He was going to speak on that one; he never got around to it. He’s only a man. Malachi 3:1.

Brother Branham mentioned that as being Christ before the officers, but it also to be, as far as I can see, this can also be at the River Jordan where God came into his temple, because Brother Branham spoke of the Greeks coming to see Jesus, “We want to see this God,” and they couldn’t see Him, He was in his temple, veiled in a man.

All right, notice what the angels also said, and you see what they said also over in the Book of Luke 2:10-12.

And of course, if you want to go a little further, you can see again the perfection of God in His Ark, the Word, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he goes, Brother Branham said if you make the Word Jesus you become a Trinitarian, you cannot do it, and that’s what the Scripture said, the Word was God that became flesh.

Now over here in the Book of Matthew 1:18-23.

And not God in a figure, but God literally indwelling that perfect vessel. Thus, as the Ark types Christ, it is the Covenant Ark, because it is the Covenant Christ.

Now to move along, we consider this Ark that types Jesus the Christ. Now you notice if we go back to the Book of Exodus where this is all started, the Ark is made of two materials, and two materials only: wood and gold.

Now the acacia tree, which was the wood, is cut into boards. The tree is cut down and cut into boards that are joined together and then they are covered with gold on both sides so that no wood is showing in any place.

So therefore, from this I can see the Scripture being fulfilled where Jesus is speaking in the Book of John 16:28, and he says,

That’s what the two plates of gold signify to me over the acacia wood. Because Jesus distinctly doesn’t say, “I came from man and I go back to man.” He said, “I came from God and I’m going back to God,” and that’s what you find in this Ark. See, you’re looking at it as the type of Christ.

The pattern which was in heaven. And everything is indicative of what God was going to produce in flesh, which is in type and the time of Moses, running through to the time of Jesus, going into grace, and now we’re ready to go into the Millennium and on into the New Jerusalem.

So all right, with that we realize that it is also said by John the Revelator in the Gospel of John 1:18.

He came from God, and he went back to God, and nothing can be said other than that.

Now notice again, in the Book of Philippians, you can see the very same thing. And we read this many times, from Brother Branham having read it in the Unveiling Of The Mighty God, he said in Philippians 2:5.

Now remember he was definitely equal with God, because he was the Son of God. That’s why God could say, “Let us make man in our image.” And that’s why God could create all things by him. And that’s why Jesus could be called a creator; you can say anything you want.

But the principle of the first born according to Scripture is he has fifty percent of everything his Father has. He’s a joint-heir. So here he is, he has this in his power.

And at that time in his obedience at the Garden of Gethsemane, when God left him, he said, “Give me back the glory that I had with You in the beginning.”

And the answer was, “Absolutely.” Now watch it.

Now notice this is where he absolutely has to come through what he came through in order to come this far with his own Father, because Jesus is not his own father, let’s understand that flat. Now just, I want to know something, you want to know where Brother Branham denies two-ness? Right there in the Feast of the Trumpets. Not three-ness, not two-ness, not oneness. No sir, we’re right in line with what Paul taught. God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he said,

The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit on My right hand.” The Lord Himself descended with a Shout; we’ll meet the Lord in the air. The One that doesn’t come down. Yes sir, it’s right in here.

Then also notice, which we have already seen previously, many times quoting, for in John 14:7-11.

In other words, why don’t you shut-up? And just pay attention? Well that’s what he’s… You say, “Well Jesus, he wouldn’t be that rude.” Well I am, I’m not Jesus. Not trying to put words in his mouth either, I’m trying to get you the impact.

Backing up the words spoken by the works, that’s vindication. Paul had it, Moses had it, William Branham had it. See? Elijah had it. All the prophets had to have it, you just can’t run around and tell people… oh I know you can. Look, there’s always a goofball out there somewhere. But don’t try to come and say, “I heard from God.”

Did you really now? Hmm. Get a good picture of that one. Yuck. You heard from God? You try and tell me. Vindication, brother/sister. Vindication. Oh they don’t believe that. We don’t mind what they believe, pbbt, I believe the Bible. Now he said,

See there he is. There’s your two plates of gold.

Now let me show you again, what we read in Hebrews 1, and we just need a tiny bit then. Okay,

Well didn’t Jesus say so? “Who’s doing the talking?” he said. “Who’s using my voice?” Right on a tape Brother Branham’s vocal cords are controlled by either God or the devil or a spirit, because it’s right on a tape. Where it says, “This is not Brother Branham speaking.”

Now, right away everybody that’s skittish will brand that of the devil. Go ahead, I’m happy for you. You know why? It makes me know I’m that much closer to God, and the judgment of God, and the things of God that I’m going to come into, because that has to happen. The lie is millions now living will never die, and that is the biggest lie in the world and it’s based on a misunderstanding of sovereignty, they don’t believe sovereignty at all.

They just think anybody can come, and oh boy, look at them coming. What are they coming to? Coming to idolatry. Do you think William Branham just screamed for fun, “Methodist, Baptist, witchcraft”? That’s over there in Revelation 18, they’re sorceries, they’re sorcerers. The who-do-voodoo artist in the pulpit. Oh brother.

“I came from God, I go back to God.” The wood in between, the acacia wood, was merely once. Never again did he have to come, and will come like as a human being. That was once. We cannot know him after flesh anymore; he’s a complete glorified person.

Okay, now let us consider the wood. Now looking at the wood, we go to Numbers, because this is a tree now. This is come from a tree, they cut down, they felled the tree and sawed it into boards, so there’s lumber in there. Now in Numbers 24:5-6.

Okay, let’s go to the Book of Psalms. And you go of course to Psalm 1. And it says,

What are the ways of the righteous? They’re trees planted by the water of life. But those that aren’t planted by the water of life, they’re going to perish, they’re going to be burnt up.

Now you see, the children of God are likened to trees. Now this Messiah was also likened to a tree. Brother Branham called him the Tree of Life; it was cut down by a Roman tree, to supplant him.

Notice what it says in Isaiah 53:2.

And then notice in the 8th verse,

As a tree that was felled, like the tree that was felled by the bitter waters on the way to Canaan’s land, and the waters were made sweet when the tree was cut down.

All right, now we know that lumber was once living in the form of a tree. So what does God say about trees? Okay, we go back to Genesis, and remember he’s talking about good trees, and this certainly is a good tree, because it made the Ark, the substance within the Ark, plated by gold, and notice what it says then in Genesis 1:29.

Well just a minute. A board does not carry seed. As the tree yet did. But when cut down, it doesn’t carry any seed.

Let’s go to Isaiah again, and we go the 53rd chapter, and we see what the Bible says about this tree that was cut down. In Isaiah 53:8.

Where is his seed? There isn’t any. Uh-uh. There wasn’t in that. He wasn’t in there to marry and bear children. The seed was spiritual. It was a life to take out the life that was already here of God and sheep that had gone astray. So you see what we’re looking at.

However, this acacia tree, bound in gold, now watch these boards, they’re bound in gold, this tree, is preserved unto the ages of the ages. See nothing can get to it to make it decay or rot. And types the immortality of Christ, who when life left him, the body did not decay in the grave, but rose with all power vested in him.

You might get a picture of this if you go to the Book of Romans 6:9-10.

Henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea though we’ve known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth now know we him no more, he cannot come back and offer himself again. That part is all over. And he is not living by life in blood, which he once did. He is living solely by the Holy Ghost, living by God.

Notice how this fulfills the Book of Hebrews 5:5-10.

Now here he is, the two plates of gold wrapped around this physical being, “I came from God and I go to God,” now no more death can touch him, he doesn’t have any physical seed to prolong his generations, he has become a redeemer, and now he stands as a complete High Priest in a glorified form, completely immortal.

Because he came from God and went to God. How are you going to kill him? He said, “No man can take my life.” And that’s what happened, he simply laid it down. What a beautiful thought. We lay our lives down too, when God calls us, and we just go on to another form, and then we come back in the form that He wants us.

All right, since wood exemplifies the humanity of Jesus, gold shows that God Himself anointed Jesus, as was said in John 14. “It is God in me that does the work.” In other words, it was God in Christ, and that is the secret of what we’re looking at, what God had in His mind from the beginning, where God Himself wanted to be in a human form, as His children. In other words, God Emmanuel, God in flesh, was the Ark. God in that Ark.

Okay now what was in the Ark? Now you know if you’re like somebody like these people that go into Bible like I don’t go into, and I’m not going to, we could spend days on this. So the next thing I ask is simply this: what was in that Ark? We want to look to see what’s going on.

Okay.

1. A pot of gold that contained the manna.

2. Aaron’s rod that budded. The almond rod that budded.

3. The Word of God on tables of stone.

All right, let’s look at the manna. It was food that was necessary to take them across a wilderness at a very specific time of Exodus… okay? and entrance into the land of promise. It was necessary until they got across Jordan and into Canaan’s land. And the day that they ate of the bread in Canaan’s land, which was the corn, the manna ceased.

That’s what it says in Joshua; I think it’s either chapter 5 or 6. And it’s the only time in history, an Exodus time, that you will find this special food that was necessary and sent down from heaven, in order to get them across. See? Because they’re going geographically. In the time of Christ it was not geographical; it was spiritual.

Now, number two, Aaron’s rod. Aaron’s rod that budded was a dry almond branch that budded and flowered proving that he was God’s choice for the high priest. So therefore Jesus is represented here as dying and coming back to life, thereby anointed to be Melchisedec, the High Priest of the supreme order of Almighty God.

All right, manna and Aaron’s rod, which signify vindication of God’s Word, passed away. Now we don’t know when the last bit of manna was eaten by somebody. Brother Branham said the manna was in the Ark, which was definitely of the covenant, so therefore these were the manna and the rod would necessarily, now listen, necessarily be interlopers or transient. Because it wasn’t meant for them in the first place.

They were in there. What were in there for? They were types of vindication. They were vindicators. The rod that budded was the vindicator of Aaron that he was the chosen of God for this people on earth at an earthly time. Which didn’t do anything for them except let God pass over their sins.

They had to have another Priest with another offering to get them out of the ground, and get them up where they wanted to go. Because they’re up there somewhere in a dimension.

So the olive branch that budded signifies the resurrection, pointing out Melchisedec. This is the great and new High Priest.

The manna, the manna of course was the revealed Word of God that was especially for that particular time and it was not necessary at another time.

So what do we see now? We see with the budding rod, it’s gone, and the manna gone; there is now in that vessel only a vindicated Word. That’s all. Now at the time of Moses, the vindicated Word was brought by a vindicated prophet, who went through two thousand years of history. Right.

Brought him up to the point of all covenants whereby God now setting His people in order, in a certain land, in a certain form of worship, they could progress under what was vindicated to be the Word of God for them by Moses’ vindication. Do you follow what I’m saying? Two thousand solid years.

The Ark now contains nothing, as we said, that could die. The budding rod likely just died and evaporated. The manna, if as Brother Branham said, behind the veil, and in the Ark, was taken a little at a time by priests. It would run out in a hurry. I don’t know. Maybe that’s exactly how it happened, that it finally ran out, because there was nothing left for the priests, but it’s gone. And if they ate it, it just passed off as dung anyway.

So it’s gone. See? There’s nothing in there that could perish. You have now two tables of stone, and rock is a synonym for God and His salvation. Now remember even Brother Branham mentioned, oh they had an iron of pen and tables of stone. Remember the finger of God had written on this the first time, they were broken, the second time Moses had to do it.

So now then, in Him, our Ark, is just one thing, and that is the vindicated, dynamic, living, irrevocable Word of a God Who has proven that Word is so by justification of vindication. So what I tell you, I’d like to see that Word work. It’s already worked and you don’t believe it. That’s what he’s saying here in this tabernacle covenant, I read to you. Hebrews 12. Where this all took place! Under those eerie, scary conditions.

Then God comes down here and graces a man with a gift of divine healing, and people get healed just like dominoes going down. Showing grace and love. Turned their nose up and walked away, now they’re doing their best to make Brother Branham some kind of a fool. Well wonderful, I praise God for that, because just means time is running out.

I’m not going to have a… well you know listen, you know me better than to think I’m going to waste my nights worrying about a world that has turned down God, I’m worrying about not accepting Him enough. They’ve already blasphemed. You can’t pray a prayer of faith for those who’ve blasphemed. Come on; don’t try to kid me. If somebody blasphemes in this church, let me tell you something, you can pray, you can just ask God to let you pray through eternity, He’ll just throw you into hell and let you pray there.

Listen, you blaspheme against God, what are you trying to think people? This is not some little game. This is a roller coaster, kid, where you can’t get off. This is a parachute you’re on, it will either open or it won’t open. Still like me? Didn’t say love me. You got to love me whether you want to or not, but liking me is a different story.

Now then in Him, our Ark, is life eternal. He dealt with sin and death, and now in Him is immortality, the resurrection, the Millennium, and the new heavens and the new earth, and it’s proven by the fact that the Lamb, that man, went and took the Book and was able to loosen the Seals that’s going to put us right into New Jerusalem.

Now, if he didn’t come from God and go to God, if he was not that Son of God who laid aside his theophonic form and came down here, then I don’t know my Bible. I don’t understand it, I’ll tell you flat I don’t understand it, and I can’t figure it, but I believe it! And I know it’s the truth because it’s vindicated! And the simple reality is a vindicated prophet said we’re not oneness, we’re not two-ness, we’re not three-ness! Then what are we?

He said, “We came just like Jesus came, except we bypassed a theophonic form.” Now let’s scream and shout and dance and have a Pentecostal singsong and a ding-dong. But no, we’ll sit around here and pick our noses and be glum. We should be screaming. Because we know the mysteries of God. Do what you want.

Now remember, this Ark bearing a vindicated Word, and an identified priesthood, and seasonal food, came into view at the first and great Exodus to take God’s people into a Promised Land, a type and a figure of the true to come. The same Ark came into view two thousand years later, in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there he did exactly the same thing as Moses did, because he brought the people through a wilderness of religiosity, out of a law that was completely befuddled by the people, which were befuddled by the law.

That’s right. The law befuddled them and they befuddled the law. You don’t believe that? Can anybody here take apart a watch and put it back together again? Then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Or transistors and chips? It will befuddle you and you will befuddle it.

I’ve done that with watches. I always have more parts than I started with. Jesus was the only one that the Word did not befuddle and he never befuddled the Word. That’s what’s wrong today; why that every table’s full of vomit, you got a bad situation.

So, Jesus came on the scene as the Ark, the body was the flesh, Jesus was the flesh, that was the man, and God was in his tabernacle or in his Ark, and He was dealing with mankind. See? That was two thousand years ago. And today God has again formed Himself in human flesh, bringing the Son of man ministry, to prove once more the Ark of the Covenant, or the Covenanting Ark, or the Covenanting God, is in our midst with spiritual food to take us over.

Now, you leave the spiritual food, you are not going to get the glorified body that will help you to cross over Jordan! You’re not going to get it. Because the Lord descends with the Shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God to do it. And remember, what came from God goes back to God! Always. True it does. It goes right back from where it came, it’s got to go, because the Bible tells you it ends up in that respect. A new heavens and a new earth. We’re heading for it right now.

And remember, as Jesus came from God and went back to God, we also, who came from God, are going back to God. That is always why God came and the type is the Ark. His words never return unto Him void, and we are a part of that Word, and we will never return to God void, but we will return for the purpose whereunto we were sent and with fullness! Because unto his own master a man stands or fall.

And where you and I could be critical, like people were of Brother Branham, and said, “With all your great power, give it another shot, do this and do that,” Brother Branham stood back and would do nothing until the Spirit of God moved him. Because then he’d have been destroying the very plan of God. Showing this was the Son of man ministry returned.

And what did he do? As Jesus took four thousand years of history, William Branham took six thousand years of history, as Moses used the type of the infinite what could not be known from before the foundation of the world, and threw it into a type, Jesus himself told part of that type, then William Branham went all the way back. And brought six thousand years, I’m going to tell you something brother/sister, the Ark of the Covenanting God; the Ark Covenanter is here in the midst of the people.

Now I want to close with a few thoughts. Number one: an Ark can be a coffin. That’s an Ark right there, a Pillar of Fire. You know they died because they wouldn’t listen? What was the first great test they got into? Adultery. The very test that Eve fell into, fell flat. Yup. They got into adultery with the Balaamites, the Moabites.

All right, it can be a coffin. Jesus said that Israel had an Ark full of dead men’s bones. That’s where the law had gone. It had taken them to death, and they couldn’t see and understand it. How many died in the wilderness? Maybe a million. How many Jews died under Titus in 70 AD, we don’t know, but the blood ran in the streets.

An Ark can be a coffin. An Ark can be a Word Covenant; an Ark can be a Word Covenant carried over Jordan, into the Promised Land, right? Taking the territory, God doing it, for them and in them, we also have a Word covenant that we are carrying, the Pillar of Fire in our midst, ready to cross over Jordan and into the Millennium.

Now this is so because of 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

Now what people are these? The people who are suffering tribulation. If there’s coming a time when God says it’s all enough. That time has already come in the Presence and that picture is taken right there of the Lord Jesus Christ in a group of angels, coming down, passing judgment upon the earth, but setting aside His Bride.

All right let’s go also now to Revelation 11:18-19.

Now this is the time, and what happens at that time? John has already gone up in heaven in chapter 4, doors open. And what does he see?

But what I’m trying to show you here, is at this particular time after that event, the visitation of the mighty angels, the opening of the Seven Seals and the Seven Thunders coming forth, it came forth because this is a time that the temple is in full view, and the Ark of the Covenant, and what does it contain? It contains the Word of God for this hour.

And it was a Word that was sealed up to this time, and could not be loosed until this time, and when it was, it could not be sealed, but it gave those the opportunity, who are the Bride, to go directly to the Tree of Life, because judgment has set in and said, “You are the righteous Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, you didn’t even do it, you were tricked into it.”

And you know what the law says. The law of America is the same law of Great Britain, which was based formerly upon the law, which came from Rome. And in there it positively tells you that if you seduce somebody into doing a thing, you are the culprit, not the person that did it. That’s right. That’s why it all falls back on the devil, and he gets thrown into the lake of fire.

And we come by and we look narrowly and say, “Hey, don’t tell me you, you not only low down filthy no-good bum, you are so insignificant, puny, all you got is an overdose of pride. You caused all this trouble? Hi-yi-yi.” One little word. Caused a whole interruption of six thousand solid years and misery, misery, misery.

When John saw that door open in heaven in chapter four, he saw this for us, the living Word of the living God, but veiled to everyone except they who go beyond the veil. As Brother Branham said, “At one time it was death to go in through the veil, and now it’s death not to go through the veil.”

The veil opening to us as in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, and we seeing the Ark, Christ the Ark. The Ark of God amongst His people, the Pillar of Fire is here to take us into the Millennium. Jordan is about to roll back, and we are about to go over. Now remember there is no temple in the New Jerusalem. No temple. Because God and Christ, His Lamb, are the light and the temple of it.

What am I going to say now? I’m going to tell you just one little thing. What are we as a Bride? We are the body of Jesus Christ. We therefore compose, as it were, an Ark. Then who will house God, so to speak? A Bride. That’s right. You can take it as far as you want to take it, as long as you’re sensible with the Word. But remember the Ark was there because of what was in it, which was in preexistence.

So as we surround the great and mighty throne, we constitute as it were, and it is, a temple unto God, an Ark. And there at that time there is a holy worship unto Almighty God, the living creatures, the four and twenty elders, twelve patriarchs, twelve apostles, angelic hosts, cherubim’s, you name what’s all there, all the Bride, the retinue that follows her, which hundred and forty-four thousand eunuchs, attend, take care of the Bride.

Then outside, all bring their glory in. And what a tremendous, fabulous worship. And it’s all set forth in type. And this I suppose is a very strange thing, to think that this is what God would do, and you know what? It’s just like somebody would say, “You know, that’s fishy. Those Jews and those guys that believe that Bible, that was their mythology, like the Norwegians and Swedes, and the Greeks, and the Romans had their mythology.” I want to ask you a question. How come Israel’s mythology works? If it’s a myth. He liveth. He liveth and because He lives, we’re going to live with Him.

Let’s rise and be dismissed.

Most gracious heavenly Father, again we want to thank You for privilege of coming together to just see some of the things in the Word Lord that the prophet talked a little bit about, made reference to, he understood. Which we don’t understand too much, but understand a little bit. And take some pleasure, Lord, actually great pleasure in looking at these things, and accepting them, and knowing that we’re living on them, and living off them, and they’re living in us, Lord. And all these types and shadows come together in the great and wonderful Person of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of whom Brother Branham said, “Christ, is the mystery of God revealed.” God revealed.

And He’s been revealed Lord; You’ve been revealed in this last hour. We’ve seen You formed in human flesh again, as the prophet said, and seeing a Bride that’s going to walk right over, with a body just like You had from the resurrection. How wonderful to know that this is true, this is no mythology, this is no fable. This is the living Word of God and it’s been shown in every sign, in every evidence, in every leaf, seen everywhere, but above all, it’s seen in our hearts and our minds, changing us, changing our very atoms, because it’s a living revealed Word, which we have at this moment.

Father go with us tonight and come back with us again on Sunday we pray, and may we have that which is meat for our souls, Lord, something to think about, and yet something to literally chew on, O God, in our spiritual speakings, thinking of our souls, because we have an appetite Lord, to have that which can be released as spiritual energy within us, to such an extent that one day, we’re no longer earth bound, we’re a changed people, changed by the Shout of the hour.

Grant Lord that we may walk in the light, now that the light is here, even as You Jesus said when You were on earth, “Walk in the light,” because there’ll come a time when the light’s gone. But Lord, I believe this time we’re going to go with it. I believe that. I believe when that Spirit amongst us is taken out of the world, as it says in 2 Thessalonians, we’re going to go with it. We’re going to go up there and meet the Lord in the air, and have another incarnation, crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords. And I know it, it sounds… well it’s something to say and something to gather around, but it’s not, it’s the truth, it’s life.

God, help us to have the same reverence and understanding in our measure Lord. Hasten it; we plead Lord, to be like what the prophet had. Because we’re the children of the prophet, Lord. And like Father, like son, that ought to be the way it is, the nature, the motives, all these things.

Father, heal the sick amongst us, Lord, whoever may be here that needs help, that needs a lift, something Lord. I know that You’re wonderful the way You do things, You just help us, You just never let things go too far, You just encourage us and keep us. So heal the sick amongst us, Lord, homes or whatsoever else might be. Those that are lagging behind Lord, they’re letting the cares creep in, whatever it is that’s keeping them away from worship and fellowship, God, we could have a million excuses, but Lord, there won’t be any on that day, because there isn’t any now.

So Lord, may we glorify You, and more and more often, in all things and all ways, thank You for Your Presence, Your love and Your mercy, we feel Your goodness, we know it’s here, we clutch it to our hearts and thank You for it. Now we go and come again in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you.’