Doing God A Service Without His Will #01
How To Serve And Worship God#6186
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we just petition You at this time to quiet our souls and our spirits, our hearts and our minds O God, that they may conform to the Word which we are about to hear from the prophet, which Word we know Lord is a Word of admonition, a Word of instruction, a Word of wisdom to make us knowledgeable Lord concerning Your ways, lest we should offend or err in any way.
And we know Lord that’s really our aspiration and I don’t know how close we’ll ever come to it outside of the Resurrection, but Father we do have an aspiration that somehow, someway through the grace that You have given us, the life of the Holy Spirit, that we may fulfill the desire of Your heart’s, even as Lord we so want to have our desires fulfilled by You. May we desire Your desires far above ours, O God, that we may be right and we know we will be right in that way. So instruct us in righteousness this morning.
We’ll be careful to give You the praise, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now we’re going to start reading from, it’s page number 7 according to how Brother Mamalis has numbered his pages, and it would be about on paragraph 27, according to how he has it numbered, in Doing God A Service Without His Will.
Now when Brother Branham takes his text, which we’ll read shortly, in Mark 7:7, he took the text from a context of 1 Chronicles 13, and it says in verse 1.
(01) And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. [Didn’t leave anybody out.]
(02) And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, [that’s when he makes the announcement, after his consultation with all the leaders, anybody of repute and importance,] If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren every where, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us:
(03) And let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul.
(04) And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. [And of course they were all wrong. The majority is never right. One thing you sure got to watch.]
(05) So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, [and come unto] the ark of God from Kirjathjearim.
(06) And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjathjearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it. [So they had evidently God’s Name in revelation put on that.]
(07) And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio [drove] the cart.
(08) And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, with harps, psalteries, timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
(09) And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
(10) And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there[fore] he died before God.
(11) And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place is called Perrezuzza to this day.
(12) And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
(13) So David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obededom the Gittite.
(14) And the ark of God remained with the family of Obededom in his house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had.
Now Brother Branham reads a short text in Mark 7:7, and he says,
(07) …in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Now let’s just look at that thought.
(07) …in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Now if this means anything, the text that Brother Branham has used here immediately sets forth that the message deals with what may be termed ‘unacceptable worship’, though it is worship indeed, an unacceptable service as unto God, though it is indeed a service rendered as unto God.
This is exactly then another illustration from the very first chapters of Genesis, where Cain and Abel are examined in the light of their worship and their service unto God and Cain is found wanting. In fact his service and worship which he rendered is called an unrighteous act, though he must have known God and knew enough of the Word to bring an offering in worship and in service.
So this is what we’re looking at when we hear Jesus say, “In vain do you worship me.” He didn’t say they didn’t worship, he said it didn’t do them any good. And he didn’t say that they weren’t following commandments, they were following commandments, and unto the Lord, in fact they used God as a scapegoat.
God is a scapegoat by the way, Jesus was a scapegoat. And so people in religion use God as a scapegoat. As I’ve often said and you’ve heard me say it, you can buy God for nothing and sell Him for billions, but one day He wants interest on His money. That’s right.
See, we’ve got to watch ourselves here too on everything that we do and say. See, it’s a tremendous truth here that Brother Branham wants to bring to our attention. That there has to be a people whose worship is vain, and it doesn’t say they’re not worshipping. It says it doesn’t do them any good. And it doesn’t say they’re not trying to serve God and do things as unto the Lord, but it doesn’t do them any good.
Now you all know that as well as I do because the Bible categorically said many will come in that day and say, “Lord have we not prophesied in Thy Name? And have we not done wonderful works in Thy Name? And hasn’t this and that been in Thy Name?”
And He doesn’t deny it, He said, “I never knew you. I didn’t take any notice of you.” Now you can’t say that God didn’t know him on the grounds of a simple knowledge. He certainly did know him on the grounds of His omniscience, but He didn’t know them in the categorization of being Bride or even foolish virgin. He said, “No way.”
So you see the point is then: what good did it do them? It not only did them no good, but it brought them into bondage and into death. Like Paul said, he said, “You come together,” and he said, “I should praise you for having come together.” But he said, “When you leave here, you’re in worse shape than when you came!”
Well I’m going to tell you flat, if you’ve got to be around a preacher, somebody leaves you in worse shape, you better get yourself another preacher. If I’m leaving you in bad shape, you get you’re… Listen, you can go any place you want and get what you want. But this is a serious thing to realize this.
Then he goes on to say,
Trying To Do God A Service Without Being The Will Of God, 07/18/65M
[28] Now I know nothing but the Message the Lord has given me, and that’s all I can speak.
Now you know right away here, by starting this, he is actually letting you know that he is the Omega of Paul’s Alpha.
Because he says, “I know nothing but the Message that the Lord has given me.”
Now that’s exactly what Paul said over here in Corinthians what? 1 Corinthians 2. Sure.
(01) And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech [and] of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
(02) For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Christ, and him crucified.
(03) And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and much trembling.
(04) And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
(05) That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Now you keep that in mind, I’m going to take you rapidly, reading another verse, then to 2 Corinthians.
Now in Galatians 1:11-12.
(11) But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after [a] man. [I didn’t get it from a man.]
(12) [Didn’t receive it from a] man, neither was I taught [of anybody], but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now therefore, let’s watch this carefully. When God reveals something to a person, then it is not necessarily called ‘teaching’. He doesn’t call teaching ‘revelation’. Because you can teach all you want and you can’t give a revelation. What do you think I’m bucking? I’ve broken this understanding of the Presence down and the Appearing until my mind could explode. Just, “Huh?” A revelation. Sure, God was speaking to the apostle Paul. But it was a revelation!
Now remember what he said, “I came to you in fear and in trembling, but it was in the power of Almighty God, and it had to do with the Crucifixion that you may know what I am teaching you,” which was the basic of the gospel. This was the first Church Age, this was the Cornerstone gospel! This was not the Capstone gospel.
Remember the Cornerstone and the whole pyramid is one solid Word! Right. No difference, everything trickled down from the Head, until it was right up here to the neck. Which was the flange that Brother Branham worked on. Remember I preached on that, showed you on the drawing board. Okay, then Head comes down, proving it was Head by the miracles and signs and wonders.
So Paul had a Message at that hour. What is the Message in this hour? The Omega. A prophet coming on the scene teaching and preaching what he didn’t know of himself. “I was just a voice, it wasn’t what I knew, it was what He said. And I’m just a voice. That against my better judgment.”
Now he said, “The Message that God gave me; that’s all I can speak on.”
And it’s related to this here, “In vain do you worship me, because you got man in here instead of God in here!” Do you follow me? The interjection as in the Garden of Eden, when Satan stepped in, in the form of a man! He was just like a man! Far more beautiful, far more powerful, more seductive, more persuasive.
Now what Paul say here?
(17) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
(18) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
(01) Therefore seeing we have this ministry…
Of bringing you to the place where you’re transformed and like Christ in your human bodies! The thing that you and I scream for, we hate ourselves for, we can’t stand ourselves for, oh God when is it going to stop? I’m tired of this flesh! I’d blow my brains out if it would do any good! See, you hate it! How’s it going to come?
Listen to me! How’s it going to come? You tell me! Some of you are fooling around with dynamite! No more esteem this Word of God than nothing. You can blame your wife and yourself or anybody else, listen to me, it’s you I’m talking to! How do you get it?
(01) Therefore seeing we have this ministry, [what ministry? A ministry to rip aside every single veil of creed and dogma! Because that’s how you got to get back here!] …we faint not; [we’ve received mercy.]
Paul let’s you know that this man here is going to have to receive an awful lot of mercy or he’d faint. Now you hear some of Brother Branham’s old sermons, and you’ll tell what fainting condition he was in. Ready to tear out what few hairs he had left.
“Just got to know! Go in that cave and starve if I have to.” But God gave him mercy to go to the end of the trail even when he knew he was going to die in a car wreck! Because he saw the hole in his throat where the tracheotomy would be. Thought maybe a bullet might get him.
But listen, what did Paul do like William Branham?
(02) …have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty…
That’s what the serpent did; he hid the real meaning of God and hid exactly what he was going to do with Eve! He hid it. Oh God have mercy. Don’t you understand when men go with women and men have one thing in their mind, seduction, don’t you think they hide as much as they can from the girl exactly what it’s all about? There’s your type. You got it in your churches.
You think your preachers don’t pull deals in organizations? You think they’ll pull every conniving trick in the book? And don’t you think the devil comes along with the same old gimmick that he did with Jesus? “I’ll give you great money if you fall down and worship me.”
What did old John D. Rockefeller do? For all the money he had he was very piddly, but he gave the Baptists a million dollars way back when a million bucks would be like a hundred million today. Now do you think those goats in there, or those preachers that lead those dumb people astray, those dogs that don’t dare to bark, do you think they’ll lay down that great pension they got? Ha! They’ll no more believe God than nothing, they’ve sold themselves out to the devil.
(02) [Having] renounced [revoked!] the hidden things of dishonesty, [that comes in words and false doctrine] not walking in craftiness, [not] handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
This was not done in a corner! He’s telling you here, “I’m going to bring out something and show you! That there’s deceit and wrong all around, where the people are not serving God, they are not worshipping God, but there is a way out and I’m telling you the way out! It is through a man and his ministry!”
Say, “Well I can’t believe that, because hallelujah, I’m born again, I’ve got God.”
You’re a liar, you’ve got no more God than a Hottentot has, or knows, what did Brother Branham say? a Hottentot knows about an Egyptian knight, whatever that means. Or Jack Bell says “split beans from buttermilk”. I can understand that one. It’s exactly true. See?
Now put the two together:
(07) …in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
[28] Now, I know nothing but the Message the Lord has given me, and that’s all I can speak on.
When you put them together, it spells out what I have been saying. Paul had the truth. She became unvirginized; she lost her virginity. She became a prostitute to the Word of God, in her mind. She has to be restored then by the process of the mind. People don’t like that, because Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, a real maniac, came on the scene and said, “God is universal mind.”
And then sold Christian Science, as the science of Christ, all in the mind. And so therefore she tricked every Pentecostal and every Fundamentalist to believe it’s all in the sensation! Hogwash! It comes by your minds!
Romans 12. I’m not yelling at you, I’m just yelling period. Thank you.
Listen, he says in here, Romans 12.
(01) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, [and Paul said we’ve got mercy for this very thing at this hour.] that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service [or sacrifice].
Now how are you going to do it? “Oh Brother Vayle, I’m going to give my body to be burned. Oh I’m going to work hard, I’m going to sweat, I’m going to struggle, I’ll take on two jobs, I’ll pay double tithes.” You do what you want, but you missed the boat! Your reasonable sacrifice is to sacrifice your mind! To sacrifice your own thinking.
And he said,
(02) And be not conformed [or fashioned after] this world: [we’re talking about service, we’re talking about sacrifice, we’re talking about worship to God, and he tells you how. Don’t sell out your mind. There’s your battle of Armageddon.] but be ye transformed…
The metamorphosis. From a caterpillar to a butterfly! From the earth earthy to the heavenly! How do you get it? By watching TV? Fine, watch your TV, you’ll get it. Too many movies? Too many different books? Idling your time with this and that? I’m in the same boat, I’m not pointing a finger at you. I’m just raising the questions. No! It’s in the mind.
We’re not Edgar Casey to put a book over your heart and the next morning know everything in the book. That’s okay for a sideshow. But it’s no good with God. Any student… what’s wrong with students today? Going to university, can hardly read. Why? They don’t apply their minds! They’d sooner fill them with drugs; become hopheads then to flop on society, a dreg and a drag! See?
Look it, I’m going to tell you something. Reading a hundred thousand health magazines and books and following one million prescriptions will never do what This will do! But the prescription and the service is the mind.
(02) …be transformed (renewed, be transfigured) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
That you may know exactly how to worship and to serve God! People fuss, “Well, this is a nice service here, and this is a nicer service, and this is the nicest service, so we’ve got degrees.” Hogwash! It’s all true and it’s all wrong! It isn’t worth a plug nickel unless you got your mind renewed by the Word of Almighty God, by a prophet, the same as Paul was.
Now that’s the gist of the message, that’s the long and short of it. Then how are you going to do otherwise than do this? You can’t do it. So we stand there with understanding what Brother Branham is saying here.
[28] And now, I’m going to speak on a subject this morning which I thought would be good. And tonight I’ll speak on, “meat in due season,” [see it follows his notes] …Spiritual Food In Due Season, and how to receive It. Now, this morning: Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being The Will Of God.
Now he starts by saying,
[29] God is sovereign.
He was the sovereign God that made this statement, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” A sovereign God says, “I don’t care what you think, I’m telling you what the truth is, you aren’t going to get off to first base.” You’ll end up there in Matthew 7.
Now God’s a sovereign God. Let’s look at sovereignty. Sovereignty of God is in Romans 9. And I know this is backtracking, but I don’t care, because it’s good to go into this, I felt led to do it. [Verse] 11 to about 12.
(11) (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil…
Didn’t even have… Look it, if you haven’t done good or evil, how can you repent? This is the case of John the Baptist, full of the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb. Because he was God’s child. He was already eternal.
As Brother Branham said, “Someday you’ll wake up and find you never got eternal life the time you thought you did, you’ll realize you always had it.” You’re a sheep gone astray.
Let me tell you something, brother, that’s the truth. And that’s a revelation. And you can’t pound anybody’s head that hasn’t got it. Oh I’ve had them stand there and swear they knew Brother Branham better than I did, they knew the Message better than I do, oh they knew all about it, and you became seed when you’re born again. The Bible said you can’t be born again unless you are seed.
Oh yeah, I’ve been all through this for years. This is like John the Baptist therefore, before they’d done evil, before they could even think, before there was something in the flesh, before they came out of the womb, we’re responsible, and you aren’t responsible until you’re a few years old. See?
Now it said,
(11) (…[according to] ”the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
(12) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
(13) As it is written, [in the Book of Malachi] Jacob have I loved, [and] Esau have I hated.
Now you could say, “Well I believe that means ‘love less’. Well all right, I’ll go along with that. What about the wise and foolish virgin? Which did He love more? The wise virgin. Which did He love less? The foolish virgin. How much love did He bestow upon Pharaoh and upon Cain?
Oh He treated them both with respect because God is a very respecting Person. But God respects His Own Word, so there came a day. If we don’t respect God’s Word, remember God respects His Word. We respect our word, oh I think we do, how much more God?
Let’s go here to Philippians, I think what I want next, and 2:12-13.
(12) Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
(13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and do of his [own] good pleasure.
Now a sovereign God sovereignly picks a man and sovereignly judges what His will is in that man! That’s what It says; look I’m reading my Bible. It is God that did the choosing, by foreknowledge, way before there’s a speck of stardust, it is God that brought you down here in this earth, and It says right here, “You better recognize this fact and be in fear and trembling concerning it, that it’s going to be God in you, willing and doing of His good pleasure.”
Now we know what the most acceptable service is, is to get the deepest in the Word. Let that revelation permeate our very beings and become everything to us. And now he says right here, “This will be God in you working.” And it’s going to work according to a rule and a standard that God laid down.
All right, let’s go to Ephesians 3:20 and see the very same thing again. Watch it. It said,
(20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that [is at work within] us,
It really says, “Unto Him Who in the exercise of His power that is at work within us.” God exercising His Own power.
That’s why Brother Branham preached on gifts, and that’s why Christ condemned the use of gifts outside the framework of the Word! How could anybody believe this Message? And when Brother Branham put his Church in order and said, “Tongues and interpretation must go in the little room,” they walked out and joined Junior Jackson’s church!
How come there’s a church right now in Arizona that says, “Well, we just couldn’t do without those gifts on the floor.”
After all these years. You want gifts here? I hope you do. We’ll make a room for it. And that’s not in derision. I’ll go in with you. I’m not afraid of gifts. I prophesied time and time again, it came right to pass on the letter. I’ve spoken like out of a blue sky and told people things going to come to pass, it hadn’t failed. It’s not going to fail either.
God doesn’t give us some Chinese checker puzzle; some hit and miss game, like Bingo or Lotto. Do you think God’s foolish? I said Brother Branham’s the only man had discernment; the rest thought they had it. God doesn’t make mistakes.
Okay:
[29] God is sovereign.
He’s sovereign in the vessel, He’s sovereign in working in the vessel, and He’s sovereign in doing what He wants, concerning what He wants worked out, and how He wants it worked out, as to time element and everything else. So we’ll look at it.
[29] And we see here what David did, in the Scripture reading of First Chronicles 13. And… His intentions were good. [The road to hell are paved with good intentions. As Brother Ungren said, “God won’t give you any Brownie Scouts for that. That’s right. You got to understand this.] But God does not give us merits on good intentions. [Now watch.] There is only one way to serve God, and that’s by doing His will at His command.
Now He’s a sovereign God. He’s got to pick you to do it, He’s got to tell you how and what to do it, He’s got to tell you when to do it, He’s got to give you the strength to do it, it’s got to be of God. Now remember this is very true for all of us, but it’s more true for the prophet William Branham than anybody else, and he’s aiming at that structure right there. So:
[29] There is only one way to serve God, and that’s by doing His will at His command.
Now several elements must be noted concerning this sovereign authorized statement. Because this is a sovereign authorized statement that Brother Branham said, “All I know to tell you is the Message that He revealed to me.” This is part of that Message. And that is, “Bride get this understanding. Cut those veils of creeds and dogmas and your own ideas out! And open your heart for inspiration.”
All right, number one: it must be God’s man. We read that in Romans 9, and we see in the 15th to 17th verses, which we haven’t read, that Paul compares Moses and Pharaoh.
And he said, “For this cause have I raised thee up, that my wrath and anger may be showed in you.” He raised up Moses for the mercy and the blessing of God.
Now let’s go back and read Romans 12, and we’re going to look at verses 3-8.
(03) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Now he gave you something to work on. And you’re to think soberly about it. In other words the thoughts are sobering. And in the sobriety you know that you’re right. You are not making a crucial decision which is going to fail you. I’ve used the term many times, ‘a calculated risk’.
I know preachers don’t like me to use it. But in the sense it is! Because it means you knowingly throw yourself unto God and His provision and you stand there! It is a calculated risk! Because you don’t know you’re a hundred percent right, that your faith will hold, this and that. But you believe God it will.
Because the Bible said, “Let him that think he stands take heed lest he fall. And let him that not boasts that puts his armor on as him that taketh off.” Now it’s not that God’s going to fail you, that God wants to fail, but many a man has failed God.
So I say look, it’s where you deliberately stick your neck out and stand there and see who chops it off. And you know what? Nobody going to chop it off if you believe in God. It won’t get chopped off. I stood there many a time.
I’m going to tell you, you have a right attitude with the Word of God, my brother/sister; God will bring it to pass. I want to restore you, if you’ve got fears I want to get the fears out of your system, because they don’t have to be there. See?
Now, God’s man… I want to read further.
(04) For we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
(05) So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
(06) Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
(07) Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering:
Now that can be a million different things in my books. But it says God has equipped you, and you wait on it! And your gift will make room for you! God literally slapped my face years ago and told me, “You took My place, you made room for men; it’s not your job, I make room for men by gifts and callings.”
And I’m still a sucker for it! I’m still stupid. You know why? I’m not spiritual. Brother Branham was spiritual. He didn’t take me and lead me to people and say, “Now you have Brother Vayle,” or do as I said. He never served me, I served him. And you know what? Did me good.
I don’t rely on anybody anymore except God, and the older you got the more you got to rely on God. When I talk about any ministry I have, I don’t do it to exalt myself, I let you know, look, I believe in it, I’m standing on it. Lest anyone challenge it, I’m standing here to take your challenge any day of the year.
Nobody has to listen. It’s wait on your ministry. I can’t understand this with a lot of preachers. They don’t wait on their ministry; they wait on somebody else’s, a lot of time. That’s not the way to do it; you got a ministry, prove it. See, it will take years, it’s hard, many times.
(07) …he that teache[s], on teaching;
I got the biggest kick of my life last night, I phoned my sister. She’s about seventy-eight years old now.
And so, “How you doing?”
Well she’s fine. She said, “You know I was hearing those tapes on the Rapture.”
And she said, “You know as I sat there listening,” she said, “something came into my mind, just like a Voice, and telling me saying, “You know, he’s a teacher.” If she could pick that up from those tapes she’s got a lot more on the ball than I thought she had.
(08) Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; [that’s part of pastoring.] he that shew[s] mercy, with cheerfulness.
In other words, I’m trying to show you here, when God in His sovereignty says there’s only one way to serve God, that’s by doing His will at His command, I pointed out to you and showed you that it’s got to be God’s man, and then the next thing it’s got to be God’s plan. That was in Philippians 3:15-16.
(15) …therefore [let us], as many as be perfect, [and that’s being a believer, Bride] be thus minded: and if any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Now he’s showing you that the Bride has God’s plans and ways made known unto her! You cannot be in Christ and walk in darkness! I’ve tried to teach you a long time now, don’t stumble around, wondering what you are, accept what you are! And be the best you can where you’re at.
Don’t aspire to be what you aren’t! You’ll never help the man trying to carry the ball; you’ll interfere with him instead of running interference for him. And don’t try to cabbage God’s heritage! When you work as a body, you’re working with the Headship in the Word.
No big ones, no little ones, we’re just all one in Christ, we’re all members one of another. And if there’s any big shots here, and we’re all members one of another, then the guy that you consider the little shot, is just as big as you are, because he’s member of you!
Well say, “I don’t think I can get my membership.” Well you never were a member in the first place; drop dead.
What would be the use of me teaching if you couldn’t share in what I got and have what I got? What it be by you standing here? You give me one reason. I’d be speaking to the wind, to the four pillars. I’d just say, “Well thank God we got tapes, love these folk, nice people, they come and make a nice [inaudible] someone to preach to, ah tapes go out, there be out there somebody receive It.” Not in my books.
I don’t believe there’s a people to compare the people we got here. I’m prejudiced of course. But Brother Branham’s prejudiced too. Jesus is prejudiced; why shouldn’t I be prejudiced? I’m not going to pull my punches on that. I don’t believe there’s anybody in the country that knows it across the board the way you people know, at least what I am teaching here, what I believe to be the Word of God.
Now It says right here,
(16) Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Now if there is such a thing as a rising tide of revelation, a revelation that doesn’t supersede, only by reason of its glory, because it’s the same revelation only intensified and magnified, it says God will let you have that too!
So therefore we see a picture coming out here. If Brother Branham was doing what Paul did, and he’s the end time prophet, that’s the Omega for the Alpha, and we’re coming into revelation, which allows us to worship and to serve God in a realm of perfection not granted to anybody else!
Now they’ll do just as well on Judgment Day, don’t mistake me there. Just as much credit, just as much everything, but we have the magnified revelation. That’s why there’s a rest and a relaxation in certain realms that could not come otherwise. God’s plan made known.
The third thing: that person must be commanded by God to do it! You see Moses was commanded, but Balaam tried to step in and did. Korah, Dathan and Abiram tried to step in and did. And they died for it. One died an ignominious battle, fighting against the children of God.
What a horrible thing to utter a prophecy that’s living right in this very hour and go down in battle against the children of God and come up at the White Throne and have that thrown in your face, what you did. It will be done.
I just thinking this morning concerning all these bugs and germs that get in our bloodstream. And I think, “My God, what can that little yeast germ, that candidiasis, what can it do to a person?” And I’ve experienced it.
And I thought, “Well, I learned what the twilight zone was. If you stop out here, and your soul stops in some place out here, in that eerie, terrible place that Brother Branham saw.” I thought, “Well you know I kind of enjoy seeing those germs destroyed, like Brother Branham said, by that fire that falls and goes a thousand miles high and purifies everything.”
And I thought, “Well how can I watch all those bugs squirm?” And I thought, “No, it’s the force behind it I’m going to watch.”
And that’s true, because those germs will be destroyed, they’re not in God’s economy, and Satan will pay a price. You bet he will. And God will be glorified because we hold the fort, believing no matter what happens God is with us and for us. So it’s got to be commanded by God. Then doing it is in God’s time. Such as crossing of Jordan, blowing the trumpet.
So we’re looking at things here then, the sovereign God has sent us a prophet in a sovereign manner to teach us the way to serve God, which is by doing His will at His command, and the revealed Word is the revealed will of Almighty God.
So God’s got a man, God’s got a plan, that’s made known, God’s commanding it, God is giving us the strength and power, revelation to do it, and He’s telling us when to do it. See? It’s got to be a time and season.
[29] And God, being sovereign, there’s no one to tell Him what to do or how to do it. …He knows the right way…
Now I like that. Because it’s been told us that God will tell us the right way. In fact God can only tell us the right way, He never tells us the wrong way, because He doesn’t know a wrong way. And when somebody had to do the wrong way, God let the devil do it. He sent a nymph down there to confuse Ahab and tell him a lie. God never told any lies.
That’s why I say the integrity of God is so great, when He sent Brother Branham with ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’, how could it not be God? If it wasn’t God, God could not back up His Holy Name! Because I won’t back up when somebody tells a lie about me. Say, “I never said it, drop dead.”
Well look, if I got that kind of integrity, being the stupid oaf that I am, and you’re not much better, like the guy said, “If you’re a lady,” said, “that’s fine, I’m not much better, I’m a gentleman.” That’s the way it goes. Do you think God is going to lower Himself to tell a lie? Do you think God’s some kind of a buffoon up there? No way, shape and form, brother/sister. See?
Now the service rendered therefore according to this last statement:
[29] God, being sovereign, and there’s no one to tell Him what to do or how to do it. [The service rendered is something God desires and in the way God wants it done. Therefore it is a picture of God and man blending in one, so therefore when it is done, it is God doing it! In a vessel. That’s Brother Branham again. That’s you and me too, in a lesser degree.] …and knows a right way… [What’s the right way Brother Branham? ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’. And he said,] that makes me feel good. And it ought to make us all feel good, and I’m sure it does. For, one would have It coming this way, and one would have It coming that way, and one would have It another way.
Now this must be Brother Branham speaking of something more than just something like feeding widows and orphans, paying your tithes and going to church, and being nice to people. That’s more than that. See? Far more.
He’s talking about his own ministry, always does. He has to veil it many, many times. But you know when you’re to the place where you see these things and not veiled anymore, you can pick out what’s yours and what the prophet’s saying. And it’s all ours. Sure, it’s all ours. Keep reading.
[30] But one great thing, again, about God, He’s not left us, now, without knowing what’s the Truth and how to do it.
Now remember, the parallel age. What confronted Jesus in the flesh confronted Brother Branham. What Jesus performed through the flesh, God doing it, Brother Branham had the same ministry. Right? Perfect. Same parallel. You can’t get away from it. So he’s telling you here then that God has made known a way.
Now watch,
[30] He wouldn’t be just, to punish us for doing something that we didn’t know how it was going to be done, and let us stumble into something.
What does Paul say about that? He said concerning the Rapture, “You’ve not been left in darkness; you’re going to miss the tribulation!” How? “For the Lord Himself shall descend with a Shout.”
Isn’t that what he’s saying? If that’s not what he’s saying, I don’t know what I’m doing up here. Because anybody can spout this. Anybody could say this. I’m looking at a man that knew what he was saying, and God speaking in the man.
Now we showed you that Wednesday night. It was shocking to me to see it myself for the first time in that sermon, where Brother Branham had literally laid it out, the same as he did in New York, “Yes, I am Malachi 4:5,6. I am Elijah which was to come.” And he tells you right there, God in him was telling these things.
Say, “Well I just wonder how much God?”
You know why you wonder that? Because you think you got the Holy Ghost and therefore you don’t need anybody.
Now I’m not saying that to you people here, I’m saying that to a lot of people not even on the tapes. I just have to get my little dig in. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t feel like I’d dug deep enough. I don’t mean to be mean about anything, but look, you know I’m telling you the truth. Why can’t they stand these things? They can’t, because there’s ignorance and pride there.
I can say everything I knew before Brother Branham, I knew certain things, they were right, but I didn’t know them in the rightness that God wanted me to know them. That’s what the Seals are all about! When you accept the Seals, you accept perfection; that which is Perfect is come. Oh my, brother/sister, don’t you see what’s happening? If you can’t…
Look it, I know you’re struggling, same as I am, like he said, “Struggle to get into Christ.” He says a lot of things. We know there’s a struggle, but you know and I know we are not the same people we were a few years ago.
And you know people coming into this Message from like raw heathenism; they develop like you’ve never seen development. You know something is happening. Some are just scared to let go. Well I’m sorry for you.
Don’t you realize the tide will pick up your old marooned bogged down boat and take you out there where the waters are clear and beautiful? It’s at the shore you got to watch what’s going on, the slime and the muck and the waves tossing to mess you. Get out there in the deep; it’s calm and serene out there. Brother Branham said the stabilizers are on, every wave is guaranteed to be crested. My.
Said, “Sure makes me feel good, I know this is going on. Makes me good to know that there is a sure way” – that what? – “we can worship and serve God.”
Now let me tell you something, brother/sister, there is a two-fold prong there, but it’s a one-fold prong; it makes one fork. Worship and serving. And they go hand in hand. And I tell you all your service without worship is no good, and your worship without service is no good, so he’s talking about an integrated man, with God, integrated with God. Right.
We’re a part of the Word. He said, “You receive this Word, you become the Word of God in your flesh.”
Now goes on saying,
[30] But one great thing, again, about God, He has not left us… [you see?] He wouldn’t… punish us for doing something we didn’t know how it was going to be done, and stumble into something. [In other words, that’s 1 Thessalonians 4:16, where we have the revelation we are not going to be left to the devil.] He is not that kind of a God. He’s a God that speaks the Word and expects His children to believe It. [Look, you don’t act before you believe. Now we often say we speak before we think. No we don’t, we think, but we speak too fast, we should think again and again, then talk. But you can’t act until you believe. If you’re a Christian. Now, he expects them to believe.] And, therefore, He knows what’s best, and when to do it, and how to do it. We have our ideas, but He knows.
Now an idea is a different thing from knowledge. He knows. Now, is Brother Branham telling us here categorically that he is building up to Revelations 22:18,19, where you cannot add and you cannot take away? The answer is yes. Is he building up to 1 Corinthians 13:9, that which is Perfect is come? Yes, he’s building up to it, he’s telling you. He’s telling you right there.
Now, reading again.
[31] And then if God set up a system, that what He was going to do, and didn’t tell us what was going to happen and how it was going to happen, then we’d be stumbling at it, and we’d be justified in our stumbling;
What is this all about? The vision where he saw the Bride getting in order to march up into glory and get in step. And in one place I read where he said he’s still getting the Bride to get in step. We’re still getting in step.
Now you see if he tells us, then he’s justified in any damage we incur on ourselves by not obeying and by not believing, because believing is the big thing. See? Because the obedience of faith is the great thing. And that’s not works now, that’s in knowing the Word of God and worship, then going into works.
Now he said God wouldn’t be justified, but we would be justified. Now then if William Branham told the truth, about 1 Thessalonians 4:16, stood before the people, and the Pentecostals, which now have the limelight and the eye of the church world, refused what he said, then they’re all condemned! Blind leaders of the blind! Everyone in the ditch. See, they’ve got to be. They’ve got to turn down the truth. And the question comes, what is the truth?
I told you Ned Iverson sat beside Billy Graham. Saw him on an airplane, went over, said, “Dr. Graham?”
He said, “Yes sir.”
He said, “I’m Ned Iverson. I’m the son of Dr. Dan Iverson.”
“Oh,” he said, “I know Dr. Iverson very well.”
So they got to talking. And he said, “Brother Graham,” he said. “What about the fact,” he said, “that the Word has not yet been restored?”
And Billy said, “That’s true, the Word has not been restored.” And Billy right today says he’s plumb dried out, why? Because he hasn’t taken the Word. That’s where the oil is.
You people drive enough cars and know enough about it, where you let the grease go out of your axle, what do you got? Got a red hot fire. It’ll melt. It’ll melt. That’s just not it. See?
[31] …there’s only one way, [he said,] that’s His Word.
But just a minute. In his text he said, “You have taken and left my Word and made your traditions.” Which means “You have taken my Word and put your own interpretation upon It and you have utilized it to your own end and whatever means you wanted.” He told them. Sure.
Okay, let’s keep reading then. See, the key of knowing worship that is accepted, and to worship and to perform for God, is the right dividing of the Word, the right revelation. That’s true. Okay, “Another thing…” This is paragraph 32:
[32] …another thing, David here, we see that in his heart he wanted to do something that was good.
Good intentions. You know a lot of people have good intentions, they really don’t mean bad. Do you think Judas really meant bad? Do you think Eve really meant bad? Who can say? Do you think maybe Pharaoh was bad? He was trying to perpetuate what he thought was right.
Do you think a lot of these church people are bad? No. Their hearts are evil, they don’t know it. You know what? They are as unaware of their evil heart as you and I are unaware of our truly righteous heart. Yup. And the thing is this: they put more stock in theirs than we do in ours much of the time, when it should be vice versa. True. True. Oh yes, yet he wanted to do something good.
[32] He had no bad motive, or bad objective. But, the house, or the ark of the Lord, was away from the people, and he wanted to bring the ark of God back to its place, so the people would consult God about the things that they wanted.
Now that’s wonderful. It’s a true spiritual principle! Right! Get God and the people back together because the people need God! But it backfired! See this is what he’s trying to point out. See? To show you and me that this is something far beyond you and me just saying, “Hey, I can read the book, I got a revelation, I know I’m right.” How do you know you’re right? Trinitarian’s sure there’s three gods.
There’s those that believe in two gods, they’re sure they’re right. There’s some that believe in Jesus only and they’re wrong, as the rest of them. We got to stand between, amongst, whatever you want to call it. We’re not like they are, if we’re right we’re the speckled bird that the blood is upon.
And when that bird flies, the wings flap and say, “Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord.” The rest can’t do that. Oh they’re flying, but they’re not flying unto God. They’re principled, but they’re not principled unto God. They’re spiritual, but their spirit is not of God. It’s permitted, it’s allowed, because there’s a Judgment Day coming. But there is a Bride. See?
[32] …he wanted to bring the ark of God back to its place, [yes sir,] so the people would consult God about the things they wanted.
And the church wants desperately the Headship of God and they don’t know where It is! Sure they do! Say, “What do you mean?” They want Millennium. People don’t want the disincarnated Spirit that’s amongst us today. They say they do but they don’t. Because they won’t recognize the fact that He came down. I want to know what people are learning. Sure not what we’re learning.
[33] Instead of just letting it go, [David desired to get God on the scene. Now he illustrates.] What if Brother Blair… the father of this little boy had said, “Well, it’s too bad, the child got hurt, and maybe killed. I guess, just something that happened”? But they went quickly to God.
Now he’s commending the fact that this is a spiritual principle that can be used. And David went right to God to get the thing solved right, but he boo-booed; he actually boo-booed, so there’s something more to this than what meets the eye.
[34] What if the little lady, and her husband, a minister of the Gospel, a few nights, or days ago, when that little lady had that busted spine, she just stood up… The doctor said, “She’ll be paralyzed all of her life.” What if her husband had said, “Well, honey, we’ll just console ourselves to that”? But quickly they did something about it; they went to God. How many things in the Bible could we refer to, of how people when they get in trouble, they get to God!
Now, in other words it’s right to go to God for every pressure, every need. And it’s right to go right away, rather than the last resort.
[35] Well, then, in those days, they had only one meeting place where they could meet God, [now watch that, this is parallel right to this hour,] and that was at the ark, under the blood. That’s the only meeting place yet, under the Blood. The mercy seat was sprinkled, to give mercy to the worshipper, or the asker, when he came to ask the petition of God. And God had a special routine, [I like his language] the way you had to go, about that, and He wouldn’t accept anything else. He wouldn’t accept any other provision; [like with Cain and Abel] just the way He fixed it.
Now, it’s like He said to Moses, “See thou make all things according to the pattern I showed you in the mount.” And Brother Branham came to put the Church in order. And we know what that is, 1 Corinthians 15.
Okay, the knowledge of the necessity of the ark and its right location was truly correct mechanically. God recognizes the mechanically correct; He doesn’t recognize anything that is incorrect mechanically. He won’t do it. And this of course on the blood, the ark, is the antitype where the blood of Jesus Christ is shed today.
Okay, he keeps reading.
[36] Recently I just preached on a Message, many of you know about It, and there is only one place provided that God meets the worshipper, in the place that He said, “I’ll put My Name.” If we can find a church that He put His Name in, then we got the place. [So Brother Branham is telling us, “Let us look for a church and find a church or get a church where that Name is.” And we want that for our church, right? We sure do.] He said, “I will not bless you in all the gates…
Now what is a gate? A gate signifies an enclosure. So whatever gate you go into, that means you’ll get trapped in there. The door swings shut at you and you made your home there, that’s it. Now He said, “I’ve got one gate, where I put My Name. I’ve got one open door, I’ve got one trap, so to speak, one bait” – I’m bringing this down, vulgarizing, so you get what I’m talking about – “this one place. Now you come there, opens, brings you right in, slams, shuts you in.” See?
Now what do you think of somebody that put a sheep trap out to entice sheep, and it was the neighbor’s sheep? You’d say, “That guy’s a rustler.” Well Jesus doesn’t rustle sheep. Yeah. The sheep know the gate, because the sheep know the Name. These sheep are smart, they can read. And they read, you know how they read? Spiritual eyes. They read with the prophet.
[36] “I’ll not bless you in all the gates; just the gates that I put My Name in. I’ll put It in one place, and you’ve got to meet Me there; and that’s the only place I’ll meet you.”
Then is there any meeting in the Bride, to be Bride, rejecting one man prophet brings this Message with the Presence of Christ, Christ having appeared. You show me. You show me, I want to be shown. Because if I’m wrong, I’ll quit my teaching. But I’ve preached literally hundreds of hours on this now, brother/sister.
One fellow said, “That guy Vayle preached” – I think he said, what was it? – “twelve sermons” or something?
I said, “I preached forty-eight.”
He can’t even count. I’ve preached literally hundreds. It all is the same thing. Hundreds of hours, just on Christ the Mystery of God. Twenty-seven of them. Let’s say it was twenty-eight. Well let’s say twenty-seven, so twenty-eight just for the fun, and then I’ll knock off an hour and a half. What do you with twenty-eight, an hour and a half each?
You multiply it three times… three over two. Forty-two hours. Less an hour and a half. That’s quite a long time to preach about, that boils down to the Name, boils down to the place, boils down to what’s going on. See? Sure.
[36] “…only one place to meet you.” And we found out, there, where He put His Name, [found out that’s where it is] and that’s the only place that He meets the worshipper. And His Name is Jesus Christ. God’s Name is Jesus Christ.
How many times have we said that? What is that all about? Well I’m glad I asked myself the question, so I’ll tell you.
(17) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And he only had one inheritance; he inherited his Father’s Name, his Father’s life. And we’ve got it. Jesus and his life. It’s in the last day, right in Ephesians. Then anybody up here, in verses 13 and 14, that says they’ve got the Holy Ghost, and denies 17 and 18, doesn’t have any Holy Ghost. Can’t have. Not the way we understand it. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t believe I’m wrong.
And Brother Branham said you could get by without the Token before but you can’t anymore. He said you could join a church and this and that, which is true. That’s like the Jews under the Fifth Seal. Perhaps God’s got a Fifth Seal for the Gentiles. I don’t understand. But I’m going to tell you one thing: you better not miss it now.
You see, the church had been playing a card game with God for a long time. You know, God doesn’t let the world shuffle His deck. And it’s time to turn the cards up, and I’m going to tell you, God has every winning card in that deck, so to speak. And He’s manifested His hand.
And the world’s come short. We know the devil’s secret, we know God’s secret. We’ve got the answer to the devil. The vindicated Word! What more do you want? Well if you say, “I don’t believe that,” shows you ain’t got a thing. Don’t have what the prophet had. And we surely want what the prophet had, I would think we did, didn’t we?
Okay. Let’s keep reading.
[37] Jesus said, “I come in My Father’s Name.” Every son comes in his father’s name. [Sure.] And He came in the Name of the Father. “And there is not another Name under Heaven given amongst men,” whether Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, church of Christ, whatever it might be. There’s only one meeting place that God meets man, that’s when he’s in Jesus Christ, the only place. [That’s right, see?] And all these old things back there under the Old Testament and that, they just typed that. I want you to clearly understand it. Now, it’s a Sunday school lesson. And I’ve got some Scriptures and notes written down here. And I thought this would help you to understand, as all the old things happen for examples.
And he always goes to the Old Testament to illustrate he’s right on target, because that’s what Paul said, “These things are examples unto us, lest we fall, we don’t take heed.” We better watch, right? Okay.
Now what he said here about this Name and “No other Name given under heaven whereby we must be saved,” because that’s what he’s talking about, over there in I think it’s Acts 13, this should cause us not to pry into the new Name that Brother Branham said came forth under the Thunders. Leave it alone.
Because I don’t care how far we go in revelation, brother/sister, there’s just one Name! Jesus! Lord Jesus the Christ. We don’t have another Name. As long as people are being saved.
Now look, the Jews are yet to come in. So what did Brother Branham mean? He meant what he said, because he told me he meant what he said, and that’s all he meant and wouldn’t tell me anymore. He said, “You said exactly enough. Look in the Church Age Book.” He said, “To say anything less you wouldn’t have said it. And to say anything more they would have run with it!”
I said, “Well tell me.” Tell nobody. I didn’t ask him, I knew better than that. He’d just give me a silly grin or maybe a real stern look. I wouldn’t know which I’d get. Whichever he felt like or God wanted me to have; stern look or just little grin and walk off. I don’t know. But he didn’t tell me. I can’t tell you. Couldn’t.
[38] Now, we find that God had a way of doing things. But David, just being blessed of God, like he had, was blessed when he became king, he just thought that he would just do something for God, anyhow. [That’s nice, you know.] And he never went about it in the right way.
Now this lets us know immediately that there can be a wrong way for doing a right thing. Now that’s the thing you see that the church cannot accept today. That if you are off the Word, you’re off. And if you’re on the Word, God will bring you around to where it works out.
Let’s go to Ecclesiastes 3, one of my favorites, you know this, as well as I do. I think if I could have asked you this morning, “Hey where you get something like that in the Bible?” you’d have told me.
So we go to Ecclesiastes 3, when I find it in here, stuck in here between Isaiah and a few other things. Okay, 14th verse.
(14) I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: [can’t change, see?] nothing can be put to it, [nor] any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
Now that tells you about a prophet. How he does it, brings the Word, the whole bit, and whatever scenario he works out, it must follow that way perennially.
(15) That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God require[s] that which is past.
He tells you, “Once I told you and you know it, you’re to look back on that and realize I’m doing the same thing now!”
Now let’s look at the Blood. The first thing God did to propitiate sin was blood. Then it’s the only thing that ever propitiates sin. I don’t care what you do. The Blood opened the way for the time that man would get back to God in the Garden of Eden. And the baptism with the Holy Ghost guaranteed the efficacy of the Blood in your behalf!
So therefore you’re sealed back to get there! And we’re not ashamed in His Presence. In other words we’re not naked with Him here anymore. We’ve got clothes on, spiritual mindedness. See brother/sister how this all is in the Message that Brother Branham taught so perfectly.
[39] We notice, God reveals His Word in His Own predestinated season.
Now he throws in something new here that people don’t like to know about. “Oh we always had revelation, there’s nothing more to give.” Yet we know the Book’s sealed! We know the Thunders haven’t been given! I’m talking now in the days of when we were Fundamental believers. I’m talking for them, like Dr. Bloomfield, fine man, I believe he’s dead by now. He knew these things, he knew someone had to come and tell us.
Rotherham knew someone had to tell us, by the events, what Presence meant. Not these modern bumblers. You can’t trust a scholar today, brother/sister, that’s under the face of the man. You can’t do it; I don’t care what he says! You can only trust the old scholars under a face of a man! Because they took you as far as they could go!
These men are bogged down in spiritual amnesia. And they know nothing about what I read here: “Whatever God does, It shall be forever, nothing put to It, nothing taken from It, because God did It! And men should fear because of that.”
And yet when William Branham came on the scene, they sneered, they scoffed, the women kicked up their heels like a bunch of wild mares. Worse than that, mules. Tittered, tweaked, about the sobriety of the prophet’s Message. Knowing not one time, even in death, did the prophet miss.
You think people care? “Oh hallelujah. Jesus and I are buddy-buddy. You know, I’m full of the Holy Ghost.” How full? It won’t work brother/sister, it won’t cut.
[39] …God reveals the Word in His season. Now, how could Martin Luther have known about the Message today? [Well let’s read Martin Luther, I’ve been reading him, several years back, haven’t touched for a long time. He didn’t see this.] How could the Presbyterians? How could Martin… [that’s St Martin] how could the Catholic church know Martin Luther’s message? How could John Wesley have known Luther’s message? How could Wesley have known Pentecost message?
They didn’t! They condemned it! The Nazarene church patently declared it was the devil! And Brother Branham saw a vision of the Nazarene church making love to a corpse! You know what he said? Do you think he was just kissing that woman? Could be just some little kissing. But you’ve heard of people actually engaging in sex acts with corpses. How low can you get?
A good dose of AIDS is way above that, if you want to know how I think about it. That’s what he saw in a vision. You talk about the Nazarene church, where is it today? That goes for the whole bunch of the churches that blasphemed. One vision’s enough, and for Pentecost he saw Pentecostal pussycats, just stroke them, pussy, pussy, pussy, and then fluff the hair – [hiss!]
Say one little thing about ‘the great assemblies of God’. Assemblies of God? Yes God assembles the vultures for Judgment Day. He assembles all the nations for Judgment Day. He’s on to assemble now, under the prostitute, the old harlot.
Dr. Bell called their bluff! And they said, “No, no…” That’s Billy Graham’s father-in-law, the old Christianity Today magazine. “Oh no, we don’t belong! Retract, retract!” Dr. Bell never moved one inch!
Brother Branham, prophet of God, came right behind and said, “They’ve joined the harlot.”
Oh in other words, all the great denominations are fishing. “Now we won’t join them but we’ll come and put our feet in the water on their bank and throw our rod in. Our fish… our line in.” You joined them honey. You don’t need to wear your button out there, you’ve joined them.
You know, you remember old Elisha? Gehazi? He ran after Naaman to get the money and the silver and the garments and all? He said, “Where did you go just then?”
He said, “Nowhere.”
He said, “Didn’t my heart go with you? What are you lying for? I know where your heart went. I knew all along what you were doing.”
Do you think a prophet don’t know what’s going on in Pentecost? Listen, if William Branham didn’t know that, he wasn’t much of a prophet to stand up and say the things that he said, he was just guessing. Do you think he was guessing? I’m appalled at what that man said that’s coming to pass now, and I’m glad William Branham is dead.
I wish I was as dead as he was, you know in the sense that we’re living over there in great style. That’s wonderful. I wish I was there with him. But I’ll tell you, for his sake I am glad! That he’s gone. I’m glad Sis. Mede’s gone. A lot of life went out of our lives when they left. Like a graveyard down there.
I’m not much for mortuaries and crypts and mausoleums, dead men’s bones. I don’t like going down there. Because there’s just memories. The memories are wonderful, but there’s a haunting spirit in my books that’s… you know I’m just telling you flat I miss them, its been ruff. But I’m glad they’re gone. Wouldn’t call them back if I could call them back. But I wait for them in the resurrection. And that’s plenty good, that’s very good.
Now he said,
[39] Or how could the Pentecostals know this Message? See? He reveals It in His season, because It is a Seed. And as It grows and matures, He reveals Himself.
Now he tells you what it’s like. Now one of the hardest things to learn, yet it’s very simple, and it’s a simple question: is one able to tell the spring from the summer, the summer from the harvest, the harvest from the planting? Well sure, anybody knows that. Then anybody can know This too.
You say, “Where do you get that from?”
I’ll tell you where I get it from. He said, “You hypocrites. You can look at the sky at night and you know its good weather tomorrow. You can look at the sky in the morning, and say, “It’s going to be bad weather today.”” He said, “You can tell the skies and you refuse to tell the signs of the times.” It wasn’t that they couldn’t, it’s what they wouldn’t. And he said, “Look at the works even! Then draw a conclusion!”
“Ah,” they said, “the devil can do it.”
“Well just a minute,” he said, “I’m casting out devils, your children cast out devils, by whom are they cast out?” Tell me that there’s two different recipes in the Word of God.
They didn’t argue, they said, “Oh go on, you’re of the devil, you’re a Samaritan, you’re just nobody.”
So then I ask the question: in spite of the fact that people do not believe in seasons, is it possible to know the season? And the answer is absolutely right. People can know the seasons without a doubt.
Now watch what he says about the seed being planted and so on.
[40] Like the heat of the sun, to open up. [The seed into a plant, see?] When it’s tender and young, [the plant] it’s brought out of the ground, the seed is; then it gives its leaves, in another stage of the sun. [Right? Sure, we plant in the spring because summer’s too hot. Only certain things can stand the heat, see?] The hot sun will kill it if it’s the ripening seed… or ripening time. [Sure.] So, He regulates the sun and regulates nature, to meet His Word.
Now watch, the illustration he gave there. Now watch his conclusion, he tells you the precept.
[40] He regulates the Church, the predestinated, the Bride, to meet the season that they are living in.
He’s explaining why it says a Word in a season and how it comes. The nature of the Bride therefore, I’m telling you this, the nature of the Bride goes toward Revelation. Today it’s an eagle. The rest recognize the season, knowing something is about to happen, and something should happen, but they can’t put their finger on it, because they don’t have a revelation.
Just like Jesus said, “Look, you can tell certain things, and you’re putting your finger on it, but you really can’t get it.” Now he said, “If you had revelation you would get It.”
[41] Even nature itself tells us today, as we see the nations breaking, the earth sinking in, the handwriting is on the wall. We see the church and the states that it’s in. We see the Bride and the state that She’s in. And we know, by nature, that the true Church is getting ready to leave. What a glorious time! It’s a time that all the prophets longed to see, this hour.
How does he know? Because he’s a prophet. See? He’s a prophet. Give you a Scripture here before we close off.
(04) Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, [when] he have taken nothing?
(05) Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken [up] nothing at all?
(06) Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in the city, and [shall not] the LORD [do something about] it?
(07) Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
(08) The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Now that’s over there in Revelation 10. Absolutely tells you. He’s revealing to us here, “I am the one who’s going to tell you how to be in perfect worship and ministrations unto Almighty God, I have the key being a prophet.” And it is the Word that can come at no other time, this time and this time only.
So that’s all we’re going to take today, that’s just roughly the time’s up anyway.
So brother/sister, next Wednesday we’ll continue with this message, and again we’ll see that the prophet in a veiled manner, and yet very clear to us, revealed exactly who he was, revealed the Presence of God, the plan and purpose of God, the revelation of God, fulfilling exactly the ministry that John the Baptist had, fulfilling absolutely the ministry that’s in Ephesians 1, that’s in 1 Thessalonians 4, absolutely Revelation 10:1-7, the opening of the Seals, the Thunders, and giving you and me the right, which means the authority, which is like a franchise picked out as only those who can do it, to go to the Tree of Life and live forever.
Now if we’re not that, I’m preaching a sermon, whether the Bride gets it or not, that is Bride food. And if she’s not here and within the sound of my voice, she’s getting it anyway. There’s somebody out there teaching her, knowing the truth, because this is the truth. Because where you are going to go from here?
At the last Trumpet the dead come up. What’s the last Trumpet? Revelations 10:7. What’s happening? The last Trumpet, the Bride is being clothed, ready for immortality. Who blew that Trumpet? Revelations 10:1-7, which is Malachi 4:5,6. Which is the Omega of Galatians 1:11,12, the Omega of 2 Corinthians 3:17,18, and 2 Corinthians 4:1-3, right on down the line.
Everything has been exposed to us, there is nothing now which isn’t in view, brother/sister, which was left out, that is here to bring the dead up and get us out of here.
And all we’re hearing today, and we’ll hear every time we come to this church, is a further confirmation, a reiteration, a fuller expansion, a little more clarity, a little more beauty of revelation, of enticement, the goodies that God’s feeding us, spiritual food in due season, to make us plump and fat in the Presence of God. To get us out of here, preparing us for the land that’s over there.
You say, “You mean He’s preparing us now?”
The prophet categorically said, “You don’t change, it’s just the place you go to that changes.”
I get so thrilled when people come to this church here and they tell me how they love the people, they mention women by name, and men by name, and say, “Oh man, that girl’s got something.”
I say, “Amen, I know she’s got something. I’ve watched her for years.”
“I think I’d like to have a brother like that in my church.”
“Sure,” I said, “I know you would. That’s why I’m holding onto him.” Sure.
I’m happy in the Lord. I believe God’s doing a work. He’s doing a work, an immortal work, immortal bodies, through an eternal Word that He foreknew, just being manifest in this hour. We’ve got to see it that way, brother/sister. Absolutely.
If there’s just one of us going to make the Rapture, and there’s just fifty people here this morning at least, well say fifty, all right every fifty person, every single one of those fifty, “I’m making it.” Yep.
I’m going to tell you something. If that rotten town of Sodom, three people could escape with just one turning back, I don’t think we got to worry here. We’re on the solid rock, remember, fifty miles north of Dayton.
Some day you’ll understand some of the things I say in the light I said them. Almost off the top of my head, but they’re not off the top of the head. They haven’t been and they won’t be, not because I got any gift, brother/sister, but look, we’re dealing in a spiritual realm today.
We’re not dealing in a yo-yo religion, you know that comes and goes. We’re not dealing in some phantasmagoria that’s way out there in the boondocks, we’re dealing in a reality. Spiritual minded people, led by the Pillar of Fire. Not prophet, no, no, no. Mm-mm. Let’s rise.
Most gracious, kind, heavenly Father, we do praise Thee O God for Your love and mercy. You just never let us down Lord, You just never fail Lord, it’s always the same thing. You supply every need, O God, You supply everything. You supply the open doors Lord for us wherein we can come in and You manifest Yourself Lord, there isn’t a thing that You haven’t provided.
No wonder the cry is “All things are ready, come to the feast.” As the prophet screamed out, “The Marriage Supper is at hand,” it had to be, because the Seals were opened, the prophecies could not be closed, and the Tree of Life in full view. We know that Lord and we thank You.
And Father we don’t know it as we ought to know it, and we’re still not sober and sincere as we ought to be, but I know Lord we are going to be, because your own prophet Paul said, he which being confident in this very thing, Paul had that confidence, “That He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
And we know that Brother Branham came in that very day, yes sir, we know he did Lord, and he said, “Thus It has been spoken and thus It shall be.”
Lord I appreciate that, I really do. O God, when that seventh angel came down and told him on that mountain out there, Marriage and Divorce, that the Bride was forgiven her adulteries and divorces over, and we see that Lord, even in the human flesh men and women forgiven, it’s all made up, it’s all over, pure little Bride of Christ, we appreciate that Lord.
And we know and say with the prophet, if we’re not Bride there’s a Bride out there somewhere, and by Your grace we’ll not stand in her way, but rather as friends, may cheer her on and bless the holy Name of our God, knowing something about Him Who alone is worth knowing about.
Now unto You Lord God in heaven, be all honor and glory, and we hope Lord somehow You do get it through a little bit of our lives here, and maybe even great Lord, we maybe should aspire for even more than we even think Lord. And we ask it all in the lovely Name of Jesus Christ our blessed Savior. Amen and amen.
Take the Name of Jesus with you.