Easter Seal #01

Testator Became Executor And Melchisedec
#1391 /

Shall we pray.

Father, we remember the time that Jesus appeared seemingly late according to what Mary and Martha might have thought, and yet Martha was able to say, “Now that You are here, everything is going to be fine.”

And we’ve seen You and the power of Your Resurrection in the ministry of the Son of man, knowing that You truly raised from the grave, and truly that same One indwelt You is here in our midst, the Pillar of Fire to lead us into the Millennium, having brought the Word to us, and we can also then say that everything is fine and all things are possible now that You’re here.

We pray therefore that You will hear us tonight as we pray concerning this Message that we take from Brother Branham, You’ll give us relaxation, give us pause for thought and our thoughts might come from You, Lord.

We won’t get carried away with our own thinking or rattled concerning the things that Brother Branham says, but rather Lord by Your illumination be able to come to a place of understanding.

Help us tonight Lord that we therefore grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, growing up into Him, knowing the last one either is in or soon will be in, child trained, we’ll be taken away. We give You glory for Your Presence, and for Your honoring us tonight, we’re very grateful.

In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

01

Now we’re looking at a message tonight that Brother Branham preached in Phoenix, and it’s called The Easter Seal.

He evidently preached it one Easter morning, no doubt when he was invited to come there at the request or invitation of Brother Carl Williams, and it was more or less a Full Gospel Businessman’s meeting, wherein there would be many people who have come into the Charismatic experience through these Full Gospel Businessmen.

Now this sermon is not at all like the sermons that he preached when he was there in January of ’65, this is Easter ’65, when he preached Paradox and Seed of Discrepancy and a couple of other messages, it’s more or less one of those messages that you would simply preach going someplace, laying in a bit of teaching, that’s some admonishing, building the Christians up, helping to point the way, encouraging them, enthusing them, exhorting them, to get on with the King’s business, to live godly lives, to believe in the Presence and power of God, and all those various things.

So what we’ll do as we go along, we may attempt to, and I hope successfully, to delete quite a bit of the actual material insofar as the giving of the message, or to read it quite rapidly, because as I say much of it will not be in-depth as to the teaching that we have been receiving from him in this last particular time.

Now Brother Branham enjoyed Easter, you’ll find as we get into this Easter Seal that he put a very great premium upon Easter, and I think it was his favorite time of the year, and a favorite time of special occasions, which special occasion would give him a chance to speak then a special occasion message.

02

So all right, with those thoughts in mind we’re going to start reading on page 4, and I think most of you have the little things made up, and he says here, Matthew 28:[1-10]:

Easter Seal 04-10-65

[4-1]  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

And his countenances was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keeper did shake, and became as dead men. The angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not: for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said, Come see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

03

[4-2]  And in Revelation 1:17,18: And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. And of course in Romans, the 8th chapter the 11th verse: [this fantastic verse as Dr. Bosworth loved so well.]

But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Now I’m sure when we read that verse you immediately went to the Book of Ephesians where we see literally the same Scripture which means so much to us in this closing hour.

Now Brother Branham says: I trust the Lord Jesus will add His blessing to the reading of these words.

04

Now you’ll notice as I read I’ve changed it just a little bit for smoother reading but there is actually no change in any substance, whatsoever.

[5-3]  I have [Easter] stamped it in my heart as the greatest event of the year… Now, I say this [or the reason why I say this,] is because at Easter He proved what the Bible had said. All the Scripture that was written of Him to do, [He performed it, and then] He sealed His Messiahship when He rose from the dead: The Easter Seal.

We [hear] so much [about Easter Seals] today. We talk about buying Easter Seals. Well, I want to speak this morning on the “Easter Seal.”

[5-4]  It’s a different seal from what we buy with our money those are seals to go on letters, and I think they set up by the Tuberculosis Association, or whatever they call it. I think this seal is a little different seal. And being that Easter is the great day of the year for us Christians who claim to be God’s children, I want to try to break into it and see how we should be fellowshipped with this great thing that Christ did for us.

Now I like his wording there, particularly which wording would not be used by any scholar.

[5-4]  I want to try to break into it and see how we should be fellowshipped with this great thing that Jesus did for us.

He brings it into the daily normal experience of a loving relationship, that which is not farfetched and not uncommon to us, but actually reasonably common to us, because it is what we should be doing, fellowshipping because of this great event.

05

Now reading paragraph 20:

[5-5]  The Word of God was spoken many, many hundreds of years before [Jesus’] coming, [before] His crucifixion, [before] His death, [before] His suffering, and also of His resurrection. [And spoken of course before it.] We’ll be going through these services perhaps next week as we listen to our radio programs, and in our churches with our pastors and so forth, this coming week. But of all the days and all of the things that Jesus did… 

And certainly appreciating all of the vindication of God’s Word, and what He did to fulfill it–of healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, preaching the Gospel to the poor and fulfilling every word that God said He would do when He came; and then also suffering for our sins in our stead to be the propitiation for our sins at the cross, where no one else could have done it but Him…

Now that’s a long sentence, and he actually sort of loses himself and what he’s trying to tell you here is that all the prophesies concerning Jesus Christ in the Scripture, and all the things that people will be hearing on the radio and in their own churches, that everything that Jesus did by way of vindicating Him, all these things are wonderful, they are marvelous, but he is still looking at the Resurrection as the greatest event in the Scripture, superceding everything else.

06

So you’ll notice here he says:

And certainly appreciating all of the vindication of God’s Word.

Now the vindication of God’s Word, as we know here, is not the signs that follow the Word, but the signs that go before the Word, giving the man who is a prophet the right to say or speak for God.

He simply cannot come on the scene presumptuously, and say, “I’ve had a vision and I’m going to tell you, I’ve heard a voice, and this and that,” he has to appear exactly as Deuteronomy 18, he must be positively identified.

Now remember Moses was identified by vindication. And Moses himself said, “The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet like unto me from amongst the brethren, and Him you’re going to hear. And if you don’t hear Him you will be cut off from amidst the brethren.”

So therefore this one had to vindicated, and Brother Branham begins to bring out the thought of vindication. So this is a very, very important point. It is concerning vindication.

And we have said hundreds of times that the people stop short of giving vindication its proper place by making it the ultimate within itself, rather than it being the true sign of God for that which is to follow.

And that’s exactly what happened with Moses. Miriam rose up and she said, “Listen,” she said, “I can prophesy, bless God, don’t tell me I can’t, because I’m doing it.”

And Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram said, “Who do you think you are Moses? Are you the only one that God’s looked down upon?”

And the Pentecostals seeing Brother Branham, what did they do? They stopped short with the vindication not knowing that it was vindication, and there was something else to follow. So they ran with it.

07

Remember I told you time and time again, that Tommy Osborne himself betrays himself. And he said, “I stood there, I sat there, when I saw Brother Branham and this great ministry, I knew that Bible days were here again, and a voice said to me, ‘You can do the same thing, it’s in the Bible’.”

And he took it, and he went with it, and where is he today? A dyed in the wool Trinitarian! And that’s horrible!

Vindication number one are the signs that precede the man’s message! So you know that something’s going to follow! Brother Branham said the same thing, “God never gives a true healing revival unless there’s a fresh Message.”

That’s why I keep repeating, I can never understand people, he said, “My ministry is to declare that He is here,” then it had better be a fresh ministry of His Presence, because he said, “God does not vindicate a tired, stale Message.” Well admit this is just natural common sense.

So Brother Branham is bringing out to these people very subtly, the understanding of vindication, and of course they’re all ears… I got to shut-up. I was going to be so nice, relaxed, and sweet tonight, and say all ears and nothing in-between, but I didn’t say it. I just stopped at the right time.

08

Hey look, listen, we’ll show you here to believe is to understand. Prophet said so, don’t you get carried away because somebody said Brother Branham said, “Well to believe doesn’t need to understand it.” And then they run with that, run with that.

What about when he said, “To hear is to understand and to believe is to understand.” You don’t take a statement and run with it. You put it together. Well you all got cars, even the little tiny kids that aren’t even teenagers, I suppose in this audience got some kind of a car, if it’s just a little play car, it isn’t just one piece honey, its many pieces.

And the Word of God is many, many, many, many strata’s, layers, strata, layers of doctrine, line upon line, precept upon precept and so on. Vindication does not only demand a faith in the Word, it presages or goes before, but the Word itself must live and be self-fulfilling.

In other words, hey God does not bring a man on the scene vindicated with a new Message, and that Message fall flat! The life in the Word makes the Word self-propelling, self-existing!

The Word being a conduit, so that it may appeal to your understanding, and not only appeal, but impress your understanding. And that vindication says, “As that man was vindicated with ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’ to bring the Word, that Word cannot fail!”

09

Now Brother Branham is letting you know that the Resurrection is above that! See? Right, everything pointed to Jesus, every prophet… well he tells about that later on. Oh, paragraph 21:

[6-1]  But above all that, I think Easter sealed the whole thing, because there had been prophets [and you know they’re vindicated men] on the earth who had prophesied before Him. There had been prophets [vindicated men] on the earth who’d healed the sick, even raised the dead and did the same signs that Jesus did, but Easter proved it. [Not for them, but for the fact of the Word that they gave that pointed to Him, He Himself vindicated, then dying and rising!]

So let’s look at this thing right off the bat, first of all Easter is equated to Resurrection. So when Brother Branham speaks of Easter, he is not speaking of Easter and some goddess and some little rabbit, or some Easter egg or something, he is speaking positively of the Resurrection, he is only using that term because the world uses it.

So immediately he points to Easter, using the terminology, and he calls it a seal, the Resurrection is a seal. Now what is a seal? Well one way you look at a seal is the king’s ring is the signet, and it usually is a seal. And so when a thing is sealed it means a sign and it’s got to be put into practice. It is the supreme authority from which there is no appeal because this is it!

10

Now you go through the courts of America, when you get to the Supreme Court, now this is a lie I’m going to tell you, because it ain’t true anymore. The Supreme Court is the supreme authority that adjudicates. But they keep on adjudicating and adjudicating, and deciding, because they don’t go by precedent anymore. You can’t go to a law court anymore and get justice, forget it! There’s no precedent!

So what am I telling? The law of America’s bankrupt, there’s no seal on it! They can take it off and throw it away, and say, “Bless God, this guy was given damages for over here!” Why they kill men for rape, and now they give him a gold medal, and say, “Why here’s some more you can rape.”

I’m a crude preacher, and I just say these things on purpose to shock you. But it’s the truth and you know it’s the truth. The law of America is for the criminal! There’s no seal on it! There’s no authority anymore!

There’s nothing binding anymore! There’s nothing to stand with anymore! The constitution’s gone! America’s gone!

Do you think a prophet of God and stand here and say, “I don’t pray for America”? He’s no nitwit. He knew what he was saying. What else does it mean? This Easter is the Seal. This Resurrection. It means that the Testator is now the Executor!

11

Over here in the Book of Hebrews 9th chapter if I got it right, I don’t know I never find anything to write: Okay.

Hebrews 9:16-17

(16) For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

(17) For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

But He rose! The Testator became the Executor! So this is why it’s a seal! This is why this is the great event! Because everybody looked forward to the Testator rising and becoming the Executor! He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and earth,” and He stood there!

The mighty Judge revealed in this our hour in the Church Ages and the Seven Seals, and people still don’t know the Judge is here! See? Don’t think I’m inflamed over nothing, I’ll be nice and kind; just give me time, thirty more years. I’m going on eighty. I’ve had forty years to make one whale of a botch, and I sure did, and I think the last twenty-five He’s trained me some, fifteen more to go and then I’ll make up for it.

12

All right, listen. He said, “There had been prophets and all these things, but now this Easter, the resurrection has put the Seal on it, put the cap on it, the Testator rose to become the Executor. It’s sealed,” he said, “this is it, the final authority.”

And you cannot go past the appeal court of the resurrection! He said, “I was dead, and I’m alive for evermore! And have the keys of hell and of death!”

Now that’s what you’re looking at, and that’s why Brother Branham said, “Easter’s the greatest time of everything,” and he’s a hundred percent right. I can see why he gets carried away and happy to preach, you know, because it’s Easter, Resurrection morning. [paragraph] 22:

[6-2]  It sealed the Word of God [It. What’s that? Easter. What’s Easter? Resurrection. The Resurrection sealed the Word of God]  forever for the true believer.

13

Now he’s telling you here, as he said in paragraph 21, there was a gradation. There were these men who were before. There were those who did these things, but nobody came this far. Nobody. The man that raised the dead died, and he stayed dead.

This fellow Jesus that raised the dead, he died, and he couldn’t stay dead! Do you know even his body wouldn’t corrupt. No! His body wouldn’t even corrupt. No, not at all, not at all. I was just thinking of that the other day, how fantastic.

[6-2]  All gloom and doubt was shattered on that blessed morning. [That’s Easter morning, Resurrection morning.] Man had been shut up, as it were, in a prison house, even to religious people before this day, because they’d seen great religious moves, moving of the Holy Spirit, and so forth; but when a man died, it seemed to settle it.

The old boy’s gone, that’s it. When’s he going to come back? Maybe he ain’t never going to come back. Everything ended with the fellow. He wasn’t there anymore. See? He said:

…seemed to settle it. [That’s what it was, just seemed.] But when this One came, [Jesus came,] “I have power to lay My Life down; I have power to take it again,” and then so prove what He said, to me, that’s the seal of it…

In other words there’s no argument! There’s no argument. This is the big thing. You can see Brother Branham is talking like the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, which we won’t read quite at this point.

…and when something is said, and then it is turned around and proven.

And especially this. He said, “I’m going to lay My Life down, I’m going to take it again,” and He did it! And when He did that that was it! And we’ll get to this in our hour before it’s over.

14

All right, looking at this statement, the Resurrection sealed the Word of God forever for the believer, this is the ultimate. Not that there weren’t previous steps toward it, but this is the ultimate.

So let’s examine the statement of fact that Brother Branham made, because this is a fact. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate, an indisputable proof of the authoritative Word of God.

In other words, not one Word of God can perish, because this One rose! Because the Book’s all about it. It’s completely authoritative.

15

Notice a progression to this ultimate:

One: Jesus came vindicated by God as to Who He was, and as to His right to the Spoken Word of God. He could become God’s mouthpiece. That’s what Paul said. God spoke in the prophet’s, now He spoke in the Son.

Number Two: Jesus fulfilled the Word as He in His Person was required to do. Who was He? What would He do as that One? He did it.

Three: His death was according to prophecy. Many Scripture will fulfill the very day they crucified Him.

Four: His death was to be followed by His Resurrection.

Five: He came forth and brought Abraham and Job and the elect with Him.

Six: He ascended with the elect.

16

Thus, with His Resurrection, which is the fulfillment of God’s Word to that end, because there’s a Word to it, and it was done, there can be no doubt any longer concerning any of God’s Word to the true believer. Since He rose, there is nothing else we can do but rise with Him and take our place with Him.

He said He would die and rise, and He did, that ends it. No more argument, no doubt, no fear, no uncertainty, His Resurrection sealed the Word of God to us forever, why? This is the great covenant of the Father and the Son, and we are the entire and total beneficiaries. See?

Mediator, intercessor, executor. So the point is we have an unfailing and positive entrée, procurement and retainment of it all. [paragraph] 23:

[6-3]  If a man said… Like Columbus who believed the world was round, and he watched the ships [so we’re told], how they come in, and he could see the mast way before he could see the ship [itself]. It proved to him that the world was round. [See coming up over the round.] People didn’t believe that in that day, but he was a man of vision. [He could understand what he saw, see?] He set out to prove exactly what he had a vision of that it was the truth. [And the world was round, it sure was.] And God purposed to prove His Word the Truth. And there was only one Man that could do it, and that was Jesus; and He came and proved that to be the truth.

Now you notice there’s a sort of a two-fold thought here, two sentences.

And God purposed to prove His Word the Truth.

God had a purpose wherein He would do something so it could shown, positively, absolutely, the ultimate, no further evidence needed, nothing taken from it, nothing added to it, this is the truth. He was going to show that His Word was true.

Now He’s got to do it by somebody. There’s got to be a means. And Brother Branham brings it out: There was only one Man that could do it, that was Jesus; and He came and proved it.

17

Okay.

Let’s go to Hebrews 6, and we start at verse 13 that says… now remember chapter 6 follows, verse 13 follows the interpolation of Paul telling us about the end time when the Son of man as Son of God is crucified to the people themselves by rejection, because of the phenomenal ministry of the Son of man, proving to the Gentiles that Jesus has risen from the dead, by virtue of the fact that the very same God that was in Him doing the work is here today and has already done it. All right.

Now he says,

Hebrews 6:13-20

(13) For God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

(14) Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

(15) So, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

(16) For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

(17) Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

(18) That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

(19) Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, which entereth into that within the veil; [Now don’t stop right there, because here’s the secret.]

(20) Whither the forerunner is entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

18

The risen One is now the High Priest, and God proved His Word irrefutably, finally there’s no way you can deny it, because “This day Thou art Melchisedec,” could only be said in His Resurrection! So Brother Branham has made the perfect point!

God has proved His Word by the Resurrection of Jesus, Who is now not only the Executor, but He is Melchisedec! What is that?

Why that’s the Priest of the most High God, and Melchisedec was King of Salem, and King of righteousness, and here we have now God giving us absolutely the perfection of His Word through Jesus Christ the Son, His covenant, and to our covenant in Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply, and take this world over!”

Absolutely perfect. You cannot get by it. And he proved it to be the truth. Why? Why, we just talked about it.

The fact is that Jesus Christ came out of the grave, and He led forth Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph and those sons of Almighty God, and I think one of the prime ones of the lot was Job, when he said, “I’ll tell you one thing,” he said, “in my flesh I’m going to see God, Whom I’ll see for myself, and it won’t be some other man doing, I’m going to be doing it.

I’m going to stand right on the earth here with Him,” and he stood right on that earth, and then they ascended into heaven, or some great dimension which I don’t know too much about.

19

There’s another verse of Scripture I might use here, in Acts 17:31.

Acts 17:31

(31) Because [God] hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all, in that he raised him from the dead.

Every single assurance is in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, be it unto righteousness, be it unto life, be it unto commendation, or be it unto condemnation, it still stands. Not one Word of God is going to fall, because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

20

Paragraph 24:

[6-4]  It sealed it. [That means the Resurrection sealed it. And God proved His Word true. And when He did,] it broke all the seals of gloom and scattered all the superstitions of other religions, where great men had raised up and said great, marvelous things. [You know these philosophers.]

But they are everyone in the grave. But our Christian religion is the only one that has the empty tomb. And that proves to me that He is the God of the dead and the God of the living, [see? Now] He can raise up the dead back to life again. This quickening power, quickening Spirit of His, has proved through the years that He is the One Who can quicken the dead back to life again.

21

Now you notice he’s taking a new tack here. It’s not a new tack; it’s an extension of what he’s gone into.

He is speaking in terms of course of Romans 8, that if the Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ should dwell in you, and the fact of the matter is he is now bringing to our attention also Galatians, which we shall read to you later on, that the promise of Abraham comes on the Gentiles by faith, which is the earnest of the Holy Ghost, which is given to us on the grounds of Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

So now he’s using the term ‘seal’. The fact that His Resurrection brought a seal to the Word, the same Resurrection loosing His Spirit, brings us a seal! Now that’s what you’re looking at right here. So we might as well just admit it.

Okay, the philosophers, with their ethics and their morals were all good. But only in this life was it a principle, because it couldn’t keep you out of the grave, and it couldn’t get you out of the grave.

And in fact it may put you in the grave permanently, because the philosophy may be in contradistinction to the very Word of God, which we see in the Book of Genesis, the first philosophy was in contradistinction by changing the Word of God. All right.

22

Now, he says here,

[6-4]  But our Christian religion is the only one that has the empty tomb. And that proves to me that He is the God of the dead and the God of the living, [in other words, He raises the people from their sins of death, and He keeps them in that particular wonderful place,] He can raise up the dead back to life again.

Now Brother Branham absolutely said other prophets had done that, so he’s speaking in terms of eternal life more than he is speaking in terms of a physical, because he’s talking of His Spirit coming on individuals, and that is not to the extent that He’s going to raise the dead out of the ground, though that will happen, it is that we will be taken out of the chains of darkness and bondage of sin into the light and liberty of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

23

Now he says, “That proves to me that He is that God.”

In other words, Brother Branham is not basing anything now upon a theology which has to do with morals and philosophy, but that which can be proven right at this moment, showing that He is risen from the dead, which is what we found in Hebrews 6.

Brother Branham constantly talked about it. And he said, “If He is risen from the dead, He will now do in the Holy Spirit what He did here amongst the Gentiles according to Matthew 4, even as He did to the Hebrew.” And he told us consistently, he said, “He’s obligated to do it for the Gentiles.”

And the obligation lies in the Scripture. And the Scripture is in Matthew 4 and in Matthew 12, and I’ve told you many times I prefer Matthew 12 over Matthew 4, but I would not have known Matthew 12 except Brother Branham told me Matthew 4.

So I’m not trying to take any credit, you understand, it’s our job not to take what Brother Branham said and play with it, but he said to break it down and feed to the people, and once you go to the Bible you’ll see it there consistently.

24

Okay, let’s read number [paragraph] 25:

[6-5]  When He proved by His promise this great conquering power that He had on Easter, He proved that He could conquer death, hell, and the grave. “I am He that was dead and is alive and alive forevermore, and have the keys of death, hell, and the grave.” What a statement for anyone to make. Not only did He make it, but He had already proved that He had what He claimed to have.

Well hey, come on, if He came back from the dead, He’s got the rest. How often have I told you people, one resurrected person could make this world a complete hell, and make everybody completely crazy by morning? Because you can’t stop him.

Detonate every bomb; you want to handle Saddam Hussein over there? You just get one resurrected man and he’d make that guy wish he was in hell and annihilated. I kid you not. You talk about superman? You talk about Dick Tracy, all these films you’ve been seeing?

Come on you kids, I know we’re all visionary, we love goofy stories. We like that Simple Simon stuff. We’d all love to be a superman. Let me tell you, one resurrected person my little friend tonight, is literally equal with Almighty God because that’s exactly where the Resurrection puts him.

If as Brother Branham said, Einstein, yeah, he was right, he said, “If man could simply unite his faith with God, he could create worlds,” and Brother Branham said that’s exactly the truth. What would happen with a resurrected man?

Well you and I, we’d just like to be friendly and happy and just get rid of it all. But what if the Mafia got him? Well there’s only two great personages, that’s God and the devil. Take your pick which side you’re on.

25

All right, he said here,

When He proved by His promise this great conquering power that He had on Easter, He proved that He could conquer death, hell…

In other words there was a promise, and He proved the promise because He had the ability to fulfill it. See? God swore by Himself. And God said, “I will do it,” so God raised Him.

And when He raised Him, He gave Him the fullness of equality so that the Son’s Name on the cheque, because now He’s truly manifested in the Resurrection as never before, His Name on the cheque could do identical to what the Father’s Name could do.

Absolute joint heirs, the first son is equal sharer with the father in his possessions, and everything he has, his name, his power, his authority, his goods, absolutely. And if he wanted to take it and destroy it, the old man couldn’t do a thing about it. See?

26

That’s like the prodigal son, he couldn’t get the older one’s share, no, the older one got fifty percent. He said, “Father give me my share.” He went out and spent it like an idiot.

But now this One here takes on the full responsibility of His position, and Brother Branham knew that. And he knew it in his own life by himself having the sign of the prophet.

That’s why he came to the place in his perfect faith where he could say, “If God told me to raise Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or both of them,” wouldn’t matter, “I’d go down tomorrow morning and raise them, and if I couldn’t do it the armies of the earth could come and shoot me down.” Do you know what that man’s saying?

He says, “Bring on an Armageddon,” he said, “I’ll show you whose boss.” Sure that’s what he’s doing. He’s no problem… you say, “Well how can a guy boast?”

Hey if you can ever get God to let you boast in Him, let me tell you something, you’ve got it made, but it’s a very narrow path, and very few ever get there. Because they don’t know how to handle it. They don’t know how to handle it. Brother Branham warned us about that, so many of that.

27

Okay:

[6-6]  And I think “God hastens the day when we, as Christians who believe this Bible, can prove what we are talking about.”

Now that’s a little sly thing in there, I think, concerning Brother Branham. I think he’s trying to let these Full Gospel Businessmen know, hey there’s something out there, and he gets them all anxious, all ears, you know, I didn’t say nothing inside now, all ears to listen what this man’s going to say, because they figure he’s going to say just what they want him to say, and put it all on them.

Oh I know Pentecost, come on kid; I was born in that stuff. Latter rain, down the drain, rain spout, I know all that stuff; don’t tell me different, I know. I know what they think, you know, they went plumb past the Bible.

They never saw God the way we see God. I can’t understand seeing Brother Branham and not seeing God. People just got so proud and carried, “I’m going to do it; I’m going to do it. Oh hey listen, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.”

28

And you know what happened? Right today the judgment, they’re all out there, Oral Robert lost his hospital, they’re all losing their shirts, where’s W.B. Grant’s son, where’s any of them? And you know what it is?

It’s just what the old preacher said, and Brother Branham quoted him about the young fellow that bounced up to the platform like he knew everything, and when he got through preaching he snuck down, and the old guy said, “Now if he’d have gone up the way he came down, he’d have come down the way he went up.”

So I know what they’re doing, because hey, you just got to know. He’s not trying to feed them and trying to bait them, but they think, “Hey, this is really great what he’s going to give us now, this great man, something for us,” but what in my books he’s doing is actually telling about the fact of vindication. You see?

Now he said,

[6-6]  That’s what makes, the salt of the earth, as the sister said [awhile ago].

Now I don’t know what she said awhile ago, and I’m not too interested. But I do know this one thing about it, that the Word of God is entirely unsavory, and has been unsavory over the centuries, because there’s been no life in it! Because the people that handled it don’t have any life in them! So therefore there’s nothing going on.

29

Now it’s gone down, down, down, with the bullet off the mark from 2 Corinthians 11 to Revelation 3, which means they’re in complete idolatry with their Trinity and everything else. They’re a complete mess and they’re boasting in numerics. That’s what the Roman Catholic Church does.

That’s why when you read the Bible, in her was found all the pharmacies, in her was found all the doctors, in her was found all the bootlegger joints, and all the whiskey joints and everything, in her was everything because she owned it all.

Because the Jews had played a losing game, those idiots went for the paper! You wonder why things are all screwed up? And why there’s a mess in the world? Because the Jews got the paper and they’re determined to take over, and the Catholics got the gold and they will take over!

And there’s a showdown coming! And you’d better get out of here. Because the Jews and the Romans have got to get together. And idolatry sets in.

I don’t know how clear it is to you, but this is so clear to me, I just feel so happy and you know, maybe I don’t look happy, I’m very happy. I’m happy, say it, I’m happy. I mean I’m happy, come on, I’m just kidding you people here, relax you, listen.

30

Now, the resurrection will come in our day, there’s no two ways about it, because already we’ve had the signs of the resurrection, of the prophet Elijah, which nobody wants! And remember in Romans 11 it tells you the sign of the resurrection is Israel back in the homeland!

Now they will accept that, but if you notice little Believer’s paper that came out by Becky and George in there, you’ve got even some of those people, which I don’t know what they’re talking about, they’re talking about Saddam Hussein, who thinks he’s Nebuchadnezzar and he’s going to build Babylon!

I got news for you, Babylon’s mystery Babylon, Rome on Seven Hills! What if the Branhamites have an ounce of… times up on that one I won’t say it, saved by the bell. See, the Lord’s good to me, I knew He’d be good if I prayed.

31

See, now listen here. This is vindication hour and this gives the salt to the Word, which means preservative and taste! They have tasteless pap!

We have the living Word of God, which is completely absolutely vindicated; we alone know what 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is all about, and the rest do not! Put that down, understand it, underline it. If they know what it’s about, I’ll eat it. And even those that claim to understand don’t know Who’s here. He’s just a doctrine.

Now he said:

[6-6]  That’s right. [Where are we? Okay.] The world is looking for salt. Now when we can prove by our lives and by the Bible that our lives are vindicating that Word to be living today, that’s the day we’re looking for.

32

Now that sounds very good. Like I say, that to me is a bit of a bait thrown out to some Pentecostal people. See?

But Brother Branham, though he has not yet preached The Anointed Ones Of The End Time, understands thoroughly the anointed ones of the end time, where anybody can raise the dead, because he already has the ministry of the Son of man, and therefore the ministry of the son of perdition, which is the copy of the ministry of the Son of man, has to be in the land, or Brother Branham’s a fraud!

Because there’s twins, twins, twins! Never one without the other. And that’s 2 Thessalonians 2, and you’re well aware of it.

Now he said,

[6-6]  When we can prove by our lives and by the Bible that our lives are vindicating that Word…

Ho, vindicating that Word. I should vindicate the Word of God? That’s unscriptural! There was a fellow, I forget now, he’s in Judges, some of you smart guys remember him, because I can draw a blank on my brain at times and I’m drawing a blank.

Anyway they had these images made to Baal, and Baal was a god. And one guy got zealous, and he said, “Stupid bunch of idiots in your god Baal.” He went wham, wham, whap, whap, knocked him down, and broke him.

And the people rose up and they said to the man whose son knocked him down, said, “Just a minute, we ought to take this boy and really take care of him for what he did to Baal.”

He said, “What for? Why doesn’t Baal do it?”

33

I don’t vindicate any word! So Brother Branham’s not talking about people vindicating any Word, he’s talking about he himself standing there as the vindication. He’s Elijah that prophet, and God backing that man up and him making that Word live for this hour, proving He’s raised from the dead!

Oh you can read anything you want, but you better read right to what he’s talking about. You better know the prophet and know the doctrine. Our lives.

The same man was very tricky. He said, “When the hand does it, the body does it.” And the hand’s got to go by the head, and William Branham just casually made himself the hand. He was so humble that guy, I don’t know how he could live.

Well he hardly did live, they were ready to kill him, do any rotten thing they could to him. I can’t understand; here’s a man, here’s a man got God like nobody outside of Paul and Moses. And then they try… I remember one time this Vic Wherwell he’s dead now.

Nothing against the guy, except he was a whoremonger and a boozer. Preached the gospel. I know about this, I lived around the guy, I know what I’m talking about. I can prove every word I say, I’m not kidding you.

He sat with Brother Branham one time there in the hotel– what’s that nice little hotel built down there in Lima? The corner. Huh? Yeah, yeah, that’s it, the Barn. No it’s the other one on the corner; they still got a restaurant there.

34

And he said to Brother Branham, he said, “Well I’ll tell you what, Brother Branham,” he said, “guys like you that deal with healing ought to stick to healing and let us teachers teach.” Should have seen the crud he was teaching too.

His teaching was you could sleep with a woman tonight and drink all you wanted and have several women or anything you want, rob a bank, it was okay, because that was in the flesh, and the flesh is the flesh and a spirit’s a spirit, and the next morning talk in tongues and lay hands on the sick and be a great man of God.

If anybody’s got that eye in this church, I got to tell you what I told people. I am not running a house of prostitution here. You get ready for the usher to catch you on the first bounce, because I’ll have you thrown out so hard and so far you’ll bounce if you’re not caught.

You live in this church. We’re not perfect. I’m the worst of all of you. But I want to tell you there’s a life that’s to be lived. That’s not being tough, that’s just being truthful.

Now he said, “We’re looking for that day.” Did not the same prophet often talk about Elijah and say, “We’re looking for him?” You got to read and understand the man. This is personal for the prophet.

35

The next paragraph on page 7, its part of the one above it:

[7-1]  The Word [speaks of] this Spirit, in Romans 8:11, [Speaking of what Spirit? The Spirit of the Resurrection.] “If this Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ be in you, it will also quicken your mortal body.” Not only did He prove to us that He was Jehovah Redeemer and had power over death, hell, and the grave, but He also had given us access to the same Spirit, that we ourselves can have the assurance that we too are quickened by that Spirit. For the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in your body; It will also quicken your mortal body.

Now, the word “quicken” means “to be made alive after death.” After it’s dead, then it’s quickened.

The world has been shut up in doubt for many ages until this was proven: not only talked about, but was proven. I think that anything that’s worthwhile… [In other words, will be proven.]

36

Now listen, Alpha is Omega! If He does it once, He’s got to do it again! If He went to Israel, and Abraham’s children are amongst the Gentiles, He would have to go to the Gentiles, which He did. Then if He proved Himself to Israel, which He did, He would have to prove Himself to us, which He does.

So Brother Branham is talking about that now, and he’s letting us know we are in the hour of the resurrection, and we are about to be quickened, because that Spirit has been given to us.

And remember it can only do it at one certain time, not another time! Nope. Not another time. Certain time. The first half of the first resurrection is over. We are now looking for the second.

And since God does everything in threes, there’s no doubt a third there, there could well be a third concerning those virgin hundred and forty-four thousand that come in as eunuchs or keepers of the Bridal chambers, they could be part of the first, I don’t know, I’m just saying it could be, don’t ask me. Just looking at it. See?

37

All right, he’s telling us about this time now. And divine healing which is simply symptomatic or a type of true immortality as it says in Malachi, healing in its wings, Brother Branham said was immortality. So therefore every healing is a type of immortality. And there’s where people, they fight divine healing.

Oh they say if you can be divinely healed, then you won’t die. That is a lie because healing is only a type. It’s not the real thing. Come on. Do you mean to tell me healing is a real thing, I get healed, I get sick, I get healed, I get sick.

How many of you have been going through what I’ve been going through, not really too bad, cold hits you, oh I’m feeling better, boing, hit again. It’s all over the country, everybody, up and down, up and down, up and down, I’ve been groggy for the last three days.

I might sound groggy now, but not as bad as I sound. Tomorrow I’ll feel kind of groggy again. I suppose, I don’t know. Who wants that? I don’t want that. I don’t want food today and starve tomorrow, cold today and hot tomorrow.

I don’t want sick today and back and forth, I want to get there! Well healing is just a type that you’re going to get there. But when you take this Message for your healing, at the time of Elijah, at the time of 2 Thessalonians 1:10, that’s the time immortality is setting in. And Brother Branham is talking about that.

38

Now watch, watch him water this down to every ordinary day living so that nobody can say, “Well Brother Branham I’m going to leave it all to you.” We’ve got a part in this too.

[7-3]  As Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, teach all nations and prove to them by demonstrating the power of God to them. These signs shall follow them that believe.” Them [those] who are promised and say they believe, [to them] He gave a definite understanding, that these signs would follow them that believe. It would be proof of their testimony.

Now I said a second ago, maybe a little too previously, that this is for you and me, but it goes beyond you and me, it goes to them like the Church of Christ, who say there’s no such thing as healing, or healing is of the devil.

Now how can they be justified to say that the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in them, if they deny this very thing? Because healing ministry, raising the dead, miracles, authenticated Jesus!

Now he said, “You guys, don’t you know if you really want a real testimony, why don’t you begin to believe the Spirit of God within you, that you’ve got power to literally tell the truth and see the truth happen!”

39

I remember years ago some guys were talking about they were in a healing meeting. They’d advertised, you know, that God could heal.

Well they thought we’d be able to start out and we’ll do it slow, maybe get someone in here you know that, you really can’t tell if the person needs healing or not, but you know, the person says he does, so how do you feel, oh great, great, everything great.

Well the first thing they got, they got some old paraplegic up there, the first thing in the platform. So they looked at each other, and they thought, “My God, what are we going to do?.”

But you know evidently one of them had some kind of faith or humility, and by the time he got through praying, to the surprise of all, whether those three had faith or not, I don’t know, but that guy in the chair did, because he jumped up perfectly whole.

40

I know a true story. There was an Anglican woman, she understood the Bible far more than most Anglicans do. And she was going to a church that was anything but red hot for God, I think pretty cool for God, and more red hot for the devil.

And here she is now very old and very sick. And so she says to the preacher, “I want you to bring the elders, anoint me with oil, and lay hands on me and pray so God can heal me.” Well he didn’t believe in that. Now he tried his best to get around her.

She said, “Are you going to do it, or ain’t you going to do it?” She said, “Because you don’t have to. I know the Pentecostal people down the road, I know that they pray for the sick and they get healed. Now if you don’t like it, I’ll just call them, and they’ll pray and I’ll get healed.”

And you know what happened. And she knew that he knew what they really talking about was this: that old girl and her family literally ran the church by membership and by money, and if she didn’t get healed in the Anglican church, they’d go to the Pentecostal church and there wouldn’t be any Anglican church!

So he said, “Oh God, in Thy mercy and Thy judgment, if Thou see fit at this time to heal this dear sister that we have anointed…” Out of the wheel chair she went. I don’t know why God saved that Anglican Church, except as a witness. But that’s a true story.

41

I’ve heard some crazy stories in my day. It’s the truth, the one fellow, the room was so dark, he couldn’t see, he had bad eyes. And they said, “Look it, will you get the oil bottle and anoint this poor fellow,” he grabbed the oil bottle, it was ketchup, he poured ketchup on the guy and the guy got healed.

See, he’s letting you know, look, if you would have a testimony, you have got to testify according to the Word which has now been sealed and authenticated by the Resurrection of Jesus, and you can’t do one thing about it, except “Yes that’s so!”

And there’s where you get where Spurgeon got. He said, “It’s my job to believe God for the impossible and leave the results up to Him.” And you know brother/sister, that is the truth, that’s the most simple beautiful statement there is in the world.

42

Now 29:

[7-3]  Now, we can say we believe, but until we have the proven sign that He said that would be upon us, then we are just confessing to be believers and not [in] possession as believers.

Now it doesn’t mean you got to prove the Holy Ghost by praying for the sick, Brother Branham categorically said, everybody doesn’t pray for the sick. Nope. You can’t put a special stamp on it.

You’ve got to come to the place and say, “When He rose, He sent forth the Holy Spirit, which Holy Spirit I am entitled to, and when I am received my entitlement, I will give testimony to that Word, and I believe the God Who gave the Word will give testimony to me, and those signs will follow.”

And they can follow if you set your heart to it. I know what I am talking about. I set to my heart to it. When I could believe for nothing, and I saw miracles left and right until I got more and more teaching, and the more I got into teaching, the more the gifts went. So I asked Brother Branham.

Said, “Brother Branham is the age of the gifts over?”

He said, “Yes it is over.” His own words were, “As it were they’re on the shelf.”

And the sweet Spirit of Christ, and where is that Spirit? In the Word. And if that Word’s in us, we’ll become a sweet people. Not sweet the way the world is, you can have that stuff, come on. I mean real sweet where there’s a reality. With no more hypocrisy. Just living and let live. I long for the day, how I long for the day.

43

Now from what Brother Branham says here, you can well understand why he always prayed for the sick. Always prayed for the sick. And many times, there was little evidence of the sick being healed.

Even when he discerned, which proved the Spirit of God, in Hebrews 4:12, I was in a meeting of his where he picked out people, and they didn’t even know what was going on.

And yet in Lima, Ohio, when we prayed week after week, and day after day, hour after hour in chain prayer and getting together every single night for God to move as we knew God could move, there was myriads of miracles in the building, and people were healed, didn’t even know it for awhile.

He said the first time in five years the gift of healing operated, and I think it was the last time. You know if you set your heart to it, you can have it. Old Doc, Brother Reynolds, one of the greatest preachers I ever knew, I said, “Brother Reynolds, how come in your church here, you get the healings and people get full of the Holy Ghost?”

He said, “Son you get what you preach for!” That man was brilliant, Lord God I wish I had his brain and his ability. You talk about a preacher. A fine man of God. Fine, fine man of God. Preach, oh brother could he preach. He believed in one God, too. Oh yes.

[7-4]  A few days ago I was listening to a radio program in Tucson, this minister had taken the side against us, that the Pentecostal religion was nothing but a sham; not to be listened to, it was unstable.

And he said, “Any man that spoke in tongues and these things and claimed to be–heal the sick and so forth by prayer, to get away from it and to pray for those poor decrepit people, [that were doing the praying because they just had a delusion,] and there was something wrong with them.” Oh, how I would have liked to have talked to that brother just for a while.

44

Let’s look at some Scripture. Let’s look at some Scripture and find where this guy was the kind of guy he was, why he was the big fool that he was, talking the way he talked. You go to Matthew 13:

Matthew 13:58

(58) And he did not many mighty works because of their unbelief.

Here’s an unbeliever. No wonder he couldn’t do anything or look at anybody as though they were doing anything.

45

Let’s go to Matthew 17,

Matthew 17:20

(20) And Jesus said, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, [you’ll] say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; it [will be removed]; nothing shall be impossible [to] you.

Well they couldn’t cast out the devil. Hey, I’m going to tell you something, if you ever get into the swim of it, in other words you get into the discipline of what I’m speaking about, these things will move but you’ve got to stay within the discipline.

Now I know you may think I’m chickening out here, because I’ve got in the discipline of study with this Message in the Word. And whether I want it or not, it begins to flow, it’s a part of me, it’s a part of this church, and you’re a part of it.

That’s why this church is the way it is. Because this is the discipline we are into. But if you go to the discipline of praying for the sick, and you set your mind, they will be healed! And you’ll be surprised.

46

I told you I had to set my heart to prove God and to prove His Word way back there when I could believe for nothing, I think I told you about the first time I prayed, she was a woman, she had a great big old swollen up leg, I don’t know what she was, diabetes or something in there.

So I said, “Now I’m going to pray, you people stand back and I’m going to pray. Don’t you pray, I’m going to pray.”

So I don’t know if I didn’t have the bones to lie, and I’m sure I didn’t, I know it was just God’s mercy, but God is merciful, the Bible says that.

So I looked at her, and I talked to her, and I said, “Now I’m going to pray for that leg.” And I looked at that leg, and I prayed, and commanded in the Name of the Jesus Christ, for that leg to heal up, it went boing, boing, boing. She was normal.

The guy had a radical mastoid, no ear, he heard, I knew he’d hear. He got brand new ears. Nothing’s impossible. You’ve got to be in the discipline. You got to put your faith in that direction.

Hey, look it, if I want to blow the paper over there, go [Brother Vayle makes blowing noises] paper ain’t going to move. Put your mouth and your wind to the promise of God. Testify and stand there with it. Don’t wait for great big supernatural things. Begin setting your heart, begin setting your faith, you watch what happens.

47

Okay, go to Mark 6. Brother Branham loved to pray for the sick, and if he knew you were sick, he’d say, “Do you want me to pray for you?” The woman that had all that mascara and junk around her eyes, he thought she was cankered; he was ready to pray for her. Listen, verse 6:

Mark 6:6

(06) He marveled because of their unbelief. [They weren’t believing.]

Mark 16:14

(14) Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them [because of] their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not [that] which [they’d] seen after he was risen.

Hey listen, let’s add a little point in here right now, the fact that we have seen Jesus risen from the dead amongst us in the form of the Holy Spirit, doing identical what He did when He was here upon earth, God will upbraid our unbelief, that’s why He’s sending judgment upon this earth.

You want to escape, you’d better start believing. Get with vindication, brother/sister. Nobody asked you to raise the dead; nobody’s asked you for anything. There’s a precept of faith, which is passive; there’s a precept of faith, which is active.

And unless you’ve got the precept of the passive, the active won’t do you any good, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the active, you’re supposed to have the active if you’ve got the passive. Because we’re the ones with the understanding, praise God, feel like praying for the sick. I’m ready to move any time you are. Sure.

48

Now where are we at? Oh yeah. Back down at the bottom of the page, well its page 15.

[7-5]  He said that that was only given for the apostles at that day of Pentecost, and that was all. [Now listen what Brother Branham says so true.] I find that thirty years later Paul was ordaining gifts in the church, 1 Corinthians 15; [well it was actually 12,13, and 14,] he set in the church the gift of speaking in tongues, and miracles, and all the other gifts. [See?]

Now this preacher was anti-Word that Brother Branham is speaking about, claiming all the time to be pro-Word, he’s a liar, he’s a regular devil, he’s Satan in the Garden of Eden, he’s the beast. “Yea, hath God said?”

Why he said, “God doesn’t say one thing about this healing.” Why he said, “I’m telling you all about it, never mind what God said, He said it stopped at Pentecost.” Why the guy’s a brazen liar. He knows he’s a liar. And yet he doesn’t know he’s a liar, because the Bible said deceived and deceiving. See? They were set in the church.

49

Now brother/sister I find this in my Bible, if you deny one word, you’ve lost it all; say what you want, that’s the Scripture.

[8-1]  Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” “How far?” All the world.” To whom?” Every creature. [And they’ve not yet] received it. [Everybody has it.] “These signs follow them that believe.” “How long?” All the world. [As long as there’s a world.] “Who to?” Every creature. “These signs follow them in all the world to every creature. These signs shall follow them.

In My Name cast out devils, speak with new tongues. They take up a deadly things or serpent, or drink a deadly thing, it will not harm them. Lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.” This was His last commission to the church: [When did He come back and renounce it?]

50

Now listen, the Seal loosed God’s power in order for this to endure. This, Brother Branham said His Resurrection put the Seals summed up, made irrevocable, put it into action so it cannot be revoked, the Word of Almighty God.

We ought to… listen, we ought to take this sermon to heart. I started out, didn’t thinking there was that much in it, but there sure is. It’s in there. His last commission.

[8-3]  Paul, ordaining these gifts to the church thirty years later, said in Galatians 1:8.“If an angel from heaven preaches to you any other Gospel…”

Or I come back and change my mind, there’s a curse on it. That’s just like the Garden of Eden. Where’d the curse come? Right on the serpent. Where did a curse come? Right on Cain. Curse wasn’t on God’s people, because they know better, they believe the Word of God.

[8-4]  I believe that Pentecost began without an ending. [In other words, he said, “What started, who’s going to end it?] I believe it’s for every creature, all times and all places. Pentecost should always remain. Pentecostal blessings should be on the people. [Sure it should.]

Now the question is: when do you resolve the time or the hour that this commission is going to be over? Not that you’re going to specify an exact moment or an exact day, but when are you going to come to the place, because you know there’s going to come a time when it isn’t going to work.

Well it tells you right where it’s not going to work, in the days of the voice of the Seventh Church Age messenger, Revelation 10:7, he’ll tell you this is the hour that time and eternity’s blended, the two spirits are doing the same thing identical, but soon the Bride will be out of here, and after three and a half years, it’s all burnt up. So you know as soon as a Bride goes, there’s only three and a half years.

51

Now what is this Pentecostal blessing? It’s a confirmation of the resurrection. All right, that’s good. Over here in Acts 2. We’re going to look at it and we’re going to quit right there. All right, Acts 2:32, beginning.

Acts 2:32-36

(32) This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are [all] witnesses. [Over five hundred saw it.]

(33) Therefore being [at] the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

(34) For [it was not] David [who] ascended into the heavens: but he [said] himself, The LORD said [to] my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

(35) Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

(36) Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made [this] same Jesus, whom [you] crucified, both Lord and Christ.

And the return of the Holy Spirit in His entire form with the identical ministry of Jesus Christ proves once more that this One is Lord and Christ. Alpha is Omega.

So we’re at the end, brother/sister, simply means this, “The LORD said to my Lord, sit on my right hand.” That’s the same as 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “The Lord descend with a Shout, and we’ll meet the Lord in the air.”

And the Spirit that our Lord, the Spirit that becomes incarnate to us, in that Lord at the Wedding Supper, we’ll crown Him King of kings, the Lord of lords, and that will be the Son of man, the Son of God. That will be Elohim, Jehovah, everything, all in all. You can’t change it.

There’s one God, He has a Son. And that Son took on a human body. The human body was raised up into heaven, sitting at the right hand now, sitting on the throne.

52

Where’s that Spirit that indwelt Him? Came back here. Came back and took Paul, said,

“Paul, why do you persecute?”

“Who?”

He said, “Well I’m Jesus.”

Well that wasn’t a man appeared in flesh. That was the Pillar of Fire. That was that… then Paul said, why he said, “That was that rock that followed Israel, that was that spiritual water,” he said, “that was that cloud by day and the fire by night.” You can’t get away from the Word of God.

So he’s telling you right here, what is the Pentecostal blessing? You want something from Pentecost? Well it’s the confirmation of the resurrection. What is the confirmation? The Holy Spirit coming back upon the believer, and that Holy Spirit setting the Word of God a fire in the believer, and the believer following through as the Scripture says.

53

Let’s go to Hebrews and we can quit there. Because that’s what Brother Branham is talking about.

Hebrews 2 and he says here:

Hebrews 2:1-4

(01) Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let them slip.

(02) For if the word [of God] spoken by angels was stedfast, every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

(03) How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and confirmed [to] us by them that heard him;

(04) God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

That’s the signs that follow the resurrection. That’s Pentecost. Not trying to make the church a sign church, depending on signs, but starting with the Word, believing that the signs come out of the Word, now we’re getting somewhere. See?

Now you’re identified not with those false believers, those that are anointed correctly, but they don’t have the Word of God. Now you’re standing right there with the truth.

That’s it; let’s bow our heads in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we want to thank You again for the time of fellowship we have together around the Word which your prophet brought us, and we can understand his enthusiasm, understand his preaching Lord, as to how he really loved to preach this sermon, we know he did, he also loved not just The Easter Seal, but It Is The Rising Of The Sun, seemed to make a great deal of them, and we appreciate that Lord.

Help us to have a continuity here in the Message, as we go along so that we have a good rapport Lord with the people by the Holy Spirit coming forth in the Word, and but the best of all a real fellowship, as Brother Branham said, a real fellowship of it all. Fellowship of the resurrection.

Fellowship Lord, however You do it, that’s what we’re interested in, we want it. We’re not going to call any special terms and ways, but Lord we want this wonderful, wonderful fellowship in the Holy Ghost, signs following in all these things that’s in the Word, Lord. Help us to shake ourselves of any lethargy that we might have, and find ourselves completely in balance Lord.

We can see these gyroscopes, and they seem to be revolving at tremendous speeds, and yet they can keep airplanes moving on the level, everything else, and here Lord there’s a momentum in this hour that’s never been before, and yet we can be perfectly kept on course by You Lord, by this Word that’s been given to us, and the life in the Word coming forth, and then bringing these other things too Lord, the sick being healed, and prayers being answered, God being glorified, all of these things Lord.

We know that this is what it’s all about, and we’re praying for it Lord, for a real portion of this life that the prophet’s talking about, this great, great blessed event, what he’s talking about, Easter, Resurrection from the dead. Be it amongst us, O God, us fully cognizant and seeing Your Word work out.

Bless every one amongst us Lord, especially now as we partake of the emblems, may it be rich and real to our souls, in Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

[Brother Vayle continues with the Communion Service.]

Skip to toolbar