Future Home Of The Heavenly Bridegroom And The Earthly Bride #12
Redemption; Sanctifying Process#3988
Shall we pray.
Heavenly Father, we’re grateful that You’re here in our midst by the Holy Spirit, Lord, dealing with each one of us. And we pray also internally, having made, we trust Your abode within us, we might be directed by Him whom to know Him is Life Eternal.
We pray, Lord, You’ll help us in these studies that we might at this time come to the place where all these things are possible. They’re not just here, Lord, and they’re not just commands, not just the dictum that we have to be looking at, we’re judged by it, but the very power of God giving us the strength, the ability, to live the lives we ought to live, Lord.
We pray for further sanctification this morning by the ministering of every Word to our minds and by the power of God in faith to take that same Word, Lord, and see that it comes forth in lives that are dedicated to You.
Help us, Lord, to be very conscious of the efforts that we need to set forth in this hour, and not shun them, Lord, and not try to take another course but to follow along with what You have said and the prescribed manner in which we are to follow it.
We know we have grace for it this morning, Lord, because You are the God of Peace and Grace and Love and Faith, all these things we have in You.
So we know that whatever we hear, Lord, if it’s Your Word, it’s Your Life, that it can come forth in these lives here in this hour, and all the more so in this last great day of enrichment when You are here with Your own Presence, giving the great Light of all Ages.
Bless each one, Lord. May there not be one sick amongst us, not one feeble one, by the time the service is over. We hope that can be true, Lord. And we’re believing to the end that that will be true, my God, some day and it could be this very day itself. So lead and guide us into all truth.
We’ll give you the praise in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now, we’re in lesson number twelve on The Future Home of the Earthly Bride and the Heavenly Bride Groom. And, of course, you know that this Message then, is concerning New Jerusalem itself as to what it is, what it contains, where it is, and other great information along that line.
Now, in this Message, The Future Home, Brother Branham has continuously taught that the entire New Jerusalem, that is the City itself, and all its inhabitants and also all other forms of life, because there’ll be animals and birds there and there’ll be… you know, the various things in the air, in the atmosphere.
There’ll be planet and stars and all those things, that all forms, even the earth’s crust, the very atmosphere, are the end products of Redemption wrought by God and the Lamb.
In other words, we are looking at God’s ultimate as concerning Redemption. Now, you notice I say “as to God’s ultimate concerning Redemption”, because I wouldn’t know if there have been other things that God has done before the man was set upon earth.
We know that there were evidently angels and cherubim, archangels. And we know that some of them became disobedient, many of them did, and there was a war in Heaven. Michael prevailed, which was Christ of course, in an angelic form, an archangel form.
And we don’t know, from what we have read so far in the Scripture, what all lies ahead after the Kingdom is handed back to the Father and He, then, is clothed in a Pillar of Fire above the Throne where the Lamb sits in this New Jerusalem.
But you’ll notice that I said there that this is the end product or the ultimate wrought by the process of Redemption by God and His Lamb, because everything we’re talking about has the status of Redemption. It’s a redeemed status.
And how far that redeemed status goes beyond the original, no one can have even a guess, except, I think, as Brother Branham put it, that “If you could suddenly be changed from an animal… [or perhaps the lowest mentality if you want to call it that or intelligence or knowing] and then suddenly become a person, would you ever want to go back to that form again?”
The answer, of course, is ‘No’. Then you begin to realize how that you come from the imperfect and very minor, in the sense of a greatness or largeness or quantity of that little Life that we have from Christ, into the great Sea of the unknowing and Divine Omnipotence and Omniscience, then you see you get a little understanding of comparison.
And at this particular point there isn’t one of us who has even the least idea of the greatness of the complete Redemption of God. Now, we have a little understanding… very little. All of that is clouded by the doubts and fears that are in human nature and all around about us.
But when that’s all gone and you’re going to find perfection working within the realms of perfection, everything harmonious and wonderful, you say, “How in the world could this be?”
So, we’re looking at what… the study that Brother Branham brought us is: “The end result or the ultimate of Redemption.”
And of course that Redemption was threefold: Justification, Sanctification, and the cleansing of the Holy Ghost in order to bring us to the place where God could inhabit the being… the vessel.
Now, concerning this great Redemption of which were the New Jerusalem and what pertains to it… and that pertaining to it is the ultimate, only that which was originally of God and in harmony with God and His divine government will be there. That’s right.
In other words, everything that was in the thinking and the planning of Almighty God is going to be there. And it will have His divine government in a way that it hasn’t had it before.
Because, all along we’ve had divine government but the tragic thing is, it’s something like getting a good President in the United States and he’s got a bunch of cabinet members that aren’t worth a plugged nickel.
And God’s got to put up with them the same as the President is a crony to those people. And now we got ‘cronyism’ where it looks like Reagan’s having a problem with Ed Meese. And if either one was sincere concerning the country and not cronies, Ed Meese would walk off the scene.
You say, “Well, if the man’s not… if the man is under a cloud of suspicion, but he’s a good man, why should he walk off?” Well, walk off until he proves he’s not under a cloud of suspicion. God’s got the same problem. He hasn’t got cronies but He’s God of the universe. Nebuchadnezzar saw that.
He found that out for himself. God is Sovereign but He’s got problems, on the grounds of what He’s dealing with. But of course all that’s necessary for the welfare and the training of us as we march up higher through… when that time which is to come.
Everything else but what was in God’s original thinking is going to be annihilated, just pure and simple. See? Where did those seeds come from that were in the earth when the earth brought forth the tares and the thorns and the briars, and the sun became unbearably hot and no longer was the ground watered by a mist rising up?
Well, where’d all that come from? Well, that didn’t come from God’s original plan. So, you see, that’s all got to go. Now, it will be a recreated earth and heaven that will be the resting place of God and His people.
Now, resting place in the sense of an absolute definitive location… everybody has arrived; there is no further movement from it. If there would be a movement, it would only be that movement which is already coming out of it… would be a higher and higher status.
Why the earth will be redeemed by God is no longer any mystery because the Prophet told us that God’s own body, like ours, came out of the dust.
Now that’s something you won’t find the theologians tell you, but none the less they might have thought of it in a certain sense of the word, because had they really thought of it, and no doubt they did in a certain way, because they had to know that when Mary was the chemical factor.
You might say the factory or the incubator that brought forth Christ, she would have to use in her body the same chemical processes that would be used in any woman’s body which would take the elements that are in the earth here. See?
And then they’re taken from the earth and they go into plants and what-have-you because they can take the inorganic and convert it to an organic and the human body then, because of that life… That life is like the Creator Himself, and it is a real creative power there that causes those elements there to come together in a figure.
So therefore, this earth supplied God with a body. So you can see right there why God, then, would redeem the entire earth… because, as Brother Branham said, “He took a part of the earth and made His Own body.”
So it’s no mystery why God redeems the earth, for the Prophet told us that, “ God’s Own body, like ours, came out of the dust.” So, therefore, the Blood fell on the earth to claim it and the Holy Ghost fire cleanses it so that God and His people can now live on it.
It will be a race of second Adams. And as I mentioned Wednesday, that was a new thought to me. I like it very much. We usually think of Christ as the second Adam.
The theologians use Adam’s federal headship as “all are born in the lineage of Adam,” but really isn’t true because Cain was not in the lineage of Adam.
He was ‘of that wicked one’ and he was a son of the Serpent. As all Israel knows today, it’s right in their books, the Gentiles are so blind, they don’t know their left hand from their right. But in the… Hebrews, they all know as in the time of Christ that Eve and the Serpent copulated and brought forth Cain.
And there’s where the giants came from, the men of renown, the smart ones, the big ones, the hunters, the fighters, the gruesome ones… because they’re the gruesome ones, they’re the rough ones. They all came from that; they never came from Adam.
But there’s going to be now, as the Scripture says, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all are made alive.” If you were in Adam you have the guarantee of Eternal Life, either Wise or Foolish Virgin, in the New Jerusalem or bringing your glory into it, and so on. You’ve got a part because they’re going to be redeemed.
But now… I like what Brother Branham said, “Like a second Adam…. as God created from the dust. And just think… from the earth and what lay in there —those abstract inorganic minerals, everything in there to make a body, God by His great power will now create again.”
And, I believe, will literally bring back what you and I and everything ever was in the flesh out of the earth by the plan of God. God’s going to create again. That’s like a second Adam. “Create again.” I like that thought. I like it better than the theologians’.
It makes… it’s very beautiful. See? It will be a race of second Adams as we all come back recreated from the elements of the earth. Not one hair from the elect heads will be lost. God will raise it all up.
Like Brother Branham’s little joke… His wife said, “Bill, you’re losing your hair.”
And he said, “I haven’t lost a-one.” Well, she said, “Then, pray tell me where they are.” He said, “Wherever they were before I got ‘em.”
“You came from the dust; you go back to the dust. I’m going to get you out of it again.” Yup! And you know, I like the fact that the Bible speaks of ‘every hair’ because hair is one of the toughest things to destroy.
You know the Hindu… I don’t want to rattle on this morning. You know, I want to get to the Word here.
But, the Hindu philosophers, they got, these fakirs, you know they got a crazy idea that they can become so mystical and so God-identified by their breathing up this nostril, breathing up that nostril and, you know, saying the secret word ‘ommm’ and stuff like that.
And concentrating on the middle of their nose up here until they think nothing. That’s what they do think, ‘nothing,’ too. And pretty soon now after all these years of meditation and consecration and solidification, I could keep going on and on… and finally now, they’re at a place where they can be put into a rock tomb.
So, they gather all the hair they can gather, and they put it in this rock tomb. Then they seal the tomb up.
And a smart wise man, knowing the power and presence of the great ‘Ommm’ will come one day and with a little needle, a little bit, he will drill into that rock tomb… let a little air in there, a little more in there, and then pretty soon they’ll cut the door open and here will step out old grandpa, the great fakir.
Well, I want to tell you, that’s the biggest fake message… junk I’ve ever heard in my life. Yah, they all got their ideas. That’s… he lined it with hair because, you see, hair is indestructible, literally.
So when God says, “You haven’t lost a hair of your head. I’ve got it somewhere waiting for you,” He’s telling you, basically, “You are indestructible”! You don’t need to worry about being annihilated. Now, He never said that about the Pharisees and Scribes.
Serpent seed, that’s the same as dog hair. I don’t want to be vulgar… Let’s face it; he’s an animal. God didn’t say anything about dog hair… any hair except human hair.
See, these philosophers, they understand a little bit… don’t ever sell them short on a little bit, but just make sure it’s a little bit.
All right. On page 61, Brother Branham, teaching on this great and tremendous Eternal City, which won’t be Rome, they call themselves the Eternal City. I can’t wait for the bombs to drop till I find out whether it is or not. We’re going to get ours, don’t worry.
I’m not blood-thirsty; it’s just the truth. You open your mouth and come against God, God will shut your mouth, unless you’ve open your mouth with God on what God said and you’re in agreement.
Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself and he was the head of gold. Nobody else ever has or ever will touch him because now it’s from the feet ‘up’ until the Head, Himself, comes.
Four kingdoms from the head down to the dust of the feet, and they can’t get along because it’s iron mixed with clay. Now the Head’s here in the form of the Holy Ghost. And one day the Church will rise to meet Him and come back and take the world over.
All right. Brother Branham… before we get to 283, he mentions…
[61-3] …the former things [all having passed away by this new and different order of Almighty God, coming upon the earth;] heavens and earth have embraced just as when the dove came down upon that part of the earth which was Jesus the Christ — he was… the earth; [he was man, ‘earth’,] God coming from that one little Life germ by creative power…
Now remember, God is not creating God. Nobody ever created God. God was. He is Creator. So he’s saying here that , “God took on this form by an act of creation which was to create an egg and a sperm in the womb of Mary and infuse it with His Own Life.”
It’s just the same as conception. As the male sperm, through sexual intercourse, can cause an infusion of life to the egg and bring forth a child, that’s exactly why God is a husband and has a Bride. That’s why He marries a Bride. And that’s how He has children.
Marriage is a type of the whole thing. And remember, everything here speaks of God if you go back to the original. And remember, the original was, “Be fruitful and multiply.” So, all right.
Now, that Life… now, let’s look at that a minute. God is Life, Holy Spirit. And He took a little teeny bit of Himself, bringing about an infusion that was able, the Life being able, to take what was allowable to fuse into a body.
That did not constitute God per se, as though God were now entirely drained, because the same body that came forth from Mary stood in the river Jordan thirty years later, and the entirety of God came down and indwelt Him.
So what I’m trying to show you is this: When Brother Branham said, “The Life that was in the Blood, the sanctifying Blood that redeemed and sanctified the earth at that particular time setting it apart from God,” so that no matter what judgment would ever come upon it, would finally be reconciled and perfect with God one more time in the place it should be.
All right, now, that Blood fell upon the earth but Jesus said, “I return to God… Into Thy hands, O God, I commend my Spirit.” He said, “I came from God and I go back.” And here’s what you’re looking at here then: That same Life that went back is the same Life that comes down upon you and me.
You don’t get all of God; nobody ever did get all of God. The closest anybody comes to that, is a prophet. If you had all of God, you’d be Jesus Christ.
That’s when Brother Branham said… he said, “The token of this day is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And I make a categorical statement... [said,] If you say you have the Token , you’re a liar. The Token is with the Church and we have a part of It.”
If anybody says, “I have the Token, the Lord Jesus Christ,” I want you to come up here and tell us all about it. Then if you prove it, I’ll likely become an idolater. No, I couldn’t believe that, you see, no matter what you did. There’s no way.
Even with Moses… when God filled Moses, and Paul says that God was in the prophets, it was transitory; it was ephemeral. When God was in Moses, the Pillar of Fire inside of Moses and he’s speaking the Word of God, he was God to the people.
But the minute That left him, he was Moses again… for they could make some pretty rough blunders. When God was in them, there’s no blunders a person could make because God had charge of the vessel.
Now, he said,
…the Blood dripped upon the earth to claim it…
Now, down here at 283, after the resurrection, after the White Throne, complete restoration, ready for its new place…
God comes down to reside upon the earth which He is a part of it, His Own Body.
Now, he’s talking about God in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, God disincarnated Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane. And there is no place, in my under-standing, where He reincarnates Himself until the Wedding Supper.
As Brother Branham said, “That Spirit that’s in the midst of us now, when He becomes incarnate to us we’ll crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords.”
That will be the son of David, the son of God, the son of man, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Altogether Lovely, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Counselor, the Prince of Peace… Elohim-Jehovah, El Elah, you name it… every one.
All right,
[61-5] …He raised it, [that’s the body,] for our justification, and we’re justified.–by believing that and accepting that.
That’s true; he was. If God hadn’t a raised him, you and I wouldn’t be justified. It would’ve meant that the Sacrifice was not acceptable. And if the Sacrifice is not acceptable, you’re like Cain… you’re finished.
You’re a wanderer, you’re a roamer, you’re out there somewhere in a Never-Never Land. That’s what happens when people die; they leave here and they go to weird… light, between light and dark, Never-Never Land. The saint of God doesn’t do that.
Why, Paul said, “I’m just so glad to get out of here and be with Christ, in a certain way, out of this world.” And he said, “There’s a spirit-body waiting for me.” You don’t have that, you go through when you’re a child of God.
All right, now,
…In the type, Jesus becomes Man God... [Now, I went over this last night to see if this was written down right. It is. And this is a tough one...] In the type, Jesus becomes Man God, are predestinated… takes his place to redeem us; to make all these things possible.
Now, what in the world is he talking about? All right, let’s just go back and read again. God comes down to reside upon the earth, which He is a part of it, His Own Body.
So, therefore, he’s talking about the earth being redeemed and the earth being a part… giving a part to the body of God, Himself, which it was.
So now he’s talking about… and he says about this body being raised up in justification. So he’s setting a type forth here.
And as I understand this type, he is simply saying here, that “As God raised up Jesus Christ, so He raises up this earth.” And the raising up of Jesus in his perfections, the earth will also be raised up in its perfections.
Now, he said, “What do you want out of Jesus? Tell me.” “Oh,” you say, “I this and that…” “If that’s according to the Word of God, you got it. What do you want out of the earth? You get identical what you got out of Jesus.”
The same God that raised up Jesus with the totality of perfection… now understand what I’m saying, raises up the earth again with the totality of perfection. Do you see where the type lies?
Now, that’s what I understand here. You understand anything you want, and we’ll compare. But I ain’t going to listen to you because I know I’m right.
You say, “You’re a very obstinate guy.” You bet I am… you bet. With these things up here, I don’t have to worry about at all. I know where it comes from. See?
Now… basically as he is talking about an earth body, right. Well, if God raises up the body and it’s going to be like Jesus, what kind of an earth is He going to raise up to put us on? See? That’s what he’s saying in plain English. You say you believe all this, then we believe it.
All right.
[61-6] Notice, outside of its beautiful walls of this City… Now have you got the City? [right in your mind and understand it] …it’s a holy mountain. And he quotes…“Nothing shall hurt or destroy in all my holy Mountain, saith the Lord.”
So, New Jerusalem, nothing will ever hurt or destroy. That’s why the lion will eat straw like an ox. A child can poke his finger down a hole where the asp is… come up and smelled the finger and looked the kid in the eye, pat him on the head and go on his way.
Now, you know they’ve got a bad situation in Africa. My good friend, Doc Jeffers, he’s dead now, but he tells me that in Africa… he said, “I don’t know how they don’t seem to learn over there many times.”
He was in Nigeria, I guess. And he said, “You know they realize they can reach in a hole and maybe… and pull out a rabbit or some little animal and they can eat it.
But, he said, they’ll reach in there and a snake will grab them. And they’ll die with the snake bite.” Now, I don’t know why they don’t seem… I’m not saying it’s any bad culture they got, but he bewailed the fact that they never seem to learn “Don’t poke your finger in the hole; poke a stick in the hole.” See?
Of course they figured that if they reached in and grabbed the animal, that he couldn’t get by. But if you poke your finger in there and it’s a snake, you won’t get by either.
But, what I’m trying to show you here now, see, in the Holy City and the Holy Mountain are one and the same, not two different things. He hasn’t got a Holy City over here and a Holy Mountain over there, and nothing hurts in either one.
He’s telling you, It’s Mount Zion upon which the pyramidal City… See? …but it’s hollow inside, kinda like you know, just a little bit so it fits down over the top… solid gold, solid gold with water bringing forth fruit? Man! That’s interesting.
I’ve heard of gold shots curing arthritis, but didn’t know it could do this. Well, maybe that’s just the streets; we’ve got a lot of good earth there, round about it.
Now... the City is not a cube, it’s a mountain. And the width by the breadth and height are equal. See? Fifteen hundred miles this way; fifteen hundred miles that way; fifteen hundred miles all… around.
Now, it doesn’t mean it’s 1500 miles all around. It’s 6000 miles all around. It means all around, whichever way you look at it, there’s 1500 miles.
You look this a-way; you look that a-way; you look up a-ways; you go to the top and look down, 1500; stand at the bottom and look up, 1500. Go this way, 1500 miles; go that way, 1500 miles, it’s all 1500 miles. It’s a pyramid.
[He said, Now] ...it’s just a great mountain like the pyramid, and the City is on the Mountain Glory! There you are. There’s the paradises of God. The Light of the world. The perfect Kingdom. Not the seventh day, the Eternal one. See, not the Millennium, the New Earth.
Now, the reason he’s talking about this so many times is because the man could feel in his spirit that people didn’t understand the difference between the one thousand year Millennium and the Eternity of God that’s by and beyond it.
So this is after the Millennium which we’re coming to. “While it’s going through the Millennium.” …this is paragraph 285, and we’ll stop here to talk a bit of something else.
Now listen,
[62-1] While it’s going through the Millennium... listen carefully… it’s going through its sanctifying process.
Now, that sounds a little ridiculous, doesn’t it? on the surface… a little, to make you puzzle. Why would you suggest this is a sanctifying process?
Well, I’m going to tell you something: When God sanctified you, and He did it by child-training, to bring you to a certain place, did He burn you all up or did He just rear you up? In other words, by degrees.
So here is a period of a degree of time of sanctifying the earth by a series of experiences… just like you and me. So the earth is getting a sanctifying period here, but it still must be burnt.
Now, you and I… let me go and show you something here. Let’s go to the Book of Romans, the eighth chapter… and we’ll get through this, year after next. You know, I’m not really worried. If you’re not worried, I’m not worried.
Anybody too nervous and getting worried about getting more? That’s nice of you. Thank you, Joe. I always count on you to stick with me… not that the others don’t too, but it’s good, you’re right up front here and I can watch you. All right.
Now in the seventh chapter of Romans, this fellow is going through a lot of growing up pains. He’s having a problem, “What I’d like to do, I don’t do, and what I don’t want to do, I do.”
And he said, “It ends up, he said, by me following myself instead of following God.”
He said, “It is a bad deal. How do I get rid of this body of death? How do I get it?”
He said, “I get it by the rebirth, by the Holy Ghost coming in and giving me power and understanding and the things of God whereby I begin to walk in the spirit.”
And he says…
(01) [Therefore, there is] now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [Well, that [referring to the word ‘now’] should not be there; should be: “There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ.”]
(02) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
(03) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
(04) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…
And that’s Christ in us, the Righteousness. He is it. That’s the Holy Ghost and therefore we do not walk after the flesh, we war with the flesh. We don’t walk after, we fight.
If you walk after the flesh, you are no more born-again than a dead dog or a hog. But if you’ve got a fight going on, you got a bit of an understanding right there- “Hey! You know, I’m in the right side of the fence.”
Now, if you’re a legalist and not born-again, you could have a worst time than anybody. My God have pity on your poor soul!
For verse 6,
(06) For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
(07) Because the carnal mind is [the enemy] against God: …it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. [Now, Brother Branham preached on The Greatest Battle Ever Fought in order to teach us how to get the minds under control of the Word, and get away from this nonsense.]
(08) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. [Now watch]
(09) But [you] are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God [dwells] in you. [You’re above it. But who said you don’t get child-trained? Who said God doesn’t work on you? See, the sanctifying period? Like Millennium. Say, “Man! That’s a long time.” “It sure feels like a long time”, I’d say, when I was eighteen years old. Fifty-five years ago… Man alive! Forget it. I used to be rougher than a cob. It was my own fault.] Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
(10) [Now watch] And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin: [I don’t care if you are born-again. You are going to die, or get changed at the end-time. See?] …but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And we have the lovely Spirit of Life in the Millennium, but it’s still got to die. So during Millennium is a sanctifying period. Don’t try to figure it; just believe it. Do you follow what I’m teaching now, though? Do you understand why I say what I’m saying? Why, the prophet said it.
That’s all you’ve got to do is understand and say, “Well, I’ll thank you, Lord. That’s a sanctifying period. I love that; I’ll go right along with it.” In other words, you’re going to see the earth grow under you, for a change. How nice! …Fap!
I can’t even get the bugs to stay off of my plants. Why, last year we’d have thought, “Well, Hey! The roses won’t die from last year.” That’s the year they died the worst.
Even the men that are experts in roses, you ask and say, “ What happened?” “I don’t know”. Got no more control, bless God, than I got over a Brahma bull. Ever seen them throw a guy around, plumb over the fence? I don’t want to get near his swishing his tail, let alone his horns.
But there’s coming a day when you and I watch the earth go through sanctification. Then one day we see it die, then come back. You say, “I like that.” I do, too. Let’s stick around.
All right,
See? Which the Blood redeemed the people, it showed its memorial…
All right, here it is. As the Blood redeemed the people, the earth is redeemed, there’s a memorial going on. And that memorial we’re taking right now, and so does the earth take its memorial for a 1000 years, because we do drink the wine and eat the bread. The price is paid for that 1000 years.
But then it has to be cleansed that’s by fire just like you were, His delegates [and you were cleansed and you are His delegates] of the City, you’re the delegation. So, if you die or if you live, what difference does it make?
Now, he’s bringing out the fact there, I would say here, he is saying here, “Look, concerning the world… concerning you and me, what does it matter if you and I live or die?
Then, what does it matter about the earth? It just follows the same way as you do. It’s going to get there and we’re going to get there with it. It’s a marvelous thing we’re coming into.
Now,
…If He comes today or… comes in a hundred years or a thousand years, I’ll only rest till my change…
Remember that fellow that came by here over, on forty-seven? He wanted to teach in the church that if you died you weren’t Bride.
Now, look, I’ve got a promise to live. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to die… Doesn’t mean I’m not going to die; I just got a promise. So a certain dear friend of mine, he believed it; got down with cancer. He lies dying. His son, Les, said, “Now, he said, “Doc, what about it?”
Said, “I guess I made a mistake.” God help mistakes coming over this pulpit, Brother/Sister. You can’t afford them. See? If you’ve got a man’s mind made up wrong teaching, how do you come around and change his mind back? Yes, sir. Death!
Death, except…”I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed.” The body is dead because of sin. You and I have sin in our mortal bodies. There is no way we’re going to stop from dying.
We have got to die until the day when God says, “We’ve come right back full circle to the Tree of Life,” and those people can’t die. That’s the opening of the seals, Revelation 22:10.
Now, a lot of these things I repeat and I’ve tried to be like Brother Branham, unconsciously of course in this respect: Those things that I know that are so important, I repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat until you couldn’t shake me if you tried. You’d have to sit here as an unbeliever.
Well, good enough… sit here. You’re going to learn perfectly. Say, “Well, I’m a make-believer.” Same difference, who cares. There are some believers here somewhere. Yah, there’s a Bride at the end-time. Nobody’s going to kid me… no way, shape and form.
Now, Brother Branham mentioned this great sanctifying of the earth. Now, look… the earth’s sanctification begins in total earnest with the presence of a glorified Bride.
Therefore we ought to possess a sanctification in this hour due to the Presence of God, ready to go to the Millennium as I believe no other group has been privileged to enter into a sanctifying period. Now, I’m sticking my neck out.
I don’t know that I can prove that, but I can say this, without fear of contradiction: That, if the Cornerstone brought forth what It did in the First Age, an Ephesian Church, then the Capstone has got to bring forth not just what the Ephesian Church brought forth but what it failed to bring forth. See?
Now, I’m going to take a little time from this paragraph 285… maybe just even read it. Brother Branham speaks of a sanctifying process and I would like to think of a sanctifying process going now in these last days. It’s going on in this last day.
And my thoughts come from Brother Branham speaking of the kings who continuously walk in the Light of the Throne and constantly proffer leaves from the Tree of Life significant… or signifying, Peace.
There is a Peace emanating from the God of Peace and you’ll notice, that’s a very strong Scriptural assessment. There is a Peace emanating from the God of Peace in and all through all creation, that’s New Jerusalem so that the kings and priests constantly manifest this divine harmony, even to the use of a memorial rite.
Like Israel who bound the little boxes, they’re called ‘phylacteries’, around their head with a leather thong which little box contained a little tiny scroll, that every time they walked, it went ‘bong, bong, bong, bong, bong’ reminding them of the Word of God.
They bound them upon the wrists and I think upon the ankles, so that every time there was a movement, it would remind them of the Word of God.
So, therefore, you will notice, that these kings, from and because of the Presence of God, constantly kept taking a little leaf from the Tree of Life or maybe trees of Life scattered around, constantly proffering that to each other, in other words, the true keeping of the Peace.
Now, since we are the final part of that great throng, we are just one breath away from that wonderful life because the shadow’s coming closer and closer to the reality. Therefore, every line of definition should be clearer than at any other time. That’s right. You can’t get away from it.
See? We’re coming closer to our image, too. This being so, we ought to be closer to that positive realm than any of the others that ever lived, the shadow giving way to the real. That’s right. That’s what’s happening to you and me.
Who believes in three Gods? Can’t maybe explain it, but simple as A-B-C, God is God and He had a son just like we have sons. But He only had one, like that One. See?
That’s why they killed Jesus when he told them flat, and he said, “God is my Father like He’s nobody else’s Father.” Well, that did it.
Every time there is a new Light strikes the earth, the people have to consciously or unconsciously say, “Nobody has Light like we’ve got Light!” O God, they hate you for that! Oh, that’s a cult.
Well, I’m called a cult. I’m a cult, fine! Who cares I’m a cult? I’m a heretic. That’s fine! Who cares? Let’s wait and find out what happens. 6000 years it’s been going on. No trouble to wait another thousand if we had to. I don’t think we will, but no trouble waiting.
Therefore, Peace should be flowing as a river in our midst because we’re coming to that great realm of Peace until all who enter among us feel the unique harmony of this Peace and Love. By now we ought to be well versed in manifesting this New Jerusalem ceremonial rite of proffering peace to all.
And I spoke of that on Wednesday… took a bit on Sunday. It ought to be a part of our nature, for we are being sanctified by the Word of this hour for this new Kingdom, as no other one was because we’re going to walk into it.
Each has the Word and is a part of the Word, the Bride today and we can extend our ‘heart Word’. That’s in here [Brother Vayle taps on his chest] that source, as our reason for the unity and harmony and peace.
In other words, if that Word is dwelling in us richly, and the mark of the Kingdom is one of peace and harmony, there of necessity will be a harmony amongst the Bride as has not been formerly; It’ll be greater.
Well, you say, “Brother Vayle, what if a church is not all Bride?” Show me one that is! Somebody’s going to take it up, and going to stand with it, until the rest of the people begin standing.
Let’s just take a look at this in John 17. Here’s this great chapter on Sanctification.
Now, I won’t read it all… first 3 verses,
(01) These words spake Jesus, …lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee:
(02) As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
(03) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Doesn’t say, “That they might know thee, the only true God who is Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is somebody God sent. Now, if I come here, I don’t send somebody else; I’m here. When I’m here, I haven’t sent somebody else.
Well, God sent Jesus Christ, then He came down and indwelt him. He said, “As the Father has sent me, so send I, you.” In identical manner. Then read a little further on, to 12-17, because we haven’t got time to read it all.
(12) While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me [have I] kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
(13) And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [My joy in themselves. See? essentially… one.]
(14) I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [Perfect identification.]
(15) I pray not that thou [should] take them out of the world, but… thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one].
(16) They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
(17) Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. [verse 22]
(22) And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
(23) I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; …that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. [Now, listen, they’re not in the Millennium. They’re right here in the world. Two kingdoms going on at one time, God’s Kingdom going on, and this worldly kingdom, because His Kingdom’s in the hearts of men and women.]
(24) Father I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. [Now, that prayer’s just going to get answered right now.]
(25) O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou has sent me.
(26) And I have declared unto them thy name, [surely… absolutely revealed it and lived it] and will declare it: [make it more and more evident, manifest] that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Now, he said,
(27) …my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth [it]… unto you. Let not your heart be troubled [nor] …be afraid.
He lets you know right there, that God, the God of all peace and harmony… and remember Alpha is now Omega. This is the Alpha, and they could not get it except in that predestinated measure. See?
Because he said, “…that where I am, there they may be.” Now, we know that that’s not… they’re not in the first resurrection; those people are still waiting. They’re in that place in their own spirit-body waiting for God to come to them and so on.
All right. Now… we are in the Omega; we’re therefore closer.
Now, last Wednesday I read from James, the 3rd chapter, and I’m going to read again. That’s right past the Book of Hebrews. I never seem to be able to get the pages unstuck… I should read, I guess, James a little bit more. That would do it.
Let’s start, verse 17 to 18 and read on,
(17) But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. [In other words, the knowledge that God brings down here is first of all the pure knowledge of God, then watch the first-fruit peaceable. Watch the next] …gentle [Watch the next] …easy to be entreated, [Watch the next] …full of mercy… good fruits, without partiality and [no] hypocrisy. [Not trying to get something from anybody, just being a jolly-good fellow because you are a jolly-good fellow. In other words, the essential nature that has been redeemed will show forth the qualities that once fell and are now redeemed.]
(18) And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace [not of them] for them that make peace.
Now, let’s read further,
(01) From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
(02) [You] lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
(03) [You] ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
(04) [You] adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Now, I didn’t need to read number four there, really… but, what you’re looking at here now, is not just two people with two different natures; you are looking at two different people who do two different things. Hey! They’re both sowing.
Now, what I read here, in James, the first few verses in 3:17-18, these are the peacemakers of whom the Bible said they are the children of God… of whom the Scripture says, “The meek shall inherit the earth”.
This is their distinguishing characteristic, footsteps of peace, because they follow in the footsteps of their Master, according to Hebrews 13:20-21.
(20) Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
(21) Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Now, what does he call Him? He says, “The God of Peace, that brought again the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Now, why did He bring him again from the dead? To bring peace, because he’s the Prince of Peace. That’s one of his great redemptive titles.
All right. They follow then, the Prince of Peace, the God of Peace. They go not in the way of Cain and do not follow James 4:1-3, which we read, but rather, they follow Romans 8:6.
(06) …[For] to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
And as in,
(19) Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and [the] things [even the things] wherewith one may edify another.
There never was any edification in war. It’s tearing down, tearing down, tearing down. John F. Kennedy had a wonderful thought in mind when he got… they organized the ‘Peace Patrol’. This little group that he wanted to go out there as converts to peace and show what peace could do.
To come extending, not the white feather of surrender but showing the palm, advancing with the palm-frond or the holly leaf… I beg your pardon, the olive leaf to show that they wanted to do people good and build them up and not drag them down. See?
And then he says here…
(17) For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. [You’ll notice that peace comes after righteousness because it is from the God of righteousness.]
Now, there are many, many things said about Peace in the Word of God. Now, I could take sermon after sermon on it, that’s for sure, because the Word is full of it.
Just to mention some and not read the Scripture… the Scripture tells us of course, in here concerning Peace: It is a state that we ought to enter into and earnestly strive to maintain.
It’s a state that the Bible tells us to enter into and strive to keep therein. Paul prays that God will fill us with joy and peace. Over here in Romans, the 15th chapter and the 13th verse,
(13) Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that [you] may abound in hope. [Now, notice… the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your believing that you may abound in what He is called the God of hope.]
Look at it again. What’s He called? The God of hope. What’s He going to fill us with? Joy and peace through believing, in order that we may abound… in what? Hope! …the same thing that He’s the God of, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
In other words, we may gain what God in His intrinsic nature desires for us and out of us, and we can have it. Now, just hold it…
Let’s go to Ephesians, the 1st chapter and really see something here that’s going to… that should rock us. And this is Paul praying for the Holy Ghost to come at the end-time into the Church, “the wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him”.
Watch, verse 18,
(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that [you] may know what is the hope of his calling [not our calling, but his calling]…
So, what’s the God of hope want from this Church? He wants a peacefulness, a serenity. He wants peace jumping out of us onto each other, not our nerves jumping out of us onto each other.
Remember the woman that had that dream, she was in white sand and everything? But, look, she was so afraid for her family and all.
He said, “Seeing it is white sand the omen is good. But, [he said] you’re a nervous person and the people are picking up on your nerves.” See?
Now, you keep in mind what I am saying, brother/sister, because we may run over time; I don’t know… I hope we don’t. Paul told the rowdy Corinthians to live in peace. And since we believe God is here, we want to keep always in our minds that He is the God of peace.
And remember, we know He is here as Judge, and the Judge is the Justice of the Peace… What about it? Let it sink in. Do something with it.
He is the God of Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ who is here in the form of the Holy Ghost. The Pauline epistles are full of this truth, the God of Peace.
Look again to James, the 3rd chapter, and the 18th verse,
(18) And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace [for] them that make peace.
Now, the determination of the believer must be that he or she will make peace. For reconciliation to God and brother is a must.
For in 2 Corinthians 5:20, we have been reconciled. And reconciliation with the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour and notice what it says in Matthew, the 5th chapter, and in verse 24.
(24) Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. [He also says…]
(25) Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary [turn you over to the Judge, who is here now, the Justice of the Peace.]
Now, if you and I don’t make the way of peace amongst ourselves, the righteous Judge is here, and He’s guaranteed to fry this earth to sanctify it. He’ll fry you and me, too. And if you haven’t been through what I’m talking about, have fun! You’re going to get it.
I’ve been through some of it and I haven’t learned my lessons yet. Now, I speak as a seventy-four year old man, very, very soon and I can look you all in the eye and you’re all wet behind the ears, the same as I am.
I told you, “I do not look down the road; I do not look back; I look now! I am one five-fold minister of God in this Message that does not fool with this Message. What the rest do is their business.
But I can tell you, Jack Bell doesn’t fool, and Brother Palberg doesn’t fool, and Brother Roger Smith doesn’t fool. But there’s a whole lot of them do fool. Look at it now with the Presence of the Judge the Justice of the Peace.
And He says, “You will pay! I will put you in a prison of your own making and you will not come out until you’ve paid the uttermost farthing.”
Let’s go to 1 Peter, the 3rd chapter, and 7. We ought to live in godly fear concerning these things because, brother/sister, this is a part of the Message, because the Prophet said it.
Now, I merely take my cue from the Prophet. He said it was a type.
(07) Likewise, …husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge [that’s the wife] giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
How many peoples’ prayers in a rowdy home are getting anywhere? Let’s put it this way: Some of you have had a lot of luck to date. Right.
No man and woman can really get down on his and her knees with the husband and kids the way they should if a rowdiness is going on, they’re constant clipping and fussing. Now, keep listening to me, because look, I’m here to talk about these things because they need to be talked about.
And I’m not saying I’m perfect. Don’t ever get this… I’m saying, this whole church needs it. I can see why the Bride hasn’t got out of here. What’s He going to take out of here? Let’s look at the picture.
The world is going to have one thousand years before it burns. It’s a sanctifying process. We are in a sanctifying process now, missing the fire, in the literal sense of a dissolution. I don’t know we’ll even know that we’re changed, except suddenly we’re changed.
Brother Branham said, “A breath goes over you.” So there ought to be a quickening, sanctifying process. Now, I’m not fussing at you. I’m fussing at myself more than I’m fussing at anybody because I’m fussing, period. But if we just lay the thing out because that’s what God said.
All right. Now, looking at James 3:18 again because we’re into it, I find a very fascinating thought.
(18) …The fruit of righteousness is sown… [for] them that make peace.
In other words, when you sow peace deliberately, when you go out of your way to be peaceful, you hold your temper and your tongue and your actions and your responses. I call them ‘reactions’.
I’m not one of these fine-talking idiots that want to put ‘responses,’ I don’t respond, I react! Let’s get it straight… can’t stand this supercilious nonsense… makes me sick.
Paint God some little ‘feency, feency,’ some stupid jerk. Paint Him like He is, Brother/Sister! …when He looks down His nose and points His finger, “Thirty days in hard labor and bread and water.”
You say, “Well, I thought He is a God of love.” He is. He’s trying to straighten you and me up, because “He that suffers in the flesh ceases from sin”, and some of us, in fact ninety-nine percent, if not the whole hundred percent here.
And I don’t care how old any of you are, sitting here, you and I simply don’t stop, until we get lambasted or knocked down. What a horrible thing to say from a pulpit! But what do you expect out of a world that’s rich, increased in goods, and doesn’t lack a thing.
“Bless God! Whether, God, You like it or not, Hallelujah!, we’ve got you! Amen Jesus.” Phttt! Hogwash.. That’s for your [inaudible] and your Swaggart’s and your Bakker’s and the whole bunch of them, they wouldn’t know God if they met Him in their porridge.
That’s your Pentecostal high-fallutin’ hogwash. It’s for the Baptists, the Methodists, the whole bunch are full of it. You tell me one group of people that believe as we believe. But the world’s condemned, rich, miserable and doesn’t even know it. See?
Now, you’ve got to sow. The command is to sow in peace. The constant objective is live in peace. And we do so by actions and word and a nature that is conducive to it because we’ve got the nature in us and it’s just waiting to see if we’ll do it.
Now, here’s where I’m going and you know it of course, it’s over in Galatians, the 6th chapter. And this has a lot to do with everything, 7 to 9.
(07) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Now, you’ve got to ‘sow in the spirit’, which means, in the Word of God. You’ll have to know the hour in which you live and what is incumbent upon you.
But there never was a time when God said, “There was a certain hour for love and no other hour. And peace… it’s always the same. But now it’s getting greater.
(08) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption [Christian friend]; but he that soweth to the Spirit of the Spirit reap life everlasting [Christian friend].
(09) [Christian friend] …be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
(10) As [many as therefore] have… opportunity, let us do good unto [everybody] especially unto [those that] are of the household of faith.
Now, verse seven is an axiomatic principle. It says, “Be not deceived… whatever a man sows, he’s going to reap.” Now, that’s what God says. God in His universe stands behind it. It cannot be changed.
In verse eight and nine it says, “If you sow to the flesh, you’re going to get corruption; if you sow to the Spirit, you’ll get what’s in the Spirit.” Like James says, “If you sow in peace, God is going to return the peace back upon you, but it’s got to be the righteousness.”
Now, you’ll notice that Abel sowed in peace. He sowed righteousness. He obeyed the Word of God which was relevant for his hour and has always been relevant because faith is predicated upon a revelation.
And everything then, contingent to it, is predicated upon that revealed faith. But what happened? Cain killed his brother… that’s what happens. Sow to the spirit, you bring the spirit; sow to the flesh, you bring the flesh.
Now, I want to make some points here. Now, listen to me carefully: Disrupted lives are not exclusively and always the consequences of what has been perpetrated upon us. You were born in sin because of Adam. Do you have to sin? If you say you do, you’re a liar.
You don’t have to steal, lie, chisel, I don’t say that you do. I’m just saying, you know that you don’t have to do it. Do you think that Pharaoh had to kill those babies? In no wise. That’s why he’s judged. See?
There is no compulsion, my brother/my sister, to the end that God demands sin of anybody. They will do it because it’s in them. They don’t have to do it. Disrupted lives are not necessarily lived because of someone else’s influence, although that’s many times the cases.
“Well, my parents… Well, my this, my that…” Hogwash! You can stop any day and start all over. You can’t blame anybody. Disrupted lives come from within us, even as peaceful lives come.
Let’s find what the Apostle Paul said about outside influences.
(35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [Did you bring those on yourself? No, somebody else did.]
(36) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long [Are you killing yourself? No, somebody else is]; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. [Who did? You or somebody else?]
(37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
(38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
(39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other [creation] [Nothing whatsoever in creation, that is formulated by creation, that happens while I’m in this creation, there is nothing that can separate me from] the love of God [if I just got to believe it.]
Now, it’s up to us. It’s a conscious act of sowing peace. It’s a conscious act of what Gandhi did to show the world what the Church wouldn’t do, passive resistance. That’s right.
Martin Luther King thought he could do it, but he didn’t have the spirit of Gandhi. See? And the white man killed him. Never should have done it. It cannot change. There is no way we can change this. See? We don’t want to change.
Now, watch… what about what Peter says over here in 1 Peter, the 4th chapter. Now, let’s read this and be very careful, 12 to 19.
(12) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
(13) But rejoice, inasmuch as [you’re] partakers of Christ’s sufferings [that’s providing you’re suffering for Christ]; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
(14) If [you] be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are [you]; for the spirit of glory and of God [rests] upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. [Now, you listen carefully]
(15) But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
(16) …if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
(17) For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, [It’s started right now. It can’t start before the Judge is here. The Judge is here , see?]: and if it first [begins] at us, what shall the end be to them that obey not the gospel of God? [The fire! …annihilation, destruction.]
(18) And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where [will] the ungodly and… sinner appear?
Now, what’s he saying? He is telling us what James told us. We’ve got to have a reconversion on our conversion, and a re-sanctification on our sanctification, and a rededication, if there ever was one and rededication is not foreign to the Word of God.
Remember, the temple was destroyed at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. And they came back and rebuilt it and they rededicated it. See? God’s not interested so much in dedication, as He is in rededication.
Many people dedicate, and they think they’ve done it but they haven’t. We’ve all been through it, and we go through it. Rededication is what’s necessary.
(18) …if the righteous scarcely be saved, where [will] the ungodly and… sinner appear? [Nowhere!]
(19) [Wherefore… now, notice his conclusion from what we have read… the whole thing] Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
We have not yet come to the place of the first, true line of defense, God is my defense. I know it. I could talk with each one of you and you can talk with me. And I can point out exactly where you miss it and you could point out where I miss it.
And then we say, “Well, isn’t it great. The pot can’t call the kettle black.” I’m going to tell you something: Neither pot or kettle should be black. We’ve got to begin to see we are an end-time people.
Now, maybe I’m aiming too high. Maybe I’m teaching you wrong. How could I teach you wrong if we haven’t come as far as the First Century?
What does it say in 2 Corinthians, we’ve been over this so many, many times? I might preach this sermon the first time with such determination, and literal anger, but I got it across, because I knew this is something you people had to have.
And by the grace of God, I’ll preach this till Kingdom comes. And if I’m forced to recant because I can’t stand the blows and the pressure of burning in the flesh and the oil poured upon me whatever they want to do, I’ll still believe it.
It says,
(16) When the vail [is lifted, when that’s taken away from the mind]
(17) [… and the Spirit of God brings the liberty]
(18) …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… by the Spirit of the Lord. [And it comes by a ministry.]
That couldn’t happen any hour but this hour. Then, “What manner of people, as Peter said, we ought to be” based upon the immanency… yes, the literal entering into and the partaking of the resurrection, immortality, the rapture and the Kingdom, where the earth goes through a further process of sanctification.
And I think you and I have a hand in it, because we’re growing crops and we’re living a rural, pastoral, beautiful life out there, helping the earth …only to see it plunge into fire, and be glad and rejoice because it’ll come forth the way God wants it.
I’m not saying that others cannot make a shambles of your life. However… however, they can do it only if we let them at this present time, unless we were too young and couldn’t have any control over it and now we’re suffering.
Let us go to the Book of Matthew, the 18th chapter, and see about such things as those. Jesus called and put a little child in the midst… and let’s go to verse 6.
(06) …whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and… he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
There never has been a time in history that we know of, at least bringing it to the surface, where child-abuse and molestation has taken place.
Let me tell you, society protects these dogs and these fiends that we call our uncles and our fathers and our grandfathers and our brothers, and so on.
The Bible said a millstone were better hung about their neck. See? Oh, yah, you can be harmed by this.
(07) Woe unto the world because… [offences must come! Let’s under-stand this: You are going to be bugged; you’re going to be harmed; you’re going to be hurt.] for it must needs be… offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence [comes]!
You’ve been offended, so now you want to offend back. Where do you stand this morning, Brother/Sister? How many of you bite the bullet? It’s a hard job. I have a terrible job doing it.
My quickness at retaliation is just like the philosophy that “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make angry.” There is never a fight till the second blow is struck. Do you want a millstone hung about your neck? You’re going to get it.
You say, “Well, I’ve been hurt; I’m going to hurt back.” You just killed yourself right there. Listen to me, you people: You think this is a small church. It knows every word every one of you says. It all gets back to me.
Guard your mouths or I’ll be seeing people in a condition a million times worse than you are now. Yah! I wish I was the kind of man that could really preach this kind of sermon. I’m not; I’m not a real pastor, but I’m a teacher and I can teach you.
And I’ve not led you astray. Maybe several times I’d say, “I don’t do it; you’d better do.” I’ve never told you that. I’m telling you, you’d better do it and I, above all, had better do it. If there’s an offence [inaudible].
(08) …if thy hand… offend thee, cut [it] off.
In other words, bring yourself to a position where even where you ache and die within, you will not perpetrate that upon somebody else. You’ve been stung? Don’t sting anybody else.
This is where marriages go completely haywire. Always male are male, females are females. They never were meant to be each other. Any man that tries to be like a woman is a complete jackass. And any woman who tries to be like a man is a complete jackass.
And any man that wants his wife to act like a man, he’s a complete jackass. And I’ll keep on saying it until you get the whole category, the whole catechism outlined before you. If you’re a man, she’s a woman. Boys and girls, the same thing; they… that very difference causes problems.
I just read where Peter said, “Hey! You can’t even get your prayers answered because you don’t recognize male from female.”
Funny, man just wants that wife of his to be sweet, gentle, and kind and loving and frilly petticoats and negligees and all that, then suddenly, “Out in the yard and hoe the cucumbers and milk the cows and make the living, everything else.”
Oh, you bunch of flatheads! If I’d do it over again, I tell you, my kids would live on apple box and a branch water and a soda cracker and I’d do every single thing… and my wife would not climb a plow or a horse or anything else.
You say, “Well, what if she had to?” Ahhh! Don’t bring that up, for God’s sake… don’t bring that up. Just say, “She never will… or I’ll be dead, or crippled or something.”
Or do the next best thing better than that: Go on relief, bless God. Make sure the… that was a nasty thing to say, but I’m used to saying nasty things.
Matthew 18:
(09) …if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, …cast it from thee: …better for thee to enter into life with one eye, …than having two eyes…
(10) Take heed… despise not… these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
Listen, you’ve got a heavenly Father and there’s special angel up there that is always with you as your a little tiny child born. That one takes care of you. And I know we all have problems.
What my mother did, what my father did, what your mother did, what your father did, all of those things, I know they can cripple you. But let me tell you this: The answer is begin doing peaceful things and watch how peace comes back on you.
You can’t lick what people did to you any other way. You go to some stupid psychiatrist or psychologist and bring it out… Look, we’ve got a son, we had two of them with a psychiatrist, and you know what?
When they found out what was making them tick or not tick, they still couldn’t put it together. This is what puts it together, honey! You don’t need a psychologist. I don’t need a psychiatrist.
The idiots told me, they said to my wife, “Well, Mr. Vayle needs a psychiatrist.” She said, “No. I’m a psychiatric nurse. He needs a good doctor.”
There wasn’t one of them. But I paid a price just the same and I believe those bugs got hold of me because I didn’t control my nature to sow peace and harmony. And a body that’s full of peace and harmony will not be full of bugs.
Most everything in this life is caused by stress. And we’re not taking God’s recipe, and we’re at the end-time, where we can do it. See? This is the tragedy of this hour! God came down and manifested.
The world said, “Forget it! He’s of the Devil. He’s this; He’s that.”
They’re going to die for it! Now, the God of Peace wants to do something for you and me. Are we letting Him do it? You can’t undo what people did to you. Where’d you think my complexes came from?
I’m finally to the place where I really don’t give a rip; just don’t bug me. What I mean by that… Look, I don’t worry anymore about those stupid things that happened. I can’t help it. I can help this.
So if you want to pry and get nosey and bug and this and that, you aren’t going to do anything but cut your throat. Face what’s happened and say, “It’s all over. I am going to start sowing. And I’m going to sow it in the Holy Ghost and I’m going to reap a fruit.”
Well, did God fill us with all this rottenness? No! Somebody sowed for it. And for six thousand years we’ve been sowing. Now for the first time with the pure Word of God we can start sowing.
My brother my sister, don’t you see there can come a time in this Church when there’s not one sick person anymore but there will be if we perennial grouch and grouch and grouch and grouch and grouch. It isn’t going to work. And I’m not saying that everybody’s grouchy. That’s just part of it. See?
Let’s go to Matthew, the 5th chapter… How much time have I got left? …Ho! Five minutes… turn the thing back.
Read it for yourself, Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 6:27-49. You know what? There’s not a bad start. No… should make a good finish.
I’ll put a little note here called ‘Here’… I’ll let you out early. I was afraid it would take long. I’m used to long sermons. I could just take a whole series.
But, brother/sister, you see what I’m talking about. We need… we’re not doing it; we need to get up a little earlier in the morning, put on some tape, Christian music, not this rock and roll hogwash, but good old songs that weren’t meant to be sung at funerals, like ‘Nearer My God To Thee’.
Why do they put that at a funeral? ‘Nearer My God’ …he may be the farthest he ever was from God and going to Hell… already there. ‘Nearer My God’…
Let all my song to be ‘Nearer My God to Thee’ if I go to the valley, if I go to the shadows, some good music… every morning with prayer, every morning with positive thoughts.
You know something? I’d get up in the morning and do my exercise and for the longest time a certain thing would come into my mind and I’d get mad every single morning… mad in the sense, I had my hackles up.
I’ve got to watch it with my wife very closely because, not her fault, she’ll ask a question and I don’t want to be asked questions in the morning.
I’ve got to think in myself, “Now, look. She’ll ask me some questions which are legitimate, which is very fine. If she didn’t ask questions and she should have, then I’ll get mad because she didn’t ask questions.”
Now, what about your marriage? You’re the same way. I’ll up here and confess it; you’ll sit down and won’t. You’ll laugh and you say, “Hee, hee, hee.” But you know stinking well you’re rottener than I am.
At least I’ll confess it. How many of you guys buy your wife everything she wants and everything she doesn’t want? My wife doesn’t want anything… a present.
Listen, this living… this life, from the minute you’re born, is full of influences that must be combated by an inner influence. Not join hands with it, but fight it.
And there’s only one way to be an over comer, and I’ve talked about it this morning, you’ve got to sow for it… you’ve got to sow for it.
Now, if you’re sowing, and we’ll talk about this next Sunday, when you’re sowing wrong, what I showed you when you’re sowing you are going to come to a dead-end and find yourself in prison.
And I don’t care who you are. You say, “Well, Brother Vayle, I pray.” I’m going to say, “That is an insult in the teeth of God. Your prayer is sinful, utterly sinful and your action is antichrist.”
We’ll talk about those things because they’ve got to be talked about. You know why? Because we’ve got to start sowing, my brother/sister. And when the Church begins to sow, it’ll begin to reap. See?
We lose ourselves in the mainstream of God. Not the essentiality of man anymore. Forget it! It isn’t worth spitting on… except God put a little star-dust in there, a seed, and that’s all He’s interested in.
Remember, the essentiality of God who redeems, justifies, sanctifies, brings on a growth. Now, we’re right at the tail end. Don’t look at the mud anymore, brother/sister.
God knows the world’s a complete flesh-pot of mud, but that One came, manifest through a Prophet. Nobody can change it… nobody can change it. But do you know something? We can change with it.
Let’s rise and be dismissed.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we want to thank You again for Your goodness and mercy, Lord, giving us at least this time together where we could talk about this… what the Prophet brought to us. Here’s the earth.
Look at the lovely shape… further sanctification, and this time not a people defiling it. But this time a people… perhaps they’re the ones blessed of you to make it blossom like a rose. Roses have thorns.
Could be the Millennium is a place with roses and thorns, I don’t know. I know New Jerusalem won’t have it. But we think, Lord, of the great sanctifying elements in the great sanctifying time. O God, help us to be sanctified unto you as never before.
You know, Lord, that I think I would speak for every single person here today, if we had just one desire to get out of life, it would be, Lord, if not exactly like You on this earth, more like You than ever before, and a constant growth every step forward and no step backward. That’s all we’d ask.
And we know then, everything would fall in place just the same as John said: “I wish above all else you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.”
Help us, Lord, in this great and mighty battle that we’re into… evermore do the right thing, O God, because it can be done and it must be done.
And unto You we’ll ascribe the honor and the glory as we look forward to that great Peace in our midst in this Church, in the love of God, and every sick person amongst us healed.
In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Do you love Him this morning? He’s worthy of all of our love, and all of…