Future Home Of The Heavenly Bridegroom And The Earthly Bride #13

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we appreciate Your presence, Your love, Your grace, Your mercy, the hope You’ve instilled in our heart… yea, Lord. Beyond human hope, it’s Your own hope placed there, O God, the earnest expectation which You Yourself had for us and for Yourself is here and being fulfilled. We appreciate that so much.

We just pray, Lord, as we study Your Word, that It’ll give a greater power to what You have done in our lives and what You are doing here now, at this time. The inspiration, Lord, will give us motivating factors in our lives that we might live according to Truth, O God, and manifest that Truth.

Help us, Father, because this is what we’re here for this morning, to be corrected… we have our lives changed. We pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, we’re at number thirteen, and pretty soon we’ll be able to close off on Brother Branham’s Message, The Future Home of the Earthly Bride and Heavenly Bridegroom.

And in there, of course, he is describing the final destination of the saints of God, which actually is: the true government of God come down upon earth where God dwells with His people, in the midst of His people.

The earth has been recreated through the process of fire and recreation. The earth’s crust entirely reformed, the atmosphere’s completely changed, and made perfect for the New Jerusalem to come on down upon Mount Zion, which will be fifteen hundred miles at the base each way and fifteen hundred miles high; it would be a pyramidal City.

And in there, of course, the Bride will be with Christ on the Throne, His own Throne, by the way, with the Pillar of Fire, the Logos, God Himself above the Throne, and before they call He answers.

And the people on the outside will be those who bring their glory in, who come up in the Second Resurrection. There won’t be one son of Adam lost. “As in Adam all die, even so, in Christ all are made alive.”

And of course, the whole thing is a Sovereign Plan of Almighty God, wherein through the Ages, ‘which have been, and are, and are to come’, He shows forth His great and wonderful attributes, particularly those of redemption.

Now, last Sunday, we found a very striking statement made by Brother Branham wherein he made reference to the Millennium as an interim period of Sanctification between the earth as we know it now, and as we will know it in its recreation after it has been cleansed by fire.

So there’s a period of time, one thousand years called the Millennium, and Brother Branham said “It went through a further process of Sanctification until it was finally, completely recreated through the processes of dissolution by fire, and the power of God recreating it.”

In other words, God’s divine program, as we know it now, and know that it will soon expire… that is, what God is doing now will soon expire, between this time and that time, will evolve into another, and more wonderful form, only to have that form further changed to its intended perfection in the new heavens and earth governed by the New Jerusalem with the Lamb on the Throne, the Pillar of Fire above the Throne.

In other words, what I’m saying there, you already know: that there’s a process going on and that process will not stop but take a further transformation, this time upward, in the Millennium.

And then, that will take a further step upward by further cleansing and recreation, which will bring us the Lamb upon the Throne of the New Jerusalem, on his own Throne, and the Pillar of Fire above the Throne.

Now, in this plan of Progressive and Progressing Redemption , you notice I’m using the two terms so we don’t get led astray there, it’s not as though Redemption is as a process of evolution within itself where it comes more and more perfect, but it is a progressive redemption in the sense, you’ll notice, that each time it’s stepped up as to its intensity and wonderment.

A lot of people wonder about the fact you can get born-again here and be so thoroughly changed. Well, man! That is fantastic. And don’t think for one minute we’re going to try to supersede it.

But when you will be changed and then go into the Millennium and see a further remarkable progress in the earth and all, well… we kind of look back and we might kind of wonder what this has been all about in comparison to the glory… because, remember, there’s a continuing glory.

So it’s progressive and progressing. In other words, it’s not just progressive, it’s progressing; in other… it’s not standing still; it’s a continuous moving on. Like Brother Branham always brought that out, Luther, Wesley, Pentecost, and now this.

And, of course, you’re looking at this and many people are a little stymied because they don’t understand this far eclipses in glory anything that Luther and the rest ever had. Nah… I know they’ll say, “Well, you guys are just blowing.” Well, praise God! We’re going to blow.

I’m not going to worry at what anybody thinks and says. It’s just our business here in this Church that we believe… and I know you follow.

So, now, in this plan of Progressive and Progressing Redemption, we notice that for six thousand years the God of Peace, and that’s one of His best Names, has been making peace, with the promise to establish peace on earth, with no end of peace.

For the necessary government to maintain this peaceful, serene, wonderful condition is maintained by the government being upon the shoulder of the Prince of Peace. And He and all His creation will emanate and manifest that Peace.

In other words, a people are vibrating with an excitement today. They’re vibrating to the place where they’re falling apart. Now, take a look in the mirror, and you’re looking at me and I’m looking at you, and I don’t see too much down here that’s not falling apart.

Now, I’m not trying to insult you, but I’m being very, very honest because this is the place to be honest. There’s no lies to come forth over the pulpit, either flattery or anything else. The fact is, you know what I’m talking about.

There is a real distemper within us that is not of God. It’s… because that’s the hour we’re living in, that nervous, terrible tension. And yet there is a Peace of God in there concerning His wonderful Word and all.

And we’re looking forward to more and more peace where today people do not realize that peace is an emotion; it’s a regular spirit; it’s an aura. See?

Well, what will it be in the Millennium, starting with the resurrection, to begin to feel the intensification of that peace until the King of Peace is on the Throne in the New Jerusalem?

Now, you don’t go… “Blooie”…huh? And you don’t sort of fade out, and fake out and fluke out …you know, where you’re sort of in some kind of a cocaine or drift of narcotics, you know. Or in some island with the Lotus-eaters, you know, like… [Brother Vayle imitates a ‘dazed’ person].

You’re vibrant with Peace! Man! I would give my life for ten minutes of that right now… say, give me ten minutes and shoot me! Do you know what I’m saying? You don’t? …an engineer sitting here? You don’t understand? You must know what I’m saying, to vibrate with peace… to literally vibrate with peace. Anger’s a vibration.

“Mama-mia! I can get so mad… hate! ooh, I could hate. Disgust! Urrh…” Are you getting all this on camera; better make sure we’re getting it because I’m speaking for everybody… the whole gamut of emotions? But peace… like a river. My!

That speaks of total command… not total command to command somebody, but in the driver’s seat. 1 Corinthians 15. He has come down to set Church order in the Bride. The government has started.

When I speak this way, I get the feeling that I sure hope that the rapture’s not twenty, fifty more years off yet. It’s got to be a quick work… and the quicker the better.

All right. Then in the Millennium… all right, first of all… Thus in this life on this earth, this peace program that God started after the Fall, … Thus in this life on this earth as we know it now, the dove of peace can rule in our hearts and minds as a growth to the future.

In other words, you have the full potential but you don’t have ‘It’. Like the Lutherans potentially had the Holy Ghost, but they didn’t have It, Pillar of Fire. Wesleyans had the potential even greater, but they didn’t have It.

Pentecost, even greater, and didn’t have It. But when It came, like It always comes, It’s a flop to the world because It’s not exciting enough, See? …but It’s compelling.

So, as a potential now, the Prince of Peace in the form of the Holy Ghost is guaranteeing a peace that we’ve never known, and you can’t know until the resurrection; and you can’t know till the White Throne; and you can’t know till the Lamb is on the Throne and the Pillar of Fire above the Throne and that everything is an emanation of peace.

I ask you a question: How many you have ever, ever in your lives known what it is to have a complete breakdown and a break-away from yourself and to dwell in a peace, not a comatose condition but a peace that you know only God can give?

Now, I don’t doubt if you tell me you’ve had it… I wouldn’t doubt that for one second. But I would doubt very much if you told me you maintained it. That’s the big thing. Literally, you’ve got to be in a Presence, which we are now, because that Pillar of Fire’s still here.

The Prophet’s gone; the Pillar of Fire’s here because It leads us to the Millennium. And God’s got to be here to raise the dead. And God didn’t raise the dead in human form, except Lazarus and a couple of cases there, and he said, “It’s the Father that doeth the works.”

But Jesus, himself, was raised from the dead by God, Holy Spirit. So, when you look at resurrection per se, He will bring about a resurrection. He’s here to do it because He is in that Pillar of Fire; that’s the Logos, Jehovah, God Himself, we understand that. You See.

Now, going from this manifestation of the attributes, that’s the Shekinah Glory emanation, we are now in a position exactly as it is with the Judge. The same Judge now is the same One that moves to the White Throne. See?

The same Prince of Peace in the form of the Holy Spirit is the same One that moves into the body of Jesus, the man, that moves right on down to the great Eternal City. Now, what I’m trying to get you to see, and ourselves to see, we are into it now, in a measure we have not known before.

And the revelation of this, your acceptance, acquiescence to it, in other words, you believe it and you receive it, in the definitive, whether you feel it or not, but though contrary to all senses and all human wisdom, you impute to God that He is true, shows the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and a part of this Message for this hour, that you are a part of that. Now, that’s what the Prophet taught us.

Then, in the Millennium there will be a further peace, as Satan is bound by a chain of circumstances for one thousand years. But after that, annihilation of all that is discordant, not peaceful, comes, and with it such perfect peace, as only God can give. For the lion eats hay with the ox and a child can play with the formerly deadly snake.

And in that Eternity ahead, the kings of that New Earth continuously offer the symbol of peace which is a leaf plucked from the Tree of Life, perhaps typing how Jesus was plucked out of his life, or from his life, that we might have peace through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, the cutting off of Christ.

Thus, using paragraph 285 on page 62, we began to discuss the progress of peace from the sacrifice in Eden to the Eternal City and set forth that God apparently wants peace and harmony as the essence and manifestation of His Kingdom.

Well, isn’t that pretty well the Truth, or the actual Truth? Because God simply resurrects and brings back everything. What would be the use of the resurrection or anything if there weren’t the harmonious essence of peace?

Why, you’d just be in better position to hack each other up, and take a longer time doing it. My! You could have a ball lopping off somebody’s leg and just believe and put it back on by faith and lopping away.

Oh! You could have a great time just massacring each other day by day and night after night for thousands of years…. beeping on the stupid horn and revving up the muff… you know, the motor, providing there’s motors, which there won’t be, or creating a lot of noise to irritate somebody.

Wouldn’t that be a great kind of Eternity! Be no peace… the essential quality is peace.

How often has a rich man said, “I would give my millions for one moment of peace.” Another man kills his wife to get some peace from her. She might kill her husband to get some peace from him.

And the man may leave home to get peace from the kids. And men leave other countries to get peace from the country they’re in. Peace… I just got thinking about it, “Hey, man! Real peace.” No more jarring. Everything in complete reconciliation.

So, God apparently wants peace. And the way I put it, ‘God apparently wants peace,’ not as though God Himself didn’t know it or was merely intimating, I am using the word ‘apparent’ in the sense that ‘we can see it’.

It’s evident that God wants peace. And He’s going to give us peace. Nice! No more of this, “When, I would do good, evil’s with me. And when I like to do evil, well, there’s too much good with me to indulge.” Kind of blows it, doesn’t it?. Where the good cannot be entirely good and the wicked cannot be entirely wicked.

Now, I’m saying this on purpose to get you thinking, “I hate it! There’s just nothing good about it.” What would it be if you were the healthiest guy in the world, live a million years and had no peace? You were the toughest egg in the street. You’d know one thing: a tougher egg would come by. See?

Peace is essential. The essentiality of the Kingdom is peace. Now, you know what I’m talking about. We then begin to apply that to us, what God wants for us.

We who are so close to the millennial peace, resurrection peace, that we ought to look for and apprehend more peace than perhaps any other Church Age, for as we said, peace and redemption is progressive and is progressing now.

In pursuing this thought we dealt with Galatians 6:7-9 based on the principle set forth in James 3:17-18 and especially verse 18, that righteousness flourishes as we act peacefully to make peace. There is something left for us to do… and this doesn’t make us legalists.

This makes us more a grace-man, which is: recognize God, the virtues, the values, the talents, the gifts, the fruit, all He’s given us, and then let’s step out of the way and let God use them through us. Now, we come to the complete headship of the Prince of Peace.

Now, thank God, the resurrection is not like decompression, where you’ve been too long and too far down in a submersible chamber, and to bring you up gives you the bends.

Now, normally speaking, that’s what would happen spiritually to all of us if it weren’t for the grace of Almighty God, because no matter what happens, there isn’t one child of God that God’s not going to see through… because God will lose none.

For God to lose any one of us would be to lose a part of His Own Soul, which would mean, then, that God can be destroyed.

“Well,” somebody says, “God is just, take it back.” Do you believe that nonsense? How would you like to take back your children? Some kids right now-a-days, what do they do, scream and make you stay awake all night? They run the living daylights out of you. Put them back where they came from… Phttt! Go ahead.

Do you think God could do that? Unh, unh… no, God doesn’t lose… see, if you just bring it to natural things of life, you can see how ridiculous people are when they begin saying things contrary to the Word of God. And you can see where the Word of God comes and where the Word of God doesn’t come.

It’s just really that simple. All you’ve got to do is see your types, your shadows, see nature, because God’s manifested everywhere. Then see what’s wrong out there that God will remove the whole thing and bring it to perfect harmony. See?

All right. We find in here, then, by reading Galatians 6:7 based upon James 3:17-18, especially verse 18, that righteousness flourishes as we act peacefully and make peace. Cain couldn’t learn that.

So, our thought was one wherein we set forth that our essential nature and conduct should be one of peace as we witness to and live the Christian life. So, we want to read again in Galatians 6… well, we’re going to read, first of all, Galatians 6:7-9 and talk about it, as a lesson for this hour. And it says,

Now, let’s understand something about the sowing so that we can be a little more adjusted to what we have in mind this morning.

And we go to James, the 3rd chapter, and we read verses 17 and 18.

Now, what we’re looking at here is the law of sowing and reaping. You can’t get away from it.

As God sowed in order to reap, and to reap in us, so we also are admonished by the same Holy Spirit in both of these great men who were writers of part of the Bible that we should learn how to sow in such a manner that we will know exactly what we’re going to reap and have peace about it, no matter what takes place between the sowing and the reaping.

It’s the same as the processes of faith: Between the time that you sow your faith-request in prayer and the time that God answers that request, there is a necessary time of testing in almost every single instance and that’s to develop character. So here is a process of character development.

We read it again… verse 7 to 9.

Now, you can sow to the Spirit, meaning: I can give my life to God and be born-again. And you can sow to the Spirit, having been born-again, meaning: you’re laying up treasure in heaven. For God is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love.

And there is a judgment fire that burns the works of every person, not the flesh, the fleshly things. And only that which was done in the Spirit of God, through the Spirit of God, in the right attitude, will go with you to where you are going.

And that’s inbred right in your character. Because, how can you have anything eternal apart from the fact that you yourself are eternal? So, therefore, it is essentially spiritual things.

Now, what does it mean? If you do faint, if you do give up, then you will miss what you started. And the Bible said, “God has no pleasure in the man that takes his hand off the plough, or the soul that turns back.”

And Paul, especially mentioning what would happen in this hour in Hebrews 6, he said, “But we are persuaded better things of you, Brethren, and things which accompany salvation though we thus speak.”

He said, “We’ve got to speak concerning the Judgment of God that follows the Last-Day Message which is vindicated, where there’s going to be a burning up of the fruits, and that’s all this world out here… everything’s going to burn.

Those cars will be reduced to nothing but gases. They won’t be harmful anymore. Car knock you down, kill you. You use a car, knock somebody else down, kill him. How’re you going to reduce to gases? Reduce the whole thing. God’s going to get rid of it.

Now, he said,

And it says right here… you get your major practice amongst the saints of God, to deliberately extend the olive branch, the leaf plucked off the Tree of Life, signifying peace and constantly doing good in order to maintain peace, because we can win our enemies even, by good works. You know that’s… we’re reading the Bible here.

Now, so having read this… one more time, we read number 7.

So, verse 7, is an incontrovertible principle. And you cannot ever bend or change it. God, in His entire cosmos, stands with it and behind it. Now, don’t try to change it; can’t do it.

Now, the beautiful thing is, we don’t have to come to the place where we think, “Hey! I’d like to do something about that.

Maybe we could bend it.” The beautiful thing is, not to bend it but to flow with it. You know, the world’s got a saying: ‘If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.’ You can’t lick this; I can’t lick it. What’re you going to do about it? You’re going to join it. See? It cannot change.

Notice what it says in 8 and 9.

Now, what does the flesh have within it?… adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying’s, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.

Well, tell me what peace there is in those… in those things? Nothing. There’s no peace there. There’s a murky, miry, mucky spirit surfacing. You don’t want that. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Now, notice in there, what you’ve got.

Love… worketh no ill to his neighbor. Joy… that’s happy over everything good. Peace… there’s your peace. Long-suffering… that’s peace again. Gentleness… that’s peace again. Goodness… that’s peace again.

Faith… that’s peace again. Meekness… that’s peace again. Temperance… that’s peace again. The whole gamut signifies peace. There’s nothing there that doesn’t signify.

So, the Bible speaks very, very abruptly and very, very strong, that we are to remember the Scripture here that tells us God is not deceived, we have the opportunity to sow in two ways: one, we can sow for peace; and one, we can sow for trouble.

Now it says,

Now, if it just dropped in our laps we’d never get weary. Man! If you had… could sit under a tree and the fruit drop in your mouth, and you know, you’re sort of carried around like they carry around kings and queens and potentates with slave labor, now you wouldn’t want to change that for a minute. But, you know, the thing is, that’s not how character develops.

Why is there no character amongst the rich, in most cases? Because they’re handed too much money with nothing to back it up. With nothing to back it up and all that money, they get worse and worse and worse, until they’re entirely degraded.

And our society doesn’t know the meaning of work any more. It understands entertainment because that’s where the big dough is. So, what’ve you got today? You’ve got a mess.

Okay. We see here, then, that the Word of God warns us that there is no way anybody can ever stop from sowing and from reaping; and there is no way you can reap what you really want unless you sow for it.

And it also tells us we are continuously sowing, and we are continuously reaping. So, therefore, if a person wants to change anything, he’s got to change the sowing.

Now, disrupted lives are not exclusively and always the consequence of what has been perpetrated upon us or done to us. Disrupted lives are not necessarily lived because of someone else’s influence, though that many, many times happens and can happen. Disrupted lives come mainly from within us.

Now, we read to you in Romans how Paul preached that. We just read it carefully over here.

So, therefore, what befalls you, which appears to be accidental but is not, it’s a part of life. You and I have within us through the Prince of Peace, the ability to know that nothing is going to take us away from God. Period!

Now, how in the world can you be a legalist and believe the Bible? If you have any thoughts of falling away from God, as a child of God, you cannot possibly believe this.

The legalist keeps on saying, “If so, and I do, and I do.” Why didn’t you born yourself, idiot? Raise yourself from the dead. The legalist should never be sick.

Well, he can do something about it. Couldn’t do something about it. The legalist is a Pentecostal who always wants to force the hand of God, instead of learning the hand of God. And we are here today, this morning, and I’m including myself, we are too legal. We still don’t know the grace of this.

Paul, the Apostle, was like the drunk man who drank so much liquor that when he fell out of a four… five, six-story building, he was so limp he didn’t even bounce. He was drunk on the Spirit of God to do it. And that’s the way you and I ought to be: so endued with the Spirit of Almighty God.

Do you want to know something? God actually requires that of us, because He says, “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be drunk on the Spirit. “ [Ephesians 5:18, paraphrased]. In other words get limp.

Ever try to pick up a kid that went limp? It’s easier to pick up someone who goes stiff as a poker. Try to carry a jelly fish… as against a halibut, or something else. See?

Okay, let’s look at Peter. We read Peter the other day; we’ll read it again, 1 Peter 4: and then we’ll try to get through this quick as we can because time just goes too fast as it is when you get these devotional messages. 12 to 19.

Now, he tells you right there: people are going to do a lot of things to us. We’re not even going to ask for it. Some cases, we ask for it. But that doesn’t need to change us. We are still the masters of our destiny.

Let’s look over here to Paul. Paul says in Galatians, the 4th chapter, so we get the picture a little more clearly… at least I hope we do.

Now, that’s something that I simply don’t understand why the majority of us have not come to. Now, you’ll find men, like Doctor Peale and men out there in a pseudo-scientific religion, they’ve got the thing down pat from the standpoint of a mixture of Christianity and Hinduism and Christian Science, and you know, metaphysical approaches where they take ‘mind’ to be so strong.

But it’s the truth, when Brother Branham preached The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, that’s exactly what he was saying. We can take this Scripture here and plug the channels of our mind, so that the channels of the mind are so filled with the Word of God no other word is in there.

Then, when nothing else is in there, what comes out? Nothing but the Word of God! That’s why he said, “I worry about this generation. They’re not going to be paying enough attention to the Word which I am preaching.”

Let’s look at Philippians, the 4th chapter also, 11 to 13. Paul says something here;

Now, he tells you right there again, that here is a person who can roll with the punches. He doesn’t have any trouble with the exterior problems.

He said, “They’re licked, according to the grace of God by what is already in me.”

In other words, he is more than a conqueror through Christ who loved him.

All right… I’m not saying that others cannot make a shambles of our lives, because others can make shambles. However, as we cease to be children and become mature Christians, they can do it only if we let them do it.

Now, let’s just look at what God says about little children, here. Matthew, chapter 18 and in verse 1 to 10.

Now, he said, “Who’s going to be the greatest?” He said, “A little child.” You mean some dumb kid is going to be the greatest? …doesn’t know split beans and buttermilk? …that total ignorance is what’s required? Read the rest of the Bible and you’ll find out, a little child is under the full authority of the parent.

And the greatest in the kingdom of God is somebody so simple as to place himself under the full authority of God and under obedience, because a child’s under obedience. You have to… read the Book of Galatians; read the Book of Hebrews. See what it says about child-training.

You don’t pick it up and say, “Well, here’s some little kid that doesn’t know anything at all. That’s fine.” Now, if you put it to the place where a child knows nothing at all and he’s going to be instructed by somebody else.

Then you say, “Well, I know nothing and God tells me everything.” I’d say, that’s fine, too. But, in my books, you’ve got to get the picture where it is. How could a little child rule? See?

The Apostle Paul tells you: “Why, he said, you try to pick the smartest brains in your church.” He said, “If you want to settle an argument, or a problem in church, get the simple-living fellow. Don’t get the big shot, the theologian, the politician, the preacher, this guy.

Just ask some little simple fellow in the church, ‘Hey! What would you do about this condition?’” He said, “He’ll tell you right off the bat.”…because he’s not complicated with all the whirly-gigs, you know up there and the wheels going around.

He’s like the little children that looked at the king who was naked and he got fooled by the guys that said, “Oh, this invisible thread, invisible cloth; we’ll make a suit that only the dumb and ignorant, the foolish can’t see. The wise will see it.”

Everybody pretended he was wise… “Oh, the king’s got a lovely suit.” And the kid said, “Hey! The king’s naked!” That’s a little child. That’s the kind that can rule the kingdom. You can’t fool him with that nonsense. See?

All right, now watch,

In other words, you’d better stop doing the things you’re doing. Better watch where you’re going, say what you’re saying. Cut yourself right back and put yourself in a straight-jacket to the Word of God.

A straight-jacket to the Word of God gives more freedom in the Holy Ghost than anything else ever did. And the straight-jacket’s the revealed Word of Almighty God.

Now, what is my thought here? My thought is this: That, it’s up to the families to see that the little children are not offended. It’s better a millstone hung about the neck.

What about parents, then, that deliberately blind their eyes to sin in the home and what is going on, and do not protect their children?

I’m laying it right in your laps today. If you’ve got wrong TV in your home, wrong pictures, if you’re getting like the Swedes… it’s okay over in Sweden, daughter can go off to college, bring her boyfriend home.

After sleeping all night together in the home of the parents, mama brings up a tray of tea and biscuits and crumpets and things. “Well, I’d like that.” You’ll go to Hell liking it, too! And so will the whole church, and so will the whole family, and so will the whole of Sweden.

Years ago, Joe Boze came back from Sweden, his native land, and he said, “What you see in the store windows there, done in a back alley in America would put you in prison.” Offensive parents and offending parents, that offended their children by teaching them wrong.

Now, let’s understand that. You are responsible for your children. And you’ve got to watch your home and all these things. And you cannot hide behind ‘no talk’, as though ‘no talk’ would solve any problem.

As the Spirit of God is living and moving and probing, it is not unwise of a parent to be in the same position of probing and knowing what is going on. Irresponsible.

You make a way by trying to spoil the youngest or the oldest, whichever you’ve got, or you think you can let older children in your home do things [they] shouldn’t be doing, and a younger child see it and not be led astray? Let me tell you, when that child goes astray, you will be responsible.

I’m telling you this morning… you get this flat! You do what you want, but you’re going to pay that price! I’m telling you, this is the Word of God! You’re responsible. Let’s find out if this isn’t so.

Let’s go to Proverbs, the 22nd chapter and the 6th verse, it says;

What he’s trying to tell you, this in the Word of God, it’s very simple: “As the twig is inclined, the tree is literally bent.” See? Now, you take a tree and you plant it too close to another tree, and you watch how that tree moves away. It gets in a bad posture.

So it is with the wrong training; will bring a child into a wrong atmosphere and a wrong place. Now, if you’ve done the very best you can to train and to help, then that’s off of you.

And you’ve got the promise of God, as Brother Branham said, “In the end-time, you and your family, in the application of the token.” But I cannot see anything other than what the Bible teaches.

Let’s go to Proverbs… let me see, I don’t want that one here, I want Hebrews 12 because we just go back to what it says here in Hebrews.

And I’m going to close off in that by going to some other point here, because we want to get right along. Okay, in Hebrews, the 12th chapter, it tells us, verse 3.

There you see the sowing again. It is difficult to take the hard way. But, remember when the Angel of God appeared to Brother Branham, He said, “Since you have taken the hard way, the rewards are limitless.”

The hard way, brother/sister, is the only way to go. And I can testify to that. On the road, time after time, I had to just stand there, wait for God to do something, even put food on the table… had to stand right there. Would have been so easy to get a job, and so easy to go right back on God.

And what I went through is literally nothing to what many people go through. But many of you sitting here this morning don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, and I’m sorry for you, because what you’re missing, there is no way for me to impart to you or to tell you. You have got to go through it.

The ‘peaceable fruit’ of the Spirit demands first of all, the unrest of decision. Then, making that decision to go God’s way, whatever God said. Then strike out and do it. And I’m going to tell you about when I first went preaching, the strangest thing in my life. I fought it; I hated it.

I said, “Lord,”… I wrote it in a little box, a little piece of paper, and I wrote… a box, I said, “Lord, I’ll even be an elder in Your Church, or a deacon. I’ll try to serve You, but I will not go preaching.

So, do not bother, and …I don’t want to be told to go preaching.” Then the pressure began more and more and more.

And one day, literally in a rage of anger and resentment within my soul towards myself and God, I said, “Okay, if that’s what You want, I’ll go preaching and I hate it.” And the strangest peace came into my soul.

Listen to me, what I’m telling you. I’m not pulling your leg; I’m not lying to you. The strangest peace came into my soul, that I was going to do the will of God though the roaring and the anticipation and the fear and the dread of the problems, the untried faith, could have caused almost a nervous breakdown. But I knew I would go, and I went.

Now, listen that’s what we’re talking about this morning. Sowing is rough. But when you sow with God’s Word, there is a strange peace comes with it.

And He said it’d be a strange peace…”My peace I give to you, not as the world give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid because the peace that I give you is a peculiar peace.” [John 14:27, paraphrased].

And Dr. Price illustrated it. He said, “One day, he said, I went to a great art gallery and there were pictures entitled ‘Peace’. And he said, Over one picture entitled ‘Peace’…the picture was a mill pond without a ripple. Not a leaf was stirring; it was like the sea of glass. Beside it was a picture of a cataract tumbling down, roaring and tumbling down.

And a little bird had built her nest right by the cataract. And in the roar and the tumult the little bird sat there with the peace in her eye. And the artist said, ‘This is not peace in the mill pond; this is stagnation.’ But this is peace.”

One cannot know peace unless its antithesis is right there, which is tumult and disruption. In this world there isn’t any peace, but in our hearts there can be.

And in this hour, and the pressure hasn’t even really come down on us yet, we can have a peace about this Message; and we will have a peace about this Message, that is phenomenal. But there is a peace that you and I must constantly sow for.

Now let’s go back to Colossians, the 3rd chapter. And we see a couple verses here, 12 to 21, it’s more than a few.

Now, you couldn’t be a child of God and obey parents that hate God and do wicked things… go against the Word of God, but in all other things, you must obey them… and right down the Word we’re looking at.

Now, let’s go to Matthew 5: this is way back there where Christ is preaching his sermon on the Mount… and 38 to 48, if we want to read it all.

In other words, if somebody says ‘this and this’ about you, and they want something from you, and it doesn’t degrade you before God, and doesn’t make you sin against God, you go ahead and do it.

And then if he still wants something more, you go ahead and do that too… but never sinning. In other words, it’s two wills, your will and his will. What he thinks is right. Now, you don’t acquiesce to wrong, you just let him go ahead. See?

In other words, you go ahead and you take the blame, as it were, willing to take blame and injury, watch how God brings you through.

Now,

Now, this is the thing you’ve got to look at. There’s not one of us here this morning hasn’t been hurt by somebody. And marriage is one of the toughest, because inadvertently the wife hurts the husband, and the husband hurts the wife.

And usually they clam up, or it’s, “What’s wrong?” “Nothing!” Suggestion made… “Well, doesn’t really matter.”

Those are the most dangerous words in the vocabulary of marriage, because something is the matter. And nobody should let anger or wrath be in their souls or their minds by the setting of the sun.

If we disrupt, we have a problem, clear it up before the night’s over, because it’s a wrong type of sowing. If we don’t get the sowing done right, it’s going to come back.

And the Bible distinctly says, “Before it’s over, we pay the uttermost farthing.” Even when somebody hurts us and they’re wrong and we’re right.

If we don’t allow it to be rectified, the Bible says we get thrown in prison for what they do, which is the inner prison of consciousness, and the constant debasing of ourselves, our nerves, our spiritual capacities until we can be a rag dog shaken by a Great Dane in the sight of Almighty God.

We’ve just opened the door for the Devil. Now, don’t tell me it doesn’t work, because I’ve been all through this. And if you haven’t been through it, let me tell you, you’re sitting here this morning, you’re not even born; you’re an abortion.

Now, that’s pretty rotten language, but I’ve preached rough and tough because I know what I’m talking about. It’s the Word of God. You can’t fool with the Word of God, brother/sister.

If we are going to be with the Prince of Peace, we have got to begin to give way, as grace-believers, to let God handle the things. And remember, a tremendous peace will come with it. It can’t help it; there’s something so strange about it and so settling.

Now, I hope you’re catching what I’m saying. And I know enough of you sitting here know what I’m talking about because you’ve had some of it yourselves. I’m not talking as though you’ve never had it; let’s understand that.

Now,

Luke, the 6th chapter, 27 to 49, and… I don’t think we need to read it all, but it says here;

And right on down the line, you’ll see where God asks us to sow and you’ll notice that the sowing is specific; it is not suggestive. God doesn’t say, “I suggest that you love your enemy.” I wish He had it be much easier.

But, you know what? It wouldn’t pay off in the end… wouldn’t pay off in the end… wouldn’t work. Because, you see only that which is in God and ordained in God will be eternal. So, you’ve got to go to His Word.

All right… Now, it is seen only too well that we are to sow in peace and to sow peace to have lives rich in peace from the God of Peace, and righteousness in abundance. So, the question comes this morning…

Number One: Are we hiding behind complexes?

“Well, I was born with something… I was born shy.” You can be coaxed; psychology proves it. You can make an effort. “Well, somebody did this to me.” I had plenty done to me. I went into my nervous collapse at age twelve; tried to commit suicide at sixteen.

What have you got to talk about? I’m here bolder than ever and care less. I was afraid at one time; I’m not afraid anymore. Don’t try to pin a thing on me because you ain’t half as smart as I am many times.

And don’t try to pin anything. I’m not boasting, I’m just telling you, as though it were a challenge, and I’m making no challenge, don’t try to pin anything to anybody.

We don’t understand or know everything. But, I tell you, these things called ‘complexes’, in the Word of God there’s no excuse for them. Because the Bible says, “No matter what happens to you,” and you didn’t make it happen yourself, you haven’t got a worry at all.

But watch what you make happen. Those who make things happen will be judged, and the same measure and a whole lot more will be meted down to them.

And we are warned, if we take to heart what is done to us to let it destroy us instead of letting Christ help us and heal us, we will go to prison and pay the price. But we’ll come out. Everyone of us this morning is paying these prices.

Now, the question,

[Number Two]: How long are you going to let it go on?

I have an answer this week from a doctor… I don’t know if he’s right. What makes my hand swell, nobody knows. I talked to my doctor. He looks, not intelligent, he looks a little bit distant. And he hasn’t got the guts to tell me he doesn’t know… because, you know, I’d walk off.

So, I talked to a chiropractor and I lowered the boom on him through the third person, by talking about my doctor, that I’m sick and tired of. He looks at me and he said, “Well, we don’t know the answer.”

He said, “It’s many things could cause it; and one is the sympathetic nervous system that struggles under stress.” I got a lot of stress. Why? Well, I could lie to you and say, “Well… I don’t know if he’s lying or even pretending to lie.”

The truth of the matter is I haven’t fully surrendered what causes the stress, to God. Realizing fully that no matter what anybody does at anytime is of no consequence, really, as long as I look to God, and don’t start looking for excuses to fuss, to gripe, retaliate, condemn, because somebody did it.

Ninety-nine percent of the doings, according to the Word of God, if not a hundred percent, come right in here… can’t blame anybody. (See?)

So, so much for complexes. Are we running from our lives and lives around us because of something somebody has done to us? Casting all your burdens upon the Lord, let Him fight your battles. He’s a great warrior.

And the Bible says, “When He arouses from sleep and goes to war, He is a mad-man!” I’d hate to be in the way of God because I hurt somebody. Think of it that way… leaving all things in His hands.

Number three: What is our parental relationship?

We often use that as an excuse. You got lousy parents? How good a parent are you? What are you doing about it? Obviously, if your parents kicked you out, God will pick you up.

[Number four]: What’s our family relationship? How do we get along with our family?

I hear a lot of, “Well, my family hates me.” I’ve learned that at age seventy-three and almost four I’ll bet they’ve got good reason to hate you. I’m not laughing and lying to you; I’m just telling the truth.

Look in the mirror sometime. Look in the Word of God, and find out. Man! I’ve got… I have reason for my family to hate me… rather than me hate them; I’ve got over all that.

[Number five]: Are we holding grudges?

That means like to get back at somebody. Why? What good would that do when it’s over? Now we’re doing the work of the Devil or trying to think we’re God, to discipline somebody.

Now, in Church discipline, the Bible just tells you what to do, we do it, and we do it the right way, if we ever do it. See?

Number six: Are we mean to people because someone was mean to us? Or, we credit them with wrong persuasions, that they’ve done something or we think they’ve done something?

What if my wife left me after I abused her? “Oh, what a scum she was to Lee!” Well, did you treat her like a queen? Did she wrap a frying pan around your head because you’re sweet, gentle, loving, and bringing her flowers and kisses? I don’t find women that way.

Women are very easily seduced into a position of just giving themselves over to everything if you just treat them with a modicum of sweetness and niceness.

There’s hardly a rape case in the world, but there’s billions of sexual intercourse of seduction showing women are treated even halfway right… like they’ve always told you… and said, “If your wife can’t cook, just start to praise her cooking and she’ll break her neck being the best cook in all the world. Of course, if you want to do like me, just cook for her… She’s a good cook.

I kind of was raised a certain way and so I often cook, you know, too… which doesn’t hurt you guys to do that. Instead of just fishing, bring home the fish… throw it in the frying pan the odd time, but be sure to scale it first, fillet it. Give your wife a treat.

I used to do that a lot for her when I was first married; I still do it the odd time. And then, I don’t want her asking me questions. I want to surprise… admit she gets me ticked-off the odd time. That’s nothing, but I just want her to keep her nose out till I give her a surprise, you know.

And I don’t want her to stand behind the door and yell, “Boo!” either. I want to make something nice, you know. My wife is that way. We’ve got a good marriage. Marriages are good, but you’ve got to work on them.

Number seven: Are we all wound up because we could not get our way?

You know, that’s what many kids are like, you know. And because we can’t get our way now, we want to hurt others… you know. Lashing out, Brother/sister, is a very common thing. Don’t do it… don’t do it.

No matter who’s hurt you, don’t lash at somebody else. If you want to lash at somebody else, go and poke him in the nose. Now, that’s not good Bible advice, and I’m not saying you should do it, but I’m saying don’t lash out at anybody else over somebody.

Go to that person, say, “Listen. You have really got me in a spot where I’m very, very angry”… and have it out; then forget it.

Brother Branham said, “Even with [doctrine]? … you can quarrel bitterly.” Now, this is one thing in this Message some people don’t understand.

Brother Branham said, “You can quarrel bitterly over the Word of God and depart as good friends.” That’s something preachers got to learn.

Number eight: Have we got evil spirits of hate upon us? What is our spirit and spiritual influence upon ourselves and others? Just think that one over. You know, watch people and find out; it’s not too hard.

[Number] nine: Have we had hard times and now resent those who have good times?

You know, one of the most happy, successful persons was asked, “How come you are successful and so happy?” And that person, I think it’s a woman, said, “I don’t care when any good happens to anybody. I just feel so good as though it happened to me.” That’s right… that’s Bible.

Number ten: Do we break the law and excuse ourselves, when Peter warns us not to?

Income tax, child support, lots of things, the law of the land must be obeyed except against the Word of God. People go to jail. They won’t pay taxes; they think they’re religious. They’re religious but they’re not Christians. Pay your taxes! Pay your taxes.

Whatever you’re supposed to do, do. Do it in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. See? Peter warns us: “Don’t… don’t take things in your hands. If the law says don’t do it, then don’t do it.”

Like this guy now, that… now, why is it that this man is brought up for murder for hitting a busload of young people, twenty-seven killed, and they’re going to make an example. They cannot make him an example because the law allows the liquor and gets the tax off of it; they are stuck.

There’s only one reason for that booze flowing, that’s for the money. He… and I realize, and I stand this way always: When a man knows he can get drunk and thereby kill somebody, he is just the same, in my books, as a sane sober man and should be judged under those conditions. But the law won’t do it.

He… there’s no way they can throw the book at him. Let the government smarten-up. Who’s going to do it? I don’t know. But you can’t break the laws, Brother/sister. I don’t care who it is.

Break a law of God, break a law of man [inaudible] Are we always trying to get even and justify ourselves? These are just some of the things. Now, let me just say this: What we sow, we reap. And it will never change. Our destiny is what we sow for.

Listen to what it says in the Book of 1 Corinthians,

A little seed sown is going to bring forth, as sure as you’re alive. So, prayer and faith will never turn oats into wheat. “I’ve done wrong.” Pray all you want; repent all you want. It isn’t going to change it.

You got to learn, I’ve got to learn, we’ve got to learn to sow right. Repentance will never turn oats into wheat. Prayer won’t do it; repentance won’t do it. “Well, I just feel terribly sorry.”

You may still die of AIDS. You fool around with homosexuals and all the drug bit and all that stuff, there’s no guarantee in the Word of God that you’re going to get healed by God. The only guarantee you’ve got, God could save your soul. If you’re elect you’ll get it saved; if you’re not elect you’re not going to get it saved.

But people think, “Well, I just go ahead and sow, and then when it comes time for reaping, I’ll just say, ‘Dear Lord, have mercy. I didn’t mean it; that’s fine.” Is that a fact? Unh, unh! You won’t do it.

What is the true secret, then? We must learn to sow and know what we’re sowing and realize we’re always sowing. Only walking in the Light and sowing peace will do the job. In other words, a check that we’re looking at this morning in the light of the Prince of Peace being here.

And the progress from this point, there is no end, a continuation… continuous confirmation and continuous growth. “Peace, like a river” is starting with us by walking in this Light, and learning that always we are sowing, sowing, sowing.

And we must sow in peace, so that anything we do will not bring friction but will bring harmony and love and joy in the midst of God’s people. Only walking in the Light and sowing peace will do the job. The maturity of this hour says it can be done and so it must be done.

Now, you know we could go on and on; that’s true, but I don’t intend to go on and on. I think our time has run out again. This puts me behind the eight-ball. But this will finish it this morning, on what we’re talking about.

We’re going to Romans, the 13th chapter. We’re going to start reading;

Now, that’s the normal working of the law. It’s trying to do everybody good. It doesn’t say it always accomplishes it! You got lousy preachers that’ll skin you and do rot to you. You got rotten law-enforcement officers that’ll do the same thing.

Let’s face it. But God’s above it all. Take the right attitude and do the right thing, and watch God move. He’s a minister of God. The police out there, the Justice of the Peace, the judges, the authorities, they are ministers of God.

Now, that doesn’t speak of what you’re normally allowed of the pleasures of life. There’s certain things you’re absolutely allowed, that God commends as righteous.

And that’s perfectly good and perfectly fine. But don’t go making a way to be excessive in anything and to make a provision whereby that you can get messed up, like our good friend ‘Jones’.

He’s not my friend at all, but he got polygamy so he can have a second wife. And he hasn’t even got the guts to go before a Justice of the Peace and say, “I’m a polygamist.”

He has it done in some little stupid ceremony in his church. Now, what does the man want? He wants his lust and so he’s got to cover up. If I wanted all your money, I’d have a way to gouge you for more and more money. When have I ever gouged you for money or ask for a nickel?

If I want to take authority over you, I could do it lots of ways… throw a fear upon you. Just learned of a guy over here near Troy, now… a fellow moved all the way to Florida to get away from him. He could have come to our church, and found out he didn’t have to move that far.

The man’s just running everything to pieces, running people into the ground, a dyed-in-the-wool legalist, shaking a club. When have I ever used a club on you? You can’t say… you’d just lie right in my teeth if you said… in your own teeth, if you said I used a club.

I can be pretty hard at times, but, believe me, I’m harder on myself than any on you people. Sure! There’s no way that this is… this is how God wants these things. Now, we’ve got to be right with God.

All right… let’s keep reading here. All right, here,

And you could go on down further; but that’s it. Now… How much time have we got? All but gone? …five minutes? Well, that’s all we need.

Now, I’ll just close by saying this: This is this portion of Brother Branham’s Message which I’ve taken liberty with, on the grounds that I’m dealing in a little pastoral message is because, brother/sister, there is no sermon that Brother Branham can preach, in this hour, that is not relative to the Bride.

And when he brings out this pertinent thought of a ‘progressive sanctification’, in other words, the separating of ourselves from within ourselves, what we are normally, to what He is and provides for us and from the world system which we’re not a part of, to His system.

And the emphasis is on this growing sanctification of which peace is the title and the thought, then I have no other way to conduct myself than to talk upon this line even though it gives me a pretty good cut, the same as it gives you a cut because there’s nobody here this morning that isn’t cut.

Now, what we’re looking at here… we are at the very door of the resurrection. We are not, and should not even be in the place where the early disciples were, that they locked themselves in for fear, although, that’s not wrong, to protect ourselves, but we have something they didn’t have.

We have the sure knowledge that Peter spoke of, of this end-time, of a prophet, vindicated by the power of God, that we are now… and Brother Branham actually mentions it… we’ll read it a little later on, that Jesus said, “I’m going to show you the Kingdom of God established.”

The word ‘established’ is not right. It’s ‘coming’, but he used it for this hour. It’s already established, right there. Now then, why should we remain in a place of ‘disestablishment’? It’s stable.

Now, listen… he said, concerning this ship ‘Zion’ that’s going to Zion, he said, “The stabilizers have been put on and they’ve been activated.” And he said, “This boat will crest every wave and every storm.”

So what we’re looking for this morning is a peace to reign in our hearts. And I don’t want anybody… I don’t care if your sins were as black as India ink, they’re slimy as the mud of God-knows-what, the La Brea Pits out there in California, or worse still, I don’t care what they’re like… or the slime pits of the cesspools in slaughter houses of Chicago, or they’re red like crimson… the greatest sinner ever did.

I don’t care what anybody ever threw upon you or anybody else ever did. There is a peace to be found in Jesus Christ today, by a thorough repentance which comes based upon sorrow, acknowledgment of what is wrong and coming to God for His cleansing power and believing this Word, which piled Word-upon-Word, will completely fill you with the Holy Ghost and cause you to walk as a man controlled by God, and a woman controlled by God.

I don’t have anything to preach to you this morning, if you’re born-again, or want to get born-again, that should cause you any harm and distress or any agitation, but to hold out a hope that, look… this is that hour where the promise of God is known.

And when it’s known, it is therefore greater in its simplicity and its power than when it was first known! I can prove it because Paul said, “This mystery of the Gentiles being fellow-heir with the Jews, it was known but not known as it is in this generation.”

And it was that generation when the Gentiles came to Christ. Then, if the Prince of Peace is known today as He has not been formerly known, and this grace of God is known as it has not been formerly known, then we cannot sit here this morning and believe any other than what I’ve just said.

That the factual matter is, the peace is greater and more pervasive and more powerful than it’s ever been. That’s right. And we just ought to satisfy our hearts and say, “That’s the way it is!” “Well, I don’t feel very…” That hasn’t got a thing to do with it.

Everybody’s got a pretty good liver this morning. Do you feel your liver? You don’t feel your liver? Then, you haven’t got a liver. Just got corns… you feel corns. Sore throats… that’s all you… while you look to the things which you don’t see. You cannot see peace, brother/sister, but you can sow for it and sow in it and get it. And I can, too.

So that’s what God wants in this congregation, as I see this Message brought to this congregation. Let us do everything we can to promote peace rather than any agitation.

We bend over backward… if you got to get into a bit of slime and muck and mud to do it and I don’t mean spiritual; I mean get down there where it’s …you know, a little rough, let’s do it.

If we have to give a little more, give! Now, I’m not up here preaching ‘giving’. Look… no, forget that nonsense; that’s not it at all. I use that merely as an illustration. And giving can be a whole lot from the heart, more than the pocket book.

And the widow that gave the little mite, she gave a whole lot more than the guy that gave the ten-dollar bill because he had twenty ten-dollar bills left and she didn’t have anything when she got left.

But these things wherein we deliberately sow for peace, for contentment… as the government would say, “Let’s all get out for the betterment of mankind.” As the late John Kennedy said, “Don’t ask,’ What can the State do for me?’ Let’s ask, ‘What can I do for the State?’”

Pretty words but he sure never did it. He died a multi-millionaire raising our taxes. The Kennedy’s will do it and so will the McCormick’s and so will the Wrights and so will the Reagan’s and so will everybody else.

I’m going to tell you, a real Christian won’t do it, though. A real Christian will say, “What can I do to bring peace in this church? What can I do to get rid of criticism?”

Now, I don’t think there’s much criticism here to amount to a hill of beans. If there is, I’m not even aware of it. I never heard anything recently, anyway, I can tell you that.

So we figure there’s no criticism going on if it is, it’s muffled and that’s the way to keep it, until it can turn to praise. I… I don’t know, but what can I contribute to this church?

What can I sow, deliberately do an act of grace and kindness? You know what? I marvel at the people who send little letters and little cards to be nice. And you know, that’s something that you could do, too… and I could do too… everyone.

But let’s begin to sow peaceful acts. I mean deliberately begin to do something… begin thinking in our hearts and minds. You watch Him take hold of it.

Let’s rise and be dismissed.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we know this morning, Lord, as our words cannot do it… maybe our words are even wrong, trying to take Your Word, Lord. I don’t know; I don’t think it’s been wrong. I think it’s been true what has been said, O God.

I believe that this doesn’t make us legalists at all. It just makes us get out of the way and become vessels of the Word, and the Holy Spirit’s in the Word. And that Word in us will cause us to do the right things, and say the right things, act the right things, think the right things. We know that.

It’s just getting the mind filled with it, as the Prophet said, “Till the channels are completely loaded with the Word, then watch It reverse and all the Word come out.”

[End of tape]