Masterpiece #01

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we are glad to be in Your Presence this hour. We thank You, Lord, that You have made provision for us, that we have not made of ourselves any provision, but we have, by faith, accepted the provision You have made for us.

And so, Lord, we know that we stand justified before You in this hour, and that having been proven, we thank You, Lord, that there has been no sentence passed upon us, but there has not even been a court scene allowed, for You have not allowed any charge to be brought against us, coming forth of Yourself, and declaring Yourself concerning us, and we’re grateful for that, Lord.

We trust we’ll learn more about it: how it happened; how it is. We pray we’ll appreciate it more; because of that, we’ll reflect more to Your honor and Your glory, not only living in the Spirit, but walking in it; not only receiving Word, but becoming living Word.

These things, Lord, we have hope in. And we say again with the prophet, if we’re not Bride, (This is not ours.) there’s a Bride out there somewhere. And hopefully, we can say with the same one, by the grace of God, if we’re not, we’ll not stand in her way.

But, Lord, we are those who believe today. We have not heard Your Word and, concerning Exodus… and taken it and believed that we have come too late, or believe we do not have a part. We believe we have a part. And we might say we are that part, and we trust we are believing it.

So, we thank You for Your wondrous care, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, back in 1964, when I had received from the church the contract to do the writing of the books and all those things, Brother Branham let me know that there was one sermon he wanted above all sermons to be printed immediately, and that was “The Masterpiece”.

Well, I passed the information on to the one that later took the books over, because I did not care to proceed in that fashion, and he didn’t do it for a long time, which makes me wonder who had the leading, the prophet or the editor.

Well, that may be a snide remark, but I’m just telling you it exactly as it is. That’s one of Brother Branham’s favorite messages: “The Masterpiece”.

Now this morning and from this point on, you and I may not quite understand why it was his favorite. That’s about the same time he preached “The Unveiling of the Mighty God”. And that was a blockbuster.

Perhaps in the simplicity of “The Masterpiece” lies Brother Branham’s own understanding of why it was such a favorite. Well, we’re going to go into the favorite this morning without taking the reading of all of it.

We’ll just start with page 5, and he breaks the message in by telling the vision that he had of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in paragraph 21 [“Word of the Hour”]:

[21]  Now I never thought of this new auditorium just being built up here. That’s when they remodeled the church and added. It’s exactly where I saw Jesus the first time in vision, (Now, the auditorium is built right over the same spot. I went right there the other day to look.) when I looked and seen Him looking towards the eastward, you remember hearing me tell it, when I was out there praying for my father, just a boy preacher.

That’s where I saw Him, set looking at Him. He’s had His head turned sideways from me. I kept walking out, clearing my throat, in a broom sage field. And I kept watching, and He never did turn around. I called His Name, “Jesus,” and He turned around, held His arms out. And that’s all I remembered until daylight. And so, I came back out of the field along towards daylight. So, maybe the Lord will let me preach those Trumpets there. Wherever it is, God’s will be done.

Now he never did preach the trumpets, but he preached the “Feast of the Trumpets”. He couldn’t preach it, because that Word was not for this hour and season. It was not given to us. All right.

[22]  Turn in your Bibles now to Isaiah the 53rd chapter. Now we trust that God will bless our feeble efforts of coming together this morning. We just come down from Philadelphia, where I was at the Full Gospel Business Men’s convention.

That’s where he preached in a sort of abbreviated form and not in its magnitude “The Unveiling of the Mighty God”, which he had preached previously in Jeffersonville.

[22]  And listening to their different testimonies and so forth…

[23]  Then I—on the road down… Billy Paul, and I, and Rebekah, and little Collins’ girl, little Betty Collins… And Billy’s a very good sleeper, and Becky’s better. And so Betty and I talked. And she was setting back with Becky in the back seat. And I saw something happen on the road. And when I did, something struck me. And Betty (if she’s here), she noticed I quit talking and started writing something down. That’s where I got this text for this morning.

[Note: Brother Branham reads Isaiah 53]

(01) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? (Notice, it’s a question to begin with.)

The question, of course, is: To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And we know that in Scripture the Bible tells us that God made bare His mighty right arm in order to bring Jesus Christ from the dead.

So, our salvation is, literally, typical of what they call ‘the right arm’, Christ at the right hand of God, the right arm. So, we’re looking, then, at the question of: Where does the revelation of God’s great power begin?” and “To whom is it given?” ”Who will believe it when it is given?” Now, notice:

(02) For he shall grow up before him… [This one shall grow up before God, this arm; this one of whom the revelation is to come.] as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Now you notice the earth was not dry in the beginning, when we enter into the phase of creation, which we now know it, and redemption. There was water over the whole thing. And God separated water from water. So, you notice that whatever he’s talking about now, it doesn’t have a thing to do with the creation as we know it in this particular form.

God is going to do something, even if, Paul said, the Lord from heaven; even the Son of man, Jesus said, which is in heaven. So, you’re seeing something here that is outside us, not entirely, but, it’s something that doesn’t have to do with man, per se, and yet it is for man. It says:

[Brother Branham continuous reading Scripture]

(02) …that when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

(03) He is despised and rejected of man; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [We wouldn’t look at him. See?]

(04) Surely he hath born our grief, and has carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

(05) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we were healed.

(06) All we like sheep have gone astray; we’ve turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

(07) He was oppressed, and… was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers… dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

(08) He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people he was stricken.

(09) And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he has done no violence, neither was there deceit in his mouth.

(10) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he put him to grief: when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

(11) And he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall many righteous servants be justified… many; for he shall bear their iniquity.

(12) Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and shall divide the spoils with the strong;

I’m reading just as Brother Branham said it.

because he has poured out his soul unto death: and… was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

And then, he prays.

[25]  Father God, Thy Word is a Lamp, the Light that lights the path of every believer into the presence of God, as It carries us like a lantern in our hand. [Now you notice, he says there, a Light that lights the path of every believer into the presence of God. Where else would the Word lead? And, what else would it lead to? Being God’s Word.]

You’ve not provided enough that we should see the end from the beginning, and—but I walk with faith. But as a man would travel through a dark forest at night, and that’s where we are; the light that he holds only provides step by step. But the path, though leading upward, just walk with the Light. And may the Light shine today upon the Word to lead us one step farther to the Kingdom of God. For we ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

[26]  The subject that I feel to speak to the congregation today is “The Masterpiece”. It may seem rather strange to take a Scripture reading like this of one of the most bruised and murderous pictures of the Bible, that when the Bible says that this perfect servant that was afflicted, and bruised, and torn, and yet take a text from that as ‘Masterpiece’: very strange.

Now he’s not taking a look at though Christ himself was not a masterpiece, but to look and say, “Well, if this is the one, why would he be bruised?” Well, what would be the point in taking a masterpiece and then bruising it? See, that’s what he’s holding up here, tearing it, and so on.

[27]  But I—my mind is thinking this morning as we journey back for a few years when I was invited up to Forest Lawn in—in California, [Which Forest Lawn is just above Los Angeles.] My first purpose for going up there was to visit the—the grave of—of Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare movement. And I went to her tomb.

And I… Although I different with the woman as a minister, but yet I—in my heart I give admiration and a respect for what she stood for: the hour and the persecution and things she had to go through with in time of her being here on the earth. And then, for her beloved son, which is a bosom friend of mine, Rolf McPherson…

[28]  And a group of ministers, we went up there. And they.. We didn’t have time to go into the place where they have the cremation [That would be the crematorium.] and where they put the bodies in little boxes on the side of the wall, but… in the chapel, of course, where they went.

[29]  And in there they have some outstanding things such as the Last Supper. And it’s lighted by the actual light of the sun. And they have a shutter that gives them light. When they go in, it’s light; and as the narrator begins to speak it begins to darken. And after awhile, it becomes dark. And then, the people go out.

[30]  And they have all that there and also the Last Supper and stained glass. …And the woman that held the secret of how to beat this glass into this place, that’s to make the glass. And to make these pictures, which would be the composite of… to make the Lord’s Supper. why, it come through a family from many years back. That is that the art came down through a family taught from father to son and daughter and so on.

And the art was just given to the children, and the last one was a woman. And they were fixing this picture. And when they went to mold and burn it—the glass broke of Judas Iscariot. It broke. So then, they tried it again. And it broke again. She said, “Maybe our Lord doesn’t want His enemy picture by His side.” [That is Judas and Jesus together.]

And said, “If it breaks again, we’ll not complete the picture.” But it held that time… Of course, that was a striking thing, and how such things happen are striking.

[31]  But then, one of the main things that interested me in Forest Lawn was Michelangelo’s great sculpture, the monument, or the statue, of Moses. It’s a reproduction there, of course—of the original. It’s not the original. But it was such a great masterpiece. And, as I stood and looked at it, and I liked it, for I knew that it must represent something deeper than just the statue of a man.

[32]  I like art real well. I believe God is in art. Now, you listen to these things. I believe God is in music. I believe God is in nature.

You know there are some who don’t listen to Brother Branham very carefully. And they don’t understand what Brother Branham brought us; and you’ll get to it in just a minute, because he’s going to mention it here. Don’t get any other ideas on this subject than Brother Branham’s own ideas, or you’re going to mess up.

You’ll notice that you’ll go haywire. Now, look; I’m talking to sensible people, and I want to keep you sensible. I trust I’m in the middle of the road, where God wants me.

Now, listen; he said, “I believe God is in nature. God’s in music. God’s in art.”

[32]  God’s everywhere. And anything that’s contrary to the original…

In other words the original purpose, the original thing. Like God had an original thought. Put the thing out here in an original form, and from that, the wrong usage of the original is what messed everything up, and continues to mess everything up. Now, you watch that. That’s the key. And I’ve preached that continuously.

And you ought to know it. So therefore, when it comes to many things, even in your private life, Paul says: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed is undefiled.” But you have to watch where you go from there.

You follow what I’m saying? People get ideas that are so messed up, you get a preacher saying Brother Branham said Moses suffered a bill of divorcement. And he said… Ah, ah, the word ‘suffer’ means ‘to suffer’. So, are you going to get the people suffering?

He said, “Men, you can live in marriage, but you can’t have sexual intercourse.”

That’s a lie from the pit of hell. And I can name you the man. I’ll stand him any day and call his bluff. But he’s not a servant of God when he preaches that kind of clap-trap, balderdash, hogwash. It’s nothing but cursed information. See? It’s the original. And, remember that in worship…

Look, let’s get into the Scripture here.

Now, watch in Romans 1:18

That’s 1 John, where Cain took a Word of God, which was the first-fruit, and deliberately perverted It by getting It in its wrong place. That’s why no sex beyond… Pardon me using these expressions.

Look, you have to understand: I put my mind exactly where the world is and call it just where it is. And it’s everywhere. You get sex before marriage, even though you marry after, and that makes it legitimate? It is still illegitimate. It’s still wrong. It’s still wrong!

Now, listen; that’s what Cain did. That’s what Cain did. He took the legitimate and made it illegitimate, because there is nothing that was ever illegitimate in the first place. It’s the use of it, what you do with it, how you interpret it, how you work it.

That’s why the Word of God must always be within the framework of the Word of God, or It’s no longer the Word of God, and God is not worshipped.

Now, He will wink at ignorance under certain conditions. But, when the light strikes, ignorance won’t hold any longer. See? That’s why I teach here so strong: When you young people get married, you better marry right.

I’m going to perform a marriage. I don’t know if it’s right or not. They’ll hear the tape. I’m sorry. I don’t even know the boy. But I know the girl. As far as I know, both first marriage. So, I’ll be allowed to do that.

But I don’t know where it’s going. But I can say one thing to you sitting here: You louse up, you’re finished, because the light’s shone. Now, see; what we’re looking at Scripture here: perversion.

Now, listen.

Then, in other words they simply reduce God to a God of their reasonings. Now, right today they say, “Oh, God won’t destroy these lovely, lovely charismatics.”

Charismatics that kiss the Pope’s toe, so to speak, and talk to the virgin Mary, who’s dead? Are you going to tell me that God’s going to stand back and say, “Oh well, you lovely folk. It’s going to be all right?”

Then God can’t be God! That ought to tell you one thing: Only the truly born again are lost. The rest of them are going to make it, if that’s the case. I got news for you: Only the truly born again are going to make it.

Romans 1:24

You see why I’m hitting these things hard? Because you’re right in that day. God’s got to smite. Look, I’m going to tell you something. Fanaticism never stood right anywhere, and I’m talking in terms the way the world uses it. Brother Branham was accused of being a fanatic.

He’s the sanest man I ever saw in my life. You could tie a red ribbon on a plowshare; he knew it was still a plowshare. Don’t worry. You can hang tinsel and paint your whole hand. He still knew it was a whole hand.

You let a lot of people get a little bit of that kind of stuff, and they’re crazier than hoot owls. And, why should I run down a hoot owl? See?

Romans 1:26-30

Yeah. They say that Jesus said, “They have both seen and both hated me and my Father.”

The Pharisees stand right there and say, “You’re a liar. We love God with all of our hearts. Well, we’ll die for him.” Brother Branham said, “Young women cast their babies to the crocodiles in the Nile.”

Same love. See? If you don’t have a love that’s with the Word of God, and you’re not with this Word of God, then you’re not with God, period. I don’t care what anybody says. If we’re not with God, with the Word, we’re shot.

We just stand up here and… There’s just one thing about it: We won’t be condemned that much in the judgment. He’ll have to say, “Well, you did admit down there.” Say, “Yeah. Did admit.” What good is it? Who knows? Who knows? Perversion. See where it starts?

[32]  God is in dancing, not the kind of dancing you do here, but when you see sons and daughters of God are in the Spirit of God, (See?) that’s dancing.

Now, I’d like to ask you a question: Does that mean the outer movement or the inner movement? Well, if there wasn’t some outer movement, how would you know if there was inner movement?

You say, “What do you mean inner movement?”

Inspiration. You know, people you can see their eyes dancing. You know jolly well their feet are dancing inside. Sure. Well, he says dancing’s okay, if it’s the right kind of dancing. Well, Miriam danced unto the Lord. It wasn’t men and women jigging around together acting like a couple of dumbos.

It was each one, like David was, leaping before the Lord. He was so carried away, he just leaped and danced and, oh… And Saul’s daughter… What do you expect out of Saul’s daughter anyway? Huh.

Why she said, “My master was very glorious!” (sarcastically said)

She said. “Well, you jumped so high your skirts are flying and people can, you know…” She made the vulgar piece of demonstration.

“Well,” he said, “that’s okay.” He said, “Girl, I’ll just hold you as vulgar as you held me. I did it unto God, and you opened your mouth.”

Now, you say, “Well, anybody, then, can do anything unto God they want and get away with it.”

Don’t you tell me that stuff. That’s not true. David was merely jumping in exuberance. He might have been screaming a bit, but he wasn’t out doing anything contrary. He wasn’t fighting the Word, fussing the Word, any one thing at all. He just got so happy. Well, if you want to jump up and down, that’s good.

Like Brother Branham said, he ran screaming around a tree. If this Message here doesn’t get you sometimes to where you want to scream, I’m going to tell you flat right now, I’m with Brother Branham, the way the people come in to his church, and they said, “I just don’t know about that screaming.”

He said, “Runs me chills.” He said, “If they didn’t scream, it’ll run me chills. And I’d sooner have you run chills than me run chills.”

So, Brother Branham hit that on the head. See? That’s good. Okay?

Now he said:

[32]  But like I had to contend with till 2 o’clock this morning in the lane, that’s the perversion of it.

That’s the dance hall. That’s the music that’s wrong. That’s the dancing that’s wrong. That’s the screaming that’s wrong. That’s the jumping that’s wrong. That’s everything that’s wrong.

Now, if you want to see what’s really real, and you see an unfettered sweet little innocent child, you’ve got the right idea.

Now you say, “Well, that little kid, you know, he doesn’t mean any harm, but he… You know, that kid opened the oven door, and the cake fell.”

So what? He’s learning. Well, you know, kids learn by getting their fingers toasted, too, with the toaster and a few things. It wants to make you cry, when you see a kid burnt. What are you going to do? They do learn. But you see a little kid jump up and down, have a good time, and just get so happy.

That’s the way God wants it. The fellow’s a little child. See? There’s no perversion in that child. The child’s born in sin, but there’s no real perversion yet. The actions are spontaneous.

There’s something in the nature, or God didn’t make us with a nature so fluky and so flunky and so messed up that that nature with the born-again experience couldn’t home right back to God.

It’d have to be. God didn’t make a bunch of serpent seed and a bunch of hogwash. We have a lot of flesh in us that shouldn’t be there. But I’ll tell you what, that original nature from God, once bound back to God, will bring forth these actions. And you won’t do silly kind of crazy things to get carried away.

That’s where Pentecost messed everybody up. They felt so good one night, they danced in the spirit. And everybody said, “Hey, that was great. Now, what you do to get the spirit is to dance, and the spirit will come.”

Hogwash! Here lies old Adam. He’s lying here, and he’s a nice looking creature. But he’s deader than a doornail at this point, until God brings in the breath of life and begins to move and walk around and all.

Well, now you see, the thing is: What happened? It was the spirit came into Adam and made him walk around.

Adam didn’t walk around and say, “Hey, I’ll get the spirit by walking around.” Hogwash. He couldn’t walk around without a spirit. Well, Pentecost tried that stupid idea. “Well, we felt so good last night. We shouted, screamed.

Well, let’s scream and shout tonight; then, we’re sure to have the spirit.” Spiritual leapfrog, Hey, Lloyd Lusk. Yeah, what happened with that one? All right.

[33]  In this masterpiece that Michelangelo had made, it cost him something to make that masterpiece. He was a great man. And it cost a big part of his life, because he was many, many years in carving it out. He took a rock or a piece of marble and keep carving it.

Only the man, the sculptor himself, has in his mind what he’s trying to do, when he’s doing something like that… He’s the one that’s got it in his mind. You might walk up and say to him, “What are you pecking on that rock for?” You chiseling on that rock.

To the outsider who doesn’t know what’s in the sculptor’s heart, it could be nonsense. But to the man, the sculptor himself, he’s got a vision in his mind of what he’s trying to make, and he’s trying to reproduce what he has on his mind in the form of a monument—or statuary. And that’s the reason he’s digging out the rock.

In other words, now he’s got his… something in here. And he’s gonna… what he’s got in here, he’s going to work out in some material form.

[34]  Now, to do this, you have to start off right at the beginning… You have to start off ‘right’. It’s not, “You don’t start off ‘right at the beginning.’” It’s “You start off ‘right’ at the beginning.” In other words you have to have something to work on that’s correct. You see? And you also have to start instantly with what is right.

You have to start right away with what’s right. All right. You have to start off right at the beginning, and you have to follow the pattern. See? You can’t get a little piece to start off: “Oh, we’ll make it this way. No, I believe… better do that way.” No, he’s got to have a exact pattern. And in his mind he’s got that pattern.

What if he didn’t have it in his hands? Well, how many of you people have in your minds something nice. Well, look; if you’re like me, let’s maybe drop the subject. Because I’ve tried to do that many time, and I’ve said I’m going to vis-u-al-is-e what I’m going to por-tray with my little finger.

And I say, “Now, what does it really look like?” Doing! No, no way. No way. No way.

I can pay a compliment to a little lady sitting here. My wife said to her, “Marge, do you think you could maybe you could make a pattern like this blouse, if I brought you this blouse?”

And Marge just took one look and walked away and came back with a blouse made and fit her perfect! [Brother Vayle whistles.] With a gift like that, you’re responsible to God, just the same, girl. I don’t mean…

I’m not saying anything bad; I’m just saying that God gave you a gift. People say the world gave it. No, God gave that gift. I’m glad you got a good job. Get a better job. Use it for the Lord. That’s fantastic. See, I couldn’t even… You say, “What does the blouse look like?”

Oi-yoi-yoi! Picked the color, everything. Just perfect. Pretty. I guess the prettiest blouse my wife’s got. Now, so you see in there you have to have something else than just your mind. You say, We’ll make it…” No, you can’t do that way. We have to have an exact pattern.

[34]  And in his mind he’s got that pattern. And he cannot vary… He cannot vary, cannot vary from that pattern.

Well, you say, “Well, a man could do that.” Sure, a man could do that, but he ain’t gonna have, you know, really the real thing. And, we’re going to talk about Godhead.

Now, you notice in here, you see that what he’s talking about to bring us the truth is the evolution of God. In other words God had something in His mind, which He was going to work out through a distinct pattern of working and chiseling and hewing.

And, remember; Brother Branham preached a whole sermon in God hewing out by the prophets. God gathers by the prophets; God hews out by the prophets.

Everything that God does is by the prophets, because God has to have something to work through in the form of human instrumentality to get His Word to the people since He left off talking in the Garden of Eden and dealing with Adam. He deals with us all now.

So, there is knowledge, which is foreknowledge, and wisdom must precede omnipotence. See, what good would it be to have a great big hulk here that could lift tons? and you say, “Well, I just have to sort of, prod him along, ya know. I could goad him in the right direction, and he could lift things.”

Why do you see, then, you’re using ‘mind’ for the ‘hulk’. You have the power. The power’s not too good. It’s much better to have something like we got today, and we’ve come to a very fine art, a state-of-the-art, in computerization, going to robots and things.

You could get the things so perfectly in harmony, that, my goodness me, they’re fantastic! But, you see, what it is, you have to hook up an ability which is, first of all, latent, which is wisdom; with an ability which is energy, which is dynamism or power, which in God’s case is omnipotence.

So, he’s showing you here how this is going to work out.

[34]  Now, in order to do this he had to draw in his mind. He had to draw in his mind, because we have no real pictures of Moses, but he had to get a mental picture in his mind of exactly what Moses was like.

Now, that’s true. We do not have a natural picture of Moses, and also do you know that we do not have a picture or anything at all that let’s us know what a cherubim looks like or the kerabim. No way. You can restructure everything that’s in the ark, but nobody knows what the cherubim look like. No place.

Now we have gargoyles, and I think maybe they try to say that they were kerabim, cherubim. But that’s crazy. A ‘gargoyle’ is just what it sounds like. You get the picture.

[34]  So, he had to get a mental picture in his mind of exactly what Moses was.

[35]  Now a genuine sculptor is inspired, like a genuine poet or any genuine singer, musician, whatever it might be. All the real has to come by inspiration. Michelangelo must’ve had the inspiration of what Moses really looked like. And he caught it in his mind what Moses must’ve been.

Now, that’s up for argument. Okay? Number one, who told us this? William Branham. Who’s William Branham? Prophet of God. What did William Branham say? When he saw him, it looked like Hoffman’s head, right? Where did Hoffman get his inspiration?

Now a man called Salman, who did his Head of Christ, he said he saw Jesus as auburn-haired. That is what the archeo volume says. But the archeo- volume is not the Bible. That’s maybe what Josephus said. But Josephus was hardly inspired, you know, as he ought to have been. Good historian, but that’s where it ends. Brother Branham was a prophet.

Okay, let’s go further.

What did Brother Branham say when he saw The Ten Commandments? He said, “Cecil B. DeMille brought the Pillar of Fire to the screen” identical to what he saw by vision. What inspired Cecil B. DeMille? All right.

The question comes: What inspires everybody? Basically God; because He is light, and the Light is that which lighteth every man that comes in the world.

But, if you’re not born again, you can draw from the residue, which is the vast residue of the knowledge of God, and you can blow it, which means you can use it wrong. So, let us understand that Michelangelo was engaged most of his life in the realm of the religious and the spiritual, though he, himself, might never have been born again.

In fact, the perverts would have us believe that Michelangelo was a homo, because he never got married. Well, so much for the gays. They’re crazy to begin with. Sick, weird, and that’s it. That’s it. I’ve got no apologies to make.

That’s exactly right, and they’ll never see the Kingdom of God, unless they repent and get right with God, because no homosexual will enter the gates of the kingdom.

Paul said, “Such were some of you.” That’s fine. I have nothing against that, but let them get born again. But, let us not tell me that any of those people can invade any pulpit, unless it’s the pulpit of hell. Let’s get the thing down right. We stand for something. We’ll die for it. Let’s get ready. That’s all right.

So Moses, evidently, as to what he really was, the prophet here is imputing that God gave Michelangelo a revelation under inspiration of how to make that person. I’ll go along with that. Statue of David, the same way; I’ll go along with that.

[35]  So he set forth on this great piece of marble to the cutting… [That is, he started out cutting.]… to the pattern [that was in his mind]… bringing it down, and honing down, [Finishing it off, you see?] until he got to the real picture of what he must have had in his mind.

Well, if he didn’t have it exactly in his mind, he’d have to stay back and say, “Well, I’ll tell you what. That’s pretty good. I didn’t do it; but pretty good.” Well, I mean he could have said that, but he didn’t. Let’s find out.

[36]  …when he got it all so perfect, every corner off, and every place rubbed down, [That is, polished off.] and the eyes just right, every hair, and the beard.

How can people take a piece of canvas and a bunch of brushes and paint velvet so it looks like velvet? Cha-zing! Like that. That’s not velvet, but like velvet.

Have you ever gone to any great museum like in Chicago, well, you can go around the world, there are different ones that I’ve been in, not as many as I should have been in by this time, and seen the work of the masters?

You stand back, and you say, “Come on. It isn’t possible.” That’s as good as a camera ever did it. How do you find those… How can a man take a chisel and what he’s doing with these tools that scrape and gouge and knick and this and that, and you see hair and beard come up on a piece of rock?

If a man can do that… No wonder Jesus said ‘God can make stones rise up to Abraham.’ They tell me that dust is, more or less, a lot of it’s stone anyways, maybe that’s Adam had a lot of dust in him.

[36]  Well, he got it down there and he, cut the hair and the beard and all, just the way it was, he stood off and looked back, looked at it. I think of many, many years of hard labor, and how he had to hold that same vision all the time in his mind of what he was going to do. And that’s right. And just think, that vision on his mind for so many years, to make it look just exactly to what it was. He caught the vision first… [He didn’t just mess around.]

Like, you know, I, I’m good at doodling. Well, I’m not good at it; I mean, I certainly am occupied by it. And I’ll make a circle, then pretty soon I’ll say, “Well, I’ll do something.” I put a little head on it. I put a beak on. I put some running feet and a tail. It doesn’t look like a bird; but you know, it isn’t.

Now I have to start with some junk here. What did I do? Well, who knows, but I’ll add some more to it. And I come up with something.

Well, come on, you know, that’s not what we’re talking about here. That’s what… we’re talking about what you, you and I do. Like with mechanics. If I had a clock, I can tell you one thing: If you want to go into the clock business and make some money, you give me your clocks, and when I take it apart I’ve got fifty percent more parts you need when I put it back together again.

Of course, it doesn’t work that way. So, before him was this vision that was… The vision was first. And then, he had to work according to that vision, cutting off and smoothing down.

[36]  And when he got it to where he perfected it…, [That’s ‘honed it right down’.] till it really got perfect, and he stood and looked at it when he finished up that morning, and he stood with a hammer in his hand. And he was so inspired when he looked at that completed statue, because the vision of his mind was standing before him in reality.

Well, was it or was it not? Yes it was. Had the vision, the inspiration come to pass in a perfect formulation, manifested, yep: “There it stood. That’s it. There it was!”

And when he had seen his conception of what Moses was, there before him figured, exactly what he had in his heart for all those years, thinking of the toil, the hours, and the sorrows, the distress, the criticism and everything else, but he stayed right with that vision until it was completed there before him.

[37]  And when it stood there completed, before him, him standing back with his sculptor’s hammer in his hand, and he looking at that monument, the inspiration of the vision that he’d seen, inspired him so much, ‘til the inspiration struck him anew with such force, that he got beside himself and struck it across the knee and said, “Speak!”

Now, you know something? A lot of people would take what Brother Branham said and say, “Ah! Ya know, that’s a preacher.” That’s not right. That’s not a preacher. I’m not even going to talk about a prophet.

But this is a true story that happened, and I’m going to ask you one question: Why did this man do that, if this prophet is not right?

In other words, let’s face it, this man did what was literally far beyond his own expectations of his own ability, and, as it stood there, he saw the inspiration was matched with the ability, and he just screamed out, “Speak!” Because it…

See, he actually stood there looking for it to speak. Was this from his religious background as a Catholic that believed that statues can be filled with the presence of a spirit? Well, it could have been. It could have been. But that wasn’t it.

But something about that statue must have been so real that matched his own inspiration, that when the… It didn’t move and talk, which it woulda, shoulda done, because he captured the reality of Moses. He took the hammer and just struck it across the knee.

[38]  Now there’s a flaw on that great image, on the knee, on the right knee. Just above the knee about six inches is the place. I put my hand on it, just so deep. [Whatever it was I don’t know.]

[39]  After he had spent all that time, for years and years to make this, then under the—the influence of seeing fulfilled what he had seen in his heart and in his vision, and desired to see, and now it was completed. And, when it was completed, he was so inspired by it…

In other words, a double dose of inspiration. Where does that leave you and me when we see something in the Word, and It comes to pass? What does that do? You’ve got a double dose of inspiration. Because it’s been sealed unto you. A double dose inspiration.

And, when it was completed, he was so inspired by it till he thought his own masterpiece should speak back to him. And he struck it across the leg and hollered, “Speak!”

In other words, “Why don’t you talk?” (Brother Vayle speaks in another language.) “Speak! What are you sitting there for? Get up and walk! You think I have to be nuts!” Oh, not nuts, just inspired. But that’s one step from being mental. Gotta be, because the mind of the world is not the mind of God.

You get the mind of God, and you’re a queer to the world. They don’t see what you see, there’s no way they see what you see. See? People see great talent that God gives them and say, “Well, why waste it on that.” Well, this is something real here.

[39]  And he made a flaw on it. It put a flaw on the image.

See? Now, when we go later on, when he describes this about man, Christ, and so on, you might wonder, “How it is that you can add by a flaw?” Well, let’s put it this way.

That statue was so wonderful and so perfect, so awe inspiring, so beyond his own expectations in this respect: that, though he knew what was there, he couldn’t believe that, when he was finished, that rock would be like a living person. See?

Now, then, therefore when he struck it, you know what happened? That wound in the knee actually added to Michelangelo, because it wouldn’t be there, except it was so overpowering. See? How do you add? Well, that’s part of what we’re going to talk about, it’s part of the idea.

[Black spot on the recording for about 30 seconds]

[40]  To me, it was the flaw that made it the masterpiece.

Sure. Did you see Salman take a knife and cut the picture of Jesus, because it was too awe-inspiring, too overpowering? No, they ran out and sold it. Now, this man, Hoffman, would not let people make copies. I understand it was literally hidden, because he was over-awed by what he did. How many statues can you look at?

Or, how many who completed the statuary could stand back and look at the image which they created and be over-powered by what they saw? Oo! How many? One or two.

So, this proves, as Brother Branham said, that this flaw proved this to be a masterpiece. Okay. He’s on good ground now, mind you. Very strong, artistic, spiritual concept.

[40]  Now, maybe to your mind that might think different, you’d think that spoiled it. No, to me it made it what it was. Because of after so many years of careful work and toils and inspiration and so forth of making it, his toil had proved not in vain. It was perfect, and that’s why he cried out, “Speak!” Because he’d seen before him what he had been able to achieve, to bring to pass the vision that he had in his mind; and therefore, under inspiration he done something out of reason.

Well, the vision was out of reason. How did DeMille get that thing right? How did Hoffman get it right? How did this fellow get it right? So, Brother Branham could tell you, being a prophet. And, remember; the spirit of Moses is here today.

So, let’s not throw that down the drain and walk off and say that Brother Branham made a guess. It’s not true.

The spirit of Moses is here; the spirit of Elijah, the spirit of Christ, and even Samuel with discerning. See? Get your wires all straightened out and… We’re under real inspiration now, because we know these things.

[40]  …he did something out of reason, out of the ordinary; he struck it and hollered, “Speak!” See, he wouldn’t have done that if he’d have thought. That’s thought about it, see—think it out. But he didn’t think.

Well then, he didn’t think about what came to his mind either. You say, “Well, can these things happen to our minds?”

They had better happen to your minds. You better start having something apart from your thoughts, and yet they will be sort of coherent with your thinking, on this grounds, that you have a receptacle that, though human and carnal, is still linked with the spirit, whereby through rebirth, and without rebirth, but how much more with rebirth, you can get divine inspiration. This man had divine inspiration. See?

[42]  Now, to me it was a reflection. [Now, listen to the words.] To me it was a reflection… That’s the image here. It was a compliment to his work,… And this, what he did. All one. …that his own work so inspired him till he would become beside himself to smite it and to say, “Speak!”

Now the man could have been an idiot, too. He could have been a… just a… How would you like to take some of this stuff that men like Picasso made and think that they’d say, “Speak?” If they would, it would be pretty garbled. In fact, I’d run in case it did speak, if you want to know the truth. You talk about garbage.

I don’t believe that anything in the line of talent is bizarre, in other words it’s off character with the great God, the great Artist. See? Nobody can give me that stuff, you know. He said here:

[42]  To me it was a reflection, it was a compliment to his work, that his own work so inspired him that he would become beside himself to smite it.

[43]  I stood there and looked at the monument. [See? Brother Branham looked in Forest Lawn.] I thought of the hours that the man must have put in making that. And they said how many years it was. But it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his great art…

Now, that’s kind of involved, I would think. But maybe it’s simpler than I think.

All right. What is a ‘reflection’? A ‘reflection’ is the image being reproduced through a medium that the light hits you, strikes that medium, and what is there, then, becomes visible.

We usually have a mirror, water, or something like even stainless steel, a real black shiny surface will do the same thing, something that has qualities that will take the light that reflects from you or the object; and then, you see it.

A reflection also is where you talk of a ray of light being reflected as really ‘deflected’; that’s what it really is. Light is deflected. To have a reflection means ‘re-’, ‘having been again’. A deflection doesn’t necessarily mean that, though light is deflected.

So, you talk about reflection. Oh, he’s got the word ‘reflection’ here, and I’m sure he’s using it just right. “It was a reflection to him…”

Now, in other words he says what was in here, he saw there in the medium that could replace the rays that sprung from him. A piece of rock became a literal reflection. Good thinking. That’s exactly what it is. You follow what I’m saying? Okay.

[43]  Because it was contributing to his art…

He was contributing, but also, he did the contributing. And, when he did the contributing to what was there, then the reflection of what he wanted sprung out.

Now, remember; we’re talking about God and the final analysis. We’re just using this to begin with. Do you understand what I’m saying? Huh? Well, get the tape, and go over it.

[43]  And, when he was finally able to achieve it, it was so great.

The same Scripture that could come to my mind is this (referring to him with whom we’re dealing through an illustration is): It pleased God to bruise him. Right? The marring.

Then, It says in the Book of Ephesians. I’ll go read It for you here, so I might as, just as sure as I want to quote it, I won’t be able to be… The devil can’t stop me there, because I have the Word of God written in front of me. And It says right here:

See? God receiving pleasure. Now, what happened? When Michelangelo saw that, it added to Michelangelo. He stood there. “Why,” he said, “that’s me in a form. That’s this inside here.”

And he saw it, and he performed it. It was amazing. That’s exactly what happens with Almighty God. As the statue added… And I mentioned that the other day: We add to God, also; and the only way you can ever add to the Word is not an adding to the Word, except in a form where the Word-thought becomes manifested, and you’re a manifestation of that Word.

Sure, you add to God, because you’re the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in a mysterious form: mystical.

Now, he’s through talking.

[44]  Let’s turn the page on Michelangelo—close the book on him. Let’s open another Book and read of the great Sculptor, the Almighty. Who, before there was a world, and before the foundations were laid, He had in His mind what He wanted, and He wanted to make man in His own image. He wanted to make something in a reality of what was a vision to Him, what was in His thinking.

He wanted to, in other words, get material that would be suitable for Him to make exactly what He had in His mind, not only what, but how, and for the purposes. And you notice what the statue did for Michelangelo, what it evoked. Okay. See? To the praise and the glory of his grace.

[45]  Now, to Michelangelo [the statue of Moses] was an attribute of his thought.

That’s right. There was another attribute in David. There were other attributes of ‘the Lord’s Supper’. Attributes on the fresco work, and so on, of his great art. He was a great man, I guess the only man comparable might have been Leonardo Da Vinci. I guess those two would stand pretty well, you know, arm-in-arm in a certain sense of the word.

Now, And God wanted to make a man after His image.

An image is not the real thing. It’s a reproduction. So, if God was going to… Now, listen; for God to make man in His image, God had to have an image. Do you swallow what I’m talking about? So, God had to have an image. What was there in the beginning? That’s where you get Christ. This is one of the great mysteries.

Don’t ask me to explain it; I’m just up here preaching. So, you’re not going to get me on that one. Look, there are lots of things I can tell you; just maybe one Sunday God will let me know about it, but this is the toughest thing I’ve ever run across. And I don’t fool with it.

I just… If something comes, if it came right now, I’ll say it, I’ll listen to it, and see where it goes; but I’m not an authority on these things. I’m having a hard time with everything, but it’s a good time.

It’s a good God… What it is is that God’s having a hard time with me, never mind the other part. And the other part is ridiculous. I’m having a good time. All right.

[45]  …God wanted to make a man after His image, (the Great Sculptor) and He went to work on him. And we notice as He brought up from the materials, the first thing were fishes, and then the birds, creeping things upon the earth, and the many things that He brought up.

But finally as He brooded, being Creator… Now God wasn’t like a man, a sculptor, that would have to have something that’s been created to hew an image. He was a Sculptor of eternal things.

“Eternal things?” Now Brother Branham better watch his words. He said “Eternal doesn’t have a beginning.” So then, he’s consistent with what he preached. If you weren’t there in the beginning, you aren’t here now.

Well, you are, but you know what I mean. You don’t have representation there, you don’t have it now. You have to have been back there. See? All right. So therefore, he’s going to have to work… It’s going have to be an outworking from God within. Right?

Now, Michelangelo could have an outworking from within, but he had a material to do it. Now, God doesn’t have a material to do it, so He’s going to have to make material. But he’s going to start right in here with the thoughts. Okay.

[45]  He wasn’t like a man now, a sculptor that’d have to take something that’s been created to hew an image. He was the Sculptor of eternal things. He was a Sculptor that could create and bring into existence that which He had in His mind to do. Or otherwise…

In other words He had many things in His mind and… which were consistent with the one great plan He’d do them. He could make the material for what His attributes desired or desire.

Right. In other words, the materials and the outcome would have to be complimentary to His attributes. Well, I can prove that. I read a little bit on Michelangelo. Not much; a little bit. I got a book one time and read a little bit. How that he, like others, would attempt to find the marble that they wish to work with, and it was tough. It was tough.

They would have to pay a good price to get a special piece of marble that the quarry-man knew would be good and the sculptor would be knowledgeable as to what it was and know that he wanted it for a certain project.

And there are was a certain piece; I’m not sure if it was the Pieta or whether it was Moses or which it was, but that piece of marble was there for a long time and a great price was paid for it. See?

So therefore, what I’m trying to say is this: that whatever was evolved or devolved, brought forth in a manifestation, would have to be complimentary to what we term ‘the attributes’ or ‘the vision’, ‘the thinking’, ‘the plans of the great sculptor’.

Now, where does that… Now, do you follow what I’m saying? He’d better be complimentary.

I can tell you one thing: I’d never build a brick house again, if I ever built one. You can have it. No way, shape, and form. Put the bricks on the inside. Mass on the outside is for a bunch of you-know-what. It’s okay if you haven’t got anything else. Put the mass on the inside. That keeps the cool. That keeps the heat.

You put it on the outside that invites radiant everything, radiant cold, radiant heat. Freeze you in the wintertime; boil you in the summertime. Who needs it? You want to be smart. Don’t fill your attic with all kinds of junk; put two ceilings on instead; get the air blowing in between. You got that much better off.

Don’t make your walls fourteen… Go with two-by-fours in each between. Half the insulation on both sides. See? Well, we can leave that part alone. Get back to this fellow here.

Here the materials must be complimentary. I’m trying to say here God didn’t make any big, big boo-boos. God didn’t say, “Well, I want this material. Oh, that won’t work, or this will work, perhaps. I could fool around here. I can fool around there.”

When God, being the great Creator, He put His attributes into play, which was omniscience, wherein lay foreknowledge. He could just reach out, just like that and get the material for it. And it would be perfectly complimentary and suitable. He wouldn’t be making boo-boos.

And in this hour God has not made a boo-boo, though Satan crept in, as Brother Branham will tell us concerning “The Masterpiece”. He never made a boo-boo. Now you understand what I’m saying?

Now, you say, “Well, Moses, he got the best he could have.”

That’s right. I ask you a question: Who put it here in the first place knowing that Michelangelo would come along and carve out Moses. God did. So, he had the best. And, if you’ve got the wrong mate here; get the right one over there. I just threw that in, because I want to let you know you can make mistakes; not me.

“Just kidding.” You can make mistakes; we all make mistakes, but not God. That’s right. But you know something? You’ll overcome your mistakes. But don’t start making them just because you overcome them. That’s heresy. Okay.

[46]  And as He begin to work upon creeping things, like little animals on the earth. And then, He began to bring it into something else higher and finally brought it into the large realm such as lion, tiger, and bears. Then He brought it into the life of maybe of monkeys, and apes, and so on. [Adam Clark said the same thing.] Now, not of an evolution, as we think that one came from another, but that was a complete creation, God working in a pattern.

So therefore, evolution is a pattern of structure. The structurization of intelligence. Yeah. And responsibility. I’ve got to put them together.

[47]  But finally there came forth upon the earth, a perfection, and that was a man. [Okay]. And then He could see in that man, that it looked like Him. [Now, it did? Well, it must have, because he said so. We know that’s the Bible. He had an image, made an image. You can’t see God at any time, can you? He says He’s spirit. All right?] So now, when He looked upon him, he was a reflection of what his Creator was.

Well now, how do you figure that? Very simple, because you are intrinsically what you are in your spirit, which is lying with your thinking, because the spirit and the mind function together. The mind, in itself, would be barren, and of course, it could be with spirit if you had an injury or something.

But speaking in terms of that which is mentally competent, (which God made man to begin with, very competent, and he blew it.) the spirit works in conjunction. That’s why you could be illuminated in your mind by the spirit. That’s why it’s so essential to have your minds full of the Word of God, because your spirit feeds on that; not something else. All right.

Now he said what was in there was in a pattern. Then, the man was the reflection, which is a true word. Because, you see, it was ‘this’ done again in ‘that’. But, if it is ‘this’ done in ‘that’, it will never lessen the fact of ‘it’ being the original was in ‘that’.

I don’t care what ‘that’ is. It can be a hell-bound sinner; can be Genghis Khan, if he got saved. It could be a Stalin or a Pharaoh, if they were in the original. See?

So, it’s a reflection, see, a ‘re flect’ (What in the world does that word come from? Must be Latin, the ‘genuflex’, the bending light so bent it’s a-bouncing off. Light travels in straight waves, it hits, and the angle of inflection is the same as the angle of approach and all that sort of junk.

I guess we know that; so, we can understand that much English. But some of these words I should have broken down, but didn’t think I’d even using them. But they were here, so it’s my fault. Okay.

The word means re– anyway. The same thing that came out turns back. What was it? The same thing that came there reproduced itself.

So, Brother Branham said, “You are the thoughts of God.” He is one hundred percent correct. In this sermon, you’ll notice, dove-tails one hundred percent with his understanding of Scripture. If any man was never off the Word consistently, this man never was.

Nobody else can say that outside of a prophet. William Branham said the reason he was what he was, was because he was the only man living who could tell it as he saw it and tell it as he heard it.

That’s why you get these fellows trying to get up there, and they’ll discern, and they can’t remember exactly. And they can’t tell it exactly. But William Branham could stand there, and he was exact; because, how can God be inexact.

Now we’re measuring exactitude through inexactitude, which lies in a fallen product. You have to stop doing that! Quit it! Go back to the Word.

One thing I like about Jack Bell: that guy, he’s no more negative than this room is up there in paradise fourteen-hundred feet above God. That guy is positive. He just believes absolutely and walks right down the road.

And, if you’re negative and go to his church, he’ll say, “Hey, I want to tell you something. People walk in the room and see you there, you’re just negative.” He said, “You just mess everything up. Now, quit being negative.”

He’ll look you right in the eye. I like old Jack. I’ll tell you what: he lives it where I just preach it. Dirty dog. Have to shoot that guy before I get two enemies. Well, I mean it. He’s something.

I know these preachers around the country. I know who’s in competition, who’s not in competition, who’s what, and who wasn’t, as much as I know, which I don’t know very much. But Jack’s a boy by himself. I’ve seen him go through his life. He’s got this.

[47]  [So now, He looked upon a reflection of what his Creator was.] So now, when he looked upon him, he was a reflection of what his Creator was.

When God looked upon Adam, Adam was a reflection. You begin to believe that, you’ll understand reflection, the Omega reflection. You’ll begin to understand it, because you’re a part of the Word. God had now been able to achieve the thing that God wanted, a man in His own image.

That’s why God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Lord Jesus Christ is our Head. God is his Head, and he is our Head. That’s why people… I’ve got the quote right now, through Brian, a sermon a man preached, and he said, (He didn’t mention my name) but we who believe as we believe.

He said, “Brother Vayle does not believe in literally meeting the Lord in the air.” The man is a liar! I am going to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air! I’m going to touch him, and he’s going to touch me. But Elohim came down. The Lord said to my lord, and my lord is the Lord Jesus Christ, and his Lord is Almighty God.

They’re both lords! And that’s the difference between God and Jesus: Jesus had a beginning, but God didn’t. They’re identical. Let’s get with what the prophet said. Yelling now doesn’t make my position stronger, but it sure helps. You can do what you want. If you don’t like it, go on home.

Come on. I’m in a good mood, bless God. I know where I stand, hallelujah! Spirit of God could come across me and prophesy in the right place, I fear not. I’ll stand here; be condemned or justified by my words, because I have the revelation for the first time in these years.

I got it sitting right here two weeks ago. You’ll do what you want.

I know Him in Whom I have believed. There are not two gods; there is one God! We’ve got two we understand and know and love. They have the same name, and people can’t tell name apart or anything else.

Do what they want. You do what you want. That goes for every single person, my wife, my kids, you, and everybody else.

I’m not being tough and mad, but I understand these things, and I’ll stand with them. One day that same One that stands here is going to change me, or I’m missing my guess. If He doesn’t do it, I don’t want it done anyway.

You say, “Well, Brother Vayle where does it leave you?”

It leaves me right with this One that’s here, whoever He is.

You say, “Well, aren’t you scared?”

No, I turned my corner. I’m not trying to sound like some merry-go-round, going round and round and then jump on the Ferris wheel. Hah! I hate circuses, anyway, and these goofy up-and-down things. I’m not attached to some yo-yo. Sure. That’s right. I’m not mad at anybody, but I’ll tell you what I stand for.

I’m going to stand for what I stand for! People don’t like it, they can drop dead. You say, “That’s not nice.” Why did Brother Branham pray and fast? To be sweeter? He was…. Well, I figured he was sweet enough. He looked me right in the eye and said, “Well, that’s… You’re stuck with what you got.”

Well, sure, I’m stuck with what I got. I got you birds around here! Just kidding, of course. I had to pull that out just to lessen the tension and get me off the hook. I get too tied up here. I don’t want to get tied up.

Now He said:

[48]  Then I might say further: that when He made this man there was something about him yet that didn’t look just right, because he was by himself.

Now he said ‘didn’t look just right, because he was by himself’. You know what? He was an original without any originality. Huh? Did you get it? He was an original, but without any originality.

He didn’t have any originality. God had it all. But he was an original, step down, but an original. He was made in the image. Now, there is an image of God. We understand that. Okay.

[48]  …he was by himself. And that’s how God had been, by Himself; [all alone there in the great eternities.] He was the Eternal. And now the man in the image of God also existed on the earth by himself.

Now, notice that. Now, get the image perfect. God by Himself, begins moving, and, when It comes down here in the physical form of the dust, which it’s going to come to, although this forms your spirit right now… all alone.

Well, that’s perfect, because that’s the way God was: all alone. Where were you, when I created the heavens and the earth? ‘All alone’ did this, he said. Then you have the Gnostics coming alone; they’re worse than Trinitarians.

[48]  The man now in the image of God also existed on the earth by himself. So He must’ve struck a little blow over his left side, and from there He took the piece that struck off of it and made him a helpmeet, made him a wife. Then he wasn’t by himself, he had somebody with him. And that’s His great work.

God’s not by Himself anymore. You see? Set up a method of propagation even.

[49]  Now first, He had a masterpiece of Himself. But then, He seen that the masterpiece was lonesome like He was, so He divided the masterpiece by striking it in the side and brought forth a helpmeet.

Where did Christ come from?

[50]  Now, to make the two one, He put them, like any great sculptor, in a place that’s beautiful. A sculptor wouldn’t make a great masterpiece and then take it and set it in a alley somewhere or hide it behind buildings.

Oh, I wish they would hide some of their stuff behind buildings. I wish they wouldn’t make it. You know… Listen, don’t let anybody try to tell you something is pretty, if it’s not. Look, if God’s got enough on the ball to say, “That makes me puke.” And pardon the expression. Remember, “I’ll spue you out of mouth” means ‘to vomit’.

You don’t have to feel bad, if somebody’s work makes you vomit. Just be careful you’re not the screwball. Just be careful that he is.

There’s a fellow over in Findlay, or somewhere, I forget his name now, he never gets my tapes anyways, so it doesn’t matter. I was in his house back then, when I wasn’t understanding the Message about thirty years ago, maybe not thirty years ago.

It’s a long time back. Twenty-five anyway, if not twenty-seven. And he showed me some of his painting, and this was a horse. And I said, “That’s a horse?”.

Now, you know, I think a horse is a lovely, noble beast, and they may be okay to ride, if you can ride them, which I wasn’t much of a rider. The rest of the family could ride like, kind of like, Indians, bareback horse riding Indians without a saddle, you know, just one with the horse, just bouncing up and down. This stuff they call posting, that’s for the birds.

You want to see somebody really ride? You get yourself an Indian. He’ll sit in the horse there; he’s got these leather, maybe not even leather britches on, but a lot of them were deer skin. The man and the horse was one.

My brothers and sisters, especially my sisters could ride that way. The doctor’s son could ride that way. Doctor Toppler’s son, he rode like an Indian. The boy was just one with the horse.

Well, where was I anyway?

The beautiful sculptor here. You wouldn’t put it in an alley, now… Now, this fellow made the picture of a horse, and you know, a horse… I couldn’t… Maybe it was a horse. I don’t know where he’s been. But it sure wasn’t anything I knew to be a horse.

Well, see now, look; you could… Yeah, you could hide that; you’d bury it. It’s like the old expression that’s something like what the cat dragged in and forgot to bury, like a dead mouse or something.

Well, that’s a masterpiece I don’t want. Now, look that’s what I’m saying to you. You could stand back and vomit at something like that. You have a right to, because that’s perversion, period. These little kids with those great big eyes, like footballs, that’s perversion.

Now, if you want to stand back and draw me an impressionistic picture to show the wideness of the eyes of the child, that’s fine. But, don’t make it two inches across, when the kid’s eyes are only one inch across, or you’ll pervert it.

You simply kill the Word; you want something that God didn’t make. You’ll never get the first place with God. You’re not born again; nothing else. Come on! Let’s get down to business.

Don’t give me this tripe, that it’s anything outside of the Word of God. Call it love, call it this. Call it what it is: It’s from the pit of hell; it’s a lie from Satan, because it’s perverted.

And Brother Branham said, “Perversion is wrong.” There is no black and white per se. No sir. It is white that’s been grayed by black, because nothing Satan ever had or ever talked about wasn’t something that God had, and he messed with it! So, let’s get that flat. See? Why, he said here, you don’t hide it.

[50]  Our Lord told us, “A man doesn’t light a candle and put it under a bushel.” When we become God’s masterpieces, we’re not hid in a alley somewhere; we must give light. [Sure.]

[51]  So, we see that—that He—after He made this masterpiece, He placed it up here on the earth… [That’s where he put it. He’s going to put it right back here again, too, one of these days.] and put it in the most beautiful place there was, in the Garden of Eden. He placed His masterpiece (the two being one) in the Garden of Eden. Now that must’ve pleased Him, for when he saw this masterpiece was so perfect, He rested. He was indeed well-pleased, that He would rest.

Well, that’s the same thing as saying ‘speak’ to each other… to me. I couldn’t do a better job than this. Everybody thinks God could have done a better job.

They could say, “Why did God make the devil? Now, if he’s such a great fellow, why did he make the devil?”

Then, you have the Trinitarians come along, they say, “Well, God did a great job. It was marvelous back there, but you know, the devil… Now, where’d the devil come from?”

Well, God made him, but… Don’t give me that stuff. I’m told He’s omniscient, knows the end from the beginning. Then, if He knows the end from the beginning, then he must have put the beginning in somehow, in progress. Huh! If I believe what these Trinitarians and these others believe I’d cut my throat now.

Well, it’d be too late to go out and get drunk. I don’t much care for liquor that much. I’m too weak to run foot races and do stupid things I could do ordinarily. You know what I’m talking about.

Now I can’t buy that. God, to me, is no fool. No fool. Everything He made here, He made in a perfection and made everything just right. Then, He sat down and rested. Everything was right.

[52]  Now remember that, my opinion the masterpiece is the stroke that marred Michelangelo’s Moses masterpiece in the monument.

Now he said, ‘Remember, in my opinion, the masterpiece is the stroke. In other words it comes from that, that this makes it unique. That this marring, because of the actual power of the demonstration of what was in the mind just didn’t blow the mind, but yet it did blow the mind.

Like God’s mind can’t be blown. But we’re trying to get you to see, it was utter perfection and satisfaction in the mind of God.

So, people turn around and say, “Well, how do you make the devil? Why this? Why that? Poor God, you see, the Father, He made it, and the devil got everything out of control, and man shouldn’t have fallen, but he did fall.

And so, one day, he said, ‘Who will go first? How are we going to get out of the mess?’ And the son said, ‘Father, I will go give my life.’”

Now, that sounds very good, but it’s all wrong. It’s all wrong. It’s the hogwash of a Trinitarian mind. Because the Bible said that he took council with nobody. Now, don’t make Jesus a nobody.

So, I don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m a Branhamite; I’m sorry. And I’m just tickled to death. So, I just can’t help that.

[52]  “It was a stroke that cut the side of His masterpiece that brought out the bride.”

Now, see? Your masterpiece. The masterpiece just doesn’t lie in the product, it lies in the fact of God and the product coming into the full blend of Almighty God and His ways.

Because anything that is made of God, that isn’t in the complete and perfect, divine flow of God, so that the attributes would all be there, could hardly be the summation of perfection, when we’re dealing with God in perfection.

You follow what I said? Look, let’s face it. You can’t make my hand here my whole body. You can’t do it. Neither could you just say, “Well, this is the way it is,” and God’s not worked out the complete principle of Himself in that individual. It has to be outworked. See?

[52]  …now, we see them as a masterpiece family in the garden of Eden. How beautiful it was. And it so pleased Him, till He took rest then; He said, “I’ll rest.”

[53]  …while He was resting and trusting to His masterpiece, His enemy came in and found this great masterpiece; and he, by deceit, crawls under the garden walls, and then he marred this beautiful masterpiece. He marred it so that it fell.

[55]  Now, notice. Then, this masterpiece that Satan got a hold of, [Satan’s] the deceiver, broke through the wall and he marred this masterpiece, because that’s the way he did it. What did he do? I’ll go into more detail of it, how he did it. But first this masterpiece was walled about by the Word of God.

He just used the word ‘walled’ here, but he used the word ‘walled about’, so you understand, as Job said, “You’ve,” you know, “walled me around; You hedged me around by the Word.”

[55]  This masterpiece was walled about by the Word, God’s Word. And the masterpiece itself, of the family, was fortified by this Word;… [Now, God stands behind His Word to perform. That’s why, if you break one Word, there’s no more God.] …but the broken part that was broke off of the original went out beyond that Wall and give Satan a chance to mar it.

[See? Now we see that’s what he’s talking about.] Everything was right there, now Satan gets to it, begins moving on it.] (And now, as you know what I believe on those things, so I won’t have to say it.) But the masterpiece was broken.

Now Brother Branham says, “She was not in the original.” Let’s go to the Book, and find out what he’s talking about. We go to 1 Corinthians 11:7.

Step down. Step down. Doesn’t make her any the less, as though she’s not human. She’s one hundred percent human. What we’re talking about is position. That’s why your women’s lib and all this stuff is entirely wrong.

And I must admit that the men are the cause of it, more than the woman. But the woman being weak, she just gets to it. I don’t go and blame the women for everything. I don’t buy that. I don’t buy it.

You want to ask questions sometime, go ahead. I’ll discuss anything. I don’t give a rip what you ask. I know some of the answers, but half ‘know I won’t’. This is the hour, remember; this is the hour that everything is made plain before us. If God comes into view, the human race into view, Satan comes into view, everything comes into view.

You know for what it is. You know for what you are; what everything else is, and I tell you that day is approaching fast, and we’re going to have that mind where it ought to be. Then, you watch a people that are super, super race approaching unto God.

I know there’s a lot of criticism right now, and everything else. A lot of confusion. A lot of this. A lot of that, but I tell you what: I can go to my grave, but I’m going to tell you there’s going to be a Bride standing on this earth that won’t see death.

I don’t have any worry about that. We’re in it, brother/sister. Time and eternity have blended. Who cares what anybody says? I believe the prophet, bless God. I’ve turned my corner. Whatever that corner is, I turned it.

You say… Yeah, I’m not negative. I’m just letting you know that that is either it, or forget it. And I didn’t exhaust myself in doing it.

You say, “Well, did God do it?”

God exhausted everything He wanted in this particular hour. So, what are you looking for more for? You just listen to this. You go over this tape again. I’m not giving you little catch phrases here. I want to get your thinking stirred up.

[56]  Now, the Great Sculptor, when He saw the fall of His family, the masterpiece, He wasn’t willing just to leave it lay there, face down, and ruin. He went to work immediately to build it up again. He wasn’t willing that it should perish, lay there like that all the time, because He’s God and He will not be defeated. So He went to work immediately and begin to build again unto His own image, a man.

He’s got to come back again. All right? Now, notice; it’s a man… talks of image again.

[57]  Now, we find that the antediluvian world come along and destroyed the whole thing, because the covenants that were made, was made conditionally: “If you will not do this or if you will do that.” God, the Great Sculptor, saw that man could not keep a covenant. He just can’t do it. There’s just no way at all.

Now, did God just come across that? Naw. God just come across that, then Brother Branham fooled himself. He made Michelangelo greater than God! Because he said Michelangelo could not deflect or get away from the original. Well, he’s not telling me here that God got away from His original then.

Some people are greater than God, then. How come they all die? See? He’s not saying that. He’s not saying that. He’s talking about the physical, the physicals. Okay. And man couldn’t anyway. God didn’t make him to. Well, did He? No!

Man wasn’t righteous, honey. He was innocent. How much did Adam know? I don’t know anything that Adam knew too much about God, except there was a God, and he dealt with God. God got him with the animals out there and said, “Name these, name these, name these. Do this, this, this, this.”

And he got caught away with it. Or did he? He may have discerned a lot of things. I don’t say that he caught away with it in a bad sense. But where do you find that God sent him down and gave him a lesson in theology? I’m not saying he didn’t. I’m just asking a question.

We’re just about finished, aren’t we? That may be a good question to stop at. Did Adam ever sit with God and give him the theology? No, I’m sure he must have gotten into some of it. But I don’t know. All right.

We’re going to leave off here.

[He said] the great Sculptor saw that he fell. He wasn’t willing to let the masterpiece lie there, and He was going to go to work again, immediately, again to build unto His Own image, a man.

So there, we’re going to find this One is not the earth, earthy, but this will be the Lord of heaven. Right? So now, that’s what we’re looking at. We’re looking at the great Sculptor from the blueprint with His materials, bringing in images: eternal sons of God. Right?

Okay, let’s rise.

Heavenly Father, we again thank You for Your love and mercy. We praise Thee, O God, for insight, inspiration, that You would take time with creatures of the dust; and, yes, it’s worse than that, Lord, because the dust has the life, and the life being of You, and yet, also incased in this other life that is of the nature of the flesh, therefore, devious and downbeat, Lord.

Then, we also recognize, though this being true, that there is constantly a struggle within us to keep our hearts and our minds ever in Your Word and so serious and sober that we would be thoroughly misunderstood by the world, which we are anyway. And then, Lord, we take…

[Note: Tape Ends.]