Masterpiece #02

Shall we pray.

Heavenly father, we’re very grateful that we are gathered with Him, Who is in the midst of us. Elohim, God Himself, we know is here, come back to headship to get a Bride out of here. We praise you, Lord, that we have the protection of the Blood; we have the unerring, unending Word.

We have, therefore, everything, Lord, which grants complete reconciliation in unity, a kindred-ship of the highest order. We couldn’t name one Word that isn’t fulfilled in it all. We thank you for it, Lord. ‘All things are ready; come to the feast.’ We thank you for that, Lord.

We’re just waiting now for the last ends of the earth to dry up, to recognize the last drop of iniquity going into that overflowing cup.

We recognize, Lord, it’s all held in store, and we’re ready. We appreciate that. So, may that blessed Spirit come upon us that told us to rejoice as never before. We see these things. Lift up our hands, our heads, open our mouths and rejoice.

Let our whole being, Lord, be filled with the glory of God and for the glory of God. This is what we want. We believe, Lord, we have it, not just in potential, or the incipient, anymore, but that it is actually here in the reality in the waters rising, as in Ezekiel’s vision, until we will be carried over.

We believe that it starts with God, not embryo, but in the form of the small, growing more and more back to the full dynamism, and we thank you for that, Lord. We believe we’re in it now, and it’s for Your glory. We just thank You, therefore, for Your Presence and all that evolves from it, in Jesus Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, we are, of course, in the Masterpiece, and we’ll notice where we’ll have to take our time as usual to try to garner some of the thoughts that are in here, and we have to keep watching that Brother Branham goes forward, then moves back, which means that he will explain a point and sort of leave it, and then go on explaining more.

So, we have to do the same thing here. We sort of move back and forth with him in order to get the best or the most out of it with the help of the Lord God.

Now, Brother Branham, in taking “The Masterpiece”, of course, is taking the statue of Moses by Michelangelo, and he speaks.

[36]  “Now, that this great sculptor had worked diligently,” and he said, “just think, after all the years in patience and actually finishing polishing down…”, he said, “Just think, that vision on his mind for so many years to make it look just exactly to what it was.”

[Remember, he caught the vision first. Now, of course, you are going back to the understanding of foreknowledge, because the whole reference is to God’s masterpiece based upon this example here that’s before us “and how he had to work according to that vision, cutting off and smoothing down.”

Now, that’s what you will find that people do not understand in Brother Branham’s ministry, how that every age had a portion, and how they were hued out, and then, coming to the end growing up unto Christ, we come to a polishing-off period.

The reason that this is misunderstood is because, when the Resurrection takes place, there will not have been any difference, or there will not be any difference amongst us. You’ll see the perfect work of God.

But the church must be brought up the way Brother Branham describes this statue and, then, describes going back to the Old Testament. So, what you do when these things are strange, you let your thinking go. And that’s the secret of it all, or you never get anywhere.

And I’ve had preachers talking to me since the Rapture series, and they’ll tell me, they say they’ve never has anything been so real to me since I read 1 and 2 Peter in the light of the Rapture, which we read the Dr. Weiss translation here, which is the really decent one brought into the twentieth century vernacular.

Now that, of course, the Dr. Weiss translation, is sort of looked down upon by the great Savance, the great theologian, even as Dr. William Branham’s message in his way was looked down on by these great people. They should have been looking up when they tried to look down. Hogwash.

They couldn’t see if they did look. But anyway, when you begin to understand Brother Branham’s understanding, then these things aren’t so hard to see now.

[36]  And when he [Michelangelo] got… to where he perfected it, that’s polishing the whole thing down till it really got perfect, and he stood and looked at it when he finished up that morning, had his hammer in his hand. And he was so inspired when he looked at it, because the vision of his mind was standing before him in reality.

Now, you know that most people don’t believe that when it comes to God: “Poor God, he made Satan and… Oh, oh, poor God.”

Well, come on. What kind of a god have you got? Well, fap, you ever hear such nonsense? It’s just inconceivable to us that have a little bit of enlightening, enlightening… inlightening, too. You know, like the old colored preacher.

“He stormed around that morning,” Brother Branham said, “about an hour and a half and said nothing.” He said ‘Man,’ she said, ‘what happened to you; what happened to you; ‘what happened to you? You just made…’ He said, ‘Well, what I lacks in lightning, I make up in thunder.’

He couldn’t get a message that morning. We don’t have any trouble here because we just read it, and we’re in heavenly places.

[36]  And when he had seen, …his conception of what Moses was, [In other words he saw the conception of it in his mind, and he saw the conception in reality.] there it was in this figure before him, exactly what he had in his heart all these years. The toils and the hours, the sorrow and distress; the criticism and everything else, but yet he stayed right with the vision until it was completed.

You say, “Well, now, where did God get criticism?”

When hasn’t God had criticism? Jesus said “Blessed is the man who is not offended in me.” I have maintained for many years that you can get more offended in God, and quicker, than anybody or anything else.

“Why doesn’t God do something?”

And then, they start cussing God, and that makes them feel better for a while.

[37]  Then when it was completed, he stood back with the hammer, the sculptor’s hammer, in his hand and he looked at that monument. And the inspiration of the vision that he’d seen of how to do it. [Now, listen; it’s all in his mind there, just working it out.] inspired him so much…

In other words there was even a greater inspiration after the completion. Well, that’s logical. At this point the best you and I can do is apprehend a very small amount of revelation and appreciation of God. What will it be when you are in a position to really apprehend and appreciate?

See, like Brother Branham said when Brother Cox said to him, “Won’t we have hunting in the Millennium?” He said, “Now, look, Charlie. I want to tell you something.”

He said, “Could a pig appreciate being a man? Not if he remained a pig. There is just a million times difference; there’s billions times difference.” I hope… In fact, I know. And what’s it going to be when you’re in the likeness.?

[37]  “…the inspiration struck him” [so forcibly that] “he got beside himself and struck it across the knee and said, “Speak!”

Now, of course, this is where Brother Branham speaks of that flaw.

Then he says in paragraph 40.

[40]  And to me the flaw, that was what made it the masterpiece. Now, maybe to your mind that you might think differently, you might thought that spoiled it.”

See now, just hold that in mind now because that question’s got to be answered.

[41]  His toils and worries and long nights, and housed away from the world, or hidden away from the world, for days, and take maybe times just eat a sandwich and then polish the statue. Stand back and say, [“Naw,] that’s… not the way it was.”

Oh, that’s right. You look. Now he goes to flawed man later on. Right?

Now, was that the vision that God had? No. That’s not the vision that God had. What’s the vision that God had? Let’s go back and find out. That’s always nice to search the Scripture. And you know that we’re not in any rush here.

We can take an hour, an hour and a half, and then, we go home and come back and take another hour and a half. You know, it’s a great time we’re having. And It says

Now, that’s the vision: holy, without blame. All we can do is blame ourselves, or if we’re married we blame our wives, or wives blame us, and we blame the kids and the kids blame us, and we blame the government, and the government blames us, and everybody blames each other.

One day, hallelujah! Just can’t get out of here quick enough. Heh heh heh. I wonder when some chariot is to come down and pick us up. I’d like to ask that question, and it’s not just philosophical. No sir.

[41]  Then when he saw it just perfect, and then he saw it in reality, and the negative of… what was in his mind had become real.

Now, it doesn’t mean that there was a negative there, in the sense of a negative and a positive. He’s talking about an actual film, the original blueprint.

[41]  …it became positive; therefore, it sprung into him. And it was so real that he must cry out, “Speak.”

[42]  To me it was a reflection.

Now, the word ‘reflection’ in the dictionary is an ‘image’ or a ‘counterpart’, and also, ‘that which you consider in your mind’.

Now, I think that both are here. The image before him, in other words ‘a reproduction’; this reflection ‘a reproduction’, showing that, if you could have picked up what was in his mind and put it into, from the invisible to the visible, you say, “Hey, that’s it!” See? You follow me?

Okay. Also there’s a contemplative, (You see.) which means how do you feel about it and think, now that you’ve got what you were wanting. See.

Now you know that philosophically it is true that man can never enjoy as much the delivered article as the anticipation of the delivered article. This is different.

You say, “Well, could God be happy?”

What makes you think he wouldn’t be, if he said so? Has he ever lied? That’s why I got right with the prophet when I said, “When has he ever made a mistake. When was he ever wrong?”

That saved me problems which people have right today; far smarter men, far more dedicated, far more loving, far more kind, far more everything than Lee Vayle is. I kid you not.

But they miss one thing: revelation. So, where do you go from there?

[42]  To me it was a reflection. It was a compliment to his work, that his own work so inspired him until he would become beside himself and smite it, and say, “Speak!”

Now, remember; we’re talking in terms of spiritual, God dealing with Masterpiece as this man dealt with masterpiece. Right?

Okay. Keep going. Don’t let this get out of your thinking.

[43]  I stood there and looked at the monument. I thought of the hours that that man must have put in making that. They said how many years it was.

He’d forgotten. I don’t know myself. I’ve forgotten, too. I don’t know if I ever knew it.

[43]  …it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his great art.

Now it was a reflection to him. It was a fulfillment and became a contribution to him. Right?

“God being a Savior, it was necessary to predestinate a sinner who would require salvation in order to give God a reason and a purpose of being.” Therefore, man is the ultimate that God is dealing with, not just an integral part, but the ultimate of the plan of God in giving God the satisfaction of achievement.

Man is a contribution to God. Do you follow me? Okay. Now, turn the page to Michelangelo.

From this point, Brother Branham takes two paragraphs, and he talks of God starting a masterpiece. And He begins with creation. Like he said, that “Before there was a fish that had a fin, there was water for the fish.”

Before there was, you know, a horse that would eat grass, there was grass on the land, and before there were birds with wings, there was air to fly in and so on.

And he talks of the evolution of God wherein God started from the ground up, and brought forth the highest form of evolution, which is not evolution of one species springing into another by a mutation, but evolution is simply the serried form that God put nature in, so you start at the lowest form, which does not evolve to the highest form. There is a lowest form and a highest form.

Okay, now we have to understand that now he says here then, that:

[47]  …finally there came forth upon the earth, a perfection, and that was a man. And then, He could see in that man that he looked like Him. [Well, yeah.] So now when he looked upon him, the man was a reflection, an image of what his Creator was.

All right. In other words, he’s speaking again in terms of the vision which was in his mind, which was foreknowledge, and when foreknowledge came to predestination, the predestinated object fulfilled the foreknowledge.

Hah, that’s going to be tough to swallow. Yeah, because all the time, they had it, ‘Poor God, now why did God make the devil, and why did God booboo’?

Now, if I’ve got a god that booboos, then I’m like the preacher who said… Now, the people, came to the preacher one day, the old back woodsy boy, and said, “Now, don’t say this Bible is the Word of God. Say It contains the Word of God.”

He said, “Now, hold it. Now, if it just contains the Word of God, how do I know what part is the Word and what part isn’t? Now,” he said, “It is the Word of God.”

So, I cannot accept that God could booboo. I cannot accept the fact that God can make a mistake and then repeal his mistake. I can’t accept that because if I have to accept that, then I wouldn’t know where I was going.

He might have made a mistake about a lot of other things, too, that we’re putting our trust in… e forgot to inform us, you know, where it wouldn’t work.

[47]  …He could see in that man would look like Him, so now when He looked upon him he was a reflection of what his Creator was. God had now been able to achieve the thing that He wanted: a man in His own image.

That’s good. He’s starting with Adam back here, but that’s not the same as Hebrews. Don’t ever get the idea that Adam’s identical to Jesus, because he is not. There is a difference. We’ll talk about it a little later,

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

Now, that might kind of throw you, but don’t let it bug you. That’s just a way of putting it, to lead you to a point,

[48] …And that’s how God had been—by Himself. He was… eternal. And the man now in the image of God also existed on the earth by himself [as in a human relationship form.] So He must’ve struck a little blow over His left side, (He not must’ve, He did.) and from there he took the piece that struck off of it and made him a helpmate, a wife…

That really in the Hebrew is ‘one in his own pattern’ or like unto him. So, your wife is a lot more like you men than you think. So, you might as well be nice about it.

[48]  ...then he was not by himself; he had somebody with him. And that’s His great work.

[49]  Now, first, He had a masterpiece of Himself, [and then,] He saw that that masterpiece was lonesome like He was…

Now, you see why it wasn’t right? Because God was there with His thoughts, and that’s not sufficient. If all a person could do was think, and never achieve, then that’s frustration. That’s why omniscience apart from omnipotence would be folly to even think of any other thing.

And the thing of omnipotence apart from omniscience is ridiculous. What kind of a God is it who can do everything and, then, doesn’t know what He is doing? Ha, that’s more like Lee Vayle: the bull in the china shop. But let’s not get confused this morning.

[49]  …so He divided the masterpiece by striking it on the side and brought forth a helpmate.

[50]  And now, to make the two one, He put them, like any… sculptor, to a place that is beautiful. A sculptor wouldn’t make a great masterpiece and… take it and… hide it behind a building.

[51]  So, …after He made this masterpiece, He placed it here in the earth and put it in the most beautiful place there was, in the Garden of Eden.

Now, everything He’s saying is in the form of an illustration to let you know how He’s working up to everything being back to an original, which the original was in the mind, (See.) and what He would do with what was in His mind. So, get the picture.

[51]  He placed His masterpiece, the two being one, in the Garden of Eden. That must have pleased Him when He saw this masterpiece was [so perfect, and]… so well pleased with His work. [that He rested.]

Now, watch now.

[52]  …remember, that in my opinion, the masterpiece is the stroke that marred Michelangelo’s Moses masterpiece; the masterpiece of Moses which was that monument. And it was a stroke that cut the side of His masterpiece that brought out the bride. And 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, and He said, “I will rest.”

Now, you might not understand this, and you won’t if you forgot the reading that this is based upon, which is Isaiah 53, which in the terminology of the theologian is ‘the satisfaction of Christ’ or ‘the satisfaction of God’. “When He shall see the travail of His soul, He should be satisfied.” That’s one point.

And number two, you may remember my series when I preached on whatever spoke to me inwardly, like a voice in my mind indelibly, and It says “His resurrection proves His death,” which shows you that what God brought forth from the perfection of what was set out as an image or a reflection was one hundred percent satisfactory in that it finished and did that work completely that God had in mind.

So, the masterpiece did not lay in simply bringing forth the figure. It lay in what the figure itself could do or accomplish through God and with God.

So, He takes the picture from Isaiah: strike the image, the perfect work. He takes Adam: strike that perfect work, the highest order, leading to where we know it will be striking Christ. Right? Okay.

[52]  [Now,] He said, “I… rest.”

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

[55]  Now, notice; …this masterpiece. When Satan got hold of it, the deceiver…

Now, notice how he did it. He got it through deception. How was the vessel marred? The vessel was not marred by taking the woman out of the side. No, no. Adam would never have been complete without her. The blow… stroke… ad to be done. It had to be that.

Now, what was done? Deception!

[55]  …How did he do it? Now in more detail, how he did it, but first, this masterpiece was walled about by the Word of God.

Now, remember; when you’re talking about the walling about of the masterpiece by the Word of God, Brother Branham categorically puts Eve in there, you know, on a co-equal basis, and he said there was no problem until she left the barricade of the Word.

So, therefore, she was just as strong in grace and in fortification as was Adam, and the masterpiece itself of the family was fortified by this Word. See, he tells you, which I’ve just explained from previous sermons.

[55]  …but the broken part that was broke off the original, went out beyond the wall and gave Satan the chance to mar it, (And now as you know what I believe on these things and I won’t have to say that.) But the masterpiece was broken.

And you know that, of course, right there, by the way Brother Branham said that “Eve was not part of the original. She was a byproduct of him.”

And you, of course, know we read that last week, or the week before, in 1 Corinthians 11:4, “For man indeed should not cover his head, for as much as he is in the image, he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man.” So therefore, she is in the image and glory of the man in that degree.

[56]  But the great Sculptor, when He saw the fall of his family, the masterpiece, He wasn’t willing to leave it just lie there face down in ruin. He went to work immediately to build… up again. He wasn’t willing that it should perish, lie there like that all the time, because He’s God and He will not be defeated.

So, you see, we’re right back to the original concept. God is going to bring the concept to pass by the strong right arm of God. Okay.

[57]  Now we find the antediluvian world came along and destroyed the whole thing, because the covenant that was made, was made conditionally; that “If you will not do this or… 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.

On the interview a few minutes ago, I was speaking to a person in the room that’s present now and said, “But Brother Branham, I have so many things, …I just don’t know what’s wrong a little godly woman.

[58]  I said, “But look, sister; you don’t look at yourself. It’s just what your desire is and what you try to do, and if you really love the Lord, you try to serve Him with all your heart. Then all your mistakes are hidden in the blood of the Lord Jesus. He made a way.

Now you notice in there that God looks on the heart, so He knows really what lies deep within. And that’s why Brother Branham came on the scene as a discerner, so God would show us He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, because people are going to be fooled in this day, being legalists, that they’ve got to come to a certain standard themselves.

Then it is going to be fine; we’ll get somewhere with God. That’s a lot of hogwash, because the Bible says different. The Bible said everything has slowed down now, not because of the righteous principle, but of the ungodly principle. So, if you want to get somewhere, then you better whoop it up.

You say, “Why?” Because I just told you: iniquity has got to overflow.

They sat down there in Egypt after four hundred years ran out because the cup of the Amorites wasn’t full. They said, “Now, bring them up.” At the time of Noah, the earth was held in store. He put it in a store house and the door locked.

Like Brother Branham said, “Hey, the boxcar… everything’s in there. You put the seal on It, she’s ready to go—for the brakeman to pull the cord to give the signal to the engineer.” He can’t move until the brakeman, or the conductor, rather, says, “Let’s move on now.” See?

All right. The Bride can be ready to go, but the world’s not ready for the plunge. Why? The world council of churches hasn’t finished its job yet. Why, we haven’t got our pope yet. I’ll be writing my letters next month. I’ve got nothing against a Polish pope; but he could even be a Ukrainian out of the United States.

I don’t care who he is, as long as he comes out of the United States. As long as he’s one of the boys: Revelation 13. I don’t give up on the Word, brother/sister.

To be honest, I just can’t see Revelation 13 apart from an American pope. There’s no way; not in my books. No sir. Well, Brother Branham said so. All right.

It’s not character and all these things, then. It’s God, in His time. And I’m not promoting sin. You know that. But let’s understand this: what the Scripture said. Because if you don’t know what the Scripture says, you are going to sit here confused.

And every little clue I try to give, and every key from what the prophet taught us, blending in with the Word, because it is the Word that he taught us. We know that. These things are sitting right here before us, and if we know them, happy are we. And if we do them… There are some things we can’t do, but our doing is mostly faith.

[59]  Now He begin now, taking man from His covenants and saying, “If you will, I will.” And He began with a man called Abraham, [Now, let’s watch this structure. If we can watch it.] and gave to Abraham a covenant, unconditionally. Every time He’d start a masterpiece, Satan would get to it because the Word… [What Word? Man couldn’t fill it.] But when He started with Abraham, He said, “I’ve already done it.”

So, what did Abraham have to do? Believe it! Now, Brother Branham says in “The Rapture” tape three times, “Thus saith, it has been spoken, thus it will be.” How many believe it? Well, they don’t believe it. You can do what you want, but I’m still going to stand here. I’ve got a right to say these things, even if I’m wrong.

Moses was defied by the clergy and the Full Gospel Businessmen, and you’ve got a people right now that have no more business being in the pulpit than I have trying to fly a jet. And you watch where they’ll take people.

They say, “Well, Lee, where are you trying to take them?”

Nowhere; nowhere. I just stand here and preach. That’s all. Anybody can do what they want. I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got no proof, but I believe. Look.

Brother/Sister, you’ve got to be a believer. You’ve got to believe you’ve turned the corner. We’re not sitting on a fence. I don’t know. Listen; now I want to get this across.

You say, “What if?”

Well, ‘what if’? I’m going to tell you something: everybody that dies wants some kind of an absolute, and the so-called Christian today has an absolute. What if it’s wrong? Well, what if we’re wrong? We still have an Absolute. What if we’re right? Nobody proves anything. Come on, Jesus Christ didn’t prove anything.

Remember, Woody Allen said, now, I never saw a Woody Allen picture in my life. I guess they were tremendously crazy. I love crazy things. I’m a little bit funny myself. Some people go to the fat farm. I go to the funny farm. He said, “Jesus was an under-achiever.”

He hit it right on the head, so-called, in the eyes of the world. Brother Branham said in Isaiah 53, he said, “You won’t even look at him.” What’s to look at? Underachiever. But he achieved. See? Remember these things as we go into this message. All this is terribly, terribly true. See?

[60]  [Now] Then came Abraham. From Abraham came the patriarchs.

Now, what is God doing? He’s rebuilding this masterpiece that had fallen. Now, Brother Branham takes you to the patriarchs, starting with Abraham in the rebuilding, which is going to bring the statue back to perfection, amongst a perfection. Right? Okay.

[61] Now, watch: every masterpiece is put on a foundation by the sculptor. Michelangelo’s monument of Moses is on a three or four-foot piece of marble. It’s got a foundation. [Now, what is the original foundation? Eden.]

So, God, in preparing this masterpiece, put it on a foundation of the patriarchs. [Now, He’s got a foundation, because it had an original foundation: Eden. So now He’s going to a foundation, and this time He calls it patriarchs.] And the patriarch foundation, first, was Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph, the four corners.

Now, just a minute, we’re going to show you something. You keep that word ‘four corners’ in mind, but just you wait a minute. And now Abraham… now not Adam and Noah now. Now, why Abraham? “In thee shall all peoples of the earth be blessed.”

Didn’t say that about Adam. Didn’t say that about Noah. Didn’t say that about Enoch. Didn’t say it about anybody but Abraham. Right? Okay.

[62]  …Abraham was the foundation of faith. Let’s say it had… [Now, watch.] Let’s say it had four foundations.

Now previously, I said four corners. Right? Okay. Now we’ve got four foundations which also have four corners. So therefore, we will view the base of the statue and will name a name for every foundation and every corner. All right. That’s what he says. Where it takes us, we’ve just got to go along.

[62]  The foundation of faith was Abraham. The foundation of love was Isaac. The foundation of grace was Jacob, God’s grace was in Jacob; anyone knows that.] But in Joseph was perfection, there is where He could set the monument; upon not the first foundation, the second foundation…

Now, first was faith; second was love; third was grace, but on the fourth foundation which was perfection… See? All right. Now, not just justification, not just sanctification, not just the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost Himself.

Now, this is very hard for people to understand outside of a little group like us. They cannot reconcile the baptism with the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost Himself.

If I were to say to any one of those people, “When you got full of the Holy Ghost, did you get all of God?”

They say, “No, I didn’t get all of God.”

“Then, what did you get?”

The next question: Could fifty trillion people to the fifty trillionth degree…? Ain’t no such number. I think your computer would bust apart at the seams on that one… maybe not. I doubt if there is a computer that would handle it because there is no need to handle it.

All of them full of the Holy Ghost would never constitute God, nor would it drain God, any more than you can deny the creativity and the inherent quality and list extremes within His creativity, so that this God for four thousand years has made snowflakes, which is billions of tons and trillions and trillions of snowflakes, and not one snowflake is like the other snowflake.

Now, try to figure that out… and that doesn’t constitute God.

You say, “Hey, I think I am going to like the Millennium.”

Thank you. That’s what I’m preaching for. I am going to get relaxed around the Lord. I’ve always wanted a good time. I see I’m going to have a good time.

This is what Adam threw overboard. Today every six months or so, knowledge is doubling itself, through books and computers, so that one man may take a staff of students for a thousand years and study the structure of a butterfly wing. Adam was privy to all that.

You say, “What for?”

Well, wouldn’t it be nice to know?

“Well,” you say, “I got bigger things.”

I don’t. I’m just an old twiddler down here. Just love to be with Adam and name the animals. Oh, goodness me, I don’t know if I can name a hundred animals. He named them all.

[63]  [Okay. Now, ] Abraham portrayed Christ, of course; so did Isaac, in love. Abraham did, in faith. Isaac did, in love. Jacob did, by His grace, because Jacob means ‘deceiver’.

But remember; he didn’t keep that name. Hey, that’s what they called him anyway. Even God didn’t call him that. People called him that. It was evident he was pretty chummy with the wrong forces at times. But God’s grace was with him. But when it came to Joseph, there is nothing against him, just one little scratch, for the foundation, also must be a masterpiece.

In other words, it’s got to be marred, so that something will come forth. Now we’ll talk about that, the rock, and what have you. Don’t worry.

[63]  When he told his father, the prophet, [That’s Jacob.] “Say to Pharaoh that your people are cattle raisers not shepherds…

Now, in the Bible, you’re going to find the word ‘shepherd’ is sort of interchangeable. But it really means ‘one that takes care of animals’. It’s animal husbandry.

“We’re in animal husbandry. Don’t tip your hand that we’re in animal husbandry.”

Oh, great! Right away old Pharaoh thought, “Well, that’s cattle,” because all he could do was think of cattle. Just like you. If you were hungering for an ice cream cone and somebody says, “I’ve brought dessert,” and you say, “Oh! Brought ice cream!”

Well, you know, you didn’t bring ice cream; you brought a pie. But Pharaoh just sort of got fooled. He just, you know, went around the corner on it. Ah, it was a mild deception, but it was a deception no matter what you call it. Okay.

[65]  Now the foundations were laid through faith, love, grace and to perfection through the patriarchs. [Now, you watch that:] …foundations laid through faith, love, grace, perfection, through the patriarchs.

[66] Now the body work [That’s the chiseling out, you know, and the movements that you’re going to use to bring this forth.] that come on to this great masterpiece, was the prophets, which was the Word. I hope you can read it. See? The prophets, not the laws! The prophets, for the prophets were the vindicated Word which makes the body; not the patriarchs—the prophets. They were the Word.

Now, watch what he is saying in here. He’s letting you know that when you are dealing with that which is in the statue, you’ve got to go beyond the foundation.

You’ve got to come to what is going to formulate to form the image, the statue, out of the block of the previously foreknown, preordained, predestinated lump of granite that’s lying there.

Just like we are all lying in the ground in the form of chemicals. See? Don’t worry. There is a pre-existence we’re aware of.

Okay, now. He says it was the prophets who have the Word, not the patriarchs. Now watch, under patriarchs there is faith, love, grace, and perfection. That won’t do it. It won’t do it, because you are looking at consummate human beings, who were able to produce at that particular time, a certain grace, but there isn’t any life in that.

The life is in the Word. See? It’s this, do. No, it’s this, believe. And the Word goes to work. Now, watch. We’re going to go into this thing. We’ll understand it more.

[67]  Finally, as He started way back in the days of Moses, and came down through the prophets, to each one. And finally, building up the body, coming closer [and closer] all the time. And the greatest of them all was John. The Bible said so.

Jesus said it. “There’s not a man ever born of woman as great as John the Baptist,”… [And he was a prophet.] for he was the one who could introduce the Word. Then come, finally, the great Head, the Head of it all. The rest of the body just spoke It.

Now you’ll notice in here, that in the building of the monument from the patriarchs, where God started with Adam and Eve, which were a couple, He now goes to Abraham and says, in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; and He began taking a people of the flesh peculiar to his foreordination and predestination, and He was dealing with them.

Now, how was He going to build out of them this which makes the marble block? How is He going to form the structure? He’s going to do it by the Word. And these don’t have the Word. It takes a prophet to have the Word.

Now, let’s go to the Book of Ephesians and begin to see this. You’ll understand why we take the stand that we do, with the prophet. If I’m right or wrong, I’m sorry. I know what he’s talking about. I could still be wrong.

Now, notice in Ephesians 4:7.

Now, he says there is a spirit there. That’s got to be the baptism with the Holy Ghost. There is one Lord. That’s got to be the Lord Jesus Christ that we are waiting to meet in the air.

There is one faith and one baptism, one God and Father of all. That’s the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is our Lord.

Now, notice. God’s doing it all.

Ephesians 4:7-10

Ephesians 4:11-14

It tells you right there that this has to come to the place of an unmitigated perfection through a Word, and the Word of the Lord comes through the prophet, and to nobody else.

Now, what will this Word do?

Now he is telling you right there, as there was a race built upon a foundation, a people, and the headship, Jesus Christ came to them, so we also have a foundation.

And from that foundation, which Brother Branham said were those first few years after Christ’s death and resurrection, when… as the door was not fully open to the Gentiles, before Paul went; that laid a foundation. Now, what will put the image on the foundation? The Word of God. See, now, that comes by the prophets.

[68] Now the foundation was laid by the patriarchs; but the body was built by the Lord, which was the prophets; [Do you follow what I am saying, now? That’s exactly true.] and here comes the head of it all. Jesus came on the scene. [Starting with Moses.]

There, when this Head piece was put upon it, we find in him the handiwork of God. [There’s your pyramid… old Testament pyramid.] We find in Him the perfect reflection of the Word, for He was the Word, the fullness of the Word.

Now again, God has the perfect Masterpiece again, as Isaiah said, “Behold my servant, my masterpiece, that I have portrayed through all the ages, of this perfect One coming. And here He stands right before me, perfect!” There, in His Own image, reflecting God! for it is said in John 14, “When you see me, you see the Father.”

Also in Hebrews 1, God was in the prophets. Let’s just take a look at that.

That tells you how that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself and God in a human form dying, though God can’t die! You can’t kill spirit. What if God being God, could take a part of His Spirit and make flesh out of it and, then, totally indwell it? I’ll show you that on the blackboard, if we get time later on. Okay.

[69] And, then, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” …the Word was hewed out and reflected what the Word was at the beginning, He the Word, reflected in the masterpiece in His Own likeness, God back again in His Own likeness, the Word form being reflected in the image of a man, the Masterpiece.

All right. What’s he saying? Okay, as God had His Own form of evolution starting with the low form, (He brought man to the high form.) so God now deals with prophets, and God is bringing Himself up to the place where God Himself, in His total Being can be in a man, not just a prophet. See?

Right to the Headship, so that God seeing minor reflections in prophets, now sees the complete reflection in Jesus Christ, the man… God in human form, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Okay.

[70] All the prophets had flaws. All the ones were a portion. But here, at last, coming up through that, finally comes the masterpiece, the perfect one, no fault in him at all, so perfect, reflected of the Builder Himself. His Own image was reflected in His work. [We read that in Hebrews.]

“God and Christ were One,” insomuch until He put His Own Spirit into Him, and then even the image and the Builder became One. [That’s right. “Lo a body hast Thou prepared me.”] God and His sculpture at work, His masterpiece! Where Moses was in the work of Michelangelo, a sculpture work that was dead, because it’s made out of stone. But here, the Master Builder, when He got His handiwork perfected, He stepped into It.

Now, of course, this fellow Michelangelo was a Roman Catholic, and they understood idolatry. So, when he made the statue of Moses, he figured Moses should be in there.

It looked so perfect, and Brother Branham said that Michelangelo had a vision of Moses, and he knew what he should look like, and here thing looks like so life-like, and it wasn’t speaking, he said, ‘Speak!’

Why, in other words, it really in the sense of the word, his own, what do you call… enthusiasm, a stimulation over what stood there, so perfect, enthralled him, that this has got to be it. Moses would just step into it. Well, Moses didn’t. So, he went whop! And neither did God just step into the human race.

He stepped by a man, Christ Jesus, who had to die, because man could never attain to the stature. There’s no way; he never will. He’s got to have a substitute. “He stepped into it.”

[71]  So God perfected a redeemer of men, so perfect, so godly; yet there was no beauty that we should desire Him. [That’s Isaiah 53.] when this virgin-born Son of the living God become so perfect and humble and in the image of God, until the great Master Who had brought His Life up through the prophets…

That’s why they are the living Word of God, Brother Branham said. And He was the fulfilling of all the prophets. He was so perfect, until God, seeing this,… smote him and… cried out, “Speak!” as Michelangelo said. “Speak!”

Now, that’s what God did. He smote Him.

[72]  You say, “Is that so?” Mark 9:7, we find, upon the Mount of Transfiguration, when there stood Moses, the law, there stood Elijah, the prophets. All the way back from the patriarchs, the fathers, the law, the prophets, all of them standing there, we hear a Voice coming down from the cloud, and said, “This is my beloved Son; hear you Him!”

This is the one that you are supposed to hear. Now you’ve got Him; listen. Now, Israel wouldn’t listen, and you’ve got the same thing today. Elijah’s going to come. They say, “Well, he comes with the Jews. We know he’s got to come to the Gentiles.” Who said that nonsense?

Now…

[72]  [And if we are going to hear…] And if they’re going to hear, He’s got to speak. It was just a few days before He was smitten. “This is my Son, whom I am pleased to dwell in. I have molded him. I’ve been four thousand years bringing him to this. And now, he is so perfect, I’ve got to smite him so He can speak. Hear ye him! He is the perfect one. He is the masterpiece.”

Well, why did He have to smite him? In order to have a blood atonement. Sure, He had to do that, because how could he be the speaker for us if he himself was not marred? And of course, he took upon himself our sins.

[73]  Remember, He was portrayed in all times, back through the Old Testament. We find Him being the Rock in the wilderness, that was smitten… in the wilderness.

Now, watch. You’ll notice that though there are times that the word ‘rock’ is not called smitten, because it was there before it was smitten, then became the smitten rock. You’ll find all through the Scripture they speak of the lamb, and that’s smiting. So, never let your mind ever get away from ‘smitten rock’. Now, watch:

[73] “I am the rock that was in the wilderness.” But that was a stone; it had not come to perfection yet. But in type form it followed… [Now, listen to this little statement.]… but in type form It followed the church, to draw from It that that He could draw, and give Life to those whom He could give life to.

Let’s find out if the Bible says so. Okay. 1 Corinthians 10. Now, this man speaks in riddles, so to speak.

All right, now, just a minute. You go back in the Old Testament, and the Bible says that Israel was led by the Pillar of Fire in the night and the cloud by day. Now It says it followed them. You know why? They turned Him down as a leader. They wouldn’t listen, so He followed them.

You know why He followed them? To get the true out of the mixed multitude; to get the wise virgins away from the foolish virgins, and let the rest die, although the foolish virgins died, too.

Through the church ages, we notice that when the Headship came, He was denied even… now come on… as the Holy Ghost Himself. They turned Him down. So, what did He do? He followed the church to get out a Bride until He could return to Headship.

Now He’s returned to Headship. Jesus is not following any more; He is leading. But who wants to listen? They’re all back in Pentecost. I guess… What they do is their business; I’m just explaining some things to you. Seven Church Ages. That’s right.

Brother Branham said “He’s back to Headship.” Then, why’d they recognize It? Back to being the Word. See? The full Word.

Now:

[73]  He had not been made a man yet, just typed as a rock.

[74]  Moses saw Him standing on this Rock. He saw Him pass by, and he said, “It’s the back part of a man.” You see, the Sculptor was presenting to Moses, which was a potential image of Christ, what the great masterpiece would look like when It was perfected. [That’s concluded and all finished off.] He projected to Moses the vision of what the masterpiece was going to look like. It was the back part of a man, when It passed by in the wilderness.

In other words, he caught a glimpse of the totality. Do you follow what I said?

All right. Unrecognized that they’re now in Headship… unrecognized. As Brother Branham said to Doctor Hegre, “You Lutherans potentially had the Holy Ghost. You Methodists potentially had the Holy Ghost. You Pentecostals potentially had the Holy Ghost.” Then, who’s got it?

Justification gives way to sanctification. Sanctification gives way to baptism. Baptism gives way to the Baptizer Himself. Now, what’s he talking about? Not the baptism. He’s talking about the One following. See? He put His sheep before Him, ready to come on the scene and take over.

Now the potential was there in the Old Testament and turned into that which was no longer potential, but the real. So, for Seven Church Ages we’ve had the potential, now we’ve got the ‘Potentiator’. I don’t know if that is a good word or not, but it’s good enough for me. We’ve got Him. See?

[75]  [Now,] Remember, Angelo could only cry out and smite the image, and say, “Speak!” But how different it was to God, the great Sculptor. When He made a man in His Own image, so perfect that It reflected Him, God spoke through the image of the man, showing what He would do.

Like I said a while ago, Angelo, being a Roman Catholic, he thought, “Well, that’s good enough for Moses to get into. Let’s have some action.” See? He’s wrong. See? Now:

[75]  He spoke to the prophets [That’s actually in the prophets.] as they were in their potential image, as He was bringing up to the Head. But when He come to the Head, He was all the image of God;

Now, look. God pouring in through the prophets until finally God poured it all into Christ. Seven church ages God pouring in, until finally now, another prophet like John on the scene, and said, “This is the one.”

And they said, “Get outta here.”

See, they can’t understand Brother Branham’s teaching.

You know how you understand it? Let your own thinking go! Now, the only way you can compare a whippet dog to a car is by saying, “Well, they both get places.” Now, a dog doesn’t have wheels. How do you describe wheels? And a car doesn’t have legs. How are you going to describe them?

See, there comes a time when you have got to realize that your thinking is manure. That’s right. I don’t care how good it is. I don’t care how many books you’ve read or how smart you are. And I’m going to tell you something: if you don’t get rid of your manure head, you’ll never accept vindication. You can’t!

But bless God, you’re just as good as anybody.

Now, don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, because I know what I’m talking about. To say that they accept the prophet and, then, go on their own thinking, brother, is a lie. To see vindication and turn it down is to hate God. I’ve got Scripture.

I don’t care what anybody does. I don’t give a rip. I’ve got just one thing to think of, and that’s myself, and a second I’ve got to think about, you, on this particular instance, and any instance, that no matter what I do will affect you, even is a legitimate mistake, in the sense that I don’t know better than to do it, you’re affected.

And if I do something that I shouldn’t do, knowing I do, you will be affected, too. But this is the greatest affecting right here, which is His Word, and personally I am not here to affect any of you.

But I am here to lay this on the counter the way I see It, and you may do what you want with It, because you see, you and I are out of control. It is going to take the control of God to do something about this Word. See?

[75]  [Now] when it comes to the Head, He was all the image of God; He was portraying Himself. Smitten for us, [Through seven church ages coming up, the original seed, and we with Him.]

Now we’ve seen the original seed, because the seed that fell on the ground and rose, was the same Holy Spirit that through the church, and with the church, fell on the ground and is now coming back, and we see Him in Headship by proving that He is here in the same Headship He was here when He was in flesh!

So therefore, the flesh is calling to the flesh. There’s got to be a resurrection! There’s going to be.

[75]  Now he was smitten for us, now he is the Masterpiece to us, the gift of God, Jesus Christ, eternal life. I hope we never forget that.

[76]  And as we see the days darken, …we see the shadows falling!… I predict that in just a few more turns of the sun, this nation will be gone. …you know, yesterday, the fourth of July. [I know in 1964, I guess, he preached this.] Thomas Jefferson had signed the Declaration of Independence, he and the other board that was with him, and the Liberty Bell rang, …declared an independent nation … According to history, there has never been a democracy of any kind last over two hundred years. And that was 1776, July the fourth. …we’re just eleven years left.

So, that’s about 1965; eleven to go. I thought this was preached in ’64; it could have been ’65. Let’s check it out. Nineteen-hundred and sixty-four, July the fifth. No! Can’t! Eleven years. And, if it does, it’ll break all history.

[77]  And we see the condition of the time. We see the condition of the people …the condition of the politics. …the condition of the world. It can’t stand!

Now, what’s He do? Just what I told you a while ago. You see the world out there? And Headship return? The world hasn’t completed its turn. Every time the world turns, there is another drop of iniquity in the cup. The old serpent head; he’s wrapped around the world. All right?

[77]  It must go down! It can’t stand. Like the Titanic, it’s got to go down. History shows one nation gives room to another, …it falls. [And he said Russia has come to the place where it knows it’s place. It will take over.] “…we receive a kingdom, that… can’t be moved,” through the perfect image of God, the masterpiece.

[78]  God, when He looked upon him, …was so inspired! …to see him the way he looked, …to see the form of him. He was so inspired that it would be the perfect masterpiece of a Redeemer, Jesus the Redeemer. So, God, in order to be smitten, Himself; because, to pay His Own penalty, God and Christ become One, so that God could be smitten in the image, he could be scarred. …That’s why Isaiah said, “We did esteem Him smitten and afflicted of God. Yet He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement of our peace… upon Him; …with His stripes we are healed.”

Now He became His Own lamb. Now, we’ve been into this before.

I always like to read it to you because you get facts and figures that are reputable, and I read here, that concerning the individual, it tells you that children are born through the sperm and the ovum, and there’s are eight million ways that the twenty-three chromosomes of a mother and twenty-three of a father can combine.

The odds against any two children having the same complement of chromosomes are about seventy trillion to one, as each chromosome may have one thousand two hundred fifty genes. The odds against two individuals having reached… It’s so high with nine thousand, thirty-one zeros behind the one.

Now, I showed you what that really means. You start out here, and get our little black board here if we can do that. Hmm, here we are, little eraser. (Brother Vayle discusses the marker and eraser situation.) Let’s just start up here with a circle representing God, making a circle, and He being Spirit and Creator.

Now, let’s just begin to take a look at this thing in the beginning, that God… and this is beyond the human mind. Look, there is no way you can figure it. People think that He fills all space and all time.

Well, there wasn’t any time and space to fill! So now, God is going to have to do something. So, they say ‘creation is where God takes by His Word, and from nothing, He forms something.’

Now, just a minute. I don’t know if I agree with that for this reason: Where did nothing come from? So, I don’t know. But I can agree with this: that God would take of Himself and put something on it, you know?

Some little thing come out of God. Not all of God now. But then, God, when He wanted to, He could circle Himself with what this little part that was God.

Now, let’s just talk about a sperm. That’s a little sperm, and that would be millions of them wouldn’t it? Millions, if not multiple millions. And we’ll put the egg around like that. Okay. Now, here is God with infinite attributes; make that [inaudible] attributes. Now, in here we’ve got twelve hundred and fifty genes, and we’ve got twelve hundred fifty here; we’ve got twenty-three and twenty-three.

Now, the point is this: when you realize what lies in here that could combine, and before it really duplicated itself, it would have to be one followed by nine thousand and thirty yeah, I got the exact number of zeros. It would be that complex, that it couldn’t do that unless it came to nine thousand.

Now, let’s just write a few zeros for fun: one, two, three, [Brother Vayle continues counting to one hundred.] Now, that’s only one hundred right there. All right. Anyone want to try for nine thousand thirty-one? You can if you want to, I don’t want to stick around. You better believe it.

Now, here is what I’m drawing, though. This, what God can do, in taking a part of Himself, has every single attribute of God in the minuscule, or whatever God wants to put into it.

So therefore, when He began doing this, He was able to launch upon the act of entire creation of the world, and this here that we call the Logos, or the anointing, can be a pillar of fire; can be an angel; can be any number of things.

He reduced this to this; therefore, it literally comprised God in human form, whether you want to take It or not. You do what you want with It.

Now, It limited itself to the female womb; so therefore, It provided a body. Now then, this body became the house of Almighty God; so therefore, Jesus was literally the blood of God. He was the Word of God made flesh. He was the blood of God.

He was God in human form, and it was this form, which was a step down, like, call it the rib and side of God… wherever you want to put it… if you want to work it. There’s different things you could use.

This, then, in the form of a man, God was able to die. Now, God can’t die. He can’t be born. No way. But you can see how He can do it, because it is the amalgam, the amalgamation, the union, of the human element with God.

So therefore, now, God could indwell him, which He did at the river Jordan, and at Gethsemane He left. That is why Jesus said, ‘Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’

And this is the same way that God could die, could shed His Blood, and could be raised again, by God Himself. Now, it’s what you might call ‘an identification’. You could call it ‘a substitution’.

Call it what you want, but it’s the same picture, how that, when God raised him, this same one, God could be, then, His Own Intercessor, His Own Mediator, His Own High Priest, His Own everything, because He did it in this form.

Now, that’s the best I can tell you how the thing is done, and that’s my understanding. When I get more understanding, I will be glad to tell you, such if the understanding comes. But I can see it this far and this clear.

That’s why this would be the Masterpiece because this Masterpiece, being God Himself and all His perfections and attributes in what you might call a human or minuscule form.

I don’t care how you want to call it, because it’s very, very small… very much brought down like God born in a manger, God born over a manure pile, God crying, God growing up, all these things… because it really was. It really was, in that particular area, God was able to do it.

We let our thinking go. We can begin to understand, then, what the Scripture’s about: how there are not two gods and how that Jesus is like God, identical, except he had a beginning; how these things all work out to where we see Him, the One that’s here now, Elohim, the same One that indwelt him, the same One that takes him, takes us to him; the same One that reincarnated Himself when we crown him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And Brother Branham said, “That will be the Son of God. That will be the Son of David.” He said, “That will be the Holy Ghost. That will be the Father, the Son, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon,” the whole thing.

[79]  [So, when God saw that… Now, listen.] The perfect Image of the God-man! God, en morphe, [God in a veil.] had changed from supernatural to the vision.

Now, watch what He is saying. God Himself… pure, unmitigated God, (right up here where there is nothing) now begins to formulate the vision, of which there has to be taken from Himself something… begins to move. See?

Now, He goes, then, from God to vision, which is sitting there omnipotent and omniscient. He doesn’t do one thing until the omniscience runs its course. Do you follow me? Then, when the omniscience runs its course, omnipotence can set in.

It is just like you have everything here set in a computer. The data that is put in a computer is omniscience. The machinery that causes the data to go to the presses and to the lathes and what else, causes the robots to go out on the job, that would be the omnipotence, see?

So, away it goes, then, first of all from intrinsically God to the omniscience, the vision. And the vision was projected into the image. So now, you’ve got to come down to a finalization, and there He stood. You understand?

You’ve got to have the same thing at the end time. That’s what I believe Brother Branham is teaching. Okay.

[79]  …and the vision was projected to the Image. And the Image was smitten so that the supernatural could taste the feeling of death, God’s perfect Masterpiece.

And it is a perfect masterpiece in the plan, and it is a perfect masterpiece in the plan standing there for smiting; that’s the image. And the smiting is the masterpiece of the whole thing, because that’s what’s going to do it. See?

Now… and people don’t like that. There’s no way you are going to get people to believe that, and those that say they do believe it, they really don’t believe it.

They’ve been educated. On the other hand, we do believe it. You think that I could teach as much as I teach without believing It? I would be teaching something else, because, you see, I am not just groping.

I am groping, but I’m not ‘just’ groping. I am feeling my way the best I can, and I have been encouraged since Brother Branham felt his way, too, on some things. I can see that.

[79]  [Now,] he could not do it in Moses. He could not do it in the prophets. Isaiah, …was sawed with saws till he was sawed in pieces. He could not do it in the prophets; they were stoned. He could not do it, because He couldn’t feel it;…

All right. How do you get warm? By painting a fire? You don’t, do it. You’ve got to have a real fire. Now, what God is doing, strange to say, God has limited Himself. Well, all right. Let’s just take a look again.

He says here, now, in this particular case, that He was tempted in all points like as we. Now, when did that happen? When this comes down here to here. Now, God can literally feel in a human body, and be qualified as a high priest, because He feels.

Now you’ve got an idea this morning that God doesn’t feel the way that you feel. Oh, we put Him in some holy temple up there and say, “Well now, we divorced Him from man. He came down, was man; He [phtt,] has literally gone back; that’s fine.”

You can’t do it. Jesus is still essentially this [points to drawing on board]. He hasn’t changed as a man, except to step up. But he’s been through every single thing that you and I have gone through. And that’s the trouble with us. We don’t rely on him knowing that he was tempted and fought a fight for us.

We just say, “Well, that’s wonderful. He was there, and he was tempted, but he didn’t fall, and that’s great, and that’s why he was the perfect sacrifice. Isn’t that nice?

And now I stand back and [‘phtt]! I am tempted; [phtt!] I do fall. It is a good thing I got him to say, ‘Lord, just take care of this little boy down here.’”

Now, that is not true Scripture, brother/sister. That is not true Scripture.

There is a strength that God gives as we understand these things that we haven’t understood and begin to receive them in faith where there is help. You know, we look at the world today and the Bible warns us what’s in the world. That doesn’t mean we’ve got a right to be with them.

We are to sanctify ourselves unto the Lord Jesus Christ; because He was tested, He was tempted, and now by the baptism with the Holy Ghost, the High Priest ministry of Jesus the Christ, we can go like the Hebrew children… if we only want to… through the fiery furnaces.

I hope we’re getting ready for the Squeeze, because I have no indication from any word the prophet said, or anything that I can find myself, that there would not be a Squeeze come down. There’s just got to be things happen yet that the prophet said would happen. And they won’t happen until that cup of iniquity overflows more and more.

And remember; iniquity is in the spiritual realm of the religious that Mr. Cain’s works were unrighteous. They were unholy, and they went right to the Bible and said, “Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. It’s in the Bible, you know.

Aw, isn’t it beautiful? Look at that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… It’s in the Bible, too, you know?” God hated it.

I saw the 700 Club. When I go to a motel, I turn the TV on the odd time. They get worse and worse. Phfft! Well, that makes me more and more disgusted. But I did watch the 700 Club, and I don’t say I got more disgusted. I got interested, because now they’ve got a great big newscaster, (names a news program) and they’re for Mr. Reagan. I’m for Mr. Reagan, too, but now that they’re for him, I won’t bother voting and let them have all the fun.

And they’re going to sweep the election, Mr. Reagan. And they were telling us things, you know… And I read an article in the newspaper today, they were boosting this guy from down there in Nicaragua, telling how that Sandinista is so horrible, and I’m getting an article that Sandinista is not so horrible. And I see pictures from the 700 Club and all the story, how the Catholic priests are being persecuted.

Now, I understand the Catholic priests are against the pope for having intervened and stuck his popish nose in down there and condemned the Sandinista. So, who knows what anymore?

We know Jesus. Nobody else does. I don’t know. Maybe they think they know; maybe we think we know. But I tell you, if we’re right, we’re the only ones. Not trying to be different, brother/sister. The prophet said, “not trying to be different,” just laying it on the line. See?

Now, these darkening days are coming, and there it is. Now, I read down here, didn’t I?

[79]  He could not do it in the prophets, who were stoned. [He couldn’t do it in Isaiah,]… He could not do it, because He couldn’t feel it; there was just a portion of Him. But in this perfect masterpiece, He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

He could not only project Moses; He could project His entire Being into this Person, and taste death for the whole human race. God’s perfect Masterpiece! God, so inspired by seeing it, He became the Redeemer of all ages; to speak for those in the backgrounds, who had been before, and now are.

Now, he’s telling you now that the image was smitten because it was perfect: fulfilled all the requirements; his resurrection proved his death; the whole thing. Now, He is able to speak.

And remember; at the end time He speaks again. People don’t believe that. They don’t believe that for nothing. You know why? You know why they don’t want prophets? They want to be their own prophets.

You know, when we first got married, I didn’t want my wife cooking to… Well, I wanted her to cook a little bit, because I didn’t want her doing it all. But I didn’t want her sticking her nose in what I was doing, and I still don’t.

Except I ask her to help the odd time. If I’m making some hodge podge kind of conglomeration. That’s what it is usually.

I don’t want her butting her nose in, you know, in my bucket of stew. And neither does the church want its nose, anybody’s nose, butting in. They’re happy with your pork barrel. They’re happy. They’re happy with what they’ve got.

They don’t want a prophet. They certainly don’t want a prophet, though they’ll scream for one until they get one, you know.

[80]  All the promises were met in him. He was the perfection of perfections. All types were fulfilled in Him: Our Kinsman Redeemer in Ruth and Boaz; our Law-giver, from Mount Sinai; our Prophet, from the wilderness, and He came from the mountain, as He came from the wilderness; as He came from eternity and became man, the perfect image!

Now, what was it? It was Elohim. And the body was one of the stop off places. Now He’s back to a Pillar of Fire. Then He’s going to go back to the body. Then He’s going to come to Israel in a symbol. Then He’ll go back again to the body. We’ll come down to the Millennium.

What’ll all happen? I don’t know! Don’t ask me. But I’ll tell you one thing I do know: after the White Throne’s over and New Jerusalem’s established, they’ll separate again.

The Lamb will be on the Throne, the Pillar of Fire above the Throne. Brother Branham said so. And they’re one. Tremendous, what’s coming. Elohim. You see?

Now, not a body. Body never was eternal. No sir. Inside was eternal. Now:

[81]  God, down through the ages, hewing away by the patriarchs, made His platform, and brought them up from the different things that He’d laid this foundation upon. Upon this He began to build His Word, the prophets, then, finally, come to the perfect Prophet, the perfect Foundation, the perfect vision that God had.

Now, notice what came. Starting with Abraham, built up a secular (now I used the word, advisedly, ‘secular’, meaning more or less ‘a segregated people’,) I should call it a segregated people, Israel. In thee shall all nations… He’s building a people now that the prophets could come to.

The prophets all came to them. The Word all came to them. Came right to the one, born after the flesh; the flesh turned Him down, went to the Gentiles in the Holy Spirit. Right? Okay.

[82]  Now, in order for this to speak, He is the Word. And for the Word to speak, He must come into the image. And then the image to speak, it’s got to be smitten. He’s come to the Image, and then in order to speak, the perfect Redeemer. All… types of the Old Testament were met in Him. [And then, He is able to speak.]

Now, let’s watch this. Coming up by the prophets, they were demi-gods, lesser gods, God to the people, coming up now to a God Himself, in human flesh. And He is what? The Head. Where does the Voice come from? From the Head.

So therefore, He, as Head of the church, could not be Head until He died for the church, to have a church that He could speak for.

So therefore, having spoken in the prophets, and standing here, He dies. He brings them out. Now, having stood here and having died, He’s ready so we’ll come out. He’s that link between the two: old and new, the centrality of Christ, our Lord.

Now, He is the head of the Bride because that’s where the Word comes from. Now He’s back to Headship. They didn’t want Him; they don’t want Him now.

[83]  I said the other day, Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New.

That’s exactly true. Not in the flesh. No. No, He’d just be a prophet if that’s the case. It’s the Person, Himself.

[84]  Like many of you, men and women of my age, we used to have, around the country, …Chinese laundries.

Then he tells how they’d rip the piece of paper and had to match it back exactly. And as he’s telling that Christ had to match perfectly. He had to fit perfectly with that Word so that there wasn’t any way that He could not be that Word, and He could not be that Redeemer. He came to redeem us, like Brother Branham called us dirty clothes.

[85]  And when God, by the prophets, and under the law, condemned us to sin; and the law has no grace, it’s only tells you you are a sinner. But when Jesus came on the scene, He was the fulfillment. He was the fulfillment of everything God had promised.

Now, watch that. Jesus did not fulfill the law by living the law. He fulfilled the law by dying and making a Blood sacrifice; and therein, the promise was fulfilled. Because always before, it was you do this and I’ll do that; you do this. And now God says, “I’m going to do it, and I’m going to pay the price for it.”

[85]  [Now,] …he was the fulfillment of everything God had promised. He was the perfect, identical image of the promise.

Now, “He was the perfect, identical image,” the promised Son, the bruiser of the head, you remember that? All right. Now, He is the promise, therefore, as Brother Branham said, and in Him is everything, which is the Millennium. In Him, he specifically stated, is the Millennium.

Now, we are looking for the Millennium. And if He is here, then what is the purpose He is here for? Then, if we know the purpose He is here for, in Him to be manifested at this time is what He is here for as a promise contingent to it, or the promise fulfilled.

All right, what’s He supposed to do? Bring the dead out of the ground, take us to the Wedding Supper, back to the Millennium. Then, in Him is what? In Him is the Rapture. In Him is the Resurrection. In Him is the Wedding Supper. In Him is the Millennium, the whole thing. He’s right here for it.

Now that wasn’t before. That was not before. It was only potentially before, because Paul said, “That I might know Him in the power of His resurrection.” And Paul did not know Him in that power. It was potential. See? William Branham saw a potential, although the great Potentate was here.

Okay, that’s as far as we’re going to go. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New, and I’ll see if I can catch my thoughts up here in this particular order, right at the end of the page, page 18, that all the promises… He was the potential of the old.

He came, and He is the potential of what is now, the Promiser and the promise fulfilled in this hour. And we’ll go on to that next Sunday. There’ll be no service Wednesday because Communion is Saturday night.

Right? Foot-washing. Takes care of that. Gives me a little bit of a break, because I have to get a message ready special for Saturday night. I believe I’ll be doing that.

So, all right. That takes care of this week. No service Wednesday. Seven o’clock Saturday; Sunday morning again early, we’ll get up at 10 o’clock no doubt, because folk will be coming in.

Let’s rise at this time.

Heavenly Father, again we praise and thank You for the great messenger prophet that you sent in this hour to reveal these things to us, to teach us things, Lord, to get us away from our own thinking, and to begin to apply the thinking of revelation to the Word in order that the Word and the revelation may be one to us, although it was always one, but it wasn’t one to us.

But being one to us, and we being one with it, come to that unity which we so hunger for… a unity, Lord, dynamized not just mechanics, but dynamized so that saying and doing those things that please the Father, not being a part of the world nor fulfilling anything which devolves upon the world but by grace, seeing fulfilled in us, a strength and might in the inner man, to do the things that are to be done.

We become, by receiving this Word, the living Word of God in our flesh. It puts in the prophet class, Lord, which we’re happy to be in. In the sense of the same Word that they have is our portion also, even as Moses brought the manna done through grace.

Ate the manna, we also eat the same manna. Be with us, Lord, as we go. Keep us all in love, in the…

[Note: Tape Ended]